A/N: I meant to leave a note at the end of the first chapter where I explain that this story will get a bit longer than just one chapter. But I guess it slipped my mind.

I was also going to give an explanation to the name Sanji gave his restaurant. Sagatie is a mix between the word sagashi (which if I'm not completely mistaken would be Japanese for 'to search'. Be sure to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm definitely not good at Japanese.), andBaratie, which was the name ofRed-legged Zeff's sea resturant.

Anyway, here's chapter 2! Enjoy.

When the first rays of sun slowly climbed above the eastern horizon, the employees aboard the Sagatie started to move inside their quarters, exchanging 'good morning's and arguing whose turn it was to use the bathroom first that morning. Sanji had by that time already been up for an hour to unlock the freezers and get the restaurant ready for the customers he already knew were on their way. Down in the large kitchen, he could hear his cooks and waiters argue even over the hissing of steam and boiling water and the roar of the gas stoves' blue fire, and he smiled lightly.

He had always been used to having people arguing and fighting around him, and was never late to join in an argument if he got the chance. It was just a shame that the arguments usually ended fairly quickly among the chefs. Back in the days aboard the Going Merry, some arguments had been able to last for days at a time, even though they usually started with some small thing like whose turn it was to do the dishes after dinner.

When the cooks were slowly starting to fill up the kitchen twenty minutes later, Sanji retreated out into the dining hall and up to the little table next to the door where the head waiter would greet the customers once the restaurant was ready to open for the day. The head chef picked up the thin black leather book from the table and flipped between the pages until he found the reservations for the day. It seemed like the day was going to be busy, just like the others before it. Twenty-four parties (each with at least four people) had made reservations for the day, which meant that the dining hall would be very crowded. Sanji was just thinking about how many parties they would have to place up on the upper terrace when the sound of the double-doors being opened reached his ears.

"Sorry to disturb…" a voice called out from the entrance behind Sanji's back.

"We're not open for customers yet," Sanji said without turning around, even as he thought he could recognize the voice behind him. He put down the black book on the table and fished out a fresh cigarette from his pocket. "Do you have a reservation?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't," was the calm reply, and the sound of a chair being pulled out reached Sanji's ears. "I hope that won't be a problem. Do you mind if I sit down and wait for you to open?"

Sanji blinked and froze just as he was about to light his cigarette. He wasn't used to customers talking so politely to him, since people often mistook him for a waiter or even one of the guests. Adding to that the familiarity in the voice, he could no longer keep himself from turning around to look at the customer, the hand holding the lighter sinking down by his side. The sight of the tall, freckled man sitting by the table closest to the door, with the orange hat resting firmly on top of his unruly black hair and the many tattoos on his bare upper body made Sanji give up a small chuckle.

"Ace? Portgas D. Ace - is that really you?" he asked, mostly to convince himself that he wasn't imagining seeing his former captain's brother sitting there by one of the tables in his restaurant.

The black-haired man looked puzzled for a moment as he looked at Sanji, but then an expression of recognition spread over his freckled face and he got up from the chair, reaching out his hand towards the head chef. Sanji reached out to shake the pirate's hand, feeling the black hole in his chest shrinking a bit as he was convinced that it really was Ace standing there in front of him. Ace smiled brightly, tilting his head lightly to the side.

"The one and only. Good to see you, Sanji. It's been a while. What are you doing here in East Blue?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Sanji said with a smile. "Well, we're sailing the oceans and the Grand Line to feed people all over the world. But what about you? I thought you'd be cruising all over the Grand Line after what happened to your old clan. What brings you to East Blue?"

Ace shook his head and walked back to his chair to sit down again. Sanji looked around to see if his waiters had come down to start preparing the dining hall for the day. Spotting two of the waiters, he ordered them to prepare fourteen tables on the upper terrace before he joined Ace by the table. When he sat down, Ace told him that he once again was out searching for a man from his clan. This time, the man he was hunting had not only murdered one of his nakama, but he had also intentionally led twenty of Ace's best men into an ambush where a band of robbers had killed them all and stolen every little thing from the dead that could be sold for easy money.

"So when I saw this ship, I thought I'd stop by and ask if anyone here had heard of him."

Ace stuck his hand in one of his pockets and withdrew a smeared Wanted-poster, which he showed to Sanji. The picture was faded and smudged, but Sanji still recognized the stubborn red bangs falling like a curtain over a pair of slanted eyes. Akatani Kaji's face was still pretty fresh in his mind.

"He was here last night," Sanji admitted and returned the poster to Ace, his blood boiling by the very thought of someone intentionally leading his nakama to a certain death. "I didn't know that the damn kid used to be one of your men. He tried to get away without paying for his food, the little shithead, so one of my chefs beat him up."

