❛ STICK AROUND AND YOU'LL FIND OUT. ❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : EAT AT BARATIE! ❫
˖ ₊˚.⋆࿐┊ CH. 15┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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The Straw Hats were still inside the Baratie eating the meals they were giving, which was a lot thanks to Luffy's love for food and wanting to eat the entire menu. Their table was filled up with mostly empty plates, and the few left pieces of meat that the siblings were still munching on while talking with the rest of their crew.

"I can't eat another bite." Usopp mumbled in a drawl holding up a fork of something, that he picked up from his plate and still took another bite, "But it's so good."

Over near the end of the velvet couch they were sitting on, Zoro had one arm around the back of it where (Y/N)'s quiet figure sat and his fingers were sometimes gentle grazing the side of her arm mindlessly. And whenever she felt it happening, her head snapped down to the glass of water Sanji specifically brought out for her.

It surprised her when he gave the drink to the table, and left with a charming wink in his wake when he didn't have any of the other orders with him, expect hers. But it also had her smiling like a dork, seeing the somewhat heart-shaped cubes inside of the water floating around.

"Oh man, you said it." Zoro agreed with a content sigh, other hand covering up the bottle of beer he had, and unclipped the cap off of it to take a big sip from the liquid.

Nami slouched back against the back of the couch, and her head fell onto (Y/N)'s shoulder a little bit, "I'm not gonna be hungry for a week." She commented feeling completely stuffed, and the other girl patted her head gentle in response.

"Should we order dessert?" Luffy perked up in question, his mouth still full of the meat he was eating and was already thinking of more food, even with the pieces in his hand he had.

"I already got mine." Zoro raised his beer that switched to the hand around his captain's shoulders, gaining an amused look from her that had him pinching her cheek playfully, and she whined in pain trying to push him away now.

Luffy hummed in acknowledgement placing down the bone he had onto the plate, "That reminds me. We should do a toast." He hit the table a little, and pointed to their glasses eagerly, "Come on. Grab your glasses."

(Y/N) smiled brightly at her brothers idea going to grab her water that was half empty now, and the other three followed after their captains example, as she took over the toast announcement, "To the best crew sailing on the sea and to our victory? Yeah!"

Usopp and Luffy cheered with her knocking their drinks together with hers, as Zoro chuckled lowly through a smirk that flashed his teeth down at her, and drank from his beer all while keeping eye contact. She glanced down at his bandanna around his wrist at that, and cursed him out in her mind hearing his amused laughs at her reaction.

"No, I'm sorry. What victory exactly?" Nami interrupted a bit rudely ending the celebration fast, and glanced between the siblings with a questionable expression, as her head lifted up from its resting place.

"Against the Marines. Our very firs battle and we crushed them." Luffy answered happily licking his lips from the milk he drunk, and tried to snatch some of his sisters meat, but she gentle slapped his hand away to back off.

"I don't know how much naval battles you guys have been part of-"

"Two dozen, at least." Usopp added onto at Nami's words in lie, and lifted up his bottle to his mouth to now drink from it also.

"But that was a disaster." She finished off giving the others serious looks, "We were unprepared, uncoordinated. By all rights, we should be at the bottom of the sea."

Usopp used his spare arm to wrap around Luffy's shoulder beside him, and would of done it to the other sibling but he saw Zoro hogging her, "We're not though. Our captains saved us." He remined grinning widely.

"Are we really going to ignore the elephant in the room right now?" Nami pointed out which confused the siblings hearing this, and she looked between them indignantly, "You didn't think to mention your grandfather was a Marine? And not just any Marine, a vice-admiral! Don't know about you two, but I didn't sign up for that."

(Y/N) frowned a bit hurt at her friends words, knowing what Nami was saying is true and that they probably should of mentioned it earlier, but it never came to their minds to even explain who their family actually was. Sighing to herself heavily, she nibbles of the tangy meat in her hands, and leaned back into Zoro's side a bit.

"You raided a Marine base." Zoro now joined into the conversation seeing how his captain was feeling, and gave Nami a bit of a evil eye now as he pointed out, "Of course that'll make you a target.

