One Piece 1. Spacing out

I'm trying my best on writing about love, but I've never been succesful. Anyway, here's one of my fave pairings SanNa :)

It won't be a fluffy romance-only story, there will be other themes, but keep in mind that this is a SanNa-fic, so it will be there.

Story takes places some time after the time-skip. There will probably be** minor spiolers**, so if you aren't** up-to-date** with **the manga**, then I will suggest you either read it or you'll be spoiled.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

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Spacing Out

The Strawhats were all gathered in the kitchen and one particular person was in the centre of attention, even though he didn't seem to know that himself.

"Do you think that he's sleeping?" Franky asked the others after not being able to think up any other reason.

"Could be, he may have worked out a habit, so he won't have to be awake to work. Like Luffy eating while sleeping," Robin answered. The all continued to stare.

"Then isn't weird that he doesn't respond to my calls?" Nami then said, "He usually responds to my voice whether he's awake or not."

"Sure is," Usopp agreed, "Maybe he's gone deaf."

"No, that can't be! There has been no signs of that!" Chopper cried out.

"I was joking."

"...Oh..."

"Can't someone just make him snap out of it? I'm huuuungry...!" Luffy wined.

"I agree with Luffy-san. My stomach is so empty that I feel I'm nothing but bones. Though, I have no stomach to be empty! Yohohoho!" Brook cheered.

"Oi, Crap-cook! Snap out of it!" Zoro yelled across the room... No response. Zoro slowly got up and started making his way over to where the cook was currently working on their lunch. But before Zoro reached him, he looked up at the watch, then at the food and then he turned around to find the entire crew staring at him. He had a very confused expression on his face and after a few more silent seconds, he finally asked.

"When the hell did you get in here?" Everybody sighed hopelessly.

* * *

Sanji was in deep thought. They were approaching a summer island and according to his wonderful Nami-san, they would be arriving the next morning. He hoped there would be a beach. A beautiful one. He wanted it to resemble the one in Kamabakka Kingdom, just less pink. And no crazy Okamas. If it didn't have a beach that he approved of, then he would find a meadow covered with flowers of all colours and butterflies flying around them as to make it all more enchanting. Then he would wait for the sun to set and then... He would make sure that everything would be perfect.

He didn't know how all he had been standing there, but he suddenly realized that he actually in the middle of... preparing lunch? He focused his eyes on the ingredients in front of him. What was he doing? He had told himself that he would prepare sandwiches, because of their low food-stocking. So why was he chopping everything to bits? He could make a salad of it, but looking closer he could see that none of the ingredients he had been preparing, would ever taste good together. He wondered what he should then do of it.

After a little speculating, where never stopped chopping the weird vegetable (something that Usopp had found on the last island they'd been on), he looked at clock and realized that he should have served lunch twenty minutes ago. He, then, suddenly became aware of the fact that he wasn't alone in the room. He turned around to find the entire crew staring at him. Zoro looked like he had been walking toward him only a moment ago and the others seemed either concerned or amused.

Sanji blinked a couple of times and then asked them _when the hell they had all gotten in here. _He only received face-palming and heavy sighs. _Just how long had he been spacing out? _Sanji was again thinking about what to do about the food, when a hand waved on front of him. He turned to the person it belonged to, _it just had to be marimo, didn't it? _Sanji not in the mood to start a fight and still a bit confused to the situation, just breathed a single:

"What?" His voiced sounded very calm, more than it should have, because inside he was very uncertain that what he had just decided, was indeed a good thing.

"Sanji-kun?" A voice asked. A voice that Sanji would be able to recognise no matter where or when it was voiced.

"Yes, Nami-swan!" Sanji sang dreamingly.

"Are you okay? You didn't answer before," she said.

"Are you worried about me, my dear Nami-swan?" He asked, hearts in his eyes. Nami sighed, seeing as he was back to his usual self and then asked him another question.

"What are you preparing for lunch?" She smiled sweetly. At that, Sanji stopped dead and looked at the food behind him and then back at Nami.

"That is a good question," he said quietly.

"You mean you don't know?!" Zoro spat, "Then what the fuck have you been doing all this time?"

"That too is a good question." Zoro's face dropped. What was wrong with Sanji? Sanji was an excellent cook, Zoro knew as much, cause if he wasn't, then Luffy wouldn't have invited him to join them. And never, NEVER, had Sanji even delayed a meal. Let alone not knowing what he was doing.

