Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Sanji! You’re not supposed to be out of bed!”

“It’s fine-“ Sanji frowns as Chopper wrestles him back onto the infirmary bed, too tired to argue. An ache has set deep in his bones that he hasn’t been able to ignore, and his eyes are the heaviest he can ever remember them being. Whenever he opens them, the Sunny looks like it’s spinning. He had only tried to sit up for a second but even that’s been enough to turn his stomach.

He breathes until it passes and says to Chopper, “I don’t have time to be sick.”

His flushed skin and fever say otherwise. Chopper has wrung out a cool washcloth and placed it over Sanji’s forehead, which has cleaned the sweat off his brow in turn. He takes another and tucks it snugly behind the back of his neck, hoping to bring his temperature down.

“You don’t have a choice,” Chopper says, firmly but nice. Nothing the doctor says can sound mean, as much as Sanji doesn’t want to hear it.

“I have things to do.”

“Like resting.”

“Like jobs that can’t be put off.” The fight has left his voice, though he sounds serious. Chopper worries that his stress will stop him from healing. He has been watching Sanji since Brook found him first thing this morning.

They had left a tropical island only days prior, the closest neighbouring island to the one that the Sunny has docked in now. He thinks Sanji must have caught something there. It reminds Chopper of Nami’s illness the first day he had met them, only nowhere near as serious. Sanji will be fine if he just rests and sleeps it off. He thinks the fact that he never gets sick is the reason why he is taking it so hard.

“What jobs do you have?” Chopper asks him. “We can do them! That way you can focus on getting better.”

Sanji had intended to take stock of their food supplies before he went to bed last night. He does this every week, is careful and methodical about making sure they always have enough food should they find themselves in an unpredicted situation. He balances the amounts of what they have and keeps an eye on what they’re running low of. He knows what lasts the longest and what he can preserve, what they need to eat so they don’t die of malnutrition before they get to the New World. He even keeps food reserves stored beneath his own bed, things that won’t spoil that he can hide away in case of emergencies or borne of paranoia.

He had been headed to the kitchen to do this when a wave of fatigue had fallen over him, enough that he had to stop to blink the stars from his eyes. Strange, he had thought. An unusual sluggishness had taken root inside his legs and shoulders. He had felt a little worn out all day, but it was nothing to write home about. Now though, his bed was calling him. Nothing would go anywhere if he waited until morning. He would go to bed now and get up an hour earlier in the morning, rested, and make up the time before the rest of the crew even opened their eyes.

When he woke in the morning, the ship felt like it was rocking.

He sat up in the dark and waited, a hand on his spinning head as the world turned around him. When his balance stabilised, he clumsily dressed himself and staggered to the door as if his sea legs had been swept out from under him.

Sanji made it as far as outside before the early morning’s fresh air hit his lungs. He had discovered that Sunny wasn’t moving – they had reached their island destination at some point during the night – and the next thing he knew he was hunched over on his hands and knees, dry heaving on the deck.

Brook had found him like that on his way back from his night watch. Naturally, he had panicked and run to get Chopper. Sanji had been in the infirmary since then – the little reindeer could be strict when he wanted to be – and the kitchen’s stock had yet to be counted.

~

“I wanna help Sanji!”

“God help us if you counted the stock,” Nami says, shoving Luffy out the kitchen with both hands on his back. He skids out on to the deck and faces her with a childish pout. “There’d be nothing left.”

“We would die a slow yet avoidable death on the sea,” Robin says.

Nami gives Robin a morbid look and thrusts a piece of paper into Luffy’s hand. He squints at it, mouth watering. “Here.”

“A list?”

“Bingo. Go into town and buy only what we’ve written on that list. I’ll give you just enough berries to cover the cost. Buy anything else and you’ll owe me bigtime, got it?”

“Yeah!” He nods. “C’mon Zoro!”

Nami sighs as Luffy and Zoro jump ship before she can question their partnership. She has a bad feeling about letting the two of them go together. She hopes that Luffy hasn’t eaten the groceries by the time they return, or that they haven’t spoiled after Zoro gets them inevitably lost.

Nami turns to Usopp, who had been ready to run off into town himself. “Usopp! I have a job for you.”

He looks sceptically at the hastily drawn diagram on the paper that she hands to him. She also hands him a small bag with a little weight to it. He opens it and is greeted by the sight of more money. He wonders if maybe Nami has caught whatever Sanji has been afflicted with.

“This is Sanji’s,” she says, which makes more sense by her flippant handing it over to him. “The pan in the picture is what he wanted to buy in town today. I had to copy the drawing out of one of his magazines.”

Usopp studies the picture. It looks like a nice pan; non-stick and deep and large enough for a hefty batch fit for nine people. It’s right up Sanji’s street, he can see why he wants it.

