It had been two days since Miss Wednesday- Vivi- had joined the crew on their trip to ‘beat the sh*t out of Sir Crocodile’, as Luffy had so eloquently put it.
And Sanji, somehow, god knows how, had offended her! She was quiet around him, just as Karoo was quiet around Eloise whenever they made conversation. He had even toned down his declarations of beauty and love for goodness sakes!
He had decided to make some food that Zeff said had come from Alabasta, and while everyone had raved about the new dish, Vivi had remained silent and contemplative. It wasn’t even like she was quiet with everyone, she had become fast friends with Nami, and he often noticed Karoo and Catherine lying on deck together while the ladies talked and played cards.
It was infuriating, if he was being honest. Eloise agreed.
“I don’t know why she’s being so rude to us,” Eloise had said morosely while she cleaned her whiskers one night, alongside Sanji doing his nighttime routine. “Do you think it’s because of me?”
“If it’s because of you, then she’s not worth it.” Sanji replied, gently scratching his daemon’s furry little head “You’re the best daemon a person could ask for Eloise. Don’t forget it.”
Eloise had perked up a little at that, and scurried up his arm to help with brushing his hair, little claws scratching Sanji’s scalp nicely.
He never said it out loud, but he was a little insecure about what people might think about Eloise. Having a rat daemon was often a ‘sign’ of someone not to be trusted, or someone to be looked down upon. God knows he had dealt with enough teasing on the Baratie about having a rat in the kitchen. But rats were clean, and kind, and loving, and if Vivi didn’t understand that, she could f*ck right off.
Eloise, being his daemon of course, understood what he was thinking, and nuzzled into his neck comfortingly.
“Yeah yeah, bedtime.” He smiled in the mirror and smoothed his fringe back down, turning on his foot to head to the boys cabin for another night of rest. As long as Luffy didn’t try and get into the fridge again.
xXx
It was the day that they made land at Little Garden, and the rest of the crew had started to meander off that Vivi finally talked to him one on one.
“Did you ever live in the North Blue?” She had asked in the kitchen, stirring her herbal tea a little too loudly now. The spoon clinked against the ceramic mug gratingly, and it took him a beat to recover words from wherever they had been stowed away in his brain.
“Might have been there with the Baratie once.” He said a little too harshly. “Would you like a sandwich to take with you?”
Karoo ruffled his feathers and nudged Vivi’s elbow with his beak, probably trying to ask for something as well.
“I have some fresh fish if you’d like it, Karoo.” He schooled his expression into one of friendly questioning.
The large duck daemon nodded rapidly, and the conversation was over.
Later, while Sanji was in the dense jungle that was Little Garden, he tried to ignore the looming fear that Vivi had instilled in him with that question by kicking the sh*t out of some dinosaurs. It was a good distraction, and Eloise had happily started listing recipes that they could probably use the meat in.
The conversation had been filed in the cabinet labelled “THINK ABOUT LATER” in their minds, and he was quite happy to let it stay there.
xXx
Vivi asked him about the North Blue again, about a week later. It was a quiet day on the Merry, and everyone was worried sick about Nami. She had only just become too sick to talk, and Usopp and Jabari were catastrophizing in the kitchen about what could happen if Nami never recovered.
“We’re going to sail into a whirlpool and drown!” Usopp had cried dramatically.
“Or a sea king is going to eat the Merry whole!” Jabari’s scales had turned white with fear, and on cue, the duo collapsed onto the floor, mumbling something about ‘Can’t-go-on-without-a-navigator-osis’.
Sanji and Eloise had rolled their eyes, and headed downstairs to give Vivi some breakfast, and attempt to get Nami to have some broth.
Obviously she asked again.
“Did you grow up in the North Blue?” Vivi tilted her head at him curiously as Karoo copied her.
“Why would you ask that Vivi-chan?” He tried to keep his tone light as he set down the plates for her and Karoo, stepping past them to sit on the side of Nami’s bed.
“I heard you mumbling in Northern last night while you were insulting Mr Bushido at dinner.” She answered plainly, taking a bite of the porridge that was now in front of her.
“How do you know Northern?” Sanji answered in a stiff tone, willing his hands to still so he wouldn’t spill any of the warm broth onto Nami or Catherine.
“Part of royal lessons, I had to learn the basics of every Blue language.” She closed her eyes as she savoured the meal “This is really good Sanji!”
Sanji didn’t even register the compliment at the end of her sentence. The crew had all been speaking East, or at least General Eastern prior to Vivi’s arrival, and had switched to World for her convenience, assuming she wouldn’t understand Eastern. The distinction between all the Blue languages was distinct, and none of the crew had asked Sanji about him speaking Northern before… He shook his head before he started internally monologuing about the language systems of the world.
“Ah.” He nodded blankly, tenderly handing Eloise the smaller of the two bowls of broth so she could feed Catherine.
He tried to ignore the conversation that Vivi was trying to have with him in favour of gently propping Nami up so he could feed her the broth. Even if she was unconscious, she needed the nutrition, otherwise the fever would burn her out completely. He wasn’t a doctor, but had learned enough from Zeff about taking care of the sick by feeding them that he could make sure Nami didn’t die until they actually found one.
“Catherine is starting to get a fever too.” Eloise nervously muttered as she placed the now empty bowl on Sanji’s lap “It’s not looking good.”
“sh*t.” Sanji cursed quietly “We have to find a doctor soon.”
“I’m sure we will.” Vivi’s voice gently cut through Sanji’s thoughts “I’m not as good as Nami, but I know how to navigate, at least to get us to the next island where we can look for someone to treat her.”
“Thank you Vivi-chan.” He sighed softly “Thank you.”
xXx
The rest of the day passed as peacefully as it could, even with Luffy’s nervous pacing, Usopp’s stories growing increasingly more exaggerated with his fear and Zoro’s ever present snoring. Even Tadamitsu, Zoro’s large tiger of a daemon, was still, only flicking his tail when snow began to fall softly onto the deck.
Snow?
Vivi burst from Nami’s navigation room, smile wide on her face.
“We’re entering a winter island’s climate! There should be an island near us within a day or so!”
There was a resounding cheer from everyone at that, and Sanji was practically bullied by Luffy to let them have a big roast meal to celebrate.
Mid-way through dinner, down in Nami’s sick room of course, because Luffy didn’t want her to feel left out, the rubbery captain sat up straight and grinned so wide it practically took up his whole face.
“Car is back!” He cheered as his daemon clumsily crashed through the door, seemingly having flown straight into the door.
Luffy’s daemon was a big clumsy thing, no matter what form they took. They still hadn’t settled, even though Luffy was nearing 18, and whenever someone asked him about it, he just shrugged and said something about devil fruits. The devil fruit also meant that Carlinhos could travel long distances from Luffy, even though they weren’t truly separated. Sanji got a headache if he thought about it for too long, so he just chose to ignore the specifics, and instead scolded Carlinhos about flying indoors.
Right now, Car was a big albatross, which meant that the door was practically on its last legs after they had crashed into it. With a pop they switched to one of their other favourite forms for indoors, a spider monkey. They climbed onto Luffy excitedly.
“I saw the island! It’s pretty big, and has a bunch of villages, so there’s bound to be at least a couple doctors!” They crowed delightedly, little fingers braiding Luffy’s hair in celebration.
Luffy whooped excitedly, and waved his arms around in joy before stretching himself over to Nami’s bed.
“Did you hear that Nami! We’re gonna find a doctor, and you’re going to be better!” He cheered, and Sanji hit him with his elbow lightly.
“Not so close to her ears idiot! She’s delicate at the moment!” Sanji snapped, but it lacked a lot of his usual bite. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he was glad that Luffy was so loud and boisterous, it made up for the rest of them.
“If we’re celebrating, does that mean-” Zoro started, before promptly getting kicked in the head.
“No sake. You get that when dear Nami-chan is completely better and I do a real celebration banquet.” He scoffed and began gathering up the plates as Eloise grabbed the cutlery. “Now, I’m going to clean, and go to bed, and I will beat your asses if you steal any more food.” He glared at a certain stretchy human and his equally stretchy daemon, who gasped in fake shock.
Grabbing the pile of cutlery Eloise had made, he started walking up the stairs and back into the kitchen, pausing in the doorway as he heard the ruffle of feathers behind him.
“No Car, I’m not giving you extras, your dinner is portioned for you,” He sighed and turned around, only to be met with Karoo’s large bill.
“We thought we could help!” Karoo quacked out, his bill turning up in a smile. Vivi, who was standing just behind her daemon, smiled and nodded in agreement.
“Sure.” Sanji said before his OH GOD SHE’S GONNA ASK MORE QUESTIONS part of his brain could catch up. He really did want some help for cleaning up tonight, so he could deal with some more uncomfortable questions about the North Blue.
He led the pair into the kitchen and put the plates down, letting Eloise run down from his shoulder to turn on the sink as he squirted some dishwashing liquid into the water.
“I’ll wash, you can dry.” He gestured to his left side, and Eloise, the incredible daemon she was, had already ran off and came back with some dry cloth for them to use.
Vivi and Karoo both gave him a thumbs up, and they quickly settled into a routine. Eloise would pass Sanji a plate, bowl or piece of cutlery, he would wash it, pass it to Vivi, who would pass it to Karoo, who put it back in its respective place in the kitchen.
Karoo had put a little bit of cloth in his beak so he could pick things up without getting them dirty again, and Sanji made a mental note to ask Usopp to do some more fishing soon so he could make the daemon a special fish salad as a treat.
It seemed like no time at all had passed by the time the sink was draining, and Karoo had placed the final bowl back in the cupboards, assisted by Vivi.
“Thank you for that,” Sanji stretched his arms out and back, enjoying the satisfying crack his shoulders made. “It would have taken Eloise and I ages to do that by ourselves.”
“No problem!” Vivi smiled, gently patting Karoo’s head “And I must say, I did ask if I could help for another reason.”
Sanji froze. God she was going to ask him again, not to mention that she likely already knew about everything, she was a royal! She might have remembered and oh god, what would happen then-
“I wanted to see if I could borrow some of your moisturiser? I usually use some of Nami’s but I think she’d charge me even more if I used it without her there.” Vivi said, shattering all of Sanji’s disaster thoughts. f*ck, he must be spending too much time with Usopp if that’s how he’s thinking nowadays.
“Wha- huh- yeah, I have some, yeah.” He felt Eloise curl her tail around his fingers, a gesture that meant that they were okay. “And a wise choice. Nami once charged me 700 berri when I used hers when mine ran out.”
Vivi laughed behind her hand, and stood up.
“Want to go get ready for bed together?”
A part of his brain screamed yes, a nosebleed threatening to form, before Sanji stomped it down very firmly. This was not the time to romance Vivi, besides, she had already been very rude to him and Eloise beforehand. So instead, he nodded and let Eloise into his breast pocket, and walked up to the bathroom.
Nami and Sanji were the only two on the crew who truly put any thought or care into their appearances, which meant that the spacious bathroom cabinet was home to both of their skin and hair care products. Nami had bullied Usopp into getting some hair products while they were in Loguetown, citing that brave warriors of the sea needed nice hair, so he allowed it. Sanji just thought Nami missed doing her sister’s hair, and Usopp was the closest in hair texture out of the lot of them.
So the cabinet was divided in two. Sanji’s products (plus Usopp’s), and Nami’s products.
Sanji quickly grabbed out his moisturiser, a clay face mask mix, a nice smelling calming moisturiser that he had gotten for when he was feeling stressed, and Eloise’s fur products.
“Pick your poison!” He held out the three bottles with one hand, setting Eloise’s aside for her to use later.
“What are they?” She tilted her head in confusion, a habit that Sanji had realised she had very quickly after she had come on board. It was hard to not be confused at least forty percent of the time when you were on a ship with Strawhat Luffy.
“My standard, a face mask, and a lavender scented cream.” He listed, and was proud of himself for only wincing a little bit when Vivi squealed in delight.
“Oh my goodness, I haven’t done a face mask in ages! Alabasta has some of the best products,” She started enthusiastically, but trailed off quietly. “It’s hard to get any of it nowadays, because of the drought.” She bit her lip, and Karoo cooed unhappily, nuzzling his big head into her arms.
“Face mask it is.” He clapped his hands together, and grabbed the little bowl he used to mix up the mask from the cabinet. He wasn’t as close to Vivi as Nami was, and yes, he was a little bit on edge around her because of the whole North Blue questioning, but he would not let a lady be in distress around him! She was a princess of a dying country, one that was threatening to topple into civil war any day now, and that must weigh on her greatly, Sanji reasoned.
Pouring some clean water into the bowl, he began to methodically mix it in with the powder until it became a mud like green substance. Vivi’s eyes flicked between the mix and Sanji’s face.
“Can we put it on each other?” She asked quietly, “I used to do it all the time with Igaram as a kid.”
Igaram… Igaram was the Mr 8 guy, the one who sacrificed himself so they could get away. It was obviously still a touchy topic, and Vivi must have had a happy childhood with him to think of him so fondly, and for him to infiltrate Baroque Works with her. And who was Sanji to deny Vivi this?
A couple of minutes later, and Sanji’s eyes watering after Vivi accidentally poked him in the eye with her pinky, the two were sitting cross legged on the bathroom floor, their daemons beside them in a comfortable silence. Karoo had some of the leftover face mask mixture slathered on the top of his beak, and Eloise had some on her tail.
“I am sorry about all those questions about the North Blue.” Vivi broke the silence, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers, and staring directly at the floor. “I just wanted to see if we could talk about, y’know, not being from the East Blue. I know the rest of them are all from the East, it’s hard to miss. They talk in Eastern all the time, and I can understand most of it, but it’s hard. You just have a North accent, and you speak it and everything, and you remind me of-”
Sanji waved his hands to try and calm her down.
“It’s okay! I was just surprised, no one else picked up on the North accent or anything, and well,” He let out a breath, Eloise nuzzling into the hand that was on the floor, “I don’t have the best memories associated with my time in the North. The others in the crew know me as someone from the East, from the Baratie, and that’s all I really want them to know.”
The two of them sat quietly for another beat of silence before Karoo, surprisingly, piped up.
“We won’t tell anyone anything you don’t want to.” He quacked out in his adorable little voice.
“And neither will we.” Eloise responded, the two daemons making eye contact and nodding.
“Sorry, I’ve been really on edge recently, with everything, and my country and now Nami,” Vivi sighed defeatedly, resting her body on Karoo’s. “I’m sorry I pushed.”
“It’s okay, really. Like you said, it’s a lot.” Sanji smiled in what he hoped was a comforting way, gently taking Vivi’s hand “But don’t worry. Car said that the island is close, and it seems populated, so there’s bound to be doctors. Nami is going to be okay. And Luffy has made up his mind about beating up Crocodile, so I don’t think anything’s going to stop him.”
“Are you sure? I mean, Luffy seems convinced, but all of you seem to think so as well? Is he really so powerful?” She tilted her head as much as she could while still having it rest comfortably on Karoo.
