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Sanji really regrets the moment he accepted to do this and he had no one to blame but himself because Ivankov asked him over and over if he was sure he wanted to take the lead on this event.
And what did his dumbass mouth reply?
“Yes, Iva, I’m sure.”
Just look at him now.
Everything was a disaster.
To catch you up a little, Sanji volunteers from time to time in the Kamabakka Animal Shelter after school hours, something that none of his friends know about because he didn’t think it was necessary for them to know.
And they had a pretty big event planned, the number of abandoned and stray animals in the city have increased a lot in the past year and even though the shelter will never turn them away, space and resources were running thin.
So Ivankov, the owner and director of the shelter, decided that it was time to do an adoption plus fundraising event, so all the animals in their care could find their forever homes and the shelter could receive help from the citizens to keep things running smoothly.
Something that wouldn’t be a problem at all, if Ivankov didn’t decide to plan this at a moment where almost everybody from the staff was busy as hell with other personal projects, therefore being unable to give their 100% to the planning.
Which again, almost made Ivankov postpone the event, but Sanji saw the way their eyes were filled with worry, knowing that money was also going to be tight if they kept going at their usual volume.
He also knew that Ivankov would have gotten the funds the shelter needed to keep it afloat some way or another.
But well.
Iva was already a very busy person, what with running the shelter and on top of that being in charge of so many charities and programs all around the city.
And Sanji saw, even though Iva did her best to conceal it, how stress was starting to show across her face, how she became snappier unintentionally, apologizing immediately to whoever got caught in the crossfire.
Iva has done a lot for him, as hesitant as Sanji is to admit it sometimes, so he figured this was something he could do in return for her.
So he offered to take charge of the event.
Iva had looked at him weirdly at first, clearly doubting, but Sanji stood firm in his words and in the end, after Iva asking him if he was sure he could do this an unholy amount of times, she conceded and when she smiled Sanji saw how her shoulders untighten, relief apparent on her face.
She had given him all the instructions as well as all of the suppliers’ numbers and planners, tightly bound on a big folder; and told him that with the right mindset, all will be easy cake.
Which would have been the case.
If all of the suppliers didn’t fucking suck.
Sanji didn’t want to doubt Iva’s abilities, but with the way every single number he called, either told him that they were unavailable or didn’t count with whatever it was that they needed and the unholy, unholy prices that would make Nami get an aneurism, that they were given.
Well.
Let’s just say that Sanji spent quite a lot of time cussing a lot of people through the phone.
Which brings him to the current moment.
The event is supposed to take place on Sunday and he had nothing, it was Monday and he had nothing .
He could ask Zeff for his help in baking the ridiculous amount of pastries he had planned, but seeing how busy the restaurant has been the past few months and how stressed and overworked all the staff at the Baratie was, stopped him from doing so
And let’s say nothing of the actual planning and promotion of the event through social media; he sucked at doing that to astronomical levels.
He doesn’t think he has ever been this stressed in his life and that’s saying something considering his upbringing the first years of his life.
All the stress he had on him had also started to show in his everyday life.
A few days he had gotten to school after the bell rang and he is used to never be late, he has been slacking on fucking PE, which was usually a walk in the park for him, but you couldn’t blame him, because he had been so busy trying to figure out how to get out of his mess, that he hasn’t been training as he’s used to.
He’s also pretty sure that his friends have started to notice that something was going on with him, he’s not dumb, he’s seen the way Usopp has been dying to ask him what’s going on, the way Nami’s eyes lingered a little bit too longer than usual on him whenever he spent too much time glued to his phone, even Luffy has started to ask less for food which was so not in character for him; and that’s only the friends he went to school with.
But out of everybody, the mosshead had to be the worst of them all.
Sanji saw how suspicious Zoro had become, and he knew that it was in part his fault, because he was so stressed and distracted, he didn’t rise to the bait when the mosshead tried to provoke him and in turn Sanji hasn’t done or said anything to provoke him either.
Not that he had too much time to dwell on that, not with him trying to figure out how to get out of this mess he had created.
He could ask his friends for help, but something in him stopped him from doing so, they all did their own activities after school. It would be selfish for him to ask them to drop their regular schedule just to help him get out of this mess.
Only, he really should have known better.
It all came to a boil, that same Monday, after school.
He had gone to the shelter, as he has been doing every day for the past three weeks since he took the mantle. Going there did not help with the planning, but playing with the baby animals at least lifted his mood a little.
