Multicolour Words
Chapter 02
By GunslingerBlok
-SQUUEEEE- I got reviews! And more than I expected, lol! I'm glad you people like the story so far! I was a bit worried about Ace, but appearently, the readers like him as a narcolectic pyromaniac XD! In the upcoming chapter, not all that much will happen. New characters will be introduced and Zoro will be having a hard time dealing with them.
Those who are waiting for the shounen-ai… you'll have to wait a little bit (much) longer, lol. I don't think Zoro is someone who will confess, or even fall in love for that matter, after a few days. But I'll try to put at least SOME fluff in it. Perhaps.
Ohyeah, thanks so much for the reviews everybody! I would reply to them but.. I won't. Just remember: I love you for reviewing XD! Have fun reading!
Disclaimer: If I had owned One Piece, Zoro and Luffy would've had sex in the first episode. One Piece copyright Eiichiro Oda.
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"I'm Luffy, nice to meet you!" The boy said eagerly, jumping up again. "And you?"
"Roronoa Zoro." The freshman answered, blinking at the boy's jumping. He seemed to have a lot of energy.
"Great, I'll call you Zoro!" Luffy said, his smile blinding the green-haired teen.
"Oi. You really think we're that close already?" Zoro grumbled, more to himself than to the young boy infiltrating his room, who was now staring at the katana's that were still laying in Zoro's bed.
Zoro's eyes followed the boy's look, but was too late to make him stop from jumping forward and grabbing Wadou Ichimonji.
"This is so cool! Is it real? It must be, it's so heavy!" Luffy brabbled, as he unsheatened the swords and held it above him with both hands. He swung the swords trough the air, laughing out loud at the cool 'swoosh!' sound it made. "I didn't know swords were allowed on the campus, but you have three of them, so I guess it is. You know, I once had a sword, it was a wooden one, though, and not as cool as this one, but it also made that cool 'swoosh!' sound when I was swinging it around!"
"Oi, kid, OI!" Zoro ran over to Luffy, trying to take back the katana from the raven-haired boy. "Don't –Hey, watch it!- don't touch these katana's, they're dangerous!" Jumping back because Luffy made another swing, almost chopping Zoro's head off, the freshman tried his best to get close without getting cut. However, the boy was swinging the swords around so fast, there was no opportunity for the green-haired teen to get close. Appearently, Luffy really liked the 'swoosh!' sound.
"MONKEY D. LUFFY?" A high, female voice sounded, as another new person appeared at the door. A girl, about 18 years old, with shoulder-length hair as orange as Ace's cowboy hat, leaned forward, searching support on her legs. She was panting, like she had ran for quite a while. She was wearing a white sweater with the word "Squee!" written over her chest in red letters. She was also wearing a black mini-skirt (Zoro felt another shiver climb up his spine) and high boots. "You little brat, here you are!"
Zoro, who was getting a headache from all the people entering his room without permission, stared at the girl with a shocked expression. Her expression, on the other had, was set on 'you, me, outside, right now!' as she entered the room, walking towards Luffy. "Don't think you can avoid me forever!"
Luffy yelped in surprise when the orange-haired girl grabbed his wrist, making him drop the katana. Zoro jumped forward in an impressive headlong dive to catch it, cutting his arm on the blade. Cursing, he stood op, sheatening the katana again and putting all three of them under his bed. As he sat down on the bed himself, taking a look at the fresh cut in his arm, he looked at the girl and Luffy yelling at eachother. It seemed to be about money, and with no hopes of getting either of them out of the room, Zoro just decided to watch it untill his headache got so worse, he would have to kill them. He hoped that would be soon.
"You still need to pay me back, brat! You owe me 50 bucks!" The girl yelled. She grabbed Luffy's other wrist too, making it impossible for him to free.
"No fair, the book was only 20 bucks!" Luffy said, trying to get his wrists free. The girl's grip was too strong, though.
