Grand Line City is a very big, very unusual city.

It consists of two parts: Paradise, where you tend to find more of your shady characters, and New World, where you still find shady characters, just disguised as people of high society. There's a street that runs all the way down the middle of the city that marks the border between Paradise and New World called the Red Line. Aptly named because the street is red. Clever, I know.

Its inhabitants have a saying: 'if you don't like the weather here, wait five minutes and maybe you will.' Grand Line's weather is so chaotic, some days might have snow, sunshine, rain, and everything in between. The only time the weather actually follows the seasons is for two weeks about every other month.

But, the weather isn't important right now. We have a story to get to. And that story begins right on the border of Paradise and New World, in a little café.

It's just a normal café: cozy, warm, and inviting. It opens every day (except Monday) at 7:00 am (except on Sunday when it opens at 10:00 am.) There's a display case housing numerous pastries and baked goods, plenty of tables and plush chairs where one can sit and relax, a counter where a cash register, a telephone, and several old phonebooks rests on one end, and one employee—a young woman, around 21 years of age, the average height of 5'7" (and a half), with straight light brown hair that falls to her waist even though she usually ties it up, bangs that fall into her eyes, wearing a plain grey cardigan—leans on the other.

This sole employee of the café is named Lily E. May and she made it her point in life to make each and every one of her customers feel welcome to her humble café and learn all of their names in the process. If there was nothing for her to do, she could be found leaning against the counter, filling out Sudoku puzzles.

Yes, it was just your average, ordinary, everyday café, with you average, ordinary, everyday worker—

The door of the café bursts open, revealing a 19-year-old boy with messy black hair and a scar under his eye. There are now cracks in the wall where the door slammed into it.

"MAY!" he yells, "I WANT FOOD!"

A phone book going 80 miles per hour hits the teen in the forehead, knocking him out cold.

What? He interrupted my introduction.

Sighing, I give up my puzzle, go retrieve the phonebook I just threw, and head to the kitchen to start preparing food for my first customer of the day, who I know requires extraordinary amounts of food.

Yup, it's just your average, ordinary, everyday café with a worker who can throw phonebooks with frightening speed and precision, and decidedly not normal customers.

2 January/Saturday/7:20 am

Monkey D. Luffy is usually the first person to come to the café. He's usually followed by his older brother, Portgas D. Ace, who has a love for fire and a problem with wearing shirts.

"Maaaaaaaay, foooooood…," Luffy whines, having recovered from being KO'd by a phonebook.

He now clings to the named woman's (in other words, me's) waist, the rest of his body dragging on the ground as I move about the kitchen, preparing a mountain of scrambled eggs and bacon, paying no mind to the teen as his feet drag on the tiled floor.

-CRASH-

And that would be the signal that Luffy's older brother has arrived, and that there are now more cracks in my café's wall.

"May! Luffy!" he calls out in greeting.

And so enters bottomless-pit-for-a-stomach-number-two.

I place the plates on the counter and the brothers both attack the food, shoveling down as much as they can as fast as (in)humanly possible. I watch as Luffy tries to steal some from his older brother's plate. He's thwarted because Ace is much faster and stronger (something Luffy denies).

"How's Oyaji doing, Ace?" I ask the older D brother.

"He's good," the freckled 22-year-old says around a mouthful of food, "He recently got back from his—,"

His face hits the counter in a sudden fit of sleep and Luffy takes his brother's narcoleptic attack as a chance to steal the rest of his food.

"—whale watching trip."

Annnn~d he's back up, carrying on as if he didn't just fall asleep in the middle of his sentence. He goes to take a bite of food, only to find that it's gone.

"Luffy!" he yells, catching the culprit in a headlock before the teen can run away.

Now, to me, Luffy is like my baby. My overgrown, silly, ever hungry, very destructive, mind-boggling-stupid-at-times baby, but my baby all the same. So, if I see him getting hurt (of course my phonebook throwing doesn't count, duh) my inner Mama Bear rears her vicious and overprotective head.

Ace has a lovely face-to-face confrontation with one of my phonebooks, knocking him out while Luffy makes a dash for it.

"Thanks for the food, May, it was super delicious!" the energetic boy calls over his shoulder, leaving me with an unconscious Ace and several new cracks in the wall by the entrance as the door slams shut and a silence falls. But, the quiet doesn't last long as Ace comes to, some blood trickling down from his nose.

"Ugh, that wasn't cool, May," he complains, rubbing the back of his hand against his nose to get rid of the blood.

