Hi there! I planned to post this some days ago but… my nephews came… I think this was the most tiring week I've ever had… I mean, I love them and all but… God! They woke me up too early in the morning so I could play with them. I don't even know why I used to wake up so early when I was a kid too. But well, whatever. Here's next chapter!
Warning: Uh… a bit of cursing? Hmm… un-beta'ed, I think that's about it.
Disclaimer: Did you know that when you sneeze your heart stops for a millisecond? Well now you know that aside from the fact that I don't own One Piece.
Day One
It was certainly a beautiful day. The sun was shining; the clouds were white and fluffy, moving ever so slightly with the morning breeze. The birds were chirping and singing that beautiful song of theirs to show their happiness towards a brand new day.
And if those birds didn't shut up any time soon, certain raven haired boy would make sure to smother them with his pillow.
Why couldn't they see that their stupid song was not welcome here? Luffy groaned, he would give them ten seconds, and if they didn't stop chirping by then, some drastic measures would be taken. He counted, groggily and sleepily, until he reached number three – mind you, the birds were still singing – and then something happened, something unexpected and unwelcome happened.
Luffy's alarm clock went off.
It felt as if someone had just poured a bucket of cold water on the semi-sleeping boy. He sat up almost immediately out of surprise, and in an attempt to turn off the 'demonic alarm clock of doom', said raven haired boy rolled on his bed and stretched his right arm to shut up that offending sound. He sighed, why did he even turn on the alarm? Maybe it was a sick prank by those stupid birds, because Luffy could swear that the birds that were singing a few minutes ago were now staring down at him, and they were smirking.
Luffy glared, and the birds glared back. There were a few seconds of tension until Luffy gasped, his previous competition with the birds long forgotten. Today was the first day of school, that's why he turned on the alarm clock last night!
He needed to get up, otherwise he would be late. Luffy sighed, he stretched a bit and attempted to get out of bed, and he would have done so successfully, had he not tangled his legs on the blanket before when he rolled over to turn off the alarm. With a loud crash Luffy's face was met with the cold floor, one of his legs still trapped on the sheets while the other hung loosely over him.
This was definitely not a good morning.
Luffy groaned, shaking his leg furiously until it was free from the covers. He pushed himself up, and without even bothering to settle the mess that was his bed he went directly to the door and down to the kitchen. If his nose wasn't betraying him, he was sure Ace made hotcakes for breakfast.
"Morning." Luffy mumbled before heading to the breakfast bar, sitting almost automatically and letting his head rest on the cool marble.
Ace turned around, a plate full of hotcakes in one hand while the other balanced two empty plates and two clean glasses, and smiled at the sight before him. He placed a plate and a glass in front of the sleepy boy, he poured some milk in both glasses and then grabbed some hotcakes for himself before the younger D. had time to react and devoured all of them. "What's wrong, didn't sleep well?" Ace asked, pouring a fair amount of syrup in his plate before enjoying his breakfast.
Luffy shook his head, grabbing half of the hotcakes and placing them in his plate absentmindedly before grabbing some syrup too. "The waking part was the problem." He said, his eyes still clouded with sleep. "I swear those birds are plotting something…"
Ace sweat dropped. Admittedly, Luffy was still in a sleeping stupor, hence not knowing what he was saying… or so he hoped. He watched amusedly how his little brother devoured his breakfast with his eyes now closed, he knew the boy was asleep at the moment, somehow he learned how to eat while sleeping a few years back. Ace suppressed a yawn himself before cursing Garp and Shanks to the pits of hell. Those idiots… One would think that they were old and responsible enough to know better than to get drunk the night before work – and drag them along one day before school started – but once again they managed to prove you wrong.
He really hoped those two would have a killer headache for the rest of the day.
"Oi, Luffy…" Ace poked the sleeping boy with the back of his fork, even though he too was a D., Luffy's speed when eating was unmatchable. "Wake up already, I guess you still haven't showered?"
Luffy groaned in response, biting and chewing the end of the fork out of reflex. "Mngh… it's hard…"
"Of course it's hard idiot, it's a fork." Ace muttered, trying to suppress the blush in his cheeks because damn it! Luffy was an idiot for not realizing how suggestive his words were when sleep deprived! "G-Go shower already, we don't want to be late on the first day of school."
Luffy nodded, dragging his feet out of the kitchen bar and heading towards the opposite direction. Ace let his hand cover his face before sighing, was it really the best of options to live with his little brother alone? He shook his head trying to get rid of such thoughts; it was too late to regret his decision, anyway. Ace grabbed his and Luffy's plate and headed to the sink humming a pointless tune to pass time, suddenly, a loud crash grabbed his attention; he turned around after closing the pouring water and stared, there was no one in the living room… Maybe Luffy dropped something upstairs? He shrugged, ready to resume his pending task when some mumbling caught his attention once again. With a suspicious glare Ace headed to the living room, the wall in the kitchen made it hard to get a full view of the place; he was sure he closed his door last night, and even if he hadn't you had to have a key to enter the building. Then a door opened, Ace turned around, ready to attack whoever had just sneaked into his home, but he stayed still on his tracks because this just couldn't be happening.
