He was pissed off at nothing in particular, as usual.
He took a long drag, puffing out donuts of smoke into the air when he was brushed past roughly by blur of orange. Narrowing his eyes, he turned slightly to take a look at the offender when he caught sight of long, glossy orange hair and hazel-brown eyes.
'Nami!'
He thought, brightening a little. He didn't know the girl at all, but he knew her name and for some reason was very attracted to the way she looked. Something looked a little... well, *off*, for some reason only God would know, but all the same just looking at the girl brought a smile to his face.
However, she muttered something before running off again, leaving him with an even more emptier feeling than usual.
Running a hand through his blonde hair, the young model wondered how his new room-mate would be like as he flicked his cigarette towards a bin. It bounced off the rim neatly, landing on the floor, a waft of smoke floating upwards.
With a sweatdrop he crushed the smoking red embers of the cigarette with his heel, then kicked it upwards. This time, it fell into the bin.
Smiling a little now, he walked about. He wasn't bothered to go to Literature, so he sat down onto a small tuft of grass behind the first extension and lit another cigarette.
He had been thinking loads lately - about himself, about Nami, about life in general... it pissed him off. He didn't like thinking deep. He liked cooking.
'That's the problem though,'
He thought bitterly,
'Everyone bloody wants me to continue being a model!'
All he'd wanted, when he'd chosen to take a few magazine shoots, was to grab a couple of quick bucks so he could learn cooking professionally. However, it had landed him in an actual *career*. Even after accomplishing what he'd wanted by entering a university, he was still appreciated for his looks. He was forever being pulled this way and that to take more than just magazine shoots now; he was even being requested for a new movie coming up.
Shuddering, he thought of his annoying red-head manager. He had popped up out of the blue and offered to take his modelling career into his hands. The young model had agreed, thinking it was only for a short while, but he had ended up with more money than he'd wanted in his life, and everyone was ignoring his cooking skills and only looking at him literally.
He was quite good at cooking actually; everyone used to compliment him on his cooking. But now he was confined to the walls of modelling; if he backed out of it, everyone would back out on him. They wanted... no, *expected* him to continue being a model for the rest of his life, as though he couldn't do anything better. They would treat him like an idiot if he let go of the modelling business, and he knew it because they'd done so the first time he'd brought the issue of retiring up.
'But I like cooking,'
He thought,
'And that's what's bugging me now.'
Realising he was going in a paradox, he decided it was time to go to his dorm and sleep on it. Walking up, he wondered if his room-mate was in yet, and was answered when he noticed that his door was slightly open.
He nudged the door open with a foot, and noticed a green-haired guy in black trousers that reached a length just over his knees, and a blue polo shirt.
'Just what the Grand Line uni needs... another nerd.'
He thought with a smirk. The green-head was bent well over and searching the contents of his bag for something. He watched the guy amusedly for a moment, waiting for the green-head to straighten and notice him, then maybe look embarrassed for a moment. Yes, he would show the green-head who was boss in this dorm room; show him why no one else shared a room with him.
The green-head continued to dig through his bag for a while, then apparently found what he was looking for. However, it seemed that it was stuck in the confines of the bag, and he gave a low grunt as he pulled at it. When it didn't come loose, he stood up and pulled at the thing with all his force.
The model watched from the door-frame, wondering when the hell the moron would turn around and notice him, when the green-head let out a sudden yell as the thing he was pulling at suddenly gave way, and he flew backwards right into his watcher at the door, crashing onto the hallway with him.
"The hell?!!"
He spluttered, kicking his new room-mate off him and dusting his shirt and chest angrily. The green-head turned his head to look at him, blinking in surprise. He held a set of earphones in his hands.
"Sorry,"
The new guy said, standing up and dusting himself as well,
"But you were the one standing the doorway the whole entire time."
The model face-faulted.
'He knew the whole entire time??'
He thought as he recovered, then looking slightly embarrassed, demanded,
"Why the hell didn't you say anything?!!"
