Okay this took awhile. My only excuse is that I ended up writing myself into a corner on the chapter I originally had for Sanji and had to come up with a whole new idea. It was kinda hard cause Sanji had already lived out his worst fear with Okama Island. So I modified that and put it together with part of what I had planned for Brook, this is what ya get.
People kept asking me what Luffy's punishment was for locking Nami up in the closet last chapter so I added in that part at the beginning. I also wanted to make up for always putting Nami through such bad stuff.
Disclaimer: Never owned. Never will own.
Fears- Sanji
The Grand Line weather had changed yet again. The cooler fall weather from a few days ago had given way to warm summer winds that pushed the Thousand Sunny through the crystal blue waves. Most of the crew was on deck, enjoying the late morning peacefulness. The sky was clear with only a few white fluffy clouds off in the distance, no threat of creating a massive storm.
The orange haired navigator grinned at seeing Luffy happily following after the young doctor and sniper in a game of follow the leader. Nami lifted her sunglasses and decided to play with him a bit, after all, what would be the point of having a personal servant if she didn't utilize him. "Oh Luffy." She called out in a sing-song voice. Ginning, she watched the black haired captain freeze, causing Ussop to run into his back.
"Ah, I'll be right back you guys." Luffy told Ussop and Chopper and the two knowing the routine went back to playing while the captain jogged over to Nami's chair. "What's up Nami?"
Nami lowered her sunglasses again and grinned up at the boy. "I'm getting kinda hungry. I want you go over to my trees and get two of my mikans and no eating any, got it."
Luffy blinked in surprise, he turned to look over at the mikan trees, and then back to Nami. The small orchard wasn't even ten feet away. "Why do you want me to do it?" Luffy groaned. So far he had to serve her drinks and snacks in place of Sanji, massage her shoulders, rub oily suntan lotion on her back, and worst of all promise not to steal any of her food at meal times.
Nami frowned, her eyes narrowing behind the dark shades. "That was the deal, Luffy. I keep Sanji from kicking you into next week and you do anything I say until the next island. By my calculations the next island is still a few hours away."
The raven haired captain opened his mouth to say something but then Luffy looked down at Nami's hands. They still had bandages wrapped around them and would for another couple of days. He frowned and looked away. "Okay, okay, I'll do it." She was right about the deal, after all. Luffy hurried over to the small orchard. He smiled as he tried to pick out two of the best mikans, he was glad Nami was pretty much back to normal, it had taken her nearly two days after the mistake with the closet before she started to act like herself again.
XxXxX
As predicted it was another couple of hours until the call of land was heard from the crow's nest. The crew rushed to the front of the ship to get a look at the new island. Finally the Thousand Sunny was docked, the docking fare was settled, and everyone's allowances were handed out. They all paired off, Nami with Luffy, Robin with Zoro, so that the two women could keep their respective partners out of trouble. There was a small Marine base here on the island but luckily the log pose set in only a few hours. They still didn't need any trouble though. Unfortunately the Strawhats were still the Strawhats and before the few hours were up half the Marines on the island were alerted to the infamous pirate crew on the island.
"Hey, Nami, look at all the candy." Luffy excitedly pointed out the stall selling all the sweet stuff. The navigator sighed but found herself grinning anyway. She shook her head and instead turned her attention to a stall selling inks, paper, and other writing tools.
She felt it almost as soon as her head was turned. The missing noise her captain would be making. Nami turned around again and sure enough, he was gone. "Luffy…" The orange haired navigator growled out but then took a calming breath, she already knew where he was, looking to the right she caught sight of a straw hat near the candy stall. "Why am I not surprised?"
Luffy chuckled as he paid the vendor for his purchase and turned around to head back to where he had left Nami. The strawhat captain stopped short, however, when he came face to face with his orange haired navigator. She had moved right behind him, without him even knowing it. "Oh, Nami, I was gonna come back to find you. Here," he grinned and held out his little brown bag the seller had just handed him, "I got this for you."
Nami blinked and looked at the bag in confusion. "Why?"