"I forgot we didn't have a shower downstairs…"
Ace stared… and stared, and stared, and stared until he could feel his brain going into a massive break down and he could picture little Ace's running around in circles. Luffy got out of the bathroom in all his naked glory except for that minuscule towel that was now hanging low on his waist. He was carrying his clothes in one hand, while the other rested at the back of his head and he smiled sheepishly at his staring older brother. "Ah, sorry, sorry, I'll go and shower now!" Needless to say, Ace had to dash into the kitchen before a running Luffy showed a little too much for him to handle.
Ace placed a hand on his chest and tried to calm down the friggin' orchestra that now took place inside his body, because he was sure that that was not just his heart beating fast. He cursed under his breath, some day Luffy was going to kill him, he just knew it. Ace finished washing the dishes and headed upstairs, he took a bath before making breakfast, so he just needed to change into his uniform and get his school bag ready. He took off his shirt and tossed it to the bed, leaving him now in his boxers as he bent down and looked for the school uniform that was still in one of the boxes.
Once again, he blamed Shanks and Garp for not letting them finish their rooms.
Ace frowned, he was sure he placed his uniform on top of the other clothes so he wouldn't have to suffer while looking for it. He crawled to the next box, opening it hastily and hence not noticing that a wet Luffy burst into his room. "Hey Ace, have you seen my… uh…" He gulped, staring at the sight before him with reddened cheeks. Ace was kneeling in all fours giving his little brother quite a view of his ass.
"Sorry Lu, did you say something?" Ace said, not bothering to look at his brother as he continued to look for his shirt.
Luffy fidgeted; somehow his eyes couldn't stop staring at his brother's butt. "I… uh… never mind!" He said, dashing out of there and heading to his own room, securely closing the door behind him.
Luffy kept his back pressed against the door, he could feel how his face was on fire but couldn't quite place his mind on why. He just saw Ace's butt, so what? It was not like this was the first time seeing it, he had even spanked him once after watching some men on the T.V. doing it. Of course he had never seen it like this, with Ace half naked and kneeling on the floor and – what the hell was wrong with him!
A low grumbling interrupted his thoughts. It took Luffy a few seconds to react before he pounded his fist against the palm of his hand in acquired knowledge, he was hungry, that's why he had such thoughts! He grinned proudly at himself, now everything made sense, there was nothing to worry about. He skipped happily towards his bed, where his uniform was waiting for him, and forgetting his previous thoughts and locking them far away in his mind, Luffy changed into the dark gery pants and white collar shirt, not bothering to tuck it in at all.
"Luffy! Are you ready yet?"
Luffy grabbed his school bag before answering. "Almost!" He said, making sure that his books, phone, wallet and keys were inside his bag.
With a content nod Luffy headed downstairs, forcing his shoes on as he tried to maintain his balance in the staircase, and finally grinned to a chuckling Ace. "Hey, Ace, we should really clean our bedrooms."
"I agree," Said Ace as he maintained open the front door for Luffy to pass and closed it afterwards. "We'll clean later tonight, all right?"
"All right!" Luffy all but yelled, holding a fist up in the air while making his way downstairs, Ace following right behind. Luffy waited for his brother to catch up with him so he could open the front gate, all the while furrowing his eyebrows in thought. "Hey Ace, what if we go to the arcade instead and –"
"No."
"Well, how about the new ice-cream parlor? They say it's really –"
"No."
"And what about the –"
"No."
Luffy pouted. He needed to find some place good enough to convince his brother first. "Why not?"
"Because," Ace started, passing his left arm over the younger boy's head and successfully trapping him in a headlock. "We don't want to cause a bad first impression in our new teachers; besides, don't you want to see your friends?"
"I… do…" Luffy managed to say, struggling from his brother's grasp and failing miserably. "I just… don't wanna… go to… school!"
"You're still too weak, little brother." Ace said before smirking evilly and giving the younger boy a head nuggie.
The boys continued to play rather loudly while walking down the semi-empty streets, it was still early in the morning, but the small chatting from the elders and the noise from the small restaurants could still be heard. Indeed, the school was not that far away from the new condo the brothers were now living at, and after a few minutes from walking they could easily see their school some streets further, behind some buildings and houses.
Their school was located a few streets away from Grand Line, and it was one of the most prestigious schools around the country. The school grounds were far from big, having both, high school and college buildings, two dormitories dividing boys and girls, a pool used mostly at physical education class, and two huge cafeterias for both buildings among the vast garden that connected both buildings and many other things. The cafeterias were by far both D.'s favorite place. Both being big enough to compete against The Baratie, plus the quality of the food didn't fall behind. The school principal, Gan Fall, was an old man that placed the health of his students first; of course the fact that he provided Thursday's pumpkin juice was just mere coincidence.
