Chapter 4

A Night in the City Part 1

The group of friends arrived at the Baratie restaurant at 6:15 Saturday evening. It was a nice restaurant that occupied the first two levels of a very tall building. It turned out that Sanji lived in the building next door, and had worked at the Baratie every summer for the past three years. So, he was able to use his connections to get the group a table on the second floor balcony.

Their waiter walked up to them, and immediately began to talk to Sanji. "Hey Sanji it's been a while. You should stop by more often. Do you plan on working here this summer?"

Sanji smiled and answered, "Even better, the old geezer, Zeff, agreed to take me in as his fulltime apprentice since I'll have graduated and won't have to worry about school anymore."

"Oh wow Sanji. That's great news," Nami said happily.

Chopper said, "Yeah that means you'll get a head start on fallowing your dream at becoming a professional chef."

The waiter added, "Not that he needs it. Sanji is already one of the best cooks I know, and I work at a four star restaurant."

Sanji laughed, "Thanks, but believe it or not, I still have a long way to go before I can be good enough to reach my goal." Everyone smiled at their favorite cook, as he lit his cigarette and smiled.

Once everyone ordered and got their food, Nami asked, "So what are we doing after dinner?"

Everybody thought for a moment, and then Vivi suggested, "We could walk around the city and sight see a little, and maybe even check out some stores."

"The Raftel Mall has a lot to do," Nojiko suggested. "It has tons of stores, an arcade, a movie theater, and some more stuff." She looked around the table, and as she looked at the guys an idea came to her. "In fact we could check out that movie that came out this week."

"What a wonderful idea Nojiko, my sweet," Sanji said while wiggling in his seat with hearts in his eyes.

Zoro immediately knew what the violet hair woman was thinking and sternly said, "No way in hell. I know what you're up to, and you are not dragging us to some girly romance movie." Usopp and Chopper nodded in agreement, while Nojiko and Zoro began to stare each other down from across the table.

Nojiko smirked and responded, "Typical guy thinking. Look, just because a movie is romantic, doesn't mean it's girly." An evil grin began to spread onto Nojiko's face, as she said, "Besides what could you possibly know? Have you ever been in love?"

"No" "Yes" the two answers came out at the same time, and everyone turned to the end of the table where the 'yes' had come from.

Sanji raised an eyebrow, "Wait a second, Luffy are you saying that you've been in love before?" All eyes were on the eating Luffy.

After a minute or so he answered, "No… But Zoro has."

"What!" Everyone, even Zoro, shouted. Everyone turned to Zoro, who was just as shocked as the others to hear this.

Suddenly, Sanji, Nojiko, and Usopp burst out laughing. Nojiko then said, "Hold on a second, Zoro? In love? I don't believe it! Is it true, Zoro?"

"No, it's not," Zoro said sternly to the laughing trio. He stared at the eating boy at the end of the table, and asked, "Where in the world did you hear such a ridiculous idea? I mean who in the world would I possibly fall for?" Luffy just kept eating while staring at Zoro, who kept watching him. Then realization struck Zoro's face and he shouted, "Oh no! You can't possibly be referring to her, can you?" Luffy kept on eating without looking way from the green haired man. Zoro sighed with annoyance, and continued to shout at the straw hat, "Now you listen here you brainless idiot I have never and will never fall in love with that pain in the ass woman!"

Luffy swallowed his food and shouted back, "Don't yell at me! Ace was the one who said, not me!"

Nami looked at Nojiko and asked, "Ace?" Nojiko just shrugged. They looked at the others for some explanation, but they all shook their heads or shrugged.

Zoro slightly stood up and leaned towards the raven haired boy. Zoro pointed at his head and said, "Well Ace needs to get his head checked because there is no way I would ever fall for that annoying cousin of his." He sat back down and began to eat angrily while grumbling to himself.

Luffy continued to eat, and everyone else looked at one another for an explanation that no one had. They slowly began to eat again when Nojiko spoke up, "So… About the movie…"

"No," everyone said in unison. Nojiko sweat dropped while giggling nervously, Right. After that things cooled down and the rest of dinner went smoothly and uneventful, or at least as uneventful as it goes when it comes to the group.

