"Yow!!"
"Watch it, Tashigi!!"
"S-s-sorry!!"
She cried, banging the trolley of lenses around without meaning to. The more she tried not to hit anything, the more she seemed to stumble and crash into things. Just when she felt she had finally gotten control of the trolley, a foot stuck out and Tashigi tripped, slamming her forehead into the trolley end while lenses fell onto the ground, several cracking apart into sharp shards.
One slid right into the soft skin of her thumb as she fumbled around for her glasses. There were sounds of the door of the Physics lab crashing open and shut, but Tashigi didn't take much notice. She found her glasses and shook them free of tiny bits of glass before putting them on. She examined her hands. They were bleeding, and her left thumb was bleeding badly.
"Tashigi!"
Ms. Morris tutted as Tashigi bowed down several times as she apologised.
"Look, this is the third time this semester. Do be careful next time. Clean your hands up before you start cleaning anything else."
Tashigi nodded, and let out a low sigh as the Physics teacher addressed the class, explaining several notions of some astrologist while Tashigi unstuck what glass she could from herself before sweeping up the mess.
"Retard,"
A girl beside hissed in her ear as she passed. She ignored her, but paused to wipe her spit out of the rim of her ear. She was picking up undamaged lenses from the floor when another hand joined her picking. She looked up in surprise to see dark-chocolate eyes staring back at her, and realised it was Jonathan.
"Jonathan?"
"Tashigi, you should really get those properly bandaged."
He commented. She looked down at her fingers and shook her head. It would disturb kendo but she wasn't about to tell him that. No one knew about her kendo skills except for her kendo teacher.
"I'm fine."
She looked at his sharp, angled face and the dark-brown hair that fell into his eyes and allowed herself a small smile. At least he was nice...
"Uh, Tashigi... listen."
"Yeah?"
She asked, carefully setting the lenses into the small cardboard box on the top of the trolley. Jonathan dumped his roughly on top before saying casually,
"You wanna be my dance-partner this Friday?"
Tashigi's eyed widened.
"What?"
She asked, wondering if she had heard properly.
"You know. Be my date this Friday."
"D-d-date?!!"
She stuttered. He nodded, smiling. His white teeth glinted at her.
"What about it?"
He asked smoothly. He appeared to be enjoying her reaction as she blushed and looked slightly embarrassed.
"Uh... sure."
She mumbled. Tashigi had never, in her whole entire life, been asked out by a guy. She had always been the loner, and guys didn't bother with her.
But Jonathan was a nice guy, and she was pretty sure he was asking as a friend. They had sort of become friends through Biology and Physics classes during first semester.
"Great. I'll see you tomorrow during Biology, huh?"
He flashed his teeth at her again before striding away. Tashigi smiled, feeling happier than she had in ages. She walked past the table of bitches with her half-dreamy smile, relieved to see that they didn't attempt to trip her.
They must be gob-smacked, she decided, especially Carrie... she smiled contentedly as she gazed at constellations in the clear night-skies.
If only she had seen Carrie's smile.
"Sanji~!! It's me~~!!"
"Oh no... what is it?"
"Got you a slot tomorrow. Three o' clock sharp, got it? At Clarina Street. I'll meet you in front of Clarina Crescent, how's that?"
"Bad."
"Is it? There's an advertisement due on Friday, I'll re-arrange thatt for tomorrow if you like and put the magazine shoot to Friday."
"Shit, I forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"Cancel or re-schedule anything this Friday."
"Why?"
"There's a dinner-dance."
"A what??"
"A d-- forget it. Just do as I said."
"Well, if that's the way you want it. Clarina Crescent tomorrow at three, okay?"
"What?!! Bloody hell, I just said--"
"Come to Amploid Plaza on Thursday at around one-thirty - I'll try to re-arrange the ad for that time. See ya!"
"Damn it, I don't want any magazine shoots Sha--"
The dial-tone sounded.
Cursing violently, Sanji shut his cell-phone lid angrily before mumbling to himself as he sank down into the grasses behind the main building. Running a hand through his blonde hair, he bit his cigarette end and let out a frustrated yell. He threw his mobile-phone onto the soft earth and kicked hard onto the wall of the school before collapsing onto the grass and seething.
