Asura and Devas

Sabaody Secondary School – AU, non-magic, non-Piracy.

THIS CHAPTER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MELIZZA RAGSDALE WHO FIGURED OUT HOW TO HELP ME GET INTO MY STORY TO UPLOAD IT - FFNET'S BEING A BITCH. AGAIN.

The problem with being a teenager was that people automatically assumed you were up to no good and gave you negative attention, and for those people who had received nothing but negative attention their whole lives, it subconsciously gave them incentive to live up to those negative expectations – even if they themselves were not consciously aware of it.

Having more experience with human nature than most, Harry Potter was quite aware of the way people thought but he was both stubborn and contrary – he refused to bend to the will of others. So, despite the negativity he had been stewing in since his infancy, he remained a decent citizen...

Even during the years of Hell at Stonewall Secondary School in Surrey.

Thankfully those years were behind him. Mainly because they expelled him, but he wasn't one to split hairs or get bent out of shape over injustice – well, injustice on his own behalf, he was far too used to getting the short end of the stick for him to even work up the gumption to get irritated with his circumstances anymore. So, yes, he was expelled from Stonewall Secondary School in Little Whinging Surrey, an institute that bred thugs, sluts and miniature gang-members, known to the teenagers as the school of Hard-Knocks. Harry had kept his mouth shut, his head down, he got his work done and avoided the worst of the hooligans in the school by spending the majority of his time in the typically abandoned library where he steadily devoured book after book and scribbled in his notebooks, mostly pictures, but there were a few novel ideas in there, some messy and absolutely terrible song lyrics and poems. For the most part, Harry was a non-entity at Stonewall.

Then Piers Polkis was expelled from Smeltings Academy for Young Gentlemen for possession of illegal substances and arson – he had been high as a fucking kite and then proceeded to set fire to one of the supply teachers, thinking it was a real hoot and not really thinking about the consequences of doing so in a school where the majority of the students were rather upper-class, the children of well to do policemen, high ranking military and even minor politicians.

Piers arrival signalled the end of Harry's quiet school-life.

Bitter and angry about his expulsion, he peddled drugs and alcohol to whomever wanted them and in return was protected and accepted into one of the nastier gangs in the school, the Red Dog Massive.

He ran into Harry outside of the library and things kicked off, he seemed to think that the green eyed male was the same one that he left in Junior School – the one willing to take a beating from his cousin so his Aunt and Uncle wouldn't withhold food. It was a shame for Piers that he wasn't Dudley... and Harry no longer gave a flying fuck what the Dursleys did, he had a part time job which he used the money he earned from to buy his own food.

The former punching bag left his former tormentor bruised, bloody and in a great deal of pain in the middle of the hallway without a flick of an eyelid and without a backwards glance as he made his way to Third Period Chemistry, carefully tucking the slightly blood splattered hardback book he had used as a weapon into his bag where it couldn't be seen.

At Lunch, the Red Dog Massive cornered him by the Long-Jump sandpits behind the gym, Piers with a plaster over the bridge of his nose and several lovely dark bruises forming around his eyes barked and yapped like one of those nasty little purse rats socialite celebrities carried with them while the rest of the gang sneered and glared at him. Evidentially, one or two had taken his lack of participation in the various gang activities, not to mention his lack of friends, as looking down on them. At that point Harry had to verbally question their intelligence, just because someone didn't want to associate with others didn't mean they were looking down on them, it meant they wanted to be left alone.

Then the fight broke out.

And the Lightning Monkies, a rival gang of the Red Dog Massive, got involved, just to get some cheap shots in at their enemies. Within fifteen minutes a riot had broken out and then spilled into the main playground. And right in the middle of it was Harry, using a piece of metal guttering pipe like a staff to defend himself against the knife wielding leader of the Red Dog Massive, Scale – not his real name but Harry had never heard anyone refer to him as anything else.

He won the fight. But he put Scale into the hospital with a concussion, a broken nose, a dislocated knee and a broken arm – the man had insulted his late mother and Harry's not-yet notoriously short temper had snapped. The stupid boy really had no idea what he was fucking with when he decided to take Piers's side in this conflict.

Sadly, the whole riot was blamed on Harry and he ended up expelled.

Vernon had hit the roof upon finding out and tried to beat him black and blue, the key word there being tried. Harry hadn't allowed his Uncle to lay his hands on him since he was eight and discovered what abuse was during school and asked his Aunt and Uncle why they did it to him – Vernon had never really been one for actually touching him before hand anyway, too afraid of getting 'freak' on him, but there were occasions when his temper got the better of him.

In the end, Harry, Petunia and Vernon hatched a deal.

Harry would attend a new school – which ever one would accept him – and Harry would get a flat in the town where the school was, Petunia and Vernon would pay for the rent and the Council Tax but the utility bills and food were Harry's responsibility. The deal was struck and the terms agreed upon, his Aunt and Uncle would leave him alone and Harry would leave them alone.

Which led Harry to now. Newly turned fifteen and starting a new school year at a new school in a new town.

Sabaody Secondary School in the London Outskirts, Harry hadn't heard much about it but apparently it was one of the only schools willing to accept him despite his former expulsion which made him a little suspicious and wary about how he was going to be treated by the faculty and just what the students were like if they were risking it to allow a boy who supposedly started a school-wide riot in the middle of the playground into their building.

It was a nice building too, oddly Japanese-y themed though, he wondered if that was on purpose or if the people who ran the school were just really into Manga. That or Otaku-heads, at least, he thought that was the term for it. What was the term for someone who adored Japan to the point of mimicry?

Apart from really fucking weird.

"Potter, Mr Sengoku will see you now," the receptionist told him coolly, her wrinkled face eyeing his equally wrinkled clothes disapprovingly.

"Thank you," he said shouldering his bag and making his way into the Headmaster's office to meet the mysterious Mr Sengoku who apparently thought he could handle Harry – well, considering how Harry didn't start the riot and wasn't a delinquent thug, he probably really could.

The man's office was definitely Japanese-y, what with the wooden panels and the bonsai tree and the little water feature in the corner. The man himself was huge with thick curly black hair in a tight ponytail – if he took it out of that Harry could tell immediately it would afro like hardcore, he wore a white suit with a blue shirt and surveyed Harry as he sat down. They remained in silence, green clashing on black until Sengoku sat back and sighed slightly.

"Mr Potter, quite usually you would go through the new-year introduction process like every other one of the Year Sevens but instead go straight to your Tutor Room instead of the Assembly Hall. However, I have requested this meeting to get a better handle of you than I would have in other circumstances," the man explained, his voice possessing an odd kind of slur but it was deep and powerful, definitely the kind of voice used to bellowing orders and expecting them to be carried out. "Your previous school records place you in the top ten in terms of marks throughout your year-group, you have the least amount of detentions out of almost everyone save the Year Sevens and possibly one student in the year below you in my whole school, and yet you have been expelled for starting a riot of all things."

The man was looking rather expectantly at Harry now, sitting in silence and obviously looking for an explanation.

"Just because I got blamed for it, doesn't mean I started it," he stated as best he could. He couldn't deny taking part in it, he put three people in the hospital and a lot of others went home with severe bruising, headaches, stomach aches and dead-limbs by the time the riot finally died down and the teachers surfaced from the safety of the Staff room to try and break it up.

Sengoku nodded, "Very well. Here is your Homework planner, there is a map of the School on the back page, the first page is a template for your Timetable, the various rules and restrictions are listed in the pages behind it. If you lose this, it will cost you roughly one pound fifty to replace it at the school reception. Here is your Time-table, your acceptance papers and your Tutor Group, you'll be in East Blue, Gryffindor."

Getting to his feet, Harry accepted the black homework planner, plastic wallet with his papers in it and the two loose sheafs with his timetable and Tutor details. East Blue, Gryffindor? It must have been a House or something, Smeltings had a House system designed to promote some kind of rivalry between the students to encourage them to improve – if Harry had the right handle of Sabaody, it would form the guidelines for various gangs, either you were in the right house, or you were an enemy. Great.

A knock on the door interrupted them and Sengoku called for them to enter, a tall girl with dark blue-black hair and glasses stepped in, she wore dark navy blue leggings, a white shirt and a green tie – the typical uniform for the school, the yellow and navy blue stripes on her tie told him that she was in Year Ten, the same as him, making her about fifteen years old.

"You called for me, Mr Sengoku?" she asked, slightly breathless in that brown-nosing kind of way that made Harry internally cringe, either this girl had the backing of someone very powerful or she was an utter bully magnet.

