A/N: Hello everyone and all future readers! This is going to my first story so I'm hoping you will all enjoy it as I enjoy writing it. Now I'll just you know now that I'm a college student with 2 jobs right now with a constant video game addiction due to my dream of being a professional gamer. So updates will most likely be sporadic, but please don't let that stop you from enjoying the story! Now without further ado, Romantic Default!
"I love you! Please marry me!" A young man exhaled as he was on one knee. He wasn't wearing a suit, actually far from it with the beat up jeans, red long sleeve shirt, and for some reason, a straw hat to cover his messy black hair. Now the man was giving his biggest smile while holding flowers out to the girl, roses to be exact. But from the look on her face, she wasn't interested. Now this woman was a very beautiful girl, long silky black hair, a curvaceous body, killer waist, long slender legs, smooth skin, with the face of a goddess along with a beautiful voice. She was looking good. Especially in her black leggings with high black boots, and purple sweater with a black scarf to compliment the outfit. She would have been perfect if it wasn't for her look of, well, disgust could be the word most would use, maybe disdain? Either way, she wasn't looking happy. She crossed her arms and scoffed.
"Me? Marry you?" She said taking steps toward the man, the man started to lose his composure as she got closer. He could tell she wasn't pleased at all, especially since it was in the middle of the mall, with bystanders looking on at them. Granted the woman usually enjoys attention, but not if its like this. She continued forward, grabbing his roses.
"Now tell me, Luffy, this is about the third proposal you made this year, and I've declined every time, what makes you think I would say yes now?" She said, dropping the flowers and stepping on them. The man named Luffy winced when she stepped on the flowers he bought. Well this won't be good. Now feeling awkward, Luffy decided to stand up and meet eye to eye with her, we'll try to anyway, he would like to meet eye to eye but he is too embarrassed to look at her. He brushes his head and sighs, feeling disappointed at his third confession.
"Look, Hancock. During university, we were always together, and talked about getting married all the time. Then all of sudden you broke up with me after graduation day. Yes I've proposed to you multiple times, this is because I still think we have something!" Luffy pleaded, looking at Hancock, searching her eyes for anything, but all he found were cold brown eyes, Hancock broke eye contact and let out a dry chuckle.
"You think we still have something? Luffy, that's just it, we never had anything! You talked about us being together everyday but not once did you ever kiss me, hug me, made love to me even!" Hancock burst out, looking back at Luffy with seething eyes. Luffy flinched, afraid what was about to come in the middle of the mall. She started getting closer to Luffy.
"Not once have we ever done a thing a couple would do and that's because you are clueless! You have no idea how men and women act together and at the age of 23 that's absurd!" Hancock screamed in the middle of the mall, Luffy slowly stepping back as Hancock stepped forward, people looking on with interest now at the poor young man.
"I would try to make moves on you but you wouldn't even catch them! Even when I stripped in front of you!" She exclaimed, Luffy, red as a tomato, crunching his neck trying to hide his embarrassment from the crowd now gathering around them. He looked up slightly to see her flustered as well, but hers was from anger.
"Hancock, I'm sorry, I didn't know anything and there are reasons for that, all I'm asking for is a second chance" Luffy said, lifting his head to look at Hancock. Hancock looked at him for moment, then looked away
"No Luffy, you had all four years of university, and you did nothing, you had your chance, and I know you still know nothing about romance" Hancock said, Luffy looked down, saddened at her words, not because they hurt, but because she was right, he knew nothing about romance. Luffy looked back up to see Hancock walking away, fear sprung him forward as he rushed to her.
"Wait Hancock! What if I do become romantic? What if I learned about romance? Then what?" Luffy said trying to catch up, Hancock didn't look back, she just waved her hand and let out a chuckle.
"If that ever happens I'll marry you on the spot!" Hancock exclaimed while leaving the mall, Luffy didn't chase after her, instead he thought about what she said. It's great that Hancock is giving Luffy a chance, but how does he learn about romance? Luffy started to walk around the mall just thinking about it.
'I mean, I could always look it up online? Would that work?' Luffy paused to think about it a little more before he kept walking shaking his head.
'Look it up online? Yeah like that would ever work, this is something that i just can't learn on a whim, this I actually need experience, it's the only way' Luffy paused again and thought about it some, sitting on a bench in the mall.
'Okay experience seems like the best way, but how do I get experience?' Luffy stroked his chin a bit, pondering his own question, how does anyone get any experience? Luffy sat for sometime now, listening to his own thoughts.
