sanuso worms in my brainnnn😵‍💫 welcome to sanji’s struggle of being in love for the first time and not quite knowing how to go about confessions

i am a firm believer of sanji being in denial from little garden to water 7. after usopp returns to the crew, sanji finally comes to terms with his feelings for usopp as that gaping hole in his chest is filled by his presence — and following the acceptance comes the unbearable tension when he’s around the sniper. nothing has changed between them; sanji still respects usopp as the brave talented sniper he is…in fact, they’re even closer after the battle at enies lobby. sanji argued that it made the matter of his intensifying crush worse. but of course, the awkwardness was all in his head and it was his fault he couldn’t act normal around usopp or talk like they used to

but he misses talking to him. he couldn’t stand the thought of usopp permanently leaving the crew and never getting the chance to see him again. and now usopp is here, sailing alongside them, as things should be. he misses him so much so pulls himself out of his head and musters the courage to make a decision; he’ll tell usopp how he feels. it’ll fix whatever’s going on with him hopefully, because he’s been swatting these thoughts away like flies for months now but he can’t deny any longer how much more than a friend he wants to be to the sharpshooter. the only problem is that he can’t quite figure out how to tell him

sanji remembers that sunset at water 7, that bridge, where he had overheard usopp rehearsing stupid scenarios to get the straw hats to take him back (he still cant quite place why he had stuck around to listen to the idiotic display) and it gives him an idea. next thing he knows he finds himself pacing back and forth in the kitchen, rehearsing different scenarios of “the big moment.” he doesn’t want to come off as a sap, but he also doesn’t want to play it casual because he needs it to be special. this could either completely ruin them or complete them and sanji couldn’t fuck it up

after writing out a declaration of love on a piece of paper and practicing said declaration out loud and probably getting walked in on a few times by the sunny’s local food thief (luffy) he decides this rehearsing stuff is stupid and usopp is an idiot for doing silly stuff like this and why the hell did he even try something so ridiculous and fuck it all, he was just going to wait until the right moment because that’s maybe the most romantic way to go about it (even if it means this’ll take 5 more months)

there’d definitely be multiple instances where sanji has the perfect opportunity and tries to tell usopp before immediately backing out, muttering serious “it’s nothing” “nevermind” ‘s and whatnot, leaving usopp dumbfounded everytime. but he already sorta knows (more so just has his suspicions and mutual feelings to return) so he decides he’ll let the cook figure things out on his own until he’s ready. because knowing sanji, he’s probably going through an identity crisis because of him…usopp does feel the slightest bit bad that someone like him has put sanji in such a dilemma

I think the moment that the confession leaves sanji’s mouth would be the most inconvenient moment possible. possibly…. in the middle of battle, when they’re both pumping with adrenaline. possibly when usopp snipes an enemy that was just about to slice a distracted sanji in half — and the cook is so pathetically head over heels at this point, his bottled up love and the overwhelming feeling of admiration in his chest overflowing all at once, he just outright blurts out “i love you” when usopp asks if he’s okay and he doesn’t even realize what’s been said and done until usopp is cheekily smiling at him, saying something along the lines of “i know”

sanji doesn’t even get a chance to process what just happened in the span of 10 seconds before he’s forced back into battle, another wave of opponents storming the battlefield. he’ll have to deal with it later