"This is MINE, Luffy, get your grubby hands off of my food!"

Zoro growled at the hyperactive young man trying to steal his yakisoba bread, holding it high above his reach while Luffy attempted to clamber all over him to try and take his lunch.

"But I'm HUNGRY!" Luffy cried pathetically, stretching as far as he could to try and reach, even if the meant using his friend as a stepping stone to his goal. "The food I had wasn't nearly enough, I need more! I need meat!"

Thankfully, before he was able to reach, Zoro pushed him away and jumped back, guarding the bread carefully. "I haven't even eaten yet, don't try and act like a starving kid when you eat more than twenty of us students put together." His eyes narrowed dangerously as Luffy pursed his lips childishly. "This. Is. Mine."

There was a sigh behind them, and both boys stiffened slightly, neither willing to move their gaze away from the other just in case a weak spot was found. If Zoro looked away, then Luffy could steal his bread. If Luffy looked away, he could miss Zoro letting his guard down. But the sigh came from none other than Usopp, who shook his head with a slight roll of his eyes. His curly, crazy hair was held back by a bandanna tied around his head, and he had big round eyes and an abnormally long nose.

Which was perfectly suitable, considering that he was a pathological liar. He was a bit like a real-life Pinocchio, but Usopp was a good guy. And also the only one out of the three of them that had a bento lunchbox, and he knew it; you could tell by the smug grin on his face as he waved his chopsticks around.

"Now now, you guys shouldn't be fighting, you should just get a bento, like I do!," he teased the two, but instantly changed his tune once both eyes shot glowering eyes at him and a shiver racked up his spine. He nearly dropped his bento as he scrambled backwards, covering it protectively. "I-I'm kidding, I'm kidding! T-The food you have is great, NOTHING compared to mine, hahaha!"

It was Zoro's turn to roll his eyes, and he growled, "If you're going to brag about your lunch, you better be ready to fight for it." He frowned, his eyes narrowing into another glare. "I won't let you off so easily next time." He huffed to himself, then lowered down the yakisoba bread to take a nice, huge bite only to feel teeth against teeth. He blinked a few times, realizing a few moments after that Luffy had stuffed his face with HIS yakisoba bread. Luffy had practically inhaled it, or it would have seemed so if his cheeks didn't look like a chipmunk's cheeks.

"YOU BASTARD!," Zoro roared, charging after the giggling Luffy with crazed eyes, "THAT WAS MY LUNCH!"

Luffy, the skinny boy who successfully stole his food, was, for whatever reason, his friend too. Both he, and Usopp. Luffy was a lanky kid who had energy to spare, the appetite of a giant, and was completely obsessed with a straw hat that was given to him by his adoptive father, Shanks. Shank, however, had left to travel the world when he was younger, so he lived with his grandfather instead so that hat was all he had left of Shanks until they met again. Luffy was an idiot, but he had his moments. But he was still an idiot who made it his mission to steal Zoro's food.

"Nuh ish not, ish mah fuud!" Luffy strained through all the food in his mouth, still running from Zoro. "Can't haf it!" He then promptly swallowed his mouthful, flaming the fire of Zoro's rage even further. The green-haired man clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white, and stomped towards Luffy furiously. He raised his fist to hit Luffy only to feel a hard smack on the back of his head instead, being sent flying face-first down into the ground.

"You boys better settle down before I MAKE you settle down!"

Zoro groaned, hearing similar from Luffy as he rolled over slowly, sitting up and holding his aching nose. Once the world stopped spinning, he opened his eyes. He could see Usopp hiding behind the doorway where they came in from, and a pair of rather shapely legs. His eyes moved up from the legs, finding a skirt, a blue blazer tied around a thin waist, a white button-up shirt, and past that, orange hair. Zoro paled.

It was Nami. The student treasurer and also self-titled disciplinary committee chair when there was no actual Disciplinary Committee that even existed.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Nami shouted angrily, "I thought I told you guys just TEN minutes ago to stop horsing around, and now I find you both here, fighting over food again?!"

He couldn't believe it. Nami found him, again. What was she, a stalker? Or was she just so bored with her life that she had to make trouble with everyone else's lives? Either way, she needed to find something better to do other than count money and bother him. So, he just let out a loud sigh, stood up, and decided to give up on fighting with Nami for now. He was hungry, he was tired, and he no longer had any energy left to expend thanks to Luffy stealing his food and Nami giving him a good wallop. Even though she couldn't hit very hard, the loss of his food was a devastating blow, and he didn't even have a drink to help him get through it because he was at school.

