Chapter Text
As the TV in the restaurant plays news about All Might’s newest achievements, a small hand holds up the remote and turns it off, ignoring the customers groaning around him. Sanji was only 8 years old, but he hates pro heroes and villains alike. The small cook hides the remote so no one can turn the TV back on before going back to the kitchen with a pout. Zeff glances at his adopted son and bonks him on the head.
“Don’t just turn the tv off when customers are watching, little eggplant.”
“It was just covering stupid hero news like always! I don’t get why it’s such a big deal, shitty old man!”
The young blond yells at his dad. Zeff sighs through his nose and gently pushes Sanji back to the dish washing station with his peg leg.
“Just do your job and I’ll teach you a new recipe.”
That instantly brightens Sanji’s mood and he goes back to washing dishes.
Sanji leans back in his chair, only half paying attention to his class. According to the teacher they’d all applied to hero schools, making him growl angrily to himself. He closes his eyes and quietly lights a cigarette, not caring that he’s in class. Especially considering he’s already gained a school reputation for being a delinquent.
“Oh that’s right, Aubergine Sanji, you applied to a cooking school right?”
The teacher says, putting all eyes on him. Most laughed while others whined that it’s such a waste of his quirk. The curled brow teen rolls his eyes and takes a drag before blowing out some smoke.
“Don’t think I asked for commentary on school choice.”
He says loud enough to shut the class up. He didn’t like having a bad reputation, but it has its benefits at least.
As soon as class ends, Sanji leaves his room last. He glances into the neighboring classroom and sighs when he sees Bakugou and his goons bothering Midoriya again. He wouldn’t call himself friends with either one in the slightest, but he felt sympathetic with Midoriya at least. He shouldn’t get involved… Yet here he is opening the door.
“Oi, angry pompom, just leave his ass alone. It’s pathetic you focus so much time on him.”
Sanji’s entrance and words make the other blond’s head snap over and look at him. The explosive man snarls and gets into the slightly taller man’s face. Sanji doesn’t back down though, instead he starts to lift one of his legs to prepare for a fight.
“D-don’t fight! Please!”
Izuku calls out, quickly trying to break up the fight between the two blonds.
“Stay out of this, Deku!”
“This isn’t your fight, Midoriya!”
The green haired teen smiles nervously, not wanting the two to fight. One of Bakugou’s friends rests a hand on his shoulder.
“Bakugou, let’s get going, there’s no point in this.”
The pomeranian with anger issues glances at his friend then nods before shooting another glare at Sanji.
“Don’t think this is over. Watch your back.”
Sanji rolls his eyes as the group leaves, leaving just him and Izuku in the room. After an awkward silence, Sanji sighs and leaves the room.
“Have a good day, Midoriya.”
“Thank you for helping me!”
The wannabe hero calls back to the sous chef. Sanji ignored it though, focused on getting to his shift at the Baratie.
When he arrives at the restaurant he and Zeff made together, it is as bustling as ever. His mood instantly brightens and he quickly goes to the back, abandoning his backpack in a corner and going to wash his hands.
“Little eggplant! You’re late!”
Zeff scolds, making Sanji groan. He dries his hands and looks at his dad calmly.
“I got into a confrontation again, nothing major. It’s all fine now.”
Zeff sighs and shakes his head, wanting to say he’s disappointed, but honestly this is the norm for Sanji. Ever since he put his son into schooling, he’s been fighting people for the sake of others. At least he’s not using his hands though. Plus it’s not like he can talk considering the Baratie itself is known for their cooks fighting people. Even if he doesn’t join in, he did foster Sanji in that environment. The mustached man sighs, knowing that his dear boy really wasn’t going to like the preorder they had for 3 months from now. Especially as he’ll be the one delivering the food that day.
Sanji quickly goes to cooking the next few meals once his hands are dry, not bothering to put a chef’s coat on. He doesn’t care if his school uniform gets dirty, especially considering it was already a dark color. At most he’ll get a grease stain or two. He pauses for a moment when he hears commotion in the dining room. He rolls his eyes and goes downstairs, carrying a few plates of food. Instead of a chef or even server brawling, all eyes are glued to the tv. He sighs as he serves food, glancing at the tv. He wasn’t sure what he expected, maybe Midnight and Mt Lady having another catfight that leads to wardrobe malfunctions, but Bakugou being held hostage by a slime monster and heroes failing to save him definitely wasn’t it. From the looks of it too, his quirk had set the buildings around him on fire too. His eyes widen in surprise when he sees who rushes in to help the blond though, Midoriya. Without hesitation he rushes off to help, wanting to make sure the green idiot was okay.
