Chapter Text
A sea cook knows better than to drink seawater, no matter how long you're caught dry on the ocean. Ironic dehydration; the more you swallow the quicker you die of thirst.
Usopp's skin tastes of salt, sweat-salt and sea-salt, but now there's a different taste, and when he raises his head to look, the tears in his crewmate's eyes are spilling down his face, more than he can wipe away.
"I didn't--I didn't think you'd--not after I...it was so lonely, on the ship, without--without any of you. I didn't know it could be so lonely..."
"Missed you," Sanji says, and kisses him. Bitter salt, stronger than the sea on his lips, but he swallows anyway; that's the danger of drinking saltwater, that once you're thirsty enough to start, you'll never stop.