Chapter Text
It’s a quiet Monday night at Zeff’s restaurant, so quiet that Sanji alone is enough to be able to make food for the customers.
He washes his hands after serving a beautifully made Cacio e Pepe pasta for the only couple seated at the restaurant. The spaghetti sat in a wide bowl, perfectly twirled, garnished with deliberate care. Even on a slow Monday night, Sanji plated like he had critics watching.
His old man gives him a pitying look. “Why do you bother with such intricate details brat? This ain’t a Michelin restaurant, you know that right?”
Sanji clicks his tongue at the nitpicky complaint by Zeff. “It doesn’t matter if we are or aren’t. You can’t expect to gain customers to eat at your shitty restaurant if all it has going for it, is tasty food.”
“Whatever, do what you want.” Zeff exclaims and leaves to slowly clean the tables as they are to close soon.
Sanji pulls his phone out of his pocket and goes on Instagram. He looks at the most recent post he made for Baratie, his smile slowly fading. “Only five likes, damn it.”
His old man has been advocating to not waste his time making silly posts, because he strongly believes they serve no purpose and no person would care enough to actually visit the place physically. He really doesn’t understand why his posts perform so badly though. The food looks amazing. The lighting isn’t too bright to make it look unappetizing, nor is it too dim that you can’t see shit in the picture. The steak in the picture is cut in six pieces, well-made and placed on top of two sauces that were spread flatly on the plate. Different vegetables around it for decoration and nutrition naturally. A deep round wine glass with the bottle next to it. He closes his phone in frustration, waiting for this shift to finally finish.
***
Portgas D. Ace has finally reached his one million subscriber milestone that he’d been dreaming of since he started creating travel content on YouTube. It was a very slow and hard journey of uploading videos frequently but not getting enough recognition. The moment he stopped caring about the numbers though, and just did whatever made him happy, is when the number started to rise significantly. He has done such variety of things on his channel that he’s no longer just a travel channel.
He’s made videos where he goes to a fast-food chain pretending to be an employee, his brother even helped him make the uniform. He wanted to see how long it takes before he gets caught. A quite risky thing he did, since it could’ve led to a potential lawsuit if the company wanted to press him. He also did videos where he visited various countries and educated his viewers of the vast sea of cultures out there. However, recently, he has been doing more review focused videos, whether reviewing cool action figures or obsessing over recent movie releases.
He and his brother Luffy are sitting on their comfy black leather couch. Luffy was watching some Mukbang video on YouTube whilst eating chicken wings and a bunch of other meats that he loved, munching like the pig he is. Ace was on his phone, scrolling through his Instagram feed hoping to find something humorous.
He looks at his brother with concern as he gets progressively faster and louder while eating. “Jeez Luffy, it’s not like the world will end tomorrow and we won’t have any food left. Would you slow down with the chewing? I can’t even hear the videos I’m watching.”
Luffy apologises with his mouth full accidentally spitting a chunk on Ace’s face.
“Ew man, close your mouth, and finish the food before you decide to shower me with saliva. Why are you even watching someone eat while you’re eating at the same time?”
“Becomm im mm dob” the dark haired boy explains with his mouth closed, gulps his food, and then decides to explain again as his brother had a confused look on his face.
“Because it’s my job! Plus if I were to watch this while I wasn’t eating, imagine how hungry that would make me!”
Ace chuckles as he realises that Luffy was undoubtedly watching Mukbang videos before they sat on the couch which it made him crave food.
As he goes back to his scrolling spree, he glances on what he thinks is the best looking steak his eyes have ever laid upon. Clicks on the post and sees the caption. Join us at Baratie if you want to taste the city’s best steak ever! <3
Surprised by how few likes it has, he decides this would be the perfect place to celebrate his milestone and to eventually make a video out of it. He would call it something like: I just found the most underrated restaurant in the city!
Of course, that would be if the food tastes as good as it looks. He shows Luffy and lets him know that they’re going to celebrate the milestone there. The poor boy starts drooling over the picture, whining to his brother that he wants to eat that immediately, to which Ace replies; “Luffy it’s really late and from what Google says the restaurant closes in 30 minutes. We won’t have enough time.”
