Brook dropped his book bag onto the table, unable to keep his bemused expression from showing early in the morning. A coworker was already putting some freshly brewed, if very cheap, coffee in a Styrofoam cup in front of him. Slowly blinking eyes fixed on the long man as he hesitated to sit down.
"There a problem?" slurred the chemistry teacher. Someone else grunted a similar question.
Brook opened his mouth to respond, then paused. How was he to bring this up in present company? It seemed inappropriate that he do nothing, but at the same time what real harm could it do? Surely it would not be the first time a teacher and a student…
He sighed. "Say, figuratively speaking, I found a stray kitten and fed it some food. Now it won't leave me alone. Besides giving it to the humane society, what am I expected to do?"
The staff at the table were in no position that early in the morning for such things. Several took long drinks of coffee as if that would immediately clear their heads, while others frowned or made faces in thought. The early rising Law cocked an eyebrow as he closed the textbook he had out in front of him.
"Figuratively speaking?" began the young science teacher, "So you didn't feed a stray cat?"
"Not exactly."
"Which means it's not an animal."
"No, well…"
"So a person, maybe?"
"Ah…"
Law exhaled, which sounded miraculously similar to Brook's sigh.
"You met Luffy."
It wasn't a question. Brook opened his mouth to respond – or at least make the attempt – but the sound of notably imperious footsteps approaching the faculty room made him pause.
The door to the faculty room swung open with the smell of pineapple. "Did someone say Luffy?"
The regal woman in the doorway wore a smile that struggled to remain slight, but it faltered when she was nudged aside by a rather large man. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Miss Boa. I thought for a moment Luffy was here and I panicked."
"Not at all, Jinbei." With thinly veiled annoyance, the woman strode to the counter to refill her thermos with hot water. "Though why you would panic because of Luffy is beyond me."
"I couldn't avoid him all summer," rumbled Jinbei, staring off into the air at something only he could see, or remember. "My kids won't stop asking to see him now. All they want to do is play at the beach with him."
"I wouldn't mind enjoying the beach with him."
"I've no doubt you would take it upon yourself to reapply his sunscreen at least five times."
"He needs to be protected! I would bring lunch along, and maybe dinner too, and enough snacks to last between meals. Plenty of water to keep him hydrated out in the sun, and an extra change of clothes or two, just in case."
Law exhaled again in a manner that was still suspiciously alike to a heavy sigh. "We know, Hancock. All you want to do is carry him around in your pocket."
"Law, please remember to call me Boa."
Brook had felt his frown deepening for some time now. "Pardon my interruption, but you are all personally familiar with Luffy? D Monkey?"
"Familiar?" scoffed Law, "I had him for science last year. His first class of high school. Kid wouldn't leave me alone after that. Still pops up. I don't even know how he figures out where I am…"
The science teacher took on the same far-off expression as Jinbei's.
"Then," said Brook as he looked from teacher to teacher, "It isn't strange for him to declare me, a member of faculty, a friend?"
Jinbei released a deep, rumbling laugh. Dropping his bag into an empty chair, the history teacher clapped a large hand sympathetically on Brook's shoulder.
"There's no point in trying to escape now," he said solemnly, "You're just going to have to bear with it. But you have to tell us, I'm curious – how did it happen?"
The tall student counselor took a deep draught of his coffee before replying simply. "The flood."
Sanji couldn't see a thing. He felt lethargic and gross, like he needed to drink a lot of water, but not that water outside. The rain was coming down like a waterfall rather than individual drops. It was as if the bus was plowing through a car wash, and more than once Sanji found himself fantasizing about the vehicle sliding around a corner and flipping over. That only served to provide him with a sudden spike of panic when the bus made a particularly sharp left turn. Next time, he'd force Zeff to drive him to school, regardless of kitchen prep.
It had been about twenty minutes since he'd gotten on the bus in the first place, which meant the school would be coming up soon. Though he could barely see, Sanji thought he recognized the blurry glowing M of the McDonalds a block from the school. When the green streetlights passed overhead, he yanked down on the yellow string until the requested stop sign lit up with a ping. As the bus slowed he got to his feet and waited at the back doors, umbrella at the ready. This would be nothing short of an adventure.
The doors opened to a blast of cold, wet air and what felt like chunks of ice stinging his face. Sucking in a breath, Sanji leapt out of the bus simultaneous to swinging his black umbrella open and up. He was pretty sure his feet were soaked as soon as they touched the pavement, and the rain was already finding just where to drip off the umbrella to drench the back of his legs. Clutching his bag close to his chest, the student walked briskly back to the intersection, taking the chance and jaywalking when he didn't see the glowing eyes of oncoming traffic from either direction. The dense overlapping canopy of the trees on the high school campus, forming a sort of dark tunnel towards the courtyard and beyond that, the school, did not provide much cover. The rain was so heavy and so plentiful that some of the branches seemed to be drooping under the pressure. It was still an improvement from the open sky, so Sanji wasn't so quick to grumble about it. Instead he just walked a little faster, because he was certain the morning announcements were about to start, and he really needed a dry pair of socks before he was in any condition to actually learn anything.
