Chapter Text
S.o.u.l
- Sound of ur life
Overture
Luffy had never been much into classical music. Big halls with classical concerts? Not his world. Really not. This music wasn't exciting enough for him. It gave him nothing. Nothing that could captivate or fascinate him. It all sounded the same to him. Stiff and... boring. And who wanted a piano when you could get an electric guitar.
At least, that's what he had always believed....
"Thanks, guys! I can handle the rest by myself!"
Grinning, he wiped the sweat from his brow and waved to Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, and Brook as they departed.
"If you need anything, let me know."
"And settle in, will you?"
"Give us a call when we can visit!"
"And welcome to Vienna!"
The door slammed shut and for a moment he stared after his friends, took a deep breath and swallowed. He had made it. He finally had his own apartment. His kingdom. Turning his head to the back of his neck, a small grumble escaped him in the sudden silence of the apartment. The place still looked like a battlefield. There were boxes everywhere, desperately wanting to be unpacked. Thanks to his energetic friends, most of the furniture had already been set up and the bed was already there, but it still looked anything but homely here. Nevertheless, a broad grin spread across his lips as he let his eyes wander. He was happy.
Luffy finally had his own apartment. Even though his grandfather had promised him another year of financial support until he would be completely on his own two feet. He was 19 years old and for the first time in his life he felt really grown up.
The small old apartment on the third floor without an elevator was sunny, offered him enough space on the almost 50 square meters and was his first, completely own kingdom. No room in a boarding school that he had to share, no big brothers who came in and out of the shared children's room as they pleased, even long after they had moved out. He had looked at the apartment with his grandfather Garp, and although it wasn't in his favorite part of town, he was more than happy when he got the acceptance - not least because his grandfather had lived in the city forever as an ambassador and had plenty of good contacts.
Now the youngest of the family had the chance to live his own life. With everything that went with it. In one week he started his new job and until then he wanted to familiarize himself with the not so new environment. After all, he had spent time here regularly as a child. Even though things were always changing and his last, long visit here seemed like ages ago, he knew that he knew his way around Vienna.
He stepped up to the window in the living room, pushing past the small couch and the half-dozen boxes, and opened it, letting in sunlight and fresh summer air. Through the living room, he could look out onto the courtyard shared by three houses here. Everywhere he saw open windows and curtains that were puffed out by the wind and partly pulled out. Silence surrounded him, only a few children could be heard laughing in the distance and somewhere a car drove by. Yes, he would like it here.
He left the window open and devoted himself to his work. The living room and bedroom meant the most work. The small kitchenette in the kitchen had been there before and he would have his few plates put away in a few minutes. So he began the larger part of his task for the next few days.
He especially wanted his little stereo out of the boxes as soon as possible, because he loved music. Silence didn't sit well with Luffy, it weighed on his mind if it lasted too long, so he nodded to himself and opened the first box.
If he had listened to his father and brothers beforehand, and labeled everything correctly, he probably would have found his way around better. As it was, however, he sighed and first began to clear out the books, comics, and his paperwork that looked sadly back at him from the box.
He was closing the drawer to his living room closet and adjusting two books on the shelf when something made him pause. There was a sound...
Irritated, he looked around and his gaze lingered on the open window at his back.
Yes, he clearly heard music.
Not music like he would hear, but... Curious, he walked over and leaned a little over the edge of the window into the courtyard. There was someone playing the piano. He hadn't even noticed when the music had started, it had settled so softly and quietly in his ears that he hadn't realized it at first. Now, however, having become aware of it, he would like to lean into it. With his eyes closed, he listened to the sound. Softly the melody danced into his ears. He had never heard the piece before. But it was beautiful. So gentle. The notes were clear, sometimes softer and then much louder, slowing down and gaining speed again. He sighed as he listened. I wonder who could play so beautifully?
The notes died away and Luffy sank back onto the soles of his feet, smiled for a moment more, and then turned to the next box. He wasn't a fan of classical music, so he left that to Brook. The musician could probably play any instrument in the world and was supposedly a genius at the violin.
Luffy didn't understand anything about geniuses or not geniuses at any instruments. He knew that he enjoyed listening to Brook, especially when the older man put aside his stiff sheet music and just played whatever came to his mind.
But that piano playing there just now, that had been really beautiful. Brook also sounded great when he played the piano in the bar on the corner. But this...
Luffy had been spending time with his grandfather ever since he was a kid. Since the ambassador had come to Austria, he had then also taught him the language and early on the youngest son of the family had set himself the goal of living here one day. Luffy quickly found friends, he was a cheerful nature and popular with everyone. For years, he had a whole circle of friends here, who had actively stood by his side and helped him diligently. They had also taught him a lot of German. Yes, his grandfather spoke almost without accent, he could not yet, but he could communicate and he was able to understand everything his friends told him. He was very proud that he could do that. After all, languages had never been his strong point.
