It was now 15 th December, a saturday, almost a month since Shirahoshi had given you her father's company's card and you had thrown it to the trash.
At first you had thought of giving it a shot, since you had nothing else but again... why?
You were still a 2nd grade student, meaning you couldn't work yet and still had one year of college left, but even if you just wanted to gain some money out of it you weren't sure of what you wanted to pursue!
You wanted a job that could give you the freedom of doing your own creations, and that wasn't marketing! Yes, it still had it's fun side, but you would forever be stuck with whatever product you had to sell. And that wasn't you, the creative and free spirited (Y/N)!
In conclusion, you threw the card away the very next day.
Since then you had searched for inspiration, not just online! You searched in simple things too. Perhaps you should find a theme for your work? Hmm... who knows?
But one thing you were able to get out of this emotional mess... You felt happy again!
Looking for something deeper inside you made you realise the many possibilities for your future and you felt new again. Like a kid still searching for his favourite candy in a candy store, there were just so many good ones!
Despite all the joy in your temporary freedom you still had work to do!
Final exams were very demanding and pressured everyone. They took a toll especially on last grade students, like Law.
His eyebags could be confused by emo make up now, and you still tried covering them with your concealer but it didn't help much!
You two worked hard the past weeks and successfully acheaved your goals, officially compleating the first half of the semester before Christmas holidays! Although, your results came sooner than Law's, making him almost faint from all the stress.
Needless to say you happily played nurse with him on the weekends despite his protests. You cared about his health more than anything!
Bepo also cheered on you! He was very quiet and let you do your work in piece even when you had drawings scattered around the house drying, he did not once step or pee or poop on them!
You wanted to pamper him for being such a good boy! Shame you didn't know what to give a dog that already has everything...
Perhaps a companion for lonely occasions such as these last few days? Hm... maybe a girlfriend!
You'd still have to discuss this with Law... once he got off zombie mode...
Also, you never got to know who had called you those 10 times.
After talking with your friends the next day, turned out none knew or had ever seen that phone number. Although you were able to know from the first digits it was not from a private number.
Anyway, you moved on.
And now you were at the entrance of the annual Art Exposure Festival with your friends waiting for Zoro...
"Where did that walking cucumber go this time?!" - Nami fumed tapping her foot impatiently.
"Must have gotten lost again..." - Usopp commented scratching his head.
"Or killed." - Robin made everyone sweatdrop.
"Let's just go in! He'll end up coming super late anyway, like always!" - Franky walked ahead with the group right behind him.
As you walked in with the group you zoned out for a bit, thinking back at what happened to Zoro these last few weeks, or rather, what didn't happen...
Zoro was known to always be late and lost, no matter when or where. Even going to his class, which was outside on the track field, he always came in late and sweating.
Truly a lost case...
But that's not what happe- didn't happen!
For the past few weeks his colleagues and students had been worried he came on time!...
One of the students said he even saw him sneak out of a locker in the boys changing room, like he had been there from the day before, asleep inside it!
That was just straight fucked up! Even for Zoro! And that's saying a lot...
Needless to say you and your friends got worried, very worried... to the point of paying attention to his every move.
You caught him not just on one but multiple occasions getting out of classrooms, janitor closets, lockers, etc, you name it.
This had required a secret group reunion, without Zoro obviously, to talk about his strange behaviour.
Many thoughts were shared, some you honestly didn't need to know, but you had finally reached a conclusion. And today you all planned to confront him to admit... that he... Roronoa Zoro... was homeless...
Either that or he was a drunk addict... or had a secret girlfriend he banged everymorning... in last case he was a gigolo.
But since he wasn't here yet it would have to wait 'til after the festival...
The festival was very popular and crowded, just like every year, not just by artists. Agents and company CEOs from around the world also came to buy and or hire new talented artists.
"SABOOOOOO!" - Luffy ran pushing people out of the way and jumped on the said blonde making them both fall to the ground - "YOU'RE HERE! YOU'RE FINALLY HERE!"