Nami narrowed her scowling stare down on him to match his, and rubbed the place under her nose annoyed, "If I stole the map, no one would've known I was there, as opposed to wrecking a base commanders office."

The blonde waiter came back up to the table again which break their small bantering discussion, and it had (Y/N) making a weird noise quickly glancing down from him, suddenly finding her boots very interesting now, as she felt an familiar stare eyeing her down.

"Your bill, sir." Sanji tells Luffy now arriving to stand beside him at the table, and placed the paper in front of the male, as his hands go by into his pants pockets.

Luffy pursued his lips holding up a finger to Nami signalling to wait, and reached over to grab the small metal basket containing their bill. He picked up the pen to sign off the bill, and handed it back when he was finished, "Thank you, my good man."

His blue eyes drift from the (H/C) haired girls hunched figure now, taking the basket from Luffy with his ringed hand, and a glanced down at the paper smiling amused seeing it, "No, sir. Thank you." He mused before walking away back to the kitchen.

When he did disappear from their table she lifted her head back up, releasing a breath of relief not liking how easily she was shy because of him. She fiddled with the black bandanna around her wrist, and felt Zoro's boot bump against hers under the table, which had her sending him a confused look that he just ignored.

"I'm not saying it's good that the Marines are on our tail, but we showed them that they can't just roll over us." Luffy began to explain with his hands making motions in the air, glancing at each of them and landed on his sister last with a confident smile, "This crew, our crew, can handle anything."

"Who the hell is Monkey D. Luffy?" A deep voice of an older male interrupted this time, his voice echoing around the ressurent, as he was wearing a chef's clothing and standing near the kitchens entrance.

(Y/N) spluttered out her water back into the glass hearing the sudden intimidating voice, coughing a bit that had Zoro tapping his palm into her back with a worried but deadpanning look. Once she was calmed down, she placed down the glass and snapped her head to Luffy with widen eyes, knowing this wasn't going to be good.

Luffy peeks his head around the corner of the pillar behind their table, and raised his hand up holding his milk, "Here."

"You seem to be confused about the rules of the house, but Baratie doesn't offer credit." He approached the table, his wooden leg making a thumping sound as he walked, and held out the bill for the crew, "You eat, you pay."

Luffy sat down the glass of his milk gentle, turning to face the older male who towered over them, and made his fingertips touch together, "I think you're confused. The meal has already been paid for. I just haven't given you the money yet."

"Yeah, and how's that?"

"You can add it to our treasure tab." He motioned in between himself, and his sister who was smacking her forehead softly, and groaning quietly at what was currently happening thanks to Luffy's small brain.

The chef raised his blonde eyebrows, and shuffled in his spot with an expecting look, grumbling out in his gruffy voice, "And what, pray tell, is that?"

"Me and my sister may not look like a big deal yet, but you're talking with the future Kings of the Pirates." Luffy answered smirking confidently, gaining a noise of protest who didn't want to be involved, "And as soon as we find the One Piece, we'll come back here, pay this bill in full, and with interest."

Even though (Y/N) was a tad socially awkward at times, she now knew it was time to step in before matters got worse for them, spotting the twitch on the older males face, "Please excuse my brother, sir. He doesn't really know what he's talking about."

She laughed nervously standing up from her chair, making the chefs attention turn to her now. Getting help from Zoro who grabbed her hands, she stepped over him and made her way over to the older man, as his face momentarily flashed with a look of reconfisatio.

"I-I'm sure there must be another way to deal with this," She stresses in a soft tone, and smiled a bit sheepishly rubbing the back of her hat, "If not, I can make up for the money instead of my brother-"

"As much as I appreciate your generosity kid," The chef started off in a surprisingly calm way, before chuckling through his teeth as he grabbed Luffy by his overalls, "I've got a better idea."

He grunted heaving up Luffy by his clothes to stand with him, making (Y/N) panicking watching this happen and saw the chef nudging his head for her to follow along behind them.