Luffy makes the cutest puppy face ever, looking at his dear brother with pleading eyes. How can he say no to that?
“Fine.” Ace murmurs and gets out of his seat, grabs the keys and swirls them around his finger, his brother following him behind like a dog wagging its tail. “But you’re driving after, I want to drink that wine.”
***
They arrive at the restaurant with 10 minutes to spare before it closes, praying the car journey wasn’t a waste.
Sanji catches a glimpse of the red car that just parked in front of the restaurant, wowed with how stunning it was. It’s a Maserati MC20 Cielo, he doesn’t know the year because he’s not really a car guy. He sees two boys, one around his age and one younger, maybe 22 years old? The boy had midnight hair and a small scar under his left eye, dressed casually in a white shirt and jorts like he hadn’t planned on dining anywhere fancy, and white Jordans too clean for this alleyway. The other fellow looks a tad older, around 25 he guesses. Same coloured hair but the length of it almost reaches his shoulders, styled in a half bun with a few streaks of hair hanging in front of his face, and freckles kissing his cheeks. He’s wearing brown smart pants that compliment his tan skin. Black Dr. Martens and a black buttoned shirt, to which, three of the buttons are undone, and a gold chain peaking from his skin.
The brothers open the door and walk in, about to face a grumpy old man who’s walking towards them, one foot louder than the other. Luffy tries to supress a chuckle because of how the elder’s moustache is interestingly styled in two long braids.
The restaurant isn’t high-end, and its location doesn’t pretend to be. Baratie is located in a quiet alley, around 15 minutes by foot if you were to exit the nearest train station. Luckily, that wasn’t a problem for the brothers. The wooden floors creaked softly beneath matching tables dressed in blue cloth and low candles, giving the place a quiet, cozy glow. Plants placed around the edges of the interior, and paintings of different flowers decorating the white walls.
Zeff walks up to them and asserts. “Do you boys realise the time here, we’re closing. Come another day.”
Luffy frowns. “We’re very quick eaters! Please serve us, I’m starving!!” He cries.
“I don’t care. There are 10 minutes left and as you can see most of the tables are cleaned, and the chairs placed on top. We’re closed, end of discussion.” The chef explains with his tone raised.
Sanji overhears the conversation, butting in to stop his idiot father of ruining the business even more. “I’ll feed them. Just go home old man.”
The old man tries to argue, but Sanji stops him once he states he will never leave someone to starve, leaving the old chef mutter “Stupid brat, I’m going to sleep.” He then heads upstairs.
The boys excitedly sit down and Sanji takes their orders. Both order the steak they saw, wine for the older brother, tap water for the younger one. They ask the cook if he could make eight portions additionally.
“Taking it home for the family?” The cook asks curiously.
Luffy grins widely. “No, seven are for me”
The cook tries not to question it and get to work. He knows he said he would never leave someone to starve, but eight portions? Damn. Certified big back. He thinks, making himself laugh a little.
He comes back 20 minutes later with all the portions and places it on their table. Then goes back to bring the wine bottle and tap water. He pours the wine in the glass and tells them to enjoy their meal as he goes back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. Before he does, he peeks from the little window that separates the main room and the kitchen to see the guests’ first bite of the food.
Both boys melt in their seats as they bite onto their forks and slide them out of their mouths to chew on the delicacy. The younger boy’s face lights up as he gulps, sparks like stars illuminating in his brown eyes. A breath of relief comes out of Sanji’s mouth. He’s never seen someone eat with such appreciation in their faces before, especially from the boy with the scar. The emotions they convey make him blush slightly.
After 10 minutes or so, the blonde hears screaming. Worried he comes to the table to see the younger boy full, belly enlarged 4 times its original size, and tapping it aggressively as he shouts compliments about the food. Phew he whispers to himself.
Luffy yells for the cook. “MISTERRRR COOK!!!”
“Yes sir” he responds.
“The food was sooo yummy, I have never tasted anything like this before. Work for me! I need you under my company!” He smiles wildly at the cook with his arms open wide.
“Uhh, excuse me?” Sanji asks dumbfounded.
“Pardon my brother’s manners” Ace joins in. “What’s your name?”
“Sanji” Ace waits for him to continue, giving him a look that say so. “Just Sanji” the blonde responds.
