During his short time of being a resident in Buggy's apartment, Luffy had barely seen the inside of the gaming room. He knew some things about it, such as it being Buggy and Cabbaji's sleeping room (sometimes), and it was where the money they were trying to steal was. So, entering the room was quite a surprise.

Like all of the other rooms, it was quite small and cramped. Pushed against the back of the wall was a large king-sized bed with a rolled-up futon messily placed on top. Presumably, Buggy slept on the bed whilst Cabbaji was forced to sleep on the floor, which was plastered with a beige carpet but one could barely tell as there was thrown away packages, crumbs and stains of all colours scattered over the floor. At the front of the room was a massive television which almost took up the entire wall, underneath was a shelf which held all of the gaming stations, games and computer boxes required to run the channel. Buggy's squad were in front of the television, setting up the camera, the chairs and making sure that everything was ready. Luffy's eyes then drifted over to the head of Buggy's bed there was a small stack of shelves holding clothes, cups and other trinkets though what was more important was the red, circus themed box which was the target.

"Hey, Straw-hat, when you're ready, come and take a seat." Buggy waved over, taking his seat in front of the camera.

Luffy obliged and sat down in the seat first of the four seats to the left, Buggy took the one next to him, Cabbaji sat next to his captain and finally Mohji took the fourth one, determined to stay as far away from Luffy as possible. All of the boys, except for Luffy, were wearing clothing with the Buggy the Clown Gaming logo plastered on it.

Richie tinkered with the camera with for a few moments before finally finishing up and giving them a thumbs ap as he brushed the sweat out of his long hair.

"Are we all good? Alright." Said Buggy as he grabbed the controllers and handed them around, taking a blue one with red buttons.

"Okay," said Richie, preparing to start recording, "3… 2… 1… Start!"

"Hello everyone," Buggy greeted to the camera, "Buggy the Clown and crew here, hope all of you are having a flashy day. Today, we're going to starting a small miniseries after the amazing reception of our Sora: Warrior of the Sea 2 playthrough. We'll be playing the games PVP mode, we plan for the series to be 5 or 6 episodes long but if you like it enough, maybe we'll have more."

He then turned to his left to look at Luffy who was beginning to disassociate before jolting back into reality.

"And this, is Straw-hat Luffy, a newcomer to the gaming world and will be the guest star for this series. Please make him feel welcome in the comic section and maybe he'll join the crew for real." Luffy was caught off guard by Buggy's last sentence.

"With that out of the way, let's get playing!" he then relaxed his expression as they opened up the game to play.

"This was not the deal," Luffy hissed as the loading screen came up.

Buggy simply grinned evilly, not making eye contact. "No… but, you know, if you don't do this, I'll just have you removed. Forcefully even."

Luffy glanced back to the camera which was still recording, "This is not going to look good for the people watching."

"Not really," Cabbaji chuckled, "This is not a livestream so we can cut and edit out parts of the video we don't need, so they won't know."

"Alright, the game is loading, now we just have to play!" Buggy said, switching back to an enthusiastic voice before the character select screen came up.

"Alright… I'm gonna be… Winch Green!" he said, selecting the green masked villain.

Next was Cabbaji, he scrolled through some of the options for a bit before landing on a white, blue and yellow themed female hero character.

"I'll be Soran."

Mohji was quick to select a small teddy bear shaped reindeer character wearing an oversized top hat with a white cross, a black eye-mask and a cape. All in all, the little fuzzball looked adorable.

"I loved Chopper-Man in the story, so I'll play him today," he said.

Lastly, Luffy scrolled down the list to a medium sized gorilla character with giant arms that lengthened and shortened in it's idle animation. It was a cloudy, translucent red and the way the lighting glistened off the model gave the impression it was made of candy. The gorilla jumped up and down with excitement when Luffy chose to use it in the game.

"Gummy-Gorillazilla… yeah, I can see it." Buggy commented, giving Luffy a nudge in the shoulder as the straw-hat boy smiled, beginning to forget the predicament he was in.

"Yeah, I love playing as him." He answered though not looking back.

"Oh?" the clown-faced boy inquired, starting the game as he did so, "did you play this game a lot?"