"It's to say I'm sorry. I know I've been doing whatever you say since that happened but if I apologized then, you'd probably think I was just trying to get out of doing anything, I wanted to wait until I could do it on my own." Luffy pushed the bag into Nami's hands and smiled gently. "So, I'm sorry."
The navigator looked inside the little brown bag, there was about a dozen little hard orange candies. Nami assumed since they were orange that's what they would taste like as well. She couldn't hide the smile that spread over her face at the gesture from Luffy. Before she could thank him however they were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Nami! Robin! Zoro! Luffy!" Ussop's voice cut through the noise of the bustling crowd easily. A long nosed, curly haired, sniper ran down the street in a panic. He didn't seem to even notice the captain and navigator as he was about to pass them up.
Reaching out to stop said sharpshooter, Nami was able to get his attention, and he calmed down slightly. "Ussop, what's the matter? Where's Chopper and Brook?"
"Oh, Nami, Luffy! I've finally found you guys." The curly black haired sniper was panting, out of breath. "Where're the others?
"How would we know?" Nami yelled. She was getting impatient. "What the hell is going on with you?"
"Marines, They were after Chopper and me but we split up and lost 'em, I think." Ussop answered hastily.
"What?" Both Nami and Luffy exclaimed.
"I only managed to escape because of my excellent athletic ability…" Ussop started to say.
"We don't have time for your lying!" Nami yelled at the sharpshooter, grabbing him by the shoulders. She then turned to Luffy who had turned serious at this news. "Luffy, find Chopper, to see if he needs help then head back to the ship. I'll help long-nose over here find the others." Luffy nodded and in a flash he was gone. Nami turned to Ussop and they both started heading the opposite direction in search of their nakama.
XxXxX
Sanji was already well aware of the situation. He had run into Chopper and helped him deal with the few Marines who were still following him. Right now he and the little doctor, in his reindeer form, were running down a semi-crowded street heading back to the ship as quickly as possible.
Both pirates had to slow down as they hit a more crowded area and it was then that Sanji felt a hard tug on his shirt sleeve. He turned around in annoyance, ready to yell at whoever was bothering him at this important time. Behind him stood a small, old, woman. Her hair was completely white and her skin was so wrinkly Sanji was tempted to try and iron her out. There was an odd looking necklace around the wrinkles in her neck, it almost looked like it was glowing. The woman looked like she had to be more than a hundred years old and involuntarily Sanji shivered.
"What do you want?" The cook asked impatiently, he wasn't trying to be rude, she was still a lady even if she did look like a troll. Chopper stood a few feet in front of him frantically motioning him to hurry.
"I just wondered …" the woman croaked in a raspy tone of voice that kinda reminded Sanji of a vulture.
"What is it already?"
"…If you think I'm beautiful?"
Sanji gaped for a minute in shocked silence and out of the corner of his eye he saw Chopper shiver, obviously the young reindeer had heard the conversation. Suddenly behind the old woman the chef noticed a few Marine soldiers coming down the street looking for them most likely. He didn't have time to lie to the old hag. "No, lady, you aren't beautiful. In fact you look very much like a troll. Now if you don't mind I have some pretty ladies waiting for me." The cook didn't like insulting ladies but he felt no shame in telling the truth to the ugly old hag woman and he was in a hurry.
She didn't seem to like that answer very much though and with a yell that sorta resembled a war-cry she jumped on the poor blonde cook. She pulled out a vial of some liquid from inside her blouse and shoved it past Sanji's unsuspecting lips.
A startled noise came from the cook as the clear substance slid down his throat. He couldn't bring himself to hurt her, as troll-like as she might be, but he did manage to shove her off him. Not before he had been forced to drink that weird stuff though.
"This will teach you to value a woman and learn not to take for granted the time they waste spending it with you." The troll woman cackled as she landed on her feet.
Chopper was shocked as the shriveled old woman jumped on Sanji and by the time he had moved to help she had already forced some stuff into his mouth and jumped off again. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" But the woman didn't answer him. She giggled madly and scampered off down the road. Luckily the Marines had disappeared inside a building and didn't notice the disturbance Sanji and the old woman made. "Sanji, you okay?"
Sanji blinked looking down with a hand to his throat. The vial with the strange liquid had been thrown to the side by the old woman after she was done with it. He gulped and waited for something to happen but nothing did.
