"Look who I found trying to eat alone outside!" Luffy shouted as he entered the homeroom, angry blond in tow.

Zoro looked up from his lunch of… a mint he found in his jacket pocket, to see Sanji irritably sitting down in his seat, setting down his lunch and dropping his school bag to the floor.

"Luffy, have you ever thought of just leaving people alone?" Usopp asked as he took another bite of his peanut butter and banana sandwich.

"Usopp, get that damn thing away from me." Zoro grumbled.

"Oh, right, sorry bro. Anyway, Luffy, did you hear my question? Luffy!"

"Why would I do that? He's my friend and friends hang out together. It's as simple as that." Zoro rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window, staring down into the courtyard and watching the booty calls. Boys chasing girls and pulling on their pig tails, girls giggling to each other when a cute guy walks by. Stupid… Zoro had never understood the idea behind it. Apparently, he was considered a real looker among the guys at his school, you know, whenever he wasn't scowling, which wasn't often. He was the 'Bad Boy' or something like that. Zoro let his eyes slowly fall shut as he got lost in his train of thought.

"Oi, Mosshead." And then his train of thought crashed. Zoro turned to scowl at Sanji, only to be met with a very confused looking blond.

"So, two things. One, are they… always, like this..?" Sanji pointed at the rest of the group.

"Come oooonnn! The captain says share so SHARE!" Luffy commanded as he tried to pull Usopp's pudding cup from his fingers.

"You just had like, four sandwiches! You don't need any more food!" Usopp argued as he tried to take back his chocolate pudding.

"LUFFY! God DAMNIT stop trying to take Usopp's pudding!" Nami punched Luffy in the back of the head, causing him to release his grip on said pudding cup and fall forward onto his desk.

"NAMI! If you keep hitting him like that he's going to get some sort of permanent brain damage!" Chopper squealed as he ran over to examine Luffy's head.

"Yeah, that's pretty average. He usually goes after my food first though." Zoro's stomach grumbled at the mention of food and he glowered down at it.

"Okay, that brings me to point two. Where's your lunch?"

"I-uh… forgot to pack one this morning in my hurry to get to school…"

"Wait, so you get to school an hour early and you didn't even pack a damn LUNCH?!" Zoro expected the guy to laugh right in his face, but he didn't. He just shook his head and turned to his own food, pulling out a black thermos and a couple of fruits.

"What's it to you Curly-brow?" No answer. Zoro huffed a short breath and attempted to turn his attention back to his window. He was quickly interrupted again when small thermos lid of what looked like beef stew was suddenly placed in front of him. Zoro turned to look questioningly at the blond that had put it there. Sanji was silent for a moment, focusing on the other small snacks he had packed in his lunch, but gave in when Zoro just sat there and stared at him.

"I don't like it when people don't eat. I found the school microwave and used it so it should be hot. Just eat it and remember to bring a lunch tomorrow so we don't have to do this again." Zoro continued to scowl at Sanji for a little while but decided that it sounded like a genuine explanation. Well, as genuine as that asshole could get. Zoro picked up the lid and placed it to his lips, tipping it up and letting the hot liquid pour down his throat.

Holy shit this is really fucking good did he make this? Small chunks of beef, carrot, and potato cascaded over his tongue and he chewed on them as he let more of the spiced liquid snake down his throat. Zoro tried not to let a groan escape as he tipped the lid up further and downed the entire thing. He must have failed because out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blond smirk and lean his chin on his palm.

"S' good, isn't it?" Zoro wanted to tell him how good it was. How amazing it was. But the look that Sanji was giving him, that cocky smirk, told him that he already knew he was a good cook. Sanji didn't need any more goading on, so he shrugged. A vein popped in Sanji's head and he growled angrily before turning back to his half of the food. The rest of the lunch went by pretty smoothly, Luffy only managed to steal a few of Usopp's carrot sticks, which he wasn't very happy with considering he was hoping for either meat or something chalk full of sugar. Luffy even tried to steal food from Sanji every once in a while, receiving a well-placed boot to the head.

