One Piece - your lifelong dream

The last few months had been tough. Lillia turned the iron on the highest setting and set it down on her rather worn ironing board.If this continues, I will have to close soon.She sighed softly. In doing so, she had planned so much. When she opened her shop ten months ago, she was still full of optimism. She had believed that the customers would literally break the door on her. But the reality was very different. She had only had three clients in the first two months. Small repairs to clothing and an order to iron an extremely delicate fabric. Ironing only, no further processing. The young woman sighed again at the thought of her early days. Much hadn't changed since then. The customers also stayed away. Of course, her little tailoring shop was on the outskirts of town. Hardly anyone got lost here voluntarily. Here, where only day laborers, unemployed and homeless lived.But the rent was the only one Lillia could afford. With a practiced grip, she put the shirt in the right position so that every fold could be easily identified. The iron steamed and warned to be careful. While she ran her beautiful, slender fingers over the fabric of the shirt, she looked lost in thought at her desk. The bills had been piling up for months, barely giving her a quiet night. The iron hissed dangerously when it made contact with the shirt. Lillia ignored the obvious sign that the iron was overheating and let it slide slowly over the fabric. The doorbell rang. The young woman startled. After all, this sound was seldom heard in this business. She was about to turn around and go into the sales room when her eyes fell on the shirt again. “One moment please, I'll be done here in a minute!” After a few seconds she heard steps. Great, one less customer again.She sighed. Damn. She quickly set the iron upright on the ironing board and hurried to her sales room. “Hi, are you done?” She winced. "Oh, um, yes. Excuse me. I assumed you would have left again." The man who had entered the tailor's shop a few minutes ago looked at her inquiringly. "Hm? Why? You said I should wait." Lillia smiled. "Anyway. So how can I help you?" He pushed the chair he was sitting on back, got up and came to the counter. “Well.” A pleasant shiver ran down her spine. This voice. She puffs up inside. After all, he was a customer.Listen !!!"I need a new shirt. Mine is pretty broken. You see." Lillia nodded. "I need it asap. Can you do that?" Another nod. "If you wait a moment, I'll finish my ironing work in the back room quickly and then I'll take my measurements. I could then make the shirt right away." He smiled.

After the young woman had finished ironing her shirt and put the iron down, she went back to the sales room, where she stood in the doorway, fascinated, and watched her customer. He sat back on the rickety wooden chair, bobbed his legs back and forth, and slept. She took advantage of the moment and took a closer look at the man. His face was very hard, which was emphasized by the short hair. The tattered shirt must once have been white, but it was now covered in dirt and stains. He wore a green band and black long trousers. The black shoes looked like he'd rolled them in the mud. And yet ... Lillia just couldn't take her gaze away from him. There was something about him that made her dizzy. Fortunate to have this man here. For this moment. Just for yourself. Only now do she show the three swords he wore on the right side of his waist.So a swordsman.Three swords. She brooded. She had read somewhere before about someone who fought with three swords.

