A/N: Takes place before the main story. How Zoro and Luffy met.

Monday

Having worked in the Sunny Gym for several months, Zoro had certain expectations for the clientele. He tried his best to be open-minded; it wasn't a matter of girl or guy, buff or not. Still, watching a skinny-limbed high-schooler head toward the bench-pressing station was enough to go after him shouting, "Hey, kid!"

The kid whirled around in a childish pout. "I'm not a kid. I'm 17!"

"Oh yeah? Lemme see some ID."

The kid pulled from his red sweatshirt a wallet shaped like a cartoon character, which didn't really help his case, as he muttered, "Stupid senile old man."

"Oi! I'm only 19!"

"Oh yeah? Is that on your ID?" The kid stuck out his tongue. At this point, Zoro was getting real close to settling this the violent way. Don't beat up kids, he repeated, don't beat up kids. "And to think I thought your hair was cool. I bet your muscle aren't even real!"

Zoro snapped. "That does it. You, me, over there!" He pointed toward an empty bench, where some guys had heard him and started backing away. "I'll show you just how real my muscles are. Let's settle this like real men!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"YEAH!"

"HELL YEAH!"

"I can't believe you," said Trafalgar D. Law, regular gymgoer and emergency medic. He stared at the two miserable people lying on the gym mats, their upper body and toes covered in ice packs. His gaze traveled to the broken bench, shattered mirror and bent 400-lb weights, to where Manager Franky was crying about the damage.

"S'not my fault," muttered Zoro.

"Of course not. It's Monkey's."

"Hey! Argh," Luffy's voice died away from the floor, as every single muscle protested movement.

"You and your crazy brothers. I'm tired of picking up after you."

"Oi," Zoro said weakly, "go easy on the kid."

Monkey laughed with a funny "shishishi" sound. "I like you! What's your name?"

"Zoro. Yours?"

"Luffy."

"I change my mind," Law interrupted. "It's both your faults. The two of you probably have more myocytes in your body than neurons."

"More what than what?"

"Uh, thank you?" Luffy turned his head toward Zoro with a grimace. "I really wanna fist bump you, cuz that's what friends do."

Zoro scrunched his eyebrows in thought. "We could head-bump instead."

"Great idea!" Luffy knocked his head against Zoro's, then they rolled around in pain from the time they'd accidentally slung a large dumbbell at each other's foreheads (35 for Zoro, 60 for Luffy).

Law just sighed. "There goes two more neurons."

Tuesday

In the future, Zoro would eventually realize how Luffy came across his address. But on that day, Zoro had no idea how or why Luffy was grinning at his doorstep at freaking 9 in the morning. Or how the skinny pile of limbs managed to drag him back to his house. Or perhaps the better question was, why Zoro went along with it.

In any case, they wasted the whole day with Luffy teaching him the greater merits of children's cartoons. Then when they got hungry, Luffy fumbled the fridge door handle with his still-recovering arms, opening the door to the veritable treasure trove that awaited inside.

Which was how Sanji (not that Zoro knew him at the time) found Luffy and a stranger collapsed on the kitchen floor, munching on his precious Iberian hams and Gouda cheeses and quiches like pigs, or perhaps slugs. Something too lazy to use its limbs. Anyway, he made an ungodly shriek. This had Luffy fleeing the scene with Zoro into the backyard, and when Luffy tried unsuccessfully to get on Zoro shoulders and jump the fence, they actually crashed through the wooden planks.

"You're a genius, Zoro!"

"Uh, yeah. Because I totally meant to do that."

"LUFFY GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!"

But the culprits had already squeezed through the broken fence and were houses away, with Luffy laughing his head off and Zoro with a smirk that broadcasted his wholehearted amusement.

Wednesday

Luffy hid at Zoro's place, until Sanji cooled down enough for Luffy to return home. Zoro didn't really having any clothing that could fit his guest. Even Zoro's smallest shirt covered Luffy like a tent, and one side of the collar slipped past Luffy's slim shoulder enough to make Zoro want to stick his head in the freezer.

Nor did Zoro really know how to deal with guests. Yet they found ways to stay busy all day, with bubble baths and pillow forts and the joys of spiked hot chocolate (Luffy was basically an exaggeration of himself when drunk, louder and happier and more grabby). It wasn't until their dinner of extra meaty pizza that Zoro realized, "I didn't go to work."

"Kay," Luffy mumbled through his seventh slice.