Luffy was happy to live here now for many reasons. One of them was because he could spend more time with Garp. Even though his grandpa had to work a lot and rarely got out of his mansion with the bodyguards, at least now half the world wouldn't separate them.
Another reason was because he liked the language and especially the dialect here so much. He incredibly liked to listen when his friends spoke with the unmistakable Viennese dialect and no matter what they said, it always sounded comfortable. You could insult someone and it still sounded like they were just saying how nice the weather was. Luffy was fascinated by it to this day. And although he had been trying to master the language for most of his life, he would probably never be able to adopt the dialect. German sounded so very different from Japanese or English - even though he barely knew it. He thought two languages were more than enough. And that's how he understood his friends. Being able to do more with them was the third reason why he had insisted on moving to Vienna. Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Brook, and everyone else he had met over the past few years had become his second family, and it warmed his heart at the mere idea of now being able to talk to them at any time and even being in the same time zone! And that for more than just a few weeks a year.
That way they could also listen to a lot more beautiful music together. I wonder if Brook would play at the bar on the corner again that night. He did that more or less regularly. Sometimes on the piano that was there, sometimes he brought his violin. Luffy enjoyed the sound Brook elicited from the instruments. He would never imagine that he himself would be able to do so. And as long as the aged musician didn't start lecturing him again for hours on end about composers and orchestral arrangements, he was happy. Brook used to have to play in a large orchestra and was always bound by his sheet music. Perfection was the only thing that mattered. Today he saw it differently. Luffy had no idea about scores or other specifications, he just listened. Especially when Brook played wildly. Those had always been the best evenings, as far as he could remember, since he had met the colorful group.
Sighing, he shook his head at himself. His work didn't do itself, and he did well to keep at least a little order. It was already dawn and he didn't want to go to sleep in absolute chaos - even if that was very likely.
Nodding to himself, he let the boxes in the living room be boxes and went through the adjoining door into the bedroom. The room had two entrances, one through the hallway and a sliding door through the living room. He left both doors open so the temperature would drop and stacked the boxes that were next to and on the bed in one corner, looking for pillows, blankets and bedding. His friends had helped him set up the bed, and the heavy mattress was already in place, but that was about it. And Luffy had little motivation to sleep on a bare mattress.
"Remember, the first night in your new apartment is special! No matter what you dream, it will come true! That's unwritten law!" his grandfather had told him when he had left him here with his friends that morning.
Luffy was really not superstitious. But the idea that the first night in the new apartment would be magical, he found quite nice. And he didn't want to annoy his grandfather, so he had nodded obediently, smiled at him and promised to tell him if he had a dream tonight. If he would be able to remember it. Usually Luffy forgot his dreams the moment he woke up. The only thing that really stayed in his head was when he dreamed about food. Especially when he fell asleep with his stomach rumbling. And he was almost always hungry.
I wonder if he should get something else to eat tonight. Nami had brought him sandwiches. If he remembered correctly, there were still some in the small kitchenette. He would definitely eat them. Absolutely. Otherwise, all the good wishes wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't fall asleep because he was so hungry. Now, however, the first thing to do was to find his pillow. Without it, he would hardly be able to sleep.
He had just packed his blankets and pillow into a freshly washed cover when the piano playing started again. Astonished, he paused, the pillow slipped from his hands and landed on the mattress, and his gaze darted to the open window. It had grown dim in here, Luffy would either have to go to sleep soon or look for his lamp. For there was a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, but he would be damned if he was going to turn it on in here. The light would be much too glaring. And so, in the little light, he braved the steps over to the window, and just as he had done earlier in the living room, he leaned a little over the window ledge and let his gaze wander over the visible parts of the courtyard.
Lights were already burning behind some of the windows. The curtains, in which the wind had played before, now obscured his view of the interior of the apartments around him. Many windows were closed. But it was still distinctly warm, even outside. And he was sure that the sound of the instrument was not muffled by a closed window. So the piano player was surely behind one of the windows that was still open.
It was a different tune than before, it was a little quieter, and Luffy thought he had heard it somewhere before. If he knew a bit about it, he would have been able to name it for sure. But as it was, he just listened to the delicate sounds of the piano and let his eyes fall closed, breathing in the cooler air and sighing silently. It sounded beautiful. Dreamy. Maybe a little sad. Or wistful. But beautiful. Whoever was playing, they could. It didn't sound like someone who was just trying to learn the instrument. Even Luffy understood that. I wonder if he'd be able to hear that more often from now on. Those soft sounds?
He became tired, the sounds seemed to embrace him, his eyes didn't want to open anymore. Luffy sank against the window sill, he put his head on his arms and listened, humming a few tones now and then, which repeated themselves and which he could remember.
