Chapter 1 - Looking for a Dom

Warnings: BDSM, D/s, Graphic Sex, Kinks/Fetishes, Violence, Darkfic, Death(Not Main Character)

Summary: It wasn't about the pain, or even the pleasure. It was the trust. The ability to hand his body completely over to another, let them own it, and know despite what could happen; his trust was strong enough to let them do it. For Sanji Vinsmoke this was the epitome of sexual arousal, but working as a weary Apple Tech Support hardly gave him the opportunity to find an interesting psychological match. When a last ditch attempt on an online dating site brings to light the smart, punk-haired Physiotherapist, Zoro Roronoa, he finds that he gets a little more than he bargained for.

Sanji remembered the first moment he had experienced a loss of control. When every iota of ability to control his own life had been snatched away and replaced with nothing but fear and the stark reality that he was completely helpless. It had been a full loss of governance over himself when all he had been able to do was sit in paralysed shock while the world had kicked him down and made him taste dirt.

Sitting in the passenger's seat he could barely see over the dash, while the overly large seat belt that buckled him in cut into his little cheek. Glaring angrily at the glove box that was level with his eye sight, he ignored the normally soothing gravelly grumble of his father's voice berating him for his conduct on the way home from school after having been sent to the Principal's office for bad behaviour.

It was early, but it was already an unsettling black outside from the overcast clouds and the rain that was hammering down upon the city below. Large droplets pattered on the front windshield as he turned his attention upward to watch the aggressive back and forth swiping motion of the wipers that cleared away the water for his father to see the road ahead. The normal squeak that could be heard from the ageing blades went unheard over the racket of the rain and thunder overhead.

As they had begun to cross the bridge Sanji remembered the exact moment where he first experienced the twisting loss of control that had left him breathless. The smallest of jerks as the tires underneath the vehicle no longer maintained their current rotational direction and the muscle seizing sensation of hydroplaning took place. Tires gliding effortlessly across the asphalt underneath them as everything floated in a moment of surreal confusion.

And then the moment passed and his father swore aggressively, hands taking a white knuckled grip on the wheel as he had slammed a foot to the brakes; desperately trying to take control of the car. As the floating sensation ceased and was replaced by the jerking of the vehicle Sanji felt the fear settle in as the automotive careened from their lane and directly across the other, his father unable to control the drifting car.

Fear and shock had left Sanji frozen in his seat, unable to see anything past the dash and not entirely knowing what his father was doing with the car. Sanji was rendered thoughtless in his terror as the headlights illuminated the grating of the bridge and, a second later, the terrible screeching as the car ripped through the useless barrier and they went tumbling over the edge.

Once more he had felt that weightlessness akin to the hydroplaning tires: a complete loss of control over himself and the events happening around him. Eyes widening as the headlights illuminated the vast black expanse of water beneath them, growing closer and closer with each passing second. Everything within him was quitting on him; his voice wouldn't force out a scream, his ears couldn't hear a single thing around him, and his lungs were refusing to draw in air. A second later the front of the car collided with the freezing water and he was whiplashed forward, too-large seat belt causing him to slam his forehead into the dash as everything became black.

After that everything had become a hazy blur as he had woken up in the hospital with doctors referring to him by the wrong name and continually poking and prodding him with needles. A cast had been put on his leg and several bandages were squeezed tightly around his injured head. For the longest time he was kept in the dark, asking for his father, wanting to know what had happened; only to be ignored by the adults.

Eventually a nurse had explained to him that his father had drowned in the car – leg broken and jammed under the dash – that the window on his side of the car was broken from where his father must have pushed him out of the sinking car, and that a passing vehicle had seen the whole thing and found him at the edge of the river unconscious. But most of that hadn't entered his thoughts, not with the words of his father's death resounding in his ears.

The years afterwards were spent in various foster homes and orphanages as Sanji slowly became obsessed with the concept of control. Nothing in his life had terrified him more than dealing with that one moment of uncontrolled disaster. That single moment where the world had been at the reigns, and the result had been his father's death. It had addicted him to the need to control everything within himself and his life.

The second time Sanji had experienced a loss of control it had been drastically different from the first time. After years of forcibly controlling his life, and others along with it, he had been completely unsuspecting of the reaction he would have had to being controlled by someone else.

She had been gorgeous. Long, wavy, caramel locks of hair that hung down to her curvaceous hips and fell tantalizingly into her sharp eyes. Always donning a stark lipstick so the two most vivid things that stood out within Sanji's memory were a pair of blood red lips and the sharp sting of control she had bitten his back with. A sting that was reminiscent of the whiplash to his neck in the car, and yet so much more invigorating.

