It had been a long, straining day here at the Baratie. There had been fewer customers today and for some odd reason it was awfully quiet. The entire Restaurant almost seemed haunted there were so few. On the other hand it gave me time to restock the food supplies and it kept me busy for a while.

I did not bother to go to the mainland mind, it just wasn't worth it. I needed some sort of knowledge to obtain all the meats, vegetables, spices and other needed ingredients…but I just didn't have that know-how then. So that was a good reason for me not to go. I did not know half of the food's titles and some types just had really odd names…pronouncing them seemed almost impossible. I seriously didn't know that a taraiku was a type of meat. They explained everything to me in such detail, yet I still did not get it. In the end, they gave me the simplest description ever. They said:

"A taraiku is the meat found on the bull's butt."

That was enough for me. From that point onwards, I never asked what anything was again. I would never question food ever again just to keep my mind sane.

As I placed the last spice onto a shelf, standing on the most stable stool I managed to find, Yachi came rushing into the kitchen.

He was a male waiter with a highly energetic personality. The lad had sky blue hair and hot pink eyes, which was a very unique combination even for this world's current standard. He wore a short sleeved white t-shirt, dark jeans, and sandals on his feet and a few cutlery pieces here and there hanging down from his belt. His sugar candy pink orbs darted around for a few seconds before they came to a halt on me.

"There you are, Angelina!" he announced happily, coming towards me.

"I have been looking for you." My body went a bit rigid. I had tried to get over the paranoia, but I couldn't help myself. I tried to calm my nerves, breathing in a little to help my current situation relax. The key word was trying.

"Hello, Yachi," I said as I climbed down from the stool, "How can I help?"

I notice that I was a bit taller than him, the smell of cologne practically smacking me across the face. I tried desperately not to hold my nose in disgust, the scent was so overpowering.

"So, Angelina, where are you going for your vacation?" he asked me with a grin.

"What are you going to do?"

I returned the half ways portable stool back into the kitchen closet and turned around to look at him with a confused expression plastered across my face. I never knew it was vacation week.

"I didn't get the memo to even have a vacation," I told him.

"They seemed to have forgotten to inform me…" I replied half-heatedly as we stood next to the door that led downstairs to the staff lounge.

"Ohh," the word came out of his mouth slowly, almost carefully.

"Maybe you are the one who's taking on the week's shift," he stated thoughtfully, leaving me in thoughts as well. The week's shift was divided into three parts: The morning, afternoon, and night.

We opened at seven in the morning and then closed at ten at night. I always took the afternoon shifts since I wasn't a morning person. So, something must have gone awfully wrong, at least for me. I had to see Honor Zeff about that! I took the first flight of stairs that led to his bedroom; I just knew that I would find that man there.

As I opened the door to the staff quarters, I accidentally bashed someone hard with it.

SMACK!

THUMP!

By realizing that I quickly pulled the door too again, before taking a glimpse inside the room the poor person I hit.

"Ow…" starts practically circled the poor man's head.

I blinked a few times before looking to see whom I had actually struck. It was one of the cooks that hung around with Patty. I had sadly forgotten his name, but I knew it wasn't all too common either.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized straight away and tried to help him back on his feet at the same time. Yet something was wrong.

I, Angelina P., had knocked him out cold with the old wooden door.

The bloke had brown curly hair, his lips reminding me of the weird fish my Dad always use to catch and he had black, glossy glasses on. Then I could suddenly recall his name. Carne. Actually that was the Italian name for meat…what a coincidence…he was the one usually working with the meats. I looked around to see no one in the hallway.

"What to do...what to do…."I mumbled to myself, wondering what I should do to revive him. I panicked though and so I went to the nearest door, which, by coincidence, was the bathroom.

I dragged his limp body across the floor, the stench of smoke filling my nostrils. So the man smoked…eww…and with that I stuffed him inside the fish-stinking bathroom, slammed the door shut, hard and left.

BANG!

It echoed throughout the hallway. I held my breath and hoped that no one had heard it. I gulped once and took a sharp breath before I continued on my way to Honor Zeff…that was…until someone showed up, then I had to plan something else.

"Angel-swan..." a voice all too familiar to me, swooned. I twitched and looked behind me to see Sanji twirling towards me. My eyebrow went upwards in an annoyed manner and it also twitched a bit.

Ever since I had accepted his friendship, I had been more open to the cooks. I think that Sanji reminded me of John a lot. The way he made me laugh sometimes and how he flirted with other women, with me, it reminded me of John a lot. His personality was more energetic than John's, though.

"Hi, Sanji," I smiled at him brightly, a few sweat pearls traveling down my forehead. I tried to hide the fact that I had stuffed a lifeless or maybe even 'still living' person inside the bathroom. I do not think Sanji would have been happy about that fact.

He stopped twirling and clasped his hands together with hearts in his eyes.

"Oh Angel-chan, isn't it fabulous?" Sanji announced all too happy, like a little squirrel which had collected lots of good nuts.

"Sanji, I don't know what you are talking about," I told him, inching away a bit. Even though we were friends, he came into my personal bubble a lot, my personal space was a thing I insisted to have. It just took me a lot of time to get very comfortable with people. When I was at my school, I could fake it easily, but here, I could not.

"Ol' Geezer picked you to be the waitress to stay behind while the rest get a vacation," he explained to me, as if it was a good thing, "isn't that wonderful?"

"Sanji," I was a little confused, "I can't do that. I am just a human. That is too many shifts I have to cover!"

"Don't worry, I will help you serve the customers, Angel-swan." and with that, he pounced to get a hug, but I used my gymnastics skill and dodged.

He face-plated the floor while I back flipped all the way to my room, which conveniently was two doors away from him. If you lived together with Sanji, on the same darn ship, it did not take too long to learn how to avoid his constant love-rushes.

