#I mean this has everything: Sweet kids. Precociousness. Good Dad Energy. Grandpa Zeff

[nehswritesstuffs]

Baratie: Home to Chefs, Strays, and the Occasional Sword Goblin - Part 3

There are so many Good Nehs Dopamine Hits in this chapter that it’s almost unreal, ha.

First chapter on [tumblr] - [FFN] - [AO3] 

Prior chapter on [tumblr] - [FFN] - [AO3]

With Usopp about to arrive with reinforcements, Sanji wonders if really can handle taking care of his sister’s kid and all the things that would entail. [4503 words]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The remainder of the day passed without much incident. Sanji kept Asido with him as he concentrated on the chunk of paperwork that, if he was honest, he had been pointedly ignoring up until late. There were some children’s books in the lost and found, so he was able to hand them over and allow his nephew to read to himself while he finally was able to tackle the geezer’s bizarro accounting system. Once that was cracked, he was able to move on to the rest of the work, which was decidedly going to be less frustrating and more boring and trite. It would likely take him the entire time he was waiting on Usopp to finish everything up, especially how his mind kept on wandering while he was working.

There was so much that he did not know the answer to, and that bothered him most of all, he supposed. This kid came out of nowhere, reportedly having been off the radar of a man who was completely and entirely all about how much control he exerted over his children and his subjects. It was even likely that Reiju had been followed to the Baratie, and that their father was exacting his revenge on her at that very moment before handing her over to a different sort of captor. He even burnt himself while lost in thought, cigarette sitting idly between his fingers as he watched his nephew bounce around on the back deck. Hissing at it, he threw the stub in the ocean, more pissed that he forgot about it for half the smoke than anything.

“You alright, Uncle Sanji?” He glanced up and saw Asido staring at him, brows furrowed curiously.

“Yeah—I need to cut back on those things anyhow,” he shrugged. “Say, you’re pretty good at playing by yourself. Who did you play with back home?”

“Mom and Miss Cosette, and they couldn’t always play,” Asido admitted. “I had my own secret room, and when I had to be in there, I played by myself a lot.”

That piqued his interest. “How often were you in this secret room?”

“Sometimes a lot, sometimes not—it depended on Mom and Miss Cosette’s works.” The boy did a cartwheel and almost landed in the ocean, which his uncle deftly stopped with grace only brought on by having minded the Pirate King. “It was okay though, because there was a magic door that Miss Cosette made food appear in, and there was a Den Den that Mom would check with me on, and windows like sunglasses so I could see out and no one could see in.”

“My sister knows how to keep her son safe, after all,” Sanji said. The smile on his face did not reach his eyes—just another thing he needed to ask about. “Say, your mom didn’t teach you anything about fighting, did she?”

“Fighting? Only that it’s bad.”

“Well, yeah, it’s bad, but what if someone bad tries to fight you, or steal you, and there’s no other choice?”

“Oh…” The boy went quiet and still, attempting to think clearly. “No… why?”

“This ship gets attacked by bad guys sometimes, and I was thinking that you need to make sure you know how to fight if you’re gonna stay here.”

“Fight like Sora?”

Somewhere inside Sanji, a knife twisted ever so slightly.

“No, but I was thinking that maybe I could help you. That cartwheel you did reminds me of stuff I can do, stuff I can do while fighting, even if it’s just for fun.”

“Why would fighting be fun?”

Sanji didn’t want to tell Asido just yet about the dangers of the seas, how there would be people willing to kill him, to kill for him, to love him, to drive him to ruin, and he needed to be prepared for them all. He thought about petty squabbles with a living scrap of moss, but also a lone, odd night where they made certain they were alive in a very different way. That was once though—a slip—and it wasn’t like it was brought up ever again.

“It can be, because it gets you moving, and your blood pumping, and sometimes in order to not fight-fight, you got to pretend-fight so that you don’t get cranky and grumpy.”

“Ah.” He watched the gears in the boy’s head crank slowly yet methodically. “What can you do, Uncle Sanji?”

Chuckling, Sanji used Skywalk to hop up to the very top of the ship, coming back down again to a very excited Asido. The boy had stars in his eyes as he stared at his uncle, as though he’d just met the hero from the comic pages.

“Wow! When can I learn how to do that?!”

“You gotta master a bunch of other stuff first,” Sanji laughed. Asido pouted, looking like he was going to cry. “Since you seem to be good with cartwheels, do you want to work on flips first? I think you’d do pretty well with those.”