"Miss Sho, this is Harry Potter, one of our new students. Please escort him to East Blue, Gryffindor's Tutor Room," the Headmaster told her, a small smile on his mouth as he spoke to her.

The girl nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, sir. Its nice to meet you Harry, my name's Tashigi. I'm in East Blue, Hufflepuff but I'm sure we can still be friends," the girl enthused as she waited for Harry to collect his bag and join her. For his part, he couldn't believe that anyone could be that perky, or enthusiastic about being given Baby-sitter duty by the Headmaster, this girl HAD to be a Brown-nose, or at least a Prefect.

"Yeah, sure," he grunted as he followed her out of the office, looking around as they passed the receptionist.

"Morning Miss Tsuru," Tashigi chirped to the surly old woman who had greeted Harry earlier, and to his great surprise the woman actually smiled at the chronically cheerful girl. Definitely a brown-noser.

"Good morning Tashigi," she greeted before answering the phone.

"Miss Tsuru seems a little harsh, but she's really nice once you get to know her. She just has this thing about people looking sloppy and it makes her seem like a, well, not very nice," the bespectacled girl explained as they made their way down the hall and towards a fire exit. "Anyway, what school did you come from? I've been at Sabaody since the start but I've only been able to join the Disciplinary committee last year."

Harry looked at her in confusion, "Disciplinary committee?" he asked, wondering if he wanted to know, it did sound rather Gang-like.

Tashigi laughed, "Prefects, only a little more. The students here can get a bit rowdy and out of hand, we're the ones who go in and break the fights up, drag the offenders to Internal Suspension and generally make sure that people don't get out of hand in the corridors. Um, it can get quite physical with some people," she admitted, a dark red blush colouring her face which told Harry that either someone she liked had gotten up close and personal, or she had been the one who had done it and was now embarrassed. Still, the idea that this painfully cheerful slip of a girl was on pretty much the Teacher's Private Police Force was a surprise. She must have been better than he thought she was. He should really stop underestimating people based on their appearance – after all, most everyone would think he was a weakling at first sight, hell, he was shorter and thinner than Tashigi who looked rather willowy to begin with.

"Oh, right, I get it."

The two carried on towards one of the other buildings with the girl yammering away, explaining about the Senior Prefects, in particular one guy nicknamed Smoker – due to the fact that he was a heavy chain smoker who always had a cigarette in his mouth when not in lessons, apparently he smoked cigars when he wasn't in school. Harry got the impression that Tashigi was nursing a crush on the Year Eleven.

"Well, here we are. Room 30, um, just to warn you, one of the guys in here is a bit... well, don't pick a fight with him. You'll understand when you see him," Tashigi warned him, her face unusually serious as they stood in front of the only upstairs classroom in the outbuilding, looking around she pointed to a locker with a key sellotaped to the door, "That there's your locker, don't lose the key, its about three pounds to replace it because they've got to recut it for you. Well, I'll see you at lunch? Bye." And with that, she was gone, leaving him holding his planner, bag and eyeing the classroom as though it held his doom – which it probably did.

Sucking in a breath, he walked in.

And his world exploded into chaos.

He blinked, staring at the sheer, unadulterated pandemonium taking place in front of him, without the teacher present, it seemed as though his classmates had just gone to riot. He leaned backwards, avoiding a curly haired boy with a long nose who went running past screeching about how he had Cookie-Disease, which meant if he didn't eat them he would die, trying to escape another boy with a strawhat on his head of all things. A ginger haired girl was playing poker in the corner and she seemed to be the only one fully clothed as well – strip poker? A short green haired guy was lounging at his desk and swigging something in a coke bottle that Harry was quite certain was alcoholic in nature, beside him was a Kendo stick that, again, Harry wasn't quite sure he was allowed to have. A blond boy with an oddly swirled eyebrow was sat on the windowsill overlooking the football field and smoking while he watched the near-by strip poker game with increasing disappointment as the ginger haired girl remained fully clothed. Looking for an empty seat, Harry found himself sat beside a lanky red head with blue eyes and a face full of freckles hunched over an old Gameboy Colour, on his other side was a quiet brunette girl with a head of curly hair and her nose in a book.

A moment later the door opened and the teacher walked in, her face was severe and her greying black hair pulled into such a tight bun that Harry was surprised she didn't have a headache – or her hair wasn't yet being pulled out by the roots.

"Sanji, put that cigarette out! You boys, clothes back on and I will thank you, Nami, not to play strip poker in the school. Usopp, Luffy, back in your seats immediately. Ron put your game away before I take it away. Lavender, Pavarti straighten your ties and button up your blouses now, and for goodness sake, unroll your skirts, anyone can see your underwear if you bend over!" the woman barked, swiftly and efficiently beginning to restore order to the most unruly class in the school – not that Harry was aware of it at the moment, nor was he aware that he had been placed in Madam McGonagall's class for that reason alone, she was the only teacher capable of handling the most unruly of students. "Crocodile, give me that now," she snapped, holding her hand out for the large and rather sharp golden hook he had been fiddling with, "You will get it back at the end of the day. You as well Zoro, hand it over," she commanded, collecting the hook and moving onto the green haired teenager who reluctantly gave up his bottle, but with an exceptionally mutinous expression. She sniffed it and pulled a face, "Whiskey? At your age? I really do wonder who supplies you."

The teenager folded his arms and glared at her stubbornly, clearly not giving anything away, she sighed and returned to the front of the class, putting both hook and bottle into her top draw and patiently waiting until the boys who had been playing Poker were fully dressed and seated before allowing a small smile to curl on her lips.

"Its nice to see you all again after the Summer Holidays," she said and the class erupted into gleeful cheers, a few people exclaiming about how they knew she loved them really, "Yes, yes, I love you all, sit down." She smiled and chuckled a little before waiting for them all to settle down again, "Now, its a new School Year and a new opportunity to gain House Points, I hope to see the Cup continue to remain in my office again next year so work hard, all of you, and do me proud." Everyone grinned and nodded, a few of them exclaiming about how they wouldn't let her down. For all of her severity, apparently the students loved her, huh, Harry was surprised. She seemed to care about them as well which was even more odd, she hadn't assigned detention for confiscating a weapon or a banned substance. "Now, I'm sure you've all noticed, well, a few of you, but we have a new face joining us. Harry Potter, would you like to come up here and introduce yourself?" She was smiling so warmly, so invitingly that Harry was instantly suspicious and sank down warily in his seat, making one of the girls behind him – Lavender he thought she had been called – giggle.

Reluctantly, because she was still smiling at him, he got to his feet and slowly made his way to the front of the classroom, frowning unhappily as he looked down at everyone. There was a moment of silence where he clearly wasn't sure what to say, "Just tell us a bit about yourself and why you're here," McGonagall suggested delicately, clearly this one was a lot quieter than her usual rambunctious boys – it made her wonder why he was in her class, she would have to ask Sengoku.

"Okay, uh, I used to attend Stonewall Secondary School in Surrey. I like Free Running and birds, I'm here because there was a riot at my old school and I was blamed for starting it," he explained, deciding to leave out the part where he hospitalised three people, it wouldn't look good and he really didn't want the trouble.

He quickly retreated to his seat when he received a nod from the teacher and hunkered down, hoping everyone would ignore him from then on.

It had been three months since he started at Sabaody Secondary School, he hadn't made any friends, any real ones at least. He had tried to make a go of it with Ron Weasley, the red head he sat next to, but he overheard him bitching about him behind his back like an overgrown toddler to try and get some girls interested in him and promptly ditched him like a hot potato. He didn't really want to be friends with someone who would drop him when a nice pair of tits and a willing crotch wiggled in his general direction. Nor did he want to be friends with an elitist bitch who treated him like scum when he didn't measure up to her snotty upper-crust manners and idealistic vision of a rose-tinted universe. So pretty much any attempt to befriend the girl sat on his otherside, Hermione Granger, set his teeth on edge and he eventually just gave up and left her to complain about their classmates in peace. Absently wondering all the while that if she had so much money and intelligence and manners why didn't she go to a school that could actually tolerate her.

So, he was just as reclusive and lonely at Sabaody as he had been at Stonewall – only this time there was a better library and some people he would sit and read beside in comfortable silence.