By the time Sanji gets there, everything is starting to calm down. He pushes past everyone and goes to Izuku just in time to hear some pro heroes scold the boy for helping while quirkless. Meanwhile Bakugou was being praised for his quirk despite all the property damage. His eyebrow twitches angrily as brief memories of his childhood fill his mind.
“Oh please! Izuku was doing more than your useless asses ever could!! And are you really praising Bakugou?! Because of his shitty quirk so many more lives were endangered and not to mention all this damn property damage! He’s the liability here more than anything!!”
All eyes are on Sanji as he yells, but he doesn’t care. He grabs Midoriya by the arm and drags the boy away from the others.
“We’re going to have a discussion by the way, damn moss head!”
Izuku sputters a bit, unused to being called the insulting nickname Sanji had originally given his cousin Roronoa Zoro. But he could tell that meant the cook was mad at him.
Once at a safe distance, Sanji lifts a leg and bonks the green haired man much like Zeff does to him when he’s misbehaving.
“Are you stupid?! Sure you were okay, but you could’ve died!!”
“I know I’m quirkless, but-”
Izuku starts, but Sanji interrupts with another head kick.
“Screw quirks! You don’t need those! You didn’t have a plan at all!! And you have no physical strength! Your actions are honorable, but you could’ve died! Imagine what your friends and family could’ve gone through!!”
Sanji’s words make Midoriya pause before nodding in agreement. He really could’ve died from his reckless actions.
“Sanji-san… Do you think I could be a hero?”
He asks softly, making Sanji roll his eyes. He lights a cigarette and takes a long drag.
“I don’t care about that shit, you know that. I’m not the one to ask. Just go home, okay?”
The dejected look on Izuku’s face almost makes Sanji regret his words, but he should know better. He is extremely open about his disdain for heroes. He pats the boy’s head then goes back to the restaurant. Zeff kicks his head a few times for both leaving the Baratie so suddenly without warning and for getting caught on camera yelling at heroes.
“Why do you even care about me yelling at some shitty heroes?? I’m right!”
“Because you could’ve messed up our biggest preorder to date!”
Zeff yells at him. There’s a pause then the older chef sighs and explains to his son the situation. Sanji’s eyebrows furrow a little at the fact UA expected them to make lunches for their entire staff in 3 months from now. But, everyone deserves to eat, even shitty heros.
3 months passed faster than he thought. Besides an occasional glare or stranger yelling at him about disrespecting heroes, nothing eventful really happened for him. Oh well besides Zoro thanking him for defending Izuku. That was a weird day… He enters the Baratie, ready for his shift. He lights a cigarette as he steps inside then notices everyone staring at him with grins.
“... It’s time to deliver those lunches isn’t it?”
He sighs, realizing this means he’s delivery boy today. Normally for a big order like this, Zeff would handle it, but the man had an important doctor’s appointment today. From what Sanji knows, it’s to get a refill on his pain medication. He still feels so bad for partially being the one who caused him to lose the leg… But those are thoughts for another time!! He has to get these lunches to UA! He gets the bentos ready and carefully puts them in the delivery bike’s basket. He checks both ways before zooming off to the high school. He gets into the school easily considering it’s entrance exam day. As he makes his way to the teacher’s lounge, a tall and very buff man in a red and black costume spots him.
“Ah, are you the one delivering the lunches from the Baratie right?”
“Yes, sir. Could you help me to the teacher’s lounge?”
“Here I’ll take them from you.”
Sanji hands over the bag holding the lunches to the teacher then turns around, heading to leave the hero school. However as he walks, he bumps into someone.
“Oh, I’m so sorry-”
Sanji starts then looks at who he bumped into. His eyes turn to hearts and he starts to drool a little.
“Mellorine! How can I apologize for bumping into you so rudely??”
Midnight, the R18 hero and the only hero he likes, was right in front of him.
The woman giggles softly and puts a hand on his back.
“Oh you must be lost, follow me.”
She coos, making Sanji senselessly follow her. How could he pay attention when he’s holding back his nose from gushing? Sadly by the time his mind is back to him, he’s in the exam room and Midnight has left. He blinks and turns around, trying to leave, only to get stopped and told to go to his seat. He tries explaining he’s not an applicant, but keeps getting told to sit down for the presentation exam. He sighs and finds himself a seat, realizing he’ll have to get the stupid test done with first before he gets to leave. He glances to his side and sees a very shocked Izuku, a rather neutral Zoro, and a glaring Bakugou.
