"GAH! Zoro! Higher, higher! Jus- let me on your shoulders!" Luffy squirmed against Zoro's back. Zoro had finally given in to giving the boy a piggy-back ride, he was sure as hell not letting him onto his shoulders.
"Why do you need to go higher? There's nothing to see! We're walking in downtown towards that stupid stand you wanted to visit, the most you're going to see sitting on my shoulders is more fucking STREET!" Luffy laughed happily on Zoro back and began swinging his legs. Nami was walking next to Zoro while Usopp and Chopper walked behind.
"Awww! No fair! Luffy's just as old as you guys and he gets a ride! Why can't I?" Chopper whined. Zoro wasn't one to deny the kid and was just about to set Luffy down when he heard the boy yelp. He turned around to see Usopp ducking between Chopper's legs and hoisting him up onto his shoulders. Chopper giggled happily, the sound was so carefree and joyful sounding that it brought a small smile to his face.
"SEE Zoro?! Chopper gets to go on Usopp's shoulders!"
"Yeah, well, Chopper is lighter than you."
"It's not like you can't handle it Zoro, you're plenty strong enough to put Luffy on your shoulders."
"Oh shut up Nami! You're just encouraging him to keep asking!" Zoro scowled at the orange haired girl, who just smiled and wiggled her fingers, waving playfully.
"Oooohhh! Zoro look! There's that ice cream shop I really like! We should go there!"
"Luffy, seriously?! We're going to restaurant for dinner at this very fucking moment! Do you even have an idea of how expensive you are to feed?!"
"That's what Dadan used to say before I moved out! Thank fuck we hunted a lot!" Luffy laughed.
"Oh yeah, you recently moved out with your brothers, right? What were their names..? I know one of them was Ace. The other was…" Nami pressed a finger to her head as she tried to think of the name of Luffy's second brother.
"SABO! They already graduated and Dadan's been watching over us for so long that we thought it was about time to get out of her hair." Zoro remembers visiting Luffy and his brothers often enough in middle school. Ace and Luffy looked somewhat similar but Sabo didn't look like either of them. Zoro had later found out that Dadan wasn't actually their mother or anything like that and the three weren't related by blood. But they were brothers none the less. Zoro understood, it was the same with him and Kuina after all.
Now that Zoro thought about it, the entire group was composed of messed up families. Nami never knew her parents and was adopted by a woman named Bell-mére along with her sister Nojiko. Much like Luffy and Zoro, she wasn't actually related to her sibling. Bell-mére quit the army after she found the two on a missionary trip and started up a small farm on the outside of town.
Usopp's dad left him when he was still a little kid, adventuring or some shit like that. His mom was pretty ill and died a little while after he left. Usopp hopped from house to house for a while until Nami invited him to live with her. They're practically like siblings now.
Chopper's parents gave him up pretty much the second he was born for some reason. Chopper was put up for adoption and this crazy old quack of a doctor took him in. Hiluluk was his name. Apparently he was the reason Chopper wanted to be a doctor. Ironically, he died of cancer a few years later and Chopper was left alone again. That was until one of Hiluluk's colleagues adopted him. She was a witch if he'd ever met one. Worse than Nami. A fantastic doctor, old as hell but she refused to retire until her hands were too shaky to hold a scalpel, probably why she worked at the school now and trained Law.
"Damnit I wish Sanji would have come with us!" Luffy whined and leaned back, causing Zoro to sway slightly and the green haired man growled, tugging at Luffy's legs to keep him steady on his back.
"I'm sure the swirly-browed idiot has better things to do than watch you eat and hope that you don't take everything that's on his plate." Luffy giggled and wrapped his arms around Zoro's neck, leaning forward again and pressing his whole body against Zoro's. Luffy had always been a huggy, touchy kind of guy. Zoro was used to it by now.
"Okay, now turn left here and we should be at the… what was the name of the stand again..? Luffy do you remember?" Nami turned to look at the giggling boy and he shook his head, grin still spread ever wide across his face.
"All Blue." Usopp said behind them as they rounded the corner. "You guys never look into this shit do you? It's a traditional Japanese stand that serves Okonomi-Yaki, a dinner pancake. It's made with cabbage and seafood, sometimes it also includes pork and cheese."