What he failed to notice though, was that he was being followed.
So he got to the shelter and said hello to Caroline at the front desk, before immediately going to the back of the room, where they keep the kittens and puppies, as strange as it may sound to some, Iva believed in coexistence, so she had a rule to keep all the babies together and so far, in all the years since the shelter opened, she has not been proved wrong.
He got bombarded as soon as he walked through the door, by barks and meows, he smiled before dropping his school bag somewhere against the wall and then sitting on the floor, letting the babies climb all over him.
“Candy,” Caroline said, having gone after him, her face looked serious and maybe a little bit sad. ‘How are you doing with the planning? Is supposed to be this sunday.”
Sanji winced, the reminder just helping his stress levels rise, “It’s going…well enough,” It’s going terrible. “I’m going to have everything ready, I promise.” Liar .
Caroline sighed, looking at him with almost pity in her eyes, Sanji hated it. “Candy, you know neither Iva nor any of us would blame you if you decided to step back, it really is a very hard job to plan on such short notice and even more if you’re practically doing it by yourself.”
“I’m not quitting.” Sanji declared sharply. “I’m going to see this through.”
He was not going to be a failure, not at this.
Caroline smiled sadly at him, “Alright honey, I believe you.” It was clear she didn’t and Sanji couldn’t blame her at all, but thankfully she let the topic be, before returning to the front desk to keep doing her work.
After she left, Sanji got lost in thought, letting the babies play all around him.
Should he throw the towel? This all was looking to end up in a big ass disaster.
But he didn’t want to disappoint Ivankov, nor the rest of the staff.
But he really bit more than he could chew, this was too much work for only one person, what was he thinking?
This whole thing was going to be a big failure and all the blame would be on him.
He hid his face in his hands, groaning loudly.
“So here’s where you go after school, should have known you would help out in a place like this.”
Sanji whipped his head in the direction of the voice fast, jaw dropping once he saw who it was.
“What the hell are you doing here, mosshead?”
There it was, Zoro in all his glory, leaning against the door, smirk on his face.
“I followed you after school let out, you’ve been acting weird the past few weeks and we all noticed but the guys said to let you be and that you will tell us soon enough but the thing is, I know your dumb ass well enough to know that you were never going to tell us anything if you thought you would inconvenience us.” Zoro raised an eyebrow, daring Sanji to defy his words. “And from what I’m seeing right now and what I overheard, it seems that I was right on my suspicions.”
Zoro dropped his bag next to his, before sitting right in front of him, arms crossed and Sanji knew there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to lie his way out of this one.
“So what’s going on, cook?” A kitten has made its way into Zoro’s lap, nuzzling against his stomach, but even the cute ball of fluff wasn’t enough to deter the mosshead from looking away, though his hand did start to pet the cat.
Sanji kept eye contact for a while, a scowl on his face, but Zoro was relentless; in the end, he sighed, looking away, knowing he was beaten.
“There’s an adoption plus fundraising event that is supposed to take place this Sunday in the park a couple blocks from here.” He confessed. “I’m the head planner for this.”
Zoro raised an eyebrow. “What else?”
Sanji huffed, leave it to the mosshead to choose now of all times to be extra observant. “Everything is a disaster! ” He finally let out and damn it felt good to finally say it out loud to somebody else. “All the suppliers suck ass, I’m supposed to bake over 300 hundred pastries for the even and I haven’t had the fucking time to even start coming up with the recipes and let’s not even begin talking about the astronomical high prices the suppliers were asking for because of the short notice and social media? Promotion for the event, zero, zip, nada , I don’t know how to do any of that.”
Zoro kept quiet, letting him talk.
“And now! This whole thing is going to be one big, gigantic, failure and I’m going to disappoint everyone that has been counting on me, because I’m useless and I can’t do anything alone and this is the most frustrated I have ever felt in my entire life.”
His chest was heaving when he finished talking, he really was keeping all that frustration inside him all this time and it now felt lighter, finally saying it out loud.
“You’re an idiot, cook.” Zoro said simply.
Sanji glared at him, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “I do not want to hear that from you.”
Zoro glared back. “Well, what else do you want me to say? You’ve been having your panties in a twist about being unable to do all of this on your own, when you could have asked any of us for help! Promotion, social media shit? Nami is your girl and Luffy knows everybody in this city, decorations? Usopp and Franky would love to help, all the logistic shit? Robin and Jimbei can manage that, Brook can be in charge of entertainment and Chopper would be delighted to lend a hand.”
