I Hate Tuesdays.

The Meeting.

It wasn’t uncommon for Ace to be late. Everyday, he would stop his alarm and go back to sleep and sleep for one more hour. And he would only wake up after Rouge came shaking him awake, he was grateful for his mother, really. But now, he had less than 20 minutes to shower and eat breakfast.

“Ace! Won’t you eat breakfast?” Rouge asked when she saw her son already putting on his shoes, his hair a little damp from the shower even if he dried it, for 5 minutes but that isn’t important.

“I’m sorry, mom. But I’ll be really late for my class if I don’t leave now.” Ace replied, cursing himself for not waking up sooner. With a groan, he stood from the ground, the bus would be at the stop soon and he literally had to fly there to reach it.

“Okay, be safe on your way. I love you.” Rouge smiled at his son that was now much taller than her, Ace leaned down a little so that her mom could kiss his cheek like she did everyday. He then took off, opening the door and leaving as fast he could to reach the bus stop, shouting a loud “I love you too!” back to his mother who waved him goodbye at the door. Fortunately, he reached the bus before it left, he really wished that Garp would let him take his car every now and then, but Garp never let him or Luffy take his car without a responsible person, who was Sabo.

College was draining, Ace couldn’t remember a day where he wasn’t mentally tired. But he endured it for his mother who was really happy he was going to college and living his youth, at least she put it that way. Ace didn’t know if this was the so amazing youth. He is studying piloting department, but god was it exhausting, especially on a tuesday like this. He hated tuesdays. Yes, he just decide that right now because he had a test today.

After he scanned his student card at the entrance, he started to walk towards the physics building with a yawn, bag hanging from his shoulder. As he was dragging his feet up the stairs, someone walked down past him, he had less than a second to see the person but his sense of smell was filled with the scent of lemon an instant. Ace stopped in his tracks, his whole attention suddenly taken away by this person.

Did he know this person? Why did it felt so familiar?

His head was filled with thoughts, yet they were all blurry. Turning his head back slowly, his gaze locked on the girl that was now walking away. No, he didn’t know her. He was sure he didn’t know her, he was sure.

Was he?

Then why did he feel like this?

Before he let his intrusive thoughts of going up to her and asking who she was take over, he stopped himself and teared his gaze away from her receding figure. Ace started to walk to his class, searching the depths of his mind for the girl, someone from his class? No, it couldn’t be.

Unfortunately, Ace couldn’t focus on his test nor classes all day because of his thoughts.

“Ugh. I hate tuesdays.” He groaned as he placed the cake his mom made in a bag, Garp invited Ace and his mother for dinner. And his mother made one of her delicios recipes because she didn’t want to go there empty handed. Rouge laughed behind him, unplugging the plugs of the machines to prevent any incident while they were away.

“Is that why you’re such in a bad mood today, dear?” Rouge asked Before she walked away to take her jacket from the living room. Ace didn’t answer, knowing his mother would be overjoyed if he even mentioned a girl. And that was the whole reason he didn’t talk about it, his mom would probably squeeze answers out of him. He just sighed and took the large bag and walked to the front door, wearing his shoes for the second time that day. Rouge came and wore some slippers, they left the house and started to walk towards the Monkey D. household after Rouge locked the door behind them. They walked, Rouge talking About what she did when Ace was at school and asking about how his test went, which Ace replied with a timid “It was good.” which was a big, fat lie.

When the arrived, Luffy opened the door with a big smile and hugged Rouge, both of them squeezing eachother with the same enthusiasm. Ace watced them with an amused look on his face, when Luffy was done embracing Rouge, he turned to Ace with a grin and jumped on him, a laugh escaping Rouge as they began to wrestle.

The huge table was donated with different kinds of food, Garp sure invited a lot of people. Come to talk about him, he was now playing cards with Shanks and Rayleight, he was also losing miserably. Ace went to greet Makino after he threw Luffy to the couch, and when he was done, he looked around for Dadan, he found her setting the table and greeted her. The house was full of people, and Ace was running around to say hi to everyone. He saw Sabo when he came back to the front door, Sabo had bags of drinks in his hands, he and Ace did their handshake before Luffy came and jumped on them.

“What do you mean you felt like you have seen her before?” Sabo asked after Ace’s mental breakdown in the kitchen as the two of them poured the drinks into glasses.

“Like, I felt like I have known her for my whole life but I know it was my first time seeing her.” Ace replied, he knew how dumb it sounded but he couldn’t help it. Was college finally getting to him and making him go crazy?

“Okay? Do you think she’s in your class?” Sabo asked, Ace only groaned in response, he looked through literally all the girls in his class from the MicrosoftTeams, but he couldn’t find her. He shook his head a no as a response, Sabo could feel his brother’s frustration. But he didn’t know what to say or do, because they didn’t know the name of the girl, she wasn’t in Ace’s physics class either and Ace didn’t see her face, only saw her from behind.

“Maybe try to search her instagram?”

“Sabo, I don’t know her name nor what she looks like from front.”

“You said you got a feeling when she walked past you, right? Maybe you’ll feel that again when you come across her account.” Sabo said, causing Ace to pause. Though, before he could take out his phone, Dadan came to shout at them for being so slow. Sabo and Ace carried the drinks to the terrace where the table was at. The dinner went pretty loud and argument filled, with Shanks teasing Garp for being so mad at card games and Garp shouting threats to Shanks about how he would throw him down from this terrace if he didn’t keep his mouth shut.

After dinner, when everyone have already finished dinner and moved to the living room; Luffy, Ace and Sabo went to Luffy’s room to hang out together. Luffy was telling them About why he got detention today, and Ace was...searching about the lemon girl, he decided he would call her that since she smelled like fresh lemons. Ace went through all of the followers of the people he knew from college, desperately searching for her account. He was so, so close to giving up. He then began to question whether he had really seen her or was it just his imagination because he literally looked through every instagram account that existed in the app. Luffy was still talking about hid detention while Sabo listened, Ace wanted to pay attention too but he was more focused at the task in his hand. Just as Ace was about to give up and convince himself that it all a hallucination, he tapped on an account by mistake.

He paused as he looked at the profile picture, his heart beating too loud for his liking in his chest, was this the same feeling he felt earlier this day? No, it wasn’t. Was it? But he didn’t feel like his heart would burst in his chest when she passed by him.

“(name).” Ace mumbled, Sabo turned his head towards him, a smile on his face.

“Oh, did you find her?” Sabo questioned, raising an eyebrow as he waited for Ace to speak. Luffy looked confused for a moment as he turned to Ace as well.

“Her? Who are we talking about?” Luffy asked, the room was silent for a few seconds. Both of them waiting for their brother to reply to their questions.

“It’s-” Ace started, talking a breath as he turned his gaze towards his brothers who were already looking at him. “Does the name (name) sound familiar to you guys?” Ace asked, wanting them to say yes because he thought he was going crazy since he knew that name from somewhere. He just knew it.

“Uhh, no?” Luffy answered.

“Not that I know of.” Sabo said as he shook his head as a no, Ace turned his gaze back to the screen, what was he going to do? He had to ask her some way, but how could he ask such a question without seeming like a crazy pervert? His thumb howered over the follow button, then suddenly he heard Luffy’s voice beside him.

“Do you feel mushy mushy for her?” Ace let out a surprised yelp, jumping slightly and smacking Luffy’s head because he startled him, then he looked back at his phone screen, his eyes widening in fear as he went pale.

He fucking sent a follow request by accident.