"Oh! Varin, you're awake," Luffy yelled from somewhere across the ruins. There seemed to be a party going on, a lot of the darker-skinned warriors and civilians, plus others scattered across the grounds, laughing and eating like they all hadn't nearly died a day ago. "Come join us, there's so much food."
"I'll join soon," Varin hollered back, though he had no intention of doing so.
"Suit yourself, there might not be any left," the rubber man laughed, downing a piece of meat bigger than himself in one bite.
Varin shook his head as he fully emerged from the small tent he was in, a tent the Skypiean nurse had informed him he was being kept in after Chopper had warned them he might "freak out" if he woke up in bandages or immobilized like what had happened in Alabasta.
Something that thankfully hadn't occurred. He was stiff and sore, his limbs still resisting movement in ways he most definitely hated, and his back felt like it had been carved open and stitched together wrong. But he wasn't immobile, which meant he could still fight if need be. The nurse had also informed him of the celebration before he'd left, after thanking her and politely but firmly pushing off her concerns about nobody ever taking that much lightning from God, Enel, and living, and that he needed rest.
After skirting around the party for a bit, making sure nobody noticed his departure, Varin made his way back to the ship. The Merry was in terrible shape, the kind of damage that suggested it had been held together by spit, steel, and tape more than any actual shipwright's work. The hull was scorched in places where lightning had found it, the mast was bent at angles that shouldn't have been possible, and most of the railings were simply gone, replaced by splintered wood and empty air.
He patted the hull as he climbed aboard anyway, the gesture automatic. The ship had held; she was a fighter, just like the rest of them.
He went below deck to his usual spot, the corner where he'd claimed a space when he first joined. It was quieter down here, away from the sun and the noise and the expectation of joining things he didn't belong in.
He found a clean blanket laid out on the floor. It was carefully arranged, not just dropped there, but actually spread out and smoothed down, the kind of care someone would take if they were making a bed for someone they thought might need one. He assumed Vivi at first, but after the previous day's incident, after the way she'd stepped back from him, he couldn't imagine her doing something like this.
Not like it mattered in the end. He sat down on the blanket anyway, slowly, testing each movement to make sure his body would cooperate. It did, mostly, with only the occasional sharp protest from muscles that had been cooked from the inside out. The cloth was soft beneath him, clean in a way that suggested it had been washed recently, recently enough that it could only have been prepared while he was unconscious.
Varin ran his fingers across it, the fabric sliding smoothly under his palm. Someone had done this. Someone on this ship had thought he might need comfort and they'd prepared it without asking, without expecting anything in return.
He sighed as he laid back on the thing. It was certainly weird, but the most likely person was Chopper, who would do something like this, setting up something small so he didn't aggravate his wounds as much as the dirty floor would. He had just lain his head back against the inner hull when a familiar voice rang out from the other side of the ship.
"I'm impressed, pup. I didn't think you'd live that, let alone win," Loki said, somewhere near the stairway up. Varin didn't open his eyes to look. "You managed to surprise the trickster god, a feat not many can claim."
"No. I'm not in the mood for your bullshit."
"Aw, what, a little cannibalism upset you?" Loki's voice dripped with amusement as he descended, boots finding purchase on wooden steps that shouldn't have held anything that solid. "Even with how good it felt? The power over the divine, no matter how false, the power still and forever more running through you?"
Varin's jaw tightened, but he kept his eyes closed. "I said no."
"But you're thinking about it," Loki continued, and Varin could hear the grin in his voice, the satisfaction of having found exactly the nerve he was looking for. "The way it tasted. The way you felt full, genuinely fed for the first time in your life. That's not something you just forget, little pup." Varin's hands clenched into fists against the blanket beneath him.
"You felt alive," Loki pressed, his voice coming closer now, dropping lower, more intimate. "More alive than you've ever been. More alive than you felt standing next to that princess who couldn't quite hide her fear. Wasn't that better? Wasn't that real?"
"Get out," Varin said quietly.
"Oh, I'm just getting started," Loki said, and Varin could feel the god's presence settling somewhere near his head, hovering just above the floor like he was lounging on furniture that didn't exist. "You know what the best part is? That wasn't even the limit. That hunger you felt, that's a fraction of what you're capable of. That's just the beginning."
Varin's eyes snapped open. Loki was right there, floating upside down with his chin resting on his palm, looking at Varin like he'd just told the world's funniest joke and was waiting for the punchline to land.
"Fuck off," Varin said flatly.
