I have been MIA for way too long now. This story is really just a little something to shake the rust off. Back in the college universe we go!

Zoro was not buying it. Not for one second.

"We're dressing as pirates. Pirates. In ripped pants and fancy boots and feathery hats that would make Ben sing like a parakeet?"

"Tweet! Chirp chirp tweet!" Bentham cooed loudly from his room across the hall. From the floor below, the college senior could hear Usopp cursing vehemently as his sword jabbed him in the abdomen thanks to Luffy and Chopper 'swash-buckling' right onto his back. His own room-mate and best frenemy growled lowly as a breeze slipped through a slit in the back of his old, ripped jeans.

"Yes, we are. It was a request from our unofficial cheerleading squad and I'll be damned if I break a promise to Bonney. Especially since Kidd is accompanying her and looking for a reason to use me as a pigskin."

Zoro snorted loudly, a sound that came straight from his belly and involved the vast majority of the muscles in his upper body. The middle linebacker would rather go out as he was, thank you very mu-

A pile of clothing violently collided with his face, punted across the room by Sanji.

"And Tashigi already said she'd slice me up if we let you go out as 'Adam' again, so no buffness!" his roomie roared loudly as he dragged on a frilly shirt.

Zoro grumbled and grunted and downright snarled when he saw the shirt and the state of his formerly favorite pair of jeans. He told his sword-wielding girlfriend that ruffles made him itch.

"What exactly are we getting out of putting up with this Halloween shit again?" Zoro barked as he felt the cool October air sneak through the half-open window and up his butt cheek. This sort of torture had to have some sort of payoff.

"We get to fight our 'natural enemies' and your sister made the costumes," Trafalgar replied as he passed the footballers' room with a large sword over his shoulder. "That's more than enough for me."

"Trafalgar, if you fucking touch a hair on Perona's head-! Shit! Fuck, come on, Sanji!" the middle linebacker growled as he shrugged on his shirt, slapped a hat his father would kill for on his head and grabbed three plastic swords from the mess on his floor before running after the swiftly disappearing med student that was currently infatuated with his adopted sister.

"All you older brothers are the fucking same - cock-blockers!" Sanji bellowed as he struggled to tie his shirt together and follow his room-mate.

[~~~]

"We've been here for~ever!" Luffy drawled as he swayed on Zoro's shoulder, compliments of the well-liquored punch on hand. "When're the girls and Kiddie gonna show up?"

"Seriously, this is late, even by Nami standards," Usopp groused as he peeled an overly-friendly Brook off of his bare waist. The wide receiver was 'righteously miffed,' as he had no idea why Kaya thought he should endure his midriff being bared in the ass-end of October.

"Oh just chill!" Bentham chortled, already tipsy and wisely deciding to sprawl on a couch as a result. He was content with playing games on his phone. "Kidd just called and said they'd be here right-"

The lights were cut off before the theater student could finish his sentence, plunging the room into darkness. From a tinny cellphone speaker came the theme song to a popular ninja-based anime.

"Assassins of the night! Assemble!"

The lights came back on and the tableau was one of shock and awe as the 'cheerleaders' - now dressed in scant degrees of fishnet stockings, gloves, and headbands - tumbled through the windows, doors and down the skylight of the old, run-down house that had been rented out for the occasion. The 'pirates' stood agog as various body parts on the 'ninjas' jiggled into place - all except for Kidd's own, as he dramatically emerged from a pile of sawdust with full fishnet body stocking, a toga, and a large, painted gourd (for want of a better term) slung over his back.

"Pirates, prepare to battle!" Nami bellowed in greeting, grinning wildly as Luffy's eyes unabashed followed her lightly banded bosom. Sanji was already hyperventilating as Bonney bounced on her toes, punching the air powerfully as her Chinese styled dress strained around her chest and over her bum. Tashigi, dressed in a short, tight yukata, was preparing an iaido move with her fake katana that showed far more of her lithe legs than Zoro could comfortably stand. Kaya was shaking handfuls of filled test tubes in a manner that really accentuated her hips to Usopp and Perona's 'attack puppets' did little to hide her narrow waist from Trafalgar's hungry gaze.

Bentham, on the other hand, was absolutely riveted to his couch by the flash of Kidd's nipples under his toga. He didn't even care as his last angry bird flittered uselessly over a pile of pigs on his cellphone screen.

"In other words, you bastards, let's party!" the male redhead in question crowed before he turned the gourd around, chugged from it liberally, and sprayed the contents over everyone.

"Hard Apple Cider no Jutsu or whatever that shit is that they say! Get the fuck up and dance!"

As strategically placed speakers and lights were remotely triggered, Zoro leaned over to Sanji, his eyes still locked on Tashigi, who was definitely about to strike if that jostling cleavage was anything to go by.

"Please tell me we left Chopper at home."

His roomie nodded his head so vigorously that he could have qualified as a dashboard toy, just two seconds before Bonney flew past her suddenly Bentham-occupied brother and jumped the blond.

"Thank fuck!" Zoro yelled as he dodged Tashigi's sword, grabbed her around her waist and hauled her in for a rather swashbuckling kiss.

Needless to say, Halloween was a complete success that year.