As those two went off towards the kitchen now, in the corner of her eyes she spotted Zoro's figure tensing up and was about to get up from the couch. But she quickly sent a reassuring closed eye smile, that had him furrowing his brows softly, heart feeling funny and sat back down watching his captain trip on after the chef and Luffy.

"You, Mr. Future-King-of-the-Pirates, are gonna be my new chore boy." Zeff, the owner of the Baratie pushed open the kitchen doors and lead the siblings inside to the busy place, "And you're too nice of a sister is gonna help you pay off the debts washing dishes."

He shoved Luffy towards where the sink filled with water and dishes were, making him grunt trying to catch himself as (Y/N) timidly made her way over and her jaw dropped seeing how many dishes there was, "A-all of these?"

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.. She sulked in her thoughts cringing at the sight, and run a tired hand down her forehead, still knowing she'd do this regardless as it was Luffy, her other half and older brother.

"For starters." Zeff threw them both a black apron that Luffy caught by the girl's hit her in the face, and snatched it off with her eye twitching in annoyance, "You gotta remember. That meal you had with your sister and friends? That's one years worth of dishes." He explains gruffly looking between them, "I'd get a move on if I was you. Second service is in one hour."

She made a funny face at Zeff's back when he turned around from them, and Luffy giggled to himself seeing that, as soon stopped when the doors opened again, and Sanji came charging in. Fumbling a bit at his arrival, she span around to look away from him, and patted her flustered cheeks.

"Oy, oy. What do you think you're doing?" Zeff questioned incredulously at Sanji walking into the kitchen, his voice growing louder now as the younger one was banned from cooking anymore.

"Come on, old man. Enough's enough." Sanji raised his hand up into the air to wave him off, and had his shirts sleeves rolled up to get back into cooking, hopefully.

Zeff narrowed his harden gaze on his son figure, and took a step forward, and demanded a reminder, "Put the jacket back on, little eggplant. You're not done with your shift yet."

"Let me back on the line or I walk."

"You can walk back into the ocean for all I care." Their banter between each other had (Y/N) turning her head a little over her shoulder, and frowned a bit sadly for Sanji at how Zeff was treating him, but also could sense he cared a lot about Sanji, "Cook another meal like that in my kitchen, it's going right where the last one did."

A waiter came past the siblings with many plates of food, making the two move towards the sink more to let them through the little path. Her (E/C) eyes land on a freshly made food that was placed with the other dirty plates, and she tilted her head to the side wondering why it was there.

"You can kick me out of the kitchen all you like. I'll never be a waiter." Sanji sneered a bit through his teeth, as the only thing he enjoyed about being a waiter was getting to meet and see the (H/C) haired girl that hasn't left his mind since.

Tapping her brothers arm with her finger to get his attention, he looked up from the food being cooked and followed where she was pointing. His eyes lit up when he saw her scooping up the sauce from the meal, and eats it off her finger, which had him going to do so afterwards.

"That's fine by me. You sure as hell are never gonna be a cook in my restaurant." Jeff exclaimed firmly pointing a furious finger in Sanji's direction, and rumbled out indimtdintly, "Have you got it?"

(Y/N)'s face brightened up into a one of glee tasing the sauce from the dish, the taste was something she's never had before and couldn't even explain how delicious it was with words. Turning back around to where the other two were, her expression drops watching Sanji now storm out of the kitchen with his jacket, leaving her with the need to talk to him even more now.

.........

The two metal doors of the kitchen were bumped open by (Y/N)'s boot, her carrying many plates in her arms as she stumbled her away over to where Luffy was washing the dishes already, and tried her hardest not to let the glass drop from the hold she had on them.

She didn't even notice the other male in the room when she went up to her brother, and began to carefully place the plates down next to the sink, nerves on fire from not wanting to make a fool out of herself.

"I don't think I ever got your name, madam?" A familiar flirtatious voice spoke up suddenly from behind her, causing her to yelp startled not expecting to hear it nor that close.