"Hey! Luffy, Ace!"
The aforementioned boys turned around to the source of commotion. A grin spread on Luffy's face after seeing a long nosed boy running from behind, trying to catch up to them and clearly out of breath.
"Usopp!" Luffy greeted, barely containing his excitement as his friend stopped right before him and started to pant, a hand clutching his shirt while the other made waving motions. "You have no stamina at all!" Luffy pointed out, openly laughing at the now glaring man. Usopp decided to ignore this; he needed to concentrate on breathing first.
"Geez! I've been calling you for ages!" Usopp exaggerated, finally standing straight while settling his shirt in place, slightly smoothing it down in case there were any wrinkles.
Luffy grinned, clearly ignoring the annoyed glare that his friend was sending him. Usopp stood right in front of Luffy, making clear the few inches that made him taller than the happy-go-lucky boy. He pinched the bridge of his long nose, somehow just standing near Luffy made him tired. "So, how's the new house?" He asked, turning to Ace instead as he started to walk alongside the raven headed boys.
Ace smiled, "It's pretty nice, and it's rather big too." He liked that Usopp kid, he had known him from long ago, since he was the son of Yasopp, one of Shanks friends, and a really close friend to Luffy, getting involved in every of his schemes whether he liked it or not. But most of all, he knew that Usopp didn't have perverted thoughts about his cute little brother. Before getting a job, Luffy used to spend a lot of time at Usopp's, playing videogames or – in Luffy's case – eating. Now that he worked for Shakky he had less time to do so, but still went over to his house on weekends or vice-versa. Ace nodded to himself, he was a good kid.
"You should come and see it, Usopp!" Luffy said, waving his arms excitedly. "It's really big, and the landlord looks like a flower. He's really funny!" He finished with a chuckle, earning a smack across the head from Ace.
They continued to walk for a good five minutes before the school was completely in sight.
"Well, Marco's already waiting for me." Ace said while pointing at the blonde man that was leaning at the entrance of the college division. "Make sure Luffy doesn't get in trouble on the first day of school."
Usopp nodded, a serious look adorned his face while considering the dangers and grade of difficulty such task meant.
"Bye Ace! See you later!"
Ace waved from afar, walking up to a scowling Marco before both entered the building, Luffy and Usopp following their lead as they walked to the high school grounds.
They both walked through the building's hallways; there were a few students already there, but it wasn't crowded enough to make it impossible to walk. Luffy followed Usopp, really not knowing where they were going. It seemed they had the same homeroom and a few other classes, but Luffy didn't have the decency to look at his schedule until Usopp asked him about it. Nonetheless, they walked for a few minutes, finally reaching their homeroom which was located on the second floor of the building. "… And then, I was surrounded by giants!" Usopp said, flailing his arms for added emphasis. "So I grabbed my slingshot and defeated them all with a fiery shot!"
"So cool!" Luffy added; glitter practically falling around him. "What happened then?"
"I know, isn't it? But then their leaders came! Two fierce giants ready to attack me. So I, being the brave warrior that I am, stood my ground and told them: 'You think you can defeat me, the great Captain Uso –"
"What are you two yelling about?"
Luffy and Usopp turned around, a confused look adorning the smaller raven's face while Usopp's arm was held in place on the air, his sudden inspiration cut short when the orange haired girl interrupted him.
"Nami!" Luffy said excitedly, "You have homeroom here too?" He asked when said girl made her way to the door Luffy and Usopp were about to enter.
"Yep, and Vivi does too."
"Vivi has homeroom with us too?" Usopp asked, following the orange haired girl inside the classroom. "Where is she now?"
"Hm, she should be here soon." Nami said, taking a seat behind Luffy. "Say, Luffy, how's your new house?" She asked, a small smile in her face. It had been a while since she had seen the raven haired boy. Ever since he had announced he would be moving out with Ace and getting a job himself it seemed that the time he could spend with everyone had reduced dramatically. Luffy would still manage to see them all, joining up with everyone on the weekends or somehow dragging everyone in one of his so called adventures. But when Ace and Luffy finally found a place to live, it had been almost impossible to see the boy, since he was busy packing or arranging the new house. Still, it amazed Nami how the boy managed to smile and act so normally, as if that time he wasn't able to see everybody had never happened.
"Oh! It's great!" Luffy said, turning around so he could be able to talk with his friends easily. "It's really big and Ace and I managed to finish the first floor before gramps and Shanks arrived."
The trio talked animatedly as the rest of the class filled up, talking about what they've done on the summer break, or planning to meet with everybody else for an update. Soon enough, the class was nearly full with the rest of the students.
"Nami-swan! You're in this class too!"