After dinner they all walked around the city for a while, and then headed to the Raftel Mall. The group began to look through different stores. They were in a costume store now, except for Sanji, who had gone to a nearby kitchen store to get new cooking utensils.

The girls were near the front looking through some fancy ball gown costumes. Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy were in the back corner looking/laughing at different types of mask, and Zoro was looking at some fake swords on the other side of the store.

Vivi picked up a ball gown and held it against herself. "What do you think ladies? Am I ready for the Ball?" Vivi joked.

The other three giggled and Nojiko answered, "Of course you do, Vivi. But…" she picked up a big hat with a feather in it, "you need a hat to match," she said as she plopped the hat on Vivi's head. They all laughed.

Then Nami looked over to the boys in the corner, and she focused on Luffy. She turned back to the girls and asked, "Hey girls, do you have any idea as to who Zoro and Luffy were talking at dinner?" The other three looked at each other and then at Nami. "What?" she questioned.

Nojiko went back to looking through costumes before answering, "To be honest, I don't have the slightest clue." She looked at Zoro, then Luffy, and then back to Nami. "You see out of everyone in our little group, Zoro and Luffy are the two we know the least about."

Kaya sighed and then said, "You see Nami, when it comes to the others we know most of their life story, but the same can't be said for those two. When it comes to Zoro, we know a little bit more about him then Luffy.

"Zoro's parents argue all the time, so he always tried to stay away from home. As a result he spent a lot of time at Luffy's house because they were childhood friends. In fact I think even to this day, Zoro spends most of his breaks at Luffy's house." Kaya explained

Vivi added on, "We are also aware that he spent part of his childhood training at some sword dojo place that is owned by Taishigi's family, Taishigi is a third year at Kingston by the way."

"That's all we know about Zoro, but when it comes to Luffy…" Nojiko looked at the boy in the corner, "All we know is that he was childhood friends with Zoro, and that's it." Nojiko finished explaining.

Nami glanced back at Luffy, who was laughing at some weird mask Usopp was wearing. "Well, have you ever tried asking that Taishigi girl if she knows anything about them?"

Nojiko sighed, and Nami looked at her older sister. "Look Nami, Zoro and Luffy's lives are none of our business. If they want to tell us, then they will." Nojiko, Kaya, and Vivi went back to looking through the costumes, and Nami just looked at them. Suddenly, Nami felt a tap on her shoulder.

Nami screamed, and nearly fell over, and everyone in the store looked at her. Behind her had been Luffy wearing some creepy tribal mask, and Usopp and Chopper were behind him laughing. Luffy took off the mask to reveal his stupid grin, and said, "Got you Nami!" Luffy began to laugh, and so did some of the other customers in the store. Nojiko began to laugh, while the other two tried to cover their smiles and hold back their laughs, and Zoro just smirked. "You should have seen the look on your face," Luffy continued, "It was pretty funny."

Nami's face turned red from embarrassment, and then she got angry. Nami punched Luffy on the head while yelling, "You jerk! Don't you ever do that again!" She stormed out of the store, leaving everyone speechless. Usopp and Chopper huddled close to each other and thought, she's scary…

Luffy tilted his head and wondered, "Huh, I wonder why Nami was so angry? It was just a joke." The three women and Zoro sweat dropped while thinking, how stupid can you get?

Kaya sighed and explained to him, "Luffy, sometimes when you scare people as a joke, you can really startle them. By scaring Nami you embarrassed her, and she didn't appreciate the fact that you kind of humiliated her in front of everyone."

"Oh," Luffy understood and bowed to the three girls, "I'm sorry."

"Not us you idiot! Nami!" the three girls shouted at the clueless straw hat.

Luffy stared at them and then said, "Oh right!" He left the store to go after Nami. Usopp, Chopper, and Zoro walked over to the three girls and watched him leave.

Chopper sighed and asked, "He can be a real idiot sometimes, can't he?" The other five all thought, Definitely, while sweat dropping.

So this is chapter is pretty long so I had to split it in two. But here's the first part, hope you enjoy. And Thank You all of you that are fallowing, reading and reviewing this story. Anyway, I will try and be pretty quick with the next to chapters, and be prepared for some cut LuNa moments coming up ;)