The first time Sanji sees him, he's nine.

Zeff promises him to take him to the aquarium if he manages to bring his grade up in math, and Sanji works for months until his grade goes from a C-minus to a B-plus. The Rosetone Aquarium is not very big, but it takes good care of its marine life and has the famous underground tunnels that intersect the building and make it seem as if you can walk along with the swimming fishes.

Sanji gazes at a manta ray, listening to Zeff talk about how the 300 rows of skin-covered teeth in its lower jaw are actually useless, when a flash of green catches his eye.

He turns around, staring at the boy with green hair walking with an older man and a dark-haired girl, and find his hair to be pretty. It looks just like the marimo balls they saw up in the Japanese exhibit. His tail is long and slender, striped white and black and his ears are small, colored in the same way. The boy carries two wooden sticks with him and Sanji wants to ask him why.

Sanji watches him talk and laugh with the girl walking by his side until they round the corner and disappear from sight.

"Ready to see the sharks, eggplant?" Zeff asks, glancing down at him.

Sanji touches his head, at that moment wishing he could have cooler hair, then nods. "Yes."

The second time Sanji sees him, he has been moved up to the job of a waiter in the Baratie. He's thirteen now and his fur is starting to grow just a slight shade darker than his blonde hair. Zeff says that's a sign of maturity, so Sanji keeps his tail brushed slick and his ears perked to draw attention to them.

He's put in charge of delivering a birthday cake, and when he rounds the corner into the dining room, he immediately sees green hair. He looks down at the cake he's carrying, wrinkling his nose a little bit when he sees the cursive Happy Birthday Kuina. He doubts Kuina is the boy's name.

When he looks up, the boy is looking at him, and Sanji freezes for a moment until he realizes that the older man and the black-haired girl are also looking at him, probably waiting for the cake to arrive.

Sanji immediately quickens his pace and sets the cake in the middle of the table, smiling at the older man, which he knows realizes must be the boy's father. They don't look anything alike though. Must be because the older man is human.

"Happy Birthday, Kuina," Sanji says, smiling at the black-haired girl who beams at him. He can feel the boy's eyes on his back, but he's afraid that he'll do something embarrassing if he looks at him again. He's blushing already, and that's bad enough!

The girl, Kuina, beams. "Thank you! Dad, you didn't have to do this," she adds, but she's smiling as she turns to her father.

"Of course I did. It's your fifteenth birthday, sweetheart," their father says.

With a start, Sanji realizes that he doesn't need to be there anymore since he already delivered the cake. The boy's gaze on his back is starting to feel uncomfortable, and he wants nothing more than to hide in the kitchen. Still, he's been trained to be polite, so he smiles at their father as he offers his services.

"Is there anything else you will need, sir?"

"Not at the moment," the man says, smiling. "Thank you."

Sanji nods, turns around—making sure not to look at the boy even once—and hurries back to the kitchen.

"Eggplant, are you alright?" Zeff asks him, frowning from where he's getting a steak ready.

"O-of course!" Sanji exclaims, blushing brightly. He touches his ear and takes a deep breath.

Maybe he's still not as mature as Zeff.

Sanji is sixteen and he doesn't have any friends. It's hard to find a friend when you're homeschooled and you've spent all your free time working in your father's restaurant. Despite being solitary by nature, Zeff wants him to make friends—why are you always in my kitchen, brat? Go out and hang out with kids your own age!—and gives him his first day off.

The only person he knows closest to his age is the dark-skinned human that lives in the apartment below his. He has a really long nose and wild curly hair, and he's been asking Sanji to come out and play since they were nine. He's two years younger than him, and Sanji is a little bit hesitant to go out with a kid that old still asking anyone to 'come out and play', but he is his only option.

It's Sunday, and Usopp is super excited about introducing him to his friends.

"Don't tell Luffy you know how to cook, or he'll never stop asking you for food," Usopp warns him as they walk towards the park.

"But I like feeding people," Sanji says. He throws his finished cigarette on the ground and steps on it. He probably shouldn't stink of smoke the first time he meets these people.

