"Where did you get those bruises?" she asked, her eyes trailing from his forearm to the littlest marks - almost unseen - on his face.

Sanji forcefully released his hand from her fragile grip in surprise. In result, Lucy flinched back at the suddenness of his action. Her eyes met with Sanji's widened eyes and that's when she knew by connecting all the dots. It was a triggering topic and there was definitely a reason behind his jumpy personality.

Though, she was more or less frightened by his behavior. It was something Sanji noticed as his eyes moved from place to place; he'd finally settled on looking at the ground. "Sorry," he whispered before trying to say it more audibly, "sorry."

"It's fine," she said hesitantly. Of course, she meant it, but she had her fair share of mixed feelings. The blonde clasped her hands in front of her, shifting her weight to the heels of her shoes and back to normal repeatedly. She wanted to voice out what she was dying to say. The problem was, she wasn't sure if she should. Lucy was the one who read the thoughts of sentiments and never was the one who said them. She never needed to either.

It had taken forever to say the things she did just minutes ago.

She urged herself to speak once she had seen how Sanji kept looking around frantically. He was uncomfortable again.

Lucy didn't want that!

She'd finally gotten him comfortable around her and now she was back to square one.

The time she spent with Layla Heartfilia, Lucy had spoken to her mother about him and his siblings. Her mother gave her advice as to speak to him alone, because he was a bit of an introvert - she had said so.

The word was new, but she had gotten an idea of it. Mommy said he would be better speaking one on one with someone. It wasn't her concern right at that moment, but she'd hoped he would understand that she wanted to be his friend. That he could tell her what was troubling him, thus Lucy decided to open up to him first.

"Our dads are alike, you know. We have the same problems more or less." Sanji's attention was caught. Albeit, he had looked at her hair and anything other than her eyes. "You... you think so," he said, mentally cringing at his non-stop stuttering.

"I heard from my dad what was happening. That your brothers are trying to be nice to me, so I would choose them to get married to." Lucy stopped her awkward fidgeting and so did Sanji. She knew? "I'm not mad or anything. I just want to be friends with them all. I want to get to know them before anything else - beyond what they think they are. I want to get to know you, Sanji-san, beyond the shackles our fathers locked us in."

Speechless. That was what the Sanji was. He was speechless. He couldn't say anything; this girl was so smart and kind. She was becoming someone he admired. She was trying to show kindness to his brothers who won't listen to reason. And she knew that.

"Sanji-san. The way I see it. We're all being dragged down by our father's expectations. Your dad and my dad, they are not us. We are not them. Reiju-san knows this, but she is trapped by expectations. But, Ichiji-san, Niji-san and Yonji-san don't. They will blindly follow your dad, simply because they don't know themselves. They don't know who they are: their own person." Lucy frowned. She was one to speak; the girl was stuck in her own chains, which were tangled up.

"One day, I want to be free of those chains," she said softly before raising her voice, "so promise me, you'll try to break free too."

Sanji had processed her words, repeating it over and over in his head, wondering and pondering. "You're so smart for your age, Lucy-san," he complimented jokingly. Lucy let out a short laugh, making Sanji smile. "I promise, Lucy-san."

The said girl nodded in satisfaction. "Then, I can get to know better now? Without your chains attached; the real you?" she asked and dare Sanji say sweetly. She was truly cute, but he pushed the phrase away. He sheepishly nodded, which seemed to boost Lucy's confidence enough to say: "Call me, Lucy, then. And I'll call you Sanji."

His eyes widened - faltering, "Um... sure!"

➵

Reiju really didn't want to go report to her father that Lucy was missing. The others were searching in hopes of finding her and saving themselves the trouble of seeing an angry father.

No, two angry fathers.

She had met the man once or more precisely, seen him. Either in glances or standing quietly with her father, Judge Vinsmoke, speaking to Jude Heartfilia. She'd seen a lady too who looked like an adult form of Lucy and then assumed she was Lucy's mother.

She looked haggard. Pale, having cough fits and looking as if she would pass out at any second. Lucy must be sad. The pink haired child frowned. She remembered the times she was in the same position as Lucy, but she assumed she wouldn't have been nearly as emotional as Lucy or Sanji had been.

Speaking of which, where did Sanji go? Did he take the chance to hide away in the kitchen or something?

Reiju decided she would have to go to the place where this day started going rotten. The guest room Lucy had been given. Heartfilia wasn't in our infirmary either. As she thought about it, Lucy's mother wasn't there either. It was probably time to start the cloning process. Their infirmary was the only medical place that wasn't a lab. She had to stay there for the short amount of time they needed to prepare her and the necessary equipment.

She stopped looking around as her eyes remained on what was before her. Her little brothers had gathered up and finished their searching.

Sanji wasn't there and Lucy wasn't found.

The pink haired girl knew there were plenty of places to look, but the place was too huge for them to scrutinize every corner. She could be anywhere. "Nobody found her," Yonji stated, and crossed his arms. "The nurse from our infirmary told me she visited to see her mother," Reiju informed the three.

"We have an infirmary?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that."

In a suddenness equal to the suddenness of the silence, they heard muttering from a distance. Not too far and not too close. Their heads turned and caught eye of the two blonds. Reiju's eyes widened at the sight of her shy, broken, little brother talking enthusiastically with the equally shy Lucy. This is new.

After watching in dumbstruck, Reiju slowly turned to satisfy the question she wanted an answer to. What was their reaction?

Her eyes landed on the group, and in result, her calm composure had almost diminished.

What in the-

Niji looked ticked off, biting his lip. The look he wore hadn't been full of hate, rather something close to... envy?

No it couldn't be. She shook her head.

Ichiji was stone-faced, squinting his eyes as if looking at something bright. In which case, it was probably accurate to him.

Wait, what?

Yonji was... close to tears for some reason.

What's-

They watched Lucy as they kept their weird expressions constant. It bothered Reiju a bit - almost scaring her.

So bright! The trio thought.

The pink haired girl looked away. Seriously, what's wrong with them?