...and so they worked on tumbling for the better part of the afternoon, Sanji guiding the boy’s body as he slowly went through motions his own limbs were well-practiced in. They eventually went inside when it was time to make dinner, with Asido quietly watching the kitchen work in tandem as he stayed in the corner, safe and out of the way. Carne kept staring at nephew and uncle, wondering what it was that he believed, though it also meant that he was being glared at by Sanji, the other man making himself loud and clear without uttering a word.

Anyone were to question the boy and they would see the flaming side of his heel. No exceptions.

Rain moved in while they were eating, and that ended up being the end of training for the day. Thunder rumbled lowly in the distance, though the waves did not become too terribly high; it was the benefit of being in shallow waters with light wind, the crew knew, and they went to bed knowing the ship was strong and the cupboards were sealed tight for a reason.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Asido wondered as he looked all around the bedroom. It was one of the spares that dominated Zeff’s floor of the crew’s quarters, the dresser of which Sanji was currently placing the majority of his nephew’s things.

“This room should get used anyhow; there could be ten visitors up here, me included, and the geezer would still have more than enough room to swing his peg around,” Sanji explained. He didn’t say that it was because Zeff anticipated more than a few comings and goings of his foster son’s crew, but that was a fact better left unsaid for the time being. “I think next time we go into port, we should get you some more clothes.”

“…but I like my clothes.”

“I’m sure you do, but you also didn’t come with very many, and I don’t want to be doing laundry constantly.” He ruffled the boy’s hair, mussing it so his eyebrows peeked out from under his bangs. “Besides, you look like you’re about to grow soon, so we should get you stuff in bigger sizes too.”

“How can you tell?!” Asido’s eyes were wide, making Sanji chuckle.

“It’s a power grownups have,” he only half-lied. “Now climb into bed so you can get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.”

“We do…?”

“Yeah—there’s some special guests coming, one of whom I haven’t seen in a long time. He’s kind of an idiot, but very, very nice. I think you’ll like him.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah.”

Asido climbed into the bed and settled in under the covers. The entire thing seemed to engulf him, as it was a mattress meant for a full-grown adult more than a little kid. He stared at Sanji expectantly, unsure of what to say.

“What is it, azuki?”

“Do uncles give goodnight kisses?”

“Of course we do.” Sanji went into his memory of every time his mother kissed either him or Reiju, trying to remember what it was like. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the boy’s forehead, which elicited a content squeak. “Better…?”

“Yeah. Thank you, Uncle Sanji. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, azuki bean.”

Another check of the room and Sanji left for his own, deciding it had been a busy enough day for him to turn in a bit earlier than usual. Light was still peeking out from under Zeff’s door, and he left the old man alone. Instead he went and showered, letting the spray run so hot it burned his skin a deep pink.

He wondered if he was strong enough to do this.

Fucking hell, what did Reiju just do to him? He went through the motions slowly, not getting out of the shower until after his skin was starting to prune. Taking him for a week or a month would have been one thing, a fair warning would have been another, but… how did she know to send him there? Did she know he would look at the boy and see a happier version of himself? She had to—his elder sister knew what manipulation was and how to use it to her advantage. He was going to have to go through Zeff’s newspaper collection and see what sort of things Germa had been up to the past six years, as much as it pained him to think of it. Maybe it could give him some clues without writing Reiju some very direct questions… or Cosette for that matter… and that didn’t even get into the fact of he had so little to give the child now slumbering in the other room that he would even need to consider turning to public records for answers.

Towel-dried and in pajamas, Sanji laid down in bed, taking comfort in the act of being horizontal. It had been a long day and he needed to relax. He tried to unwind his brain by going into a list of all the things that Usopp enjoyed eating, since he was presumably staying for at least a dinner and a breakfast. It was just beginning to work when he heard his door creak open—it was Asido, the boy quietly closing the door behind him.

“Hey, why aren’t you in bed?” he asked. The boy’s eyes reached the floor in embarrassment.

“Uncle Sanji…? Can I stay with you…?”

He exhaled heavily and pulled back the blanket. “C’mon kiddo, get in here.” Asido immediately launched himself into the bed and snuggled up against Sanji’s chest, making his uncle frown. “Hey, hey, what’s this about? You alright…?”

“I had a bad dream,” the boy whimpered. Sanji tucked the kid in and laid his arm atop the blanket, hugging him protectively. After all, when it was said and done, he was still just a scared little boy without his mom for the first time.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“…no.” A pause. “Is that okay…?”