“He’s incredible. Insane, yes, delusional, perhaps, but he’s incredible. He got Zoro to join the crew by breaking him out of a marine base, and at that point, Zoro was still known as the Demon of the East, Pirate Hunter.” Sanji chuckled. “I wasn’t there for that, but it’s just hilarious. He got me to join by refusing my refusal, and then protecting the Baratie from Don Krieg. It was incredible.” he sighed, resisting the urge to itch at the clay face mask as it dried.
Vivi had straightened up, and her mouth was open, causing small cracks to run along her own mask.
“That’s. I don’t know what to say.” She blinked, then shook her head a little. “I’m glad that he’s helping. I don’t think I could even hope for my country to be safe again without someone like him on my side.”
“Mmhm.” Sanji nodded, and took his hand away from hers, letting it come down to Eloise to pet her gently. They sat quietly for another minute or so, until Sanji spoke up again.
“Do you want me to do something with your hair?”
“I’d love that.” Vivi smiled at him, and it was full of so much joy that he had to restrain himself from doing a little wiggle dance. This wasn’t like him falling in love, more like… falling in like. Yeah. That’s what he’d call it for now, until he knew what to say about this friendship.
She turned around so he could take her hair out of the long and messy ponytail, and let it fall down over her back. It was long and thick, and the blue was incredible up close. It reminded him of the blue chocolate that Zeff had made as a treat for the kitchen after they had catered to an entire crew of marines and pirates in one day with no fights breaking out.
“Would you like me to braid it?” Zeff’s signature braided moustache was often done by Sanji. Needless to say, he was good at it. Had anyone ever seen a loose moustache hair from Zeff? Ever? Yeah, that’s what he thought.
“That sounds good!” Vivi’s voice was accompanied by another thumbs up.
Gently brushing through the hair with one of Nami’s brushes (He was going to take out all of the blue hairs so she wouldn’t charge him for it) (She probably would anyway, just based on suspicion), he grouped her hair into three parts. Slowly, he began to weave them together, closing his eyes as the familiar action allowed him to relax. If he really focused, he was back on the Baratie, and was braiding for some of the kitchen staff who had long hair who didn’t want to stuff all their hair into a hairnet.
And just like that, he was tying the braid off and admiring his work. He took a look at the small clock in the bathroom, and sighed, itching his chin slightly.
“Okay, time to wash this off and get to bed.” He sighed, standing up slowly, letting his legs groan with annoyance. “Gotta be up bright and early tomorrow if we want to find a doctor quickly.”
Vivi, who was practically half asleep, nodded in agreement, taking the outstretched hand that Sanji offered her to get up. Rinsing off Eloise and Karoo first, they cooed over their daemons who were feeling very sleepy, and just too cute! After they washed their own faces, Vivi sighed in contentment.
“This was just as nice as I remembered it. Thank you Sanji, I really appreciate it.” She smiled again, and scratched Karoo’s head, letting him know it was time to go. “I’ll see you for breakfast tomorrow?”
“See you then.” He smiled back, and waved as they left, and watched the door swing closed.
“I like having a friend.” Eloise chirped as she lazily crawled into Sanji’s sleeve. “Vivi and Karoo are really nice.”
“Yeah they are.” Sanji smiled, wiping the rest of his face down with a dry towel. He was semi-sure that Vivi knew his secret, but honestly? He trusted Karoo when he said that they wouldn’t tell.
“Bedtime!” Eloise groaned as she burrowed further into Sanji’s sleeve, her soft fur tickling his arm.
“I know, I know.” He chuckled, putting the last of the mess they had made back in the cabinet. “Bedtime.”
xXx
The island they had landed on wasn’t as forthcoming as the crew had all hoped it would be. First of all, they had been greeted by the island's militia, which wasn’t the best thing ever, in Sanji’s humble opinion. They were already limping along because of the encounter with the weirdo with a huge mouth that had chomped up some of their railings.
Second of all, when they asked if they could just let one crew member and Nami on to find a doctor, the leader had told them that there were no goddamn doctors on the island.
Carlinhos had been very defensive and squawky, as they were in albatross form, saying that they couldn’t have known there weren’t any doctors on the island!
Thankfully, they were allowed to drop anchor and go onto the island, but as the crew sans Zoro and Usopp followed Dalton, the militia’s leader, and his large bison daemon, he filled them in on the island’s history. It didn’t seem like the island was doing too well at all.
All the doctors had been taken by Wapol, the island’s former ruler. Luffy called him mouth man, and Dalton had chuckled, so at least they were making bonds. Then, after all that, a new pirate, Blackbeard, had ravaged the island, causing Wapol and all the doctors to flee.
Not ideal.
When they arrived at the first village, and Sanji was able to put Nami and Catherine down, Dalton had sprung something else on them. The fact there was a witch doctor, who lived at the top of the mountain, who might be able to help them.
So, Luffy, Sanji and Vivi started the hike up the mountain.
It was hard going to begin with, so when huge evil snow rabbits showed up? Not the best. At all.
Vivi, for all her prowess as Miss Wednesday, wasn’t prepared to deal with huge rabbits and had nearly immediately been hit in the head.
“Vivi!” Sanji yelled as she went flying across the snow, Karoo screaming in fear as he chased after her. “sh*t.” He mumbled, trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to carry Nami and go get Vivi. Luffy had his hands full, literally, with the rabbits, so all Sanji could do was run as well.
Karoo was a super spot billed duck, one of the quickest animals on land so thankfully he had managed to get to Vivi quickly. He was pacing around her nervously, poking her with his beak, quacking quietly.
“Karoo,” Sanji puffed as he got to the daemon “Is she okay?”
Karoo looked up at Sanji with big worried eyes.
“I think she’s knocked out, I don’t know!” He shivered, both from fear, and the cold. Super spot billed ducks were not built for the cold, and Sanji knew that.
“Do you think you could carry her?” He asked, trying to keep a calm voice on.
“I’ll do what I can.” Karoo wiped the tears from his eyes with one brush from his wing, and shook himself, getting ready for Vivi to be placed on him. Sanji picked Vivi up as carefully as he could, and arranged her so she’d be sitting like she was riding him. His hands, even through the gloves, brushed against Karoo several times, but to Karoo’s credit he stood there bravely. Ripping the bottom of his coat to make some rope, he tied her to her daemon, and stood back.
Meanwhile, Luffy had been having the time of his life fighting the snow rabbits, only to pause when they did, watching their long ears twitch as they looked up the mountain.
“That’s not good.” Luffy said cheerfully before gum-gum stretching to Sanji.
“Hey! Sanji!” The stretchy captain yelled in Sanji’s ear. “There’s an avalanche happening!”
“Don’t yell in my- what-” Sanji’s face turned white as the snow wall grew in height approaching them like a great wave, roaring. The snow crashed onto the small group mercilessly, and all Sanji could do was hope that Luffy, Nami and Vivi were safe.
xXx
Sanji woke up in a castle to the sound of glass shattering. He winced, putting his hand to his forehead. What happened from the avalanche coming down on them and appearing here was a blur.
He blinked unevenly, and took a drink of water from the glass that had been put beside the bed. They must be at the top of the mountain, in the castle, where the witch doctor was.
That was a good thing, the witch doctor would have gotten Nami and Vivi, and made sure they were okay. Looking down to see nothing but bandages, he realised that he had also been an unwitting patient. Looking down again, he felt a spike of fear run through him.
He wasn’t wearing his coat jacket, the one that Eloise had been curled up in the pocket of. Surely the doctor had gotten her out with him right? Right?
He bit his tongue to stop the feeling of nausea overtaking him as he unsteadily rose to his feet and walked out of the room he woke up in.
“Eloise?” He called out in a crackly voice “Eloise?”
He saw light from underneath a door down a hallway, and could hear chatter.
“Eloise?” He limped towards it, pushing it open fully.
Sanji could have cried as he saw Eloise gently preening Catherine beside Karoo on the floor.
“Oh thank god.” He sighed and fell over, promptly passing out once more
When he came to again, he was in the room he had passed out in, sitting in an armchair with an old woman standing in front of him who was shining a light into his eyes.
“Don’t worry, he’ll live.” The old woman laughed, and took a swig of a bottle that was definitely alcohol based on the smell.
“Yay!” A loud cheer started from across the room, which quietened the second the old woman glared at the cheerer. Which, based on what Sanji knew of the current situation, was probably Luffy.
“Don’t be so damn loud. There are other patients here.” She shook her head, and moved away from Sanji, allowing Eloise to scamper up his leg bandages to nuzzle into his hands.
“Are you alright?” They said in synch, and laughed softly.
“I’m okay, I feel like I would feel if I got hit by an avalanche.” Sanji started, patting her gently.
“Same here. Catherine woke up!” Eloise exclaimed happily, pointing at the floor where Catherine was sitting, talking softly to Karoo.
“Does that mean-”
“I live to steal another day.” A weak voice came from across the room, near the large windows. Nami, dear Nami, was lying in the bed there, looking dreadfully pale, but she was awake now.
“I wouldn’t have let you die Nami,” Luffy said seriously, before adding on a cheerful “We would all die without you anyway!”
She laughed softly before coughing, and the old woman smacked Luffy in the head.
“No making her laugh.”
“Sorrryyyyyyyy Kuro lady” He pouted.
“My name is Doctor Kureha you little sh*t.” She sneered and took another swig of her drink.
“Is-”
“I’m alright too” Vivi’s voice came from behind Sanji, which made him jolt in panic.
“How did you know I was going to ask that?” He laughed quietly as Vivi came out of a smaller room behind the armchair he was on.
“Just thought so.” She shrugged, and went to sit on the floor next to Karoo, petting his back softly.
“Oh! Oh! Sanji! There’s a little racoon dog that I want to join our crew!” Luffy grinned widely as he flapped his hands excitedly. “Car’s trying to find him and bring him back now!!!!”
Kureha rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way of the door, which promptly crashed open in the way that Sanji knew it was Carlinhos behind it.
In front of Carlinhos though, was a small animal creature, crying furiously.
“I’m a reindeer!” The reindeer cried as it stumbled into the room, trying to avoid Carlinhos’s large claws trying to grab at him.
“There he is now! Join my crew!” Luffy laughed loudly, getting up and chasing after the reindeer.
“I would appreciate it if you would stop harassing my apprentice,” Kureha said sarcastically, closing the door again. “I need him to keep curing that little navigator of yours.”
Luffy and Car both comically skidded to a stop as the reindeer who was also an apprentice to the witch doctor somehow, cried out again and ran to hide behind Kureha’s legs.
A little finch that Sanji hadn’t noticed before landed on the reindeer’s big pink hat, and started speaking.
“Yeah! We’re important!” The finch proclaimed boldly.
“Blossom, quiet down.” Kureha gently tapped the finch on the head. Was the finch her daemon? It didn’t seem to fit, but who was he to judge, really.
Luffy and Car pouted as they sat down beside Nami’s bed, who had been trying hard to not laugh during the entire sequence.
“So what’s going on exactly?” Sanji asked “Is Nami going to be okay?”
“Yes she is. Now, Chopper, do you want to explain?” Kureha looked behind her to the little reindeer, who was apparently named Chopper.
“Do I have to?” Chopper whispered to the older woman.
“Yes, if you want to be a doctor, you’re going to have to talk to people.” She said firmly, and stepped behind Chopper, nudging him forward with her boot.
“So, your navigator was bitten by a tick around four days ago, and she caught the Five Day Disease. It’s a really rare disease, and she would have died tonight if you hadn’t gotten her up here.” The little reindeer said, getting more confident as he spoke, the finch on his hat nodding in agreement.
“Whoah! Good thing I carried you all up here, huh!” Luffy grinned and squeezed Nami’s hand lightly.
“How can you talk? If you don’t mind me asking.” Vivi asked from her spot on the floor. “Are you her daemon?”
Kureha laughed- no, she cackled.
“Him? My daemon? God no. My daemon’s outside, she’s on the hunt for some rats for dinner.” She wiped some imaginary tears away from her eyes. Sanji held Eloise a little closer to his body. “My daemon’s a hawk, you’ll know her if you see her.” She laughed again. “Chopper? My daemon?”
Chopper wrinkled his nose at her in annoyance, then turned to Vivi.
“I’m a reindeer, I ate the Human-Human zoan fruit, so I can talk and do all the same things a zoan can do.” He awkwardly explained.
“So is that your daemon?” Luffy asked, pointing at the little finch that was perched on his pink tophat “Because I didn’t think that animals had daemons.”
“Uh, yes. Blossom is my daemon, it just appeared when I ate the fruit. I think it’s because I ate the human-human fruit, and humans have daemons.” Chopper stared at the carpet. “I want to be a doctor, and I want to study daemons, and devil fruits!”
Luffy grinned.
“Our crew needs a doctor! Be our doctor! Join my crew!”
“No!!!” Chopper yelled back and ran back behind Kureha.
Kureha rolled her eyes, and everyone else laughed. They all knew some way or another that the strange little reindeer doctor would be joining their crew.
xXx
Things had been going okay, Nami was recovering, Vivi’s head only hurt a little, Sanji’s ribs only hurt a moderate amount, and no one could really tell how Luffy was doing with how hyperactive he was.
Then, of course, because they couldn’t have nice things, Wapol showed back up, and demanded his castle back.
Sanji had been ready to go out and fight only for Kureha to stop the three pirates (well, two pirates and princess along for the ride), to give them new coats and a warning that if they got even more hurt, she would just laugh at them.
The coat Sanji had gotten was a little thinner than the other two’s coats, but his had a hood, so he was content to put it up, and allow Eloise to cuddle up at the back of his neck.
He would have never put the hood up if he realised what was about to go down.
Luffy, who had already slingshotted himself out of the castle and down to Wapol, was doing his usual pre battle taunting and making jokes, and generally menacing his opponent, so Vivi and Sanji were left with the multiple stair climb down to get out.
When they eventually reached the door and walked out, Sanji was smoking a cigarette to try and warm himself up.
Wapol and Luffy paused their punches being thrown as the two walked out, and Wapol’s jaw dropped. Or at least, dropped more than it usually was.
“Princess Vivi of Alabasta! Prince Yonji of Germa!” He yelled in astonishment, eyes coming out of their sockets. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Sanji bit through his cigarette, and it fell into the snow, extinguishing. The goddamn coat he was wearing was bright green. His eyes flicked around as he felt frozen to the spot. Usopp and Zoro were here- when did they get here? And they were fighting the two underlings of Wapol. Good, good, maybe they hadn’t heard him.
He felt like his insides were falling into a deep pit, leaving the rest of his body treading water as he grit his teeth around what was left of his cigarette. What was it that Zeff had called it? A panic attack? Yeah, he was probably starting to have a panic attack.
His body started sprinting, almost against his will as he launched himself into the air with a handstand, propelling himself forward so he could violently kick Wapol in the side of the head.
“I am not,” He hissed through gritted teeth “That f*cking piece of sh*t” He felt Wapol’s head crunch and twist, he’d probably broken a couple of his teeth, and then he was spinning away to come into a landing that had him out of breath, chest burning with the combination of exertion and his likely broken ribs.
