Chapter Text
13 year old Sanji and his younger twin Goji were leaning against the railing outside the upper deck of the ship they now called home, the Baràtie.
They stood staring out at the yellows, pinks and oranges of the evening sunset being reflected on the huge ocean that seemed to stretch out for miles.
Both of them were completely exhausted from a very busy day in the kitchens, the old geezer had forced them to head out for the day after Goji had almost passed out on the bench waiting for food to serve to the customers, they had insisted that they could work until they closed but the old man would have none of it. He'd said they they were going to close up soon and they were completely useless in the state they were in anyway.
Sanji took a puff from the cigarette he held between his fingers before looking over at Goji, The white hair that went down to his shoulders falling over the sides of his face as he leaned slightly over the railing.
They were both still in their work uniforms, Sanji in his white apron and coat and Goji in his White Dress shirt, black vest and slightly loosened tie.
His eyes fell on the cigarette in his hand and he suppressed a chuckle at the memory that came forth.
The first time the Geezer had caught them smoking he got pissed started spewing crap about how it would dull their taste, but of course, they really didn't care that much because it helped to cope with the phantom hunger that were a side affect from their months spent on the rock ( they didn't say this out loud but thought it made them look more mature at the time), Zeff stopped eventually after realizing it was no use, after all he had to cut them some slack after surviving something like that.
Sanji let out a long sigh before speaking
"This was the most exhausting day we've had in weeks" trying to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes.
"Hm, tell me about it, I feel like my feet are about to fall off" he responded.
The Blond raised his visible eyebrow at him.
"What?" challenged Goji.
"Then why the hell aren't you sitting down, dipshit?"
He shrugged back in response "I dunno"
Sanji suppressed a chuckle as he looked back out at the sea.
He of course loved spending time with his younger brother but didn't like being told to stop working. Working kept his mind busy, stopped his thoughts from wandering,
He specifically didn't like the places his mind would wander to.
If he wasn't careful enough his mind would drift to back to the Rock. To be honest, Sanji still didn't know how they had survived 84 days without food, He and Goji had always joked that they survived purely out of spite because of what the Basterd sperm doner had said to them before they left Germa.
"There's not a sea in this entire world where you could survive on your own!" the words echoed in his mind sometimes, popping up when his mind grew quiet.
'The Basterd had no idea what he was talking about, right?' after all they had escaped death multiple times now.
That last day in the Dung- Germa, that time a few weeks after Germa where Sanji had almost died as a result of what happened on that last day, the sinking of the Orbit and last but most defiantly not least, the damn Rock.
'No, no Judge had no idea what he was-'
He felt a gentle touch on his hand interrupt his thoughts.
. . . His hand that was gripping tightly into his hair.
A stern voice caught his attention
"Get out of your head Sanji, your thinking to hard."
He felt Goji's carefully unfurling his tightly gripped hand as a few golden strands fell in front of his face.
He spoke after a few seconds, finally realizing what he was doing. His panicked heartbeat slowing down as he focused his thoughts on his brother.
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize I. . ." he trailed off, his cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment.
Goji chuckled quietly "Don't worry about it."
"...Hey do you remember when-"
They stood there for what felt like forever, taking about everything and nothing. A little technique Goji used to fill Sanji's head with something other than his own thoughts.
He himself had some things he would rather not remember either.
"We will be docking on the Baràtie Restaurant shortly Miss Sora"
"Oh already?" She said in surprise "Thank you, ill go get my Children ready" she said as she stood from her chair.
She left the cabin of the ship and went out the deck to find crewmembers of the passenger ship they were on making rounds and doing their usual tasks
Niji and Yonji were not far away, loudly arguing about something stupid that had most likely been going on for way longer than it should have
They did that a lot.
Reiju was leaning against the mast, completely absorbed in the book in her hands, Ichiji sitting next to her with his arms crossed and laughing at whatever the other two were arguing about.
A soft smile spread across Sora's face watching the scene. Seeing her kids act like normal children and not the bloodthirsty soldiers Judge had made them to be filled her with relief.
But as always, there was guilt mixed in with that feeling.
'Not all of them. . . I wasn't able to save all of them...'
Her smile slowly fell.
It had been two years since her 3 remaining sons had finally developed emotions, had finally been able to feel.
Two years since Vinsmoke Judge had been sent to the lowest pits of Impel Down for the rest of his miserable life.
Two years since her children had found out she was still alive. . . and she had found out two of hers, were not.
It had shattered her heart into a million pieces, she had grieved them alongside her children for months. She grieved the people they were. . . and the people they could have become.
