'I'll count the stars from a broken gate

'till all the neighbors call me names and tell me

How they hate how I changed so much.

I used to smile and talk about love

But now I'm alone and my hair is so long.'

Play Three Again, Backseat Goodbye

Sanji could only stand back, wide-eyed, as a bundle of limbs came flailing out the front door to latch on to the other man. Zoro let out a string of curses as he caught his roommate and nearly fell over with the added weight, trying to pry the energetic boy off.

"Zorooooooo!"

Unsure if he should attempt to help the moss-head or not, Sanji watched with an amused expression as Zoro finally managed to squirm out of the younger boy's tight grasp, knocking Luffy over the top of the head in punishment.

"Ow ow ow! Zorooo, you bastard; that hurt!" He spoke with a giggle; laughing animatedly as he clutched the spot Zoro had knocked his fist into. Sanji couldn't help but snort out a laugh and shake his head. Was this guy for real?

Luffy soon noticed that Zoro had brought along someone he'd never met before and thusly alerted himself accordingly, immediately eyeing Sanji up and down with a huge Luffy brand smile before striking out his hand in greeting.

"Hi! I'm Luffy; that's Zoro, my wife. Who're you?"

Sanji snickered at Zoro before shaking Luffy's hand.

"Sanji." He took his cigarette in his fingers to blow smoke out at Zoro, who stood off to the side, quietly fuming. "Is this the girlfriend you were talking about?"

Zoro looked absolutely aghast at the thought as he froze; his face a perfect mask of horror at Sanji's implications.

"What? No!"

"Girlfriend?" Luffy cocked his head questioningly at the marimo and crossed his arms, appearing a little cross. "Zoro has a girlfriend? Since when? Ahh, Zorooooo! Are you cheating on me? Wait till Nami hears about this!"

The boy ran play crying back into the house, sobbing into his arm as Zoro sighed and rubbed his head, annoyed at the boy's loud antics. For Sanji, though, any and all humor in the situation had flown the coop. He stood rigid and still, letting his cigarette hang limply in his hand.

"Nami?" He spoke quietly, not entirely aware he had spoken at all. Was she here? What was her connection with these guys; particularly with that young boy? It seemed that everywhere he went, that orange haired vixen had connections that always seemed to manifest themselves around him. He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed Zoro watching him curiously.

"Uh, yea. She's Luffy's actual girlfriend. You uh, you know her?" Zoro walked past the momentarily stunned blonde to stand in the doorway to peer in after Luffy, making sure he hadn't broken anything upon his re-entrance.

Sanji shook himself out of his stupor and quickly regained his composure, letting a soft smile grace his lips as he shook his head, taking a drag from his cigarette that had momentarily been forgotten.

"Nah, I doubt it's the same person."

'Yea. Nami's a common name; it could be anyone. Besides, Luffy isn't exactly Nami's type.'

Zoro quirked his eyebrow at the statement but shrugged, letting the topic drop before heading inside to make sure Luffy wasn't drowning in his own tears or something equally as dramatic. Sanji followed in behind him, continuing to reason with himself that there was no possible way that Luffy's Nami and his Nami were the same, when he thumped into Zoro's outstretched arm. Sanji raised one elegantly curled eyebrow as he puffed more smoke into Zoro's face, wondering why he'd been halted and denied entrance.

"No smoking inside." Zoro said, swatting away the smoke. "Lord knows we need those two coming over again."

Zoro and Luffy's home was better looking than Sanji admittedly thought it'd be. The walls were a light, creamy color and the carpet was a deep, plush red. He hung up his long, black coat on the coat rack behind the door and moved out of the way so Zoro could shut out the cold. The moss-haired man brushed past him with a 'wait here' before climbing up the stairs and out of sight. Sanji stood by the door and idly began to look around, not entirely sure what to do with himself.

Luffy was nowhere in sight, and Sanji concluded that he was either upstairs or around the divider that separated the main room and the kitchen, which he felt the need to explore. Kitchens were his natural habitat, after all. He heard some dull thuds come from up above as he wandered around the wide room, but paid them no mind as he continued on with his exploration of the room. There wasn't much to the place, he discovered; just the living room he was in, the kitchen, and a door to the right.

Before he could do any form of investigating, Luffy came bumping down the stairs and propelled himself onto their only piece of furniture in the room, which happened to be a nice looking couch. The boy looked up at Sanji expectantly with that huge grin across his face and gestured for him to take a seat where he'd been sitting while he jumped off and sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Wanna play Tekken with me?"

Zoro thumped down the stairs shortly after, casting a surly look at the two of them before Sanji could respond. He approached Sanji, who had taken up the boy's offer to sit on the remarkably comfy sofa and gave Luffy a wary look.