Even though they had exchanged all of a handful of sentences since they met three months back, Harry liked to consider Robin Nico, a Year Eleven girl in West Blue, Ravenclaw, a friend. They sat beside each other in the back of the library thumbing through books, Harry occasionally writing in his battered notebook, drawing, while she positively devoured the History section, one book at a time. Sometimes even venturing into the Historical Fiction based books if she couldn't find something she hadn't read before.

He kept to himself, he stayed out of other people's business, he occasionally waved weakly to Tashigi as she trotted along at the heels of a scowling Year Eleven with prematurely grey hair and a cigarette hanging from between his lips – the mysterious Smoker he assumed. He avoided areas with heavy traffic and ate his Lunch at his desk in his Tutor Room which was usually pretty quiet with everyone else eating in their little cliques scattered around the school.

So yes, he kept out of everyone's way. Which begged the question of, why was he getting harassed by his classmate Crocodile?

As of the moment, he was leaning against a wall of lockers in an out of the way corridor leading to Internal Suspension – currently empty right now with the Disciplinary Committee patrolling the school during Lunch time. The scowling dark haired teenager had his hook pressed against Harry's throat and was glaring hot death at him, for his part, Harry just arched an eyebrow and looked up at him, mentally cursing his height again.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked blandly.

"Robin," he snarled, taking Harry by surprise. "You've been hitting on my woman," he growled making Harry blink in faint surprise.

"I wasn't aware she had a boyfriend," he admitted, "And I wasn't hitting on her. We've barely said three words to each other the past two weeks," he pointed out, only to find his head getting slammed into the locker behind him, and his temper beginning to fray.

"Don't lie to me!" he snapped, "Curled up all cosy in the back of the library where you're not wanted, slobbering over her. She is mine and you'd do well to remember that, trash." He slammed Harry against the lockers again and the green eyed male rammed his knee up into Crocodile's gut and slammed his forehead into the other teenager's nose, making him stagger back with a howl as his hands flew to his face.

Furious, Harry whipped around and rammed his foot into his stomach, throwing him into the wall where he grabbed the front of his uniform and yanked him down to eye level.

"Robin is a friend, I have no intention of hitting on her, I have no intention of slobbering over her and not once, in the past three months that I have known her, has she ever mentioned you. She is not a thing, she is not property and she does not – belong – to – you!" he hissed venomously before slamming his elbow into the side of the other teenager's head and dropping him, allowing him to slide down the wall cradling his bloody nose and the throbbing in his skull and stomach as the new member of East Blue, Gryffindor stalked off down the corridor to the cafeteria, intending to get his lunch as he had forgotten to make it the previous night.

Charcoal eyes watched the whole scene from the bathroom door.

The next day, a Year Eleven by the name of Daz Bones confronted him behind the science block during break while Harry had been on his way to his next class, apparently he took offence at Harry's method of dealing with Crocodile who was evidentially a member of Baroque Works – a gang that had members stretching across several schools and outside of London.

Not wanting another riot to break out, Harry left, he was up and over the chainlink fence in under a heartbeat and before Bones could get that switch blade of his into his ankles. Then, quite calmly, he walked around the side of the school and climbed back in next to the cafeteria where he entered and went up the stairs and into the English block on the second floor, where his lesson was.

He did not want to get caught up in everyone else's shit.

Charcoal eyes watched as he came into class late and the expression of frustration on Crocodile's face as he saw their distinctly unruffled classmate.

Cornering him after school was probably the stupidest thing they could have done. Five to one odds yes, but it was an area Harry was intimately familiar with AND he was armed with his weapon of choice, it was a slaughter to put it lightly. He suffered a few bruises, a twisted ankle and a chunk of his hair had been ripped out, but people who jumped him were currently rolling on the ground clutching at their injuries, groaning in pain. He had avoided breaking any bones though – least he build up some kind of reputation for it.

Picking up his bag, the black haired male limped off towards the bus stop that would take him to the Zoo where he could earn his dinner by working in the Reptile House and preparing food for the Lions.

He never noticed the man in the green coat who watched from the doorstep of the Off-licence.

It had been during Dudley's eleventh birthday when they went on a trip to the zoo that Harry discovered his peculiar talent for snake charming, somehow his cousin managed to break the glass surrounding the Boa-Constrictor enclosure, he fell face first into it and allowed the snake to escape. Everyone had pitched a fit and stampeded for the door while Vernon and Petunia shrieked and screamed and Piers ran screaming like a little girl as far away as possible while the constrictor, meaning it was non-venomous, snapped playfully at his heels.

Harry had been the one who had knelt down and gently lifted it, allowing it to wrap around his chest and shoulders and while it did squeeze almost uncomfortably tightly, he just hummed to it until it relaxed enough to let him breathe without gasping.

That was when the Reptile Keeper came upon them and nearly suffered a heart-failure.

It was the same with every snake Harry worked with, he got a quiet part-time job in that very reptile house and had worked there until he moved, the guys there had been so impressed with his talent that they had written him a professional reference to the London Zoo and recommended his employment. Harry received double the amount of minimum wage and worked four days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Afternoons and Sunday all day.

Today was Sunday and Harry had just witnessed his classmates walk into the Reptile house and promptly shit a brick.

It was against school rules to get a job without permission – and Harry most certainly didn't have permission, it was illegal for him to even be working with the animals considering how he didn't have the qualifications, he didn't have the safety checks and he didn't have the certification to prove that he wasn't some kind of criminal or animal abuser of some such. Fuck, he was fifteen and living in his own flat without parental supervision, he was paying his own bills and sorting out his own food with the Dursleys in a different County. He was in so many different levels of 'Oh fuck the hell shit' that it was no longer even amusing how badly he was going to get fucked up if anyone found out.

He had bullshitted everyone here by saying it was to go into his University Savings.

Panicking, he looked around for something to hide behind, something that required his attention so they wouldn't notice him and he could pretend that he wasn't here. His radio crackled, telling him that a new shipment of food had just arrived and he was needed to help unload, Harry nearly went boneless with relief as he quickly hurried out of the Reptile House – unaware of the contemplative eyes that followed close behind him.

Christmas had come and gone without incident from the Dursleys, which was fine and dandy for Harry – he hadn't even bothered going back. Instead he sat in his little flat, with his Iceland roast-pork, chips and mixed vegetables, opening the little wrapped present that Madam McGonagall had gotten him. She had given everyone in the class a present, for Harry, it was the first present he'd ever had, so he'd waited and saved it until Christmas Day to open it.

It wasn't much, but the little notebook with the cartoon dragon on the cover made that Christmas the best he'd ever had as he tucked into his Christmas Dinner with the radio playing quietly in the Kitchen and the sounds of families in the flats around him celebrating.

Spring term, joy.

Harry sighed as he made his way down towards the Gym for Physical Education (P.E.), he hadn't received any further trouble from Baroque Works, but at the same time, he had seen them giving him dark looks before looking at someone else, usually one of the people in his class as they made their way to the next lesson. Harry thought nothing of it beyond the fact that they obviously didn't want to get into it in the middle of a crowded corridor where someone from a separate gang would join in and start another riot. Good, the last thing he needed was another riot.

When he saw the gang of Year Nines harassing the littlest Year Seven he had ever seen, he was sorely tempted to pretend he hadn't seen anything. Too many years of receiving nothing but difficulties when he attempted to do the right thing had discouraged him from trying to do anything but remain uninvolved and pick up the pieces in the aftermath.

But the kid was so tiny, and he was on the verge of tears, big brown eyes that could hit Bambi harder than a train pleading to return his books and Harry couldn't stand back anymore.

Damn him for being a fucking Softie.

One of the girls in his class was a bo-staff user, like him, she managed to hide it away on herself by having it separate into three parts and hide it under her skirt strapped to her thigh, add to that she had electrified them somehow to act as a tazer. Harry had followed her example but in a different way, two short-staves hidden up his sleeves, he could use them separately or he could screw them together to make a staff. Without the inbuilt tazer.

He dropped his bag and kicked it to the side as he pulled them from his sleeves and roughly twisted them into one, "Oi, brats," he hissed menacingly, making the four bullies and their victim freeze and look over in surprise as Harry rested the pole against his shoulder and sneered down at them – something that actually took skill considering how he was shorter than they were. "Back away from the Firstie, now."

"On who's authority?" a dumb looking one demanded, stepping up to the diminutive Year Ten, seeing no threat from someone three inches shorter, five inches thinner and armed with nothing pointy and sharp.

Green eyes narrowed and the Year Seven paled, taking a step back a split second before the pole lashed out, roughly mowing the dumb looking one to the side with one strike to the side of the head. He landed hard and Harry pointed the end of the pole at his neck, pressing against his Adam's Apple and trapping him down on the floor.