'You need someone else to get experience, and from how Hancock acted, I'm sure she wouldn't help me. And well, I hate to admit it, but I need someone with a LOT of experience in romance, because I have none' Luffy got up from the bench and left the mall to walk to his car, a 2015 Dodge Challenger, a gift from his dad. Luffy unlocked his car and started her up. Happy at his graduation put his straw hat in the back seat of his car, not wanting to crush it against his head rest as it was very important to him. Luffy left the parking lot and began thinking while driving.
'Well now I know what to do, but how am I suppose to do this? I mean I can't just date someone just for experience and leave them. That's wrong. So who would be willing to do it if I told them?' Luffy said as he drove through town. Stopping at a red light, Luffy began to think about it some more, so much that he decided to pull over, so he could put all of his attention into thinking. Luffy parked the car on the side of a street when the light turned green, thinking about all this as he did so.
'Maybe if I told someone prior what I'm doing they might be willing to help? No no no, that even sounds stupid in my head. You would have to have abundant amount of free time, not to mention I would be wasting their time. If I paid them though? Yeah, that seems like a good idea, I don't think anyone would complain about me paying them to help me. However, finding someone with enough free time, that's willing to do this, and who would take my money while doing all of this just seems a little absurd. I mean, who would waste their time like that? It's not like people do this for a living.' Luffy thought to himself. Now Luffy being tired and done with thinking decided to call it night and went to start his car. Until he heard a tap on his passenger side window. Luffy looked to see a woman with long curly orange hair with bright brown eyes. She was curling her hair in one finger whiling giving Luffy, from what he could tell, a smirk, biting her lip and pressing her chest onto the window. Luffy was kind of confused as to why she was even there, especially in the middle of the night in what seemed like a bad neighborhood. Luffy, noticing her motion her hand, deciphered that she must want him to roll down his window, so naturally he obliged. She smiled at Luffy and leaned in the car a bit, having her big bosom hang from her low cut crop top. Luffy was surprised to see her wear such clothing in the middle of fall, well at least she is wearing a jacket, granted that's also as small as her crop top and is unzipped, but it was black leather so it looked nice at least. Before Luffy could finish his thoughts, the woman went to speak.
"I've never seen you around here before, did something peek your interest?" She asked while squeezing her arms a little, to push her breast even more. Luffy, blushing at her, glance at her chest then back at her, she smiled wider, noticing his line of view. She giggled
"Well, I usually charge 50 an hour, but seeing as this your first time, I'll charge you 40," she said, twirling her hair some more. Luffy quirked an eyebrow, obviously pretty confused now, well even more so then before. I mean just some random attractive girl, tells you to roll down your window and is now asking for money. Now she was very attractive, but she was nothing compared to his Hancock, that's for sure, she was close, others might say she is prettier, but not Luffy.
"Um, why do I need 40 bucks?" He questioned, the woman just blinked a couple times. Before she just chuckled.
"Sweetie, don't play dumb, a lot of men do this. It's okay, no need to be shy. We could keep it at a no name basis if you'd like" She said with a wink. Luffy was however still very confused, even more so now.
"Um no, i don't care what people think about me, I'm just curious to why you are in my window, when I don't even know your name" Luffy said, the woman kind of paused for a second. She was wondering if this guy was serious, like he really had no idea what was going on. She just sighed.
"Look kid, how old are you, 16? 17?" She asked, looking a little annoyed now. Luffy kind of scrunched his eye brows, also getting a little annoyed.
"I'm 23" he said, she looked at him to see if he was lying to her, he wasn't from what she could tell.
"You're 23 and you have no idea what's going on right now?" She said leaning out of his car and crossing her arms under her chest. He kind of just looked to the side a little embarrassed at her words.
"Yeah I really don't, I'm sorry" Luffy said, she just stared at him for moment more before sighing.
"Well, I usually don't explain these things, but I guess I should so you don't waste anyone else's time around here." She said, shivering a bit as it was pretty cold out. Luffy just realized how cold it was with the window rolled down. He looked at her to see her wearing a very skimpy tight dress that didn't even reach her mid thigh with high heels. So she was not dressed appropriately for this weather. Luffy feels pretty bad for wasting her time now.
