Ahh, I should change my aim to Fridays so that I can post on Saturdays... fail. xD Oh, well. It's still the weekend right? Isn't it? ... Isn't it?
Luffy and Ussop snickered to themselves and shooshed each other as they walked up to room 3-22. Ussop reached out for the knob and counted off his fingers as he turned it. One... Two... Three.
"Happy b-!" Their shouts halted abruptly upon seeing the nearly-empty room. "Where'd Sanji go?" Luffy asked, as if Ussop had any better idea. The two searched the room, looking under the bed and in all the drawers and under the pillow on the bottom bunk, and they even checked for a false book on the bookshelf that might possibly lead to a secret passage. But, there was nothing. Not a speck of clothing or a scrap of paper. Sanji was, they decided, officially missing.
oOo
"Hey, Nami, have you seen Sanji? It's his birthday," Luffy informed, standing before the redhead while Ussop looked inside any room whose door would open.
Nami shook her head. "No. I went looking for him this morning, but I couldn't find him. I checked his room, yours and Zoro's room, Ussop's room, the kitchen, and even the clubhouse. He wasn't anywhere. He'll turn up later, though, since he promised he'd spend his birthday with us."
Luffy pouted. "Hey, Ussop, Nami said she hasn't seen him either!" Luffy called, jogging down to the end of the hall, where Ussop was peering into a closet full of bedding.
Ussop put up his hand for Luffy to stop and glared dramatically at the sheets and blankets a moment longer before closing the door. "Well, if Nami hasn't seen him, then no one has!" Ussop exclaimed, tossing his hands up in the air.
"But, we have to find him! It's his birthday!" Luffy whined, as if that had anything to do with their ability to find their missing friend.
Nami rolled her eyes as she made her way over to them. "Did either of you ask Zoro?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at them.
Luffy and Ussop shared a look. "Zoro wouldn't know. They're fighting right now, duh!" Luffy snorted, shaking his head at Nami. "You're not being very helpful, Nami."
"Yeah! You saw how they were fighting at lunch the other day," Ussop said, shrugging. "They're really mad at each other, so Sanji wouldn't tell Zoro where he was going..." Ussop trailed off for a minute, eyes bulging. "Gah! What if Zoro kidnapped him?!"
Nami smacked him upside the head with her fist. "Why would he do that, you idiot?!"
"Ow!" Ussop covered the growing lump on the back of his head with both hands. "I don't know! They do weird stuff when they're fighting!"
Luffy laughed. "Yeah, that's true! They're both pretty stupid. I wonder if Sanji kidnapped Zoro?" Luffy became suddenly serious, considering his own joke-theory. "What if-"
"If you're about to say something as stupid as I think you are, you better stop right now!" Nami threatened, jabbing a finger at Luffy, then at Ussop. "You either! Don't say another word, unless it's something that normal people would consider smart!"
Both boys stared at Nami for a minute, quiet and thinking. At the same time, they both opened their mouths and began to speak, but Nami held up a hand. "No," she said, rolling her eyes. "Let's just go look for Zoro, okay?"
"But, it's Sanji's birthday!"
"I know that!" Nami snapped, crossing her arms over her chest again. "But, if none of us know where Sanji-kun is, then we have to ask Zoro and Vivi-chan, too, just in case." She nodded once and started down the hall, not even checking to see if they were following her. She knew they were.
oOo
Vivi was just leaving an interview as Nami and her posse of two began searching the interview hall. She smiled and waved at them with her free hand, clutching Carue in the other. "Hello, everyone. Are you looking for something?"
"Yep. We're looking for Sanji and Zoro," Luffy answered merrily, bending down and looking under a short table. "Not here!"
"Not here either!" Ussop announced, coming out of one of the mass-interview rooms with a grin on his face. "I looked in a jack-in-the-box!" he boasted. Ussop and Luffy both laughed hysterically.
"That's so stupid, Ussop! No one could hide in a jack-in-the-box!" Luffy laughed, slapping Ussop on the back. Then, he paused. "Well, except for Jack... Does Jack know where Sanji and Zoro are?"
Vivi laughed nervously, gravitating towards Nami and away from the boys. "U-uh... They're a little... crazy today, huh?" Vivi asked, petting Carue comfortingly. Luffy and Ussop's raucous laughter was making the duck fidget and complain.
The redhead shrugged. "It can't be helped. They're excited."
"Oh? What for?" Vivi asked, eyebrows raised.
Nami grinned at her. "It's Sanji-kun's birthday today. I think he's turning eleven," she said, nodding. Then, Nami remembered what they were doing. "Oh, you haven't seen Sanji-kun by any chance, have you?"