The new guy shrugged.
"Don't see any reason why I should stop you doing what you want. I suppose you're Sandy?"
By now, the young model had realised that this 'new guy' was not exactly the geek material he'd expected. He had, after all, switched the expected scenario around. Now that he could see the guy properly, he noticed three silver hoops in his left ear, betraying the geeky look the polo shirt gave. Glaring at him suspiciously, he snapped,
"Don't call me that. I'm Sanji."
"Sanji White?"
"No,"
Sanji said as he shut the door and walked over to his side of the dorm room,
"Just Sanji. I don't have a surname."
The green-head looked curiously at him as he plugged his earphones into an MD player.
"Aren't you the model Sandy White?"
"Yeah, but that's just a name they stuck me with because 'Sanji' apparently doesn't sound good enough. And I'm an orphan, so I don't know my surname."
"Oh, I see now. Sanji, then."
"You've asked me enough about my name. What's yours?"
"Zoro. Zoro Roronoah."
"Hmm... I see now. Zoro Roronoah."
Lying flat on his back onto his bed, Sanji decided that now was the time to show Zoro who the superior was here.
"Well, Zoro, you better realise that no one usually risks sharing a room with me because of my attitude. I've got a bad temper, but knowing it doesn't make it any better. So don't do anything that'll piss me off. Understand, green-head?"
There was a long pause.
"Answer when you're asked something!!"
Sanji said irritatedly, bolting up and sitting on his bed to glare full-on at Zoro... to find out that the guy was sleeping on his bed with his earphones on. Falling off his bed, Sanji wondered how the hell he was going to survive a single semester with the annoying git.
Then he wondered why he was so agitated in the first place. Even if the new git had crashed into him upon arrival, it was a simple matter of glaring at him coldly and dismissing it with a disgusted grimace. But for some reason, just looking at the snoring newbie annoyed Sanji greatly.
He wondered if Zoro could possibly be feeling the same irritation he was feeling before asking himself why he was wondering about that.
"Are you listening, raven?"
She crouched down as though under gunfire, clutching her ears as though they were throbbing in pain.
"Go away..."
She whispered.
"I wondered why you cut your hair at the salon like that,"
The voice sneered,
"Why the hell were you even trying to be pretty. Didn't you know it was impossible? Now you look even more like a raven."
Appreciative snickers bounded off the sticky bathroom walls as she winced.
"Just go away..."
She mumbled.
"Well, whatever it was for, it convinced Jonathan that he wanted *you* as his partner, and not Carrie. You better apologise to her."
That nettled her.
Then it happened again - a mixed surge of confidence and anger, just like when she held a bokken during kendo classes - but she toned it down as best and as desperately as she could.
"Just because Carrie is frickin' crap at Biology,"
She muttered - loud enough to let them hear.
"What the hell?!!"
She grinned in self-triumph for a moment. A split second later, a cascade of water drenched her head and shoulders, the freezing cold seeping well through each strand of hair to the roots, her clothes soaking at the shoulders. She blinked water and tears out of her eyes, taking off her glasses to wipe at them with a dry corner of her shirt.
"You're a real bitch, Tashigi. You know that?"
This time, the girl's voice was low with anger. Tashigi rolled her eyes.
"You need help. Not just your looks, although nothing could help that. You need something to fix with your life and attitude in general. Do you really think it's so smart of you to give retorts like that while you're hiding in the bathroom, whimpering into the toilet-seat? You proud of yourself?"
The girls giggled as Tashigi's fingers gripped her glasses tightly, trembling violently out of anger. It was the same thing every day, straight after some class of some sort. They would always catch her in the bathroom, humilating and defiling her while she waited desperately for them to leave.
Today was different, though. For some reason, her rush of confidence hadn't faded yet, and the most strangest sense of hurt pride invaded her usual humble attitude. Tashigi had never felt hurt pride before. Hell, she had never felt pride at all in her life, come to think of it. Yet now, there it was, being hit blow by blow by every sentence the bitch outside made.