Sadi.

At first the relationship had been innocent; coffee dates in downtown Seattle cafes, and nights at the movies where she would rest her head coyly on his shoulder. It was such a wholesome time until she had whispered in his ear one night that she wanted to try something different. A moment later he had been cuffed to the foot board of the bed, kneeling on the plush carpet of her bedroom as a whip had been cracked across his back.

And there had been that weightlessness again. The exact same sensation that had left him breathless in fear in the passenger seat of the car had had him breathless in arousal as he gasped with each stinging slice from the whip; splitting the skin on his back with a vengeance as he had gasped and rocked up into the next abusive hit.

A lifetime of controlling himself, controlling others, keeping everything in his life so goddamned perfect, and now he found himself forced to his knees as every last bit of the control in his life was snatched away and placed in this woman's hands. It was only him and her, and the last thing that Sanji had in this world was his trust in her.

And he revelled in it.

It wasn't about the pain, or even the pleasure. It was the trust. The ability to hand his body completely over to another, let them own it, and know despite what could happen; his trust was strong enough to let them do it. It had never been like that in the car – life had held his trust and crushed it in its dark hands – but here, with another person, they held his trust and cradled it like the precious object that it was.

That relationship had ended like relationships do, but it hadn't stopped Sanji from becoming addicted to the loss of control that he was able to attain. Out of the numerous men and women that he had eventually dated since, he had managed to find a few curious ones that had given his need for submission a try, though many ended uneventfully. Most often claiming that they just weren't into that kind of thing, and that they weren't comfortable controlling and owning Sanji like he so desperately craved .

After countless failed relationships, and desperate attempts at online dating, Sanji had finally given in to the inevitable knowledge that it was a lot harder finding the type of relationship that he wanted. It wasn't that he wasn't a good and loyal partner, but most of his relationships had ended with his partner either weirded out or fairly scandalized. It just seemed that his particular sexual lifestyle didn't mesh well with an everyday normal relationship.

So that was why he currently sat at his desk quietly, chin propped in the heel of his hand as the palm covered his mouth while fingers drummed thoughtfully across his cheek. The rhythmic thrumming of his digits was completely washed out by the small clicking of the mouse as he scrolled down over the profile he was currently creating; double checking all of his grammar as well as the accuracy of the information he was going to be displaying.

After his most recent failed relationship with a blue haired vixen, his friend had urged him to look up a chat room or a dating site online that catered to his needs. At first he had been weary of the idea, but it had eventually grown on him as he had quietly admitted to himself that he was practically out of options. At the very least he might get a fun romp out of the whole experience.

But as he scanned his computer screen he wasn't quite sure if he was actually concerned with the quality of his profile or if he was just stalling to post it; he would like to think it was the former, but the small fluttering of butterflies in his stomach told him otherwise. It wasn't that he was nervous putting this kind of scandalous information out there for other people to read at a whim – he had done online dating a lot recently – but it was mostly because from the small amount that he had seen on the site, there wasn't the most modest of people.

The website he was current on was labelled,'Gagged on the Grand Line' and, as awkward as it sounded, it was the best recommended site out there. It was a horribly raunchy dating site with the sole purpose of catering to the kinkier and darker side of the internet; but Sanji was still mortified by the fact that he was even considering it. However he remembered the insistence of his friend to just give it a try, and it urged him to click the button to upload his completed profile.

Part of him still couldn't believe he had taken the advice of his colleague and gone searching for websites like this. Yet here he was, advertising his incredibly raunchy kinks for the world to see in hopes of maybe getting a Dom that might actually know what he was doing. It was embarrassing, degrading, and most of all, mortifying.

Hands once more shaking above the keys of his laptop he mulled over what exactly to set as his first post request to get responses from people. He didn't want anything cliché that would just get drowned out by the rest of the posts, but he didn't want something that would attract an abhorrent amount of attention either. Chewing on his bottom lip absently he began writing out his quick little request.

Subject: Looking for a Dom

The cursor blinked tauntingly in the text box as he wondered exactly what he was supposed to say afterwards; he had seen a few other posts made by other people and they were incredibly well done. They had the lingo and jargon down to a tee and used words and phrases that Sanji hadn't even known existed in relation to the subject of domination and submission. It was clear that most of the other people knew the slang for what and who they were looking for, and though Sanji had some experience in the area, it still made him feel horribly inexperienced by comparison.

Letting out a small sigh he let his abused lip fall from his teeth as he decided honesty was probably the best way to go when dealing with this sort of thing. Despite having dabbled a bit, he was still pretty new to whole BDSM relationship aspect. It would be better to start slow and learn, than to throw himself headlong into something he wasn't prepared for and get hurt.