"Sanji~" Luffy rang, "I'm hungry!"

"Then get your ass over here," Sanji answered. He had just found a way to get rid of the food without wasting it. He then divided the food into two piles and when Luffy had made his way to the counter, he told him to eat all of the food in the second pile.

"You sure?" Luffy asked suspiciously, Sanji had never let him do that before.

"Yeah, I thought I could use it for something, but then I changed my mind," he lied. He didn't know a dish were bananas and tomatoes could interact with each other. Luffy then just shrugged it off and ate what was offered him in one go. Sanji then went back to working on the first-planned sandwiches and actually paying attention to what he was doing.

After a lot of waiting, lunch was finally served and, as always, it tasted amazing. No one would ever suspect that the cook hadn't known what he was doing, if they had only just entered the kitchen.

The rest of they day went by like any normal day would and dinner was served without delay and confusion. As night fell upon the Thousand Sunny, the crew slowly went to bed. Zoro had the first watch and planted himself in the crows nest with a bottle of rum.

The night was silent and Zoro had a hard time believing that they were in fact on the Grand Line, but nights like these did appear and Zoro was only thankful. After a couple of hours Zoro heard someone approach and after a few moments Sanji stood before him.

"Watch-change," he said. Clearly still tired. Zoro was just about to leave, when he thought that Sanji's tiredness might be interesting.

"So, what happened today?" He asked casually, which in fact wasn't the best way to start this conversation, since he and Sanji very rarely had a casual chat. But Sanji was tired and who knew what he was aware of at the current moment.

"What do you mean?" He asked and slumped himself against the wall and set his gaze at the ocean through the window beside him.

"I mean what happened before lunch, you dumbass," Zoro said, using a different tone then before. As he suspected, he couldn't have a normal conversation with this guy.

"Oh, um, nothing, just got a lot on my mind," he said, never taking his eyes of the ocean. Zoro was now really curious. As far as he could remember, nothing that had happened on the ship could cause the blond to completely space out and as Zoro observed Sanji. He realized that, one, they hadn't been fighting at all that day and, two, he hadn't seen Sanji smoke since yesterday morning. Which was weird, because he could see Sanji having them in his front pocket on his shirt, so it wasn't because he didn't have any left. That had only happened once, but that time Sanji had been frustrated and angry for half a day, before calming down and then pretending like nothing had ever happened.

"There is something that you're not telling us," Zoro stated. A long time passed and finally Sanji let out a sigh.

"I'm too obvious, right?" He turned to look at Zoro, who had planted himself at the floor keep a good distance between them. The swordsman didn't answer him, but Sanji reached for what Zoro thought was his cigarettes, only to find out that Sanji had been carrying a little box.

"What happened to your cancer-sticks?" Zoro teased. Sanji shot him a glare. He tossed it over to Zoro.

"Open it," he said. Zoro raised a brow, but did as told. Zoro didn't know what he expected, but certainly not this. Inside of the box was a diamond ring. It was very simple. The diamond wasn't gigantic,so it wouldn't come unnoticed that the ring itself was made of gold. And then it clicked for Zoro.

"So, you've finally fallen for me, haven't you, cook?" Zoro joked and tossed the ring back to him. "I'm sorry, but I'm way out of your league."

"Very funny," Sanji responded plainly and put the ring back in his pocket. "It's for Nami."

"I know that, stupid cook." Sanji chose to ignore his comment and turned to the ocean again. Zoro knew that their little chat was over and since he was feeling very tired, he couldn't see why he should hang around any more.

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" Was the last thing he heard the cook say. It hadn't been necessary though, both Sanji and Zoro knew that Zoro wouldn't tell a soul before Sanji had proposed to Nami. The cook may get on his nerves, but he wasn't an asshole, he knew how to keep secrets.

Back in the crows nest, Sanji had hoped that Zoro would for some reason have stayed. He felt that he needed to talk to someone and had it been any other than the stupid swordsman, he would have asked if they wouldn't keep him company. He really wanted to talk to somebody about this, but then again, he didn't want anyone to know. It had been safe to tell Zoro, because he, for one, could keep a secret and, second, he wouldn't be affected by the knowledge of someone proposing to someone else. Unless it was to him, but chances of that happening were less than zero.