She sucked in air through her teeth nervously, turning her body around like a robot to see Sanji leaning against the cooking bench smirking at her, "Uh... I'm (Y/N)." She stuttered out in greeting, sending Luffy an evil side eye at his giggling behind her, "Monkey D. (Y/N)."

"(Y/N)..." The cook repeated her name smoothly, the words rolling off his tongue with his British accent that her knees wobbly. He leant up from his position, flicking back his bangs, and gave her a charming wink, "Lovely name for a lovely girl, but I do prefer belle."

She tilted her head to the side confused at the strange accent change from him, as she scratched the bridge of her nose, "B-belle?" She tried to say it back, but it just sounded funny coming out, "What does that mean?"

He forced himself to hold back his amused smile, rolling his sleeves up now as he walked back over to the table near the back, and looked back to her briefly, "Stick around and you'll find out." He answered suggestively, and threw her a flirtatious wink before sitting down.

A weird nose escaped her throat at this, hand coming up to place over her eyes as she span back around to the sink, heart beating so fast she heard it in her ears, and tried to discact herself by washing up the dishes.

Luffy handed his sister some of the plates to place in the drying rack, giving her a teasing look with raised eyebrows that had her embarrassment flaring up and sending a kick to his feet for him to stop.

"Bet you two regret giving the old man that IOU." Sanji's thick accent was back again talking, catching her attention straight away from her brothers groaning figure, and saw him further away from them now sadly.

"I don't really do regret." Luffy huffed out when he was standing back up from rubbing his sore foot, and motioned to her next to him also, "Nor does she. No point in looking back anyway."

"Lucky you." The cook comments chuckling quietly to himself, and flicks the metal lighter in his fingers as his blue eyes glanced up to her figure for a second, "Sometimes, when I try to look ahead, all I see is back."

She paused her movements at his words to place back down the pile of dishes she had, and slipped the hat to hang around her neck, "Not to be nosy or anything, but have you always been a waiter?" She questioned hesitantly, hoping to bring his spirts back up.

"Nah, I'm a cook chérie." He confirmed proudly using his french words again, that has her making a confused noise, and he smiled adoringly hearing it, "Best one in the East Blue." He brags lazily, shrugging his shoulders a little, "Not that it matters. As long as the old man's in charge, I'm banned from the line."

Luffy and her shared a glance between each other as they were thinking the same thing, and he goes to push her forward to talk to Sanji. She stumbles a bit yelping, and regained her footing grabbing onto the side of the bench laughing nervously, "I'm sure you are the greatest. That meal you cooked was amazing."

His head tilts back up in confusion now, leaning against the chair he was in as his bangs cover one of his blue eyes, "The True Bluefin Saute?" He questioned in slight disbelief, not knowing the girl he thought was beatufil tried one of his dishes, and her brother also which was a bonus.

(Y/N) hummed a bit in acknowledgement standing up straight in her spot, hands folding behind her back as she nods her head rapidly, "Yeah! I would love it if you could make it for us sometime." She answered giggling sweetly.

His heart beats faster hearing her giggle, with a happy flutter at the fact she wanted him to cook and that she actually did try his food, "You really- You tried it?" He breathes out chuckling, never being this comfortable around a woman before.

"Yeah, of course we did!" Luffy claims in glee bouncing up beside his sister, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he squishes her against his side playfully, "Couldn't help ourselves. I didn't think the food could any better."

They both walk over to where Sanji was staring at her with wonder filled eyes, and it had her looking down shyly before glancing back up to him, "I'm not just saying this, but I think you're a really good cook." She praised smiling kindly, that had Sanji also looking away flustered, "But why is Zeff making you wait tables?"

"'Cause he's jealous." His accented voice grew rougher now since he was a bit annoyed, making her take a mental note about how better it sounded like that, "I should be running this place, but the old man's so stubborn, it'll never happen."

Luffy leant his elbow on the side of the cooking bench they were both next to, him being placed behind his sister as he smiled interested towards Sanji, "So that's your dream? To be head chef of the Baratie."

"Nah." He denied swiftly shaking his head in response, as he shuffled in his chair he sat in, and pulled out his box of cigarettes from his jackets pocket on the table.