"You don't want to admit it, do you, Tashigi? That you're scared?"
Her knuckles grew white as her grip tightened upon her glasses.
"Face it girl. We scare you everytime we force you to look at yourself properly. It's only facing the truth, you know. But you're afraid of the truth."
Even tighter.
"Now that makes you one pathetic little bitch now, doesn't it, Tashigi?"
With a sharp crack, the glasses crumpled in a fistful of broken plastic and glass, and the confidence and fury fled like a wind. With a choked sob, Tashigi slammed her weight against the cubical door and burst out of it, her arms over her face as though to shield herself from something, running through the pack of startled girls.
'Why?'
The question echoed in her head, her mixed emotions clouded and refusing to clear.
'Why??'
A single tear of frustration trickled down her cheek as she ran out of the bathroom into the corridoor.
A pastel-blue sandal stepped out of the shiny black car and onto grey gravel and a wild cheer exploded from the surrounding crowd, flashes of ink on card rectangles and cameras accompanying the hollering reporters.
"Is it true that you are engaged with the boss of Feline Incorporates?"
"Are you having an affair between a certain boss and another lawyer?"
"Are the rumours true? They go as far as to say you have liver cancer, or leukemia. Which is it?"
"Please give us an opinion, Miss Kaya!!"
She tried her best to ignore them, biting her lip as she walked on. Policemen surrounded her path, blocking the screaming public, and her manager walked before her, leading her towards the studio in which she was scheduled to film the next episode of her current TV series.
"Go away!!"
Yelled her manager,
"GO AWAY!!"
Kaya felt a tight squeeze to her heart and she gasped, stumbling slightly but catching hold of her manageri's coat sleeve, managing to steady herself.
She walked as purposefully as she could through the doors, then let out a huge sigh of relief to find the studio lobby quite devoid of noise and human activity.
"Are you alright, Miss Kaya?"
Asked her manager concernedly. Kaya nodded shortly.
"I'm fine, Merii."
She walked on to the elevator, her heart clenching again. Merii sighed.
"Miss Kaya... please. Are you alright? Did you forget to take your depression tablets this morning?"
Her fingers tightened around the area of fabric over her chest as she breathed deeply and slowly.
"I think I forgot,"
She said through her teeth,
"Merii, could you please get them for me?"
"Right, Miss."
Merii said wearily, refraining from sighing, and walked towards the gliding doors.
Kaya rubbed her eyes with a sleeve, blinking out the blurs bothering her sight. Her condition was getting worse. No, she didn't have leukemia or liver cancer. The reason unknown even to the doctors who had treated her, Kaya had sunk into deep depression when she had turned fifteen last year.
Her weak heart had been badly affected by the sudden bad condition, but she was trying to keep up with the world around her rather than sink into her own. However, she could *feel* herself deteriorating; her physical and mental condition slowly fuzzing up into a haze of loneliness and sadness. Overcome with sudden emotional turmoil which she didn't even know the reason for, Kaya had lost the gift to smile.
However, she was alright. She felt that as long as she didn't forget how to live, one day, she'd become better again. She would be able to laugh and smile again one day - but for now, she knew she just had to live with the media and act as well as she could, forcing the corners of her mouth to act up when they had to.
Kaya felt her heart give a painful throb, and a sense of uneasiness weighted onto her whole being.
Something was missing. A large chunk of her had been bitten out of her when she had become fifteen. Part of it, she knew, was from the loss of her parents, although they had died a long time ago..., but the other half... She had no idea what it was, but whatever it was, it truly made her feel empty.
She wished she could fill her emptiness before her condition grew out of control, and hoped she would be able to smile again.
