I think Kuina would have made a really protective older sister. I'm really enjoying thinking of all the different possibilities and futures for this story.

I don't own One Piece...

.

.

Troublesome Twins: 2. Finding Friends

.

.

The twins arrived in their first classroom just before the teacher walked in, and although the class was used to seeing the independent Kuina they were all shocked to see her sister Tashigi. There was so much noise at the start of the lesson, that Miss Kanrora insisted that both the girls would come up to the front and introduce themselves properly to satisfy the classes unruly behaviour. Unfortunately, this continued to happen in all the classrooms that Tashigi and Kuina went to throughout the day. Tashigi was finding it exhausting. She had never really been one for speaking out loud much, but for some reason they all expected her to do it. After the first two classrooms of constant interrogation Tashigi was left feeling like a stuttering idiot that didn't know how to speak. After voicing her worries about what was going to happen for the rest of the day to her sister, Kuina made an interesting suggestion.

"Hey Tash! I've got a good idea."

"What?" she couldn't help but feel a little bit worried about her sister's sort of good ideas.

"Why don't you give me your glasses and I'll pretend to be you for the rest of the day, and you pretend to be me. We look identical so it will be easy."

"I don't think that this will be a good idea." Tashigi answered nervously.

"It'll be fine." Kuina swiped her glasses off Tashigi's head and put them on her own. "Now all I need to do is make you appear confident, and all you need to do is pretend to be me and no one will bother you."

Tashigi nodded at her sister's brilliant plan, but somehow this didn't make her feel any better.

.

.

During Lunch while Tashigi was quietly eating her meal, she found that Kuina liked to challenge people to eating, gymnastic, or simply fighting competitions. And She, being Kuina, was approached by these sort of rude competitors who seemed to be trying to make fun of her and throwing out aggressive challenges. It only made matters worse when she tried to ignore them and didn't pay attention to where she was going, so she fell down the steps of her school's main hall.

"Oi! Kuina! I always thought you were a blind b****! Guess what! Pride comes before a fall!"

"You guys can stop now. I don't want any trouble." This was her first day for crying out loud. She just wanted to be left alone to sort a few things out.

"What you want us to leave you alone?" they mocked. She went to the library and hoped they wouldn't follow her there, but they did and she tried to lose them walking through the gymnasiums, but they wove their way through those, and just before she could think about going to the girls wash-rooms to wait out the rest of her lunch break in there, they had somehow gotten infront of her and blocked off her escape forward, and when she looked back they were behind her too.

"Oi! come on Kui!" a guy about two years older than her said, approaching from behind. "Stop holding out on us! Let's settle this once and for all. Let's go guys!"

At his words, they took her outside to the end football fields, and he then crouched down into his obviously chosen fighting position.

'How on earth am I going to talk my way out of this one.' Tashigi thought.

"Um, Guys. You've made a mistake. I'm not Kuina. I'm Tashigi. I'm Kuina's twin sister." she said.

"Yeah, right." the leading challenger to Kuina said with a mocking laugh. He was a slightly thick-gerthed guy with sandy blonde hair.

"You made a mockery out of us last term and we have been practicing to beat you. You're going to wish you had never made enemies out of us."

"Yeah! You tell her Bexta!" a guy with really short red hair called out. All these guys looked nasty and dangerous.

"I said I don't want to fight you." Tashigi repeated.

"And I said stop playing around!" Bexta kicked her in the stomach and she was knocked back a few paces. This is not good. I don't know how to handle myself in a fight. I've never even got into a fight before.' He kicked her again and she feel into her hands and knees. The ground wasn't to hard which was good, but the speed at which she had fallen had taken her by surprise.

Tashigi felt really mad. What have i done to deserve this? "I said that's enough!" She could hear the slight tremor in her voice.

"You don't get to decide when we're finished." Another guy came up from the other side of her and stamped down hard on her foot and pulled her upright and shoved her back towards Bexta. She let out a yell of pain when her foot bent in an awkward position and then she fell on her face. Bexta took the opportunity to sit on top of her and pushed her face further into the muddy grass.

"What's wrong with you Kuina? You become weak over the holidays?" He grabbed a hold of her hair that she had just grown long enough to have up. "You're always saying how much better you are than boys so prove it." She didn't make a move or do anything, but continued to glare at the ground. He carried on pulling her hair and moving her head back and forth. "Oh, I know, you are probably just jealous of us right? and you want to be one of us. So... How about we give you a boys hair cut!"

"Yeah!" his entourage egged him on.

"Have you guys got any scissors?"

"uh... No."

"Well check her bag. She might do." He pulled her head up higher with her hair still wrapped around his fist, while sitting on her back. "This should be good." He sniggered above her. "Shall we cut off all of it or just the top section?"

"OI! What do you think you are doing!?" A voice called out from behind them.