Sanji sighed and let his eyes wander upon the surface of the water. If it had been any other night, Sanji would have sensed it, but tonight was different and as always, when you let your guard down on the Grand Line, hell awakes.

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As you may have suspected, I'm very fond of Zoro/Sanji friendship scenes, so there will be more of those. The other strawhats will play a bigger role later in the story, but the three main characters are Sanji, Nami and Zoro.

I left you with a little cliffhanger. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but don't expect it within the next few days. The chapters probably won't be any longer than this, but that is because I have very little time and I do want to keep your maybe awakened interest in this story.

Please Review, Fave and Follow if you like it.


	2. Attack

Happy New Year! It's been sometime since I first posted the story, so I feel bad about making you wait so long for this chapter. I'm sorry. But enjoy the second chapter of Sunset.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or it's characters.

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Attack

Nami got slammed head first onto the floor of the girl's quarters, when the ship was hit from beneath. When the ship had stopped rocking, she slowly tried to get up, but as another hit landed she was send backwards, thankfully, she was saved by a couple of hands. She quickly thanked Robin and together the two women ran outside.

The deck was already crowded and Nami could clearly hear Luffy at the sea king (If that was what it was) that it should stop attacking their ship, so that they could eat it. From the conversation going on between Franky, Brook and Usopp, Nami concluded that no one had seen the creature, but judging from the shadow that had appeared under them, they guessed that it was pretty big.

Still, something wasn't quite right. Under normal circumstances the sea kings would give warnings to who ever passed through their territory and only attack if they didn't leave. The warnings would usually give the time to get away or time for someone to kill it, if food was running low. So who the hell had been on watch duty?

"Luffy! No matter how much you insist, you can't fight it! You're a hammer remember? And that thing is _under _water!" Zoro shouted trying his best to keep Luffy from doing something reckless.

"But, Zoro!" Luffy whined, "I'm the Captain, I have responsibility to protect the crew and the ship!"

"Exactly! How will you do that if you drown?"

"... You've got a point," Luffy said slowly. Then he turned on his heel and went back into the men's quarters. "G'night, you take care of it," and with that he went to bed.

"Weird," Usopp said, "I thought that he'd at least stay."

"Okay, ability users stay back, curly-brows and I will fight in the water and the rest of you will protect the ship from deck, got it?" Zoro said taking care of the situation as the formidable vice-captain he was. Everybody got to their stations as Zoro and Sanji got ready to jump in. After taking of unnecessary clothes, they had a moment of eye contact and then they jumped.

Sanji was frustrated. How had he not noticed it? Even without Haki, something so big couldn't hide itself and if he had actually paid attention, he would have seen it's warning. But no-no, just as earlier today he caught himself being completely distracted by his own thoughts that he didn't realize the creature until it started ramming its head into the ship.

Sanji was now on the left side of the sea king and _holy crap _itwas big. If you compared this to the ones on the other side of Red Line, they looked like cute little babies. Sanji couldn't quite tell what it looked like, but it was defiantly part eel and was what that colour? Red? Orange? It was impossible to tell, because of the fact that he was underwater in the middle of the night.

Sanji sensed Zoro closing in on the sea king and did the same, so that their attacks would hit at exact same moment and by doing so, causing greater damage to the creature. Sanji kicked it hard on the side of its head and even underwater he could hear the familiar sound of slicing, which could only have one source.

Having used a great amount of energy by attacking, Sanji quickly swam toward the surface, only to be caught off by the sea king. Apparently their attack hadn't been as effective as he'd hoped, but one way or another, he needed air. Sanji quickly turned to the side and by using his Skywalk, he was sure to be the superior in terms of speed, but again, he hadn't taken in the fact that the Sea King was so damn big. Apparently the part of it that Sanji had thought resembled an eel, had only been its head and neck. The body of the creature looked more like the body of an elephant. Sanji was really in the need of air now and again he turned trying to reach the surface.

* * *

Zoro reached the surface and breathed heavily before taking a look at their problem. He quickly realized that the attacked had had no effect whatsoever and it creature didn't seem affected at all. Zoro quickly concluded that its head was much harder than steel and thought that attacking it's body instead was a better idea. Just because it was bigger, didn't mean that it was harder. Zoro thought of filling the cook in on his plan, but after scanning the surface he found that the idiot was gone.

