Chapter 8 - Three Tiers For Sweet Revenge
Sanji's practical cooking exam is in a week's time, and unfortunately, he still hasn't completely decided on the dishes that he is going to make. The cook has three dishes down; it is just his final one which he is stuck on. As per the rules, Sanji has decided on one dessert. He is going to make blackcurrant jelly during his exam as it is quick and simple to make, as well as showing a range of skills which his teacher will be looking out for. His other dishes are all planned out. He just needs this last one. Sanji wants to make one other dessert. He wants it to be the one which will stand out among the others, and he wants to design it himself. The blond is lucky that his teacher has allowed for him to still be working on what to cook during his exam, as the students were supposed to turn in their completed list of dishes a few weeks ago, as well as a step by step plan that they were to come up with, on how they are going to make all of their dishes within the allotted time given.
Sanji is trying his best to come up with a fourth dish, but he has seemed to hit a brick wall. Everything which has happened in his life recently hasn't helped at all, and he's been feeling more useless, and that there is no point in even trying as he's going to fail anyway. This is a completely different perspective to the one he had before. Before his fight with Zoro, before he caught his now ex-boyfriend with another man, Sanji was excited and looking forward to his exam. He was nervous, but he knew he'd be able to handle it; he works in the kitchen of the Baratie after all. Zeff wouldn't expect anything less than an A from Sanji with this exam.
Thinking of Zeff, his old man is going to kill him when he gets home, as the kitchen is in a mess. There's cutlery and cooking equipment littering the kitchen tops, as well as recipe books open, and a bowl of over whipped cream as Sanji lost focus of what he was doing and was daydreaming about beating Law's face in.
The blond sighs as he looks at the contents in the mixing bowl. He knows he can easily save this over whisked cream. He's done this kind of thing before, but…. What's the point? I probably won't use it anyway… I don't even know what I made it for….
Sanji picks up one of the recipe books that he'd left open on the counter, and proceeds to flick through it once more. After flicking through it one more time, and still nowhere nearer to figuring out what to do, he groans as he closes the book, then folds his arms around it after placing it back on the counter, and uses the book as a pillow. I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Everyone has high expectations of me. I can't just make another main dish and leave my dessert as just a bowl of jelly. They'll want more. I need to do more. But I can't... Normally these things come easy to me. I made a dessert for the Baratie just a few weeks ago. But I can't use that. I need something new…..
He stays there for a while, still using the book as a pillow, and thinking of nothing and everything at once, feeling like an idiot for even trying. Yeah, maybe he's overreacting. He's only just lost his best friend, and ending another relationship, because his partner was cheating on him. People have lost a lot more than him, have less, and are going through worse situations than him. But his feelings are real. These feelings and emotions he has aren't anything less than those who are "worse off". No matter what happens to someone, the feelings are the same. You can't disregard how much pain a person feels just because they ended a relationship, while someone else has actually lost a beloved family member or friend through an illness or disease. They would have both lost someone, even if it was through different circumstances. The pain they would feel would be the same. They will both feel empty at times. They will both carry on with their lives and see things which will remind them of someone they lost, or something they once had. They will still see an empty bed, that special mug that the other person would use, or the seat that wasn't claimed out loud but the other person would always use. And they will both feel a sense of longing to have things exactly as they were before.
This is just one example of many, and Sanji knows and understands all this, but it doesn't make him feel any better, it doesn't stop him from second guessing, and feeling like he doesn't deserve to be down or upset over the little things when someone else's world could have just been turned upside down. He still has his family, his job, his cosy life, his friend's, and if he really tried, he could still patch things up with Zoro. But I don't deserve it… I don't deserve him…
Jumping from one thing to another, Sanji gets lost in his thoughts about Zoro. To Sanji, the green haired swordsman can either be easy or difficult to read. It can sometimes be hard to tell whether or not Zoro means what he says or if he is messing around with him, apart from the times in which he is deadly serious as you will know without a doubt when he is like that. It would be hard to miss. It's the same when he fights or spars with Zoro. He can easily read Zoro's movements in a fight, and know how to reciprocate, but other times, the swordsman can be unpredictable, especially when he's too wound up, distracted… or idiotic.
