#though still in the early stages | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nehswritesstuffs · 6 months

Text

Baratie: Home to Chefs, Strays, and the Occasional Sword Goblin - Part 7

Still not dead--just running into a couple plot blockers while busy turning another maladjusted Northern lad into an accidental dad. When all is said and done, this is going to be a bridging chapter (so not filler, but also not too plotty), but I figure a reward for your patience is warranted.

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

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

A letter arrives, a snail call is made, and comfort is offered. [3269 words]

Sitting on the balcony outside his bedroom, Sanji read quietly in the warm sun with Asido cuddled into his side. It was a day off for him, so he was spending quality time with his nephew, the boy presently tuckered out after pushing himself hard during training. For not having a directly-altered Lineage Factor, he certainly was unnaturally athletic and capable of learning quickly. Even his little body had limits though and he was now snuggled into his uncle’s side as he slept. Sanji idly scratched at the boy’s scalp, which pulled out a content squeak. He braced the book against his leg as he turned the page one-handed, not wanting to disturb the kid’s nap. Actually, this was nice… admittedly.

Eventually, Sanji’s ears caught the News Coo coming on the wind. When it was in sight and clearly headed towards him, he put the book face-down and waited for the bird to glide his way. It gave him a letter and waited shiftily, not leaving until it got a bit of the crisps Sanji had been munching on. He looked at the handwriting on the front and knew this was something he couldn’t let slide—Reiju had replied to him, after weeks of nothing, despite the inherent risks involved. Opening it carefully, Sanji checked to make sure that Asido was still sleeping before going over his sister’s flowing script.

‘Sanji,

‘Thank you for letting me know you received the azuki in a timely manner. I was not entirely certain who to gift them to, but I’m glad to know I chose well. Beans like the azuki are said to be auspicious and extremely versatile. I hope they only bring good things to the Baratie.

‘I do not know when it is that I can visit, though it is something I would like to do sooner rather than later. Father is planning future campaigns now with Notice as a physical base, monetarily, militarily, and socially. That much is public knowledge and assumption, making me free to write it. What they do not know—details I’m sure you recall so I do not compromise them—is that I am already going through much of the same treatments Mother did; Father is trying to build his Perfect Germa, and now there’s nothing I can even take to ward him off. All my future children will be perfect in his eyes. He has even taken me off active duty for the duration of the treatments and the lack of things to do is… unnerving. I was placed in Mom’s room; you know the one.

‘Please do not tell Zeff of our correspondences—I know how much he distrusts me. That much is something I would not blame him for, as I’m not exactly the center of charming stories. I think every day of what I have done to you, both in the past and now, and I shall likely never stop. If I could hold you in my arms and never let go again, I would. I wish you could have been at the wedding, that I might be at yours one day, and that they would have both been performed out of love. For now, I guess I shall have to learn to live with being pen pals, in a way.

‘Until the next letter,

‘Reiju’

Sanji carefully stuffed the letter back in its envelope before placing it in his book as a bookmark. His blood boiled at the thought of Judge torturing his sister—let alone anyone else—with his Lineage Factor experiments, but to keep her hostage in their mother’s old room while doing so? The threat was unspoken but clear.

One wrong move and she would meet the same fate as Sora did all those years ago.

After taking a deep breath to steady himself, Sanji gently shook Asido awake. “Azuki bean, time to get up.”

“I don’t wanna…” the boy murmured.

“You won’t be able to sleep tonight if you keep going,” he said. Asido rolled out of the chair and flopped onto the balcony floor, making his uncle roll his eyes. “Come on—we can visit with the geezer in the meantime.”

That got Asido perked up and the boy jumped to his feet, seemingly awake in an instant. Sanji shook his head and sighed before following his nephew through his room and over towards Zeff’s.

“Grandpa Zeff! Grandpa Zeff! Uncle Sanji taught me a lot of stuff today!” The boy nearly skipped into the old man’s bedroom, coming to a stop at the foot of his bed. He tilted his head, staring at him. “Why are you back in bed? It’s early.”

“I just feel like it, azuki,” Zeff bristled. He let out a wheezing cough and Sanji paused.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” he frowned. Now that he got a look at him, Zeff was pale, the bags under his eyes more prominent, and the book seemed too heavy for his hands.

“It’s just how I’ve been coughing the past few months.”

