The Singer's Secret

Hey guys!

I tried to correct my past mistakes and some of them finally gone, but I managed to do more by changing the chapters sequence and others... uhm.. jea..

But don't worry, as I know for know, there shouldn't be anymore mistake, well at least not big ones!

So please accept my apology with this new chapter. Have fun!

Disclaimer's on the first page.

Chapter 4 - The Encounter

A few months later, only three more show left to be produced till the finale begins. Four more production until the show ends. The boys became more-and-more famous as time went by. The whole world wanted to know more about them, because they were quite mysterious. Nobody could find any usable and personal information despite being one of the most popular thing on the world.

The world was crazy curious, they would grab every little possibility to know more about them. It was fine for a while, but once in a while, a madman charged at them and that was insanity.

These were the times Luffy almost passed out on that instant. He was a front man and was the only member who didn't give any background information about himself. If anybody questioned, chased threatened or did something similar, one of the three would always be there the prevent it.

At the interviews mostly the others talked, he just answered little questions if it wasn't avoidable. But in spite of all, he liked that the world like their music. It worth it all the trouble.

He was getting better too, …well it was only if he knew that if something went wrong, one of his brothers got his back, but if he was alone for some reason…, well, those were the scary moments.

Once they almost ripped off his clothes if he wasn't quick enough. These intense moments were the cause of his returning panic attacks, whit these situations, his memory kicked in, and all of his fight was frail against them.

So, to sum it up, he was getting better and worst at the same time.

Today was a day like those which he had to go out alone, because the others had their things to do. Moreover, he wouldn't want to hold them back of their life, he liked them being always there, but they had their lives too.

Like example Usopp had his girlfriend, although Usopp didn't introduced her to Luffy, he was afraid that he would freak out and they better avoid any chance to that.

Luffy was offended by that for a while, but Usopp made everything alright with an all-you-could-eat-night with Usopp-paying-for-everything, so he almost made him broke down out of 'revenge', but not like he couldn't eat that much on an everyday level anyway, so it was okay.

Now was the day, he had to go to the studio, to discuss about their very first public meeting bound together with autograph giving session at living proximity with their fans.

Usually Sanji or Zoro used to deal with kind of things, because of the discussion part, but now all three of them had to go and arrange things with the stuff for their next show.

They went together there, but Luffy finished almost about thirty minutes later and the other had to spent to whole afternoon in the studio, to make sure everything will go perfectly.

So, Luffy was walking home on the streets, he had a red hoodie on and black sunglasses for concealment. He was listening his favourite musics with white earphones as he went.

A girl and her few friends were walking out of some shop, when the first one to exit just spotted him across the street. She screamed an ear piercingly as she pointed to him, it triggered her friends as they saw him too.

Luffy heard the commotion and stopped, while he pulled out the right side of his phones. Looking around, he's gaze stopped at some girls across jumping and screaming about something really hard.

Then he noticed that all of them were pointing and shouting his name, which finally set off his alarm about the situation. Cold sweat started to for on his forehead as the took a step or two slowly backwards.

The girls saw he was trying t retreat, they dashed after him, like crazy animals, trough the street, between cars. It looked like one car almost hit one of them, the driver honked at her hard but she didn't even notice it, just hurried after the worldwide famous, mysterious singer.

Luffy sprinted right in the opposite direction he should have go, to reach their home. But at the moment, that was the last thing he was worried about. As he ran, the people started to recognise him too and joined the chase, which made this situation even formidable.

Slowly the whole street was full of chasers behind him and the noise warned people before him too, so he had to dodge them after a while. They were shooting photos and filmed the whole thing, so it was obvious that everybody will see this commotion in the evening news, great…

He turned a corner and bumped into a girl right after. The girl was exiting the café shop and in the rush Luffy didn't pay attention to possible obstacles. They both sat on the ground, the girl looked at him, as she saw the desperation on him, the look on his face showed like this incident was the end of him, then started anxiously looking around for an escape route.

Than he inspected him better, from the fall his hoodie completely fell off. She gasped at the sight, as her brain processed who he really was.

Then the first question that popped out in his mind was, why was he running, of from what, to be this desperate about, when finally, the noise of the crowed reached her, she understood right away.

She got up fast and grab his hand, which shake him out of his search. He tried to protest against the girl's pull, but he was already tired and emotionally falling apart.

So, the girl easily pulled him up off the ground and started running, dragging him behind her. Before the crowed could turn the corner too, she ran into a darker alleyway. Dragging him all the way till the end of it, where a dead end waited them.

