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Sanji rubs his sleep-tired eyes and says very, very quietly into his phone, "You did what?"
Probably thinking he hadn't heard the nonsense he just spouted, Luffy yells into his ear, "I was going on a walk to get some food 'cause I'm hungry, right? On the way to the store I saw a bloody deer by the side of the road! Craaazy, right?! No one was around so I checked to see if it was dead. I wanted to bury it if it was but guess what! It was still alive! So I carried it home. Ne, Sanji, can you come here and cook something tasty? I'm sure it'll feel better after it eats your cooking!"
Sanji doesn't pinch his arm to check if he's dreaming, because he knows it wouldn't be Luffy if he didn't do something outrageously stupid at least once a week. But this? This might rank in the Top 10 and that says a lot.
"Luffy," he pauses. Looks at the clock beside his bedside that reads 2:40 AM. "Luffy, what. What the fuck."
He can't say anything else. He's too dumbstruck and tired. It's New Year's and technically a young man of his age should be out partying with his friends. But he had wrapped up all the fun by 12:30 AM, apologised to his friends and left the celebrations because he had the opening shift on Baratie in the morning and the geezer was too old to handle the New Year's crowd anymore. He was supposed to sleep till 4:30 AM before getting up to work his ass off and yet.
"I told you, Sanji, I got hungry!"
Right. Luffy also left the party shortly after he did because his brothers were coming back from their trip to god-knows-where and he wanted to wish Ace a happy birthday as soon as he was home.
But hungry? There was no way—
Sanji smacks his own forehead. He had prepped Luffy's meals and stocked his fridge with enough food to tide him over for three days as he always does but this time, he forgot to consider his late night cravings too. Luffy must've run out of food faster than he expected. Fuck.
"Sanji? Are you still there? Helloooooooooo—"
He doesn't even have the energy to snap back. He sighs. "Let me get this straight. You want me to come to your house. At 2:45 AM. To feed a dying horse."
Luffy makes a vaguely offended noise. "It's not dying, don't say that! And it's not a horse! It's a deer."
"Ah yes. That's exactly the thing we should be focusing on right now," he deadpans.
He is fully ready to hang up and go back to sleep when his friend whines, "Sanji, please? Please please please please pleaaaaase?"
Hang up. Hang up. Hang up right the fuck now, consider this a fever dream and go the fuck to sleep.
"Please, Sanji? For me?"
Ah, goddamnit.
He throws his blanket away from his legs and grumbles, "Fucker. Give me 20."
It's freezing outside.
He doesn't know how the hell Luffy went outside in this nightmarish weather. Looking at the roads, he can't think he can walk on it without having his feet buried in the snow. And knowing Luffy, he was probably wearing his stupid flip-flops and jorts for his impromptu outing. Great, now he had to make sure the idiot didn't catch a cold, too.
Sanji starts up his shitty car and begins driving. It's high time he changed the damn thing but he doesn't think he's going to do that any soon. He hates to admit it, but he has always been sentimental. He can't quite bring himself to throw it away 'cause it was the first car Zeff bought after they opened the Baratie. And it really sucks that this thing should be the object of his mushy feelings, because he's sure one of these days the engine is going to explode. He always has a creeping suspicion that the engine coolant is leaking. Oh, and the heater doesn't fucking work.
He taps his index finger twice on the steering wheel, making a warm glow light up his palm. The air inside the car slowly starts heating up.
Sanji had always thought his power to be pretty much useless. Sure, he can emit warmth, but he can't keep himself warm. He always runs cold and no amount of rubbing his hands together or blowing on them helps. The only way he can keep himself from freezing to death is to emit warmth and wait for the temperature around him to rise, which is just impractical and inconvenient. But whatever. At least he's not getting hypothermia.
By the time he reaches Luffy's house, he is cranky, tired, and still cold. He stomps up the stairs but before he can knock, the door swings open to reveal a murderous Trafalgar Law, looking like he stepped straight out of a slasher movie.
