Chapter Text
Tock.
The long hand on the yellowing clock finally struck three. It had officially been 15 minutes since the interview was supposed to begin. The young brunette tapped his fingers on his desk. Another no-show. It was too bad – that last guy seemed really promising.
He picked up a pen and crossed off the only name on the clipboard in front of him, Koby. He’d met the boy at KFC a couple of days ago. Koby was bringing out Luffy’s fifth serving of mashed potatoes when he confessed that he was sick of working there and that his dream was always to work at Burger King. He was just too scared to quit because his manager was such a jerk. Luffy admired his honesty, so he went to the front and asked for the manager. The exchange ended with her on the ground surrounded by gravy.
Koby was either impressed or mortified, and quit his job on the spot. Luffy told him to come work at his new McDonald’s franchise, but he never gave him an interview time. He was just kind of hoping that he would show up today at 9 o’clock.
Luffy stood up with a defeated sigh. His first day of running a restaurant was not going well. He squeezed past the desk in the small office and opened the door into the kitchen. It was supposed to smell like salt and grease in there, but instead, it smelled like Styrofoam and plastic. Brand new equipment, untouched. Like a pirate ship unsailed in, it just felt wrong. The thought made him feel queasy as he approached the front of the house. Wall-sized windows peaked out onto a moderately busy state highway. He narrowed his eyes. The location was unassuming, but with Wendy’s up the street and Burger King close by, competition was fierce.
A loud knock on the window threw him from his thoughts. He looked to see a man with green hair and a confused look on his face in front of the glass. A pang of disappointment hit him when he realized it wasn’t Koby. Luffy waved him to the front door, but the man just looked even more confused. Instead, Luffy came outside.
The other was the first one to speak. “Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Luffy,” Luffy replied. A glint of light hit his eyes as he beamed a huge grin. “I’m going to be king of the restauranteurs.”
“Oh.”
“Who are you?” Luffy asked.
“Zoro. I’m going to be the greatest assistant manager in the world.” He spoke casually, almost matter-of-factly.
“No way!” Luffy gasped. “That’s so cool.”
“Yep. So this is Wendy’s?”
“No, this is McDonald’s.”
“Oh. Can you tell me where Wendy’s is?”
“Sure.” Luffy pointed up the street. “It’s right up the street, on the other side. I recommend crossing when you get to Romance Drive cause there’s a traffic light there. But it’s a straight shot, you can’t miss it.”
Zoro looked at him blankly.
“Got it?” Luffy asked.
“Uh. Yeah. Thanks.” Zoro turned away and began walking up the path away from the restaurant.
Luffy watched him for a couple of seconds, sad that the future greatest assistant manager in the world was going to work at Wendy’s instead of his McDonald’s. The world can be cruel sometimes, he thought. It wasn’t going to make him quit on his dream. He went back into the restaurant and returned to the office.
Three hours later, Luffy was no closer to making a job ad. He tried to make the title “CREW MEMBER OF THE FUTURE KING OF RESTAURANTEURS,” but he got stuck because it was longer than the character limit, and he wasn’t sure how to spell “restauranteur.” The whole ordeal might make a regular restauranteur feel discouraged, but Luffy found that hard times like this only made him stronger. The LCD screen burrowed into his retinas as he once again attempted to switch the “E” and “U” in restauranteur to see which looked more correct.
A familiar knock interrupted his concentration. Luffy picked up his head excitedly. Did the future greatest assistant manager in the world see his job ad before he even posted it? Luffy squeezed past the desk and ran through the kitchen to the front windows again. There stood the same man as before, this time sipping from a 72oz soft drink. Luffy came out to meet him.
“Zoro! Did you decide to work here?”
“No.”
“Oh, I thought you saw my ad on Indeed.” Luffy’s expression fell.
“What’s Indeed? No, you gave me bad directions. I need you to tell me where Wendy’s is again.”
Luffy frowned. “You’re wrong.” He raised his arm and pointed up the street. “It’s a straight shot.”
Zoro rolled his eyes. “Jeez, see, why didn’t you do that before? You didn’t say which direction it was in.”
Luffy’s was silent for a moment, unsure how he could have been clearer. Then his eyes fell on the cup. “Did you go to 7/11?”
“Yeah, I guess. It was on the way.”
“That’s two miles in the opposite direction.”
Zoro sighed. “Look, can you please just take me there? You’re responsible, you gave me bad directions.”
Luffy pinched his thumb and his forefinger under his chin in thought. A novel idea sprouted in his mind. Perhaps he could demonstrate to Zoro why Wendy’s could never give him the opportunities that McDonald’s would.
“Very well,” Luffy replied.
He took a couple of minutes to lock up the store before heading out with Zoro, who waited outside sipping his drink. Before leaving, Luffy grabbed a red pen from a cup on his desk. This was important for his plan.