I'm fairly new to the whole Dom/Sub thing, but have been in a few tame BDSM relationships to date. I am up for mostly anything, I just need help getting started in this whole thing. Put me in my place, so to speak.

SanJi_zz

Once more neurotically rereading the whole text he nodded with finality at the simple, little explanation; feeling that it about summed up everything. Fighting off the butterflies once more, he clicked the luminescent post button and watched as the screen refreshed itself and his post was now visible among the newest ads and requests. With a final breath of reassurance that he wasn't doing something completely insane, he shut his laptop off and headed to bed.

~X~

Sanji scrolled casually through all of the replies that he had gotten, trying to fight down the light flush of torridly combined awkwardness, embarrassment and arousal that came from reading some of the messages; most of which just consisted of horny men with terrible grammar asking for his number and address, while others were a bit more polite but still immediately requesting whether or not he 'liked it hard'.

While Sanji had assumed that this site would only garner people of this variety, he was a little disappointed in the selection. Physically all the men and women in their profile pictures were gorgeous, some of them Sanji would even consider, but it was lacking in the psychological element that Sanji was really craving. He didn't want just some mindless fuck from someone that liked to be a rough, immature top,; he wanted the adrenal excitement that could only come from psychological and sexual war-play.

Picking up his mug of morning coffee he leaned back a little further in his swivel chair as he continued to scroll through all the replies. Truthfully he was a little surprised that after only one night he had already so many responses and people trying to get into his pants when they hardly knew him. Though that just seemed to be how the depravity of the internet worked; people were much more open to showing their desperate nature when hidden behind a screen.

Pausing in his continual scrolling he sat up somewhat, gently setting his mug aside as he eyed one message that caught his attention. The man's profile pic that had replied to his message wasn't the easiest to identify when scaled down so much, but a dark tan and bright green hair was discernible and had Sanji raising an eyebrow. It was certainly a different look from the others on the site . The other thing that caught Sanji's interest was the fact that the man's subject line wasn't the least bit naughty and only read,

Savate?

It was a martial art Sanji was well learned in, but couldn't for the life of him fathom why the man was bringing it up. Sitting up, he contemplated clicking on the message, not entirely sure if he was ready to devote himself to digging through his messages to try and find a good candidate. However a swift look down the list only reminded him of the lecherous comments he'd received thus far and he glanced back up at the seemingly innocent message. Curiosity hitting its peak he clicked on the message link and it opened up a new window which displayed a single, harmless line;

What martial art are you doing in your profile picture?

It was somewhat refreshing to have someone on this site message him a question about himself and not about how he liked to get fucked. Though considering it was in reply to his Dom message, it was a bit of an odd question to receive . Sanji vaguely wondered if it was just spam or maybe the guy was an idiot and just got lost trying to find the private message button.

Needless to say, Sanji's interest was sparked as the man clearly had an obvious allure to the martial arts. The fact that the man was able to pick out the exact martial art he was performing from a single still photo was impressive in and of itself, not to mention that he seemed to be trying to start a conversation with Sanji over it. This was definitely a much more decent way of trying to talk to Sanji than simply asking what his favourite position was.

Fingers hovering over the keys for a moment he waved them back and forth thoughtfully as he debated how to reply to the man. Rereading the text, he smirked and lowered his fingers to the keyboard as he began furiously typing a response. It wasn't exactly the reply he had wanted from his earlier post, but none of the others were sparking any interest and hell, maybe he could at least get an interesting conversation out of the man.

Keys clicking away underneath his dexterous fingers he wrote back,

Spot on. But it was for a Capoeira tournament.

Reading over the message for a moment as he assessed his answer to be informative enough he quickly added on,

Why do you ask?

A question tagged on to the end would hopefully make the man reply, simply giving information might make the man just turn away; but an enquiry from Sanji's end might make the man continue talking to him. A little green dot was visible beside the man's profile picture which meant the man was still online and Sanji might even get a reply before needing to head to work.

As soon as the completed message popped up Sanji once more scooped up his coffee as he placed his hand over his mouse, absently dragging the arrow over to the man's username – roronoa3 – clicking on it and taking him to the man's profile page. As the page loaded Sanji took a casual sip from his coffee. It wasn't like he was getting his hopes up too high for this conversation, but the least he wanted to check out was who the man he was talking to even looked like.

The page finished loading, swiftly popping up the large profile picture of the man in the upper left corner as the rest was emblazoned with other info that the man had posted about himself. Yet all interest in reading the man's profile went flying out the window as Sanji's eyes widened at the picture of the man that he had just chosen to reply to.