Zoro’s glare finally receded, giving way to a small grin. “I can help you to take care of the animals and to move them to the park on Sunday and that way, cook, just by asking for fucking help, you’re going to have all the time you need to bake all those sweets you’re thinking of, but I recommend asking your old man for help, in fact, I have a feeling he’s going to be offended if you don’t”
Sanji was speechless, Zoro really solved every single thing he had been worried about in less than 5 minutes.
He groaned, the mosshead is never going to let him live this down.
“I hate you, you know?” Thank you.
Zoro laughed while taking out his phone, for sure sending a message to the group chat. “Sure you do, cook.” You’re welcome.
It didn’t take long for both of their phones to start to ping and for Sanji’s to light up, a video chat request taking the screen.
Sanji pressed ‘answer’ with a grimace.
He was met with the faces of all their friends, Nami and Luffy at the front.
“So, Sanji, something you want to say to us?”
He glanced at his side, where Zoro was looking at him with a shit eating grin, the cat now draped around his shoulder, he turned back to his screen, letting out a big sigh.
“Please help me.”
“Shishishi,” Luffy laughed, while the rest were spotting some kind of smiles. “Why did it take you so long to ask, Sanji? Of course we’ll help you!”
“We’re on our way right now,” Nami continued. “Don’t move, we’ll need to plan everything today so we can start working on it first thing tomorrow.”
Sanji didn’t know what to say, he felt his eyes water, just a bit, he was just so fucking grateful for his friends.
And he really, really was an idiot.
“Thank you, guys.” His voice came out hitched and if they noticed, they didn’t say.
Luffy smiled warmly. “No need to thank us Sanji, that’s what friends are for.”
Let’s get this show on the road.
The event was a total success.
The park was full with people, the decorations around the field and on the trees were beautiful, Usopp and Franky really came through with it, Nami did a fantastic job by managing the shelter’s social media accounts while Luffy did what he knew best, alerting everyone and anyone about the upcoming event, even making his brothers help him spread the word.
Brook has been playing different melodies through the whole day, half of them being request from patrons, people loved him, Robin and Jimbei were managing the table alongside Caroline and some other members of the staff, while Chopper was taking very seriously his job of guiding people to the corrals were the animals were kept.
More than half of them have already been adopted, Sanji couldn’t be happier, they deserved a forever home, even though he will definitely miss them all.
He was manning the pastry table, full of different kinds of sweets and definitely containing a lot more sweets than what he expected to make.
Courtesy of Zeff and the rest of the Baratie who gave him the dressing down of a lifetime when they heard that Sanji wasn’t planning to ask them for help.
“What do you take us for, eggplant?” Zeff had said. “Do you really think we wouldn’t have made time to help you bake? What are we, assholes?”
They were highly offended because of that, regardless, they did an amazing job as was expected, Sanji doesn’t think he has ever seen so many different kinds of pastries all together in one place.
People loved them.
And as loath as Sanji was to admit, none of this would have been possible without the mosshead helping him to get his face out of his ass.
Speaking of him.
Zoro was carrying around the same kitten that clung to him a week ago, the kitten that he adopted as soon as the process opened.
It was kind of a hilarious sight, seeing a guy so big with something so small it still fit in the palm of his hand.
“Candy!” Iva’s high pitching voice took him out of his reverie. “The adoption process is a success and we have raised enough money to keep the shelter running beautifully for at least a year, and we’re only halfway done with the program!”
“You did a wonderful job,” She told him, her face softening a little. “I will admit, I had my doubts at the beginning, but you proved me wrong.”
Sanji winced a little but he smiled all the same. “Well, in all honesty, I was a mess, I couldn’t have done it without my friends’ help.”
Iva laughed. “Well, then you have amazing friends, candy, don’t ever let them go.”
“I won’t Iva.”
She left after that, she was the boss after all and Sanji had no trouble in letting her do all the talking, he didn’t want to deal with that.
He looked around, seeing all the people holding their new pets, all his friends helping around with smiles on their faces and couldn’t help but think how right Iva was.
He really had the best friends ever, he didn’t know what he did to deserve them, but he wouldn’t change them for the world.
“Hey cook!” Zoro approached, the kitten being held in his arms. “This is Wado, he’s my son now and I was telling him how I almost didn’t get him because someone was being a dumbass.”
Sanji frowned.
Zoro was really never going to let him forget this.
Damn it.
“Mosshead I swear to god-”