"You can get in my car if you want, I know it's really cold out, after all it is late October, and I never did catch your name?" he said looking at her. The woman looked back at him kind of skeptical, wondering if she should waste more time, she checked her watch to see what time it was, she eventually just shrugged and hopped in the car, figuring it's better than standing out in the cold. Plus she's gone with stranger people. She sat down and put her seat belt on, putting her hands up to the heater. Luffy smiled at her happy that she got in away from the cold. No one should be out in the cold looking like that!
"My name is Nami by the way" she said while blowing hot air into her hands. Luffy nodded acknowledging he heard her. So they kind of just sat there for a minute until Nami looked at him then back outside.
"Are we going to leave?" Nami said looking at Luffy
"Huh? Why?" Luffy said confused, Nami just rolled her eyes.
"Look, people will think it's weird if we don't leave, people think I'm doing my job right now" Nami said looking out the window at everyone walking down the streets. Luffy looked out too and noticed he wasn't the only car stopping. He also noticed that Nami wasn't the only girl in skimpy clothing when it's so cold outside.
"I'm confused" Luffy said as he started to drive down the block. Nami looked at Luffy waiting for him to explain further. "How come all these girl are just walking around, barely wearing anything, in the middle of fall?" Luffy asked as he looked around while keeping a careful eye on the road. Nami just sighed and shook her head.
"I can't believe you don't know about any of this" Nami said this as she was trying to get comfortable in her chair. Pushing her skirt up a bit, Luffy glanced at her wondering why she was moving so much until he noticed her skirt move up a bit. Blushing, he looked back at the road. Nami yawned, feeling a little sleepy after getting comfy. "What's your name?" Nami asked, realizing she never did get a name. She looked at him to see his hair move a little from the heater and his piercing black eyes looking down the road. She also noticed his arm muscles bulging from his tight sweater as his left hand gripped the steering wheel while his right hand would rest on the stick shift, which revealed a good portion of his neck and chest which were clearly defined. Nami flushed a bit and decided to face forward.
'He's pretty handsome for someone who seems so clueless about romance' she thought to her self. They stopped at a stop sign and Luffy put the car in neutral to not ride the clutch.
"Luffy" he started, Nami looked at him again and this time Luffy looks back, piercing her brown eyes with his onyx eyes, Nami just noticed the scar which lay under his left eye. She breathed in then exhaled softly, hoping he wouldn't notice her slight change of composure. She faced forward again and so did he, switching to first to leave the stop sign. Nami shook her head clearing it.
'That scar, it looks good on him' Nami thought to herself.
"Well Luffy, the reason why all those girls looked like that, is because of their job" Nami said, Luffy frowned a bit
"Their job?"
"Yes Luffy their job, you see, like me, those girls figured the best way to make money would be to sell their body to help men, relieve their stress" Nami said as Luffy kept driving along, Nami glance at Luffy to see if he understood her meaning, Luffy in return nodded, letting her know that he knew what she meant.
"So that's why when you stopped there, I walked up to your car because I thought you were a potential customer, know what I'm trying to say?" She said, Luffy glance at her, then back at the road in front of him, his cheeks a tad redder than before.
"So, you thought I was there to pick up a girl to have sex with?" Luffy asked, Nami just nodded. They remained silent for a little bit. It was an awkward mood because Luffy understood what him and Nami could have done. Nami laughs a little all of sudden which kind of surprises Luffy.
"You know Luffy? I'm actually kind of happy this happened because you caught me at the end of my shift, and I really didn't feel like going out with another asshole" Nami said, smiling to herself a bit. Luffy laughs a bit too.
"Well, you're welcome, and thanks for explaining all of this to me. I really don't feel like making an ass out of myself again" Luffy said and this time they both laughed a little bit. It was good though because Nami did really teach Luffy something important about the world. Wait a minute. Luffy's eyes widen a bit as a thought came to his head.
'Maybe, just maybe, she could teach me about romance. I mean after all she probably has more romance in one night than I've ever had. Not to mention if I just pay her for the time I'm sure she won't mind.'
"Nami, I have a proposition for you that you might like" Luffy started, Nami kind of surprised at his words just looked at him for a moment then back forward.
"I'm listening" Nami said waiting expectantly.
"Well, the thing is, I don't know anything about romance or anything of the sort, someone I love broke up with me because I'm romantically declined" Luffy said, Nami just nodded again, not really knowing where he is going with this. "I was hoping Nami, that maybe you could teach me about romance" Luffy finished. Nami looks at Luffy and blinks once, twice, then burst out into laughter. Luffy cringes at it because of her loud laughter in his car along with him being a little embarrassed. Nami held her hands to her gut, kicking his floor from laughing, Luffy getting redder as she does so. Nami started to wipe at her eyes and breath in, settling down a bit.