*BRRRRRRRRRRR*

Zoro roused from his daydreams and tossed all of his school supplies into his bag, throwing it over his shoulder and dragging himself out of the classroom. Zoro had biology next and if he remembered what Nami had told him earlier, the science classrooms were to the… Oh fuck it, that way. Nami grabbed Zoro by the collar of his shirt as she walked by him, turning him around and pointing him in the direction of his classroom.

"You're lucky I learned where your classes are so early in the semester." Nami griped as she followed Usopp down to the Math 11 classroom. Zoro had math last semester, and unfortunately, he didn't have it with any of his friends, meaning he'd gotten stuck studying alone. It's not that nobody offered to help him with his studying, Nami had offered to help him study for 'the low, low price of 20$ an hour'. Even though she didn't even know the curriculum yet. Everybody else was too busy. Usopp had his work at the garage, Chopper was constantly studying for med-school, and Luffy was… well… Luffy.

"Good afternoon my lovely children~! I hope you enjoyed your lunch, you may have the rare opportunity to enjoy it a second time because today we are dissecting frogs~!" Zoro groaned as he sat down in 's class, the room always smelled almost toxic because he had two chemistry classes beforehand and they always made these noxious gas concoctions. Zoro was 110% sure that was the one that wanted to do all the experiments, but he always told the bio class that his students just wouldn't be satisfied until they made something that was sure to burn Zoro's nostrils.

Zoro got paired up with some guy named.. Batron? Batromeo? Something like that. Whoever he was, he was a weird looking guy. He was littered with piercings and had these fake fangs he wore that made him look almost like a bore. He always picked his nose during class and Zoro tried his hardest to not make idle conversation with him during the dissection. Other than his less than desirable partner, the procedure went by smoothly and he was soon faced with his final class of the day. Japanese Language 11B, his second language class in a series of four classes.

Zoro was more than surprised when he walked into his classroom to find a certain blond, curly-browed, moron sitting in his seat at the back of the class.

"Oi. Shitty cook." Sanji's ears perked up and he spun around to see Zoro staring down at him.

"So now you're insulting my cooking and following me?" Sanji growled.

"This is my class! You're the one that's following me you damn eyebrows! And get outta my seat!"

"I don't see your name on it moss-head!" Zoro rolled his eyes and jabbed his finger at a spot in the corner of the desk. Sanji leaned forward to see what it was Zoro was pointing at and cocked an eyebrow when he noticed what it was. A drawing of three swords in the shape of a 'Z' was in the top left corner of the desk.

"Swords? Really? What are you, twelve? I'm impressed there aren't skulls and dragons all over the place."

"Shut up and get outta my seat!"

"BO~YS! There is no ne~ed to fight! Sanji, there is an empty se~at in front of Zo~ro, why don't you sit th~ere." shook one of his hands in front of him as he spoke, his long, white hair tied in a pony tail that reached down to his lower back. His weird speech pattern of adding extra length to certain words had always been… well, weird. Annoying sometimes as well because it would become hard to understand some of the words he was teaching.

Sanji nodded and moved over to the seat in front of Zoro, glaring at the green-haired man as he did so. Great, so now I'm stuck in two classes with this asshole. Zoro pulled his thinly rimmed glasses from his pocket and stuck them behind his ears, noticing the way that Sanji turned to look at him and raise his eyebrows slightly before turning back, clearing his throat roughly. Zoro removed his textbook from his bag, getting to work on his Japanese sounding out some of the words under his breath.

Class went by relatively quickly. Sanji never turned around to talk to Zoro and Zoro didn't say anything to get a rise out of Sanji, but he couldn't help but stare at the blond from time to time.

*BRRRRRRRRRRR*

Everybody filed out of the classroom, pushing their way past other students to get through the door first. Zoro didn't give a shit if he got out first or last though, it was gonna take him forever to get home either way, the damn streets were always changing and it was hard to keep up. When he did eventually get home, he knew he was going to have to face his sister and he was still bitter from what she had done that morning. Zoro pulled off his glasses as he followed behind the other students out of the room.