The clown obviously knew the answer as he had been told so earlier, he was simply prompting Luffy to give the audience some background.

"Yeah, me and my brother Ace would play this for hours, I never could beat him though not matter who I chose to fight as. It was always funny when we stayed up late and Daddan would eventually catch us playing after our bedtime." He said carelessly, without really even noticing what he had said.

"Yeah, yeah," Buggy responded dismissively as he pressed start.

The players spawned in in a 2D battle map on 4 separate floating platforms before dropping in. Luffy immediately urged his gorilla character to charge forwards to fight Mohji's reindeer, who double jumped onto a platform to get away. Buggy's green character stretched his extendable robot arms to pull himself to the next platform before engaging Cabbaji's character who was firing at him defensively.

"Watch it Straw-hat."

"Get back here and fight me!"

"Going up."

"Wai- wai- wait up, back off!"

The chorus of fast-talking voices uttered in unison as the four teens engaged in a gruelling battle of will and skill. Buggy expertly dodged the shots fired from Cabbaji's pistol and landed a charged punch, knocking the character across the screen. Cabbaji cursed quietly as his character picked itself up, only to be slammed by the large pink fist of Luffy's gorilla.

"Hey, what gives?" he spluttered reactively as Luffy laughed victoriously.

"Shishishi, Gum Gum: punch!" he announced.

Buggy's green man ran quickly towards the pink gorilla before launching a combo attack.

"Oi, no-one takes out my foe before I'm done with them you flashy bastard." He snapped as he delivered a rapid series of punches to the gorillas head before slamming to the ground and tripping the large character.

"Hey" Luffy cried as his hero was about to be taken out by the green man before being stunned by an electric blast, shot by the female hero who to rub salt int the wound blew out her smoking weapon.

"What gives Cabbaji!?"

"Sorry Cap'n, I'm gonna win this."

Luffy, annoyed by his takedown on by the clown-faced fool decided to retaliate against him. His character leapt up several platforms before jumping in the air and rapidly spin in that position.

"Take this Buggy! Gum Gum: Slam!" he yelled as the giant gorilla slammed down on the green villain causing him to flatten like a pancake before flickering out of existence. The game then announce the first elimination of the game.

"Damn you Straw-hat, I'll get you for this!" Buggy yelled angrily as his character respawned appearing to be just as annoyed as the player.

Luffy laughed victoriously before a hole burst open from the torso of his gorilla causing it to topple over and die. All looked to the screen to see the reindeer-superhero that Mohji had selected recovering from dizziness. Apparently, he had charged up a rotation before blasting through Luffy's character like a drill and leaving a pink syrupy mess.

"Hey Buggs, the syrup is the gorilla's blood, right?" Cabbaji asked as his character fired three explosive shots that heavily damaged but did not eliminate Mohji's Chopper-man due to it suddenly expanding like a ball in a defensive move. "Is that, like, appropriate for a game designed to be playable by kids?"

"Cabbaji, you know the rules, if it's not flesh-and-blood, any form of violence is on the table," The chaotic clown crew's captain responded as he engaged Luffy's Gummy-Gorillazilla in a one-on-one fight again. "Come on then Straw-hat," he taunted, "Let's have at it!"

The two characters swung opposite fists to strike the other causing the fists to clash and dispelling red-lighting effects.

"Come-on-come-on-come-on!" The blue haired gamer hissed as he pressed the attack button over and over, Luffy did likewise as they powered up to blast the other away. The gorilla seemed to be overpowering Winch Green but before it did, Luffy urged the gorilla to jump backwards and extended one of its arms back.

"Gum Gum: Pistol!" he yelled as the giant hand recoiled forwards and stretched out, delivering a powerful punch on Buggy's character and knocking him into Soran, Cabbaji's character.

This caused a missile attack that she was charging up it fire on the ground underneath which killed both of them. Luffy was unhappy that he wasn't able to get the elimination and Buggy and Cabbaji were very annoyed for being taken out that way.

"Well, that sucked," Cabbaji snarked, grabbing a handful of chips and stuffing them into his mouth before their characters respawned.