Sanji was just glad he had swallowed his sip of coffee because the likelihood that he would have coughed it up over his laptop was extremely high . The man's picture was properly sized on his profile page and was an unbelievably interesting combo of adorable and extremely erotic – which the scaled down avatar in the chat box did no justice to.

Body partially facing to the side as the shirtless man held a poised barbell, bicep bulging as he hefted the fifty plus weight with one hand. Natural bronzed skin was shining with sweat as it was pulled taut over every inch of the man's visible upper torso, and Sanji vaguely wondered how often the man worked out to get defined shoulders like that. But for all the seriousness of the workout the man was glancing at the camera with an adorable look of shock.

Head cocked to the side with an eyebrow raised in curiosity as his eyes were slightly wide in his confusion. Clearly he had been caught off guard when the photo was taken, but it just made it seem that much more legitimate. The man obviously didn't seem in the habit of taking photos of himself, but regardless he was extremely photogenic.

Eyes drifting back to the man's body he tried to not be superficial and judge the man on how he physically looked, but Sanji couldn't help but drool at the sight of the tanned Greek god that had chosen to talk to him. Pronounced pectorals, rigid abdominals, bulging biceps and impressive lats, Sanji was already picturing what it would feel like to be pinned down by a man like him.

Probably not the best time to start fantasizing since he would have to run to work in a few minutes, but he couldn't stop his playful imagination from picturing some of the fantastic things the man could do. With upper body strength like that, fucking while standing was probably easy for him. Brows furrowing as he let his eyes fall shut he quietly berated himself for the fact that he was getting turned on from a single photo...

A beep resounding from his computer had his eyes snapping open as a message had appeared on his screen from roronoa3 and it took Sanji only a moment to realize it was from the gorgeous man he was currently ogling. The writing was casual, yet written with proper care taken to his punctuation and grammar , something that Sanji immediately picked up on happily.

That's cool. I've competed in a few tournaments myself; for Muay Thai. And I have my reasons.

Sanji couldn't help but smile to himself. At first he had admittedly been weary with dealing with people on this website – mostly because he hadn't exactly been expecting a high calibre of selection. But his shallow side was more than ecstatic to reply to the Adonis currently on the other side of the computer chatting to him. Not to mention he seemed to have found someone who actually had as much of an interest in martial arts as Sanji himself did. Good looking, able to talk better than a Neanderthal and could catch Sanji's attention in a conversation. Needless to say the man was already getting points in Sanji's book.

Muay Thai, huh? Cool. Nationals or just local? And you gonna tell me your 'reasons'?

A few more moments passed before the man replied,

Naw. Mostly just for fun. And no real reason, I just like having a partner that can take me in a fight. You seem to know what you're doing.

That had Sanji raising an inquisitive brow and caused the spike in interest towards the man to rise within him. He'd been expecting this kind of attitude from the site from the very beginning, but it was interesting to see the man making an active effort to flirt with him instead of just outright asking if he wanted to fuck. That and the way the man was going about it had Sanji's curiosity peaking as the oddly sexual prospect of a fight which seemed like such a different and yet arousing form of foreplay.

A playful smirk quirked Sanji's lip as he decided to play along with the man's little game for the moment. It could be fun to see just how far he could carry this conversation before either backed down. Sanji replied with his own snarky comment.

That sounds kind of dirty ;P So, that's the real reason you messaged me? Lol

It took a few moments before the man's reply popped up and Sanji could practically hear the playful taunting in the man's voice.

Maybe... :p But you look kind of scrawny, you might not be a challenge...

The obvious teasing wasn't to be taken seriously, but Sanji replied indignantly regardless, if the man was seriously looking for a fight Sanji might not be so uninclined to give him one.

Scrawny?! Don't underestimate me, shithead; I could probably kick your ass.

A very short pause before the man's reply popped up in the chat box,

You wanna try? ;)

That had Sanji pausing in his reply. Was he really considering meeting with this man after only a small conversation? Sanji was hardly scared of meeting people from online websites, but he was a little taken aback by how fast this was proceeding. Before he could even begin to think of how to give a reply that wouldn't turn the guy off, another message from the man popped up.

Not that I want you to think I'm pressuring you; you can totally tell me to piss off if you're not interested...

The simple, humbled message had Sanji letting out a small snort of appreciation as he skeptically realized the man seemed to actually be somewhat decent. He was the first man on this website to not only spark his interest, but actually seemed to be aware of the fact the fact that Sanji was a human, and was treating him as such.

Though it had Sanji pausing as he contemplated continuing to playfully respond to the man. Indeed he had signed up to this site to find someone to start a carnal sexual relationship with , but part of him hadn't been expecting to start talking with someone so soon. He'd been optimistic enough to expect a few messages and to casually think about whom he would reply to over the course of a few days; but he hadn't been prepared to be propositioned on the first day.