"Forget it, I'm not going to answer this," Zoro sighed, shaking his head. "I'm leaving, I don't want to talk to you." He strolled right past her, ignoring her angry shouts, then past Usopp through the doorway. He wasn't going to deal with this now, nope. Lunch break wasn't over yet, and he didn't want to go back to class at all. Skipping sounded great. Wonderful, in fact. He was going to do that, skip class. Zoro started to walk down the stairs, hearing the sound of Nami's voice moving onto chewing out Luffy fading behind him as he walked farther and farther away. It was nice, not hearing her nag all the time. The young man yawned, lifting up a hand as he turned on the stair's landing to go down the second set only to see a flash of gold, catch the faint scent of tobacco and sugar, then feel something smash right into his shoulder. He shouted in surprised, the thing that toppled him falling over him as he smacked his head, a second time, against the floor.

"Ow, owowow...," he moaned in pain. Zoro's head was pounding, and while he was normally used to getting a beating, and normally wouldn't back down from a fight, just wasn't feeling it right now. He wanted to NAP, not fight, and this was becoming very bothersome. Hitting his head like this wasn't going to be good later on, he still wanted to be able to have more brain cells than Luffy by the time he graduated high school. Zoro wanted to get up, and tried, but couldn't; there was an unfamiliar weight on him and that weight was groaning too, lifting himself up onto it's arms, but stopped, taking a moment to stare down at Zoro, looking a little blank in the face.

Zoro blinked again, a little blank himself. He didn't recognize this guy at first, mostly because he had only seen him with his weird curly eyebrows furrowed and angry, or he was acting like a complete lunatic when it came to the girls at school; he had never seen that kind of expression on his face before. Not that he had any real interactions with him anyway, although they occasionally picked fights with one another because they got into each other's way, but other than that, it was nothing.

But somehow, his eyes had always followed that golden hair. If it flashed in the corner of his eyes, his gaze would follow it slightly before returning what he was doing. If he was looking out the window being bored, or sneaking a nap on top of the roof when he was skipping class, and he caught a glimpse of that hair, then he would steal a glance. They were glances only, nothing lingering, but the way it caught the sun's rays, how it in itself seemed to hair a personality of it's own, one very different from it's owner, was almost mesmerizing. Mysterious, beckoning, and beautiful.

However, other than that hair of his, there was nothing about him that was least bit likable, and Zoro started to remember that as recognition appeared on both their faces. The person leaning over him with hands and knees on both sides of the ground beside him, with the eye-catching blonde hair and perpetual scowl towards all of malekind was the one and only Sanji; the man who caused the most havoc on campus and the most famous womanizer out of the entire student body.

And Sanji had just ran straight into him and sent them both tumbling to the floor.

Once Sanji broke out of his daze, he scowled darkly, glaring at Zoro like it was his fault that he fell onto the ground. "Watch where you're going, stupid moss head!" he hissed angrily, promptly causing Zoro to sit up and slam his forehead against the angry blonde's forehead.

"Look you dartboard, don't blame me because you were too blind to watch where the hell you were going!" he retorted sharply through gritted teeth, his veins nearly popping out of his neck. He really, REALLY did not need this right now, especially from a punk like Sanji. But it was clear that he hit a nerve somewhere, and Sanji pushed against his forehead while Zoro pushed back stubbornly.

"Who the hell are you calling a freaking dartboard, HUH? You were in the way, you should have paid more attention!"

"You just admitted it! You just said that I was in the way, you ran me over on purpose?! What the hell would you do that for?"

"I didn't run into you on purpose, dumbass, it was an accident!"

"Oh, so you DID run into me, you admit that, at least?"

"No, you ran into me."

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Their chests heaved, out of breath from their exchange, fists clenched defensively and their eyes fixed on each other. Neither one refused to back down until Sanji had the nerve to pull his head back onto to headbutt Zoro with a very painful whack. Gold was all Zoro remembered seeing along with the flash of sharp pain before everything went totally dark.

As it turned out, Zoro really did end up getting his nap. Granted, it was in the nurse's office, his head was killing him, his nose was aching, and his eyes were stinging a little because he was sure he got a little bit of blood in them, but hey, he still got his nap. In a bed. While he did end up missing the rest of his classes, it really didn't feel all that worth it to get knocked out just to skip a couple of classes. At all. And the school doctor was weird. He didn't know how no one seemed to notice that he was a racoon-dog. Or reindeer, or whatever he was supposed to be; either way, he wasn't human and no one even seemed to care.

But right now, it was all over and done with; the school day was over, the doctor's visit was over. He had bandages on his head, he slept half the day, and he was planning on spending the rest of the day sleeping. After doing his homework, of course, because he needed to pass or else he would be in trouble, but the point was, he was just going to have a sleeping day.

Was.

Luck would have him do something else instead, it seemed.

Zoro hadn't gotten very far from the school, and he was taking his usual route home from the building. The sun was barely peeking through the buildings, the shadows on the ground long and almost ominious. As he started to turn a corner, that's when he saw it; a flicker of gold in the corner of his eyes.