When he startled up, the sound had died away. It was dark and cool air made him shiver. His neck ached and his legs felt quite stiff. Had he really dozed off in this uncomfortable position by the window? Shaking his head, he gathered himself up and hurried to close the window and take off his jeans, crawl under the covers and somehow warm up again. He smiled as he curled up under the covers and with a soft smacking sound he fell asleep.
The next morning came all too quickly. Luffy was awakened by bright sunshine and kicked the blanket off of him because it was already too warm for him. Confused, he blinked at the blanket, looked around the room, and needed a few moments to remember where he was and why there were still boxes everywhere. Immediately he was wide awake. He sat up, a wide grin appeared on his lips and he hopped out of bed, first tearing open the window he had so carelessly closed last night. The air outside was still pleasant, although the sun was already shining again and the air would surely heat up quickly. With a growling stomach, he scurried around the apartment and opened all the windows, making sure the heavy doors wouldn't slam shut, briefly enjoying the draft that was forming.
His stomach grumbled louder, but he forced himself to take a shower and get dressed first, before digging out of the small box of essentials and taking another searching look around the open rooms. The windows were open, but at least he wasn't on the first floor. So it was more than unlikely that someone would break in here if he was only briefly in the supermarket around the corner.
Resolutely, he nodded to himself and checked that he had actually inserted his new apartment key, then slipped into his straw sandals and pulled the heavy door into the lock behind him.
Humming softly, he pattered down the wide spiral staircase with its decorative banister, chuckling softly to himself. It was quiet in the house and his footsteps caused an echo that reverberated through the high stairwell. His fingers slid over the handrail and each step vibrated through the metal of the banister. On the second floor, he noticed a large flower pot standing next to the door of the first apartment in the hallway. It was a rubber tree.
If he understood correctly, there were a total of ten parties on four floors in the house. Yesterday he had met no one, but they had also arrived with the luggage at a time when most people were surely at work and children at school. Luffy would surely get to know everyone... little by little.
His stomach growled louder and his low hum turned into a tortured gasp, groaning as he took the last few steps in one big leap at a time, his shoes causing a loud clap on the tiles.
As he lifted his head and looked around, letting his gaze wander over the large ground-floor entryway, his eyes trying to memorize every detail, an icy chill ran down his spine, literally freezing him in place.
There was a man standing by the mailboxes, staring him down with an evil glint in his eye.
Luffy's breath caught in his throat for a moment.
The stranger was clearly taller than him, slim, almost wiry, had black hair that hung in his face. Golden earrings sparkled between the strands. Beneath the strands that fell into the man's forehead shone golden eyes that narrowed to slits skeptically, downright annoyed, the longer they looked at each other. Luffy recognized prominent circles under his eyes, which seemed to visually intensify the glow, giving him the impression that the man hadn't slept in weeks. In stark contrast, the chin beard he wore appeared perfectly trimmed and as if he had just freshly styled it. Luffy's gaze still lingered on those eyes, but out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw that the stranger was wearing a black shirt. "Gu-Good morning," he murmured almost automatically-but in German, after all! - and his lips twisted into a cautious grin.
A hand appeared in his field of vision, stuck in a glove, the small flap of the metal mailbox closing with a soft click.
"What's good about a morning that starts out so loud?" the stranger blared, his features contorting as if he were looking at a disgusting animal. He snorted "You must be the new guy in the house. Don't make a habit of being so loud."
His voice was low, a low growl was in the few words and purely instinctively Luffy nodded, staring into his golden eyes again.
Appraisingly, the gaze of those eyes slid over his figure, another snort sounded, then movement came into the body of the stranger, who made no secret of the fact that he was eyeing him.
"And get some decent clothes."
Blinking, Luffy's mouth dropped open. Startled, he looked down at himself. Had he put on the wrong clothes in his euphoria after the shower? No, his jeans shorts, his shoes, his dark green T-shirt with the yellow squeaky duck on it - everything was where it belonged! He wanted to retort something, he wanted to puff out his cheeks in offense and throw it at the older man to mind his own business. But when he managed to raise his head again - he was gone!
Confused, he turned left and right, even spun around to make sure the unfriendly guy hadn't just scurried past him to climb the stairs. But he wasn't there.
With the next growl of his stomach, he pushed the confusion aside. His hunger definitely came first! He desperately needed something to eat. He would be able to worry about everything else another time.
"Good morning my boy," a warm, soft voice made him pause and turn around, "Did you lose something?"
Standing in front of Luffy in the hallway was an old lady. She had long, dark blonde curls that fell over her shoulders, a big nose and small eyes. On her lips was a broad smile. She was slightly shorter than Luffy and appeared to be walking leaning forward. The old woman had on light colored pants with a rose pattern and a purple blouse to go with them. She was well built and her smile seemed more than friendly.
