Neko-Tiara: Hello, everyone! I'm here to bring you another story! This time is a series of one-shot centred in Sanji (because I love him too much and I love to make him suffer for the sake of it). Each of these one-shots is based on quotes, except for this chapter. This first chapter was going to be a full story but I don't know if anyone wants to read it, so I added it here, if you like it, I'll write a story based on this one. Let me know by reviewing! Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: Obviously, One Piece doesn't belong to me and I don't earn money doing this, it belongs to Oda.

Chapter I - Injuries

Sanji remembered the first time he woke up to find himself in Germa 66's infirmary. He had been just three years old. He remembered wondering if he had been sick. That had seemed impossible: their family didn't get ill, never. So… the correct answer had been clear as day: the experiments had begun, just like his sibling's experiments had begun before. What had they done to him? He hadn't felt different at all: his skin had been as soft as last night, his senses had been the same, he couldn't move but that had been expected, he had been strapped to the bed. The only thing that he had found different had been the back pain. After a few days there, he had been able to leave the infirmary, though the bandages had had to stay on for a few months more. He hadn't known why, but had obeyed.

He wished he hadn't obeyed, because if he hadn't, he could have been able to prevent so much suffering. Starting with the lessons, his siblings making fun of him and bullying him, and ending with the self-mutilation he had to go through at least one a week when he left Germa 66 to enrol in the Orbit. But then the Orbit had been attacked by the old geezer's pirate crew and they had been stranded for eighty five days without food in a rock in the middle of the ocean. That's when the old pirate had learnt about his issue. If only he had been stronger, the old man wouldn't have had to eat his leg. During those days, he had felt pissed off, so useless, since he couldn't do anything but keep looking for ships. When they finally had been saved, the old man had lent him his coat, even if there had been no reason for him to do it. They had been saved already, he could have let him get discovered and be sent back to whatever hellhole he had escaped from. Yet, the old man protected him.

Since that day, Sanji had stayed with the old geezer, helping him at the Baratie, and the old pirate had helped him as well. His debt to Zeff kept growing with each passing day and he would have to live a thousand years to repay him. Then Luffy came along. The gomu idiot had invited him to his crew and after a while, he left with the idiot. There was something he could do for the old geezer: he would find the All Blue for both for them. So, there he was, in a crew full of monsters and lunatics (except for his Nami-swan and Robin-chwan!). A crew that didn't know a thing about a monster like him, because that's what he was: a monster and a nuisance; but still they liked him enough to call him their nakama. So he kept his secrets well hidden, he kept on doing what he had to do to protect them from their shitty problems. Once a week he would mutilate himself to avoid being discovered, and yes, he understood that his monstrosity would be accepted and cherished among the crew, it would be an asset, but at what price? If once word got out, more than one force of this world would try to get him, more dangerous forces than the stupid World Government. He would endanger the crew if he 'came out'. It was something that he couldn't allow to happen.

Thus the pain didn't matter, or the blood, or the constant fear of being discovered, caught and studied as the freak he was. Nothing mattered but the safety of the crew that would always protect their own no matter how dangerous it could be for them. His crew, his too trusting, loving crew, was his top priority, always would be. But Sanji shouldn't have known that in a ship, no matter how small or big it was, secrets couldn't be kept forever. It was more impossible in this ship because the Mugiwara were noisy as fuck. Yet, Sanji had tried and gotten away with it for more than two years. He had gotten used to shower when he knew that the rest of the crew wasn't going to be in the men's quarter or the bathroom, he had gotten used to never go shirtless around, stuff like that.

Still, after taking so many security measures like those, it was bound for someone to find out his darkest secret. Sanji hadn't expected it to be the Marimo, because, well, he was a stupid Marimo that only bathed once a week, the man who spent his days either training or napping around. He had just finished trimming his problem and bandaging the resultant injuries when the Marimo entered the bathroom, making enough noise that Sanji had the chance to throw a towel over the sink, and looked at him. Sanji looked back at the idiot mosshead, both frozen.