"Sanji?" The little doctor asked worriedly and took the cook's wrist in order to check his pulse. "Does anything hurt? Oh God, was that poison?" The younger pirate started to panic.
"That's not helpful, Chopper." Sanji gasped while struggling to contain his own fear. But, other than the knot of slowly dimming worry in the pit of his stomach, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.
XxXxX
Everyone had made it safely back to the ship. Nami and Ussop had found Zoro and Robin and those four on the way back had run into the rest of their nakama. Once on the ship Nami had ordered them to sail around the backside of the island to wait for the log to finish setting. Chopper had hurriedly ushered Sanji into the infirmary as soon as the set foot on the ship with only a hazy explanation to the others.
The infirmary is where Sanji was now, watching Chopper rush to and fro, asking questions about the cook's breathing and vision and other things. "Look Chopper, I feel fine, whatever that stuff was doesn't seem to work. Can I please go back to my kitchen?" Sanji asked getting impatient waiting for the doctor's okay to leave.
"Well, I suppose so, but tell me at once if anything changes. I have the vial that woman used, so I'll study that and see if I cant find out what that stuff was." Chopper said, holding up the little plastic tube that held the clear liquid.
Sanji only nodded and walked out of the infirmary to see that they were already on the other side of the island. It seemed they had just arrived as he heard Nami's voice from the front of the ship ordering someone to lower the anchor. The love cook was sure his beloved Nami-san was desperately worried for his condition so he rushed to where her voice was coming from to reassure her he was alright.
"Oh, Nami-san you sound so wonderful giving orders like that." Sanji called out as he appeared at the navigator's side.
"Sanji-kun, are you supposed to be out here? I thought Chopper was still treating you for something?" Nami asked paying more attention to what Luffy was doing on the sails than the chef beside her. "Luffy, be sure to tie those sails up tight, we may be up for some rough winds tonight." The rubber captain let out a loud 'okay' before the navigator turned her full attention to the noodling cook. "So, are you alright then, Sanji-kun?"
"It gives me such great joy to see that you are so worried for me my angel." Sanji cried happily. He didn't see the expression on Nami's face change from her usual indulgent smile to a look of confused uncertainity.
Nami slowly stepped away from the chef with a look that wasn't quite disgust. "Yeah, well, I'm going to go work on some maps while we wait for the pose to set. It should still be a couple of hours. Um, see ya Sanji-kun." Just like that she was gone.
Sanji frowned in confusion at the way Nami just left him there, it was like she didn't want to have anything to do with him. He brushed it off, maybe it was his imagination, or maybe he was just tired. The blonde shrugged and decided that Robin-chan must have been worried about him also so he went in search of the black haired beauty.
Robin was on the upper deck, reading, and sitting in her usual deck chair. When something, she couldn't quite describe the feeling, made her look up and frown. A second later Sanji's blonde head appeared over the steps from the lower decks. Robin tried to smile at the cook, she really was glad to see he was alright, Chopper's explanation was rather sketchy on the details. When she tried to smile, however, something instantly came over her mind and she frowned in his direction.
"Robin-chan, I made you and Nami-san some delicious drinks to hold you over until dinner time." Sanji danced his way over to the crew's resident historian. He again didn't seem to notice the woman's discomfort.
The older woman continued to frown, only this time, it was in confusion. As Sanji neared her position something came over her mind, telling her she did not want to be anywhere near the cook. She tried to brush it off but as he finally stopped next to her chair she could fight it anymore. Robin slammed her book closed and abruptly stood up. "I'm sorry Sanji-kun, I have something else to do." And for the second time in half an hour Sanji was left alone, wondering what was going on.
From below the cook could hear laughter from the one person he despised. Zoro had seen the entire thing from his position by the mast. "Eh, nice job there, ero-cook, looks like your "lovely ladies" are finally tired of dealing with your pervert ways."
"Shut up, Moss Head, I didn't ask your opinion."
"What was that swirly brow?" The two continued to argue outside meanwhile in the observation room Robin and Nami were talking about the weirdness surrounding Sanji.