'I feel a bit empty,'
Sanji thought,
'Wonder why...'
He vented his anger out through vile words without ever noticing the fact that his kick had spread a spider-web of deep cracks into the back, cemented concrete wall of the building.
'Geez, I can't believe myself...'
Usopp thought on his way to the Grand Line university, a package in his right hand and his toolbag in the other.
He had to admit to himself that he had over-reacted to Nami that afternoon. It was completely true that the Nami in his dream had hurt him a lot, but he was surprised at himself. He had clearly been more hurt than he had thought.
It wasn't Nami's fault. No, how *could* it be? He had weird dreams with her figure in it, and sure Nami humoured him by showing interest in them, but that didn't mean he had to bother calling her out just to get mad at what had happened in a *dream*... Usopp sighed, scuffling up to the main entrance of the university.
'I hope she's not too mad...'
As he hopped up the stairs to the main building, he remembered how he had felt when he had called her cell-phone to have a 'talk'. He had felt... *urgent*. Why? He didn't know, but he had definitely chosen the wrong way to bring up the dream when talking to her. It had led him to a totally different path that blew up between him and Nami. The urgency was gone now, so Usopp still didn't know why he had felt it in the first place.
He leaned against locker 202 with a low sigh, swinging the package on its string about as he waited. Sure enough, the digits '10:34' glowed on the watch at his wrist as the familiar orange-head popped around the corner.
Usopp sighed, straightening and watching Nami's expression change from surprise to a cold glare. He opened his mouth resignedly to say something; an apology, a greeting; anything to make her eyes less dark, when suddenly, the volume around him died down.
It was late, so it hadn't been much noisy to start with. However, the silence startled Usopp as he became suddenly aware of the thorough lack of the usual thrum of buzzing insects, giggles and chattering from the surrounding students, the creaking swing of opening and shutting doors below and above... The scene before Usopp's eyes fell into a haze of a swirl of colour, his mind jarring from a sudden jolt that racked him as the colours sharpened to form outlines...
His eyes widened considerably behind the glasses as a girl with short orange hair started towards him, her hair whipping in a salty wind, her mouth opening in a silent cry as she stumbled, her fingers fumbling onto wooden railings beside her. The floor below was rocking from un-natural waves from the ocean below, the skies stormily grey and dark, rain pelting down in sheets. It was so difficult to see her through the rain, and it was still deathly silent...!
Then he saw, behind her, another figure...? A blur of black, white and green, and Usopp recognised the figure - it was the swordsman from his dream...! As soon as he recognised the swordsman, the whole scene seemed to clear slightly as he noticed that the figure had a black bandanna over his head, obscuring half his eyes from view... he was yelling something, something that Usopp couldn't hear through the almost suffocating silence...
Then there was red. Red all over the place, splattering and staining... a white-hot sear of heat ran through Usopp as his vision filled with the skies, the dark clouds mounting as rain-drops blotted out the scene. He gasped as sound came right back on for a split second, the roaring of wind and rain overcoming him as the cry of an unmistakeably familiar voice screamed in despair---
He blinked. Grey concrete and white lights in the ceiling met his eyes, and a mass of kids brushed past him as they went to retrieve things from metal cabinets behind him. Talking in excited and friendly tones sounded strange, and their clothes looked stiff and unnatural. He looked at the girl approaching him with an icy expression, long orange locks held away from her face with clips.
'What am I doing here?'
Usopp wondered in complete confusion. This wasn't normal... no, it wasn't only not normal-- panic seemed to fill him as he realised - everything around him - it wasn't-- it just wasn't -- RIGHT----
"What's with the hair?!"
He blurted out, and as soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth, every thing else did too; all the questions, all the confusion, all the unfamiliarity. It felt like a rush of compression escaping from the area, relieving the tension that Usopp had been suppressed so heavily with.
Suddenly, Usopp was met with a very surprised Nami amidst a crowd of staring university students, the package in his hand hanging limply from a string. A new sort of confusion filled him now.
"Huh?"
He said. Nami stared at him for a moment before shaking her head quickly and shoving the young engineer off her locker.