"Such language," Loki mock-gasped. "And here I thought we were bonding."
"We're not bonding. You're torturing me for entertainment, same as always." Varin sat up slowly, his injured back screaming in protest, but he didn't stop. He needed vertical distance from the god, needed to not be lying down like prey. "You can leave now."
"I could," Loki said, flipping upright mid-air to hover at eye level. "But last visit, I did say if you impressed me, I'd give you something. Or two. And what better way to cause chaos than by giving you this."
He tossed something toward Varin. It was yellow, not quite spiky, but it did have multiple protrusions, and the stem was shaped like a lightning bolt.
Varin caught it instinctively, his fingers closing around the fruit before his mind had fully processed what he was looking at. "…Is…" he started.
"The Rumble Rumble Fruit, you got the name wrong, by the way," Loki said with satisfaction. "Last user, one God Enel. Took me a minute to find it, well, a day, but still. Have fun."
And just like that, Loki disappeared. But a piece of paper floated down from where he'd been, drifting through the air with deliberate slowness before landing on the floor near Varin's knee. The parchment was thick, expensive, the kind that suggested it had been prepared ahead of time rather than conjured on a whim. In flowing script, written in ink that seemed to shift between colors when the light caught it wrong, was a single verse:
The wolf who walks in stolen skin,
Devours gods to feed the hunger within.
Fenrir's fun, the broken instrument,
Will consume what the gods could not prevent.
When the chain breaks and the sky falls down,
The devouring beast shall claim its crown.
But beware the meal that tastes of lies,
For the wolf that feeds on gods must rise.
One fruit of thunder, one gift of chains,
Will not save you from coming rains.
Varin stared at the fruit in his hand, then at the poem on the floor, then back at the fruit. The lightning bolt stem seemed to mock him, gleaming faintly in the darkness of the hold. His first instinct was to throw it overboard. To not even consider what Loki was implying, what the god was offering. The Rumble Rumble Fruit. The same power Enel had wielded, the same power he'd torn apart and consumed, now packaged neatly and placed directly in his hands like a gift, or a curse.
Varin's fingers tightened around it, the skin of the fruit slightly waxy beneath his palm. One fruit of thunder. He didn't need to…. What did Loki want him to do with this? He couldn't eat it; it would kill him, so why go through the trouble?
But he also knew, with the kind of certainty that came from knowing gods and their nature, that Loki didn't give gifts without expecting something in return. The fruit wouldn't disappear if he threw it away. It would find its way back to him, probably in a worse way because that was how Loki worked.
Varin turned the fruit over in his hands, studying it. The protrusions caught the faint light filtering down from above deck, casting small shadows across his palms. He could feel the power inherent in it, the way Devil Fruits carried weight that had nothing to do with physical mass. It called to something inside him, the same something that had been so satisfied tearing through Enel's flesh, the same hunger that hadn't truly been sated, just temporarily quieted.
He picked up the poem with his free hand, reading it again. The wolf who walks in stolen skin. That was obviously him. Fenrir's fun, the broken instrument. That was him, too. But the last lines, the warning about the meal that tastes of lies, about the wolf that feeds on gods must rise, those were something else. Those were meant as a prophecy, a threat, or both.
He should destroy it, but it would just reform, and if someone competent got their hands on it in the meantime, that would be infinitely worse. So Varin layed there and worked through the options, and the crew methodically.
Nami used weather attacks, but those were based on science and the Clima-Tact's mechanics, not whatever magic a Devil Fruit had. She probably wouldn't want it; she was fond of swimming and water in general.
Vivi was out of the question entirely. If he offered the lightning fruit to her, the only thought he was sure would cross her mind was whether he would eat her too. The fruit would become proof, in her head, that the hunger was still there, still looking for targets, still capable of deciding who was food and who wasn't. He couldn't do that to her, not after everything.
Sanji wouldn't take it out of sheer stubbornness. The man preferred being able to swim; he preferred having that escape route available. A Devil Fruit user couldn't swim, and Sanji had made it clear more than once that he valued his freedom in the water more than any amount of combat ability.
Zoro wouldn't do it out of principle. The swordsman had his dream, his singular focus on becoming the world's greatest swordsman, and in his mind, that meant doing it without relying on a Devil Fruit. Offering it to him would be insulting, in a way.
Usopp was the only one who might actually consider it. A sniper with lightning powers, with the ability to call down bolts from the sky, would probably be the best sniper in the world near instantly. The power would suit his fighting style and would elevate his abilities in a way that made sense for how he fought.
