AN: Dear Aerle, Happy Birthday once again (even if it's late) :D
I am sorry that it is so short _ I hope you like it anyway
Disclaimer: I might or might not have gotten inspired by true events.
Op belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Ben blinked. The post was still there. It wasn't a weird hallucination or something.
The man laughed out loud. It was so surreal.
A few days ago, he had gotten into a conversation with a stranger in a supermarket. They had talked about his countless travels out of the country and now, the stranger, a red-haired student like himself, had posted a note on the university's white board where he was looking for him.
"Great man/ Water 7 supermarket/ Alabasta/ cards." was the title. He had clicked on it since it sounded so absurd, remembering the encounter only after reading the description.
Ben stared at the screen, not sure what to do. The little chat they had, had been nice, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to meet the stranger again if he was looking for him like this. Especially since he had confessed that he had rang on doors in the attempt to find him since he had told him that he was going to play cards with friends nearby.
And yet, Ben decided to write the stranger's contact down. One could never know.
Two days later, Ben found the paper with the note in his hands again while sorting the stuff on his table.
He still hadn't decided if he wanted to meet the man again, and yet he opened his mail service and started typing. All of his friends were out of town now anyway, staying with their families out of the city during the break between the semesters, so somebody to spend the time with wouldn't be too bad, Ben concluded.
The reply arrived the same evening, unexpectedly short and yet blunt: the man asked him for coffee.
Once again, Ben wasn't sure what to do, deciding to sleep over it.
Usually, he wasn't one to be indecisive, and yet, he had trouble to set his priorities.
On one hand, the man was a stranger, and a strange one too, but somehow he wanted to get to know him.
In the end, it was the boredom that made him accept the invitation and ignore all the doubts.
They decided to meet the next day, not giving Ben the time to overthink it.
He believed it was for his best, as he already missed his usually so laid-back personality and relaxed mind. Being on edge all the time like this wasn't doing him any good.
A black shirt, blue jeans and his hair in a ponytail like always – Ben would't admit it but he had put some thought into the choice of his clothing. He didn't want to look like he thought of the meeting as a date or something after all.
Especially as the stranger couldn't know that he was gay too. Or wasn't the red-head interested in men? Or had one of them mention it? Ben wasn't sure anymore, but as he never liked to talk about his sexuality the chances were pretty low.
"Hey," the redhead had been waiting in front of the cafe they had agreed on, a bright smile on his face – very charming in Ben's opinion. He didn't remember him this handsome.
"Shanks," the redhead introduced himself and Ben shook his hand.
"Let's get inside," Shanks suggested, still grinning like a fool. "They have really good Irish coffee here."
Ben glanced at his watch, making Shanks laugh.
"It's not like there is much in it," he joked.
Ben gave him a skeptical look, asking himself if he had made the right decision.
In the end, the afternoon turned out as surprisingly enjoyable with Shanks being a born entertainer, and a hot one on top of that.
Before parting, they exchanged phone numbers, promising to get out drinking on the weekend. And the way Shanks looked at his ass, Ben was sure that it could count as a date.