Buggy glared angrily at Luffy as he proceeded to engage to reindeer in a fight, commenting constantly on how cool he looked.

"New plan Cabbaji," he began as they hit the ground again, "team up with me, lets beat up Straw-hat!"

His first lieutenant grinned nefariously, "Teaming up? Playing dirty, eh? Quite ballsy of you boss-" he covered his mouth, but it was too late.

"WHOSE NOSE LOOKS LIKE A RED BALL!?" Buggy screamed in retaliation, comical fury dripping off his face.

There was silence for a few moments after the incident. Luffy seemed to be the only one who was amused by the outburst, the rest seemed scared or shaken. Cabbaji proceeded to silently signal to Richie to edit it out in post. The game continued on, Cabbaji shot Luffy's head off, Mohji threw Buggy into the stratosphere before he returned and proceeded to beat the snot out of the cute puffball, it was total chaos before finally…

"Winner: LUFFY!" the game announced as the pink gorilla jumped up and down victoriously and pumped it's fists, the hyperactive teen performed the same action, much to the chagrin of the other players.

"I won! I won! Did you see?" he exclaimed happily as they rolled their eyes and ticked their tongues.

"Y-you, that was just beginners luck!" Buggy yelled in denial, pointing angrily at the victorious straw-hat boy. "I'll beat you next round for sure!"

"Okay," Luffy smiled, itching for another round, "let's do this!"
The quartet of players chose a new set of characters, spawned into a new map, the game announced the fight's start, and the all-out brawl recommenced.

...

1:00, the clock read, though Luffy was having a hard time discerning what it actually read due to fatigue. Thankfully, it seemed that Buggy's team were experiencing the same problem as they now had their 100% concentration on the screen and not to their surroundings, all according to plan. Zoro had suggested that despite their best efforts and experience, they wouldn't be able to fight off tiredness which would lead to either lack of focus or smaller concentration window which would mean it would be difficult to notice anything happening around them due to focusing on the screen. This fell into their plan brilliantly, Luffy would distract them by keeping them playing all night. At around 1:00 in the morning, Zoro would let Nami in who would sneak into the room carefully and grab the money jar which held the enormous spoils of profit that Buggy's crew had earned and then… share it out, maybe. Was plan overly complicated for no reason? Yes. Was it going to be fun? Yes.

With Richie asleep on the bed, the plan was ready to commence. The plan had had a couple hiccups, well, Luffy had just fell asleep three times throughout the night and had to be woken up.

Luffy turned his attention briefly to the door to the room.

...

Nami knocked on the door, she was wearing a similar outfit to the one she was wearing when she had broken in on the previous night. The hallway was a lot colder, and she was shivering a lot despite having a jacket on.

The door opened to reveal Zoro, two dark bags encircling under his eyes, his short hair messy and annoyed expression. He was wearing no socks, some dark-green sweatpants and no shirt revealing his lean yet well-built torso.

"Hey," he greeted grumpily, grabbing a sip from a bottle of beer.

"You're not old enough to dri- forget it." The orange haired girl responded sassily as she entered the premises once more. From where she was, she could she flashing, coloured lights dancing from under a door coming off the hallway where she assumed the target was.

"Luffy's done his part, surprisingly, now you don't mess up yours." Zoro said plainly.

"Thanks for the encouraging speech."

"You're welcome."

Nami rolled her eyes, before taking a deep breath and slowly and quietly crawled into the lions den. The four boys were still going at it, and all seemed very tired, Luffy caught Nami entering and gave her a grin of acknowledgement before returning to the game. Slowly she crawled behind the players, mindful of avoiding the minefield of sticky, smelly and crunchy carpet as she made her way towards the back shelf, the target.

Closer, closer, she Was halfway along the bed when:

#CRUNCH#

"Crap!" she thought to herself, she had rested her had on a chip packet and alerted the boys. Panicking, she dodge rolled to the side and under the bed, and hiding in a realm that she would normally prefer to avoid. "Do they ever clean the carpet?" she thought.

There was silence from the boys before:

"Must be nothing," muttered Buggy as their attention turned back to the screen.