Thumb fidgeting with the space bar Sanji wondered if he should quit the site for the moment and just do as he had originally planned with thinking over whom he wanted to reply to. Though that had immediately reminded Sanji of the copious amount of depraved messages sent to him; and he wondered if he'd even find someone else worth replying to. What if he'd lose this stellar opportunity with a man whom was not only interested, but also fairly competent ...

Sanji's eyes flickered to the profile picture partially hidden beneath the pop up chat box as he assessed that slightly adorable face that the flirtatious words were being sent from. He was still caught between the indecision of whether or not to confirm to the man if he was interested. Though, if anything, it couldn't hurt to give it a try, not to mention that the guy seemed to have an air of confidence in the subject and yet seemed very patient at the same time. Already after a few minutes of chatting with this man the idea of giving the whole thing a try was very appealing.

Humming quietly to himself in thought he finally huffed as he decided that it was best not to pass up a clearly good opportunity. Giving in, Sanji decided to go along with it; it couldn't hurt to chat and meet up with the guy. If it didn't work out or wasn't as satisfying as Sanji was expecting it to be he could just come back to the site and pick another from the long list of candidates that had message him.

No, I'm up for it. Not exactly what I was expecting from a BDSM website, but this is definitely interesting. TBH I'm just kind of new to the whole thing...

Part of Sanji was horrified at admitting such sexual inexperience to the man. Besides his technological craftsmanship, it was the one other area of his life that he liked to believe he had a fairly strong foundation in. He had long boasted about his sexual conquests and experiences (only when severely drunk though, as he could never speak so crassly about any of his lovely ladies), he was now choking down his dignity as he full on admitted to the man how lame he was.

The man had obviously read Sanji's post, but it didn't stop the blond from being thoroughly humiliated by discussing his lack of experience with the guy. Even if he had expressed interest, it wouldn't mean that the man wouldn't change his mind at the notion of dealing with a completely virgin Sub.

As Sanji mulled over his embarrassment, the chat window lit up with the man's reply as his username flickered between green and white to alert Sanji to the message. Eventually the flashing stopped as Sanji read out the reassuring message that was making Sanji's insides light up in ridiculous excitement.

Well, you have to start somewhere. ;)

Sanji smirked lightly at the man's coddling behaviour before replying,

And where exactly would 'somewhere' be. You offering?

Another few moments before the man replied and he could clearly tell the man had been chuckling to himself while writing the message.

Haha. Well, that depends on if you're accepting? Are you just looking for a fight, or am I the lucky recipient of your post?

Letting out a breath of relief, he assured himself that what he was doing was a good idea before he grinned down at his keyboard as he replied,

If I say yes to both?

The man's reply was instantaneous.

I'd probably wonder how I got so lucky.

Sanji couldn't help his grin from growing, the light playful banter with this man was entertaining and fun as he began to realize he really enjoyed conversing with the man.

Oh, Mr. Smooth Talker over here. So, do you just want to message for a while? Or do you usually get right to the fighting?

The way the man talked spoke of a certain attitude and Sanji could almost sense the aloof shrug that man was most likely giving while typing the words, though while clearly hiding his more sensitive side by trying to go for a detached mien.

Up to you. If you wanna just text and cam for a while; then I'm cool with it.

As Sanji began typing up his response he let out a small chuckle of disbelief, hardly able to believe that he had already agreed to a relationship with someone on the website. Not that he had been expecting to do anything else, but it had definitely risen above his expectations for the people he had been planning on finding on here.

Alright. And thanks, you've-

Pausing in his typing he debated adding on the sentence he had been about to write, before shrugging to himself and finishing it up.

-actually been really awesome about this whole thing. I'll admit I didn't have high expectations for the site.

A small pause before roronoa3 replied,

Not every person on the internet is a pervert.

Chuckling, Sanji swiftly tapped out,

I've yet to be proven otherwise ;P

Sanji could practically here the drawling tone in the man's voice in his typed reply,

Says the guy on a kink website.

Chuckling to himself as he took a small sip from his coffee he noted the cold temperature to the liquid and frowned in confusion before his eyes flickered to the time in the corner of his laptop. He nearly spilled his cold drink in his shock. He hadn't realized so much time had passed!. He'd intended to read a few replies, respond to a few, and then head to work. How in the hell had he managed to not notice thirty minutes pass him by?!

Shit, sorry! I just realized I'm late for work; I have to ditch! I assume you'll be on later?