"I'm afraid not," Vivi answered, looking down at Carue. "I've only been to breakfast and interviews today, and I haven't seen Sanji-kun even once."
Nami hummed to herself thoughtfully. "It seems this is turning out to be a full-fledged mystery," Nami mumbled, tapping a finger against her lips and frowning at nothing. She glanced at Vivi out of the corner of her eye as they started down the hallway after the boys. "You wanna help me solve it?"
Vivi stood up straighter, beaming. "Of course!"
"Good, then!" Nami clapped her hands together under her chin. "We'll have to split up to be able to find him, but I'm sure he's still in the building. I'm gonna go check the kitchen again, so keep an eye on those two loons, okay?" Nami was already on her way to the kitchen before she even finished speaking.
"Yes, sir!" Vivi saluted and jogged to catch up with Luffy and Ussop.
In the kitchen, Nami found that not even the old chef, who had been in the kitchen constantly since dawn, had seen Sanji. She visited the nursery next, since she knew the nurses liked Sanji, but they hadn't seen him either. Just in case, she asked them if they'd seen Zoro and they replied that, yes, Zoro had been through there earlier that morning. Nami considered this a good piece of evidence.
After the nursery, she went to see Makino, who hadn't seen Sanji either. She could have figured as much, since in the nine days Sanji had been back, he'd been avoiding Makino like the plague. Nami reasoned that that was because she'd let him get adopted, but he hadn't exactly been Makino's biggest fan before the fact, either.
Nami came up dry everywhere she searched, which was almost literally everywhere. No one under the age of thirteen was allowed on the fourth floor, so she knew Sanji wasn't there. And, she'd checked behind every open door on the first and second floors without result. Sanji was nowhere to be found and, apparently, neither was Zoro.
"This game's not very fun," Nami grumbled to herself, trudging up the stairs to the third floor. She had nearly reached the third floor landing when the door burst open and Zoro charged out and rammed into the guard rail. Letting slide the fact that Zoro looked ticked off, Nami frowned at him. "We've been looking for you! Where've you been all morning?"
Zoro looked at her sharply and blatantly ignored her as he stomped down the stairs. His heavy footsteps echoed in the square chamber, voicing his temper for him. "What's got your panties in a twist this time?" Nami asked, rolling her eyes.
He stopped. Nami could only see the top of his head for how far he'd gone down the steps, but she could picture his eyebrow twitching and his eyes closing in annoyance. Zoro turned his head up to glare at her and snapped, "Leave me alone, witch."
Nami reached in her pocket and produced a stone that she threw at his head. "What have I told you about calling me that?" she asked, eyes narrowed. Zoro picked up the stone and wound up as if to throw it back at her, but Nami stopped him with a debt. Growling in frustration, Zoro threw the stone down the stairs and it clacked against the stone steps loudly several times before its descent ended. In the resonating sound left behind by the rock, Zoro started down the steps again.
Nami leaned on the railing and looked down at him. "Have you seen Sanji today? Me and Luffy and Ussop and Vivi-chan were looking for him, but we haven't seen him."
Zoro paused again, halfway down to the first floor. He just stood there for a few seconds and Nami wondered if he was going to say anything at all right as Zoro began to speak. "I saw him this morning, in the hall on the ground floor. I haven't seen him in hours," Zoro said, almost blandly. But, Nami knew better.
"You know it's his birthday, right? Did you say 'happy birthday' when you saw him earlier?" She could only guess she'd pressed the right buttons when Zoro flinched slightly.
"None of your damn business!" Zoro shouted, stomping the rest of the way down the stairs and launching himself out into the lobby. Nami smirked to herself. She'd definitely hit the right buttons. Their fight would be resolved soon enough, she knew.
oOo
The administrations office on the ground floor was a rather large room, but it felt cramped and uncomfortably warm, even in the chill of early March. File cabinets and bookcases lined the walls, blocking the bottom half of the window at the back of the room. Stacks of papers cluttered the wide desk, looking like grass around the base of a swivel lamp and a clunky monitor. The beady-eyed, stern-looking old woman behind the desk was the scary icing on the metaphoric crap-cake that was his day thus far.
"I-"
The old woman put up her hand sharply, leering at him over her glasses. "I'll have no excuses, young man. What you did was wrong, and shall not happen again!" she snapped, her aged voice reminding him of a witch.
Sanji frowned at her. "No, ma'am, it wasn't wrong. And, I'm not making excuses! I'm owning up to it!" He stuck out his chest boldly, but the old woman just scoffed.
"Children, these days. No discipline. No discipline, whatsoever!" She harped to herself, shuffling through a small stack of papers with a very prominent frown on her face. After a minute, she looked up at Sanji. "You're still here? Be on your way, boy. I've got better things to do than babysit a delinquent child!"