"Mine," Harry answered coldly, before looking at the other three, "Return his bag and books and leave. Now. Or I crush your friend's throat before moving onto yours."

There was a split second of indecision, quite visible on their faces, no longer was this about picking on some little first year, this was now about pride and reputation. Some unknown bastard interrupts and then hands them their own backsides on a silver platter without any apparent effort. It was three on one anyway...

They smirked and one of them roughly tossed the kid his bag before allowing a thick metal chain to slip out of his sleeve, clanking on the thin carpet covered concrete floor, the second pulled a switch blade from his pocket and the last settled into a Karate stance, making Harry sigh. Clearly they weren't holding their friend's life very high. He gave the prone teenager's throat a hard prod – making him gasp and choke, hands flying to his neck in front of the other boys' disbelieving eyes. So, they thought he had been bluffing? Well, he had been, that prod was in no-way hard enough to break his trachea, but it shocked him enough into panicking over his ability to breathe, which served Harry well in this situation.

Hopping back a half step, Harry lowered his staff like a lance and lunged forward, waiting for the boy with the knife to dodge even as his hands twisted the staff, breaking it into two – the leading short-staff crashed into the chain wielding boy's hip while the follow up went straight into the diaphragm of the boy who dodged, forcing all the air out of his lungs and dropping him immediately as he struggled to breathe, knife falling from nerveless fingers.

Whipping around he brought the follow-up staff up and then down, crashing into the forehead of the Karate boy – sending him to the ground clutching his head in pain while the boy with the chain lashed out, tangling it around the top of Harry's leading staff.

Darting forward, Harry twisted them back together and drove one end of the staff into the floor and jumped, using it as a vault to ram both his feet into the boy's face, throwing him backwards into the lockers, breaking his nose and giving him two black eyes at the same time as Harry flipped back and landed in a crouch, staff in hand, the Year Nines all in a circle of pain and wheezing around him.

Glancing around to make sure they weren't going to get up again, Harry unhooked his staves and slid them back up his sleeves where they belonged before approaching the little Year Seven who had hidden himself under the stairs in the tiniest gap possible.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, deliberately gentling his voice as much as possible. The kid looked at him as if he were the devil incarnate, making him wince a little, alright, maybe he'd gotten a little too rough with those boys back there but he just really hated bullies. "Hey, you're alright, I'm not going to hurt you. If I were, I'd have left it to Einstein back there and his group of Brain-Boxes," he told the kid, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to the fallen forms of the boy's tormentors.

After a moment, the kid slowly uncurled himself and ventured out, Harry stepping back to give him some space.

"What's your name?" he asked gently as he went and picked up his fallen bag.

The kid shifted uncomfortably, "Tony, but my friends call me Chopper," he admitted quietly, beginning to loosen up when it became apparent that Harry had no desire to beat the day-lights out of him. "My brother calls me Tanuki though," he admitted darkly, making Harry snicker. "Its not funny! Tanuki means Raccoon Dog! I'm not a Raccoon!" he exclaimed.

"Why does he call you that?" Harry asked, honestly curious. Having never had any real siblings the mechanics behind how one gave another an embarrassing nickname was completely fascinating and foreign to him – Dudley only ever gave him nicknames to be cruel and embarrassing.

Tony blushed as he scratched at his fluffy brown hair, "Halloween, I went dressed as a reindeer once but everyone kept mistaking me for a Raccoon or a dog, so it kind of just stuck. And since our family's Japanese..." he explained, trailing off.

"Ahh, I understand. Well Tony, we're both late for class so why don't I take you to your lesson and explain what happened to your teacher so you don't get into trouble?" the older teenager offered.

The kid positively beamed as he nodded rapidly, "Thanks, er, what's your name?" he asked, blushing in embarrassment.

"Harry."

"I know you, you're in my class at school." Harry very nearly dropped his mop as he there-abouts jumped clean out of his skin at the sudden voice behind him, whipping around he stared like a deer in the headlights at the other boy. Zoro he recalled his name being, the alcoholic who was constantly having bottles of whiskey, vodka, beer and whatever the hell else he drank confiscated by Madam McGonagall. "What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice deceptively uninterested and innocent.

Harry narrowed his eyes at him, not fooled in the slightest by the tone.

"I'm lending a hand to a friend of mine. They're short handed here," he stated shortly before returning to working, ignoring the green haired teenager and hoping to all hell he would just leave already.

"Really? I thought you worked here," the other boy said, making Harry glare at him, he shrugged at the look, a knowing smirk on his face.

"And if I did?" Harry demanded with a glower.

Charcoal eyes creased in amusement and a little approval as the other fifteen year old shoved his hands into the pockets of his large green coat, he leaned back almost belligerently as he seemed to 'think' about his answer. Making Harry grip his mop and dearly love to smack him around the head with it. "I would have to consider it my duty as a former member of the Disciplinary Committee to report it to the appropriate authority figures," he told the smaller teenager in a mockingly apologetic tone, as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Harry was now gripping the mop so tightly his hands were hurting, he was gritting his teeth and scowling fit to kill at the other male, "And what would it cost me to, ah, convince you that I had permission?" he asked, knowing full well how the game was played. Honestly, this would be easier if everyone was just straight forward.

"When's your Lunch Break?" he asked instead.

Harry frowned and glanced at the clock on the wall above the rattle-snake enclosure, "In an hour. Why?" he asked darkly, now glaring at the other male warily.

Instead, Zoro smirked and stepped back, "Don't leave. I'll see you then." Before turning around and sauntering out of the building, leaving Harry to his mopping – which he did with a lot more aggression than usual, mentally pasting the bastard's face onto the linoleum as he ruthlessly scrubbed the mop over it. It was only slightly cathartic. But cathartic all the same so by the time his Lunch Break came along, he was a lot calmer.

Outside, he ran into Zoro who smirked and gestured, wanting him to follow as he led the two of them towards the picnic area near-by.

Whatever Harry had been expecting when he finally got there, it most definitely wasn't half his class, Robin and Tony waiting for him, he blinked at stared at them in surprise before Zoro pushed him towards the table where they were all clustered around. Half these people he had never seen before – he was fairly sure some of them were too old to attend Sabaody, in fact he was quite certain of it.

"What is all this?" he asked, looking at Robin and Tony, the former of which just smiled enigmatically while the latter giggled and blushed.

"Zoro wanted to say thanks for helping his little brother," the boy in the strawhat exclaimed, grinning broadly from his seat, that one was Luffy if his memory was correct. Wait a minute, little brother, Zoro?

Harry whipped around to look at Zoro who was really stood a little too closely behind him for comfort, "You're Tony's older brother?" he asked in shock, considering the names it was absolutely incomprehensible. Zoro and Tony, no, it just didn't work. Not in England anyway, well, who was he to say the naming couldn't work in another country? "Alright, okay, so, why am I here? I was under the impression I was being blackmailed."

"You are," the ginger girl from his class said with a smirk, Nami he recalled, she was the one who was always gambling, "We're blackmailing you into joining us."

All of a sudden, the look of surprise and vague irritation fell from Harry's face to be replaced with something sharp and hard as he glared at them, "No," he snarled, taking them all by surprise, "I am not joining any gang, report me if you like but fuck you, no way in hell."

"Not quite like that Harry," Robin told him, the fact that she was the one who spoke to him was pretty much the only reason he hadn't yet walked away, she was hardly a gang creature – she was more interested in History than sniffing glue and causing fights. He scowled at her, feeling a cold shiver work its way down his back when he felt Zoro brush against him, he wanted to turn around and tell him to back the fuck up but it would be admitting that his presence was making him uncomfortable – he needed to remain unperturbed by these people, he wasn't going to give them any leeway over him than they already had.

"Yeah," Luffy exclaimed, bouncing over the table, revealing the sleeveless and collarless red top and tolled up blue jeans he was wearing as he bounded into Harry's personal space, "We're kind of like Pirates, we only beat up bad guys who're picking on our friends."

"Honest Harry, we're not like everyone else in school," Tony explained, looking up at him with large chocolate brown eyes, "We help people, like you did for me last week."

"Don't knock us until you've tried us," a guy with blue hair and a lot of nose piercings told him with a toothy grin as he wiggled a bottle of coke in his direction, Harry had no idea who this man was, he looked like a college student or some kind of mechanic judging by the oil stains on his arms – he was heavily muscled too, not someone Harry was keen on getting into a fight with, though he was somewhat certain he would be faster.

