Okay im just doing it
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"Yea, just hold those two pieces together like that," I said, steadying a blowtorch as shaky hands held two steel pipes together. I tried to put the blowtorch closer to where the two pieces touched, but the shaky hold on them didn't let me. My eyebrow twitched. I turned the blowtorch off and moved my welding mask to the top of my head. "Usopp, why are you so afraid? You have flame resistant gloves."
"I'm not scared! I'm just used to being the one with the fire," he said as he set down the metal on a nearby table, pushing up his own mask.
I rolled my eyes, "I would let you do it, but you take FOREVER, and this project is due in about two hours."
"I like to be precise!" he defended.
"I love that for you, but I need this to be done. And we both know that I can weld fast with good quality. And that table is not fireproof. So, you either hold it or I call Sanji," I told him.
He looked between me and the torch in my hands. I looked at the metal on the table rather dramatically before meeting his eyes again. He sighed loudly and grabbed the metal. "Okay! I can do it! I have the gloves on! Everything will be fine!" he assured himself as he held the metal in front of me.
"That's right. And if things do go south, you'll have a pretty damn cool burn scar," I assured with a grin. He shook his head at me and lowered his mask. I chuckled and jerked my head slightly to get the mask to fall back over my face, proceeding to ignite the torch again.
We got the welding done in about an hour's time. The two of us completely forgot that this project even existed because of all of our other classes, so of course, we quickly came up with a slideshow and started welding the physical product that should have been planned thoroughly for the past four weeks. But hey, we're simply too smart to deal with the repercussions of procrastination. Which is why we're partners whenever we happen to be in the same class.
"You know, we should really start showing up for that damn class," I thought aloud as we sat outside the class's building with our contraption.
He gave me a look. "No matter how many times you say that, we never actually go. I'm going to blame my absences on you," he said.
I gasped, "What? What do your absences have to do with me?"
"If you're not going then I don't go! You know this already!" he told me.
"That's not my problem! Plus, attendance isn't part of the grade so what do you expect me to do? I've got an 87% without even being their half the time," I shrugged.
"Yea, same," he nodded. "Maybe we should just keep skipping classes after all."
"Right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I agreed.
"... We've gotta stop convincing each other that bad ideas are good ideas," he sighed, dragging a hand down the side of his face.
"Yeaaaa... probably."
~~~
We both looked at each other after the presentations for the course were over. "We definitely scored high. Nice doing business with you," I said with a hand outstretched for him to grab.
"Yes, nice doing business with you," he grinned and shook my hand. "This calls for celebration."
"That sounds about right," I hummed as I stood up and stuffed my notebook into my bag. "You think we should invite the others?"
"Heeeeellllll no. Especially not Luffy, I cannot pay for him today," he shook his head and placed his man purse over his shoulder. He calls it a satchel.
"Fair enough, neither can I. I'm on my broke bitch days," I chuckled and started walking out of the lecture hall. Usopp followed after me. "Maybe we could just swing by the sushi place and use some of my work credits since it's on campus."
"Yes! That sounds great," he agreed. "I'm pretty much in the same situation with money. I've been buying so much material for that go-kart for fun that I have nothing to spare."
I bumped his shoulder, "Speaking of the go-kart, what stage are you at with it? I've been wanting to see it, but we've both been way too busy."
He shrugged and opened the door for me, letting me walk outside before him. "I'll show it to you when it's done so you can see it in its full glory. I also just don't want you seeing it right now because you're gonna point out what can be fixed, and I want to discover those flaws on my own," he said.
"Yea, I do have a problem with that. But it's for the sake of improvement, not to rub it in your face," I told him as I jumped over the steps to the sidewalk.
He walked down the stairs and smiled, "I know. I've gotta impress you with how incredibly flawless it is when it's the finished product, though."
I laughed and rounded a corner with him at my side. "Alright, I'll be sure to be cartoonishly impressed when I see it," I joked.
"No, no, it's gotta be super genuine. You've got to audibly gasp when I unveil it and everything, out of real awe," he described, making little hand gestures to pair with what he was saying.
"Have you thought about what kind of designs you'll put on it yet?" I questioned. Usopp's got a knack for giving everything a certain flare when it comes to designs.
