Usopp was feeling increasingly awkward as he watched Sanji cook dinner. Not that watching Sanji cook was bad, it was actually amazing to see how skillfully he could chop up onions and dice tomatoes. However, as Sanji stayed eerily silent, wielding his kitchen knives like he wanted to stab somebody in the throat, Usopp felt much more uncomfortable staring at him.
"So, uh… you do ballet?" Was the first thing out of Usopp's mouth. As soon as he uttered the words he knew it was a mistake and the murderous aura around Sanji intensified. Sanji turned slightly and glared at Usopp. Just as Usopp was about to run for his life though, Sanji's eyes softened somewhat as he turned back to what he was doing.
"I used to." He replied, as he added parsley and basil into the sauce he was preparing.
"Oh, ah well… why don't you anymore?" Usopp wanted to slap his hand over his stupid mouth. Why was he asking questions about something Sanji clearly didn't want to talk about?! Probably because he was curious, but his intrigue wasn't worth his life!
Sanji sighed and gave him a weary look. "Just let me finish this and I'll explain." He told him, as he turned away again and began stirring the pasta. "I owe you some explanation I guess, for you bringing back my boombox and… keeping my secret." Sanji's voice trailed off at the end and Usopp could swear that Sanji's ears appeared a bit redder than before.
Usopp took the hint this time and kept his mouth shut. Instead he glanced around the kitchen. As his eyes scanned the counter, cupboards and table he noticed how clean it all was. However, it was more than that, everything here felt, untouched. Of course, it suddenly hit Usopp that Sanji had only moved here at the beginning of the school year. Maybe the move had something to do with him quitting? But it had to be more than that, Sanji was in tears last night when he found out, there had to be more… right? The thought of Sanji being so upset made Usopp have a weird feeling at the bottom of his gut that he just couldn't place.
Usopp was so lost in thought, that he didn't notice the plate of food being placed in front of him until the smell of garlic and tomato sauce hit his nose. He looked down to see a plate of some of the most delicious looking spaghetti that he'd ever seen, accompanied by some heavenly scented garlic bread.
"Wow Sanji, this looks really good!" Usopp exclaimed, his stomach rumbling in anticipation.
"It tastes better than it looks, so dig in longnose." Sanji grinned and pulled up a seat across from Usopp.
"Uh, by the way, my name's Usopp, so you can stop calling me long nose." Usopp remarked, before digging into his spaghetti.
"I know what your name is, and I'll call you whatever I want to call you." Sanji huffed, gathering noodles on his fork.
"Huh? How do you know my name?" Usopp asked, looking up from his food.
"Nami told me about you. And wipe your damn face, you're getting sauce everywhere." Sanji motioned to the red sauce sticking around Usopp's mouth.
"Nami?" Usopp thought for a second. "Oh! That's right! You're friends with her, right? I think she mentioned to me that one of her friends had started school here."
"Nami was talking about me?" Sanji asked, sounding wary. "What did she… what did she say about me?"
"Not much. Just that the two of you were great friends and she met you through Vivi. I always wondered why you never hung out with the rest of us." Usopp watched as Sanji's shoulders relaxed. "Why are you worried about what she would say?" Usopp asked, giving Sanji a scrutinizing look.
"I wasn't worried!" Sanji scoffed. "I was just curious is all. Of course Nami would only say good things about me. She's a wonderful, beautiful, perfect human being."
"Uh huh." Usopp wasn't convinced in the slightest. "She did tell me you were a complete idiot around girls."
Usopp watched in amusement as Sanji sputtered, clearly being torn between disagreeing with that assessment and not wanting to insult Nami. Sanji was super cute when he blushed, Usopp realized. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Usopp wanted to slap himself. Sanji was way out of his league and clearly completely straight anyway. Thinking about how adorable Sanji looked as he blushed across his nose and cheeks would only lead to disaster.
"A-anyway, you still didn't tell me why you quit doing ballet?" Usopp asked, before shoveling another fork full of pasta into his mouth.
Sanji frowned as he twirled pasta on his fork. "I quit a while ago Usopp. It really isn't as big of a deal, like you're trying to make it out to be."
"But you looked so happy when you were practicing in the auditorium. Why would you want to quit doing something you love so much?" Usopp pressed.