Another couple students were on the same path as Sanji. One had an umbrella the same vibrant hue of orange as her hair and rain boots, with a little green cutout of a leaf jutting out of the middle so it looked like an orange. Sanji thought it was kind of cute, actually, but not nearly so much as its owner. He considered all the conversation starters he had for situations like this. It would've been ideal if she had forgotten her umbrella, but there were plenty of other things he could open with.
A gust of wind, amplified by the tunnel created by the trees, tore at the umbrella in Sanji's hand. Without thinking, he tipped it down against the wind until it subsided, though by then his back had gotten splattered with wet. Quickly he readjusted, pushing damp hair back from his forehead. Just as he lowered his hand he saw a red and white striped blur cartwheel past him, with a cry from up ahead. As he looked, the redhead outstretched an arm with some words that Sanji couldn't hear, pulling what had to be the smallest freshman he had ever seen beneath her orange umbrella.
Incredibly, Sanji felt a little jealous.
At the end of the tunnel, Sanji realized they'd stopped walking. He paused as well, allowing his umbrella to overlap just slightly above the redhead's. The puny, soaked creature between them looked up at Sanji.
"Not going to try and make a run for it?" asked Sanji with a grin.
"There's no way," said the redhead, "You might want to block the wind, though."
"We're out of the tunnel."
The girl shrugged as if to say suit yourself, and lowered her umbrella. Sanji thought that was foolish, and the freshman beside her tensed up, but when the rain suddenly started going horizontal instead of vertical, and Sanji's umbrella went whipping back down the way they'd come, he figured it probably would've been smartest just to listen to her.
There went any notion of keeping at least partially dry.
The redhead lifted her umbrella as the gust subsided. Without another word she strode out under the sky, forcing the kid beside her to stick glued to her side. Sanji saw an opportunity then, and his legs were already pulling him out into the torrential downpour that the trees only sort of kept at bay, but the largest umbrella he had ever seen was suddenly blocking his path. Or at least, that was his first impression. A couple seconds later he realized there was a person standing beside him, holding out his definitely broken black umbrella.
"You dropped this," said the long-nosed youth, "It nearly took my head off, and only my superb dodging skills saved my life, but you can have it back if you want."
Sanji took the sad thing in his hands, looking down at it with water dripping off the end of his nose. "Thanks, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be very useful anymore."
"What? Sure it can."
"The ribs are all bent." He shook the umbrella for proof. It rattled pathetically.
"You can just bend them back in place."
"It won't be as good as it was brand new. I'll just buy a new one."
"I can probably fix it. I mean, I can. Good as new. It's the easiest thing in the world to do. But not right here."
"Oh, so you'll do that for me? Great. Lend me your dry spot till we get to the school."
From where they stood, Sanji could see just the barest silhouette of the girl and the runt making it to the shelter of the overhang in front of the school's entrance. It looked as though they weren't the only ones having just arrived, but it seemed like they weren't going inside.
The teenager beside him was saying something about that one time he fought off a kidnapper at the age of ten with a metal umbrella spoke. Sanji made some sound that made it seem like he was paying attention, when he was squinting towards the bright orange umbrella, and that apparently was an invitation for more stories. With a nudge that was maybe a little too hard for a first meeting, Sanji got the other boy walking with him towards the building. Each step made him more miserable, and he felt as though his socks had become sponges. Despite the obvious lake in his shoes, Sanji still made the effort to step over the growing puddles, while the teenager beside him took flying leaps over them and forced Sanji to duck and lunge under the umbrella. As soon as they were beneath the protection of the overhand, Sanji released a sigh and took to assessing the water damage on his backpack as they approached the small group of students hanging outside the entrance.
A tall man with an incredible afro – were teachers even allowed to have long hair? – was speaking to the group. With a long-fingered hand he gestured into the building, and as Sanji and the long-nosed student beside him neared, he realized the teacher, or counselor as he recognized him, was saying that the school was closed.
"Well, shit," said a lanky kid that looked as though he had run to school without an umbrella. Mud was splashed all over his legs and not even a swim in a lake could make a person look that wet.
Beside him was an equally soaked teen that was busily wringing the water out of his shirt. "What're the chances, huh?"
"Did any of you check the website?" asked a tall girl that had to be a senior by the way she held herself.
