AN: HI!

So, with the hope that there will be more people reading this n because I see more n more people start to read this I present you with a brand new chapter! :D

Still waiting for some feed back... Comment anyone? Critics are acceptable too :D(But please dont be so rude ><)

Sooooo, to the story!

-Meli

Disc: I dont own OnePiece or the mugiwaras... They are Eiichiro Oda's! :D

Chapter 3: WHAT?!

The green haired man walked forth before making a 180 degrees turned encircling the red carpet in his temporary room. The headache caused from lack of sleep finally taking the toll in his body. Aside from the usual nightmare that preventing him from having good night sleep, the unfamiliar environment was not helping at all. He finally decided to take some stroll feeling the need to get fresh air. Zoro let loose the black bandanna on his right arm before tying it around the upper part of his head covering most of his unusual green hair. His hand pushed open the big door separating his room and the veranda as the chilly night wind blew his skin making him shudder a bit.

“Urgh… The night here is even colder than back home.” The green haired king grumbled as he took his black coat and put it on. Zoro took a quick glance at the big old clock on the corner of the room. It showed 5.30, just half an hour before the stupid Ball.

“I’ll try to be back before the Ball…” Zoro silently promised himself, but some part of him just knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep it.

It didn’t take that long for the green haired man to get lost. Zoro looked to his right and left. Nothing looked familiar to him at all. He tried to remember which turn he took just some minutes ago so he could trace his path back. But no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t differentiate the two branching paths in front of him. In the end the green haired man made a 180 degrees turn before walking straight once more.

“Well… Some detour wouldn’t be that bad…” He mumbled. Zoro looked up at the sky wondering what time was it now. It wasn’t like he care to be on time, he had never came on time on any occasion if not for his personal butler, Coby, bugging him every time, but he just kind of curious with the third prince. Somehow he made him feel strangely familiar. Maybe it was because his small figure and jet black hair which deeply reminded him with his big sister. And he acted kind of funny for a member of the royal family. Zoro giggled at the thought. It was rare to find any royal family that would act as unruly as him. If taking care of Zoro would be enough to give Coby a heavy headache, then if Coby had to take care of Luffy, he would prefer doing a hara-kiri*. Silently he hoped that his little friend, Coby, could find him before the Ball started.

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 “…ek up!...ffy…”

The ravenette groaned, not wanting to open his eyes. It has been a long time since he dreamed of his life savior in his childhood. Luffy kind of miss the warmth of the hand that grabbed him in that scary night. Till now he still couldn’t find who that boy was.

“WAKE UP, MONKEY D. LUFFY!!” The ravenette jumped up shocked by sudden loud and high pitch voice screamed right beside his ear.Lazily Luffy opened his eyes, then yawned and stretched his stiff body before observing his surroundings. In front of him stood two woman, though both of them wore different expression, the dark hair woman was smiling meaningfully while the other woman was frowning deeply, Luffy knew he was in a problem from sleeping through almost all the explanation from Robin.

“Morning, Robin, Nami!” Luffy grinned widely trying to break the tension.

“Good morning, Luffy…” Robin greeted the prince back while Nami could only gritted her teeth.

“What’s wrong Nami? You look bad…” Robin giggled at the prince silly comment. The tangerine hair girl walked toward Luffy, both her hand folded in front of her chest.

“Do you know what time it is, Luffy?!” Nami growled throwing dagger glare at the ravenette.

The prince looked at the direction where a giant old clock stood majestically not far from where he was sitting. “5.45. Why? Do you forget how to read the clock, Nami?” Luffy asked his maid friend innocently. The raven haired teenager could listen another additional snicker from somewhere near the library door, he immediately assumed it was Brooke’s.

“ARGH!!” The orange haired girl ruffled her hair angrily while the dark haired woman trying hard to suppress the laugh from Luffy silly talk. “Luffy! You… You, just if you weren’t the prince, I will kill you right now!” Nami screamed frustratedly. “Now move your ass, we only have less than 10 minutes to go to the main Hall for the Ball!” The tangerine haired maid grabbed Luffy by his collar and dragged the third prince ignoring all the protest the ravenette screamed while both Robin and Brooke followed both of them closely from behind.

As Luffy and the other arrived at the ball room, low whispered could be heard here and there. Many soldiers were seen walking inside and outside the circular room.

“What the hell?” Nami cursed silently.

Robin observed the situation immediately but found nothing strange except for the soldiers’ part and as for why King Shanks being the central of the ruckus, she didn’t have any slightest idea. “Should we go to King Shanks first and check the situation?” Robin suggested which Brooke gave immediate nod while Nami looked like she was weighing something up.