“Sometimes, you can’t talk about things like that for a long time,” Sanji mused. He thought about his own childhood nightmares, and how he hoped his nephew’s were nowhere near as bad. “I’ve had my fair share of bad dreams—I get it.”

A nod. “I miss Mom.”

“I miss her a lot too.” Sanji stroked the boy’s hair, reminded of the way Zeff used to calm him down. “You know… I think I remember a lullaby from when your mom and I were kids. Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes, please,” Asido whimpered.

Sanji reached back into the recesses of his memory and began to sing softly. He certainly was no Soul King, but the words passed over his lips as though he had last heard it a fortnight prior, not twenty years. Tears silently fell from his eyes as he blinked in the darkness, emotions he thought he had worked past bubbling to the surface.

By the time the song was done, the boy was fast asleep, if still trembling, and it was all his uncle could do to not give in himself. The pain had been dulled with time, he thought, except having Asido curled into him, desperate for his protection, made it all flare up as though the wound was still open and raw. To make it all worse, Sanji wasn’t even entirely certain who to be angry with—his father? His sister? His nephew’s father, whomever that was? The rich dipshit over in Notice who was likely attempting to canoodle with the wrong woman? He didn’t know, but then again… how could he?

Another low rumble of thunder punctuated the fall of the rain and Sanji felt himself drift off towards sleep as he thought about menu options, grounded to the child shivering in his grasp.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The storm broke overnight and, came with it, a gentle dawn with calm seas and a clear sky. Sanji let Asido sleep in his bed while he went and made breakfast, allowing him and Zeff to eat alone.

“Look at it this way: at least you know the likelihood they are the same nightmares you had as a kid is low,” Zeff shrugged. “I’d take that as a win if I were you.”

“A hollow victory, since I still don’t know what’s going on,” the younger man replied. “At least Usopp will get here today—I don’t like this waiting bullshit.”

“It could be worse—he could be bringing your captain over.” Sanji shuddered at that.

“The kid needs to adjust first before he meets Luffy. Fuck, it’s a risk just bringing Usopp into all this.”

“They’re your friends, eggplant.”

“Yeah, who I made with no thoughts of ever running into anyone from before the Baratie ever again.” He looked at the small photo in the society section of the paper and frowned. “She looks so miserable.”

“She’s smiling.”

“I know that smile—that’s not a good smile.”

The air sat heavy between them as Sanji continued to look at the paper. As much as he wished he could wholly sever himself from his childhood, the fact remained that he was still terribly attached no matter how hard he tried. One look at Reiju and he saw their mother, and with her, a life they could have had all this time. What sort of resistance there would have been were she still breathing, what could have changed if he weren’t the only one who left, what paths their lives could have taken…

“Son…” Zeff placed his hand on Sanji’s wrist, the act pulling the latter back into the room. He felt his face and realized it was wet with tears.

“She’s not coming back for him, is she?” Sanji asked quietly. “She left him here because neither of us fit in and never will, even if we try. He’s been abandoned.”

“Part of me completely agrees with that,” Zeff frowned, “but only part. Without her around to show the family resemblance, he looks enough like your kid to where snoops won’t ask the wrong questions, and I think abandoned is too strong a word to use if he got brought to the only other member of his family that knows what it’s like to be on the outside.”

“It’s not fair to any of us.”

“I didn’t say anything about fairness, eggplant.”

“…but what happens when Chopper clears you to take back the restaurant? What then?”

“Don’t think about that shit—we’ll get there when we get there.”

“…but I don’t know…!”

“Uncle Sanji…? Grandpa Zeff…?” The two men looked to see that Asido had finally woken up and had shuffled into the room. “Why didn’t you get me up?”

“Nightmares need a little extra sleeping time to go away,” Sanji said, passing the newspaper to Zeff for safekeeping. Asido went red and looked down at the carpet, though Zeff let out a laugh instead.

“He knows from experience, azuki,” he chortled. “I used to let him sleep in the morning after a nightmare too. Seems to me it’s like uncle like nephew.” He watched as Asido slowly raised his eyes and looked at him, squeaking in terror before going to sit at what was now his place at the table. “Come now—no reason to be scared here. That dream can’t hurt you when the sun is up and we’re around.”

“He’s right; it can’t,” Sanji agreed. He watched as Asido nibbled at his toast with jam. “Hey, what’s wrong, Asido? Still the dream?”