Almost every student turned around to see the blond man spinning around happily with heart-shaped eyes. Usopp sighed, Luffy laughed, Nami face-palmed.
"Oh, we have homeroom with Luffy-san and Usopp-san too?"
"Vivi!" Usopp and Luffy yelled in unison, waving their hands to the blue-haired girl. "It's been so long!" Luffy said; glad to have two other friends in the same class as him.
Vivi nodded, walking to where her friends were and sitting besides Nami, which was also behind Usopp.
"Oh! To be in the same class as Vivi-chan and Nami-san! This must be a gift from God!" The blond-haired man said, ignoring the weird looks the rest of the students were giving him.
"Oi, Sanji! Stop ignoring us!" Said man turned around to a pouting Luffy, his arms were crossed as he scowled at the taller man.
Sanji smiled, he ruffled Luffy's hair affectionately before adding more force to his small gesture, and finally, slamming the boys head against his desk. "You damned bastard! How come I never knew you moved out, eh!"
"Ah, I didn't tell you?" Came Luffy's muffled response, his face still pressed against the desk making it hard to speak. "Sorry, my bad!" He said before laughing wholeheartedly, successfully annoying the now fuming blond.
"Say, do you know who our homeroom teacher is?" Vivi asked, trying to gain the fighting duo's attention.
"Now that you mention it, I've never heard that name before…" Usopp said, placing a hand below his chin in concentration. "I think his name was Spandam…"
"Of course you wouldn't have," Nami said. "He's from the college division, Nojiko told me about him."
"As to be expected! Nami-san knows everything!"
"How is he like?" Usopp asked, completely ignoring the spinning moron beside him.
"I'm not sure," Nami said, a look of concentration in her face. "Nojiko never had classes with him, but she heard some people saying he was a complete bastard."
As if on cue, the ringing of the bell signaled the start of class. The door slammed open just as the bell stopped and a man walked over to the teacher's desk. He was a rather strange man, a leather mask covered most of his face, he had lavender shoulder-length hair and dark markings around his eyes. He stomped to the chalk board and wrote in big, messy words his name. Nobody moved, their eyes fixed on the scowling man as they waited for him to talk.
"Listen up, everybody!" He said loudly, making most of the class to finch or jump on their seats. "You will call me Spandam-sensei, I will be your homeroom teacher and, as it seems, after homeroom you will all stay here and have math with me. I will leave you a lot of homework and I expect you to hand it all when I say so, you hear brats?"
"What the hell crawled up his ass and died?" Sanji murmured, earning a small chuckle from Luffy and a glare from Spandam.
"I-I think we shouldn't anger him…" Usopp whispered, his legs trembling slightly as cold sweat formed on his forehead.
"I expect you lot to behave the rest of the term and don't cause any trouble. I have no need to tech you brats anything, but if I teach college and high school division it'll be most likely that I'll get a promotion."
"Good thing we don't have homeroom with that moss head." Sanji murmured once again, grinning from ear to ear at the thought of no Zoro for the rest of the term.
"Five bucks he got himself lost and didn't arrive on time." Luffy said, bending his body forward so that Sanji could hear him without raising too much his voice.
"Deal."
"You guys, pay attention before that man yells at you!" Nami hissed, getting back to her chair before the teacher could see her talking.
"… So I'll give you the slips next class, and you'll have to hand them to me with your parents' signature so you can go to the school trip, any questions?" Spandam looked around, waiting for someone to raise a hand, and when no one did nodded, he continued with class. "Good, then I'll –"
A sudden knock interrupted him, making a vein pop on his forehead. "What!" He snapped, opening the door brusquely and glaring at whoever dared to interrupt him.
"Oh, Spanda!" A blue haired man said, entering the classroom even though Spandam's protests. "I didn't know you taught here too."
"It's Spandam, damn it!" He said, obviously upset at the man's presence. "What the hell do you want, Franky?"
Franky grinned, clearly pleased with himself at making the other teacher mad. "I'm here to drop Roronoa Zoro, he has zero sense of direction and ended up in the gym building instead." He said, joining his arms above his head while making some sort of pose.
"Isn't the gym at the other side of the building?" Spandam asked, eyeing the green haired man with curiosity. He blushed, mumbling something about confusing corridors.
"Well, I've done my task already," Franky said, he then turned around and waved at the staring students. "I'll see you in my class! Super!"
"Wear some damn pants, pervert!" Spandam yelled, closing the door brusquely and crushing his fingers in the process.
The classroom roared with laughter at the sight of the cursing man jumping up and down while blowing his abused fingers. Zoro, on the other hand, walked to the empty seat beside Sanji with a light blush on his cheeks. He was sure they remodeled the building, why would he end at the opposite side of the school if not?
"Damn you…" Sanji said, handing a grinning Luffy the money he owed him.
"Spandex-sensei!"