Tashigi caught a small glimpse of the person out of the corner of her eye. There infront of these bullies was her sister's friend Zoro. He looked really mad and scary, and for a second she thought he might have just come there to beat up all these guys just to take their money, but then he added. "Do you think you're become any better or stronger as men by picking on a girl like this?" Zoro rolled his shoulder blades in their sockets, and then proceeded to tilt his neck to the right and left, but she could hear the slight clicking sound that followed the unusual bend to both sides, (sounds painful).

"Get lost Zoro!" Bexta said. "This doesn't concern you."

"It doesn't, really?" he allowed a smirk to come into his features. "Maybe it should." Zoro then pulled out an iron pole that he had hidden somewhere in his trousers and brandish it infront of him.

'What was he doing? He was going to get himself into trouble. You should never have any sort of weapons in school.' Tashigi thought, as he came toward their group.

"Do you really want to pick a fight with all of us? You might be strong, but we're not weaklings you know. You will be thrashed!"

"Why don't you put your money where your mouth is!" Zoro taunted, swinging his iron pole from one hand to the other. One guy had already pulled out another weapon very similar to Zoro's and came at Zoro with it. Zoro dodged very easily and hit him in the knee causing him to scream in agony.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't that hard."

"You will pay for that!" Next came two guys at once and they continued to throw Zoro punches for a little while, but they either didn't seem to hit him, or he just didn't seem to feel them because he carried on the same as ever.

Soon it was all over and the bunch of bullies were all looking a lot worse for wear.

They took one more look at the green-haired monster boy and then ran as fast as their legs could carry them towards the school grounds away from the field. "You'll regret this Zoro!" Baxta yelled back threateningly. "You will pay for this, just you wait!" Zoro just stood there looking bored of their threats and yet still menacing. Tashigi thought it probably had a lot to do with the fact he still had that massive pole in his hand.

She wasn't quite sure what she made of Zoro. He was quite a scary guy, but he had just saved her from being horribly mistreated. Tears were threatening to fall, and she shook her head. She would not cry. She would not cry.

Once they were out of sight Zoro looked back at her. "You alright?" he asked making no move to help her back to her feet.

Tashigi started to stand up, but found that the ankle one of the boys had stamped on earlier was throbbing in pain, and she didn't want to move it. 'What if she had fractured a bone or something?' "Um, I think I've twisted my ankle."

"Huh?" Zoro didn't seem to get it. "So, twist it back, and start walking." he bent down infront of her. "Which one is it?"

"That one." Tashigi pointed at her right foot.

Zoro then grabbed a hold of it, and moved it from left to right.

"OWWWW!" Tashigi yelled out in pain, and a few tears did roll down her checks at the agony that had just been caused. Before she knew what she was doing she had slapped Zoro across the face and then continued to yell at him. "I said it might be twisted! It could be sprained, it could even be broken, SO WHY THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO THAT!" She pulled away from him and forced herself to stand up on her own. She could always hop back to the nurses office. It would be better than being pulled around by that hard-core guy. Who knows what he would try to do next.

"Um, I'm sorry, I didn't know that a twisted ankle hurts so much."

She paused and considered what to say next, "It's okay, I'm sorry I yelled at you. I am grateful for what you just did for me just now, you know … against those bullies, but I don't want sympathy from you or anyone." She started hobbling back to the main buildings. Zoro came up to walk slowly beside her.

"Why didn't you act this way when they were beating you up just now?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Tashigi sounded confused.

"Well you don't sound like a wimp anymore. You should be confident like this more often." she frowned at Zoro's words, 'had she been sounding like a wimp?'

"Don't judge me. You don't know me. Maybe I didn't speak up at the time because I don't like making enemies. I don't want to give people a reason to hate me."

"So what? You're just going to let people walk all over you?" His scowl came back onto his face. "That sort of attitude will get you nowhere in this world. People will always find a reason to hate you whether you want them to or not." he stepped out in front of her to stop her hobble hopping. "Listen!" she was surprised when he caught her gaze at just how intense his green eyes really were. "Look, you seem like a very kind girl, but sometimes you need to fight back don't just except something bad that happens to you as fate."

"I know. I know, but I'm not Kuina you know. So … stop expecting me to be!" Tashigi blurted out before she could think of anything better to say. She was coming the limit of her endurance now. This had been one hellish day. just don't cry.

"Okay..." Zoro put his hands on her shoulders. "Oi, Tashy."

"It's Tashigi." she stopped for a moment trying to fight back the pain that was her throbbing ankle. She was crying openly now. Did she really have to come to this place, this school, for the next three years?

"Does you ankle still hurt?" he asked.

She nodded, and then with his back turned to her he squatted down with his hands crossed behind him. "Come on I'll give you a lift to the nurse."

"Are you sure? I'm kind-of heavy." Tashigi asked worried.

"Don't be stupid. I could carry two of you if I wanted." he looked back over his shoulder. "So come on already." he added impatiently.

"Um, thank you I guess." She straddled his back and rested her arms on his shoulders. He then got a firm grip on her legs pulling them forward, making sure he didn't touch her foot, and stood up. Tashigi had never been given a piggy back by a boy her own age before, and she felt oddly uncomfortable. It still felt weird that there were some people that were treating her as if they already knew her because she just looked like Kuina, the bullies were no exception. And Zoro too. Then the thought stuck her. 'He wasn't doing this for her, but for her sister.'

