Day 25

Saturday, December 28th


...

i shall now commence in doing something that i have not thought to do for a very long period of time. Yes, i mean writing in my man-diary of which only a true men can write in. ...what am i saying *sighs*

anyway, i dont even know why im writing. i wanted to, but i dont think i had a logical reason to. maybe it was because.. idk. i guess ill just talk about what im doing...?

at the moment, i am currently blasting my head off by blaring remixes and techno in my new headphones. yeah, i get a little carried away and dance sometimes... that can be embarrassing, very embarrassing indeed. oh well...

idk what to do right now. im as bored as the air is cold right now, and i cant fucking... grrrr... cant get 'nasty' images out of my head. whats wrong with meeeeee...?!

- ace


Meanwhile, across the hall..


Journal~

Well you see, the reason why I decided to write right now, after about a ba-jillion years, is because.. is because I am bored as a board! But I don't know what to doooo...

Hey! Maybe I can hang out with Zoro!

- Monkey D. Luffy


And so, with a quit shut of his journal, Luffy jumped off his bed to rummage through his clothes, looking for the right pocket in which his phone was hidden. After a few minutes, he found it in a pair of black jeans, not that it matters.

Dialing in a number quickly, Luffy tapped his foot on the floor as the phone rang, rang, and rang, until finally someone picked up.

"Zoro!" Luffy chirped, happy that someone answered the phone.

"Boo, wrong," a different voice replied. Bartolomeo.

"Bartolomeo?" Luffy asked, tilting his head in confusion as to why Zoro's brother answered.

"Yeah... hehehe. Here, I'll get him, I was just blackmailing him as usual. But shhhh, don't tell him~"

Luffy sweatdropped and waited till the phone, after a short scuffle between brothers, was in the hands of its true owner. Luffy perked up at the voice of his friend.

"Hey Luffy. What's up?"

"Zoro! I'm soooo boredddd..."

"..."

"..."

"Then get your ass over here," Zoro stated bluntly.

"Okay! See ya!"

Zoro hung up his phone, slid it back into his pocket and then turned around to face his brother's bedroom door with a blank expression. Suspicious... The green-haired teen then took his phone back out and looked through his facebook... nope, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then how bout... text messages?

Zoro, apparently, had sent a picture no more than 10 minutes before hand of him at the age of probably 8 or 9, giving Bartolomeo a kiss on the cheek. There was a heart around the two brothers. The caption being..

"It all starts at a young age~ ;)"

This was sent to everyone on his contact list.

Zoro looked up from his phone with the blank look, sliding it silently back into his pocket again. Closing his eyes calmly, he turned on his heel and threw a punch through Bartolomeo's bedroom door.

Bartolomeo looked up from his own phone with the same blank face, blinking twice at the punch-shaped view of his younger brother's tensed-up neck muscles.

Yeah, time for yet another door..


Luffy arrived at Zoro's house 2 minutes later, sending a wave back to Ace who sent him a kiss from his car before driving off. Shivering a little in the cold, Luffy knocked a very intricate beat on Zoro's door, thankful for the warmth when the older of the Roronoa brothers answered, again.

"Come on in, kid," Bartolomeo ushered, slapping Luffy on the ass as he skipped into the house. With an embarrassed grin, Luffy thanked Bartolomeo and shed his coat on the floor, bounding up the stairs to meet a grumbling Zoro that was picking up some of the shattered pieces of door that were scattered around the entrance to his brother's room.

"Punched it in again?" Luffy asked innocently, clasping his hands behind his back as he inspected his friend actually cleaning up something.

"Yeah.." Zoro muttered with a snort, letting the wooden pieces from his hand fall into the waste basket in Bartolomeo's room. Luffy stepped in through the doorway, and then with a glance up into the room, his eyes turned to golden stars.

"Z-Z-Z-Z..."

"Luffy?"

Luffy pointed into Bartolomeo's room, pointing at the various pieces of funiture that had been hand crafted by Bartolomeo's hands over his lifetime.

A loftbed painted in a metallic-silver paint with a spiraling staircase to one side, a closet built in underneath the bed for both convinience and support.

Windows covered in patched and sewn up curtains constructed from tatters of clothes and fabrics from all ages and times.

The wall opposite of the bed was painted maroon and covered in various drawings, photographs, newspapers and CD's, and a large futon was placed up against it, draped in silver sheets and pillows.

A tall bookshelf constructed of metal sheets and bars, of all colors and sizes welded into a fine 7.5 ft. creation which held items varying from records to coffee mugs to books written in many places in the world.

The floor was hardwood, stained in a very dark orange-ish brown that matched the other 3 walls wooden panneling.