Some minutes passed before Nami finally letting loose her gripped on the young prince’s collar. The tangerine haired girl made a sharp turn to the third prince before grabbing a fistful of Luffy’s front clothes pushing him down some centimeter so he was facing her directly. “Stay here. Don’t go anywhere until I go back!” Nami hissed coating all her words in deadly venom emphasizing it so the prince would know that she was deadly serious.

Luffy gulped down his own saliva. Well, it wasn’t like it was his first time being threatened by Nami but he just would never be able to adjust to Nami sudden seriousness and scariness. He nodded reluctantly. “Okay…” He whimpered, “But I can’t promise the waiting until you come back part” Luffy added silently in his mind.

“I’ll be back soon, Luffy senchou…” Brooke bowed deeply to Luffy before leaving with the girls.

The first fifteen minutes were passed with Luffy practically roaming the food section and literally eating most of the food like some kind of vacuum cleaner. But even until he was finished eating, the ruckus still hasn’t subsided, his black eyes could catch some of his friends silhouette walking here and there, even Sanji and Chopper could be seen too. Some were trying to calm the guests down or merely entertaining them, most of the entertaining were done by Sanji though as he walked here and there wooing the ladies, while some others, like Franky and Brooke, were giving order to the soldiers though till this point Luffy has no slightest idea what the hell the soldiers were so frantic about doing.

The observing thing soon became too boring for the young prince. Though the ruckus has subsided but some soldiers could still be seen walking toward his Father, they whispered some things before walking out of the ballroom, but the main event just wouldn’t start. And Luffy has some feeling that it wouldn’t start in any near future. There was something wrong, and the young prince smelled adventure there. He went to the food table once more, slipped some snack into his pocket before tiptoeing outside the ballroom. “I’ll be back soon, Nami…” He promised silently before really slipping out the circular room.

It didn’t take too much effort for the ravenette teen to arrive at the Royal garden as the soldier was too busy and distracted with whatever business they had. Luffy walked slowly, inhaling the fresh and chilly air as the night wind caressing his cheek softly. The cold feeling on his skin made him craft for the warmth of his life savior even more than usual, the dream he just had about the boy successfully making a crack on the wall he kept building to stop his feeling from over flowing. It wasn’t like Luffy lack love or affection, it was just he missed that boy’s hand.

Before he knew it, Luffy has used his power to leap over the Kingdom’s wall and ran through the town. Fortunately the moon was shining brightly lighting his way to that place. His heartbeat accelerated slowly but surely in excitement and pure longing feeling. He didn’t hope that that boy would be there, though he couldn’t lie that he kind of hope his life savior would suddenly appear there, but Luffy just wanted to be there.

The salty scent soon engulfed his nose. His ears could hear distant splashing noise of the wave and, though only barely, he could already make out the horizon separating the vast dark blue sparkling water under it with bigger and darker sea above it.

 “Finally” Luffy sighed, he could find hint of relief in his sound. He made his way to the harbor, taking off his straw sandals before running bare over the slightly cold brown sand. Luffy jumped to one of the lower level dock and let both his feet dangling loosely under it. The sea water playfully splashed his feet, every drop making him light in head and slightly dizzy but not enough to rob all his energy away. He love doing it, purposely letting the sea sipped his energy slightly, and remembering vividly the strangers warm hand, picturing it gripping his hand tightly pulling him out of the darkest abyss in the world.

When he was small this was the worst and scariest place for him. But not anymore, not until he met that boy from his childhood. His mind wandered to that day, a stormy night, when he fell to the sea. He could only vividly remember the boy, only those warm eyes and strangely the color green kept popping up in his mind every time he tried to remember about the boy. A strange tinge of familiarity rose in his chest, the green color and the golden warm eye. He had seen it somewhere else too today.

“It won’t be a good idea for you to run away from your maid longer than this. Go back to your room kid…”

A vein popped on his head remembering what the strange green haired man said to him before. The word ‘kid’ just kept getting louder and more annoying every time he recalled that man. Sure. He had almost the same, if not exactly the same, green haired color and the golden colored iris as his life savior. But, how could that save him before. If he and that man have met before, Luffy believed instead dragging him to the surface the man would just leave him there if not drowning him even faster by giving him some push.

“Stupid green hair bastard!” Luffy groaned kicking the sea surfaces with both of his feet and in the process dipping his feet a bit too much in the sea. The ravenette could already felt his head spinning as if he had lost too much blood and his body getting limp. He swayed back and forth as both his hands frantically trying to get a grip on something.