**Just an idea I had... whatcha think? Work okay? O.o;; Please tell me whatcha think~ The fic has been planned out from till the end, so if you guys think the idea is okay, I'll take it into my hands to continue. Okay? ^^;; And if it works, I can slap it onto me site! ^o^~~
He took a long drag, puffing out donuts of smoke into the air when he was brushed past roughly by blur of orange. Narrowing his eyes, he turned slightly to take a look at the offender when he caught sight of long, glossy orange hair and hazel-brown eyes.
'Nami!'
He thought, brightening a little. He didn't know the girl at all, but he knew her name and for some reason was very attracted to the way she looked. Something looked a little... well, *off*, for some reason only God would know, but all the same just looking at the girl brought a smile to his face.
However, she muttered something before running off again, leaving him with an even more emptier feeling than usual.
Running a hand through his blonde hair, the young model wondered how his new room-mate would be like as he flicked his cigarette towards a bin. It bounced off the rim neatly, landing on the floor, a waft of smoke floating upwards.
With a sweatdrop he crushed the smoking red embers of the cigarette with his heel, then kicked it upwards. This time, it fell into the bin.
Smiling a little now, he walked about. He wasn't bothered to go to Literature, so he sat down onto a small tuft of grass behind the first extension and lit another cigarette.
He had been thinking loads lately - about himself, about Nami, about life in general... it pissed him off. He didn't like thinking deep. He liked cooking.
'That's the problem though,'
He thought bitterly,
'Everyone bloody wants me to continue being a model!'
All he'd wanted, when he'd chosen to take a few magazine shoots, was to grab a couple of quick bucks so he could learn cooking professionally. However, it had landed him in an actual *career*. Even after accomplishing what he'd wanted by entering a university, he was still appreciated for his looks. He was forever being pulled this way and that to take more than just magazine shoots now; he was even being requested for a new movie coming up.
Shuddering, he thought of his annoying red-head manager. He had popped up out of the blue and offered to take his modelling career into his hands. The young model had agreed, thinking it was only for a short while, but he had ended up with more money than he'd wanted in his life, and everyone was ignoring his cooking skills and only looking at him literally.
He was quite good at cooking actually; everyone used to compliment him on his cooking. But now he was confined to the walls of modelling; if he backed out of it, everyone would back out on him. They wanted... no, *expected* him to continue being a model for the rest of his life, as though he couldn't do anything better. They would treat him like an idiot if he let go of the modelling business, and he knew it because they'd done so the first time he'd brought the issue of retiring up.
'But I like cooking,'
He thought,
'And that's what's bugging me now.'
Realising he was going in a paradox, he decided it was time to go to his dorm and sleep on it. Walking up, he wondered if his room-mate was in yet, and was answered when he noticed that his door was slightly open.
He nudged the door open with a foot, and noticed a green-haired guy in black trousers that reached a length just over his knees, and a blue polo shirt.
'Just what the Grand Line uni needs... another nerd.'
He thought with a smirk. The green-head was bent well over and searching the contents of his bag for something. He watched the guy amusedly for a moment, waiting for the green-head to straighten and notice him, then maybe look embarrassed for a moment. Yes, he would show the green-head who was boss in this dorm room; show him why no one else shared a room with him.
The green-head continued to dig through his bag for a while, then apparently found what he was looking for. However, it seemed that it was stuck in the confines of the bag, and he gave a low grunt as he pulled at it. When it didn't come loose, he stood up and pulled at the thing with all his force.
The model watched from the door-frame, wondering when the hell the moron would turn around and notice him, when the green-head let out a sudden yell as the thing he was pulling at suddenly gave way, and he flew backwards right into his watcher at the door, crashing onto the hallway with him.
"The hell?!!"
He spluttered, kicking his new room-mate off him and dusting his shirt and chest angrily. The green-head turned his head to look at him, blinking in surprise. He held a set of earphones in his hands.
"Sorry,"
The new guy said, standing up and dusting himself as well,
"But you were the one standing the doorway the whole entire time."
The model face-faulted.
'He knew the whole entire time??'
He thought as he recovered, then looking slightly embarrassed, demanded,
"Why the hell didn't you say anything?!!"
