Disclaimer : I don't own One Piece or any of it's characters!~

A / N : I am so sorry everyone! I didn't think a weeks absence was going to cause such an uproar but it did, and for that I apologize. I will also be trying to make the chapters longer as an extra apology!~

The next day at school was quiet, unobtrusive and very very odd in Sanji's opinion. The blonde chef sighed lightly at the thought as he sat in his final period classroom, knee rested up against the sleek wood in front of him as he balanced a pencil between his lip and nose.

He was actually rather nervous at the start of the day, fear of being mocked for his behavior of his Friday kept him at bay as he went thorough his day with little noise. He wasn't even attempting to avoid his Nakama, yes he was content with referring to them as such, but he still hadn't seen a single straw hat since he stepped foot on the school grounds. A small part of him was laughing at him for thinking that they wouldn't hate him after getting to know him, but it was drowned out by a louder voice that was insisting that they probably has a good reason for avoiding him.

And the fact that Dr. Chopper had told him that they were probably playing hooky helped ease his thoughts as well. It wasn't like he's never just missed school because he felt like it before after all. And most of them had clubs, maybe they had meetings at lunch?

So they weren't necessarily avoiding him, no. They were just... Ya, they were avoiding him.

Sanji sighed gently once more as he removed the pencil from his face and looked out the window to his left. It was nice out, and the sky was painted a beautiful sheen of blue that would of typically drew a smile onto the blondes face, but today he just couldn't feel up to it.

Not only was he unable to talk with any of his friends, but that 'G' character that left him a gift the previous week came back. Now, normally the cook would just blow it off as nothing, but the letter that was left this time was rather... Disturbing.

Not even because of the contents, even though the words written made him feel like keeping the lights on as he slept. But because the note was found in his room on the en-table where he kept the watch, even though his window and all the doors of the house were locked. With a new pack of smokes placed on top of it.

The thought of the smokes that were now firmly placed in his bag made the teen bite his lip and twirl the pencil between his fingers. He could really use one, especially as the thought of a stranger being in his room failed to leave his mind. It was scary, regardless of how well the teen could fight, since he was defenseless as he slept. And he was a heavy sleeper since his body was used to waking up early and sleeping late, so if he didn't sleep for a solid 6 hours than he would shut down.

He hadn't ever really been scared of the fact that a hurricane couldn't wake him up, not until now. Not until the thought of someone touching him in his sleep entered his mind.

Now, even going off of that topic he couldn't help but think of the letters contents. This guy knew everything about him. Sanji bit his lip harder at the thought as his teachers voice became nothing more than statically background noise.

'G' knew all his friends, his full name, birth date, that he was adopted, his favorite color, favorite movie-which was by far the oddest thing since he hadn't even told Zeff that his favorite movie was Lilo & Stitch- even what fucking happened on New Years, among many other things. It really limited who it was, but at the same time didn't.

The only person who knew what happened that day besides his attackers was Zeff. And for some reason he doubted that his old man would do something like this, even for a joke. But... He didn't want to think that it was any of those teens either.

None of them had any G's in their names. But maybe that was to misguide him? No... It wouldn't be them, they hated him, and wouldn't bother buying him stuff, nor would they enter his room and not... Do what they did before.

Or maybe he was looking too much into this and it was just some random guy that he hasn't even met face to face before. It was likely, but the blonde also couldn't believe that someone would like him to a point of purchasing him such expensive gifts. Hell, even the smokes were the best brand out there!

The blonde jumped and was brought out of his thoughts as the final bell rang and sent a shock wave of surprise throughout his body. He sat down for a moment to collect his thoughts and place his notebook into his bag before shooting out of the room and merging with the wave of students that were practically pushing one another to get out of the building. Sanji didn't even bother to push his way through the students, but instead just let the wave take him outside as he yawned and sniffed gently.

Once out of the building the teen wasted no time in ripping open the smokes, wincing slightly as the $40 package was wasted on an addict like him, and lighting a golden cigarette up in one fluid movement. He inhaled the cancerous smoke as his eyelids fluttered gently, the sensation of the cigarette hitting him like a good orgasm.