"WOW! Usopp you know so much about this!" Chopper beamed at the long-nosed boy.
"Well I did live in Japan for thirty years!" Lie. Complete lie. Horrible lie. Zoro would have turned around and slapped him on the back of his head for it if it wasn't for the fact that he was holding Chopper.
The group rounded the corner between two apartment complexes and immediately found the stand. Zoro was surprised at how professional it looked. It wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. It was surrounded by a cobblestone pavement area with patches of grass sprouting out from between the bricks. The stand had about five bar stool-like seats standing in front of the counter where the food was served. There was also a small window that looked like it would be used as a take-out window. There were small lanterns that lit the path to the stand. The light was dim and warm and the stand was bright in contrast to the dark sky. It felt oddly… homely. A few sets of tables and benches were scattered about on the grassy park behind the apartments. It wasn't over the top with Japanese culture, there weren't curtains and banners with pictures of lucky cats hanging all over the place like Zoro had expected. The stand had a roof complete with shingles and everything, smoke plumed from the small metal chimney that sat on top and Zoro could smell the food from where he stood.
"YOSH! Come ON Zoro! Let's GO! Food, food, FOOD!" Luffy kicked at Zoro's sides as if he were riding a horse and the green-haired man growled at the boy for the hundredth time that day. Zoro pushed Luffy higher up his body before continuing forward.
"Wow! It's so pretty! The guy who owns this place really went all out." Nami awed as she took her seat at the stand. Luffy hopped off Zoro's back and Usopp bent down so that Chopper could hop off his shoulders. Luffy of course sat right in the middle. Chopper sat to the left of him and Zoro sat on the end next to Chopper. Nami sat on the other side of Luffy and Usopp sat at the other end. Zoro leaned on the palm of his hand as he watched the back of the chef as he worked. He had blond hair, tied up in a messy pony tail. He was tall and thin but far from weak looking. The chef would reach around every once in a while and Zoro could see lean muscles on the man's arms from where his sleeves were hiked up. Wait a minute…
"Right on time, guessing that Zoro wasn't leading the group then." Zoro eyes practically bugged out of his head and he almost choked on his own spit as Sanji turned around and grinned smugly at the group. Luffy and Usopp had much of the same reaction while Chopper bounced happily in his seat. Nami grinned at the blond in a way that told Zoro she had already guessed that this was what they were going to find. Zoro attempted to reign in his shocked expression but it was too late. The smug chef was already grinning like the damn Cheshire cat and Zoro could feel his instincts to fight set in the pit of his stomach.
"SANJI!" Luffy exclaimed happily. "This is why you couldn't come with us?! You should have told me! THIS. IS. AMAZING!" Luffy's smile couldn't have grown any wider, his white teeth shined as he beamed at the blond chef. Zoro saw a slight blush tinge the chef's cheeks and yeah, Luffy has that effect on people. Impressing Luffy almost felt like an accomplishment and seemed to make almost anybody feel just warm and happy. Sanji cleared his throat into the hollow of his elbow as he brushed away his blush.
"Well… uh, yeah. Sorry, guess I could have mentioned it, wanted to surprise you guys, anyway! What can I get you assholes? Oh, and of course the lovely lady." Sanji flashed a smile in Nami's direction and Zoro scoffed at the way he swooned. Sanji glared menacingly at Zoro while he pulled out a menu from under his counter. He passed it to Nami and smiled gently. "This is a list of all the options you have of adding to your Okonomi-yaki, please take your time in deciding my lovely flower~."
"Wow Sanji, how'd you swing this job?" Usopp questioned as he leaned over Nami's shoulder and looked at the menu.
"I own the damn place. Well, kind of. My foster father is helping pay for my living arrangements from where he's living in France, so I can put all my money towards the stand. I… ran into some money and was able to afford a down payment once I got here." Zoro knew there was something off about that explanation. Bits and pieces of information was missing. Then again, Sanji had only known them or two days, Zoro couldn't blame him for being hesitant to give up his life story. Zoro could see that Nami could also tell something was up, but she just smiled and continued to look at her menu. Sanji passed one to each member of the group, throwing Zoro's at his head. Zoro grabbed it before it could make contact and glared at the chef.
"Mmmmmm… I. Want. Everything!" Luffy shouted as he slammed the menu down on the counter. Sanji chuckled and put his hands on his hips.
