He was getting very tired of waking up like this every morning.
It had only been four days since Zoro had moved into this apartment complex and yet somehow every single day had been a waking nightmare. His first issue had started before he had even moved entirely in.
While he had been bringing in boxes and furniture, there was this obnoxious blonde guy with weird eyebrows chatting up a young woman right down the hall.
Normally he would ignore such a small every day instance, but this guy would not stop shooting him these dirty looks. It was as if he were trying to provoke him into a fight right then and there. All Zoro was trying to do was bring in all his crap.
The man was obviously some kind of cocky pervert, feeding that woman all kinds of bullshit for sure. He rubbed Zoro the wrong way and it put a sour taste in his mouth for the rest of his move. And of course— he had run into this same weirdo every day since, flirting up a different girl every single time.
They had yet to speak anything to one another, but the tension is easily felt whenever they cross paths in the hall.
Then— there is the devil spawn herself at the door right beside his.
She says her name is Nami, but frankly he wouldn't be surprised if everything she said was a lie.
Every day since moving in she showed up knocking, asking him to borrow something before inviting herself in afterwards. She never stayed overly long but even five minutes with the girl was enough to drive a person insane.
She starts out innocent and nice before the conversation with her quickly turns into a ploy to scheme money, which then results in insults and sometimes even a try of blackmailing.
How do you know someone for less than a day and you're already finding ways to blackmail them?
He would simply just not answer the door, however the girl is not only extremely persistent, it would also appear that she is a master lock pick at that.
But the real problem here is the lack of sleep he's been retaining due to the very noisy neighbor across the hall. The night itself is quiet, however, every morning there is some sort of ruckus in that room.
Zoro is not a morning person. Even with sleeping in through the wee early hours, he still appreciates an evening nap and that is neither possible with the noise across the hall. The evening nap is crucial given the fact that he's losing valuable hours of morning rest and yet here he is, left with nothing.
He had no idea who lived in that apartment or why they were so goddamn loud every day, all day for that matter, but he was done with it.
There was constant yelling, loud talking, items breaking, fighting— even laughing had become a nuisance.
His assumption had been that there are children living there with extremely bad behavioral issues and that's the only reason he'd held off for four days without a word. But then he had reached his limit and he would be damned if those brats were not put in their place before his evening nap this time.
He grumbled to himself as he tiredly moved out of bed. Pulling on the closest pair of pants and shirt, he marched out of his room and out the door of his apartment.
There was no one in the hall that day, but he could hear the loud laughing and yelling more vividly now that the door across the hall was in sight.
He took a deep breath and moved over to the door, giving it a loud knock before moving aside and crossing his arms.
There was a very short pause of silence before the commotion inside continued and he wondered if he was about to be ignored with no one to answer, but suddenly the door opened quickly and he somewhat flinched in surprise.
He looked directly at the person standing there in the doorway. It was a young man— well, kid really. He must have been about 15 or 16. He was much smaller and shorter than Zoro and very skinny.
He had deep black hair and dark brown eyes, with a small scar underneath the left. That didn't come to a surprise with how often Zoro heard things break in there.
The boy wore a big dumb grin on his face and Zoro figured immediately that he had to be one of the annoying idiots that kept him from sleeping.
"What's up?" The boy rested his hand on the door and leaned against it, but before Zoro could reply there was a call from inside the apartment.
"Hey, who's that at the door?"
The boy looked at Zoro and then behind his shoulder. "I dunno, it's some tall moss-head guy, he looks kinda angry and scary."
"A scary moss-head guy? Well tell him that we know martial arts—that we're martial arts masters! And that I, the great Usopp once took down twenty men single handed in the dead of night!"
The kid burst out into laughter and continued on a conversation with the other person in the apartment, now completely ignoring Zoro's existence.
He was at a complete loss in this situation. Who is the great Usopp and what the hell was he talking about? And why was this kid just laughing and egging everything he said on?
"Look I—" He was cut off by a scarily familiar voice.
"Ah, what's going on out here?" A woman stepped around next to the boy with a fierce gaze on her face.
It was Nami.
She was clad in a towel wrapped around her body, with another in her hair and a toothbrush dangling from her mouth.
"You're letting in all the hot air Luffy." She scowled at the boy and he turned his attention to her.
"Sorry, but this scary guy showed up and he's just been standing here, I dunno what he wants."
