CHAPTER ONE – First Impressions (Baratie and Arlong Park)

It was just another normal day, or so he thought. Wake up early, shower, check his clothes, fix the hair – a chef must represent his kitchen: clean, elegant and efficient. Sanji definitely looked all of these things. Perfect! Ready for another day of work. The only strange thing was, Zeff wasn't up yet; he usually rises with the sun. One thought that always stressed Sanji was that Zeff was getting old. He felt like a child in times like this. He was scared of things changing; but he was also scared of nothing changing at all. He wanted Zeff to be eternal, to keep fighting him, to keep learning with him, to be always there; but he also wanted to live an adventure, to fall madly in love, to see new places, to find the All Blue. Well, there was another reason to stay safe in the Baratie, but that's a story for another day.

The day had barely begun and he had to deal with an annoying jerk; he also found out that some crazy kid broke Zeff's roof, they were out of waiters and stupid Patty had done stupid things again. Kick the jerk, kick the kid, serve the food, do what's right… Note to self: kick Patty after shift. Nothing he couldn't manage. That's about when he met the crazy kid's friends - a scrawny boy with the longest nose he'd ever seen, a beautiful red-hair that looked like she could outsmart him any day and, finally, a grumpy looking dude with the shabbiest clothes and the most ridiculous hair colour of all time. He went for the girl, obviously, but something kept bugging him… three. Three swords, three earrings, demon like eyes…

More confusion, angry pirates, angry cooks, angry Zeff - there goes the food. He hears his voice for the first time, the green haired man's – that voice. The voice of a storm. Deep, frightening – although firm, unwavering. He talks about his dream as something irrefutable, as if there's no other option than to achieve it. Such a disregard for his own life – Sanji doesn't know why he got so furious, but he did. Maybe it was because he settled on the safety of a home, dreaming became something you do asleep. That guy, the green haired man, he's wide awake – rather than just dreams, he has goals; crazy goals, but in his mind, feasible goals; is that how to be a man? A few moments later he got the answer for that. 'Yes'.

He saw, right in front of him, someone who didn't shake before death; because if death had a name, in that moment, it would be Mihawk. He swung his sword with such ease, it reminded Sanji of the stories the cooks told him about ghosts that haunted the sea taking souls with a scythe; maybe legends are born for people like him. That was also the moment he learned the green haired man's name: Roronoa Zoro. He is the pirate hunter, the demon of the East Blue. He didn't look like a demon; all about him, his posture, gesture, his voice – it all sounded like a mischievous god fooling them all, rebelling against his peers by playing around with humans. But he was all too human. He saw it. He bleed. The demon bleed red, and yet Sanji was the one who got angry. It would be so easy to give up. He would, and that's why he was so angry. He was angry because that man made him hate himself, made him see what he wanted to ignore – he was scared.

The green haired demon left, weak but alive, defeated but honoured – the green haired demon left acknowledged by death itself. Sanji wondered when it would be his time to leave. The answer came quicker than he thought. That very next day, Sanji left.

The skinny kid with the big smile had become his captain. Sanji is officially a pirate now. His heart was aching, trying to leave his body, there was cold in his stomach, he wanted so much to cry. He was worried he would never be able to repay Zeff, but in a matter of seconds he realised that staying locked up in that restaurant wouldn't do any good. The best way to honour Zeff, his saviour, his mentor, his father, was to carry his will with him and achieve their dream, Zeff's and Sanji's, in his name. Zeff will be on Sanji's every thought, his every move. He will come back eventually, but only to take him and the Baratie to the All Blue. Sanji left that day. He left grateful and proud. With the feeling he was onto something big.

He met the green haired man for the second time when he ran him over with a boat. They weren't strangers in a restaurant any more – they were crewmates. What was it about his face that enraged Sanji at every look? Maybe it was regarding how small Sanji felt in his presence despite being almost the same height, or because they were the same age and yet so distant in every aspect. Sanji couldn't understand anything about him. His motivations, his behaviours. So far in his life the chefs back in Baratie and some of the wandering waiters were all the reference he had– all others in his life were ghosts. The girls he flirted with, the loud clients who filled him with compliments, the boys he looked at - the people he never knew anything about were just like phantasms of a life he never lived. Zoro made Sanji lost – he had no floor. He wasn't courteous, or loud, nor cool or heated; Sanji didn't have balance in front of him. How can a man have such disregard for a lady? How dare he show it so clearly? Who is this swordsman that stands without a single doubt in his life?

The first minutes they had together were a fight, the minutes after that they fought together. Sanji has a lot of first times with Zoro. During this specific fight, it was the first time he saw Zoro worrying. He didn't know he could feel that, but he knew already that Zoro was human. His captain, their captain was now drowning under the sea. But there was another thing to worry about too – the swordsman, all too human, was shaking; it wasn't fear, it was pain. All this turmoil and Sanji had forgotten about that fight with Mihawk – Zoro was cut in half. Yet he fought, and so did Sanji. That day Sanji realized Zoro was no demon, nor a mischievous god – Zoro was someone he could give his soul on a bottle and know it would remain unscathed through a storm. That day Sanji made his first sacrifice for the crew, because if that man would bleed for them, then so will Sanji. This was their first victory as a crew.

Sanji tried his best to understand his crewmate, at first. He used his wounds as an excuse, even to himself, to watch over the swordsman. He was always there, observing, but Zoro was as unyielding as a mountain. Not a word. He just grumpily mumbled around the ship. That's when Sanji realised the only way to get some acknowledgement was to re-enact their first meeting – fighting.

Howbeit, there were some moments of peace. In these moments there was just silence. Zoro liked to watch the sea and Sanji liked to sit by his side, with the excuse it was the best spot for smoking. Those were the moments that Sanji got to learn a little more about the swordsman. Nothing too complex, since they wouldn't talk, but little things. Like how he would touch his white sword when distracted with the stars, or how although he seemed distracted, he never really is. Zoro's smell – of blood, or is it steel? And that even though he always looked angry, he truly enjoys the noise around him. That he likes to lie by the sun like a fat cat, and that notwithstanding he took naps all day, he was probably the one who slept the least on the crew – at night he was always awaken. Oh, and his facial expressions only changed for Luffy.

To the Grand Line.

NOTES:

Yay, I wrote another! So, again, please tell me if you spot any errors. These first chapters were basically a narration of Sanji's feelings, it will mostly be like that, but not always. I'm trying to follow close to canon, but there will some non-canon passages (of course, it's a fic!) and you'll see more dialogues then. It's just the beginning after all, Sanji and Zoro didn't interact much back then. I'm actually rereading the manga as I write because of this fic, that's why it takes some more time to write than the other one (besides being more complex in general). Well, I have some really important stuff to do for college, so I think this week I won't update, at least not until next weekend. If I do, that means I'm procrastinating so please tell me off.