"What!" Spandam snapped, turning around and spotting a grinning boy with his hand held up high. Then it hit him. "It's Spandam! Span-dam!" He yelled, but with the pain in his hand and what promised to be an upcoming headache, it turned out to sound more like a squawk.
"Spanda! Can I go to the restroom?" Luffy said, his trademark grin never leaving his face.
Spandam gaped, his unharmed hand twitched in what could only be interpreted as an aching will to wrap around that boy's neck. "Oh for the love of – just go!"
Luffy nodded, standing up and heading to the door while ignoring the small snickering his friends were unsuccessfully holding back. Luffy got off the classroom and walked toward the staircase; there were restrooms in the second floor too, but for some odd reason he liked the ones on the first floor better. He skipped through the empty hallways happily, today after school he was going to Shakky's Rip Off Bar, and he was going to work extra hard to make up for the day Shakky gave him off. Luffy's grin got wider if possible, as he wondered if maybe Rayleigh would go there today, it had been so long since he had seen him… So lost in thought Luffy didn't notice the person standing in front of him but after he crashed with the back of said person, sending him to the ground with a muffled 'thud'.
"Ow…" Luffy whined, rubbing his back slightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you – Marco?"
The blond man turned around, blinking in surprise at the sight in front of him before holding out his hand and helping the younger boy up. "You should be more careful when walking, Luffy."
"Sorry," Luffy grinned, "I wasn't paying attention. What are you doing here, anyway?"
Marco sighed, a dark look crossed his face before he stared at the curious boy. "You know how every year two students of the college division get selected to represent us and make sure that the high school students are fully prepared for college?"
Luffy nodded, signaling the blond man to continue.
"Well, thanks to your brother" He pushed his index finger into Luffy's forehead before continuing. "I am the new representative. He was supposed to be here instead of me, but somehow he managed to place me in this position while he's gonna be the one helping me out." Marco finished, a sullen look on his face. "I'm surely getting him for this…"
Luffy chuckled, getting Marco mad was quite a task, but somehow he found the whole thing rather amusing. "So Marco's the male representative," He said, gaining the man's attention once again. "Then who's the girl?"
"Some chick named Boa Hancock, she's a new student but somehow got everyone's votes as the new representative, so I'm showing her around. She's in the restroom now, though."
"I see…" Luffy pondered, processing every bit of information before… "Hold on," He suddenly said, startling the older male. "I need to pee."
And without further ado, Luffy rushed to the restroom, leaving a confused Marco alone. He let out a low chuckle, somehow being near Luffy always relaxed him, be it that outgoing personality or his optimistic self, the boy always managed to draw everyone close to him. It was something involuntary, really, but it was rather easy to open up to the boy. Marco stared at the way Luffy disappeared for a while before his eyes widened. He couldn't have… could he? He really didn't pay attention to which way the boy went but… he couldn't be that stupid, right?
Luffy let out a breath of relief, he really felt like he was going to explode soon if something wasn't done. He flushed down the toilet and just then took notice of his surroundings. There was something odd here, last time he checked the walls were painted in a light blue instead of this pastel pink… and he noticed how now there were doors to every toilet… He heard water running from the sink outside the door and Luffy grinned, wondering just who was outside and if he knew him.
He opened the door with a little more force than intended, thus startling the man in front of him. Luffy apologized sheepishly, going over to the sink and washing his hands in silence after noticing that he didn't know that man and that he was staring rather intently too, almost as if in shock.
Luffy gave the man a weird look; he had scared him, sure, but it was not necessary to stare at him like that, right? Right. So with a nod, Luffy turned around and smiled at the still shocked man. "Hi! I'm Luffy! Are you a new student? I haven't seen you around…"
The other man stared, his shocked face turning to one of slight embarrassment and anger, as his cheeks started to color pink. "I-I…"
"Oh!" Luffy interrupted, pointing quite rudely at the stuttering man's long black hair, "Your hair is really long! It's even longer than Vivi's! And she's a girl!"
The man stared, a twitch visibly forming on his right eye. He cleared his throat, ready to retort to the stupidly smiling boy before he was interrupted once again by an annoyed – and slightly nervous – voice. "Oi, Luffy, can you come here for a sec?"
Luffy turned around, heading towards the door and completely ignoring the gaping man. "Hey Marco, they painted the restroom's walls pink, why would they do that? Is college the same now?" Luffy asked, Marco just sighed in exasperation; yes, he was that stupid.
"Luffy, you –"
"Hold on a second, you disrespectful man!"
Both males turned around and found a very pissed, very red faced, person coming out of the same door Luffy did. Marco stared, and then trained his gaze to the still obliviously smiling boy. Of course, this was just bound to be a damned long day.
"Oh Marco, I just met this guy," Luffy said, pointing towards the fuming man in question. "He's really funny! He keeps making these weird faces… look, he's making one now!"
