Author's Note #1: So I AM BACK! HELLO EVERYONE, DID YOU MISS ME? I must be that author who is getting on your nerves a lot, aren't I? I start to write again and then like a month later I'm gone and I make a schedule and then break it. So I'll tell you straight up what I'm gonna do: I have this story which I want to write and because it's such a huge project, I've decided to prioritize it (sorry, I know you must not be happy about my schedule) furthermore I'm writing 2 stories at once (I know I shouldn't be doing this, it's what got me in this predicament in the first place). The other story I'm paying a lot of attention to is called new follower: applepi and it's on AO3, it's a Haikyūu! story so if you've been wondering where I've been, it's been over there. I'm on TUMBLR NOW, I use the same username as here, the blog's at setkia dot tumblr dot com and it's called "the awkward introvert who writes" who ever wants to know my schedules or when I write a new story (on either AO3 or here, will be notified on here) so follow me! Chat me up, I like talking to you guys! I really do love it! Next thing: I have , which is a thing where artists (of any kind) are paid for their work. So basically, I now do commissions. So even if I do have a lot to do, I am thinking of doing something like that. I don't know prices yet, I'd want to establish them with you but if you look me up on Tumblr, somewhere in my blog the link is there. I don't own One Piece. Also I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a Big Bang event (I don't know what else to call it). I proposed it for the Haikyūu! fandom on my blog, but I also propose it right here and now for One Piece. It's a collaboration between a writer and an artist, where the writer writes a story and the artist provides art for it, or vice-versa and a writer writes something based off artwork someone made. So they pair up and work together. You can message me here or on Tumblr if you've got anymore questions.


if my heart was a house
by: Setkia


In front of him stands a boy. He's dirty looking, has green hair and his tear-stained cheeks and puffy red eyes make it obvious he's been crying. He clutches a white sword to his chest possessively and sniffles, snot dripping out of his nose.

"Eggplant, meet Zoro. He'll be staying with us from now on."


Chapter Twelve


Zoro's mad at him again but this time Sanji is wiser and knows why.

"You're jealous!"

Zoro tenses stiffly. "What?"

"You're jealous of me!" Sanji laughs as Zoro furrows his brow and frowns.

"Why would I be jealous of you, Curlicue?"

"Because Nami likes me more than she likes you!"

Zoro growls. Sanji's really starting to think he may just be a real animal. "She doesn't like you, idiot. She tolerates you."

"Either way you're jealous," Sanji says with a grin. "Don't worry, I'll find some cute girl for you who doesn't like gorillas."

Zoro doesn't say anything and stares at the sheet of math homework they've been given.

Sanji supposes that's the end of that conversation.


"Come on, just because Nami likes me doesn't mean you have to be jealous."

Who does Sanji think he is, saying he's jealous? The fact that he's right annoys Zoro even more, so naturally he stomps out during the middle of their conversation and decides to take a long walk away from him for the remaining minutes of recess. With dignity. Because Zoro is a dignified little eight year old.

But to be horribly honest, Zoro doesn't really know what to do with himself. He's still new to the school and he's pretty sure he scares people so he doesn't have that many friends. To be even more honest, he might need someone to guide him. He's left wandering around the playground until he turns a corner and sees the bigger students' soccer field. He may have wandered to the wrong part of the playground.

"Hey losers!"

Zoro's head jerks in the direction he hears the sound. They're not talking about him, right? No, they said "losers" and Zoro's not a loser (no matter what Sanji tells him). Maybe. But he definitely knows he's not two people. So they can't be talking about him.

"Get off our field!"

Zoro can see them if he squints. There are four boys on the soccer field, two of which are bigger than the other ones. He wonders if this is another one of those pathetic "gang up on the and threaten a bit, but don't bite" things but then he watches one of the boys push another down.

"Hey!" yells Zoro across the field.

One of the boys, who Zoro has kindly named Fatty Number One, looks up. "Oi, who the hell are you?"

Well to be honest, Zoro hasn't thought this far ahead in his plan, so he can't really reply, mainly because he doesn't have an answer. At least, not a sensible one.

"Get him for me!" says Fatty Number One, nodding to Zoro.

Zoro needs to think fast, the guy he's kindly named Fatty Number Two is racing down the field, running straight at him. He should've brought Wado. He feels insecure (but only a bit) without her. Well, if the guy charges first, Zoro's going to charge back he supposes.

Zoro runs forward. He's not crossing as much ground but his sudden movement surprises Fatty Number Two, so there's that, he supposes but it doesn't really fix his immediate problem. He doesn't bother to try and dodge him, if he does, they'll both get tired out and nothing good will come out of that. So instead, he keeps going forward and then the boy stops, like he's just waiting for Zoro to reach him.

Zoro keeps going, trying not to focus on anything but his feet on the ground and his target. He supposes his focus is the two smaller boys then. When he feels himself losing his footing he turns his step into a jump and when his foot hits the ground again, he's steady again.

Fatty Number Two is grinning, like he knows just where Zoro's going, what he's going to do.

Then Zoro changes his direction and catches a glimpse of confusion in Fatty Number Two's eyes before he grabs onto the sleeves of the two dumbstruck boys, pushing them back.

Finally he comes to a stop, breathing a bit more heavily than he would like to be.

"Oooh, someone's playing hero," croons Fatty Number One, crossing his arms. He looks more than delighted now that Zoro's joined in. "What's your name, little guy?" he teases.

Zoro grits his teeth.

"I was just showing these guys the laws of the playground. You wanna join their lesson?"