"You know you don't need to pretend to be my friend just because your my sister's. I understand if you don't really like me. I'm nothing like Kuina."

He walked a few paces in silence for a while as if considering how he would answer her. "Why would I want to know two Kuinas? Besides we're not really friends didn't you hear, We're rivals. Our entire existence in each others lives is to beat the other at something they like doing." he stopped for a few seconds and bounced me further up his back into a more comfortable position. The movement made my ankle hurt, but I ignored it trying my best to remain just a little bit representable.

"Anyway..." he carried on. "I find most people too annoying to be worth making friends with, and I tend to not make that many friends at all. And for the record I don't think you're like Kuina at all. You look like her and everything, but you have a different vibe. You're more of the nerdy type of girl."

"I'm not nerdy!"

"So tell me, are all the school books you were requested to bring into school in your bag?"

"Of course! We were supposed to bring them all in today."

"That's what I mean. You can always tell the nerdy students from everyone else because they always have huge bags that almost seemed to bury them." he chuckled at a passing memory that he wasn't up for sharing.

"Well, you brought some books in today didn't you?" Tashigi asked.

"Are you kidding? I lost all my books ages ago. I just borrow someone else's."

'What was this guy like? How could he lose all his books? Were they stolen from him?

"I'm sorry to hear that. It must be hard to finish your school work after classes."

"Not really."

'Wow, was he one of these kids that always remembered things straight after being told them.'

"I just don't do the work."

'Huh? Not do it? How does he pass then?

"But why not? Doesn't that effect your overall progress? Don't you want to leave school with good qualifications? You won't be able to get into any universities if you don't have a high mark."

"I'm not all that bothered. It doesn't really matter to me."

"But, that's terrible. School work is a lot of fun if you get into it. You shouldn't have to fail." she said. Zoro had come off the school's fields by now and was heading through the now school's still noisy, and bustling grounds. Tashigi felt very conscious of the stares she was getting from a few of the students here and there and became very silent and didn't say a word until they had gotten to the nurses office. Zoro pulled her off his back and dumped her onto a chair just outside the office. Zoro walked up to the door and bashed his fist into the wooden panels with fierce purpose.

"Zoro!" came a voice from inside. "I don't have any time for one of you bleeding knees, broken fingers, or black eyes! Come back here when you actually need my help! You cause me nothing but trouble."

"It's not me this time!" Zoro yelled back insistently. "It's Tashy, you know Kuina's sister. She got hurt."

"My name is Tashigi." Tashigi added a little bit annoyed he had forgotten again.

The door opened almost instantly, and a old looking woman doctor stepped out of it. "What have you done this time Zoro, how could you hurt a girl. I don't expect much from you, but I thought you were above this!"

"It wasn't me old hag."

"How many times have I told you 'I'm not old' you delusional boy." she counter attacked, hitting him on the head with her checklist folder.

"Now what's wrong here deary?" the old woman approached Tashigi. She started to feel a little bit worried. This nurse looked so creepy.

"She has a hurt ankle or something like that." Zoro replied for her. "She said she thought it might be twisted, or broken or something."

The old lady stood up. "Right... And I bet you haven't put any ice on it yet." she started giving off this really creepy laugh as if there was something in this situation that was funny. "Time to get the ice out again." she marched back into the first aid room leaving them waiting outside.

"She's creepy." Tashigi said, trying her hardest to ignore the feeling of terror at being left alone to be treated by her.

Zoro smirked. "She is, but she's good at what she does." He turned his back on her as if he was about to leave.

"Wait! You're not leaving already?"

"Yeah." he replied without turning around.

"I... um... thank you. For your help. I wouldn't have made it back very well without it."

He then turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Forget it, it was no big deal."

"So... am I your friend?" Tashigi asked nervously.

Zoro laughed lightly at the question, and then after a few moments of pause he answered, "Yeah sure, why not." He raised his hand and Tashigi took it. At the beginning of the day Zoro had appeared to be the most scary individual she might come across and now he was strangely the one she most trusted.

He had a good firm grip, but held her hand gently so her fingers weren't crushed. She looked from his face to his hands and smiled. "Did you know the origins of shaking hands came from a time when men used swords in battle and when they made alliances, or truces they would show an empty right palm to the other general or soldier that they meant them no harm and then they would shake on it." She looked back up at him. "It's interesting isn't it. That things get forgotten over time, but are still used everyday." she paused when she saw him chuckling to himself. "What's so funny?"

"You." Zoro said with a smile. "I've never heard of that before. Where did you find that out?"

"Well, I read books and study. It's not that hard."

"Maybe I should give it a go."

"Yeah, you should. It's fun."

He shook his head smiling and turned to go. "See ya Tashy."

"Bye Zoro and … Wait, remember my name is Tashigi!" she glared after him. He had done that deliberately hadn't he?

.

.

Hope you like it. Give me a review if you did!