The grin on his face showed me that I asked the right question. "Of course, I have! I've been considering giving it some stripes outlined in black, and maybe giving the body a white color. The seats are obviously going to be black. I don't know what color the stripes will be. The steering wheel could be the same color as the stripes. Luffy suggested that I make spikes come out of the wheel rims, but I don't think that's a good idea since we cause a lot of property damage as is," he explained. He tapped on his chin at the last bit. "Maybe I should make the spikes retractable and hide the button so that Luffy can't find it."
I nodded, "That would be a good idea. Do you have any ideas for the stripe colors as of now?"
"Yup. Some colors that I have on the table are green, purple, black, and (fav/color). Probably the last one, actually," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and laughing.
"Oh really? Any reason for that color?" I asked as I opened the door to the campus food chain area. I thought he'd make it the same color as the forearm sleeve he always has on his arm. It's a white a blue striped, after all.
He walked through the door and adjusted the bandana tied on his head. "I mean, you still like that color, right?" he answered my question with another.
The door closed behind me and a laughed, "Yea, it's still a favorite. Thanks for remembering. I don't think Zoro even knows it."
"Well, by simple math, I think that makes me better than him," he said with a shrug.
I elbowed him and laughed, "I dare you to say that in front of him."
Sweat gathered on his brow as he muttered, "Um, I don't think that'd be good for my health. I have an illness called 'I don't want to die by Zoro's hands' now that I think about it."
"Oh please, like he would touch you. He knows better and he's a big softie anyway," I said.
"Emphasis on big. Cut out the softie part, too," Usopp corrected. I rolled my eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me! You only think about him like that because you're his childhood friend. Everyone else can easily see him snapping someone's arm for asking him the wrong question. He's got that look on his face."
"Well, it'd really depend on the question," I hummed. "Plus, the 'look' on his face is just because his eyebrows are so angled."
"Whoa! Let's not skip past that you just said he WOULD snap an arm!" he shouted.
I waved my hand and motioned to the sushi place that we finally got to, "Yeaaaa whatever. Order your sushi and I'll take care of the money."
He dropped the topic and saluted, "Yes, ma'am!"
It didn't take long for our food to get out since the sushi place wasn't too busy. We sat down at the tables next to the sushi place and started eating. About halfway through my sushi roll, I glanced over Usopp's shoulder and noticed a familiar head of pink hair. I squinted a little, trying to figure out why this hair was so familiar.
"Oh!" I blurted out.
"Huh? What's up?" Usopp questioned, looking in the direction I was staring.
"See that guy with pink hair?" I asked.
Usopp looked around for a second. "Ah, yea, I see him. What about him?" he hummed.
"He's in my climate change group," I informed.
He shook his head and turned back to his food, "Every time I go somewhere with you, you always end up seeing someone you know."
I shrugged, "Not my fault, it's a small world ya know. Don't worry, though, I won't call him over here. I don't need you guys to awkwardly interact."
"I wasn't worried, you never do that. They always seem to approach without you getting them to come over," he sighed and ate his last piece of sushi.
"I'm just so hot that everyone notices me," I joked.
He rubbed the patch of hair on his chin, "I know you're not serious, but that could actually be why. How does it feel to have eyes on you at every moment?" He held an imaginary mic to my face.
I tapped on the imaginary mic and responded, "Not good. I try to ignore it or else I get anxious."
He brought the mic back to him and said, "It is the price of being beautiful. I would know, since I'm pretty handsome myself. This is your host, Handsome Haaaaandsome Usopp, thank you, and goodnight."
The last piece of my sushi was eaten and I closed the container up. "Alright, Handsome Usopp. You wanna walk me to my next class, or what?" I asked.
"I will do you the honor of walking you there," he answered with a nod.
"Yes, thank you soooo much," I chuckled and put my backpack on while he grabbed his bag, too. "Let's go."
~~~
I scratched my cheek and stared into my fridge. Why do we have nothing to eat in this apartment? I opened the freezer door and saw the insane amount of alcohol stored on multiple shelves.
"Maybe we're alcoholics..." I mumbled. "No... no, alcoholics would have drank it all already... Yea. Anyway..." I reached past the tequila on the second shelf to grab a bag of dinosaur nuggets. If you don't get these nuggets, you're missing out. They're elite, and too good for children alone. People of all ages should enjoy them.
While I was opening the bag, I heard a door open, followed by some footsteps. "Make me some, too," Zoro said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He leaned against the wall of the hallway lazily.
"Fine. You have to pay for the groceries next, though," I replied.
