Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

For the most part, Roronoa Zoro was very happy with his life.

He had a decent job— some would argue that maintaining his father's swords collection and polishing them on a day-to-day basis could hardly count as one, but as long as he was fed and paid and got to pick his own dorm from countless bedrooms his old man's castle had to offer, Zoro never felt the need to complain.

He was surrounded by loving families. He had a wealthy father who had recently purchased an island for "wine-tasting" use, hereby he quoted; and a baby sister who constantly dressed as a Gothic Princess and talked to her own stuffed Teddy Bear. They were both perfectly sane people, despite what others might think or say.

He kept a careful selection of friends. A maximum of three, to be more specific. One could eat his own hand; another basically flirted with anything that had breasts; the third lived in constant fear and wetted his pants every time he stepped out of his own door. It was said to be an "I-can't-go-out-of-my-door-or-I-will-die" disease but it was never precisely diagnosed.

The above trivialities aside, Zoro's life was simple and routined. Every day he got up and went to work and headed home and went to bed. Until one day his father Dracula Mihawk handed him an A-4 sized leather-covered pamphlet that resembled some sort of photo album at the dinner table.

"You're meeting this girl tomorrow for dinner." Mihawk said in place of an appetizer.

"Huh?" Zoro looked at his father across from the long table, puzzled. The pamphlet had been served by the housekeeper in a silver platter and placed at where should have been his next dish. Zoro frowned in confusion. He remembered mentioning to the kitchen he had wanted beef.

"Her name is Nefeltari Vivi. Her father and I have been doing business for quite a few years. She's about your age, good-looking, educated and rich enough to be my daughter-in-law." Mihawk said in a flat voice. A beat, and then he added with a slightly raised brow:" you are not gay, are you?"

"Wh—what?! Of course I'm not!" He was simply having a hard time processing the load of information his father had just dumped on him.

"Good." Mihawk nodded briefly and turned to the other side of the table. "What's the date today, Perona?"

The pink-haired girl bit back a chuckle before she answered quietly, "It is April 19, father."

"Lovely. " Mihawk nodded again. "Then we have less than two months to prepare the wedding. I heard you girls nowadays dig the idea of June Brides. Is that so, Perona?"

"How should I know?" Perona protested. "I'm only 14!"

"No, dearie. 14 is your imaginary age. In reality you are 26." Mihawk said. "After Zoro's married, you will be the next."

"Wait I'm not getting m—"

"That's not true~!"Perona shrieked cutting Zoro off. Flustered she stood, nearly knocking off the chair behind her, "If I were 26, how come I go to school every day?"

"I bought that school for you, dearie. I bought your teachers. And your classmates. " Mihawk said calmly as he raised his wine glass in a graceful manner. After a slow sip he added. "We are rich; we can afford to be crazy. Now sit back down and eat your lobster."

"Ahhhh! I hate you! You're ruining my life!" ignoring her father's advice, the pink-haired girl stormed off after breaking her set of plates.

Zoro starred with wide eyes. Not that he was surprised. Not really. What had just happened was a common occurrence in this castle. Hell, they lived in a castle solely illuminated by candles. He would be surprised if people weren't starting to get crazy.

Mihawk shook his head and let out a sigh, "It will cost me a fortune to find someone to marry her. You know, to cancel out the craziness. " Pleased with his own joke, he took another sip of the wine.

The corner of Zoro's eye twitched. "Uh…..can we talk about me for a second?"

"Of course." Mihawk managed to pull a face akin to a smile, not a good one though, but Zoro had seen worse. "How's work today, son?"

"…" maybe it was just him, but sometimes he really felt that he was the only sane one in the family. "I mean, we should probably talk about my…uh, dinner appointment tomorrow?"

"Oh yes. The dinner's at 7. At Baratie, window table. You will be chauffeured by a limo and escorted by 2 body guards."

"You are kidding me, right?" Now Zoro was beginning to feel the urge to smash some plates too. This was outrageous. "You can't just expect me to have dinner with some girl and decide right away if I want to spend the rest of my life with her!"

"I know. "Mihawk nodded in agreement. "That's why I'm deciding for you."

Zoro almost choked on his own saliva. "That's ridiculous! I don't want to get married yet, and I'm not going to—"

"Hear me out, kid." Something in Mihawk's low rumbling voice made Zoro stop mid-protest. Albeit his occasional craziness, Mihawk was an authoritive parent after all.

"Your mother and I had a marriage out of love. And that ended disastrously. I'm not asking you to look the other way, son; I'm just offering you an option. An option that might spare you the future heart break."

This wasn't right. He might know little about love and marriage and stuff but there was something really really wrong about his father's speech. Zoro couldn't pin it. His hand grabbed the side of the table as he looked at his old man in frustration.

"Don't just say no yet. At least go meet the girl. She's the whole package; I think you'll actually like her. "

The pleading undertone in Mihawk's voice stung him a little bit. In front of him was a lonely middle-aged man of wealth. He seemed to have owned everything he had ever wanted for life, and yet he couldn't fill the void in his heart.

Ridiculous as it might sound, he was protecting his children the only way he knew how.

Zoro suddenly felt very sorry for his father.

"And if I don't?" He eyed the older man suspiciously.

"Then I'll pay for her plastic surgery and we'll make you a new girl." Mihawk finished and stood to leave the table. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to beat up some mandrills I imported from West Africa, you know, it's supposed to be an after-meal exercise of some kind, as recommended by my shrink. "

Zoro could only stare at his retreating back in disbelief as Dracula Mihawk walked out of the door of the dining hall. Scrubbing a hand over his face, the green-haired young man sighed heavily before his other hand reached for the pamphlet on the table.

He flipped the cover open: A girl with long wavy blue hair smiled coyly at him. Just like his father said she had a pretty face and judged by the dress she was wearing in this photo he could tell she came from a wealthy family as well.

So…This was Nefeltari Vivi, his date tomorrow night. Zoro suddenly felt the need to undo his collar button as his inside tightened up screaming for air.

He felt suffocated.

Author's Note:

Omiai is a special term in Japanese that stands for "blind dates that most likely lead to arranged marriages." I could have used the title "Blind Date", but it'll weaken the "possible future arranged marriage" part.

If you happened to read my profile before, you would probably notice that I've had this idea for quite some time. Since I haven't found the inspiration to update my other fics, I decided to give this one a shot. Hopefully it'll help ease my writer's block. :P

There are some changes in age and occupations (like you can't tell) in this AU story, for obvious reasons.

Sorry Nami didn't make an appearance in this chapter. She mostly certainly will in later chapters. Tell me how do you think she will appear in a review. Thanks for reading. :)

Love,

Minami