Old Neighbor (Donquixote Rosinante x Reader) AU

Work

"Alright Guys I'm going off to work." Your three brother-cousins stared at you with a frown. "What?"

"Please quit that job." Said Ace, face dead serious.

They had talked a lot about you, as they had noticed how you clearly weren't emotionally fine. Every single day you looked exhausted and you had lost all visions of your dream. To them, it seemed like you had simply given up in life. They knew you needed a little nudge to get back on your feet, and they firmly believed that if you quitted that job you'd be nudging yourself to open up your restaurant, so they always tried to send hints your way or just tell you straight away. The problem was that they needed to create a conversational space where you could speak about this openly, but they never did. They just tried to sneak their ideas into conversations and, of course, it never ended into anything concrete. You were left confused about their words and they would be left wanting to punch themselves for being such terrible communicators.

"I can't." You scowled, frowning at them in confusion. To you, they seemed like they wanted you to quit your job out of a whim. "Alright, you can stay over as much time as you want to, I think Sabo has a key."

"What?! You gave Sabo a key? What about us?" Screeched Ace in shock, offended that you had only gave a key to Sabo.

"Bye guys~" You giggled, leaving Ace to have his tantrum on his own. Of course you wouldn't trust him with a key, he would eat a month's worth of groceries in an hour.

Sighing, you made your way down the stairs just as your neighbor opened the door, but you had to get to your work place, so introductions would have to wait for another time. As you left the apartment complex, your sworn brothers stayed in your living room discussing worriedly your situation. They were afraid you'd ruin your dreams because of this irrational fear you felt, but they had tried many ways and times to help you and you simply wouldn't accept the fact that you were ready to have your own restaurant.

"Do you think she has depression or something?" Asked Ace.

"I don't know, she wouldn't accept going to therapy anyways."

"Guys! She's (Y/N). She has said it herself, she's just going through a hard patch." Mumbled Luffy nervously, he didn't like the thought of you feeling bad. He wanted you to feel accomplished and happy, so the fact that you had been feeling down ever since your parents died a couple of years ago, made his heart break.

"Yes, Luffy. She's been going through this rough patch for two years already. Enough is enough, I'm not going to let her ruin her dreams like this."

"But Sabo-"

"Look Luffy, I understand what you're trying to do. You have convinced yourself she's fine so that you don't have to worry about her, but she's not." Luffy stared at the ground sadly. Sabo was right. Maybe he had been a little selfish and too self involved, putting you on a pedestal instead of helping you through rough times. "I just-"

Sabo went quiet the moment he heard someone knock at the door.

"Nobody's here!" Yelled Luffy, smirking as if he had just saved their butts from having to answer your door. Ace and Sabo face palmed, eyeing their dumb little brother with disappointment. "What?" He asked innocently.

Sabo stood up to open the door, seeing a tall blonde man in the other end.

"Hi, is (Y/N) (L/N) here?" The stranger said, peeking through Sabo's shoulder to eye the room. Not really trusting the stranger, Sabo protectively stood closer to him to cover your place from his prying eyes.

"She just left. What did you need?" He asked eyeing him suspiciously.

"Oh, do you know when she'll be back?" Sabo squinted his eyes seeing how he hadn't answered his question.