They're quite similar in a way. They are both strong, but in different areas, though Zoro is still just ahead of him in strength. He feels as if he has a lot of catching up to do and he would like it if Zoro would acknowledge his strength as well as his cooking. They say actions are stronger than words, but what if when someone shows how they feel through actions, it is just an act, or you're just seeing exactly what you want to see. For Sanji, he's needs the words, they confirm the actions, they confirm or disconfirm what he thinks he sees in others. That's why Zoro is so difficult. The swordsman doesn't often show his emotions. His body language is mostly neutral. He always seems calm unless in an argument with Sanji. Zoro can be quite blunt in certain situations, but when his emotions are involved he can shut down and not say a word.
Sanji reckons there are three main sides to Zoro. His easily aggravated side and he can be hot-headed, especially when it comes to Sanji. The cook can always wind him up with just simple gestures or words. Another side to the swordsman is his calm and collected side. Zoro can put up a very calm front most of the time. Seeming indifferent at times, and can be very collected during serious fights, not wavering unless his opponent tries to pick at him mentally, which can be difficult to achieve. Zoro won't let them break him that easily.
And then there are the cracks. The small split seconds that can cause the swordsman's walls to come crumbling down, though not for very long. These cracks reveal his soft and caring side, though the cook never used to take the time to notice it, until he developed more complicated feelings towards the swordsman, and started paying more attention to it. When it comes to Chopper and their other friends, sometimes even children and animals, Zoro is surprisingly soft. The green-haired man is usually stoic and reserved when it comes to communicating, but he can occasionally become lively when Luffy is around. It's nice to see him smile, and that smile usually brightens Sanji's day.
I have to apologize to him...
Sanji used to think that it was only Luffy and Chopper that Zoro could be kind and gentle around. That was until a few months ago that Sanji saw the swordsman around children, which got him to realise when Zoro was showing his soft side to him, but in a different way. Seeing Zoro with the children truly opened his eyes.
A few months ago, not long after Christmas:
Zoro sighs as he turns up in front of a relatively large building. The outside walls are painted bright blue and yellow, and there is a large sign above the front door which reads: Happy Smiles Day-care. This is something that he really does not want to do, but he has no choice, as he is here on his week's work experience. As part of being in his school's sixth form, he, among the rest of the students in his year, are out of school and doing work experience for the whole week, where they choose a place of their choice, within those who accept school students, and work there to gain experience and to see if the area of interest is the right job for them. Unfortunately for Zoro, he forgot about the whole thing, even with the constant reminders, and did not hand his form in on time so that the school could set him up with a place for work experience. He was supposed to select three places he would like to go for this week, and then the school would ring the businesses up and try to get him a place in one of them. None of the teachers realised until last week that Zoro did not have a place to go for work experience, and so, the only place that would allow him to work there at such short notice, and wasn't already full with other work experience students, was the Happy Smiles Day-care. Zoro had no choice but to come. He wasn't allowed to not do it all, and he's not allowed to arrange work experience for a different week because of his upcoming exams. Sanji suggested that he could work at Koshiro's dojo, as he was bound to fine with it, but Zoro did not want to be stuck working with his father for a week, and when he let the school arrange this for him, he did not know that he would end up at a day care of all places.
Sighing once more, Zoro finally opens the door to the day care and steps inside.
"Zoro, it's great to see you again. Did you find this place ok?"
The swordsman's eyes widen when he sees his old reception teacher, Makino, who he hasn't seen since primary school, "Makino? Y-yeah I did..."
Smiling, she gives him a brief hug, "I'm so glad you remember me. I've seen you in passing but never had the time to stop and see how you were."
"It's great to see you again. So, you work here now?"
"I don't just work here, I own this place."
"You do?" Zoro grins.
"Yeah. I quit teaching in the school a few years ago and starting working on running my own day care. I've had this place for just over a year now."
"That's great."
Zoro smiles and looks around. The day care is bright; the walls painted a pale yellow with different colours of the rainbow serving as the wall borders, and with several displays of the children's work taped to the walls. There are a few toys out and a large teddy bear sitting up against the wall in the far right corner. A few sets of drawers are filled with even more toys, and drawing utensils, and to the right from the front door is a medium sized low table and chairs for the children to have their meals and snacks on.
"So how's Sanji doing? Is he well?"
"Uh, yeah, he's doing well..."
Makino nods and smiles, "the children will be here soon, I'll introduce you to the staff in a minute, just a few quick things. You'll be working upstairs with the 3 - 4 year olds for the first half of the week with whomever else is scheduled to be up there at the time, and for the last half you'll be down here with me. I know you've recently turned 18 but we are not allowed to leave a work experience student on their own with the children so you'll have at least one other member of staff with you at all times when you're around the children. We'll show you around more as we go on and you'll learn the schedule too. Do you have any questions?"