"Yeah, yeah. Here," I hand him a handkerchief to use to staunch the bleeding, "By the way, you have to pay for the food seeing as Luffy split."

"Can't you just give me a discount since you love me so much?"

"No. Pay up."

"Maa~aay," he pleads, giving me puppy dog eyes.

Oh no.

Not the eyes.

"No."

Must. Not. Look. Into. Eyes.

"Maaaaay~."

Nope nope nope nope.

My resolve is breaking. My solution is to close my eyes and plug my ears to Ace's begging. It's very effective.

…

I chance a peek.

He's left without paying.

"Sonnuva-!"

9:00 am

Ah, what a wonderful game Sudoku is. It's been a slow start to the day. No customers have come in since Luffy and Ace left without paying, those cheap sons-of-bi—Nope. I don't want to think about it right now.

Anyway, it's nice and peaceful. I have my book of puzzles out and it's quite fun. I hum a little bit as I fill in the numbers.

Someone clears their throat.

"Holy Christmas on a cracker!" I scream, startled out of my wits. I swear, my soul just died from shock and has ascended to the next world.

There's a man standing in front of the counter. I hadn't even felt his presence, let alone heard him enter the door. He took me by surprise.

"Whoa, are you a ninja or something?" I blurt out. I kinda don't have much of a filter between my brain and my mouth. It's something I need to work on.

The man blinks at me. I've never seen him before. He's tall—really tall—and has a really serious face with sharp golden eyes. His eyes are quite unique, but they aren't what interest me. What I'm curious about is how he got his facial hair to be so pointy.

But, right now, he's staring at me and it's extremely intimidating.

"Haha, um, sorry about that," I say, a little nervously, "What would you like?"

"Coffee, black," he says. Wow, his voice is deep. He could be a radio host! Or record audio books. I would listen to those.

"Okay, coming right up!" I smile, grabbing up a coffee mug, striking up a conversation as per usual, "So, do you have a name, or can I just call you Mr. Ninja?"

"Dracule Mihawk."

"Oo, that's a cool name, I wish mine were that awesome. I'm Lily E. May."

He says nothing else as he takes his coffee to a table and starts reading the newspaper. Okay, fine, be that way, Mr. I'm-too-dark-and-brooding-to-be-social. I didn't want to talk to you anyway.

The door slams open for the third time today as I clean the counter huffily, brushing a few coffee grinds away. It's one of my semi-regulars and good friends, Zoro. He is constantly scowling and has strange hair that is naturally green. How, I have no idea, but it is.

"May, get me some coffee."

Oh yeah, and his manners are impeccable.

"Zoro, one of these days I'm going to poison your drink for being so rude to me," I say cheerfully.

He smiles cockily.

"Psh, you think I'm too sexy to do something like that."

Well, he does have a nice body. But I've seen way too many muscular people in my life to be much affected by things like that anymore.

"Sorry, I prefer men like Sanji," I say, smiling right back at him as annoyance flashes across his face.

Sanji, a mutual friend of ours (though Zoro might disagree), is an amazing chef that works at the Baratie restaurant a few blocks down from my café. He's blond, classy, and a notorious lady charmer (whether he is a successful one remains to be seen.) He and Zoro have an ever-on-going ego rivalry. No one even knows how or when it started, but start it did and happening it is.

"What?! How can you like that pervert?"

"Relax, I'm kidding. Here's your coffee."

The green-haired man takes a sip and a small smile makes its way onto his face. I pride myself on making some of the best coffee in Grand Line, able to gain the approval of even non-coffee drinkers, so naturally any appreciation I see for my coffee puts me in a good mood.

"How's the dojo? Are the kids ready for another year?" I ask.

Zoro runs a dojo in the city that used to belong to his adoptive father. You wouldn't think that he's the kind of guy capable of teaching kids, but he is surprisingly good at handling them.

"Tch. The brats are annoying as ever," he says, but I know he's actually fond of them. He's just a tough-love kind of guy.

"I'm sure that's only because they have you as a sensei."

"Whatever."

"Alright, you have your coffee, now shoo shoo," I wave my hand dismissively, "Oh, and if you see Luffy or Ace, tell them that they can either come willingly and pay for breakfast or I will hunt them down, flambé their hats, make them eat them, and then they'll never be allowed to eat here again."

"Geez, remind me never to get on your bad side."

"See you around, Zoro," I smile.

"Later."

I walk over to my customer who is still reading the newspaper as my friend leaves.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"No."