"Yeah, but Luffy doesn't feed—he sort of just swallows," Usopp says. "Trust me—just don't do it."

"Alright," Sanji accedes easily. He can hear laughter the closer they get to the park, and once it comes into sight, he sees that is actually pretty crowded. He didn't think kids actually went out to parks these days.

"We're up at the courts. You know how to play basketball?" Usopp asks him.

"Yeah," Sanji shrugs. He's never actually played it, but Zeff sometimes watches it on TV when there's nothing better to do. It doesn't look that hard.

As they draw closer, Sanji can see about twelve other people milling around the courts. His heart stops in his chest when a distinct head full of green hair appears in his vision.

It's that boy. He's there, standing next to a shorter black-haired human that has a scar under his left eye. Sanji stumbles a little bit in shock, but he's able to correct himself before Usopp notices.

Is Usopp friends with the boy? Will Sanji finally get to learn his name?

It's pathetic, really, but Sanji hasn't been able to stop thinking about him. It's been seven years from their first meeting, and he's only really seen him twice, yet he dreams about the boy regularly. They're simple dreams: just the two of them sitting, eating ice cream. Or playing video games. Sometimes they lay on the ground, watching the stars.

They don't ever talk, but that's okay.

"Usopp!"

Sanji is startled out of his thoughts when a boy younger than Usopp, around twelve, runs up to them and looks up at the curly-haired boy with what looks like admiration in his wide brown eyes.

"Hey, Chopper," Usopp smiles. "Are you going to play with us?"

The boy, who has the small antlers of a deer and brown-tipped fingers, shakes his head. "No. Nami says I'm too young."

"Ah. Well, Nami knows best," Usopp says, and he sounds a little nervous for some reason. "Oh, this is Sanji, Chopper."

"Hi, Sanji!" Chopper exclaims, nodding at him. "Wow—are you a fox? I've never seen one before!"

"Y-yeah," Sanji smiles. "I've never seen a deer before, either."

"I'm not a deer! I'm a reindeer!" Chopper says defiantly. "My antlers are bigger, see?"

"Oh, sorry," Sanji says. Shit, he's already making a bad impression with Usopp's friends. Fuck.

"C'mon, let's go meet Nami," Usopp says, and he nods to where two girls are sitting on one of the benches lining the basketball court.

The taller of the two girls has short, orange hair and she looks a bit younger than Sanji. The other girl's hair is longer and a pretty blue color, and she looks a bit younger than Usopp, though not as young as Chopper. Maybe thirteen.

"Hey, Usopp. You're late," the orange-haired girl says, glancing at Sanji for just a moment before her eyes return to the long nose. She has tall ears, though not as long as Sanji's, and a slender orange tail. Judging by the length of it, Sanji can guess she's a house cat. The blue-haired girl, though, has feathers growing from her temples and laid flat on her hair, as well as black scales that make a swirling pattern on her legs. Some sort of bird, maybe?

"Yeah, I was showing Sanji the way," Usopp says, nodding to the fox. "This is my neighbor. Sanji, these are Nami and Vivi."

"Nice to meet you, Sanji," Vivi, the bird girl, says and smiles at him.

"So you're the infamous Sanji," Nami says, giving him a quick once over. "Usopp says your father owns a restaurant? Is it any good?"

"It's amazing!" Sanji smiles. "We're lucky to be really popular, if you wa—."

He stops when something hits his leg and when he looks down, he sees a basketball.

"Sorry! Hey, can you throw it back?"

Sanji picks it up and looks back and sees that the black-haired human is talking to him. There are two other teenagers with them, both older than Sanji. The green-haired boy is still talking to one of these boys, his back to Sanji, and he throws the ball with his eyes glued to the boy's broad back—his mistake, since the ball travels in a wide arc, and even he can see that it will hit the feline hybrid.

"Hey! Look out—."