"If he knocks on my door even once after this," Law says, voice low and eerily calm. "There will be unfortunate consequences."
There are many things he wants to say. Like 'you know he's going to knock again tomorrow morning' and 'it's your own fault for living next door to him' maybe even 'you know just as much as I do that you'll come if he calls again, just like everyone else.'
He doesn't say any of that. He just tips his head and stands out of the bloody surgeon's way. Partly to be polite, mostly because he really doesn't want to get blood on his coat.
He barely takes one step into the house before he hears a very excited "Sanji!" and in no time, he has an armful of Luffy. He grunts at the force of the collision and steadies the menace with a hand on his back to make sure they don't both fall on their ass. Luffy raises his head and beams.
He feels his annoyance melt away a bit. Just a bit, because it's still ass o'clock and apparently there's a deer he has to feed. He pinches Luffy's cheek and pulls.
"I didn't even take one step into the house. How the hell did you know I'm here already?"
Luffy whines for show and shakes his head like a dog to free himself. "The room gets warmer when you walk in. Lights up, too. I always know when Sanji is close 'cause of that."
Melts a bit more. "Idiot. My magic is not that strong, stop exaggerating."
Luffy blinks, wide-eyed and confused. "Who said anything about your magic?"
And just like that, all the annoyance is gone. His neck flushes red and he herds the idiot inside the house, muttering under his breath. The door closes shut behind them gently.
The house Luffy shares with his brothers is chaotic and full of personality as always. Warm, too. His cold toes and fingers finally regain feeling, losing their stiffness. He sighs contently when he hears sound of water running and the stove clicking on from the kitchen. The siblings can't cook for shit, but Sabo is great at spells and has done a nifty little trick to make sure the house gets started on tea by itself whenever a guest stops by. The tea doesn't taste half bad, either. He can do better but right now, he'd kill for a warm cup of tea that he doesn't have to make by himself.
He runs a hand through his hair and begins shrugging off his coat. Luffy takes it from him and throws it on the couch that's already filled with random knick-knacks.
"Fine, where's this deer? Is it even awake?"
"On the dining table!" Luffy chirps. "He's sleeping right now cause Torao gave him some medicine before he stitched him up. He'll be awake in a bit, though!"
Sanji heavily doubts that. He doesn't think surgical anaesthesia would wear off that fast. He doesn't think too much about how Law got said anaesthesia for casual use or how he operated on a deer on the goddamn dinner table, especially one where the brothers eat like pigs and drool all over everyday. He figures Law's potions got it covered mostly. He doesn't doubt that the stitching was anything less than perfect, either. When a man is born with an ability to read ailments and scan bodies with just a touch, there's not much room for error. Also because he's a terrible show off, the doctor has about four specialization degrees under his belt, too. Talk about being extra.
He follows a rambling Luffy to their dining table. Actually, saying the house is full of personality is an understatement. It's fucking strange. There's only a single bathroom in the whole place. Luffy doesn't have a room, just sleeps anywhere he pleases. Ace's room doesn't have a door. Sabo's room is outwardly very pleasant and normal but inside... Well. To say it lightly, some things are better left undiscovered.
The only reason he doesn't need to do any gymnastics to navigate the house is all thanks to another one of Sabo's spells. The place would be littered with all sorts of bullshit if the house didn't clean up its own messes.
Another strange thing about the house: it has a huge kitchen. Like, huge. The dining table is even bigger, shit straight out of a Victorian era movie. Comparing the place with the rest of the house makes it seem absurd. You're walking through a house that's weird as fuck already and then suddenly—is that a fucking chandelier? Why the hell is the dining table so big?
Still, the kitchen might be his favourite part of the house. Ace and Luffy can't cook for shit and Sabo is no chef, but he gets by enough to make sure none of them starve. That doesn't mean the man likes to cook; from what Sanji has seen, he tries to avoid it entirely. There's really no reason they need to have that big of a kitchen. But when asked, all of them will simply shrug and say, "We like eating."