"What happened to talking to Nami?"

"She hung up on me." If possible, that grin spread wider. Sanji had no idea why having his girlfriend hang up on him would yield such results, but he decided not to question it as Luffy giggled.

Zoro rolled his eyes before directing his attention back to the blonde lounging on the sofa as Luffy began to set up the game.

"Here's your money."

Sanji took the proffered money and pocketed it, nodding his thanks before turning back to the rather large tv screen before him as it flickered to life and the Tekken theme erupted loudly.

"Money for what?" Luffy yelled as he quickly turned down the volume. He glanced back at Zoro with a questioning look in his eye as he handed over a controller to Sanji, but Zoro, having none of it, snatched the thing up with an irritated look before the blonde could even think of taking it.

"Nothing. He helped me out with something; that's all. Ready to go?"

"Whaaaaa? But he just got here! We were gonna play Tekken! Zorooooooo!"

Luffy pouted and made to grab the controller back, but Zoro knew all Luffy's tricks and easily avoided Luffy's grab, holding the controller high above his head and at an angle he knew the monkey boy couldn't get at.

"Yea 'Zorooooo'; we wanna play." Sanji repeated, a teasing air to his voice.

The blonde snickered at Zoro as he too came to stand, easily matching Zoro's height (perhaps even topping it), and plucking the controller from the man. Zoro scowled and shook his head while Luffy cheered, praising Sanji and his advantageously long legs. The chef sat back down and crossed his said limbs, looking smug as Zoro threw up his hands, exasperated.

"I knew this would happen, dammit."

In truth, Sanji didn't really want to play Tekken; hell, he hadn't even heard of it before now, but he didn't want to leave, either. It was unexplainable, but he liked Luffy's childish aura and how he seemed to accept Sanji without question. It was like they were already best friends, and though it was weird, he liked it. It was almost as though he were being given a second chance at a friendship he hadn't known he'd lost.

Something about that monkey boy.


"Look, guys, loooooooook! It's snowing! SNOW!"

True to his word, one glance out the window showed that it was, in fact, snowing like Luffy had claimed. Snowing hard, in fact. The white stuff was coming down in hordes, adding to the already large piles of the stuff outside. It was surprising that none of them had noticed it before, but the intense matches of Tekken that had since transpired had successfully controlled their attention for the past couple hours.

Yes, hours. It was a more addictive game than Sanji thought it'd been.

Luffy cast aside his controller and began to jump up and down wildly, cheering for the little white flakes that descended. Sanji didn't particularly care for snow, as they had enough of it already, but watching Luffy become so excited over something so simple formed an amused look to crawl on his face. Zoro was considerably less impressed with Luffy's display, and rolled his eyes before chuckling deeply.

Sensing that their video game brawling match was done, Sanji placed the controller on the floor and sank back into the couch, stretching for a while before settling back, his limbs tingling from the release. He glanced over at the digital clock on their DVR and blanched; 8 pm? Where the fuck had all that time gone?

Looking away from Luffy, Zoro caught sight of Sanji's blank stare and followed it, frowning deeply when he saw the time.

"Shit." He said as he scratched the back of his head. Zoro had to pick himself up from his perch on the wall to walk to the door and open it, sizing up just how much snow had fallen while they were inattentive. He uttered another low 'shit' as he shut the door, pressing his palm to his forehead in agitation as he realized that they'd waited too long.

"What?" Sanji looked to Zoro when he'd cursed, but then to Luffy when Zoro didn't respond to find that the hyper boy had stopped cheering to look at him blankly. "What?"

Just like that, that grin that seemed to permanently decorate Luffy's face erupted across it once more as he began to run around wildly, screeching 'Sleepover, sleepover!' to the walls and ceiling above. As Luffy was running around maniacally, Sanji turned to look at Zoro with a raised brow and confusion drawn all over his face.

"What's he talking about?"

Zoro sighed and gave him a half-heartedly apologetic look. "I can't drive at night; my headlights are out and I haven't gone to fix them yet. And there's way too much snow for my hunk-a-junk to possibly get through."

"Wait, what?"

"Sleeeeeeeepoveeeeeeer!"

Luffy had jumped up on to the couch and was bouncing up and down madly, nearly stomping on Sanji in the process and earning a disapproving 'oi' from Zoro.

It appeared he was stranded. Stranded with these two people he really didn't know, but was oddly attracted to. He supposed he could always walk home…but that was a lot of snow, and a lot of snow meant a lot of cold, which was something Sanji didn't really like. And on top of all that, it was dark, and who knew what kind of creeps came out in this weather? The blonde looked Luffy in the eye sullenly. The black haired boy knew resignation when he saw it and screeched loudly in delight, ignoring Zoro's protest.