Luffy shrugged, and took the stunned shock that the kick had forced into Wapol as a chance to start punching him again.
Looking up, he made eye contact with Vivi, who stared back with a world of understanding in her eyes. Also pity. He didn’t like the pity. He closed his eyes and allowed himself a second to wince, then he started to fight again.
Or at least he tried to start fighting again, until Kureha’s daemon came out of nowhere and forcibly dragged him out of the battlegrounds via the damned neon green coat hood.
“You’re too injured.” Kureha had said when her daemon had successfully delivered Sanji to her at the doors of the castle. “I am going to laugh at you, but if you keep going, you could paralyse yourself.”
So Sanji stayed there for the rest of the battle, a pit reforming in his stomach that had nothing to do with the injuries on his body.
xXx
By the time Wapol had been defeated, Chopper had been convinced to join the crew, and the town had given them a farewell, all Sanji could feel was nervous.
What if the others wanted to know who Yonji was? Why did Wapol call him that? And f*ck, if that wasn’t just the main thing that was hammering at the back of his eyes to give him a headache. He managed to remain normal for all intents and purposes with the crew, fawning over Nami and Vivi, kicking Luffy when he tried to eat the food while it was still cooking.
And it was all normal, until it came time for the ‘proper victory banquet’, as he had promised Luffy, which was also a welcome party for Chopper and Blossom.
Chopper, about midway through the party, had asked Sanji that damn question.
“So why did Wapol call you a prince? Like, he said you were Prince Yonji, or something. It’s really similar to your name actually.” Chopper had said, a look of pure concentration on his face as he asked. If Sanji wasn’t halfway into cutting the meat up for Luffy so he wouldn’t choke, he probably would have stabbed himself with his knife just to get him to stop talking and treat him or something.
Sanji, despite all the time he had to prepare himself for this exact situation, froze. Still halfway through the meat carving, hands not batting Luffy away as he took the opportunity to take the whole slab of meat for himself. Eloise, who was on the table by his hand, squeaked, and ran up into his sleeve.
It must have been obvious, and Sanji must have zoned out because Zoro was snorting and saying something like:
“sh*t-cook? A prince? Please.” Zoro rolled his eyes, and then he actually looked at Sanji, and his expression pinched a little. “You alright though sh*t-cook?”
The conversations that had been happening trailed off, and suddenly, all the attention was on Sanji, and his damn inability to say anything, or move, or just get himself out of the situation. Usopp was moving forward to put a hand on his shoulder, mouth open and about to say something before someone stopped him.
“Sanji’s had a bad day, and he’ll tell you guys about all that when he’s ready. Okay?” Vivi’s voice came from beside him, authoritative in a way none of them had ever heard it before.
Like a switch had been flipped, he leaned into Vivi’s side, a welcome distraction from everything as he took a deep breath.
“It’s okay Vivi. It was bound to happen eventually,” He sighed, straightening up, and starting to gather empty plates as a reflex.
“What was bound to happen?” Usopp laughed nervously, obviously not enjoying the tonal shift that had just happened.
“Chopper, you asked why he called me Prince Yonji?”
Chopper nodded, also deeply uncomfortable with the amount of attention this now brought upon him.
“Yonji is one of my brothers. I was originally from a place called Germa 66, in the North Blue. We are-” Sanji took another breath in “I was royalty there. I escaped when I was eight. I look similar to my brothers. Yonji has green hair, and the coat that witch doctor gave me made it look like I had green hair. That’s why.”
“Escaped?” Nami’s voice was soft, understanding.
“We were genetically modified, and the modifications didn’t stick with me, so father decided I,” He pulled on his hair “Yeah.”
Taking another deep breath in, he started again in a shaky voice at the exact same time Luffy decided to talk.
“I understand if you don’t want me on the crew anymore-”
“I’m going to beat your dad up”
“Wait what?” Sanji’s eyes widened as he stared at Luffy.
“I’m going to beat your dad up.” Luffy repeated, shrugging “He sounds like a sh*tty dude, and he was mean to you. You’re my friend, and my cook, and I’m not letting anyone be mean to my friends.”
“Luffy, I-” Sanji put his head in his hands.
Chopper drew him out of his thoughts by starting to bawl loudly, and throwing himself at Sanji.
“I’msosorrySanjiIdidn’twanttomakeyousadoranythingIjustwantedtoknowandI’mreallyreallyreallysorry” Chopper cried, wrapping his little arms around Sanji’s chest.
“It’s not your fault Chopper,” Eloise squeaked out from where she had squirmed to the collar of Sanji’s suit. “We knew we were going to have to tell everyone at some point.”
“Is that why she’s,” Nami gestured at Eloise, a gentle but sad expression on her beautiful face.
“Yeah.” He sighed, and lifted Eloise out with one hand, and used the other to hug the crying reindeer.
“Don’t worry, Catherine had to do the same.” She smiled back, gently petting her weasel daemon.
“Awww you guys,” Luffy cried out, as Zoro and Tadamitsu’s eyes widened.
“No Luffy-” the green duo’s words were useless as Luffy stretched his arms out to fit the entire table, engulfing the entire crew in a hug.
“I love you guys! You’re the best crew ever!” Luffy yelled clearly, even as his face was currently being squished in between Nami’s face and Zoro’s chest.
xXx
The party was over, and Usopp had forced him out of the kitchen, saying that he was going to clean up for him. Sanji prayed for his kitchen's safety, and that hopefully Usopp would not use this as a chance to test whatever new invention he had been tinkering on.
Making his way up to the bathroom, he couldn’t help but sigh. After being in the cold for the past couple of days, and then the party tonight? He could not wait for a hot shower.
Pushing the bathroom door open, he got undressed and filled up the sink with warm water for Eloise to have a soak. Turning on the water, he stood under the spray and closed his eyes, letting the water wash away the last few days. He was safe, and at home, and with friends on the Merry.
After a couple of indulgent minutes, he turned off the shower and stepped out, towelling himself off. He had brought his pyjamas with him, so he was quickly dressed and had a towel laid out for Eloise when she decided she was finished with her bath.
Just as he was about to start doing his hair, a knock sounded at the door.
“Are you finished with your shower?” Vivi called out through the thick wood of the door.
“Yeah!” He called back, and smiled as Vivi walked in, Karoo right behind her.
“I was thinking, do you want to do those face masks again?” She asked, holding up a vial of nail polish. “It was really nice last time, and I think we both need the destressor.”
“If I didn’t hold you in such high regard as my friend, I would kiss you Vivi.” Sanji grinned.
“I only like girls, so it wouldn’t mean much anyway” Vivi giggled, and sat down beside the cook.
“Cool.” Sanji nodded “Do you want to have a bath or something Karoo? The bath is pretty big here.”
Karoo lit up and practically sprinted over to the bath, sitting in the middle of it expectantly.
“I think that means yes.” Vivi rolled her eyes at her daemon, getting up to turn the tap on.
As the bath filled up, Sanji mixed the face masks and Vivi shook the nail polish vial so hard Eloise was scared it would hit her if she let it go.
Sanji smiled as Vivi started applying the mask to his face. This was something he could get used to.
xXx
“Vivi-sama, you have a-”
“Yessss!”
The sound of running and yelling whenever a new carrier bird arrived was now a commonplace occurrence in the royal palace of Alabasta. It had been nearly half a year since the Strawhat Pirates had foiled Sir Crocodile’s plot to take over the desert country and gain control of the Pluton, and Vivi had remained in constant contact with the Strawhats since having to stay behind.
Karoo sped down the long hallway of the palace, claws clicking loudly against the marble floors. Vivi, sitting on his back, whooped excitedly as they skidded to a stop in front of the aviary where all the news coos and messenger birds stayed.
Hopping off her beloved duck daemon, Vivi opened the doors and ran in, looking around for either Sonechka or Carlinhos on their usual spots. Miss All Sunday’s- Robin’s daemon, a particularly large barn owl named Sonechka had taken to delivering most of the letters, as she was skilled at flight, and was not as clumsy or attention grabbing as Carlinhos in albatross form. It was also a way of Robin trying to mend the bond between them, as a way of saying ‘hey, sorry I tried to help take over your country, my daemon will deliver your mail now’. It helped. A bit.
Igaram arrived at the open aviary doors, bent over and puffing. His fennec fox daemon was quick on his heels, slamming directly into Karoo’s legs.
“Vivi…” He puffed, before straightening up, “Ma, ma, maa,”
Vivi tilted her head as she turned to face him completely.
“Vivi, what I was going to tell you about the carrier bird is that it is not one of our usual birds,” Igaram said, still a little out of breath. “The bird that arrived for you is over there.”
His arm and pointer finger extended, and Vivi spun on her heel to look at what new bird the crew had sent with the mail this time.
“A flamingo?” Vivi’s face twisted in confusion.
The flamingo that was comfortably sat in the corner of the aviary, was practically neon pink, and had at least 5 bow ties around its neck, all of which clashed horribly. It honked and preened its wings.
“Yes, a flamingo. It wouldn’t allow me to take the letter for you, so…” Igaram gestured towards the obnoxiously coloured bird and Vivi walked towards it nervously.
“You aren’t a daemon, are you?” She asked politely as she reached it.
The flamingo shook its head, and reached under its wing with its beak, pulling out a tightly wrapped scroll, tied with another bright pink ribbon that matched the bird's feathers.
“Thank you very much!” Vivi smiled, and softly pet the bird’s head as she took the letter from the open beak.
The flamingo honked in affirmation and allowed her to scratch it for a little longer before standing up and walking to the water bowls that were there for the birds.
“What a strange bird.” She mused as she walked back over to the doors. Igaram shrugged in response.
“Is there anything else you need assistance with for now Vivi-sama?” He asked, scooping up his daemon who was still spinning around slightly after running into Karoo.
“I’ll be alright, thank you Igaram! I’ll just be in my room if you need to find me.” She beamed, and hopped back up onto Karoo. “Let’s go!”
Karoo quacked in agreement, and sped off into the distance.
Igaram sighed and pet his daemon’s head.
“I do hope it’s good news.”
xXx
Sitting at her desk, Vivi tenderly undid the bow that was holding the letter shut as Karoo pulled on a rope to open the curtains, flooding her room in the warm light of the Alabastan day.
“It’s from Sanji!” She grinned as she unrolled the paper, immediately recognising the handwriting.
“Dearest Vivi,” The princess began to read out loud, so that Karoo could hear as well. “I hope you’re well! I was going to send you another letter with Sonechka once we had finished at Sabaody, but things went to sh*t, plainly speaking. Remember how we had an encounter with the warlord Kuma when we were at Thriller Bark?”
She frowned as she continued reading. This was not sounding good.
“Well, we met him again, along with some of the Pacifistas (robot/cyborgs versions of himself) at Sabaody. He used his powers, and I don’t know where the rest of the crew is, but I have been transported to the Kamabakka Queendom on Momoiro Island. The only carrier birds they have are the flamingo.”
“What!” Karoo squawked in concern “They fought Kuma?!”
“Shh Karoo, there’s still more.” Vivi waved a hand in the direction of her daemon as she continued to read. “If you haven’t already seen, Luffy’s brother Ace was nearly executed in Marineford. Or, you would have seen that he had been executed. Croc stopped Akainu from killing him, but he’s injured, and so is Luffy. Pretty badly, as well. The only reason I know is because Ivankov, the ruler here, was there for the battle.”
Vivi paused, her breath caught in her throat. She knew that Luffy had a brother, but that his brother was the man about to be executed at Marineford? Against a bit of her better judgement, she thanked whatever god was looking over Luffy that he had somehow figured out Crocodile was his father, and had kidnapped/brought him along on the voyage once they finished saving Alabasta.
She didn’t have much love for the man, but she could only imagine how distraught Luffy would have been if he lost his brother…
Karoo sensed the obvious turmoil in her mind, and rested his fluffy head on his human counterpart’s lap, closing his eyes.
“Luffy wants us to be better, and wants us to train and get stronger for two years, then we’ll meet back up at Sabaody. I’ll try and keep in touch, but I honestly don’t know what’s going on, or when this letter will reach you. Much love, Sanji and Eloise.”
Vivi sighed, letting the letter drop to her desk and reroll into the scroll.
“Oh Luffy… I hope he’s alright.” Karoo mumbled as he looked up at Vivi.
“I’m sure he is. Luffy defeated Sir Crocodile for us, only to kidnap him and get him to be semi-good now, so I’m sure he’s okay. After all, Sanji said that his brother survived.” Vivi gently scratched her daemon’s fluffy forehead. “And we better get to writing a letter back to Sanji before the flamingo leaves.”
“The kingdom Sanji is staying at must be interesting, to only have flamingo carrier birds.” Karoo mused as he pulled out the drawer that held the writing supplies with his foot.
“We can ask him about it, and about what it’s like! Oh how I’d love to properly visit other islands and kingdoms, not on stupid dignitary event reasons. We barely get to do anything when we go places on official business.” Vivi sighed as she quickly snatched up a new roll of parchment and the fancy ink and quill she liked to use when writing letters to the strawhats.
“Alright, what to write…” She hummed as she inked the quill, and began to write.
xXx
It had been a long hard couple of weeks for Sanji. Being teleported away from his closest friends, his crew, had been hard enough, only to be confronted with the fact that he wasn’t as comfortable with queerness as he thought he was? Along with the fact that Ace, Luffy’s brother had almost died in front of him?
He thought Ace had died, based on the newspaper that had been dropped on his head by a News Coo while he was hiding in a tree. Only when Emporio Ivankov had returned to the island, Newkama army in tow, had he realised that Ace had survived, if only by a grain of sand- literally. Ivankov had informed him that Sir Crocodile had saved Ace from disembowelment via magma fist by forming a sand wall with only seconds to spare. Ace had severe burns all down his back, but he was alive, and apparently on Amazon Lily?
Emporio Ivankov had taken an interest in Sanji, and had given him a room in the palace, which was a very nice change compared to the trees he had been sleeping in for the past two weeks.
After he had showered, changed into some very nice clothes that he suspected were not made for men, and apologised profusely to Eloise for keeping her in his pocket for so long, he had awkwardly walked into the dining room where the Emporio and right hand man- or was it woman? He had been sure it was a man when they had met earlier that day, sat, eating a large roast meal.
“Oh! Candy, I barely noticed you coming in, come sit down doll!” Ivankov exclaimed loudly, her- his- Ivankov’s large peaco*ck daemon kicking out a chair next to the Emporio. Sanji walked quietly over to the table, Eloise’s little claws holding onto his ear so she could sit on his shoulder grounding him.
“I didn’t notice your adorable little daemon when we met this morning Candy! Aren’t they such a cutie-pie!” Ivankov cooed, leaning forwards to look at Eloise. “Aren’t they the sweetest little thing ‘Zuma?”
“Quite.” The white and orange haired woman nodded, petting her own white and orange badger daemon.
The large peaco*ck daemon hopped onto the table, and pushed a plate full of meat and vegetables over to Sanji with its head.
