Chapter 7 – Preparations for a new life

Hi. Remember me? It have been way to long time since I last updated this; partially because I have loads of school work, a case of swine flu-ish illness and the fact that I have been writing my a** of for "Wrong side". But, I thought it was time for an update. // SlowSunrise



Zoro heard the signals from Luffy's cell phone even though the black haired boy held the phone close to his ear. Beep. Beep. Beep. Eventually he heard someone on the other line answer, but he couldn't grasp anything that the female Luffy had called said, although, from the facial expression that passed over Luffy's face, it seemed that everything was going as planned.

"Then, can we meet you somewhere? Todaaay?!" Luffy's voice really gave away how happy he was, just as usual. Zoro couldn't help but smile as his friend nodded to the phone, forgetting that the girl couldn't see him. After overcoming the communication, problem Luffy smiled even more and turned toward Zoro.

"She is meeting us in the park!"

Zoro smiled at him, but shook his head.

"You idiot..."

They walked down along the trail to the park, where they were supposed to be meeting the girl. Zoro would never admit it, but if it weren't for a kind old woman who pointed out that the park was in the completely opposite that they were walking, they would probably have missed her. Zoro's sense of direction was one for the record books, but he would never, in his life, admit it.

She sat waiting for them on a bench in the middle of the park. It wasn't strange that she had arrived first, considering Luffy and Zoro's side trip, but it didn't seem as if she had been waiting for long time. Luffy stopped dead when he first saw her sitting alone and he hid behind one of the smallest bushes around. Zoro let out a small laugh, and boxed him on his shoulder.

"Look, Casanova, if you're not talking to her, she won't ever talk too you. That's how those women work."

Luffy looked over towards her, and a single 'oh' escaped from his mouth as he saw that she was looking at him, laughing with what he thought sounded like a golden voice. He went up from his indiscreet hiding place and walked up towards her. Luffy looked over his shoulder to see if his body guard was still following him. Zoro just nodded for him to continue, but he did walk after Luffy.

"Hello?" the orange hair girl tried, as Luffy had stopped just in front of her, swinging back and forth on his feet. He gave her a goofy smile, but he had the tact to at least answer her greeting.

"Hello~, Nami!"

Zoro guessed that he had to do something, so he took a step forward and nodded his head.

"Morning..." he mumbled, hiding an yawn. "I'm Zoro."

Nami's eyes searched him, from head to heavy boot, and Zoro could see that she wasn't sure what to say. Her eyes lingered unusually long on his hair. He was past the age when green hair was the most amazing thing in the universe. He had tried to color it black once, but that had been a disaster. As he didn't know what he was supposed to do with the hair, he let it be as it was, just keeping it as short as possible without shaving it off.

"Well, good morning, on both of you. I'm Nami." That was addressed to Zoro.

"Aren't you kind of late?" She turned to Luffy with a wondering gaze. "You said on the phone you were just five minutes away, and that was over twenty minutes ago."

Luffy stopped swinging on his feet, almost falling backwards when he stopped abruptly, and took a seat on the bench next to the girl.

"You had to wait long time for us?" he asked and once again wore his kicked puppy-look.

Zoro still stood a bit from them, but it was clear that this girl was affected by his friend's look. He smiled at them, both of them as unsure what to do about the other. At least it was clear that Luffy had finally succeeded in something that was not a food eating contest, because Zoro could clearly see that the girl liked him. He waved Luffy over to him, and leaned down a few centimetres, talking to him in a low voice.

"I have a few things I have to do before it gets to late." he said and nodded at Nami. "So, why don't you spend some time with the girl, alone?"

"But, Zoro, it is hardly lunch time. It's not getting late in a long time." Zoro closed his eyes and sighted very discreet. Luffy was hard to work with sometimes.

"I just mean, I have to do very many different..." He was interrupted by Nami pulling at Luffy's sleeve to his jacket.

"Come on, Luffy. Let's go. You can show me your town." Luffy suddenly forgot all about Zoro, and jumped after his date, because that was, at least in Zoro's eyes, a fitting term for them. Zoro hurried away, looking back over his shoulder at Luffy as he pointed at everything and nothing and told Nami about them along with big movements with his arms and very exuberant facial expressions.

Luffy's comment about lunch reminded his stomach that he had skipped breakfast, so he turned left after leaving the park, heading towards one of his favourite restaurants. The awning was in a classical cut, coloured in red and white. The inside looked like an American road restaurant.

In Zoro's opinion, they had the best lunch menu in town. The only down side to the restaurant was that it was way to far from his father's house for him to go there regularly, but now that he had moved in to his uncle's house he could go there more often.

He opened the white painted door and the little bell attached to it rung with a faint sound. The restaurant smelled strongly of cheese, coffee and frying oil. Zoro breathed in the familiar smell. Some people might have backed away because of the strong aroma, but Zoro took a seat at the counter, back facing the big window. He took a deep breath and tried to stop the world. With Luffy's welcomed distraction gone, the problems seemed to jump back on him like irascible dogs. He imagined a small remote control and kept pressing the stop button as hard as possible.

The woman behind the counter looked up from polishing the beer mugs and greeted him with a smile.

"It's been a while since I last saw you, Roronoa. Everything fine with your dad and uncle? I never see any of you three anymore. Your uncle used to eat here all the time, but..." She stopped her monologue and looked at Zoro.

"You're not feeling well, are you?"

She put the rag away, and drew out a stool from under the counter and placed herself opposite to the green haired man. Zoro rested his head in his hands, elbows on the counter.

"Not really, the world simply moves on, and I'm having trouble keeping up."