“No… that’s how you were coughing when I first dragged Chopper over here,” the younger man said. He checked Zeff’s temperature with a hand to his forehead and hissed—he was hot to the touch. “Shit. I’m getting the fever reducer.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re sweating through the sheets you fucking stubborn old coot.” Sanji pulled a bottle from a nearby table and poured two pills from it into his hand before shoving them into Zeff’s along with his water glass. “Take this.”

“Fussing over nothing,” Zeff grumbled. He took the medication, however.

“I’m fussing because I’m not ready to lose my dad just yet,” Sanji replied icily. Zeff looked away—that was probably the only word that Sanji could use that could get him flustered—and muttered something under his breath. “Hmm? What’s that, shit-geezer?”

“I’ll go when I’m good and ready you prissy little eggplant!” Zeff snapped. Sanji rolled his eyes and glanced over at Asido, who was fidgeting nervously.

“You should have seen him when I first rolled back into here,” he scoffed, trying to seem aloof for the boy. “Don’t worry; part of why we’re here is so that the old man gets better.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah. Now stay here and make sure he doesn’t move while I get some more of the medicine he was on before.” Sanji ruffled Asido’s hair, ignoring Zeff’s grumbling about how he wasn’t going to take the shit anymore. It was all a bunch of hot air, the younger chef knew, and gave his nephew a wink before heading out into the corridor. It was just his luck that Zoro nearly ran into him by the stairs, causing him to jump in surprise. “Ah, fuck, marimo. Perfect timing.”

“What the fuck do you want?” the swordsman grumbled. “It’s my day off.”

“Yeah, and the old man just took a turn,” he said, motioning back towards the door with a flick of his head. “Go watch him as I grab some medicine. Kid’s in there now.”

“Fuck,” Zoro huffed. “I thought we were watching the kid, not traumatizing him with elder care.”

“Just shut the fuck up and make sure they’re both fine,” Sanji snapped. He quickly descended the stairs and went into the geezer’s office where he was storing the rest of the medicine since it generally stayed cooler than the rest of the ship. Bringing it upstairs, he had to dodge a few of the other cooks before he had Zeff’s room in sight. The geezer was still coughing profusely, while Zoro had collected Asido in his arms so that the boy could hide his face in the moss’s shoulder.

“I don’t need that shit,” Zeff wheezed between coughs. Sanji ignored him and began to pour a spoonful of the lime-green liquid into a spoon.

“Don’t be a fucking pussy,” he scowled. Sanji waited until it seemed like Zeff recovered before jamming the spoon in his mouth without warning; it worked and Zeff took the stuff. “There. Was that so bad?”

“Could’ve been better,” Zeff cringed. “Can’t the reindeer make medicine that tastes decent?”

“You know that if there was a way, he’d’ve found it by now.” Sanji deposited the spoon and medicine both on the nightstand and looked over his shoulder—Zoro wasn’t there and neither was Asido. “Alright, now get some fucking sleep and I’ll come check on you for dinner.”

“I’ll just stay here then, wondering if I should murder Patty and Carne when I see them next.”

“Not only you wouldn’t, but you couldn’t.”

“Just wait until I get better and fucking watch me.”

Sanji simply rolled his eyes.

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

The thing was: Zeff didn’t really improve, let alone get back to where he was before.

He was still coughing a lot, his heavy wheeze reminding Sanji of how he’d get on particularly rough days, making him glad he was attempting to cut back on the cigarettes. A fever would come and go—sometimes high and sometimes barely there—and he was sweating a lot. Between Sanji, Patty, Carne, and Zoro, someone sat with the old man most of the time, only giving him a reprieve if they were all asleep. After nearly a week Sanji had enough of his yoyoing and left the moss-brain in charge of Zeff while he slipped into his room with the Den Den.

It rang. And rang. And rang.

“Hello!” Ah, it was Chopper’s bright and cheerful voice—the last time Sanji had called, Kureha answered. That had been an… experience to say the least. “Who might I ask is calling?”

“Hey, Chopper, it’s Sanji.”

“Oh, hi Sanji! Ah! There’s your eyebrow! The snail must be slow to copy today. Are you calling to give a report on Zeff’s progress?”

“That’s almost why I’m calling,” he replied. “The old man’s having a relapse; started almost a week ago and although it’s stable, it’s not getting any better.”