Stupid as hell. But it works for him so eh, who cares.
"Luffy can you stop hopping for two seconds and- what the fuck."
He stands at the doorway of the kitchen, jaw hanging open. When Luffy said he brought a deer home, he expected something like a fawn, because he mentioned that he carried it home by himself. Fatal mistake; you should never underestimate Luffy. Because lying on their dining table was a giant fucking reindeer.
Even the house must be a piece of shit because with a truly awful sense of timing, his cup of tea floats into his hand. He can almost hear Sabo laughing at him.
For the third time in the same hour, he finds himself asking, "Luffy, what the fuck."
Luffy laughs merrily. "He's huge, right? Man, it was kinda hard to carry him through the snow! I would've called Zoro for help but I knew if I called him he'd get lost and only come by morning so I carried him home myself."
Sanji turns to Luffy and stares. Hopes his eyes convey the hysteria he currently feels. What the hell are you?
He has wondered that a lot. In a world where almost everyone has at least little magic in them, he has never seen Luffy use his. He doesn't brew potions like Law, cast spells like Sabo, or read and write runes like Robin, either. In the early times of their friendship, he tried to figure it out, and came up with nothing. The only thing off about Luffy was that he was stretchy. Not flexible, but stretchy. But that wasn't exactly magic, he doesn't think. It's just Luffy.
He was also scrappy in a fight. Sanji doesn't think he has ever seen him lose one. Once again, it has never been due to magic. Luffy can just punch really fucking well.
Luck, maybe? He did have the power of making things happen just by sheer will. That idea too, was discarded. Calling Luffy's ability to get what he wants magic would be insulting. Luffy gets what he wants because he's Luffy. So the conclusion the whole friend group came up with was: Luffy's power is that he is Luffy.
Now, he stares at the reindeer and turns back to the boy, who seemed to think this was a totally normal thing to do. Like it wasn't batshit crazy that he carried a fucking reindeer home in a snowstorm. He thinks, a little desperately, maybe his power is super strength. But deep in his heart, he knows he's wrong—Luffy is just a little freak.
Sanji keeps his cup of tea carefully on the table. He buries his face in his hands and contemplates all the choices he made that led him here, not budging when Luffy pokes his side, or when he tries to pry his fingers off his face. Okay. Okay. Deep breaths.
He snaps upright so abruptly that even Luffy startles. "Okay. Sure. Why the fuck not. Why not cook for a reindeer on New Year's. Great way to start a year."
Luffy, ever the oblivious one, only grins and throws an arm over his shoulders. "See? Now you get it!"
"How much longer till it gets ready?" Luffy asks, almost poking his head into the boiling pot of water. Sanji pushes his face away without looking up from the pasta dough.
"I just started heating the water, would you wait for—hey! I said quit it!"
He swats away the floating knife trying to cut up the vegetables he kept aside to make a salad. Sabo's spells could be useful to most, sure, but for Sanji, who liked having his kitchen all to himself it was nothing but a nuisance. The knife hovers a safe distance away from the vegetables, but he knows that as soon as he turns his back, the pesky little thing will try to slice them up again.
Looking at him have a glaring match with the knife, Luffy laughs. "Sanji, you know it will go away if you say the thing."
Sanji bristles and crosses his arms. "Absolutely not."
"It's bothering you, right?" Luffy waggles his eyebrows. "C'mon Sanji, say it! Just one incantation, and the spell goes woosh!"
Sanji grits his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. Luffy smiles and bats his eyelashes innocently. Even the goddamn knife seems to be mocking him.
"Bippity boppity boo," He spits, furious. Luffy bursts into laughter just as the knife clatters to the ground.
"I'm going to kill Sabo," he mutters under his breath, starting to roll out the dough with vengeance. "I know that asshole made that the counter-spell just to fuck with me."
