Title:From Here On Out
Author:AoiTsukikage
Rating:R-ish
Characters/Pairing:ZoSan, other secondary pairings
Chapter: 12/?
Word Count:2875
Summary:Sequel to 'This Is Your Life.' Sanji had thought that balancing real life and working to take down a new crime boss would be easier the second time around. He was wrong. Modern!AU, ZoSan primarily, other secondary pairings.
Chapter Twelve
"Her name is Conis," she started, smoothing her hands down her skirt and nervously tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. "She shares a few classes with Chopper and I although I don't know what she's studying, exactly, and she's in the same group as us for a project we're doing. I think…I don't know, one of us might have mentioned the party and she asked if it was for school, but…I didn't say anybody's name…"
"But we said where it was, remember?" Chopper tugged on her sweater and she looked down in surprise. "Yeah, Conis asked us where the best places in the city to book parties were at, so we said that a friend of ours was related to the owner here and that if she needed to book it we could probably get her in," he looked horrified now, his eyes wider than usual.
"So…so if she…if she is working for Enel, we just…told her where we'd be, and if they knew about what happened with Krieg at all they'd know Sanji and Zeff and…oh, God, I'm so, so sorry!" she clapped her hands over her mouth and Usopp hugged her tightly, whispering something inaudible to everybody else in the room.
"It's fine," Sanji stood up from Zoro's lap and walked over, setting his hands on Kaya's shoulders even as Chopper clung to his waist. "I don't blame you guys at all. But if this ends up giving us a way to get closer to Enel, that's a good thing, because that's the one thing we've really been needing," he assured them both. "I mean, Zeff's gonna bitch at me for wrecking this room, but at least it's just a spare banquet room and not the actual restaurant so he'll live," he shrugged.
"I still feel awful," Kaya said quietly. "I mean, she's…she can't be older than I am, she's just a girl, I didn't think…"
"You couldn't have been expected to," Kalifa leveled a glare at Lucci before walking over, whip looped around her arm and looking rather disgruntled. "All things considered, this may work out in our favour after all. We've got a gun and bullets to study now which means we don't have to try and take one from Enel directly, and we've removed a significant number of men from his ranks that we won't have to fight later. And, as Sanji pointed out, we may just have found an informant."
"We'll have to question the girl," Lucci broke in. "We need to…"
"Yes, we do, but you're not going to be the one to do it," she said firmly, turning back to Sanji. "I assume you'll want to go?"
"Yeah, probably," Sanji shrugged, and he had to admit that he was probably a good choice considering that the last thing they wanted to do was scare this girl off and, well, he couldn't be mean to a woman. "How is this going to work?"
"I can probably find her address by hacking the University website," Usopp mentioned, shuffling from foot-to-foot and grinning sheepishly when they turned to look at him. "What? I'd never do it if it wasn't important!"
"There won't be any need for that," Kaya assured her boyfriend, smiling fondly at him. "We still have to get together over the holiday break to finish that project, so we can just suggest that we have our next meeting at her house. If we don't mention anything about tonight I'm sure she won't be suspicious, and while I hate to do something so underhanded, instead of us showing up it'll be…whoever we decide to send to get the information we need. And if that fails you can hack the University website," she added, Usopp looking happy at the prospect.
"One of you should still go along to put her more at ease, but I think maybe one more person would be all that would be necessary. Any more and she'll likely be too afraid to talk, which is the last thing we want," Kalifa suggested. "But we can decide that once you've got a meeting set up."
Sanji reached down to pat Chopper on the head, the boy still holding onto his waist, but he seemed to be relaxing now. "I'm really sorry, Sanji."
"Nah, 's fine, kiddo. No harm done," he promised, Chopper bristling at being called 'kiddo' but finally letting go and moving to stand by Usopp. "So, um, I'm gonna need to clean up in here at least a little bit, but are we free to go now?"
"Yes, go on," Lucci waved a hand dismissively before stalking out of the room, Hattori clinging precariously to his shoulder.
Sanji looked mournfully at the overturned tables and broken dinnerware on the floor, the glass from the smashed window littering the carpet, and wondered just how much shit Zeff was going to give him for this.
000
"Leave it unlocked," Zoro didn't glance up from putting his katana away, but Sanji paused with a hand on the lock and blinked in surprise. It was a couple of hours later, close to the middle of the night, and he was exhausted from tidying up what they could back at the restaurant.
"Huh?"
"The door. We're gonna have a visitor for the next couple of days, at least," the swordsman shrugged and took off his coat, yawning.
