"Hey Y/N! Sorry, I'm late! Traffic!" Your coworker Nami ran into the bookstore where you worked at. She was always late, it used to annoy you but you got over it pretty quickly. She was pretty and drew in a lot of male customers. She convinced anyone to buy anything even if it wasn't what they needed.

"No worries. I'm going to put out the product can you handle the register?" You asked as you started to walk towards the back.

"Yep! I'll page you if I need anything." You nodded your head and heard your phone ping.

Email:
Greetings DarkAngel03, this is an offer from the Dressrosa Corp. we are interested in serializing the show you have online. We would love to meet you in person to discuss how to bring your show to the next level. All our contact information is at the bottom. We look forward to hearing from you.

You sighed and sent a reply politely refusing the offer. You were an artist who specialized in animation. You'd always liked to draw and you wanted that to be what you ended up doing until your fingers didn't allow you to do it anymore.
Your first animated series was about a ghost girl, who died full of regrets because she never did the things she wanted to due to fear and anxiety. She meets a boy who can see ghosts and occasionally asks to use his body so she could experiment with things she never got to when she was alive. It ended after 5 episodes and didn't get a whole lot of likes, but it was special to you. And it had given you your first 4 followers. Who to this day were your biggest fans. They encouraged you to make merchandise and sell it. Your art brought in revenue but not enough to live off of. So 30 hours a week you worked at the bookstore.

You were in the music history section when you saw one of the tallest men you'd ever seen in your life. He had blue dreads in a ponytail, a white shirt and leather jacket with some kind of symbol on it, and faded blue jeans and timberland.

Holy shit! I need to draw him when I get home! His body is so proportional it's amazing! And those tattoos are so cool!

You looked away when you heard other footsteps coming toward you.

"Y/N! I need your help! Mr. Crocodile said that he placed an order last night for pick up but I can't find it!" Her outburst caused his attention to turn to you. You got a peek of his hazel brown eyes before going to the counter.

"I'm coming calm down Nami." As you walked away you failed to notice the guy still staring at you.

"This is outrageous I am a busy man and don't have time for this!"

"Mr. Crocodile I understand you're upset but yelling isn't going to fix the situation. What time did you place the order?"

"Last night at 11 pm!" He was still irate but at least he wasn't yelling. He was the mayor of the town you lived in, and he was a very demanding person, no one liked to deal with him.

"Sir, do you know that we close at 10 pm Monday through Friday and Saturdays we are only open till 3 and we aren't open at all on Sundays. If you placed the order last night after closing our website wouldn't have put your order through."

"What kind of system is that? That's ridiculous!" And he was back to yelling.

"Sir, if you give me the list of books you wanted, I will find them in less than 5 minutes. If I go over I will pay for your books myself." You kept calm, there was no reason to become angry or upset with him. It meant he won.

"You seem confident. Fine here I look forward to you paying for me."

"Nami start the timer."

She did with a smug smile on her face. She knew you could do it less than the time you said you'd worked here since your junior year of high school, and once you'd graduated Benn Beckman the owner had made you manager and given you a pay raise. You knew every book, author, and section memorized. When you came back to the counter with the 12 books and rung them up, you kept your face neutral and your voice devoid of any pride.

"The total comes to $157.60 please." He huffed but paid.

"Fix that fucking website!"

When he walked out the door people applauded. It surprised you that you jumped and squeaked a little bit.

"That was freaking awesome Y/N! Did you see that look on his face when it only took you two minutes to get his stuff?! I wish I'd filmed that!!" Nami was smiling and laughing. The other customers were also smiling and laughing. When they complimented you for keeping your cool you thanked them and kept the line moving.

"I can help who's next."

"Hello." The voice is what got your attention, it was deep with so much vibrato it pulled you out of your head. It also sounded a little familiar but you couldn't quite place it. "Just these please."

He handed you a bunch of notebooks and pens and pencils.

"Alright," you quickly scanned and bagged his items. "Was there anything else you needed?"

"No just this is fine. But uh can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did you voice Mina from 'A Ghostly Girl's Adventures'?"

"Huh? Um yes I did why?"

"I knew it! Oh that's so awesome! I'm a huge fan of DarkAngel03's work and that one is still one of my favorites!" Nami was watching the exchange, you rarely ever spoke to customers you were never rude but you kept it very minimal.

"Oh well it was something I did for extra credit in high school."

"Wait so you know who DarkAngel03 is?"

Crap! How do I explain that?

"Uh well no, she's been anonymous since day one. I just saw a flyer at school and I recorded with my computer and emailed her the recordings."

"Really? But you haven't worked with her since then huh?"

Yeah cause she's me.

But that was something you would never tell anyone. The only one who knew was your best friend Perona, and she swore never to tell anyone.

"Not since then no."

"Too bad you have a pretty voice. You sing at all?"

"In the shower mostly."

"Hahaha fair enough. Thanks again." He held out his hand you shook it. "It was nice meeting you Y/N."  He started to walk out then turned back to you. "The name's Heat, see ya." With a slight wave he finally left.