“I’ve written the details below the picture.” Nami points them out. There’s a price there along with the information, written in bold and underlined several times. “Can you buy this when you go out today?”

“Sure can. You know I used to be a personal shopper before I was a pirate? I helped the people around my town whenever they asked me ‘cos I’m the best at finding deals.”

Nami rolls her eyes at his obvious lie. “You’re the man for the job then. Sanji said it has to be this pan, okay? Don’t get distracted by anything else.”

Usopp scoffs. “As if I would.”

Franky goes with him. The town is full of tourists. There’s all sorts of wares for sale; clothes and glasses and hats to keep off the sun, UV protective lotion and parasols for the heat, street food and fruit and all sorts of different items. There’s vendors selling maps on every corner. Good thing they’re not tourists, Usopp thinks, there only for a quick stop rather than to look around. If they weren’t so seasoned at exploration from their many adventures - and of course, if they didn’t have him in their group to lead them around – they would surely get ripped off.

“There, bro.” Franky points. It looks like a shop set up in front of a restaurant, though he thinks the design is just for show. The vendor eyes them as they make their way over.

“Gentlemen,” the man says warmly. “How can I help you today?”

“We’re looking for this.” Usopp hands the drawing over. The man nods appreciatively at the picture on it.

“This is a top of the range item. You have good taste.”

“It’s for the cook of our ship,” Usopp says. The man ah’s his understanding.

“Not to worry then. As it happens, I have what he’s looking for right here.”

The man reaches under his market table and straightens with a large, matte black pan in his hand. He sets it on the surface and Usopp looks it over. It’s just like the drawing.

“Perfect.” He reaches into the little bag to pay.

“That’ll be five hundred berries.”

Usopp’s eyes almost bug out of his head. “Excuse me?!”

“As I said, it’s top of the range.”

Franky points to Nami’s writing on the paper the vendor is still clutching in his hand. “We were told it was one-hundred and fifty berries only.”

“Ah well, that was when it was first released. The price has gone up since then, you see. It’s a very popular item, used in only the finest of restaurants.”

Franky frowns at the vendor dubiously. “You sure you’re not having us on, bro?”

“Of course not!” He holds his hands up. He looks a little put off by Franky’s size. “The price is the price, you see. I’m sure you understand that, a reasonable man like yourself?”

That does make sense.

“I don’t have that much on me,” Usopp says. He pokes around inside Sanji’s bag, concerned.

“Tell you what, I’m a reasonable man myself. Why don’t you tell me how much you have on you and maybe we can cut a deal?”

Usopp counts it up. “Three hundred?”

The man smiles. “You’re practically robbing me blind!”

Usopp doesn’t know. Something about the way that the man talks is familiar to him, reminds him of himself.

“Sounds like we’re getting a super deal.”

“I’m not sure…”

“It’s also the last one I have in stock!”

Usopp hands all the berries over.

~

“What do mean it cost you three hundred berries?!”

Usopp and Franky shrink under the weight of Nami’s rage.

“He said it was top of the range! That it was the only one he had in stock!”

“He was obviously ripping you off!” Nami pinches the bridge of her nose, feeling her anger drain away to be replaced by hopelessness. She asks for one simple thing.

“How were we supposed to know?”

“I wrote it down!”

Nami spins both of them around and sends them packing with a swift hit. Franky has tears in his eyes as he disembarks back the way they came, and Usopp as scared as if she’d threatened his life.

“Don’t come back until you’ve got the money back,” she warns them darkly, “or you’ll be paying me off for the rest of your lives.”

They pass a returning Zoro and Luffy on their way back into the town. Zoro has a bag that resembles more a sack slung over his shoulder. Luffy is clenching a large, colourful fish in each hand, jauntily swaggering back to the ship.

He laughs as they climb aboard. “We’re back!”

Luffy passes straight through the kitchen on his way to the infirmary. The door swings open in his excitement and Chopper stares at them as they enter, his eyes wide with shock.

“You scared me!”

Sanji looks similarly put out. He’s listened to Chopper and been a perfect patient, though that changes when he notices the bag slung over Zoro’s shoulder as he sits up hastily.

“You went shopping?”

“Yeah! And I didn’t eat anything before we brought it back.” Luffy smiles at him widely.

Sanji is pleased to hear that. He pushes himself into a sitting position and makes a face when the world continues to spin around him. “Well done, captain.”

“Wanna see what we bought?” Before Sanji can answer, Luffy has dropped the fish onto the floor and pulled the sack off Zoro’s back, diving into it. Chopper timidly eyes them where they lay. Luffy proceeds to pull out an array of different meat cuts and types of fish, presenting Sanji with them like a child, and Sanji’s expression slowly morphs from tired curiosity to actual concern.