She breathed a sigh of relief and waited a few moments to make absolutely sure it was safe before she continued. After what seemed forever, she reached the shelf so slowly stood up, hoping that they wouldn't see her in their peripheral vison. She saw the ugly circus themed tin box, the target of all her troubles, rounding up those tow idiots and all and reached for it as if it were a booby-trapped treasure like in the movies. With great delicacy, she lifted it up and off the shelf without scraping it or make the tin echo.

Luffy suddenly landed a massive blow on Buggy's character and eliminated him, the event caused him to glance at the straw-hat teen.

"8 eliminations in a row? How are you doing this Straw- woah hey! Hey! Who are you and what are you doing with my money?!" he yelled threateningly as he saw the unwelcome intruder holding his money tin.

"Uhh," Nami hesitated to answer.

"We're stealing it!" Luffy replied for her.

The look Nami shot at her fellow crime mate could melt a hole through steel, the sheer rage oozing off her seemed to heat up the room. Before they could respond, Buggy leapt at Luffy whilst Cabbaji threw a full bottle at her. She was able to dodge it initially but unable to avoid the secondary threat when the bottle exploded on impact with the wall. Mohji and Richie, who had faced first-hand Luffy when he wanted to fight someone wanted nothing to do with the struggle and elected to slowly back away towards the door.

"Give it here girly!" the half-haired teen snapped as he tackled Nami to the ground and trying to grab at the box, which Nami was desperately trying to protect.

She struggled, head-butted and kicked the attacker to keep him away from the prize he was now swiping at.

Meanwhile, Luffy was having a difficult time facing Buggy, we wasn't very good at fighting opponents in small spaces like the room, let alone Buggy's room which was filled with obstacles to avoid. He threw out two punches which the blue-haired boy avoided before striking him in the side with his metal water bottle. The strike created a muffled clang as it hit one of his ribs and him to inhale quickly to deal with the pain.

"That's…fighting dirty," Luffy breathed heavily, putting his guard up.

"HAHA, no Straw-hat, that's fighting flashily." The boy mocked as he swung an elbow into the side of his head, causing him to trip on one of the knocked over chairs and hit the edge of the bed hard. "That's for beating Mohji and Richie."

"Luffy!" Nami yelled.

She pushed Cabbaji's form off her while he was momentarily distracted and stood back up before, while struggling to hold up its weight, swinging the metal tin as hard as she could towards Buggy's face.

The contact of metal and flesh caused a loud thud sound and Buggy grunted in pain slightly. Nami grinned momentarily before noticing that the tin wasn't following the laws of gravity and swinging back. Her smile fell as she heard the blue-haired boy begin to chuckle menacingly.

"Thank you, for returning my treasure." He grinned as his hidden arms that had caught the box pulled on it strongly. "Ah ah ah~ let go" he said as he tried to pull it from her.

"No," she exclaimed, desperately trying to pull it back, "you took it from people, and I stole it, ITS MINE!"

A vein popped in Buggy's forehead with annoyance, "Why you petty little-" he snarled, "give it or else I'm gonna- #HURLCK!#"

The clown stopped and a horrifying face of shock a fear scrunched out of his now heavily moisturising eyes. His voice was caught in his throat, and he struggled to get a couple words out as he breathed. "Y-yo-u…b-bast…ard" he whispered in a quiet, high-pitched voice.

Nami was confused until she looked down and saw a foot and shin extending out from the boy's crotch. It seemed that while the clown had focused on her, Luffy had gotten back up and introduced his leg to his Buggy-balls.

"That's for burning down Chouchou's treasure," he said angrily.

"Y-you, I'll make you pay for that!" Buggy snapped as he turned around and aimed a punch at Luffy who dodged and pushed both his arms backwards.

"Gum Gum:-" he began to announce, much to Buggy's fear.

"Wait-wait-wait-"

"Bazooka!" Luffy yelled as he blasted his hands into his opponents stomach knocking him back into the door.

Cabbaji immediately backed away towards a corner he thought he might be safe, his cowardice taking precedence over making sure his friend was okay.

Luffy habitually reached to pull his hat off his back and onto his head, only to realise that it wasn't there. After a brief skim of the floor, he saw it lying on top of a toppled gaming chair, so he reached down to grab it with his right hand.

