The first day was much harder than you thought it'd be. The students were split into to glaringly obvious groups, those that didn't give a shit, choosing to cause trouble instead of paying attention and those those who wanted to do good but felt there was no hope in improving their academics. It was a sad sight indeed.

You, being their new teacher, were able to pique their curiosity at least, part of it was you being a young female teacher and therefore, a hit with the boys. Between the occasional interruptions you were able to spend some time getting to know the classes and seeing where they were in their lessons, it didn't hurt to double check where your starting place should be with them.

When the last class filed out of the room, you immediately began busying yourself with changing parts of the lesson plans. There was a ton to do and you felt there wasn't enough time left in the day to get through all of it, but you could get something done at least. You spent a few grueling hours behind that desk, hating that the textbooks were so outdated. It wasn't easy to work with the older books but you'd make it one way or another.

Maybe it was because you were new at the job, but you wanted to make sure the kids actually learned something in your class without being bored to death. Being fresh out of college yourself, you didn't care for lectures that droned on and on. It made more sense to make whatever you were teaching them a bit more interesting than them taking notes and falling asleep in class.

After a while you were satisfied with what you'd completed so far and decided to go home. You took your work with you though, just in case you felt like getting more of it done.

The walk back was a bit nicer than the walk to work. There was a chilly bite to the air reminding you fall was just about here and winter wouldn't be far off. The tattooed doctor was no where to be seen but his clinic was still open. It was safe to assume he was still there, just not eyeing women that passed by from the steps anymore.

As you approached the garage that your blonde neighbor and his redheaded friend were at, your phone went off. To your delight, it was your boyfriend, Alec.

"Hey babe." You answered, glad to have a chance to talk to him.

You glanced into the garage as you passed, seeing the same two men from this morning working on an expensive looking car together with their heads down. The redhead's eyes flicked in your direction for a split second as his face contorted into a sneer.

"Hey (Y/n), how was your first day at work?" His voice came out smooth and sultry and god you loved it.

"Not bad, there's a lot of adjustments I'm going to have to make, you should see the plans they left for me. It's a total disaster." The smile that graced your lips would be impossible to miss, talking with him made your day.

"I'm not surprised with that part of town, the schools there are rough I hear."

"Rough doesn't even begin to describe it." You huffed.

"Speaking of that, are you keeping anything on you for protection? That area in general is bad, not just the schools." He questioned, losing the sexy tone.

"Not yet, but things aren't too bad here. The worst thing is the noise so far."

Alec didn't like you moving to this particular city from the get go but he understood what this job meant to you. It may not have been in your ideal location, but it was still what you wanted to do.

"...Alright. When will you be home?" He wasn't convinced noise was going to stay the biggest problem but you couldn't blame him. You lived alone in a city with the highest crime rate around.

"I'm heading in now actually." You turned the corner to your apartment building and got inside quickly, trying to avoid the nasty smelling pile of trash that was still on the sidewalk.

"Good!" He chirped. "I was wanting to stop by since I'm in the area anyway. I'll even bring dinner~"

You laughed as you went up the first flight of stairs. "That sounds great babe, see you soon?"

"You bet, love you!"

"Love you too!" You giggled as he hung up.

The man was spontaneous and liked to come by randomly. You loved it but you were a little confused on what he was doing in Grandline City. It wasn't a place he ever needed to go to until now with you living here. You didn't think about it too much though, he was the kind of guy that liked to stay busy in his free time. It sometimes led to him going out on drives to random places and explore.

You wasted no time making yourself comfortable on the couch once you got back into your apartment, curling up and noting more changes to your lesson plans as you waited for Alec to come over. As promised he didn't take long, about 20 minutes and he was knocking at your door.

Of course he didn't wait for you to answer, you'd told him in the past to make himself at home in your place so he did. The knock was more of a courtesy thing.

"How does pizza sound?" He popped in, a brilliant smile on his face as he balanced two pizza boxes in one arm and a six pack of beer in the other.