"...No. I'm good."
"Right. What time do you finish on normal school days?"
"At twenty past three."
"Okay, you're more than welcome to leave here at that time each day, though it's no problem if you'd like to stay a bit longer at the end the day. Ah, one more thing, Zoro. At lunch time, you can eat in the staff room, if you wish. We have a microwave in there as well as a fridge, so if you'd like to bring in your own lunch for the rest of the week, you can. Just make sure you label what is yours. Everyone else labels the food that they bring in for themselves. There should be a few things in there for everyone though, and they won't be labelled. If you'd prefer, you can also go out for your lunch. You don't have to stay here. There are plenty of shops which are not that far away from here."
Zoro nods then follows Makino as she takes him into the staff room to greet the others. Today, Mimi will be watching over him and settling him in. Mimi is a young woman, in her early twenties, with short blonde hair and green eyes. As with the other staff members, she is wearing the day care's uniform which is a pair of black trousers and a light blue polo shirt with the day care's logo on. Joining them today in looking after the children who will be upstairs is Josh. Josh has medium length, light brown hair, and brown eyes. He is round the same age as Mimi. It's not long until the parents and/or guardians of the children who attend Happy Smiles Day care turn up and drop their children off. For an hour and a half, all of the children stay downstairs to play, until Mimi and Josh lead the 3 - 4 year olds upstairs, followed by Zoro. The room is similar to downstairs, the same colours and the same sets of furniture, though there are more bigger toys for the children to play with, and the upstairs is larger as the staff room and kitchen are downstairs, thus, extra rooms where not needed upstairs which would have ended up making the play area smaller.
In the centre of the room is a large carpeted area set up for storytelling with wooden shelves full of books, accompanied by plush seats designed in different shapes and shapes and different colours for the children to sit on. To the far left are tables and chairs which are close to shelving units displaying clear plastic boxes filled with paints, paper, pens, pencils, and other art supplies. Stuck on the front of the shelving unit is a laminated sign spelling out "Messy Area". The other areas of the room have similar signs, stating which one is which, including the carpeted area in the middle of the room, labelled, "Storytelling Village". On the far right is the "Imaginative Play" area which has a dressing up box, a mini toy kitchen, and small play house. In the front left, is the "Toy Area" where most of the toys are stored, including a dolls house, mini plastic dinosaurs and small toy cars with a large plastic toy garage set, plastic tea sets, puzzle games and jigsaws, and much more. This area has a large road map play mat laid out on the floor. The last area is at the right side of the room, in the front, and is labelled the "Dancing Station". The carpet here has numbers printed on them inside different coloured drawn outlines of hands and footprints. The space is cleared, apart from the rolling shelving unit with a small box T.V and a silver stereo displayed on it in the corner of the room.
Josh and Mimi get the children to take off their coats and shoes, and place them into the walk in cloakroom, along with any bags they brought with them, before getting them settled on the carpet in the in the middle of the room. The two staff members have taken off their shoes as well, so Zoro quickly takes off his boots and puts them into the cloak room too, before joining the others back in the middle of the room.
Josh smiles as he introduces the children to Zoro, "Okay everyone, this is Zoro. He's going to be helping us this week. Now, what do we say?"
The children grin up at him as they say good morning to the swordsman, Zoro embarrassingly mumbling the words back. He's then told to sit with them on the carpet for now, as they go about their morning routine of greeting each other as well as singing nursery rhymes and going through the numbers and the alphabet. The children seem to gravitate towards Zoro, two young girls scrambling onto the swordsman's lap, while a third tries to sit on him too, and a few of the other boys and girls sit around him, one boy smiling up at him as he manages to get Zoro to hold his hand while the rest of them sing. He doesn't understand why the children like him. I'm scary looking, right…? Well, that's what other people tell me. But then again, I don't think I've been called scary by a child before….
Once the morning routine is over, a few of the boys and girls try and get Zoro to play with them, but are disappointed when Mimi interrupts and shows Zoro around the upstairs level of the day care instead. Mimi takes him to the different areas of the room, explaining what each area is for, then shows him the doors to the children's bathroom and walk in cloak room, before showing him the second exit to another flight of stairs which leads out to the back garden, and not to the main area downstairs, so that the staff and children don't disturb the ones who play downstairs, while they make their way outside during break times.