Luffy swings his legs back and forth on the counter and grins, cheeky. "No idea what you're talking about."
He huffs and flicks the idiot's forehead before going back to the task at hand.
Soon enough, he finds himself getting lost in the motions. He cuts up the pasta and neatly tips it into the boiling water before getting started on the sauce. In the background, Luffy hums a song under his breath, terribly off-tune.
Now that I'm here, might as well throw something together for the brothers and stock up the fridge. Maybe some cupcakes for Ace, before I leave? Hm. I would have to hide it somewhere if I don't want Luffy to eat them all. Sabo's coming back with Ace too, so I could make him some stir fry since he's been trying to cut down on meat—
It's only by Luffy's fourth yawn that Sanji snaps out of his train of thought, clicking his tongue in faux annoyance. He had to admit, it was hilarious to see Luffy trying to keep himself awake; Sanji would give him two minutes before he toppled over the counter.
"Oi," he says, making Luffy blink his drooping eyes. Despite himself, his mouth ticks up. "Just go to sleep if you're that sleepy, dumbass."
"No way! I gotta stay up till Ace is back," Luffy insists, stubborn as always. "Also, I wanna say hi to the deer when it wakes up."
Sanji purses his lips and stares at the pasta on the stove, ready to serve. He could infuse some energy in it, but that would leave Luffy awake for the whole night. Maybe he could just…
"Fine," he sighs, beckoning him closer impatiently. "C'mere."
Luffy closes his eyes and leans into his space without question. Wiping his hands on the dishcloth, Sanji closes the distance between them and places two gentle fingers on Luffy's eyelids. Tiny pinpricks of yellow light up his skin before disappearing just as quickly as they appeared.
Luffy giggles and opens his eyes, now looking a little more awake. "That always tickles. I like it."
Flicking away Luffy's greedy fingers, he slides the pasta into a plate before handing it over. Finally, he lights up a cigarette that he had been craving the whole night and takes a deep drag.
"If you feel sleepy after this, just go to sleep," He scolds, pushing the cigarette to the side of his mouth. "I'll wake you up when Ace comes back."
"Nah," he says before he swallows a mouthful of pasta. The look on his face when he realises the pasta is too hot is priceless; he never seems to learn from his mistakes and Sanji finds it endlessly amusing. After a few seconds of flailing around desperately, he snatches away the glass of water Sanji hands him and downs it in one go. Then coughs, because he drank the water too fast. Sanji watches the shitshow with his chin propped in his palm.
Soon enough, Luffy finally calms down. He heaves a great breath of relief and turns to Sanji. "Yah, I'm not sleepy anymore! I'm sooo full of energy now, I can stay awake the whole day!"
Sanji knows for a fact that he cannot, because the amount of energy he transferred would last less than an hour. So he only hums and goes back to his food prep.
Or tries to. Both Luffy and him share alarmed glances when they hear a great crash from the dining room.
Sanji curses under his breath. "Shit. The deer!"
They both take off running at the same time. The sight that awaits them is not pretty; the reindeer, now awake and obviously in distress, was getting up from the floor with shaking legs. At the sight of them, it tenses further. It's hind legs twitch as it snorts threateningly, and Sanji has a feeling something really bad is about to happen really fast.
He barely manages to pull Luffy out of the way when the reindeer comes charging at them. The reindeer, still under whatever concoction Law had managed to feed it, bodily falls against the wall, unable to stop its momentum. Sanji can't help but wince—that looked like it hurt. Law's neat handwork was all ruined, now steadily dripping blood.
Thoughts run a mile a minute in his head. If he and Luffy went at it together, they could probably take the thing down without a hitch. But therein lies the problem—they can't use too much force. The damn deer already looked like it was barely clinging on to life, it really can't handle a kick from him or a punch from Luffy. From the way it was still looking at them, calming it down with the prospect of food seemed out of the question.
Sanji curses when the deer stands back up on wobbly legs, eyes frenzied. Think, think!