Only a moment passed before a reply popped up in the chat window,

Course. But I'm the one that should be apologizing for keeping you...Though I do have a quick question.

Typing the reply with one hand he quickly chugged back the remnants of his ice cold coffee.

Shoot.

Already standing from his chair and pulling off his sleep shirt, he catalogued how many steps he could skip in his morning routine so he would be able to get to work on time. Shower was a no go, but if he dressed fast enough he'd have time to brush his teeth and make a bagel before fleeing. As Sanji was already mentally picking out his clothes for the day roronoa3's reply popped up.

I'm sure you got a ton of replies; why'd you reply to me?

The question had Sanji pausing for a moment as he mulled over exactly what had him replying to the man in the first place, it certainly hadn't been the opportunity of sex. Curiosity perhaps? Maybe even a little bit of lust for conversation? But with a smirk he realized the exactly why the man had caught his attention and typed out swiftly,

You're the first person that made it interesting.

~X~

Sanji could hardly focus at work as he leaned behind the till of the Apple store at East Blue Mall, brain buzzing with the odd excitement of potentially finding a partner that could –possibly – fulfil his needs. New relationships had always gotten him excited, but there was something about this one that was getting him riled up. It could possibly be the fact that this was the first relationship Sanji would have started solely for the purpose of dealing with the craving he'd been trying to feed ever since Sadi had given him a taste.

It was an odd sort of way to go about a relationship (which was one of the initial reasons Sanji had been so hesitant to go on the website in the first place.) Most of his past partners had started out as friends, or emotional relationships before the sex had been involved. Now he was trying it the other way around – and though new and a little scary – it was exciting and interesting.

Though he still knew absolutely nothing about the man aside from what he looked like – though that in and of itself was a perfectly fine winning factor at this point – he also seemed to have a somewhat decent personality. Not to mention he had green fucking hair ... There was also the fact that man seemed at least patient as he had been completely unfazed by Sanji's lack of experience and request to go slow.

It only made Sanji more interested in the adventure of getting to know the man, not to mention everything that would eventually happen. Though that did drag forth the question of how exactly a Dom/sub relationship like theirs would work... Would he want an actual relationship out of this; or would it be strictly see-each-other-only-for-sex based? Where would they even begin to start; at his place or Sanji's? What was Sanji supposed to do or say?

The questions were rattling inside his head like a wooden shack in a hurricane, as he realized more and more that he really had no clue what he was supposed to do in this sort of situation . It was also very apparent that he couldn't simply follow the advice of all the pornography he had watched over the years, because it never turned out to be how those sexual actors made it seem. Despite all this worry over the relationship, the man, or even himself; at the forefront of his mind was that tiny dirty voice prodding him with lecherous thoughts of what was to come regardless...

"Oi Sanji!" Ace called out, dragging him from his perverted daze as he glanced over at the black haired man at the other end of the till. Gesturing to customer that he had just been conversing with he added, "A Mr. Galdino is here to pick his Laptop you repaired."

That had Sanji perking up immediately as he glanced up to see the grossly slicked back hair of the man making his way over to Sanji's end of the counter. Pompous expression adorning the smug face as his impeccable white slacks counteracted the marred personality Sanji knew the man to be hiding. Stopping in front of Sanji the man puffed out his chest with an expectant look before giving a rude little eyebrow rise to clearly ask why Sanji hadn't already sprung into motion to help him.

Allowing himself a tiny moment to imagine ripping off the man's blue stripped vest and strangling him with it, he forced all brutal thoughts to the back of his mind as he gave the customer a charming smile and thought of how satisfying it would be to wipe that grandiose look from his face in the next few minutes.

"I'll just go grab it from the back." Sanji simpered with a sugary false smile that he forced himself to wear when dealing with customers. As he began to make his way to the back storage room he discarded his previous jittery excitement over his online life as he settled into his usual comfort zone of scamming the general public.

Once in the back room he very casually walked down the shelving units, pulling out his phone and swiftly inserting a hot-wired SIM replacement chip into the small port. The little device acted as a completely new SIM card leaving Sanji's account free, as well as scrambling the IP address so that nothing sent from the device could be traced. Allowing for it to quickly upload on his phone, he began locating Mr. Galdino's laptop.

When he had been young and been tossed through the foster system he had learned a lot of valuable life lessons and skills, but the most important one had been that everyone had a price. No matter how rich or poor, every person on the planet had a price that they would pay to keep their secrets kept as they were. Sanji had quickly taken advantage of this knowledge and learned to exploit it.

There had been the teacher in his fifth year of grade school that he had managed to catch sleeping with the secretary; the cost of keeping it a secret from her husband had been perfect grades for him and a small payment of one hundred dollars. At the time hadn't realized that the amount of money he had gotten could have been pushed drastically higher. It didn't take long for him to figure out how to find the limit of most people's allowances.