“Huh… that’s an interesting development. It should be something we can work with, though. What are his current symptoms?” Sanji told him and the snail nodded along. “Has he stopped any of the rest of his treatment?”

“Not that I’m aware of; even put him back on the original shit you left us with.”

“Then that makes this all the more interesting. It might be a delayed immune response by his specific blood type. Instances are rare, but they’ve only been observed in normally-healthy people under thirty-five.”

“Is the medicine still effective?”

“Yeah—there should be no reason for it to have waned in efficacy. I’m just wondering what could have triggered this response.” Sanji could see the snail’s face scrunch as Chopper pondered the situation—he was always such a professional when he got into Doctor Mode. “Have you been giving him additional fever reducer?”

“Yeah, like you showed me before you left,” Sanji replied. “It seems to work for the fever fine, but he still has his cough, and if the shit wears off then it gets real bad before the next dose kicks in, so I’m technically overlapping.”

“It’s good that he’s responding to that at least. At the amount prescribed, he can’t overdose or find his tolerance messing with it, not for a long while yet.” Chopper went quiet for a moment, the only sound being a shuffling of papers. “Do you think you can keep him under control like that for a bit longer?”

“I can do my best.”

“Excellent; I’m going to be coming over in a couple weeks. Robin and Franky are scheduled to pick me up and the five of us will make the trip together. We can make it a pit stop before we see Usopp, Kaya, and the girls.”

Sanji had to think for a moment. Oh yeah, that’s right, he wasn’t the only one in the crew who had found themselves thrust into parenthood over the past few years. “Hey, uh, Chopper? Can I ask you something?”

“Anything!” Sanji could hear the cheer in the reindeer’s voice, which honestly broke his heart.

“Can you make sure you bring along the right equipment to give a young kid a checkup?”

That piqued Chopper’s interest. “Is Usopp dropping the girls off with you early? I know they’re due for one and that you had offered to take them.”

“No…” Sanji bit his lower lip—there was no going back from this. “There’s a young boy I have here, nearly five, and I don’t know the last time a doctor looked him over. You’re the best there is.”

“I see.” The line went eerily quiet as Chopper contemplated the new information; he honestly preferred when the reindeer blushed and swore at such a compliment. “Can I ask how he came to be under your care?”

“You can, when we’re not speaking over a tappable line.”

“Fair. Is he there now?”

“No, he’s with the moss.”

Another pause.

“Zoro’s there…?”

“Live-in babysitter and geriatric’s companion extraordinaire, that one,” Sanji scoffed. He frowned when Chopper didn’t respond. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing—I just have a lot to prepare for,” the reindeer said. “You know, Luffy’s going to freak out when he learns about this.”

“No one’s seen Luffy in years—he’s going to freak out about a lot of things, to be fair.” They shared a bit of silence, where Sanji could tell his old crewmate was attempting to not panic. “I cut back because the kid’s around, if it’s any consolation.”

“You did?!” The snail’s face brightened again. “That’s great! How often do you go through a pack now?!”

“I dunno… about a week? Five days?”

“That’s already an improvement!” Chopper marveled. “You used to chainsmoke for months straight; being near a pack a week is impressive!”

“Well, let’s say I have some pint-sized motivation.”

“That’s good! That’s good!” There was another voice in the distance—probably Kureha—and the Den Den cringed. “I’ve got to go! I’ll send you some extra medicine by Coo and I’ll see you in a couple weeks!”

The Den Den clunked off and the imitation of Chopper vanished from the snail’s face. He left a snack for the snail and left his bedroom, heading out into the corridor the same time Zoro was exiting Zeff’s room.

“Patty’s turn,” the swordsman grunted. He caught the look on Sanji’s face and raised an eyebrow. “What’d Chopper say?”

“He’s sending more medicine via Coo, but he’s not coming for a while yet,” Sanji replied. “Apparently this shouldn’t even really be happening… not to the old man, anyhow.”

“We’ll get there.” Zoro awkwardly placed a hand on Sanji’s shoulder. “You know we will.”

“Yeah.” Sanji did not brush Zoro’s hand away, although he did walk out of his grasp, heading over to Asido’s room. He found the boy reading at his desk, legs kicking merrily in the air as he jerkily pulled his pointer finger over the varying speech bubbles, sounding the words out quietly. “Hey, what’cha got there?”