“Good thinking gorgeous! Get some food into our newest Candy. I can practically hear your brain overheating from all that thinking from here!” The Emporio laughed, slapping their knees. “Eat! Eat! You can ask me whatever little questions you want after dinner.”
Ivankov didn’t need to tell Sanji and Eloise twice. They had primarily been eating scraps from bins, and whatever berries and plant life that they were able to identify as safe for the past two weeks, so a cooked meal could have been made on the pavement but they would have eaten it like it was a five star meal.
After a long pause of silence, broken only by sounds of eating, Sanji delicately wiped Eloise’s mouth, then his own, and began to speak.
“I was wondering if I could perhaps get access to some writing materials, and a carrier bird? I might not be able to contact the other members of my crew, but I have someone I’d like to write to.” He fiddled with his sleeves as he spoke, not wanting to make eye contact with the looming figure of Emporio Ivankov.
“Why of course Candy darling!” Ivankov’s large face split into a larger grin
Sanji let out a breath he had been holding for far too long.
“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it,” he began to say, clasping his hands together in thankfulness before Ivankov held up a large hand and began to speak again.
“I have some queries of my own first dear! First, do you want to tell me why you and your gorgeous little daemon have been living on the streets of my lovely queendom for the past two weeks? I’ve been told you were refusing help.” Ivankov raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“Uh, well, you see,” Sanji stuttered before Eloise raised her voice to be heard.
“Everyone was chasing us, and trying to get Sanji into a dress, and he didn’t like it, and their daemons were trying to touch me and neither of us wanted to go with them!” She yelled, her soft voice managing to echo slightly across the large dining hall.
Ivankov's expression snapped into a soft and understanding one.
“I’m sorry about that my sweet little darlings! Most of the Candies that come to Kambakka already know everything about themselves, and so some of them might have assumed some things about you. Oh, on that line of thinking, what are your pronouns Candies?”
Sanji and Eloise blinked.
“Has noone ever asked you for your pronouns before?” Ivankov blinked comically, sending a light breeze over the duo.
Sanji shook his head. He knew what pronouns were, he wasn’t an idiot, but not in this… queerer context.
“Well darlings, consider this a crash course! Not everyone who’s trans or okama or even cis uses the same pronouns that would be considered normal for their identities! Many of my darling Candies use the more traditional he’s and she’s and they’s, but so many use the fun ones like I do! You do know about trans identities, right sweetie?” Ivankov paused mid dramatic pose.
Sanji silently resigned himself to an evening of not writing to Vivi.
xXx
It had been another couple or days or so after the impromptu queer and trans identity lecture, and a day after Luffy’s message to the Strawhats, before Sanji finally steeled himself enough to write to Vivi. He quickly jotted down things about Marineford, where he was, and what was happening.
He didn’t add anything about the whole ‘Hey I think I might be actually a queer and not just a guy who likes taking care of his appearance, but that’s nothing against you because you like girls, I’m just having a hard time with all the repression I have going on from my childhood’ revelation he had after some talks with Ivankov though. That was something for another letter, and after he had worked hard to get stronger, for Luffy.
He sighed as he handed the letter over to the garishly pink flamingo carrier bird, and stared out the window as it flew off into the distance. But wouldn’t Luffy want him to be himself as well as get strong? Luffy wouldn’t care about him being queer, his dad who he had kidnapped was a trans man, and he knew that the rest of the crew weren’t exactly 100% straight and cis, but it just felt… weird.
Ivankov had also recognised that he was a Vinsmoke, and hadn’t said anything about it other than the fact that they thought Judge was a c*nt.
Which was nice.
Eloise, who had been helping another flamingo carrier bird adjust its many sparkly hair clips, scurried up his arm to bury her face in his neck.
“Thank you.” He mumbled, and gently scratched her back as he continued to stare out the window. Hopefully Vivi and Karoo would get their letter quickly, and then he’d at least have a friend to talk to during the two years he stayed here to train.
xXx
Vivi’s letter back arrived back within the week, to the utter confusion of Sanji.
“But I thought Alabasta would have been at practically the other end of the Grand Line?” He blinked in shock as the flamingo handed the letter back to him.
The flamingo seemed to shrug, and strutted off to have a drink and something to eat.
“Don’t look a gift horse or bird in the mouth.” Eloise reasoned, and then promptly pulled on Sanji’s hair. “Now let’s go! I want to hear what Vivi said!”
He laughed and acquiesced, taking the stairs two at a time to get up to his room on the third floor of the palace. The palace was like a craft and fabric story had thrown up all it’s pink and lacy contents, which was cleaned up by a tasteful interior decorator. The results being a little bit of an eyesore, having everything being some shade of pink or white, but tastefully decorated nonetheless.
Walking into his room, which was thankfully one of the nicer non-pink rooms, he flopped back onto the bed, unrolling the letter as he did so.
“Dearest Sanji, I’m so glad you are safe! I hadn’t even known about the war until your letter, Igaram had chosen to hide all the newspapers with news about it to prevent me from worrying about Luffy and you all. All I knew was that Ace was supposed to be executed, and I’m glad that he was able to help save him.” Sanji read out. Eloise chuckled.
“It is crazy that Luffy managed to find out that the actual warlord Sir Crocodile was his birth father though. I’m glad he rubbed his Luffy-ness off onto him, I don’t know what would have happened if Croc wasn’t there to save Ace.” She sighed, and then slapped Sanji with her tail. “That didn’t mean stop reading!”
“Okay, okay!” Sanji rolled his eyes, and continued. “What’s the Kamabakka Queendom like? It’s been kind of stagnant here in Alabasta now that I’m not pretending to be a Baroque Works agent and travelling, or sailing with you guys and travelling. The World Government has been getting kind of weird about me helping my dad to rule the country. Not to mention they think (correctly) I still am in contact with the Strawhats! We’ve denied it though, it’s not really smart after Luffy declared war on them. But, I like you and Nami and everyone else too much to not keep writing. Sorry about the tangent! I hope that you and Eloise are doing okay, and please keep writing to Karoo and I, we love hearing from you. Take care, Vivi and Karoo” He exhaled loudly. “And then there's a little x o x o”
“She’s the best.” Eloise chittered happily, running onto Sanji’s stomach. “We have to write her back!”
Sanji opened his mouth to agree, only to hear Ivankov’s voice loudly calling from downstairs.
“Sanji-boy where are yooooooou!”
He sighed, and sat up, looking at the clock above the door. It was 9am, which meant it was time for training.
“After we finish training for the day, alright?”
Eloise sighed, and ran back up to her perch on his shoulder, nodding in agreement.
Standing up, Sanji tenderly put the letter on the small desk in their room, a reminder to write his best friend back.
xXx
It was the dawn of another day in Alabasta, and Vivi sat with her father on the balcony, eating breakfast.
“I am glad that Sanji was able to get in contact with you again.” Cobra smiled, looking out onto Alubarna. The markets were being held in the courtyard outside the palace today, and the stall holders were setting up, the colourful fabric tops of their stalls creating a lovely patchwork of the ground below.
“Same here! I’m a little worried about everyone else, but he did say that Kuma had teleported them all different places, and I’m sure they’ll be able to take care of themselves!” She grinned, patting Karoo’s head as she took another bite of the eggs that had been prepared for breakfast.
“They’re all powerful pirates in their own rights, even if I think you might be lying to me about the living skeleton.”
“Luffy said he got a living skeleton to join his crew after they defeated Gecko Moira, and I believe him. I think he could get anyone to join his crew.” Vivi laughed, looking up at the sky before narrowing her eyes.
“What is it Vivi?” Cobra looked in the same direction as his daughter, only seeing a slightly pink spot in the sky.
Vivi shot to her feet, shovelling the rest of her breakfast into her mouth.
“Sanhjiscarrierbirdishereighottahgho!” She gave him a thumbs up as she spoke quickly through a full mouth of eggs, vaulting herself to sit on Karoo, who immediately sped down the hall.
Cobra blinked.
“Did you get any of that?” He turned to look at his cobra daemon, who had been lazily basking in the sun on the railing of the balcony.
“Nope.” Khufu said, his long tongue flicking out slightly as he spoke.
xXx
A minute and one minor choking incident later, Vivi was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet as the bright pink flamingo carrier bird gracefully landed in front of her.
“Thank you!” She smiled and politely took the letter that was presented to her, stepping to the side to allow the flamingo to enter the aviary to get some rest.
“Let’s go!” Karoo quacked impatiently, butting his head against Vivi’s legs.
Vivi laughed and climbed back onto her daemons back to speed back to her room to open and read the letter.
Dearest Vivi,
The Kamabakka Queendom is very… pink. And queer. Queer as in gay. Everyone who lives here is queer or trans. The cool thing about the Queendom is that there’s a special kind of training that they’re offering me, it’s called Attack Cuisine. When Emporio Ivankov thinks I’m ready, I have to challenge each of the 99 Newkama Kenpo masters to gain the Attack Cuisine recipes that all have special abilities.
Other than my training here, it’s pretty nice. Ivankov has given me a lot to think about, and they’ve let me live in the palace there. Eloise is having a great time, and she’s actually getting some training in as well. They have specialised Daemon training here as well, which is crazy.
The people are nice, but they’re a bit over the top. All the animals here are pink, hence the flamingo. I think something about the island or the Attack Cuisine or something makes them really fast, because Momoiro Island is in Paradise, at the other end of the Grand Line, and your letter got back to me a week after I sent it.
Back to you, it sucks that the World Government is being so… itself to you and your dad. Hopefully they back down now that they’ve got their hands full with the Impel Down escapees to worry about.
Anyway, keep writing! Eloise and I miss you and our old skincare routine we had back on the Merry. I’ll have to see if I can send some of the moisturisers here over to you, they’re incredible.
Talk soon!
Sanji + Eloise <3
Dearest Sanji,
A whole island that’s just for queer people!?!? I want to visit! And it’s all pink? That’s so cute, oh blues! I can’t remember the translation from Alabastan to World, but there’s a saying about a paradise in pink where people can be themselves, I wonder if that’s what it’s talking about?
And Attack Cuisine sounds totally up your alley Sanji, I’m so happy for you! And Karoo is jealous of Eloise getting special daemon training. I think we’re both itching to visit Kamabakka one day! Maybe we could do a dignitary visit?
I miss our skincare nights as well :( . Thankfully because the drought is over, the face mask powder I told you about is easier to get! There was a market day today when I got your letter, and I got some for you from our local supplier and maker of it! Hopefully the flamingo was able to keep it safe and dry as it flies back to you.
Have you heard anything about Nami, or the rest of the crew? Not that I don’t love writing to you, I just want to check if they’re alright as well. And my father doesn’t believe that there’s a talking skeleton on the Strawhats, so I really want to get a photo or something to show him.
The World Government has backed off a little, and did you say IMPEL DOWN ESCAPEES???
Write again!!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
Yeah, Luffy broke into Impel Down and broke out pretty much half of the prisoners. A good chunk of them are now citizens of the Kamabakka Queendom, apparently Ivankov had a secret trans/queer hideout in Impel Down. It’s crazy, but everyone I’ve met from there has been really nice so far.
I also just defeated the first of the 99 Newkama Kenpo masters! Eloise was able to help as well, she’s learned all the pressure points on the body, and is getting good at using her claws to hit them and numb someone’s body partially.
Thank you as well for the face mask, it’s absolutely lovely, and I think Ivankov is going to try and bribe me with my own kitchens to get some from me. Please send more if you can! I’ve sent some moisturisers for you to try as well in return.
I haven’t heard anything about any of the other Strawhats yet, but Ivankov has promised to use their contacts in the Revolutionary Army to keep an eye out for them. And Nami, huh?
Talk soon!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
These moisturisers are divine, and Pell has already taken one for himself! He says it’s good for his skin after he’s been flying all day, but I think he just wanted it because it smelt nice and it’s also a makeup remover. I’ll have to talk with my father about maybe opening up a trading relationship with the Kamabakka Queendom, especially if the citizens are fond of skincare and fabrics. It would be nice to have a non-World Government influenced relationship with another kingdom, or queendom, I guess!
Congratulations on defeating the first Newkama Kenpo master! I’m sure you’ve been training really hard. I should probably ask Pell, the moisturiser stealer, and Chaka for some more training sessions when they’re not busy. It’s always good to be motivated.
And yes, Nami. I just. Arg, I don’t know what to say about her! She’s just so lovely, and nice, and clever, and I think I would die if she held my hand!
Do NOT tell her that when you talk to her again, I will ask someone to assassinate you. I swear on Karoo and my father.
But yeah, stay safe, train hard!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
Ivankov screamed so loud when I told xem about the possibility of a trade route, I think I’m going to be deaf. It was a good scream, don’t worry. Xey’ve written a letter to your dad, it’s the bright pink paper wrapped with the glittery pink ribbon that the flamingo has with my letter.
And I think you might have a crush on our dear navigator! I won’t say anything, I value our friendship and my life too much.
I might not be able to write for a little while, I have to go up some mountain to train for a while, and Caroline was evasive when I asked her how long it would be. So I’m guessing it’ll probably be after your reply gets here, but I promise to write back as soon as I can!
All our love,
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
I hope your training goes well! Can’t wait to hear back what you did.
My father was unprepared for the sheer amount of glitter that the ribbon would leave everywhere, it’s not really something we have much of in Alaburna. But, he thinks that the trade route that Emporio Ivankov has suggested would be beneficial for both our countries! He’s attached his own official letter alongside mine, he tied it up with the ribbon because he didn’t want it in the palace anymore.
Pell might be going over to the Kamabakka Queendom at some point as a delegate of Alabasta if Emporio Ivankov says that he can! I’m not allowed to because it’ll take too long by boat, and Pell can fly. You’ll probably know when he’s coming, but say hi to him if you see him! Also maybe threaten him a little for taking that moisturiser, I’m still a bit mad about it.
Hope everything goes well, can’t wait to hear from you again!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
I was right, and I was on that f*cking mountain for THREE MONTHS. I can skywalk now, but still. THREE MONTHS.
I’m glad to hear that everything is going well about opening up trade routes between Alabasta and Kamabakka! Ivankov was saying something when I got back to the palace about someone coming to visit, and how they hoped it was your dad, because apparently he’s got DILF energy.
It’ll be nice seeing Pell again when he comes over, I think he’s going to be mobbed by people if he lands in a central area. He’s still doing the same kind of goth makeup and everything right?
I hope everything’s been alright in the three months I was gone, I missed talking to you. The only people I was able to talk to on the mountain was Caroline, her daemon, and Ivankov and Inazuma and their daemons whenever they came up with supplies.
If Karoo wants any tips and tricks about daemon training, Caroline said that he should ask another bird daemon, probably one that’s done army training, so Pell’s daemon should be the best bet. I can’t remember his name, but I do remember that he was a pretty big falcon, and that he tried to kill me multiple times when I was pretending to be Mr Prince.
