A/N: Hmm… everything was pretty much in the summary thing… is that what it's called? I forget. Anyway, I'll just say this for the rest of the story so that I don't have to do it at the beginning of every chapter.

Warning: Rated M for a reason. MalexMale action. Swearing. Violence. And if anything new comes up I'll post. I you do not like it, I would advise you to stop reading. Any other stuff…? Oh, Luffy will be very OOC in this fic. I just don't think his overly energetic character would go with this plot so I made him a bit… solemn…

Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece.

Anyway, hope you enjoy~~~


Chapter 1

The Guy

It was raining heavily. Then again I already knew. I always had a knack for predicting the weather whenever I glance up at the sky but I never really say what I think, if you know what I mean. To be honest, I kind of liked rainy days such as this. I would normally grab a chair and sit by the window staring outside while drinking some sort of hot soup. The quietness in the house would lead me to peace and the sound that the rain made outside would make me think. The skies grey and full of dark clouds but it never cancelled out the light that came down. As much as I would've liked to carry out my rainy-day ritual, I had school which was compulsory to go to. Yeah, you could skip but I never really bothered. One, my older brother Ace would get mad at me and two, it was always so much trouble; you would have to call the school about your absence, make up a good reason for staying at home, and overall trying to entertain yourself. You couldn't go out if you skip school since people would get on your case and you couldn't really do much else at home.

By now I was about to walk out the door, carrying my umbrella and my schoolbag. It never really troubled me to go to school but it was a bother to walk there though. I didn't want to get a bus pass seeing as I don't really travel much and I only lived about a thirty minute walk away from school so I could manage. Ace doesn't live with me anymore because he works somewhere out of town so I couldn't ask him for a lift. And even if he did live with me, I feel that asking him for a lift to school would be troublesome. I usually try my best to blend into the background, never wanting to stand out. But I suppose it was just me.

As I walked, the harsh, cold winds blew against me, making my reasonably long, spiky black hair go everywhere. It also didn't help seeing as I was holding a rather cheap umbrella which simply got turned inside out due to the force of the wind.

I sighed as I dumped the fragile umbrella into a bin I walked past and braved on the rain. I had a large coat which helped but the downside was that it wasn't waterproof and absorbed water like a sponge. OK, I'm exaggerating, the water droplets stuck onto the surface of the coat before very slowly becomes absorbed or falls off whenever I make sudden movements such as when I readjust my bag when it's about to fall.

The walk to school had been long, like always, and I was glad when I was greeted with the warm heating of the schools central heating. I was currently in Senior High, at the age of 17. The school was big and resembled that of an old castle with modern features and a modern internal design.

Glancing at the clock as I walked past reception to homeroom, I saw that I was around forty five whole minutes early. School starts at 8:40AM and I left at around 7:20 so it adds up. Normally I wouldn't arrive this late but I figured that after walking in the rain, it would take a while to dry off.

The whole school was quite and pretty much deserted as I proceeded towards my homeroom, aside from one or two teachers walking around sorting things out. Alas, I reached my homeroom and slid open the door only to be surprised. I was the first one to homeroom, and I was always the first one there but not today. There, I saw head down, buried inside crossed arms and lying on the table in my seat at the back right next to the window was some guy I've never even seen before.

Recovering from the shock, I quietly walked up the small flight of stairs to the back of the classroom. There were five rows of benches and tables. A column of them beside the windows, a column in the middle and a column on the other side opposite the windows. A small flight of stairs between each column. I was taken back by the situation quite a bit. Something like this never really happened to me before. I didn't want to get his attention because he looked as if he was asleep and he most likely was. Should I wake him and ask for my seat back? Then again it was only a seat and I never wanted to make a fuss about something as irrelevant as a position in the classroom but I always preferred to sit at the back in a corner to avoid attention. Never once had I really talked to anyone and this was just strange.

I ended up standing there for god knows how long and my clothes were practically dry. Maybe I should just sit down next to him… but I don't want to make it seem as if I want to sit around him. I was baffled… speechless and completely confused as to what to do.

"Am I in your seat?" a low, muffled voice suddenly broke the silence.

I was surprised to say the least. At first this person looked… well, you know but he is actually turning out to be quite sharp. The guy raised his head and looked at me and it was then that I realised that I hadn't said anything.

"Y-yes…" I replied, nervous as to what the guy was thinking.

Instead of telling me to go away or saying that I should deal with it, he literally slid across the right towards me, effectively making room for me in my "seat", and went back to what he was originally doing until I "disturbed" him.