'What just happened...??'
Usopp wondered. The moment he opened his mouth and the seconds before the sudden question were disjointed. Something had happened, he was sure of it, but his mind was blank now. He studied her hair. There wasn't anything different... was there? Nami shut her locker, a set of note-books in her arms as she twiddled the combination.
She turned to face him, her eyes analysing his as he blinked, looking disturbed.
"...What is it?"
He remembered what he was doing there, and held up the package in his hands with a small smile.
"Chocolate-chip cookies?"
He said, his tone hopeful. Her eyes narrowed.
"If you're thinking that I've forgotten the whole thing, you're badly mistaken,"
She snapped, and Usopp's eyes fell to the ground with a cringe before she continued,
"Unless those cookies are worth a bowl of cookies 'n' cream."
He looked at her in surprise as she snatched the package off him and pulled out a cookie. Grinning, she bit into one as Usopp couldn't help but let out a small laugh of relief.
"You're not mad?"
Usopp said with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope,"
She replied,
"Not after these. Thanks Usopp... I'm sorry I didn't take your news too well. We'll talk it out another time, okay?"
He felt gladness sweep through him as she finished the cookie while sliding the notebooks into her bag, and they exchanged grins.
"Oi."
Usopp glanced up to see a guy, obviously another university student. Green strands of hair could be seen below the blue cloth that was being used like a bandanna, much like his own checked one. Strong familiarity flitted through his mind, although Usopp could practically swear he'd never seen the dude before. He consented to staring.
Nami turned, and a geometry set was handed to her.
"Thanks again."
The guy said lightly, walking towards another guy with sunglasses.
"No problem."
Nami answered with a wave. She nestled the plastic case between two notebooks before zipping her bag closed.
"Who is that guy?"
Usopp said curiously as his eyes followed the retreating back of the green-head. He quickly turned back to Nami when the guy turned around quite suddenly.
"That's Johnny. You know him."
"No, the other guy with him. You know, the one who just gave you back your geometry set."
"Oh, yeah. That's some new guy... I forgot his name."
Usopp accumulated a huge sweatdrop at this.
"You lent him your geometry set and you don't know his name?"
"No, I don't. Sheesh, lighten up - I wasn't born to remember names. Take a cookie."
He obliged as he complained,
"Still, I'm sure it was only a few minutes ago..."
"Yeah, that's exactly it,"
Nami retorted as the two walked down the corridoors,
"I've only known him for a few minutes!"
"What's wrong, Zoro?"
Johnny asked, looking over his shoulder as well but failing to see anything abnormal. Zoro shook his head.
"Nothing..."
'It felt like someone was staring at me...'
Zoro thought with a slightly furrowed brow, the back of his head tickling,
'Maybe it's my bandanna? No....'
"The guy we're gonna meet's Yosaku,"
Johnny's voice interrupted his thoughts,
"he can be a real moron, but he's been my best friend since third grade and everything, and I can tell you he's not a bad guy, really."
"Yosaku?"
"Yeah,"
Johnny said with a small, sympathetic smile,
"Just don't mention the dinner dance to him, or else he'll collapse into tears again. He just got rejected this morning by Carrie."
Zoro raised his eyebrows.
"Dinner dance?"
Johnny nodded, surprised.
"Didn't you know?"
"I came this morning,"
Zoro explained.
"Oh, I see. Well, there's a dinner dance coming soon. It's on this Friday evening."
Johnny looked at Zoro curiously.
"Do you have a girlfriend? You can bring her over to the dinner dance if you want to."
"Hell, no, I don't have a girlfriend."
Zoro replied, looking at Johnny with bit of a bewildered expression. Johnny looked just as confusedly surprised.
"Uh, sorry. Didn't know you were sexist or anything."
"I'm not,"
Zoro said, still looking at Johnny weirdly. Johnny hesitated before starting,
"Are you homo--"
"No! I'm not gay. It's just... well...,"
Zoro sighed before saying,
"In my other college, couples were banned."
Johnny laughed so hard his sunglasses nearly fell off. Zoro had a huge sweatdrop as he said,
"Uh, I'm serious."