"Sure. Make a list 'n I'll get it," he grumbled, walking over to the couch and falling over it. His legs were hanging over the arm rest while the other half of him managed to get onto the chair part of the couch. His loud snoring proceeded to ring out.
I chuckled and dumped some of the nuggets into the air fryer, setting it for ten minutes because I like my nuggets burned. I went into the pantry to grab a bag of Doritos and walked into the living room, turning on the tv and opening Netflix. I put on a random show and ate some of the chips. I didn't bother to sit, I just stood in the middle of the room and watched the tv, waiting for my food.
"Gimme some of those," Zoro's voice grumbled from behind me.
"Get it yourself," I grunted. I didn't bother to turn to him as I said it. He sighed. I heard him shift a little. He must be rolling onto his back. With a glance behind me, I could see that I was right.
The bell to the air fryer's timer went off. I walked back into the kitchen and put my crispy chicken nuggets onto a huge plate. After putting some spicy ketchup onto a corner of the plate for maximum dip enjoyment, I walked to the couch that Zoro collapsed on. I sat next to his head and placed the plate in the empty area between us. He reached for the plate blindly and grabbed a nugget, eating it.
"Luffy is coming over," he mumbled after his third nugget.
"When?" I asked.
"Dunno, it's Luffy. He said 4, though," he answered.
"It's 2 now, so he'll either show up an hour early or an hour late," I thought aloud. All I got was a sound of agreement. "What's he coming over for?"
"Something about Sabo needing him to shut up," he grunted through his 6th nugget.
"Sounds about right. Sabo's working from home right now, isn't he?" I questioned. Speaking of Sabo, I haven't seen him or Ace in a long time. Maybe I should go visit their house this week.
"Dunno."
I shook my head and dropped the conversation, deciding to watch whatever was on the tv more intently. He continued to eat the nuggets with me until there were none left. His hand reached farther than the plate when we were out of the nuggets, patting my thigh instead. I raised a brow, "What?"
"Make some more," he grumbled. I looked at the hand that stayed on my thigh. It wasn't suggestively high or anything, but it caught my attention for some reason. For some reason, the conversation I had with Nami a few days ago flashed through my mind. I knew her talking about that kind of stuff would mess with my head.
"No, I don't wanna get up. Take these chips instead," I replied, taking the bag of Doritos from earlier off the coffee table next to me and tossing it onto his stomach.
The hand he had on me moved and aided him in eating the chips. Banging on the front door held any weird thoughts from getting to me. I stood up and walked over to the door. "I thought you didn't wanna get up?" Zoro asked as I walked.
"Shut up," I grunted, opening the door after looking out the little peephole.
"(Y/n)!" Luffy chimed, wrapping his arms around me and picking me up off the ground as he leaned back.
"Hey, Luffy," I chuckled and patted his head since he let my arms be free.
He set me back down and grinned. "I was kicked out for the night!" he said with a laugh.
"Yea, Zoro told me," I chuckled with him and stepped aside to let him into the apartment. He took off his slippers once he was inside, then he proceeded to run in and jump on top of Zoro's unexpecting body. The green head let out a grunt and threw Luffy onto the floor, sitting up and yelling at him. Meanwhile, I busted out laughing.
Luffy got up and smiled at me. "It's been a few days! How have you guys been?"
"I've been good. I'm passing my classes. And I just talked to Usopp, too," I responded.
"Oh! I should see him soon, too. Have you made any food, (y/n)?" the man asked.
I shook my head, "No, we're actually out. Zoro's gotta buy more soon."
He groaned dramatically and slumped onto the floor. "Damn! I'm gonna have to eat soon...hmm... we could go to Sanji's house!" he chirped.
"Oh! That's a good idea," I hummed.
"Not really," Zoro grunted, the corner of his lips pulled into a snarl. "I'd rather not go to that smoking pervert's place."
I waved a hand, "Well, you're not coming, then. Let's go, Luffy!"
"Okay!" the ebony haired teen said. He jumped to his feet and dashed to grab my hand, pulling me to the front door. "Afternoon adventure!"
"Less of an adventure and more of a food voyage," I corrected, placing some shoes onto my feet. Luffy put his slippers on.
"Same thing!"
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Ugggghhhhhhhhh I cannot sleep babes. I've got so many finalsssss. I have doodled so many individual monster trio headshots in my style that I've got three pages of just them in my sketchbook.