The new guy shrugged.
"Don't see any reason why I should stop you doing what you want. I suppose you're Sandy?"
By now, the young model had realised that this 'new guy' was not exactly the geek material he'd expected. He had, after all, switched the expected scenario around. Now that he could see the guy properly, he noticed three silver hoops in his left ear, betraying the geeky look the polo shirt gave. Glaring at him suspiciously, he snapped,
"Don't call me that. I'm Sanji."
"Sanji White?"
"No,"
Sanji said as he shut the door and walked over to his side of the dorm room,
"Just Sanji. I don't have a surname."
The green-head looked curiously at him as he plugged his earphones into an MD player.
"Aren't you the model Sandy White?"
"Yeah, but that's just a name they stuck me with because 'Sanji' apparently doesn't sound good enough. And I'm an orphan, so I don't know my surname."
"Oh, I see now. Sanji, then."
"You've asked me enough about my name. What's yours?"
"Zoro. Zoro Roronoah."
"Hmm... I see now. Zoro Roronoah."
Lying flat on his back onto his bed, Sanji decided that now was the time to show Zoro who the superior was here.
"Well, Zoro, you better realise that no one usually risks sharing a room with me because of my attitude. I've got a bad temper, but knowing it doesn't make it any better. So don't do anything that'll piss me off. Understand, green-head?"
There was a long pause.
"Answer when you're asked something!!"
Sanji said irritatedly, bolting up and sitting on his bed to glare full-on at Zoro... to find out that the guy was sleeping on his bed with his earphones on. Falling off his bed, Sanji wondered how the hell he was going to survive a single semester with the annoying git.
Then he wondered why he was so agitated in the first place. Even if the new git had crashed into him upon arrival, it was a simple matter of glaring at him coldly and dismissing it with a disgusted grimace. But for some reason, just looking at the snoring newbie annoyed Sanji greatly.
He wondered if Zoro could possibly be feeling the same irritation he was feeling before asking himself why he was wondering about that.
"Are you listening, raven?"
She crouched down as though under gunfire, clutching her ears as though they were throbbing in pain.
"Go away..."
She whispered.
"I wondered why you cut your hair at the salon like that,"
The voice sneered,
"Why the hell were you even trying to be pretty. Didn't you know it was impossible? Now you look even more like a raven."
Appreciative snickers bounded off the sticky bathroom walls as she winced.
"Just go away..."
She mumbled.
"Well, whatever it was for, it convinced Jonathan that he wanted *you* as his partner, and not Carrie. You better apologise to her."
That nettled her.
Then it happened again - a mixed surge of confidence and anger, just like when she held a bokken during kendo classes - but she toned it down as best and as desperately as she could.
"Just because Carrie is frickin' crap at Biology,"
She muttered - loud enough to let them hear.
"What the hell?!!"
She grinned in self-triumph for a moment. A split second later, a cascade of water drenched her head and shoulders, the freezing cold seeping well through each strand of hair to the roots, her clothes soaking at the shoulders. She blinked water and tears out of her eyes, taking off her glasses to wipe at them with a dry corner of her shirt.
"You're a real bitch, Tashigi. You know that?"
This time, the girl's voice was low with anger. Tashigi rolled her eyes.
"You need help. Not just your looks, although nothing could help that. You need something to fix with your life and attitude in general. Do you really think it's so smart of you to give retorts like that while you're hiding in the bathroom, whimpering into the toilet-seat? You proud of yourself?"
The girls giggled as Tashigi's fingers gripped her glasses tightly, trembling violently out of anger. It was the same thing every day, straight after some class of some sort. They would always catch her in the bathroom, humilating and defiling her while she waited desperately for them to leave.
Today was different, though. For some reason, her rush of confidence hadn't faded yet, and the most strangest sense of hurt pride invaded her usual humble attitude. Tashigi had never felt hurt pride before. Hell, she had never felt pride at all in her life, come to think of it. Yet now, there it was, being hit blow by blow by every sentence the bitch outside made.