"Oi, Cook?!" He called, but no answer came. Zoro immediately feared the worst and took a deep breath before diving down again. It didn't take long to find the cook, but he didn't seem to be in the best situation. The Sea King had Sanji completely surrounded and he didn't seem to able to hold out much longer. Zoro could see Sanji trying to out run the it, but it was just too big.

Zoro swam as fast as he could toward him and right into the trap of the Sea King. Sanji had passed out and Zoro tried his best to keep him from swallowing to much water. He tried to reach the surface, but found himself it same situation as Sanji. Blocked at all sides by the gigantic Sea King. Even though he still had plenty of air left, the cook need air quickly and he could only get that if Zoro reached the surface.

Zoro held his Wadõ Ichimonji in his right hand and Sanji supported Sanji with his left arm. Striking the creature hard just below the neck, it seemed to slowly fall back and allow Zoro to swim where ever he wanted.

Zoro reached the surface and immediately swam toward the ship. Upon reaching it a rope of arms greeted him and he handed Sanji to Robin, who lifted him up onto deck, where Chopper could take care of him. Zoro went back in the water to make sure that the Sea King would no longer bother them, maybe cutting of some meat for Sanji, which they could give to Luffy. Their Captain had been acting weird lately, but if Zoro knew their Captain as well as he thought, meat would be able to fix whatever problem there were.

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Sanji's mind was blurred and his senses seemed to be non-existent at the moment. He wasn't unconscious, but he wasn't conscious either. He tried to concentrate on his hearing and it slowly came back. He was on the deck, because he could hear Chopper. He didn't understand what he was saying, but he had a good idea.

As his other senses slowly came back to him, he felt his head resting on something that most defiantly wasn't the deck of the Thousand Sunny. He could feel a hand stroking through his hair and knew exactly who it was. The gentle stroke in his hair and a hand that caressed his cheek, only his dear Nami could do that.

Now, he didn't want to wake up, he just wanted her touch to be forever his. It was this exact touch that made him fall in love with her. It wasn't his normal love against women, it was real love. Love that he would only have for one person, love that he would only want from one person. He could clearly remember the day that he had realized that Nami was different, that he felt different towards her.

It had been after a long, hard battle. They had only just been reunited and did not know of each others strength, so when Nami's weak point had been revealed, Sanji had immediately sensed that something was wrong and jumped directly in front of her, not caring to even _try _to defend himself, because Nami was all he thought about and he had taken the full damage of the attack.

Sanji had lay just as he did now and while his wounds were being treated by Chopper, his head rested in the lap of Nami, while her hands stroke through his hair, thanking him and telling him never to do anything so reckless again. She had lowered her head and kissed his forehead and as she did so, he had lifted his hand to her cheek to wipe away her tears. He had smiled gently and promised her that whenever she was in danger, he would always be the first person to protect her. The two of them had been together ever since.

Sanji slowly opened his eyes and were met with Nami's chocolate brown ones. Her eyes revealed nothing and hadn't been for her gentle hands, Sanji would have thought that she didn't care whether he lived or died. Sanji slowly lifted himself up and turned himself to face Nami. Her expression didn't change. Sanji noticed that almost everyone had gone inside again and Robin had taken the rest of the watch. Sanji's eyes met Nami's once again.

"Nami..." He started, but he was interrupted by her hand that shot up in the air. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply, before she spoke.

"I don't know what to say, if it wasn't because you almost drowned, I would have beaten you half to death," She looked at him again, "What were you thinking?! How could you _not _notice a gigantic Sea king?! Sanji, you are one of our top fighters, if we can't rely on you, then what can we rely on?!"

Sanji knew better than to talk back and there was really no need, because he knew she was right. He had been spacing out the whole day and it resulted in a conflict that normally wouldn't a problem, to become a disaster.

"I'm sorry, Nami, I've just had a lot on my mind today," he said weakly. He honestly didn't know, what to say without spilling anything about his further intentions.

Nami didn't quite know what she should think about his explanation, but was too tired to think any more about it. She pushed herself up and walked toward the women's quarters. She told him 'good-night' and went back to sleep. Sanji didn't move from his position on the deck and he didn't until it was time for him to prepare breakfast.

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I hoped you enjoyed reading, please Review, Fave and Follow, if you liked it :D


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One Piece, Friendship, Romance