"Yeah, but that was three weeks ago," The girl grinned. "For every week you're late paying me, I add another 10 bucks."
"NO FAIR!" Trying to push the girl away, Luffy started wiggling and dancing around in order to get free. Zoro thought this all was fairly funny-looking, but didn't laugh. He didn't do anything but watch. The risk of getting noticed by the girl was too high if he did anything but watch.
"Look, just pay and I'll let you go. If you don't pay, I'll start adding another 20 bucks per week." Said the girl. She sighed deeply when Luffy put up his puppy-eyes-look, and tried to put up an even angrier face at him.
"Aaawww, but Nami… Zoro, please help me, she won't let go…" Luffy whined, looking at his freshly-made friend with the same puppydog-eyes.
This was wat Zoro feared. Now the attention was pointing at him, and as the girl turned around with the same angry slash evil look on her face, he quickly grabbed one of his katana from under his bed. He and the girl stared at eachother for a couple of seconds, Luffy still whining and squirming in the background.
"And you are?" The orange-haired girl said, like it was Zoro infiltrating her room.
"The one who owns half this room," Zoro grumbled. "And if you and kid don't leave this room within five minutes, I'll kick you both out." He was taking a risk, a huge risk, since the girl looked like she could spit fire every moment now. He dared taking that risk, though, and stood up.
"Ooooh, so you're Ace-san's new roommate!" The angry expression dissapeared right away, and she let go of Luffy's wrist, turning around completely to face Zoro. "Nice to meet you, I'm Nami, a friend of Ace-san's."
"Roronoa Zoro." Zoro answered. He was meeting too many damn people today, and they all seemed to be as weird and fucked up as the university itself. "Look, I don't know what business you have with the kid, but I would appreciate it if you would just leave the damn room."
"Right after Luffy pays." Was the answer the freshman got.
"But Nami!" Luffy whined again. "You know I don't have that much money!"
"Then borrow some from Ace. Where is he anyway?" Nami said, as she took a quick look at the ground, like it was only logic he would be there. "Never mind…"
"I can't borrow money from him anymore, I'm always borrowing money from him! I promise I'll pay it back, Nami, just now right now!" Luffy said, slowly backing away from Nami.
"No, Luffy," Nami hissed. "Since you will never mention it again, and you will hope I'll forget but you know I'll never forget, and weeks and weeks will go by, so eventually the debt will be so high you'll never be able to pay it back!"
"But Namiii!" Luffy repeated, putting up his puppydog-eyes again.
And all this time, Zoro was just standing there. His headache was getting worse, his hand trembling holding the katana. Still wet from the rain, he wanted to change into some dry clothes, but couldn't because of the two people still fighting in his room. They started to raise their voice. Now they where yelling. Screaming. And Zoro's headache was getting unbearable.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" He screamed, unsheatening his sword and pointing it towards Luffy and Nami. "God damnit, you two are giving me a huge headache, and I don't fucking like headaches!"
"Oi, Zoro-san, mind keeping your voice down? I'm getting a headache." Ace's voice said.
"Ace-san! You're.. awake?" Zoro quickly sheatened his katana again, feeling a little bit guilty for the shocked look Luffy had on his face. He watched the pyromaniac stand up from the floor.
"Sorry about that, I probably should've told you." Ace grinned. "I'm narcolectic."
"Yeah, Luffy-kun told me.." Zoro answered. "It's… weird." Yes, weird. That was the only word fitting.
"Yeah it is," laughed Ace. "And rather annoying too, but you'll get used to it. And you already met my little brother?"
"Little brother?" So he was right, they were related.
"Yeah, Ace's my big brother!" The shocked expression caused by Zoro's katana dissapeared immediately and was quickly replaced by a huge, illuminating grin. "He's only four years older, though."
"And she?" Zoro pointed at Nami. "She's not related to you guys too, right?"
"Nah, she's a… family friend." The hesitation as what to call Nami made the pyromaniac laugh nervous. Zoro looked at him with a confused look, but decided to ignore it. "By the way, you're soaked."
