Warnings: AU, language, yaoi, character death, gore, disturbing imagery.

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Oda-san. I make no profit.

This is an AU with a twist! And an ending that'll leave everyone confused haha. Enoyy it.

Theme 27 Gate

There was a large house at the end of the cul-de-sac, blocked off by a wrought-iron gate that was twice as tall as he was. It stretched all around the house in spiked, pointed patterns, threatening impalement should anyone try to climb it. Luffy always wondered what was behind it, but as a kid he was always too small to jump the gate and too big to squeeze in between the bars.

Now, at nineteen years old, the fence was just as tall as he was. It was easy to hoist himself up onto the bars - with a little help from the seat of his bike - and jump down onto the other side.

The grass in the yard was yellowed and dry, with patches of dirt every few steps. Luffy walked over it with a hand on top of his head, holding down his beloved straw hat.

The house behind the iron gates was more like a sprawling mansion, with paint chipped, shuttered windows and vines crawling up the paneled sides. Luffy whistled in appreciation as he walked around the perimeter, grinning up at the house he'd been trying to get into since he was ten.

After a few minutes of walking, he finally stumbled upon a stone porch and a door leading into the house. The paint on it was chipped with age just like the window shutters, the wood rotted away. He grinned widely as he walked up to the door and tried the doorknob, disappointed to find it locked.

Luffy took a step back and tilted his head up, his eyes sweeping over the massive stone ledge wrapped around parts of the house he could still see. He took another step back, and another, until his back bumped into something soft and smoke-scented.

"You're trespassing on private property. If you don't leave, I'll be forced to call the proper authorities." The voice rumbled pleasantly against his back as a hand gripped his arm, and Luffy looked behind him to see a tall blonde with a cigarette dangling between his lips. Luffy offered him a wide, innocent grin but the man just pulled on his arm and started to drag him back towards the gate.

The blonde's fingers were cold, like ice.

"What's inside that house?" Luffy asked him, craning his head around to peer up at the second floor of the sprawling mansion. The two men ducked underneath a tree and Luffy suddenly found himself at the front gate with the man forcing him out of it.

The gate was locked back into place and the man smirked as he took a drag off his cigarette.

"You've got a lot of balls to want to sneak into a house like this. You're lucky I found you first." The man chuckled, exhaling a bit of smoke out of his nose. Luffy watched the trail with wide eyes, his fingers curled around the bars of the gate like he was afraid to get yanked away. "What's your name?" The blonde asked.

Luffy stared at him for a moment before sticking his skinny arm through the bars to shake the stranger's hand.

"Monkey D. Luffy, at your service!" Luffy grinned, shaking the other's hand vigorously when it was offered. Something flashed in the blonde's one visible eye, but it was gone so quickly that Luffy didn't even catch it. "So what's your name, mister? Do you live in that house?" The raven laughed, looking up at the house again.

"I guess you could say that." The man shrugged, pulling his cigarette out of his mouth and tossing it into the grass where he crushed it under the heel of his shoe. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket and started to walk away, but not before throwing a lingering look over his shoulder. "Don't ever come back here again, Monkey D. Luffy. I'll kick your ass if you do." he threatened.

The teen laughed loudly as the man walked away, forgetting the stranger had never given his name in return for Luffy telling him his. He jumped onto his bike and quickly pedaled away, already planning to sneak into the yard again later that night.

When the blonde man found him the second time, Luffy was trying to scale the cement ledge wrapped around the house. He'd gotten one of the windows open and was a second away from slipping into the house when something grabbed his leg and pulled him down.

He hit the ground with a soft thump and a grunt, disoriented for a minute until the stranger's face appeared over his.

"Hello, Monkey D. Luffy." The man smirked, offering the teen a hand to pull him to his feet. Luffy dusted off the back of his shorts and turned to look around the darkened yard. When he had first climbed onto the ledge, it was still light out and the man hadn't found him right away. He wondered how long he had been up there.

The click of a lighter was the only thing he could hear, and then the area was lit up by the flame.

"I thought I told you not to come back here." The blonde told him, taking a drag off of his cigarette then blowing the smoke out in small rings. The man looked the same as he had the first time Luffy had run into him. If it was really this late at night, why wasn't he wearing pajamas?

"What's your name, Mister?" Luffy asked him excitedly, nonplussed when the man grabbed his arm and dragged him to the entrance again. While Luffy tripped and stumbled over tree roots, the blonde walked effortlessly forward, like he was floating.

All too soon Luffy found himself back outside of the gate, with the stranger clicking the padlock into place. Just like before, he stepped back and put his cigarette out on the ground.