Zoro made his way out the front entrance, rolling his shoulders and trying to shrug off the miserable day. The pain in his ribs had finally subsided, but he knew it would be back with vengeance the next day, it would most likely hurt even more and he was not looking forward to that. He was exhausted too, he wanted to blame it on the strong pain killers Law gave him but he knew he was just a sleepy guy in general. He'd fallen asleep outside in the courtyard during lunch last year and had woken up only when the janitors found him and kicked him out at five. Kuina had made fun of him for weeks after that and he refused to let his friends know what happened, the only reason she had found out is because she was the one that picked him up that day and wouldn't take him home until he told her what happened.

Zoro pulled out his music player and stuck his headphones in his ears, turning up his music almost as high as it would go and turning down the first street on his way home. Zoro looked around him and was surprised when he noticed that Sanji was walking right behind him. Zoro took out his phone and checked the directions Nami had put in his notes, taking the next street that was written down. When he turned around, Sanji was still there.

"Oi! Quit following me you damn curly brows!" Zoro turned around and yelled, stopping to watch the blonds reaction. Sanji looked taken aback, almost like he didn't even notice Zoro was there until just that moment.

"I'm not following you dumbass! This is how I get home!" Sanji growled and continued walking past Zoro. Zoro looked down at his phone again and continued to follow his directions. After about fifteen minutes, Sanji was STILL walking in front of him. Zoro tried to ignore it as he turned into the 'Mary District' and made his way up the stairs to his apartment. He pulled out his house keys and stuck them in the lock, stopping briefly to look around and he practically stopped breathing when he noticed that at apartment number four, the one three doors down from his own, Sanji was standing at the door with a key stuck in the lock, staring wide-eyed at him.

Zoro groaned, running the palm of his hand over his face and unlocking his door. He walked inside and chose not to dwell on the fact that he was now stuck living three doors down from that asshole.

Zoro threw his bag down next to the door and dragged himself to his room, pulling his headphones out of his ears and setting his player on the table next to the bed. He set his alarm for 6:30 at night so he could take a nap. Kuina wouldn't be home from work until late that night, along with Koshiro, so he would have to make dinner for the three of them. If it were anybody else, Zoro would have told them to make their own dinner, but he owed Koshiro a lot. He'd taken him in after everything that happened with his parents and gave him a home. On top of that, as soon as Koshiro had noticed Zoro's interest in swordsmanship, he had started taking him to his dojo and training him along with Kuina.

Zoro grit his teeth as he got even more lost in his thought. He'd never been able to beat Kuina, not while they were children at least. Things were different now. Zoro drifted to sleep after a short while.

Zoro was interrupted from his thoughts when his alarm started going off at five. Shit, I forgot… she changed the time on my damn clock! Zoro rolled over in bed and grabbed the clock off his side table, changing the time back to what it should be and removing the alarm. Fuck it, I didn't need sleep anyway. He jumped off his bed and slipped out of his clothes, heading for the shower and looking himself over in the bathroom mirror. The bruise on his side sat proudly, reminding him just how horribly he had lost the fight. Sure it had ended in a tie, but anything that wasn't a win was a loss in Zoro's books. Zoro locked the bathroom door and leaned against the wall. He reached a hand over to the shower knob and turned it on, waiting for it to heat up before jumping in.

Zoro let the hot water trail down his skin as he washed away the day. He lathered his short, green hair in shampoo, letting it sit for a moment or two before washing it back out.

"Ah fuck!" Zoro tried to wash out the soap he'd just gotten in his eyes, supporting himself with his free hand against the wall of the shower. He opened them as best he could and faced towards the spray of the water, holding one that burned especially bad open with his fingers.

After he got all the soap out, he spent the next twenty minutes enjoying a nice long shower. He turned the temperature down to nearly freezing right before turning it down all the way so he didn't suddenly feel cold when he turned the water off. He toweled himself dry and went back to his room, slipping on a pair of pajama pants and a baggy grey T-shirt before putting back on his glasses. He tended not to wear them at school unless absolutely necessary and there was no way he could learn another language without being able to see properly, that's why he wore them during his Japanese classes and sometimes during his biology and history class. Only when he really needed them. A lot of people didn't take him as seriously when he wore his glasses, so he fumbled around from classroom to classroom without them during most of the day, it was probably one of the many reasons that he always got lost. It's not that he couldn't see without his glasses, he just couldn't read. Street signs and classroom door signs made no sense to him. He didn't really care if people saw him wearing them, but he liked it a lot better when nobody bothered him and just thought he was the big scary guy.

