And here'sTerror-san's (recently Tsume-san) belated gift. Yet another 9/11 inspired fic. I hope you guys like it.
Thought I Lost
The sound of an alarm clock was heard in two different places as one shut his off about seconds after it made that annoying sound, while the other waved around blindly before hitting the snooze button and slept a bit more.
The first is a man in his mid-late twenties with a well built body kissed with a medium dark tan. He has short, unusually color green hair, emerald eyes, and a face that most would be unfortunate to see in a dark alley. He grunted as he got up from the bed to his closet to pick out an undershirt, a long sleeved dress shirt, black pressed pants and a regular grey tie.
While the first man was getting ready, the second man suddenly realized he had to be up and jumped out of bed. This man is in his mid-twenties and was not as well built as the first, but still maintained the muscle within the thin frame of his body, ebony hair that was longer than the first, but still short and seemed to have a mind of its own. Wide brown eyes looked at the closet as he frantically grabbed anything that looked presentable. Under the left eye was a small crescent scar that showed that it had been years that it's been there, and he quickly put on his clothes as he looked at the time and yelped his surprise.
The first man was already done and looked presentable, which he didn't seem to like with a sound of a grunt before grabbing his suitcase and walked out of his apartment and took the stairs down, because the elevator took too long in his opinion and headed out into the busy early morning street of New York City.
The second man looked a bit of a mess as he tried brushing his teeth and putting on his clothes at the same time. When he did get his clothes on, he ran like the devil was after him out of his apartment, only to back track when he remembered to grab his suitcase and lock the door. He ran out into the busy sidewalk, which he had to apologize to everyone he bumped into until he saw the subway entrance and ran down the steps to get his ticket for the subway.
The first man, already got his ticket, was waiting for the train to arrive as he checked his watch.
The second man finally got through and ran up to see that the train arrived and made a dash to the closing doors, made it, and crashed into the first man, who was holding the upper rail as if expecting this would happen.
"Morning, Luffy." Said the first man as the second, Luffy, panted and straightened to a normal standing position.
"Morning Zoro! That was a close call!"
"You slept in again, didn't you?" The man, Zoro said with hardly any emotion as he reached into his pocket and pulled up a black tie. "And forgot to wear a tie, again…"
Luffy laughed as the other helped him look presentable. "At least I remembered my suit case this…" He said before his face fell.
"You left it at the ticket place, didn't you?"
"Yeah…"
"Anything important?"
"Just papers… Something about schedules…"
"So not too important." He said as he got his cell phone, dialed, and talked to the person that runs the station where they left at before turning it off. "It'll be there when we get back."
"Thanks a lot Zoro. I would be a mess if not for you."
He sighed as he shook his head. "You're lucky that we work in the same building."
Luffy smiled. "Zoro's a great guy!"
"Oi…" He said as he looked at the other, who was only a few inches smaller than him, but not short at all.
When they reached to their stop, they walked out along with the crowd and headed to two glistening buildings.
"Morning Twin Towers!" Luffy called out, which many would assume he's seventeen with a bad case of ADHD.
"You have to do that, every morning?" Zoro asked, slightly embarrassed by the other man's childish antics.
"Why not? It gives me a good feeling when I do that."
"Why am I friends with you again?"
"Oh! Oh! I remember! Because I was new and the boss assign me to you to show me the ropes."
"And ever since then you wouldn't leave me alone…" He said, remembering that day as well. Secretly he was glad that his stick up the ass boss assigned the man to him on that fateful day. Because Luffy was full of energy and optimisium, and he was rumored as a 'demon' by his co-workers due to his height, intimidating face, and his knack for being in a bad mood every day. Safe to say he didn't make friends easily due to how he appeared to others, and he could care less. Then Luffy came around and everyone was a little put off with the high energy, happy-go-lucky guy, especially since not everyone had the energy or patience to deal with that kind of energy with or without coffee.
Luffy is the only person who accepted him as he is. The second they were introduced, the younger man announced bluntly how 'cool' his hair is. Even when he was yelling at him, he just laughed it off like it was some great joke. The whole day was emotionally and mentally exhausting to him that time, but by the time it was time to leave, he found out that they took the same route to get home, but that he was late so they missed each other by a mere minute. And ever since then the younger man rushed to get to the train on time with him and walk to work together.
