Title: His Neighbor, irresistible.

Chapter 1: Moving Day

Pairing: None in this chapter (The actual main pairing is Wiper x Luffy)

Rating: T but will be M in later chapters

Summary: Wiper gets to know his neighbor. His conclusion? They're warm and welcoming yet too weird for his taste.

A/N: I'm in the mood of AU and Modern Setting. My previous candidates for Luffy's partner was originally Paulie, but I ended up choosing Wiper since he got this badass look (and attitude) and hope he and Luffy make such a cute pairing. And just for early reminder for those who hasn't yet read any of my stories, I love rare pairings. In case you forget who Wiper is, read or watch back the Skypie Arc. He's the only one in that Sky Island that perked my interest. (Enel is just being too creepy for me.)

Normal P.O.V

Wiper let out a heavy sigh as he sat on one of the boxes that scattered all over floor together with his other belongings in which he had spent hours lugging and moving them into his new home. He hasn't yet started unpacking and arranging his stuffs accordingly, but the muscles in his body had already begun to feel sore and his back ached like hell. The man groaned in frustration. Work starts tomorrow, but just was he going to pull it off if he hasn't settled anything in his own damn house? As if to motivate himself, Wiper breathed in a large amount of oxygen and exhaled in a dramatic way before scanning his eyes at the rest of the apartment. It wasn't half bad to begin with. The walls were all creamy color, and the carpet was light brown which made the apartment looked slightly bigger and calming. There were two good sized bedrooms; the master bedroom (his room) had its own bathroom with shower while the extra bedroom located at the other side of the hallway. The kitchen was located at the left side of his room and the living room was oddly spacious itself. He rented the place unfurnished since it's cheaper and it's such a waste if he was to leave his furniture back at his old home, so he brought them together. All left was to buy a new bed, but that can wait tomorrow. Wiper slipped his eyes shut but snapped it back open when his front door was knocked.

"Who the hell…." The man frowned and walked over to the door, opened it only to be greeted by two unfamiliar guys.

Wiper's P.O.V

To be honest, I wasn't ready to meet any new people right now especially when I had just moved here. My eyes skimmed over the two people before me. One of them was a six foots tall with a freckles decorating his checks, sleepy eyes and an unruly raven hair that almost shoulder length. Either it was the hot weather or he simply an exhibitionist, nevertheless, he wore only a black short pants and of course without shirt to cover his upper body. Next to him was a head shorter male and equally messy hair, only shorter. Unlike the other, he had the decency to wear a sleeveless shirt but still with the short pants. Wait, was that a scar under his left eyes? Wonder what happened. Both of them seem young, maybe still in their teen, although the taller male looked older.

"Hi, you must be our new neighbor." The freckled one suddenly spoke. His voice matched his boyish appearance entirely.

"Yeah, that's me. I just arrived this morning. And you're..?"

"Oh sorry! Where is my manner? My name is Portgas D. Ace, but you can call me Ace." He said with a grin and trailed off, "We live next door."

Well that sort of surprised me. I thought people nowadays don't interact with their neighbor anymore, only care about their own damn business. And here I am, greeted by next door neighbor, a young people on top of that. At least there were still exist youngsters who have sense to respect their elders. Well, not that I want to admit I'm that old.

"I see. You can call me Wiper." I smiled as my eyes moved to the male next to him.

"And this idiot here is my little brother, Luffy." He continued while his hand ruffling his brother's hair playfully.

"That's mean Ace!! I'm not an idiot!" The one called Luffy shot back, puffing his cheeks like a chipmunk while the older brother only stuck out his tongue in return.

"Blehh!!! Yesss you are!!" The older D. chimed, "And I still haven't forgiven you for eating the last chocolate pudding I saved on."

"It wasn't me!!" The kid shouted. His brother snorted.

"Then who ate it? The cat?"

"Ugghh…" The boy grumbled, proving he was indeed guilty as charged.

The whole sight was both comical and cute itself which made me snickered silently.