“WHOAAA!” The ravenette teen screamed as he felt his body fell straightly to the dark blue surface. Will he die this time? Like this? With no one knowing? If he knew this would be the last, he would just jump to any ship and went on his last voyage before letting himself drown.

Luffy struggled a bit, trying his luck maybe he would get lucky and just hit his head instead falling to the deep abyss. When suddenly he felt a pair of strong hands grabbed his own small one pulling him up in one swift motion. The prince gasped desperately, his lung sucked as much air as he could, he didn’t realize that he was holding his breath till now. As he got calmer, his dark eyes roamed searching the person that just saved his life just to meet with warm golden color. He blinked some more not believing what he just saw. Was it…

“Oi, stupid prince, are you going deaf once more?”

Luffy shrieked loudly before giving a not so light kicked on the gut to the green haired man that suddenly appeared behind him which successfully made the man groaned while rubbing both his ear and his stomach. Okay, that was not so polite of him to just kick his savior but…, but…

“Hey! What kind of ‘thanks’ is that?” Zoro growled at the prince obviously showing how pissed he was.

Should he say ‘thanks’ to the very person that made him almost drown but save him in the end? Well, that’s confusing and Luffy decided to drop the topic before it blown off his head. “Thanks…” The prince mumbled super quietly and if the situation wasn’t deadly silent, maybe the man wouldn’t hear him.

“What are you doing here, Kid?” The man asked obviously underlining the ‘Kid’ part.

Luffy pouted, glaring dagger at the older man before asking him back, “What are you doing here, old man?”

“Nothing a kid would understand, Kid…” Zoro replied Luffy, both of the corner of his lip were curling up forming a small sly snicker on his face. The prince grumbled hearing the man’s reply. The older man was obviously making fun of him now.

“Whatever, old man…” Luffy mumbled folding his arms in front of his chest, his habit when he was utterly annoyed. He didn’t like to lose, but he was too tired to debate with the annoying green haired man. The shock from almost drowning was still there and it kind of making him tired. He just wanted to go back to the castle and asked Sanji to make him some meat.

 The green haired man snickered at Luffy before he changed his attention to the sea. There was a long awkward silence between them and as Luffy decided to break it the man’s voice beat him out.

“Hey, kid…” The man started, Luffy almost gave him another kick if not for the look on the green haired man’s face. It was so lonely and kind of sad it made Luffy wanted to reach out his hand and embraced the man. The twinkling on his right eyes was kind of dull under the moonlight, like the light the prince saw earlier this day was seeped by the moon. And before he knew it, his pale white hands had enveloped the man tanned body.

“Hey! What are you—“

“My big brothers always do this to me when I’m sad…” The prince cut the green haired man short. His hands squeezed the taller man as tight as he could. The man stiffened body slowly became more relaxed until he voluntarily let the teen ravenette to hug him. Luffy looked up just to meet that warm golden eye from this afternoon once more. His own lips unconsciously curled up into a genuine smile upon seeing the light once more in that beautiful golden eye.

“Hey, kid, how long are you gonna stare at me?”

Luffy jerked up from the sudden noise. His cheek burnt up hearing the man’s comment. Was, was he staring at the man?

“S-So-Sorry…” The prince stuttered while he tried to move away from the man. But a pair of big hands immediately stopped him on the track. Luffy’s eyes widen from the sudden warmth on his hand, but he couldn’t really process what happen next. Zoro pulled him into his lap before planting his big hand on Luffy’s head. His hand ruffled the ravenette hair gently, just like this afternoon, this afternoon touch that still lingered on the prince’s head and now the warmth was not just on his head, it spread across his body especially on his cheek. He could feel his cheek burning hot spreading a crimson red paint on his cheek.

“Thank you, kid…” The man whispered gently on Luffy’s ear. “Now, let’s go back to your castle, Third Prince Luffy…”

Zoro obviously teasing Luffy by calling his title, but Luffy didn’t care anymore. He could only nod his head. All the others thing didn’t matter anymore. His mind went blank as soon as Zoro whispered into his right ear, making it a shade darker if it even possible. The heart inside his chest was thumping like crazy, like he had just ran a marathon, and it got even faster when Zoro’s hand slipped into his own small hand.

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“It’s not that way! It’s the OTHER way!”

“Huh?” The green haired man frowned scratching the back of his head. His eye stared from one path to the other confusedly before pointing to the one on the right, “This way?”

“ARGH!” Luffy messed his coal black hair before pointing to the left path once again. “Can’t you see that the Castle is obviously just beyond that road?!”

