Zoro watched the boy with mild fascination, leaning against the brick building. The boy easily dodged the people in the crowd, not even grazing them. He almost looked like a liquid, slipping through impossible spaces, and just as quick. The black-haired boy very nearly bumped into someone's stroller, but he sidestepped it at the last second and continued making his way through the crowd. Zoro realized the boy was heading straight to him, as if on purpose.
Zoro chased that thought away. Why would some kid just randomly walk up to him in the streets? Especially him, who looked like a terrorist. But the boy kept heading to him, expertly avoiding a few bikers, a smile on his face. But Zoro couldn't see his eyes, as the kid had a hat covering the upper half of his face. Zoro snorted slightly when someone tried to purposely trip the raven, but the boy just stepped over their foot as if it wasn't there in the first place.
Looking at the ground, losing interest in the boy, Zoro started to wonder where he was going to stay tonight. He couldn't seem to find his way back to his hotel room (he was NOT lost, thank you very much!), no matter what he tried. The directions he got from some people were totally useless. He absently touched the three swords against the wall beside him, as if they could tell him how to get back home. But all that they did was steal the warmth from his hand.
"Hello!" came a cheerful voice from right in front of him. He jumped slightly, then looked up. Yep, it was that boy. He really had been heading his way.
"What do you want, brat?" Zoro growled, trying to sound intimidating. But the boy just laughed off his threatening voice.
"You seemed lost. Do you even have anywhere to stay?" he asked curiously, tilting his head but not quite showing his face.
"What's it to you?" Zoro snarled. "You're just a stranger I don't even know." The boy suddenly stuck out a hand. It was pretty small compared to Zoro's, but that was because the kid was pretty short. I mean really short.
"Hi, I'm a stranger you don't even know! And you are?" he said jokingly. Zoro could feel the corners of his mouth struggling to rise, but he kept a straight face as he shook the boy's hand. It was almost as cold as ice. Zoro raised a brow slightly, but the stranger didn't seem to notice.
"Hey, stranger. I'm the pizza man. Have we met before?" he said, playing along.
"No, I don't think we have, my good man!" the hat-wearing boy said in an awful fake accent, leaning against a street light Zoro hadn't noticed before.
"Well, that's a relief. For a second, I thought you were one of those guys that think I owe them the world," Zoro grunted, a grin sonehow crawling across his face. A comfortable silence fell, with the boy pretending to be smoking a pipe.
"Beautiful day, no?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah, I guess," Zoro answered, looking up at the sky. It really was a nice day outside.
"Too bad I can't see it." Zoro's gaze snapped to the boy, who was still smiling and doing his horrible accent, all the while pretending he was holding the pipe in his hand.
"Huh?"
"Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you. I can hear you, but I can't see you. I'm blind," the boy said, lifting the brim of his hat to reveal milky, light blue pupils. They were unfocused, glassy, and seemed to look around without really seeing anything. But the boy's smile was as wide as ever.
"By the way, what's the color of your hair?" he asked nonchalantly, covering his eyes again, as if he hadn't just said he was blind. That he didn't just go through a completely crowded street so easily when he couldn't even see the road ahead of him.
"Er... green..." Zoro answered absently, not knowing that he answered.
"How about your eyes?"
"They're just black..."
"How about... Do you have anything that I could use to find you again, if I need to?" It was a curious question, almost like a joke, but Zoro could feel the meaning behind it.
"What, is the sound of my wonderful voice not enough? Fine, I guess you could tell it's me because I usually have three swords with me," Zoro said, watching the boy's face light up.
"Three swords? Really?" he asked eagerly, getting off of the light pole to lean beside Zoro. Reaching out a hand, slowly, tentatively, he lightly touched one of the swords resting against the bricks beside him. He slowly ran his hand over it, his fingers barely skimming it's surface. Then he reached for the next one, doing the same thing.
"What are you doing?" Zoro asked, watching him feel the third one.
"Remembering how they feel so I know it's you," the boy answered. "Is your name Zoro?"
"Wha-how did you know?" Zoro spluttered, no longer against the wall.
"It's engraved on this one," the blind boy explained, lightly touching the white one in the middle. He seemed to trace something with a finger. "Right here." Zoro looked where the raven's finger was, and saw exactly what the boy had said. He grunted slightly.
"You must be pretty sensitive if you could feel that. I didn't even carve it that deep," Zoro commented, relaxing once again.
"My name's Luffy. Nice to meet you, Zoro," the boy said, smiling brighter than the sun.
"Nice to meet you, too, Luffy," Zoro greeted, not even trying to stop his smile.