"See, this is why we need an extra bedroom…"
"Yeah, yeah," Zoro rolled his eyes. "He's fine with sleeping on the couch. I mean, he used to be, but that was before…anyway, he's not gonna complain," he made it sound like Sanji should just know who he was referring to, but the blond was still kind of lost.
"You wanna fill me in, here?"
"Oh. Yeah. I forget sometimes that you haven't known Kaku as long as I have, but when Lucci gets all psycho-justice-y he crashes here. He did it a lot before you got back from Japan so I'm pretty sure he'll show up again," Zoro explained and Sanji had to admit that made sense (and, after tonight, he didn't blame Kaku for wanting some space, because if Lucci acted like that all the time it would get annoying really fast).
He'd barely finished talking when the door opened and Kaku slipped in, body slumping back against the wall. He let out a sigh that told Sanji everything he needed to know and looked up at the two of them. "Sorry. I'll try not to stay long and I'm sure Kalifa will let me use her couch if need be, but I suppose I'm used to coming over here."
"Don't worry about it," Sanji finally got his coat off and hung it up, blinking sleep away because he was about ready to collapse. "Are you gonna be okay on the couch?"
"Hmm? Yes, it's fine, I don't mind," he assured them.
"He gets like that a lot, huh?" Sanji headed for the kitchen, setting the teapot up because he figured they could use it (or, well, Zoro would never drink tea, but he and Kaku would).
"You haven't seen that side of him yet, have you?" Kaku chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "He's been better of late, but there are times he goes into that mindset and he's a right terror to spend any time with. I know it's not personal, he's like that with everybody, but it doesn't exactly make me feel good about myself so it's better if I just leave him be until he starts thinking rationally again," he explained.
"You know you don't have to stay with him…" Zoro started, but then shrugged, because relationship drama really wasn't his thing in the first place.
"Of course I know, but for some reason I still do. He's a lot…darker than I am, which you both probably can tell, and it gets exhausting to be around him when his aura is that angry all the time, that's all. It doesn't last long, usually, but I have no patience to deal with it," he didn't look especially disheartened by any of it, in any case.
Sanji was distracted by the sound of something knocking into the window in the kitchen, a sharp rap and then a fluttering sound, and went to pull it open without really thinking as a bundle of feathers flopped inside and then took up residency on his shoulder.
"Um," he said, a little helplessly, because while he was used to Hattori for the most part it's not like the pigeon had ever paid them a house call before and Kaku started chuckling at the look on his face.
"Yes, well, Hattori doesn't much like to be around Rob when he gets like this, either," he shrugged apologetically and Sanji could feel the brush of something against his neck that wasn't feathers or feet, so he reached up and found a tiny scroll of paper tied to the pigeon's ankle. "And he's also forgetting that Hattori's not a carrier pigeon, although he does get the job done. Here," he reached out and untied the message, Hattori lifting a foot obligingly as he did so and then settling back in on Sanji's shoulder, cooing happily.
"What's up?"
"He's just telling me he went down to the station to question some of the people that were arrested. I think he knows well enough that I like to keep my distance at times like this," he sighed and stuck the paper in his pocket "I doubt he'll find out much, but I pity whoever's on the other end of his interrogation when he's in a foul mood."
"Has he ever…you know…killed somebody in cold blood?" Sanji was gripping the counter rather tightly, the whistle of the tea kettle starting him when it shrilly went off. He busied himself getting the tea ready, listening while he did so.
"By that I assume you mean outside of a self-defence situation?" Kaku questioned and Sanji nodded. "No. At least, I don't think so. I don't know everything about him and sometimes I truly think I'm better off in the dark on some things. Regardless, he's not a murderer, no matter how heartless he appears to be."
"Mm-hmm. Well, anyway, you can stay here as long as you want to," Sanji held out a cup of tea and Kaku accepted it with a tired smile, wrapping his hands around it and taking a sip.
"Even your tea tastes better than what most normal people could make. Zoro, you never let go of him, you hear me?" he said, utterly serious, and Zoro grinned.
"I'll take your word for it, but I keep him around for more than his tea-making skills," Zoro raised an eyebrow and Sanji drank some of his own tea, glaring at his boyfriend.
"I would kick you for that one if I wasn't so damn exhausted."
Hattori fluttered back to the windowsill while he drank the rest of his tea in relative silence, preening himself and shaking out his feathers before giving a rather human-looking yawn and tucking his head under his wing.
"I think the bird's got the right idea," Zoro commented, Sanji unplugging the kettle and setting his mug in the sink. He'd clean up in the morning.
