One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Two [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two-

-Flashback-

Loudly did a pair of twins run their way through the overgrowth of the forest, their blue eyes greedily attempting to take in the sight of all that was around them as if attempting to commit it to memory—as if not wanting to forget a single detail of their new temporary home. Silently were they making mental reminders of the quickest routes they could use if they needed to get away or hiding spots that would be so easy for them to squeeze inside of if they ever needed to hide. Of the two, the older twin—a young boy—was quickly starting to pull ahead as he loudly laughed, never taking notice in the way that his sister had begun to slow in her steps as her attention was soon dragged away from the scenery around her. Instead, her gaze now found itself curiously peering at a young boy who sat not too far from where she was on a log. His face currently twisted up into a scowl as he seemed to just harshly wipe at his eyes and loudly sniff.

"Hey!" she curiously called out, already making her way towards the young boy without a second thought. Normally, she wasn't usually so brave as to approach a stranger, especially on a new island that she knew she and her brothers were only going to stay on temporarily...but she felt it fine to do such a thing with this boy when she noticed that he was crying.

"Don't go sneaking up on people like that!" the boy snapped the moment he had flinched and whirled his head around to look in her direction. Frowning as his cheeks now started to slowly grow warm at the realization that he had been caught angrily crying—he came out here to be alone, what was some kid doing around here? Slowly did his anger and embarrassment start to fade the longer he looked at the young girl and realized that he did not recognize her as anyone from the village. "Hey, who exactly are you? I don't think I've seen you around here before" he remarked as he watched how she settled to a stop right in front of him.

"Skylar—Skylar Strife" she introduced as if it was just an automatic response for her—as if she was so used to saying her name in that fashion that she couldn't stop herself. "My brothers and I just got here" she widely smiled before tilting her head as she curiously peered at him. "Who are you? Why is your hair so green? Is there something wrong with it?" she couldn't help but to childishly ask question after question the longer she stared at the boy and his oddly colored hair.

"There's nothing wrong with my hair!" he snapped, cheeks flushing in embarrassment at the slight indication that there was something weird or unnatural about his hair. "The name's Zoro—Roronoa Zoro" he huffed as he introduced himself. "What do you mean you just got here with your brothers? What about your parents?" he curiously asked when he realized how odd her wording had been. Usually, someone would use the word family, but by the way she had spoken, her words insinuated that it was just she and her brothers who had arrived.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" she asked in return as she avoided properly answering the young boy and instead plopped right down beside him on the log. Her legs too short as they lifted off the ground the moment she sat down.

"That's not really any of your business—now, are you going to answer my question or not?" he huffed as he crossed his arms the moment he realized that the brunette had completely ignored his question.

"Were you crying? Why were you crying? Are you sad?" once again did she start to ask question after question as she seemed to just brush off his own as if she found it too trivial of a question to answer. "Is the reason you're out here is because you're embarrassed? You shouldn't be, everyone cries" she said with the tilt of her head.

"I-I wasn't crying!" Zoro embarrassingly snapped.

"You weren't?" she tilted her head.

"N-no" he stuttered, knowing that no matter how much he denied it—she had already caught him. "But...if you really want to know, I got beat by a girl today" he frowned at the memory of his loss back at the dojo—the embarrassment at having lost to some young girl that wasn't that much older than him made his lips twitch downwards and his eyebrows furrow in displeasure.