"Ok Zoro, that's everything," Mimi smiles, "If you need to go to the bathroom yourself, you'll have to go downstairs. We only have the one set of staff bathrooms, and they are downstairs next to the staff room and Makino's office. Obviously you don't need to ask to go, but it would be best to let us know when you do, so that we know where you are. All you need to do now is watch over the children and join in with them. Josh will be setting up the messy area soon. This morning, the children will be finger painting. Once the paintings have dried we will put them on the empty wall display by the back window. You can help us do that later."
"Ok, so… I just play with the toys with them, right?"
"Uh huh. It's that simple~. They'll have snack time at eleven. You can help hand out their snacks then. After that, they have outside play for an hour. Their dinner will be at half twelve before their second playtime outside, and then their last snack time will be at three. Throughout the day, Josh and I will be setting up different activities. You're more than welcome to join in with them. The day care is open till five, though the children usually come and go throughout the day as some only stay till lunch time, while others only just come in at that time. Those who stay till the end of the day are picked up by half four. The last half hour or so is for us staff to finish cleaning up afterwards. I'm sure Makino has already told you that you can leave at the time you normally leave for school, right?"
"Yeah, she did."
"That's great, just one last thing. When do you normally have lunch at school?"
"Uh… around half one."
"You can take your lunch as normal then, though we don't mind if you have your lunch earlier. Just let one of us, and Makino know."
"Right, thank you Mimi."
Mimi smiles, then goes over to the imaginative play area as she's called over by a few of the children, leaving Zoro to stand there and nervously rub the back of his neck. The swordsman feels way out of his depth here. He's never looked after children before. He's got on well with a few who his father teaches at the Dojo, but they are much older than the ones here.
"Zoro~."
The swordsman glances down when his trouser leg is pulled lightly. Standing in front of him is a small girl with bright green eyes, brown hair in pigtails, and is wearing a white dress with a flower pattern on, white tights, and a light blue denim jacket.
"Uh, hi?" Zoro says as he crouches down to the little girl's level.
"Come paint with me."
"Okay. But first, what's your name?"
"My name's Jemma, and I'm four," the girl says as she smiles up at him, "now come paint with me."
Jemma grabs his hand and tugs on it, so he gets up from crouching on the floor and lets her take him over to the messy area where Josh has already set out the paints and a few of the other children have already sat down at the table and started painting. The four year old sits on the chair at the end of the table, so Zoro kneels down on the floor beside her, and grabs the different coloured pots of paints when she asks for them. He smiles at Jemma's humming while she joins in with the finger painting, and notices that she's humming the nursery rhyme, twinkle twinkle little star.
The swordsman talks to the other children and helps them as they paint, until he feels something wet on his cheek and hears Jemma laughing from beside him.
"It's the same colour as your hair~, Green~."
"Oi, you're supposed to paint on the paper, not on me."
Jemma laughs again and smears more green paint on Zoro's cheek. The swordsman tries to stay annoyed but finds himself laughing with the little girl.
"Right, that's it. I'm painting you too."
Jemma squeals and jumps up from her seat, giggling as she hides behind Josh, not noticing one of the boys sneak up to her until he puts some pink paint onto her cheek."
"I got her for you, Zoro~."
"Toby! That's not fair!"
Josh laughs at the two then brings them into the bathroom to help them clean themselves up, Zoro following so he can wash the green paint off of his own face.
After the finger painting is done, and the mess is cleared away, it's not long until snack time has come and gone, and the children are getting ready to go out and play. Zoro crouches down as he helps Toby zip up his coat, smiling as the boy rushes over to the door happily. As he's distracted, still crouched down on the floor, he doesn't when Jemma comes up to him, so is slightly startled when she pinches his cheeks to get his attention, Zoro looks down at the shoes that have been put into his hands, then looks back up at the little girl who smiles brightly to him. He studies the shoes once more, and then puts them on for her, fastening the velcro tight enough so that they don't fall off her feet.
"Thank you Zoro~," Jemma quickly hugs him around the neck then rushes off to join the other children as they line up at the door to the stairs.
Zoro smiles slightly as he gets up from crouching on the floor and watches the children as they form a line.
"Jemma," Mimi says as she walks over to the little girl, "your shoes are on the wrong feet."
Shit… please don't tell her it was me…
"Zoro put them on for me," Jemma giggles.
"Zoro?"
"Ah, uh…," the swordsman stumbles with his words as his face turns red, "I didn't realise… I thought the velcro was supposed to point inwards…"
"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just make sure you put their shoes on the right feet next time. It would be troublesome if they fall over when running around because their shoes are on the wrong feet," Mimi smiles and swaps the shoes around on Jemma's feet before getting the children ready and leading the line downstairs and into the playground.