“What don’t you know?” the boy asked. Sanji glared at Zeff for a moment before turning back to his nephew.

“I don’t know when our visitor is coming later,” he only semi-lied. Fuck—at this rate, he was going to need to take pointers from Usopp while he was on the ship. “Do you remember me telling you last night? About our visitors?”

“Yeah… but I thought you did know when he was coming.”

“Maybe later today, maybe tomorrow if the wind is bad,” Sanji explained. “Now let’s hurry up so I can get a cigarette in before we pop in the office for the day.”

“That stuff makes you stinky,” Asido giggled, wrinkling his nose. Zeff his a laugh behind a cough, earning him a glare from his son.

“Maybe figuring out what I can do instead can be a project for the two of us, hmm?” Sanji posed. His nephew brightened, sending a shiver down his spine.

“You can teach me more of the flippy stuff!” Zeff raised an eyebrow curiously. “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you last night at dinner! Uncle Sanji’s teaching me how to make sure I can fight enough so I don’t get stoleded if bad guys come here!”

“Stolen,” Sanji corrected, tips of his ears turning pink. “So you don’t get stolen, Asido.” He didn’t need to see Zeff’s face to know the bastard was grinning nearly as wide as his mustache. “That might be something for you and Grandpa Zeff to do once he is allowed to move around a bit more. He was the one who taught me the basics.”

“Feeling better or not, I’m still an old man,” Zeff chuckled. “I can supervise and make sure that Uncle Eggplant is teaching the azuki properly, but my fighting days might just be a thing of the past, aside from putting the odd greenhorn or two in line.”

“Fucking troublesome,” Sanji growled. “Either you’re done or you’re not.”

“Gotta keep him on his toes,” Zeff told Asido, giving the boy a wink. The child giggled—mission accomplished.

“Alright, breakfast’s over; get to your room and pick out your clothes for the day. I’ll be in to help you wash soon.”

“Oh, I can do that, Uncle Sanji!” Asido claimed. “I did it myself all the time at home!”

“Then go show me how big of a boy you are and get ready—I’ll be in to check on you in fifteen minutes.”

At that, Asido hopped off his chair and ran from the room. Sanji gave Zeff an exasperated look and the older man chuckled.

“Yes, you should be tired just watching him,” Zeff chortled. “I went through the same shit with you.”

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny, brat.” The older man could not help but give the younger a shit-eating grin—fucking bastard was enjoying this. “Now get going, or the kid’ll beat you to the punch.”

“Sounds like you know from experience.”

Zeff glanced down at his newspaper and pretended to not hear Sanji. Rolling his eyes, the blond took the dishes with him to the kitchen and made sure all the shifts were covered and roles assigned before heading back to his charge. Sure enough, it was fifteen minutes nearly to the second, and Asido was struggling with getting his shirt on correctly. Sanji disengaged the boy from the garment and eased it on him, a bright smile as his thanks.

“What are we going to do today, Uncle Sanji?” Asido wondered.

“Well, we are mostly going to stay in the office until our visitors get here, and then we’re going to be with them until the end of the day.” Sanji left the room and started walking down the stairs to the deck, his nephew close behind. “You know, my friend is bringing someone to help out with you… to watch over you while I work, since the kitchen is too busy for you right now and the geezer can’t physically keep up for long.”

“Oh, like Mom and Miss Cosette taking turns watching me?” Asido asked. Once they were out on the deck he began to bounce around and try out some of the moves he was shown the day before with disturbing accuracy.

“Exactly… I…” Sanji watched the boy as he tumbled about, marveling at his ability to pick things up. His Lineage Factor might not have been altered directly by Judge’s hands, but the boy was still showing the effects of the fucker’s tampering with Reiju. “You know that I’ll still be easy to find, right?”

“Well, yeah—you’ll just be in the kitchen working.” Asido looked at him, head tilted, and seemed nearly Luffy-like in his ability to appear as though he knew everything that Sanji wanted to say. “It’s part of being an adult, right? Working?”

“I normally work a lot of hours, and there might be days where you don’t see me for anything other than meals, if that.” He choked down his emotions, making sure to seem strong and resilient for the lad. “I just don’t want you to think that I’m sick of you, or don’t want you around.”

“Mom said we were going to a fun place,” Asido claimed. “Why would she say this is a fun place, but then you want me to leave?”