"We're only blackmailing you into joining," Nami explained with an understanding smile, "If you don't like it after a few months then we'll cut you loose and no word about your job will pass our lips."

Harry stared at her, ignoring the teenager behind him as best he could.

The next day at school after he had accepted the Strawhats' offer saw him immediately being moved into their corner of the room, Nami managed to talk him into a game of Strip poker which, to Sanji's glee, Nami was losing at much to her disgruntlement, though she had managed to get Harry out of his sweater, shirt and tie – allowing the scars from Stonewall to be visible, there weren't that many but there were a few nasty ones from some dick heads who liked to play with knives and lighters.

He then discovered that he shared every lesson with at least one member of the Gang, most often it was Zoro and Nami – which was a little annoying for him since he kind of held them responsible for his descent into Gang-Life, which he wasn't happy about. He'd spent what felt like ten years trying to prevent everyone from thinking he was a Gang Member and a thug only to have them ignore that and then get blackmailed into it anyway. Now, he couldn't even be honest when he tried to tell people he wasn't in a Gang. His life was so screwed up.

Lunch was an interesting affair, uncomfortable for Harry as he was usually such a loner but at least he understood now why Robin always bade him goodbye during Lunch and left the library. Sanji was apparently something of a cooking fiend, he brought a massive backpack full of nothing but food that he then proceeded to hide within the larder in the Home Ec. Rooms – with permission from Mrs Gibson the teacher. Come Lunchtime, he reappeared with the bag and began to serve out the food for everyone. Harry had never eaten so much in his life and his portion was nowhere near as much as Luffy or Zoro's, his was actually the smallest portion to which Sanji received a glare for from Nami and Zoro. The blond merely arched an eyebrow at them stubbornly and folded his arms, looking at Harry who flushed in sudden understanding and embarrassment. He knew. He knew that Harry didn't eat much, couldn't eat much, because he had never eaten very much, because he had starved more often than he had been full and his stomach had shrunk in response as it semi-cannibalised itself, which was exceptionally painful. Harry kept his head down and ate as much of it as he could, about three quarters before he began to feel uncomfortable and sluggish – at that point he let Luffy have the rest which got him a rather tearful thank you and 'You're a great guy' from the boy in question.

Again, he noticed that while walking through the corridors various Baroque Works members gave him a wide birth and dirty looks but this time he realised why – Zoro. The green haired teenager was glaring viciously at all of them, hovering protectively behind him, making all the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand straight in discomfort, experience taught him that someone that close behind him was always a bad thing.

After school, he met up with the rest of them at the Gate and they all walked Nami to her place – as it was the closest, and then Harry to his bus-stop for work.

And that was that, that was the routine for the next three to four weeks. On days when he wasn't working, instead they all bundled off to the boat-yard where Franky worked, he was a Mechanic as Harry thought, but for motorboats and the like, they even had their own ship, the Thousand Sunny, though right now it was just a scrap heap. Franky was renovating it in his spare time but that hadn't stopped the rest of the Strawhats from claiming it as their hide-out.

It was nice, Harry guessed. Everyone clustered together, laughing, screwing around and just generally being a group of teenagers, Harry was still very much a solitary creature but so was Robin and Zoro, they sat around watching the others go apeshit and laughed at them. He also learned a lot about his... well, he guessed he could call them friends, couldn't he? He did enjoy spending time with them even if he wasn't too wild about the idea of being in a gang.

He learned that everyone went by a nickname instead of their real names, they call called Tony – Chopper, and as it turned out Zoro's real name was in fact Zack, they called him Zoro because of his skill with swords ironically enough. Nami was originally Naomi, Franky was Cutty Flam, Sanji was Samuel, Usopp was Eugene, Luffy had always been Luffy, same with Robin and the last member of their group – coincidentally the oldest, Brook was also known by his own name. Right now, veryone was trying to decide on his name because 'Harry' was... well, Harry. He wasn't sure how to react to his name change but he assumed it was just their way of saying he was welcome with them, that he was one of them.

In the end, they decided to call him Kai.

By the time a Month and a half had gone by, Harry had conceded the fight.

He was a Strawhat now, and he found that he quite liked it in all honesty. They all threw a massive party where Luffy's older brother and his friends crashed to see the new baby – Harry met Marco, his old friend, who was apparently higher up in the chain of command than Luffy's brother Ace. Marco had been the one to teach Harry how to fight in the beginning back before he left the Dursleys, true, all he had done was give the younger teenager some pointers, suggest weapons and tell him to fight smart and fight dirty.

He must have missed something pretty good because when he went out to get some drinks with Chopper, they came back in and everyone was grinning and laughing at a red faced and pissed off Zoro. Throughout the rest of the night he got the edgy feeling that someone was watching him and the knowing smirks Marco and the others shot him just made it worse.

"Kid, you've grown up a lot since we first met," Marco said as they were all leaving, placing his hands on his shoulders and looking at him sombrely, "I should have known this day would come, yo."

"Huh? What day?" the smaller teen asked, getting edgy again.

Marco's mouth was twitching as he fought off a smile, or a laugh – more accurately a cackle but he wasn't to know that, "This is completely different from the last time, this is something you have to figure out on your own," - "Marco? Seriously, what the hell?" - "The only advise I can give you is this, my young friend. When they're that big, don't wiggle around until you're comfortable. Or you'll just make 'em more excited."

Harry stared at him while distantly he was aware of Nami roaring with laughter in the background while Ace, Sanji, Zoro and Usopp went bright, bright red.

"Dude..." Harry started, "What the hell are you talking about?" he repeated firmly, scowling at the older blond who tilted his head to look over Harry's shoulder.

"You'll have a hard time with this one. In every sense of the word. Have fun," he said with a broad grin while Harry scowled, deciding that he had had enough and jabbing the blond in the gut, making him grunt and retreat, cradling the afflicted area as he wheezed out a laugh, "Rough too," he choked out with a toothy grin, "May have to hold him down."

"Would you shut up? Or at least explain what the hell you're on about?" Harry shouted, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"Nope. For me to know and for you to find out, hopefully. Toodles." Macro then proceeded to flee before Harry could wrap his hands around his throat and beat him until answers came out – or candy, whichever came first.

His abrupt departure left Harry both confused and irritated, a bad combination because he spent the next twenty minutes seething until Zoro and Chopper offered him a lift back to his place – which then filled him with panic instead of irritation. Refusing would have been suspicious, considering how late it was so he joined then rather hesitantly in the car with their father and apparently their sister, a dark haired woman by the name of Kuina who looked startlingly like Tashigi from the Disciplinary Committee.

Koshiro, their father, was calm and very soothing, he asked general questions as they drove back and never pushed him for answers, the man was perpetually smiling and it felt like he was only vaguely paying attention to his answers when Harry was quite certain the man was categorising everything he heard to come to some kind of opinion on him. Whatever that opinion was, Harry never found out because by the time they arrived at the block of flats where Harry lived, there was a very familiar car parked out on the road and all the blood drained from his features.

"Kai? You alright?" Chopper asked, watching as Harry's face went ash white.

Green eyes flicked to him and he managed a very strained smile, "Yeah, I'm just a lot later than I thought I'd be. I'd better go, my relatives'll be wondering where I am. It was nice meeting you Mr Roronoa, Kuina."

"Nice meeting you as well, Kai-kun," Koshiro told him warmly, "Feel free to drop over if you're ever in need of anything, I'm sure the boys would be thrilled to see you." Harry got the nasty impression that Koshiro had just figured out far more about his personal life than Harry would be happy about. Far more.

"Un, you'll have to visit the Dojo too. You look like you'd have some skill with a sword, perhaps I should teach you," Kuina suggested, smiling brightly – she was the oldest of the siblings and apparently the strongest, though Zoro was very, very close behind her according to Chopper who whispered about how Kuina was teaching at the Dojo now so that meant she was at the same level as a Master.

Harry snorted, "Marco's friend already tried. Sadly, I have zero skill with a sword or anything sword-like." He quickly escaped the car after that, god only knew how long his relatives had been sat there in his empty little flat, waiting for him. Something twisted in the pit of his stomach, something told him that this was going to be a very bad evening.

He waved goodbye to them as they drove off before making his way up to the flat, touching the bonnet of Vernon's car and flinching at how cold it was – they had been here a while then. Swallowing tightly against the ball of anxiety in his stomach, he made his way towards the lift.

