Chapter 12

After leaving the girls, Sanji decided to go for a much needed walk. He dropped the cigarette he was smoking on the ground and stepped on it. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his pack and got out another cigarette. Once it was lit, Sanji took a long drag of it. Looking towards the sky, he blew out a stream of smoke. It was insane that he had begun to stop smoking for the same person that was now causing him to smoke more.

Dropping his gaze to the busy road in front of him, Sanji continued to walk. He passed a variation of different stores and shops. He ignored them but stopped walking when he saw something gleam from the side of his eye. When he turned, however, there was nothing in that direction but an alleyway. Sanji continued to watch the alley and then decided that he was obviously seeing things. Before walking off again, Sanji looked around at the stores closest to him. Digging into his pocket, Sanji pulled out the cash he had and nodded. Placing the money back in his pocket, Sanji turned and walked towards a store.

Enel, who was inside the alley, watched at the Straw hats cook stepped inside the store. He had been walking in the direction where his team and him was supposed to meet when he spotted him. He didn't want to be seen by him due to any trouble it could cause the swordsman. So he went into the alley to observe the cook because as a god, hiding was shameful. As soon as the cook disappeared from sight, Enel continued to make his journey. Even though he was curious as to what the man was doing, he fought the urge to go and see. Causing the demon he had just left anymore turmoil might mean that they would never meet again, which to the God, sounded very boring. So with the thought of seeing both men at some other point in time, Enel walked back to his men.

Sometime later, Sanji exited a store with a sigh. It wasn't the one he had started with but he made sure it was his last. He started walking towards the dock, ready to get on the Sunny. As he got to the deck, he smiled. Above his head he could hear the sound of Usopp and Chopper talking excitedly. Probably about another one of Usopp's experiments, Sanji thought. Soon reaching the ship, Sanji started to descend it but not before closing his eyes at the soft background music he could hear. It was always beautiful to hear Brook playing his violin during the rough times.

Once on the deck, Sanji started making his way to the kitchen. He greeted his shipmates as always but one did not respond, which wasn't normal. Turning towards the quiet but busy shipmate, Sanji called out to him.

"Everything all right Franky?"

Sanji watched as the shipwreck flinched slightly before turning slightly. Glancing at his arms, Sanji raised an eyebrow. Franky was holding a ton of wood, as usual, but was acting very strange.

"Oh. Sup Sanji Bro." Franky said, trying to mask his nervousness. Getting caught was the last thing he wanted. Especially since his task wasn't done yet.

"Uh, Hi." Sanji said, now watching the cyborg closely. Sanji had this tingling feeling going through his body and he wasn't liking it. "So, what are you doing?"

Franky threw on a smile that he hoped looked real and nodded towards the bag of broken up wood.

"Oh, you mean this?"

Not waiting for an answer, Franky continued "I'm just fixing stuff up, ya know."

"But I only see broken wood. Seems to me that your breaking more than fixing." Sanji returned looking Franky in the eye, but the cyborg wouldn't meet it.

"Uh?" Franky thought for a second. He couldn't lie to the cook. However, he could tell the truth. Sort of.

Sighing, Franky spoke. "Well, if you really wanna know, I'm doing a favor for someone." When Sanji opened his mouth to reply, Franky said "I'm not allowed to say anything though because it's a surprise."

"Okay?" Sanji said, and watched as Franky walked away from him.

Shaking his head, Sanji made his way to the gallery. He put his bags away before setting things out to cook. Then he began to make the appropriate preparations for his dishes. Digging into his pocket, Sanji grabbed a cigarette and lit it. He then began to get into the easy cooking motion. As the aroma began to fill the air, Sanji's nerves began to calm down. He hadn't even noticed the musician walk into the gallery.

"Ah, Sanji. I see your cooking another scrumptious meal. What will you have for us today?" The skeleton asked as he set down his instrument and watched the cook.