"Oh. Oh, no."
They roll out of the way of another assault. They have two, maybe three seconds till the deer gets back up.
"What now?" Sanji hisses.
"Um. Sabo and Ace have a trap installed? To take care of intruders?"
His head blanks out. "They have what."
Luffy grimaces, apologetic, and points to the ceiling. "Yeah. The house sets people on fire it it senses that anyone is trying to harm me."
Sanji looks up and yep, those are some very intense fire sigils glowing on the ceiling alright. The deer is back on its feet. He feels all the fight drain out of him.
"Okay," he responds wearily. "How long do we have till we end up having a nice reindeer barbeque?"
Luffy's grimace deepens. "About… a minute? I think?"
The deer comes charging. Sanji gives himself the pleasure of dragging Luffy out of the way by his ear.
"Aw, man!" Luffy whines, looking at the shelf the deer had just knocked over. "All of Sabo's books are out of order now! He's going to be soooo annoying about this. And the vase-"
"Luffy!" Sanji bites, snapping his fingers in front of his friend's face. "Focus! We don't want this stupid animal to be dead when Ace comes inside the house, do we?"
That brings Luffy back to focus. "Yes, right. What do we do?"
It would make everything so much more easier if the deer just passed out. Which it probably would if they kept this going for a few more minutes, if the blood flowing out of the nasty gash on its side was any indication. It had also bust open its head by ramming it against the wall repeatedly. Stupid beast.
But the problem with that plan is that they don't have a few minutes. They needed to act now, or else they would have to deal with a dead animal on New Year's Eve, which he absolutely cannot deal with now—he had to clock in for his shift in an hour.
I did not sign up for this shit, he thinks desperately as the deer comes charging once again. He knows he should run, logically. But he's just so tired, he hasn't eaten a proper meal since, fuck, the last lunch he had, maybe? And this whole scenario is just so fucking weird that it might as well be a fever dream. Maybe it would be better if he pretended it was. Then he could get impaled by a goddamn deer and die. Peace, finally. It would also make an interesting headline in the news. Overall, not a bad way to go.
"Stop."
Sanji feels a chill run down his spine. His muscles lock up and suddenly, he's wide awake. He turns to Luffy, wide-eyed, and sees him glaring at the deer. The deer that has somehow... not impaled them yet?
He swivels around to see that just like him, the deer had been locked in place. Legs quivering, eyes panicked, but helplessly frozen.
"What the fuck?" He blurts out before he can stop himself. Luffy breaks his eye-contact with the deer and gives him a sheepish smile.
"I got you too, huh. Sorry, Sanji!"
His muscles unwind all at once. He falls on his ass, boneless, and slack-jawed. What the fuck.
The deer whines. Luffy groans in frustration and stomps his feet. "This isn't working! He's not listening to a single thing I'm saying! If I let him go, he'll try to kill us again!"
Sanji gathers his wits enough to snipe back, "Of course he's not listening, dumbass. That's a deer. It can't understand what we're saying."
Luffy shakes his head. "No, he understands what I'm saying. He's just not listening."
One of them is going insane, and he's no longer sure which one of them it is. "Luffy. You're talking nonsense. The deer can't understand you."
Luffy begins pacing. The room feels electric. Charged with something powerful. The deer shakes and shakes, but stays frozen in its place.
"You're not getting it either! You—oh. Oh! Sanji!"
Sanji startles back and hits his head on the wall when Luffy suddenly gets all up in his face without warning, face lit up like he had the best idea ever. The blonde already knows that whatever it is, it's going to be a terrible, no good plan.
"I know what we can you! You can talk to him instead! He'll listen to you for sure!"
"Okay, you're scaring me now," Sanji places a hand on his friend's forehead and frowns. "Are you running a fever? Is that what this is?"
Then Luffy holds his wrist and everything gets loud.