“Right, nice to meet you Sanji. I’m Portgas D. Ace and this is my brother Luffy.” He points at the younger boy which is somehow asleep? Ace rolls his eyes at the atrocity of an impression his brother is giving the cook.
“LUFFY WAKE UP!” to which the dark haired boy twitches and opens his eyes again.
“Anyway, so this is Luffy and he’s the CEO of a food company called ‘Thousand Sunny’.” He elaborates. Sanji slowly nods, understanding the context of what the boy was asking him.
Of course he’s heard of the company. He loves food and he’s a cook, thus no matter how popular it would or wouldn’t be, he still would know of it. The company specialises in ready-to-eat meals, but not the bland, microwave kind. It’s a proper one, as if you just made it yourself at home. All kinds of spices, the meal filled with all the nutrients you would need, and doesn’t use ultra-processed foods. When he first tried them, he was very pleasantly surprised. He’d expect to hate it, since the whole town around him was hyping it up, consequently raising his expectations, but even then, it left him impressed.
“Yeah! And your food was so yummy that you just HAVE to work for me…please?” The boy asks whilst forming his usual puppy eyes hoping that’d be enough to convince him.
As much as he appreciated the warm invitation and the lovely reactions he saw from the brothers he had to deny it. He’s indebted to his old man and does not want to leave him when the restaurant is barely known, barely makes any money.
“I’m sorry boys, but my answer would be no.” He shakes his head with closed eyes, hoping they would understand.
“Why is that Sanji?” Ace asks him sincerely.
“I mean, do you not see how quiet it’s in here? I want to help my old man as much as I can, until I’m positive his business is safe and he doesn’t have to worry about being able to pay his workers their monthly wage. It’s the least I can do, therefore, I help out for when he can’t.” Sanji explains.
“Aw mannn, that shucks.” Luffy pouts and crosses his arms on his chest.
The other boy still hopeful, hands Sanji his bro’s business card. “Well, if you do change your mind, feel free to come see us again. And if you do, you can tell the receptionist that Ace sent you.”
Sanji nods with a smile on his face. The boys get up to leave and they wave the cook a goodbye, one being a lot more slouched with a big frown on his face as they exit the restaurant.
***
Several days pass, and the cook notices a lot more people visiting Baratie than usual. “Must be some kind of holiday.” Zeff thinks out loud trying to make sense of why the customers have increased in number.
Once the day had finished, both cooks tired as fuck, delighted that this busy day is over, tell themselves good night and head to bed. They’ve been making twice, maybe even three times the money than usual.
As Sanji plops on his bed, looks at his two plushies, one that’s a rat similarly looking like the one from Ratatouille and one teddy bear from his deceased mother. He hugs them tight as he tucks himself inside, and opens his phone to have his social media browsing time before bed. He goes on his personal Instagram and sees a very familiar meal on his feed. He raised his eyebrows as he clicks on the post to inspect it more carefully.
“What the fuck?..” He exclaims and his jaw slightly open.
The post was a picture of the eight portions he made for those two brothers that visited several days ago. Then, a picture of Luffy salivating about to eat the delicacy. After that picture, it’s a Luffy with his humongous belly that’s full from all the meat, and lastly, a video that proves he ate all of it. Seeing those same kind and appreciative eyes for a second time he catches himself chuckling, feeling warmth in his heart.
Ace tagged the location of the restaurant, the account of restaurant which god knows how Sanji didn’t notice sooner since he operates it, and the caption displaying On God you guys have to eat from here once before you die!! The food is absolutely heavenly.
With a bunch of water emojis and faces that stick their tongues out.
Then he looked at the likes. “Holy shit” his voice full of awe.
200,000 likes, no wonder the restaurant was thriving as of recently.
He decided to rethink the invitation and went to sleep.
The next day was the same as the other busy days. Once the customers got less and less, Zeff grabs Sanji’s wrist and takes him to the staff room. “What is it old man?” he asks as he looks at his tired dad.
“How long are you gonna stand in my way?” The chef questions.
“Excuse me?..” Sanji’s eye brow starts to twitch from the unpleasant question.
“Go live your dream kid. Work for the fancy place you got offered, stop working at this bum ass restaurant. You would have a future there.” The blonde man states with sincerity in his voice.