"I know." Zoro mumbled trough his clenched teeth, his face going to angry-mode again.
"Want me to make a fire so you can dry up a little?"
"NO!" Not only Zoro, but also Nami and Luffy screamed as soon as the word 'fire' was noticed.
Nami sighed, understanding Zoro probably needed his privacy to change into some dry clothes. "Fine, I'll leave. You're lucky, Luffy, you won't be able to escape next time." As she left, Luffy stuck out his tongue to her, acting as childish as he looked.
"Don't do that, Luffy," Ace said. "Be nice to Nami-chan."
"But she's making me pay much more then I borrowed!" Luffy said.
"You know how Nami is, Luffy, you shouldn't borrow money from her!" Ace sighed. "But c'mon, we were going to the store today, right?"
"Yay, store!" Luffy ran over to the door immediately. "We'll get meat right? Lots of meat!"
"We don't need meat, Luffy," Ace followed his little brother, smiling. "Nojiko feeds you enough meat. See you later, Zoro-kun! Oh, and if my bed comes, make the deliverers put it at the clean spot. I'll clean the rest later. Bye."
"Yeah, see ya." And as the door closed, Zoro was finally alone in his new 'home'. "Today certainly was.. the most interresting day of my live."
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As soon as Zoro was alone, and changed into some dry clothes, he dropped himself on the bed for a quick nap. Four hours later, he was still asleep, never noticing the deliverers bringing in the bed, with instructions of Nami, who happened to walk by. He didn't awoke untill someone was poking him in his arm, non-stop for at least a couple of minutes. Grunting loudly, Zoro grabbed the hand that was poking him, almost squeezing it, untill a familiar voice yelped in pain. The green-haired teen opened his eyes to meet the dark chocolate-coloured ones of Luffy.
"Why on earth are you waking me up?" Zoro mumbled. He sat up, yawning loudly, before throwing another annoyed look at the boy.
"Ace told me to," The kid answered. "He thought you might be hungry, so he went downstairs to the cafeteria, but didn't know what you would like to eat so he sent me to get you."
"How kind of him." Zoro yanwed again. He could use some more sleep. "But I'm not hungry." Right at that moment, his stomach decided to make a sound like a mountain collapsing. Blushing a little bit, he ignored Luffy's wide grin and walked towards the door.
"Fine, so maybe I'm a little hungry." Zoro said. "Let's go to that cafeteria." He left the room, going left.
"Sure, but we'll have to go right for that." Luffy laughed, grabbing Zoro's arm to pull the other teen with him. "You're new right? So you don't know your way around here. C'mon, I'll show you where the food is!"
"Oi, kid, let go of my ar-GAH!" Luffy suddenly started to run, still holding Zoro's arm and dragging him with him.
Being dragged trough almost the entire building, Zoro forgot his way immediately. He knew finding his way back to his room would become a difficult task to complete. Not that he would ever admit that though. Everybody knew Zoro could always find his way. Always.
The cafeteria was crowded, even though not even half of all the students from East Blue University had arrived at the University yet. Luffy quickly dragged Zoro to Ace, who was, unfortunately for Zoro, sitting in the back of the large room. Zoro, hardly being able to keep up with the exciting boy, had trouble staying on his feet, as being dragged made him jump over obstacles like students or chairs.
Ace already had three plates of spaghetti standing in front of him, one for him, one of Luffy and one for Zoro. The freshman and the boy sat down next to eachother, at the opposite of Ace, as Zoro glanced around the room. Was it just him or was everybody looking at them?
"Zoro-san, I hope you like spaghetti, since it was the only thing left." Ace said, and he pushed a plate towards his new roommate. "We got here a little late, I'm afraid. Most of the food was gone. This was all Sanji-san could do for us."
"What? Wait, you mean that princess is working in the kitchen or something?" Zoro stared at his spaghetti. He didn't trust it anymore, he didn't trust anything involving the blonde.