"It was fun… while it lasted." Sanji took a bit of pasta and chewed for a moment, his eyes far away as if he was imagining he was somewhere else. "I quit because… there were these assholes at my last school." Sanji set down his fork, his eyes clouded with repressed emotion. "They found out about it and… they were always giving me a hard time. It just… it wasn't worth it anymore."
Usopp stared wide eyed at Sanji as the dancer continued eating, avoiding Usopp's shocked gaze. Usopp knew what Sanji's hunched shoulders, downcast eyes and shaky voice meant. Sanji felt defeated. It was a feeling Usopp was all too familiar with. This clearly meant more to Sanji then he was letting on, and there was certainly more to the story then what he had said. But Usopp didn't want to press him. He had never seen Sanji look this upset before. When Usopp would sneak peeks at Sanji in the hallways at school, the cook had always looked confident. Now though, Sanji looked like he was struggling to hold himself together.
"Umm… hey Sanji?" Usopp's voice quivered. "I'm going to be working late nights on the props for the school play for a couple weeks now. If you want, you can use the stage to practice. I-I'll make sure nobody disturbs us or anything. I mean… if you want to…" Usopp finished lamely, rubbing the back of his head.
Sanji looked shocked for a couple seconds, before his mouth melted into the most genuine smile Usopp had seen all evening. "I might take you up on that offer, long nose."
"Y-yeah, sounds good Sanji." Usopp returned the smile, overcome with joy that he got Sanji out of whatever sadness he had been wallowing in..
"So, why don't you tell me about this play you're working on?" Sanji asked politely, before taking a bite of garlic bread.
"Oh man, it's going to be amazing. It's about this-" Usopp went on and on about the play for the rest of the night. Sanji didn't seem to mind though, as he continued to smile and ask him questions about it. Despite his better judgement, by the time he had to leave, Usopp may have been just a little bit in love with Sanji.
Although the two of them had gotten off on the wrong foot, as Sanji kept coming to practice in the auditorium, he and Usopp continued to become closer. Even after the play ran it's course, Usopp learned how to pick locks from Nami (which raised her suspicions but Usopp managed to convince her that it was because he kept locking himself out of the house. He's pretty sure she bought his lie for once), and he let Sanji into the auditorium almost every night. Even without the play props to work on, Usopp was fully entertained watching Sanji dance. And even though Sanji was nervous about people knowing about his talent, he wasn't shy about performing for Usopp. In fact, Sanji loved nothing more then to show off to him, much to Usopp's delight. It didn't help his steadily growing crush on Sanji though, that was starting to reach dangerous levels.
This was especially evident by how much space Sanji was taking up in his sketchbook. While Usopp didn't draw nearly as much as he used to, becoming friends with Sanji seemed to rekindle some of his creative spark. While Usopp normally busied himself with homework while he watched Sanji practice, he found himself pulling out his sketch book more often than not to try to capture the essence of the boy he had fallen far too hard for. Usopp desperately tried to capture the grace and the elegance of Sanji dancing but he felt his drawings always fell short. That didn't stop him from trying though, as the lead from his pencil coated his fingers while he concentrated on yet another drawing of his friend.
"What'cha drawing Usopp?" The long nosed teen let out a high pitched scream and nearly jumped out of his skin when he suddenly heard Sanji behind him. He hadn't even noticed that he had stopped dancing, much less that he had snuck up on him.
"Geez Sanji, don't scare me like that!" Usopp yelped as Sanji grinned down at him looking completely unapologetic.
"Yeah yeah, so what are you working on?"
"Nothing!" Usopp slammed his sketchbook closed. There was no way he could admit that almost the entirety of this book was filled with drawings of Sanji. "J-just doodling, ya know? I ran out of homework to do, so…"
"Then you should have told me, long nose." Sanji replied. "I don't want you to feel like you have to stick around just because of me."
"No no it's fine," Usopp quickly waved off Sanji's concern. "I like spending time with you and it's incredible to watch you dance." Usopp couldn't stop the compliment as it fell out of his mouth, but he didn't regret it when he saw Sanji's face turn pink as he tried to hide a small smile. Damnit, why did Sanji have to be so cute? Someone who swears as much as he does and smokes like a chimney shouldn't be this adorable.
"Glad you were enjoying the show." Sanji chuckled as he shyly turned away from Usopp and went to shut off his boombox.
"Hey Sanji," Usopp called out as he packed up his stuff. "Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot." Sanji said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. For once Sanji hadn't hesitated to let Usopp ask him a question and Usopp felt honored that the dancer had grown to trust him so much.