But Varin didn't trust his mental state with that kind of boost coming so fast. Usopp was strong in his own way, but he was also fragile in ways that mattered. Give him that much power that quickly, and something inside him might break under the weight of it.
So that left only one option. Varin shifted the fruit further under the blanket, working it toward the corner of the cloth where it would be harder to find unless someone was actively looking. They would hide it. In a box, locked if they could manage it, stored somewhere on the ship where it would take a focused effort to locate. Somewhere safe, somewhere contained, where the only way it could be eaten was if someone made the deliberate choice to go looking for it and open the box anyway.
Over their dead bodies, Varin meant that literally. If someone tried to take this fruit and use it, he would stop them, consequences be damned. This power had already cost him too much in the space of a single afternoon. He wasn't letting it loose on the world through carelessness.
He set the fruit aside for now; it was something he'd have to bring up with the others eventually, sans the eating the previous owner part. There was another reason he was certain Vivi wouldn't accept it anyway, something similar to Usopp's situation. She wouldn't want that much power on principle, wouldn't want to rely on a Devil Fruit to matter in a fight. He assumed anyway, but it tracked with how she operated. Power wasn't what she was after. The purpose was.
That was a conversation for later, though. For now, Varin let the thoughts sink down to the bottom of his mind where he didn't have to actively look at them. He had some peace, a rare commodity on a ship full of idiots, and he was going to use it before the crew figured out how the hell to get down from the sky.
Two days after Enel died, they left Skypiea. The fall itself had been quick, the kind of terror that didn't have time to properly register before wind dials had slowed them enough to avoid becoming red stains on the ocean's surface. Varin had slammed into the deck as the sensation of cold water closing over his head, and the muffled sound of Luffy laughing somewhere nearby, like dropping from the sky, was the most fun he'd had all week.
Now, anchored in waters that the Log Pose seemed satisfied with, the crew was mostly functional again. Mostly.
Zoro was complaining about his shoulders every time he thought no one was listening. Sanji's ribs were wrapped tight enough that he moved like an old man. Nami had somehow escaped with minimal damage, which was either luck or the universe's way of punishing everyone else proportionally. Usopp was already working on repairs like the ship hadn't nearly been destroyed four times in the span of a few days. Chopper was splitting his time between making sure everyone stayed properly bandaged and looking personally betrayed that they wouldn't stop moving around.
And Varin had already had the conversation about Loki. It had gone better than expected, which meant it had gone poorly but not catastrophically. Luffy had thought the god sounded fun. Zoro had grunted in acknowledgment and moved on. Sanji had immediately started asking questions about whether gods could be cooked. Nami had pulled out paper and started taking notes like she was planning a business venture with a trickster deity. Usopp had gone quiet, really quiet, the kind of quiet that meant he was thinking harder than usual.
And then he'd rejected the fruit.
"Brogy told me something," Usopp had said, his voice steady in a way it rarely was when he wasn't lying about his exploits. "Back in Little Garden. He said being strong meant choosing your own path, not taking shortcuts that someone handed you." He'd looked at Varin directly when he said it, something like understanding in his expression. "You told me the same thing, just with different words. So I'm going to be a great warrior the way I choose to be. Not because a fruit made me one."
The Rumble Rumble Fruit now sat beneath the floorboards of the captain's quarters, nailed down tight enough that no one would accidentally find it unless they were actively tearing the ship apart. Varin had helped with that, driving the nails with careful precision while Nami watched from the doorway like she was making sure he didn't steal it. She was partially against hiding the fruit, only because she knew the amount of money it would fetch would probably allow her a whole fleet of golden ships.
Now, two days into recovery, Varin was standing on the deck watching Nami direct him like he was a cargo ship rather than a crew member. She'd looted the ruins of Skypiea with the kind of systematic efficiency that suggested she'd been planning this the entire time they were climbing the sky and nearly dying.
"That crate," she said, pointing at what had to be the tenth one today. "And carefully, that's solid gold."
Varin picked up the crate without comment. It was heavy, the kind of heavy that made his still-healing back protest, but he'd survived lightning and hunger and gods with questionable senses of humor. A crate of gold wasn't going to break him.
"How much longer?" he asked, not bothering to hide the resignation in his voice.
"There's still the wine cellar we found," Nami said cheerfully, completely unbothered by his tone. "And possibly some jewelry in the—"
"Nami," Zoro called from where he was trying to fix the railing, "we need to actually sail soon. The ship can't carry much more without sinking."
