Behind the Mask

1. May I Have This Dance?

Summary: It's funny how one little decision can change the entire course of your life.

Warnings: ooc, AU, possible mentions of mild self-loathing? (This might turn into a LuLaw story, too. Not sure just yet.)

Disclaimer: Aw do I have to? *plagiarism ticket nods* Fiiiine. I don't own One Piece. *grumble* Happy now? *plagiarism ticket nods* Are you capable of only nodding? *plagiarism tick nods* Really? Then I own One Piece?! *plagiarism ticket shakes* Aw…boooo!

Cover art belongs to Trelldraws on Tumblr.

The masquerade has started now and you have faded into the crowd
There's no denial, you can drown when nothing's final, so turn around
How do you know just who your friends are? How do you know when you've gone too far?
You always feel so alone, the real you is never shown
So much pressure to fit in, you never know where to begin

-Trapt, Influence

He wasn't sure why, but Law had decided to go to a masquerade ball. He wasn't usually a fan of parties, seeing as he had a problem being in crowded areas, but something deep within him told him he had to attend this specific ball. So he bought a mask he found at a thrift shop; a dark blue thing that covered nearly all his face save for his left temple and part of his left jaw. Golden, sparkly swirls adorned its surface, giving it both a feeling of mystery and richness.

He looked in the only mirror in the house; a full-body one that was embedded into the wall, making it a hassle if he wished to remove it. It was the reason why it was still there and not at the dump with the rest of his mirrors. Making sure his suit, which was a little on the expensive side, was tidy and the mask covered the more noticeable traits on his face, he gave a nervous sigh and nod before leaving his house.

He looked around the ballroom, his eyes searching for nothing in particular as he stood off to the side. The room was full of people who wouldn't have spared a glance at him if they knew who was behind the mask. But as he was, with his carefully tailored suit, the rich people who passed had smiled at him trying to figure out who the dashing young figure was. Several people had approached him before but much to their shock, Law turned them away. He wasn't interested in dancing with anyone, much less conversing with some snobby strangers about politics and 'the poor commoners'.

Seconds passed and tuned into minutes, and Law was becoming more and more uncomfortable with his surroundings. People were starting to glance his way nearly every other minute and his paranoia was making all the warnings bells in his mind go off. He wanted to leave, he didn't belong there among the rich and powerful and fancy. He belonged in the hospital in the emergency room where no one cared what you looked like, where the only thing you were judged on was the quality of your work. He pushed away from the wall and began to make his way to the door.

But then his eyes landed on a stranger. He was in the centre of the room looking annoyed, crowded by several men and women who had their eyes on him. Making sure that his mask was secured properly onto his face, Law walked up to him slowly. The person obviously wasn't happy with all the attention he was receiving and had started shifting in his spot.

The teen saw him coming and stopped to stare. The people, completely confused as to who held the attractive teen's attention, looked towards Law too. The stranger wore a regular tuxedo, the kind you could find at any rental shop, and a golden mask that only covered his eyes. Law reached him and held out his hand.

"May I have this dance?" he asked, a small smirk pulling at his lips.

"Of course," the teen said, his eyes lighting up in a way Law had never seen before. He took Law's hand without throwing the people around him a second glance, much to their annoyance, and let Law guide him to the dance floor where a slow-paced classical song played. They fell into the traditional dance with the other couples, gliding across the floor in perfect synchronization. "Thanks for rescuing me," the teen smiled. Law blinked. For some reason the teen's smile reminded him of the sun, and his mask reminded him a lion.

Everything about the teen so far was golden.

"Think nothing of it," Law replied, tearing his eyes away from the male's chocolate eyes to look over at the other dancers. Most of the woman who had attended wore dresses that looked to be from the 1800's and he couldn't even begin to imagine how expensive they were. Their masks held a few feathers, some peacock while others were colored rooster feathers. "I know the feeling of being crowded can become suffocating and rather irritating."

"Shishishi, you're right." Law's lips nearly twitched as he found the teen's laugh to be quite unique. It was certainly unlike anything he'd heard before. "So what brought you here if you're not all that fond of crowds?"

"I was curious to see what the party would be like," he answered. "And what brought you here?"