"Oh my Gawd Y/N!!" Nami yelled.

"What?" You turned to take back the books that you people decided at the last minute not to get.

"What do you mean what? He was flirting with you!"

"Oh lord Nami. You know not every guy who tries to talk to me is flirting with me."

"True but he definitely was. He even said your voice was pretty!"

"You said that to me too the first time we met. You weren't flirting with me."

"You're hopeless!" She got a text and checked it. The owner didn't care if you were on your phones during work hours so long as you weren't on them in front of customers. "Hey Y/N? My friend Luffy is having a party tonight! You should come with me! None of my friends believe you exist! Please?"

"Sorry Nami, I have to go my second job tonight."

"You always say that! Are you having financial troubles? You need help?"

"No I just like to keep busy is all."

"Hmph fine but next time okay? Promise?"

"Sure."

When you got home you immediately took out your sketch book and drew the guy who you now knew as Heat, the incident today actually inspired a short story in your head after you'd finished the drawing, you grabbed your laptop and started to type it. It would be a mini series that you would start next month.

Looking at your emails, you saw all your voice actors had sent you their recordings on time and you quickly got to work on synchronizing them all. It took hours to do and sometimes you had to send them a message about maybe trying to do a scene differently. But today they all had sent you 5 different versions of the script for the episode for this week.

"I guess they all know each other? That's kind of weird."

You got to work and smiled. This was what your true passion was.

<At the party>

"So Nami where is your work friend? I thought you said you were going to invite her?" Zoro asked his friend. There had been a bet whether or not the elusive coworker would show. Zoro had won.

"I did! But she had to go to her second job. So she said she couldn't!"

"That's what you said last time. Maybe she just doesn't want to hangout with you outside of work. I mean Nami you don't even have her cell phone number."

Nami pouted, she'd often wondered if you even liked her sometimes. You worked well together and you didn't care about her selfishness like her other employers and coworkers, for that reason alone Nami really liked you.

"Maybe she had social anxieties." Koala chimed in.

"But she works just fine and we deal with all kinds of people."

"True but besides things to do with work or what you talk about, has she once started a conversation with you about her weekend? A boyfriend? Girlfriend? A friend? Her family?"

"Well...no I mean she's pretty quiet."

"Nami I think she just can't handle being in a crowd of people especially people she doesn't know."

"Hey guys!" Luffy came down smiling and laughing.

"There you are why are you late to your own party?" Zoro complained.

"Sorry sorry! I had to finish up my recordings!"

"Oh yeah. You do the voice for Jace right? On that cartoon?"

"It's an animated series Zoro." Koala corrected. "It's called 'A pirate's true desires.' I voice the commander Grey."

"You too?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Ace came over:

"Oh our characters on 'A pirates true desires.' Zoro has only seen a few episodes."

"Dude you should watch it! I voice the vice Captain pirate."

"Do you guys get paid for that?"

"Yeah dude. We each get $500 per episode. And there's a episode once a week. Well we're about to get a month long break, cause tonight we recorded the final episode of season 4."

Zoro seemed shocked at that. He knew his best friend worked from home but he never knew what it was.

"Who's the creator?"

"She's called DarkAngel03."

Nani's eyes bulged out of her skull. She remembered that from the talk Y/N and that tall guy with dreads. She immediately went to her phone and looked it up on Alabaster. And found that this person had over 1 million followers and was pretty popular.

"Wow...maybe I should watch it..."

"You should. Robin voices one of the characters too. So does Ussop, Franky, Rebecca, Bonney, who else?"

"HEY EVERYONE! Are you ready to rock?"

Eustass Kid and his gang started their set. Nami had heard them on Alabaster too, and got excited but when she saw who the second vocalist was she screamed.

"Aaaa! I've gotta make a video and show Y/N!!"

<Right before showtime>

"What? You seriously met her? The girl who voiced Mina? You're lying!" Heat's best friend Wire was still in disbelief. He came to meet his band mates after meeting you. He'd also been a big fan of the mini series, along with Kid and Killer.

"I'm not! She works at the bookstore down the road."

"Which girl?"

"The one with y/hc and the glasses."

"Who we talking about?" Killer asked as he came to sit in the booth. Kid shortly followed. Wire then told them what Heat had told him.

"No shit! That's so cool! I remember that. Man I haven't watched that in ages. I've been watching the pirate series."

"Me too. Now I need to rewatch it."

"Speaking of. Heat did you send DarkAngel03 your recordings? Or should I call you Captain Black?"

"Shut up. Let's just go over our set for the party."

Heat smiled and got back to his passion. Music. He'd been voicing the lead role of DA03 (the abbreviation the fans gave her), since the beginning. He was looking forward to the month off so he could focus on writing music. And the incident he witnessed at the bookstore had inspired a new melody that was eager to make into a song.

Hey guys!!! I'm sorry this story has been in my mind for a few months and I NEEDED to write the first chapter for it!!  If only to help me start it. And this chapter actually has inspired me to also update my other book Love and Coffee!!!

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!!!

Stay safe and healthy!!! ❤️