The darkened street, and the lot of abandoned stuff, junk containers and huge boxes made a good hiding place for them until the crowd left. She pushed him against the wall, then on the floor and covered his mouth with her hand, than she did the same, only having a gap between two boxes to watch if somebody eventually was brave enough to come in, to be prepared in any case, while he was forced to just stare the wall across.

The noises quieted than disappeared completely only leaving the occasionally passing cars on the main road. Sensing that the danger elapsed, she turned back to him and pulled away her hand.

As she let him go, he immediately dashed to the other side's corner and pressed himself into it as much as he could. The fear was visible on him. She didn't really know why, the crowd left, no cameras or anything around here, just the two of them.

She remembers the first time she saw him in a music video from the nowadays so successful talent show and the effect it had on her, from that point on, she always watched the show and interviews what they were in.

The man in the corner looked like he was sick, he breathed in fast and unevenly, his eyes were shaking, cold sweat appeared all around his body as the happenings finally sank in.

She straightaway figured out what was his problem, her sister had that kind of attacks all the time after their mother's death and she was the one who always helped her calm down.

He was having a panic attack and it seemed her being there wasn't helping either. Still, she couldn't leave him be like that! She was heartless at work, not in her deep nature.

She slowly approached him, but as she got a Little closer, his breathing fastened even more and he slid down to the ground, his back still pressed strongly against the corner.

"Hey, you're Luffy, right?" She started on a smoothing, pleasant voice and closed the distance between them, so in the end, she was kneeling in the ground in front of him.

"Just listen to my voice, everything's going to be alright! No one is going to hurt you now, especially not me. So, just take a few deep breaths and calm down." She continued, as she pronounced every little world slowly, but the determination was still hearable them.

But she noticed Luffy's lack of attention, like he shut out the world around him, and was going down on memory lane the wrong way.

Thus, she grabbed his hands firmly and squeezed them to shift him out of his agony. It worked a little, now he lifted his head up to look at her. He didn't really know how he ended up here or in this situation.

He had memory snatches about what happened after he turned the corner. He remembered the pain, then some orange, then the panic took over completely.

Now looking up, he saw a girl with orange hair, as she was holding his hands and was staring in in the eyes, like she wanted to see through them right into his deep depths, he calls his soul.

Usually he would have freaked out by now, for being this close to someone, to a girl, but she was something else, she could relax his nerves just by looking at him like that, and he didn't know why, he didn't even know the girl.

They were gazing at each other, as Luffy's mind processed that he would usually freak out by now and he didn't. He didn't know what had happened, but this encounter made him uneasy. So, with lightning speed, he wrenched his hands out of her and stood up, then finally rushed away, out of the alleyway.

The girl's eyes expanded by her surprise and looked after him, but before he left, he stopped abruptly and t back his head a little to the side.

"I don't really know what had happened, but thanks, I guess!" He said as a swamp, then rushed away.

This whole incident was so long, that the afternoon became evening, the sun was long gone and lights were illuminating the silent streets.

XYZ

Luffy ran through the entire way home, not stopping, not taking a breaker even for a second. He rushed all the way to their front door and fidgeted out the key, his hands were shaking, so he dropped it a few times till he could finally put it.

He burst through the door and slammed it back right after he was inside, then lean against it as he slowly slid down to the floor. His left leg was stretched out and the right one was pulled up as his right hand was perched on his knee. His head was reclined to the door, his eyes closed as he tried to right back his breathing. He looked like a rag doll with his slumped composure before the front door.

XYZ

Zoro, Sanji and Usopp were all sitting in the living room. The green-haired watched a movie on the TV, Usopp was listening a music and gaming on his laptop and finally Sanji was surfing on the internet searching for interesting news around the world.

They finished sooner than the participated, they didn't even notice that Luffy was missing, his door was closed and it was usual to him to have a nap sometime during the afternoons.

It was a quiet a common night among them, nothing special happening, just relax like that. It went like that today too, well… except till Sanji shouted out.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Sanji exclaimed as he suddenly stood up, his face was distorted by disbelief and was still watching the video of today's news. One of the famous talent show's participant was spotted on the street and caused quite a big ruckus just by walking on the street.

"WHERE'S THAT IDIOT?!" Sanji continued as the other two in the room curiously looked at him. Sanji throw his phone to Zoro, who caught without any problem as he stormed to Luffy door to barge in, but found the room totally empty. Meanwhile Zoro and Usopp watched what pissed off Sanji so quickly.

He came out of Luffy's room and looked like he saw a ghost. The other two knew right away what that meant, Luffy wasn't there. They started to look around the house like crazy, when they heard a loud bang form the direction of the front door.

They rushed there and found Luffy panting like crazy, spread at the base of the door and his face was a little red, his hair was a little dank at the ends by his sweat.