"Next time I catch you, I really will kick your ass." The blonde threatened, snorting softly to himself as he started to walk away.

"You never told me your name!" Luffy yelled after him, disappointed that he hadn't gotten any further into the house.

The blonde man stopped walking for a minute and looked over his shoulder, smiling in a sort of sad way.

"It's Sanji." The man said, before he disappeared back into the yard like something had swept him away. Luffy frowned and turned around, gripping his bike by its handle bars and walking it home.

Luffy went back the next night, determined to get into the house one way or another. He jumped the gate the same way he had the last two times and went straight for the front door. The paint here was chipped, too, and the wood was rotted away.

There were two ornate knockers on either side of the wide door, both shaped strangely like the silverware he ate with. Luffy reached forward to touch one, fascinated by its shape. It felt so smooth.

"Don't." A voice came from behind him, carrying with it the smell of smoke. Luffy didn't have to turn around to know who it belonged to. "Don't knock, Luffy." Sanji said again, his hand shooting out to wrap around the raven's wrist. The man's fingers were cold against his skin, even though it was the middle of Summer.

"Why can't I knock?" Luffy asked him, tilting his head in confusion. He brought his other hand up to knock, but Sanji held onto that one, too. "Sanjiii, let me go inside your house!" The teen whined, twisting in the other's hold.

"Go home, Luffy." Sanji snapped, pulling him away from the front door with a tight hold on both of his wrists. Luffy fought him, straining back in the direction of the house, but Sanji was so much stronger than him.

The blonde all but threw him to the sidewalk, but left the front gate wide open, the padlock forgotten on the cement. Now that he thought about it, the front gate had been unlocked this entire time.

So why did Sanji keep locking it? And why wasn't he locking it now?

Under the light from the street lamps, Luffy could see how tired the blonde man was. His face looked haunted, like he'd seen all of the nightmares of the world on repeat.

"Sanji, what's inside that house?" Luffy looked passed the man to the broken-down mansion, almost afraid to ask because Sanji was determined to keep him away from it.

A finished cigarette was tossed to the ground, but instead of walking away, Sanji lit up another and sat in front of Luffy on the other side of the open gate. For a long moment neither of them spoke and only the sounds of nearby crickets interrupted the silence.

It seemed to drag on forever until Sanji finally let out a resigned sigh.

"I died in that house." The blonde murmured, his one blue eye burning directly into Luffy's, urging the raven to believe the words coming out of his mouth.

Luffy laughed, "What? You're not dead, Sanji! You're right in front of me!"

"Luffy." Sanji said sharply, standing up to unbutton his jacket with a pained expression on his face. The minute he spread the dark material open, Luffy's laughter stuttered out and his eyes widened.

There, on the blue-striped button-up shirt, was a splatter of blood. It was spread over the expanse of Sanji's chest and it was still wet, leaving trails of blood staining the clean parts of the fabric.

Without skipping a beat, Sanji unbuttoned the bloodied shirt and pulled it open, revealing the blackened, twisted skin underneath. He looked like he'd been stabbed, or maybe even shot, multiple times. Luffy couldn't tell; he wasn't a doctor or anything like that.

"I'm dead, Luffy." Sanji told him again, this time with the obvious proof that what he was saying was God's honest truth. It took a minute until he started to button himself back up, covering the wound and the bloody shirt. "I'm trapped here, in that house, on this side of the gate." He met Luffy's eyes and gave the boy an intent look. "Don't come back here again." he said.

Sanji closed the gate and locked it into place, but otherwise he didn't move. He was still watching Luffy, waiting for him to say something. After a minute or two, the teen finally stood up and slipped a hand through the bars to grab Sanji's arm.

"Can I come back to see you if I promise to stay on this side of the gate?" Luffy asked, lifting his eyes to meet Sanji's, painfully aware that both of them were trembling. He stuck his other arm through the bars to grip Sanji's jacket and pulled him closer.

"Luffy, I don't think-" The blonde started.

"Please, Sanji?" Luffy interrupted him, pressed so tight against the bars that they were leaving imprints in his shirt. Every breath he inhaled was coming out out as warm puffs of mist and it was confusing because it was supposed to be ninety degrees outside. "You're so cold." The teen whispered to the man-or ghost, he guessed, because Sanji really was dead.

Sanji leaned forward with a soft huff, his lips curving into a smirk as they brushed over Luffy's, cold and pale but incredibly soft.

"You never change, Captain." The blonde said fondly. Luffy didn't really know what he meant, but it didn't matter to him as long as he could see Sanji again.