“Wha- How did you know that someone offered me a job?” He questions with a puzzled look.
Then Zeff points above him to which Sanji eyes the CCTV camera and then looks at Zeff’s finger pointing at the computer with the 9 other cameras. “Oh”
“Yeah kid. You think I wasn’t just as baffled when crowds started swarming this place? I figured it had something to do with the lads driving that expensive car, and who would’ve known I’m such a genius.” He claims with a smirk on his face.
He continues. “My point is, stop worrying about your old man and go live your dream of becoming a proper chef. I’m not a baby, I can take care of myself just fine. I even found a new cook! His name is Carne.”
“Wow, replacing me already huh.” Sanji scoffs, his tone expressing as if he’s extremely hurt.
“Cut the bullshit brat. Just go. I saw the business card near your nightstand. Don’t worry about me.” Zeff says trying to assure his kid.
“Okay then, but after this day is done. I’m not leaving you in the middle of a shift.” Sanji responds.
“Fine by me.” Zeff shrugs his shoulders as he heads back to the restaurant.
***
He wakes up, his hair super ruffled from sleeping on his side. Stretches his arms above his head and yawns as he gets out of his bed. He goes in front of the mirror and looks at the mess both his hair and face is. “I look like shit oh man.”
He quickly brushes his teeth, does his morning skin care routine and puts on light makeup. Nothing too girly though. All he does is some foundation to hide the imperfections on his face, some blemishes and a scar above his eyebrow. He grabs an eyebrow pencil and covers the scar lightly, making his eyebrow seem a bit curly. He feels insecure about the scar, and he likes the way the pencil makes it look like a part of his eyebrow, it adds character.
He goes to his closet to decide what he’ll wear for when he’ll go meet Luffy. He chooses to go safe and wears a black suit and a blue tie that complement his sapphire eyes. He sprays himself with his Dior Homme 2020 perfume, a slightly spicy and woody scent. Sanji then leaves and waves his dad goodbye. He then walks to the nearest train station.
Sanji arrives at his destination, the building located at a very convenient place, only a three minute walk from the station. It’s a crowdy area, naturally, located in the centre of the city, near other famous restaurants and companies such as Big Mom’s Sweet Treats and Kuma & Bonney. The building itself was maybe around 10 stories tall.
He walks up to the revolving door and enters. The guard by the door had neon green hair and a gold septum ring, looking less like corporate security and more like he’d walked out of a punk concert. Sanji had to bite back a laugh but failing, consequently making the green-haired fellow glare at him. He apologised and waved his hand vertically as he walked towards the secretary. The receptionist had long blue hair cascading over her shoulders, smiling politely as if this were the most normal office in the world.
“How may I help you sir?” The blue haired lady asks.
Sanji’s eyes sparkle as he hands the business card to the woman. “Why it’s such an honour to get assisted by a beauty like you, mademoiselle. I am here to meet the CEO, this is the business card handed to me by his brother Ace.”
She smiles at how flirtatious the gentleman is, covering her mouth with her hand. “Very well, I will inform his personal assistant. She will be here with you shortly, so as to be able to guide you the way to his office.”
He reaches to grab her hand and kisses it on top. “Merci, ma chérie.” The woman then reddens from the gesture.
Around 5 minutes go by and he sees a woman in her 30s approach him. She’s wearing a dark purple dress that reach her knees, black heels paired with black tights. Blue eyes like his and jet-black hair tied in a low bun. “We were expecting you, mister Sanji. Please follow me close.”
“I will follow anyone this lovely, madame. Please inform me of your name first.” He then again reaches for her hand but was stopped as she pulled it away.
She chuckles at the boldness of his action. “Apologies for the disappointment, but I’m married to someone. You may call me Robin.”
Sanji is embarrassed at his impulsivity. “I’m so sorry Madame Robin, my intention wasn’t to offend you!” He scratched the back of his head as he laughs nervously.
“Don’t worry, it didn’t affect me. I found it quite charming actually.” Robin reassures the panicky man.