The young man stopped in his steps, looking over his shoulder towards the flicker and saw Sanji disappearing around a different corner. Zoro's common sense told him to head straight home, get his homework done, then get some more, much needed sleep. However, both his curiosity and his desire for revenge won out and he turned on his heel and headed straight for the Sanji corner, making a turn and thankfully seeing him still in his sights, able to easily pick out that hair of his even out of a crowd. So, he tailed him. Sanji didn't seem to be vigilant at all, not noticing the man behind him at all. Or, if he did, he didn't show it but it was fairly easy to follow him. Zoro stayed far enough away that Sanji didn't detect him, but close enough that he wouldn't lose him in case there was another turn.

Finally, he caught sight of Sanji walking in some sort of restaurant. Zoro looked up at the name, noting silently that it was called le Baratie, and wondered what kind of place it was. Most likely Sanji was just hungry and would have found a table somewhere, and Zoro couldn't help but grin to himself. That's when he would confront him, when he would demand an apology and, if not, have a slave to do his homework for him. At least for one night. That wouldn't hurt anything, he was sure, so he took a deep breath and headed on inside.

The door had barely opened and Zoro was pounded by the smell of bread, sugar, and anything and everything that could be baked, sweet, and neither. Zoro's hand flew to his nose, nearly suffocating from the overly sweet smell alone. He had two initial reactions. The first was to run outside so he could breath. The second was to run into the bathroom and cough his lungs out. But he told himself to calm down, it was just sugar, and it was just sweets, and he wrenched his hand down from his nose. It was hard not to gag, but he did a good job holding himself back as he looked around.

The tables looked like they belonged somewhere in France, and there was a pastry case that was practically empty with only a few desserts left. At least, it was almost empty until a big guy with a funny-looking face and large arm muscles that looked more like a gangster than a baker or pastry chef or whatever he was supposed to be came and filled up the case again. It was then that Zoro finally noticed a line of people that had clearly been waiting for a taste of those sweets and pastries. Personally, Zoro didn't get it himself, he couldn't stand sweet things and he never would understand.

But he took a moment to sit down, looking around the place. Sanji was nowhere to be found, and Zoro surmised he might be in the bathroom. So he waited. He waited, and waited, and waited, but no Sanji appeared out of a bathroom. By that time, he began wondering why a punk like Sanji would come to a place like this anyway. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would like this sort of thing at all, especially considering his personality. Sanji appeared over the top in everything, going all out with everything that he did, whether it be fighting or trying to win a woman's heart. He saw it. He didn't mean to, but Zoro saw it. That gold that drew his gaze made him see.

"So, are you going to buy something, or are you going to just sit on your bum, you damn crook?"

Zoro jumped slightly, jarred from his thoughts, and looked up in slight alarm at the person standing by his table. It was the same guy that had refilled the pastry case, but this time he was standing over Zoro and he had a half-sweet, half-I'm-going-to-kill-you kind of smile. Zoro was at a slight loss for words before he finally just cleared his throat, finding his bravado.

"I'm waiting," he answered simply. What he was doing there was none of this guy's business. But the half-sweet smile then changed into a full-on angry frown; he looked very displeased and Zoro braced himself for a fight.

"If you're going to wait, wait outside then," the man said flatly. "If you not a paying customer, get out."

Zoro wondered if this guy really was in some sort of gang.

"I am," Zoro thought for a small moment. "Give me a water-"

"WATER IS FREE YOU DAMN CROOK!" The man was absolutely livid. "Now get out of here, we don't want anyone who doesn't pay!"

Zoro clenched his fists tightly, angry at this luck. He came here to give Sanji a piece of his mind, and he was TOTALLY sure that he saw him come in here, so where did he even go? Did he know that Zoro was following him after all and gave him the slip? Impossible, there was no way he could have known he was being tailed, absolutely impossible.

But the young student, while itching to pick a fight with Sanji, didn't feel like arguing with this stupid guy. He wasn't the one that he came for, not even close, and so Zoro begrudgingly stood up. After shooting the man a look that made him break out into a cold sweat, Zoro turned to leave, only to see it.

That hair.

Zoro whipped his head over his shoulder again, his eyes widening. There was no doubt about it, not anymore. Sanji hadn't given him the slip.

He hadn't figured out that he had been followed.

In fact, Zoro was absolutely sure that he would have never let him follow him to a place like this if he had known. There, in the back, he had seen him; he was wearing a pasty chef's uniform. There was no mistaking him, no way.

It was Sanji, working in a bakery.

a/n

If there was any familiar feelings with this work, it's because I'm remaking an old story of mine called Bitter Sweets. However, it's been a while, and while it's a remake, I want to start fresh and go a different direction with this than originally intended. : ) I hope that it's still loved, and to those of you who followed Bitter Sweets, I'm sorry that I won't have an update for that but hopefully, I can fill the void and you can have another story to enjoy in it's place.