Slightly weirded out by his behaviour, I slid into the seat which was quite warm.

How long had he been here…?

Said person sitting next to me had on the normal school uniform. A black gakuran* with black trousers. He wore dark green boots and the white shirt he wore had a few buttons at top undone and from what I saw earlier when he lifted his head, he was quite muscular and toned if you could not already tell from his body build. He also had short cut green hair which was a first for me. And now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen him around before and if I had, I would've definitely remembered the hair.

I paid no mind to it and set towards my own business, there were still approximately thirty minutes left before school officially started and students would soon be pouring in so I took out my folder of artwork that I do and started drawing. People who have seen my artwork say it's amazing and all but I don't really think so. I follow a style of art called manga and it's known worldwide. There are many styles of manga but I've taken a liking to one kind. Any of you guys seen anime's such as "Angel Beats" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"? Well I follow that style of art, with the big glossy eyes and almost invisible noses. I had started out learning and drawing like that but eventually I found that it looked a bit fake so I added a bit of realism into it. Making the eyes smaller and more human shaped, defined the noses more and overall made it look more real rather than exaggerated. I find it easy to draw this style since all I do is draw a few curvy or straight lines until it looks good.

The classroom was silent and the rain still patted on the windows outside. Aside from that, the only sound within the confined walls of the classroom were of my pencil meeting the paper. I was in the middle of indicating my characters jaw-line until-

"That looks good"

I was surprised but nodded at him. 'Please don't start a conversation with me. Please don't start a conversation with me. Please don't start a conversation with me…' I chanted over and over in my head.

"Where'd you learn to draw like that?" the green haired guy asked

"My uncle taught me…" I replied

"Do you have anymore drawing on you?"

"No…"

"How long you been drawing?"

"A while…"

By now I had stopped in my tracks completely. Staring blankly at the work on my paper pad in front and trying my best to not go into a conversation. I was quite a sociophobe but I've never really felt this nervous before. I slowly glanced up and quickly looked away, regretting my actions. He was giving me a full blown I-can't-be-asked-with-people-like-you-stare and I couldn't help but feel nervous.

"Can you draw me?" He suddenly asked

My eyes widened as I tried to process an answer. If I said no, he would probably murder me. He looked like one of those gangster people who crushes anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. If not then I might seem like a really harsh and cold person and for some reason I didn't want to express myself to him like that. Especially as a first impression. If I said yes however, I would seem a bit too friendly or something along those lines. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to draw him… I still had around twenty minutes before classes started so…

"…if you want…" I replied, slightly hesitant.

He lifted his left leg over the dark polished, worn out wooden bench we sat on and rested his right on the table and left arm on his leg. To be honest, I really didn't mind drawing a picture of him at all. If anything I was rather overjoyed seeing as I got to look at the guy in detail and make an excuse of that me undressing him with my eyes is simply me making artwork.

I turned the paper over so I could start a new piece. I did a rough sketch of what body position he was in and all before I went into detail. I drew the outline of his face, quickly drew the body and clothes and after a few minutes, I set myself to drawing his facial features. I had already finished with the hair and all that was left was to do his face.*

I looked up from my sheet and stared into his eyes. A mixture of dark green and black. Feeling a blush creeping up my face, I quickly hid behind the paper and held it up higher to block my face which I was sure was extremely red. As I finished drawing the facial features to the last detail, I thought to myself.

'What's wrong with me today…?'

"I've fini-" I started but was interrupted by a door opening. Like a flash flood, students began to pour into the classroom, shortly followed by the homeroom teacher.

"Names Zoro, what's yours?"

I quickly looked to my right. Zoro had already returned to a normal sitting position, and was giving me a side glance.

"L-Luffy…" I replied. 'It was only fair to give him my name' I thought as I replaced my sketchpad back into my bag under the table. Zoro gave me a smirk before returning to face the front just as the bell went off, signalling the beginning of class time.


A/N: So? I know Luffy is acting incredibly OOC but oh well… this is a bit like the prologue and I won't be updating all that fast, with school work and whatnot. But I do intend to finish the story. Please review and tell me what you think so far, tell me if you spot any mistakes and criticism is welcome as long as it's not about the plot… plots a bit about my life story and all so I might get offended and flame you. But other than that, review till your hearts content.

Things marked with an * means that I will explain about them here in case you don't know what I'm talking about.

Gakuran - A typical uniform, much like a blazer worn by boys.

The style Luffy was drawing Zoro in was the One Piece art style.