The bartender laughed, bent over to the small fridge she kept behind the counter and picked up a glass bottle of Coca-Cola. She popped up the cap and put the bottle next to the distressed boy.

"It's on the house. Drink, and tell me why I have a sulking boy at my bar. You're way too young to drown your sorrows, and it's only lunch time." She crossed her legs and leaned forward. Zoro threw a glance at the bottle and a faint smile crossed his face, but he didn't say anything as he grabbed the soda and took a few gulps.

"Come on boy", the woman demanded. "The world's moving on without you? Last time I checked, you weren't seventy. Tell me what's wrong."

Zoro looked into the eyes of the woman, He didn't know her that well, yet she sat and interrogated her like he was visiting Oprah. He drank some more cola and said:

"No, dad got in some trouble, and therefore, I'm in some trouble too." He paused, unsure if he should explain more, but choose not to.

"I moved closer, so I might visit more often. But you won't see my dad." She raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to continue the questioning, but Zoro looked her straight into her eyes. She swallowed hard and nodded. That look simply stated 'end of discussion'.

"Now," Zoro said, and slowly a neutral smile became visible on his face. "could you prepare a ham plate? I'm damn hungry."

After lunch, Zoro walked on down the street towards the bus station. He was to keen to walk all the way to his dad's house in this cold weather. The bus was full of people, and the heater was on the highest temperature so Zoro almost started to sweat, despite it being close to 0°C outside. The bus slowly moved towards his destination, and, almost an hour after he entered it, he squeezed himself out of the full bus. His lungs hurt for a second, inhaling the cold air.

It was only the end of October, but he wouldn't be surprised if it would start snowing one of these days. Putting his hands into his pockets, he started walking down the small streets of the familiar neighbourhood. It was a short walk, but Zoro took his time to really take in all the small houses and the gardens, now filled with frostbitten plants. He had grown up in those streets, and he had played in many of those gardens. Now, it felt like he was giving his last farewell.

His father's house was at the end of one of those small streets, and he picked up the key he had in his pocket. It had only been a day since he last been there, but it still felt as if he were walking in to a ghost house. The door didn't creak, and he didn't get any spider webs in his face, but he was met by a great silence. He walked in without taking his boots off and looked around the familiar room. The worn leather chair in which his father always sat and watched TV late at night, the book cases filled with boring books by authors Zoro never had heard of, and even some that his literature teachers had never heard of either, all of them belonging to his father.

Zoro didn't want anything to do with any of it, and he turned on his heel, only to face something else he didn't want to see at the moment. Hanging on the wall were several framed photos of him and his dad, a few of them together, and others where they were alone. Zoro turned his eyes away. Even if it was only photos, he couldn't look his father in the eyes at the moment. Quickly, he went into his own bedroom, picking up a big rucksack and stuffing it with as much clothing as he could press into it. Remembering the temperature, he was careful to make sure that his luggage contained a warm cap and a pair of gloves without holes in them.

Looking around the room, Zoro went to see if there was anything else worthwhile for him to grab. His eyes fell on his school books, a novel by Matthew Reilly, and the black case containing his swords. The books and the novel went down in the rucksack, but Zoro hesitated one moment over whether he should bring the swords or not. It was his father who had taught him almost everything he knew about swordsmanship. He self-taught too, but when he gripped the hilt of one of the swords, images of him and his dad out in the garden appeared in front of his eyes, and his father's voice echoed in his head.

'You have to practice everyday Zoro, and then one day, you will be the best'. Zoro closed his eyes and nodded faintly. His father's words were true, and he decided to bring them, despite what uncle Geoff thought about it.

After a visit to the bathroom to grab a toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo to put into the last free space in the rucksack, Zoro left the house and securely locked it again, putting the key back into his jacket pocket. He would have to return to the house some day, but for now he was more concerned with catching the next bus so he wouldn't have to wait another half an hour in the cold weather. It was getting darker, and he wanted to get back to Smoker's place as soon as possible.

-----

Returning into the heat of his uncle's house what seemed ages later, he put his boots next to all the other shoes in the hall way. They all stood in a mess, over each other and up-side-down in piles. Three men living together seemed to become a problem. Zoro prayed that he wasn't going to have cleaning duty.

After putting the big rucksack and the sword case away next to the sofa, he walked in to the kitchen. He located Ace on one of the kitchen chairs. The black haired man held his hands around a cup of hot coffee and looked out of the window with a frown on his face. Zoro knocked on the door frame to indicate his arrival. Ace spun around, startled by the sound. He relaxed when he saw it was Zoro, and nodded to the chair next to him.

"Coffee? Geoff made some a while ago."

Zoro smiled carefully and nodded as he poured a cup and sat down beside Ace. Luckily enough, his uncle was more skilled than Ace when it came to work in the kitchen. He drank half the cup in silence. Neither of them said a word or looked at each other. Ace looked out on the dark sky and Zoro focused on a spot on the wall.

"What a drama we have before us." Ace said slowly, as if he was talking to the stars that were appearing on the night sky. Zoro just nodded and drank more coffee. Smoker appeared behind them and said with a tired voice:

"He fell asleep, finally."

Zoro turned his head, looking at Smoker.

"He's sleeping here?"

Smoker nodded and continued.

"He'll stay here a couple of weeks. I won't allow him to be alone, and he can't pay his rent is that state he is now."

Zoro bit his lip and drank the last of the coffee in the cup. He wondered if his life could be any more fucked up.

He doubted it.


Might have been a little slow, but it's in the middle between the events. Live with me a little longer. My writer's block is gone, and I'll have loads of time in the following week. Now, send me some love in a review!