During previous conversations about Companions with Law, Sanji learnt that Companions could pretty much live on the same food substances as humans. It was cost-effective, in a way. No such thing as Companion food, and they were all genetically engineered so very few had any dietary requirements of any sort.
It made things easier for Sanji. He would just make everyone the same thing. Something quick and easy. The journey between the work district and the living quarters already took about twenty minutes. He really didn't want to be away for so long. He might have missed something.
Keying himself into his flat, Sanji didn't even bother taking off his jacket. He made a bee-line for the kitchen, heating up the stove and moving to the fridge. Fried rice. Easy. But it'll have to be a bit more substantial. He spotted a bag of mixed shellfish defrosting at the bottom of his fridge. Perfect.
He rolled up his sleeves, silver bangle clunking against his wrist bone as he started to slice up a few vegetables. Sanji wondered what kind of palette the tiger would have. Companions never complained, especially not their owners, but each one had different preferences to another.
Just like us.
A chime sounded on his bangle. '12:00 pm!' The numbers scrolled across the tiny screen. Already? As if on queue, Sanji's stomach grumbled. He better double the portions. One for himself, and he couldn't forget about Bepo either.
Soon, the blonde cook was making his way back to the work district with boxes of seafood fried rice in a bag and the aromatic smell of fried onions and spices following him, making nearby Companions and other Company workers turn their heads as he passed.
The lift door chimed. 'Level 5…' The voice began to announce, but Sanji was already halfway down the hallway before the sentence was finished. He slowed his strides when he neared the observation room, peering inside through the small, glass panel. Robin and Law were stood around the table, surrounded by green and blue holograms of timetables, pages of information, and small graphs. They were deep in conversation, both sporting serious expressions.
Sanji moved to the lab door. Through the panel, he saw the tiger still sat on the table, meditating. It was strange seeing the creature like this. So calm when just earlier, he was ready to tear the cook to shreds. Sanji pushed through the door as quietly as he could.
The tiger's ears twitched, all stillness broken. His tail swung around and began to slap the metal surface of the table. Amber eyes flickered open and honed in on Sanji. His features twitched into a snarl and a deep growl started to reverberate in his chest.
"Growl all you want, but I bet you're hungry," said Sanji. He placed the bag of food on the nearest counter, and pulled a box of rice out.
The tiger's mood shifted, his sneer gone and his eyes now focused on the box in Sanji's hand. His nose twitched, as the growling grew quieter. Sanji took a step forward, but the tiger glared at him again, baring his fangs. He backed up and off the table as the cook approached.
Sanji held a hand up. "Alright, alright," he spoke in a gentle tone. "I won't hurt you."
The tiger scoffed. "Like you could hurt me," he growled. "Blondie."
Sanji blinked. Before now, the tiger had said one word to the cook. He'd forgotten he was capable of any speech at all.
"Rude," said Sanji, feeling a small smile pull at his lips. "And I went through all the trouble of cooking for you and everything."
"You wasted your time. I wouldn't eat anything you'd give me."
Sanji couldn't help the smirk this time. "Is that so?"
He took it as a personal challenge whenever faced with reluctant eaters. Especially when they appeared hungry, just like the tiger. His amber eyes kept flicking between the box and Sanji.
The cook stepped forward, holding that stern glance. The tiger growled, his fur bristling, backing up until the chain pulled taunt against the table. Sanji reached the edge of the table and placed the box down, along with a spoon.
"Here," he said, and slid everything across the table, closer to the tiger. He took steps backwards until the tiger stopped growling.
The striped cat eyed the box, then Sanji, then the box again. With a tentative hand, he took the food and settled on the floor behind the table. Sanji heard the lid pop open, followed by a cautionary sniff from the tiger.
