Chapter Text
Life at New World Highschool was good. At least, for those at the top.
Like Hancock and her boyfriend, Doflamingo. In fact, they somewhat ruled the school. Doflamingo came from a long line of nobles, meaning not even the principal was brave enough to oppose him and Hancock? Well, Hancock was beautiful.
She had found that no matter what you did, all doors were open to you so long as you had a pretty face and stunning body.
Tonight marks yet another party amidst their peers. Hancock had spent a considerable amount of time and effort finding the perfect dress to match Doflamingo’s suit - he always had to wear something extravagant, which made matching particularly hard - but she was now comfortable in her choice, having gotten styled, waiting for him to pick her up from home as he usually did.
Except this time, he didn’t arrive. Not on time and not five minutes later either. Hancock texts him an angry “Do you expect me to WALK to the party?” before checking her face in her handmirror again. Perfection, absolute perfection. She was not the type of person to be kept waiting by her servant by any means. So where was he?
Disgruntled, she calls him, but it goes to voicemail. The audacity. Letting HER go to voicemail? Who did he think he was? There was nothing in the world that justified keeping her waiting.
Feeling annoyed that she had to do her dirty work herself for once (Marigold and Sandersonia were on a school trip for a week), Hancock calls Vergo, Doflamingo’s right-hand man for most matters. “Where is he?”, she snarls at him, not bothering with a greeting.
If Vergo is taken aback, he recovers himself quickly. “I’m unsure. I last saw him at school, earlier today.”
Hancock hisses. “He was supposed to pick me up for the Snow Queen’s ball tonight EIGHT MINUTES AGO.”
Vergo sighs. He’s had to deal with Hancock considerably more than he ever wanted to ever since Doflamingo started going out with her. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“Fix it.”, she says simply.
“Fine. I’ll try calling him.” Vergo is tempted to keep her waiting just a little longer to piss her off, but his concern for Doffy wins out. It wasn’t like Doflamingo not to be punctual, especially since he usually made sure to appease Hancock, who otherwise became a fury born of rage and dangerous, sharp objects flying around.
Doflamingo does not pick up for Vergo either. Vergo checks the schedule he keeps for Doflamingo - there is no note of any kind of appointment for today besides picking up his suit at the tailor shop and attending the Snow Queen ball in the evening.
Vergo decides to call the tailor shop just in case. “Hullo, I’m calling for my friend, Donquixote Doflamingo. Has he been with you to pick up his suit?”
Luckily an employee who is personally familiar with Vergo and his close connection to Doflamingo answers the phone. “No, sir, Mr Donquixote has not been here today. We sent him a reminder about his suit having been finished just this morning, but there has been no reply.”
Vergo’s mind is racing. Doflamingo never made it to the tailor shop. So where may he be?
His next step is texting the Donquixote Family group chat. The one that consists of Diamante, Trebol, Pica, Baby 5, Giolla, Gladius, Lao G, Buffalo, Machvise, Dellinger and a few others. He’d never get entry to the group chats of the actual Donquixote family after all, being a lowborn outsider.
A chorus of confusion and worry answers him as he asks for Doflamingo’s whereabouts there.
Diamante and Pica have time so they agree to meet up with Vergo to start searching for their boss.
Hancock checks her beautiful, golden watch, a gift Doflamingo had made her for their first anniversary. Fifteen minutes. Unease worms its way into her heart. As much as she enjoys being pissed at him, Doflamingo has never once failed to be punctual. It’s starting to freak her out.
She texts Vergo, demanding results, but all she gets in response is a “nothing yet”. Useless, pathetic man. What was he good for if he couldn’t even tell her where his best friend was?
Hancock tries to come up with a plan. She can’t attend the party without Doflamingo. It would be a terrible hit to both of their reputations and how would she even get there? Taking a taxi would be embarassing, driving there herself would make her look like she had broken up with Doflamingo or even worse, it would make her look pathetic.
She needed somebody who would keep their mouth shut, somebody she could ask for a favour without needing to reveal anything. Most of the boys at school would do anything she ever asked for, but were they really trustworthy? They might obey her in the moment, yet start blabbering the second she turned her back. She needed somebody who had no interest in idle chatter or gossip and who wouldn’t ask any questions.