He stands to leave.

"Alright, have a nice day!" I call after him. The only response I get is the door clicking quietly closed.

Another (happy?) customer. I think.

12:00 pm

It's been a slow day, with only one or two customers after the anti-social Mr. Dracule. I haven't had any more visits from my friends so far, but I met a few new people and that's always nice. No one else seems to be coming in, so I'm closing for a lunch break. Not for me, oh no, it's for Luffy and Ace. Seriously, they come to me for nearly every meal throughout the day, and sometimes for dessert as well. Once they get here, I'll be so busy in the kitchen, I won't have time to run the front of the house.

I should really make them learn how to cook for themselves.

Wait. This is Luffy and Ace we're talking about. Luffy would probably try to eat raw meat and Ace would more likely than not burn everything playing with fire. And, knowing them, they'd manage to make something explode along the way. Actually, make that several things.

Nevermind, I'm good with making food for them if it means I can save people an emergency trip to the hospital.

Right on cue, Luffy crashes through the door, his brother not far behind. My poor wall. I'm going to have to repair it soon. With diamond or something.

However, it seems it's not like it's not just the D bros visiting today. They dragged Ace's friend, Marco, with them. I like Marco, he's a really chill guy and he's handsome, I guess, in a sleepy-eyed sort of way. Like Ace, he has a problem with wearing shirts properly although he actually bothers to wear them, which is more than I can say for Ace most of the time. It's just that he never buttons them up, leaving his chest exposed for all.

Both he and Ace work at the city's zoo that's owned by this beast of a man named Edward Newgate, more commonly known as Whitebeard. Which is odd because he doesn't even have a beard.

He has a moustache. A very big one.

But no beard.

Anyway, they're more like a family than anything at the zoo, and refer to Whitebeard as 'Pops' or 'Oyaji' as per his request. Why he insists on this remains a mystery to me, as do most of the inner workings of the zoo. But, it's none of my business.

"May! Food!"

That is pretty much Luffy's greeting every time he sees me. In fact, it's usually concerning if he greets me in any other fashion.

"No. You guys didn't pay for breakfast, so I'm not making you anything else."

"What!? Nooo, May, I'll die if I don't eat," Luffy cries.

"Marco, can I get you anything?" I ask the spiky-haired blonde, ignoring Luffy completely, "You must be hungry."

"What? Why does Marco get food?" Ace demands.

"Because he pays for it."

Luffy looks like he's going to cry. Gosh dangit, those stupid puppy-dog eyes! No, I am not doing this again. I'm going to look him in the square in the eye and refuse him.

…

No, I'm not breaking, my will is too strong-oh shoot, Ace has joined in on the puppy eyes. No! My resolve is slipping.

A tear falls from Luffy's eye. Okay, I give.

"Aw, Luffy! I'm so sorry!" I have to give him a hug!

"May, it's really sad that two grown men—or at least, almost grown men—can use puppy eyes on you, yoi," Marco sighs, shaking his head.

"Shut up, Marco, how could you say 'no' to this face?" I squish Luffy's cheeks together and turn him to face Marco. He looks so adorable and his cheek are so squishy!

The only response I get is a raised narrow eyebrow.

"Doesh shish mean we get lunsch free, too?" Luffy asks.

Hmmm, should I let them mooch? They already owe me a lot from the number of times they've pulled the 'dine and dash' on me. I'll just be sure to pull a lot of favors from them later.

Alright.

"Fine, but only because you're so cute."

"Yea, food!"

They so owe me big time. But for now, I make my way to the kitchen, listening to the boys chat and argue with a smile on my face.

Author's Corner: Hey-a, everyone! First of all, Happy New Year! This is my first One Piece fanfiction, and I hope you all like it. It's extremely different from stories I usually write, because I'm trying to capture that light-hearted feel that One Piece has to it, and I hope I'm successful. Lemme know if I am, yeah? If you can't tell, this is centered around an OC (not to mention, it's a coffeeshop AU, though I don't think it's a typical one), so if that's not your cup of tea, best to stop reading. I can tell you that May is going to be the only OC though. Plans for this story? It is going to be very long, with a very slow build up, and it's not plot driven. If anything, I'd call it a collection of crazy adventures, bad jokes, nerdy references, with a lil' bit of story thrown in as an afterthought.

Hope you'll stick around!

-jj

(Also, I probably don't need to say this, but I don't own One Piece. This applies to all following chapters, so I'm only saying it once.)