"Yeah, he wants to be a professional cook, so in his free time, he works in the kitchen here." Ace told. "Though I'm not sure he likes it. The cooking he likes, but his cheff seems to be a bit grumpy at times."
"Ha, grumpy! That old man never is anything else!" Luffy laughed, his mouth filled with spaghetti.
"Luffy, swallow, please!" Ace immediately hissed, as people stared at the boy with both amused as disgusted looks. "You really should learn to swallow before you talk, how many times have I told you that already?"
Luffy pouted, but took a glance at Zoro's plate and noticed the food was still untouched. "You're not going to eat?"
Zoro looked at his plate, still not trusting the spaghetti. Then again, in general, spaghetti wasn't known for killing people in whatever way. But before he could took a bite of spaghetti, Luffy's hand swapped by, lifting the spaghetti on his fork and stuffing the whole meal in his own mouth. Looking at the kid like this, his cheeks bulging from the food, it made Zoro wanna kill himself in the middel of the cafeteria.
"Luffy! Don't eat Zoro-san's food! What have I told you?" Ace angerly said to the boy, who swallowed away the food, sauce dripping from the corners of his mouth.
"I won't steal other people's food, since they are hungry too and I get enough already, yeah yeah!" Luffy pouted. "But that's not true, I'm still hungry!"
"Then go to Sanji-san, perhaps he has some leftovers for you." Ace said. "And ask him for some extra food for Zoro-san too."
"That's okay, I really don't trust the food that princess makes.." Zoro mumbled, handing over his empty plate to Luffy, who also grabbed his own to bring back to the kitchen. With a loud 'yay!', he left, being stared at by the other students. Mostly freshman though, since people who've been on the university longer already seemed to know Luffy.
"Sorry about that," Ace laughed. "He's just so energic and he eats enough food a day to feed a complete army for a week."
"Really, I don't mind. I think I'm gonna start eating out of campus from now on." Zoro sighed. "He keeps you quite busy, doesn't he?"
"He does, but it's worth it." Ace said, his voice softening. "He's really good company, you know, once you get used to his way of doing."
Zoro seriously doubted this, but didn't ask further. It stayed quiet for a while, before Ace talked again. Zoro looked at him from the corner of his eyes, seeing the expression of his new roommate turn a bit sad.
"Besides, he doesn't have anyone else."
"Hm?"
"We're orphans." Ace looked Zoro in the eyes. "Guess being roommates and all, we probably should know eachother a bit better, right? I wouldn't mind telling about myself, if you would like to hear it."
Zoro grunted. He was curious, ofcourse. He didn't know anything about Ace, except his exceptional love for fire, wich wasn't really a positive thing. Perhaps the black-haired man had some kind of hidden past as a serial killer, ready to kill Zoro too when he was asleep. He wouldn't admit his curiousity, though. Never, 'cause Roronoa Zoro didn't care about other people.
"Whatever." Zoro mumbled, looking away from Ace's staring eyes, looking around the cafeteria again.
Ace smiled, knowing from Zoro's way of looking away, that he did indeed wanted to know more. He took another bite of spaghetti and cleared his throat.
"A couple of years ago, Luffy was too young to remember it, our parents died. Drowned in fact. Since we were to young to take care of ourselfs, we were put in foster homes, with a couple of great families who took care of us." Ace told. "However, none of the families could adjust to Luffy's energy and way of acting, so we went from family to family, staying here for a while, then there for a couple of months. It was hard, since Luffy couldn't make friends at the schools we went to. He just didn't have the time."
He took another bite, looking at Zoro from the corner of his eyes. He noticed the man was indeed listening to him, but tried his best not to let anyone notice that. Ace let out a soft chuckle, before continueing his story.
"Anyway, eventually, we ended up with a great woman, Makino was her name. She owned a bar and was married to an adventurer. She worked hard and long, but still managed to take care of Luffy. And every now and then, her husband came home, Shanks was his name, and told amazing stories about the things he experienced in the far-away countries he had been to. Shanks-san was about the only person in the world who could make Luffy concentrate on one thing for more than 10 minutes.
