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[haute_cuisine]

This line is for ladies only!

The rest of you assholes just leave a message -- I'll get around to you if I feel like it!

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[rubbernecking]

[ Psst, Sanji. Guess who's calling your Palm Reader. RIGHT NOW.

It's your captain, who has been missing for a week. ]

SANJI! I just got back and I had to call you right away! I'm real sorry I disappeared but a whole lotta crazy stuff happened and I ended up in jail!

Call me back!

[haute_cuisine]

[ Days of fruitless searching. Sanji's been through it before. It earned him nothing but frustration, weariness and that plummeting feeling when you realize you're never seeing one again.

Now imagine feeling that, living with it and then suddenly finding a door you thought closed forever opening... flooding that darkness with light.

You're starved for it, you miss it. You feel like you've been withering without it. That's what it's been like losing your captain, or thinking you have. ]

L-luffy...?

[rubbernecking]

SANJI!!

[ He's as enthusiastic as ever, with a voice that's rusty, like he's been doing a lot of shouting lately, but there's no denying the fact that he's absolutely delighted to hear Sanji's voice: ]

I'm okay, promise! Are you okay? How's Ghostie? Did anybody get hurt when everything went all crazy?!

[haute_cuisine]

[ How's Ghostie? How's anyone else? It's all Luffy would think of, wouldn't he? Coming back from who the hell knows what only to pick up right where he left off -- and asking if there's anyone else whose in trouble.

Suddenly the visual feed is... of the floor, with Sanji's shoes occupying about half the screen. He's dropped the palm reader down until it aims at the floor for some reason and there's a strange hitching sound.

Sanji's biting into his fist, imprinting the shape of his teeth into his preciously treasured hand as he struggles to hold back the waves of relief that crash over him, wearing away at the walls of his heart. ]

You... you piece of shit...!

[rubbernecking]

[ So, while this also means Sanji can't see the screen, either, this also means he can't see Luffy tip his head to one side and then to the other, trying to squint at the unusual perspective. But he can hear the confusion just fine: ]

Sanji?

Are you okay? What about everyone else! Oi!

[haute_cuisine]

Th- they're fine! Dammit --

[ It's a few moments more for him to recover, to allow tears to continue their overflow from his eye down to the scruffy line of his jaw, to scrub all evidence away by the absorbent material of his gloves as he palms it over his eyes and nose... rubbing over his beard until it's all wiped away. His eyes are rimmed in red but he hopes his hair provides adequate cover as he glares back into his palm reader. ]

Where the fuck have you been?!

[rubbernecking]

Then answer me sooner! You got me worried!!

[ For fuck's sake Luffy you have NO RIGHT to get frustrated! ]

Oh yeah, that -- I ended up in prison, they just let me out!

[haute_cuisine]

You asshole, you got yourself jailed? Did you get involved in that Guardian bullshit?!

[ Prison. Of course it'd be prison. That explains everything - the dead air, the inability for anyone to find out where he was... the fact he just dropped off the face of everything. Understanding shakes out of him in a nervous, disbelieving laugh. ]

I outta kick your ass! You had us all worried!

[rubbernecking]

Yeah, even I wanna kick my ass! I was real worried about those kids, but it turns out I really screwed up!

Anyway, they're taking lots of the money I get for a whole year and I gotta wear this thing--

[ There's a metallic glint from the bracelet around his wrist as he lifts his hand into view of the Palm Reader. ]

So, I can't keep Lily and I'unno if I can even still stay here! Do you have somewhere Lily can stay?