Wine, Smokes, and Loving Fathers
"Nami calm down please!" Sanji said through gritted teeth, trying very hard not to bark at her
"Calm down? Are you fucking kidding me? You call me up and say that you can't spend time with your son for a few months! And you don't even give me a reason why? Are you back into your old shit again?"
Sanji inaudibly sighed "Look, I can visit him at your4 place, but he can't come over to my place"
"Fucking hell Sanji, do you know what that's going to do to him? Maybe I should have fought harder for full custody!"
Suddenly Nami stopped yelling, and starting to breathe a little calmer "Sanji, I can't think of one good reason why you need this time, so unless you give me one GOOD reason, I'm filing for full custody"
Sanji looked over to Ace and Luffy who were listening to the conversation with their headphones on. He thought back to their conversation about five minutes before the phone call
Flash back
"Okay, I'm going to call her now" Sanji picked up his phone, only to have Ace's hand cover it
"Hold on Sanji, there's one more thing we need to tell you"
"Okay what is it?" Sanji asked looking back and forth between Luffy and Ace
Ace looked to Luffy, who nodded, and fixed a stern look onto Sanji
"Under no circumstances can you tell her why you can't do the weekly switch offs"
Sanji stared blankly at the two of them "Why the hell not? She knows about my situation, it wouldn't in danger her, so why not?"
This time Ace took the lead "this is a cold zero case, which means that no one outside of this house is trusted, one exception has been made for Zeff however, sense he's your boss, father, and also a protector"
Sanji felt a small ball form in his throat 'fuck'
End flash back
Ace shook his head in a 'no' manner
Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes hard in a attempt to hold back the tears "Nami, please, don't do that"
"then give me a reason"
"I cant"
"Nice to know what you give up your son for, dead beat"
With that the line went dead. Sanji slowly took the phone away from his ear, not truly believing what he heard.
Luffy took his head phones off, and looked at Sanji with concerned eyes "Sanji, are you alright?"
"Am I alright?" Sanji asked looking at Luffy with surprised eyes. "You heard her… I'm a dead beat now, thanks to this. I lost my son, I can't talk to my friends, and my only company for the next few months is going to be assassins trying to kill me! So yeah, I'm fucking peachy!" Sanji threw his phone on the ground with such force that it shattered into 7 pieces. Sanji walked to his back door, throwing the door open and slamming it shut behind him. He quickly pulled out his pack and lighter and lit up. He slowly let the tears fall, but they soon picked of speed and frequency, and before long he was sobbing on the floor.
…
"Tell me what you know, NOW!" Zoro growled as he threw a mugger against a dark alley way.
Zoro's face was concealed by his bandana and the night time darkness in general
"I swear I don't know anything!"
"Bull shit!" Zoro flicked one of his swords partially out, letting the blade shine in the dark light
"Wait, wait, fine, I'll tell you!"
Zoro smiled
"I heard, that some big time gangsters came to town, I heard they were setting up a branch in this city… that's all I know, I swear!"
Zoro pressed his forearm into the man's throat, and looked into his eye's searching them. "What are their names?"
The man was coughing, and attempted a few times to speak, before Zoro released him enough so he could talk "I don't know, but I think they run with the shichibukai."
Zoro growled again, and released the man fully, who quickly fled 'Damn it, this could go bad fast' Zoro thought to himself while walking down the alley, trying not to worry about what could happen, his next stop would not be a fun one.
…
"Fuck! Luffy get over here!" Ace yelled from his laptop "Jinbe just sent me something"
Sanji put a cigarette out and pulled out another "whose Jinbe?" he asked in a dark uninterested tone
"A inside source from the shichibukai"
Sanji nodded in understanding, he remembered them.
"What is it?" Luffy asked walking in and leaning over his brother's shoulder
Ace clicked a few times until he pulled up the email
"Fuck" Luffy slightly paled
Sanji looked at them from his sitting place, which was in the on his back porch "what is it?"
"One of the seven main shichibukai just got orders to kill you, there paying him 77 million to kill you"
Sanji slightly smiled "wow, how nice" the words flowing in a morbid fashion, showing his true disinterest
Ace slightly glared, but didn't voice his opinion, how could he?
…
Zoro briefly paused on the footsteps, wondering if the risk was worth it, he did have a son after all. But he came to his decision and walked the rest of the way up the mansions pathway, and rang the door bell.
