Autumn (guest reviewer) asked for more creepy neighbor Doffy. You're always a very nice reviewer so I am happy to grant that request :)
1,314 words
Rated T-ish?
Sanji curled deeper under his duvet. He swore he could hear scratching on the other side of his bedroom wall, as if the occupant of the apartment next door were trying to claw through. It was a faint but disconcerting noise and it was making Sanji uncomfortable.
Ever since his run in with his neighbor, Sanji had avoided the man next door like the plague. Moving had been an unreal dream; Sanji was not exactly rolling in money and he had chosen to move into this apartment because she rent was affordable and it was close to work. Coming up with the money to pay a new security deposit and first month's rent just wasn't feasible for him financially. At least not right now. So Sanji was forced to stay in his apartment, just a few feet from the lunatic next door.
That didn't mean he hadn't taken evasive measures. He now left for work three hours earlier than was really necessary, in order to make it out of his house before the other man had the chance to wake up. Sanji also had taken to finding a way to stay out of the house late at night so that Doflamingo would long since have gone to bed before Sanji got home. It was costing him sleep, yeah, but it was worth it if he could avoid that creep.
Except that creep still found ways to bump into Sanji. Sometimes Sanji would see him out in public, stopping by the same bar or shopping in the same mall. Not to mention that there was a knock at Sanji's door at least once a day, if Sanji was home to hear it. He could feel those glasses-covered eyes on him at all times, and even in the privacy of his own bedroom, Sanji felt like the man was trying to get to him.
Maybe he was just being paranoid. His friends certainly seemed to think so.
"So you're freaking out because this guy hit on you?" Zoro had asked. Sanji had taken to inviting his best friend out for drinks whenever possible. It both kept him out of the house and gave him a companion should Doflamingo find him in public.
"I'm not freaking out because he hit on me!" Sanji explained loudly, crushing his cigarette into the provided ashtray and immediately lighting another. The amount of cigarettes he smoked in a day had nearly doubled in the last couple of weeks. "I'm freaking out because he's stalking me!"
"Uh-huh…" Zoro muttered with disinterest, ordering another drink. He didn't seem to find Sanji's problem as serious as Sanji did.
"I'm serious, Zoro!" Sanji shouted.
"I'm pretty sure you're making it up in your head, cook," Zoro scoffed. "Can you pay for my drinks? That was the deal if I went out with you, right? I need to start heading back."
Sanji's heart had sank in his chest. It wasn't nearly late enough at night for Doflamingo to have gone to bed, but Sanji wasn't sure he wanted to be cornered by the man out in public either. True terror was sinking in, like it did every time Sanji had to face the prospect of returning home.
"Sure," Sanji said, tossing a few bills out on the bar top.
"Relax, cook," Zoro said, seeming to notice his friend's drop in energy. "You're just imagining things. Besides, you really think you couldn't take this guy in a fight?"
Sanji was absolutely sure he couldn't take this guy in a fight. There was something about the man that did more than rub Sanji the wrong way; it chilled him to the bone. He didn't feel mentally collected around the guy, and with the lack of sleep he'd gotten lately he felt even less so. But there was something about Zoro's confidence in Sanji's abilities that bolstered Sanji's nerves, just a little. Zoro very rarely if ever doled out compliments, Sanji was kind of honored.
"Maybe you're right," Sanji said, standing up from his barstool. He might not agree with Zoro, but there was no sense in wasting his friend's time with it anymore for now.
"Of course I am," Zoro said. "Now let's go, cook."
Sanji had felt much better after talking to Zoro, but that conversation had been hours ago. Uncertainty and fear had begun to set in again, and the faint scratching sound in the wall was driving Sanji to the brink.
A knocking at his apartment door made Sanji's heart stop. His eyes widened in the darkness of his blanket. Terror gripped his limbs so that he couldn't have moved even if he had wanted to. He strained his ears. The scratching sound seemed to have stopped, and the apartment next door had fallen totally silent.
His neighbor was here.
Sanji burrowed himself deeper into his blankets. If he pretended he wasn't home, surely Doflamingo would get bored and go home. Sanji just had to keep quiet and wait it out.
The pounding on his door continued, getting louder with each new round of knocks. Finally, after several minutes of persistent knocking, silence settled over Sanji's apartment once more. He listened hard from beneath his blankets, trying to hear the sound of the apartment door next to his opening or closing. There was nothing but silence, several tense, long seconds of it.
Then Sanji heard the deadbolt to his apartment door slide open with a click. He froze. That wasn't possible! He'd never given his neighbor a key! He'd never even let the man inside before! How could this happen. He could hear his own door open softly, and close with a gentle bump. His home intruder was trying very hard to keep quiet.
Sanji could hear heavy footsteps muffled by the carpeting, slowly making their way step-by-step into his apartment. He could hear them coming down the hall, hear them approaching his bedroom. He knew he should get up and prepare himself for a fight. He didn't want to give in without trying to escape. He'd run to Zoro's or Usopp's, beg them to let him stay. But his limbs wouldn't move the way he wanted them too, and all he could do was curl in on himself, trying to become invisible beneath his bedding.
His bedroom door clicked open and Sanji lay paralyzed. He could hear the intruder breathing, deep, even breaths. Time seemed to freeze, with nothing but the intruder's breath to mark the passing moments. Finally, the person moved, drawing closer to the bed. One step. Two steps. Three steps. He was right there now, just a few inches away…
The blanket was ripped from Sanji's grip with ease, allowing the towering figure to peer in at him.
"Move over, cook."
"Zoro?" Sanji's frozen heart started beating again, twice as hard and fast as before, but this time with elation, not fear. "How did you get in here?"
"Used my spare key. Now, make some room. I'm not about to sleep on your shitty couch."
"What are you doing here?" Sanji asked, hastening to slide over and make space for his friend.
Zoro slid under the blankets next to Sanji. "You sounded pretty freaked out about this neighbor of yours. It's really not like you to be afraid of anything, so I got a little worried." He snickered. "And look at you, hiding under your blankets like a little kid. You think the big bad flamingo isn't going to get you under here?" he asked mockingly.
"Shut up!" Sanji growled. "I wasn't hiding, I was just cold!"
Zoro snorted. "Yeah, well, with two of us here now I'm sure you'll be warm in no time. Get some sleep, cook."
Sanji didn't need telling twice. With Zoro here, he felt a thousand times more at ease than he had in weeks. He fell asleep almost instantly, and stayed that way until it was time for work.