Take Me Home

It was a terrible day at work for Portgas D. Ace. It was his first day back at work after getting the cast removed off his arm, when he broke it after falling off a ladder while painting one of his customer's exterior walls on their business. Everything went so wrong, though. His boss yelled at him for slacking when he was being careful on the ladder, and his only painting buddy got so tired of the boss that he dropped all that he was doing and quit. Literally just dropped his roller and bucket of paint and walked off the job site and back to his truck. Ace didn't blame him, but then he was just stuck alone. By then, he had decided that a cold beer would be nice.

Roronoa Zoro, however, had a pretty good day for once. So good, in fact, that he just felt like drinking about it! So that's exactly what he did. Zoro took off his suit jacket and placed it neatly in the back of his Volvo before starting it, and then drove to his favorite small bar.

The two strangers had practically met there, but of course had no idea, seeing as they didn't know each other. Zoro stepped out of his car, shut the door and locked it at the same time that Ace practically fell out of his truck and slammed the door, not bothering to lock it.

Once inside the bar, it was oddly quiet for a Friday night. There were probably 7 people there altogether, including the bartender. The two strangers walked in after each other and then both had a seat at the bar, several seats away from each other. Ace and Zoro got their usual drinks and awkwardly sat in silence, well, other then the backround music. Zoro was the one who really started the conversation, though, after noticing how miserable 'that guy' was.

"Hey, you okay?" Zoro asked, moving over a seat closer to Ace. Ace laughed and shook his head, proceeding to nearly chug his bottle of Budweiser.

"Nah. I feel like shit," Ace mumbled with sarcastic grin, "I fuckin' hate my job."

Zoro looked down at the glass in his hand and he swirled it around a little before taking a sip. He was felt really bad for that guy, since Zoro didn't really hate his job. Sure, it could be a little annoying, but he didn't hate it and want to quit like this guy obviously wanted.

"Here, let me buy you another drink," Zoro offered, taking his wallet out of his pocket. Ace gave him a glare and shook his head again.

"I don't want your pity."

The green-haired man rubbed the back of his neck and looked over at 'Mr. Crabs', studying his every feature. He wasn't bad looking, not bad looking at all. The muscle and childish freckles really caught Zoro's attention, though. So Roronoa called the bartender and pushed him four dollars. The bartender took the bills and slid Zoro the two desired bottles of beer. One bottle stayed with the green-haired salesman while the other slid down to the dark-haired painter. Ace sighed and thanked Zoro. Both then went back their silent drinking.

However, Roronoa got bored after he finished the bottle, spinning it absent-mindedly. He looked over at Ace with a bored expression and sighed at Ace buying a third bottle. Just as the man lifted the bottle to his lips to drink, Zoro put a hand on his shoulder, scaring him a bit.

"Hey, what's your name?" Zoro asked randomly, resting his elbow on the counter and looking at Ace. At this point, Ace didn't care why Zoro asked him and just responded with a bored tone.

"Ace. You?"

"Zoro."

Ace smiled lazily and then took a sip from the bottle he held in his hand. What was with this guy, Zoro.. just being so nice to him? Did 'Zoro' wanna take him home or something? Didn't really matter to Ace anymore to begin with, so he just let those thoughts drift away.

"That's quite the uniform you got there, Zoro,"Ace said with a smirk, pulling on Zoro's black tie, "Where ya workin'?"

"Car salesman for Volvo. Pays pretty well, and I guess I'm a good salesman because otherwise they wouldn't let me get away with green hair," Zoro stated with little enthusiasm, pointing to his hair, "You?"

Ace waved the question away with his hand and pulled his paint splattered shirt out for Zoro to see. Zoro smirked and took the bottle out of Ace's hand to take a sip. The freckled painter just let it happen, and watched his new acquaintance drink from his bottle and put it back in his hand with a grin. This Zoro guy was weird, and Ace was starting to like it.

After three more bottles, Ace was out. He was completely out of it, all over Zoro, and looked like he might rape him right then and there. So before there was anything like making-out and feeling around, Zoro said his apologies to the bartender and gave him a ten-dollar tip before awkwardly carrying Ace out of the bar and back to the silver Volvo, where Roronoa carefully put the very drunk Ace in the passenger seat and put the seat belt on him. Zoro couldn't believe he was taking this random drunk hot painter dude home, and was afraid of what was going to happen next.

The salesman shut his car door, started the car, and sped out into the night while Ace was leaning over and pulling on Zoro's tie the entire ride home.

~ + To Be Continued ! XD OOOHS! and importante.. my mind needs new characters to write about... SO! if you have a love for a very rare or odd pairing, i might just be willing to write a short story/something for you! Tell me what you like, and I'll let you know what I think! ~+ ~