All this = Luffy's mind blown.

Bartolomeo had walked upstairs, noticing Luffy's intense love for his room. With a toothy smirk, he pushed Luffy into his room.

"Do what you want," Bartolomeo said casually, flopping down onto his futon with hands behind his head. Zoro stood in the doorway, slightly irked as Luffy explored his brother's room, touching everything and climbing up into his bed, inspecting the maroon wall, looking at the memorabilia on the bookshelf.

Hesitantly putting a hand on the handle to Bartolomeo's 'closet', Luffy looked back at the owner for consent, and once it was given in the form of a wave, Luffy pulled open the two doors to find not the closet as he expected, but more of a hidden away area for a desk made from plywood, a simple lamp, and a mini-fridge. Luffy's jaw hit the floor.

As was somewhat expected, this area showed more of Bartolomeo's personal side. An open writing notebook on the desk, several sketchbooks and colored pens, pictures of he and his friends. There were some interesting suvenior magnets on the fridge, as well. A few open Monster cans, an old forgotten pack of cigarettes under the desk, and doodling all over the wooden walls of the 'closet', along with the signatures of everyone that had been in there.

Luffy took a pen off of Bartolomeo's desk and scrawled his name onto the wall as well, with a wink face and a heart.

"I didn't even know that was there," Zoro stated calmly, pointing to the space underneath Bartolomeo's bed. Bartolomeo laughed and just nodded, watching Luffy look around in awe again and maybe steal a Monster from his fridge; he didn't care.

"Okay Luffy.. come on," Zoro groaned after a while, rubbing the back of his head. Luffy looked back at Zoro with slight disapointment, Bartolomeo sending him a discouraging look as well.

"But I'm Barty's friend too!" Luffy pleaded scuffling over to Bartolomeo to hold his arm protectively. Bartolomeo stuck his tongue out at his brother with a raised eyebrow in pride. Zoro grumbled under his breath and sat down where he was, cross-legged. Luffy grinned at Zoro's change of heart and sat down next to Bartolomeo on the futon.

Taking sips of his Monster every once and a while to avoid a total sugar-high, Luffy talked to both the brothers happily, talking about school and mainly embarrassing Zoro, much to Bartolomeo's delight.

"Did that really happen?" Bartolomeo laughed, sending his brother a mocking look as Luffy nodded his head and continued his story in detail while Zoro sat in his corner blushing.

"Oh, and everytime me and Ace call Marco a pineapple, he gets so pissed and chases us around till we find a good hiding spot behind a teacher or something!" Luffy explained between laughter, looking as carefree as his usual self. Zoro couldn't help but chuckle a little at this, remembering a time where during a passing period, Luffy and Ace were pushing and shoving their way through a crowd, both laughing their asses off while Marco chased after them, threatening to break their necks when Ace and Luffy ducked into a nearby classroom to pretend to ask that teacher a question.

Of course, when this all happened, Luffy looked like he was having more fun than a slightly pale Ace did.

Bartolomeo laughed and sat back, pulling Luffy up against his chest nonchalantly. Zoro raised a nervous eyebrow.

"Jesus, I wish I was still in highschool with you guys. Sounds like you can get away with anything nowadays."

Luffy had to agree that having Bartolomeo there with them would be SO much fun, so crazy, but they couldn't exactly get away with everything...

"Well, not everyyything.." Luffy began, looking up at Bartolomeo. Bartolomeo raised a nonexistent eyebrow and Zoro thought he knew what was about to said.

"Me and Ace got caught making out once in the lockerroom, but Mom scared the secretary lady into letting us getting away with it," Luffy explained cheerfully, not fully realizing all that he had just said.

Bartolomeo had a slightly surprised look on his face.

Zoro just sighed and shook his head.

"Be glad it was only us that you told that to, kid," Bartolomeo mumbled, poking Luffy in the forehead, "don't go spilling your guts to everyone. But good job anyway."

"Thanks!"

"Bartolomeo..."

"No one asked for your input here, Zoro."

"No, uh, I think Luffy forgot.." By forgot, Zoro meant that Luffy had decided that since he felt like an awesome person he could automatically chug his Monster. Just as Bartolomeo had stuck a hand out to take the can away, Luffy had sipped the can clean.

"Luffy, you idiot.." Zoro sighed, slapping a palm on his forehead. Bartolomeo couldn't imagine what was so wrong.

Luffy looked at Zoro who was still sitting on the floor, and then at Bartolomeo who had his arm wrapped around his shoulders like Ace did sometimes, and then looked at Bartolomeo's bed at the far wall with a blank look.