"You don't want to admit it, do you, Tashigi? That you're scared?"
Her knuckles grew white as her grip tightened upon her glasses.
"Face it girl. We scare you everytime we force you to look at yourself properly. It's only facing the truth, you know. But you're afraid of the truth."
Even tighter.
"Now that makes you one pathetic little bitch now, doesn't it, Tashigi?"
With a sharp crack, the glasses crumpled in a fistful of broken plastic and glass, and the confidence and fury fled like a wind. With a choked sob, Tashigi slammed her weight against the cubical door and burst out of it, her arms over her face as though to shield herself from something, running through the pack of startled girls.
'Why?'
The question echoed in her head, her mixed emotions clouded and refusing to clear.
'Why??'
A single tear of frustration trickled down her cheek as she ran out of the bathroom into the corridoor.
A pastel-blue sandal stepped out of the shiny black car and onto grey gravel and a wild cheer exploded from the surrounding crowd, flashes of ink on card rectangles and cameras accompanying the hollering reporters.
"Is it true that you are engaged with the boss of Feline Incorporates?"
"Are you having an affair between a certain boss and another lawyer?"
"Are the rumours true? They go as far as to say you have liver cancer, or leukemia. Which is it?"
"Please give us an opinion, Miss Kaya!!"
She tried her best to ignore them, biting her lip as she walked on. Policemen surrounded her path, blocking the screaming public, and her manager walked before her, leading her towards the studio in which she was scheduled to film the next episode of her current TV series.
"Go away!!"
Yelled her manager,
"GO AWAY!!"
Kaya felt a tight squeeze to her heart and she gasped, stumbling slightly but catching hold of her manageri's coat sleeve, managing to steady herself.
She walked as purposefully as she could through the doors, then let out a huge sigh of relief to find the studio lobby quite devoid of noise and human activity.
"Are you alright, Miss Kaya?"
Asked her manager concernedly. Kaya nodded shortly.
"I'm fine, Merii."
She walked on to the elevator, her heart clenching again. Merii sighed.
"Miss Kaya... please. Are you alright? Did you forget to take your depression tablets this morning?"
Her fingers tightened around the area of fabric over her chest as she breathed deeply and slowly.
"I think I forgot,"
She said through her teeth,
"Merii, could you please get them for me?"
"Right, Miss."
Merii said wearily, refraining from sighing, and walked towards the gliding doors.
Kaya rubbed her eyes with a sleeve, blinking out the blurs bothering her sight. Her condition was getting worse. No, she didn't have leukemia or liver cancer. The reason unknown even to the doctors who had treated her, Kaya had sunk into deep depression when she had turned fifteen last year.
Her weak heart had been badly affected by the sudden bad condition, but she was trying to keep up with the world around her rather than sink into her own. However, she could *feel* herself deteriorating; her physical and mental condition slowly fuzzing up into a haze of loneliness and sadness. Overcome with sudden emotional turmoil which she didn't even know the reason for, Kaya had lost the gift to smile.
However, she was alright. She felt that as long as she didn't forget how to live, one day, she'd become better again. She would be able to laugh and smile again one day - but for now, she knew she just had to live with the media and act as well as she could, forcing the corners of her mouth to act up when they had to.
Kaya felt her heart give a painful throb, and a sense of uneasiness weighted onto her whole being.
Something was missing. A large chunk of her had been bitten out of her when she had become fifteen. Part of it, she knew, was from the loss of her parents, although they had died a long time ago..., but the other half... She had no idea what it was, but whatever it was, it truly made her feel empty.
She wished she could fill her emptiness before her condition grew out of control, and hoped she would be able to smile again.
**Just an idea I had... whatcha think? Work okay? O.o;; Please tell me whatcha think~ The fic has been planned out from till the end, so if you guys think the idea is okay, I'll take it into my hands to continue. Okay? ^^;; And if it works, I can slap it onto me site! ^o^~~