If I had known what he had done, I wouldn't have let him get away that easy… Sanji thought to himself, but he managed to keep his calm. He didn't want to risk making a scene that early in the morning, and he decided to save the frustration just in case some little freeloader came by later during the day.

Ace slipped the poster back into his pocket and gave up a light chuckle over the last thing Sanji said. Leaning forward over the table, he glanced sideways at Sanji.

"Well, then I guess he'll be nursing his wounds for a few days. Would you mind if I stayed here for a day or two? You see, I was hoping that I could stock up on my own supplies. I've been a little short on food since I came back to East Blue… Of course, I have the money to pay for it," he added quickly, reaching down and lightly slapping the palm of his hand against the backpack which was leaning against his feet on the floor.

Sanji nodded lightly, feeling glad that Ace was staying. It would definitely be good to have someone to talk to during the days. Glanced at the fish-shaped clock above the entrance and swiftly calculating how long it would take to get the Sagatie ready for her customers, Sanji got up from his chair. When he turned back to Ace to tell him to make himself at home, the words died on his lips when he noticed that the pirate's head had dropped forward and he could hear Ace snoring faintly. Shaking his head, Sanji walked across the room towards the kitchen. He had almost forgotten about the way Ace could fall asleep in the middle of a conversation and then continue talking once he woke up as if nothing had happened.

When he walked past a pair of waiters who were placing out the table cloths, he couldn't help but catch a part of their hushed conversation.

"…I'm telling you, it's him. That man over there is definitely Fire Fist Ace…" one of the waiters whispered, apparently unaware that Sanji was still near enough to hear him.

"What should we do?" the other waiter asked nervously, also completely unaware of Sanji's presence. "Should we call for the Marines?"

Fed up with the whispering about his guest, Sanji spun around where he stood, letting his left leg fly in a wide circle before his foot crashed into the back of the first waiter's head. The two men fell to the floor, looking back at Sanji with wide eyes as they tried to get up. The head chef wasn't in the mood to have any longer discussions with the two men who clearly had no respect for his guest.

"Owner…"

"That man is a guest, and he shall be treated as such," Sanji ordered, putting his hands in his pockets with a threatening look in his eyes. "We are here to serve food to the hungry, not to judge the ones who come to this restaurant."

"B-but…" the first waiter stuttered, crawling up on all four while staring at Sanji. "Owner, his bounty is almost as high as the Pirate King's… What if he destroys the restaurant?"

The corner of Sanji's mouth twitched as he held back a smile. It was obvious that the only things the two waiters knew about Ace were what the rumors said. Rumors created by people who feared him. Even if Sanji had had the opportunity to see a display of Ace's power many years earlier, he had never had any reason to fear the pirate, and he was definitely not going to throw the first familiar person he had met in months out of his restaurant because of some damn rumors.

"If he does that, then we'll kick him out." He assured the frightened waiters. "But until then, you are to serve him whatever he asks for. Understood?"

The two waiters nodded swiftly, but the look in their eyes told Sanji loud and clear that the men were wondering if their head chef had finally lost his mind. Taking his hand from his pocket and waving it in the air, he managed to get his waiters to return to their chores, and was free to continue with his own. Around him, the Sagatie slowly got ready to greet the morning.

The first guests arrived just after six in the morning, a party of three couples who were there to try the breakfast from All Blue. By that time, Ace had finally awakened, and was trying to have a conversation with Sanji. That proved to be quite hard since Sanji was flitting around, showering the three newly arrived women with compliments (to the three newly arrived men's great annoyance) and recommending different kinds of breakfast dishes. When the guests had received their food, Sanji left them alone for a while and strolled over to Ace, still glancing at the women over his shoulder from time to time. Ace cackled lightly as Sanji sat down next to him.

"If you don't mind me saying so, you haven't changed much over the years, have you?" he asked, a wide grin spreading over his face.

"I guess not," Sanji replied, puffing out a thin trail of smoke while his eyes still wandering over towards the guests. "But then again, you don't seem to have changed much either."

Ace shrugged and leaned back in his chair while folding his arms across his tattooed chest. He looked thoughtful for a moment and smiled lightly.

"I don't have to change. I have no interest in becoming a better man."

Sanji watched the man in front of him, not sure what he was supposed to say. To see Ace again had been a cheerful reminder of past times, but hearing him say those words also reminded him of the happiest time in his life. The head chef of the Sagatie suddenly felt very restless.

"I'm not sure if I should envy you or pity you, Ace…" Sanji finally replied truthfully and got up from his chair. "Excuse me, I have to check on my apprentices. Feel free to order anything from the menu during the day, it's all on the house."