Okay, gotta run, can’t wait to hear back from you!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
I was starting to get a little worried! But I think it’s worth it if you can SKYWALK!!!! That’s so cool! Nothing much of interest has happened over here other than the national government meeting a month ago. I got to see Koza again, which was great! He’s the elected leader of Yuba now, and is essentially the leader of the government, I’m so proud of him. They all were impressed with my suggestions for the trade routes, and I’m going to be co-managing it with both my father and Koza! This is one of my first official roles within the government aside from just being the princess, and I’m going to do my best to prove myself to the rest of them.
We have all elected to not let the World Government about it, simply because none of us like the bastards. If we could, we would probably revoke our status in the government and noble systems, but it would put the citizens of Alabasta at risk.
I’m going to send this letter with both Pell and the flamingo carrier! It might take two weeks for this to arrive, just because Pell needs more rest breaks then the absolute beast of the flamingo. Please please ask what the hell they’re feeding those birds because if we could get some of it for the working animals in Alabasta, like the horses and cattle that are used for ploughing fields and transport around the country, it would be incredible.
Say hi to Pell, and remember, threaten him lightly for the moisturiser!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
I was right! Pell was mobbed. Did you know he was a trans guy and he liked guys as well, because the second he said that he had a boyfriend, I think it summoned all the trans masculine people in Kamabakka. Also, if he wasn’t out, I’m really sorry to him and he can feel free to fly back here and kick my ass. It was hilarious though. Ivankov was a little upset that it wasn’t your dad, but was delighted that he sent a trans person instead. I think Pell is now like, a dual citizen or something if Ivankov has anything to say about it.
And apparently the birds are kind of naturally strong, being born in Paradise, but some of the Attack Cuisine foods are animal safe, and can increase stamina and power! Pell didn’t have to fight the Newkama Kenpo master for it though, I think as a sign of good faith between countries. You’ll probably be told all this anyway, Miss Co-Manager of Alabasta/Kamabakka Trades! Congratulations on that, I’m really really happy for you Vivi! I’m sure Nami will just swoon into your arms with that kind of power you wield now.
Also, I did lightly threaten Pell, but I think he was too tired from flying across the Grand Line, and just kind of mumbled incoherently from where he was lying on a couch.
Again, I won’t say much else on the trade subject, simply because you’ll probably know more than I do about it.
In more training news, in about a month’s time, I’m going to probably be absent for a little while again, to fight the Newkama Kenpo masters 2 through 12, because apparently they’re all in a polyamorous relationship and live in huts on the beach on the opposite side of the island. Hopefully I’ll be able to write to you again before then!
I hope all is well still over there!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
The trade route is now officially open! I’m so so excited, this is going to be incredible for Alabasta, especially after Emporio Ivankov gifted us with that Attack Cuisine recipe you mentioned. And yes, I knew Pell liked guys, it’s sort of hard to hide the fact you have a boyfriend when he’s the other guardian of Alaburna. I didn’t know he was trans, but he told me about Kamabakka when he got back, which included that. It sounds insane, but in a cool way over there! I want to visit one day.
I hope that you get this letter before you go off to fight the Newkama Kenpo masters! And don’t be silly about Nami, I will kick your ass for it, and Nami would as well!
Stay safe, keep training!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
Only a quick letter today, we have to start walking across the island tomorrow! I’m really happy for you! Hope everything keeps getting better, and I’ll write you back as soon as I’m able!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
I hope your training goes well! The first import of Alabastan goods should be arriving in time for the New Year, around about when you’ll be finishing fighting and training! I’m sure Emporio Ivankov is someone who likes celebrations, so you’ll probably get a week or two off for the New Year celebrations, and maybe time earlier, depending on what customs Kamabakka has for their winter or summer celebrations!
Stay safe!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
Thank you for your letter, and the couple of extra gifts you added to the import was definitely well received. Eloise absolutely adores the little coat you got her, and if you weren’t my best friend and also a lesbian, I would kiss you for all the spices you sent me! The training went well, and I actually ended up staying with the ten Newkama Kenpo masters to learn their Attack Cuisine recipes.
They also encouraged me to… explore some things about myself, but I’m still not sure. A letter for another time my dear Vivi! I hope everything is well in Alabasta, and that the World Government isn’t breathing down your necks. Iva told me that they’ve recovered somewhat from the Impel Down breakout, and might be making a move on some of the less loyal members of the WG. Please stay safe!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
Unfortunately, Emporio Ivankov was right about the World Government. We’ve managed to keep the dealings with Kamabakka hidden for now, but they are not happy that we’ve established more of a democratic government, with my father acting as the figurehead. They came during our New Years Sun festival, and apparently they had no idea Alabasta still celebrated it. Oh Sanji, it was awful! You probably know about this if Emporio Ivankov has such a good informant network, but it was just so terrible! They told my father that allowing the public to have open celebrations of the ‘Old Faith’ wasn’t allowed!
Luckily, noone was killed, but some of the marines that were sent with the World Government officials set fire to a temporary building that was meant for prayers and offerings, and there were several families and people in there. Pell and Chaka managed to get everyone out, but Chaka was injured alongside several of the children that were at the back of the building. They’re in the infirmary, and Koza was also injured in Yuba while he was defending the celebrations. I haven’t been able to visit him yet, and it’s all just so… ARG! Please excuse the smudged ink on this, I am crying a bit, and I just had to write all this to you as soon as I could. The World Government also is putting pressure on my father to engage me to a prince, preferably to one that’s from a royal family loyal to them.
Please, please, please, please ask if Emporio Ivankov could contact the Revolutionaries to send aid to Alabasta. I miss you and Nami so much, and Luffy better make good on that ‘declaring war on the World Government’ threat!
Sorry for just dumping this all on you, but you’re my best friend, and I love you. Stay safe, and keep training.
Vivi and Karoo
Dearest Vivi,
I had to be restrained by multiple layers of stone and steel when I got your letter, and Inazuma was proud of me for being so strong to be able to nearly decimate half the forest out of rage, but she wasn’t happy with the whole decimating forest thing. By the time you receive this letter, Revolutionaries should already be in Alaburna.
Iva has told me to try and put Alabasta out of my mind to focus on my training, but it’s hard. On the plus side, I accidentally unlocked my Armament Haki while trying to escape Inazuma’s cut up bits of path! But both Eloise and I are so worried about you and Karoo, and just everyone in Alabasta. I hope getting the Revolutionaries help will actually help, and not draw more attention from the WG.
And, I know that this is sort of a weird idea, but Eloise thought of it while we were getting yelled at by Inazuma, so I’ll just be writing down what she’s saying now.
Vivi! I’m so worried about you and Karoo, please stay safe! But, I had an idea about how to provide Alabasta with some protection, to prevent you from getting engaged to some sh*thead prince, and to maybe protect Sanji and I from, well, the Vinsmokes.
What if Sanji and I were engaged to you and Karoo, as the Fourth Prince of Germa 66 and his daemon? Germa is a part of the WG, and is far away from Alabasta in the North Blue, and Sanji is still technically a prince. Blues know that Judge would probably use that to engage us off to some princess or famous pirate family to gain power, so why can’t we do it before him! If we do this, you get the safety of the Vinsmoke name, and don’t have to marry a stuffy noble! The problem would be keeping Germa away from Alabasta to prevent them from laying claim to it or something, but the Revolutionaries could probably help! Sorry for talking so much, but please, consider it. We both love you and Karoo so so much, and please stay safe!!!! I’ll stop talking now, and let Sanji write for himself.
What Eloise said. Please stay safe, and keep an eye out for a blonde guy with burn scars and a lion daemon, and a lady with orange hair and a raccoon daemon, Iva said that they’re some of the highest ranking Revolutionaries, and they’ll be managing all Revolutionary involvement.
Please write back when you can.
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
I could kiss Eloise right now you beautiful little rat! And Sanji, thank you for getting the Revolutionaries to help, they’ve been nothing but kind and helpful.
Back to Eloise, I talked to my father about the idea of us getting married, and I finally told him that I like girls! He thought I had already told him, but ignoring that, he said that he could rest easily if you married me. He had been given a list of princes to choose from, and all of them were awful!! One of your brothers was on it as well, the blue one, Niji. I think I would have killed myself. But, marrying you means that I am marrying into a family that the WG wants! Also, one of the head Revolutionaries, Sabo is his name, called his boss about what they could do about protecting Alabasta from Germa, and he said that they’ve been trying to take down Germa ever since you were a kid, so this is the chance to take them down if they make a move on Alabasta! Oh Sanji, Eloise, this is everything I could have wanted. Obviously, in the best case scenario, I’d be marrying Nami, and the World Government wouldn’t be involved at all, but I’ll take marrying my best friend and getting the World Government to f*ck off!!
I don’t know when we’ll get married, or what anything is going to look like, but I can go visit Koza tonight and I can tell him we’re going to be okay. Oh sh*t, I’m crying again, but this is good! Good tears! I hope your training keeps going well, and you stay safe.
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
I’m so sorry I couldn’t reply sooner! I was fighting more Newkama Kenpo Masters, and I’ve now defeated 35 out of 99 of them! Getting really angry and worried about you did wonders for the amount of progress I’ve made. Ivankov was very happy that I’m going to be engaged to you, and xe has been talking about how fun the wedding will be, so I’m a little worried. They also bullied me until I said I was going to tell you that I’m pretty sure I might not be a guy? Like, fully. I’m cool with being a guy some days, but other days I prefer being feminine, or just not doing anything with gender at all. Kind of like Inazuma, but I’m still nervous about it, and I didn’t want to talk to you about it while Alabasta was all f*cked up!
So, there’s that. Technically you’ll be marrying a girl?
Argh, I’m feeling so weird about this, I think it’s because of my stupid f*cking biological father. He always wanted us to be ‘real men’, and perfect soldiers, and all that. Also, thank the blues you aren’t going to marry Niji, he’s a prick.
Okay, I might not be able to write back as soon as I’d like to, Caroline is currently yelling at me about training my attack cuisine, and maybe learning some Newkama Kenpo.
Stay safe!
Sanji + Eloise
Dearest Sanji,
Everything is stable in Alabasta now, the kids and Chaka are out of the infirmary now, and I think Chaka and Pell have been adopted into like 4 different families now, with the amount Pell was in the infirmary. The Revolutionaries are all mostly back at their main base in Baltigo, but Sabo and Koala are staying here in Alaburna, just in case something happens. They’re both lovely, and are platonic partners!
Aside from what’s been going on here, YOU BIG IDIOT I WOULD NEVER THINK ABOUT YOU DIFFERENTLY!!! YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!!
Now that’s out of the way, I’m so happy you’ve been able to figure that out! I know it’s different for everyone, so please let me know what kind of terms you’re using, and what pronouns, or anything like that! Are you okay with me telling my father? I haven’t yet, but I think he can tell something is up with how happy I am. Karoo nearly told him, just because he’s so excited for you as well!
I’m not gonna say everything I want to in this letter, because it would be mean to our poor darling flamingo who carries our letters. But, after you’re finished your training, however long it may be, we have to start planning the engagement, and how we announce it. Big News Morgan would probably fly straight to Alabasta himself if we let it slip there will be a royal engagement!
Also, I really want to see you, so I’m attaching a separate letter to this one, for Emporio Ivankov, to ask when you’re finished your training, or if you have a break, you could come to Alabasta for the engagement?
Okay, I need to wrap this up, but Karoo and I are both so proud of you! Keep training hard, stay safe!
Vivi and Karoo
Xoxo
Dearest Vivi,
I cannot wait to see you! As you get this letter, I’m on my way to Alabasta! We will be arriving in a discreet Revolutionary ship, that will also contain Kamabakka Queendom products for import. I cannot wait to see you, and Eloise has nearly fallen over the railings multiple times while we’ve been on the ship she’s so excited!
See you soon,
Sanji + Eloise
“Stop pacing Candy darling! You’ll wear a hole in my lovely carpets.” Ivankov complained loudly, gesturing xeir hand at a threadbare patch of carpet. “Look!”
“Mmhm, for sure.” Sanji nodded as he continued to walk in a circle.
“Is this because you’re seeing your friend for the first time in ages?” Inazuma sipped on his drink quietly.
“What- No! I’m delighted to see my darling Vivi!” Sanji stopped in his tracks, glaring at the orange and white haired man. “It’s just…”
“We’re proposing to her! As a Vinsmoke.” Eloise continued for her human counterpart. “We’ve managed to stay far away from them ever since we escaped, and now that we’ll be be broadcasting the fact that we’re a Vinsmoke, and also proposing to a princess? Germa will find us for sure!” She squeaked, tiny paws coming up to cradle her head.
“Don’t forget we won’t let that happen Candy! The Revolutionaries are at your service to keep Germa away from your precious little heads!” Ivankov proclaimed loudly, striking what would have been an impressive pose if they weren’t inside a room that didn’t cater to the Emporio’s height. Instead, it just looked like xey were stuck and trying to disco dance xeir way out of it.
“I know that, but it’s all just so! Argh!” Sanji flapped his hands in the air.
“We should have probably gotten you to talk to a therapist.” Inazuma said dryly.
Sanji flipped him off as he stomped outside into the warm Alabastan air. The ship was nearly at Alaburna, and he was simultaneously delighted at the trip that Ivankov had offered him to come with xem to Alabasta to see Vivi and propose, and also severely anxious about the whole Vinsmoke issue.
It felt like no matter where he went, with any people, his biological family would always find a way to rear their ugly colour coordinated heads into the picture. He pat down his pockets for a cigarette, and was delighted to find a pack stuffed into the pocket of the skirt he wore.
And yeah, he was also wearing a skirt. It wasn’t a crazy slu*tty red miniskirt or anything like that, it was just a plain white cotton skirt in the traditional Alabastan style. It looked like it could even be pants, if you didn’t look at it too hard. Gender, and the whole thing about it being fluid for him was still new, so it was a nice easy step in the direction of femininity that wasn’t something that made him want to curl up and die.
He was still only using the guy pronouns, because blues know he wasn’t up for that just yet.
Now with a lit cigarette in hand, he closed his eyes and blew out a controlled line of smoke into the wind.
“It’ll be okay.” Eloise mumbled. He wasn’t sure if it was for him or for herself, so he just kept silent, and enjoyed the sound of the wind and the soothing familiarity of smoking.
xXx
Within no time at all, they were docked a short walk away from Alaburna in the river port, and there was a faint rumbling in the distance.
“Whatever could that be?” Ivankov leant forwards and squinted their eyes, trying to make out what was making the large cloud of dust in the horizon.
Sanji couldn’t help himself. He laughed loudly, and started running towards the rapidly approaching figures, kicking up dust wildly as his long legs moved him to what he knew to be his best friend, and the Super Spot Billed Duck Fleet.
“SANJI!!!! ELOISE!!” Two voices from the fleet yelled out, and Sanji smiled so hard his face hurt.
“VIVI!!! KAROO!!!!” Sanji and Eloise yelled back in turn, eyes tearing up from emotion. If anyone said it was because of all the dust and sand, they were lying.