She placed the tip of her finger up to her bottom lip bewildered, tilting her head to the side a little bit and watched him closely wondering what was going on inside his mind, "So you love to cook, I see that. You just don't want to cook here?"

Instead of answering her question he placed a ciggrate in between his lips, bringing up the back of his hand holding the lighter to light it up showing off his ring. Once it was burning at the end, he removed the hand covering it, and inhaled from the blunt slowly.

The entire time this was happening (Y/N) was gawking very obviously watching him doing this, thinking that he couldn't get anymore attractive, but yet him smoking just threw that away. My god, he's literally perfect... she thought to herself nibbling on her bottom lip, and tried to shake those thoughts away when he started talking again.

"There's, um, this place where you can find ingredients from all four seas." He began to explain in his now raspier voice, and held up his cigrate in his left hand in the air, "East Blue, West Blue, North, and South. They call it the All Blue. Nobody knows where it is, but there's fish there that have never been seen."

He grins like a little kid talking about his favourite thing in the entire world, "You know, rare seaweeds. Spices that have never been tasted." He drawls out licking his bottom lip briefly, "It's a cook's paradise, and I'm gonna find it one day." He declared determined now looking to the smiling siblings, "That's my dream."

"If you want to cook, you should cook." She tells him smiling softly, arms crossed over her overalls and clicked her tongue jokingly adding, "I'm sure it's not that simple, but don't let some stubborn old man get in the way of your dream, Sanji. Stand up to him, tell me what you want."

She actually remembered my name and didn't laugh at my dream... Sanji thought to himself in awe, feeling on top of the world right now as he stared at her intently, and ran his tongue along his teeth, "It's more complicated than that."

"Don't really do complicated either." Luffy remarks in a chirpy tone, raising his hand up into the air with a toothy grin and wraps his arms around his sisters back to cling to her like a koala.

Sanji huffed out an amused chuckle staring down at the ashtray near him, before the sound of someone pounding on the door took their attention, "Help me." A males frantic voice exclaims from the other side, causing the siblings and Sanji to share a look of confusion.

"Help!" The male's voice begs once more hitting the glass of the door with his palm, as the cook gets up from his chair putting out the smoke and told (Y/N) to stand back when she got closer to the door with Luffy.

It soon clicked open with a the injured male wearing a blue jumpsuit weakly hobbled inside, making her head peek from around Sanji's bicep to gasp softly seeing the limping male falling into the side of the cooking bench.

Without a second thought about it and ignoring Luffy trying to grab her by the arm, she rushed forward to the male catching figure heavy figure by the shoulders, as his side fell into hers weakly.

She grunted trying to lift him back up, sending a look to Sanji for help who looked amazed watching her, and snapped out of the trance to help her bring the panting guy to the table and chairs.

Luffy pulled out the chair at the end of the long table for him, as the two carefully got him to sit on it and removed their hands from his once he was safely on it. Her back was pressed a bit against Sanji's, who stood behind her with Luffy as she gentle held the male's shaking hand in her own and squeezed it, "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm so hungry, please." He weakly pleaded out to them squeezing her hand back as hard as he could, until his hold fell limp when he coughed into his arm panting.

Sanji nodded in understanding patting his shoulders to step back a bit, giving (Y/N) a short glance to she saw and watched him rush towards the kitchen's food, "Okay, you got it, man. How does some corned-beef fried rice sound?"

Patty now walked through the kitchen doors carrying something, and saw what was currnent going on inside of it, "What do you think you're doing?" He asked a bit incredulously to the fast paced Sanji.

"At Baratie, everyone eats." He simply replied flicking back his bangs with his head, grabbing a pan and some veggie's off the basket full of them down near the end of the counter.

"Who's gonna pay for that? This is a business." Patty tried to reason placing down the supplies he carried where the trolley full of it was, and motioned furiously at the male sitting at the table, "We can't give handout to very down-on-his-luck pirate that washes up."

"If a man is hungry, I feed him."

"Zeff kicked you off the line." He remined the male now grabbing some more food to go into the stuff he was about to make, and Patty stood near the front doors.