We only saw Shanks a couple of times, he hardly came home. He's probably traveling around the world right now too. However, after three happy years, Makino got really sicks, and died. At that time, I was just about to start at this university, so I couldn't really take care of Luffy. Luckily, in the time we stayed with Makino, we met Nami, and her older sister Nojiko. We became good friends, and since a year, Luffy is living with Nojiko. Since Nojiko didn't study further after her high school, but does have a job, she can take care of my little brother just fine."
"So Luffy-kun is living with that orange-haired girl and her sister?" Zoro, not being able to keep up his 'I don't care'- act anymore, imagined two Nami's with Luffy in the middle, hugging him untill he couldn't breath anymore. Well, it did make sense why Luffy was so bouncy and giddy all the time.
"Oh, so you are interrested?" Ace said with a teasing voice, grinning.
"I-What? No, I'm just… Well… I just couldn't ignore your damn voice…" Zoro muttered, looking away again. He felt Ace's eyes in his back and knew the guy was smiling with fun right now.
At that moment, Luffy returned, with not one, not two, but six plates of spaghetti balancing on top of eachother with him. He sat down next to Zoro again, looking at the spaghetti with eyes that said nothing but love.
"You sure you can eat all that?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ofcourse!" Luffy chirped. "I wanted to get more, but Sanji said this was all I could get since he had to leave some leftovers for some of his female-friends. At least that's what he said, and when I tried to take some more spaghetti, he threw a knife at me, but I ducked and grabbed the spaghetti and ran!" He laughed, proud of what he had accomplished. Zoro raised the other eyebrow too, now staring in complete shock, at how the kid practically inhaled his food. Within seconds, all the plates where empty.
Caught in amazement and his own thoughts, Zoro didn't notice he was staring at the boy for a few minutes already. How on earth could such a small body hold so many food? And where did he leave it? He didn't stop staring untill Luffy started poking him in the arm again, and being annoyed by it, the green-haired teen grabbed the kid's wrist.
"Don't poke." Zoro grumbled.
"Then you don't stare so much." The boy backfired with a grin.
"I wasn't staring, I was thinking." Letting go of the boy's wrist, Zoro stood up. "I'm going back to the room." And with that, he left the two brothers alone. And again, he felt like everybody in the room was staring at him. What the fuck was up with this university?
"What were you two talking about when I left?" Luffy asked, after Zoro was out of sight. "Well, what were you talking about, since he didn't open his mouth all that much, did he?"
"You, me, Makino-san, Shanks-san." Ace sighed. "Our history, basically."
"Why? You hardly know him." Luffy said, as he tried to balance al six empty plates on the top of his strawhat, wich was still firmly located on his head.
"Yeah well," Ace shrugged. "Just felt like it."
"Okay… Hey Ace, think we can go to that restaurant nearby? They have great meat there!"
"You're hopeless… Let me get my jacket."
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Zoro already decided, even after knowing the kid for barely a few hours, Luffy wasn't good for his health. As someone not being used to being around hyperactive people, the kid caused headaches pretty quickly. And his brother was just as weird. Why did he tell him the complete history of him and his brother? He hadn't asked for it, nor did he show any interrest. Well, in the beginning at least.
He now did understand why Luffy was hanging around the campus and his brother. If Nami's sister was anything like Nami herself was, then there were plenty of reasons not to be home that much. On the campus, Nami could be avoided. In a small house or appartment, that would become quite a task.
Thinking about the weird day Zoro had had, he wandered around the student hostel a bit, being sure he was going the right way leading back to room 96A. However, after walking for a while, he noticed his surroundings had changed. Instead of the boring grey walls the halls, where is room was located too, he was now surrounded by brightly yellow wallpaper, decorated with cute pink flowers. It was the most ugliest wallpaper Zoro had ever seen.
