Extra chapter: Jumping back to two months after Sanji left his nakama.

Anoni-chan prompt: Sanji living low and hard, hardly making any living, sick, tired, at the verge of fainting.

Hopefully this is the kind of thing you were hoping for Anoni-chan ^.^ Sorry it's so short.

Re-edited 17/11/14

It is that same dream again. In his dream he is stranded on a rock in the middle of the ocean, with the sun blazing and burning his skin. The seagulls' cries are screeching in his ears, and he is hungry. No, not hungry, starving. He hasn't eaten in weeks, maybe even months. He's lost track of the time. Here, he is a child, wearing torn up and dirty clothes. His blonde hair is greasy, matted, and dull. Sanji is barely alive, just skin and bone, just as he really was when he was a child, except in his dream he is stranded on a rock, when in reality he was actually out on the streets of an overcrowded city.

As the young Sanji in his dream looks out towards the endless ocean, he hears a ship horn blaring in the distance. Eyes wide, he scrambles up, and uses all the energy his small and fragile body can muster, to wave and shout out to the ship. He sighs with relief when the ship nears, then covers his ears and closes his eyes when the horn goes again.

When his eyes open, Sanji finds himself in a back alleyway behind a dumpster. Again, he hears the horn from his dream, only he now realises that the sound is actually coming from the traffic out on the street nearby.

Sanji blearily glances around as he sums up the energy to move from his seat on the cold, hard ground, and walks over to look in a nearby window. Staring back at him is the Sanji from his dream, only this time he is older.

Brushing his hand through his hair, flinching when he accidently tugs harshly on the knots in his hair, he looks around the alleyway he had stumbled into last night. He bites his lip as he remembers when he used to do this as a child…

Sanji has never known his real parents, he doesn't even know if they are dead or alive. All he knows is that when he was a baby he was brought up in an orphanage. When he was 5 years old, he'd had enough of the place and ran away, and ended up on the streets as he didn't really think things through, just like this time around. When he left his nakama two months ago, he'd planned nothing. He didn't think about where he would go, where he would live, he didn't think about a job, and he didn't think about money. Sanji had thrown out his credit cards and the simcard for his mobile phone, as he didn't want to be traced, and wanted to start afresh. He soon learned that it was an extremely bad idea, especially as he didn't take any money out from his bank before leaving, he stupidly left on a whim, even though he had thought about leaving for a few months before he actually did it, and all of this just ended up making him feel even worse about himself.

His stomach rumbles loudly and he groans as he walks back over to the dumpster he'd slept behind last night, and grabs his duffel bag. Since turning up at this new city, Sanji had tried to get a job anywhere he could, but no one would hire him, not even the owners at a small café, where he could have been clearing tables, as he was deemed too overqualified for job like that. He'd never heard of that happening before and it was ridiculous that it was the reason he didn't get most of the jobs he'd applied for. Eventually, he gave up on even trying.

Sanji tries to pick up his duffel bag, and fails as his muscles have gotten weaker, and resolves to just drag the bag behind him as he makes his way out of the alleyway. He clenches his fists on the bag strap as he stomach rumbles once again.

Getting food on the streets had been a lot easier when he was a child. People took pity on him. Enough to feed him, but not enough to take him in, give him money and clean clothes, or offer him a shower or bath. His salvation at the time had been Zeff.

He remembers it well. He had been sleeping outside at the back of a restaurant, when the old man had walked out the back door and just glared at him. He glared back of course, he was a stubborn child, arguably, still is. After a few minutes of their glaring contest, Zeff had kicked him inside, ordering Sanji to wash upstairs in the shower while he cooked him a meal.

Unfortunately, there is no Zeff this time around.

Sanji steps out onto the street, the sun blinding him, and wanders down the road, past the stares of passers-by. So far, since living on the streets again he'd gotten his food from the large food bins outside of supermarkets and restaurants. The amount of still edible food that gets thrown away astonishes him. A lot of it is only a day out of their sell-by date when they are thrown out.

As the weeks went on, however, he'd found that many of these food bins had already been claimed by other people who are homeless and who wouldn't share, and the fights for food became harsh. Sanji had once stumbled upon two homeless guys fighting over a live rat. He was not at least one bit tempted to go back down that route again. When he was a child on the streets, he had given into eating rodents quite quickly. He swore that he'd never succumb to that again. Just thinking about it and where those animals have been, picking up diseases, it makes his skin crawl.

Turning a street corner, Sanji starts feeling nauseous. He'd thought he'd last longer than this. He'd managed it before. However, his vision starts to blur, and his head is pounding, he feels even more tired than he was before.

Sanji leans up against the wall, only to slide down shortly after as black dots cloud his vision. Dropping his bag to his side, he pulls his knees up and wraps his arms around his legs, burying his head in his lap. He groans as his stomach clenches, and his body stills, hugging himself tighter when someone crouches down in front of him and gently places their hands on his arms.

"Oi, are you okay? What's your name?"

"Sanji. Sanji Blackleg…" He has no idea why he just gave the man his name, but the stranger's voice is slightly calming.

"Ok, Blackleg-Ya, My name's Law. I'm a doctor. Can you stand?"

Sanji looks up at Law then, and plans on standing as he moves into a crouch so he can push himself up, but before he can try and get up, he passes out and collapses onto the doctor and Law's slightly panicked voice calls out to him as the man's strong arms wrap around his body to stop him from falling to the floor.

There may be no Zeff, but at least this time he has a doctor to help him.