“Oi, shitty cook, why are you here?”
Zoro asks, making Sanji glare at him before sighing.
“Got mistaken as an applicant while delivering lunches here, but can’t leave until the exam is over.”
The swordsman snorts at the blond’s misfortune, making Sanji growl. Izuku then politely speaks up.
“Um, do you know what the exam is?”
Sanji raises an eyebrow at Midoriya, silently asking if the boy is serious. The boy sputters and blushes in embarrassment.
“I mean of course not, we don’t even know yet, well except the fact that it’s the physical exam.”
“Greeeeat, it’s not even a written exam.”
The sous chef groans, tilting his head back in agony. He shouldn’t have followed his (boner) heart like that. Now he’s stuck here.
After a little bit longer, a loud blond in leather gets on stage and starts a presentation. Sanji rolls his eyes, realizing he doesn’t have the paper to tell him what room to go to. Oh whatever, he’ll just take Zoro to his. He reaches over Izuku and snatches Zoro’s paper from him, nodding at the room number.
“Just follow me, moss for brains, you’ll get lost otherwise.”
“Oi!”
Sanji ignores him, just zones out until it’s time to leave the room for the exam. He grabs Zoro by the back of his shirt to make sure the man doesn’t wander off on his own and takes him to the arena. He sighs softly and lights a cigarette when the time starts. Unlike the others, he didn’t bother fighting any of the robots. After all, he only got here by accident. He glances at a really large robot and glares at it. If he’s right, that’s the zero pointer… It wasn’t quite a danger yet, but it was getting close to the others. He saunters over to it, hand on his hip. Then with a well placed jump and hard kick, he destroys the thing and knocks it down. There! Now the others can continue their other robot fighting in peace.
When he lands on his feet casually, he doesn't notice the stares at first. Then he feels someone hug him, a lady. He blushes and glances at the lady, seeing a pink skinned girl with horns.
“Thanks for saving me! That was so cool!!”
She chirps, giving Sanji a squeeze before letting him go.
“Ah, it was no problem, mademoiselle! I’d gladly do it again any day!”
He replies back, his nose bleeding a little despite his best effort to make it stop. The girl doesn’t seem to notice though as she runs off to try getting more points before time runs out.
After what feels like forever, Sanji finally gets back to the Baratie.
“Sorry I’m late, UA kidnapped me for a bit.”
He calls out, expecting a kick to the head. Instead Zeff just sighs and nods.
“I know, they called and told me once they realized. We’ll be getting the results later though.”
The blond stares at his adoptive father for a few moments before glaring at him.
“I’m not in the mood for bad jokes, shitty old man.”
“Too bad it’s not a joke.”
Sanji’s face pales, realizing Zeff isn’t joking with him. He knows his old man. They joke and tease, but never about something like this. He’s confident that everything will work out, after all he only destroyed the zero pointer and wasn’t even officially registered for UA! But he couldn’t help this lingering anxiety about it. Like something is going to go against him.
Sanji cries when he gets his rejection letter from the cooking school he applied to. Despite arriving on time and passing both tests in perfect colors, he was told he couldn’t go because another school wants him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what school it was. He slams his hand on the ground in despair as he sobs.
“Zeff, I don’t want to go to some stupid hero school!”
“Sanji, it’ll be a good experience for you…”
“I’m not going! I will sneak into culinary school if I have to!”
“That’s against the law, brat.”
The two glare at each intensely before both sigh and Sanji goes back to wallowing in misery on the floor. Patty comes in and snorts at the sight before handing a letter to Zeff.
“Here, this came in late.”
The head chef looks it over while the other man leaves. He shakes his head and glances at his son before opening the letter for him. Zeff pulls out a small circular device and presses play, a hologram of All Might pops out.
“I am here as a projection!”
Sanji glares at the Symbol of Peace and angrily kicks the hologram, trying to make it disappear. He sighs as the recording explains All Might is going to be working at UA. He didn’t care… He didn’t want to go to UA!!
“You didn’t take the written exam and got no points during the practical exam! But that’s not all to it! By saving that girl and destroying the zero pointer for everyone, you earned yourself hero points!”
Sanji’s face pales and he starts sobbing again.
“I knew I shouldn’t have done anything!!”
Rather he likes it or not, Sanji’s been accepted into UA.