Title: His neighbor, irresistible
Chapter 4: The morning after
Rating: T in this chapter
Warning: Language, grammar and OOC-ness.
A/N: I know! You guys don't have to tell me how fucking late I am to update it. This semester is the most hellish of all and I can barely think of an update, so I'm doing my best here. Please spare my life…. T.T
Luffy's P.O.V
Today, it wasn't the alarm clock or Ace's non-stop prodding that woke me up, but because I fell down with a great noise, yelping in pain and surprised when my body, especially the back of my head landed on something incredibly hard. Using my elbows, I pushed myself up into sitting position and stretched out, glancing around with half lidded eyes. I ran my fingers through my hair, my brain took quite a moment to process where I was or why was I currently sitting on the floor, wearing definitely not my usual PJ.
Oh yeah, that's right. I spent a night at tattoo guy's house.
Just then, I realized I had to use the bathroom. I yawned and stood up, stumbling more than walking into the bathroom because I kept stepping on the borrowed night pants that were longer than my own two feet.
There was no way I could complaint. This was much better than being pants-less in somebody else's house.
After doing the normal morning routine in the bathroom (like taking a piss and washing my face), I slowly made my way back into the living room and threw myself on the couch, rolling over few times so I could go back to sleep. I didn't know what time it was, there was no clock around and I never wear a watch. Ace never bothered to buy me one because he said I'll just loose it within a week.
But I couldn't even slip into a light doze and I knew the reason.
I was hungry and my stomach was growling slightly.
Unconsciously, my feet made their own way and I was about to enter the kitchen when I remembered what the tattoo guy had said last night.
'I mean it Luffy, don't touch the fridge.'
Pouting, I stopped right at the entrance as I silently listing facts associated with my current situation.
1. I'm starving
2. I'm forbidden from touching the fridge
3. But I really REALLY want to eat something
4. And Wiper-ossan still asleep
5. I have no slightest idea how to cook anyway let alone make something edible.
An invisible light bulb appeared on my head after I weighed various options on how to eat without getting scolded by tattoo guy.
It's decided. I'm going to wake him up, ask permission to rai—err… I mean to have something from his fridge and maybe, if he isn't cranky enough, he'll cook breakfast.
In no time, I was already in front of his room, staring on closed white door. I stood there for a moment, as if sizing it up before knocking on it, gently but loud enough for tattoo guy to hear. I hoped he isn't the type that sleeps like a rock as I waited for an answer or even some rustling sound, but heard nothing. Few more knocks (and getting louder of course) and still nothing.
Not bothered to think much, my hand tightened its grip on the doorknob and pushed it downward, leaning my weight on the door and eased it open. The sunlight from the outside already illuminated the room, so I had no problem finding the subject that could solve my hunger problem. The room is just as anyone could expect from a guy a living alone, well ordered, simple and nothing out of ordinary. The wall is painted with peachy cream color, just like our own, lined with bookshelf and dozens of books arranged on it neatly, and leaned against the opposite wall was the wardrobe. I was half expected to see posters of cars or busty women decorating the plain wall, but I didn't see any of that. It was either he wasn't into those or he just like to keep his room as simple as possible, although I could see a small picture frame on the nightstand. Speaking of nightstand, on the bed next to it and against the wall, I could make out Wiper-ossan's head among the sheets he was tangle in,
I tiptoed in silently which sort of stupid since the whole point was to wake him up and stood next to his bed. Instead of waking him up as I planned to, I studied him curiously. His arm was slung over his forehead, and he was lying on his back. Even asleep Wiper was frowning, his chest rise and fell gently with his breathing. The annoyed, gruff expression that he always wore was now replaced by relaxed and unguarded face. It was weird to see his cigarette free lips because most of the time I would see the white tobacco stick dangled between his teeth.
Reaching forward my hand, I nudged his shoulder. "Ne, wake up Wiper. I'm hungry."
He only shifted a bit before letting out a soft sigh. Frowning, I tried again. "How long are you going to sleep? It's almost noon!"
Ok so the second part wasn't really a lie since I didn't know what time it was. But judging how loud my stomach was grumbling, I knew it had past breakfast time.
Right now the problem is not only tattoo guy still didn't wake up, he even pulled the blanket further up and I was getting annoyed. And hungrier by a minute.
Part of me wanted to flip over the mattress so that he would fall down to the floor just like what happened to me before. For sure that would wake him up.
Instead I leaned down and came so close to his face that I could feel hot breath on my skin. My hand went to nudge him again, a little bit harder this time. "Wake up ossan or I'll really going to empty your fridge."
I didn't know how, but that worked like a charm. Or a curse. His eyes fluttered opened and immediately our eyes met, widening afterward. Then he did something that I didn't expect.
