The man walked down the windy street trying to read his book and not have it torn from his hands at the same time. He gave up and closed the book. Placing it under his arm. The wind whipping up the freshly fallen leaves around his ankles. Making them take on the appearance of being in some frenzied dance. The forecast that morning had called for rain and the skies seemed to start poring any minute. He had to find a place to hunker down just in case it did pour sadly it seemed he had wondered into a part of the city he didn't know very well.
He followed the dancing leaves down the street until they seemed to dance down a side street. Following he found a small book and coffee shop tucked away at the end of the ally. You would have missed it if you weren't looking.
Pushing the door open he heard the chime of the bell over the door. It was a nice sound not many shops these days had them it was a nice sound to hear. His grandfather, who had been a small business owner, also had one over his shop's door.
As a kid, the man would love to stand there and swing on the door making the bell chime until the old man yelled at him. In those days he would visit thee shop everyday. But then his grandfather had gotten sick and they had to sell the shop. He still remembered his last day in the shop. The smell of the shop had seemed different that day; bitter, sharp almost as if the air knew that this day wasn't going down in the books as one to smile about.
As the man came up from his memories, he noticed the lack of shop workers. Normally in a small shop that didn't get a lot of people, the owner would be out as soon as they heard the bell or at least yelling from the back that they would be out soon. The man waited for a bit for a response at all. When nothing happened, he started to examine the shop that he had been blown into.
It seemed to be one of those of the shops that was tiny form the out side but seemed to go in forever on the inside. Near the door there were some tables and what seemed to be a suave yourself coffee machine. All around the small seating area and stretching as far back as the man could see were book shelves. Tall, arching book shelves that seemed to pull at the man.
The man started to walk down the corridor formed by the book shelves in front of him. As he walked he reached a hand out to trail it along the book coves. A habit formed from all his years spent in library and book stores. There was something about running your fingers over the spine of a book as if you could almost feel the adventures inside of it.
It didn't take him as long as he thought it would to reach the back of the store. In the back he found a small check out desk and a door way that had a small sheet hiding what lay beyond from the rest of the store.
The man was interested what kind of shop owner didn't come out to see his costumers. The man walked over to the desk and taped on the small bell that sat there. The tinkling sound of the bell seemed to also cause no reaction with in the small store and the man wondered if anyone was even in the shop besides him. After a few minutes of standing there he heard the foot steps of a person that doesn't have to get anywhere fast. The foot steps seemed to neared the door way and then the sheet was being pulled back by a tall, skinny man with the most blond hair he had ever seen.
The blond walked behind the desk before ever raising his head. When he had himself behind the desk and sitting on a stool he finally looked up at the man standing in front of him.
His eyes were the first thing that struck the man, as blue as a tropical ocean. His breath was almost taken away at how blue they were. Slowly he registered that the man was talking, "can i help you with something?" like his eyes the mans voice also had a curtain quality that stunned the man to silence.
"uuuuuu..." he stutterer out. "Right..." he tried to pull himself together as the man stared at him from the other side of the desk.
"Right," he said again, "I'm Zoro and i was kind of blow in here and well i think its going to rain...and i was well wondering if i could stay in you shop till it calmed down outside...if that is ok..."he stuttered into silence again. Looking up hopefully at the man in front of him. The man stared back with a look he couldn't quite make out.
"Sure," said the man, "by the way my name is Sanji, nice to make you acquaintance." He said stretching out his hand to Zoro. Zoro grasped it and shook it warmly but in the process of moving his arm to reach Sanji's hand he jostled his book. It fell to the floor with a small thwap.
As Zoro leaned over to get it Sanji asked, "what book you reading?"
"Oh just this book that my friend gave me. I have been trying forever to get through it. Seeing as I'm not a big reader," Zoro answered.
"Hand it over," Sanji demanded. Wordlessly Zoro passed him the book. "The power of one," Sanji read out the title, "I have heard of this book never read it myself. Is it good?"
"I'm only at the third chapter but yeah so far its really good."
And looking back Zoro guessed that was really the beginning of everything. Zoro and Sanji talked about this and that for the next several hours, until his adoptive father came home and said that it was closing time and Zoro had to go.
Zoro left that small book store that night feeling like a teenager just met his first love.