He was late the next morning, and it had obviously worried the other Strawhats because he found Zoro waiting for him at the school gates with a face like thunder, the other teenager roughly grabbed him by his chin and jerked his face up to the light, brushing aside the bird's nest of black that Harry called hair to get a better look at the ugly dark purple stain that slashed across his left eye. For a moment, neither of them moved and Harry winced slightly when Zoro's thumb brushed against his eyebrow ridge, which was somewhat swollen.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, his chin was released, "What happened?" his classmate asked in a slow, quiet voice that Harry had never heard before.

"Went arse over tea-kettle down the stairs, some fucker forgot the wet floor signs," he explained calmly, "Can we get to class already? I'm late enough as it is, I don't need a detention lecture from my Uncle on top of the chewing out I got for being out late last night." He tried to brush past the other boy who grabbed him by the upper arm and swung him round, grabbing his other shoulder and shaking his roughly, glaring for all he was worth.

"Do not lie to me," he growled furiously, making Harry freeze, going wide eyed before scowling and glaring at him.

"I didn't lie to you. Now let me go. You're squeezing a rather painful bruise, and it hurts," he pointed out tightly. The funny thing was, Harry really had fallen down the stairs, the black eye, admittedly, was from Uncle Vernon who had lost his temper when Harry began to talk back to him, but the other bruises were from slipping in a puddle and going flying down the stairs. Either way, he didn't want to have the school, his friends, or anyone else sticking their noses in where it wasn't wanted.

Almost immediately Zoro's grip loosened but he didn't release him – though Harry could quite easily just step back and break free of his hold without any effort, he was more just placing his hands on his upper arms at the moment.

"That bruise was made with a fist, Harry," the green haired male told him, making something in his chest tighten, using the birth name in the Strawhats meant that you were in trouble, and right now, Zoro was severely pissed off if he was using his real name. "I've seen them before, I've inflicted them, doctored them, received them. I know what I'm looking at. Do not lie to me. Who did this?"

"None of your business, Zoro. Now, can we please move on to class? I don't want detention on top of everything else, I'll be late for work. You can chew me out later," he snapped, stepping back and marching off towards his lesson and pausing, "Are you coming or not?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

Scowling, Zoro followed after him, hands in his pockets.

For the rest of the day, Harry had a rather surly, bad tempered shadow. Sat in class, at lunch, in the library, he lurked in the corner while Kureha examined him in the Nurse's office after Mrs Kokoro sent him down there regarding his black eye. He even followed him to work where he sat on the security guard's stool, in the darkness, like some kind of angry wraith while Harry went about feeding the snakes, checking them for ticks and parasites, cleaning out their cages, mopping the floors, the general day to day maintenance chores.

It got to the point where his Boss beckoned him over and said to him in an undertone: "Look, uh, maybe you should go home early tonight? You'll get paid for a full shift but, uh, your boyfriend over there is scaring the minivans out of the mums."

Harry had spluttered and yelped like a puppy trodden on at the insinuation that Zackary Roronoa was his boyfriend, but the expression on his boss's face didn't change so all he was doing by trying to deny the allegation was wasting their time. The man didn't care about whether or not Zoro was his boyfriend, he just wanted him out of the building because he was frightening away the customers. Great.

Sighing heavily, cheeks spotted pink, Harry nodded and made his way out into the locker room where he changed into his day clothes. Boyfriend, Zoro? Good grief, where the hell did the Boss get that outlandish idea?

Rolling his eyes, Harry attempted to flatten his hair into something at least semi-respectable before closing and locking it, ready to make his way back to his flat. Thinking back on the subject, Harry realised that a few people may have come to that conclusion – Nami certainly had if the way she kept trying to ply him with alcohol and suggest Zoro walk him home was any indication. He just thought she was being obnoxious at the time. Hm, Chopper had slipped a few times and called him Niichan which had been confusing until Harry found out just what that word meant after asking Robin when the little eleven year old went bright red and fled after accidentally calling him that.

Harry hummed thoughtfully as he returned to the Reptile house and gestured at the other boy to follow him.

"Why are you leaving?" he asked curiously, reshouldering his backpack.

"Boss says you're scaring the customers," Harry explained distantly, still deep in thought as the two of them slowly meandered through the Zoo on their way to the bus-stops. Zoro in is customary silence and Harry with an expression of deep concentration as slowly, bit by bit, the pieces began to fall into place – as paint a very interesting picture of how everything had played out recently.

Everything after he had rescued Chopper, Baroque Works suddenly avoiding him, getting blackmailed into the Strawhats, almost every memory he had since joining had Zoro at his side in one shape or another – save when Luffy got into that fight with Crocodile, Zoro was right in there facing off against Daz Bones, but then again, the whole gang were well in there facing their own combatants. Then Marco's comments... When taken in the context that he was possibly referring to Zoro, who according to everyone else was his boyfriend, they suddenly took on a whole new – and much more embarrassing meaning.

His face flamed dark red.

"You alright?" the teenager in question asked, looking at him in concern.

"Y-yes, fine," Harry choked, absolutely mortified and thoroughly embarrassed over how thoughtless and naïve he had been during that evening – even Zoro's father had noticed something!

Shrugging at the assurance, the taller male flagged down the bus they needed and flashed his return ticket, prompting Harry to five into his pockets to do the same. They made their way up to the second floor of the double-decker and sat down, Harry twitching slightly as he became hyperaware of the other male. Particularly the way their thighs were pressing together and Zoro's elbow was touching his upper arm.

He practically fled the bus when it reached his stop – Zoro still had a few to go before he reached home though, and while Harry may have felt a little guilty for ditching him like that... he had a lot he needed to think on.

Sincerely, he hoped he wasn't misreading it all, otherwise he was going to feel very, very silly. But as it was, he wanted to be certain. So he cornered Robin in the library during break – making sure that no one was around before sitting down in front of her, sans book, and staring.

Very soon, the dark haired Year Eleven figured out that he wasn't here for the usual reasons and marked her page before closing it and setting it aside, returning his stare with one of her own – though admittedly more curious as he wrestled with his embarrassment, his curiosity and his anxiety, mouth opening and closing a few times as he tried to articulate what his problem was.

"Does Zoro have a crush on me?" he finally asked, looking extremely uncomfortable as he decided on the simplist, most direct course of action that would result in the clearest, most simple response.

Robin blinked, looking somewhat taken aback by the question before a smile blossomed on her face, "Yes, he does." Harry's head hit the table a split second later as his worst(?) fears were confirmed, she giggled, "Subtle isn't he? We were putting money on you not figuring out until he outright pinned you down and stuck his tongue down your throat. Sanji-kun owes me twelve pounds."

"You were betting on how long it would take for me to notice?" he moaned, looking up in disbelieving horror.

She smiled and nodded, "Yes. I must admit, you figured it out a lot sooner than anyone anticipated, myself included. But since I was the only one who said you would figure it out before the end of Spring Term, I win the pot."

Harry huffed miserably, threading his fingers through his hair. Oh Christ, oh crap, how the hell did he end up in this situation? What should he even do? He'd never had a boyfriend before, fuck, he'd never even had a girlfriend! The closest thing to a deep and meaningful relationship he had ever experienced was a passionate love affair with the kitchen mop – mostly consisting of dancing to Classic Rock while no one else was in the house as he did the cleaning. Robin giggling at him was not helpful in the slightest.

Word had somehow reached the other Strawhats by Lunch – the only one not in the know about Harry's epiphany was the green haired teenager in question. Hell, even Franky knew. Harry received a text from him during English which alternatively cursed him for figuring it out so he couldn't win the bet (he had apparently decided that he wouldn't find out until Zoro sat him down and quite bluntly told him. That was one of the more tame decisions. Nami had apparently decided on full out rape in the middle of the Reptile House while Sanji had opted on Harry never figuring it out and Zoro giving up and hooking up with Tashigi – who hated him) and pleased that he finally knew and could become the first of the gang to actually become a couple. Harry hadn't texted back because, quite honestly, he didn't know or understand his feelings on the matter of being together that way with anyone.

Still, it made Lunch rather uncomfortable when Harry found himself forced to sit next to Zoro – whom he suddenly developed the inability to look at, or even converse in full sentences with. Much to the hilarity of Nami and Robin and the sympathy of the other men.