Sanji almost blacks out at the intensity of it; everything is so loud. The whirring of the fridge was no longer a background noise—it was… singing? Were all the appliances singing? Oh no. He's the one going insane, isn't he?
It takes him a few seconds to realise that the appliances are not singing, not really. They're humming. Full of life. A rhythm, repeated over and over again so that it sounds like a song. Some off-key and grating, some emotionless and empty, and some surprisingly warm and happy. Sanji's head spins with the onslaught of new information.
He screws his eyes shut, not sure if he was really seeing what he thinks he is seeing. When he opens his eyes, everything remains the way it was: colourful. If he thought he saw the world in colour till then, he was so, so wrong. Everything around him was vibrant—the granite countertop that he once didn't spare a glance to now shone in brilliant shades of grey and white, alight with the intensity of a thousand diamonds. He feels like… like his world has been cracked open. Like he has been looking at the outside of a geode all along, and now someone had broken it open with a sledge hammer and everything was so, so bright and breath-taking.
"-nji. Sanji!"
He gasps. He hadn't realised he was holding his breath. His eyes focus on Luffy, who was looking at him with a frown, displeased at not being given enough attention. His hand was still holding Sanji's wrist loosely and everything makes sense all at once: he was somehow looking at the world through Luffy's eyes.
Sanji almost bangs his head on the wall in shock again when he sees his own hand. Holy fuck, was he glowing?
The room gets warmer when you walk in. Lights up, too.
He can't believe Luffy was being literal when he said that. Good god.
"Sanji! Hey! Look at me!" Luffy complains, like the brat that he is, completely ignorant to the fact that he just turned someone's life upside down. "The deer is super scared. Can you talk to him?"
"Hey! Let me go, you bastards!"
Sanji almost jumps. He whips his head towards the source of the noise and surely, a deer didn't just talk to him. There's no way.
"You stupid humans! If you don't let me go right now, I will poke your eyes out!" The deer, very clearly, yells. Sanji inhales sharply and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Luffy," he says, deadly calm. "Why can I hear a reindeer talking?"
"Huh? Oh! That's because I'm holding your hand. I can hear him, so now you can too."
The Voice Of All Things is a power that is said to be wielded only by Gods. Sanji would know—all the information about magic has been seared into his brain from countless nights of flipping through books from his mother's library during his childhood, desperately searching for something, anything that said that there was something worth loving in him. Something that was wonderful.
At the end of the day, he found nothing. But he still remembers reading about the grand tales of ancient Gods. Remembers the way his heart skipped a beat when he read the words: Gods never die. But they are reborn.
There has been no record of a God among men for more than a century now, and researchers have long concluded that the power of Gods have probably been diluted till all that remains was the meagre magic humans could wield now. Sanji looks at the deity holding his wrist and thinks faintly, the researchers are gonna have a field day with this one.
He exhales. Curbs the urge to scream and lifts his head. The reindeer was still screaming expletives at them despite being obviously scared out of his mind. Before Sanji can say anything, a loud growl interrupts him.
Sanji had no idea reindeers could look embarrassed before, but apparently they can. He doesn't bat an eye at the fact because that's not even close to the craziest thing that has happened that night. Also he's still sold on the idea that this is all a fever dream, so.
"What?" The reindeer snaps, defensive. "Never seen someone hungry before?"
And just like that, Sanji softens. "You're hungry?"
The reindeer simply turns his face away with a huff.
"Do you want to eat?"
No response.
With a tug to Luffy's hand, he begins moving forward slowly, but stops when the reindeer's eyes widen with panic again. He raises his hands in the air in a placating manner. "I'm not gonna do anything. We were only gonna patch you up and feed you after you woke up, but then you started flipping out. You should eat if you're hungry, yanno. Because you look like you're about to keep over any second and also because you'll never get to eat food like mine again. I'll have you know that I'm the best damn cook around."
Luffy perks up, grinning. "Yeah! Sanji's food really is the best!"