"Luffy!" Nami screamed in fear, he looked up to see that Buggy had gotten up and was now holding up a pocketknife, the blade drawn.

The boy stared at him momentarily, drunk and delirious on rage before yelling, "Chop Chop: Buzzsaw!" and threw the knife in a spinning motion towards Luffy. The Straw-hat boy barely was able to move out of way as he dodged to the left and the knife sailed over his arm. The straw hat he was holding was not so lucky, the knife plunged its way through the crown of the hat.

Luffy fell on his side and went quiet as he looked at the damage of his headgear, a dark shadow covering his eyes. Nami and the others were merely in shock at how Buggy had almost killed someone.

Cabbaji gawked at his captain's act of rashness, sure, he pulled out the knife occasionally when they were mugging people, but never before had they actually had to use it before. Was it due to fatigue, or had Luffy really just made him that angry?

"That… was a mistake… big nose." Luffy said slowly, his voice shaking with anger and sadness.

"Huh?! Whose nose is bi-"

"SHUT UP!" Luffy yelled, a boiling fury present on his expression as his brow bent like an iron pole. Mohji and Cabbaji were scared, the anger Luffy had after they burned down the pet shop was nothing in comparison to the look, they saw him give their captain.

"This hat… I made a promise to return this to Shanks, AND NOW YOU'VE WRECKED IT!"

Buggy snorted, "Shanks? Well, then-" he pulled out another knife out and this time flipped the blade more flashily in compared to the blind rage throw from earlier. Nami screamed in fear, cowering on the bed while Mohji and Richie ran to the door, desperately trying to escape. "I'll wreck it for you further!" he yelled preparing to dash forwards.

A loud slam came from the front of the room as Mohji and Richie were knocked backwards into the room. Everyone turned to see a tall muscular figure standing in the door like a glorious saviour, the light glinting off his sweaty muscles.

"Zoro!" Luffy yelled happily.

"Zor-" Nami began before covering her mouth.

The teen stood in the door frame with a strong pose and his muscles tense, he held a dark, threatening look in his eye as it flickered around the room. What was most eye catching and alarming for most people was what he held in his right arm. Being held tightly and professionally in Zoro's arm, extending out for all to see was a long, shining sword. Not a plastic sword, or a bamboo kendo staff, or even a fencing pole but a real, metal and razor-sharp katana. It was beautiful, the blade a subtle curve in its design and the back dull side was coated with an obsidian black whilst the edge was pure and shone with all the colours of the room. The handle was wrapped with a white grip and the guard and the pommel of the sword were glowing gold.

The perfection and beauty of the blade, the commanding presence the teen extruded when he entered and the shining light from behind him, one might mistake him for the angel of death. He entered the room slowly, taking his time to look around, his footsteps treated to silence as no one dared to move. Luffy was the exception.

"Hey Zoro," he greeted with a slight wave.

Zoro nodded his head with a grunt of acknowledgement as he arrived next to Buggy who looked at him over the shoulder, the knife in his arm still raised to strike at Luffy. Zoro's glare pierced through Buggy's eye and deep into the soul who was still paralysed with shock. Buggy could have sworn he saw a red glint in the green-haired teens eyes before the arrival finally spoke.

"Drop it." He said plainly and quietly, there was no threatening tone of 'or else' in his voice, which somehow made it more terrifying, the pure calm and smoothness. It was like a siren's song, the ears hear no threat, but the mind is not fooled, the mind knows the dark malicious intent behind the voice.

The knife fell to the floor with a clang and Buggy backed to the side to let Zoro pass, who relaxed his shoulders a little but did not drop his guard.

"Luffy, are you okay?" he asked as the boy looked sadly at his ruined hat before looking up at his number two.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied. Whether fully truthful or not, Zoro didn't mind as he seemed uninjured, he turned his attention to their orange haired employer who was starting to breathe again after her lungs were crushed by fear. "How about you witch?"

"I'm fine," she breathed.

"Let's go" he said flatly as he sheathed his sword in a white scabbard which matched the swords hilt. He turned to leave with Nami before, out of a desperate attempt, Buggy grabbed the knife again and lunged at Zoro, trying to get him through the back. All eyes turned on him as did Nami and Zoro's. Before the strike could land, they heard a "Hey!"