He abruptly sprang up from the bed, cracking his skull against mine with a loud 'thunk'.
And it hurt like hell.
Wiper's P.O.V
"Ouch!"
"Oww!"
A simultaneous yowls could be heard inside my bedroom followed by someone fell on their ass. Usually I woke up because of the alarm clock ringing off my eardrums, and not by people who sneaked into my room uninvited. Last person who attempted it was that little punk (my niece, Aisa in case you are wondering) and well… let just say she didn't come close within twenty feet range for a week, muttering something like 'Wiper is a demon' behind my back.
Damn brat and her attitude.
Needless to say, I wasn't amused when I was greeted with another bratty, annoyed face immediately after I regained conscious from my deep slumber.
That shocked the hell out of me as well.
"Fuck, that hurt. What are doing here Luffy?" I asked pointedly, my voice was still a little groggy from just waking up.
Rubbing my now throbbing forehead furiously, I looked down only to see the said teen was doing the same, pain appeared on his face.
"What time is it?" Not waiting for his answer, I took a glance at the digital alarm clock to see the digits it was displaying.
10.15 A.M.
"It's already this late, what are you still doing here? Don't you have school?" I repeated the question again, catching the teen's attention. He stopped rubbing his forehead and looked up from his spot.
"It's Saturday. No school." He stated a matter of factly.
I stopped. That certainly made me relief. Not because the was no school, but it was due to the fact that I decided to take a day off and let Kamakiri to handle shop today and since there wasn't much appointments with clients, he'd do just fine without me. Lately (today is an exception), clients had been coming non-stop to the shop, causing me to work my ass off, so I think I do reserve a day off and spent my weekend just staying at house and doing nothing.
Of course, there was no way I could enjoy my weekend when SOMEONE ELSE inside my house and currently staring at me like I was a foreign object from a different dimension.
"What are you—" I was about to ask him if he see I grow wings when someone was pounding the door and ringing the doorbell at the same time. Did this person want to murder my doorbell or what?
Annoyed, I snatched a random hair band from the drawer and tie my hair loosely before walking out of the room to see whoever that was making that ruckus, leaving the teen. I could see his face was as annoyed as mine with the sudden interruption. By the time I reached the front door, the knocking was getting louder and I noticed the hinges were rattling slightly.
Crap, I don't recall ever owning a loan shark or some sort. But whatever business this person had with me, it wasn't good.
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming." I growled as I unlocked the door, opening it slowly.
Then, the door slammed open and the loud noise almost made me jumped on my feet. The loan shark or maybe a gangster I was NOT hoping to see wasn't anywhere to be seen, but someone was certainly there, standing less than one meter from me. And that someone was Ace. He was panting harshly as if he had just run a marathon, his unruly hair was even messier than usual and panic washing over his face. We stayed silent for a while as he was gasping for air, unable to form words and confusion started to get me. But then I remembered about his brother and decided to break the silence.
"Oh hey, your brother is—"
"GONE!" The older quickly D. cut me off.
Eh? What? Are we talking about the same person here?
Ace didn't wait for my comeback as he gripped my shoulders like his dear life, his eyes focused on mine. "I tried calling him and he didn't pick it up so I went back to the house this morning and he wasn't there! So I've tried calling all of his friends that I could think of, but none of them know where he went after school!"
The teen rambled on, gulping for some air in between all the while shaking my shoulders slightly, causing me to step back into the house until the point my back touched the wall but his grip never loosen.
"Calm down Ace. Listen—" helplessly, I tried to explain to him but failed when he cut my sentence again.
"Calm down? How can I? Someone must have kidnapped him while he was on his to go home! What am I going to do Wiper-san?"
Frustration started to build inside me. "Like I said he—"
"Oh my God… They must have drugged Luffy, took out his organs and sell it to the black market! Or maybe they shaved his head and… and," He paused as though he was thinking the worst possibilities he could come up with. Over his shoulder, I saw Luffy's came out from the room and slowly advancing us from behind his brother. The face he was making showed he was surprised to see his brother but at the same time confused, probably wondering why the older D. was babbling nonsense.
At some point, I began to think Ace was speaking in foreign language.
Unnoticed that his 'kidnapped' brother was standing right behind him, Ace continued. "And right now he must be half way to some human auction! They are going to turn him into slave and do perverted stuffs—"
Probably to stop Ace's further rambling and save me from the sticky, yet weird situation, Luffy poke Ace's from behind. "Ace…" His voice was small, uncertain if he should interrupt the teen.
But the small voice wasn't enough to snap his attention. "—and they'll change his name into Luffychin!"
Luffychin? Are you fucking kidding me? How in the world he could think of that name?
I was at loss as I knew my words would not be able to penetrate his head and I was too tired to deal with any of this right now. So better for me to wait for him to lose his breath but the way he speaks told me he won't be stopping any sooner. His capability to speak these long in one breath somewhat amazed me.