Kuina appeared outside his flat that Saturday morning, startling him into almost upending his breakfast cereal all over himself as he choked on them. She chuckled at his reaction, and then at his pjs which were pretty much one of Dudley's less horrifying shirts – so big it quite literally swallowed him alive, it was a soft jade green that really suited the both of them in actual fact – and a pair of grey sweatpants, plus navy blue slippers.

Finally managing to choke down his Cinnamon Grahams, he let her in and quickly went about making her a cup of tea, still coughing every now and again at the filmy texture of his throat.

It was only after he slid the tea over to her that he realised she was here, in his flat, which was quite obviously populated by no one but himself, where he obviously lived alone.

Oh fuck all kinds of duck!

Hopefully she wouldn't notice, dear god, he hoped she wouldn't notice.

"I hear you found out about my little brother's interest," she began and Harry visibly winced, making her laugh, "Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not here to chew you out, threaten you or anything like that. I just want to get to know you. You're the first person he's ever taken an interest in, everyone teases him about Tashigi-chan but they're rivals, not interested in each other that kind of way," she explained lazily, smiling at him. It reminded Harry, vividly, of a viper hiding in long grass. "I'd like to get to know my new little sister."

Harry's breath caught in his throat as he stared at her incredulously, "Um, no offence but... I don't know if – "

She laughed, cutting him off, "Once my little brother has set his sights on something or someone, there is no way of dissuading him. Believe me, I've tried." She was still thoroughly embarrassed by her, at the time, nine-year-old brother's formal challenge to duel her boyfriend, Mihawk, when they first started going out. She could have strangled the runt then and there but thankfully, her boyfriend – soon to be fiancé now – found his determination to protect her honour amusing and a little touching, he agreed and turned it from a serious duel into something of a training session. Zoro was older now and while not exactly friendly towards Mihawk, he had accepted him as the only one worthy of his sister and held nothing but respect for him.

Harry's eyebrow climbed up his forehead, "That sounds like it has a story behind it."

"It does," she told him with a chuckle, "Get dressed, we're going out and I'll tell you on the way."

Harry recoiled, "I don't know, I mean, I have a lot of homework and I don't really have time to do it during the week so – "

She waved a hand at him as she downed the rest of her, still extremely hot, tea. "Never mind that, I decided to find out how well your class standings were when I went looking for your address, you're in the top five for rankings in the year-group, top twenty for the school. You'll be fine missing a few pieces of crappy arithmetic sheets."

Harry spluttered slightly as she got up and began to usher him further into the flat, "Its Chemistry actually and our teacher isn't very fond of me so really, really I would rather finish it."

"Get changed Midori, don't make me strip you and dress you myself, it will be embarrassing and frilly and girlie. I bet you've got killer legs," the dark haired woman told him with a playful leer that had Harry swiftly darting into his room and closing the door behind him, clicking the lock into place as she laughed herself silly outside.

Damnit. He wasn't getting out of this.

He spent the whole day with Kuina as she pulled him around London, talking and asking him questions, after the first hour or so he managed to loosen up and stop thinking of her as 'Zoro's scary older sister' and just as Kuina, which she privately took as a victory having noticed that he didn't give his trust or his friendship easily or generously – something she heartily approved of.

In all, she had managed to calm down a lot of his problems, all the anxieties he felt regarding the present situation because, in all honesty, he did like Zoro, as a friend. He liked him very much as a friend, he was a good friend, but regardless, Harry would have no idea how to identify any feelings that were of a more intimate level so it would be kinder just to maintain that friendship rather than go through the motions on an unidentifiable and unknown inkling of emotion that may or may not be a deeper affection.

Kuina hadn't been pleased with this conclusion but she admitted that if he wasn't into her brother then he just wasn't into him and it would be kinder to be honest than play with his feelings.

The downside was, the subject was never broached again as the Red Dog Massive finally managed to track Harry down.

Sabaody practically exploded in Gang warfare the moment the Red Dog Massive made a move on Harry – who at the time had been visiting Marco and his Gang the Whitebeards, after their Founder Edward Newgate who happened to be a very old man, no deceased.

Attacking the Whitebeards had been their first mistake.

Red Hair got involved there after, and so did the other allied Gangs within Sabaody and other surrounding schools, the Strawhats were right in the centre of the conflict with Harry as the overall prize. No outsider uppity little Backwater Gang was going to touch someone from their side of the tracks, it was like Civil Wars versus a World War, while Sabaody experienced its Civil Wars everyone hauled together the moment another place tried to start a World War. Which was exactly what happened.

Word reached Petunia and Vernon about it through Piers who gleefully passed along the message to Dudley as well.

Harry found his family on his doorstep a day later and nearly received a second black eye – if it hadn't been for Kuina and her boyfriend Mihawk who had appeared to try and drag him off for Koshiro's birthday. They had seen the argument and opted not to get involved but then Vernon lost his temper and raised his hand, a split second later he was getting roughly thrown against a wall by Kuina who had him by both the throat and the balls – squeeze both extremely tightly – while her boyfriend Mihawk had Dudley pinned to the floor, Petunia was screeching.

"SHUT UP YOU HAG!" Kuina snarled, Harry got the impression she would have slapped Petunia if she hadn't been so busy trying to emasculate Vernon with the force of her grip alone. "You dare, you fucking dare, raise your hand to strike him? Your own flesh and blood?" the dark haired girl seethed, shoving Vernon roughly into the wall before releasing him and stepping back, allowing him to slide down to the ground, cupping himself. Harry would be lying if the sight didn't fill him with some kind of savage glee.

Harry didn't hear what Petunia said, but he heard the slap that the twenty-year-old woman delivered in response to it, Petunia's head whipped to the side as her whole body was jerked along with the force of the blow – Kuina was strong, very strong, and she was holding nothing back, muscular arms capable of swinging around four feet of solid, super compressed steel for more than eight hours a day without strain. Even Harry wouldn't want to get into a fight with her – there was a reason why Zoro treated her with utmost respect and referred to her as Oneesama.

Mihawk released Dudley and stepped to his side at that moment, "We have been suspicious of your circumstances for a while, living alone, having a job without permission and allowing yourself to be blackmailed to keep it a secret – rather than just trying to obtain permission, refusing to allow Kureha to possess information regarding your background after she discovered signs of childhood neglect and abuse." Petunia and Vernon turned ashen white and Dudley inhaled sharply, "Even Sengoku has been concerned with your background, especially once it came to light that you were removed from Social Services after the death of your parents without so much as a by your leave."

"This is a case of kidnapping," Kuina told them with vicious pleasure as both Petunia and Vernon went positively grey, "Harry was supposed to go to his Godfather, Lord Sirius Black of Winchester."

"Lord? What?" Harry spluttered, "How the hell did my alcoholic of a dad end up with a Lord as my Godfather? Did he pimp my mum out to him or something and decide to sell me as well? Fuck that, I'm not becoming some rich pervert's assbunny."

"Harry, you're coming to stay with us, obviously these two haven't given you the truth about your parents," Kuina told him soothingly, her tone gentling almost startlingly before she turned dark charcoal eyes back onto the Dursleys. "Return to the hole you crawled out of. If I catch you around here again, no Jury will convict me of GBH."

Spirits sinking as he watched his family leave, Harry wondered what would happen to him now.

He stayed with Kuina for a long time, too shocked to go to school for a few days as he just tried to wrap his mind around everything, everything that had suddenly been unloaded onto him in the space of an evening.

Since he was old enough to be curious and ask about them, Harry had been told his mother was a Crack-Whore who sold her body in order to afford her next High, is father was an alcoholic who got them both killed by driving into a river in the middle of a winter night. He had been packed off to live with his decent Law Abiding Aunt and Uncle who wanted nothing to do with a Crack Baby who was probably as damaged as his mother and just as likely to spread his legs for a hit. For his whole life Harry had been told he was worse than trash, that he came from something even lower than gutter filth. He knew he had a lot of issues from it, especially the attachment/abandonment/relationship ones that basically scared him away from forming any kind of emotional connection past distant friendship.

To suddenly have a complete stranger from Social Services, Mrs Dadan Monkey (when question she revealed that she was Luffy's Step-Grandmother and the one that raised both him and Luffy during their tenure as Foster Children), show up and tell him that his father was the Lord James Potter the Earl of Swansea and his mother was a highly gifted Medical Scientist who made the biggest breakthrough in modern medicine in the last ten years – bringing them one step closer to the Cure to Cancer and various other Super Bugs, though she had requested to be anonymous in it all. Harry learned that, in fact, his parents were of greater standing than anyone in Little Whinging could ever hope to pretend to be and that if he hadn't been Orphaned and then stolen away, he would have grown up with his Godfather, Lord Sirius Black who had been looking for him for all these long years without success as he had never dreamed that Harry was within a hundred miles of his own location instead of spirited off somewhere exotic.