"Then we make it carry more," Nami shot back. "Varin can handle it."
"I'm not a ship," Varin muttered, but he was already heading back toward the ruins they'd set up as a staging area anyway.
Luffy bounded past him, still moving like he hadn't nearly been killed twice in the span of twenty-four hours. "This is so cool! We're rich!"
"We're going to be rich when we actually make it to the next island without drowning," Nami corrected, but there was no real heat in it. She was already mentally spending the money; Varin could see it in the way her eyes were tracking the piles of gold like they were living things.
When they had landed, the Merry was sitting low enough in the water that Varin was fairly certain the hull was having thoughts about surrender. But the cargo was loaded, the Log Pose was pointing them toward whatever island came next, and the crew was standing around the deck arguing about whether they should actually try to move or just rest one more night.
Varin was leaning against the mast when Vivi found him. He'd been avoiding her since they'd gotten back to the ship, which was unlike him and also exhausting in ways he wasn't used to. He wasn't trying to be cruel, just careful, keeping a respectful distance like he was still deciding whether she was safe to be around him. The broken wrist was essentially gone now, healed up in a way that suggested Chopper had actually done his job properly, not that it was a surprise; The reindeer was the best doctor Varin could remember, which also didn't mean much considering his less-than-stellar memory.
Varin had made himself scarce most of the day, helping with repairs in the parts of the ship where she wasn't, disappearing below deck when she came topside, finding tasks that required his attention at exactly the moment she appeared. It wasn't a conscious strategy so much as it was instinct, the same instinct that had made him step away from her on that battlefield even though she'd been holding him.
She was the one who'd chosen to stay, the one who'd made him promise not to decide his own worth before letting others have a say. But watching her move around the deck with that careful way of hers, knowing what she'd seen, knowing what had been in his hands and on his teeth, made something in his chest tighten in a way that had nothing to do with lightning damage.
So he avoided her. Because at least that was honest. When she found him leaning against the mast, it took him a second to realize she'd actually sought him out deliberately, that this wasn't accidental proximity but a choice on her part.
"Hey," she said quietly, stopping a few feet away.
Varin tensed slightly, already cataloguing escape routes. "Hey."
"I wanted to thank you," she said after a moment. "For telling us about Loki. For trusting us with it."
Varin grunted softly. "Didn't have much choice. The god kept showing up anyway."
"Still," Vivi said. "You could have hidden it. Could have dealt with it alone."
"No, I couldn't," he said simply. "You already knew about him. I told you about him, saying he would show up after something big happens, and it's kinda hard to hide a Devil Fruit on board a ship this size without someone noticing eventually."
Vivi was quiet for a moment, considering that. "So it wasn't trust," she said softly. "It was practicality."
"Does it matter?" Varin asked, his voice flat in a way that suggested he already knew the answer and was asking anyway. "Either way, you know. Either way, the fruit's dealt with. Either way, I told you instead of pretending it wasn't happening."
He shifted his weight against the mast, his body language still closed off but not actively hostile. Just tired. Just someone trying to figure out how to exist in the same space as someone he'd terrified, using whatever language made the most sense.
"I… why…" she started before she took a deep breath, meeting his eyes directly. "Varin Styrnvald, as your crewmate and, more importantly, your friend, I request that you stop acting like a jerk. I don't want anything to change because you're overthinking it."
Varin's jaw tightened at the use of his full name. That was clearly a tell with her, the moment she decided to stop dancing around something and just say it plainly.
"I'm not—" he started.
"You are," Vivi cut in, her voice steady in a way that left no room for argument. "You've been avoiding me since we got back. You disappear when I come on deck. You find reasons to be somewhere else. And I get it, I get why you thought you needed to do that, but I'm asking you to stop."
She stepped closer, closing some of the distance he'd been so careful to maintain. "You need to use your brain more," she said, her voice shifting into something sharper, something frustrated. "That I…" She blushed slightly and looked away for a moment, her jaw tightening like the words were stuck somewhere in her throat, and she was forcing them out anyway. "You mentioned something that Toto said. And apparently, you've been holding onto it for a while now, and you've never said anything about it."
Varin rolled his eyes and looked at her, "Vivi—" he started.
"I'm not finished," she said, not looking at him now, her hands clenched at her sides. "You asked me not to tell the others because of what you thought it meant. But you didn't ask me what I thought it meant. You just decided, again, what was best for everyone without asking. And that's infuriating." She finally met his eyes again, and there was real anger there, mixed with something more vulnerable. "So stop avoiding me," she said quietly. "And stop deciding things for me. Not because you're dangerous. But because you're being a coward about something that's not actually complicated unless you keep making it that way."