--
They departed around noon. For the first 10 minutes, neither of them spoke. They walked quietly as cars zoomed by and midday heat began to bear down on their backs. Luffy grew more bored by the second. He tried to entertain himself by avoiding cracks in the sidewalk. As minutes passed, he became more absorbed with the task. Each crack was a challenger in his eyes, and he aptly avoided each and every one.
He became so engrossed that he didn’t notice when they passed Wendy’s. Zoro’s proud stride also continued straight past it. Their forgetfulness complimented each other—they worked as a team to completely miss the restaurant.
Some more time passed before Zoro asked if they were almost there.
Luffy came to a stop and rubbed his eyes with his arm, accustomed to staring at the ground. When he lifted his head, the landscape had changed from a modest town to a more urban environment. Crowded storefronts were drenched in the bright light of midday.
“Uhm...”
“Uhm?” Zoro stopped in his tracks.
“Yeah, it should be…” Luffy looked behind them and ahead of them. “Did we turn?”
“No.”
“I think we turned.”
“We didn’t turn.” Irritation showed through his voice.
“Okaaaay,” Luffy said suspiciously. “We’ll just have to ask for directions.”
“Ask for directions? You were supposed to be my directions.” Zoro crossed his arms, displeased.
Luffy ignored the gesture and scanned the area for the closest passerby. A ginger woman stood at a crosswalk a few yards away. He grinned and approached her.
“Hey! Excuse me lady!”
“Huh?”
The woman turned around. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked at him, as if she was already suspicious. She wore shorts and a sweater—a strange choice for warm weather. But Luffy was unphased by such oddities. His open body language was in stark contrast to hers as he came to a stop before her.
“Hi! Could you give us directions?”
A demure smile crept onto her face, transforming her apathetic expression into one of benevolence.
“Sure! Where to?”
Luffy beamed back, easily accepting her change.
“Wendy’s.”
She pointed in the direction they had come from. “About a mile that direction, across the street. No turns or anything.”
“So we didn’t turn.” Luffy thoughtfully rubbed his chin. He turned around and hollered to Zoro, who was not far away. “Sorry, you were right! We didn’t turn.”
Zoro did not acknowledge Luffy, instead crossing his arms and carefully eyeing the woman. She noticed his gaze and smiled at him. He did not reciprocate. Although his sense of direction was poor, he usually had a pretty good sense of intention. He had noticed her peculiarities and found her friendliness strange.
Luffy lacked that sense. He wasted no time in getting back on track and began to walk away. As an afterthought, he called over his shoulder in gratitude.
“Thanks for the—”
“That’ll be twenty dollars!”
Luffy came to a stop. He looked back at her with confusion, and she returned an expectant look. She crossed her arms.
“Twenty?”
“Yep. I can make change.”
He frowned and turned around.
“Make change? How much do you think I’m carrying?”
“Doesn’t matter. You owe me.”
Luffy paused to process the request. He shifted his weight and dug a hand deep into his left pocket. After a few seconds, he pulled out a lone paperclip and the red pen. He carefully evaluated their worth. He needed the pen, and he didn’t think the paperclip would cut it. He squinted and turned his head towards Zoro.
“Hey, do you have—”
“No.”
Luffy faced the woman again. Her expression was growing impatient. He tried to think of a resolution. He wracked his brain for something valuable to exchange. His face turned desperate, then suddenly lit up. An idea hit him.
“Oh! I own a McDonald’s franchise down the road. If you come back with us, then I can just grab some cash from the register.”
She grinned. She had sized him up as an easy mark and hit a bullseye. But her satisfaction was short-lived, and her smugness decreased.
“Won’t that throw off your books?”
Luffy raised a brow at her.
“We don’t have books. It’s a restaurant, not a bookstore.”
For just a moment, the clouds parted in her. Something about Luffy’s earnest attempt to make good on her bad-faith request had struck a chord. Uncertainty flashed in her eyes. But just as quickly, the pang of compassion evaporated. She hardened herself and smiled confidently at him.
“Fine. But it’ll collect interest until we get there.”
“Okay!” Luffy grinned. “We just need to stop at Wendy’s on the way.” He turned and started down the street. Then he paused and glanced back at her.
“Oh, and what’s your name?”
“Nami.”
“Nice to meet you, Nami.”
The trio started down the street. They fell into a natural walking pattern. Zoro and Luffy walked side-by-side, while Nami took up the rear, dragging behind to discourage conversation. If a stranger saw them walking down the street, then they wouldn’t know what connected them. Yet somehow each of their individual goals had sent them in one, united direction.
At the front of the group, Zoro cleared his throat.
“You know she’s lying, right? You don’t owe her anything.”
Luffy looked straight ahead.
“I know.”