"So Wiper-san…" Ace's voice brought to my attention. "Is there anything we can help? Looks to me, you really need some hands with those stuff." He tipped his toes a bit and peered over my shoulders to have a better a view of my currently messy house.

I blinked. "Is it ok? I mean, you don't have to kill your weekend because of me." Although I'm tad happy hearing his offer, I still feel bad asking for their assistance.

Ace chuckled. "What are you saying? Of course its—

"Leave it to us!!!!!" The boy chirped. Apparently he didn't even bother waiting for his brother to finish and ran straight passed through us into my house. I could feel my mouth gaped slightly.

"It's just as he said. You might want to just take our offer Wiper-san because you see," Ace paused for a moment and continued, "My brother won't take no as an answer."

Hearing those words, I wasn't sure if I should feel happy or worried instead. With their help, the moving progress surely will be faster but I couldn't help myself from being worried about the other boy, especially when there were 'Hyper' and 'clumsy' signs planted on his forehead. With glitters.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure Luffy doesn't break anything." Ace gave me a reassuring smile as if to answer my inner turmoil. Whoops, did I say that loud?

I smiled dejectedly. "I guess it's a yes then."

Xxxx Hours Later xxxx

When we finally had all the furniture assembled and most of my stuffs unpacked, I was really exhausted and felt like crashing, but instead, I decided to learn more about my new neighbors.

"Do you want anything to drink?" I was about to make my way to the kitchen but stopped when I saw a bemused expression on Ace's face. Shit, that's right! I just moved in so of course there weren't any food supplies yet. Not only they wasted their time and energy to help me, and now I couldn't even offer them a bloody drink. Nice one, Wiper.

Ace gave a light hearted laugh. "That's ok Wiper-san. I'll just bring over some drinks from our house. Do you want soda or I can make us some barley tea." He asked as he started to walk towards the door.

"Soda is fine." I assumed he heard me since he didn't say anything after that and closed the door behind him.

"Ooo-kayy…. That was embarrassing." I muttered as I put my palm over my face. Err, wait a minute. Where's the other one? I quickly spun my feet around and saw the boy was sitting on the couch Indian style, staring at me in interest with a pair of big, obsidian eyes which came from a child-like face. Those eyes were fixated on my face curiously and I noticed they moved up and down between my arms and my eyes. Was it something on my face? Of course, the tattoos on my left arm up to mu shoulder and around the left eye slightly covering my forehead must be what he was looking at. All of sudden, a wide grin cracked his face and I almost chocked on my own spit. Now what?

"I reaaaaalllllly like your tattoo, ossan."

My left brow twitched. Did the brat seriously just call me ossan? Someone sure got a death wish today. Not that I'm ignorance with my own age, but being called ossan made me feel like an old dying geezer.

"Can I touch it?" I heard him asked hopefully. I turned a blank look on him, a small frown pulling my lips.

"No. You can't touch it."

"Ehhhh…. Why not?" The kid grumbled and I can hear clearly the pout in his voice. And no, I wasn't going to say it was cute. Or adorable.

"Because I said so." Stupid kid. I just knew you less than a half day and now you already wanted to poke my face?

"Tch. Stingy ossan."

"Listen brat. It's not ossan, it's Wiper. I'm only 28 you know." I said in a strained voice as I sat myself in front of the kid and shifted my position on the couch a bit to get more comfortable. He closed his eyes and tilted his head slightly, his brows knotted like ropes as if to digest the information he had received. Seriously, how hard could it be to understand?

"Hmmmmmm…... I'll call you Wiper then!"

I sighed. At least it wasn't ossan anymore. "Whatever. Say Luffy, where are your parents?"

Some might found it as a hit-the-spot sort of question, but I was curious about the brothers. These buildings only contains a two bedrooms apartments that's mostly suitable only for bachelors, so it was nearly impossible for a family to live here except if they had a single child only. So why weren't they living with their parents? Although Ace seems mature enough and independent, but Luffy was still a brat. Judging by his looks, I could tell he's a high school student or maybe even younger.