Zoro took a seat in front of the TV and turned on an old Samurai movie. Luckily, it was in just the language he was looking for, so he was able to get some practicing in, turning off the subtitles and trying to understand what everybody was saying, although, it was mostly just people killing each other. He got up halfway through the movie to get started on dinner, leaving the TV on while he went about making spaghetti. Zoro wasn't a bad cook, but he wasn't a good cook either, not in his view anyway. As long as he had instructions, he could cook well, but if he had to make something from memory or by improvising, he wasn't very good.

Zoro pulled a bag of frozen meat sauce out of the freezer. Kuina had made a huge pot of it the other night and separated chunks of it into zip lock bags. Every bag was just enough for the three of them to have as much sauce as they wanted. He threw on a pot of water and turned the heat up to high so it could boil. He grabbed a few slices of bread and set them on a plate on the table, putting a bowl of butter next to it and turning back to his pot of water. He put a handful of noodles in the now boiling water and sticking the frozen sauce in a separate bowl. When everything was done, he served it up and placed it around the table, turning to look out the window and waiting for Kuina and Koshiro to get home.

He heard the tell-tale sputtering of the old station wagon as it made its way down the road and to his apartment. If it weren't for the fact Koshiro was with her, Zoro probably would have just locked her out. But he couldn't do that, he would get in too much shit for that and probably wouldn't be allowed back to the dojo for a while. Zoro scowled out the window as he watched Kuina park the car and jump out, walking around and opening the door for Koshiro before closing it again and heading for the front door. Suck up.

Zoro set three glasses at the table and a pitcher of cold water in the center before taking his seat and taking a big forkful of his spaghetti into his mouth. He heard Kuina throw her keys into the bowl next to the door, kicking off her shoes and sitting at the table across from Zoro. Koshiro followed behind her and sat down at the seat in between the two.

"Nice job waiting for us asshole."

"You're lucky I even made you dinner after the bullshit you pulled this morning!" Zoro growled back as she reached over and grabbed a piece of bread.

"Kuina, what happened this morning?" Koshiro asked sternly, a serious expression on his face. Koshiro pushed his round glasses further up his face as he waited for her explanation. His long, black hair was tied back in a ponytail flowing down his shoulder.

"She set my damn clock back an hour and dragged my ass to school early!"

"Oh don't be such a baby you little tattle tale!"

"Kuina, you are going to apologize to Zoro. And Zoro, you are going to stop getting in fights at school." Zoro groaned and looked himself over to see what had tipped Koshiro off and remembered his split lip. Of course he noticed that.

"Ooohh, Zoro, you got in another fight? You're such a disappointment, have some self-control. This is why Koshiro doesn't let you teach at the dojo-" Zoro's anger bubbled up inside him and he was just about ready to snap at her when Koshiro cut her off.

"Kuina, that's enough. Now apologize." She frowned and glared at her father but nodded her head slowly, turning back to look at Zoro she rolled her eyes and apologized. Burying the actual apology in a mountain of sarcastic insults. Zoro knew better than to attempt a better apology out of her because, well, it was hard enough just to get an insult riddled apology from her. The rest of the meal after that went by pretty silently. Zoro didn't want to talk about the fight from school so he didn't bring it up again after Koshiro had pointed it out. The blond haired teen had matched him well and it felt almost embarrassing to admit that he hadn't beat him like he should have. Almost more embarrassing than the fact he had gotten in another fight when he knew that it disappointed his foster father.

It had been agreed early on that if you made dinner, you didn't have to do the dishes after. Since Zoro wasn't obligated to help any further after their meal was complete, he took the opportunity to sneak back into his room for a long sleep. He fell back onto his bed and rolled himself up in the soft sheets, quickly allowing sleep to take him and snoring obscenely.