With a disgusted snarl marring her beautiful lips, she calls Blackleg Sanji. “Hancock speaking. Is this Sanji?”
Nothing but silence on the other end. She pulls her phone away from her ear. No, the call had been accepted and it was ongoing.
There was some noise now, but it was hard to identify. Maybe something like a puppy whining in the background? Or air coming out of a high pressure pipe.
She’s three seconds from hanging up, when a croaky voice calls out. “The- the snake princess?” The voice breaks mid-sentence, sounding like an odd mix between a chainsmoker and a mouse.
“Yes. The very. You need to do something for me.”
“Anything! Anything at all.” Sanji sounds like he has recovered now, his voice becoming less croaky, although still being remarkably breathless.
“I need a lift.” Hancock bites her lower lip, staring straight into the wall up ahead. She’s already admitting too much vulnerability by doing this. God dammit, maybe she would have been better off driving on her own, but it could be that she might need backup. The thought makes her clench her fists, long nails biting into her palms. Need backup. In other words, need help. What a disgrace. Curse that thrice-forsaken Doflamingo for putting her in this situation in the first place.
“I-I’ll be there!” Sanji sings in a high pitch, breathing heavily as loud background noises come through the phone on Hancock’s end.
“Don’t waste my time.”, she bites out before hanging up. Screw this, she hadn’t even given him her address, how’d he know where to go? Hancock sighs. Damn Doflamingo, unrattling her like this. Making her talk to a student from one grade lower than her as well, that was never part of the plan.
Within a few minutes, the doorbell rings. She’s pretty sure that Sanji lives in one of the suburbs and further away, so her heart lifts as she hopes to finally see Doflamingo on the other side, but no, when she opens the door she sees Sanji, looking dissheveled and slightly sweaty.
Hancock scrunches her nose. “Ew.”
Sanji’s doesn’t seem to register her words. His eyes are trained on hers, mouth agape, looking like he’d just seen an archangel descend from heaven itself. Saliva is starting to drool out of the side of his mouth and Hancock purses her lips in disgust.
That seems to snap him out of it. “Madame!” He bows dramatically. “Your shining knight is at your service, whatever you may need.”
“Like I said”, Hancock emphasizes the “said” as if Sanji were a complete dolt, “I need a lift.”
With a flamboyant flourish, Sanji points to his Vespa, parked right behind him. “Wherever you wish to go, I will take you, you most beautiful of all princesses!”
Hancock’s face contorts uncomfortably. She’d have to get on a damn moped with this disgusting man? Be physically close to him?
She knew the rumors. That Sanji had been expelled from school for a week after installing cameras in the girls’ locking room. She knew they weren’t rumors, because she herself had used the footage from those cameras to bully one of her class' top geeks into doing her homework for her. That’s where she had Sanji’s number from to begin with.
But being physically close to that kind of pervert? Ugh. Not for the first time tonight she wishes Doflamingo had just shown up in his Ferrari Portofino Cabriolet. Not that she would have minded being close to Doflamingo on a moped, but she wasn’t a stupid hormonal teenager like the boy before her indubitably still was.
When she gets on the Vespa regardless, Sanji’s sweat fills up her nostrils even worse. “Do you not own a deodorant?”, she hisses.
Sanji falls in on himself, nearly melting into a puddle of sadness right there and then. “I’m so sorry, Snake Princess. I left my shift at the Baratie to come to you. If I had known in advance, I’d have made sure to look my best. Please, please forgive me.”
The Baratie. Some crappy startup, Doflamingo had said, Hancock recalls. That must have been why Sanji had arrived so quickly, the restaurant was probably close by.
In a way she almost feels sympathy for how crestfallen the blond boy looks. Almost. She gives him a particular address in the east of the town. It’s not a nice place and it’s not a place she would ever voluntarily visit if her hunch about Doflamingo wasn’t as bad as it was.
“Are you sure, Snake Princess? I’ll do it, I’ll do anything you ask for, but it’s not a good place for somebody pure and beautiful for you.”, Sanji rambles nervously.
“I know what I’m doing.”, Hancock reaffirms confidently. But did she really? If he was there, it was likely that the problems were only just beginning.