"Angel-swan's moves are so graceful," I heard him swoon behind the door; "you are getting better every time!"

I locked the entry to my room and slid down against it. This had been the weirdest job I had ever worked on.

I sighed sadly. I must wake up before seven o'clock in the morning and get ready to serve people until whenever Sanji's shift begins. It was sweet of him to help me with the shifts. I should not have dodged that hug…but my senses were tingling, self-defense I guess. Tomorrow I would make it up to him. Maybe making breakfast for him would help; maybe I would stay a little longer at work than I would have to.

Suddenly, I heard a commotion in the hallway.

Thump

"Oi, what are you doing, cruddy cook?"

"Shut up, I just woke up from being knocked out!"

I flinched a bit, knowing it was my fault, "woops..."

I took off my clothes, put on my pajamas, and lay on the bed. I could hear the commotion that had vanished from the hallway, on the level below. I heard them eating, talking, and laughing. I also heard the ocean's lullaby.

The waves rocked the boat up and down. They hit the side of the large vessel in a constant beat, lulling me back into the dreams of my imagination. Dreams, which gave me security and everything that I wanted came to be true.

Mist covered the ground like an invisible blanket. I glanced around the unknown place and saw white clouds gathering in the area. Someone leaned against me as I was standing up. I sensed a familiar strong back and a pale hand on my own.

"It's you...who are you?" I asked with a small voice. I tried my best to turn around. I wanted to see the person who had been in my dreams from the first day I had been here. Gravity got lighter and lighter. It gave me the chance to see who he was.

It was a man, holding my hand gently, afraid of hurting me. We looked at each other and examined as well.

He had dark, midnight colored hair, in Sanji's style. It was neither shiny nor greasy, but feathery. His pale skin reminded me of Edward Cullen in the movie. His eyes were a deep blue, like two blueberries that were, freshly picked. He had a bit of a Spanish moustache formed on his upper lips. His outfit reminded me of a business CEO. He had a tight black suit with glossy black designer shoes and a hot pink tie. He smiled at me. I blushed a bit. I assume that he was around his early twenty, maybe twenty or twenty one.

"Hello Angelina, my name is Thomas D. Kumo," he said with a smooth voice. It was not deep enough to make me swoon, but it was enough to make me blush. He let go of my hand and stuffed his own into his suit's pocket. My hand slowly went back to my side.

"What are you?" I asked him. I turned my head a bit to the right. He smirked a bit. His eyes gleamed with mischief.

"What do you think?" He questioned me as he sat down onto the misty floor. I sat down as well, getting very tired of standing.

"My imagination."

"No, not quite," he replied swiftly.

"The left side of my mind?"

"Nope," he replied once more, laughing slightly.

"The right side of my mind…perhaps?"

"No….not at all," this was starting to get frustrating, "give up yet?"

"No," I told him sternly, "my conscience?"

"…No."

"Okay, now I give up," I said, lying onto the cool floor. The mist got a bit clearer and I saw something I did not expect.

"What?" I sat upright again, amazement glowing in my orbs.

He had a pair of small bat wings on his back and a sleek black tail that I would have probably called a demon's.

"What in the world are you?" I called out, shuffling back. He started to laugh and slowly his teeth changed, they practically sharpened.

"You're a demon!" I shouted, pointing at him accusingly.

"Yes!" he seemed happy about the fact that I had realized.

"I am your evil side. I had been locked away for a while…before…but when you came here I came to be once more. It is a great feeling to be back! Mwahahahaha!" Then the whole scenario started to change, turning into a black abyss. A single spotlight shone down upon him, enlightening his features. I stared at him with wide eyes. Then he changed back completely.

"Just kidding," he teased me as everything went back to normal, "scared you, didn't I?" He laughed and soon he did not have wings or a tail anymore. The misty floor and white background came back to view. I could hear my harsh breathing as I took everything in. A dream could feel so real!

"You actually thought that I was a demon? Seriously? Sorry, Hon, but I'm a beautiful man," he announced proudly.

"So deal with it. I will be popping up from time to time though, my cute little drifter." He smiled. I stood up and inched away from him.

"Thomas, you're crazy," I stated as calmly as I could, "this is just a dream and I am going to wake up now." I closed my eyes and forced myself to wake up to reality.

With the sun slowly rising on the horizon, I looked out of the window and sighed in relief. I opened my window to take some of the sea's air in. I smoothed out my black shirt.

Today, my outfit was easier to move in. I usually only wore this to clean the restaurant, work out, or stretch. My white shorts went up to my knees. I slipped on shoes that went up to my ankle. It reminded me of the shoes that, Sanji wore. A weird fashion coincidence, at least it seemed like it.

I put my hair in a ponytail and smiled. I slipped out into the hallway and went to Sanji's room. I slowly turned the knob and looked inside. The smell of rich spices and a man's musk hit me full force. I saw a body on the bed and heard a light snore. I sneaked into his room and tip-toed. I went up to his bed. His suit for today was out and his shoes were on the floor next to me. I looked at him as he slept.

He looked so cute like this. He seemed so relaxed. He reminded me of how, I used to wake up Alejandro when we had been kids. I brushed his hair back behind his ear.

"Sanji…." I whispered his name. He sighed a bit and turned his back towards me. I shook my head. I shook his shoulder.

"Wake up, Sanji," I said in a normal tone. Then he finally grunted and turned to see me.

"….Angel-chan….." he said quietly in a sleepy voice.

"Good morning, Sanji," I replies softly, smiling down at the sleeping beauty.

Five hours had passed since I had woken up, the customers slowly came in during the morning, but more and more came in later by the threes. I thought it would be a normal day, but something astounding happened that would change everything.

BOOM!