a cute short drabble with our favourite grumpy old man Zeff

Zeff dumped the groceries on the kitchen countertop and groaned. He stretched his back until it made a satisfying *pop* noise and the old chef began putting the groceries away into the fridge and cupboard.

Zeff frowned. Why did it feel like he was missing something? Ok check the groceries again.

Eggs… check, milk… check, oranges… check, come to think of it, it was rather quiet, apples… check, juice… check, too quiet, cereal… check, broccoli… check, bread… check, snacks… check, pasta…check, yoghurt…

Wait.

…

OH SHIT.

Zeff immediately sprinted towards his car only to turn around and sprint to grab his keys and sprint back towards his car. He immediately began speeding down the road towards the local grocery store and parked his car with a deafening screech, scaring a nearby stray cat.

Zeff ran into the store and began franticly looking through the allies like a madman gaining quite a few stares from strangers but he didn't care. Let them stare, he had more pressing issues to take care of then be bothered by people staring at his peg leg. After searching through all the allies with no success Zeff was about ready to have a heart attack.

Finally, a young teenage girl who seemed to work at the store judging by her uniform, walked up to Zeff timidly. "Um, sir? Did you lose something?"

"Yes I did." Zeff grumbled franticly, "have you by any chance saw-"

Zeff cut himself off and stared out of the large window of the store.

Next to the grocery store was a McDonalds and there he saw what he had forgotten.

"Actually never mind, I found it." Zeff informed the young girl and rushed out of the store. The old chef didn't know whether to feel exhausted with relief, exhausted with anxiety or just exhausted in general. Maybe the last one.

Zeff walked into the very centre of the bane of his existence and the old man could feel himself physically trying not to scream at how unhealthy the food was. Instead he ignored the smell of oil and junk and made his way across the devil's lair right in front of the little playground. Sure enough there was the occasional bob of blonde and Zeff opened the door to the playground.

"Found you, Eggplant!" Zeff caught the little troublemaker by the collar causing a little yelp to come from the 6-year-old.

"Shitty Geezer! Put me down!" shouted Sanji, much too young to be using such language but Zeff didn't care, the brat's gonna learn it some point in his life so it doesn't matter whether he learnt earlier or later.

"No I will not! Why can't you just stay put if you're lost?!" Zeff scolded the pouting boy setting him down but keeping a firm grip on Sanji.

"I didn't get lost! You told me to go get yoghurt and didn't come back so I left to find you!" Sanji argued back defensively tugging on his arm so he could go play again.

"So you go and look for me in a playground?" Zeff asked frowning slightly. Sanji only hung his head but continued to struggle. Zeff suddenly noticed that Sanji was biting his lip and he knew all too well what it meant. It meant the Little Shitty Eggplant was trying his hardest not to cry.

At that Zeff felt a pang of guilt for forgetting the child. He went quiet before sighing and picking up Sanji in his arms. At this point Sanji had long stopped struggling, given up on trying to fight against an adult. Instead Sanji began sulking like any child would when their playtime was cut short but nevertheless automatically wrapped his arms around his old man's neck.

"Let's just go and get the yoghurt ok?" Zeff grumbled exasperated. "I swear you are going to be the death of me someday."

"Ok." Sanji replied softly already starting to nod off after the rush of playing. As Zeff nodded and turned around to walk out of the atrocious building, he didn't see the small wave his son gave to another child with bright green hair.

The next day

"Why are child leashes so expensive?"

because Zeff must have lost Sanji at least once.

I may or may not add more drabbles with the old man and eggplant, it depends on the feedback I get from this one :p

I hope you enjoyed reading this and please leave a review!

-Kagu-chan