The guy stopped laughing to look at him incredulously.
"That's so... weird!!"
Johnny exclaimed. Zoro frowned.
"Well, I find it just as weird that this uni seems to allow it."
Johnny shook his head.
"This uni isn't the only one. In fact, your college must be the only one that forbids couples. However, I do believe that Yosaku and I can help you."
"Help me what?"
His companion threw up his hands exasperatedly.
"Snag a date, of course!"
"No thanks,"
Zoro replied,
"I'm probably not even going to the dinner dance. I've no interest."
"No interest!"
Johnny squawked.
"Nope. Now where's the cafeteria?"
Zoro asked, looking around and heading towards a hallway.
"That's to the girl's bathroom,"
Johnny said hastily, dragging Zoro away,
"We'll talk more about this after I introduce Yosaku to you. What other subjects do you take?"
As soon as Zoro stepped out of sight, he, Nami and Usopp were suddenly drained of a feeling they had had inside themselves that they didn't even notice. Zoro found it rather disturbingly familiar while Nami and Usopp wondered but did not voice it out loud.
(( Thanks for the reviews! ^^* Hurray! I'm very happy, maybe the idea works out after all. ^^* But I must digress that this chapter really sucks. -.-;; Gomen ne, yaoi fans, but this fic is not exactly pro-yaoi... it's pro-friendship though. ^^; Anyways - here are a few things to sort out about the story and the next chap:
1. ~Where is Luffy?~ I didn't write about him yet... so you won't know until I do. ^^;;;
2. ~"An AU fic... or is it?"~ The reason why I added the question is because... well, as you read the fic, you start to wonder. It's not a complete AU fic... but it's got the elements of it. ^^;;
3. ~The next chapter...~ is not the dinner-dance. If I get pro-reviews [^_^*] I'll stick in the next chapter, which complies of a couple of important things that need to occur before the dinner-dance. One major fact; Zoro is going to the dinner-dance whether he likes it or not. _^;;
4. ~Usopp~ He's kinda like my device for dreams and visions, so bear with me, okay? ^^;;))
"Watch it, Tashigi!!"
"S-s-sorry!!"
She cried, banging the trolley of lenses around without meaning to. The more she tried not to hit anything, the more she seemed to stumble and crash into things. Just when she felt she had finally gotten control of the trolley, a foot stuck out and Tashigi tripped, slamming her forehead into the trolley end while lenses fell onto the ground, several cracking apart into sharp shards.
One slid right into the soft skin of her thumb as she fumbled around for her glasses. There were sounds of the door of the Physics lab crashing open and shut, but Tashigi didn't take much notice. She found her glasses and shook them free of tiny bits of glass before putting them on. She examined her hands. They were bleeding, and her left thumb was bleeding badly.
"Tashigi!"
Ms. Morris tutted as Tashigi bowed down several times as she apologised.
"Look, this is the third time this semester. Do be careful next time. Clean your hands up before you start cleaning anything else."
Tashigi nodded, and let out a low sigh as the Physics teacher addressed the class, explaining several notions of some astrologist while Tashigi unstuck what glass she could from herself before sweeping up the mess.
"Retard,"
A girl beside hissed in her ear as she passed. She ignored her, but paused to wipe her spit out of the rim of her ear. She was picking up undamaged lenses from the floor when another hand joined her picking. She looked up in surprise to see dark-chocolate eyes staring back at her, and realised it was Jonathan.
"Jonathan?"
"Tashigi, you should really get those properly bandaged."
He commented. She looked down at her fingers and shook her head. It would disturb kendo but she wasn't about to tell him that. No one knew about her kendo skills except for her kendo teacher.
"I'm fine."
She looked at his sharp, angled face and the dark-brown hair that fell into his eyes and allowed herself a small smile. At least he was nice...
"Uh, Tashigi... listen."
"Yeah?"
She asked, carefully setting the lenses into the small cardboard box on the top of the trolley. Jonathan dumped his roughly on top before saying casually,
"You wanna be my dance-partner this Friday?"
Tashigi's eyed widened.
"What?"
She asked, wondering if she had heard properly.