It was in slow motion for a moment as Buggy turned to see Luffy running at him at full speed, his fist speed towards his face and just a hairs breath away from his face. What was even more terrifying for Buggy was the gleaming smile on Luffy's face, the mixture of anger but completely watered down with joy and elation.

"Gum Gum: Bullet!"

The fist connected with the face and a loud and squishy CRUNCH was heard as the blue-haired boy rolled on the floor before resting face-down on the ground. A small puddle of bleed was leaking out from under the weight, signifying the form had a broken nose.

"Buggy!" Cabbaji yelled as he ran over to check on him, freezing as Zoro rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I really wanted to beat the shit out of you," he said, pulling the sword out again much to the boy and Nami's terror. "Though," he began, bringing the blade close to his face, "I suppose this will do.

He grabbed the boys long hair on the unshaven part of his head and with a slight flick of the wrist, the katana sliced through it. Cabbaji fell unconscious while Nami breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Zoro wasn't going to seriously injure or kill him. Zoro the walked over to the back of the TV were the jungle of cables angled together and with barely a swing, sliced through all of them, causing them to hand like disembodied fingers.

Luffy put his straw at back on, a bit of his scraggly hair sticking out of the hole in the top and offered Zoro a fist bump before ushering them to leave the room. The duo (plus one) entered their room and began to pack their bags, rightly so as Buggy began to yell crazily.

"Straw-hat! You, your mould infested bastard and that bitch, get out of here! All of you! Pack your bags and leave! Find somewhere else to sleep or die in a dumpster!"

The rest of his crew tackled him in an attempt to calm him down.

Meanwhile, Luffy and Zoro were picking through the piles of scattered items of clothing on the floor and hurriedly putting them into the suitcase. While not perfect, Zoro was at least partial folding the clothes to take up less space in comparison to Luffy who just threw everything into a bag and hoped for the best. Nami rested her hand on her forehead and elected to help the two out, much to her regret as many of the clothes stank. Zoro removed sword filled scabbard off his person and carefully placed it back into the metal box and preceded to relock the three heavy duty locks again, confirming the box's content.

In just a couple minutes, the two were now full packed with their luggage, suitcases in hand, bags over shoulder, backpacks on and in Nami's case: a giant money filled tin in hand, they left the room they had slept in for the past few days, now uncertain of the future. As they left through the kitchen for a final time, Luffy stopped and turned around and began to fill his bag with as much of the food as possible. A few moments and one bulging, stretched bag later, the cupboards were bare, and the fridge was empty. The three opened the door and left the Buggy's the Clown Gaming's domicile for the last time.

...

"What? Young Luffy, Young Zoro, where are you to going at this hour- wait are you leaving?" Mister Boodle asked sleepily, coming to the front door of the landlord's room.

"We're sorry Mister Boodle," Zoro answered politely, "but unfortunate circumstances led to another, and we had a fight with Buggy. Therefore, Luffy and I have decided to find another place to stay."

"Sure, but, if it was really that bad, I could have given you another room, free of charge of the first 6 months even." The owner replied dumbfounded.

"Really mister," Luffy insisted, "We just don't want to stay in this building anymore."

"But you have been great," Zoro assured, "you are a good man who cares, and if you care, you'll have Buggy evicted."

"I know," he said, "very well, I'll take your names off. But you were here due to a deal to be near the school, do you have a new place to stay at."

"Y-yes," Luffy lied and hesitating slightly.

"Really"

"Yes," Zoro confirmed.

"Very well, me and Chouchou will miss seeing you, you know." He smiled cheekily causing the two boys the chuckle.

"Are you that desperate to keep us around?" Zoro asked jokingly as they all laughed quietly in the hour of 1:23 in the morning.

Luffy bid a farewell high-five to Chouchou, who it seemed would be taking a more permanent residence in the building, Boodle remove the tow from the residents list and bid them luck on their journey.

"Oh, miss?" Boodle waved over Nami, "It's not my business to know, but you three take care of each other out there, okay?"