Before long he heard footsteps, and the door soon opened
"Well well, this is unexpected, the demon himself at my door in the middle of the night… is there something I can do for you Mr. Roronoa, or have you come back for a rematch?" Mihawk spared a glance at the swords hanging from Zoro's hip as he took a sip of wine.
"I'm not here for a fight"
Mihawk raised a eyebrow "then what is it?"
"I'm here for information about the workings of the shichibukai"
"And what makes you think I'll say anything?"
"Two things make me think that" Zoro said putting a hand on his sword, resting it there "As a fellow swordsman, and family man, you would also be asking for help if our places in this affair were switched, and" Zoro reached into his large pants pocket and pulled out a rare wine "I brought payment"
Mihawk let a small bit of mirth pass through him at the gesture "Well come in then, I'll get the decanter"
…
"So who is it?" Luffy asked
"I'm not sure, he didn't say" Ace responded
"Well ask him!"
"I can't just email him! I have to wait for him to send a okay! Don't you remember the deal?"
Luffy shook his head
"Dumbass, go check on Sanji" Ace shooed Luffy away with one hand while watching his email, making sure he didn't miss the next email
Luffy shrugged, and went in search of Sanji, after noticing that he was no longer chain smoking on the porch. Luffy stumbled around the house for a few minutes before he found Sanji in his room, more specifically in his closet, with a open box on the floor.
"What are you looking at Sanji?"
Sanji looked up a Luffy and back down at the pictures in his hand "Just some old photos"
"oh?" Luffy sat down by Sanji and took the offered picture
"that one is the day Chopper was born"
"You and Nami look really happy" Luffy commented
Sanji looked back into his box with a sad smile on his face "We were blissful"
Luffy handed the picture back, and took a photo book out and flipped through it, slowly, looking at the pictures of Chopper growing up. "What happened between you two?"
Sanji stopped Luffy from turning the page, and grabbed a picture that showed Chopper's first day of school, and Nami hugging the little boy. "When I got my own restaurant, she started using me for my money, we quickly fell out of love, and spent a year of bitter marriage before we divorced, and this is the last picture we had as a family before everything went south"
Luffy nodded "I see."
Sanji looked at his friend "Do you believe me?"
"I do believe that she used you for your money, but I don't think that's why you the two of you fell out of love"
"heh, she fell in love with money, what more is there to the story"
Luffy leaned back, supporting himself with his hands, and looked to the ceiling "I'm not here to tell you about you marriage, but I'm sure that if you look back on the talks you had, you'll find something new, something hidden from you by you"
Luffy stood and left the room, leaving Sanji confused with an open book of pictures of Chopper and Nami in his hand.
…
"That's all you came here for? I thought this had something to do with your boy" Mihawk poured some more of the wine into his cup and sat back in his chair.
"It does have to do with family; I want him and his boy to be part of my family, along with me and my son"
"Ah I see, young love" Mihawk gave a small smirk "Well then I guess I could tell you, you can ask until this bottle of wine is gone"
Zoro smiled "Okay, what they know about him so far?"
"*takes a sip* name, address, new fake last name, son, ex wife, father, most of his friends, including you, name of his restaurant, at who's defending him *sip*"
"Fuck… what is the shichibukai's current plan to take him out?"
Mihawk took a long sip and did not answer
Zoro stared at him before it sunk in "Who's using the shichibukai?"
Mihawk smiled and refilled his glass
…
"Luffy, he emailed me again"
Luffy looked up at Ace "Who is it?"
"Come look" Ace turned the monitor towards Luffy
…
"Really?" Zoro asked surprised
"Yes *sip*"
"Okay, who did he hire to kill Sanji?"
Mihawk put one leg over the other "He is paying me 77 million to kill him"
"Fuck"
Mihawk smiled and took another sip of wine
"When are you going to strike?"
"If I tell you, I'll have to change it, or I'll end up having to kill you, and leave your son without anyone to turn too."
"Mihawk, you can't do this! You'd being killing a father!"
"Just because I'm a father doesn't mean I have qualms in killing fathers"
TBC
A/N okay so im ending this one here cause I have too many ideas of where I want it to go next, so I'll sort those out then post up another chapter, hope you enjoyed, sorry about any mistakes, school has me a little brain fried.