"Nothing's happening," Bartolomeo concluded, rubbing a hand on Luffy's head. Zoro wasn't exactly so sure..

With a sideways glance towards the hole-punched door, Luffy calmly stood up and walked to the door, opened it, shut it behind him and walked to the bathroom. Bartolomeo blinked as the boy silently left them. Zoro stood up after Luffy and followed him, hands in pockets and sat outside the bathroom door while Bartolomeo was left to his own confusion.

"You alright in there, Luffy?" Zoro asked with a yawn. Luffy opened the door and nodded as usual, not even noticing that Zoro fell back against his feet as a replacement for the door.


Meanwhile... in stalker land.

"Eustass-ya, you'll never believe it, I think every guy around here has a unanimous crush on Mugiwara-ya."

"Mugiwara?"

"Monkey D. Luffy."

"Oh. But really? What makes you say that?"

"Well, by the looks of my 2nd screen, it appears that Mugiwara-ya is over at Roronoa's place, and.. like I noticed the other night, Zoro-ya already has fallen prey to Luffy, and Bartolomeo appears to be holding it in."

"...everything is so fucked up, I don't even... nope, I don't even. So, Ace and Luffy, brothers, then like a tsundere Zoro and Bartolomeo, but now.. like..one-sided Zoro- Luffy, and Bartolomeo-Luffy.. but the green-haired bastards don't give a fuck about Ace. Hahahahaha! Do you fucking know how good this is?!"

"Hehehe..get over here so you won't miss anything."

"Count me in."

"Killer-ya with you?"

"Nah.. just us~"

"...I'll ignore that tone and accept it. Alright, get your ass over here."

"On it, Dr. Stalker."


"I'm telling you! I'm O.K.!" Luffy protested, against Zoro's persistent arguements.

Zoro stepped away from the boy, crossed his arms and looked Luffy over again. Closing his eyes for a moment, he sighed.

"Hmmm... fine."

"Wow. That changed quickly," Bartolomeo mumbled, pulling Luffy's head against his chest and nearly suffocating him. Luffy flailed and attempted his escape while Zoro put a hand to his face and sighed once more.

Letting go of Luffy long enough to situate him in his lap, Bartolomeo sat comfortably on his futon, patting a hand next to him for Zoro to sit down. Reluctantly, the brother sat down.

"Nii-chan, you always act like such a tsundere. I don't get it," Bartolomeo explained, pulling Luffy's back against his chest to rest his head on the boy's shoulder. Zoro rolled his eyes and blushed.

"Shut up."

"Make me~"

"...don't make me make you shut up.."

Bartolomeo smirked as Luffy giggled a little at Zoro's frustration and embarrassment.

"Oooo tsundere-Zoroooo~" Luffy chirped, poking an accusing finger at Zoro, who grumbled and blushed even more.

...

"You see this?! The fucking grasshead must really have somethin' goin' on with his bastard-brother then! It is now confirmed!"

"Hehe, yeah, I see it, Eustass-ya. I'm not blind. But really, I'm glad I put these cameras up."

"Yeah, me too. Wait, you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Comin' from Luffy's strawhat, right? I think.. hmm, sounds like Ace."

"How do you know it's Ace-ya?"

"...uh... I don't know, don't ask me!"

Law whistled, looking away from a flustered Eustass Kidd.

"So, can you tell what exactly Ace-ya is doing, hmm~?" Law teased, poking Kidd's knee with a sharp nail. Kidd looked away, secretly listening to the sound from Luffy's hat while Law muted Bartolomeo's room.

"...He's.. flipping the pages of something. Silence. Probably reading, and.. now he's laughing."

"Yes, I'm not deaf either."

"Shut up, damnit! Oh, I bet he's reading Luffy's diary. I mean journal."

"...and you call me Doctor Stalker?"

...

Ace walked into Luffy's room, tapping his fingers on his thighs to a song stuck in his head, and then spotted Luffy's journal laying out on his bed. With a smirk, he walked over and sat down, taking the thing carefully into his hands, crossing his legs as he began to read Luffy's latest passage.

He couldn't help but laugh at the similarity their journal entries bore, noting that even both of them had decided to write at the same time. Telepathy, maybe- maybe. Ace hoped.

He also hoped that everything was going alright at the Roronoa house. Ace hated to worry, but he couldn't help it, knowing what Zoro felt for his brother. He shivered and retreated back into his room after setting the journal down like he found it, eager to retrieve a certain red sweater and hat.

...

Luffy laughed and laughed and laughed as Bartolomeo and Zoro bickered on and on about anything and everything, and nearly had a stroke when the phone in his pocket vibrated, instantly shutting up all three in the room.

