I sat behind the door and carefully looked if anyone was trying to escape. I was so sure that I heard someone doing… well, I don't know what people would do in the backplace of our restaurant… Nothing but garbage there. The cats loved it though.
Anyway, I was sure someone was there, although I didn't see anyone. That was why I was waiting behind this door at the moment, keeping my head as low as possible. Then I saw a person coming out behind one of our rusty, stinky dumpsters and stretch himself. I opened the door as fast as I could and jumped outside.
The guy looked scared like hell, which I kind of liked. I had been thinking of all sorts of cool sentences to say to this man that would teach him a lesson, sneaking around our restaurant like this. 'Don't move!' or, 'That's far enough buddy!'
Instead, the first thing I said was: "What the fuck is with the green hair!?" I didn't like my opening sentence, but I didn't really have the time to think about it and above all, it was just really weird. "I mean, what are you doing here? Explain yourself! But answer my first question too!"
Still not amazing, but it would have to do. The guy seemed to realize now that it was just him and not a whole army waiting to bring him to jail or something (although I wouldn't mind if that would have been the situation…) and he got some of his confidence back.
"Ah, and why would I answer any of those questions heh?"
"Because I have seen you now. I could go to the police you know. What you were doing is illegal! You are on private property." Instead of looking afraid, like I expected him to, he started laughing really hard.
"What's so funny!?" I was starting to get really angry now.
"It's funny because you think I'm intimidated by your threat. I have been through a lot worse with the police already and they're sick of me. They won't come after me for some minor crime like stealing garbage from a restaurant."
That line raised a lot of questions inside me. He said he had been through a lot worse with the police. Did that mean he was a criminal? Secondly, it appeared that he wasn't just sneaking around to plan a robbery of some kind, like I thought he was. He was trying to steal what lay in our dumpsters.
Now that I looked closer, I noticed that his shirt, that had probably been white once, was pretty dirty. His shoes should have been replaced by a new pair a long time ago too...
"Well, I don't have an unlimited amount of time, like you might have, so I better be going."
"Wait!", I said.
He looked at me and suddenly I felt really guilty. "I thought you were hiding because you were planning to rob us or something…", I confessed.
"Well, I wasn't, so bye."
"Wait!"
He gave me an impatient look. There were quite a lot of things I wanted to say to him but for some reason I couldn't clear my mind very well, so I just told him the truth.
"I'm really sorry I thought all these things of you while I didn't know what you were actually doing. Can I offer you a meal to make it up to you? You look like you can use some breakfast." I liked the surprised look on the man's face. He definitely didn't see this coming.
He looked like he didn't know what to say to that, but after a short moment of hesitation an "Uhm, sure." came out.
"Great. Please, come inside. I'm Sanji by the way."
"Zoro", he replied while we shook hands. "Are you sure it's okay for me to come in?"
"Absolutely. The owner of this place and my father are good friends, that's how I got this job, actually."
"But also because you're a cook, I hope."
"Yeah, don't worry. I know how to cook a meal, trust me. Just to be sure, you didn't… like… kill someone or anything, right?"
"What? No of course not! I would be in jail if I had done something wrong on that level!"
"Well, you can't blame me for asking after saying you have been through a lot with the police! It sounded like they all personally know you there!"
"Okay, I get it. But just for the record, only most of them know me personally…"
I wasn't able to tell if he was joking or not, so I decided to ignore his last sentence.
I led him trough the door and into the kitchen, where I told him to wash his hands.
"So, I really appreciate this," he started, "don't get me wrong, but… why? I mean, you didn't have to. I would've been happy if you had just let me go…"
I was silent for a couple of seconds, and concentrated on soaping my fingers. "It's my duty as a cook. To feed hungry people. I couldn't just let you walk away with an empty stomach while I have enough food here to give you a proper meal." I looked at him. He didn't say anything to that, but nodded his head in understanding.
We walked trough the restaurant and I pointed at one of the tables. "Have a seat."
"Shouldn't you be busy opening this place?" Zoro asked while he took place at the table.
"We won't open for another two and a half hours, but I'm always really early because I have to make the dough so we can serve our customers fresh baked breads every day."
"Wow, I hope they pay you enough to make up for so much time and effort."
"Well, actually, I don't get paid at all." The surprised look on his face was amazing, but I decided to explain myself anyway. "We've got enough money at home because of my fathers job at the government. He thought working in a good restaurant like this one would be good for developing my cooking skills and get some work experience. Of course, that was before…"
I didn't finish my sentence. I was actually having a nice time here with Zoro and I didn't want to think about it.
It was just like Zoro perfectly sensed what was going on in my head and instead of asking questions like 'before what?' he only said: "Well, I can't wait for you to show me those skills of yours you've been developing here."
I was glad he changed the subject so easily. "Of course," I said. "Just give me a couple of minutes, I already have some dough ready so you can get some fresh baked croissants if you want."
I served him his breakfast and enjoyed seeing him eating my food and the surprised look on his face everytime he tried a new dish.
"It's all just so… good," he was saying all the time.
After he had finished his meal, we cleaned the table together and brought everything back to the kitchen. He stayed and we talked for the next couple of hours while I prepared everything for the rest of the day. He told me that his green hair was because of a weird mutation that had been in his family like forever, and I told him about my little sister Yui and how close we were.
We talked about our likes and dislikes, weird things like the greatest assholes we ever met or the most stupid thing we ever did to win a bet. Mine was drinking thirty shots of different kinds of drinks within forty minutes, his was jumping of a bridge at night, during winter. He told me some things about his life on the streets, which he seemed to be dealing with pretty good actually. I told him things about my life too, especially things about Yui, because my best memories were about her.
We kept the subjects fairly light the whole time. I think both of us didn't want to ruin the mood by getting too serious. When it was finally time to open up the restaurant and the other cooks and waiters came dripping in one by one, we looked at each other.
I noticed that this was the first time I would rather do something else than work here and serve my food to the guests. It was just really nice hanging out with Zoro like this and I was afraid that I would never get to see him again if he left now. Nash was a pretty big city after all, and Zoro had already told me about his terrible sense of direction. I made a decision.
"My shift is over at three PM. Come to the backplace again, so we can hang out some more. If you want. You can also eat dinner at my place toninght, so you don't have to worry about that. I mean, if you're free and everything."
I said all of that really fast and maybe he didn't even want to come with me but I was glad I said it anyway.
"Well, I don't want to be trouble or anything…"
"Trust me, you won't be, I promise."
"In that case, I'll see you at three. Okay?"
"Definitely!" I smiled and felt great for the rest of my shift.