"I am nota man, you stupid… man!"
"Luffy," Marco said, easily getting the boy's attention. "Didn't you notice that he is wearing a skirt?" He really, really hopped that stressing the word 'skirt' would give him a hint.
Luffy turned around slowly, thoroughly examining the person in front of him and realizing that, indeed, he was wearing a skirt. There were a few more seconds of silence, Luffy still staring at the skirt before his eyes suddenly grew with realization. "Are you a cross dresser?"
Marco gaped, disbelief clearly showing in his face.
Somewhere, not very far from there, the crying of a newly born gay baby could be heard. (1)
It took a few more seconds of awkward silence before a cough finally interrupted; Marco was truly having a hard time trying to hide his laughter. "N-No, Luffy," He cleared his throat, "He's not gay, he is a she."
Luffy just stared at Marco with confused eyes, the blond man cocked his head to the side lightly, signaling the boy to look again. Luffy obliged, staring at the now clarified woman and scanned her from head to toe. He finally let a small 'ah' escape his lips in realization, and faced the blond man instead. "You're right, he has boobs."
If there was something he could do, was full control of his emotions; and Marco was damn proud about it. No matter what the circumstances were, he could always place a serene face and it had proved to be quite useful too. There were just some special cases where the shook was too much; strangely enough most of the times these incidents happened, the D. brothers involved.
And this was one of those moments.
Luffy had not only insulted the most beautiful woman in college, – or so they said, he really couldn't see what was oh-so-wonderful about her, I mean, she was hot and all but… – he had also openly ridiculed her and made a blunt statement about her breasts, in front of her, nonetheless. Of course the situation warranted the parade of expressions that crossed the blond man's face, which went from shock, to mirth, and to a slight combination of being constipated and somehow finding that situation too damned hilarious. He chuckled, and that earned him a glare from the beat-red faced woman. "Luffy, this is Boa Hancock, the woman I just told you about."
"Nice to meet you." Luffy said, bowing his head low. "Ah – I have to go, or Spandex-sensei will get mad."
Marco nodded, dismissing the boy with a wave of his hand, the traces of a smirk could still be seen on his face.
"Bye-bye, man-chick ("I'm a woman!"), bye Marco!"
Luffy could still hear the faint ramblings of Boa Hancock when he headed to the stairs, though by the time he reached the second floor that noise ceased to exist. And so, the boy skipped happily to his classroom. The rest of the day seemed to pass pretty fast, he had math with all of his friends after homeroom and that Spandam professor, although as the class passed by the general thought of 'Damn, that man is scary' was soon replaced with a few thoughts of 'He's and idiot', or even the uncommon 'That professor is really funny'. He was just too clumsy for his own good. Although that didn't calm the protests the class made when discovering that in two days they were going to have a small exam, just to see how everyone's doing. This came as a good opportunity for Luffy to show his house to his friends, deciding that tomorrow evening everyone would gather at his place and study.
English came next, he shared this class with Zoro and Nami, and they had to literally drag the green haired man to class after finding him struggling with the janitor's closet. Buggy was their teacher, and after a few curses and broken arms, – that boy would never be able to see an apple again – the class knew that they did not ask about Buggy's nose. Ever.
Lunch was, without a doubt, Luffy's favorite time of the day. He had finally managed to spend time with his friends without any teacher telling him to be quiet, and best of all, today they served meat. This was absolutely the best first day at school ever. Of course lunch passed too fast for everyone's liking; they had decided to eat outside this time, and things had gotten interesting after Sanji decided to point out so kindly how much of an idiot Zoro was by getting himself near the pool, which was in another building, instead of where actual classrooms were. Watching Zoro and Sanji fight was one of Luffy's favorite activities, especially when Nami was the one to end the fight by knocking them both out. She was really scary when mad…
Contemporary Arts just proved to be as bizarre as it seemed. It was a relatively new class in high school, where students were able to express themselves in different ways. This teacher, though, seemed to be fond of doing so with music. He was tall, skinny, and old. Very old. His skin clung to his frame tightly, seeming as if he was a living skeleton with an afro. Even though, his personality screamed 'youth', because he appeared to be an even more active person than most of the students. Luffy and Usopp found out that he was also a pervert, since when he saw Vivi and every other girl he asked quite politely if he could 'see their panties'. This of course earned him many slaps, but when time came to teach, Brook proved to be an excellent teacher.
The last class finally came, and Luffy headed to his science class with Nami's help. Science class teacher seemed to be less scary than what most would think, since the man was tall and muscular, with a sadistic smirk in place and what resembled a chestnut above his blond hair. He seemed to enjoy giving that aura, finding every opportunity to scare a student hilarious, but as class went by the students realized that Montblanc Cricket was a cheerful teacher with a rather sadistic sense of humor.