Without needing to be told twice, Sanji hopped up and left the crowded office. He hurried, just in case she changed her mind and decided to lecture him again. What he'd done really wasn't as bad as the staff was making it out to be.
Sanji carefully opened the door leading out, remembering that the door was behind the front desk. Before that day, he hadn't realized there was a door back there, since there was always a receptionist at the desk, but, as it turned out, the receptionist played gatekeeper for the evil old woman hiding away in the back room. Sanji shivered. She was scary.
The woman behind the desk smiled at him sympathetically as he passed, although she hadn't been told what he was in trouble for. He figured she would see things about the same way as the few staff members that knew what he'd done saw things. He'd rather not be around people who thought it was wrong to visit one's only known relative.
Well, she isn't exactly... Sanji stopped the thought at that. He couldn't disown her as his mother just because they weren't related by blood. Maybe, when she woke up, she'd want him to be her son again. He couldn't decide if he wanted that or not, after being back with his friends for over a week now. On that subject, I should probably find them. I left pretty early this morning, so they're probably worried.
Sanji opened the door into the stairwell and it clacked. He peered inside the confined stairway, looking around and on the floor. Sanji stepped inside and let the door close, searching the floor behind the door. "Ah! Where'd that come from?" Sanji reached down and picked up a rough stone off the floor. He turned it over in his hand a couple of times before he shrugged and stuffed it in his pocket. It wasn't terribly important, he decided, but he'd take it with him.
The walk up to the second floor was uneventful, but the second he stepped onto the second floor, he heard voices. A lot of voices, by the sound of them, and slightly muffled. But, he could tell who it was. "Guys?" Sanji called, hoping the door was open on whoever's room they were in. Ussop, Nami and Luffy all had rooms on the second floor, so Sanji couldn't very well pick which way to go without a little help.
The noise quieted and Sanji looked to the left, then the right. Probably the least helpful thing they could have done was be quiet, he thought, venturing a few paces to the right. Two of his friends' rooms were that way, so he called out again. "Guys? Where are you?"
"Sanji-kun!" He couldn't determine whether it was Nami or Vivi, but it was followed by three other voices, all addressing him. "We're in Luffy's room!"
Sanji walked with purpose down the hall and barely passed the turn when he was ambushed. "Happy birthday!" Confetti was thrown at him and Sanji laughed, putting his hands up to block his face from the glittery assault.
"Where've you been, Sanji?! It's nearly lunch time!" Luffy complained, grabbing another handful of confetti from the bag Ussop was holding and tossing it in the air.
"Yeah, we've been looking for you! Were you hiding or something?" Ussop took his turn throwing out a handful of confetti in Sanji's face.
The blond giggled again, ducking away from the confetti rain. "Sorry guys, I went out this morning," he said, brushing the bits of rainbow confetti out of his hair. "I had to leave early so I could get back before too long."
"And, you didn't tell me?!" Nami shrieked, appearing from the doorway of Luffy's room. "What could possibly have been so important that you had to leave your friends on your birthday?"
Sanji smiled, though he was losing his cool a little. "I went to the hospital, see?" Sanji pushed up his sleeves and revealed bandage-less arms. "I'm free. My wrist can breathe again!"
His friends congratulted him on that point and they took his explanation as good enough to forgive him for disappearing. He wasn't really lying to them, he knew, because he had gotten his bandages off while he was at the hospital. It bothered him a little that he couldn't tell his friends about his adoptive mother though, but they would only be unnecessarily depressed.
Vivi stepped up beside Sanji. "Have you been carrying that all day, Sanji-kun?" she asked, pointing to Sanji's bag.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess I have," Sanji said, noticing his bag for the first time in hours. He'd taken it with him to the hospital, but he'd forgotten it soon after. Now that he was thinking of it, his bag was getting kind of heavy. He readjusted the strap on his shoulder.
Nami and Vivi shared a look as Luffy and Ussop interrogated Sanji on his morning adventures. A moment later, Nami called over the noise, "Y'know, you should probably put that away, Sanji-kun. It looks heavy and you said you've been carrying it all day... We'll wait here, won't we, boys?" She stepped between Ussop and Luffy and grabbed hold of their arms. "Go on, go on."
All three boys shared curious looks before Sanji looked back to Nami and smiled gratefully. "Okay. Thanks, Nami. I'll hurry," he promised, waving over his shoulder as he turned and went back the way he came. Only when he reached the stairs did he allow himself to realize how weird and random that was. Something was up with Vivi and Nami.