Rounding the table as quietly as he could, Sanji kept his distance and watched the large cat practically inhale the food from the box. He kept his focus on the food, but his ears twitched and pointed in Sanji's direction, ever aware of his presence. His expression stayed the same. Perhaps less edgy, but it was hard to tell if he liked what he was eating. That was until he started purring. It was soft and low, easily missed and loudest when the tiger chuffed through his nose in between mouthfuls.
Sanji chuckled. "That good, huh?"
The tiger's eyes flickered back to Sanji, but he didn't answer until he'd drained the whole Tupperware of every grain of rice.
"I've had better," he muttered.
"Your purring says otherwise."
The purring stopped. The tiger glared, amber eyes burning. "I don't purr."
Sanji hummed. "You sure do. Just like a big, fat, house cat."
A growl. "I'm nothing like a house cat."
"You look like one too. Big ears, whiskers, tail, and the purring. Just like a housecat."
The tiger leapt onto the table, large hands slapping on the metal. He roared, long and loud at the cook, until he fell backwards and slammed against the counters behind him.
"Sanji!" Law yelled from the door. Both tiger and cook turned to see the doctor stride into the room with Robin and Bepo close behind. The tiger, still growling, leapt back to the floor and retreated to his spot behind the table.
Law grabbed Sanji by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
"What the hell were you doing, coming in here alone?"
"Uh," Sanji cleared his throat, feeling his paralyzed nerves slowly twitch back to work. "Seems I touched a nerve."
Law sighed, picking up one of the boxes left on the sides. "To think you'd feed the animals first before your friends."
His complaint fell on deaf ears, as Sanji grabbed another box and flitted over to Robin's side.
"Ah, my dear Robin," He cooed. "Sorry to keep you waiting, here's your lunch."
Robin giggled at his antics. "Thank you."
"Loser," the tiger grumbled from behind the table.
Sanji shot him a look. "You say something, kitty?"
"Kitty?" the tiger snarled.
"Sanji," Law distracted them, cutting off Sanji's retort. "We're supposed to be taming not taunting him, remember?"
The tiger smirked, before he sank back to the floor behind the table, smug that the blonde got berated. Sanji narrowed his eyes at him before deciding to turn his full attention to the others in the room. He got the last box of food out of the bag and passed it to Bepo. The bear blinked in surprise at first, but nodded his thanks and took the food.
"Right, sorry," said Sanji. "What's the plan?"
"At the moment, we'll need somewhere suitable to house the tiger," said Robin.
"He can't stay here," added Law, as he started tucking into his lunch. "I can't run my lab with a hundred and eighty pounds of muscle, claws and fangs breathing down my neck."
Sanji looked over at the tiger, seeing his ears twitch. "What about the shelter?"
"That was the initial idea," answered Robin. "But I don't think I'd entrust something so dangerous to them. Also, it would be best to keep him somewhere nearby. Somewhere we can all get to him easily."
"I thought about the infirmary," said Law. "But there's too much going on up there at a time. We need somewhere quiet and out of the way for him too."
When a natural silence fell over the room, Sanji's mind wandered to the other places out of the working district. Specifically, they wandered to his flat.
"I… have a spare room," said Sanji, before he could think about what he was actually suggesting.
Law and Robin threw him a look, before exchanging glances. It was the simultaneous quirk of the brow they both did that unnerved him.
"And?" Law prompted.
The cook shrugged. "We could move him there."
"Are you sure you want this thing living in your flat? He nearly ripped your throat out."
"You could make it more tiger-proof. I was converting it into a study anyway, so all the furniture's been moved out. It's perfect."
Law grimaced and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know…"
"It seems logical," said Robin. The bangle on her wrist beeped and she checked the screen as she continued to speak. "The best place for the tiger to be at this point is with his nutritionist, don't you think?"
"Perhaps," muttered Law.
Robin flicked the message on her bangle off and made of the door. "Anyway, it's the best we've come up with in such short time. If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I must get back to my work. We'll move the tiger to Mr Black's spare room. Then we'll work it out from there."
It took Law and his co-workers a few days, spread over the week, to fully tiger-proof and convert Sanji's spare room. When he came home that night, they were moving in the drowsing tiger.
