One Step, Two Step

Dance with me

When certain males in their friend group had told Sanji they wouldn’t be going to her brother’s guys’ only birthday celebration; Reiju knew she shouldn’t have even let him finish his question.

Law, Zoro, Ichiji, and Usopp had flat out said no to going.

That should have been the sign of how sleazy the place would be.

He needed the numbers, Sanji had pleaded; the club would only let them into their VIP area for free if there were ten of them; he had begged. Reiju couldn’t deny her brother when he was so pathetic looking about it; she would tease him mercilessly, but it was obviously important to him, having missed his last birthday due to being sick, so if he needed her to go to make up numbers, she would.

Kidd and Sanji chuckling in the taxi ride from their house to the club she hadn’t felt the need to ask the name of should have been the second lit-up warning sign.

It looked like any other run-down shady club Reiju had been dragged to. Enough flashing lights outside to blind anyone in a mile radius, drunk people having strange heart-to-heart talks outside it even though it was barely ten o’clock in the evening with two scary-looking bouncers, one holding a clipboard that barely fit in his palm he was so large.

It was whenever Sanji gave his name to the bouncer and they were brought inside, walking through the entire floor towards the curtained-off sections at the very back of the room, it became blindingly obvious why her brother had been grinning like a loon all evening.

A strip club.

The VIP area at a strip club is what he had booked for his birthday.

Under the club’s fluorescent lights, Reiju sat down on the tacky fake purple velvet curved sofa in their booked area; she took the free offered shot, a liquid of a violent shade of green she didn’t know could exist with a gritting of angry teeth.

One by one, except for Luffy, who seemed happy just sitting where he was, the group seemed to dissipate into the sea of too-high heels, free-flowing drinks, blinding spotlights that spun in such a way she had just got used to before shining right in her eyes. The semi-lit up area with its strange UV paintings, tacky music, overpowering smell of sweat and booze that made her eyes slightly sting and barely clothed women dancing on popup stages around the floor, her patience waning faster than usual because she was ordering beers as if the Grand Line was never going to get any more shipments, they were on her brother’s tab; he hadn’t given her any warning about the location, so why wouldn’t she?

When she saw one of Sanji’s work friends, Reiju never bothered to learn the name of trying to climb onto the stage and got dragged back by different but no less diligent bouncers and the table dancer waved flirtatiously. Finally, she decided she had about all she could stand for one night. She had seen enough. Her brother was at the door, and no one else had spoken to her all night, all otherwise occupied. What did he need her for anymore?

“Screw this,” she cursed, downing the last dregs of her beer and standing. “I’m going ho-”

Her sentence was cut off when after only taking two angry stomping steps, she was pulled sideways right into Luffy’s lap, his arms wrapping around her Reiju didn’t even have the will to shove him off; a small traitorous smile threatened to appear on her face when she felt Luffy rest his chin on her covered shoulder and stare up at her with those big puppy dog eyes and that big warm smile he was known for.

“Come on, Reiju, don’t leave!”

A deep, annoyed sigh left her, her head falling back, resting on top of his.

“Luffy, I don’t even know why I came here in the first place.”

Why was she even here? Oh, yea, because she loved her stupid brother, who was too cheap to pay the full price into a club on his birthday.