The Greatest Swordswoman

Battle of Baratie

The cigarette dropped from Sanji's mouth onto the floor. Zoro was a man? He squinted his eyes at Zoro's face. Sure, Zoro was wearing quite the glare and seemed to be snarling at him, but... Sanji's eyes wandered lower and he was rewarded with a kick in the face from the lady-pretending-to-be-a-man herself.

"What's that? You switching sides eh, eggplant?" Called a gruff voice from behind. The head chef, Zeff, was watching the incident with an amused look oh his face.

"Like hell I am! I was just... argh... look at him! He's too pretty!" Sanji argued, gesturing towards Zoro as he picked himself up off the ground, looking uncomfortable.

"You.. think Zoro is pretty..?" Usopp could barely manage to say, he was laughing so hard. Sanji's face turned red from embarrassment.

"Try living with him a bit and your opinion will quickly change when you see him pick at his toenails." Nami replied, rolling her eyes. Sanji grimaced at that and gave Zoro one last look. Zoro was glaring daggers at him and cracking her knuckles while Luffy kept his arms around hers just in case she tried to attack him again.

"Must've been a trick of the light..." Sanji muttered, running his hand through his hair and turning away from Zoro. As if to save his manhood, he quickly turned his attention to another lady customer and headed in her direction. He was cut off though when the head chef blocked his way.

"You should take the boy's offer. You're always causing a mess around here, flirting with all the customers and serving shit meals." Zeff told the cook.

"The hell you just say? You insulting my cooking old man?!" Sanji snarled back, grabbing the chef's collar. Zeff grabbed Sanji's arm and easily twisted it before kicking him halfway across the room, crashing into the Straw hat's table. Luffy let go of Zoro and held out his hand to help Sanji up. Sanji pushed himself up and brushed himself off, ignoring his boss. He looked at Luffy's hand and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the back of the restaurant.

The other straw-hat pirates exchanged glances.

"Well... that was delicious! Sanji got my bill, right? Great! Bye!" Nami quickly waved and dashed out of the room, leaving a stunned Zoro and Usopp. They moved to follow her, but a rather large cook stepped in front of them.

"Here's your bill, sirs." The cook said, handing over the paper. Zoro looked at Usopp. Usopp gulped.

=================

Two days passed of Zoro, Usopp and Luffy all working off their various types of debts. Each one had been kicked out of the kitchen over the course of the past two days. Luffy was kicked out for breaking every dish and eating the food. Usopp was kicked out for not shutting his mouth and Zoro was kicked out for throwing knifes.

Sanji interacted with the straw hats on a regular basis. He talked to the others when needed, but surprisingly ended up spending most of his breaks talking with Luffy about the open sea. Though he was still vehemently against leaving the restaurant.

The early afternoon found them in the dining room of the restaurant completing their various tasks. Usopp was taking orders, Zoro was scrubbing the floors, and Luffy was not touching anything or speaking to anyone. This, surprisingly, was the hardest task, and Luffy was still being scolded regularly by the chefs.

Sanji did find himself staring a time or two at the swordsman. Now that he saw her in action, scrubbing the floors or sprawling out in random places to take naps, he didn't know what had made him think she was a girl before. She was crude, lazy and had a near permanent scowl on her face.

But... she enjoyed his food. Sanji relished whipping up unique things for the pirates to try at every meal. They were always grateful, and it was one of the rare times he was able to see Zoro grin broadly. Similar to Luffy, when food was on its way, there was a shiver of anticipation that went through her. He found himself putting in his best effort for those meals, even if it meant taking time out of his break.