Oh, the things he wanted to tell the boy, that he wanted to instill in him; it was neither the time, nor place, however, and he simply offered a wan smile instead.

“Just covering my bases,” Sanji claimed. “Now let me adjust your form—you’re really-super close to getting this right…”

About half of the morning passed with Sanji helping Asido tumble and flip on the deck before they went inside to the office. Once the shopping list for the dry goods run was complete, it was time to make lunch, and they returned to the tiny room after what was thankfully an uneventful meal. They worked quietly, with Sanji tackling payroll and Asido kept busy with books and crayons from the lost-and-found, until about an hour before the dinner rush, when a waiter poked his head in nervously.

“Uh… sir…? You have a visitor.” Sanji glanced at him, trying not to seem hopeful.

“Long nose, more hair than he seems to know what to do with, nervous knees?”

The waiter paused at that. “Braided until about here…?” He awkwardly chopped the base of his own skull with his hand. “Otherwise… well… yeah…”

“Thank fuck, it’s Usopp.” He put his pen down and looked at Asido. “C’mon—our visitor is here. Let’s go meet him.”

“Oh, cool!”

The boy eagerly abandoned his coloring project to grab onto his uncle’s hand and get led through the restaurant to the back deck, where all the varying small craft the staff used was moored up. As Sanji approached the small boat with a familiar jolly roger, he noticed three pint-sized terrors running up to him.

“Uncle Sanji!” the children gasped. Asido hid behind the blond while the other children slammed into the man’s legs, the combination nearly knocking him over. Give him a ship full off attacking pirates any day, but preschoolers? He was dead.

“...and how are you ladies doing?” he laughed. He looked at the girls and tried not to scream—this was not what he asked for, no matter how precious they were. “Did Mom come with you?”

“Nuh-uh!” the eldest said, shaking her blonde curls exaggeratedly. “She needs to stay home annacanta the baby making her feel gross!”

“Do you mean ‘on account of’?”

She thought about it. “Yes!” Her twin sisters giggled—oh, their father was in for it.

Speaking of, Sanji glanced up and saw Usopp ducking behind the supply boat, which caused him to frown. “Get out here, you coward, and meet my nephew.”

“Oh, I wasn’t hiding—what gave you that idea?” Usopp laughed nervously as he walked into view. He visibly cringed as Sanji gave him a look questioning the presence of the children, though didn’t offer a verbal reply. Instead, he let his daughters flock to him, the girls bringing him over to the chef. “So, where’s the lucky kid?”

“Right here,” Sanji said. He looked behind him at the child clutching the back of his trouser legs and pat his head. “Come on, Asido—meet Usopp and the girls. Merry’s just a little older than you. I think they’ll be great cousins.”

Cautiously, Asido poked his head around his uncle’s legs and stared at the newcomers. He balled the pants fabric in his fists, unsure about how to greet the strangers, specifically the ones more his size. The eldest girl approached him, a big smile on her face.

“Hi! I’m Merry!” she said brightly. “I’m almost five, and these are my sisters, Montie and Lea! They’re two and a half! Montie looks like Mom, and Lea looks like Dad, but I look like them both! You kinda look like Uncle Sanji, don’t you? Your eyebrows kind of give it away! Dad says you’re Uncle Sanji’s nephew-nephew, which is different from him being my uncle because him and Dad are friends, and…”

“Merry, give the boy a break,” Usopp sighed. He knelt down in front of Asido and gave him a gentle smile. “Hey, kiddo, you get Sanji taking care of you and you gain a whole ship full of extra bonus aunts and uncles. I’m the best one: Captain Usopp!”

“Uncle Sanji… I don’t feel so good…” Asido mumbled, reaching to be picked up. Sanji scooped the boy up in his arms and rested him against his hip, allowing him to cling to him and bury his face in his chest.

“He’s still a little shy—a lot of this is new to him,” he explained. Merry pouted sourly, while the twins looked confused. Usopp nodded in understanding, however, as he rose to his feet. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing the ladies… or that Kaya is stuffed… again…”

“Yeah, well, we thought some Mommy Alone Time would be nice, and it gives the girls a chance to meet the little guy. Plus, well, they wanted some more time with their babysitter.”

“…and who the flip might that be?”

Right on cue, a familiar yawn came from Usopp’s boat, making Sanji’s stomach drop. He looked towards the craft and saw Zoro stepping out, looking as though he was fresh from a nap.

Oh, fuck.