"You know. Be my date this Friday."
"D-d-date?!!"
She stuttered. He nodded, smiling. His white teeth glinted at her.
"What about it?"
He asked smoothly. He appeared to be enjoying her reaction as she blushed and looked slightly embarrassed.
"Uh... sure."
She mumbled. Tashigi had never, in her whole entire life, been asked out by a guy. She had always been the loner, and guys didn't bother with her.
But Jonathan was a nice guy, and she was pretty sure he was asking as a friend. They had sort of become friends through Biology and Physics classes during first semester.
"Great. I'll see you tomorrow during Biology, huh?"
He flashed his teeth at her again before striding away. Tashigi smiled, feeling happier than she had in ages. She walked past the table of bitches with her half-dreamy smile, relieved to see that they didn't attempt to trip her.
They must be gob-smacked, she decided, especially Carrie... she smiled contentedly as she gazed at constellations in the clear night-skies.
If only she had seen Carrie's smile.
"Sanji~!! It's me~~!!"
"Oh no... what is it?"
"Got you a slot tomorrow. Three o' clock sharp, got it? At Clarina Street. I'll meet you in front of Clarina Crescent, how's that?"
"Bad."
"Is it? There's an advertisement due on Friday, I'll re-arrange thatt for tomorrow if you like and put the magazine shoot to Friday."
"Shit, I forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"Cancel or re-schedule anything this Friday."
"Why?"
"There's a dinner-dance."
"A what??"
"A d-- forget it. Just do as I said."
"Well, if that's the way you want it. Clarina Crescent tomorrow at three, okay?"
"What?!! Bloody hell, I just said--"
"Come to Amploid Plaza on Thursday at around one-thirty - I'll try to re-arrange the ad for that time. See ya!"
"Damn it, I don't want any magazine shoots Sha--"
The dial-tone sounded.
Cursing violently, Sanji shut his cell-phone lid angrily before mumbling to himself as he sank down into the grasses behind the main building. Running a hand through his blonde hair, he bit his cigarette end and let out a frustrated yell. He threw his mobile-phone onto the soft earth and kicked hard onto the wall of the school before collapsing onto the grass and seething.
'I feel a bit empty,'
Sanji thought,
'Wonder why...'
He vented his anger out through vile words without ever noticing the fact that his kick had spread a spider-web of deep cracks into the back, cemented concrete wall of the building.
'Geez, I can't believe myself...'
Usopp thought on his way to the Grand Line university, a package in his right hand and his toolbag in the other.
He had to admit to himself that he had over-reacted to Nami that afternoon. It was completely true that the Nami in his dream had hurt him a lot, but he was surprised at himself. He had clearly been more hurt than he had thought.
It wasn't Nami's fault. No, how *could* it be? He had weird dreams with her figure in it, and sure Nami humoured him by showing interest in them, but that didn't mean he had to bother calling her out just to get mad at what had happened in a *dream*... Usopp sighed, scuffling up to the main entrance of the university.
'I hope she's not too mad...'
As he hopped up the stairs to the main building, he remembered how he had felt when he had called her cell-phone to have a 'talk'. He had felt... *urgent*. Why? He didn't know, but he had definitely chosen the wrong way to bring up the dream when talking to her. It had led him to a totally different path that blew up between him and Nami. The urgency was gone now, so Usopp still didn't know why he had felt it in the first place.
He leaned against locker 202 with a low sigh, swinging the package on its string about as he waited. Sure enough, the digits '10:34' glowed on the watch at his wrist as the familiar orange-head popped around the corner.
Usopp sighed, straightening and watching Nami's expression change from surprise to a cold glare. He opened his mouth resignedly to say something; an apology, a greeting; anything to make her eyes less dark, when suddenly, the volume around him died down.
It was late, so it hadn't been much noisy to start with. However, the silence startled Usopp as he became suddenly aware of the thorough lack of the usual thrum of buzzing insects, giggles and chattering from the surrounding students, the creaking swing of opening and shutting doors below and above... The scene before Usopp's eyes fell into a haze of a swirl of colour, his mind jarring from a sudden jolt that racked him as the colours sharpened to form outlines...