Too late. The ball hits the boy in the back of the head, hard, and Sanji winces. The boy curses and turns around, his eyes immediately landing on Sanji.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" he shouts, and this is the first time Sanji has heard him speak. His voice breaks a little, which means it's about to drop, but more importantly, he's speaking to Sanji.

"Hey, are you fucking deaf?" the boy shouts again, and this time he grabs the ball and throws it back at Sanji. Sanji barely evades it, and it hits the ground by Usopp, who jumps and runs to hide behind Nami.

Sanji's body feels the threat of a much large predator, and his ears move forward in aggression, his tail raised and bristled. When he opens his mouth, instead of an apology, his animal side yells, "It was a shitty accident, marimo! Your head is just too fucking big to avoid."

"What the hell did you just call me?" the boy growls, stalking forward. His teeth are sharper than Sanji's, his canines just a bit longer. "Who the fuck even are you, curly?"

Sanji growls at the name, but by now the boy is close enough that Sanji can scent him, and his instincts scream danger at him. Suddenly, the boy's striped tail makes sense, and just as two clawed hands grab hold of his shirt, he realizes that the boy is a fucking tiger.

His instincts take over and his ears lay back flat on his head, his tail softens and lowers—but he doesn't look away. Sanji Fucking Black doesn't cower.

The tiger eyes Sanji's ears, and grins wide, mocking. He's sneering and his sharp claws are tearing Sanji's shirt.

The cook reacts automatically and raises a long leg to kick the boy off of him. The tiger doesn't expect the attack, and Sanji manages to throw him back a couple of feet, flat on his back. However, before the tiger can get back on his feet and attack, Sanji turns around and walks away.

Shit, shit, shit!

His first time out trying to make friends, and he manages to make a fool of himself in front of the boy he likes. And isn't it pathetic that he likes a boy he's only ever seen twice (now three times), and only spoke to with once (again, it barely happened right now)? He hears Usopp calling him, but Sanji ignores him.

He can't hang out with Usopp now, obviously. This is why he doesn't do friends! Because he can't control his own temper and often ends up making a fool of himself by saying things without thinking or acting too rashly. And now he's gone and verbally abused his crush of seven-fucking-years! Ugh, his life is fucking over!

He slams the door open and ignores Zeff sitting on the couch.

"Eggplant? What's wrong?"

"My life is over, that's what!" Sanji yells back dramatically and slams the door to his bedroom close.

He's never going out again

Two months later, Sanji walks into the dining floor of the Baratie, but as soon as he sees the familiar green hair, he turns around and walks back into the kitchen. Zeff yells at him, but when he refuses to go out no matter what, he finally yells at Patty to switch places with him for the day.

Three months after that, the elevator to his floor open, and he freezes when he sees the green-haired teen sitting on the floor in front of his door. His ears are lowered and his eyes are closed. Sanji hides behind a potted plant and watches the steady rise and fall of his chest.

What the hell is the marimo doing in his house? And how the fuck does he know where he lives? What does he want with Sanji? Sanji stays crouched behind the potted plant for what seems like hours, watching the sleeping tiger. Eventually, the elevator doors open again and Usopp walks out. Sanji watches him approach the tiger slowly, who immediately opens a dark green eye and fixes it on the human—huh, maybe not asleep.

"What are you doing, Zoro?"

"Huh? Didn't you say to come to your house? Where the hell were you, long nose?"

"Home! Which is on the fourth floor. This is fifth! Let's go!"

Sanji freezes when the two teenagers—Usopp and Zoro—walk his way. He's sure the tiger is going to be able to smell him, but he doesn't say anything as they get inside the elevator. As soon as the doors close, Sanji jumps out of his hiding place, wincing when his back complains for the awkward position he forced it into, and runs inside his house.

Zoro. Now he has a name to go with the face.

Five months pass and Sanji first rut comes. He's late—most foxes have it during their fifteenth year, but Sanji is seventeen—and he lives with an old man whose only insight into the matter was to tell him not to make a mess. The first day goes by normal. He locks himself in his room, even though Zeff promises not to show until Sanji calls him, and proceeds to jack off about seventeen times in the whole day.