"I should really be more concerned that you all have access to my flat, shouldn't I?" said Sanji as he inspected the changes they made to the room.
The biggest differences he could spot were the thick, metal beam wedged between the ceiling and the floor, the sliding glass doors than now made up where the wooden door and the wall used to be, and a new door at the back of the room that Sanji was sure wasn't there before. A thick futon was laid out beside the metal beam, containing the unconscious Companion. Sanji eyed the long chain running loosely from the beam to a heavy collar around the tiger's neck.
"Don't worry, princess," said Law. "We didn't go through your underwear drawer or anything."
Sanji rolled his eyes. He stood aside as Law's co-workers, Penguin and Shachi, set up a low table at the centre of the room. He gestured to the new door at the back of the room
"What's through there?"
"Bathroom," answered Law, as he gently moved the tiger into a recovery position on the floor. "You had empty wall space, so we thought Tigey would be more comfortable with a little en suite. Didn't think you'd want to unchain him to use your bathroom and risk getting ripped to shreds."
Sanji snorted. "No, not really."
Law stood up and looked over the room. "The chain is two-fifty inches long, so it should be enough to get him to the bathroom and around this half of the room. Safety area is behind the white tape."
He paused and pointed to a line of tape that ran under the table and divided the room in half. Then, he reached over and plucked the cigarette from between Sanji's lips.
"Hey!"
"Don't smoke in this room," said Law, crushing the cigarette on the heel of his shoe. "I haven't done a full examination of Tigey yet, so let's try to keep him in as clean an environment as possible. Any questions?"
Sanji sighed, disappointed about his short lived nicotine fix. But his mind quickly latched onto something else.
"Are we really calling him Tigey?"
Law raised a brow at him. "Why?"
"Don't think it really suits him."
A small smirk spread on the doctor's face. "First you wanted him in your flat, now you want to name him. You sure you don't want him as a Companion?"
Sanji frowned at him. "Just had a feeling that if you called him 'Tigey' again, it'll be you with the bandages around your neck this time."
Law laughed. The kind of quiet, short chuckles that he did whenever he knew something that others didn't. "Alright, whatever you want."
He dismissed Penguin and Shachi and checked his bangle. "The sedatives should wear off in about an hour. I gave him a strong dose this time, so he'll be really groggy and disorientated. Make sure he gets a lot of water. Feed him too, once he feels up for it."
"I think I know the basics of Companion care, Law."
The doctor shot him a side-wards glance as he made for the door. "Yes, because every Companion is a hundred and eighty pound bulk of muscle with an aggressive violent streak that won't hesitate to rip your arms out of their sockets without even using his claws."
Sanji smirked as he followed him. "Didn't know you cared so much about me."
"I'm just worried you'll damage our imported goods."
"Huh, charmed."
"He's a prototype, you know. We'll get into a lot of trouble if you break him."
"I thought he was more likely to break me?"
"Yeah, but that outcome is not as bad."
"Oh, now I feel special."
Law laughed as he joined his co-workers in the hallway. "Give me a call when you're getting mauled."
"I'll try to remember that," Sanji called after them, as they disappeared into the lifts. He turned back to his flat and made a bee-line for the tiger room.
Standing by the doorway, he watched the slumbering tiger through the glass. Even when unconscious, the striped cat was still a marvel. Like this, Sanji had time to take in the creature's full size and appearance without having those amber orbs staring back at him, or being in dangerously close proximity of sharp claws. He watched the tiger's tail and ears twitch in his sleep. Sometimes, a shudder would jolt across the the cat's muscles. But otherwise, he slept in silence. Sanji wondered if he was dreaming. Do Companions even dream about the same things humans do? Are they that similar? Or do they dream so vividly about humans the same way Sanji's dreams are plagued with burning orange and jet black?
He shook his head. He should probably do something more productive with his time than staring at a sleeping Companion.