Last time, Ace sleeps through a pirate captain's tale of passing through a Luffy-run Sabaody Archipelago.
The day Sabaody goes to shit, Sanji is the first to be up in the treehouse. He's never been one to sleep in, and with some of the crew's early risers -mainly the beautiful Robin- Sanji has to be up a little before dawn to have everything ready when it comes to his bottomless pit of a captain. He'd been skeptical about the treehouse. At first, it'd felt juvenile, though things with Luffy often did. He'd heard about it from Franky, though, that Luffy had asked for it to remind him of home. As someone who left the East Blue for the Grand Line at the tender age of 14, Sanji never considered Luffy someone capable of nostalgia. He'd been proven wrong; no one loves the treehouse like Luffy does. His excitement and care for it never fail to bring Sanji a smile.
As Sanji notes that they need to buy more eggs, Robin emerges. She's immaculate even at dawn and offers him a gentle smile as she passes by. Usually, she'll sit on the kitchen counter, but today is not an ordinary day, and so she passes by him through the doorway onto the living room -her temporary new office. When Sanji goes out to find her a couple of minutes later, Robin is pouring over data, with as many pairs of headphones, den-den mushis, and ears as she can focus on simultaneously -which are plenty. She sits in the living room, having claimed all available surfaces for her communications. Sanji is practiced in finding a lapse between her spying to notify her of her morning coffee's location with minimum fawning. He tries not to bother her while she works but ends up interrupting her for breakfast; no one is really asking for breakfast yet, but he can hear more than one shower running, so they will be soon enough.
Robin frowns briefly, almost like she's surprised there's suddenly food in front of her. This is how she pouts, Sanji has deduced. Out of all of them, Robin is the one most likely to lose track of time when working -something he tends to keep an eye on. She knows by now that breakfast time, as well as lunch and dinner, are non-negotiable for Sanji. (Even for beautiful ladies.) He sits next to her as she digs in.
"How are we doing so far?" he asks curiously. His role in the plan is coming up, but for now, there are only his regular duties to attend. On the other hand, Robin has barely shut her eyes (any of the many she has) in days.
"We'll see," she answers in between chews. Cryptic as always, Sanji sighs; Robin-chwan is so cute!
"Will it be today?" Something in his chest tightens at her nod.
"I think so," the archeologist tells him, and he hums in protest when she stops eating to write down on her notepad. She smiles at him, and Sanji finds the gesture too much of a blessing to complain. Robin takes the chastisement anyway, putting her pen to the side to mount scrambled eggs upon her toast. "The 'Big Eater' and 'Mad Monk' Urouge have been here for two days," she informs in between bites, "Scratchmen Apoo and Captain Kidd and Killer both arrived yesterday, they had dinner together. I almost missed it, but X Drake arrived last night, too. The only ones missing are Gang Bege, Basil Hawkins, and Trafalgar Law, who I'm concerned about." Sanji lits a cigarette, making sure to keep the smoke away from his crewmate and letting Robin speak her thoughts out loud.
"He's the submarine guy, right?" Robin nods, throwing back a lock of dark hair before it lands on her plate.
"Indeed," Robin says, polishing off the last of her omelet. "He might not stop by at all, and there's not much we can do about it." She hands him the plate, offering him a smile. "Delicious as always, Sanji" At her praise, Sanji's heart skips a beat. Oh, what a beautiful life he has been blessed with.
"It is my absolute pleasure!" As he takes her dishes, he begins setting out the rest of the breakfast.
Luffy's digging in with gusto over breakfast. He keeps an eye on Robin (she looks tired), but Nami had been angry when Luffy bothered her last time, so he lets her work. Sanji's in the kitchen, and as he steals bites from down their whole dining table, he has his daily Sanji Appreciation Moment, where Luffy has no doubts, he would've starved without his friend. Defending their food, or attempting to at least, are Nami, Usopp, and Brook, all of them engaged in quiet conversation. Luffy will join them in a minute, but his stomach needs come first.
He knows these coming days are super important; Coby had sat down with him to remind him last night. He seemed particularly grim, which made Luffy think that it's his pink-haired friend the one in need of a pep talk. Luffy just has to beat the pirates up, after all. It's his friend's work to make those things. If anything, Coby is the one who has reason to be stressed and not Luffy. Luffy appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. Or maybe, it had more to do with what Zoro told him, that Coby is asking questions about Luffy and the marines. The swordsman had tried to be subtle, telling him Coby was sniffing around, but Luffy laughed, with no idea what such a thing meant.
He smiles as Zoro emerges from his room, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Luffy smiles at him, trying to show as little food as possible in the gesture. Zoro grimaces but raises a hand in return. Luffy's satisfied with that.
"Zoro," Nami tells him, "your guy is finally here too. An intercepted communication indicates they're meeting with the Kidd Pirates."
"Yeah?" the swordsman asks, serving himself from the center plates with efficient movements. Luffy whines a little when he steals back some of his bacon, but lets it be. Zoro can be kinda cranky in the mornings.
"You and Luffy might work together on it, instead of separate like we thought."
"Or I'll just take them both down and Zoro can nap or something," Luffy corrects, laughing at Zoro's annoyed expression. "Ahhh, Sanji!" He yells out in contentment, leaning backward and trying to rest his comically elongated stomach. "The food was SO GOOD!"
"Yeah! Fantastic as always, Sanji!" Usopp echoes, finishing up his own plate while leaning over to refill his glass of orange juice.
"Glad to hear it!" comes from the kitchen.
"Don't be stupid," Zoro huffs, "I could take them down without your help."