The swordsman sighs, annoyed at himself for messing up, and then quickly follows after them.
Zoro's days at the day care pass by quickly, and before lunch time on Wednesday, he's told to go downstairs as he will be helping out Makino with the younger children for the rest of the week. And so, he goes downstairs and joins Makino as she plays with the plastic farm animals with the two year olds. One of the staff members with her today is Kirsty, a young woman with tied back medium length black hair, dark skin, and brown eyes, who is entertaining one of the babies in the baby bouncer by pulling faces and making them laugh.
At the end of lunch, Kirsty takes the two year olds outside to join the children from upstairs, while Zoro cleans the table they had eaten off of, and Makino puts some of the younger ones into another room for their nap.
Once Zoro has finished cleaning, and put the plastic tablecloth away, Makino comes over to him with one of the babies who is crying, and is the last one left to have their nap.
"Ok Zoro, it's just Dylan left. The others are already napping. Here," Makino smiles and gently hands Dylan, who is crying hysterically, over to Zoro, before giving him a bottle full of warm milk, "he's only crying because he's hungry. I'm sure you can handle him. I need to go and make a few a calls. Just feed Dylan, and then put him down in the cloud room to nap. You can join the others outside then if you like, or go for an early lunch."
"The cloud room?"
"It's the room where the younger ones take their naps, the one with the light blue door. Please be quiet when you go in as the others are already sleeping. I'll be in my office if you need me," Makino smiles and goes to her office, leaving Zoro there with the crying baby.
The swordsman is at a loss for what to do. Makino has told him what his is supposed to do, but he's not sure how to. Holding Dylan with one arm, he then quickly spins the bottle of milk, as if it were a sword, then gently sticks it into the baby's mouth, sighing with relief when Dylan stops crying and drinks his milk. Once the drink has been finished, Dylan yawns, and Zoro places the bottle aside as he glances around the room, trying to remember which door leads to the cloud room. Which door was it again….? Makino said it was…. red…. right? But there aren't any red doors….
Picking a random door, Zoro opens it to find the storage room instead. At one point, he somehow ends up upstairs, but thankfully no one is there to question him and make fun of him for it, as everyone is still outside. Going back downstairs, Zoro eventually finds the cloud room, and quietly makes his way inside. Dylan has already fallen asleep in his arms, so he has no trouble settling him down into one of the empty cribs, and tucking him in before heading back to the main room, just as Makino pops around to check on him.
"Did you get Dylan settled okay?"
"Yeah, he was the easy part."
Makino doesn't question him on that, and instead of going for the early lunch he was offered, Zoro decides to go and join the other children outside.
Around the back of the day care is a fenced in playground which is big enough for the children to run around and play with the outside toys, such as: four wheeled bikes and toy cars which they can sit in and use their legs and feet to move them around the area, colourful skipping ropes and hula hoops, a wooden playhouse, and much more. The playground also has a few games that have been painted onto the gravel, including hopscotch.
At the front door of the day care, is Sanji, carrying a full tupperware box. He is about to go inside, but then he hears the children playing around the back, so he goes to have a look in case Zoro is out there too. Sanji has been having his work experience at the Baratie. Obviously it's not much different to when he works there, but as it was allowed, he decided to stick with the restaurant, and Zeff being as strict as he is, is following the rules and not paying him for working at the Baratie this week, much to Sanji's dismay. The restaurant had been extremely busy these past few days, and Sanji was unable to get away, which meant that he couldn't bring Zoro his lunch like he would do in school. Though, thankfully, he had enough time today to come down to the day care and bring Zoro his lunch. He knows that the swordsman was going to get his own lunch this week, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how much Zoro would be struggling with working at the day care. He doubts that the marimo would be good with children, and would just be arguing with them the whole time, and getting into trouble for it. He's been looking forward to this all week.
As Sanji makes his way around the back and stops at the fence, his eyes widen at what he sees. Zoro, the tough and never to be messed with swordsman, is outside laughing and smiling with the children. But what is more shocking is that a few of the boys and girls have gotten Zoro to play hopscotch with them. The blond chuckles quietly at the display, and as much as he would love to ruin Zoro's day, he knows that the swordsman wouldn't want anyone to see him like this, especially him, so he spares him the humiliation and quickly heads around to the front of the building before the marimo can spot him. Sanji then heads inside, as he was going to in the first place, and is happily surprised to see Makino, who is cleaning away some of the toys.