Jesus, he wished he was rich. Then he would smoke like this everyday, he thought with a grin as his mind finally emptied and was instead nothing more than a blank slate as he breathed out a plume of white air in the form of a ring.

"Sanji?" The blonde lazily looked over his shoulder as his name was spoken, but as he skimmed the dispersing crowd he could only cock an eye in confusion as he didn't recognize anyone. Nor was anyone looking in his direction. He then shrugged and hiked his bag up his shoulder as he went to walk home, smoke placed between his lips as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Sanji."

He turned on his heel once more, mind more alert as he looked around. But again, there was nothing more than a few strangler students and no one he recognized. The blonde huffed out a breath as he narrowed his eyes and turned back to the direction of his home, only to stop in his tracks and stare ahead with wide blue eyes.

"...Gin?"

Luffy sipped his tea with a loud slurping noise as he sat in front of Zeff in the mans dining room. Zoro to his right on the plush chairs as Nami and Usopp sat on his left, all of which were silent as they waited for the scary looking man to talk.

"Yes. He has a stalker." The old man ground out as he glared at the monkey-like teen for his lack of manners.

"So why don't you tell him?" Nami asked gently, setting her own tea down onto the table in front of them.

"Because the eggplant is an idiot and would do one of two things, either completely ignore it and any warning signs the man sent his way, or he would wait for the man to show up and confront him. I don't think either situation would be beneficial." Zeff explained before looking over at the oven, standing up as the egg-timer he had sent beeped to life and instructed the man that the muffins were done. He gently placed the hot muffins onto the top of the stove and gently began to remove them onto three separate plates.

"But why don't you confront him?" Usopp asked shakily, obviously scared of the larger man. "The stalker I mean?"

"He knows when I'm sleeping. I set up an alarm for the front and back doors, that would make my phone go off if opened-"

"Well maybe you should set one up in curly's window." Zoro ground out. Both pissed and... Well, angry as he listened to the man who knew about these going on's.

"Excuse me, lettuce head?" Zeff ground out as he set down a warm muffin in front of each of the teenagers.

"This creep has been in the cooks room. Luffy, show him."

Luffy then pulled the same box that the stalker had left the blonde out of his bag, and handed it to the man. Mouth full of muffin, making him unable to speak as he did so.

"What is this?" Zeff asked softly as he grabbed the box.

"When we were at the cabin on Saturday... Someone came to the site." Nami started as she gently rubbed the rim of her cup with her pointer finger. "They took a photo of us, but it was obviously directed at Sanji-kun who was unconscious at the time, but they also trashed Luffy's car. They wrote 'Stay away from him' on the sides and destroyed everything inside except for Sanji-kun's items. This box was on his sweater."

The chef didn't say another word as he silently opened up the box and started off by reading the note. Even when he finished he didn't bother to say anything as he moved onto the photos.

"...We've been talking to the police chief about this, and forwarded him photos of the pictures and letter, as well as the car. He is looking into it at the moment but has no leads..." Nami spoke softly, already knowing what was on the photos and not knowing how the teens father was going to react to such graphic content.

"...Can't say they didn't have it coming." Zeff spoke in a calm manner as he set the photos back into the box with the note.

The teens all stared at the man in surprise, but didn't voice any of their thoughts. They couldn't understand how it felt to know your own child was assaulted by those who he trusted, and being unable to do anything about it after all.

For Zeff, he felt relief that his son wouldn't need to feel fear over those boys coming back to attack him. And he honestly knew that he would of done the same thing if he was capable. Stupid eggplant didn't want him to do anything excessive though, not even alert the authorities or take him to the hospital.

"And the letter is nothing new. He always talks like that, but the car... Sanji hasn't had any friends since what happened last year, which is roughly when the letters and gifts began appearing at the Baratie." Zeff began as he rubbed his chin with a large hand. "We were going to give them to the eggplant, but Patty, one of the idiot cooks decided to read it off to everyone else as a joke... He didn't get half way through it before running into my office and telling me that Sanji had a stalker."