"Luffy, you do know I'm a busy person right? I do this every day! I don't have the luxury to help you" Nami said, Luffy this time goes into his pocket and hands Nami something. Nami grabs it and notices it's a hundred dollar bill. Nami is a little dumbfounded by this.
"I'll pay you to help me Nami, how much do you make a week?" Luffy asked, Nami was still eyeing the hundred in her hand. She snapped out of it with a shake of her hand and began thinking a bit.
"Well, it will be winter soon, because of the holidays to come business is a little slow, plus my boss takes a percentage of the earnings, let's see. . ." Nami thought out loud to herself. Luffy, still waiting on an answer just decided to give her a few more hundreds.
"Nami, I'll pay you 400 a week to help me. I'll let you live at my place plus you can use my utilities and eat my food. Is that a fair price?" Luffy asked, Nami was once again dumbfounded by this, she looked at the money, then remembered what care she was in. So she surmised that Luffy is probably living fairly well, probably better than her in all honesty. Nami just sighed.
"Okay I agree to those terms, but-" before she could finish Luffy just let a happy yell as he started shaking her hand.
"Thank you so much Nami, this means a lot to me!" He said with a big goofy smile, Nami blushed a bit before she pulls her hands away.
"Hey keep your eyes on the road!" Nami yelled as she looked from him to the road, Luffy quickly looked back and repositioned his car to make sure nothing was wrong. Luffy glanced at her.
"So can you come over tonight?" Luffy asked, Nami sighed.
"Yes yes, I can but I need to go back to my place and get some things first" Nami said, Luffy just nodded. Nami gave him directions to which Luffy just put into his GPS. So he started driving to Nami's place. when he pulled up to her place he was surprised to see how, well, how anyone could live here really. It was an apartment building so you would think she lived in a nice apartment? But nope, she lived in a very small studio apartment that fit a bed, a dresser, and on top of that dresser, a T.V. and a lamp. Luffy was quite dumbfounded considering the place didn't look that bad outside. Luffy was quite shocked to see a place so small and cramped be so dirty, empty cup of ramen, old Chinese, pizza boxes, you could tell it was unsanitary, but he wasn't about to say anything, that would be rude. Nami was going through her dresser grabbing some clothes to throw in a duffle bag. When she was done with that she opened up a door to reveal a tiny bathroom where she grabbed her essentials for hygiene along with makeup and any other stuff that would be in a woman's bathroom.
"Do you need help with anything?" Luffy asked, Nami shut the bathroom door for moment then reappeared in a pair of jeans and a fluffy winter coat with a beanie, she zipped up her now full as can be duffle bag and threw it at Luffy, who caught it ungraciously.
"Just carry that, now let's head to your place" Nami said. As soon as they left the apartment, Nami locked her door, wiggled the door knob to make sure it was locked, then they left.
Luffy and Nami drove back to Luffy's place and Nami was pleased with what she saw. Luffy lived in a condominium on the upper side of town. Nami and Luffy started they're walk to the building and into the lobby, to which they were greeted by a tall man with a afro. Nami quirked an eyebrow at the man with afro, who return just smiled and rose his cane.
"Yohohoho~ Luffy! It's good to see you back, and with a lovely lady as well!" The man said with a laugh, Nami was curious of the man seeing as he was so weird. Luffy just smiled and laughed a little at brook.
"Shishishi. Well Brook I'm happy to see you as well. Oh and this is Nami, she'll be staying with me for a while" Luffy said gesturing towards Nami. Nami walked forward brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear while sticking out her other hand.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you" she said with a slight smile. Brook smiled and shook her hand.
"Well Nami, you are already better than the last girl that's for sure, yohohoho~" Brook said, Nami quirked her eyebrow while Luffy just hurried their handshake.
"Right well thanks Brook! We'll see ya tomorrow!" Luffy said as he escorted Nami away from Brook. Brook just sighed.
"Dammit Luffy. . . I didn't even asked to see her panties" Brook said, sighing to himself again.
Nami thought it was a little strange how Luffy cut off Brook so abruptly, but she didn't say anything about it, after all she could care less about the man. She just wants to see where she'll be living now. Luffy and Nami got on the elevator, Luffy push the tenth floor button.