'Sanji would have been an amazing cook'
'Goji would have been- . . .'
She realized that she did not know Goji's dream, didn't even know if he had one.
Sora regretted not being able to get to know her 5th son more.
Even still thinking about them made her gut twist and her vision blurry.
She knew herself and her children would never fully recover from the loss.
leaning against the doorframe, she absent mindedly observed the scene before her as she buried herself in her own thoughts.
She had never figured out exactly what had happened to her other two Children.
She knew they were gone. . . She knew that they hadn't gone peacefully. Sora didn't think she wanted to know exactly how they had died.
"It was an accident" that's what she had been told.
What kind of accident?. . .
Maybe she didn't want to know.
The looks of guilt, shame and grief that crossed their faces, the way they shut down completely every time Sanji or Goji's names were mentioned told her that they weren't ready to talk about it yet.
They probably never would be.
Their death had hit Niji the hardest when he gained emotions, there was no question about it.
She wasn't sure why but he seemed to blame himself, and every time she tried to convince him otherwise he outwardly agreed but she could see in his eyes he didn't believe her.
'Or he knew something she didn't'
She let out a deep sigh, straightened herself and quickly wiped the tear that managed to escape her eye.
'I refuse to believe he had anything to do with their deaths'
"Anyone hungry?" She called out. Yonji and Niji's fighting stopped instantly, and whipped their head in her direction.
"Yes!" They answered excitedly. Reiju looked up from her book with surprise
"Did we arrive at the restaurant already?"
"Not yet honey, but we'll be there in a few minutes." Responded Sora
"I just hope the customer service isn't as bad as the reviews say." Ichiji said sarcastically
When they entered the restaurant, the five of them were seated at a table in the far corner of the room and handed menus.
The establishment itself wasn't at all busy, there were only a few couples spread across the room, which made sense since they only saw one other ship at the dock when they first arrived, the likely reason being that the restaurant due to close soon.
While the others were fussing over what to order, Ichiji started to notice something that the others didn't, or if they did they weren't pointing it out. Reiju's slightly furrowed brows and nervous air were saying otherwise.
The few waiters and servers spread about the room taking people's orders where giving them strange looks, a variety of surprise, confusion and. . . Recognition? could be seen on their faces. They were obviously trying to hide it but weren't doing an incredibly good job.
As Ichiji was observing this, Reiju was growing more suspicious by the minute. Every new server that entered the room and caught sight of them stood there stunned for a few seconds before collecting themselves and continuing on. One of them almost dropped his empty platter at the when he saw them. One of the servers in particular who had been shooting them glances walked over to another and whispered something to him, the second waiter nodded and then rushed up the stairs.
'What the hell is going on here" Thought Reiju
"Did they recognize them? that wouldn't be very good if they did, if people recognized them as the Royal family of Germa all they way into the east blue we'll never find a place to start over' she was starting to grow nervous
She leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh.
'No matter how far from the North Blue they go, it seems they would never truly be able to escape it'
A voice snapped her out of her thoughts
"Reiju, you there?"
"I asked you what you wanted to order, is there something wrong? Her mother questioned, concern on her face.
"No Mother everything is fine' she reassured, putting on a smile to hide her nervousness.
"let me have a look at the menu"
'. . . I'm probably just overthinking things'
A Server burst into his office, standing panting for a second, catching his breath before he spoke.
"Chef Zeff! we've got some weird looking customers downstairs. I think you should go check it out!"
"What the hell are you talking about! not a day goes by in this place where we don't have weird customers! Get back to work!"
He barked out in his usual raspy voice.
"No, no you don't understand! There's a mother and 4 children, they-." Zeff cut him off.
"So its illegal for a Mother to had dinner with her children now? Get to the point!" he demanded.
"The children look exactly like Sanji and Goji, curly eyebrows, age, everything!"
'. . .What? Is that even possible? how could 4 random strangers look exactly my brats?'
'Unless. . . They weren't just random strangers.'
Sanji and Goji had never spoken of their lives before the were on the Orbit, therefore he had just assumed they had non, that they had been born and raised on it. But that wasn't the case, he had figured that out years ago. The kids were traumatized as hell, and Zeff knew that most of that trauma did not come from the Rock they were stranded on. So then it must have been the people on the Orbit right? No, Never has her heard a single bad word about the people on that ship come from their mouths. This and the fact that they speak the North Blue language when they say things they don't want them to hear, indicating that they possibly hailed from the North and somehow made it to the East. How? he had no idea.
He came to a decision.
'If these people are who i think they might be, then i have questions.'
"What table are they seated at" he asked has he stood from his chair.