"L-Luffy! Get of m-me!" - The older brother fought him trying to get him off to stop suffocating him but he didn't budge - "S-Seriously Luffy! I c-can't breathe!"
A ginger haired girl laughed at the scene beside the two and you presumed she was the one.
"OH! KOALA NE-CHAN! YOU'RE HERE TOO!" - This time he jumped on her giving a bear hug which she returned still laughing.
"Luffy! You're still energetic as ever!" - Sabo got up cleaning the dust off his clothes.
"Geez, Luffy! You should be more carefull! We could have gotten hurt!" - He nagged him making Luffy laugh even more.
"Could they be?..." - The girl, Koala, looked over at your group as you walked near them.
"These are my friends Koala ne-chan! The ones I showed you the first week!" - Luffy gave his signature grin.
"It's good to see you all again! It's been such a long time, I almost didn't recognise you!" - She politely bowed and we did the same.
"Can I see your pan-"
"NO!" - Nami and Sabo quickly shut Brook up with two strong punches.
After Koala and Sabo joined you the group decided to eat before going around the exposition, especially Luffy.
It felt really nice having Koala back, not that Sabo wasn't great, but Koala was so kind and patient with all of you she truly felt like an older sister, even to Robin.
With Koala every subject was easy to talk to, she was very easy going and open minded, except when it came to Sabo. She seemed to baby him like those chicken moms, always worried he's get hurt.
Well, she was right in a way... Sabo may be the most mature and sensitive boy in the group but he was very clumsy and ended up magically destroying something or hurting himself all the time.
"So (Y/N)..." - She ignored Sabo for a bit and turned towards you - "Luffy told us what happenned with Hancock and that stalker... so scary! To think someone would go that far, it sends shivers down my spine!" - She hugged herself feeling a shiver from just thinking about it.
"Yeah... I still don't know who did it but after this they seem to have calmed down. I was scared it would affect my grades or they would keep messing with my work but everything is fine now..." - You told the girls - "I'm just glad it's over!"
"True!" - The girls agreed siping on their drinks.
"But you still got to expose it right?" - Koala asked curious.
"Yes, as a failed contestant but still did..." - You took the last bite of your food finishing.
"Then let's go girls! I wanna see those drawings!" - Koala jumped to her feet in excitment.
"And my perfect modeling body pictures!" - Nami bragged proudly.
"Oh my..." - Robin called your attention making you look ahead towards where your work was exposed.
"Who's that?" - Nami asked observing na old man with a bunch of bodyguards around him.
"I have no idea..." - You replied.
"What's he doing here?" - Koala murmured.
"Could it be... is it really him?" - Robin gawked at the tan man with a tattoo on his face.
"Who? W-Who is he?" - You felt your nerves eating you alive.
"He's Sabo's boss and Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon!" - Koala finally answered - "He's one of the richest men in the world! And he's m-my-my future f-f-f-f-f-father-in-law!"
She blushed a nice shade of crimson red and hid behind you.
"D-Don't let him see me! I'm not prepared!" - She begged.
"But he's just Sabo's boss isn't he?" - Nami asked confused just as me and Robin.
"No! Sabo, Luffy and Ace have all been very close since kids, they're sworn brothers! Dragon has been taking care of them too ever since! And Sabo told him about me and now he wants to see me!..." - She cried against hugging your back - "But I'm too scared!"
"W-Wait! He's coming this way!" - You noticed and stood straight, trying to cover Koala as much as you could.
Nami and Robin quickly stood beside you covering on the sides.
Dragon glaced briefly at you three but didn't see nothing out of the ordinary so he kept walking.
"KOALA NE-CHAN, WHERE ARE YOU?" - You recognised Luffys loud voice.
"Run!" - Nami whisper-yelled.
A/N:
Hey guys! Did you enjoy it? What do you think is gonna happen next? :3
Btw check these out! vvv