And like that, Vivi came careening ahead of the pack, standing on Karoo’s back and waving her hands widely, her smile just as face splitting.
It was only thanks to the last year of developing his Observation Haki, and also his time having to brutally defend the kitchen from Luffy, that he was able to catch Vivi as she launched herself at him, laughing wildly.
“God, are you sure you aren’t related to Luffy or anything? You’re both crazy!” Sanji laughed as he swung the blue haired princess around before safely depositing her next to Karoo. Eloise had already scurried down Sanji and up to the larger daemon, sitting happily on his little water bottle strap.
“I truly hope not. He’s already got a crazy enough family tree.” Vivi grinned and looked Sanji up and down. “You’ve gotten stronger! And I love the skirt, it’s so cute!”
“You can thank the two of them back there for both of it,” He pointed his thumb back at Ivankov and Inazuma “They’re the ones who started my training, and also got me some new clothes.”
“Well, you look great!” Her hand darted to grab his. “And I’m ever so happy to be meeting my fiance.” She sighed dreamily, falling back against his chest. “Why, I always knew I would one day be marrying a gender fluid pirate cook who has a really really sh*tty royal family! It’s what every little girl dreams of!”
“Oh stop it with that. We all know you’ve been dreaming about marrying a certain orange haired pirate navigator.” Sanji twirled her around with the hand she had a hold on. “Love at first sight I think” He grinned teasingly.
“Of course, she fell in love with the weirdo who backflipped onto her ship inside of a giant whale.” Vivi rolled her eyes.
“I’m pretty sure she did! I remember Catherine going on and on about a beautiful blue haired girl while the rest of Baroque Works were trying to get us all drunk enough to assassinate us.”
“Well that- It doesn’t- Ugh, it’s so nice to see you again.” Vivi sighed and flopped against her daemon “It’s been so busy here lately, and I really miss Nami, and the rest of the crew I guess, and-”
“Princess Vivi!” Ivankov’s loud voice interrupted her. “Pleasure to meet you sweetie!” Their hand was now daintily placed in front of Vivi, who awkwardly took and kissed it.
“OH! You never mentioned she was a gentleman, my darling Candy!” They all but shouted. Their peaco*ck daemon strutted around Karoo, and nodded appreciatively.
“Uh, thank you?” Vivi smiled and curtseyed politely.
“My heart! My heart!” Ivankov clutched at their chest, slowly falling to the ground.
“Oh my god, are they alrig-”
“OR NOT!” They sprung back up, nearly hitting Inazuma with their raised arm.
“Good one.” He said dryly, taking another sip from his ever present wine glass. “Sabo and Koala have arrived.”
“OH!” Ivankov’s head snapped to the small fleet of Super Spot Billed Ducks that had finally caught up to Karoo and Vivi. Or rather, the small fleet of Super Spot Billed Ducks and a Lion daemon, who was tiredly laying on the sand.
“Sabo! Augustus! Koala! Telma! I’ve missed you all so much!” They shouted delightedly, making Vivi and Karoo wince slightly. Everyone else had already become numb to the Emporio’s… eccentricities.
“We’ve missed you too Iva,” The orange haired girl who had been riding on a duck with a cowboy hat said as she dismounted, her raccoon daemon chittering in agreement. “It’s been lovely here in Alabasta though, thank you for convincing Dragon to let us take this one.”
“You deserved it! A nice easy assistance and community service mission in a beautiful city! Dragon-boy has been running you two ragged.” They shook their head, likely thinking about whatever missions Dragon had been sending the two young Revolutionaries on. “And after I heard that you’d been doing poorly my darling Sabo! I just had to make sure you got an easy mission.”
“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Koala frowned, looking between the blonde man sitting beside his lion daemon and Ivankov. “Sabo was in a coma because-”
“We can talk about that back at the royal palace Koala!” Sabo kicked sand in her direction. “You know I wanted to wait until, well, y’know.” The blonde man sighed, scratching his lion daemon behind the head. “And did we have to come out here? Augustus is half dead from trying to keep up with the ducks.”
Vivi and Sanji exchanged a look, and tried to not laugh.
“I’m sure Leo will be happy to carry Augustus back to Alaburna, like I suggested he would originally.” Vivi said gently, a duck wearing a viking helmet perking up at the sound of his name. “The Super Spot Billed Ducks are very strong alongside being fast.”
“What did I tell you idiot!” The raccoon daemon rolled her eyes as she sat in front of the larger daemon’s face.
“Not to try and run as fast as some of the fastest animals alive…”
“Yeah. Idiot. Koala, tell Sabo he was an idiot as well.”
“You’re an idiot.” Koala promptly said, picking up her daemon and gently patting the sand out of her fur.
“I’ve missed this!” Ivankov yelled again, and picked up their daemon to put them in their hair. “Now let’s get riding Candies!”
xXx
A bit of awkward luggage storing in Ivankov’s hair later, everyone and their daemons were sat on a Super Spot Billed Duck, and speeding through the desert. Sanji held Eloise to his chest as the wind buffeted them about slightly, grinning wildly. They hadn’t gotten to properly enjoy the fun of being a rider of a Super Spot Billed Duck the last time, so this was a welcome experience.
It felt like only seconds had passed as the ducks ran across the sand and Alaburna was visible, the beautiful architecture practically sparkling in the morning sun.
Soon the sound of feet running across sand was replaced with the familiar click of claws across stone as they entered the city, weaving through back streets until they reached the courtyard of the palace.
Gently dismounting from the duck he had ridden on, Sanji smiled as he saw Pell, Chaka, Igaram and of course, King Cobra, standing in the courtyard waiting for them.
“Pell! My sweet Candy-Boy you must introduce me to your boyfriend!” Ivankov immediately broke the silence as xe usually did, rushing towards the head guard delightedly.
As Ivankov occupied Pell and Chaka’s time, Igaram and Cobra walked towards Sanji.
“It’s good to see you again, Sanji.” Cobra smiled, and put out his hand to shake “Your friendship with Vivi is something that we value greatly, and we promise to do our best to assist you while you’re here with us.”
“Thank you. I’m so happy to be back, even if circ*mstances are still less than perfect.” Sanji took the offered hand and shook it. “I’m willing to do anything if it’ll help protect Vivi and the kingdom.”
“As we know, ahem, ma ma maa,” Igaram began, directing his attention to Eloise, who was still being cradled to Sanji’s chest. “All of Alabasta thanks you for the idea of an engagement between Vivi and Sanji, and yourself and Karoo.” He bowed slightly.
“Oh, it’s not- it’s okay!” Eloise squeaked nervously “It was something that could mutually benefit us both!”
“Let’s go inside. We can show you to your rooms, then we can all talk- Revolutionaries, Pirates, and Alabastan. This is going to be a tricky situation.” Koala piped up from where she was pulling bags out of Ivankov’s hair as xe continued to chat with the poor Head Guards.
“I agree with Miss Koala. Come, I’m sure… something… will be done with your bags.” Cobra eyed the young Revolutionary as she continued to pull seemingly endless amounts of bags out of Ivankov’s hair.
xXx
Vivi was utterly delighted when she found out that not only would Sanji be coming to Alaburna, but that he would be staying for a month as the government and Revolutionaries planned how they would announce their engagement? She practically begged her father to let Sanji stay next to her room, along with the other two Revolutionaries their age. Koza was also set to be coming back to Alaburna to help with the political affairs, and his room was across the hall from hers!
She hadn’t realised how much she missed the constant companionship that being on the Going Merry gave her until she was back in the palace, so she was taking any chance she could to get some much needed socialising.
She had some budding friendships in the kingdom, but with all the trouble that the World Government had made, she had no time to go and hang out with any of them! And Koza was usually only in Alaburna for a week or two at a time, before going back to Yuba.
So of course she had planned a well deserved spa day for herself, Sanji, Koza and the two Revolutionaries amongst the chaos that was sure to be the meetings they had to attend.
Pulling Sanji alongside a surprised Koala and Sabo along, she proudly held her hands out in front of the hallway that led to the bedrooms they’d be using.
“These are your rooms!”
“Our rooms?” Koala and Sabo said in unison.
“We’ve been staying in the hotel in town, we’re okay with still staying there!” Sabo put his hands up awkwardly.
“Too late! I thought it would be nice for you to hang out with Sanji and Koza and I for the month! All your things have already been moved in.” She grinned.
“You aren’t getting away.” Sanji put a hand on Sabo’s shoulder. “I think Luffy’s craziness rubbed off on her while she was travelling with us.”
“Speaking of Luffy…” Sabo sighed heavily.
xXx
Pell’s head tilted nearly instinctively, his ear angled towards the palace rooms.
“You alright babe?” Chaka rubbed his own ears, frowning.
“Yeah, yeah. You heard that scream as well, right?”
“Mmhm.”
“Should we go check it out?”
“Probably.”
The two looked at each other, and back up at Ivankov, who was in the middle of a dramatic retelling of the War of the Best for a small crowd that had gathered to see what the Super Spot Billed Ducks had been doing.
“Shift into our zoan forms and call our daemons to monitor here instead?”
“Yup.” Pell nodded, and within a second had shifted to his full falcon form, skillfully diving into the palace through an open window.
“Showoff.” Chaka rolled his eyes, and blew the small dog whistle that he kept on himself for whenever he had to call Anubis. He rolled his shoulders, and dropped onto all fours, shifting as he bounded into the palace to find the source of the screaming.
As he ran through the castle, tracking Pell’s familiar scent and keeping an ear out for the screaming, he quickly found his partner, standing in his human form, staring at Vivi and Sanji and their daemons yelling at the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionaries. Quickly shifting back to his human form, he walked to stand next to Pell.
“So… What’s going on?” He asked softly.
“No clue.” Pell replied in return, brow furrowed.
“Oh, Sabo told them that he’s Monkey D. Luffy’s other older brother.” Koala chimed in, now standing next to the two guards.
“He’s what?” The falcon zoan fruit user exclaimed, eyes growing almost comically wide.
“Yeah.” Koala nodded nonchalantly “He had amnesia until like, a year ago. Hearing about Ace nearly getting killed made him remember.”
“What the hell is with that kid’s family tree.” Chaka mumbled, letting Pell grip onto his arm.
“No idea. Did you know that our boss, Dragon, is Luffy’s other dad?” She cheerfully added, before walking away with a spring in her step, catching Sabo by the collar and dragging him along with her, leaving the stunned head guards to stand in the hallway.
“Sometimes I hate that I was born to be the Jackal. Could have had a nice job weaving tapestries with my mothers.” Chaka closed his eyes “No dealing with insane family trees of our allied forces, just weaving tapestries.”
“All those kids that stayed with you have made you soft, love. Let’s go tell King Cobra about the… revelations.” Pell pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned on his feet to walk to the meeting room. This next month was going to be a testament to all of their patiences.
xXx
The month passed fairly quickly all things considered. Sanji thought all the meetings were a bit boring, but it was part of the democracy that Alabasta had instated, so he wasn’t about to say anything out of line.
The government had agreed with the line of thinking that if Sanji and Vivi were engaged to then be married at a later date, it would provide a great amount of protection to the country. The Revolutionaries agreed to provide extra protection against Germa if they attempted to sabotage the engagement, or try and claim any stake in Alabasta.
So, as the five young people lay next to each other in lounge chairs, face masks drying as their nails were painted, Vivi ran them all through the plan for the next day.
“Tomorrow, Big News Morgans is arriving to write an article on mine and Sanji’s engagement. We all have our roles. Koza, you’re on public and political relations- make sure Morgans isn’t going to do any deep diving with the people for a story. Sabo and Koala, you’re both on physical protection. We’ll be getting you some wigs and new clothes. And Sanji, my new fiance-”
Sanji rolled his eyes.
“You get to be arm candy! Hooray!” Vivi tossed her hand that wasn’t being nail painted in the air, grinning as wide as she could without doing too much damage to her face mask.
“We get it.” He sighed, and closed his eyes. “And a reminder, Morgans does have connections with Germa. Feel free to threaten him, or tell him I was exiled for being too pretty like that Cavendish guy or something along those lines. He’ll eat that sh*t up.”
Koza simply grunted an approval as he examined his freshly painted nails.
“On it Sanj!” Koala grinned, saluting him sharply.
Sabo just snored. He was asleep.
Vivi giggled, and looked down to where Eloise was sleeping on Sanji’s lap.
“Then I think we’re good to go!”
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED BETWEEN LONG THOUGHT DEAD THIRD PRINCE OF GERMA AND PRINCESS OF ALABASTA! WORLD ECONOMIC NEWS EXCLUSIVE!!!
As you all know, I’m Big News Morgans, and I love to find the BEST and most INTERESTING news in all the Blues and the Grand Line! So when the Princess of Alabasta reached out to me personally to ask me to report on her new engagement to a mysterious prince she refused to name over the den den mushi, of COURSE I had to take the first boat straight to Alabasta!
As many of our readers know from our previous issues on the New Year Sun Festival disaster, which left many children and one of the Head Guards of Alabasta injured, Alabasta needed some extra something to keep it protected.
And well, dear readers, the lovely Princess Vivi found that extra something in the once thought dead Third Prince of Germa 66, Vinsmoke Sanji!
Now, if you think that name is familiar, then you’ve likely looked through the bounties recently! Blackleg Sanji, as he is known in the pirate world, is the cook and left hand man to the man, the myth, the legend, Strawhat Luffy!
What a previously thought dead prince was doing as a cook with Strawhat of all people, to now being Princess Vivi’s betrothed is something that is just far too enticing for me to NOT ask questions about! After all, what is the news if not entertaining!
Now, for the thing you’re all waiting for, pictures of the newly engaged on page 9, and a short interview with them and one of their bodyguards!
Big News Morgans: Thank you so much for inviting me into Alaburna Princess Vivi! This sort of Big News is exactly what I love to report on!
Princess Vivi: That’s what I thought! And who better to report on my new engagement with my beloved than the man who’s name is literally Big News!
BNM: Oh flattery will get you everywhere! Now, onto this interview! The readers will just have to know- where did you meet? What are your rings like? When’s the wedding?
Princess Vivi took Prince Sanji’s hand in hers, showing off the practically glowing engagement rings that sat on their fingers.
PV, giggling: Oh, we met when the Strawhat Crew were in Alabasta, assisting the Marines in the takedown of the ex-warlord, Sir Crocodile. He was so dashing! Just swept me off my feet, it was like lightning struck!
Prince Sanji, smiling: It was definitely like a storm, and she was the eye of it.
BNM: Oh, young love! Now you must must must tell me what those stones are on those rings!
[Cont. on Pg 7]
“What the hell is this?” Zeff complained as Patty slapped the newspaper down on the desk.
“The newspaper, you going senile?” Patty sneered, tapping the paper.
“I mean, why the hell are you in my office at five in the goddamn morning while I’m doing the books for this damn restaurant! I will fire your ass!” He groused, pulling the paper away from Patty’s hand.
He scanned the headline, and rolled his eyes.
