Disclaimer: I do not own One-Piece nor any of it's characters. Those belong to Oda Eiichiro.

Nunya Bizniz

Chapter Twenty-four: Bout Time

The plan was put into action. Considering the nature of the alliance Robin was chosen to be the one to approach Law. He respected her knowledge and understanding of current situations. That step out of the way, Nami took it upon herself to talk to Sanji. She completely ignored all of Rachel's efforts to stop her. Some of the Kuja had even tried to stop her once they got the order from Boa Hancock.

Nami went into the galley while Sanji was inside cooking. She brought a magazine with her and sat in front of the aquarium. After a few minutes of pretending to look through the magazine, Nami started sighing dramatically. It didn't take long for it to have it's desired effect.

"What's the matter Nami-swan?" Sanji asked. "If someone has hurt you I will personally see to their punishment."

"It's nothing like that Sanji-kun," Nami dismissed. "I'm just a little worried, that's all."

"Worried about what?"

"It's about Missy," Nami 'admitted'. "I've been watching her these past few days. Ever since Zoro and Rachel got into a relationship Missy has been distancing herself from everyone. I think that she feels lonely and left out."

Sanji nodded his head sagely. It only made sense for Missy to feel lonely. Her closest friend was basically leaving her for someone else. "Have no fear Nami-swan," Sanji spoke up. "I shall personally take on the quest of cheering up our fair maiden."

"I knew I could count on you Sanji-kun," Nami smiled sweetly. She gave Sanji a wink and sauntered out of the room.

Just outside the door, Rachel was leaning up against the wall. One of her knees was up, causing her foot to be flat against the wall as well. "You probably just signed his death certificate," she spoke. Rachel's eyes were closed, yet she slowly opened them to stare pointedly at Nami. "I hope you realize that."

"What do you mean?" Nami asked. "I doubt Law will do anything too bad to him."

"It's not Law I'm referring to," Rachel shook her head. She stood up straight and faced Nami full on. "Now that you have your head back where it belongs maybe you'll finally listen. Sanji trying to cheer up Missy is all well and good. You have to make sure, though, that he doesn't flirt with her."

"Asking Sanji not to flirt is like asking a fish not to swim," Nami smiled. Her smile faded when Rachel didn't respond to the joke. "Okay, now you're starting to scare me."

"Missy hates flirting," Rachel pointed out. "She'll tolerate it to a certain degree. One or two casual comments from Sanji won't hurt him. But we both know that he won't stop just there. He'll push Missy's buttons without realizing he's doing it. I'm not scared of Missy, I know what to push and what not to. Sanji doesn't have that luxury. If he starts sprouting some nonsense about being a knight in shining armor for her then the gloves are going to come off. Next time you want Sanji to try and cheer her up tell him to come see me. I know her favorite foods, some of which will actually cause hearts to pop into her eyes. Getting him to flirt with her will only piss her off." Rachel started to walk away at that point. She said her peace and got the point across.

Nami stood there, thinking for a moment. She then went back into the galley to talk to Sanji some more. She wanted to see if he would be willing to learn how to cook food from another world.

Several hours later found Sanji and Rachel in the kitchen of the Nunya, Zoro dozing not far away to make sure the cook kept to himself. "You're mixing apples and grapes with chicken?" Sanji had a perplexed look on his face. Sure, some meat and fruit were a good combination. He just never heard of this particular one.

"It's a salad," Rachel pointed out. "You spread it on a certain type of bread and you're in freshness nervana."

"Let's go over this one more time," Sanji pulled out a notepad. "You cook some chicken breast or chicken tenders." He glanced up to see Rachel nodding. "Why not use the legs or thighs?"

"It's too fatty," Rachel pointed out. "This is a salad for warmer weather. Fatty foods are more cold weather oriented."

"Makes sense," Sanji made a note. "Okay, then you chop an apple into chunks and cut some grapes into halves. You mix the three and put it on bread?"