His eyes widened considerably behind the glasses as a girl with short orange hair started towards him, her hair whipping in a salty wind, her mouth opening in a silent cry as she stumbled, her fingers fumbling onto wooden railings beside her. The floor below was rocking from un-natural waves from the ocean below, the skies stormily grey and dark, rain pelting down in sheets. It was so difficult to see her through the rain, and it was still deathly silent...!
Then he saw, behind her, another figure...? A blur of black, white and green, and Usopp recognised the figure - it was the swordsman from his dream...! As soon as he recognised the swordsman, the whole scene seemed to clear slightly as he noticed that the figure had a black bandanna over his head, obscuring half his eyes from view... he was yelling something, something that Usopp couldn't hear through the almost suffocating silence...
Then there was red. Red all over the place, splattering and staining... a white-hot sear of heat ran through Usopp as his vision filled with the skies, the dark clouds mounting as rain-drops blotted out the scene. He gasped as sound came right back on for a split second, the roaring of wind and rain overcoming him as the cry of an unmistakeably familiar voice screamed in despair---
He blinked. Grey concrete and white lights in the ceiling met his eyes, and a mass of kids brushed past him as they went to retrieve things from metal cabinets behind him. Talking in excited and friendly tones sounded strange, and their clothes looked stiff and unnatural. He looked at the girl approaching him with an icy expression, long orange locks held away from her face with clips.
'What am I doing here?'
Usopp wondered in complete confusion. This wasn't normal... no, it wasn't only not normal-- panic seemed to fill him as he realised - everything around him - it wasn't-- it just wasn't -- RIGHT----
"What's with the hair?!"
He blurted out, and as soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth, every thing else did too; all the questions, all the confusion, all the unfamiliarity. It felt like a rush of compression escaping from the area, relieving the tension that Usopp had been suppressed so heavily with.
Suddenly, Usopp was met with a very surprised Nami amidst a crowd of staring university students, the package in his hand hanging limply from a string. A new sort of confusion filled him now.
"Huh?"
He said. Nami stared at him for a moment before shaking her head quickly and shoving the young engineer off her locker.
'What just happened...??'
Usopp wondered. The moment he opened his mouth and the seconds before the sudden question were disjointed. Something had happened, he was sure of it, but his mind was blank now. He studied her hair. There wasn't anything different... was there? Nami shut her locker, a set of note-books in her arms as she twiddled the combination.
She turned to face him, her eyes analysing his as he blinked, looking disturbed.
"...What is it?"
He remembered what he was doing there, and held up the package in his hands with a small smile.
"Chocolate-chip cookies?"
He said, his tone hopeful. Her eyes narrowed.
"If you're thinking that I've forgotten the whole thing, you're badly mistaken,"
She snapped, and Usopp's eyes fell to the ground with a cringe before she continued,
"Unless those cookies are worth a bowl of cookies 'n' cream."
He looked at her in surprise as she snatched the package off him and pulled out a cookie. Grinning, she bit into one as Usopp couldn't help but let out a small laugh of relief.
"You're not mad?"
Usopp said with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope,"
She replied,
"Not after these. Thanks Usopp... I'm sorry I didn't take your news too well. We'll talk it out another time, okay?"
He felt gladness sweep through him as she finished the cookie while sliding the notebooks into her bag, and they exchanged grins.
"Oi."
Usopp glanced up to see a guy, obviously another university student. Green strands of hair could be seen below the blue cloth that was being used like a bandanna, much like his own checked one. Strong familiarity flitted through his mind, although Usopp could practically swear he'd never seen the dude before. He consented to staring.
Nami turned, and a geometry set was handed to her.
"Thanks again."
The guy said lightly, walking towards another guy with sunglasses.
"No problem."
Nami answered with a wave. She nestled the plastic case between two notebooks before zipping her bag closed.
"Who is that guy?"
Usopp said curiously as his eyes followed the retreating back of the green-head. He quickly turned back to Nami when the guy turned around quite suddenly.
"That's Johnny. You know him."
"No, the other guy with him. You know, the one who just gave you back your geometry set."
"Oh, yeah. That's some new guy... I forgot his name."