“Really? Okay then that way…” The green haired man said while walking right to the wrong way.

The third prince huffed. Just if he didn’t have to take the green haired man with him he could just bounced himself right to the castle wall…

Wait…

Luffy smirked as an evil pl—, no, brilliant plan popped up inside his mind. He ran after the green haired man before encircling the man body with his hand.

“Wha—?”

He didn’t let the older man finished his protest as he grabbed two big enough trees to sustain their weight. Luffy pulled his body some feet away from the trees, one of his hands still encircling Zoro tightly while the other one strongly grabbing the big trees.

“Hold on tight!” Luffy smirked at the confused Zoro

“Why?”

Luffy didn’t answer instead he screamed loudly before releasing his footage on the ground bouncing both of the boys up into the night sky.

“WHAT THE HELL, YOU SHITTY KID?!” The green haired man growled at the skinny-currently-smiling-like-an-idiot teenager.

Luffy pouted putting both his hands on his hip, “We won’t ever arrive here on foot with your pace, you old man with no sense of direction at all!”

“Shut the hell up, Rubber Kid!” Zoro grumbled his head looking away but Luffy could still see a small tint of red on the tip of the older man’s ear.

The prince chuckled lightly. It wasn’t that bad to be with the strange green haired man. Yes, he was still strange and annoying. But being with the green haired man strangely calming the third prince and there was also this feeling of missing every time he saw at the man golden iris. And furthermore, it was fun being with him.

But, who was he?

“Hey, old man, who are you?” The third prince asked straight to his point.

Zoro looked like he was weighing up something inside his mind. It took some minutes of silent before he finally looked up and stared at the third prince black eyes. “I’m actually—“

“Zoro-san!”

Both of them looked back to see a badly panting pink haired boy. The third prince’s eyes sparkled upon seeing the boy’s strange hair color. It was the second time today that he found someone with uncommon hair color in his country. He jumped right on the boy making both of them fell flatly on the floor as the result.

“Whoah! It’s not dyed right?” Luffy observed every lock of the boy’s hair. “It’s strange!”

The pink haired boy fidget under the third prince pinned. It was uncomfortable, both his position and the prince that excitedly observing his hair.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Zoro grabbed the third prince by his collar and pulled him up standing him up right next to his butler. “This is my butler, Coby… Don’t strangle him you stupid Prince…”

“Whoah! Both of you have strange hair color!” Luffy exclaimed loudly, he was still trying to grab Coby though.

It wasn’t like Zoro has any problem with people commenting with their strange hair color, but it was just purely annoying for people to keep bothering with their hairs like they were some rare animal. He was just about to smack the hyper active third prince silence when the third prince turned back to look at him straight on his eye.

“And both of you have beautiful eye color!” Luffy smiled sweetly at him. Zoro could feel his heart skipped a beat upon seeing the prince’s bright smile. Zoro tried to protest to hide his embarrassment, but he was stopped right on the spot as a big group of soldiers approached them.

Brooke walked to the front before bowing deeply in front of the green haired man. The third prince was about to ask his body guard as to why he was bowing, but what the afro soldier said next left him speechless to the core.“King Roronoa, we are so glad that you’re safe…”

What?

King.

Roronoa?

As in the name of the neighbor kingdom’s king?

The one his Father kept telling him to accompany on the ball today?

The one person who were feared by all the people in his country?

That King Roronoa?!

Wait! Wait! He hugged that man before, right?

Luffy face heated up as his mind kept repeating the scene when he embraced the older green haired man. When the man ruffled his coal hair gently. When he casually praised his and his butler eye’s color.

“Hey, are you alright, stupid prince?” Zoro sudden closeness freaked the third prince out. Unconsciously he kicked the King’s gut once more before he ran away from the scene leaving the confuse King laying flat on his butt.

“WHAAAT?!” Luffy screamed on the top of his lung too confuse and freak out to do anything else beside running and screaming.

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“WHAAAT?!” The third prince’s voice reverberated across the corridor. Zoro snickered to himself before his soft giggle broke into a big laughter.

“Are you alright, Zoro-san?” Zoro looked up to meet his butler silver eyes.

“And both of you have beautiful eye color!” He smirked remembering what the prince had said about him. It was the first for anyone to praise his eye color.

“Zoro-san?”

Zoro looked at Coby for awhile before nodding his head. The King scanned the soldiers before stopping his stare at a tall thin afro soldier. “Brooke, right?”

Brooke bowed deeply once more before giving a clear ‘Yes’

“I want to talk with Shanks… Lead me to his place…”