Usopp was at once on his way to the kitchen to get a glass of water for him. Back at the hall, he saw the other to closer to Luffy than before, who tried to calm his breathing and rapid heart rate.

Usopp handed him the water who gratefully accepted it and drank it like he was thirsty for a month now. Not long after he entirely cooled down. He knew what was coming, but he was tired and was not in a mood for that, so he cut down of the story as he could.

"So… I was walking home when… a bunch of girls started chasing me, then more-and-more… and... huhh... I don't really know what happened after that, only know about a bump… and orange…?! " he said or maybe asked the end of it, then looked up at them.

They looked like they wanted to ask more question but Luffy cut the of before they had their way.

"Guys! I was running literally the whole afternoon around the city, so I'm tired." He stood up, a little unsteadily but was still standing.

"I really don't remember any more than that. Thus, I can't tell you more information, all I know is that when my mind worked again a girl was staring in my face, but that's no big deal. So, that's all, good n'ght! And he left.

They were staring after him just gaping about it.

"Uuu… Don't remember?" Said Zoro

"Aaand… A girl was staring him in the face?" Continued Sanji

"Aaa… and it was no big deal… what's up with him? I won't say I'm not glad he got over it quickly, but he'd usually be an almost living-dead, aaa.. like a zombie, yet he's just tired?!" Finished their thread Usopp summarizing what all three of the had in their minds.

"Jeahh… let's forget about it now, if he wants he could tell us, but we won't compel him, that's what Shanks advised for us." Decided Zoro and went back to watch the movie.

"Ok, I'll go talk to him later..." Sitting down, Zoro tried to say determinedly, but he didn't believe a world he just said before, as well as the others either. They were responsible for him, if was their secret promise to him that they'll look out for him, because they were careless that single time and look what happened.

Before each went to sleep, Usopp and Sanji started bug Zoro about what he's undertaken on himself by saying he would ask Luffy, if he wasn't asleep. Zoro was still the "Luffy whisperer", or something like that.

They knew each other even before Usopp and Sanji came into their lives. They had that bond, that they could tell what the other thought just by one look. That's why Luffy usually avoided looking at him, when something bothered him, and that was exactly why they always could tell, when he was lying or just simply hiding something.

He rolled his eyes at them, they were so impatient sometimes! But whatever, he did his job anyway. He approached his door, knocked, that without waiting for an answer stepped in.

He was sitting on his bed leaning his back against the

backrest, his earphones sticking out of his ears and he was writing in his notebook. The room was dark, only the reading lamp on the nightstand was giving a little light, but surely enough to his writing.

"I know you know I'm here." Zoro stated, knowing well enough he just pretended he didn't notice. Luffy only moved his eyes on him for a moment, but immediately took it back.

"I'm waiting, Luffy." he said as he pushed his hands into his front pockets and leaned his back against the door. Not leaving any room for him to argue or to even escape out of this.

He lifted his hand and took out the earphones, sit up further and crossed his legs.

"It's really not that important." He said back in a mechanical voice, still not looking at him, just gazing the stars through the window across the room.

"Don't care, doesn't matter." Stated the green-haired man firmly.

"Well..., it's just as I said before. I was walking home, a bunch of girls noticed me, started chasin' and I was running through the street for a while, when the noise attracted other who also joined. And the last thing I remember was that I turned a corner and bumped into someone. After that… it just… hazy, the only thing what really remained was the orange hair." At this, his brain started to put thing together.

"Now thinking about it, the girl who was starin' had orange hair… I guess…, but not sure, it was dim in the alleyway." He started rumbling but finished his line with a shrug.

"And what did she do? "

"I don't know, when I came back, from whatever happened, she was there and it was almost completely dark out there, I think she saved me? Maybe… I don't know! In any case I thanked her and ran all the way home." Finishing his story, he finally looked at Zoro, proving trough his eyes that he told the truth.

Zoro nodded acknowledging his sign. Then both sighed as a bump was hearable from the other side of the door. Luffy nodded yet again but this time cracked a smile at the end. They were so funny sometimes!

Zoro slowly grabbed the handle of the door, then as fast as possible he wrenched out. A dark brown and a blonde-haired man fell on the floor, hard. They were obviously spying on them. Luffy laughed out at the comical scene. Seeing his grin made them all feeling better, he was back to normal. Sanji started a quarrel with Zoro about it, and the two younger laughed their head off by that.

Yupp, they were his family, they could always make him happier! His best friends, his brothers, his support through hard times. He didn't know who or what was that girl, but it doesn't matter. They're never going to meet again, or are they?

To be continued...

I hope you liked it!

See ya next time :)