"Not quite," Rachel shook her head. "You forgot two ingredients there. Chopped walnuts add a delightful texture without ruining the flavor of the main ingredients. Then you need a sauce to bind them all together. I usually use something called Miracle Whip from my home world. Since we don't have any of that here, I've had to substitute. Take a white salad dressing, add a little sugar and lemon for a sweet and tangy flavor then add a touch of paprika, not too much. It's almost the same thing. Then the bread, it's not so much as a bread as it is a roll."

"Rolls are bread," Sanji deadpanned.

"Except for when they're not," Rachel smiled. A perplexed look crossed Sanji's face. "It's really a complicated process and a pain in the ass. Usually I just buy them from the bakery and save myself the hassle. But, I have yet to find a bakery that sells them in this world. They're called croissants and it's quite the pain in the ass to make them. You have to spread butter on it, fold it, roll it thin, spread more butter and repeat several times. It creates a flaky, layered effect. Really time consuming if you don't have a bakery industrial grade roller powered by electric. Boy do I miss those things. Anyway, the croissants will take more than double the time the salad will. But since you're here, it shouldn't be so bad."

"You know a lot about cooking," Sanji pointed out.

"Yeah a little," Rachel shifted nervously. "To tell you the truth, I didn't always think I wanted to be a gun smith. The first thing I wanted to be was a Park Ranger and protect the natural treasures of the world. That didn't work out so well for me. I was studying botany at the time. I was in a bit of a funk because I couldn't grasp it. Then I got in my head, I could cook better than the food the school was serving. So I left that school and enrolled in a culinary school."

"There are culinary schools in your world?" Sanji asked in amazement.

"There are fantastic culinary schools in my world," Rachel agreed. "I attended one of the top ten in the nation I come from. I learned from some pretty prestigious chefs too. One of them literally wrote the book on ice carving, I took his class too. I went from learning to cook, to learning to bake. I got even more centered when I went from baking to cake decorating. I was a natural at that, my professors told me. They even thought I had taken classes before, which I hadn't. I'm just nitpicky about the finer details. Anyway, I even did that professionally for a few months. It still didn't make me happy.

"I was at a loss for what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Not knowing what to do, or where to go, I voiced my problems to my parents. My mom, she didn't know how to help me. She just told me I needed to figure it out for myself. My dad, he said I needed to take some time and clear my head. He believed that the best place to do that is in nature, hunting. So the next season came around and he dragged me out to the woods before it was even daylight. Spent the whole day hunting. Didn't see a thing, but I never got bored. I busied myself examining, disassembling and reassembling the gun that Dad had given me to use. That's when it came to me. The handling of a gun came so naturally to me, it was mind boggling how I hadn't realized it sooner. I managed to get the money to open a shop and had been doing that up until I came to this world."

"That's a lot of experience," Sanji pointed out. "Just how old are you again?"

"As far as this world goes," Rachel gave it some thought. "I'm twenty in this world. I was sixteen when we got here and it's been four years."

"Didn't you say the two of you were reduced in age?" Zoro voiced his question.

"We did say that," Rachel agreed. "But it doesn't really matter at this point. We're here to stay and nothing is changing that. After pumping Rayleigh for more information, we've come to the conclusion that we'll stay this age and grow naturally like everyone else. If we survive the governments schemes, then we'll eventually reach the ages we were when we left our world."

"You're not worried about dating a man younger than you?" Sanji jerked his head in Zoro's direction. "He is a moss-head you know?"

"Teme."

Rachel let out a laugh. "Technically he's older than me," she said. "I was reduced in age after all. Don't think of me as some old person stuck in a younger person's body. Think of me as a young person with experience."

Sanji then turned his attention to Zoro. "You're not at all bothered by this?" he asked.

Zoro stood from his place against the wall. He walked up to Rachel and kissed her. Sanji scoffed and looked away. "It's like she said," Zoro added. "She has worldly experience, like every last person on our crew does, you shitty cook."