“The f*ck you giving me royal engagement news for? You know I couldn’t give a f*ck about it.” Zeff grunted as he began to get out of his chair, reaching for his peg leg.
“Sit down! Keep f*ckin reading, or go to page nine!” Patty snapped, his foot tapping against the ground.
“Alright, alright, f*ckin hell.. Better be an invitation to cater the bloody thing or somethin’...”
Zeff flipped to page nine, his frown immediately being replaced with shock.
“What the in the four f*cking blues!?”
xXx
It was another calm day in Weatheria, and Nami was bored as sh*t. It had been a full week since she’d tried planting a tangerine tree in the sky island’s soil, and she was getting antsy with Haredas at some stupid old wizard meeting.
Eventually, she decided that staying in the small house she had commandeered from some old dude wasn’t the best idea. So she packed up some lunch, wished that Sanji had been here to make it for her, and walked outside to lie in the sun and have a picnic.
As she found the perfect spot, patted down the blanket she’d taken to sit on, and poured herself a cool lemonade, she sighed contentedly. Maybe today wasn’t such a bad day…
Taking a sip of her lemonade she closed her eyes, and leant backwards to half lie on her elbows.
Only to immediately be disturbed by a newspaper directly landing on her stomach, making her cough and splutter her delicious lemonade everywhere.
Nami growled, springing to her feet with her butter knife now firmly in hand, eyes to the sky.
“Get back here you feathery bastard! I was relaxing, you absolutely horrible bird! Come back and fight me!” She yelled, trying to not show weakness. Not in front of a goddamn News Coo!
But it seemed like the bird had vanished, so Nami just scowled, and sat back down, not on the spot where she had coughed up lemonade.
“f*ckin news coo…” she mumbled as she began to read the headline. “Wait a goddamn second. SANJI YOU CRUSH STEALING BASTARD!”
The news coo, who had very quickly taken shelter behind a nearby chimney, breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe from the violent orange haired girl.
xXx
Somewhere in the North Blue, Judge frowned at the dinner table.
“What is it father?” Niji asked boredly, stabbing a knife into the table that narrowly missed Yonji’s finger. Yonji yelped and frowned at his blue haired brother, picking up a fork to try and stab him back.
“Nothing, nothing. Just had a feeling something just went wrong…” He laced his fingers together, trying his best to ignore his youngest sons attempting to stab each other with their highly expensive cutlery sets.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Reiju attempted to reassure her father, glaring at her brothers who had somehow roped Ichiji into their scuffle, and were now sending sparks of blue and red energy all over the table.
All in all, it was an average night in Germa.
xXx
Sanji put a hand to his forehead, sighing heavily. The media circus that Vivi had brought down upon them after inviting Big News Morgans had been a nightmare. Morgans himself had been alright, just asking questions about their relationship, their engagement, the strawhats, and what the wedding would be like, and who would be invited. Vivi had reassured the albatross man that he would be guaranteed an invitation, and that the Strawhat crew would be there. Sanji had never seen someone faint from excitement before, but now he could safely say that he had.
The following hoards of reporters that flocked to Alaburna after the article had been published was far less professional than Morgans, which was a hellish experience.
He had silently pledged to get Pell whatever he could want from Kamabakka, expenses be damned. Pell and his daemon, Horus, had been shadowing any and all media groups that were approaching Alaburna, and had taken to dive bombing them if they could tell that the reports would be less than stellar.
Alaburna had been thriving though, the increased media attention on it had very quickly made it a ‘must-see’ destination for travellers, pirates and merchants alike. From what he heard from Koala and Sabo when they went on patrol, all the local store owners and sellers had been having a very good month financially.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving tomorrow!” Vivi’s dramatic sigh pulled Sanji out of his thoughts, a smile tugging on his lips as he turned to his ‘fiance’.
“I know, but Ivankov needs to get back to Kamabakka, and I need to continue my training with the Newkama Kenpo masters. Besides, we can still keep writing to each other!” He rolled his eyes as he pet Eloise’s fur, being careful to not disturb the tail mask that she had put on a couple minutes earlier.
“Ughhhhhhhhh.” Vivi said eloquently.
“If it makes you feel any better, you do know we’ll be seeing each other again in a year and two months right?”
Vivi shot up from where she had been lying, a wide grin spreading over her face.
“The wedding, yes…” She grinned, putting her hands together.
“You’re just excited you get to dress Karoo and Eloise up in fancy clothes and see Nami again.” Sanji rolled his eyes at the blue haired princess. “Please keep your inevitable make out session away from the media, and any photographic den den mushis, we don’t need to start out our marriage with an affair.”
“Don’t say that kind of stuff!” Vivi shrieked, kicking her leg at him softly, face going red. There was a moment of silence, before she mumbled;
“Do you really think she’s going to want to make out with me?”
“Yes of course you idiot. Didn’t you read that letter she wrote me?”
Said letter had arrived only two days ago, and the paper was ripped in multiple places where Nami had obviously put far too much pressure on the pen she was using to write. It was written in a jumble of Eastern, Grand and another language Sanji didn’t know, but he could assume it was another combo of words that meant “YOU f*ckING TWINK BITCHASS WHY THE HELL DID I FIND OUT THAT YOU’RE MARRYING THE GIRL I LIKE???” or another variety of swear words.
“I mean, yeah! But what if she’s talking about it in a platonic way?”
Sanji stared blankly at her.
“... Fair point. But-”
“Vivi, please stop talking.” Karoo mumbled from where he was sleepily lying on the floor. “We like Nami and Catherine, and I’m sleepy.”
“Even my daemon has turned against me.” She pouted and crossed her arms indignantly.
“Yeah. Now be quiet and accept you like her, and she likes you, and you can actually finish braiding my hair.” Sanji clicked his tongue.
Vivi sighed and continued grumbling as she began to gently braid Sanji’s soft blonde hair into a traditional Alabastan style for his last formal dinner in the palace.
xXx
Sanji waved goodbye so hard that he thought his shoulder might dislocate, and he was pretty sure Vivi was doing the same exact thing as her small blue figure faded into a speck on the shore.
“Alright Candy! Are you ready for today’s training!” A distinctive purple afro blocked Sanji’s view of Alabasta’s shore, and he groaned.
“Seriously?”
“Didn’t Straw-boy want you to train for two years? I’ve been an excellent teacher in allowing you a month off!” Ivankov sniffed dramatically, blinking away fake tears.
“Yeah yeah, alright.” He rolled his eyes and pulled out a cigarette for strength. “Let’s get on with it.”
xXx
The next year flashed by quickly, almost like it was an anime montage, where you got little snippets of life from action and training sequences, or pen pal letters between friends.
Of course, this was real life, so all Sanji got was tired, stronger, and a large folder that he kept all the letters from Vivi, and of course once Nami figured out where Sanji was staying, Nami’s letters.
He successfully defeated all ninety-nine Newkama Kenpo masters, mastered sky walking, and had learned how to perfectly make sixty of the Attack Cuisine dishes. He also got very good at eyeliner, and picking out heels that would deal the most damage when he kicked people.
Eloise had somehow perfected acupuncture and from that, how to effectively paralyse any opponent, daemon or otherwise. He was so f*cking proud of her. And thankful for the acupuncture, it was a very welcome relaxation technique after training.
Alabasta had remained safe, Germa 66 hadn’t reared their ugly heads, and so Sanji packed up his now sizably larger suitcases, and got on a Revolutionary ship to Sabaody.
Two years had passed, and he was about to finally see his crew again!
xXx
The large mangrove where the Sunny sat was as peaceful as it could be as the Strawhat Pirates converged upon it to reunite.
Franky, who had been there for ten days already, was SUPER excited to see all his friends again, tapping his foot against the grassy deck as Luella, his daemon, rolled around delightedly.
“Ohhhhhh I’ve missed this.” She grunted delightedly, taking a large sniff of the air. “I can smell Sanji-bro!”
“What would I do without you!” Franky grinned, and clicked a button on his forehead to activate his binocular eyes. He quickly looked around the grove, before seeing a familiar head of blonde hair come into view.
Retracting his eyes, he shouted and waved his arms around, smiling as he saw Sanji’s middle finger flip up.
And- Oh that was different! Sanji’s previously short hair was now longer, and tied up in a bun, and he was wearing some super cool heels! Probably for extra kicking power, Franky thought.
Launching himself down to the ground, Franky grinned widely.
“Sanji-bro! What’s up! Need any help getting your stuff on the ship? And before you ask, yes, I’ve already restocked the kitchen.”
Sanji chuckled and put out his cigarette using his fingers, tucking the butt of it into a small pocket on his suit jacket.
“Thank you Franky. Honestly I thought you were going to ask about Vivi, or this stuff.” Sanji gestured down at his heels, and Franky laughed.
“Why would I! You look SUPER!! And what about Vivi?” He raised an eyebrow as he took one of the large suitcases that Sanji had been dragging behind him.
“Oh, have you not bee-”
Sanji was cut off by a shout that had haunted a couple of his nightmares and his face paled. Franky took a step to the side.
Instantly, Sanji was knocked to the ground in a tangle of at least three other people’s limbs.
“Luffy you rubbery bastard! This suit was expensive! You nearly crushed Eloise!” Sanji snapped, trying to get out of Luffy’s delighted cuddle.
“Just give it up, he’s had a grip on Nami and I since he found us at a bar.” Usopp said through a mouthful of dirt.
“Shishishishi! Can’t I hug my nakama after two years away?” Luffy said with an audible pout, before pausing. “Sanji! You never told me that you’re a girl now!”
“I’ve seen you for approximately ten seconds now Luffy, now get offa me!”
Franky raised another eyebrow. Well, that explained the hair and heels. Luella sniffed the air again and grinned, the large hog daemon snorting to get Franky’s attention.
“Robin’s nearly here!” She said delightedly, and so Franky decided that they could all talk about Sanji’s gender stuff later at dinner. He had a very pretty woman to see for the first time in two years.
xXx
Five hours later, a fake Strawhat crew defeated, and the full crew back on board the Thousand Sunny, Franky was feeling pretty good. Even better now that he was having some of Sanji’s cooking for the first time in two years!
“This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten! Sanji-bro!” Franky said in between bites of food, before pausing. “Wait! Sanji-sis!”
“Wait, yeah, what’s with the whole…” Usopp began, before going quiet as the whole dining room became silent.
“I’m genderfluid. And apparently with whatever weirdo training Luffy’s been doing, he can tell what gender I’m feeling like at any given moment.” Sanji rolled his? Her? Their? eyes. “Just ask me or Luffy about it I guess.”
“Does this have anything to do with your impending marriage with the lovely Princess Vivi?” Robin’s voice lilted out curiously, Sonechka’s head twisting curiously at her side.
“No, but I completely forgot that you were also with the Revolutionaries during our time apart dear Robin! Yes, the wedding is next month, that was going to be something I discussed tomorrow as we planned to set out again.” Sanji smiled at Robin. “But, as it was, let us discuss it now over dinner.”
“I already know the basics of it from the other Revolutionaries, so if anyone has questions, I would think they would be directed best towards you.” Robin smiled back, gently taking another bite of her food.
“Wait, Sanji-sis is getting married?” Franky all but yelled, eyes bulging out of his head slightly.
“Did you not read any newspapers on whatever sh*tty robot island you were stuck on? Our engagement was a staple of the news cycle for half the year after it was announced. Morgans has already started printing new articles about the supposed guest list now.” Sanji rolled her eyes and slapped Luffy’s hand away from her plate.
“f*cking girlfriend stealing twink bastard…” Nami mumbled, also slapping Luffy’s hand away from her dinner.
“Hey, for the last time, we are not getting romantically married, and you two weren’t even dating when we got engaged. This is so the sh*tty world government doesn’t stick their nose into Alabasta’s business, and so my sh*tty bastard father can’t marry me off if he wanted to.” Sanji scowled.
“Wait, since when were you and Vivi dating!” Usopp cried out, waving his now incredibly buff arms around the table.
“Okay!” Luffy yelled louder. “Why don’t we all just stop yelling, and we can talk about the wedding. And how much food there’s going to be.”
“THAT’S NOT THE POINT!”
“Yohohohoho! I’ve missed you all!”
xXx
“So, you got sent to the Queer/Trans people island with Emporio Ivankov, the person who helped Luffy and Ace during the War of the Best, and you trained there for ages, and had a pen pal relationship with Vivi, established a trade route between the trans people island and Alabasta, then after Alabasta was raided by the World Government for still following their old gods, Eloise thought up the idea that you and Vivi would get engaged to stop the World Government from marrying her off to another royal family because you’re still technically a Prince, then announced the engagement publicly, went back to the island, realised you were genderfluid, planned a wedding, and worked with the revolutionaries to make a contingency plan in case your sh*tty family from Germa tries to use the wedding as a chance to attack, then came back to us? Is that it?” Franky said, ticking off each point with a finger.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Sanji shrugged as she piled all the empty plates onto her forearm.
“And after the engagement was announced, Nami got in contact with Vivi, and started officially dating?” Franky continued.
“Yup!” Nami beamed.
“It’s not natural seeing you smile like that about a person. You only look like that when we find treasure.” Zoro grunted, his good eye half open.
“Shush mosshead!” Sanji jabbed a kick at him, lightly hitting the seat cushion next to him.
“But it’s true.” The swordsman shrugged halfheartedly.
“Well at least she came out of the past two years with a girlfriend, you came out of it down an eye.”
The familiar sounds of the cook and the swordsman filled the dining room, and everyone sighed. It felt good to be home.
xXx
The sun shined down onto the Thousand Sunny, and Sanji squinted his eyes to look through the stained glass that sat above his kitchen sink. He was in the middle of peeling boiled eggs for the Golden-Noodle Soup that he was planning to have ready for lunch, and the sight of a small boat on the horizon made him pause.
He began to shout out to whoever was closest that there was a boat approaching before he saw Carlinhos go top speed as they threw themselves towards the boat in albatross form.
It took another second for them to reach the boat, and he spotted a familiar cloud of sand blow up into the air.
That explained it.
He continued to peel his eggs as Luffy’s father and brother made their way aboard the Sunny.
“Dad!! Ace!!” Luffy yelled excitedly as he bounced up and down on the deck, accidentally hitting Usopp in the head with his long stretched out arms.
“We saw you a week ago Luffy.” Crocodile remarked dryly “And Carlinhos saw us yesterday.”
Nova weakly climbed onto deck, trying to push Carlinhos in bananagator form off of his back.
“Please get Car off me.” Nova sighed, collapsing onto his stomach “I am not in the mood.”
“We missed you guys!!!” Cyrus barked delightedly as he bounded on board, immediately running to Luffy to press his fluffy head against his knees.
“Yeah, we haven’t seen y’all since Alabasta! And from what Car told us, we’re headin’ there now?” Ace grinned as he stepped on board with the rest of his rag tag family.
“We sure are! How long is it gonna take us Nami? I wanna get to the wedding so I can eat all the cool food.” Luffy extended his arms to fit around his dad and brother, still smiling widely.
“It’ll be at least three weeks Luf.” Nami called out from her tangerine trees.