"HOO-RAH! SLEEPOVER! ZORO, MAKE US SOME FOOD TO CELEBRATE! I'M STARVING!"

"Keep it down, Luffy; if we get another complaint from the neighbors-"

"ZORO. FOOOOOOOOD."

Zoro threw up his hands in defeat for the second time that night and made his way into the kitchen as Luffy continued hopping up and down demanding food loudly. Afraid of being trampled, Sanji took his leave of the couch and followed the moss-headed man back around to the kitchen. Forgetting Zoro's rules against not smoking (and from not having had one for what seemed like several hours), Sanji tapped out a cigarette from the pack he kept with him and stuck it in his lips.

"What's for dinner?" he asked curiously, the chef in him intrigued by prospective dinner meals.

Zoro cast him a look over his shoulder and frowned, yanking the unlit bud out of Sanji's lips and on to the floor before the blonde had a chance to light it.

"Hey, what the hell, man?"

"I told you no smoking, dickwad."

Sanji scowled angrily before helping himself up onto the counter, lounging back on his arms to watch Zoro move about the kitchen. Abnormal behavior for a mere guest and acquaintance maybe, but Sanji felt considerably more at home in any kitchen, even if it was not his own.

Zoro either didn't care or didn't notice where Sanji had taken up roost as he went about scrounging through the cabinets, focused only on beginning to prepare something that would satisfy Luffy's large appetite as Sanji watched on with interest. Luffy had gone back to playing Tekken, and his loud, jubilant cheers managed to find their way to them from the living room, causing Zoro to grin and shake his head in an amused fashion.

"Hey."

Zoro didn't look up to reply.

"What?"

"Mind if I make dinner? It'd take my mind off not being able to smoking, since you're so damn adamant about it."

Without waiting for a response, Sanji hopped off the counter and shoved a slightly startled Zoro aside to raid their cupboards, scouring with a talented eye to find anything to work with.

"I guess I should be asking you, then; what's for dinner?" Zoro's brow was raised as Sanji brought out a large pot and thrust it into his capable arms.

"Fill it with water." He said as he crouched down to look through the cabinets under the counter as Zoro brought the pot to the sink to begin filling it. "Not much to work with here. All you have is this ramen shit."

He stood up with a couple packs of the instant ramen to prove his point, scowling at the packs. Zoro rolled his eyes but finished filling up the pot before setting it on the stove. Sanji looked at it with a scrutinizing gaze before he shook his head and motioned for Zoro to start again.

"That's too much, dump some out."

With a sigh Zoro brought the pot back to the sink and tipped it a bit to allow the water to seep over the edge while Sanji went about opening up the packages of uncooked noodles. Zoro clunked the pot back in front of the blonde who looked at it momentarily before shaking his head once again.

"You spilt too much."

"Does it really matter?"

The glare on Sanji's face clearly answered the question.


"Sanji, that was deliciousssss! You need to be our personal cook!"

Luffy sat back in his chair patting his stomach contently. Sanji shook his head, smiling as he rounded up the bowls to dump in the sink. Zoro's arm was draped over the back of his chair as he went about picking his teeth with his fingers; his way of complimenting the chef.

"I doubt you could afford me. And cut that out, it's disgusting." Sanji commented as he ran the dishes under some water. He heard the marimo grunt and he rolled his eyes before he came back to sit at the table, folding his hands over themselves before looking between the two. "So…Where'm I sleeping?"

Luffy and Zoro both paused simultaneously before casting each other 'we didn't think this out' looks. Sanji felt his eyebrow creasing steadily upwards as he looked between the two of the, a frown settling on his face.

"Uhh…"

Sanji dumped his head into his hand and rubbed his forehead. "I'll just sleep on the couch, then."

"No!" Luffy's screech caught the two of them by surprise, even as the raven-haired boy burst up from his seat. The two of them blinked as he threw out his finger, pointing first at Sanji and then to Zoro. "Since Sanji's your guest, he gets to sleep with you!"

Sanji snickered and Zoro elbowed him in the ribs. "What the hell, Luffy. He can just sleep on the couch."

"No! That's not tradition! Friends are supposed to sleep in the same room together when they have sleepovers!" Luffy pouted and crossed his arms, looking huffily at his roommate, daring him to challenge his logic.

This time it was Sanji and Zoro's turn to exchange looks; Zoro's of annoyance and unease while the other seemed genuinely confused. The blonde was about to say something when Luffy slapped his hand over his mouth. Startled, he blinked at Luffy who was now waving a finger and smiling coyly at him.