"Well as I was watching you dance, it looked like a lot of the moves you were doing needed a partner. Did you use to have a dance partner?" Usopp asked.
"Of course!" Sanji turned and grinned at Usopp. "I had the most amazing and beautiful dance partner in the world!"
"Oh really?" Usopp tried his best to sound curious but hearing Sanji talk about his dance partner like that made Usopp wonder if she was more than just a 'dance' partner. He really shouldn't be depressed that Sanji might like someone else, considering that he swooned for almost any girl who walked by, but Usopp couldn't stop himself from feeling as though the floor had collapsed beneath him.
"Yeah, you probably already know her though. It's Vivi, Nami's girlfriend." Sanji replied happily. "I've actually been friends with Vivi since we were in elementary school and I couldn't possibly ask for a better dance partner. She's just so elegant and graceful and was one of the best damn dancers at that studio. Ah, you should have seen her dance, she was immaculate! I remember this one time she-"
Usopp could feel his entire body relax as Sanji went on and on about how great of a dancer Vivi was. Usopp could tell now that, despite the praises Sanji was lavishing on her, he wasn't interested in her romantically and even if he was, Vivi was already in a loving relationship with Nami.
"Wow, I had no idea that Vivi did ballet." Usopp said, cutting off Sanji's rambling. "I wish I could have seen the two of you perform. I bet it would be amazing."
"Yeah…" Sanji's shoulders suddenly dropped as he glanced downwards.
"Crap, I didn't mean to bring up painful memories. I'm sorry!" Usopp quickly apologised. He was such an idiot, talking about wanting to see Sanji perform with Vivi when Sanji had reluctantly given up doing ballet (outside of his secret practice sessions in the auditorium).
"No no, it's fine." Sanji waved off his concerns, although his expression still looked a little distant. "I just remembered something, that's all. There's no point dwelling on the past. I'm sure Vivi is going to get a new dance partner at some point. She deserves one after I quit on her so suddenly…"
"Oh…" Usopp felt at a lost for words for a moment as he stared at his friend, who was clearly troubled by the idea that Vivi would find a new partner. "Well I'm sure any partner she gets will pale in comparison to you." Usopp offered, unsure if his compliment would improve Sanji's mood or just further remind him of what he gave up.
"Heh, you're damn right he won't be as good as me." Sanji flashed him a cocky grin. "I may be rusty from not practicing as much lately but I could still out dance almost all the guys at that dance studio."
"I bet you could." Usopp grinned back at his friend. "Still, we should see if we could convince Vivi to come one night and practice with you."
"That's a pretty good idea, longnose." Sanji replied as they made their way out of the auditorium.
Unfortunately, their plans to have Vivi come practice fell to the way side as their school work began piling up. And despite how close they were becoming, Sanji and Usopp never seemed to hang out outside of these practices, much to Usopp's disappointment. He'd even invited him to come hang out with Luffy and the rest but Sanji declined. Usopp couldn't seem to figure out why though. The only friend Sanji seemed to have at school was Nami, so why didn't he want to join their group of friends? Even Nami had invited him but he politely turned her down. Usopp was flabbergasted that Sanji could refuse anything Nami asked.
Usopp was mulling over this as he searched through his locker for his math textbook. The more he rummaged through his stuff though, the less he worried about Sanji as he realized that he couldn't find it anyway.
"I swore I brought it with me, didn't I?" Usopp rubbed his chin in thought. "Oh, I probably left it back in my car like an idiot." He smacked his forehead before slamming his locker shut and running off down the stairs to the parking lot.
As he jogged past the multitude of cars though, Usopp could tell that there was something wrong with his car.
"Oh no." Usopp whispered. "Oh no oh no oh no." He ran as fast as he could and skidded to a halt when he saw what had happened.
Someone had keyed his car. A jagged line cut across his car from his license plate to his headlights. Usopp's backpack slipped from his shoulder with a thud as he stared unblinkingly at the damage. He slowly knelt down and ran his hand along the scratch. It looked really bad, especially up close. The worst part of all of this though, was this wasn't truly HIS car… it's his mom's. She'd leant it to him today since she was too sick to go to work and Usopp had been running late. He remembered thanking his bedridden mother profusely as he hurried out the door that morning. How on earth was he going to explain this to her? Usopp knew his mom most likely wouldn't be mad at him, as she so seldom lost her temper, but he dreaded seeing the look of disappointment in her eyes when she saw the damage that had been done to her car. And it wasn't like they had the money to fix it, with all of the income going to pay for his mom's medical bills. The car may still be drive-able with the scar, but Usopp was already not looking forward to the humiliation of driving the scratched up car back home. And once his mom got better who knows how long she'd be stuck driving that car for all her coworkers to see.