The two sodden specimens wore two very different expressions of confusion. A massive guy with ridiculous blue hair – even more bizarre than the shade of green from that waterlogged guy – looked equally bemused. Sanji, despite not having checked himself, somehow still managed to eye them with disdain.
The counselor spoke up at the warning flag that was the orange girl's sigh. "Of course, you're not the only ones that have shown up. That's why I'm here, just to make sure the students are aware the third floor has flooded."
"It flooded?" Orange-girl's companion, who was taller now that he wasn't hunched under the thrashing of rain, had his round doe eyes glued to the counselor's face in amazement. "Is there a foot of water? Is it like a pool? Would we have to use boats to go from class to class?"
"Boats in school? That sounds super."
"I would get a ship and sail through the halls –"
"I already have a ship. A pirate ship. I've sailed it across the Atlantic –"
"– if I built a ship –"
"– possibly drown –"
"– call bullshit –"
Sanji listened to them talk over each other, with the long-nosed teen now impressing the not-so-short runt with a regaling tale about sea monsters, and the blue-haired fellow dropping all sorts of random ship construction facts to the tall girl who was looking politely interested, and the two soaked rats were laughing about something that Sanji was pretty certain had something to do with someone using the word but in interesting context.
Orange-girl was watching them all while shaking her head, and the counselor seemed rather perplexed, probably because all the other students had bailed out as soon as they learned school was out. As for Sanji, he knew the bus wasn't coming back for another half hour, maybe longer in the rain, and this company was a lot more interesting than standing under a dilapidated bus shelter that reeked of marijuana.
"Luffy!" crowed the black-haired rat, loud enough that he claimed the attention of everyone present. "That's my name. Who're you guys?"
Something about his expression made Sanji feel as though he was about to find himself in a rather deep hole, partially self-dug and perpetually getting deeper. But such a vague feeling it was that he dismissed it as soon as green-haired rat introduced himself as Zoro, and the long-nose was Usopp, and he didn't want to be the only one nameless.
"I'm Sanji," he said, trying not to let his gaze flicker too obviously between the two ladies.
"Nami," said orange-girl, whose name was as delightful to hear as her face was to look upon. "I'm parked across the road, if anyone needs a ride headed into cottage country."
Luffy flung up an arm, and Zoro made a sound that might've meant he was going in that direction too.
"My name's Chopper," said the runt, and then flushed, "I mean, Tony. But e-everyone calls me Chopper."
"Franky," said the blue-haired guy.
"Robin," smiled the lovely lady.
There was a pause in which everyone automatically looked towards the teacher. Then their expectations fizzled as they realized they were looking expectantly at a man twice their age, who wasn't meant to be their friend, but a figure of authority – but then Luffy was still staring at him with a massive smile as if this middle-aged man was welcome.
The counselor cleared his throat awkwardly. "Please refer to me as Mr. Brook. I'm the guidance counselor, if you ever require support or advice. Now I think it would be best if you all head home. The school isn't going to dry out anytime soon."
Luffy didn't seem to care about the school so much as the people right in front of him. "Great. I'm can't wait to see you guys at school, too."
Something about that felt foreboding.
"Sure," said Nami, "Anyway, I'm not going to wait around here. If you guys need a ride…?"
"Coming!" Clearly without a second thought, Luffy grabbed his fellow soaked rat by the wrist and practically dragged him over to stand beside the redhead.
"I'll be off as well, then," said Robin, smiling politely at them all, "Don't get into any tragic accidents."
"See ya!" said Franky.
"Uh, bye!" chirped Chopper.
And suddenly there was a non-stop jumble of farewells and goodbyes that felt awkward, oddly amusing and completely normal at the same time, like this was something that Sanji did all the time. He felt his mouth quirking into a grin more than once, an expression that was caught by Usopp and Chopper both and the slighter of the two gazed at him as if he was a gentle monster. Then, when at last the counselor, Brook, had managed to shoo them off, Sanji found himself once again under Usopp's giant umbrella, this time with Chopper on his other side as well. Together, with Nami and her tagalongs a half pace ahead of them, they returned to the main intersection through the tree tunnel, Luffy and Usopp warring with their chatter the entire way.
It was at the bus stop, while Chopper had left them to wait at the opposing stop on the other side of the road, that Sanji learned he lived in the same direction as Usopp, and they used the same bus to get to school. When the bus picked them up and ten minutes later Usopp was the first of them to get off, Sanji – most likely without fully realizing – told him he'd see him the next week. It was an innocent farewell, like when most people meant nothing by "see you later". But he had been specific, and set a date, and Sanji realized a minute later when he replayed the entirety of the scene at the school that he meant it.
A/N: Updates will be a bit slow after the first chapter because exams are coming and I don't want to hate myself this year for procrastinating.
