Discomfort.

He wasn’t sure how to act around Moose. When they recruited her, she was a god damn monster. A shell of a human. She was a wreck, really. Like an angry dog who couldn’t tell whether or not a hand was kind.

He first year aboard had been rough. She said nothing about her past, but he connected some of the dots himself. She had been a fighter- in underground rings. Possibly born into it, certainly mistreated.

It never felt right to treat her like he did other women. She felt fragile, because she had been shattered so many times before. So he simply.. treated her as such. Spoke to her quietly. Kept his hands off, practically never daring to touch her- even in innocence. He didn’t really have a good reason too, but she felt like a burden that maybe he needed. One that kept him in line- kept him empathetic between battle.

It had been a long week for the crew- and today was by far the worst of it. The crew had gotten split up, and Sanji was stranded with Moose. In the middle of a forest. Sanji sat at the base of a tree, fidgeting with a log pose- hoping that maybe he could get it to work.