Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Aaaaaaugh I am so sorry this update is late everyone! I ended up going to Anime Expo last weekend and didn't update because I hadn't finished editing and I also had a major moment of uncertainly over the last part of this chapter and had to have a friend read it and tell me if it was an acceptable chain of events. I'm still nervous and this chapter is sadly not very long either, so the wait is hardly satisfying. But I am going to try-try-try my very best to get Chapter 6 up in the next few days as well to make up for last week's loss.
Anyways, enjoy everyone!
Day 5, Saturday
Sanji had been in relationships before, so he was no stranger to the signs of Puppy-Love Syndrome.
He knew when he went home yesterday night and didn't immediately bash in Zoro's or Luffy's head for leaving empty alcohol bottles and bare chicken bones on his beautiful countertop for the fiftieth time, that he was in an extremely good mood.
He knew when he spent more time on the balcony staring up at the stars and letting the cigarette just burn away on his fingertips, that his mind was preoccupied.
And he knew when he checked his phone almost a dozen times an hour to see if anything was received and pulled open his contact list almost as many times just to stare at that number with an itch to call it (even if it was three in the morning), that he was falling pretty hard already.
He worried maybe it was already getting too serious, but Vivi-chan's sensible words were still rolling around in his head. So, he reminded himself he'd been in this stage plenty of times before and fallen out just as quickly.
But wouldn't that just be his shitty luck if he did find himself unable to deny his affections for a taken man, leaving him with nothing but a shattered heart.
"Tch," Sanji scoffed to himself as he hit the 'Call' button, "Maybe I am a masochist."
He waited silently, ring after ring echoing in his ears, and raised his cigarette to his lips, only to jeer when he saw yet another sign: the 'Try-not-to-make-a-complete-fool-of-yourself' nerves. "Stop it." He grumbled to his shaking fingers.
"Well, that's an interesting way to say hello."
God damn it.
"Uh, I was talking to…" Sanji stumbled, searching around the alley for some sort of answer. His eyes landed on some rubbish shoved behind the nearby dumpster. "This bag."
Usopp sounded like he was trying not to laugh. "A bag?"
"Yeah it's… fluttering here and being an annoying shithead and- never mind. What's that sound anyways?" He asked, unsure how to describe the sort of 'krpheeeeew' noise he could hear.
"Oh uh… water. I'm doing the dishes." Was the reply.
"And your voice?"
"What about it?"
"It's odd-sounding. Kind of echoing." Sanji noted. It sounded more like Usopp was in a bathroom than a kitchen. Perhaps that wasn't the best assumption to come to though, considering the ungentlemanly part of his mind decided to take that subtle implication to rather perverted heights.
"You didn't believe me when I said my phone was special did you?" There was a jittery chuckle, jolting him out of a fantasy of water rushing down dark skin and black curls wet even darker. "Feel blessed you can hear me at all. So… what's up?"
"Nothing really. On my lunch break and I was bored." He answered.
Usopp sounded amused. "Now it's my turn to ask. Do you ever eat?"
Sanji pulled off from the wall he had been leaning on, walking down the alley. "Had a snack. I'm banned from the kitchen entirely so I can't make anything fresh and anything I make at home usually gets eaten before I can take it out of the damn door."
"Oh? Roommates?"
"Tch, shitty ones." Sanji sat down on some stairs leading up to another business, some sort of craft store, before continuing, "I got two shitheads I live with. There's Luffy, a human vacuum. Seriously most of our combined money goes towards feeding him. And then the rest goes to that damn Marimo, Zoro, who just has to have his twelve bottles of ale a night."
"I see and then there's poor you, with only pocket change to buy all those cigarettes." Usopp said, falsely sympathetic.
"O-Oi!" He felt a blush rise while the artist tried to snort down his laughter. "You're missing the point, they're annoying as hell! I don't even know how I'm managing to be under the same roof as the mosshead. He's always trying to start something, using any little excuse to argue with me and making fun of my eyebrows all the time, the jerk."
"And 'Marimo' and 'mosshead' are what? Just pet names?"
Ignoring that, he pressed on. "And Luffy! Ugh, Luffy's… well he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the block set. Sometimes – okay, nearly all the time – he doesn't think before he acts. Like, get this. Once, I think last semester, I was taking my mid-term for my… History? Yeah, history class." He remembered it being one he shared with Robin-chan. "And it was an online course so that shit is timed and can't be interrupted right? Well Luffy comes tromping in, completely disregarding the fact I told him to leave me alone until I was done, and he's whining about how hungry he is. So I'm just trying to ignore him, hoping he'd eventually get bored and go away. And you know what he does to get my attention? He just falls onto my keyboard and my test disappears!" There was a small exclaim of shock from the receiver. "I freaked out and almost kicked the crap out of him until I realized he had only minimized the screen. Lucky bastard. But he can be such a damn idiot sometimes!"
