His second home

The time flew by Sanji like a bird, and Sanji found himself returning to the kitchen more often then he liked to admit. He couldn't admit it to himself but the kitchen was his second home, more than anywhere else in all the palace.

The staff treated him like a normal kid, and they liked to poke fun at him. Sanji liked that he could be himself, and acted life normal with them. He could get angry and yell and curse them, as they didn't treat him as if he was made of glass, like his mother and the maids did, or in fear of his position.

It was new to Sanji, and he felt good and freer than ever before in his life. He could show them and the old man all his real feelings without the fear of hurting the Rules of manners that he had to follow as a prince. He didn't feel the need to search for attention either, since he knew a lot of the staff would fight him and give him all the attention he wanted.

One time, Sanji found himself even sharing his dream with some of the cooks. His dream was to go to the sea and find the legendary "All Blue", and he told them with a big, stupid smile on his face. It made him happy to talk about his dream. The staff laughed at him, though, and said his dream was impossible, and that it was only a fantasy and it pissed Sanji off.

"It's not just fantasy, it's real! The All Blue is real! And I will find it and prove it to you someday! You will all see then!" he screamed at them. How dare they making fun of his dream? He wouldn't let them get away with this, even if, deep down, he knew his dream was stupid and too unrealistic to follow. He still stood by it, even if he was never going to find it!

The old man, Zeff, didn't say a word or interrupt during the conversation, he only kept cooking. Sanji could not guess what he was thinking, since his back was facing Sanji and he could not see his face. Still, Sanji would not take back his words. This was his shitty dream, even if it was impossible to accomplish. It was what he really wanted to do, so he argued with them for being the assholes they were.

After it was over, the old man made him work even harder, in a way to punish him for his hot temper. Sanji figured the old man really didn't like his dream either, and he must have thought Sanji was a naïve and stupid brat. Well, he didn't care too much about his opinion anyway - his dream was his and no one could take it away from him.

The old man was something else, and Sanji could not describe him very well. He was this weird combination between anger, danger and toughness, as well as a caring and worrying man in his own twisted way. No one else from the kitchen staff seemed to see or notice, but Sanji did. Sanji didn't know how to handle that combination in the old man, but he didn't dislike him.

For example - one day Sanji's maid called him to his next class, since he hadn't been to a few of them that week. That class was with his most boring tutor, but it was in the middle of his work, so he tried to quickly finish what he could. He went to rush out, but was stopped by the old man's leg.

"Where do you think you going, little shitty eggplant?!" Zeff glared, and Sanji glared back

"To my class! I have to go or my mom is going to scold me. Move aside, shitty old geezer!"

One thing Sanji had to admit was that he was a very quick learner. Especially concerning the old man's language, for good or bad. Mostly bad, since he had to keep his manners too.

"And since when I care where you going, eggplant?! You finish what you started!"

They argued for fifteen minutes, until Zeff remembered the food he was preparing and left Sanji on his own. Sanji wasn't sure what was his problem, but he didn't have time to think about it, since he was already late to his class.

Then, one of the young cooks stopped him and gave him lunch box. At first, Sanji was sure the young cook had made it for him, and wanted to thank him but…he was stunned to find out that it was actually the old man cooking the meal and that he had just sent someone else. For more than five minutes, Sanji just stood there, shocked in the exit of the kitchen. He was unsure what to do or how to react to this…display. Maybe he just thinking too much about things, but the old man really had done something nice for him.

But why?! Sanji was sure the old man couldn't stand him or liked him at all.

No, he must be mistaken, since it was the annoying old man after all, the man that never stopped criticizing him on every little thing he did and cursed him every possibility he had. Sanji shrugged and decided to ignore the whole thing that had happened just now and pretend he never heard of it from the young cook.

Satisfied with his decision, Sanji ran to the room of his tutor who was still waiting for him. He hope he won't rat on him to his mom, but right now, he didn't really care much if she did find out.

TBC