"Eh?" Nami looked away from the Luffy kid and to Zoro in surprise. "Zoro? Geez, you're going to be in big trouble if my hair gets all frizzy from all that humidity you're letting seep in. Just come in already, god."
She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him inside, the door slammed behind them before he could offer up any words of protest. She shoved him into the center of the living room and shook her head before walking into what he guessed was the bathroom.
He looked around his surroundings in confusion. The apartment was a mess, clothes and junk lying around everywhere. There were takeout boxes scattered all about and other kinds of useless crap.
Luffy had sat down on the couch by this point and was observing him blankly. Sitting on the floor by the window was another kid with curly hair and a very long nose, who he could only assume to be the Ussop that Luffy had been talking to. He was also observing Zoro, only he seemed to be a tad bit frightened.
"Sooo, who are you again?" Luffy broke the silence but did not alter any expression to Zoro's existence.
Who were these dumb kids?
"Zoro, I live across the hall…"
"Ohhh, you're the new guy that Nami was talking about, 'Mr. Bushido'. She says that you have an attitude problem and that you collect swords."
"I don't 'collect' swords and I'm not a samurai." He was annoyed before he had even stepped foot in this place and being left to talk with some kids didn't help.
"Anyways, I came over here to talk to the owner of this place, so is there a parent or anyone around? Or is Nami like your babysitter, cause' I pegged her to be someone that disliked kids and teens."
"What do you mean? This is my apartment. I live here by myself." Luffy stared at him still emotionless.
". . . You're kidding, right? What're you like 15?"
"No, I'm 18. Just like Usopp over there."
Zoro stared at him in disbelief. There was nothing about this kid that shouted, 'mature responsible adult'. No wonder he was woken up every day. This entire complex was full of these dumbasses.
"You mean to tell me that you're only two years younger than me? And that you live here, by yourself, with no one else helping you?"
"Yeah. That's what I said."
He was dumbfounded. There was absolutely no way this idiot had his own job and apartment by himself.
"Hey, Luffy I have to go, but I'll catch you later." Usopp brought himself to his feet and headed quickly to the door, avoiding Zoro's space but giving him a quick nervous glance before heading out.
Luffy nodded and gave a, "See ya", before it was silent again.
"Sooo, why did you come here again?" Luffy looked up at Zoro, this time more questionly. Zoro stared back and noticed that this time his gaze was almost in a challenging way. He wasn't sure why there was sudden tension, but it were almost as if the kid had some sort of agenda now. Maybe he judged too soon and he wasn't actually all that immature.
Before he could reply he was interrupted once again by Nami leaving the bathroom and marching out to where they were conversing. He silently sighed in relief that she was dressed now and that her hair was seemingly intact.
"What're you two idiots doing out here? And where did Usopp go?"
"I think this Zoro guy scared him so bad that he had to leave." Luffy laughed and laid back on the couch, stretching out his arms and legs.
"Good job moss-head, now you're scaring my friends away." Nami grumbled and sat down beside Luffy, pushing his legs out of her way.
"Funny, I didn't think the she-spawn had any friends." He scoffed.
"What was that? You know that one is going to owe you buddy, you just keep on adding to the numbers." She scowled and crossed her arms, resting back into the cushions.
Zoro sighed and shook his head, completely done with the entire interaction. He didn't even want to deal with the issue anymore, he'd rather go outside and lay in the lawn for sleep at this point.
"So, Luffy is a friend of yours?" Zoro looked at Luffy who was no longer paying attention and then back around again at the apartment. Once he got past the mess he noted the pirate themed decorations here and there. There was also a bit of tools and building material scattered about and he noticed that there was some sort of project sitting by where Usopp had been.
He figured that all of the craftsman related bits were actually Usopp's and that he spent a lot of time here which would result in all of his own junk being scattered about. It made sense considering how often he heard things crash and break in here, and now thinking about it— a lot of the banging and thudding was likely Usopp hammering away, fixing and building.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I guess you could call him that." She yawned and observed her nails.
He could feel the annoyance for that woman bubbling inside him. She was the one that just called him her friend. He just could not get a hold of that girl.
"Anyways, I have to go. I have plans today and this is not a part of them." She stood up and gave a small wave of the hand while heading to the door.
"Plans? What kind of plans? Can I come?" Luffy sat up excitedly and was nearly at the edge of the couch.