But putting the wallpaper aside, the freshman was sure he never walked here before, and began to wonder if he had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Just as he was turning around to go his way back, a familiar voice called his name.
"Zoro-kun! Hey! You, with the weird hair!" It was Nami, running towards him.
"Don't call my hair weird, damnit." Zoro mumbled to himself, as he faced Nami. "What?"
"My my, aren't you a little grumpy this beautifull afternoon," She said with a wink. "You seen Luffy? I really need that money he owns me."
"Seriously, why are you bothering? The kid said he didn't have the money, right?" Wait, why was Roronoa Zoro standing up for that bouncy little brother?
"Like I care, I just want that money. Perhaps I can get some more from Ace…" Nami muttered the last part to herself, probably thinking about how to get Ace pay Luffy's debts. "Well, bye." And she ran off. Before she took a turn left, though, she turned around, waving at Zoro and yelling. "By the way, you owe me five bucks for me leaving your room when you wanted to change!"
"I-Wh-Wait, what the HELL?" But before he could protest, she had already ran off. "Damnit, that girl!" Still cursing, Zoro started walking again. He figured that, if he just kept on walking and walking, he'll eventually reach his room, right?
And yes, after walking for another hour and a half ("Damnit, when did the student hostel get so fucking big?") he finally found his way back to his room. He went inside and noticed Ace was 'home' too.
"Hey, where've you been? I thought you were going back to your room after dinner?" He asked, looking up from the burning match he was helding in his hand.
"I-ehh.. decided to walk around a little," Zoro answered. "Getting to know the neighbourhood." Yeah, that was a good answer. "You sure it's smart to play with fire, again, so close to your new bed?"
"No, but it's just so pretty…" Ace sighed. "Just look at the colours, the beautifull yellow and orange. It's so wonderfull!"
And Zoro, who really didn't care anymore, just layed down on his bed and fell asleep. It wouldn't matter if Ace would burn down the entire student hostel. The day couldn't get any weirder.
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In Japan, it's polite to adress someone with –kun, -san, -chan or something similair. Leaving the honorific away means you're adressing to someone in a very intimate way. When just meeting someone, it's rather impolite to just calling someone by his/her name, wich is exactly was Luffy does. And yes I stole half of this from the XXXHoLiC manga's XD and no, I'm not saying this fic takes place in Japan, lol!
WAH! Finito already? Darn, and when I started this chapter, I actually planned on stuffing the whole introduction-day in it too, lol! But then the cafeteria-thing came up, and there was no space left –sigh- There are, most likely, a lot of grammar-mistakes in this chapter. That's because I was stupid enough to write in in the middle of the night. At the moment, it's past 4:00 AM, and I'm tired like –whoa!-, but I still wanted to finish this.
NOTE: Now, before I start writing chapter 3, I wanna ask the lovely readers at something. I'm looking for a beta-reader, someone who knows good english to help me better the mistakes I make. I don't know much english people, let alone people who follow One Piece enough to be a fan, so I'm gonna have to search the help of a stranger The only thing you have to do is read my story (before all the other people can –gasp!-), better the mistakes and send it back to be so I can post it! I won't bother you much though, since I don't have too much free time, and writing in english takes a bit longer for me since I have to search in my dictionary all the time, lol.
If you're willing to apply for beta-reader, I also wanna ask you to help me correct the mistakes in the first two chapters ;; It's a bit messy otherwise, isn't it? So if you're interrested, please send me an e-mail to xpreciouspainx at gmail dot com, with your name and your account and I'll get back to you asap! PS. I probably won't update again before I have a beta-reader, but in the meantime, I'll also try to find someone myself, so don't worry, lol!
Next chapter: INTRODUCTION-DAY! Zoro's worst fear, or will he actually enjoy it? GAH, it's so exciting, I can hardly breath! And myesh, I love overreacting –squee!- Please review, Blok luvs reviews. They make me happy and a happy Blok an updating Blok!