"It's not necessary…" Ace started, but Sanji turned away and hurried towards the kitchen. Blinking, the black-haired man uneasily scratched the back of his head and bowed lightly where he sat. "Well, thank you…"

As the doors to the kitchen swung shut behind Sanji, the blond man sighed and straightened his back. He hadn't meant to leave Ace like that, without much of an explanation, but he hadn't known what to do. Just looking at Ace reminded him of the time they traveled through the deserts of Alabasta, and the memory triggered something inside him. Something that had been longing to come out in the light again. Slowly, Sanji could feel the spirit of the pirate in him waking up after being dormant for almost a year.

Sighing once more, he suddenly remembered why he had gone away from the dining hall in the first place. He looked around the busy kitchen and spotted the three young boys in white uniforms who darted around between their cutting boards and the stoves, peeling and cutting vegetables while casting nervous glances over their shoulders. One of the boys, a thin little nine-year-old with bright green hair looked up and dropped his knife onto his cutting board when he saw Sanji.

"Careful with that," Sanji said sharply, causing the two other boys to look up. The two cyan-haired twins seemed to take a step back without moving once they saw the head chef.

Walking across the kitchen, Sanji took his time to examine the different soups and other dishes that were boiling on the stoves before he came up to the apprentices. He bent down to pick up the knife that was still lying on the floor by the green-haired boy's feet. When he straightened up again, he held out the knife with the handle first towards the boy, a serious look in his eyes.

"To a cook, the knife is a sharp extension of his hand. It is a part of him, just like his soul. You wouldn't trade your soul for anything, would you?"

The three boys shook their heads not looking quite as frightened anymore, almost as if they just had realized that the head chef wasn't going to punish them for doing something wrong. Sanji let the corner of his mouth curl upwards in a light smile as the green-haired boy took the knife and went to clean it by one of the sinks.

"Good. Then you understand that you should never let anyone…"

Sanji was interrupted by the loud noise of the kitchen doors being slammed open, and he turned around to see what was going on. One of the waiters he had kicked earlier that morning was standing in front of the swinging doors, a very nervous look on his face. As the doors swung open behind the waiter, Sanji could hear voices from the dining hall mumbling 'Kaizoku'.

"Owner!" the waiter said, gasping for air after the short run to the kitchen. "Pirates! A pirate ship is heading this way, it's going to reach us in a minute or even less! What are we going to do?"

Sanji glanced down at the three boys in front of him, who had turned at least four shades paler by the mentioning of pirates. He knew that the boys hadn't seen many pirates in their lives, except just after Sanji had agreed to let them become apprentices, when a clan of forty men had attacked the Sagatie in North Blue. That was surely enough to make the kids a bit nervous when the topic of pirates came up. Turning to the waiter in front of the door, Sanji noticed that all the chefs also were looking in that direction. He lifted his left leg in the air and slammed it against the steel counter in front of him, causing a noise that made everyone in the room jump.

"Get back to work," he ordered calmly. "You've seen pirates before, and there are more guests coming in only a few minutes."

Then he turned to the waiter and slowly made his way back through the kitchen towards the doors, wondering how he possibly could have thought that this was going to be a fine day.

"Only one ship?" he asked, not waiting for a reply as he passed by the waiter. "Why didn't anyone inform me about this earlier? Did you recognize the flag?"

"N-no… I mean, yes, it's only one ship, and no, I've never seen the flag before…" the waiter stuttered as he followed Sanji out into the dining hall.

The largest room on the Sagatie was already crowded with newly arrived guests, but at that moment, every single person was staring out through the windows on the portside of the ship. When Sanji turned his head to follow their gaze, he soon spotted the large shadow of a medium-sized unknown ship that was slowly gliding up alongside the restaurant. From what he could see, the ship's hull seemed to have been repaired multiple times already, and it also seemed to be made out of parts from different ships. This made him wonder what kind of captain would set his foot on such a ship. Without taking his eyes from the ship that seemed to be docking right outside, Sanji told the now shivering waiter to go and tell the chefs to be prepared, just in case the pirate clan was large.

Gritting his teeth, he thought of the already half-empty freezers and hoped that the pirates at least had the manners to pay for their meal. If they didn't, he would have to teach them a lesson or two, Sanji thought to himself as he heard footsteps coming across the outer deck. However, when a very familiar voice drifted in through the half-open doors, Sanji momentarily lost the ability to move. The cigarette that was hanging from the corner of his mouth dropped to the floor where the embers soon started to create a small black mark in the light wooden floor.

Well, that was chapter two. I don't know if it has the same quality as the first chapter (which in my opinion turned out great) but I've gone through it so many times now that I don't know what else to add to it. So if there are any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, it is completely my fault for not seeing them.

FieryKitsune - Well, there's nothing wrong with glomping the heck out of Sanji-kun, now is it? I can't imagine what it would be like to finally achieve your life-time goal and then find that you would have been happier if you never achieved it in the first place.

Griever5 - I guess you'll have to keep reading to find that out, now won't you? n-n I'm glad that you liked it.