"What was written on it?" Nami asked, noticing that the other three had scared, angry, confused and disgusted faces. She felt fine doing the talking however. She wanted answers after all.

"It was describing everything the kid did that day. It was his day off so he spent it at the vendors, buying groceries to test out some new recipes... And it also contained a photo, just like these but of a dead vendor, who was supposedly flirting with Sanji as he purchased some fruits. I asked the idiot about the vendor later, just asking if he knew him, and Sanji only told me that he was a creep. I still didn't bother telling him about his death though."

"Wait- He's killed others?!" Usopp shouted in panic.

"Yes. But the cops couldn't find any leads to who it was. They searched for a month before giving up." Zeff sighed. "He continued to send gifts and letters, mainly consisting of clothes and anything that Sanji happened to look at throughout the day. Which just proved that he was following him around... I threw out all the gifts, hoping the fuck would get the message and scram, but he never did..."

"Is that why you moved here so suddenly?" The only woman present asked.

"Hm. The day before we left the 'G' character sent Sanji a box that had pictures of the eggplant in them. He was sleeping, changing, showering and just cooking in each of them. There was also some rather.. Sexually explicit items in the box with a letter saying how he wanted to use each of the items on the eggplant... At that point I realized he wasn't safe and moved here, but not before he found out I suppose.."

"... Doesn't he leave any clues? Finger prints? Hair? Anything?"

"No. He's careful. And smart... So obviously I knew it wasn't any of those kids from the photos. It confirms it now, but that just leaves me at a blank for suspects."

Luffy hummed softly as he tried to steal Usopp's muffin with one hand as the other shoveled food into his mouth, but even as his mouth was full he still opened it to speak. "What if it's someone who's ate his cooking?"

Zeff cocked an eye before scoffing. "He was a chef, you bad mannered monkey. Thousands of people have eaten his cooking."

"But.. What if it was someone who really needed it?" Luffy asked carelessly, still shoveling food into his open jaws.

"Someone who needed it...?" Zeff thought for a second before tapping his finger against the table. "The eggplant always fed those who were hungry. Even if they were the rudest person to walk the earth, the idiot would feed anyone. Money or not. He's probably helped a lot of people."

"Hmmmm" Luffy thought as he gulped down the last of the food and rubbed his chin. Zoro rolled his eyes at the exaggerated action as he final decided to speak up.

"Did anyone he feed stick around?" The swordsman asked, arms crossed above his chest as he looked the man in the eyes.

"As far as I know they all came back after hours to thank him, and attempt to repay him but he never accepted anything. So eventually they all gave up." The chef shrugged, he too looking into the teens eyes.

"Did any not thank him?" Luffy asked with a grin.

"No... Only one guy didn't come back but that was because he was an outlaw." Zeff waved it off. "He was probably arrested the next day with how high his bounty was."

"An outlaw?"

"Ya, he was in the mafia or some shit." He waved his hand once more. "I don't remember much about him, only that he came into the restaurant wielding a gun and instructing the cooks feed him something. He was in the cops custody for weeks and they decided to starve him to see if he would talk. Patty kicked him out and Sanji brought him out some food, he ate and then left."

"But why isn't he a suspect?" Usopp asked lightly as he glared at Luffy, who had managed to finally steal his muffin from right under his nose.

"Like I said, he was an outlaw and was most likely arrested. If it was him the cops would know anyways since he's very... Specific about his crimes."

"How so?"

"He always leaves a mark of his crew. A skull with some weird ass patterns, I don't know." Zeff explained harshly. "It couldn't be him. Why would an outlaw go through the trouble?"

"Why did Sanji go through the trouble of feeding him?" Luffy broke in, making Zeff back peddle slightly.

"Well, the idiot almost starved as a kid. He doesn't like seeing others go hungry." Zoro furrowed his brows at the statement, he already had his doubts that Sanji's previous drunken words weren't just nonsense. But this just confirmed it.

"But why did he bother? He was an outlaw, who could of easily come back to kill him. So why go through the trouble? Maybe.. Maybe Sanji's action showed this guy the good that some people had? And as an outlaw I doubt he ever received much kindness... So it's like a baby bird!" Luffy explained happily, as if he just cracked the code to world hunger.