"No. I'm going to see Nojiko today. It's a girl's only kind of day." She stuck her tongue out and with that was gone.
Luffy groaned in disappointment and slouched back down onto the couch. Zoro could hear him muttering to himself and he took this as the cue to leave. He couldn't even recall if he actually did what he came there to do but since there was only one person in the apartment now, he figured now would be the best time to catch some z's.
"Sooo, I'm going to head out now." He pointed his thumb back towards the door and began to turn around.
"You're leaving? Can't you stay here and hang out with me?"
He heard the boy scramble back up to the edge of the couch and he didn't even have to turn around to see the pitiful look on his face.
Zoro gave a heavy sigh and turned, crossing his arms in the process.
"Look, I don't even know you. Why should I spend my time hanging around here?"
"Cause we could be friends!"
Zoro could not help but laugh. "You're kidding right? That's your big seller? That you want to be my friend?" He continued to laugh, holding his side with this arm, but the big dumb grin on the kid's face told him that he was being completely serious.
He barely met the boy ten minutes ago and already he wanted to be Zoro's friend? Zoro did not make many friends in life, and the ones that he did were far from the likes of Luffy.
He had nothing against him, as he said— they barely just met. But this entire situation was something out of the ordinary for Zoro, and yet for some reason he felt compelled to go along with it.
He wasn't sure what it was but there was just something about Luffy. He had this flair in his eyes and he gave off a vibe that Zoro couldn't really describe.
The kid was obviously clueless but there was something underneath it all and while Zoro couldn't piece together what it was, he felt drawn to him.
He could picture the dumb kid taking on the whole world, as weird as it sounded. And Zoro wanted to be there to see it when he did.
Luffy was still watching him, now with a pout on his face. He was kicking his feet back and forth and he looked truly childish.
"Alright, no need to make that face." Zoro stepped forward and plopped down onto the couch beside him. He yawned and rested his hands behind his head.
"Does this mean you will be my friend?" Luffy turned to face Zoro, his expression already back to that stupid grin.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He closed his eyes and crossed his legs.
"Awesome!!! This is going to be so much, I love making new friends! Do you want to play Mario cart with me or something? I have other games too!"
Zoro opened an eye to look at him before closing it again and shrugging. "Sure, whatever you want, I don't really care. Do you have any booze around here though?"
Luffy was already up and rummaging through a pile of games on the floor. "No, I don't really drink."
Zoro could hear him open up the disk and plop it into the system. Soon after there was a controller set into his lap and he yawned again and sat upright, opening his eyes and picking it up. "Hm, I might need to grab some of my own then later. Drinking helps me stay awake"
"Is that so? I feel like drinking usually makes people sleep." Luffy fell back into the cushions beside him and held the controller tightly in his hands.
"It helps me do that too."
Luffy laughed at that and Zoro looked over and watched as he started up the game.
They played together for quite some time and surprisingly Zoro actually had fun, though he'd never admit it.
They were very competitive players and there were a lot of non-serious insults being thrown but Zoro genuinely was pleased playing with Luffy. He even tried not being overly smug when he won so as to not kill the kid's pride completely.
He wasn't sure how many rounds they had played but Luffy was about to start again when Zoro realized that he must have been screwing around there for hours. His stomach and lack of sleep were screaming at him and he never did end up getting that booze.
He set down the controller and stretched out his arms, sighing at the tension leaving his body.
"Hey, it's been cool but I have to head out now."
Luffy looked up at Zoro, a frown forming on his face.
"Awww, c'mon, you can't stay a bit longer? Pleeeease?"
Zoro yawned and scratched his head, looking down at the kid as he contemplated his plea for only a moment.
"Sorry kid, maybe another time."
Luffy's demeanor changed to that of a pouty child in an instant as he lay back on the couch and furrowed his brows, staring at the game on the TV.
"Fine. I'll see you around."
Zoro shook his head in amusement and headed to the door. "Yeah, later." He slipped out of the apartment and paused for a moment outside before crossing the hall and entering his own home.
He yawned again, suddenly feeling exhausted with the last few hours of playing catching up with him. He'd eat and drink later if he woke up in time.
He slugged his way over to the bedroom and flopped down onto the bed, not even bothering to get undressed.
Giving a heavy sigh he already began to drift away.
The last image he saw before succumbing to a deep sleep was of that cheeky Luffy kid's dumb smile when he told him that he would be his friend.