Edit: Revised & stuff added

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Accident

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Luffy woke up at 8:30 that morning to his iPod blaring 'Hikari' from Kingdom Hearts. With a loud yawn, he rolled over in his sheets to blindly search for the device to turn it off. Just as the music turned off, and the boy was about to roll over to go back to sleep, Sanji's voice called from the kitchen.

"BREAKFAST!"

The raven-haired boy was out of the bed, in nothing but boxers and in the kitchen before Sanji had even finished saying the word. Pulling out a chair from under the three-person table that sat in the kitchen, Luffy plopped down in it as he itched his exposed stomach. The blond cook, who was already in his casual day clothes consisting of black slacks, his boots, an a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned to about mid chest, narrowed his one showing sky blue eye at the ruffled teen.

"The least you could do is get decent before you sit down to eat."

Luffy frowned as he tried to smooth out his mess nest of black hair.

"Hey, I'm wearing boxers this time." He said with a pout, but it was replaced with a grin as a relenting Sanji sat food in front of him before he went back to making the other two plates.

"Praise heaven for small favors." He said with an amused sigh.

Usopp came through the front door at that moment dressed in a pair of brown khaki shorts, a yellow t-shirt with an armadillo on it, and a red bandana on his head, keeping his shoulder length curly hair out of his face. There was a newspaper clutched in his hand.

"There was an arson incident last night." He said suddenly as he shut the door and went into the kitchen, sitting himself across from the gorging Luffy.

Sanji set plate of food in front of the long-nose before setting his own plate of food down and sat with the rest.

"Arson? Where at?"

"Somewhere in the Northern part of the city. A crooked salesman owned the building, was a dealer in the black market. He died in the fire. Says a man that goes by 'Fire-Fist' Ace did it, there's a wanted poster for him an everything!" Usopp said as he put the paper down onto the middle of the table.

"You'd think since he's taking out bad guys, the law enforcement wouldn't make such a big deal about it…" Sanji said, pick up the paper to look it over for a moment before setting it back down.

Luffy didn't say anything as he finished his breakfast before the other two even took a bite, and put his plate into the sink.

"Oh, it's your turn for dishes today, Usopp." Sanji said suddenly, and the long-nosed teen groaned, paper now forgotten.

"Aw! I was hoping you'd forget!" A pout formed on his lips.

"And if they're not done… I'll kick your face in." The man warned, a feral grin gracing his face, and Usopp laughed nervously.

"Oh don't worry! They'll be cleaner than clean! Sparkle and gleam like glitter they will! For I, The Great Usopp am the BEST dish cleaner EVER!"

Sanji stared at the teen that had gotten out of his seat to place one foot on it in an epic pose for a moment.

"Then you can take Luffy's shift tomorrow, as well."

Usopp deflated, and Sanji just laughed at him.

"I'm kidding!"

During this, Luffy had grabbed the paper and headed to his room to get some clothes to put on after he showered. Placing the paper on his bed, ocean blue eyes looked over the grinning, freckled black and white face in the picture on the wanted poster.

With a 'hmm' Luffy tore his eyes away from it and went to take his shower.

Afterwards, he put on a pair of baggy jean shorts with some white fake fur at the hem, a black wife beater and a deep red zip-up hoodie that he left open before going back into his room to pick up the straw hat on his in table. Picking it up, he looked at it for a moment, contemplating.

A grin broke out on his face suddenly.

"So you both are going to be around now, huh?"

With a laugh, he placed the hat on his head, and grabbed his cell phone, iPod, keys, wallet, pencil, and sketchbook and placed the items in his pockets, and the last under his arm before heading out of the room and to the front door. Putting on his sandals, he grasped the door handle.

"I'm heading to the pier now guys!"

He heard them tell him to have fun, and he was out the door.

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Heading to the pier, he admired the large cliff sides that made a border around the water as he went to the old fishing piers. They were like a giant fence.

Luffy liked to think it kept sea monsters from entering the city. When he told this to Usopp, the teen laughed, and had told him that he shouldn't watch 'Godzilla' movies any more.

With a smile, Luffy ran down the stairways that lead to the old wooden piers. They were carved right into the cliff side, and for some reason, seagulls enjoyed perching there.