"Good morning," he hurried to say, half bowing until it occurred to him that this might probably seem rather alienating to the old lady.
"Oh, you're the boy who moved in yesterday, aren't you?" she cocked her head a little to the left, "My name is Kokoro. I've lived here all my life. Welcome to Vienna."
"My name is Luffy," he smiled and took a cautious step toward her.
She made an inviting gesture with her head behind her into the hallway.
"This is where I live. Would you like to come in for a minute, Luffy?"
Uncertainly, he swayed from one foot to the other. It was rude to decline the invitation, but he was hungry. The weird guy had already cost him time, and if he was going to be delayed any longer now....
"I bet you haven't had breakfast yet, have you? I baked apple pie yesterday. If you don't mind that it's from yesterday, you're welcome to some."
His eyes widened, he beamed at Kokoro and nodded slowly, his mouth already watering. Homemade apple pie!
How long had it been since he had eaten homemade cake?
"Thank you! You're welcome, grandma! I'm super hungry!"
Kokoro looked irritated for a moment, but then laughed out loud, shook her head, and laughed even louder before she managed to turn around and gesture for him to follow her again over her shoulder.
"Come on then, boy."
Two hours later, Luffy managed to say goodbye to Kokoro. The old lady didn't live alone at all. There was a little girl living with her, who must have been her granddaughter, and a couple of pets that she said weren't even allowed in the house. But no one would dare to forbid her to have them, as long as she was already taking care of this house.
Luffy had had a lot of fun at her place, she had let him eat half the cake and invited him to come over for a chat anytime.
Kokoro seemed to be the good soul of the house. She knew everyone and everything, obviously took care of the neighbors' flowers when they were on vacation, and accepted packages for everyone when they were at work. Luffy liked her already. He had a feeling they would get along well.
The only thing that irritated him a little was the number of bottles that were sitting around in their first floor apartment. He hadn't really paid attention to them, but he had the impression that very few of them had been non-alcoholic drinks. Not that it was any of his business.
Although he was full, he forced himself to leave the house directly. If he didn't want to go hungry at lunchtime, he really needed some groceries. He did not want to and could not afford delivery services in the long run, even though Garp had promised his father not to let him starve under any circumstances.
So he explored the immediate surroundings around the apartment building. Not only did he find the small bar at the end of the street where Brook worked from time to time, he also found two larger supermarkets that were close enough to stock up regularly with everything he would need. The neighborhood was manageable. The small alleys between the houses, which were not connected by a common backyard, invited him to look around further over the next few days. Maybe he would discover one or the other surprise and a few shortcuts could not hurt.
Luffy liked the neighborhood he had moved to. On the street he saw many people, almost more than he expected. The air was heating up quickly and he was too warm when he arrived back at the front door with two large bags packed. Awkwardly, he rummaged for his house key. Grumbling, he resolved to find a lanyard for it very quickly, so that he would no longer have to carry the key around with him individually. Snorting, he was about to put down a bag, because he had no chance of getting the heavy door open, when fate sent him a little help. At least that's what he still believed when the door opened in front of his eyes, allowing him to enter the building.
Until he lifted his head and saw who was so kindly and unexpectedly letting him in.
"You again," snorted the stranger from the morning. And at that moment, something struck Luffy. Something that had already irritated him this morning, without being able to name it. Now he knew it.
The man had no dialect.
How could Luffy have missed that yesterday? He spoke flawless High German, free of any nuance of dialect! His pronunciation was razor sharp, precise, as if every sound were a scalpel he was wielding. Something about it made Luffy gulp. I wonder if this man was even from Vienna? Or was he something of a stranger here, too? Strange, as Luffy might have been if he hadn't made so many friends here before he moved in?
"Now get moving, or do you want me to hold the door open for you all day?"
Annoyed, he raised his right hand, which was already back in a glove, and waved it in impatiently, even taking a half step to the side.
Inwardly, Luffy winced and hurried to nod and scurry past him.
"Thank you very much. That's very kind of you," he indicated a bow and tried a small smile.Maybe he was just in such a bad mood because he hadn't slept enough. After all, he almost looked like the bags under his eyes had gotten even darker. Luffy didn't necessarily want to mess with the neighbors just yet. After all, they would have to get along for a long time.
"Yeah, yeah, I don't care."
Once past him, he turned back to the stranger.
"My name is Luffy. To a good coexistence."
"Just make sure I don't have to see or hear from you, and everything will be fine."
Perplexed, Luffy stared after the man with the piercing eyes and the gloves until the door slammed shut and there was no sign of him.
Maybe he was just having a bad day....
Or maybe the guy was just an asshole.