The deer looks more confused than scared now, so Sanji takes that as a good sign and extends his hand. Cats like that shit, right? Extend your hand, wait for them to come to you. Does that work on reindeers?
"I made a salad for you," Sanji says. "Wasn't sure what reindeers eat, so I threw something simple together. I can make you something else if you want, too."
It hesitates, and then asks, "Really?"
Sanji bites back a smile. Hunger always wins. "Yeah. Really." Then, to Luffy—"Oi, idiot. Release him. I don't think he'll try to charge again."
"Right!" Luffy makes a careless gesture with the hand not holding him. The reindeer reindeer's locked muscles release all at once and it falls on the ground with a startled noise.
"Hello!" Luffy chirps, waving enthusiastically. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. What's your name?"
The reindeer goes by the name Tony Tony Chopper, and he likes sweet things. When asked about the details of his injuries, he goes quiet. Luffy barrels over the silence without a comment.
After another visit by Torao ("Not a word," the surgeon had hissed at Sanji's smug smile), the reindeer had been all patched up and put to sleep by a shitton of anaesthesia. By the time he closes the door behind the man, Sanji feels like he is about to collapse. But he doesn't have the time to indulge in luxuries such as a decent night's sleep, so he begins pulling on his jacket to head to the restaurant.
"Luffy! I'm going to—" he stops short when his phone rings. He frowns at the screen and picks up the call.
"What now, Carne?" He asks, sounding just as dead as he feels. "Did you forget to poach the eggs before you closed up? Don't say yes. Don't say yes or I will kill you."
"Oh shut up, brat. I got the eggs ready," Carne huffs. "I called to tell you to not come in today."
His eyebrows furrow. "Hah? Who else will look over all your lousy asses? The place will be on fire without me. I'll be there in 15 minutes."
"God, you are so difficult. I'm calling 'cause Chef Zeff told me to tell you this, shithead. He's already here."
"The old geezer? I told him to rest! What is he thinking, running around with his shitty knee—"
There's a rustle on the line. Then, "Eggplant, I'm not so old that I'll tolerate your shit without kicking your ass. Watch what you're saying."
He rolls his eyes. "Whatever. What the hell are you doing there? You should be sleeping at home!"
Zeff snorts. "If I stay in that house for another day without doing anything, I will go insane. I can take care of this. You go hang out with your stupid friends or get some sleep, you sound like you're about to keel over any second."
He feels like it, too, but he doesn't want say that and give Zeff the satisfaction of being right. "Shut up. Do whatever you want. Looks like the customers are going to have the misfortune of having your shitty food on New Year's."
"Watch it," Zeff warns, but he has known him for enough time to sense the amusement in his words. "Bring your friends here later today, or don't. Tell the strawhat boy that today's the only day he'll be getting free food, so if he misses it, I'm not giving him a single morsel of rice free of charge for the rest of the year no matter how much he grovels. Now cut the call, I'm busy."
With a small smile, he says, "Fuck you. I'll see you later."
"Yeah, yeah."
He pockets his phone and throws his coat back on the couch before setting out to find Luffy.
"Looks like I'm not going to—oh."
They had let Chopper sleep on a futon in Ace's room after he complained about the table being too uncomfortable (picky bastard). He expected Luffy to be watching over the reindeer, but he is met with the sight of him knocked out cold on the bed with his hand dangling off the side so that it brushed against Chopper's flank.
Sanji smiles, disgustingly soft, and pads inside the room to sit beside the boy. Just this once, he lets himself indulge in his mushy feelings and runs his fingers through Luffy's hair. Even in his sleep, the boy hums and leans into his touch.
A God, huh? But as he traces the scar over his cheek, Sanji can only see his Luffy—reckless, kind and full of love.
Sanji lies down by Luffy's side and continues to comb his hand through his hair. His eyes burn. It won't hurt to close them for a minute, right? Just a minute, then he'll be back up to make those cupcakes. He exhales, presses his forehead to Luffy's back and lets himself rest.