When pirates attack, go hide in the hold until we come for you, the cooks often told him. They never warned him of company as he waited.

Hiding Place

He saw the sword long before he saw its owner. Its long oriental grip poked above a stack of crates, resting still against a wall.

Sanji took little notice of it – it wasn't the strangest thing he had seen in the hold – except it shifted ever so slightly as his gaze swept over it, catching the lamps' steady light on its polished guard before settling back to its place. Then it definitely became the center of his attention.

Blue eyes trained their gaze on the sword handle as the boy skirted the obstruction between him and the blade's owner. Not the smartest thing he had done in his life, Sanji would later think, but at that moment, he was intent only on discovering the stock room's unwanted guest. His focus was only jarred by a heavy thud against the floorboards of the room above, and he froze, eyes shooting back to the sword grip.

It didn't immediately move; only after many seconds did it roll a little to a side and return to its place, just as it had done before. Like an unmindful wallflower ignoring the chaos around it. Sanji stifled a sigh as he inched closer to the edge of the crate stack. He was ready to run if it was some villainous man he found beyond it; the sword seemed almost six feet tall, so in his mind, a strong, large fellow definitely owned it.

Instead, he found a gangly but well-dressed teenager, all arms and legs as he hunched over a thick tome, with the sword leaning against his shoulder towering well above the boy's white fur hat. Sanji's tension eased and relief took its place.

"Excuse me," he called to the stranger as he stepped out of his hiding place. "Guests aren't allowed here, sir."

The so-addressed looked up from his book, lazily as if annoyed by the disturbance, and regarded the kitchen boy from under the wide brim of his hat. His tired eyes returned to the page not soon after.

Sanji scowled. "Hey—"

"Does it really matter in this situation?" The teenager's tone was a bored one. "Or do you plan to enforce that rule regardless?" He gave the boy another condescending glance. "How I wonder."

The kitchen boy had no answer, and to this his company smiled, eyes twinkling in smug delight.

"You're still not allowed here," Sanji muttered in protest. He would not send the stranger away even he could, he had to admit, for pirates had boarded the ship – the very same reason why he was in the hold to begin with. In the room above, the Orbit cruise ship's armed staff was engaging the sea bandits. The defense line greatly outnumbered the ragtag band, last the boy had seen, but a guest was a guest; he couldn't send the older boy out to danger.

Urgent scuffling echoed from above, and the reading teenager continued to ignore both Sanji and the noise. The kitchen boy shifted where he stood, not knowing what to say.

"Are you hiding here, too?" he decided to ask.

The guest chuckled and looked up, quiet for a while before setting his book down on his crossed legs. He leaned back against the wall. "Is that why you're here?" he said with the same demeaning smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"There are pirates in the ship. Of course I'm hiding." When the gangly teen didn't so much as bat an eyelash to the news, Sanji couldn't help but feel doubly annoyed with the stranger. "I'm not lying."

"I know."

"You should be scared." The words were spoken before he could stop himself, and the boy immediately regretted them; they weren't words to say to guests.

The older boy's smile had turned into a full smirk by then. "If you're scared, I'll protect you," was his response, though his tone was anything but sincere, as he closed a hand over his sword's scabbard.

"I'm not scared!" Sanji seethed. It was a lie, but the fact was embarrassing when pointed out by someone else. "And that thing's taller than you. Can you even use it?"

A touch of color brushed the teen's cheeks. "Of course I do. If you don't believe me, then don't expect any help from me." With the declaration, he hid behind his book.

Sanji pouted over being ignored. He looked to the ceiling; the noise had settled considerably since he escaped to the hold. The cooks had not come to fetch him yet, however, so he wasn't sure if the quiet meant the staff had succeeded, as he hoped they would. With nothing left to do and not wanting to be alone, he approached the older boy and sat across him. A pair of gray eyes glared at him at the gesture, but Sanji ignored it. He didn't like the stranger already, for he had the same aura as the ship's many spoiled young guests, but he was thankful for the company.

"So what are you doing here if you're not hiding?"

"Reading, what does it look like?"

"Why didn't you do that in the safe rooms? Where all the other guests are."

"Exactly because all the other guests are there." The younger boy ignored the exasperation in his voice, too. "Children will be crying and adults will be making a fuss. As if I could read there."

"You'd be safer there though."

The teenager sighed and paid him no more attention. Sanji didn't mind it at first, but uneasiness pooled at the pit of his stomach; it had grown eerily quiet since he last listened out for the commotion above them. Rustling paper was all that punctuated the uncomfortable silence before his companion abruptly slammed his book closed and got to his feet. The kitchen boy followed suit, confused and alarmed. The other boy had fixed his hold on his longsword's grip before the former heard it.

Footsteps from the stairs.

His extremities grew cold and his gut heavy. Eyes wide, he looked to the staircase, hoping to see the cooks' familiar faces coming down the steps. He strained his ears for the voices that would definitely be calling for him, but heard nothing. The footfalls continued down the stairs, their echoes growing louder as they approached.

"I'm not afraid of those pirates." A confident voice dispelled Sanji's forming dread, and he look back to the boy who spoke the words. He was poised to draw his weapon, and in that moment, the kitchen boy found he had lost all doubt in the teen's ability to wield the blade. When had he started trusting this strange guest who would risk his own safety for a quiet place to read?

"Sanji?"

He did not immediately recognize his own name, and when he did, his companion had also figured it to be the younger's name. The pair released the breaths they had been holding and managed to laugh at their now petty-seeming troubles. Sanji clambered up the crate stack he had been hiding behind and called to his seeker.

"I'm here!" He laughed again and spun back to his companion. "Hey—"

But the boy had disappeared.

A/N: I've always been a fan of flashbacks, so I thought I'd write my own little snippets for my character biases.

It goes without saying that I don't own One Piece, because if I did, this one-shot and all those that will follow would have already found their way into the manga. XD