"My brother was invited by his boyfriend's family," the teen started. "He wanted to bring me along too since it was his first time to something like this. But I lost him about ten minutes ago."

"I see." The song came to and end and both Law and Luffy bowed to each other. "I guess this is it for our dance. I wish you a good night." But as Law turned to leave, he felt the teen grab his wrist.

"Wait!" Law turned and raised an eyebrow, though the mask covered it the teen seemed to get the gist of what he was doing. "Do you want to go outside and talk? It's a little stuffy in here."

"Sure," he said before he even realized it. He wondered why he was agreeing to it, since he and this kid wouldn't see each other after the party ended. He guessed he blamed it on the fact that this was a masquerade party, and that allowed him to be someone else for a moment. He could be someone else behind the mask, someone who mattered; someone who others would look upon without a sneer or glare on their perfect faces.

They went out to one of the several smaller balconies that overlooked the courtyard. Below were hedges, rose bushes and a decorative fountain. The roses were both red and white, the white ones glowing under the moon's light while the water from the fountain sparkled beautifully. Both Law and Luffy rested their elbows on the railing as they stared at the beautiful scenery. "Beautiful," Luffy murmured, and Law couldn't help but sneak a glance at the teen beside him. The male's eyes and smile softened, giving him a peaceful expression that matched the atmosphere.

He looked back down at the rose bushes. "Yeah," he said quietly. "It is."

"So what's your name?"

The surgeon hesitated to answer, shifting from one foot to the other for a more comfortable position as he thought about whether or not he should give the stranger his real name. He was wary and unsure what to really do, this was the first time he actually socialized with someone other than his guardian Rocinante. He only conversed with his coworkers at the hospital when it was necessary and it was always strictly about work. Though, as of late, the two new transfers Sachi and Penguin were trying to get buddy-buddy with him ever since they were introduced. He still didn't know if he liked them for that or loathed them even more, but it was certainly making his days at work more…lively.

"Mine's Luffy," the teen said when Law took too long to answer, and he held his hand out. Law slowly shook Luffy's hand and the teen rose an eyebrow behind his golden mask. "Gloves? You're not one of those germaphobes are you?" he asked in light humor, a smile tugging at his lips.

"No, I'm not," Law answered, the corners of his own lips twitching upwards. Luffy's smile, he found, was definitely contagious. He distantly wondered how someone could seem so upbeat in life and act like they had not a care or problem in the world.

"So, you gonna tell me your name?"

"It's Law."

Luffy's smile turned into a lopsided grin as a mischievous glint entered his eyes. "Lawsy~!" he drawled in amusement. However, Law grimaced at the nickname.

"I'd rather you not call me that. My uncle tends to call me that and I'm not on very good terms with him at the moment," he informed, and Luffy instantly gave a sheepish apology.

"My bad. So, Law, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," he said, feeling slightly uneasy as to what the question would be. However, he felt all unease slip away as the younger male full on grinned.

"Do you know of any awesome restaurants in this city?"

Law blinked.

Restaurants…?

The minutes ticked by faster than Law or Luffy realized. They spent their entire time swapping small little tidbits of information about each other, like their favorite (or in Law's case, least favorite) foods, their preferred hobbies, which movies they liked that were recently released, and so on. Nothing very personal was asked or given from Law, though Luffy seemed to be fine with giving out information about himself to a complete stranger.

Law learned Luffy lived with brother Sabo since Ace just moved out several days ago, though Sabo would be moving out in a week as well. He hung with his friends, all of which were quite eccentric from what Law could gather, and they did a lot of activities together when they had the time to hang out. He basically had four caretakers growing up: Garp, his biological grandfather who was a hero, Makino, the friendly woman who ran a bar downtown, Dadan, the bandit who wasn't as bad as she looked, and Shanks, the owner of the famous romance shop Pirate's Booty in the city.

"Are you sure you should be telling me all this," Law asked finally after Luffy finished retelling the story of how Shanks lost his arm saving him from a shark. "This is really…personal information, isn't it? For all you know I could be a stalker."

"Shishishi, you're not a stalker," Luffy said. "You're a good guy, I can tell just by hanging around you." Law gave him a deadpanned are you seriously joking right now? look, but the teen ignored it. "Garp says it's a gift I've had since birth. I can always tell who's good and honest and who not to trust." He looked back at the surgeon with a friendly grin. "And I know I can trust you!"