Sanji's head snapped back to Zoro, a fire in his eyes. "You want to say that again you moss-for-brains?"

"Not in my kitchen," Rachel snapped. "You want to cause a scene, take it outside. You want to fight in my kitchen I'll knock you both out. This is holy ground for a cook, you should know that Sanji." The man had the decency to look away in shame. "Now either you two play nice or go away." Once they were thoroughly chastised, Sanji's lesson on otherworldly food continued. The two men learned a valuable lesson that day. It was never Missy that they had to worry about beating them down.

~"You can't hide it from me," Robin teased. Law was sitting at Chopper's desk, trying to read, when Robin had found him. "I've seen the way that you look at her. I have it on good authority that she's interested as well."

Law paused in his reading and turned around. He was giving Robin this blank look. It didn't give away any of his feelings. Robin took that as a good sign. He wasn't demanding to know what she was talking about or demanding that she leave. It was the time to press the advantage. "I'm sure that Missy would be open to a relationship with you. It will take her some time, perhaps, to get used to the idea. However, I'm sure that she'll come to realize she has the same feelings for you."

"Just what would you suggest that I do Nico-ya?" Law asked. "I'm used to war and death, blood is all that I know."

"You can't really mean that," Robin chastised. "After the way you saved those children on Punk Hazard? The way you put your life on the line to protect Luffy and the rest of us from the Navy? How you refused to demean Luffy by claiming him as one of your subordinates? You know more than just blood and death. Believe it or not, I felt the same way you do for a time. Blood and suffering followed me everywhere I went. I hurt people if I got too close to them. For the longest time I thought it my curse to never have any friends just because I could read the Poneglyphs. It was just the misunderstanding of a child that didn't know better. I spent a few years of my childhood on the run, being told that I shouldn't exist at every turn. It wasn't until I had Luffy and the others fight for me that I learned there's more for me than death out there. I'm sure you're starting to feel the same way. I can see it in the way you act. When you first joined us on the Sunny, you were quite reclusive. Now you're participating in everyday events. Not just eating with us, you actually join in some of the antics from time to time. Maybe not to the degree of some of the others, put you're there."

"You don't know me as well as you think you do," Law pointed out. "I can't pursue a relationship with anyone given the circumstances."

"What circumstances are those?" Robin asked. "Doflomingo is defeated, Big Ma'am is dead, we're on our way to defeating the other Yonko and you have yet to tell us what the next step is."

"The next step is to get to Zou," Law said. "I've already said that."

"What about after that?" Robin asked. "There's no guarantee for tomorrow. Don't let the opportunities of today slip past." Without waiting for a response, Robin stood and left the room.

~Luffy was laughing so hard he had to hold his sides. Shanks was bent over the rail, suffering from a severe hangover. "That's what you get for drinking three days, nonstop," Ben chastised. He was standing off to the side with a smirk.

"Who asked you?" Shanks groaned. "Besides, we needed to make it believable that we were sticking around to party."

"You took it too seriously," Ben pointed out. He wasn't going to let up on Shanks. He never has and he never will. Grown men didn't need to be babied in his opinion. Shanks put himself in this situation, he can deal with the consequences. "Let's get going, 'captain'. Now that you're not drunk we can set sail."

"Don't you mean 'now that he's sober'?" Usopp asked.

At that moment, Shanks made a disgusting sound that Usopp was glad he couldn't see first hand. Ben gave Usopp a strange look. "I mean he's not drunk, it's the best that you're going to get. I don't think I've ever seen Red-hair Shanks sober once since I first met him all those years ago."

~Chopper had gone around the ships, telling everyone it was about time that they started to head to Zou. Rachel finished up her lesson to Sanji and went looking for Missy. It wasn't surprising to find her still in her workroom. Rachel barged in without knocking and plopped herself down on a nearby chair. "So the party has finally ended," she started talking. Missy slowly looked up from what she was doing. "Chopper's spreading the word, we're getting ready to leave."

"It's about damn time."