The older man enjoyed having the other around, even though his expression hardly changed his way of talking to people improved because Luffy did not like to be ignored. He would talk to the other when he had a question, mostly out of the blue randoms that were idiotic and simple at best, and because he talked to the other a lot, he talked more to people in the building and his boss, which was a feat in itself.
They entered the building, checked themselves in and headed up to their respectful cubicles, which was right next to each other (due to Luffy begging his boss for three weeks straight).
"Morning everyone!" Luffy cheerfully called out to everyone within earshot.
"Morning Luffy." Some called as they continued what they were doing.
Zoro simply placed his suitcase on his desk as the other followed him into the office.
"Hey, Zoro, wanna go out for lunch today? It's a great day out!"
He looked out of the huge windows that make up the walls in the building and saw that it was a nice day out. "Sure, what do you have in mind?"
"That bistro in Little Italy seems good."
"That's some ways from here…" He pointed it out.
"No one will know we're here."
"Maybe not me…"
Luffy smiled as he hugged the other, who was a bit surprised. "I'd miss you."
Zoro is touched by this. After dealing with the others for a few years, having someone like Luffy to show such affection and say such things was refreshing, but of course he still has pride and cleared his throat. "Okay, we'll go to that place then. I'll make up an excuse for both of us."
"Yay! Zoro's the greatest!"
He couldn't help but grin, because he liked hearing it. A lot.
"Monkey!" Called out a man, clearly the boss. "I need you to run an errand for me!"
"Okay, Boss!" Luffy called as he waved to Zoro. "See ya later!"
"Stay out of trouble!" He called back, knowing that the other man, though likeable, can be a magnet of trouble if he's not around to keep him away from it.
With that he turned to his computer and started to type up some things that the memo mentioned that he had to type up for. His desk phone then started to ring and he picked it up to hear his boss barking out about some dry cleaning to be picked up. "Okay sir, I'll get it…" He said, not knowing why his boss would let him run that errand. 'If I'm getting the dry cleaning, what is Luffy doing?' He thought as he shrugged and walked out of the building.
The one flaw he would deny if anyone mentioned it, is that he had horrid sense of direction. 'How did I get on the other side of the bridge?' He thought as he could see the Twin Towers from across the river. "Shit… Must've taken the wrong turn somewhere…" He mumbled to himself when he saw something unusual in the sky. "An airplane? This far out?" He said as he and a few others who noticed it saw that it was heading off course of the airport. "I know there's no landing platform th-" He started to say when he realized just where the plane was going. His eyes widened when he saw the plane crashed into the first of the two buildings as the people gasped and called out around him. 'Luffy!' He thought as he reached to get his phone, only to remember that Luffy left his suitcase at the subway station, and it was usually on silent due to the boss having a fit about it the last few times.
He was at a loss at what to do. Even if he did get back to the other side of the river, the area would most likely be blocked off from the citizen from further harm.
To make matters worse, he and everyone saw a second plane hit the second tower. He couldn't do anything but stand there along with everyone as he watched the two towers fall, much like his heart at the thought never seeing the energetic man ever again.
With Luffy, sometime before the incident, ran the errand of picking out a birthday gift for his soon to be six-year-old granddaughter. He and the other met her before and she took a great liking to him, so he was more than happy to do the errand for him. He even knew the little girl's favorite toy store is at, which was quite a long way from work, but he believes his boss wouldn't mind.
Once he found and purchased the plush purple monkey, he headed out to see the people in front of the store, standing there with shocked horrified looks on their faces. He looked up to see that one of the towers had huge hole and dark smoke was coming out. He was going to ask someone what happened when he saw a plane hit the second tower and he dropped the bag holding the gift as he saw that. 'Zoro!' He thought as he stood there with the rest of the crowd as the building came down like the one game of janga. It was only then did he realize that he was crying.
Hours seemed like days before the chaos clamed to a shocked silence, which was out of place in the usually busy city, but the events of what transpired seemed like a bad dream if not for the real proof before them.
Evening fell and Zoro, along with a few others, stood behind the barricade to see the remains of the once two tall buildings. He remembered the last time he talked and seen Luffy, having some slim hope that the other was like him and the errand was outside the building when it happened, but chances like that are almost slim to none. He looked around to see if the other is within the crowd, wondering if the other was doing the same, but could not see him anywhere and reluctantly walked the long way to the station where Luffy left his suitcase. He could at least take procession of it before someone else does.
When he got to the station, he went up to the man and asked for it, which confused the man.
"But, the owner just picked it up about a few hours ago."