Afterwards it had become an almost casual side job in his life; extorting money from his high school principal after finding out that the man had been syphoning money from the school's art budget into his own pocket, keeping the scandalous affair between several students secret from each other, and blackmailing one of his foster father's from keeping his adultery a secret from his foster mother. In the end Sanji had realized that as petty as people were, instead of ignoring their transgressions; he could turn a profit.

When he had begun working as a technician for Apple he had learned right away the awkwardness of finding stashes of pornography on laptops given to him to be cleaned. And it hadn't been long before he had found another way to exploit the most basic of human traits; their incessant need to lie.

As safe as they thought they were, it took very little hacking into their accounts and pass-word saved websites to learn their darker secrets. Some people were clean and had nothing of significance besides the odd fetish, or the occasional woman that had a million photos of cats on her hard drive and nothing else. But every couple of weeks Sanji got his hands on some precious goods, such as Mr. Galdino's laptop, that conveniently saved the pass-code to his email and had allowed Sanji to go snooping.

Once Sanji had the information it was a simple task of using it to extort money from the sore sucker.

Leaning lazily against the opposite shelving to the man's repaired laptop, he opened a pre-made App that connected directly to the new Sim card, inspecting over the refurbished computer one final time as his phone finished booting up the application. A screen eventually popped open showing a simple list of options to be selected.

Thumb sliding down the convenient touch screen he gazed over the pre-made options that he had created for himself and the current situation. Each one was a simple little bubble of assorted colours with their situational word scribbled inside to make the App seem as innocent as possible. Finally finding the proper selection he grazed his thumb across the pad as he selected the button labelled 'CHEATER', noting that the new screen popped up with a little duck flapping its wings as the word 'SENDING' blinked underneath happily.

Pocketing his phone with a smirk Sanji grabbed the newly cleaned laptop and made his way back out to the front of the store. Pushing aside the curtain that hid the storage room from view, Sanji made his way behind the large desk and over to where the client was waiting.

"Sorry for the wait." Sanji forced through a grin, even as Galdino seemed none too pleased with having to wait for more than a couple minutes. As he opened up the laptop and swivelled it around for the grumpy client to inspect, Sanji wondered why he put up with the retail business, the people were terrible.

"Completely cleaned." Sanji explained happily, "New updated anti-virus software along with a new screen. She should be able to keep running for another two years at least."

"Hmph. I should hope so." Galdino grunted unappreciatively, but it only made Sanji smile wider as the notion that the man's attitude would be getting a swift kick in the ass in exactly three, two, one…

Bingo.

The man's phone began beeping innocently to alert him of a text, though it clearly shocked the man as he glance around himself in confusion before finally down at his pants pocket.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Mr. Galdino flustered, hands already patting down his pockets to locate the quietly beeping phone, "Swear I set it to vibrate..."

"It's all good." Sanji mused with a grin , eyeing the man with a smug smirk as he pulled the phone from his pocket and fiddled with it. First managing to stop the infernal beeping, then getting his messages open, and Sanji watched with internal glee as the man's face went from neutral to a myriad of angry emotions, before settling on disbelief as he read the message that Sanji knew all too well was written on the screen.

Subject: You Cheating Bastard

That's right. I'm well aware of your misdeeds and sexual scandals; you really need to set a better password on your Gmail account. I've copied all of your replied and forwarded emails between you and a 'Ms. Valentine'. I've also updated a wirelessly activated virus into your computer that will send all of your emails and proof of your scandal to your wife. Unless you co-operate.

Sanji for his part remained impassive, schooling his features as calmly as possible as the man looked up from his phone at Sanji with a complete look of confused disbelief. Without giving anything away Sanji allowed for the tiniest of smirks to crook the corner of his lips before nodding back down at the phone and murmuring, "You got another text."

And right on cue, the phone beeped once more announcing a new message having been sent to the man,

A simple payment of $10,000 dollars will be the cost of your secrecy.

Sanji had figured out a long time ago that the amount of money he requested could be greatly stretched when dealing with certain types of people. Mr. Galdino was the perfect example of a man to milk, not only because of his somewhat broad bank account, but because of the current standing he had with his wife. Most people would rather shell out the money than risk going through something as expensive and heavy as a lawsuit and a divorce.

"You can't be serious?!" Galdino hissed angrily, keeping his voice low so as not to attract attention. Sanji only gave a charming smile in reply as the phone beeped right on cue.

Yes, I am.