"Huh?" Usopp asked his captain with a cocked brow as he rolled his eyes, as if Usopp was dumb for asking before continuing.

"Like you know how a baby bird thinks the first thing it sees is it's mother?" The others nodded slowly, still not seeing where the teen was going with this. "Well, it was like that! This guy had been fighting his whole life for survival and was most likely feared by everyone, then all of a sudden when he's at his bottom and the most vulnerable this blonde cook angel steps in and helps him. So since Sanji showed him his first given piece of kindness, the man decided that he was his mother bird!"

"That... Strangely makes a lot of sense." Nami whispered out in shock.

"Ya. It does." Zeff growled out in pure anger as he glared down at the table in front of him. He never even thought of that as being a possibility, but now that it was spoken aloud it was all he could think about. He had a lead this entire time. He could of done something this entire fucking time!

"Zeff...?" Usopp asked softly as he saw the elder man clench up.

"Fine. We need to notify the police." He spoke through grit teeth as Nami nodded.

"What was the mans name?" She asked, pulling out her phone with the intent to message Smoker the news.

"Gin. Don Kriegs right hand man."

"It's been so long." Sanji smiled through his steaming mug of coffee, both hands were wrapped around the cup as his eyes locked on the man sitting in the cafes booth across from him.

"It has, but I can't say you've changed much" Gin grinned before sipping on his tea as the other grinned mockingly.

"Wish I could say the same to you, you look like you got hit by a truck. The hell happened? You get in a scrap with a fucking blender?" The other laughter and shook his head gently as the teen gestured at the bruises and bandages that lined the mans face.

"No, nothing so grand-" Sanji chuckled around his drink, making him almost choke on the scalding liquid. "Just a couple side jobs."

"Ohh. You still doing the whole lapdog thing?" Sanji asked in a joking manner, but you could hear the seriousness behind it. Gin winced lightly, something that didn't go unnoticed by the other as he sighed.

"Afraid so. Not like I have many choices at this point after all." The other shrugged as Sanji bit his lip.

"That fucking Krieg is an asshole though... I could totally hook you up with a job at the Baratie?" Sanji asked gently, a hopeful note hitting his voice as the other sighed once again.

"I thank you for the offer, you're a good person Sanji... But I need to stay hidden, I have every cop in the county looking for me."

"Pfft have you seen the asshats I work with? 90 percent of them are outlaws and the other 10 percent is me and Zeff." Sanji said as he took another sip of his sugar infused coffee. "Besides, we could totally change your name? You look like a Jose to me."

Now that drew a genuine laugh from the otherwise stoic man, which made the cook smile in turn. Once the two ran into one another outside Sanji's school grounds they quickly began chatting and eventually found it best to sit down at the nearest cafe, Gin paid for the drinks and chose the booth farthest from any other patrons as to not allow anyone to over hear them. "Really? I think a nice Derek would work more."

"Hell no. That's generic as fuck, you need something that is uncommon, it'll be so obvious that its a fake name that they won't think it's a fake name!" Sanji stated happily, fingers moving from the mug of coffee to the raspberry tart that he had gotten - Well, Gin had gotten.

"... That's so crazy it just might work." Gin joked with a thoughtful look on his face as the other ripped off a piece of tart and gently placed the pastry into his mouth, licking the sugar from his finger as he gently rubbed the appendage against his lips.

The outlaws eyes couldn't help but trail the sinful, and probably completely oblivious action in lust. His cheeks heating up a pale pink which contrasted against his tan skin as the other chuckled and wiped his now damp finger on a napkin. Once Gin noticed the others eyes looking back at him he shook his head, getting rid of the dirty thoughts in favor of listening to the blonde speak.

"Also-" Sanji went to speak but stopped as his pocket began to vibrate. He sent an apologetic smile towards Gin who simply smiled and gestured for him to answer it as he finished off his tea. Gin gestured that he was going to get a re-fill and grabbed Sanji's cup before going up to the counter. The blonde smiled and nodded a thanks before grabbing the phone and answering it quickly, not bothering to check the I.D as he did so. "Hello?"

