This will be a multi-chaptered AU story with mainly ZoSan/SanZo, but there will be some other couples too. If you don't like yaoi, please don't bother to read.

I have to explain a few things beforehand:
-This story takes place in and around a university. The model for this university and the school-system is the university I attend myself in the Netherlands (though there are a few differences). So this system could be very different from your own.

-I played around a bit with the age and appearance (pre-/post-timeskip) of the characters. So one can have his/her look from before the timeskip while another has the look from after the timeskip (and same for age).

A special thanks to my friends Aerle and Thérèse, who pre-read and help me out with some little things in this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

University Life

Chapter 1

He had taken a train earlier, just in case he got a little lost. He didn't think he would need that extra time, but he wanted to make sure he would be in time for his first lecture at the university.

He should have taken two trains earlier.

When he finally entered the university building, he looked at his smartphone, on which he had put his schedule. He had to be in room 011. He looked up at the plan of the university building he was standing in front of. He was already fifteen minutes late, why didn't they make these things clearer? This map was no help at all! When thinking of going right or left or up or down, Zoro was unaware he used his hands to point at the direction he was thinking of. Until he felt a hand wrapped around his wrist.

"Watch your hands."

Zoro turned around to see who was holding his hand. It was a guy, about the same length and age as he, maybe a little older. He was good-looking, his golden hair danced around his face, covering his right eye and he had a goatee and stubble on his upper lip. And he had this weird curl in his eyebrow, Zoro noticed.

The green haired man pulled his hand back. "Or you just watch were you're walking," he said a little annoyed.

The other guy raised his eyebrow. "You're new here?"

"What if?" Zoro didn't feel like talking to him now and he only wanted to get to the right room as soon as possible.

"Let me guess, you're doing Japanstudies, am I right?"

"How did you know?"

"Your hair color."

This time Zoro raised his eyebrows. "What about my hair color? How does that say anything about what I'm studying?"

"Well, it's just that, the biggest part of the people who walk around in this building with their hair dyed in an unnatural color, are doing Japanstudies," the man explained.

Zoro scowled at the other man. "I did not dye my hair."

The guy with the golden locks shook his head. "OK, whatever. What course do you have to go to now?"

While he obviously didn't believe Zoro, the latter tried to calm himself. Now was not the time to start a fight. "Pre-modern Japanese history."

"Ah, room 011, I presume?" Zoro nodded and the man continued. "That's in the right wing, first door on your left. You can see it from here."

The room was quite big and filled with students, Zoro guessed there were about 150 of them. He saw there were indeed a few people with unusual hair colors sitting in the room; a girl with blue hair, one with purple hair, another one with pink hair, that wore Lolita-ish clothes and even a guy with pink hair!

Typically, the few rows of chairs at the back of the room were all filled. In one of the middle rows he found a place to sit, next to a young woman, a few years older than him. She smiled at him as he sat down.

"Did I miss a lot?" Zoro whispered to her.

"Mostly just introduction," she answered. "Not very important. You will probably hear it with the beginning of the other courses too."

They listened to what the teacher was talking about. Zoro was very interested in this course, because he would probably learn quite a few things about samurai. Unfortunately, the teacher had begun about the first inhabitants of the Japanese islands. It would take some weeks before they would be talking about the samurai. Still, Zoro tried his best to listen carefully to what the teacher had to say and wrote down the most important things.

About thirty minutes later they had a little break. "So, why were you so late?" asked the woman next to him. "Was the train delayed?" She smiled friendly, but her eyes looked as if they were seeing right into his soul.

"Er… no, I… got lost on my way here." He didn't like to admit it, but he had a feeling she wouldn't have believed him if he hadn't told her the truth.

She chuckled. "Oh, never been here before?"

"Just once, but that was a while ago."

"My name is Nico Robin, by the way."

He smiled to her. "I'm Roronoa Zoro."

They talked a bit about where they were from, why they had chosen to study Japanstudies and other stuff you talk about when you've just met. Zoro learned that Robin had already studied History before and now wanted to specialize in Japanese history. She didn't want to tell her exact age, but it was somewhere in the second half of her twenties.

Ten minutes later the teacher came back in with a cup of coffee and soon he resumed the lecture. He talked about the Jômon, Yayoi and Kofun period, which mostly didn't interest Zoro much, but when the teacher showed pictures of the oldest swords found in Japan, he was all ears. He just loved everything that was somehow connected to swords.