"Aaaaah." The other said, this time with more genuine sympathy though Sanji could hear the smile in his voice. "Well, no harm done right? Hey, does that mean you cook for them too?" When he got a noise of acknowledgment, he added, "Man you're like the best roommate ever. I wish I could cook."
This rose Sanji's interest as he mentioned, "Anyone can cook."
"Well… I can make sandwiches. And you know, stuff from a box. With very clear directions."
"Please tell me you don't just eat mac 'n cheese and Ramen all day, because it that's the case I'm coming over right now to show you how to make real food." He claimed, shuddering at the thought.
"No… Kuro knows how, so he does all the cooking." And there it was. Opportunity number two to start prying for information.
"How-"
"So, how long have you known your roommates?" And there it went.
He cursed internally, but spoke up all the same, "Those two idiots? Since middle school."
Usopp whistled in astonishment. "Wow, long time."
"Yeah." Sanji rolled out his spent cigarette on the railing then flicked it towards a nearby trashcan. He smirked when he managed to make it in. "I bitch about them a lot, but they're great friends."
"I wish…" The student paused, his voice lowering gloomily. "I wish I had kept some of my friends."
He frowned. "What happened to them?"
"Oh, you know. What happens to everyone I guess. Graduated high school, moved away, started college and made new friends. I tried to keep in touch but eventually, all of 'em stopped calling or answering."
Sanji rolled that around in his head and realized yesterday was beginning to make a hell of a lot more sense. Was that what he had been scared of? That he wouldn't care enough to call? "Well then," He claimed, "You had some shitty ass friends that weren't worth your time if they'd drop you for stupid reasons like that."
"T-They… They weren't that bad Sanji! Life just takes people away sometimes. Other things to do and stuff."
"Hmph," He huffed at the resignation he could hear in the man's tone. "Only those with fucked up priorities ditch their friends for 'other things'." He propped his elbow on his knee, thinking of all of his time-honored friends: Nami-san, Vivi-chan, Robin-chan, and even those idiot guys (Franky, Luffy and the Marimo). And despite Brook being on tour in the middle of Europe right now, he always found time to give them a call. Hell, he'd even consider Chopper more of friend than these so-called ones of Usopp's – and he was Zoro's fourteen-year-old kid brother for shit's sake!
There was an uncomfortable cough on the other end. "Heh, you're being a little harsh, don't you think?"
"No. I don't care what excuse you make up for them, a real friend is someone who sticks by you no matter what. I've known mine for so long, they're closer to me than family." He said brusquely, before adding more gently, "And you deserve friends like that too Usopp."
When the darker-skinned male finally managed to answer him, his voice sounded a little thick as he struggled to respond, "I don't think-I'm sure that's not tru-How can you just say stuff like that?! You don't even know me!"
"You sell yourself too short, you know that?" Sanji chided.
"I'm just being realistic!"
"No, you're being negative. Give me one shitty good reason why you didn't deserve good friends!"
"BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY!" Usopp screeched, leaving his ear ringing. The younger continued on angrily, his voice getting increasingly loud and furious, "I-If I deserved good friends then I'd have some wouldn't I? But I don't okay so just… just shut up, because you don't know what you're talking about!"
In the wake of that explosion only silence and heavy panting on the other end remained, a suspicious hitching noise there that he was sure had nothing to do with the other phone's strange quirks. Sanji listened to it for a moment, before admonishing, "You're a fucking idiot and a liar."
Usopp sniffed hard, whispering shakily, "W-What?"
"You have a friend idiot. You have me."
"B-But you-?" There was another catch in Usopp's breath but then he suddenly burst into deliriously happy laughter and it was a much better sound then what had been there before. "S-Sanji you… y-you're crazy! You- hahaha!" The laughs calmed down to giggles after some time and he managed to say a little breathlessly, "Tha-hehehe-That really means a lot. Thank you."
"No big deal." Sanji said, shrugging his shoulders. "If you ever need more sense knocked into you, just call."
"I'll keep that in mind and I-" Usopp stopped abruptly, then cursed. His voice became distorted again, quieter, "Damn, I gotta go. Uh, Kuro needs me. I'll call tomorrow alright? Bye."
"Hey w-" Sanji tried to protest, but the line was already cut. He glanced down at his phone, but didn't have time to think about it because – "SHIT I'M LATE!"