"We don't have any." A voice came from behind me. With a not-so-manly yelped I whipped around and saw Ace was standing behind me with a lopsided grin plastered on his face, reminding me the cashire cat from Alice in the Wonderland. I was beginning to think he practiced those grins in front of a mirror or how else did he manage to keep grinning without having muscles cramp? He handed me a soda, tossing another one towards his brother and flopped next to him. I murmured 'thanks' before opening the can, and drank its content, savoring the feeling of the cold liquid passed through my sand-dry throat.

"Our parents died when we were kids, so a foster dad that our grandfather trusted raised us afterward in a small village." Ace downed the last remaining of his drink and continued, "But then gramps wanted us to receive a proper education, so he sent us to this city to attend the school here."

"Alone?"

"It won't matter much even if he stays with us since he doesn't set his foot much on the ground."

"What's that suppose to mean?" I tilted my head in confusion. Just what kind of person that doesn't walk on the ground? A bird hybrid?

"Gramps is a Marine Vice-Admiral. He spent most of his time out in the sea rather than land and barely around."

I nodded. Well that makes sense enough. Despite not having parents, I'm relieved they were brought up well enough. Their degree of politeness and education level was a proof to this fact, although their personalities were polar opposites, but both of them were so warm and welcoming.

"Then, how 'bout you Wiper-san? What do you for a living?" Ace asked, one brow rose in question. He was leaning his back against the couch in a relaxed manner, legs crossed.

"I'm a tattooist… and I owned a tattoo parlor." I said simply, my fingers toying with the empty can.

He blinked in surprised. "Really? Why do you decide to move here anyway?" I stared back at him and wondered why he looked interested. Luffy on the other hand didn't make any sound throughout the conversation, only swaying his legs mindlessly. He seemed unusually bored, but also looked a little tired.

I focused my attention back to the older brother. "The neighbor at my previous apartment kept on fighting almost every night, so I ended up sleep deprived. Annoyed the hell out of me. Besides, it's closer to my work place."

Luffy's head perked up and his eyes lit up a bit. "That's great Ace! Now you can just get new tattoo from his place. I bet he'll do great unlike last time, and his tattoos look soooo cool too." He chirped, smiling widely at his brother before locking his eyes with mine.

"Last time?"

"Well, the one who did the tattoo on my arm spelled my name wrong. Took almost four guys to stop me from strangling that guy to death." He chuckled while pointing his right arm. Indeed, the capital 'S' was canceled and replaced by 'C' afterward. (A/N: everyone knows how's Ace's tattoo looks like right? No need to elaborate more.)

"But it still looks good on you." I said honestly.

The older brother smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, kind of figured it out too after he was hospitalized since his also got few broken ribs."

"Ace is strong! He sent that guy flying with one punch only!" Luffy added with enthusiasm.

I sweat dropped. Not only he was stopped by four guys, but he still managed to break few of the tattooist's ribs. The brothers might be warm and welcoming, but they sure were weird as hell. And dangerous of course. Later, i learned that Luffy was seventeen years old and his brother was older by three years and currently studying in some college. So my assumption about their age was right after all, although i expected Luffy was younger that that seeing his idiotic child face.

They didn't stay long at my house. Not after Luffy's stomach grumbled loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear, letting both me and Ace knew he was extremely starving. He even nudged his brother and gave him a 'I'm hungry, so hurry up and make lunch before I annoy the hell out of you' look. I wanted to treat both of them lunch, but Ace politely refused and said something like I'll regret for the rest of my life if I was to feed their bottomless pit.

"Well, I guess we better leave. If you need anything, don't hesitate to knock our door Wiper-san." Ace said as he pulled his brother to his feet and walked towards the door.

"Sure. Thanks for your help, both of you."

"Bye Bye, Wiper!" Luffy chirped. I just scowled at him and waved goodbye to them before closing the door. I dragged my feet back to the couch and planting my butt back onto it. I was dead tired and my eyes began to slip shut.

TBC

A/N: I've written this story long ago, but forgot to post it. Lol. So do review and let me know what you think. Critics, compliments, comments, etc will be highly appreciated. That's how we can improve the story line, right?