Sanji turned around and looked at the skeleton. He was one of the most surprising members on the ship. He was older than the other members but still acted like one of the children. Turning back to the pot in front of him, Sanji answered him. "I decided to make a large variety of things."

"Is something bothering you?" Brook asked. He had realized that larger meals either meant a celebration of the cook's turmoil. Nothing good had happened lately so it had to be the latter.

"I suppose there is." Sanji asked. Brook was almost like his go to shipmate. He didn't tell him everything but he told him the jests of stuff.

Knowing that Brook sat waiting, Sanji continued. "Zoro and I…well I'm not sure what we are as of now but I can tell you that I screwed up majorly this time."

"The mysteries of love." Brook said with a touch of affection. "You can love someone so much and hurt them so bad but the love, you see the love will always be there."

Sanji stopped tending to his food for a moment to look at Brook. What he was saying made sense. Zoro would always love him and now, Sanji knows that he will always love Zoro.

"Sanji." Brook started, seeming as though he was thinking about something intense. "Whatever you did to Zoro can be fixed. It may take weeks, months or years, but you two are meant to be. The two that seemed to hate each other the most, in fact loves each other the most. That bond is what makes your future so true. "

"But what if I don't have that much time? What if I had, say, exactly one week? Then what?" Sanji asked desperately.

"Well," Brook started, searching for an answer for Sanji "then you'll have to work extremely hard. Zoro is a tough one."

The sounds of Luffy was suddenly heard out on the deck, along with Usopp and Choppers voices. Following after them was a lot of footsteps and Sanji just hoped that wherever they went that they wouldn't get into any trouble.

"I've already been working extremely hard for him." Sanji whispered.

"Have you?" Brook asked, referring to the problems in the past. "Those problems don't sound as bad as the current one."

Before Sanji could reply, Brook cut him off and Sanji couldn't get over the fact that everyone was doing that to him today. "Sanji, in all those problems, Zoro seemed to be the one that had to do the most."

Sanji opened his mouth to reply but then shut it. Thinking back, Sanji realized that Brook was right. Zoro went through the most in each problem they had. Sighing Sanji opened his mouth again, ready to give an idea to Brook but stopped when Franky entered.

"Hey, Sanji." Franky said, catching Sanji off guard. He turned to Brook and started to ask if he could talk to Sanji alone but Sanji stopped him.

"Brook will stay."

Franky nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. He watched as Sanji fixed the heat on the food before he turned to watch the cyborg.

"Um, so the thing is…" Franky continued. "..the thing is that the favor you asked about earlier was a request from Zoro."

Sanji now had all his attention on Franky. This was due to two reasons. One, Zoro doesn't ever request things and two, Franky had kept it a secret. Brook also focused all his attention on Franky. Maybe, he could help in some way he thought.

"What was the request?" Sanji asked, growing impatient with the silence in the air.

"Well…" Franky looked around the galley for a moment before actually meeting Sanji's eyes. "First, I just wanna say that I respect both of you and I am on no ones side."

Now Sanji was extremely curious.

Taking a deep breath, Franky spoke fast in one breath. "Zoro came to me earlier in the day and asked for you two to have separate rooms. He wouldn't tell me why but it hurt him to say it more than anything. I moved you to the spare room, changed Zoro's room door and lock because he apparently doesn't believe that the same lock would work once you knew for some odd reason…I mean I have the key anyway."

As Franky went off into his mind, Sanji tried to keep his calm. Of course the lock had to be changed, Sanji made a spare one for himself a while back. However, getting the door and the lock changed is extreme. And Kicking him out of the room…without TELLING HIM. Sanji didn't even know how to feel or what he should even do next.

After a few minutes of painfully intense silence, the gallery door opened again. Nami and Robin entered and instantly noticed the feeling in the air. Before they could even ask what was going on, Sanji cut the heat to the food off and walked out the gallery.

After he left, the girls asked what had happened and Brook was the only one out of the two remaining men to respond.

"Apparently, "the girls looked towards Brooke and waited. "Zoro has kicked Sanji out of the room with the help of Franky."