“You have to take off your shirt. Okay?” There were no objections. "I like to take measurements when there are no clothes in my way and something falsifies." She smiled. The swordsman pulled the shirt over his head and held it out to her. "Here, I want something like that. The fabric has to be able to withstand a lot and I have to be able to move around in the shirt." Lillia brushed a strand of her auburn hair from her face and nodded. "Hm, may I ask you something?" Approving hum. "You carry three swords. And I know very well that I've read something about you before. Are you a pirate?" Lillia smiled. So she was right after all. “Zorro.” She looked up, confused. "Hm?" - "My name is Zorro." He smiled. She blushed. "Oh, yes, um ..."Pull yourself together!"Lillia. My name is Lillia." The young man grinned at her. A few minutes later she began to take his measurements. While he stood quietly in the room with his arms outstretched, he looked at the clothes in the shop window. “Did you do that?” Lillia nodded. "The things are really nice. You must have a lot of well-paying customers." A choked laugh taught him otherwise. "Thank you. I really appreciate the compliment. The people here don't buy my things. I don't know if they don't like them or if they are too expensive. It just went stupid here. I'll probably close my shop soon There are far too many tailor shops here in Pincushiion. Well, at least the others have their shops in town, but I ... "She sighed softly. “It doesn't matter.” They were both silent. Zorro noticed that she hardly touched him during the measurement. But when her fingers touched his skin for a short moment, it was an incredibly beautiful, warm feeling for him that ran through his whole body.The young seamstress was no different. As soon as she touched him it tingled inside her and she had that feeling of complete happiness again. Just don't let it show! She was just measuring the circumference of his upper arms. “Uh, I don't know, do you need the girth if I'm trying?” He looked a little shy, as if the question made him uncomfortable. “What do you mean?” He coughed. "Well, I wear the shirt when we're on the road, including fights and such. And it shouldn't break again so quickly. So, either you have a very stretchy fabric or you have to keep your sleeves wider. "Now he had made her curious. "How big are your biceps? So that I know if only good material is enough. Or not." Zorro tensed his arm and flexed his muscles for a moment. "Wow." Lillia exclaimed. She took another measure, wrote down the new value and whistled appreciatively. "Well, I'll have to come up with something.The best thing is to go straight to my warehouse and see if I can find a robust, but also extremely stretchy fabric. You can get dressed again for so long. "The swordsman nodded." Do you have a telescope? "

When the seamstress came out of the warehouse a quarter of an hour later, Zorro was already asleep in the old chair. She carefully put down the various balls of fabric she had picked out and pulled a few sheets of paper from under the table. Without much effort, she sketched different sections. But it was only after an hour that she was satisfied with her pattern. The doorbell rang a second time that day. “Eh, Zorro!” The swordsman yawned and stretched out his arms. “Ah, there you are.” He looked around with satisfaction. They all came. Luffy, Nami, Chopper, Nico Robin, Usopp, Sanji and Frankie. "You said there was something here for my Nami mouse? And my sweet Robin?" The blonde Smutje looked around confused in the almost empty room.An enthusiastic "madness!" made an answer unnecessary. Nami just took one of the dresses from the shop window and held it to her. “May I try this on?” She looked at Lillia with a sweet, girlish smile. The young woman was totally confused and wordlessly pointed to her back room. Zorro grinned. His plan had worked.

The pretty navigator had decided on a dress, two skirts and a shirt. Nico Robin had found a two-piece suit for himself, consisting of black pants made of satin-like fabric and a gold top made of silk. The three women got along well immediately and Nami had decided that Lillia should make some things for her. "So, you can do it by tomorrow?" The seamstress nodded. "You can look at the drafts tomorrow at noon. Or I'll bring the folder over to you tomorrow evening." The six men looked questioningly at their navigator. "Bring everything to us tomorrow night.We stayed at the Porcupine tavern. Then we can discuss everything over a nice dinner. I'm looking forward to your designs. But we're only in town for two days. So don't forget us. "

“Since when have you been so worried about a stranger's future?” Sanji puffed the swordsman in the side. He shot him a venomous look before answering: "We all have a dream. But none of us have to make our dream dependent on money or others. Lillia does. Her biggest dream is her business. And she has to close it when she doesn't get any assignments. ”Luffy threw open the door to the inn. “FINALLY !!! DINNER!” They sat down at a table in the back of the house. “I just love your things!” Nami grinned. She had entrusted the bags with the clothes to her ship's cook. "Woe to you spilling anything on it! Then there will be trouble!" Two waiters came to the table and served the ordered dishes.A huge mountain of noodles piled up in front of Luffy and almost made the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates disappear behind it. "To be honest, I was also surprised.", The navigator resumed the conversation. “You're not hiding anything from us, are you?” The grin on her face grew wider and wider. Zorro's complexion is getting darker. "Oh, leave me alone!"

Lillia had been wrestling all night. There were no more bills piling up on her desk; she had banished them to her ironing board. Instead, there was a pile of paper and dozens of pens of different colors, thicknesses and materials. Rulers, compasses, swatches, an eraser and a small pad in which she had written down everything the young woman with the orange hair had told her the day before. She had started with her sketches as soon as Zorro and the others left their little tailoring shop. Just the things that Nami and Nico Robin had bought from her had brought her enough money to pay the most important bills.She