Nami sat on one of the couches by the window and Robin sat next to her. "It was weird Robin. It was like I didn't want to be around him at all, I cant even describe what it felt like. Just that I couldn't stand to be any closer to him."
Robin nodded having experienced the same feeling. "Yes, it is quite troubling indeed."
They both fell into a thoughtful silence foe a minute before Nami suddenly jumped up. "You know this didn't start happening until Sanji and Chopper came back to the ship. I bet something happened in town that will explain this. We should ask Chopper what happened since Sanji-kun is kinda out of the question. I don't know why but just thinking about being around him makes my skin crawl."
Robin nodded in agreement. She followed Nami out of the observation room and towards the infirmary. Luckily they ran into the little doctor just as he was coming out, he seemed to be in a hurry about something.
"Oh Nami, Robin, have you seen Sanji around? I have to tell him something as well as the rest of the crew too." He held out a small empty vial to show them. "Some weird old lady in that town made Sanji drink some stuff. I thought it might have been a poison but after examining the remains of the substance, I found out thankfully it wasn't."
Nami and Robin looked at each other seeming to have the same thought. The navigator looked back down to Chopper after he was silent for a moment. "Well then, if it wasn't a poison, what was it?"
The younger pirate's expression was serious as he looked up at the two women. "As far as I can tell, it's some kind of hormone drug. I'm not exactly sure what it does but it doesn't affect him so much as it affects the people around him."
"That would seem to be a reasonable explanation for what is going on. I also have a theory that it would only affect the female gender as you, Chopper-kun, and the other boys don't seem to be affected." Robin placed her hand on her chin in thought.
Suddenly a thud came from behind the group and they all turned to see Sanji on his knees. There was a horrified look on his face as he stared at Chopper. "Do you mean I can never be around Nami-san or Robin-chan again?" He wailed as tears ran down his face. It didn't really help that both Nami and Robin had jumped back a few feet to get away from the teary-eyed chef.
Chopper didn't seem affected at all which affirmed Robin's theory. "I don't think it's forever Sanji. Um, though I don't know when it will fade out, but it probably wont be long." He sounded hopeful but his expression was uncertain.
XxXxX
Dinnertime that night was an unusual affair, well, more unusual than it normally would be with a food stealing rubber captain, a blue haired cyborg, a musical living skeleton, and a human-reindeer doctor. Chopper had already explained Sanji's… condition to the others, much to the cook's dismay. But even past the swordsman's anticipated barbs at his expense Sanji put on a brave face and tried to carry on as normal. This meant making dinner for the crew, all the crew, even Nami and Robin though the two didn't want to have anything to do with him. The doctor chalked this up as an experiment, he wanted to see if things like food prepared by Sanji had any affect on the girls.
That evening Robin and Nami entered the dining room with great apprehension on their part. "Good evening Sanji-kun." The orange haired navigator said looking uncertainly toward the kitchen. Robin gave a shaky smile in greeting as well, not trusting herself to speak in this situation.
Sanji was in the kitchen, naturally finishing the last touches on dinner, he looked up at Nami's attempted greeting. He immediately looked away. Chopper's advice was to not draw attention to himself around Nami and Robin to see if that helped. "Evening, Nami-san, Robin-chan." He muttered quietly.
The archeologist and navigator gave each other a glance and seemed to steel themselves against whatever was affecting Sanji. They walked further into the dining room and found seats at the table, Nami in-between Luffy and Zoro, and Robin sat beside Franky and Ussop. Everyone let out a breath as the girls made it to the table and Sanji was still in sight of them.
Sanji grinned at this seemingly large accomplishment and began to load the trays of food into his arms to bring to the table. He started on the far side of the table, farthest away from the ladies, but even at that distance he saw them both tense up. He started slowly going down the table placing a plate in front of each of his crewmates as he went and with each chair closer Nami and Robin seemed to lose a bit more of their resolve. By the time he was a chair away from his beautiful Nami-san she had hold of the bottom of her chair to keep herself from going anywhere and the chair itself was flush beside Luffy's. In fact, if it weren't for her hands gripping her chair so tightly, Sanji was sure she would already be in Luffy's lap. Looking over, it appeared that Robin-chan was in the same way, she had her eyes closed and seemed to be muttering something under her breath. The cook's steps faltered and he didn't come any closer.