Is it still drive-able? Usopp felt the blood rushing from his face when he realized someone could have slashed the tires as well. He quickly knelt down and started checking the tires to make sure they were still inflated when he heard the sound of a group of students walking past. The blood that had vacated his face quickly returned as he glanced to the side he could see a group of seniors, who had been previously chatting happily, were staring at his car.
"Holy shit, look at that-"
"Man that looks brutal-"
"I'm so glad that didn't happen to me, I mean could you imagine the-"
"Wonder what he did to to have someone do that to his-"
Even though he could only catch half of what they were saying, Usopp was praying for the ground to just open and and save him from this horrible humiliation. Why did someone do this? Why did they do it to him? Was it something he-
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
"What the fuck?"
"Oi, watch it!"
"Well then, why don't you stop blocking the fucking way." Usopp's head finally perked up when he heard a familiar voice behind him. His head whipped around to see Sanji walking towards him while the group of seniors were all glaring at him as they finally moved away from Usopp's car.
"S-sanji?" Usopp's voice quivered, probably making him sound more pathetic than he already looked. "W-what are you.."
"Hey Usopp," Sanji knelt down beside him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't listen to those shitty assholes, okay?"
Usopp could only weakly nod in reply as he desperately rubbed at his eyes to try to keep himself from crying. He shouldn't be this worked up over this and crying in front of the guy he was head over heels for wasn't an option.
Sanji turned to look at the car and ran his other hand along the scratch. "This looks pretty bad." He told him honestly. "Is there any other damage to the car?"
"I-I-I don't think so." Dammit, Usopp squeezed his eyes shut. Why couldn't he keep it together? Sanji was going to realize how much of a wimp he is if he keeps this up.
"Do you have any idea who could have done this?" Usopp opened his eyes to see Sanji glaring at the damaged car with rage dripping from his voice.
"No, I have no idea who did this. Or why someone w-would-" Usopp's breath hitched as he felt the tears he had desperately tried to stop slide down his face. "What am I going to tell my mom? It's her car and I… I just don't understand! Why would someone do this? What did I do that-"
"Usopp, look at me." Sanji grabbed both of Usopp's shoulders firmly and turned him to face the other boy. "Listen to me Usopp, you did absolutely nothing to deserve this. You hear me Usopp? Absolutely nothing."
Usopp looked up at Sanji with wide eyes for a moment, before overcoming all of his inhibitions as he threw his arms around Sanji. The cook wobbled for a moment, almost falling backwards by the force of Usopp's hug, but managed to maintain his balance and wrap his arms around Usopp. And despite feeling like shit and feeling even more embarrassed that he was having a breakdown in the arms of the person he had a massive crush on, Usopp felt an unbelievable amount of security and warmth being wrapped up in Sanji's arms.
Sanji let Usopp cry into his shirt for a while, before Usopp pulled away and wiped his face, hoping that there was some possible way he could salvage his dignity from this. Sanji stared at Usopp for a bit as he tried to pull himself together, before getting up and extending his hand to Usopp.
"Come on long nose, let's get out of here."
"Huh?" Usopp tilted his head at him. "What do you mean? I gotta get to class and HOLY SHIT I AM SO LATE, I HAVE TO-" Usopp scrambled up but before he could book it back into the building, Sanji grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Forget about class Usopp. You're already late, so we might as well just leave."
"Leave? You mean like playing hooky? B-but I've never skipped class before! What if we get caught?"
"We won't get caught long nose." Sanji smirked. "I've done this hundreds of times before. So come on," Sanji took his keys out of his pocket and began twirling them around his finger. "I'll drive. And I'll even treat you to lunch if you want."
Usopp stared at the spinning keys for a moment, that promised freedom, food, spending time with his crush and a way out of going to class looking like a guy who's grandmother just died. Even though the thought of getting in trouble made Usopp's knees shake a little, there really wasn't much of a choice.
"Sure I guess. First time for everything, right?"