im yelling. there's so many:

• ‘What do you want???’ ‘I want to go home to the sunny’ ranks supreme to me… there’s something about luffy being the one to call out all of sanji’s reasoning as bullshit and not what he Actually Wants. he can see right through him!!! sanji deserves to be selfish too!!! And that breaks sanji down. :')
• and just the fact that the next chapter the rain lets up.... the oh, the rain's letting up panel kills me kills me. fun fact this chapter (857) is actually my browser autocomplete for going on the viz website LOL.
• Without you I can’t be king of the pirates…. Luffy won’t eat unless it’s sanji’s food… there's a reason this ended up on holyaches.
• DRUM ISLAND… sanji trying to save luffy by sacrificing himself to the avalanche, and luffy dragging him up with hiS TEETH all the way up a mountainside…..
• Sanji waking up to the drums of liberation and immediately going LUFFY!! :’)
• Luffy being so insistent on sanji being his cook before he’s even had sanji’s food.. because he saw sanji’s kindness…. HAHA… kills me

five semi-random fics from my bookmarks and author subscriptions:

fics:
ghost of a chance zosan, 'sanji haunts zoro as a ghost', really really good. the intro of this always kills me every time, it's so perfectly emotionally devastating as it should be. the ending, too. man

beneath the ocean's waves zosan, all of hazel's stuff is really good, but this one is my go-to like, airplane fic for a very good reason. the slow building relationship and the absolutely stunning final battle and reveal. im a sucker for a good zeff and sanji reunion moment too and man does it deliver

you, drowning between my arms my ideal usopp/sanji, AND an absolutely hilarious timeloop. there's something so fun about 'time loop from the perspective of a guy who's not in the time loop at all', and sanji losing his mind in this is like great to see

mutiny gen, mostly monster trio. oh my goddd, this fic. this fic being set as one argument turned reveal is done so well, with the set up (luffy declaring that zoro's committed mutiny) being so shocking but so well unraveled over the fic. emotionally perfect, and just the way everything pieces together by the end... think about this one a lot

blood of the covenant like, quintessential zeff and sanji fic to me. the bookends on this one are soooo good every time

authors:
resacon1990 has a huge selection of z/s fic and they always hit this really lovely, tender note of affection. it gets so hard to breath (when you're looking at me) has this absolutely wonderful conversation between usopp and zoro that sticks in my brain forever

zephgale has just a really wonderful selection of sanji fic. the slow reveal of the series of events in stigma is perfect and heartbreaking in how it's slowly unraveled, and the ending is very sweet

blasphemyandtheboys really stellar emotional character writing, it's always just the right amount of pain and catharsis. bite the hand is really, really good and my ideal kind of whump/hurt/comfort

pheenick's works are consistently hilarious in just this pitch perfect, pre-ts one piece way that gets me every time. bark bark bark is an absolute riot of a fic (zoro and sanji meet pre-series. sanji is perfect in this), as is you are not immune

taizi has sooo much good one piece gen fic

for favorite fic trope (for writing): time travel lol. i LOVE a forced contrast between characters older/younger selfs, it's so fascinating to me.

time loops also, both for (a) the forced focus on smaller differences between loops making the mundane have this sharp level of importance and (b) the classic emotional catharsis that comes with a time loop 'win condition.' i also love writing/reading characters at their Last Fucking Nerve, which tends to happen when confronted with the same situation repeatedly lmao

for reading fic: i like whump, and iron woobies specifically lol. put a character in a bad situation and have them bite and claw and pretend they're not in over their head until they break down, please and thank you.

for zs specifically: very specific but i LOVE a good pre-TS germa reveal. something about it itches the brain. don't think i've ever written that actually but i ALWAYs read it.

this is going to be such a predictable list:

1. Water 7/Enies Lobby: ok basic answer but there's so many good character moments that somehow all come together, it's insane. robin's arc makes me cry, usopp's arc makes me cry, and every strawhat involved has their own unique tragic reaction to those driving conflicts. a tapestry of character-motivated bad decisions.

2. whole cake island! look. im a huge reiju fan. a huge sanji fan. a huge lusan fan. the build up and tension of the luffy vs sanji fight is so good, especially with how it really pushes sanji into this desperate show of violence and cruelty that luffy immediately sees through, until sanji is forced to admit what he wants. very good. it's like my dream hurt/comfort fic, the right mix of conflict, emotional catharsis, and of course sanji crying.

3. baratie: i kept going back and forth between baratie and skypeia, but i love sanji's intro lol. i go back to it a lot because sanji's short temper and violence contrasted with kindness is very endearing as an introduction, as is just the ever-present idea he has that he can sacrifice his own life as a way of repaying other peoples' kindness. then the zoro and sanji give up your stupid dreams bit. thumbs up

shout out to skypeia, alabasta, and long ring long land, though. love those too.