Title: The Lucky Ones (2/?)
Author: Chibimono Akuno
Fandom: One Piece
Pairing: Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben
Rating: PG
Word Count: 954
Warnings: Foster-children situation. Highschool dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.
Disclaimers: Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.
A/N: A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

The Lucky Ones
- Part Two -
by Chibimono Akuno

Zoro made his way through the garage and shed his greasy work clothing in the laundry room. If he could get away with telling his manager to take the job and shove it, he'd never work with fried chicken again. But every penny counted now, and he couldn't just drop a job because he came home smelling like grease and gravy.

A quick visit to the kitchen found a mug of once hot tea that Makino had no doubt left for him. He put it in the microwave, just long enough rewarm it, and to let his foster mother know he was home.

At nineteen, he was free to leave and do whatever he wished. But out of the kindness of her heart, Makino allowed Zoro to stay after his eighteenth birthday. He had nowhere else to go and she couldn't just let him live out on the streets. As long as he was saved his money, bought what he needed, and helped her when he could, she let him stay without rent. Besides, Zoro worked three jobs and was only home to sleep or change clothes between them, and thus did not spend much time there.

Trudging up the stairs, Zoro stopped for a moment in front of his old bedroom. Sometimes, he wished he could still open the door and find Luffy in bed, yawning a groggy welcome home. Now, Usopp and Tony, Makino's new foster kids, slept in there and he'd taken a smaller room down the hall. A room by himself. A room with no Luffy.

It had taken a long time for Luffy's uncle to gain custody of him. Many thought he'd never get it, due to being gay. But in the end, Shanks was Luffy's only biological family member that was able to provide him with a stable living environment and Luffy was removed from the foster program and Makino's care.

At the time, Luffy was happy, because he liked his uncle and he'd actually be closer to where his older brother was living, as well. They were the only two, three if you included Shanks' boyfriend, that ever seemed to visit Luffy.

Luffy was one of the lucky ones. Though his mother and father did not care about him, he still had someone in his family that loved him. A dead mother, a worthless father rotting in jail, and a sister that used to beat him senseless before his father killed her... That was all Zoro had. He was glad to have left it behind, but that left him all alone, too.

Zoro was angry, bitter, and used to no one caring. And that's why it hurt so much when Luffy showed that he did care. For two years, Luffy wiggled his way deep into Zoro's defenses and showed Zoro he didn't have to be alone anymore.

"We'll get a neat little house of our own and some cool motorcycles... Won't it be cool, Zoro? Just me and you? We'll work hard together and make it there. It'll be awesome."

At times, it was so strange to Zoro how Luffy could just put his friend before himself. Luffy was more worried about how Zoro would be with him than where he'd be going himself. There were so many times that Zoro had to remind the boy to do what he had to, and Zoro would do the same, and maybe they'd meet in the middle.

But all of that had to change when Luffy found it was time to leave. All their we's and us' now had to become I's and me's, because Zoro couldn't come with him. The realization was devastating to them both, but Zoro never showed it.

He increased his work hours to keep away from home. He came home while Luffy slept and left before he woke, sometimes sleeping on the sofa so that Luffy would never know he had been home. On the day Luffy finally moved out, Zoro had started his third job. He came home exhausted that night and moved into Makino's spare room, taking Luffy's old bed and his coffee table-turned-desk with him.

Luffy's across town now, living in a very nice neighborhood with just about everything he could want. He calls Makino every day, wanting to know if Zoro was alive. Sometimes, he's lucky enough to call when Zoro's home changing for work, and he has a few minutes to hear his friend's voice. Luffy does all the talking, he always had, but that is fine to Zoro. He doesn't want Luffy to hear how miserable he sounds, anyway.

As Zoro stares at their old bedroom door for a few seconds, he remembers that it's been a few weeks since Luffy had caught him by phone. He wonders, for probably the twentith time that day, what Luffy has been doing lately. He continues along the hall to his room, mug of tea in hand, and hopes to collapse into an easy sleep once he hits his bed.

He flips the light switch on to find something on his bed. Paper. A report card.

Luffy's report card. With straight A's.

And a note.

Hey Zoro!
I came to see you, but you weren't home. You work too hard. Take a weekend off. Uncle Shanks and Uncle Ben want you to visit! We haven't seen you in forever! Please come visit? Please? I miss you.
- Luffy
P.S. - See! I'm working really hard, too! But you gotta stop working harder. I can't catch up!

Zoro put his mug on his cementblock nightstand, unable to choke down anything past the lump in his throat. To have Makino's help and Luffy's care... Zoro knew he was one of the lucky ones.

- to be concluded -