All the guys looked at him as he sat the rest of the food on the table where he stood and slowly began to back away. As the blond cook made it back to the kitchen it seemed Nami and Robin became more at ease with their surroundings again and both relaxed a little.
The women looked at each other and sadly turned to the despondent chef standing dejectedly in the kitchen. "We're sorry Sanji-kun, it seems we still cant be around you." Robin said, her blue eyes clearly showing sadness at having to share this news.
"Yeah, whatever this hormone stuff is, it's pretty strong." Nami added as she moved her chair from right on top of Luffy's chair. "I thought if we could just face the worst of it head on we might be able to overcome it, but I guess not."
Seeing the saddened looks on the faces of his precious ladies Sanji succeeded holding in his depressed tears. They had tried their hardest for him and he couldn't dishonor that by crying. "Don't be sad or disappointed Nami-san, I will eat here in the kitchen, and you will never know the difference." He only wished he felt as optimistic as he sounded.
XxXxX
A week later the hormones were still in effect. Wherever Sanji was the crew knew neither Robin nor Nami were. Each day Chopper was certain would be the last but after nearly six days it was starting to look bleak for the Strawhat love-cook. He continued to eat in the kitchen and still continued to make treats for his ladies but he couldn't serve them.
The crew was still trying to get used to the fact that three of their crewmembers couldn't be around each other anymore. Although, it seemed Sanji was the most affected out of them. Even Nami had found someone to replace the cook's serving her at least until this whole thing wore off. Somehow, no one knew how, but Nami had connived Luffy into serving her the snacks Sanji had made.
Exactly one week since "the hag incident" as Sanji referred to it. The cook was on his way to the pantry to get some ingredients for dinner. He had seen Robin-chan relaxing at the outdoor table set up for the girls but he hadn't seen Nami-san anywhere. He hoped he didnt run across her, each time he saw that revolted look on either ladies face it made his heart break even more.
Finally he reached the large store room but something made him pause before opening the door. He listened carefully and there it was again, a thump and another indistinguishably soft sound coming from inside. "Luffy, you bastard." He growled under his breath. Sanji grinned, he was gonna catch that stretchy captain red-handed this time. He gripped the handle of the door and without giving any warning Sanji wrenched the storage door open, ready to yell at Luffy for stealing food out of the pantry again.
What he wasn't ready for was Nami-san and Luffy to come tumbling out of the room as soon as the door gave way.
Nami squealed as she landed on top of Luffy, surprised that she suddenly found herself on the deck outside. She looked down at Luffy, who had cushioned her fall, his eyes were wide and looking at something behind her. Nami wriggled in Luffy's hold so she could turn around and gasped at the sight of Sanji standing above them. "Ah, Sanji-kun!" The navigator blushed and tried to straighten her tousled clothes. "I, uh, I- we were…" Nami blinked suddenly and noticed how close the cook was and looked up at him. "Sanji-kun, I don't feel anything."
Sanji gaped down at the red faced captain and navigator before Nami-san's words reached his ears. "You don't feel anything…?" He asked blankly. Nami pointed downwards and the close proximity he was to her. The cook stared at the deck, at the two feet separating himself and Nami, and slowly he started to grin. Possibly the widest grin he ever had. He also may have temporarily lost his mind. In one motion he swept the orange haired woman to her feet and wrapped his long arms around her in a tight hug. He laughed, loudly, and spun the navigator around once before setting her down and running off to try and do the same thing to his wonderful Robin-chan.
XxXxX
Somewhere between back of the ship where the storage pantry was and the grassy lawn deck where Robin was sitting the love-cook stopped and rapidly blinked. He was missing something important. Then it hit him. "LUFFY YOU BASTARD!"
=O=O=O=
Thus the worst week of Sanji's life continues. =)
I already got an idea for Zoro, who will be next if things work out right, but I am totally drawing a blank with Franky, Robin, Brook, and Ussop (Ussop only because he's afraid of everything). Any suggestions on those guys would be most appreciated.