Luffy loved scaring them. With a devious grin he tried to appear harmless as he approached their perch calmly.

"RAWWWWRRR!"

Feathers and 'kryee's' filled the air as the white and gray birds scrambled to get out of the way of the noisy human that was making odd faces and clawing motions as he ran at them.

After tormenting, and laughing at the birds, he made his way to the edge of one of the piers, and sat down, peering out into the water. He breathed in the air, and smiled. He loved the smell of the ocean, no matter how fishy it got. Luffy had always dreamed of sailing the seas, it would have been a grand adventure! He would be a pirate! As free as any man could be! Sailing around looking for great treasure with his crew. He found himself doodling a picture of a ship with ten people on it. One had a straw hat, another had a long nose, and one had a curly eyebrow. Yes, ten would be a good number! But who else would he want in his crew besides his roommates?

Wait! He had to be thinking about his school project!

With a huff, Luffy turned the page of his sketchbook to a blank page. He had to prove Usopp wrong! Not all of his projects were about food!

He wanted it to be about something cool, and meaningful… Maybe a portrait of someone! Hmm, but who?

All thoughts of his project, however, were blown away… Right along with his hat! A strong wind had suddenly picked up, taking his hat with it.

Luffy's heart sank as he suddenly whipped his head around to see his treasured possession being taken high into the air, heading over the cliffs.

"BOSHI! NO!" He cried out, getting up and stuffing his sketchbook in the hem of his pants and sprinting back to the stairs, and up them, blue eyes locked on to the hat the entire time. Panic filled him as he reached the top of the stairs, and the hat started to float a little higher than Luffy could reach.

Just as he ran and jumped, his hand closing around the brim of the red ribbon straw-hat, he collided, hard, with someone, sending them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

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Zoro had been on his second lap near the pier (if you count taking several roads over and over again till he found his way back to the pier, damn his sense of direction!), when a blur of red was all he saw before he ended up flat on his ass. What made his heart sink, however, was the loud

Clatta kshhhhhhhhhhh! That came from one of his katanas that had flown out of his belt and slid across the ground. Silver eyes widened in horror as Wadō Ichimonji slid right over the side of the cliff.

Still dazed and horrified, he didn't even notice the teen that had run into him, scrambled off of him, and shoved something yellow into his hands just before he leaped up to save his sword-

"Hang on to this!"

-And was now scaling down the cliff!

"What-?" Zoro said to no one in particular, as his brain caught up with all that took place in a few seconds.

He looked down to see a straw hat in his hands, and then the memory of seeing his sword fall off the side of the cliff.

"No!" He yelled out, dragging himself to the side of the cliff, the hat clutched tightly in his hand. Fear ripped him at the thought of losing the sword, losing the memories that were held in it, the promise…

Oh God! Shit!

Looking over the cliff edge, he was nearly shocked backwards as the gangly teen that had run into him, was bracing himself on some rocks, and was stretching his arm as far as it could go to reach the white sword that was teetering on the edge of another rock, threatening to fall into the jagged ones below.

So was the kid.

"Almost got it!" The boy yelled out as his hand brushed the handle.

Zoro held his breath as the kid suddenly lurched forward, and grabbed onto the sword, but lost his footing on the rocks. Without thinking, Zoro thrust out his hand and body out as far as he could to gasp onto the kid's free, flailing hand.

"AH!" Luffy cried out as he began to fall backwards, and he instinctively grasped the sword tighter to himself, while the other hand shot out to grab onto something, anything!

A hand grasped his own, and before he knew it, he was back on top of the cliff, the man he ran into next to him, wearing his hat that he had frantically put on in order to save Luffy and the sword.

The two of them sat there, at the edge of the cliff, breathing hard from the sudden daring experience. Luffy's face cracked into a smile and a hearty laugh left his throat, earning him a flabbergasted look from the silver-eyed man.

"What the hell is so funny?" He snarled out, snatching the sword away from the insane teenager.

"I almost DIED! Man, that was scary!" Luffy yelled out before continuing to laugh.

Zoro gritted his teeth. This bastard nearly cost him an irreplaceable memoir! And for what? The furious kenshi ripped the straw-hat off his head and glared at it before smashing it onto the kid's head.