By this point Mr. Galdino was a lovely combination of flushed puce and scarlet as he seemed downright furious with Sanji's audacity. It was a look Sanji was well accustomed to; everyone always started out furious and indignant when they had realized that they had been caught in the act. It eventually escalated into hysterical fury when they tried to channel their anger at being exposed toward Sanji for trying to blackmail them. Always the same reaction, and it had Sanji smiling wide every time as he enjoyed the simplistic predictability of humans.

"You can't black mail me!" Galdino spat angrily, though still keeping his voice hushed so as not to draw attention to himself, "I'll call the poli-"

Another beep.

Don't bother with the cops. Don't think you can weasel out of this. You either pay me now, or I expose you for the adulterating asshole you are.

Galdino's eyes widened from the message, obviously starting to see the seriousness of the matter as he jerkily looked back up at Sanji with an enraged scowl. First the anger, then the small hint of helplessness, which eventually leads to frantic denial. Teeth gritted as he leaned over the counter he quickly hissed a livid threat, "I will sue you!"

Sanji remained stoic, only blinking innocently so that the surrounding cameras would only detect an angry customer and patient Tech Support dealing with the man. Though Sanji did allow a little smile to flit across his lips as he remained eye locked with the man as his phone once more rung with an infernal beep.

Pointless. You have nothing on me; these texts are sent from a non-IP addressed source. They are cued to delete the moment after you finish reading them. You will have no evidence that this conversation even transpired.

This text seemed to confuse the somewhat dumb man, but he nonetheless seemed to get the gist of it as his eyes widened further upon realizing all the former texts he had received were already wiped clean from his phone. Barely another moment had passed before the following text was sent.

A final warning. I will know if you breathe a word of this. Talk to anyone, and your wife instantly learns everything. Now, are we going to co-operate? Or will your wife be getting an extremely interesting email?

After a moment of pathetic floundering the man seemed to finally come to the conclusion he had nowhere left to turn to as he finally embraced the blond with a look of defeat. Numbly thumbing at the phone in his hands he muttered quietly, "What do I have to do?"

A small beep.

Play your part. Pretend like you forgot your wallet and leave. Get the amount of money I requested earlier. You will pass it to me within an empty Starbucks cup. Run along now; you have twenty minutes.

Sanji watched humorously as Galdino finished reading the text, immediately fumbling the device in his hands as he read the time limit. Without hesitation he pocketed the phone and set about pretending to try and locate his wallet, before muttering to Sanji, "I'll be right back."

With a bit of a nervous jitter to his step the man rushed from the store and Sanji remained leaning behind the counter casually as he waited for the man to return. It wasn't long before Galdino came scurrying back into the store, Starbucks cup in hand and looking rather flushed. The sweat on his upper brow was only slightly less satisfying than the cup full of money he was swiftly handed.

Placing the cup under the till he smiled awardingly as he began ringing through the man's laptop repair transaction on the register while beaming, "Thanks for the coffee. Customers like you make the job so much more enjoyable."

The smile Galdino forced could only be described as painful, lips curling up forcibly as it became more of a grimace of disgust. Credit card shelled out for the payment and soon the transaction was completely finished and Sanji was watching the disgruntled man leave. Just as he reached the doorway however he paused and pulled his phone from his pocket as the final message was sent.

Thank you for your co-operation and patronage. You will never hear from me again; lest you short handed me money in the cup, talk about me to anyone, or go to the police. Rest assured my vengeance will be swift and brutal. Let us hope this is the last we see of each other.

Have a shitty day :)

As Galdino's face became an interesting mixture of relief and barely restrained wrath , Sanji only gave a cheery wave in return, putting on a show for not only the staff and customers, but as well as the camera he knew was zeroed in on the till. A hardened scowl was all he received in return as Galdino stormed away, laptop in hand, leaving Sanji thoroughly satisfied with himself. The one's that left with clear indignation at being beaten were always his favourite.

Scooping up the coffee mug, he took a fake swig of the pretend drink as he quickly ducked into the back and made his way to the staff break room. Popping the cap he gave the cash inside a once over to ensure he hadn't been given anything lethal, before tossing it into his backpack. Counting the money now would be useless, besides, Galdino was in such a pathetic position there was no way the man would dare to lie.

Removing the inserted SIM card, he tossed into his pack and zipped up the whole pocket to ensure no one would go snooping. Pocketing his phone with a satisfied grin he head back out onto the main floor, once more leaning casually against the counter as he left off from his earlier musings about the interesting roronoa3.

TBC...

A/N: First time writing a chapter and having a beta for it! Way too exciting! Thank you; fanficfangirl for being such an amazing beta! I'm already excitedly finishing the 2nd chapter :)