From the moment he opened his eyes and saw the sun shining through his window, Sanji knew that it was going to be one of those days.

Hell, it was already turning out to be, and he hadn't even been awake for a good 30 seconds. His alarm clock had gone off, as he always made sure that it would at 5AM on the dot. However, he must've hit the snooze button too hard or something, because when he jumped out of bed and made a mad dash for the shower, he tripped over said alarm clock, which was on the floor, and fell flat onto his face. Because of the earlier assault, the clock had been yanked out of the wall outlet beside the nightstand. It hit his foot once more as he scrambled to the shower, crawling on all fours. He knew from experience that taking the time to get up on his feet would make all the difference in whether he was late or not.

After taking what he could only define as the quickest and coldest shower of his life, Sanji threw on the first suit he could find. It wasn't his best, definitely looking well-worn and somewhat faded, but he had to make do with what he could. He started to calculate how he could possibly make it to work in the least amount of time possible.

As he stepped into his shoes and jumped into his car, he hesitated, making sure that he didn't forget anything important. That's when Sanji caught a glimpse of himself in the rear view mirror.

He had completely forgotten about his hair.

He hurriedly combed and smoothed the blond mass to the best of his ability with his fingers, taking a couple extra seconds to smooth a portion of it over his left eye. He mumbled to himself that he'd just fix the rest when he got to work. He looked at the time. 7:45 AM. Shit, he thought. When did it get so late? He had to be there by 8, at the latest, which would've definitely been possible, had he lived a few miles closer to his workplace. He lived at least a half hour away, and even then, that was only on days when the roads were clear.

He'd never make it on time.

Accepting his fate, hoping for a miracle, and having no time to waste, Sanji pulled out of his driveway and sped off.

As Sanji drove along his usual route to work, his train of thought switched from trying to remember all the clients he had today, to the hell he was going to receive from everybody for being late again, and then to calculating any detours or shortcuts that he could take to minimize his amount of lateness. He suddenly remembered, in the middle of his time-induced panic, about the one road that could save his ass: Laugh Tale Lane.

There was a shortcut on Laugh Tale Ln. that led almost directly to Germa Ave. He had taken it once before, and he remembered how it shaved a good 7 minutes off of his drive time. There were only two reasons he took it sparingly, but they were big enough to keep him from using it often: 1. The turn was easy to miss, and 2. The road was usually crawling with cops at this hour.

He glanced at the time again. 7:57 AM. At this point in his route, work was somewhere around 10 minutes away. If he didn't miss the turn and went about 10 miles above the speed limit, he could make it just in time, maybe even with a couple minutes to spare. It was incredibly risky, but when he saw the turn for Laugh Tale Ln. coming up, he took it as a sign (literally) that he had to do it. After all, he had lost count of how many times he had been late before. At this point, his job was possibly on the line.

And so, he did. Turning the corner, he brought his speed up to a speed nothing shy of 60 MPH. He figured that since it was a little later in the morning, not as many cops would be out, and if they were, he just had to hope they were too busy dealing with somebody else. He glanced at the time once more. 7:59 AM. Looking back up, he saw the familiar street sign displaying the name "Germa Ave".

He was going to make it, just in time. He even slowed his speed a little, just because he was so confident. He was cruising along the street, just about to put on his turn signal, and...

Sirens.

Police sirens.

Right behind him.

Sanji heaved a heavy sigh, pulling over right behind the stop sign, and cursed heavily as he rolled down his window and waited for somebody to come out of the police vehicle behind him.

It didn't take long before he was face-to-face with a rather tan man who, surprisingly, looked to be about his age. He wore a standard police uniform, but had the shirt unbuttoned by about two buttons, revealing a portion of what seemed to be a large scar crossing his chest. That wasn't even the most alarming thing about the guy. When Sanji turned to face him, the only thing that he could focus on was the wild, unkempt mass of green hair topping his head.

"Sir?"

"...Huh?" Sanji was too busy staring to even realize that the officer was talking to him.

"I asked you if there was a problem. You seemed to be pretty zoned out there."

"Yeah, well..." I couldn't exactly tell if the bushes were talking to me or if it was an actual person, Sanji laughed in his mind. He had to hold his tongue, lest his punishment become any worse.

"...Anyways. You've gotta know why I pulled you over, right? I mean, you can't just go a good 20 miles over the speed limit and just expect to get away with that."

"Wait, 20?!" Sanji didn't even realize he was going that fast.

"Mm-hmm," The officer nodded.

Sanji looked to the clock on his dashboard one last time. 8:05 AM. No point in lying to get out of anything now. "Well, I knew I was going fast, but not that fast." He sighed, hoping that explaining his predicament would help his situation. "Look, I was gonna be late to work, and taking this road would've been my saving grace…but it doesn't look like that matters now," he muttered the last part to himself.

The officer did not look pleased nor interested in Sanji's tale at all. "You realize I could have you arrested for going that fast, right?"

Sanji sighed, already utterly exhausted with his day. "Yes." He sat in wait, staring at the ground in anticipation of his punishment.

"However."

"...However?"

"However. You look like you've already had a hell of a morning." Damn, did it really show that much?, Sanji thought, a bit insulted.

"Yeah, I have." There was no point in lying about that.

"So... I'll just give you a ticket and that'll be that."

"Alright," Sanji deflated a bit, hoping that for a second there, he would've been let off. However, it wasn't like he could fight the guy on it. He was a cop, after all.

As he waited for the green-haired officer to write him up, Sanji heard a muffled ping! from inside his pocket. He pulled it out to find a message from Reiju, who was both his sister and coworker. It read:

"Where are you? Not only are you late again, but your 9 o'clock called and said he plans on showing up a little earlier."

He looked at the top of his phone screen. It was now damn near 8:30 AM. Sure, he had been late plenty of times, but he couldn't remember a time when he had ever been this late. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw the officer coming back to his car. He frantically texted his sister back:

"Got pulled over... I know I'll get hell about it for the next week. I got stopped right before the turn though, so I should be there in around 5 minutes."

He sent the text just as the officer came back. After getting back his license and registration, in addition to the ticket, he started his car up again. Just then, the officer began to walk away, but just before Sanji could roll his window up, he began to speak.

"Hope you're not too late, and I do hope the rest of your day goes better than your morning."

Sanji paused for a second. "...Thank you, Officer...?"

"Roronoa."

"...Right. Well, thanks."

Sanji rolled up his window, pulled back into the street, and arrived at his work within the next couple of minutes.

Who ever thought I'd be writing for One Piece again? This anime has always had a special place in my heart even after all these years, and I felt like I should pay some tribute to one of my favorite anime. I also noticed that (as far as I know) there's nothing out there that elaborates on Oda-sensei's "modern day occupation" SBS. So, I took it upon myself to do one of my favorite AUs with a favorite ship.

This was started way back in 2017, but I never finished it. Since I've found the opportunity to write again, I figured I'd start tuning it up and maybe even pick up where I left off. I don't know how frequent updates will be, but I do remember a fair bit about where I was going.

I think that's about it! This might be a slow burn so just stay with me. Oh, and I feel like I should say that none of this is related to any current events at all. I came up with the concept 4 years ago.