Like this was the right time to be amazed.
And so he continued. "Oh sweet mother of sea, what am I supposed to tell gramps? I'll be lucky enough if he kill me in one shot! I'm a failure, Wiper-san! I can't even look after my brother—"
Huffing, Luffy finally spoke louder. "Ace, I'm here!"
"Shut up! Can't you see I'm panicking here? I'm—I'm… eh?" His head quickly turned his head at the familiar voice and I thought I heard something snapped.
The next thing I knew Luffy was chocked by Ace, his back painfully arched backward and his hands futilely pushing his brother's shoulders.
"Luffy, Luffy, Luffy! Where have you been? Why didn't you pick up your phone? And why is your clothes are so baggy? Don't you ever fucking scare me like this again!" The older D. ranted, squeezing the teen in a very tight hug.
God, I felt like watching some sort of soap opera right now, where the long lost brothers finally meet each other after separated for years because the older brother thought his little brother had died when they were young. But when they were just about to make up the lost time, they found out the older brother had cancer and didn't have much time left. In the end, the story ended with a lot of tears and snots.
Fine, so I did watch soap opera ONLY, I repeat, ONLY when I'm bored and there was nothing else on the t.v… And I DID NOT put boxes of tissue next to me for wiping tears and snots or whatsoever.
"A-Ace… Let go… can't… breathe..."
Wide eyes, Ace finally released his brother, smiling sheepishly while watching the younger D. gasping for air. "Oops, sorry."
"I forgot to bring my keys and my cellphone so I spent a night here at Wiper-ossan's."
A relief sigh finally passed Ace's thin lips, running his fingers through his already messy hair. "God, I thought you went missing! I was about to call for Smokey to conduct a search party too. Good thing I stopped by here…"
Despite how miserable his brother was looking right now, Luffy still had the nerve to giggle. I mean, he really fucking giggled! "Shishishishi, silly Ace. I'm fine, see? You are overreacting. Where were you last night anyway?"
Somehow the question caught the older teen off guard because he visibly flinched, his eyes immediately looking somewhere else other than his brother's face. "I… um… at a friend's house." His voice was getting softer, and I had to strain my ears to hear it.
Is that… a blush I'm seeing?
"Smokey's?"
Ace's shoulders' twitched again. "W-well… yeah."
Yeah, that Ace kid was blushing and I didn't want to know why.
Luffy parted his lips, assumingly he wanted to question more, judging the way he was frowning, but Ace was faster to intercept his thought.
"Weeellll… I guess we better get going now! Thank you so much for looking after my brother, I'll treat you dinner later alright? Promise!" Ace then pushed the door opened and dragged Luffy with him.
"W-wait, Ace!" The kid squeaked before the brothers exited the door and out of sight, leaving me in confusion, wondering what went wrong with this morning.
I stood still for a moment, my vision blank and I could feel my jaw hanging open.
"What the hell…" I muttered to the open air and shut the door with a soft click. Yawning as I returned to the living room and plopped down on the couch. At last, weekend alone without any more interruption. No works, no visitors, nothing to worry about. Just me and my day off. Slowly, I curled up, pulling my knees to my chest as I let out another yawn. The latest wave of exhaustion rolled over me, so I figured a nap would actually be good thing even if I had just woken up.
Besides, what better way to pass the time?
Deep breath I took and wrapped the blanket that the kid used last night around my waist before closing my eyes. Bit by bit, my mind slipped off into nothingness until…
"Wiper!"
There was another sound of muffled voice behind the door, followed by another series of knocking. I ignored the moron that was trying to talk to me at this ungodly hour (it was almost noon to be exact). The worst part was, the voice sounded a lot like Laki.
"Wiper, it's me! I'm going to the spa today and I need you to look after Aisa." Oh hell, the day just kept getting better, isn't it? Someone up there must be having some sort of personal grudge against me. Or was it something I did in my past life? Even more reason for me not to wake up.
I wanted to pretend I wasn't at home. Hopefully she would get the message and left me and my day off alone.
"I know you are in there, Kamakiri said today is your day off. So don't pretend you are not home or I'll Chuck Norris your door even if have to."
Damn, she's serious. I vaguely recalled getting my door burst down by her ALONE the last time I pulled the stunt, and the incident I didn't bear repeating. You might say 'No Shit?' but I'm telling you way shit. She might as well terrorize the whole apartment complex if she put her mind into it.
Forcing my eyes open, I cursed everything to damnation. By the time I reached the door, I started to think that working is way better than going through today's shit.
-TBC—
A/N: Gahh! 'When will be the romance part?' You may ask. Truth to be told, I have no exact idea, but it's getting there. Hopefully, shortly after this chapter. .