The second day is torture. His dick is completely chafed and it hurts just to touch hit, but his instincts are screaming at him to cum, so he suffers through it.

On his third day, he decides to browse the internet for help while a frozen bag of peas soothe his abused penis. He reads, horrified and fascinated, as forums tell him that his rut may last anywhere from four to seven days. Sanji is probably unlucky enough to be one of the bastards with a seven-day rut. Some people advice to use plenty of lube, but Sanji is doing that already and his dick still feels like it's going to fall off. Others state that it's easier to go through a rut with a partner, since the scent of another person will soothe his hormones and calm his rut for a longer time. That's not an option, so Sanji is forced to look into a third.

Prostate stimulation. The whole thing sounds embarrassing as hell, but it's the only way he can make his body orgasm without touching his dick. He remains hesitant until he tries jacking off again and ends up crying instead of coming.

Buying toys turns out to be yet another horrifying experience that Sanji wishes never to repeat, but just as he thinks his life can't get any worse, a tan hand stops the elevator doors from opening and then the whole room is invaded with the unmistakable stink of feline.

Sanji looks away before he can meet Zoro's eyes, and stares at his feet. His tail tucks between his legs, his ears lay flat, the corner of his mouth pulls down, and he fights down the urge to get on his back and expose his stomach to the tiger.

Holy shit. Why is his body screaming at him to submit? He wraps his arms around the black bag—don't think about the dildo, don't think about the dildo—and turns his body just a bit away from Zoro. If the tiger were too look at his face right now and read the arousal—shit, his life would literally end.

The elevator dings and the doors open on the fourth floor—Zoro is out before the doors open the whole way.

Sanji learns many different ways to please himself in the next two days of his rut, and he tries to convince himself that the intensity of his orgasms have nothing to do with the scent of Zoro lingering on his clothes.

It's his eighteen birthday and Zeff has been acting secretive all day. Sanji is giddy, thinking his father is finally going to name him Sous Chef. He's been working his ass off for the title, and nobody but the old man spends as many hours in the restaurant as Sanji does. He lives and breathes cooking, and he even got his GED Diploma a year earlier to get more free hours for work.

He's the best cook Zeff's got, and he deserves the position more than anyone, and that's why he's completely sure that Zeff will surprise him with the news during his birthday dinner.

It's just the two of them—neither Zeff nor Sanji have any friends—but neither the fox nor the human mind. Despite it being his birthday, Sanji offers to cook, wishing to impress the Head Chef with his cooking.

Zeff doesn't praise the perfectly marinated steak, but he doesn't insult it, either, which is always good in Sanji's book.

"So…eggplant. When are you moving out?"

Sanji freezes, potato wedged in his fork midway through his mouth, and stares at his adoptive father. "Excuse me?"

"You've got your GED and you haven't applied to any colleges," Zeff says, continuing eating like there's nothing wrong. "You know, deadlines are coming up."

"I'm not going to college," Sanji says slowly, putting his fork down. "I'm going to stay at the Baratie and work."

Zeff makes a thoughtful noise. "Didn't think you'd be the type to want to stay a line cook forever."

"What?! I'm gonna be Sous Chef!" Sanji exclaims, angry. "What shitty game are you playing, old man?"

"Eh? You think I'm gonna hire a guy with a shitty GED as my Sous Chef?" Zeff snorts. "Like hell! You want the job, get a college degree!"

"You know I'm the best goddamn cook you have!" Sanji yells, getting to his feet and knocking his chair back. "You're always doing this to me! Why the fuck won't you admit I'm a good cook?!"

"Cause you're fucking not!" Zeff snarls. "You think you're good? Compared to who, huh? You've only been cooking for eight measly years, and your only competition is Patty and Carne! Take your so-called skill to the big world, and you'll get laughed at! Your food is crap, and this stake is undercooked!"

"Don't fucking eat it then!" Sanji yells and grabs the plate from him. "I'll fucking take it to the dogs! See if they appreciate good food, you shitty old man!" He turns around and storms out, but hears Zeff call after him.