Varin stared at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "So you knew I knew," he said flatly. "And you're pissed because I've been treating it like a bomb waiting to explode."
"Yes," Vivi said simply. "Because it's not a bomb. It's just a fact about how I feel."
Varin let out a rough laugh, the kind that had no humor in it. "A fact about how you feel about a man who ate another man two days ago. A man who can't control what's inside him half the time. A man who—"
"Stop," Vivi said sharply. "Stop doing that. Stop listing all the reasons why you think you're too broken for anyone to actually want around. I'm not asking for perfect. I'm asking for you to stop running away every time you think you don't deserve something."
Varin's jaw clenched. "Toto shouldn't have said anything."
"Probably not," Vivi agreed. "But he did. And now it's out there. And instead of being a normal person and just talking to me about it like an adult, you've been acting like I'm made of glass and you're the one who's going to shatter me." She took another step closer, her voice dropping lower. "I've seen you shatter, Varin. I've watched you eat a man. And I'm still standing here." She paused. "So either you believe that or you don't. But stop pretending you're protecting me by ignoring me."
Varin looked down at her, a light growl forming before he choked it back. For a long moment, he said nothing. Vivi clearly didn't want to wait.
"Let me be clear then, Varin," she said, her voice steady even though there was fear underneath it. "I like you a lot. You're nice, most of the time. You put yourself above others, you're helpful, you're funny, and you're the first person I've ever met who doesn't treat me like a princess. You don't treat me like I'm weak either, and even when I am, you don't ridicule me for it. You help."
"I don't feel the same," Varin said immediately, the words more instinct than thought.b The shock and betrayal flashed across her face, and he watched it happen like he was watching a ship go down. "Shit, let me reword that," he said quickly, holding a hand up before she could turn away. He thought for a long moment, forcing the words out like they were coated in rust.
"I like you," he said finally. "You're part of the crew, one of the pack. You piss me off to no end sometimes, and you're painfully useless at a lot of things, but you don't let it stop you. You're determined to help. You always try to make things better, even if you're in over your head." He stopped, his jaw working like he was chewing through something difficult. His hands flexed at his sides, uncertain, like they didn't know whether to reach toward her or grip the mast harder. "I don't know what attraction is," he continued quietly, and his voice cracked slightly on the words. "Don't have the language for it. Never had the luxury of learning. Lived those years on a rock, remember." He dragged a hand across his face, exhaustion and frustration bleeding through. "And I'm sure as hell in no state for anything aside from killing and eating. My head's still half-full of blood and hunger." He looked away, toward the water, his shoulders tight with tension. "So that's the truth," he said, his voice rough. "I can't promise you something clean. Can't promise you that I won't wake up one day and want to devour everything, including you. Can't promise you that whatever this is will be normal or safe or anything approaching what you deserve."
He paused, forcing himself to continue because she deserved the full honesty. "And maybe this is just something passing," he added, his tone flat. "Maybe you're still riding high from Alabasta and now Skypiea, from surviving something impossible, and what you're feeling is just relief that I'm still here instead of actually liking me. Maybe in a few weeks, this will go away, and you will realize you were just grateful, not attracted. That happens, doesn't it? Adrenaline makes people think they feel things they don't actually feel. "Vivi started to speak, but he held up his hand again. "I'm not saying that to be cruel, but the answer's not no," he said finally, each word forced. "It's not now."
Vivi didn't say anything. She just stepped forward and hugged him. It was sudden enough that Varin tensed immediately, his body going rigid for half a second before he forced himself to relax. She was careful about it, aware of his injuries, aware of the lightning damage still healing across his back, but she held on firmly like she was anchoring him to something solid. "Okay," she said simply, her voice muffled against his chest. "Thank you for being honest."
Varin's arms hung at his sides for a moment before finally settling around her, cautious and uncertain. "That's it?" he asked. "You're not angry?"
"I'm not thrilled about the possibility of it being temporary," Vivi admitted, pulling back just enough to look at him. "But I understand what you're saying. And I accept it."
She stepped back fully, her hands still resting lightly on his arms. "And I won't stop," she continued. "Even if you don't reciprocate."
Varin blinked at her. "Don't what now?"
"Reciprocate," Vivi repeated. "You know, return my feelings, feel the same way—"
"I don't know that word," he said flatly.