"You live on tenth floor?" Nami asked him, Luffy looked at her.
"Yeah, why else would I push the button?" Luffy asked, Nami just rolled her eyes.
"No, living on the tenth floor is great if the condo has a nice view, that's pretty romantic if you ask me" Nami said, Luffy mentally face palmed for never thinking about something like that.
"Well, good thing you're here Nami, otherwise I'd be doomed" Luffy said as the elevator dinged. Nami nodded with a chuckle and followed Luffy out of the elevator. Nami noticed that there was only four door on the tenth floor. Nami thought this was quite strange as the building seemed so big. Luffy began walking to the first door on the left, door number 2. Luffy dug around in his pockets trying to feel his keys. Nami was still looking around, as even the hall was quite spacious and fancy. She was kind of wandering around lost in thought, taking in the fancy artwork on the wall, the glass chandelier, it was all quite fascinating, much better than what she was used to. She still in a slight daze when she heard a click, she stopped her thoughts and turned her head to see Luffy's door open. Luffy looked to smile at Nami. Nami began walking over to Luffy, who in return, opened his door wider for her. Nami walked inside to see quite a spacious room. Luffy had white carpeting with a white couch, which faced a big flat screen T.V. Hanging on the wall. Nami walked after leaving her shoes at the door. Nami noticed that Luffy had a spiral staircase that led upstairs. Strange that one would have an upstairs in a condo, or any apartment. Upon further inspection the stairs led to a open bedroom hanging above the living room, very fancy she thought. She started to walk over to the stair case until she heard Luffy call from the kitchen.
"Would you like some coffee? Maybe tea?" Luffy offered. Nami looked at the kitchen which was connected to the living room by a circular entry way, it was quite pretty. Nami walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
"Coffee is fine" Nami said as she studied his kitchen further. His kitchen was also quite nice, with a nice granite counter and a island sink. Very nice Nami thought as she looked at his clean cabinets and double door steel refrigerator. Next to it was Luffy digging through his clean white cabinets grabbing some coffee. Nami smirked.
'This is something I could get used to' Nami thought as she slouched in her chair a bit.
"You know Luffy, it would have been a good opportunity to offer me some wine if you have any" Nami said to Luffy who filled a coffee filter with some coffee grains.
"What's it matter? Isn't coffee or tea fine?" Luffy asked, Nami sighed and then rolled her eyes.
"Luffy, wine is a very romantic beverage, especially at night." Nami said, Luffy looked at Nami, then back at the coffee. Luffy looked down as he sighed. The coffee still brewing, Luffy sat down at the kitchen table across from Nami, looking downtrodden.
"Yeah so I have no idea how I'm supposed to all of sudden become romantic, especially if it's been 23 years and I haven't got an ounce of romance in me" Luffy said, looking at the table. Nami didn't really know what to say, I mean what could she say? Being oblivious to any sort of romanticism by man or woman at the age of 23 is unheard of. Some might say impossible.
"How do you not know anything though? Didn't your parents or your friends teach you anything? Even the Internet maybe?" Nami asked, Luffy sighed as he played with his thumbs.
"Well, I grew up without my mom, and my dad wasn't home much because of work. So it was really just me until my best friends Ace and Sabo came along. They opened me up to the world of playing and working. They knew my dad wasn't home too much so they kind of showed me how to do things. I guess on that list wasn't how to get a girl" Luffy said, standing to grab some mugs for coffee. "How do you like your coffee?" Luffy asked
"Some sugar and creamer is fine" Nami said as she dug into her purse to grab her money to count after a long days work. Luffy set a mug in front of Nami and sat across from her again.
"You made that much money today?" Luffy asked kind of surprised. Nami looked up for moment, pausing her counting to take a sip of her coffee.
"Yeah but it's not as much as I usually make. I'm used to a couple hundred more bucks, sometimes doubling that" Nami said as she continued to count her money. Luffy just sipped at his coffee.
"Well that's not surprising, you are a beautiful girl after all" Luffy said, he winced as he burnt his tongue on his coffee, so he got up to grab a glass of water. Meanwhile Nami looked down into her lap flustered from his words. When came back after drinking his water he noticed Nami looking down.
"Something wrong Nami" Luffy asked, Nami shook her head snapping out of her thoughts as she looked at Luffy.
"Maybe you're not so hopeless after all, Luffy"
A/N: There you have it folks! I hoped you enjoyed! Comment some tips I hope! Anyway have a good one!