"Don't kill the dogs now!" Zeff yells.

Sanji throws him the bird and slams the door close. Fuck, how dare that one-legged bastard insult Sanji's food like that? He's a good cook and Zeff knows this! Why the fuck is he being so difficult? Why doesn't he want to give Sanji a chance? He's worked so hard.

He doesn't realize he's in the roof until the cool air hits him. This is his favorite spot to come in the nights to smoke, especially after a particularly rough day. But he was in such a hurry to get out of the apartment that he forgot his cigarettes. Goddamn shitty old man.

Sanji sighs and sits down on the ledge, his feet dangling and the plate of food at his side. The building is thirteen stories high, so he's pretty high up in the air. He loves looking down at the ground, though. Everything below him looks tiny and unimportant, and it makes him realize that there's a lot more out there than his silly problems.

But this isn't silly. This is his father not believing in him. This is Zeff continuing to stifle his talent.

"You're gonna fall, curly."

Sanji startles so bad that he almost slips off the ledge—a hand wrapping around his upper arm viciously is the only thing keeping him from plummeting thirteen stories into the ground.

"Didn't picture you for a jumper, curly," Zoro says, letting go of him once Sanji's feet are both on the ground.

"I wasn't going to jump, dumbass," Sanji says, embarrassment making his tone of voice sound angrier than he expected. Just what he needs: his fucking crush witnessing a moment of weakness. He sits down on the ground, crossing his feet and resting his back on the ledge. He expects Zoro to leave him, but the tiger has climbed into an old, ratty sofa that some kids brought up to the roof a couple of years ago. The thing stinks since it's been here for ages, through storms and boiling hot days—animals have probably defecated on it.

But Zoro stretches out comfortably, his tail curling around his hip and his ears straight up. He's the picture of regal disinterest.

Sanji keeps his face downward, but he stares at the tiger from his peripheral vision. Such large predators are hard to find in hybrids. Tigers themselves are already extinct, and Zoro is the only large feline Sanji has ever seen in hybrid.. He knows Zeff met a lion hybrid once, but that's about it.

Sanji knows that as a species, he's also a rare one. Foxes are solitary by nature, contradictory and hard to live with. They mate for life, but it is extremely difficult for them to find a mate. So most of them remain single, which has in turn caused a downward spiral in their population. Not many people want foxes as their mates.

Tigers, however, are in opposite. Despite being highly territorial, tigers carry with them a sense of superiority and extreme confidence that attracts other animals like moths to a flame. Even completely still, they exude raw power and sensuality. Staring at Zoro right now, Sanji feels like he's entered the tiger's domain, and he feels oddly pleased to have been allowed to stay in the animal's presence.

Which is totally stupid, because Sanji can do whatever he damn well pleases.

"What's that?"

Sanji looks up and sees that Zoro is sniffing the air, his eyes locked on something behind Sanji. Grinning, he grabs the plate and holds it out for Zoro. "Steak. Wanna try it?"

Zoro stares at the plate and then reaches out for it. Sanji watches eagerly as Zoro stabs the meat with the fork, not bothering to cut out a piece, and chews off a large chunk of it. The cook makes a face at the crude manners, but doesn't say anything.

See, Zoro likes his food. Everyone likes his food! It's just that shitty cook being difficult, trying to make his life a living hell. The old man probably wants to send him off to college so Sanji will lose his standing in the Baratie. Or maybe he just wants him out of the house. Well, Sanji can get his own place, but that doesn't mean he'll leave the restaurant.

"So how is it, marimo?" Sanji asks, smirking. He wishes he had a cigarette right now, the nicotine would make the giddiness in his stomach feel a thousand times better. "Best staeak you've ever had in your life, am I right?"

Zoro sets the plate down on the floor, and Sanji frowns when he sees most of the steak is still there. What the hell? Why isn't Zoro finishing his food?"

"Tastes like crap," Zoro says, then he spits on the ground.