"Lemme grab Kaku some blankets and then we can get to bed," Sanji shuffled over to the hall closet, taking out a blanket and a spare pillow and tossing them onto the couch. "You can have more tea if you want, or raid the fridge or whatever, but I'm gonna fall asleep on my feet if I don't get to a real bed in the next two minutes."
"I'm fine. I'll see you lads in the morning," Kaku set his own cup on the counter and leaned back against it, brow furrowed and looking deep in thought.
"Hey. He'll come around," Sanji walked over to pat the older man's shoulder, pulling him into a hug that Kaku readily accepted.
"I know. Thank you," Kaku took a shaky breath and moved away, and Sanji really didn't know if he'd been reassuring at all but, well, there wasn't much else he could do.
"Bed," he said to Zoro on the way by, barely having the energy to strip down to his underwear once they were in the bedroom, and he felt Zoro's arms come around him, snuggling into the welcome warmth and falling asleep in a matter of seconds after his head hit the pillow.
000
The next morning dawned sunny and warm, for late December, and Sanji let himself drift for a while once he woke up, feeling safe and comfortable and not really like moving anytime soon.
At least, until a 'crash' from the kitchen had him bolting upright, throwing on sweatpants and a t-shirt in record time before zipping out the door.
"What's going on out here?"
"Sorry," Kaku had a two shallow bowls out on the table, one filled with water and the other with what looked like a mixture of rice and breadcrumbs, and Hattori was rather gleefully eating from that one at the moment. "He gets a little violent when he's hungry."
"Takes after his master, then," Sanji grunted, crossing his arms and looking at the other occupant of the room he'd failed to notice before (and, apparently, the source of the aforementioned crash, given how he was righting his chair at the moment).
"That damn bird has it in for me," Paulie grumbled, seating himself again and crossing his arms.
"So I'm assuming Rob somehow cornered you into coming here because he knows I'm still cross with him?" Kaku asked, getting a shrug and a nod from the other man.
"Yeah, pretty much. Sounds like Enel's men couldn't tell him that much, obviously they're not in on whatever important stuff he's got going on, but those rumors about Enel thinking he was some sort of god or something seem to be true. Apparently these guys damn near worship him, which is scary enough on its own, but well, when a guy's got electric guns I guess he can call himself whatever he wants," he other man looked unimpressed and Sanji had always appreciated how straightforward Paulie was, but it was particularly useful now. Especially since he knew he was only saying exactly what Lucci had told him, as incredible as it sounded that a regular person could actually get people to believe he was some sort of deity.
"Well, that's no help," Kaku frowned. "Guess we'll have to hope this girl can aid us a little more."
"Yeah, well, hopefully Kaya or Chopper gets back to me today with when we're supposed to meet her, and then I guess we can decide who else should come along," Sanji went to start the coffeemaker, needing something to wake him up a little more.
"If only that were the least of our problems," Paulie frowned and Sanji looked up in alarm. "Apparently those Admirals? Not leaving. At least, not from what Lucci told me. I guess Akainu's grumpy about not catching Blackbeard and until they get proof he's somewhere else they're not gonna take off from here."
"Fuck," Sanji sighed, because this was the last thing they needed. "So we have to hope he shows up?"
"And if he's got any brains at all, he'll have figured out that explosion was meant for him and be hiding out for a while, which means that we're in the woods on this one," Kaku shrugged. "I don't know any other way to get them out of here."
"We have to think of something," Sanji stared at the coffeemaker, willing it to brew faster. "Until they leave we can't risk doing anything about Enel, and as last night proved, we really can't write him off as not being a threat."
"And if he tries something like that again chances are the city will get word of it no matter how much we try to cover it up," Kaku was frowning, staring at the floor. "I'm going to suspect that for Akainu catching any criminal is better than not catching one at all…"
"So if they find out about Enel at all we're pretty much fucked," Zoro stalked into the kitchen, looking remarkably alert for early in the morning. "So what can we do?"
"Hope that Blackbeard messes up and shows himself, or hope that somebody else shows up that's enough of an incentive to get them to leave, I guess," Sanji didn't see any other alternatives, and even though Garp was on their side, he wasn't going to ask him to lie to the Admirals just to get them out of their hair. "Well, we can at least meet up with this Conis and see what she's got to say for herself."
He all but pounced on the coffee pot once it was ready and poured himself a cup, inhaling deeply and leaving it on the counter for whoever else wanted some. "So I'll get in touch with Chopper and see what the deal is there, and hopefully something goes our way and we can get moving on this."
Nobody said anything in reply, but Sanji was willing to bet they were all wanting the same thing.
Notes:
1. I don't really have much to say, but thanks for reading, and feel free to drop me a review or comment if you feel so inclined :)