Harry was brain locked.

It was only the discovery that his old childhood Doctor, Albus Dumbledore, had been behind his kidnapping and placement at the Dursleys where he would then be able to surreptitiously steal all the money from the Potter fiefdom and from the Blacks as he 'enabled' Sirius Black's search and yet never once made any effort to track him down.

Harry spent two hours raging and it was only after Zoro marched in, pulled him out, and then set him loose on a troublemaking gang of the Red Dog Massive that he calmed down – after completely losing himself in the fight, working out all his frustrations on the other teenagers. He didn't even recoil or flush uncomfortably when Zoro slung an arm over his shoulder in a semi-man hug as they made their way back to Kuina's. He was mellow and calm the rest of the evening as they all ate dinner and Mihawk explained the situation and why Harry was both pissed off and now living with them. With the two of them working fulltime, they could afford to help Harry who contributed to both the cleaning and the money via his part time job where as Koshiro had to take care of both Zoro and Chopper on just his wages, so it wouldn't be fair to expect him to put a third teenager up.

It became something of a routine, when Harry started getting fidgity and short, Zoro would drop round, pull him out, they would get into a fight – sometimes with an outside gang or even with each other – and he would work his frustration off and come back, mellow, calm and happy.

It amused Kuina and Mihawk to no end.

The first time Harry met Sirius Black, he nearly put the man through a window when he was suddenly hugged for all he was worth, ribs creaking uncomfortably as a fully grown man lunged at him, sobbing about his little 'prongslett'.

He was thoroughly bewildered, terrified and not in the slightest bit impressed.

He hadn't realised it had been nearly six months since he had joined the Strawhats until a Surprise Party was sprung on him one evening when he got back from work. It was quite the event with friends from various gangs and from school showing up. Neither Kuina or Mihawk seemed to mind all the teeny-boppers invading their flat, in fact, it seemed to amuse them to see everyone so excited and light hearted over something as simple and small as this. They shared indulgent looks as Luffy, Chopper and Usopp ran riot while Nami managed to trick various people out of their money and their clothes while Sanji had a lot of fun in the kitchen cooking for everyone while Zoro had drinking contests with various people.

And in the middle, Harry stood happily bemused at the riotous celebration around him. An oddly warm feeling in his stomach as he watched his friends enjoy themselves, celebrating the fact that he came into their lives, that he became one of them.

The feeling didn't dissipate even after Zoro got exceptionally drunk and snogged him in front of everyone – much to the glee of the girls and booming laughter of others.

Sadly, the kiss once again threw Harry into emotional chaos. One that neither Kuina nor Mihawk really knew about because he managed to keep his little existential crisis private for once – that is to say, he pretended it was part of the other one and tended to work longer hours at the Zoo rather than come straight home, so he could avoid everyone. Didn't always work but damn, he tried.

He had enjoyed it.

The kiss.

He had liked it.

He had been startled, yes, who wouldn't be having someone suddenly seize them and push them against a wall, breath stinking of booze with such an intense look on their face. The kiss was in no way gentle or sweet or soft, it was a violent clumsy clashing of teeth, tongues and lips that left him with a bruised mouth, swollen lips and his tongue tasting faintly of whiskey. It had been forceful, dominant and he hadn't been the one to be either.

That wasn't something guys did, they liked being in control, they were supposed to be the dominant ones – physically at least – in the relationship, or at least, they were the ones who made the first move? He floundered in his thoughts as he mopped.

The long and short of it was, he liked the kiss. He had enjoyed it and he could still vividly remember the taste and texture of it along with the hands that prevented him from escaping or doing much of anything. That he had enjoyed too. Awkward.

He sighed quietly, he thought Zoro couldn't get drunk? He had seen the other teenager put away four bottles of Whiskey in one evening and not show a single ounce of inebriation. Sure he probably chugged six times that amount – was his stomach even big enough for all that? – but Harry still wondered if he simply faked being drunk in order to steal a kiss and have an excuse not to be punched for it.

"You're sighing a lot today," his Boss pointed out questioningly, "You alright?"

Harry nodded dully, "I got kissed at a party and well, I liked it and all, but..." he trailed off, not exactly certain how to explain or if he even should – this was his Boss after all and Harry was a rather private person in all honesty.

"You're not sure if you're interested in the person who gave it to you, but you like them too much as a friend to kill the friendship so you're not quite sure what to do because you don't want them to hate you?" the other man suggested with a knowing smile. Harry shot him a dirty look, was he that obvious? "Yes, its that obvious. The green haired guy who lurked in the corner, right?"

"Right," Harry sighed, privately wondering if everyone knew about his crush before he did.

"How do you feel when you see him?" the other man began logically, making Harry fidgit unhappily.

"I dunno. I don't really pay attention." Getting guys to talk about feelings wasn't the done thing, Harry was very bad at quantifying his feelings or even objectifying them for that matter. "Uh, pleased I guess? Relieved since I'm usually pissed off and he's one of the few people I can go toe to toe against without hurting. Um..." Harry shrugged helplessly.

"Do you notice where he is all the time?" his Boss asked gently, making Harry nod, of course he was aware of Zoro all the time, the guy had green hair, it was kind of hard to miss. "Is he the first person you look to when a fight break out?" Harry nodded again, usually Zoro would go right into the thick of it alongside Luffy and Sanji – someone had to watch their backs and Zoro was prone to getting lost so it was just better of Harry stuck around. "If he's not there, do you worry?" Duh, the guy had the directional sense of a blind, deaf and noseless lemming. He would get lost in a straight corridor without doors or windows. Somehow, he would get lost.

The manager chuckled at the look of 'no duh, where are you going with this?' look on Harry's face, kids were so cute, "Last question, did you make a conscious effort to befriend his family because they're his family?" Harry nodded again, Kuina was scary, he didn't want to get on her bad side and Koshiro had figured out his background through one meeting and plus, Chopper was a bully magnet and if Zoro went for the guys who tried to harass him then he would get expelled and that would lead to mutiny amidst the Strawhats.

"Well, its quite simple then," his Boss told him with a broad grin, "Ask him out."

"Huh?" Harry stared at him flatly.

"You notice him at all times, you watch his back during fights, you worry when he isn't there and you made an effort to make nice with his family even at no prophet to yourself simply because they were important to him. You like him, love him even." The Boss sat back with a self satisfied look on his face, trying not to laugh at the scene in front of him.

Harry stared at him, "How can you be so sure about it?" he asked, sounding utterly lost, "It wasn't like I even – I just..." he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, mop hanging from his hand. "Alright, say I did. Say I do like... like him. What should I – I mean I don't know, I've never..." he growled slightly in frustration at his inability to articulate the highly uncomfortable subject, much to the amusement of his Boss.

The older man shrugged, "I don't know. Turn around and ask him."

Harry went very still and stated rather than asked, "What."

"Turn around and ask him. He's been stood there for about five minutes already," the Zoo Keeper told him with great satisfaction as the young teenager turned around – holding his mop like a protective barrier against the green haired Asian kid. He got to his feet, deciding this was a conversation meant to be had in private.

Had he looked back he would have seen Zoro calmly push away the mop handle and drag the smaller teen's face up for another kiss.

AND DONE. Mainly because I'm afraid that if I write anymore my laptop will revolt.

Besides, you love it really. Hope you liked the one shot, it was a lot of fun to write even if the Zoro/Harry was rather difficult to manoeuvre into place.

POLL TIEMZ

Now, I'm giving you guys the option of what happens next in the second half of Mihawk and Zoro meet the Dursleys. Give me ideas, inspiration, the best idea will be written and full credit given. I've lain the ground work - let the plotbunnies breed and give me your biggest and best.

Also, which Oneshot would you like to be posted next?

1) Cellmates: Zoro gets captures by Marines and forced to share a Holding Cell with a Traitor awaiting transportation to Impel Down. What do you know, there are decent Marines out there, colour him surprised.

2) Bad ideas: Zoro meets Mihawk's son and knows that very second that lusting after him was a Bad Idea. It was a shame that Zoro had a lot of those.

or 3) Sister: When accepted into their dysfunctional family, Michael and Hoichael take their Aniki to meet their Oneechan who works as a Pearl Diver and Surveyer in the submerged City beneath Water 7.