"Zoro," Robin had already packed her things within a few seconds after they were dismissed. "Do you have two hours before the next course as well?" The green haired man nodded and she continued. "I agreed to meet a friend of mine in the canteen, want to join us?"

Zoro shrugged. "Sure, I didn't have anything planned anyway."

They walked silently to the canteen, which was nearby the main entrance of the building. Robin was looking around to see whether her friend was already on their meeting place. Zoro too watched the people sitting in the canteen. His attention was immediately drawn to a small table with three very noisy guys around it. They weren't just noisy, but they were also eating like pigs. Two of the guys had raven black hair – one of them had taken off his shirt – the third was blond, and they all wore hats that were totally different from each other. It was a colorful group and Zoro had a feeling this wouldn't be the last he saw or heard of them.

"Oi, Robin!" The two newly befriended students turned around to the yell they'd heard. There was a young man making his way through the mass of people, while waving at them. Well, waving at Robin probably, since Zoro had never seen him before. The guy had black, curly hair, almost until his shoulders, wearing a bandana over it, and he had an unusually long nose.

Robin smiled and gave him a little wave back. She walked over to the nearest table – that was surprisingly still empty – and sat down, Zoro following her.

"God, it's crowded here!" The other guy was slightly panting when he'd reached their table.

"Usopp, this is Zoro, a fellow Japanese student. Zoro, this is Usopp, I met him in the introduction week of the university," Robin introduced them.

Zoro gave him a little nod, but Usopp only seemed to have eyes for Zoro's hair. The latter gave him a dark look. "Could you stop staring at my hair?"

Usopp seemed to be scared off by the look on Zoro's face and he quickly sat down beside them. "I-I'm sorry, I just haven't seen anyone with green hair before."

"And I was told I'd fit right in…" Zoro muttered. He decided to change the subject. "So, Usopp, what do you study?"

"Ah, I'm studying art history!" the other man said enthusiastically. "We get to learn about all the greatest and lesser known painters and other artists and their styles! But of course I already can connect almost all paintings to their style and painter! Did you know my great-great-grandfather was friends with Van Gogh?"

Zoro didn't know who this Van Gogh was, but he guessed it must have been a great painter, though he wasn't sure how much of this story was true. "Really?" he asked as if he was really impressed.

Usopp looked a little surprised. "O-Of course! He has been a great influence on him! The sunflowers Van Gogh painted, for example, were my great-great-grandfather's!" It was obvious to Zoro now that this guy was lying.

"Ehm, excuse me…" The trio sitting at the table looked up. Before them stood a girl, probably not older than eighteen, with long blue hair. Zoro saw from the corner of his eye that Usopp also stared at her hair and he couldn't help but smile a little.

"Ehm, don't you study Japanese too?" the girl asked a little shyly.

Robin smiled friendly at her. "Yes, Zoro and I do indeed study Japanese."

"Ah, well, me too and I don't really know anybody here, so, I was wondering, could I sit with you guys?" A smile had appeared on the girls face.

"Sure, the more the merrier!" Usopp stood up and quickly grabbed an empty chair from another table, so that the new girl had a place to sit. "I'm the Great Usopp, by the way. I study art history."

The girl let out a giggle. "I'm Vivi."

"Hé guys!" Usopp began, when Vivi was seated. "Are you a member of the study-club from Japanstudies, Tanuki*?"

"I am," was Zoro's response. "They order the books for you for a low price and they throw parties once in a while, so I figured it wouldn't harm to become a member." The two girls told him that they also joined the club, though Robin had done it mainly for the cheap books.

"Great!" was Usopp's reaction. "So I can come with you guys to the parties! I've heard Tanuki-parties are amongst the best of this city! That reminds me of the introduction-week, do you remember Robin? I was the king of the pub! I'd had twenty-something beers and I wasn't even tipsy, unlike everyone else, who were already drunk after four or five!"

"Oh? I remember it being a little bit different…" Robin said. Zoro and Vivi couldn't help laughing.

Their next course was Conversation and was given in smaller classes. These classes were decided by the first letter of the family name and Zoro's class went from N to R, which meant he was in the same class as Robin and Vivi.