And Law, in the back of his mind, only wished he could be as trusting as Luffy was. But years of living in the harsh reality of life left him a closed-off person who didn't dare open up to anyone lest he wished to be hurt. Not that anyone had even dared to get close to him, why should they? He was different to them, nothing but a reminder of a horrifying incident that everyone wished to forget. Why should he be granted happiness? He was nothing, just useless piece of–

"Law?" The teen's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "You okay? You looked…" Luffy simply faded off, like he couldn't find the right word to describe what he had just witnessed. Though, if he had to pick a word, sad would have probably been it. The surgeon shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. He cleared his throat and repeated, "I'm fine. Sorry, I just spaced out." He glanced at his watch and gave a scowl. It was already 10:30. Had he really been there for three and a half hours already? Luffy, too, glanced to see what time it was on his phone and he gave a nervous chuckle.

"I told Sabo and Ace I'd be home two hours ago." Law's eyes flickered over to the male's smartphone screen and did a double take at seeing all the messages, missed calls and voicemails he'd received. Seeing the surgeon's reaction, he gave a sheepish smile. "My older brothers are kinda protective, especially Ace. They probably started freaking out when I didn't answer the first three times."

'No shit,' Law thought. He spotted thirty-four voicemails, eighty-six missed calls and one hundred-forty-one text messages. Yeah, overprotective seemed like quite an understatement. Luffy held out his hand for Law to shake once more, and the surgeon shook it with almost no hesitation. "Well, Law, it was certainly awesome to meet you!"

"It was a pleasure to meet you too, Luffy-ya," he said. Luffy reached up and removed his mask, revealing a small scar under his left eye. Law was suddenly curious as to how the teen received a scar in such a place but knew the male had to leave. He was so caught up at looking at Luffy's face that he almost didn't see the teen reaching out to take off Law's mask. The surgeon quickly took a step back, though, keeping Luffy's hands out of reach. The teen frowned, but the slight irritation faded as quickly as it came.

"I understand," he said, smiling brightly. "Shishishi, sorry."

"No," Law quickly said. "It's not you. It really isn't. I just…" He looked uncomfortable with the subject so Luffy quickly changed it, much to the surgeon's relief.

"I guess this is where we part ways. Say, could I have your phone number?"

Law blinked. "My…phone number?"

Luffy nodded, "Yeah! I'd like to keep in touch with you, if you don't mind that is." A mischievous sparkle entered his eyes, and Law almost fell for the bait. However, he agreed to giving out his number not because of the challenge, but because he honestly wanted to have at least one friend in his life.

Even if that friend would just be name in his phone.

Because there was no way Law would ever meet up with Luffy face to face without wearing a mask. He felt too self conscious and didn't want to scare the male away after all. So he gave Luffy his number, and Luffy gave him his as they both headed for the exit of the large building. "See ya later, Law!"

"Goodbye, Luffy-ya," he said, leaving in the opposite direction Luffy was going. He couldn't help the twitch of a smile though as he saw two people practically tackle Luffy to the ground in two, tight hugs. One sounded absolutely frantic while the other simply looked relieved. And in the middle of all the chaos stood Luffy, simply laughing while giving half-hearted apologies to his brothers.

Law took in the teen's golden, sunny smile one last time before he turned away. He would make sure to remember that smile for the rest of his life.

Because that was the last time he knew he'd ever see it in person.

A/N: Believe it or not, this started off as a little thing I was going to write for the LawLu 30 Day Prompt (for day 8: Fancy Dress/In Costume) but then it took on a life of its own. So here it is. There will probably be only three chapters. I don't know, I kinda had fun writing this. Hope it was alright for you guys! Insecure!Law is great, there needs to be more of it. MORE. NOW.

I'm so excited guys. Tomorrow, on Corazon's birthday, I'm getting my tattoo! *squeals* I can't wait! Does anyone have a tattoo? Any advice? I'm kinda nervous about getting it. :'D Anyway. Leave a review and tell me what you thought? Only if you want to though, no pressure! *holds knife behind back while Psycho music plays*

Your shy ice elemental,
~»roo the psycho«