Disclaimer: One Piece is owned by Oda. Chapeau to him!
AN: Ah, Zoro is just too easy to insult... Enjoy~
"When's your birthday, shitty captain?" the chef had ventured outside in the evening hours to ask.
The "Ah?" that he got back as an answer was eloquent as it probably should have been expected.
"Your birthday. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. It's just that I've been wondering. I know the birthdays of a majority of the crew by now even though we haven't been together all that long. And I know a few of them would definitely be up for a birthday party at their birthday. So I was just", a shrug, "thinking you might like one too." What with his captain's preference for fun times and trouble? Sanji had practically been a hundred per cent certain without checking, until he'd realised he didn't even know the energetic teenager's birthday date.
Shaking his head, the black-haired rubberman huffed out a drawn-out "Naahaaa." Opening his eyes to fixate his chef, he went on to say, "it's just that it'll be a while until then. It's on the 5th of May."
That… had been almost too easy. Shrugging, Sanji thanked his captain and went on his way. Making a note of it on the calendar he'd installed for just such a purpose in the kitchen of the Going Merry, the chef then proceeded to relegate his thoughts to making dinner.
It wouldn't have been such a problem at all that it had still been a while until then, had it not been for the fact that during their miscellaneous adventures, they'd simply not counted on being separated for any length of time. But their captain was selfish and greedy and probably all sorts of hung up about his brother's death by the time that Sanji unearthed the birthday calendar from his kitchen on the Thousand Sunny that he wouldn't have had the heart to celebrate anyone's birthday at the beginning of their second journey. It helped that the first birthday to remember would only be that damn marimo's… and he was prepared do anything to rile up the stuck-up swordsman.
Sanji knew that their captain had celebrated his birthday with his fiery brother far more often than with his crew by then, but he wanted to make it special for Luffy, all the same, once it was his turn. He didn't want to replace the brother – no one wanted that – but it was possible that memories would be brought up during the endeavour. They would let their captain be, in that case, and get him back to the party once he was back to normal again.
Naturally, the whole crew helped. Nami found them a nice small chain of islands to explore (no volcanoes on that one, right? Right? Ooooh, my don't-leave-the-ship-sickness is rising to the fore, I can feel it taking over my body-), Usopp, the useless swordguy and Chopper accompanied their captain and Sanji prepared a birthday cake that would surpass any he'd made so far.
Robin aided tenfold with the decorations, while Franky did all in his might to rig the Super Show that'd be "the highlight of the evening", according to him. Brook quietly went over a myriad of renditions of Happy Birthday that he knew, prepping his multitude of instruments for a most marvellous accompaniment and Nami prepared a fake treasure map they would use the next day to entertain their captain. She was sure Sanji or Usopp could be persuaded to hide a multitude of items that would function as "treasures" for the treasure hunt.
The chain of events that followed was along these lines: once Luffy came aboard the ship, he was welcomed with a huge "Happy Birthday" from his crew and a grandiose view of the monstrous chocolate meat cake that was sure to keep him fed for at least an hour. He got presents, of course he did, and when he had a particular reaction towards a telescope that Nami had thought to buy him (she'd thought he would use it like a kaleidoscope more than anything else), no one bat an eye and the others simply turned towards one another for conversation. After all, birthdays were to be celebrated, in any manner that the main person of the event wanted them to be.