"Did you have school?"

"Yeah."

Why didn't you go?"

"Cuz I wanted to stay with Zoro!"

Zoro chewed on his pizza thoughtfully. "Kay."

Thursday

Zoro spent most of his time at work dodging a Franky on the warpath and texting Luffy, who was on house arrest by Ham Guy.

(Luffy: I don't get it. He's mad that I ran away, and he's mad that I'm here. And he's still mad about the ham.)

He learned that Luffy had a uselessly wealthy amount of knowledge about bugs, enough to make him shudder and glance every so often at the cracks between the floor and the wall. Zoro returned the favor with an introduction to whetstones. Zoro didn't know how, but by the end of the day, they were in a heated debate over samurai vs. ninjas.

(Zoro: Swords trump all, that's all I'm gonna say.

Luffy: But not underwater. Cuz ninjas can breathe underwater.)

Friday

In a moment of insanity, Zoro thought about a romantic dinner, with roses and candlelight. Instead, he brought Luffy a tiny cactus. Luffy laughed and called it Zoro Jr. Zoro told him to shut up, but let him keep it. Instead of an upscale restaurant, they went to a 24-hour diner.

They were in the middle of their meal, and Luffy was laughing about something dumb like always. The fluorescent lighting hit his warm brown eyes and toothy smile at just the right angle that Zoro wanted to keep this moment forever, tuck it deep within himself and never let it go, never let Luffy go. He found himself blurting out, "Wanna go out?"

Luffy's fry fell out of his mouth.

Zoro started to leave his seat. "Never mind."

"No, don't say that." Luffy picked up his fry and ate it. "I was just surprised cuz I thought we already are."

Zoro blinked. "You thought we were dating."

"That too. Duh."

"It's news to me! I mean why…" Why me, was what Zoro wanted to ask.

It seemed Luffy heard him in his silence. "Cuz You're cool."

Zoro stared, for an uncomfortable amount of time. "That's it? You think everything is cool. You said as we were coming in that automatic doors are cool. You going out with them too?" Zoro's voice had started to rise, and he tried to control his emotions.

Luffy groaned. "No, cuz I only want to date Zoro. What's not to get about that?"

"Nothing, everything, I don't know. What am I even doing? I don't ask people out!"

"And I don't go out! I mean, yeah I do," Zoro took a sharp inhale, "but not the kind of going out that makes Nami do her bunny ear sign."

Zoro stared at him in confusion. He stared at his fingers and made bunny ears. Then flexed them. "You mean quotation marks?"

"See? You get it! That's what makes you so cool!"

"Get what?"

"Me! And us. You're smart in all the ways that count, not with numbers and squiggly letters but with stuff here!" Luffy thumps his chest. "The things that count, yanno?

"And you're really strong and you have three swords and green head and earrings and your eyes look super serious. And I've heard some people say it's scary but they're stupid. I know it and you know it and that's enough. It's enough that most people don't have to get it. That you're rough and tough on the outside and a super awesome happy fluffy cotton candy teddy bear on the inside. You're a great shoulder pillow and lap pillow and slump-on-er and drool-on-er.

"And you trust me and I trust you. Not like that time someone asked if I trusted them and they pulled me into an alleyway and beat me up until my big brothers got there. You haven't said it, but I know you won't do that, will never do that to me. Past, present, future, I can trust you all with it, and you stay with me. You're close, closer than anyone ever has been, you trust me too and that makes me so happy and I promise, I promise that we can trust each other forever!

"And you're always with me, by my side, two steps behind me, running to follow me, running in front of me. Even when you're not there, it feels like we're not apart, just because I know you and you know me, and that's enough to find us anywhere in the universe!

"We just," Luffy flailed around, "we're it! You're it for me, and I'm it for you, we're like peanut butter and Gatorade, marshmallows and bbq sauce, meat and more meat! Or if you want, booze and more booze.

"So what's there not to get?" Luffy stared at Zoro like he was the idiot.

And Zoro? Zoro stared back in dumb silence, feeling his cheeks heat up.

"Zoro?" Luffy waved his hand in front of Zoro's eyes. "You're smiling."

"No I'm not."

Yeah you are," Luffy sing-songed.

Zoro wished he could lie that he wasn't. He wished that he could take even a fraction of his feelings and put them into words, give them back to Luffy because that what he deserved to hear that and more. Instead, he took a handful of fries and stuffed them into Luffy' mouth. "Fine. let's date then."