Disclaimer: Is the word fanfiction not enough of a clue?

Over the past few weeks, Sanji had settled into a routine; go to therapy with well-meaning, but slightly too-friendly councilors, do stupid shit with Luffy and the others, make sure the beautiful ladies in the facility were content and comfortable, and cook dinner with Thatch in the evenings.

Overall, he was a pretty satisfied guy. Until you counted the irritability.

Sanji had been getting angrier and more quick-tempered as each day went by. He'd even found himself snapping at Nami one day for not eating the peas on her plate during dinner. That was the last straw. He needed to know what the hell was happening to him—why he would ever dare to shout at his darling Nami.

He apologized to the shocked woman, excused himself from the table, and made his way to Trafalgar's office. The man was a smug bastard, but Sanji had to admit that he was an incredible doctor.

Trafalgar was working at his desk when Sanji entered—without knocking—and lifted his head at the sound of the door being opened. He smirked at the blonde as he entered and set down his pen to lean back in his chair. "How may I help you, Sanji-ya?"

The sarcastic smile was infuriating, but Sanji restrained himself from kicking it off the man's face. Sanji got straight to the point. "What's wrong with me?"

The bastard's expression didn't change, unless one counted that he somehow looked even smugger than before. Sanji then realized what that damn smirk meant. "You know, don't you? You've known this whole time what's been wrong. You asshole, why didn't you tell me anything?"

Trafalgar only shrugged. "I wanted to see how long it'd take you to figure out that something wasn't quite right. It took longer than I expected." The dark man stood and went to the door, gesturing for Sanji to follow. Trafalgar lead him to the back area of the pharmacy and began rummaging through cabinets. "Tell me, Sanji-ya, have you been experiencing any symptoms of depression? Anxiety?"

Sanji gave him a funny look. "No, why would I?"

His doctor didn't answer, but only asked another question. "Have you had any headaches lately?"

When he thought about it, Sanji realized that he'd been getting headaches more often than he'd ever had. He thought it was only Luffy's stupidly insane antics causing them. "Yes, actually."

Trafalgar finally seemed to find what he was searching for and turned around to hand Sanji a bottle of pills. "This is Bupropion. It's a smoking cessation aid," he informed Sanji. Well, that explained plenty. Nicotine withdrawal was not what he had expected, but it made all too much sense. "Take those for seven weeks, then come back so I can evaluate if you should take them for a longer period of time. If you experience any strange symptoms, tell me, and I'll prescribe a different medication. It should help reduce your cravings and withdrawal symptoms, but in the end it's all up to your own will."

The doctor stayed to answer the remaining questions Sanji asked about possible side effects and the other symptoms he might experience from the withdrawal. Afterwards, Trafalgar dismissed Sanji with another superior, smug smile and went back to his office.

Sanji looked at the pills in his hand. Damn. The chefs back at the Baratie would have a field day with this. They'd been constantly nagging at him about his constant smoking, about how he was too young, how he was ruining his health, etc. etc. The worst of them was Zeff. Sanji winced. The old geezer would never let this one go.

Sanji fell to his knees before the gorgeous woman in front of him. He grabbed her smooth hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it. He looked up at her beautiful, flawless face, ready to answer her every desire.

The woman merely snorted at him, pulled her arm from his grasp, and walked past him towards the others. Sanji looked after her. She was already falling for him, he knew it.

The lady stood directly in front of Luffy, hands on her hips. "I want you to be mine," she said bluntly.

Luffy stared at her, looking confused as hell. "Who the hell are you?" He deadpanned. Sanji wanted to kick him for being so rude to a lady.

She looked amazed that he didn't know who she was. "I know I've lost my freckles, but I thought you would've recognized me. I'm still as beautiful as ever." She suddenly looked nervous. "Am I too fat? Is that what it is?"

Luffy still looked as if he had no idea what was happened, but Zoro seemed to have recognized something. "Alvida?" He asked, incredulous.

The straw-hatted boy's eyes widened comically. "Alvida?!" He yelped. "No way! Alvida was fat and ugly, there's no way this is her."

Alvida kept her confident expression, but it was clear to Nami that she was hurt. Call it womanly instinct. "I knew it; I'm fat, aren't I?"

Sanji kicked Luffy in the head, making him fall off the couch. "Don't talk about the mademoiselle that way!"

He received a glare from the moss-head for his efforts, but he ignored it. Luffy whined and rubbed his skull. "Meanie, Sanji."

"Shut up. Apologize."

Luffy turned to Alvida, but didn't look at all regretful. "Sorry," he said.

She looked at him, smiling. "Ever since that day, when you insulted me like that, I've wanted you to become my man." He swooned. "No one's ever spoken to me like that. That's why I decided to change my looks a bit, so you'd be mine."

"But Coby's the one who told you off," Luffy reminded her.

She looked irritated at the remembrance. "I know you made him do that. There's no way that spineless kid would have the guts to say that if it weren't for you."