"It's three pirates with bounties of over a hundred million," Nami scolds, "you will have back-up you hear me?"
"Don't order me around, Witch," Zoro complains, but his tone is more bored than conflictive.
"It'd be bad if you guys get overwhelmed, though," Usopp points out.
"As if..." but whatever comment from Zoro's is interrupted by Chopper's arrival, looking like a fully-grown reindeer. He's panting when he shrinks down to his standard shape, and Luffy immediately frowns at his evident concern.
"Everything okay, Chopper?" Usopp asks, watching as the reindeer drags himself onto his seat, resting his head on the light brown surface. Luffy thinks he probably had the night shift. Boringggg.
"Base got a mission," the doctor mumbles out tiredly, "today."
"Today?" Nami exclaims, "We're already on a mission, or did they forget the wave of wanted rookies currently on the Archipelago?"
"Saint Charlus wishes to visit the Auction House today," Chopper explains, an uncomfortable look marring his visage. The mood sobers itself up.
"And no one is going to say no, of course," the red-head bites out moodily.
"What do we do?" Usopp asks, "Do we postpone until tomorrow?"
"If we do that, the coating of Jewelry Bonnie would take an extra day, she might get suspicious..." Sanji mutters, recalling his earlier conversation with Robin. He takes one look at Chopper before heading back to the kitchen.
"Or violent," Zoro bits out, seemingly wishing for such an outcome. "What time is the bubble-head trash arriving?" Luffy laughs at Zoro's crass humor.
"Four," Chopper answers, eyes bleary.
"Have Lero meet him," Luffy mumbles out. "I can take care of it later, then."
"Are you sure, Luffy?" Sanji asks, coming into the dining room with the coffee pot in hand. He offers some to Chopper, who shakes his head and then proceeds to refill Nami's with overbearing enthusiasm and Usopp's with plenty of annoyance.
"Yeah," the Rear-Admiral nods, "We should take the Bonnie person first and then do the auction." He looks over at everyone around the table. "You guys can handle the rest, right?"
"Of course," Zoro answers.
"I'll go wake up, Coby," Ussop mutters, "his guy's already here, right? Better get him outta the way." He makes to stand up, but Chopper interrupts him while yawning.
"I'll do it, I need to get some sleep anyways, Sanji can you..."
"I'll wake you up for lunch."
"Thank you..."
A little later, Coby breaks into the room of undercover marine official, SWORD Captain, X-Drake. Coby isn't sure what to expect of the pirate, seeing as they had never sailed together, or even talked through the den-den mushi. He spoke with the Fleet Admiral briefly about the upcoming meeting, once it had been decreed that Coby and only Coby should contact the marine. Coby's not sure the point of it being him. He understands that the higher-ups consider him 'the sane one' of Luffy's crew, but many of his Nakama would better blend on a pirate ship than Coby. (It's also a pretty low bar of sanity to use.)
The former Rear-Admiral is pacing his ship when Coby steps lightly on the window. The wood doesn't even creak, but it's enough that the younger marine has to unlock his knees fast to avoid the sword slash that's just a hair's breadth from his head. Coby knows spies must have quick reflexes, but his heart is pounding from how close that was. Clearly, Captain Drake is not expecting the marines to sneak into his room. Sparring with Zoro regularly had never proven more useful than at this moment.
"Stand down, Captain," Coby indicates, stepping backward and showing both bare palms. It's not enough to avoid Drake's sword to land on his throat, but it does grant him a chance to explain. "I'm sorry to startle you." Even with Drake's sword at his neck, the other man remains calm and composed, looking at Drake unwaveringly in the eye. "I'm Captain Coby, representing Marine Base G2 under the command of Rear-Admiral, Monkey D. Luffy. I'll be debriefing you today."
"How did you get here?"
"I flew in through the window." Soru really is a practical ability.
"Why didn't you call me?"
"Our communications are a little strained at the moment. As I'm sure you know, because of the overwhelming pirate presence in the Archipelago, this report was instructed to be in person." Captain Coby's voice is soft, earnest. "Orders are to gauge your profile after several months of being undercover."
"I see." Coby wonders if he should request for the sword to be turned away from him now. "What are your plans for dealing with the arriving supernovas?"
"I'm supposed to be asking the questions." Coby's not trying to be rude, just doing his job.
"I am concerned, Captain." By his tone of voice, Coby would've never guessed. He answers anyway.
"We'll be arresting them, sir."
"Which ones? Kidd is obviously the biggest threat..."
"All of them, sir."
"All of them?"
"Not you, obviously, but yes, all of the rest."
"How exactly," Drake questions, trying to measure Coby's confidence. He has been undercover for a while, but he's never heard of Rear-Admiral Monkey before by the look of his face. Not an uncommon occurrence in Marine circles, as odd as that may be. "...do you plan to do this?"
"Well, in the Rear-Admiral's words, we're going to, eh, 'kick butt,' sir." Drake has the distinct impression that Coby is laughing at him. "Should I proceed with the debriefing?"
I kind of wrote so much for WoSA this weekend, but it's all so dizzying in my head. This universe has grown so much; there's just so many details to keep track of akjskdslds. Anyways, hope you liked the chapter. We're going full-steam ahead now that the characters are beginning to arrive :D
ALSO, big announcement, I'm working on a new one-shot for this universe; it's something that's been in my mind since chapter 12 of WWW (fun fact, the same chapter where Worthy of Love was born), and that's all the hints I'm giving away until I'm done fleshing it out. Any guesses as to what it's about?
Much love,
Dee