Dedicated to aechfic: This probably doesn't hold a candle to Crossfire (Redux), but I hope you like it all the same. I really hope everyone else likes it too! (^_^)

Enjoy!

Luffy sat in the cafeteria of the nursing home trying to choke down a meal even he couldn't quite stomach. He'd forgotten his own lunch at home, something he'd realized too late that lunch break. He put down his fork after finishing only half his meal, and got up from the table, taking his tray to the place where he was supposed to drop it off after eating.

As he angrily trudged back to the station where he worked, he thought about how he'd gotten here in the first place. He'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the police had arrested him. He'd shown up in court and, because it had been his first offense, had received two weeks community service... in a nursing home of all places! He had nothing against the elderly, but even though he'd had some nursing training, working here caring for the elderly just wasn't his thing.

He was about to go into the linen closet to grab some bedsheets to put on his cart (he was on bed making duty today), when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a by-now familiar head of green hair. He turned toward the head as the young man it belonged to slowly crept by in his power wheelchair, seemingly completely oblivious to being gawked at.

Luffy had been here for four days of his two week sentence, and in that time, he had noticed something. The green-haired guy (who's last name, Roronoa, was stickered on the back of his chair along with his room number) was the only resident here who was even remotely close to his age. He appeared to be in his early 20's or thereabouts, he rarely spoke to anyone, and one perpetually closed eye sported a long vertical scar. Also, to say he had a depressed air about him would have been a gross understatement. He looked as if there were a literal grey cloud over his head at all times. Luffy watched the wheelchair as it continued to creep slowly down the hall.

Suddenly, it stopped, and even though Luffy could only see the back of the man's head, he could tell the man was confused, as if he'd only just now realized where he was. "Shit." He heard the man swear quietly. He watched the man then quickly maneuver his way into a tight looking alcove... where his wheelchair got promptly stuck between the inner walls.

"Shit!" The man swore again, this time more loudly, as he inched the chair backward and forward, trying and failing to work it free.

Luffy left his cart and rushed over to the young man in the wheelchair. "Where were you trying to go?"

"I was trying to turn around," The green-haired man replied, sighing heavily. "Shit," he swore yet again.

Given the many different ways the man was secured into his chair, Luffy guessed that he was probably a para- no, quadriplegic. He wondered what had happened to him.

"Oi! If you're gonna stand there, don't just stare, help me!" The man grumbled.

Luffy nodded, and after some thought, he tried the same method the green-haired man had tried. He seemed to get no further out of the alcove than he had the first time. "Boy, you really are stuck," Luffy commented.

"Nice observation," The man apparently named Roronoa said sarcastically. "Just... go get a CNA, okay?"

"Wait," Luffy said, thinking again for a second. Then he stooped down, grabbed the part of the legrest that was closest to him, braced himself, and used all the strength he had to yank the front part of the wheelchair free of the alcove. When Luffy gazed up at Roronoa's face, for the first time since he'd begun working here, he saw a look so unlike his usual appearance, that had Luffy not known better, he would have sworn was a different man. The cloud was gone, and on Roronoa's face was a look of utter amazement.

"...Thanks," The man Roronoa said once he found his tongue again. "...You're a lot stronger than you look."

"I... used to wrestle with my older brother," Luffy told him as he stood up again.

"Used to?" The man called Roronoa asked.

"I lost him... two years ago..." Luffy said, trailing off as tears pricked his eyes and threatened to obscure his vision.

Roronoa lowered his head. "I'm sorry you had to go through something like that."

"Thanks," Luffy said as he quickly wiped his eyes with his arm.

One of the CNA's angrily called out to Luffy. He swore inwardly. "I need to get back to work. Can you get back to your room okay?"

"Yeah, I can, as long as I can avoid these alcoves," he said as he carefully turned his wheelchair in the opposite direction. "It's hard to navigate a wheelchair with the one semi-good hand."

"I see. Anyway, it was nice meeting you... um... Roronoa?" Luffy said, unsure of what to call the man.

"You can call me Zoro." The man said as he slowly wheeled himself down the hall.

"Zoro..." Luffy whispered to himself, before hurrying back to his cart.