"Eggplant, where are you?" Oh, Sanji let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as Zeff's voice rang through the other end. For some nagging reason he was afraid it was the school or god forbid, the principle.

"Cool it geezer, I'm just talking with an old friend." Sanji grumbled, not really happy that he was being constantly babied by Zeff on his whereabouts.

"Huh? You don't have friends idiot. Where are you?" OK, ouch. Sanji thought with an angry frown at his fathers words.

"The hell do you know, asshole? I'll have you know that I have had plenty of friends. Now what do you want?"

"Just answer my question, where are you?"

"I'm just in a cafe. It's actually really nice in here you should visit sometime." Sanji said calmly as he rolled his eyes. He didn't want to tell the man where he was to be honest, especially since he knew the elder cook would rush over as soon as he knew. But like Sanji has said several times before, he wasn't a fucking child.

"I'm going to kick your ass in a second."

"I would love to see you try without breaking a hip."

"Hey, Sanji!"

Sanji blinked in confusion at the new voice and actually had to pull the phone away from his face and stare down at the reciever before pressing it back up against his ear. "Luffy?"

"Yep! I'm at your place, you should come home!" Luffy yelled merrily, making Sanji smile gently at the goofy teenager.

"Can't, I'm talking with someone. Where were you today anyways?"

"Ummm.. What friend are you with?" Sanji ignored the very obvious change of subject with a roll of his eyes. He would never understand Luffy, so there was really no point in trying.

"Just an old friend from the Baratie, Gin." Sanji said lightly as the other came back and handed him the now full and steaming cup of coffee.

"WHAT?!"

Sanji yelped and jerked his coffee in his hand as the shout exploded in his ear, making the scalding liquid run over his hand as he grit his teeth and quickly went to grab some napkins.

"Are you OK?!" Gin yelled as the blonde breathed through his nose before sending him a shaky smile. "Ill go grab some ice!"

"Ah-It's OK, and hes gone." Sanji mumbled as Gin shot back to the counter, making him chuckle lightly as he looked down at his dropped cellphone, only to panic as he noticed that some coffee had spilt onto the device. He attempted to turn it on but got no results as he tried wiping the brown liquid off his screen. "Fuck..."

"Here, put this on the burn." Gin stated firmly, jerking Sanji out of his internal panic as he gratefully accepted the ice pack and hissed as he set it on his burning hand, only to sigh in relief moments after as it began to numb the limb.

"Thanks..."

"What happened?" The other asked in concern as he helped wipe up the coffee.

"Oh, my dumbass friend decided to scream in my ear suddenly. Fucking idiot made me ruin my phone so now Zeff is going to kick my ass." Sanji grumbled as the other furrowed his brows.

"Why did he suddenly shout?"

"Couldn't tell you- oh. Actually it was right after I mentioned your name... I am so sorry." Sanji looked scared as he realized what he had said. "Fuck... I didn't think he would know who you were! But I didn't tell him where we were, so we should be good? I mean Luffy is a good person anyways I doubt he would call the cops if he didn't really know yo-"

"Sanji! Calm down." Gin chuckled as the blonde finally stopped and instead sighed. "It's fine, I'm more worried about your hand..."

"Oh," Sanji blushed slightly, embarrassed from his earlier panic, Gin on the other hand relished in the light pink that now adorned the cooks cheeks. "Sorry... And my hand should be good. I've burnt it worse before."

"Still... They are precious to you after all. Wouldn't want to damage them in any way." Sanji smiled gently at that, happy that Gin actually seemed to care about him. Even after a year and only meeting for a good ten minutes in total. It was odd, but the cook wouldn't question a thoughtful act when it was presented.

"Thanks..."

The two then shared a small silence before breaking into another conversation, Sanji would of been more worried about having no way of contacting anyone, but he was too pissed off at Luffy and Zeff to even bother going home right now. So for now he would spend whatever time he could with his friend before he was yelled at by his overprotective father.

Besides, he was with Gin. And he doubted anything would happen with the scary looking man at his side.

Tbc.