"So, how long do you think you guys are going to stay here?" Franky asked Zoro and Luffy when they returned. Zoro shrugged. "I don't know. Probably until we're healed enough. I don't want to risk running into the Government while we're still injured." He said. Luffy nodded in agreement.
"I thought so. Anyway, I got your room ready. Do I need to show you the way?" Franky asked. Both men nodded and followed the other to their new room.
"Here it is." Franky said as he opened the door of one of the bedrooms on the second floor. The room wasn't really big, but big enough for the two of them. There were two beds, two bedside tables and a wardrobe.
"One of the upstairs bathrooms is at the left side of your room. There is a sign on it, so you can't miss it. You two can use it whenever you want. Me and the others use the bathroom at the other side of the hallway." Franky said.
Zoro thanked the man. "No problem bro. I'll be leaving now. I got things to do. See ya!" Fanky said and left the room.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Zoro asked his friend. Luffy thought for a bit. He then signed with his hands.
Can we go outside?
Outside. Now that he thought about it, Zoro had never seen Luffy outside. Well, at least not at daytime. He wondered when the teen had last seen the sun.
"Sure." The older man answered. Luffy smiled.
They walked downstairs and asked the first person they saw (Nami) where they could go outside. Apparently, these people had a big garden next to the forest. The girl didn't mind showing them the way to the garden. She was going there anyway.
The first thing Luffy did when he exited the house was look at the sky. The sky was completely blue, no cloud to be seen. The sun was shining brightly. It really had been a long time..
Zoro watched the young man take in the sky. The teen's skin looked a lot paler in the light of the sun. Luffy laid down on the green grass (which reminded him a bit of Zoro's hair). The sun felt really nice on his skin. The older man sat down beside him.
There were more people in the garden, probably because it was so sunny outside. Robin was reading a book in one of the lounging chairs. Nami sat down beside her. Usopp and Chopper were running through the garden. They seemed to be doing some kind of game. Sanji stood near the door with a cigarette in his mouth. The only ones missing were Franky and Brook.
Even though Luffy was lying on the grass with his eyes half closed, his eyes kept following the two teens running around in the garden. His inner child was begging him to play too, but he knew he couldn't. At least, not yet. His wound had to heal more.
"You want to play with them, don't you?" Zoro's voice said from beside him. Luffy pouted.
Maybe..
Zoro smiled. "You're always so childish. Be patient. I'm sure they will let you join once you're healed enough." The older man said. Luffy nodded. The teen continued watching the other teens play. Zoro laid down and closed his eye. A little rest wouldn't hurt.
Zoro woke up from a slap in his face. He groaned and pushed the hand off his face. He looked beside him to see that Luffy had fallen asleep, his limps spread in all directions. The older man sat up and looked around. Not much had changed, except for the fact that he couldn't see Sanji and that Usopp and Chopper were now sitting down in the grass. Usopp seemed to be telling the other teen something. Maybe a story. They were too far away for him to hear.
"Do you want something to drink?" Someone said behind him. Zoro turned around to see Sanji standing there with a tray with a few glasses of water and juice. The man thanked the cook and took a glass of water.
He was about to take a sip from his glass of water when another arm was thrown his way, making him almost drop the glass. "Dammit Luffy!" He said and hit the sleeping teen on the head. Luffy opened his eyes and yawned. The teen sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Keep your arms with you next time you sleep next to me." Zoro said. The younger man smiled and apologized before he took Zoro's glass of water and drank it whole. "Hey, get your own drink!" Zoro snapped.
As if called, Sanji appeared in front of the duo and held the tray with drinks out to them. Zoro took another glass of water. Luffy set the empty glass down on the tray and took a glass with juice. The Luffy's eyes fell on the two talking teens in the grass as he drank his juice.
I wonder what they're talking about..
"Then go and sit with them. I'm sure they don't mind." Zoro said to the teen. Luffy frowned. He didn't really want to leave Zoro's side. He hadn't even known these people for one day. Though, as far as he knew they weren't bad. The idea of going to them and listen to whatever they were talking about was very tempting.
"I can come with you if you don't want to go alone. I don't mind." Zoro said as if he had read the other man's thoughts. Luffy hesitated a little before nodding. The two of them stood up and walked over to Usopp and Chopper.
Usopp and Chopper both looked at the two newcomers. The four of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Zoro spoke up. "Do you two mind if Luffy and I sit down with you?" He asked. "No, of course not! Sit down!" Chopper said as he patted the grass next to him. Both men took a seat in the grass.
"Luffy was wondering what you were talking about, so he wanted to sit here to listen." Zoro said to the two teens. Usopp smiled. "That was a good choice. I was just telling one of the tales of the Great Captain Usopp!" He said as he proudly pointed his thumb at himself.
Usopp started to tell a story about how the Great Captain Usopp (himself) beat ten thousand giant ants with one punch. Luffy and Chopper listened in amazement. Zoro had laid down again. The long-nosed teen's lies didn't really interest him. At least Luffy liked it.