"Oi, what happened to your back?" Zoro knew for a fact that they hadn't been attacked lately, the last confrontation had happened at least two weeks ago and he was sure that no one had gotten injured.

"…" It took Sanji, who was too shocked to answer something witty that would lead to a fight, a few seconds to reply. "Nothing for you to worry, just leave me alone, don't you see that the bathroom is occupied or your neuron is too slow to notice?"

He was surprised of how steady his voice had come out and the taunt had been natural enough for the Marimo to not question it further. The brain-muscled swordsman just growled and left, closing the door with a loud thud. Sanji sighed: crisis avoided. But he had to deal with Zoro, convince him that he wasn't injured before the mosshead had the chance to tell it to everyone in the fucking ship. He didn't want anyone to find out, especially Luffy and Chopper, for obvious reason. He cleaned the mess fast, taking especial care to eliminate even the scent of blood of the sink and opened the windows in order to let the sea breeze to clean the bleach odour. When he exited the bathroom, the Marimo was still there, leaning against the wall in front of the door. Zoro was looking at him and walked to him, until they were separated by a few centimetres.

"You are injured, why haven't you said anything?" Sanji had to accept that the Marimo was persistent. "And don't give me any bullshit, shitty cook."

"I don't know what you're talking about, mosshead." Zoro pushed him against the bathroom door, harshly enough that Sanji groaned in pain, his legs were shaky enough that if it weren't for Zoro's arm pinning him against the door, Sanji would have slide to the floor. "What are you doing, idiot!?"

"What was that?" His eye shone with rage, something that Sanji was used to when they were fighting or when a nakama had been injured by an enemy. "And don't dare to lie to me."

"Let me go." He didn't want to start a fight, not after what he had done in the bathroom, but he would if he was forced to in order to keep his secrets. So, the cook kept his cool. "Don't you have anything else to do? Like taking a nap for example."

"Look, dartboard, my job is to protect the crew, so if you got yourself in trouble and you bring it to us…" Zoro didn't keep talking but shove him further into the door and took a step back when he heard laughing getting close. Sanji's eye widened when he recognized the sniper and doctor's voices getting close.

"Don't say anything, Zoro." He could feel his blood disappearing from his face. "I haven't endangered the crew, there no problems, just let it go. It's nothing for you to worry about."

Sanji chose to walk away, feeling Zoro staring at his back. Yet, he knew that it was a matter of time before someone else knew and he was going to be forced to leave the crew, which meant that he would have to look for someone good enough for him to be satisfied. He lit a cig and puffed slowly, feeling his nerves reducing due to nicotine. Should he go back to the Baratie? Or maybe he should keep looking for All Blue by himself? What do to? For now, he had to prepare lunch before the captain came looking for him.

Still in front of the bathroom, Zoro kept looking at Sanji's back until the cook disappeared into the kitchen. Usopp and Chopper stopped in front of him, drenched in paint, and looked at him puzzled. Zoro didn't even bother to ask what had happened. They were probably doing some experiment that backfired and this was the result. But, despite what the cook had said, he was injured and Chopper should know. Zoro, the crew's protector, couldn't let one of the main fighters get away with injuries that would make him a nuisance in the next battle.

"Chopper, come here." He grabbed the doctor and took him a few steps away from the sniper. "Usopp, clean yourself while I talk to Chopper, this isn't your business."

It wasn't yet. When he got all the information, he would gather the whole crew and call on Curly brow, until then, it was a problem that he had to deal with. Usopp looked at Chopper who nodded and then left them alone. The little reindeer looked up at Zoro, waiting for the swordsman to speak. What was troubling the green haired man?