"What? Luffy's alive!" He said, shocked to hear this.
"I wouldn't mistake him for anyone else, since he's the only one with that small scar under his left eye."
Zoro then took out his cell phone and rushed out of the station to get better reception. 'Please pick up. Please pick up.' He thought, truefully hoping that the younger man is alive and well.
With Luffy, after he seen the horrifying sight, picked up the, what he believes will become, the bittersweet birthday gift, and walked like the living dead to the station to pick up his suitcase, told the man what happened, was told that the other was sorry for his loss, and walked just a slow to his own apartment. He dropped the items on the ground by the door and dragged his feet to the couch and just laid there.
He didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but he heard his phone ring and decided not to pick up and let the machine get it.
"You've reached Monkey D.'s residence! I can't reach the phone right now because I'm either working, sleeping, or hanging out with my best friend Zoro!"
He winced at that.
"Leave a message and I'll get back to ya!"
He sighed, mentally noting to change his machine when he gets around to it.
"Luffy? Luffy please pick up if you're there."
He sprang up when he heard the familiar voice of the other man.
"Luffy? Please be there…" Zoro's voice sounded desperate and he raced to the phone to answer just before the message timer can cut them off.
"Zoro! Zoro!" He called out, hoping he made it in time.
"Luffy? Luffy! Is that really you!" He made it.
"Zoro! I thought… Earlier when the towers…"
"Same here…" Zoro said, wiping away tears he didn't know he has before they fell. "Shit… I didn't know if you were running an errand from inside the building or outside… Damn… I was so sure I lost you…"
Luffy wasn't hiding the fact he was crying. "I thought you were still inside! Where were you then?"
"I was running an errand just minutes after you left… Then I got lost…" He said, only telling the other's flaw to him. "I was on the other side of the river when I saw it happen… Luffy…"
"Yeah?"
"Mind if I come over?"
"I don't mind at all, you're always welcome…"
"Thanks… give me some time to find you. You know how I am…"
Luffy giggled a bit, knowing the other's flaw. "Just don't hang up just yet, okay?"
"Okay, I'll tell you where I'm at and you tell me if I'm going the right way."
"Sounds good."
After Luffy talked the directions to Zoro, the older man finally reached the destination and the other was waiting for him through the open door he didn't bother to close when he walked in a few hours earlier.
Zoro, eyes red from his relief cry, walked up and embraced the other, who returned the embrace with his own.
They stayed that way for sometime before they slightly parted, but still have their arms around them, and they stared into each other's eyes. Both of their eyes were red from tears and were smiling, knowing that they haven't lost each other as they had previously thought much earlier. Then after a comfortable moment of silence, Zoro leaned down to kiss the other, who had a mild look of surprise.
Zoro knew he'd risk everything that they have when he did this, but his sudden emotional drive through the day was beyond taxing for him, and just simply seeing and holding the other couldn't compare to how much he felt about the other. What he didn't expect was the other returning the kiss and felt the other's hand go into his hair, bringing them closer. And he wasn't going to complain, feeling that this is what they both needed after what happened. Just more proof that they're here… alive.
They parted from the kiss to look at each other for a moment before embracing each other once more, knowing that tomorrow wasn't going to be like the other days before today.
They know tomorrow, more than a thousand people will be mourning for lost loved ones that weren't so lucky to cheat death the way they did, and both knew that they can't return to that site to work anymore. But for that moment, they're just glad to be in each other's presence.
"Zoro…" Luffy said quietly as he heard the other make a sound that he's listening. "What's going to happen from now?"
Zoro was thinking the same thing as well. "I don't know Luffy… But I do know this… That we're together in this… and even though we may not know everyone who worked there, we should mourn with everyone else until all of us can finally move forward." He said as he noticed the plush monkey. "That for the boss's granddaughter?"
Luffy looked over as well and nodded. "Yeah… That was my errand today… I went to her favorite toy shop to get it."
Zoro held the other tight. "We should give it to her anyway. At least she'll know that her grandfather thought about her before…"
Luffy returned the tight embrace and nodded. "You're right Zoro… It's what he would've wanted." He buried his face into the other's chest. "You're really are the greatest, Zoro."
Zoro smiled a little as he kissed the top of the other's head. "So are you…"
And with that, they shared a moment of silence, remembering what they've lost that day and what they've thought they lost, and what was there to come when the sun rises the next day.
Well... there you have it. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