"Amazing actually." You tossed the binder containing your plans onto the coffee table and watched the man place his armload on it as well.

He fell back into the couch with a content sigh, tossing an arm around your shoulders. Everytime he walked in a room, Alec was like a ray of sunshine to you. He was always smiling and he always looked like he just rolled out of bed perfectly dressed. He had short, honey brown hair that curled slightly at the ends, impossible to tame without hair product, reddish brown eyes with little gold flecks that could be seen when the light hit them just right, a slim, muscular built with naturally tanned skin. There weren't many men that could compare.

Today, he was wearing one of his nicer pairs of blue jeans with a black button up shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Alec looked as pristine as ever of course, not a hair out of place or a wrinkle to be seen on his clothes.

"I also brought you...this." He smirked as he handed you what you thought was a spray bottle for hair product.

You took it, raising an eyebrow at him. "I know my hair gets out of control sometimes but this is rediculous."

"No." He fell into a fit of melodic laughter. "It's not hairspray, it's mace. Keep it in your purse."

"Oh." You blushed as you took the time to read the label, finding it was indeed mace. "Well thanks for worrying about me."

It warmed your heart seeing how much he cared. He knew you could hold your own quite well in a fight but it never hurt to have the extra protection.

"Now that I now you'll be a little safer on the streets, it's time for food." He got up to get a couple paper plates from the kitchen, returning quickly so he could dig in.

"No complaints here." You were starving and nothing sounded better than food you didn't have to cook.

You spent the evening talking with him about work, telling him in more detail about your day and then giving him a chance to go on about his own job. Alec was a realtor, and a good one at that. It was why he insisted on dressing nicely all the time and looking his best. Between that and his unmistakable charms, it wasn't hard for him to sell houses and condos.

It meant he made decent money too but you didn't ever want him to feel like he had to give you things or money to keep you happy, his company was always more than enough. It was why you still didn't live with him after dating for three years. You wanted to prove to yourself that you didn't need someone else's help to get things done, prove that you were very much an independent woman. And you didn't want Alec to feel like he had to cater to you.

Though he told you often it wasn't a worry, you still wanted to show that you could handle yourself, at least for a bit longer. You'd give yourself a year into the new job and then you'd be more than happy to move in with him. He agreed to that a little begrudgingly when you first brought it up but he'd been warming up to the idea of it ever since.

For now, the two of you were fine going back and forth to each other's places for sleepovers and date nights. You weren't far from the edge of the city and it was only about an hour drive to his place from here. You'd prefer living a little closer but beggars can't be choosers and it could've been worse after all.

After watching a movie and finishing dinner, Alec pulled you into his lap and nuzzled into your (h/c) tresses. "Let's spend some time in the bedroom before I have to leave, I've missed you these past few days."

You shivered as his warm breath fanned against your ear. There wouldn't be a better way to end the day than romping around between the sheets. If you were loud enough it'd be good payback to your neighbors for all the yelling they do.

----

You woke up to feeling the bed shift as Alec climbed out to put on his pants.

"Where you going?" You murmured sleepily.

He preferred letting you take control when it came to sex. Adding that to the fact he could last over an hour easily and it wasn't hard to figure out that you were beat. The time on the clock said you'd only been out for around 30 minutes so it wasn't time for him to go as far as you knew. He didn't have work in the morning at the very least so it didn't make sense for him to leave so late at night.

"Sorry babe, I didn't mean to wake you." He padded over, feathering a light kiss on your lips. "I gotta go, the boss sent me a message wanting me to fill in for another guy's showing tomorrow. I'm going to need a fresh change of clothes so I figured I'd go home."

"M'kay." You said with a frown. It sucked that he had to leave but it made sense with his job. It wasn't out of the ordinary for him to have to shift around his schedule suddenly.

"I'll see you later, go back to sleep." He kissed you one last time as he slipped on his shoes and headed for the door.

"Text me when you get back." You said to his fleeting form before closing your eyes once more.