Luffy smiled, heading to Shakky's bar while remembering that day's event. It might be weird to think like that, especially from him, but he really couldn't wait for next day to come and go to school. He had missed his friends, the whole moving thing had him occupied enough to not notice so much himself, but after seeing them all once again… "I'm here!" Luffy said while entering the bar. There were a few customers there already, and the frequent clients that recognized the cheerful boy already greeted him before he went to the back of the local, where his uniform was waiting for him.
"Ah, Monkey-chan!"
Luffy turned around, clothes in hand, and smiled broadly the owner of the bar. "Shakky! Thank you so much for giving me the day off last time, Ace says you can come and see our house whenever you feel like it."
"Well then, I'll take his word." Shakky said, exhaling a puff of smoke before taking the cigarette from her mouth. "How was your first day at school?"
"It was good! I have some really funny teachers."
Shakky smiled, ruffling the younger boy's hair before heading to the door. "I'm glad. Well, go change; I have a delivery for you."
Luffy nodded, deciding to change in that room rather than in the restroom and taking of his school uniform to replace it with a white button up shirt with a black bow and black tight pants. When Luffy first whined about the tight pants Shakky told him that it made him look good, conveniently forgetting to say that they highlighted his butt nicely. She made sure that Ace never knew about such pants, for obvious reasons.
Luffy went over to the counter where Shakky was now reading some magazine. "You know, I'm thinking about changing the uniform." She said, leaving the magazine aside and grabbing two bags with the take-out order.
"Oh really? How so?"
Shakky smirked. "I was thinking on something with leather, maybe no shirts, you know, less expenses… the bow stays, though."
Luffy's cheeks went a bright red, snatching the bags from Shakky's hands and giving her a half-heartedly glare. "Y-You're not serious, right?"
"I'm kidding." She said with a smile, flicking the blushing boy on the forehead. "Monkey-chan is just so cute, it made me want to mess with you a little." She ignored the indignant pout the boy gave her before resuming with her magazine. "Take this to the boys of Galley-LA, will you?"
With a small grunt, Luffy walked out the bar and straight to Galley-LA. It wasn't that much of a walk, since the place was about fifteen minutes away from Shakky's Rip Off Bar, and thankfully there were a few clouds that blocked the sun from the warm streets of Grand Line. Luffy sung a pointless song on his way to pass the time, ignoring the weird looks some people gave him or the slight chuckles he received from a group of girls. When he finally saw the great gates of Galle-LA, Luffy picked up his pace, he jumped over the fence that surrounded their working place, ignoring the angry yells from the guards telling him to 'use the damn gate at least once'.
"I was wondering what got the guards so riled up."
Luffy turned around to where that voice had come from, and his grin turned to one of shock that exact same moment. "Usopp?" He asked, "You work here now?"
"Usopp?" The long nosed man said, scratching the back of his head as he stared the boy in front of him with confusion.
"He thinks you're his long nosed friend." A man with a cigar sticking out of his mouth and orange goggles up his head said. "He's not your friend, Straw Hat, he's Kaku."
"Ah, Paulie!" Luffy said, grinning at the approaching man. "Are you sure? They have the same nose…"
"No, Kaku's nose is square-like."
"Yeah, you're right; his nose is even weirder than Usopp's."
"H-Hey! I'm still here!"
"Oh! The straw hat boy already came!" Everyone turned around to the source of such loud and obnoxious voce. A big man with no shirt and a large beard came around, followed by a shorter man with brown shades and a hair sticking up his head randomly. "Iceburg called for some food!" The big man yelled once again.
"Yep, here's your order." Luffy said, handing the workers one of the bags he was holding. "Huh? Where's that pigeon guy?"
Paulie scoffed, taking out a large puff of smoke. "That bastard went to some client's house for some job, he's just taking his damned time there. Slacking at work… how unprofessional."
"That coming from the guy that has to run in the middle of work from some debt collectors." Kaku said, ignoring the glare Pauli sent him.
"Say, where's Ice-ossan? I have his food here." Luffy asked to the other two, ignoring the bickering pair behind him.
"I'll take care of that, Luffy-san."
"Kalifa! Wear some pants you disgraceful woman!"
Luffy grinned, giving the bag to Kalifa. "Please tell Shakky-san to add this to Iceburg's tab." Kalifa said, pulling back her glasses with her middle finger.
"Stop ignoring me, damn it! Wear some damned pants!"
"I believe you should also complain to Luffy-san, Paulie." Kalifa stated, and almost immediately every pair of eyes was placed on the confused boy. "His pants are tighter than they should."
Just how did he get in that kind of situation? He was so going to complain to Shakky.
"You're right," The man with the stick-out hair, Lulu, said. "They are way too tight."
"Although it does fit him, he looks really cute on those." Kaku said, his eyes trained on the furiously blushing boy.
"Maybe we should wear those too!" Tileston all but yelled. A couple of grunts came as answer, tough.