Luffy frowned. "Don't talk about Coby that way. I don't like you. Go away." He crossed his arms childishly. Alvida looked furious, her face turning red with indignation. Usopp cowered, and even Nami felt slightly intimidated at the level of the woman's rage, but Luffy looked at her unwaveringly. "You'll regret that," she hissed. She stalked off, sitting with another group of people, striking up a conversation with an odd blue-haired man.

Before Sanji could reprimand Luffy, Zoro distracted his train of thought. "She seems different," he mused.

Nami gave a short laugh. "Clearly, if she used to be as large as Luffy said she was."

Zoro shook his head. "That's not it. True, she used to be nearly obese, but she was perfectly fine with that. Now, she literally has no fat to speak of, yet she's nervous about her weight."

At this, Usopp piped up. "Maybe she's anorexic. Kaya went through a phase like that, always nervous about her weight." Sanji was relieved to note that Usopp hardly stuttered—around them, at least—anymore. It had begun to grate on his nerves. "It only lasted a few days, though. I snapped her out of it." Usopp looked proud—as himself, not as Sogeking, for once.

"What's anorexia?" Luffy asked.

Nami explained, "It's an eating disorder. It means she's eating very little because she's afraid of gaining weight." Luffy looked horrified at the thought that someone would restrict their own eating while the orange-haired woman looked thoughtful. "It's a common disorder for women. But, if it's like you said and she didn't used to care, I wonder what changed."

"It was probably my fault," Luffy said. His eyes were shadowed under his hat. "I made Coby say that stuff, and now she doesn't eat. How can someone not eat?"

Zoro cuffed the back of Luffy's head. "Moron, you didn't make Coby say anything. You just gave him the confidence to stick up for himself."

Luffy glanced up at his friend. "But Zoro, now she has another disorder because of me."

The swordsman's eyes hardened. "Luffy, if you don't stop talking nonsense right now, I'm going to throw you off the roof."

He looked dead serious.

Nami and Usopp protested, but Sanji merely looked on. He knew the marimo wouldn't do anything that could actually harm Luffy, but the kid needed to know it wasn't his fault.

Luffy just laughed. "Thanks, Zoro."

Zoro only lied back onto the couch, an arm over his eyes. "Shut up and let me sleep."

Alvida got her revenge a few days later.

Sanji and Luffy were sitting alone in the lounge, discussing what fish tasted best with lemon (Luffy was adamant that trout was best, while Sanji argued that it was tilapia). Zoro was already asleep, while Usopp was somewhere with Kaya and Nami was who-knows-where. The blue-haired man that Alvida had been talking to earlier walked over to them. He stood firmly before Luffy and gave him a sneer. "Straw Hat," he greeted.

Luffy looked at him and gave him a large smile. "Buggy! Long time no see!"

Buggy smirked. "Yeah, it has. I've been a little busy doing some research."

Sanji didn't like the way he said that.

"You see, after you rejected Alvida, she came to me. We dug up some things, and found some…interesting…information."

Luffy still looked clueless, but Sanji narrowed his eyes. This man had done research on Luffy.

"For example, we found out who your brothers are—ah, excuse me. Who they were. Ace and Sabo, correct? The ones you're always supposedly speaking to?"

It finally dawned on Luffy what was going on, and he tensed. "What do you want, Buggy?"

The man laughed. "Oh, nothing really. I'm just doing Alvida a favor. She was real hurt, you know."

Sanji stood, giving the bastard a fierce glare. "Get the hell out of here." Woman or not, Sanji didn't want Luffy to get hurt over something he said to Alvida.

Buggy waved him off. "Fine, fine." He turned to Luffy. "It's all your fault they're gone, you know. If only you had stayed." With that, Buggy left, and Sanji was left with his own puzzlement and a probably emotionally unstable teen.

Sanji looked at Luffy, but saw nothing. The boy was sitting calmly, emotionlessly. It was…unnerving. The blank stare on Luffy's face made Sanji want to shake him, tell him that everything was okay, that Buggy was a moron, and that Luffy should laugh and smile and be happy—but he didn't. He didn't think Luffy would appreciate that, so he merely sat back down. He didn't comment on what had just occurred, nor did he give any indication that anything had happened at all. He only continued their conversation from where they had left off before Buggy's interruption.

"So, trout, right?"

Err…yeah. Ace and Sabo were, in fact, alive at one point. Many of you have already guessed this, so I figured it was as good a time as any to actually reveal it. Still, it'll be a while until I tell you what happened to them and reveal everything about Luffy.

Plenty of you probably already know what anorexia is, and I sort of explained the basic concept of it within the chapter, so I don't think I need to say anything about it, right? If you want me to explain it more in-depth to you, just ask me and I'll send you a PM to expand on it.

Thanks so much for all your support, guys; I really appreciate it. You don't know how much I appreciate it. Until next chapter!

-Spoons