"I need you to remain calm while I'm talking, listen to me carefully and then you have to go in there, clean yourself and once done that, you can go and do what I'm going to ask of you, ok?" Chopper nodded, deadly serious, because Zoro had a mission from him, and the swordsman normally didn't ask him anything. "The cook is injured, I don't know the extent of those injuries or how he got them, but I need you to go to the kitchen and forced him to tell you what happened, then come look for me and tell me everything. Do you understand? This is serious, do not tell anyone else. Just me."

Chopper panicked from the same moment Zoro stated Sanji was injured. How could the cook not tell him!? He was this ship doctor! He barely managed to nod, Zoro had given him an order, a mission, and he had to do what he had been told to do. Zoro patted his hat and left him standing there, teary eyes and everything. So, the little reindeer went into the bathroom and got cleaned up, he didn't told Usopp what Zoro had said, because he had agreed to not say anything until the first mate decided it. Once cleaned up, Chopper left Usopp working on his ammo and gathered his medical tools to go looking for the cook. It wasn't difficult to find him, since the man was cooking lunch.

"What do you need, Chopper? It's not lunch time." It was a bit creepy that the cook always knew who entered his domain, it didn't mattered how quiet you were, Sanji always knew.

"Zoro told me you are injured." Sanji cursed under his breath but did nothing else to acknowledge what Chopper had said. "Let me see your injuries or I'll be obliged to call Luffy to order you to show them to me!"

Sanji's eyes widened. Chopper had never used the captain's card. He sighed. How could he avoid it? He didn't want to leave the crew, he wanted to stay and protect them, find the All Blue with them, see them achieve their dreams. His shoulders fell in resignation. Sanji lit another cig, though he didn't feel like smoking, he felt like begging the little reindeer to leave him alone and don't call anyone. Everything was Zoro's fault. That damn swordsman! Why couldn't he let it be!? Sanji had said it wasn't his fucking business! Finally, Sanji knelt in front of Chopper, not able to look at his eyes.

"Chopper, I know you won't believe me, but my injuries… you can't do anything about them, ok? I've had them almost all my life, they won't heal, no matter what you do or don't do." Chopper looked at him, disbelief washing over his little face, and his eyes started to tear up, but Sanji wasn't done. "So, go and tell that fucking Marimo to stop being a bitch and let me be."

"… If I do that… I won't be able to complete my dream, Sanji!" It was a low blow, Sanji stop breathing for a second there. "I would be a failure as a doctor if I can heal you, Sanji!"

Sanji, on his part, didn't say a thing for a few minutes; he just stared at Chopper wiping away the apparently endless tears rolling down his face. Finally he stood and took off his jacket and shirt, but he didn't turn around: Chopper had to promise him something first.

"Before you get a look at this, Chopper, promise me something." The doctor nodded not even hearing what he had to promise, he just wanted to look at those injuries that couldn't be healed. "You won't tell anyone what I'm about to show you, you will tell Zoro that it was nothing, just a few scratches that will heal by tomorrow, deal?"

"Deal!" Oh, God, a lot of this could go wrong, so wrong, but he had to trust in Chopper, he was a naïve but he was also intelligent, he turn around and the reindeer took of the bandages with careful hooves. "What… what are these?"

The two gashes were twenty centimetres long and at wide enough for Chopper to see how deep they were if he pealed whatever was covering them. Chopper took out of his little bag a pair of tweezers and tried to pull out whatever that was, but stop the second that Sanji tensed up and hissed. Did it hurt that much? How had he gotten these injuries? Who had inflicted them? With what had they been inflicted? What was that material? It was wet and darkened, was it infected? He cleaning it with a antiseptic, but the material didn't change at all, it didn't cleaned up nor did it changed at all, Chopper tried to pull once more and this time some of it came off, but Sanji gasped and the reindeer decided it was better not to do it again. Finally, he gave up and replaced the bandages and waited for Sanji to get dressed. The cook looked paled and sweaty. So, it was painful for him.

"Chopper, now you have to do your part." Sanji almost pushed him out of the kitchen.

So, there was Chopper, holding something between his hooves, something that looked like… a black feather?