Laughing sheepishly, Luffy scooted from the room and into the hallway, knowing that it was probably Ace. Inspecting the screen, there was only a text message- a picture.

Luffy couldn't help but smile at the picture.

The picture showed Ace showing off his ring on his hand, hand raised against his red-sweatered chest, a happy grin placed on his half-hat-covered face.

Scrambling to get his strawhat off of Bartolomeo's bed, and then running back out to the hallway, Luffy shoved the strawhat lopsidedly on his head and put his ring in between his grinning-teeth, and then took a picture of himself. Sending the picture back to his boyfriend with a few giggles, Luffy then slipped his phone back into his pocket, put on his ring again, and skipped back into the room to find Zoro trying desperately to keep Bartolomeo from kissing him. Luffy tried his best not to burst out laughing and secretly took a picture of the brothers, sending that to Ace too.

...

Law laughed at Luffy finding the other brothers' struggle just as funny as he and Eustass did. But he liked the kid's ring.

"Pretty," Law noted aloud, catching Kidd's attention.

"Did you just say 'pretty'? And what is?"

"Mugiwara-ya's ring," Law replied calmly, pointing a finger to said boy.

Kidd squinted at the screen and raised an invisible eyebrow, wondering... wondering.

"Next chance you get, put a camera in both Luffy and Ace's bedrooms. That could be fun," Kidd suggested with a lick of his lips.

"These things don't run on invisible eletricity from the air, ya know.."

"So? Figure out how to swap 'em with charged ones or something."

"You say that as if it's an easy task, Eustass-ya.." Law muttered, wondering how exactly the red-head expected him to accomplish said exchanged of cameras.

"Ask Bartolomeo to switch them for you."

"E-excuse me?! Isn't he one of the victims here?" Law gaped, marveling at Kidd's apparent stupidity as he was pulled from his thoughts.

"He is. But he isn't."

"...?"

"He's just fucked up enough to actually like it. He doesn't care 'bout himself, if you hadn't noticed, 'cause right now he's lookin' at us."

It was true. Bartolomeo was staring up at the camera with an amused expression, managing to sneak a middle finger into the picture.

Law un-muted that screen.

The other two victims didn't notice the camera, nor did Bartolomeo say anything.

Eustass Kidd and Trafalgar were in luck.

...

Later in the day, towards the evening when the snow had begun to fall lightly upon the Earth again, Luffy had left the Roronoa household and had retreated back to his own home with his boyfriend, while Zoro went up to his room to once more lay flat on the ground. Bartolomeo chuckled as he was left to himself, and decided to go for a drive.

A few minutes later, a sassy knock rang out on Trafalgar Law's front door, with Eustass Kidd nearby to answer it without a clue.

"Hel-?!"

Knee to the crotch.

"Hey Traffy!" Bartolomeo yelled out, pushing past a slightly in-pain Kidd. Walking through the house as if it were his own, hands in his pockets, he soon met Law at the foot of the basement stairs.

Punch to the jaw.

Grabbing Law's collar as to save him from falling backwards down his basement stairs, Bartolomeo laughed and swung the teen around to push him up against the nearest wall.

"Yeah. That's for catching me off guard. But anyway, thanks for bugging my house up with cameras, since obviously it makes Zoro look like a total dumbass. So how 'bout this; you pay me, and I'll keep 'em runnin' for ya, hmm~? You think so too? Oh, goody~"

With this, Bartolomeo pulled Law's wallet from his back pocket, took out a few $20's, then dropped the teen back to his feet and shoved the wallet back into his face. Law stared after the man wide-eyed, mouth drawn in a line, and watched as he once more kicked Kidd where the sun don't shine and left the house with a laugh, slamming the door behind him.

Kidd winced and looked back at Law. Law shook his head and shrugged.

How did he know it was him who put up the cameras? "I guess he could figure that out easy enough... hmm."

And how the fuck did he know where Law lived, of all people? "Fuckin' rooster-head molester-stalker.."

"Everytime I see him, I hate him more and more.." Kidd groaned.

Law sighed and rubbed his jaw and neck, looking up at the ceiling. Crack, crack of his neck.

"I've never been intimidated by a gay man before.." Law replied, shaking his head as he wandered around aimlessly, questions floating through his mind.


~ + Sooo... I hope you lovely-readers enjoyed this chapter! I've been really busy lately, sort of, with school and everythang, so, I thank you for reading thus far in this story, and I beg you- ~tell me what you thought~ -muchas gracias, arigato gozaimasu, tapadh leibh, THANK YOU! + ~