"No and's if's or but's about it!" he was grinning wildly as he pulled back his hand. "You're bunking with Zoro, and I won't have it any other way!"


Sanji was perched on the doorframe that led into Zoro's bedroom, watching without interest as Zoro went about fixing up a futon, grumbling incoherently all the while. Bored and uninterested, the blonde was soon lost in his thoughts. Hanging out and having dinner with the mismatched friends had done a good job distracting him, but now that the night was winding down to a close, Sanji was left with nothing else to think about.

Arlong. Surely the bastard wouldn't go through with what he'd promised to do if Sanji didn't come up with the money; he wouldn't have any leverage over him if he did. But maybe that was the point. When it came to Arlong, there simply was no knowing what he had in store for you till it was actually happening, and even then his intents and purposes weren't always clear.

A pillow thrown into his face brought him out of his thoughts and he blinked before glaring at the man who'd interrupted his inner ramblings. Zoro rolled his eyes as Sanji bent to pick up the aforementioned pillow, fluffing it testily, prepared to throw it back if the situation called for it.

"There. Here's a blanket." He threw a bundled up maroon blanket in his direction, and Sanji managed to catch it. Zoro grumbled some more before exiting the room and going into the bathroom, leaving Sanji alone.

The blonde scowled after him before turning to the futon that the other man had prepared for him and sat on it, placing the pillow at one end and slipping off his shoes. He brought himself up and lay across the narrow piece of furniture and spread the blanket over his body. He frowned again. Fuck, it was cold. Was everything of Zoro's this bloody cold? And as if that weren't bad enough, he was beginning to crave a cigarette. Badly. Damn it all.

He sighed and made himself as comfortable as he could when Zoro re-entered, slamming the door in the face of his cheery roommate who managed to get out a 'Night Sanji!' before the door shut. More grumbling from the now shirtless (which made Sanji quirk his eyebrow; Zoro had left to take off his shirt? Oh, so now he was shy about his body?) Zoro as he flicked off the lights and made his way to his bed, flopping onto it with a grunt. Sanji heard the springs in the mattress creak as the weight of the man's body spread across it. Zoro seemed to shift around for a bit before going still, letting silence flood the room.

Heaving a sigh, Sanji supposed he should try and get some sleep, though it'd be difficult. The futon was too small to sleep on comfortably the blanket wasn't nearly large enough to keep him warm, and worst of all, now that there weren't any distractions, Sanji's thoughts were allowed free reign, and boy did they go wild.

Once upon a time, Sanji had had a dream; a dream to be the best chef in all the world. Of course, now with age and maturity, he'd been forced too dull that dream and lower his expectations to make that dream even somewhat attainable, but the end result was still the same.

He just wanted to be the best, but now that he was involved with Arlong and the man's shady business, that seemed impossible. The diabolical man would always be a dark cloud looming over him, holding a flame to his name. A liability.

A weighty sadness crept into him as he sighed again and shivered, snuggling up into the blanket and peering into the darkness with his one visible eye.

Something about being alone in the dark with heavy thoughts just sparks an immense loneliness in a person. That feeling that you're ultimately alone in the world is so overwhelming; it can drive even the strongest of men to sniveling puddles of self-pity. That feeling of hopelessness coupled with the fact that he was insanely cold (and still craving that blasted cigarette) drove Sanji to leave the poor excuse for a makeshift bed to stand warily by Zoro's bedside.

He let his gaze sweep over the man who was snoring quietly and was relieved to find that he was sound asleep. His limbs were spread haphazardly across the mattress; it was obvious the man was used to sleeping alone. Sanji sat on the edge of the bed and prayed that Zoro was a deep sleeper before the blonde began to rearrange his position. When Sanji successfully had it so Zoro's mass was resting solely on one side of the bed, he crawled in himself and reveled in the warmth that having another body in close proximity brought.

The thought that this was probably the first time Sanji had shared the same bed with someone without being paid to do so filtered through his mind, and he felt the need to laugh sardonically. He peered over at the man sleeping soundly beside him, trying to dispel his negative thoughts and wondered what it felt like to have a partner someone could sleep beside without the person expecting some sexual favor in return.

If just for one night he could feel free from his bonds from Arlong by nestling up against this man he hardly knew, then of course he'd take that chance, no questions asked, even if he knew he'd regret it in the morning. Regrets were just another part of his line of business, and adding one more to the bunch surely wouldn't hurt.

A/N: Alright, so, I had a lot of people telling me that Sanji seemed extremely OOC and weak toward the latter end of this chapter, so I edited it in hopes that he wouldn't come off quite as bad as I'd had originally. So hopefully this rewrite proved useful. And uh, that's it! Stay tuned; you guys are great!