Night and Day
A Post-Piracy Sanji Side Story
By Aoikami Sarah
Chapter Three - The Casino Sea Note
The Sea Note was impressive, even in the glitzy luxury-overload that was Largo Atoll. Harmony toured Sanji through its halls, giving him a general feel for the place. She explained to him that after the G-Clef was burned, she and her former employer Kerodo Clef returned to Largo and pooled their resources. Clef had assets in the form of 150 bouncers, experienced and loyal table managers and hotel staff. Harmony had been saving up for the last year and together they built a new and better casino with an emphasis on every aspect of entertainment.
The Sea Note featured the biggest theater inside a casino, seating over 1,000 people in order to accommodate the legion of Harmony's fans. Two smaller theaters accommodated 500 each. The hotel was designed with seven stories and over 700 rooms. The upper floor was reserved for Clef and Harmony who had penthouse suites at either end of the hall with private elevators inaccessible by the public.
Sanji and Harmony came down the elevator and wound around to the three restaurants: a buffet, a family-style and a gourmet restaurant. Sanji was very quiet when they toured the kitchens and dining areas. They returned to Harmony's rooms and his silence was more than noticeable.
"Is something wrong?" Harmony asked.
He looked up and scratched his chin. "The restaurants," he began. "What are they rated?"
She smiled and crossed to a china cabinet. "Well, the Three Brothers' Buffet and Paro's Family Restaurant are unrated." She took a small dish from the cabinet and put it on the coffee table in front of him. He thanked her and took out his cigarettes. "But Symphony is rated…" Sanji looked up at her, pausing in packing the smokes down. He cocked his curly brow, waiting for the number. "Two," she said, wincing as he nearly crushed the pack. "I know, it's unforgivable. I've been so busy that I just haven't had the time to improve it…" Harmony put her hands on her hips. "But now that I have you, I know that will change."
Sanji lit a cigarette and took a drag before looking up at her. He knew that without a crew he couldn't resume his quest to seek out All Blue. All he knew how to do was cook and here was a beautiful young woman offering him the chance to be head chef of restaurants that desperately needed his help. He stood, went to the large window that looked out over the strip below. Largo's lights were just coming on in the early evening. He remembered the amazing marketplace that he had visited four years ago when the Strawhats first visited the atoll. "Are you married to the name 'Symphony'?" he asked, turning and grinning at her.
Harmony grinned back. She had her chef.
.x.
Within the week Sanji had scared off half of Symphony's staff with his unusual Baratie-inspired managerial style. He hired men and women he recruited from the market place and other rival restaurants. The revitalized crew was confident they'd increase the restaurant's rating within the month and invited the critics to come whenever they pleased. With rare and exotic ingredients from the market and Sanji's expertise of creating amazing dishes from whatever he stumbled across on his travels as a Strawhat pirate, the critics were delighted and Symphony was given four stars - double what it had before. Harmony was astounded, but she had to laugh at the fact that Sanji was disappointed that they didn't get five.
.x.
Sanji's room was a floor below Harmony's in the public part of the hotel. He had a key to the private elevator that lead to Clef and Harmony's floor. He used it one early afternoon before he had to go open Symphony for the evening and went up to see Harmony. When the doors opened, two large frog bouncers were waiting to go down. The one on the left jumped a little at the sight of the shorter, blond man. Sanji raised a brow before realizing what must have startled him.
"Heh," he scoffed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry 'bout that, pal," he said, apologizing for the incident four years prior when he had beaten up a good many of such bouncers in order to help Harmony escape them.
The bouncer watched him until he was out of sight then sighed and followed his partner into the elevator. Memories of when he had first caught sight of Harmony flooded in as Sanji made his way down the hall toward her apartment. She was only 13 then. She was still young. He felt very old. At 23 he had traveled further and suffered more injuries than most pirates did in a lifetime. His spontaneous carreer in piracy now over, Sanji had returned to the profession he was raised for. He loved his kitchens. He loved his staff (however much they pissed him off sometimes). He was well-dressed, had a nice, large room to call home and a very decent salary.
"Who could ask for anything more…" he muttered, frowned and slowed his pace.
Harmony.
When he arrived and gave her the good news about Luffy's survival she had kissed him and hugged him so tightly it bruised his ribs but since that day she had been oddly distant. They spent a good deal of time together, but she rarely sat at his side, rarely looked into his eyes for more than a second as if she were embarrassed or afraid of him.
Sanji stopped just feet from her door, turned and headed slowly back to his room. He mulled over every time he'd been in the same room as Harmony for the last few months. Sure enough, each occasion was the same. He put the key in the private elevator's call button and the doors opened. He glided in, spun and leaned against the far wall. He really wanted to light a cigarette, but there was no smoking in the elevators.
"Maybe she's just finally gotten to know me after fantasizing about me for four years," he thought aloud. "And she's realized that I'm not who she's made me out to be." The doors opened on his floor. "And she doesn't want me," he said, his head resting against the wall. "Like I want her." He pushed off from the wall, surprised to see the same two frog bouncers blocking his path, waiting for the elevator. Sanji stared at them for a beat. "Move it, or you're an entrée," he growled. The men side-stepped to the left and right respectively and tried not to even breathe.
When Sanji had disappeared into his room the bouncer who hadn't soiled himself turned to his co-worker. "Man, what did we do!" he croaked.
.x.
A few days later Sanji knocked and waited for Harmony's maid to let him into her luxury apartment. There was a large foyer that opened into the living room, replete with plush couches and a fully stocked bar. The large picture windows to the left looked out on the lagoon. Harmony was standing at the china cabinet when he entered.
"Sanji," she said very seriously, skipping the greeting. "Would you do me a favor?"
"Anything, Ojou-sama," he said with a bow, wondering what was going on and only a little afraid that he was in trouble for something.
"Come on vacation with me."
He blinked and laughed. "Is that all!"
She took something out of the cabinet, sat down on one of the couches and bid him do the same. "It might be a long while, since I'm not entirely sure where we're going." The something was a velvet bag tied with a satin drawstring.
"What do you mean?" he asked, taking a seat. She opened the velvet bag, removed an eternal pose and handed it to him. "Sofserv?" he read the nameplate. The pose had a worn wooden frame and the glass was old and hand-blown. The needle pointed southwest.
Harmony nodded. "I bought it at the market today. I saw a strange shop in the marketplace I'd not seen before…"