“Did you only buy meat, Luffy?”

Luffy grins at him, pleased with himself.

“What about different vegetables? Or fruits? Or spices? You didn’t buy anything green?” His concern turns into a scowl. “And what about you, marimo? What did you contribute?”

“I held the bag,” Zoro says.

Sanji feels himself getting hotter again. He hopes his anger doesn’t spike his fever again, especially not after Chopper’s hard work.

“You held the bag? Are you a housewife?”

“Don’t get your panties twisted, shit/sick-cook,” Zoro snaps. “We had a list.”

“Did you use it?!”

Luffy smiles at him sheepishly. “We lost it. We got what we could remember.”

“And the walking algae next to you wasn’t enough of a reminder to buy a damn vegetable?  Do you know what happens if you don’t eat the right stuff when you’re out on the sea?” Sanji’s voice is loud enough that it’s straining in his throat. Chopper flutters around him, readjusting the cool cloth he had used to help with the heat, but Sanji bats him off in his anger. “It’s basic nutrition! You want the crew to get sick? Go back and this time make sure you get the right damn ingredie-“

He breaks off in a coughing fit that his eyes squeezing shut and face red with exertion. Chopper pats his back with a hoof, doing his best to help. It’s quiet as he catches his breath, Luffy and Zoro standing chastised in the doorway.

Luffy lowers his head in shame. “Sorry, Sanji.”

Sanji hadn’t meant to snap at them. He knows they tried their best, or Luffy did at least.

“We’ll get another list from Nami and go again,” Zoro pipes up. “Try not to die by the time we get back.”

Sanji flips him off as they leave, exhausted.

~

Brook had tried his best, but he wasn’t a cook back when he had been alive and he certainly wasn’t a master chef now, fifty years on.

Chopper had requested something small and gentle for Sanji, something that would be easy on his sensitive stomach. Brook, with the assistance of Usopp, had decided on a soup for their cook. It wasn’t his best dish ever created, but good enough. If he was confident about anything, the tea he had brewed to go with it – something to help ease his sore throat.

The rest of the crew sat around the table despairingly. They had thanked him for the meal and accepted their bowls, but with the exception of Nami, Robin, and the sniper who had helped to make it, nobody had yet to tuck in.

“Ah, sorry that it’s not quite up to Sanji-san’s standards,” Brook apologised somewhat meekly. They assured him it was fine, that his efforts to feed them had been much appreciated. The lack of enthusiasm regarding mealtime was not unnoticed.

Luffy stares into his bowl, no doubt saddened by the meagre amount. He must have been starving by now – they had all skipped breakfast that morning in the rush to care for Sanji, and by the time lunch rolled around, most of them had gone about with their taking over his jobs for him. Luffy had snacked throughout the day, but his stomach felt hollow. Nobody had told Sanji about the meals that they had missed. If it didn’t tip him over the edge, his guilt would be unbearable.

“Would you like to have some of my portion, Luffy-san?” Brook can’t help but feel bad about the sizing. He really did try his best. Unfortunately, he just didn’t have the same skills as their professional chef at attending to everybody’s individual needs. “My stomach’s never needed a lot of food to be satisfied – oh! Not that I have a stomach to fill!”

Luffy doesn’t look up from his soup, head dipped low enough that it’s difficult to see his eyes.

“I want Sanji to get better.”

It gives them pause. Nami looks at him sympathetically. They know that Luffy cares about his wellbeing, they all do, but to see him so upset that it’s given him pause to eat shows his level of concern.

“He will be fine, captain.” Robin assures him. “Sanji is very strong. You would do best to eat up so we can continue to help him and be there for him when he is well again.”

Luffy grins, agreeing. With their guards lowered by the sudden serious shift in topic, nobody expects it when he dives for their portions.

~

Sanji rolls his sleeves up as he stands in the kitchen, getting his bearings. After a week of being under Chopper’s scrutinous watch, he feels better than ever. Being sick is the worst – nausea makes him feel wasteful, and dizziness is not a concept he’s familiar with after a whole life on the sea. Balance is restored in the universe as well as his limbs as he finds himself ready to cook again.

The kitchen is immaculate – everything is spick and span; the floor wiped clean, counters polished, fridge stocked up (by Nami and Robin’s careful instruction, the angels.) By some miracle, everything he needed to get done has been completed and there were no fires started or lives lost in the fallout.

He rolls up his sleeves and moves to get started on lunch. It’s as he passes the fridge that he notices the little note pinned against it, written under a picture of a scrawled but nicely-detailed kitchen pan.

Thanks for everything, Sanji!

He smiles and leaves it where it is, the reminder of their thanks all that he needs to keep him well. He’s happy to do the job of watching over them – it’s part of the job of being their cook.