Paulie face-palmed, watching Kalifa's disappearing figure as she entered Iceburg's office. "Stop staring at the boy! Look how embarrassed he is now!"
"I think that just made things worse, Paulie." Kaku said, noticing how Luffy's face turned a few more shades of red. "Well, we've kept you long enough, you should go to your job already.
And without further ado, Luffy dashed out of Galley-LA and up to Shakky's bar, his complaints about those tight pants backfiring at him when Shakky mentioned that indeed he looked good on those, meaning there shouldn't be anything to complain about.
The rest of the day went over slowly; today wasn't such a busy day like usual. Good thing Luffy wasn't the only day worker, another girl, Camie, worked with him too. She was rather clumsy, but overall a good friend of Luffy's, knowing everything from his older brother and the rest of his family to his friends. He planned to introduce his friends to Camie one day, they would like her. In the end, Shakky let Luffy and Camie go home earlier than usual, and so, after changing his clothes into his uniform, instead of going home Luffy decided to go and pick Ace up from work.
It was six-thirty already, but somehow the city seemed darker than any other day. Luffy looked up, and found that the sky was filled with dark clouds; he pouted, tonight was going to rain. "I hope we get home before it starts to rain…" Luffy mumbled, realizing that he didn't have an umbrella with him. Ace's workplace wasn't far from Shakky's bar, but with the sky threatening to fall off any moment, Luffy decided to take a small shortcut to get there faster. He went over through some streets and alleys, knowing the place quite well from travelling with Zoro and forcing him to find a way out from all those dead-end alleys he managed to get them both, and after a few turns he finally got to the street that led to Whitebeard Co. He smiled, skipping his way through the empty street; then he stopped abruptly. Luffy turned around, finding nothing but the empty street behind him. He shrugged, must've been his imagination. He continued walking, that previous feeling disappearing completely from his mind. The rain started falling and the raven boy picked up his pace after feeling the rain going down harder by the second. Luffy grinned when he got to Ace's job; he knew the place was big, but this was just bigger than he had expected. He stood in front of the wooden door, and he was ready to knock until he felt it again, that weird feeling of someone staring right at him.
"Who's there?" Luffy asked, he kept staring to the empty street, hoping to see someone, a shadow, whatever it was, but finding it hard to do so with the now pouring rain. He kept watching for a few more seconds nonetheless, failing to notice the figure that crept behind him, until he finally felt a hand on his shoulder forcefully dragging him to the side.
(1) This actually happened when I fell into an awkward silence with a friend, I knew about the phrase 'an angel passed by', but I found this one funnier.
I think this is the longest chapter I've made by far, just by a couple of Word pages, but still. There wasn't much Straw Hat's interaction though, but worry not! There'll definitely be later on! Oh, oh! Was that a cliffhanger? Yes it was! Dun dun duuuun~! I actually planned to continue this a bit more but… I kind of felt evil and decided to end it here instead, MUAHAHAHA!
I didn't plan to get the Galley-LA workers here tough, but I wanted to show Kaku… dunno why, but I really like him. I think he's hilarious, especially when sticking up for the giraffes! Go giraffes!
I so ruined the cliffhanger mood, didn't I?
Review reply time! (Here's where you all go: Yay!)
Voquo I'm glad you liked last chapter (: I seriously believe that if you make Makino mad… well, you'll have to deal with serious consequences… Yeah, I planned on making Jango a bad guy still but, he changed in the actual storyline to be a good guy so, I kinda liked that better haha! And about who's after Luffy, well, you'll see soon enough.
sdfsdfasdasd Hahaha! I'm fine, thanks for your concern (: I just love to bring Ace's perviness out, it's too funny to write about! Yeah, I like Jango better as a cop than as a bad guy, don't really know why though… I'm glad you liked that chapter, and you'll see who's the mysterious person soon enough!
SilverMajix Oh God, you make me blush XD I'm glad you're liking the story so far, I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
hilian I know! When I realized that the chapter wasn't working I was like 'Oh sh-!' but in the end it worked out, thankfully. Don't worry, there'll be more acelu soon enough! I tried to place a few moments here so, hope you enjoyed them along with the chapter!
Sachiel Angelo … I've just realized I'm a failure when concerning ages… XD actually, I didn't think about their ages there, but considering the situation I would say that Ace was about 14-15 years old, or something like that… I'm happy you liked the chapter, and about the crew, here they are! They will appear more later on, though.
lina I agree, there aren't much AcexLuffy fics around, so I'm just contributing to the cause! Hooray! XD I'm glad you're liking the story so far, and about the mysterious man, well, if I told you it wouldn't be interesting anymore, would it? (:
Whiteinu1 Here's next chapter! (Insert trumpets here). I hope you like this one too!
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing and faving and alerting and so on and forth this story! It really makes my day guys, you're awesome.
Do you think giraffes are cool? Review and support giraffes!
~nt'kit