Zoro rolls his eyes and grunts. He's not sure what to do so he supposes he'll just wing-it. He grabs a stray stick on the ground and he can hear Shrimpy Number One and Two breathing deeply behind him, stepping back. The stick feels weird in his hands, the bark rough on the palm of his hand in a way the hilt never is. He tries to think of his next move as the bullies laugh at him.

"Do you think you're some kind of knight?" Fatty Number One asks with a laugh, walking closer to him. He leers down at him. "Where's your shining armour?"

Zoro needs to think fast so he thinks of the only weakness someone bigger than him can have.

He pokes him in the eye with the stick.

"Don't need it," he says. "I'm a pirate."

The boy covers his eye with a hand and turns to his friend, suddenly all worried. "Dude, is it infected? Everything's a bit fuzzy— am I going to be blind?"

Zoro watches as Fatty Number Two picks his friend up with some struggle (there's a reason Zoro calls them Fatty) and then they scramble away, tripping over themselves to go and see the nurse.

He turns around, satisfied, the smallest bit of a grin starting to peek out of him when it stops abruptly when he's met with the unwaveringly intense gazes of the two boys he's just "rescued".

One of them has a weird birthmark on his face, and he's wearing sunglasses, like he thinks he's so cool. The other guy is wearing some weirdly large clothes, that are obviously too big on him.

"Aniki," one of them whispers softly.

Zoro's eyes widen. What has he just gotten himself into?


Author's Note #2: The thank-yous! (Sorry it's long):

kuollu98: Thank you so much! That's so cool that you're from Finland. Does that mean you get to use that awesome school system they have other there? I'm SOOOO jealous!

SwordsgirlJackie: Yeah, the angst will be coming but I like to try and balance it out with fluff. You've read Beautiful Disaster, I believe, so that means you must know about how I do it. Then again, a lot of things are changing for this story. I seem to attract a lot of French readers ... Is it cause I put some French into my stories or am I just appealing to that part of Europe?

Ringochan94: If you wanna read more of my Haikyūu! it's on AO3 under the same name. I'm thinking of putting some of my stories on there too. That's so cool, that people all around the world basically are reading my stuff, I think it's awesome. I'm on Tumblr, if you didn't know. A lot of my posts are about Haikyūu! but it's basically just a feed for my stories (when a post a new one and stuff). I wrote something for Yamaguchi's birthday. Turned into more of a brotherly thing for Tsuki and Akiteru, but whatever I guess. And oh my God, FINALLY! Someone who just manages to like all the weird fandoms I like that seems to have no co-relation with each other.

HollyWoodFix: Hey there, I'm from Canada, and I love it! Also because at this current moment, we have no snow for once. What province are you from? I actually spent a week in the capital, having some fun learning about law. Made some friends who love anime while I was there. I'm a beacon for nerdy things.

leon-andrew: Like Texas? Sorry, I'm horrible at geography. I hope this chapter made you smile too!

Shizuka Taiyou: I don't know, part of me thinks Sanji should be less hairy with the Diable Jambe, shouldn't he be burning off all his leg hair? Sorry I read "Lebanon" as "Laboon" for a second there and got all happily sad. Again, I know more or less nothing about geography, so I'll just have to look it up sometime.

SaKyDaNy: Cool! Chile! That's awesome! I try to be funny. I think people laugh more AT me than with me, but I guess it's better than nothing.

lilcutieprincess: I can't, I just can't. And my stupid friend who only watches the dub FINALLY saw Luffy's frigging past and then RIGHT BEFORE THE TIME-SKIP, the dub stops. Like ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He says he'll watch subbed once he hits the time-skip, but it's gonna take Funimation like at least 3 months to get him there and I've been waiting since August. The first time I legitly cried in One Piece was Chopper and then before writing Beautiful Disaster, I went back to the beginning (okay to Sanji's initial entrance, which is why everything before episode 20 is a bit blurry) and then I got teary eyed and then I wondered if I was heartless when I realized I didn't cry the first time around I saw Nami's backstory.

Galexis: NO, BUT I NEED SANJI TO MAKE THE STORY! Can you hold off on kidnapping him until after his played his bit? And hold off on cuddling Zoro to death until then too? But you can still cuddle him, just don't strangle him! Next thing: I read a lot of them. They're big names in the ZoSan community so of course I read them. I love New Neon, and StarkBlack. I've read some of sevenbridges. I haven't heard of allbluechaser before though. One of my hopes is to become a really reccommended author for ZoSan, making my way up the charts to at least the top 10 authors of the pairing.

JustCallMeLucie: HELLO! I noticed you followed me to AO3 as well. Thank you for that! Allow me to explain the tan: Japan has a certain beauty standard and that standard is pale skin, like as pale as the moon, the fact that Zoro is darker skinned (as well as Usopp) is something I really love and after the time-skip, or just in general, as the story progresses, Zoro and Usopp become paler and paler, in order to meet those standards. Zoro's dark skin really shows off in Alabasta, where everything is paler than him, but he becomes pale after the time-skip. Furthermore, Usopp who spends the time-skip on A TROPICAL ISLAND, becomes like a white sheet, which doesn't make sense, unless the anime artists are trying to pander to the fact that Japan prefers people with light skin, like Sanji or Nami. Robin or Vivi are probabaly the best since they're the palest (or at least, they become the palest). Luffy is on a borderline where he's pale, but he's not REALLY pale either so he gets away with it, but my theory is that they want Zoro and Usopp specifically to become paler so that way they look more like the Japanese ideal. That's why they make fun of him for his tan. South Africa? That's where all my friends who travel end up having boyfriends from.

I know, I'm sorry my return is mainly full of author notes! Sorry! But my question: so ... do you know who the guys Zoro saved are?