They reach the top floor of the building and head to Luffy’s office. Robin signals him to enter the room, opening the door for him. She closes it and stays outside after he’s entered the room. The blonde is met with the CEO sitting on his chair with his feet on his desk, and his bodyguard right next to him. Two green-haired men in one building. Sanji blinked. Progressive didn’t even begin to cover it. He snorted before he could stop himself. The bodyguard’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Sanji cleared his throat.
Right. So he heard that.
He was wearing black sunglasses so he couldn’t tell how troubled that reaction made him. The bodyguard had his arms crossed around his chest and was wearing an all-black suit. Luffy was wearing the same clothes as he did when he first saw him, creating a slightly concerned look on his face.
This company is so unserious. How are they this popular?
When Luffy meets his eyes he jumps on top of his desk, and runs instantaneously to hug the man.
“Sanji!! I can’t believe you actually came!!” His voice filled with joy as he squeezes him harder.
The bodyguard shifted when Luffy threw himself forward, stepping close enough that Sanji caught the scent of clean linen and metal. In return, the man’s nose twitched, barely noticeable. As if committing something to memory.
“L-Luffy, I can’t breathe,” he wheezes.
The boy loosens his hold and drags him to sit on the chairs surrounded by a small table in front of his desk. “Would you like something to drink? Tea or coffee?”
He sits down as he slowly regains his breath again. “Some tea would be nice, thank you Luffy.”
“Okay! I’ll go get it!” The boy exclaims happily.
“Luffy, you have an assistant for a reason.” The voice was low. Controlled.
Sanji glanced up, and found the sunglasses already angled toward him.
“OH! You’re right! Oops! Hehe.” He responds sticking his tongue out as he hits his head slightly.
“ROBINNNNNN!!!” He shouts causing the cook to twitch and close his ears with his hands instinctively.
The bodyguard sighs. “Use the phone.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You love me.”
Sanji assumes what the motion of rolling his eyes would look on the bodyguard, as he moves to the phone and presses a button to call the assistant back inside.
“You called, Luffy?” Robin asks breathlessly.
“Can you serve Sanji some tea please?” His smile beaming brightly.
“Certainly Luffy!” She replies as she leaves the room.
In a more serious tone, the boy speaks. “Now then, are you ready to finally work for me?”
“After what your brother did, I had time to consider it. The restaurant is completely booming because of the post he made, and my old man doesn’t need me anymore,” he explains.
Luffy grabs his chin, trying to form a thought.
“Is that so? That’s a shame… Well, that’s perfect for us, because our cook left us not too long ago!”
With a surprised look he questions. “He left you? Did you mistreat him or some shit?”
The green-haired man cuts in, fury edging his voice. “Nonsense! Do not ever insult our boss like that! The stupid cook left by himself, he didn’t value his job like everyone else!”
“Now now Zoro, it’s okay! It’s only natural to have doubts when hearing this.” He tries to calm the angered man.
Luffy laid back with his hands behind his head, his voice filled with compassion and kindness. “Carne left because he wanted to see people’s reactions when they ate his food. The way the job operated didn’t line up with his wishes. It made him dissatisfied and unwilling to continue working here. When he explained, I understood him obviously. He was a part of the family, it’s only natural to want the best for your family.”
Sanji can understand where the other cook was coming from.
But for him, it was the opposite.
He was tired of seeing the underappreciated faces of the people that ate his delicacies. He put all this effort just for them to have no expressions and continue to yap about their meaningless gossip with the rest sat on the table. When he saw Luffy’s face light up like that, he realised he wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
“Wait, did you say Carne?”
The boy nods. “Why, do you know him?” He sticks his pinkie in his nose, looking completely unbothered.
“I think he’ll start working for my old man. Since the place got more popular he searched for more workers and said he found someone named Carne.” Sanji elaborated on the reason.
Luffy smiled, his teeth showing extensively. “Well isn’t that great for him! He already found a place, and here I was getting worried for him haha. Now we can visit your restaurant when we miss him!!”
“You’re always welcome,” Sanji smiles back softly.
“Your first day will be tomorrow, is that okay with you Sanji?” He grabs his shoulder and pats it up and down.
“Yes, boss. Sounds good to me.”
“Good.” Luffy grinned.
The bodyguard said nothing, but when Sanji stood to leave, he could feel the weight of his gaze follow him all the way to the door.
The fuck is his problem?