Nami grinned as she followed the two out of the building and into the darkness of the early morning. Boodle sighed as he saw the youngsters leave before picking up Chouchou and was about to go back to his room when Luffy hopped back in.

"Hey mister, catch!" he yelled, tossing a brown paper bad at the man who struggled to catch it single handedly. Luffy chuckled before leaving one last time, leaving the elderly man confused. He set it up on the table, Chouchou, looking and sniffing at it curiously too. He opened it up to see wat was inside and gasped, the dog looked at him and gave a confused bark.

"Oh, my word." Was all Boodle could say.

...

"Half of it?!" Nami yelled angrily, much to Zoro's annoyance.

"Yeah," Luffy replied innocently, I thought I would give him some of the money as compenshian-"

"Compensation." Zoro corrected.

"Yeah, compensation. After I saw how much was in the box." The dark-haired teen grinned, his smile almost lighting up the street.

Nami grabbed his cheek and pulled hard, wiping the smile off his face and making him say "ow" over and over.

"We, worked hard for that score. I COULD HAVE BEEN STABBED FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" the girl yelled furiously, shaking him by the face. "That was Twenty. Five. Freaking. Million yen that you just gave him!"

"…Sorry," Luffy apologised meekly, rubbing his injured face quietly.

The trio walked along the road for a couple minutes, only the sound of crickets and late-night city life to be heard. It was then that Zoro spoke up to break the silence and asked a very important question.

"So, captain, where are we going to sleep now?"

The group stopped in place. That was a good question, where were they going to stay? They had lied to Boodle so they could get out of the building easier but now they were out on the street, late at night, and tired with no place to rest. With the adrenalin finally leaving him, Luffy began to feel the fatigue crawl all over him.

"I think I might know a place," Nami mentioned, offering her two cents. The two boys turned their attention to her.

"It's not… the best place, but it's free and just a couple blocks away."

With nothing left to lose, the teens let her lead the way to the place they would spend the night.

...

"This is not what I had in mind," Zoro sighed as he set up his sleeping bag on the cold wooden bench in the park.

"Well, it's the only thing I could think of, your welcome." Nami snapped sarcastically as the green-haired boy rolled his eyes

Luffy seemed unbothered with the new arrangement and was setting up his bedding in the branch of a nearby tree. Their luggage lying next-to or under the bench Zoro would be sleeping on.

"It's okay Zoro," Luffy assured as he tried to get comfortable, "I like sleeping under the stars."

The boy only sighed in response as he lay down on the slightly moist wood, Luffy then reached up to a nearby branch to hand his hat on, only to be met with the hole that had been freshly made. A film of sadness passed over him again as his expression and mood dropped as he moved his hands over it. Nami sighed at the sight of Luffy seeming so downtrodden before calling up to him.

"Luffy, I'll come by to visit you two tomorrow morning, and…I'll help fixing your hat for you."

"Really?!" the black-haired teen exclaimed enthusiastically, his mood shifting quickly.

"Sure, I at least owe you one for the heist."

"Thanks."

"…You're welcome."

An awkward silence fell over the camp, and for the life of them, the three couldn't figure out why. Perhaps no one had anything to say, they were just eager to hear another's voice and were ready to wait. Zoro, decided to break it.

"Well, thanks for the place to stay, I guess, but don't you have somewhere to go?"

"Hmm?" Nami hummed, snapped out of her mind before her eyes widened, "Crap! I've, er, got-to-go-nice-meeting-you-bye!" she said hurriedly, grabbing the money tin, the spoils of her hard work. The girl proceeded then proceeded to sprint away from the two, down the flower-lined path and out of the park, her speed so great that her hair seemed more like an orange blur.

"We'll see her tomorrow I guess," Luffy yawned as he turned over on his branch.

"I still don't trust that sea witch." Zoro responded.

Luffy didn't answer, he glanced at his watch and saw that the time was 1:43 in the morning. After a very long time awake he wanted at least a good amount of sleep, so he checked his hat, hung it on a branch and bid good night to Zoro. In the dewy chill of the dark night, lit up by only a couple nearby streetlamps of the park, the two boys fell asleep, unsure of the future and the wondrous adventure it would bring.