"Ah~ Makino~, it's such a pleasure to see your radiant beauty again~. Apologies my dear, but I had forgotten that you own this place."
Makino giggles and smiles as she hugs Sanji, causing him to swoon over her even more, "It's been awhile since I've seen you, Sanji. Maybe a few months now, how are things?"
"Everything is perfect now that I've seen you~."
"Of course. So what are you doing here?"
"I came to bring Zoro his lunch."
"Aw that's very kind of you. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Zoro is out the back, playing with the children. Would you like to go and take it to him?"
"I'd best not, I need to get back to the Baratie."
"You're working there for your work experience? Didn't you want to take this chance to do something else?"
"No. I'm happily fine where I am."
"Ah, that's ok then. Shall I take this for you?"
"Yes please, Makino~, my dear~," Sanji swoons as he hands over Zoro's lunch, "make sure that the idiot eats it all~."
"I will~. I'm so glad Zoro ended up coming here this week. I've always been able to catch up with you, but I've never had the chance to talk to Zoro since you two left primary school. He's grown up quite well hasn't he? He has a great physique."
"Yeah, he has…."
The blond blushes lightly when Makino smiles to him, with a little bit of mischief shining in her eyes.
"I-I….. I better go, see you soon Makino~."
"Bye Sanji," she replies, giggling.
Ten minutes later, Zoro comes back in with Kirsty and the children. The two and one year olds instantly start playing with the toys as soon as they have taken off their shoes and coats, with help from Zoro and Kirsty.
"Zoro, Sanji came by with this for you."
The swordsman's eyes widen at the cook's name, and he quickly rushes over to Makino, taking the lunch from her, "he did? He didn't see me, did he?"
"No, but it's sweet that he came over to bring you lunch. Does he normally do this for you?"
"Wow, it looks very neat. That Sanji must have taken great care to put that together for you. Is he your boyfriend?" Kirsty asks as she sneaks a peek at Zoro's lunch, causing him to blush at her words.
"O-Of course not….. He's just an idiot cook who goes to school with me."
"Ah but Zoro~ you're much closer than that~. He and Sanji grew up together, I used to teach them in primary school," Makino smiles as she explains to Kirsty.
"And you're still friends? That's sooo sweet~."
"Aw, I still remember the times when Zoro would get jealous because Sanji wouldn't play with him and would play with the girls in their class instead. He used to get quite upset~."
"Awww~."
"M-Makino?!"
"I'm just teasing you~. Though that did really happen a lot~."
"I-I'm going for my lunch...!" Zoro stomps off to the staff room embarrassed, still able to hear Makino and Kirsty's giggles from behind him.
Later on that day, not long after snack time, one of the children's parents turn up, and Zoro is asked to go upstairs to get them. Mimi is on shift upstairs again today, and she greets Zoro with a smile.
"Hey Zoro, did you need anything?"
"Sophie's dad is here to pick her up."
Mimi nods and smiles as she calls the small blonde girl over, then Zoro helps her put on her coat and shoes, before holding her hand as he leads her to the staircase.
"Ah, Zoro, wait! That's the stairs to the playground!"
Sophie giggles as she takes him to the right staircase, and Zoro grumbles as he hopes that he won't make any more embarrassing mistakes this week.
Back to the present:
Sanji smiles slightly when he remembers seeing Zoro working at the day care. He hasn't seen Makino since then. I should go and see her sometime soon…. She probably doesn't need me bothering her though….
Looking back at the mess he's made in the kitchen, he frowns. Ugh! I've had enough! I can't come up with another dessert! Even if I could, it wouldn't matter, as I'm going to end up failing the exam anyway! There's no point in even trying!
Glaring at his bowl of over whipped cream Sanji stomps around the kitchen, intending to leave. However, he trips over the stool by the breakfast bar, causing it to knock over some of the things off of the counter and onto the floor, along with him. Groaning, the blond sits up and rubs his lower back.
"Shit, now there's even more mess. My old man is going to kill me…"
Getting back onto his feet, Sanji then starts picking up the things which fell onto the floor, including the recipe book which landed open, facing downwards. Picking up the recipe book, he keeps the pages as they were when they fell, and turns it over, about to flatten out the pages before closing it. The blond's eyes widen when he sees what is on the page. A picture of a three tiered dessert reminds him of his thoughts about Zoro having three main sides to his personality, and fuels his imagination.
"This is it! I have an idea!"
Sanji grins as ideas for dessert designs float around in his head, and he quickly gets to work on practicing the dessert for his upcoming exam.