Sanji leant back into the couch, his empty plate left on the floor, despite the small nap he'd had earlier he was exhausted; mentally and physically.
Chopper had decided it would be best for himself and Zoro to eat in the living room, although Zoro was currently calm and cooperative anything could potentially set him off.
The ticking time bomb was currently sat on the floor leaning back against the couch, not far from his leg. He still had his sword with him and Sanji had no intention of taking it back, wasn't like he couldn't beat the moss ball if it came to a fight.
The sound of the door opening caught his attention and he sat up as Robin came in followed closely by Luffy and Chopper. He stretched and sat up watching the swordsman for any kind of reaction.
'Chopper has said you would be willing to talk to us?' Robin started, it had been decided that she would be the best for this, Luffy was allowed in but had been warned to behave.
Zoro glanced at the reindeer and nodded.
'So when are you expected to return and are they likely to send anyone to retrieve you?'
'I have a week and yes someone will be sent to deal with me if I don't return' Zoro's voice was calm but void of any emotion. Deal with didn't exactly sound like a retrieval mission, more like a silencing one.
Robin nodded 'You didn't appear to expect my abilities, what information were you given on us?'
And this is why Robin was doing the questioning, he hadn't even thought about that. Zoro had information about him in his pocket but no one else.
'They said that he wanted to punish some guy and the best way to do it was to kill his chef, he couldn't hurt him directly because of his grandfather' Zoro glanced at Luffy 'I saw a picture of him and was told that other than the chef there were no other fighters' he looked at Robin 'Obviously my information was false'
Sanji was confused anyone that they had already fought would know that everyone in this building was a fighter, whoever it was had even discounted Luffy himself. Is this what Robin had suspected when she had gone for these questions?
'Did they mention what he was being punished for?'
Zoro shook his head.
Robin looked thoughtful 'Chopper told me you're not yet willing to talk about your boss or anything too close to that, I can understand that. Right now you don't really know who or what to trust. Would it be ok if Franky checks you for any kind of trackers? Although we have a week, the sooner we are prepared the better.'
Sanji hadn't thought of that either, he decided it was stress and lack of sleep, not to stroke his ego to much but he wasn't normally this slow to work things out.
Zoro nodded and left with Robin and Chopper. Sanji was slightly disappointed he had hoped to get more information but he supposed whoever had taken Zoro had eight years worth of memories and all they had was two vague fragments. He looked up at Luffy who was sitting staring out of the window.
'So have you pissed anyone off recently?'
Luffy looked over and grinned 'Dunno'
Sanji grinned back his nakama was like a force of nature and those left in his wake either loved him or hated him.
'Don't you think it's odd though?' Luffy was looking serious 'If they wanted to hurt me then they know me, they know I can fight but they gave your information so they know us. It only makes sense if the person was actually after you and not me'
Sanji's mind went blank he stared at Luffy who was usually so idiotic but what he said made sense; someone had sent Zoro to kill him using Luffy as a cover.
'So have you pissed anyone off recently?' Luffy grinned at him echoing his own words back.
Sanji laughed leaning back into the couch, this was insane. He thought about it, yea he had pissed off people at the restaurant but that was ages ago. He only left here to go shopping and that involved very little interaction with others. Ok so he did flirt alot and yea that had pissed off some guys but how would anyone even know where to find him let alone the information that Zoro had.
'I have no clue Luffy, guess we're going to have to wait for the Marimo to tell us.'
The door opened and Robin returned alone.
'So what's the plan?' he asked. If anyone could work out this mess it was his precious Robin-chwan.
'I need you to get as close as you can to him Sanji, make him trust us. If anyone else is coming here we need to know what we're facing'
Sanji nodded, of course he would do anything asked of him by his beautiful ladies.
'He's going to head to your room once Franky and Chopper are done with him, so head up there so he's not alone too long' she paused looking over at Luffy 'You come with me, we're going to make a list of everyone you two have upset, I'm sure you had plenty time to discuss it whilst I was away' she gave him one of her all knowing smiles.
She had to have been listening in, right? He got up quickly said goodnight and left the room, silently wishing Luffy good luck with his list.
He walked up the stairs trying to come up with ways to make Zoro trust him, he pulled the cigarettes out of his pocket lighting one and sitting down in the middle of the stairs.
He realised there was no way to force trust, he was just going to have to be himself and hope it came naturally and preferably quickly.
He sat enjoying the last little bit of alone time he was going to get, at least for today. As the cigarette burned down he finally got up and headed to his bedroom. He opened the door, noticing the Marimo lying on his bed, hands behind his head staring at the ceiling.
'Hey Mossball' he went round the other side of the bed sitting down to take his shoes off.
'Hey Curly, can I ask you something?'
Sanji turned slightly and saw Zoro, he looked like he was confused and trying to work something out.
'Sure what's wrong?'
'How many of the people I've met do I already know?' he sounded lost and Sanji couldn't blame him.
He must be second guessing everything he knew, every person he met.
'You haven't met the precious Robin-chwan before but the rest you knew' Sanji had an idea 'Give me a minute'
He went over to his cupboard and dragged out a box from the bottom, he rummaged around until he found what he was looking for.
He went over to Zoro who was now sat on the edge of the bed watching him and handed him the photo he had dug out.
'This is from Luffy's eighth birthday' it was the only photo with everybody, later that year everything had gone to hell.
Sanji grinned he loved this picture everyone looked so damn happy in it, he decided he may as well start with the front row.
'Front and centre is Luffy' he had a huge grin, wearing his precious straw hat, to his right grinning with his arm wrapped over Luffy's shoulder was Zoro, Sanji skipped him. Next to Zoro 'That's Chopper clinging to you leg' the reindeer had been nervous with so many people there but was still smiling happily 'Next to Chopper is Nami' his precious flower was posing next to the Mossball because Chopper was so small. Sanji had been so jealous that day, he was on Luffy's left 'That's me, the kid next to me is Usopp he lives here, his dad took this picture and next to him is his girlfriend Kaya she lives in town'
The next row had the older kids, at Luffy's left shoulder was Ace and at his right was Sabo 'The older kids are Nojiko, Nami's sister who's next to Ace and obviously you recognise Kuina next to Sabo, Luffy counts Ace and Sabo as his brothers none of them live here'
The back row was the most ludicrous, it was all the adults who had been there that day, mostly the parent or guardians of the kids in the picture.
He realised that Zoro had been quiet the entire time, he supposed it was a lot to take in and of course Kuina was in the picture that might of upset him.
He looked at the Marimo and saw his face creased in confusion. 'You okay Zoro?'
'That's who hired me' Zoro pointed at the adult standing behind Nojiko in the picture.
'Are you sure?' he had to be making a mistake, he looked at the row of adults they were all very…...unique looking but surely they wouldn't….
'Positive it was definitely them'
Well fuck.