Sanji stares at him, eyes wide. Did he just—?

Is his food really that bad? But…he's been working so hard. He spent years just watching Zeff, not allowed to touch anything more than a potato peeler, just so he could learn a scrap of what Zeff excels at. He knows, he fucking knows with the bottom of his heart, that his food is good.

But apparently, not good enough for the shitty old man or the marimo.

"Drop dead," Sanji snarls, jumping to his feet and rushing out of the roof before he can do something stupid like bite that stupid tiger's head off. He storms down the stairs, too pissed off to wait in the elevators, and slams the door to his apartment complex open.

Zeff looks at him from the sofa, one eyebrow raised in question. "So?"

"I'll start applying tomorrow," Sanji snaps, and hurries to his bedroom.

He'd show them. Especially that bastard tiger.

Sanji gets accepted in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with a couple of scholarships to go along with it. Zeff offers to pay for his tuition, but Sanji has saved up enough money that he doesn't need to ask the older chef for anything. When he leaves, only Zeff is there to say goodbye and the bastard doesn't actually say it.

Paris is a lot different from Georgia. The people are much less reserved in France, and even though Sanji doubts he'll find his mate there, he does find plenty of girls that are willing to spend the night with him just to see how it feels to be with a fox.

He only sleeps with humans, though. It's much harder to make a bond with a human, since they don't mate like hybrids. They don't scent you, they don't mark you—they just sleep with you. He does sleep with a rabbit hybrid once, but the girl ends up feeling shitty the next day and crying because apparently she already found her mate but the bastard won't pay attention to her. Sanji ends up comforting her the whole day, all the while ignoring his own swirling, angry emotions.

He admits grudgingly that maybe Zeff was right to say that Sanji had never experienced the real world. Le Cordon Bleu is teaching him so much more, expanding his horizons to limits he didn't know existed. He quickly becomes one of the best students at the school, earning top marks in nearly all of his classes, especially the hand-on ones. He's always been horrible at test-taking, but his teachers work around that.

But while Paris is beautiful and wonderful and the city of love, Sanji misses his Georgia. So when he turns twenty and his second year ends, his submits a request to transfer to the school's department in Georgia. He easily gets accepted, all of his credits transfer through, as does his scholarship money.

He doesn't want to return to Zeff's place, so he requests to live in the dorms. He gets the good news about a month before classes start that a student dropped out and they were able to accommodate him in one of the rooms. He will have a roommate, but at least the place is more like a suite than an actual dorm room since they will both be third-years and as such get the better rooms.

He stays with Zeff for two weeks only because he has to, then leaves to set up in his new dorm room. Classes won't start until another two weeks, but Sanji much rather be wasting his time in here than back with Zeff.

Yes, he's still a little mad at the cook. So what?

His roommate arrives three days after him, but Sanji only notices because when he enters the room, he sees the other room with the door open and a duffel bag on the bed. He waits a little to see if the guy will arrive soon so he can introduce himself, but after an hour of waiting, he decides to go out for some coffee.

When he returns the door is closed and he can hear soft music coming from the room. The music is not so loud that he will hear it from his own room, so he doesn't bother the strange boy and heads to his own room. The next morning, he wakes up to the sound of a toilet flushing, but when he peeks outside, he only gets to see the door to his roommate room close.

He knows from personal experience that nothing good comes out of a bad relationship with your roommate, so Sanji takes a quick shower and decides to prepare breakfast for the both of them.

He has already finished a stack of buttermilk pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and is currently working on the eggs when he hears a door open. He smiles, knowing his food smells delicious and hums a little tuneless tune as he expertly flips his fried egg.

He hears muted footsteps approach the kitchen, and he moves to prepare to cups of coffee. He adds cream and one sugar to his but leaves the other black, not knowing what his roommate will like. He made fresh orange juice, just in case he doesn't like coffee.

He grabs the two cups and turns to face his roommate with a bright smile. "I made break—."

He stops, his mouth falling open as he stares at the equally surprised tiger in front of him.

"Curly?"

"Shit."