The teacher told them that the purpose of this course was (as suspected) to learn to hold conversations with each other in Japanese. The first fifty minutes were given by the teacher, after which they would have a short break, and the last fifty minutes would be filled by a student-assistant**, who would do some exercises with them. The teacher also told something about himself, but that didn't interest Zoro very much. He was an old man, originally from Japan, he didn't need to know more. Before they knew it, the first fifty minutes had passed and they hadn't said any more in Japanese than who they were.

When the teacher had left the room, Zoro turned to Robin and Vivi. "What the hell was that about? First he tells us we will learn to have a conversation, but next he is the only one talking!"

Vivi chuckled. "Well, we don't really know anything about grammar or vocabulary yet, so he will probably start for real next week, when we have learned the basics. And maybe we will learn some more from the student-assistant. Oh, I believe I see him coming already." The blue haired girl was the one with the best view of the open door and so she could see a little of the hallway too.

"Good afternoon, ladies!" The man stepped through the door with a smile on his face. When he saw there were some guys in the room too, he added on matted tone: "And to you too."

Great, it's him, Zoro thought. The guy who had pointed him in the right direction this morning. The guy who didn't believe green was his natural hair color.

"Oh, hey, it's you, Moss-head!" the blond said with a smirk.

"What did you say, Curly Brow?" How did he dare to say something like that! Unfortunately, the curly eyebrow was the only weird thing Zoro could find on the other man. The rest of his face and body just looked perfect. And even the strange eyebrow wasn't really unattractive, but it was the only visible thing to make fun of.

The green haired man could see the other was a little annoyed by what he'd said, but the man didn't say anything anymore until all the students who had gone out to buy something to drink, had returned.

"OK, let's begin." He smiled to a girl sitting in the front, before looking to the entire room again. "Watashi no namae wa Sanji desu. Anata no namae wa nan desu ka?" He said slowly, so that the students who knew some basics had a chance to understand what he'd just said and then he nodded to Vivi.

The girl's face turned a little red. "Ah, uhm… Watashi no namae wa Vivi desu?" she answered unsure and just loud enough to be heard. Zoro had to give her credit. He had so little basic knowledge of Japanese, he wouldn't have known what to answer, or even entirely what the question was about.

"Very good, Vivi-chan!" The blond guy seemed very happy that she'd understood him. "For the people who couldn't follow that yet, don't worry. I just told you my name is Sanji and asked this lovely girl what here name was. She answered perfectly." He gave the girl a short wink.

What the hell? Was this guy flirting with Vivi? That's disgusting! Zoro thought. She was a student and he was sort of a teacher! On top at that he was obviously some years older than she. Zoro wasn't sure about both their ages, but he doubted Vivi had even turned eighteen yet. Besides, it was just gross to flirt so openly in class.

"I will ask all of you more or less the same question, just so I get to know your names and you get a little practice. But I might just change something in the sentence once in a while to tease you a bit." Sanji smiled at Robin. "I will continue with the beautiful lady on Vivi's right side. Anata no namae wa nan desu ka?"

Oh, so he was just flirting with every girl! That was even worse! Zoro sighed. What an idiot.

"Watashi wa Robin desu." The woman answered without showing any emotion as reaction to Sanji's flirtations.

"Perfect!" was Sanji's reaction. He moved on to Zoro, the smile disappearing from his face. "Omai no namae wa nan desu ka?"

He had changed the first word in the sentence. The green haired man thought about what it meant. Wasn't 'omai' a less polite way of saying 'you'? He wasn't sure about it, but couldn't think of anything else either.

For his answer Zoro used the little basic knowledge he did had, which was about 'ore' being the more manly form of 'watashi'. He smirked at the blond. "Ore wa Roronoa Zoro desu."

After the whole class had said their names, they learned a few other basic things, like how to say 'this is a book', but Sanji explained to them that they would start for serious from next week on, because – as Vivi had guessed – they would have learned some more grammar and vocabulary by then.

Zoro walked to the train station while overthinking his first day at the university. He should be able to get to the train within twenty minutes, even when he walked slowly.

He got on the train an hour later.

*Study-clubs are clubs that every study has in my country (sometimes together with one or more other related studies). These clubs organize study-related activities (and trips), but also things like parties. The study-club from Japanstudies (and Koreanstudies) is called "Tanuki", after the raccoon-dog creature from the Japanese legends.

**A student-assistant in this system is a senior (or master) student who helps with teaching beginning classes.

Thanks for reading! :D I hope you enjoyed It, though I know the first chapter is a bit dull (needed it for the introduction). Next will be better ;) Please review!