Vivi stared at him for a moment, then let out a surprised laugh, the kind that seemed to catch her off guard. "You don't… You literally just had an entire emotional conversation with me about how you feel, and you don't know the word reciprocate?"
"Should I?" Varin asked, genuinely confused.
"It's not a survival word," she said, still smiling slightly despite herself. "It means to do the same thing back. To return something."
Varin considered that. "So you're saying you're going to keep liking me even if I don't like you back the same way."
"Yes," Vivi said simply.
"That seems like a waste of your time," he said.
"Probably," she agreed. "But that's my choice to make."
Varin looked at her for a long moment, this small, determined woman who'd watched him consume a god and had decided that wasn't a deal-breaker, who'd stood on a battlefield covered in blood and held him anyway, who was now telling him she'd keep trying even if he never managed to catch up. "You're ridiculous," he said finally.
"I know," Vivi replied. "But you're stuck with me now."
The moment was interrupted by clapping. Nami emerged from her grove of tangerines, applauding as she'd just witnessed a particularly entertaining play. Slowly, the others came out of their hiding spots. Luffy popped up from behind some cargo. Zoro straightened from where he'd been leaning against the railing. Sanji stepped out from near the galley with a cigarette dangling from his lip. Usopp uncurled from somewhere near the rigging, looking only mildly guilty about eavesdropping. Varin's entire body went rigid.
"Oh, and don't be mad," Vivi said quickly with a wince, "I did tell them about Enel. I know I promised, but even Luffy noticed you were acting distant and—"
"You were all listening," Varin said flatly.
"The whole thing," Nami confirmed cheerfully, still grinning. "Very touching, by the way. Didn't know you had it in you."
"I hate all of you," Varin muttered.
"No, you don't," Luffy said, already bouncing over with that ridiculous grin plastered across his face. "That was so cool! You ate a god! That's amazing! Did he taste like lightning? Can you eat more gods?"
"Luffy," Varin said tiredly, "no."
"Why not?" Luffy pressed, completely undeterred. "You're strong now! We could take on anyone!"
Zoro snorted from where he was standing. "The dumbass has a point. You survived something that should've killed you. That's impressive, even if the method was... unconventional."
"Unconventional," Sanji repeated, smoke curling from his mouth. "That's one word for it. Though I'll admit, eating your enemy wholesale is a bit more creative than my usual approach." He took a drag. "Still prefer cooking, though. Fewer diseases, who knows what that god had."
Usopp let out a nervous laugh from his perch, the sound coming out a bit strained. "M-man, I'm just glad I didn't take that fruit, because honestly? If I had lightning powers and you got that hungry, I'd probably be next on the menu." He laughed again, but there was real fear underneath it, the kind that came from genuinely considering what it would've been like to be the one with the power in that situation. "No thanks, I like being alive and not, you know, partially digested. I made the right call."
"Thanks, Usopp," Varin said sarcastically, though there wasn't real heat in it. "I'll make sure to keep you off my menu." He looked at them all, standing there like this was perfectly normal, like eating a god was just another Tuesday on the Merry, like the only concerning part of any of this was that he'd been brooding about it instead of accepting their acceptance.
"I've said this before, and I'll say it again. You're all insane," he said finally.
"Definitely," Luffy agreed cheerfully. "But you're part of the crew now, so that makes you insane too."
"Great," Varin muttered. "Wonderful. My life is perfect."
Sanji grinned. "Come on, We've got repairs to finish before we move. And Chopper wants to check your back again, make sure the lightning damage is actually healing and not, you know, slowly killing you."
"It's not slowly killing me," Varin said.
"Yet," Zoro added helpfully.
Varin stood there for a moment, surrounded by his crew, all of them looking at him like he was just another disaster they'd decided to keep around. Like eating a god was fine. Like the hunger and the blood and the fear didn't matter because he was still here, still standing, still one of them. He looked at Vivi, who was watching him with that careful expression that said she knew exactly what he was thinking. Then he sighed and pushed off from the mast. "Fine," he said. "But if any of you mention this ever again, I'm throwing you overboard."
"Noted," Nami said. "Now come on, we need that gold organized properly before it shifts in the hold."
As they dispersed back to their various tasks, Luffy bounded alongside Varin, chattering about something completely unrelated to gods or eating or anything sensible. Behind them, the others fell back into the rhythm of the ship, the easy camaraderie of people who'd already decided long ago that nothing Varin could do would make them leave.
He didn't know why he was surprised; he really shouldn't be; these morons were insane, but that's why he was with them.