A stupid hat.

"Ow! Hey! Watch the hat! It's special!" The kid cried out, clutching the hat to his head like it was the only thing keeping him in this life. Man he was loud!

Zoro looked into the narrowed ocean blue eyes, and gave his own glare.

"If you would have kept better watch on you special hat, you wouldn't have run into me! I almo-" He stopped mid-sentence as he looked away from the teen, and finally got a good look at his sword.

The scabbard had a huge, jagged crack going from the top to the bottom.

"Almost lost it." He finished the sentence quietly, as he looked at the condition of his beloved sword's scabbard, not noticing the boy now watching him curiously.

Unsheathing the blade, he inspected it thoroughly, and was happy to note that the sword itself was undamaged. But, still. The scabbard is part of the sword, even if he were to replace it, it would never be the same.

He ran a hand through his short green hair as a long, saddened sigh escaped his lips.

Luffy bit his lip. Usopp had told him it would probably be a good idea to put a string on the hat so it would stop flying off his head when the wind picked up, since it was still a little too big for him.

He looked at the long jagged crack in the wood of the scabbard and grimaced, he would feel horrible if his hat had gotten rips in it, but that was fixable, how could you fix thi-

Wait, that's it! It's made out of wood and metal! Franky, one of his professors at school was excellent when it came to wood and metal work!

"Hey, I'm really sorry. I bet that sword is special to you like my hat is to me, but I can fix it! I know someone who works with stuff like this all the time, and he'll be able to repair it!" Luffy said with a grin, it didn't even falter as the man gave him a deadly look that would make any normal person piss their pants.

Good thing Luffy wasn't normal.

"Why should I trust you? You're the one who messed her up!" He snarled, teeth bared and all.

Luffy frowned.

Why should the man trust him? His frown turned into a pout as he stared at the damaged sword, and a hand came up to touch his hat as he thought.

"Well… We can exchange phone numbers so we can stay in contact." The scowl on the man deepened and the glare grew harsher.

It wasn't good enough. No. It would never be good enough. That sword was probably like his hat with how the man held on to it so tenderly. Irreplaceable.

Luffy returned to biting his lip, before his hand reached up to grab the straw-hat on his head, and pulled it off.

It was probably just like his hat….

Blue eyes contemplated it for a moment, a finger running over a few names signed in the hat before he bowed his head and stuck his hand out in offering.

Dubious silver eyes stared at the object; frown still stiffly in place before the boy spoke.

"This hat is very special to me. My dad gave it to me when I was very young; he gave it to me, because I was to be apart from him and my brothers for long periods of time. I have their names in the brim. It's like, holding their memory, so I know they're with me, even though we're apart."

He said this in a low voice, very different from how he was speaking earlier, hell, his who demeanor changed while talking about it! It was like witnessing a transformation, and the young swordsman's hard gaze lightened a fraction as he stared at the hat with a thoughtful look.

Looking into the brim of the offered hat, sure enough, there were three names in it, one was crossed out, and Zoro had a pretty good guess what meant.

"Holding their memory, huh?" Zoro mused as he looked at his damaged sword.

He knew exactly where Luffy was coming from.

Running his hand over the damaged scabbard, he made a decision and looked seriously into the boy's eyes.

"I still want your number, and I want frequent updates on how Ichimonji is doing. Got it?" Zoro said, as he took the hat from the teen's hand and placed it on his head before gingerly and replaced it with the katana.

Luffy looked up, surprised, and grinned as he held the sword close to his chest.

"Got it! By the way, I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" He said, using one hand to hold the sword as he stuck out the other.

Zoro looked at it, and back into the grinning face of the raven-haired teen. A smirk graced the angular face as he took the hand as he used the other to placed the hat on his head.

"Roronoa Zoro." Luffy's grin widened.

"It's always nice to meet new friends!"

Zoro's mouth dropped open. What?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about being friends?"

They parted hands as the green-haired man folded his arms over his broad chest.

"I've decided! So that's that!"

Luffy announced, mirroring the man's stance and raising his head high. Even though the guy had a good few inches on him.

"You can't just decide things like that on your own!" The man yelled, and the black-haired artist just laughed,

"Too late! What I say goes!"

This was going to be an interesting friendship…

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