"How about I choose for you, there's a lot to pick from there and I'd hate for your tiny brains to short circuit. Except you of course Nami my swan~!"
"I think that's a fantastic idea Sanji! We'll do that then, if there aren't any objections?" Nami looked around the table and everybody nodded in agreement, except Zoro who just stared off in a different direction and threw the menu back at Sanji. Sanji didn't even have to look in Zoro's direction to see what was coming and snapped his hand out to catch the menu, continuing to smile at the pretty red head. Sanji took away the rest of the menus and put them away. He then reached into one of his drawers and pulled out two spatulas, placing them on the griddle before he turned around and began to prepare the batter for everybody's pancake.
Sanji lined up five separate bowls of batter on the counter and poured them all onto the griddle one by one. He stood and watched them for a few minutes with his spatulas in his hands, waiting for the first side to cook. He flipped them respectively, spinning around in his spot and reaching for different spices as he cooked. Zoro watched as certain pancakes got certain spices, some getting more than others. While they finished cooking, Sanji reached into one of the cupboards above his head and pulled out six glasses, placing five in front of the group and one next to himself. He pulled a pitcher of ice water out of the fridge and filled each glass before turning back to refill the pitcher with fresh ice and water.
Sanji plated up each meal and placed them on the counter but slapped Luffy's hand away when he reached for his food.
"Not yet, they aren't finished!" Sanji turned around and grabbed five or six different bottles and shakers. Some looked like they contained sauces while others seemed to contain different kinds of flakey looking toppers. Sanji made a fancy, swirly heart on top of Nami's meal with the mayonnaise, scribbling it in with a clearer, brown sauce. He then decorated it with fish flakes and a dusting of seaweed flakes. Sanji went from person to person down the line until he reached Zoro. "MORON" was written very clearly on his pancake in Japanese letters and Zoro raised his eyebrow as Sanji continued with his mockery, shaking at least half of his supply of seaweed flakes onto Zoro's food.
"There! Now it looks just like you!" Sanji smiled and Zoro gritted his teeth in an attempt to keep from spewing acid at the taunting chef. Zoro grabbed one of the forks stuck in a cup in the middle of the counter and stabbed at his food. He would love to just leave it there and let it go to waste considering, but decided he was too hungry not to eat. Zoro shoved forkful after forkful into his mouth until his cheeks puffed out, he was successful in holding back whatever moans he had made last time he ate the blonds cooking. Sanji looked at them all expectantly and smiled at the group as they each dug into their own pancake.
"My god, Sanji! This is really good!" Nami exclaimed through her mouthful.
"Yeah, holy shit man, you're an awesome cook!" Usopp complimented.
"SO GOOOOOOD! Sanji! You're going to be the cook for my crew!" Luffy shouted as he waved around his arms, forks roughly gripped in each hand.
"Luffy, why do you keep calling us your crew?" Chopper piped up.
"Because this one time, Zoro told me he wished he had been born a pirate, and I thought that was AWESOME! SO I decided we would become a crew, and now we are!"
"LUFFY! I told you not to talk abou- oh whatever, I said pirate HUNTER, not PIRATE."
"And I said that pirates would have so much more fun! Pirates can take whatever they want, whenever they want and eat and party and nobody can tell them what to do! Pirate hunters have to obey the law or they don't get paid and that's stupid! Plus their older brothers don't have to sneak them booze."
"So you'd rather be a criminal and constantly on the run, kicked out of every town we make port in, challenged practically every day by enemy pirates, and hated by society in general than live by the law?" Nami asked as she chewed thoughtfully on her pancake.
"The law is stupid anyway! We can't do anything fun with them around. We can't drink, we can't be out past twelve at night, we can't watch R rated movies! It's no fair and I want to be a pirate!"
"Yeah! Say it loud and proud Luffy! Fuck the police!" Usopp pumped his fist in the air sarcastically and Luffy bent back in his seat laughing, slapping his hand on the table until he came to an abrupt stop, hands wrapping around his throat as he made choked noises.
"GAH! SOMEBODY GET A DOCTOR! HE'S CHOKING!" Chopper screamed as his eyes bugged out of his head.
"YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE HERE WITH MEDICAL TRAINING!" Usopp corrected the panicking child.
"DAMNIT LUFFY! Don't fucking laugh while you're EATING!" Zoro roared as he jumped out of his seat and rushed over to where Luffy was sitting. Zoro punched him squarely in the back of his head and Luffy's face slammed into the counter, barely missing his plate of food. Luffy was still for a moment before springing up dramatically, eyes wide and cheeks puffed out. Luffy swallowed thickly and whipped his head around to glare at Zoro.
"DAMNIT ZORO! THAT HURT!"
"Yeah?! Would have hurt a lot more if you had DIED!" Luffy kept his teeth clenched as he growled at Zoro. The staring contest between the two was interrupted by uproarious laughter from the other side of the bar. Sanji was bent over so that only the top of his back was visible from where Zoro was standing. He snapped up straight and held on to his stomach as his chest heaved and laughter poured from his lips.
"You guys – aha ha… are so… so fucking stupid!" Sanji gasped out in between fits. "Alright! I'll be your chef then!" Sanji beamed, teeth shining brightly and tears threatening to spill at the corners of his eyes. A faint blush tinted his cheeks from the overexertion and his eyes were shut tight as slight tremors continued to shake his body. Luffy stared at him for a moment, eyes wide and mouth in a slight 'O' shape before he broke out into another one of his famous grins. Zoro's face was much of the same considering he'd never heard the blond actually laugh before.
"YAY! Sanji's one of us now!" Luffy announced happily before continuing to devour his food. Chopper was still recovering from watching the stupid boy nearly choke on his own food for the hundredth time and Usopp had left his seat to stand by the kid, rubbing his back soothingly. Nami stared at the group with her teeth clenched, smoke practically spewing from her ears and fire from her nostrils. Zoro smoothed down his jacket, which had gotten ruffled slightly in the chaos, and sat back down in his seat.
"You know that's probably the worst decision you'll ever make in your life." Zoro smirked at the blond chef and took a long swig of his glass of water. Sanji turned to him and gave a thoughtful expression before he gave a grin so smug that he was tempted to rip it right off his face.
"And you would just HATE it if you had to see me all day long, wouldn't you Mosshead?"
"Hey! What if we met here every day after school from now on? It's always a pain in the ass planning whose house we're going to anyway" Usopp suggested as he walked back over to his seat after successfully calming down Chopper. Nami grinned and reached over to hug the long-nosed boy, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and shaking him lightly.
"Usopp! That's a fantastic idea! And Sanji could cook for us every day!"
"Yeah, I'll get a special table set up for you guys and everything." Sanji slipped his spatulas into the pockets on his apron and placed his hands on his hips.
"Works for me, Kuina hates it when I bring you guys over anyway."
"Yeah, and I'm sick of Doctorine (Chopper's nickname for his foster mom Kureha) getting pissed at me whenever you guys break something running around the house."
"Nojiko and Bell-mére don't mind having you guys over at all but I do so it's perfect for me." Usopp nodded in agreement, he'd lived with Nami long enough to know exactly how she felt about people coming over to her house and getting anywhere near her room.
"Sabo's usually out with his friend Koala, and Ace doesn't mind at all when you guys come over but he never seems to be completely dressed so I guess it makes more sense for us to come here." Luffy nodded and Sanji raised an eyebrow at the black-haired boy.
"Whenever we go over to Luffy's house, Ace, his brother, is in his underpants because… well, he usually has his boyfriend Marco over, it's not like they start going at while we're over there, but it's still a little weird cause we've usually walked in right before they were about to fuck. That, combined with the fact that Nami gets super flustered whenever she sees him without his clo- OW!" Zoro stopped mid-sentence as a fist slammed into the back of his head.
"OF COURSE I GET FLUSTERED! YOU'D BE EMBARASSED IF YOU SAW NOJIKO WALKING AROUND IN HER UNDERPANTS WHILE HER BOYFRIEND'S OVER!"
"Then it's settled! From now on we're going to meet here!" Luffy's laugh erupted amidst the bickering and he jumped out of his seat and raised his glass of water into the air. Zoro smirked as he raised his own, along with the rest of the group and their newest member. Water sloshed over the rims of their glasses as they clinked together above their heads and they all cheered as they gulped down the rest of it.