“Booooooo.”
Sanji rolled his eyes and went back into the kitchen.
xXx
The Sunny settled back into a comfortable routine once Crocodile and Ace arrived. Everyone went about their business, Usopp had made him some little hair clips that were different colours to signify what pronouns he was comfortable with at any given point in time if Luffy wasn’t around to announce it.
Crocodile had pat him on the shoulder awkwardly and told him that he was proud of him for figuring out the gender stuff, and also surviving living with Ivankov for two years.
Ace had been hanging around the kitchen a lot, but Sanji filed that away for things to deal with later on after they got through the wedding.
It was just so nice being back with the crew after everything. Chopper had more zoan forms, Usopp was buff and slightly less terrified of Crocodile now, Nami was working on ways to incorporate her weather science into navigation, Franky had new upgrades, Robin could fully replicate herself, Brook had somehow become an incredibly famous musician, Zoro had lost an eye, but had gotten stronger, and Luffy was. Well, he was Luffy. He had obviously been training with Ace after they both recovered from their injuries from the War of The Best, and somehow had gotten very good at Haki very quickly.
He was able to tell what pronouns Sanji was using before he knew himself, he was unfortunately getting around the locks that were on the fridge, and was generally exuding good and happy vibes.
That could also be because they were getting closer and closer to Alabasta every day, and had spotted a ship that was recognisable to everyone on board.
“The Baratie!!!!” Luffy and Ace yelled in unison.
“Yes, that is The Baratie.” Robin chuckled as she formed hands to pass Crocodile a cigar and lighter, which he thankfully took.
“What the hell is sh*tty geezer doing here?” Sanji muttered as Robin handed him his cigarettes and lighter.
“Oh jeez-” Eloise started, looking at Sanji from her perch on the railing.
“Oh f*ck-”
“We didn’t call or write to him about the wedding!” The human daemon duo said in unison, heads dipping to lay on the railing.
“Have fun with that one.” Nami pet his back comfortingly. “It probably won’t be as bad as what I wrote to you when I found out?”
“It’ll be worse.” Sanji groaned. “I haven’t written to him in two and a half years.”
Luffy and Ace’s excited sounds about visiting the Baratie together did nothing to soothe the rumble of anxiety in his stomach that was making Sanji reconsider ever setting sail.
As the Sunny approached the infamous sea restaurant, he could immediately spot Patty and Carne standing on the deck, arms crossed. Patty’s shark daemon’s fin was poking out of the water beside the deck, ominously making ripples in the water. It was only the knowledge that the combined force of Ace and Luffy would make them regret ever cooking that gave him the courage to skywalk down to the deck, Eloise firmly clinging onto his shoulder.
“What’s up sh*theads!” He grinned as he touched down on the deck, enjoying the surprised looks the two cooks gave him.
“Nothing much, other than the fact that you’re getting married f*ckhead!” Patty growled, the sound of splashing from the water beside them meaning that his daemon agreed.
“And that you didn’t tell boss that you were doin’ it at all! Or nothin’ about bein’ an actual f*ckin’ prince!” Carne continued, his cat daemon giving him a disappointed look.
“Hey, I didn’t choose to be a prince! Those f*ckers ain’t my family, the sh*tty geezer and you sh*theads are!” Sanji snarled back.
There was a moment of silence before Patty reached over to Sanji and punched him on the shoulder lightly.
“Alright f*ckhead. Get inside, Boss is waitin’ for ya.” Carne rolled his eyes, and totally wasn’t trying to hide tears.
“Might wanna get inside as well. Got some customers on board for you.” Sanji laughed, and adjusted his bangs, also totally not trying to hide tears.
“What do ya mean- Ah f*ck not him-” Was the last thing Sanji heard as he pushed open the familiar doors to the dining room, immediately spotting Zeff and Vivi sitting in a booth near the entrance to the kitchens.
“Ah, little eggplant finally makes an appearance. We’ve got a wedding to cater, so sit your ass down.”
Sanji smiled awkwardly and walked towards his dad- Zeff, and Vivi, taking a seat next to Vivi.
“Zeff has offered to cater the wedding for free! Isn’t that so lovely of him!” Vivi smiled, but her eyes were sharp as she tilted her head in her way of expressing curiosity, clearly saying ‘Why the f*ck is Red-Leg Zeff here, and not in the East Blue, and also offering to cater our fake but real wedding for free’.
“Thought the sh*tty geezer would charge a small fortune for something like that.” Sanji replied nonchalantly, taking a cigarette out of his front pocket, only for it to be slapped out of his hand.
“No smokin’ in the dining room. Now, Princess Vivi, it has been lovely talking to you, but eggplant and I have some things to discuss in the kitchens.” Zeff smiled, and shuffled to the edge of the booth, his large kangaroo daemon appearing out of nowhere to help him get out of the awkward angle. Sanji felt a pang of sadness rip through him. Zeff was getting older, and he hadn’t even written to him for two and a half years.
“Nami’s outside, by the way.” Sanji whispered to Vivi as he slid out of the booth, following Zeff back to the kitchens. He couldn’t see Vivi and Karoo, but based on the very quick running sounds and claw clacking sounds, they were outside now.
The kitchens of the Baratie were the same as Sanji remembered them, the nicks and dents in the stainless steel counters remained, alongside new ones. The pots were hung in the same order on the same wall, and there was one missing, sitting on the stove. Zeff walked over to it, taking off the lid and stirring it five times before putting the spoon down and the lid back on.
“So. You’re gettin’ married. And you’re a prince.” Zeff broke the silence, leaning against the counter that Hilda, his daemon, was at, cutting up some chives.
“Yeah. I’m sorry that I never told you, and-”
“I found out from a goddamn article from that bird hack Morgans. You better feel sorry.”
Sanji winced a little, Eloise twisting her paws through a long strand of hair that hung beside his ear.
“And now you got long hair? You tryin’ to become a proper prissy prince type?”
“No! It’s not because of that, and I am f*ckin’ sorry sh*tty old man, but, f*ck!” Sanji crossed his arms defensively. “I’m gettin’ married to try and help Vivi keep Alabasta safe from the f*ckin’ World Government, and I’m usin’ the fact I was born a prince to make it work! I haven’t called myself a prince since I f*ckin’ escaped from Germa, and I don’t even know what term I’d even use for myself now! I’m not a f*ckin’ prince, I’m not even a guy all the time. If you can’t deal with that sh*tty geezer, then I’ll just f*ck off!” He noticed too late that the pressure he was using to cross his arms and the grip he had on his forearm had torn the fabric.
Zeff stayed silent for a moment, before turning around and stirring the soup again.
“What!” Sanji yelled, his hand coming out to hold onto the counter-top. “Are you going to say something or just f*ckin’ stir that soup!”
“I don’t care about all that. Just wanted to know from you, and now I have. Don’t care ‘bout all that prince sh*t. I knew that you were runnin’ away from something bad when you were a littler eggplant, and it makes sense. That Vinsmoke Judge is a proper c*nt.” Zeff replied, his demeanour not changing a bit as he continued to stir the soup, taking the chives that Hilda had cut and gently sprinkling them into the mixture. “Come test this for me, will you?”
“That’s it?” Sanji blinked, tears very quickly leaving his eyes as he walked closer to the older chef.
“Yeah. ‘Nd should I be callin’ you my kid or something? ‘Cause I’ve been callin’ you my son this whole time. Also, I better be invited to that damn wedding, I’ll be havin’ some words with Morgans about who your dad actually is.” Zeff grumbled, stepping aside to allow Sanji to stand in front of the pot. “Now taste. This’ll be one of the soup entrees at the wedding.”
Sanji roughly wiped the heel of his palm over his eyes and gave a quick pat to Eloise before taking the spoon that Zeff held out to him and dipping it into the pot. Blowing on it softly, he sipped the soup gently.
“It’s sh*tty. You gotta add in more garlic, and lower the temperature, and- f*ck just let me see the recipie, I gotta see how you f*cked this one up” Sanji used his leg to push Zeff out of the way so he could have full access to the stove.
Zeff laughed and roughly pat his kid’s head, messing up his bangs.
“Good to have you back little eggplant.”
“sh*tty geezer.”
xXx
Wedding preparations passed rather smoothly all things considered.
The biggest hiccup was when Sabo came round on his nightly patrol on the second night all the Strawhats were in the palace, and walked straight into the dining hall with both of his estranged brothers who thought he died when he was eleven.
Needless to say, Pell and Chaka nearly had a heart attack getting to the source of the screaming again.
This also resulted in Sabo effectively no longer being able to go on patrol anymore, as Luffy and Ace would fall asleep (on purpose or accidentally) on him, and set off some kind of chain reaction to make all three brothers and daemons fall asleep. Sanji wondered if you could get narcolepsy or crazy via close interaction with someone with it, after all, most people who were around Luffy for long got a bit… y'know.
Koala was now being accompanied by Crocodile, who was receiving mixed opinions from the public of Alaburna. After all, being the man who had previously staged a civil war, manufactured a drought, and attempted to take over their country wasn’t exactly the most beloved by all. But some people who followed along with the news of the Strawhats had taken Crocodile’s reappearance in their stride, welcoming the Desert Hero back into Alaburna. Because honestly, even if Crocodile did attempt another hostile takeover, it would be better than the World Government.
Zeff had taken over all of the catering for the wedding, and had attempted to violently kill Luffy multiple times for trying to eat the uncooked meat. Ace was just as bad, so Sanji was quietly thankful that Sabo was there to keep the other two in check. (They would all later find out that Sabo was just as bad, but sneakier. Zeff got 50 grey hairs at once.)
Collapsing on their bed that had been set up to sit flush against Vivi’s, Sanji groaned.
“C’mon Sanji, you had to stay on a mountain for three months to learn to sky walk.” They mumbled to themselves and Eloise. “Restraining yourself from telling nobles to kill themselves is a walk in the park.”
“It’s tough.” Vivi sighed as she fell backwards onto her own bed. “But you get used to it.”
“I can just peck you if I think you’re going to say anything.” Karoo suggested as he flapped his wings to get up on the bed, walking to the very centre where both beds came together before sitting down and making himself comfortable.
“Thanks Karoo.” Sanji sighed, turning their head to look at the daemon and his human counterpart. “And at least one of us is benefiting from this whole moving bed situation.”
“Can’t believe that they wanted us to move our beds together so that if the paparazzi found our room that they would believe we were a couple!” Vivi’s nose twisted up into an annoyed expression. “If the paparazzi found us, we should just be allowed to kill them, or at least brutalise them a bit.”
“You’ve spent far too much time with bounty hunters and revolutionaries my dear Vivi.”
“And you grew up with a bunch of pirate cooks.”
“Fair point.”
xXx
At some point between the godawful etiquette lessons and the endless clothing options, Sanji had completely forgotten that the wedding was, in fact, today. The way he figured it out was Nami violently shaking him awake and screaming something in the language she learned when she was up in Weatharia that was probably swear words.
“f*ck!” Sanji’s eyes caught sight of the small bedside clock that clearly read that it was eight am.
“YEAH!” Nami yelled back.
Scrambling out of bed alongside Karoo, who had somehow gotten tangled in his blanket during the night, Sanji ran through the day’s schedule internally.
He and Vivi were supposed to be awake at six am, to begin the makeup and getting dressed, then they were supposed to have a pre-wedding breakfast with King Cobra and some of the nobles that were attending the wedding. At eight.
“Whuh?” Vivi sat up, blue hair having fallen out of carefully braided hair.
“IT’S EIGHT!” Nami shrieked.
Vivi seemed to go through the same stages of thinking as Sanji had, before looking at the floor and making eye contact with Karoo.
“f*ck.” She said plainly.
“There’s no time, but I would love to! You,” Nami grabbed Vivi’s arm, ignoring the sudden flush that burst over her tan skin, “Need to come with me to Robin and the makeup artist, and Robin is gonna try and dress you as fast as humanly possible, and Sonechka will take care of you Karoo.”
“What about-”
“And you!” Nami’s head whipped around “Are going across the hall to Sabo’s room, and letting him do whatever the f*ck he has to to get you looking presentable. Now thank the gods he’s offered to do it because your stylist got sick last night after someone!”
Zoro scratched his neck as he felt his ears heat up. Must be the weather.
“Decided it would be a wonderful idea to challenge everyone to a drinking while sword fighting competition!”
“Ok! I’m going! f*ck!” Sanji scooped up a sleepy Eloise and backed out of the room slowly.
Nami breathed in heavily, before slowly breathing out, trying to not put too much force into the grip she had on Vivi’s arm.
“Hey, Nami?” Vivi gently brushed her girlfriends bangs behind her ears. “It’ll be okay, okay?”
“Yes, I know, but I am going to strangle-” Nami’s words died in her mouth as Vivi leaned forwards to kiss her softly.
“Okay?” The princess smiled.
“Mmhmm.” Nami sighed, before her brain kicked back into gear. “Nope! We are going to Robin’s room, NOW!”
Vivi laughed as she was dragged out of her room, Karoo happily running behind her. It was going to be a fun wedding if this was how the morning started!
WORLD ECONOMIC NEWS EXCLUSIVE! ROYAL WEDDING EDITION!
All written by Big News Morgans and his top team of journalists!
INCREDIBLE AERIAL CAMERA SHOTS OF ALABURNA ON PAGE 5! (taken by Graham Nina and Bobo, her seagull daemon)
COME BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE ROYAL WEDDING BETWEEN PRINCESS NEFERTARI VIVI AND PRINCE VINSMOKE SANJI! (by Riian Liah)
Ever wondered what it’s like to be an incredible interior decorator? A world famous chef? A fabulous fashion designer? Well, at this Royal Wedding, we were able to get interviews with ALL THREE, talking with them about their roles in making the Royal Wedding, well, Royally Perfect! [Cont. Pg 7]
EXTRA EXTRA! A NEW TRIAD OF POWER EMERGES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TEN YEARS! EXTRA EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE ASL BROTHERS! (by Big News Morgans)
As I wrote in our very first issue covering this incredibly interesting Royal Wedding, the bride and groom revealed to us that the Strawhat Pirates would be in attendance! Obviously, I had planned on interviewing Strawhat Luffy, but once I found out that BOTH of his brothers would also be there? Well, I wouldn’t let such big news slip through my feathers! [Cont. Pg 19]
AFTERPARTY INTERVIEW WITH THE NEWLYWEDS! (by Big News Morgans)
After the beautiful wedding (Read all about the actual ceremony on Page 2!) new outfits were worn, and the lovely couple we all came to see decided to get onto the dancefloor! Prince Sanji wearing a very flattering dark blue three piece suit with delicate Alabastan gold accessories woven into his hair, his daemon Eloise sporting a delightful combo of traditional Alabastan daemon clothing and her own set of gold accessories! Princess Vivi wearing an absolutely gorgeous dark blue ankle length dress, her arms adorned with Alabastan gold bangles. Karoo, her daemon, was wearing an adorable version of Prince Sanji’s suit… [Cont. on Pg 30]