"Yeah, well I don't see the old man here. Do you?" Sanji stated irritated back to Patty, peeling off the sheet around the fresh beef meat, and placed it onto the cutting board to be used.

Patty waves a hand in to the air to brush him off, shaking his head as he goes to walk away back the way he came, "Your funeral." He grumbles giving one last look at Sanji before disappearing through the doors.

(Y/N) now perks up seeing that the other cook had left them in the kitchen, standing up from tending to the male's injuries and held her hands to her chest. She looked to Luffy seeing him with the male, and took this chance to walk quietly up to where Sanji was cooking.

She watches him with wide, curious eyes as he cuts the meat in perfect pieces, trying her hardest not to focus on how good his fingers and hands looked right now being used. A bright, and beaming grin crosses her lips now getting a sudden idea, and knew it had to come true before they said goodbye to the Baratie.

.........

It didn't take long for the very skilled cook to make the dish the male dearly needed, and even as he made the food Sanji did offer to make some for (Y/N), but she declined it knowing the male should be the main worry right now, even if she did want to eat some more of his delicious cooking.

The male was scooping up the rice dish from inside the bowl with the spoon, and took a few sips of water that was placed beside him, "I was drifting out there for a week." He looks to the siblings beside him first, before turning to Sanji cleaning up from the cooking, "You saved my life tonight."

She was sitting on one of the chair with her stomach to the back rest of it, and turned her head to Sanji seeing him smiling, "You're not only a amazing cook, but you're also a good guy." She leans her chin in her palms resting on the chair, and grinned at him sweetly, "If Zeff doesn't appreciate you, you should join me and Lu's crew."

He grinned cutely in response also that showed off his teeth, and little dimples that had her swooning a bit, as he silently chuckles staring at her amused.

"I'm for real, Sanji. I mean it." She went to add on more serious seeing him not really buying it, and lazily hanged her arms off the chairs top, giggling mischievously as she pulls the bandanna around her wrist up more.

He sighed heavily through his nose cleaning off his knifes with a white cloth, already sensing she was being legit and pursed his lips in thought. Though he glanced up briefly feeling her intense stare on him, one that has his cheeks heating up shyly,  "Sorry, belle. I've already got a job." He mumbles going back to cleaning the knifes.

"But you're not happy here." Luffy went to join in protesting, brows raised up at the conflicted cooker as he twirls around his hat on his finger a little, "And we're gonna need a great cook if we're gonna find the One Piece."

The unknown male eating the corn rice meal suddenly stopped hearing that name, the spoon clanking against the bowl as he dropped it, and repeated cautiously, "The One Piece?"

"Yeah, we're gonna find it and become Kings of the Pirates." Luffy confirmed determinedly pointing to himself, and back to his smiling sister in front of him who nodded her head in agreement.

"We were searching for it too, along with the legendary Nine-Tail devil fruit." The male claimed now causing Luffy to tense up alarmed, (Y/N) to tilt her head interested and Sanji to look up from the cleaning, "I was part of a mighty pirate armada. Our captain was hell-bent on finding them both, but the Grand Line was his undoing."

The siblings shared a small look with each other at the sudden confession from him, one feeling on edge and worried, while the other was more so curious to how the captain knew about the Nine-Tail. Luffy grabbed (Y/N)'s hand in his now, and squeezed it gentle to assure her.

"We lost 50 ships, and 5,000 men." He points to himself in emphasises, and swallows the building lump in his throat, "I was the only survivor. Save yourselves." He looks between the duo seriously, hoping they got the message about how dangerous it was, "Forget your ever heard of the One Piece."

─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
this is fr one of my favs chapters so far ive written in this fic omg i can't lie im fan girling over the
scenes that i made myself LMAOAO i can't i love sanji and zoro so bad sobbing screaming dying

very scared for the upcoming chaps though cause of zoro getting hurt and facing mihawk which is great ig but not great for my poor heart having
to write the angst and sword scene 🥲

i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and
pleaseeee don't be silent readers guys 🫶