Chapter Text
Gardening, as a hobby, can be as simple or as complex as you make it. Sanji doesn't back down from a challenge. He doesn't remember when he starts collecting various herbs and vegetables from the various islands they travel to, but it soon becomes an addictive hobby. Robin is thoughtful in her advice on different methods of plant keeping. She recommends books on everything from permaculture to soil treatments. Sanji takes advice from Nami on pruning techniques seeing her fruit trees thrive even when they stay a while near a winter island, they never look more than a bit stressed. Usopp, offers strange wisdom and talks about how plants are more alive than we think. He tells Sanji he should only speak to the herbs with kindness and they will grow stronger for it. He thinks it odd, but does find himself whispering good mornings and aren't you looking beautiful to them all the same. Franky chips in to build various garden boxes and he's caught Brook playing soft melodies to the leaves.
The first time it happens, when he's out cold for a few days, he doesn't think about it. He returns to his garden all the same. Thankful for whoever took care of the plants while he was out. They really are everyone's even if he does take special care of the ones destined to be food. So he's grateful that the others pitched in when he was out.
It isn't the last time, it happens, and each time it does he's pleasantly surprised to see the plants remaining in top shape. So when he comes back to the Sunny after the debacle on Whole Cake Island, he's a bit shocked to see the plants a bit worse for wear. Salvageable, mostly, some wilting and in need of water, others clearly overwatered and browning from stress. It's a bit of a mess, but the casualties are few.
He's muttering to the plants in the morning, cutting dead leaves off with tiny scissors, testing the soil PH, and fussing like a mother hen when Luffy comes barreling through hungry for breakfast.
"Oh hey Sanji, breakfast ready yet?" he asks with a manic grin, one arm snaking toward the fridge, but easily deflected.
"It'll be a bit still, I'm trying to get the herbs back in shape. They're a little worse for wear."
"Yeah we tried to follow your little book thing, but the handwriting was... bad."
"Book thing?"
Like a magic trick, Luffy pulls a small green journal from... well somewhere and shoves it into Sanji's hands.
"This, it's yours isn't it? Oops maybe that's why they don't look so good." He snatches something out of the fridge while Sanji is distracted and gets promptly chased out of the kitchen.
He turns the pages over in the little book, the handwriting is... bad. But the notes are perfect. PH levels, which plants do well with which others, how much water each plant needs, full watering schedules, micro-nutrient profiles. It's intense. It's something he had been meaning to do himself, but didn't get around to and, well, the plants always looked great after he was incapacitated for a while, so he didn't think it was necessary.
He was distracted through breakfast and ate in relative silence.
Robin snapped him out of his haze, waving a hand in front of his eyes.
"Is everything okay?" she asked gently, "you seem to be somewhere else."
"Oh, it's nothing really... but maybe you could help me with something." He fished the green leather-bound booklet from his pocket. "Where did this come from?"
"Oh that's Zoro's."
"Zoro? That moss head wrote down PH levels and micronutrients?"
"Well, we all helped, I mostly helped. And he listened to you quite closely when you talked about your plants... even if it did seem like he was asleep. He's quite observant. We did try to follow those instructions, but, well, it's quite complicated and his handwriting..."
"It sucks."
"I've seen easier poneglyphs to decipher."
"Huh." Sanji pauses looking down at the meticulous detail in the pages. "Never thought Zoro would care about the plants."
Robin's eyebrows raise, "He's always been the first one to tend to the plants when you can't."
"What? Seriously?"
"He never said anything?"
"Never."
"Hmm, that is like him though."
"It is?"
Robin gives one of her patented coy chuckles and leaves Sanji standing alone in the kitchen, dumbstruck, running his thumb over the cover of the notebook.