But, he didn't linger on the thought too long. They were doing him a favor. His bag was heavy and they realized that. Plus, they were saving him from the massive amounts of confetti that some poor, dumb soul had given to Ussop and Luffy.
Sanji almost missed his room as he was walking down the hall. He usually counted the doors as he passed, or looked at the numbers, but his door was wide open, such that he couldn't see either. Sanji stepped up to his doorway and just looked around, not sure what to think about his door being wide open. He'd certainly closed it behind himself when he left. "Hello?"
Something stirred in his room and he took a step back, just in case. Then, Zoro stumbled into view. "You! Where the hell have you been?" Zoro roared and Sanji stared at him, shocked.
"Uhh... You're the same Zoro that ignored me this morning, right?" he asked, honestly confused. Was everyone looking for him this morning?
Zoro looked vaguely offended. "I asked you a question, damn it!"
Sanji's expression flattened into unimpressed. "Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow at Zoro as he stepped into his room and dropped his bag on the bed. "You can go away, now, Marimo."
"Hey! Don't avoid the damn question, dart-face! Answer m-"
"Now, what's with that attitude, Zoro? Three curses in the same two minutes..." Sanji shook his head, leaving the rest to Zoro's imagination. Sanji turned to leave his room, but Zoro grabbed his arm and yanked him back.
"Where are you going now?" Zoro looked exasperated, and maybe like he wanted to hit something. Sanji couldn't figure him out.
"I'm going to go hang out with my friends," Sanji said, hoping Zoro caught that he wasn't one of them. "I'd rather not have a worse day, thanks."
Zoro started to say something and stopped, seeming to process Sanji's words. He stood there glaring at nothing and keeping a tight hold on Sanji's arm for a moment or two before he groaned and let go, stepping away. Zoro rubbed his face with both hands, pacing across the room and grumbling to himself.
Sanji's eye twitched. "Oookay?" He watched Zoro's odd behavior, confused and a little ticked off, trying to decipher whatever was wrong. But, he still took the opportunity to edge himself closer to the door.
Zoro yelled something indistinct, "gah," or "argh," maybe, and threw his arms up suddenly. "I'm not trying to make your day worse! I was just- ugh!" Zoro was having trouble with his words again, Sanji knew. He was trying to say something that his pride or something equally dumb was keeping him from saying.
Sanji wasn't in any mood to coax Zoro along. It was his birthday, dammit; he should be able to enjoy it without retarded moss balls interrupting. "Well, if you're just gonna 'ugh,' I'll be on my way," Sanji said, waving once and starting out into the hall.
"Just- How old are you today?"
Sanji stopped. Had he told Zoro when his birthday was? He couldn't remember. Maybe the others had told him? Or, maybe Zoro just randomly wondered how old he was? That would be a Zoro thing to do, Sanji decided. "Eleven," he said, without turning around.
He couldn't see Zoro, but he knew he was going to say something. He could feel the mental struggle in the air. "I forgot, you're younger than me," Zoro said, almost to himself, like he was just thinking out loud.
The blond's eyebrow twitched. "And?"
There was a long pause filled only with silence before Zoro said, "Happy birthday."
Those two words seemed to power-wash Sanji's brain, leaving it blank and spinning. He didn't know what to do. Zoro was the one who started their fight, obviously, and he was being a giant butt about it, and Sanji knew that if he gave an inch, Zoro would win. But, he wanted to give that inch. He wanted to celebrate his birthday with all his friends because Zoro certainly was one, at least half the time. He didn't want to be fighting with anyone anymore because it was exhausting and it was much easier to just not argue. And, if the person in question were anyone other than Zoro, he would easily accept that.
Sanji sighed. He didn't want to forgive Zoro and have the idiot turn around and start another fight. He didn't want to deal with that. But, was it better not to forgive Zoro at all? To give no chances?
"Thank you," Sanji said, after what had to have been five minutes of nothing at all. A second later, he'd forgotten what his tone was as he said those words, whether it sounded genuine or angry. He turned around to look at Zoro, to clarify that he meant it when he said "thank you," but Zoro was grinning. He understood.
No longer feeling the need to elaborate, Sanji started towards the stairs. Zoro caught up quickly, falling into stride beside Sanji. It occurred to him that he and Zoro make up pretty easily after one or the other of them gives in. Consistently. Why? He didn't understand. Then, something else crossed his mind.
"I think Nami set me up!"
No stars, again. I'll have to put in some French sooner or later. ;D
Well, I, for one, enjoyed that chapter. Writing it was a blast! And, I realize I'm still skirting putting them in school, but I'll get around to it. They need enemies, yo! (I apologize, I'm reading a book right now where one character uses "yo" in an almost obscene way.) xD Reviews!