“Oh, just Sora,” the boy replied. He held the tankobon up and beamed. “I don’t have to ask for a lot of help with the words! Isn’t that neat?!”

“It is,” Sanji agreed. “Hey, listen: I just got off the phone with another old crewmate of mine. He’s a doctor and is going to come here to check on Grandpa Zeff. Have you met a doctor before?”

“No. What’s a doctor do?”

“A doctor tries to make sick people healthy, or make sure that healthy people don’t get sick. Have you ever been sick?”

“Nope! That’s when you don’t feel good, right? Like Grandpa Zeff? Is that why your doctor-friend is coming over? So that he can make Grandpa Zeff better?”

“He is, and while he’s here, he’s going to make sure that you and Zoro-oji and I are still doing alright, to check and see if we caught anything.”

“Really…?”

“Really-really; his name’s Chopper, and you’re going to love him. He’s a reindeer.” Sanji watched as his nephew’s eyes grew in wonder and a million questions raced through the boy’s mind. Asido’s mouth couldn’t keep up with his brain and the boy began to stutter, only making vague noises instead of words. “He’s not coming for a few more weeks yet, so don’t get too excited.”

Too excited? The boy was practically bouncing off the fucking walls.

It took a while to get Asido calm again, Sanji only really able to do so with promise of updates on when Chopper was scheduled to arrive. With the boy somewhat placated, his uncle slipped back out into the corridor, only to see that Zoro was still standing there with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

“Don’t you have anything else better to do?” Sanji sniped. He closed the door behind him, hopefully shielding Asido from whatever fight was about to happen. “Well…?!”

Zoro did not answer, instead remaining where he stood.

“Your room’s that one, if you were wondering,” the blond sniped. Fuck, of all people, it was the marimo he had to put up with. He made a move to head down the stairs again to start on dinner when Zoro pushed himself off the wall and grabbed Sanji’s hand. Before he could react, Zoro had yanked his arm and pulled him close for a hug. Sanji tried to get away, but the idiot’s grip was too tight.

“Calm down,” Zoro grunted sourly. Okay, so at least he wasn’t completely cracked.

“What the fuck is this about?” Sanji hissed through grit teeth.

“Take a breath,” the swordsman said. “You’re doing that thing again.”

“What thing?!”

“That thing where you’re going to keep fussing and stressing until you drop.” Sanji kept struggling, not wanting to use a kick in such tight quarters. “It was shit when we were with the crew and it’s shit now.”

“You can’t tell me what to do, shitty marimo.”

“No, but I can tell you that the kid’s beginning to pick up on your pissy habits,” Zoro warned. “I’m glad he’s not like your shitty-ass family in the emotional department, but this is going to mean you’ll have to watch it.”

“My nephew, mossball, not yours.”

“…that you want me to help you watch, so put a fucking cork in it.”

Sanji sighed and let himself grow limp, resting his forehead against Zoro’s shoulder and allowing his own arms to fall to his sides while the idiot held him up. There was no fucking use in fighting this, so he closed his eyes and breathed in deep through his nose—at least the marimo had showered recently.

“Alright, alright, I’ll try not to stay so fucking wound up, for the kid’s sake if anything.”

“Good.” Zoro gave one final squeeze before he let Sanji go, the blond pushing away from him with his face flushed pink in embarrassment. “I don’t care how weird you are about it: I will get your head out of your ass if you get it stuck again.”

“I’m not that limber; find a better turn of phrase.”

“If I have to put something else up your ass in order for you to calm down, I will.”

Sanji’s face went from pink to red as he almost ran to the staircase. Stupid fucking marimo saying stupid fucking inappropriate things outside his nephew’s door… worse yet, outside Zeff’s door. He did his best to calm himself down the the time he entered the kitchen, though it still felt as though all eyes were on him.

This was exactly the shit he wanted to avoid with Zoro there, and yet it was happening anyhow.

He was gonna kill Usopp.

#One Piece #fan fiction #Blackleg Sanji #Kuroashi Sanji #Aka Ashi no Zeff #Red Leg Zeff #Roronoa Zoro #Asido (OC)#I've been pulled fifteen ways at once in regards to OP fic for about a year now #and sometimes stuff just happens you know #Vinsmoke Sanji #ZoSan #though still in the early stages

5 notes · View notes