Usopp accumulated a huge sweatdrop at this.
"You lent him your geometry set and you don't know his name?"
"No, I don't. Sheesh, lighten up - I wasn't born to remember names. Take a cookie."
He obliged as he complained,
"Still, I'm sure it was only a few minutes ago..."
"Yeah, that's exactly it,"
Nami retorted as the two walked down the corridoors,
"I've only known him for a few minutes!"
"What's wrong, Zoro?"
Johnny asked, looking over his shoulder as well but failing to see anything abnormal. Zoro shook his head.
"Nothing..."
'It felt like someone was staring at me...'
Zoro thought with a slightly furrowed brow, the back of his head tickling,
'Maybe it's my bandanna? No....'
"The guy we're gonna meet's Yosaku,"
Johnny's voice interrupted his thoughts,
"he can be a real moron, but he's been my best friend since third grade and everything, and I can tell you he's not a bad guy, really."
"Yosaku?"
"Yeah,"
Johnny said with a small, sympathetic smile,
"Just don't mention the dinner dance to him, or else he'll collapse into tears again. He just got rejected this morning by Carrie."
Zoro raised his eyebrows.
"Dinner dance?"
Johnny nodded, surprised.
"Didn't you know?"
"I came this morning,"
Zoro explained.
"Oh, I see. Well, there's a dinner dance coming soon. It's on this Friday evening."
Johnny looked at Zoro curiously.
"Do you have a girlfriend? You can bring her over to the dinner dance if you want to."
"Hell, no, I don't have a girlfriend."
Zoro replied, looking at Johnny with bit of a bewildered expression. Johnny looked just as confusedly surprised.
"Uh, sorry. Didn't know you were sexist or anything."
"I'm not,"
Zoro said, still looking at Johnny weirdly. Johnny hesitated before starting,
"Are you homo--"
"No! I'm not gay. It's just... well...,"
Zoro sighed before saying,
"In my other college, couples were banned."
Johnny laughed so hard his sunglasses nearly fell off. Zoro had a huge sweatdrop as he said,
"Uh, I'm serious."
The guy stopped laughing to look at him incredulously.
"That's so... weird!!"
Johnny exclaimed. Zoro frowned.
"Well, I find it just as weird that this uni seems to allow it."
Johnny shook his head.
"This uni isn't the only one. In fact, your college must be the only one that forbids couples. However, I do believe that Yosaku and I can help you."
"Help me what?"
His companion threw up his hands exasperatedly.
"Snag a date, of course!"
"No thanks,"
Zoro replied,
"I'm probably not even going to the dinner dance. I've no interest."
"No interest!"
Johnny squawked.
"Nope. Now where's the cafeteria?"
Zoro asked, looking around and heading towards a hallway.
"That's to the girl's bathroom,"
Johnny said hastily, dragging Zoro away,
"We'll talk more about this after I introduce Yosaku to you. What other subjects do you take?"
As soon as Zoro stepped out of sight, he, Nami and Usopp were suddenly drained of a feeling they had had inside themselves that they didn't even notice. Zoro found it rather disturbingly familiar while Nami and Usopp wondered but did not voice it out loud.
(( Thanks for the reviews! ^^* Hurray! I'm very happy, maybe the idea works out after all. ^^* But I must digress that this chapter really sucks. -.-;; Gomen ne, yaoi fans, but this fic is not exactly pro-yaoi... it's pro-friendship though. ^^; Anyways - here are a few things to sort out about the story and the next chap:
1. ~Where is Luffy?~ I didn't write about him yet... so you won't know until I do. ^^;;;
2. ~"An AU fic... or is it?"~ The reason why I added the question is because... well, as you read the fic, you start to wonder. It's not a complete AU fic... but it's got the elements of it. ^^;;
3. ~The next chapter...~ is not the dinner-dance. If I get pro-reviews [^_^*] I'll stick in the next chapter, which complies of a couple of important things that need to occur before the dinner-dance. One major fact; Zoro is going to the dinner-dance whether he likes it or not. _^;;
4. ~Usopp~ He's kinda like my device for dreams and visions, so bear with me, okay? ^^;;))