Usopp continued telling his tales to the other teens. After a while Zoro had to go to the toilet. He patted Luffy's shoulder to get his attention. The teen turned to face him. "I need to use the restroom. I'll be right back." He said to the younger man. Luffy nodded and turned his attention back to the tale-telling teen, afraid to miss anything of the other's story.
It took Zoro ten minutes to find the bathroom and another ten to find the garden again. 'They should really put up some signs or something.' He thought as he entered the garden again.
The three teens were still in the same spot as they were when he left. Apparently, they didn't miss his presents at all.
He decided to sit down on one of the chairs near the house. He had a clear view of everyone on the garden.
Robin walked up to him, her book in her hand. "Mind if I sit with you?" She asked. Zoro was a bit wary of the dark-haired woman. She was stated as a criminal after all. Then again, it wasn't really her fault. But still..
He said he didn't mind. The woman smiled and sat down on the chair next to him. They were silent for a little while. Then, Robin spoke up. "I was wondering where you two live. There aren't that many cities nearby." She said. "We live in East Blue City. Me and Luffy share a apartment there. Though, I think we won't be returning there anytime soon." Zoro said. The Government knows his address and will probably keep a close eye on the apartment. Luckily, he didn't have any valuable things there so he didn't have to return.
"I see. Some of us lived there too. Actally, most of us came from the nearby cities." Robin said. They didn't say anything for a minute or so before Zoro spoke up. "I was wondering about something. Why do you live here? It's in the middle of the forest. Wouldn't it be easier to live in the city?" He asked.
"That's a good question. Basically, we're all misfits one way or another. We don't belong in the society, so we decided to live somewhere else. Franky built this house for us to live in. He calls it The Thousand Sunny." The woman answered.
"I must say, he did a great job. Strange name for a house though. Why did he name it that?" Zoro asked. "I don't know. He said it was a name one of his friends came up with." Robin answered.
"Anyway, how did you all meet? It's weird to see such a big age difference between some of your friends." Zoro said. He was right though. One of them looked like he could be the grandfather of the younger ones.
"I'm afraid I'm not able to tell you. I guess we just happened to meet one day and became friends. I can't think of anything particular that caused our friendship. The age difference doesn't matter to us." Robin told the man. The silence returned between the two. The dark-haired woman grabbed her book and began reading again. 'Well, that was a random conversation..' Zoro thought. He continued watching his friend, who was still listening to the stories of the other teen in awe.
"-and then I threw the mountain right at the monster's face! He exploded in thousands of tiny cubes. And that's how I saved the whole world from another catastrophe!" Usopp finished his tale. Chopper and Luffy both stared at him like he was a hero.
Luffy had already become great friends with the other teens. They were fun to be with and didn't do much boring adult stuff.
"You're amazing, Usopp!" Chopper squealed. Luffy said the same, but then with his hands instead of his voice. The long-nosed teen watched Luffy's hand gestures and got an idea.
"Hey, I know a game to play. Luffy, you 'say' something with your hands and we try to guess what." Usopp said. The other two agreed. "Okay, you look around for something and gesture to us what it is. Begin with something simple." Usopp said. Luffy nodded and looked around in the garden.
'Something simple..' He thought. He then spotted something. He began to gesture with his hands. The other two teens began to guess what he meant. They began to name names of various objects in the garden.
"Oh, I know! It's a table!" Chopper yelled. Luffy smiled and nodded. The looked around for something else. He moved his hands again.
"A lamp! A mushroom! A parasol! No wait, a tree!" Usopp yelled. Luffy nodded at that last one. This game was actually a lot of fun. He looked for another object.
"I know this one! It's a glass!" Usopp said and pointed to the empty glasses standing in the grass in between them. The mute teen smiled and gave thumbs up.
"Let me try now." Chopper said. He looked around and began to gesture with his hands. The long-nosed teen began to yell the names of things he saw while Luffy pointed at objects.
"Luffy won. It's the lounging chair." Chopper said. Luffy threw his hands up in a cheer. He then smiled softly. The three of them having fun like this reminded him a bit of him and his brothers. They used to do these kinds of things too when they were little.
His smile disappeared at the thought of his brothers. No. There's no need to think about them now. Luffy shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. The other teens looked at him worriedly.
"Luffy, are you alright? Something bothering you?" Chopper asked. He shook his head and smiled.
They then continued their game. They laughed, they talked, the game became more and more fun every passing minute. He wished it could last forever.
Zoro watched Luffy having fun with his new friends. The three of them were pointing in all direction while shouting things. However, the thing that really made the older man smile was the fact that Luffy smiled.
It wasn't a fake or small, meaningless smile. No, it was a true, bright, teeth-showing smile. A smile because he was having fun, because he was happy.
The older man just hoped that no one would disturb this happiness.
AN: Here is another chapter! I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm going on a vacation next week for two weeks or so. I don't know if I'll be able to upload another chapter before that or if I have internet on that location. So it might be that next chapter is after two or three weeks.
Anyway, thank you for reading this story. I really appreciate all your reviews, favs and follows. Thank you!
