Helloo! I had to reload this because of layout reasons! (noticed that this website had deleted a few things in the text and had to edit it to make this easier to read!)
I have had this idea ever since Cora was introduced in the manga and finally got around to write it. ( u v u )
So this will be a modern AU setting with father+son CoraLaw and then eventual KidLaw. Also, if you want to see Law dating people in the future, just leave a review! This is not a very plotted fic, so if you wish to see something specific, I might be able to add it :)
I know this isn't the most awesome fic of all time, but I hope someone will read it and enjoy it!
Updates will be very slow so I ask for patience (in case someone really reads this) ( o v o )
~Enjoy~
The clock ticked behind him. The entire room was silent, except the silent ticking. The teacher had moved the clock in the back of the class, hoping that the students would focus in class better. But that hadn't worked very well, because all Roci thought of was going home.
At home he was safe from a lot of things. Roci had absolutely nothing against people in general, and his first years at school had been a delight. He had loved the teachers and had gotten a lot of friends. He had played with his friends during the breaks and sometimes Doflamingo had come along with his friends from the upper grade and Roci had felt so cool. But then things had started to change.
Or, Doflamingo had started to change.
Roci knew that Doflamingo still cared about him; at home they got along well. But immediately when they got to school, Doflamingo would start to make fun of him; calling him a sissy, accusing him for being a teacher's pet, laughing at him and pushing him around. Somehow, Doflamingo found it necessary to bully Roci whenever his friends were around.
And the bullying had started to spread. When the kids in Roci's grade had seen how Doflamingo and the big kids were pushing him around, they had learnt that making fun of Roci was a fun, cool thing to do.
The bullying was done in a smart way; for the teachers it looked as if they were friends. It looked as if Doflamingo was clinging to him in a friendly manner, joking together with him, laughing together with him. But the truth was that Doflamingo clung to him in a mocking manner, joked about him, laughed at him. And the others were laughing at how Roci was made fun of. When the teachers weren't looking, they would break his things and then run away, making it look as if Roci had been clumsy and broken his new toy himself.
Sitting in the classroom, hearing how the girls whispered and how the boys chuckled, Roci held back a tear. Every second that ticked on the clock meant one second less. Every second meant one second less of the whispers and stares and laughter.
They thought he was weird and quiet. A sissy. His long bangs covered most of his face and he had always been sensitive. He had always started to cry when he had seen a dead bird or a lonely cat. And the other kids thought it was weird and cowardly. They didn't like gentle kids.
All Roci wished for was to be at least a little cooler, a little tougher and mostly a little braver.
"Corazon! You're so brave!" the girl gasped and watched him balance on the tiny, red bucket with only one leg. The other children looked at him with huge eyes as he desperately tried to stand upright. After a while he fell anyway and the small audience of children burst out in laughter.
Roci sat up and smiled. This part was inevitably the best part.
The children begged him to try again, cheered on him and whined, until he tried again, only to fall again, making them burst into laughter again. Then he continued to do other silly tricks, fell around and basically just made a fool of himself. The children continued to laugh and some of the parents that were present smiled and squeezed the hands of their children. They were happy.
When the show was done, they applauded and he bowed to the children and let them try on his hat and let them play with the tiny water guns. Some of the children had to leave immediately after the show because they were too exhausted, while some stayed for a long time and asked him to read a story, which he eventually gave in to and read.
The children loved him.
He was a clown. A clown who came in to their hospital rooms, chatted with them, showed silly tricks and made stupid faces. He let the children play doctors and let them check his pulse instead of the other way around. He let them be policemen and policewomen who gave him tickets for falling down. He also let them give tickets to the nurses if they did anything wrong in their opinion. He sat with them and colored in coloring books and got shouted at if he did something wrong and paid them chocolate coins as an apology. He sometimes dressed up as a stupid prince and pretended to be cool while he fell over and did stupid things, making the children laugh, making them point and say "Don't even try! We know it's you, Corazon!"
During Christmas, he'd help the children decorate trees and during Easter he'd help them find chocolate eggs had hidden around in the hospital. He would play pirate, princess, mermaid, king, swordsman, policeman, dancer, tiger or whatever the children asked him to. If the children were up and felt like walking around, he'd take them on an adventure, pretending that the nurses were wild animals and that the doctors were boring hunters. He would let the children climb on him, do his hair, draw on his face and try on his clothes.
It was a dream job.
Of course, the pay wasn't good and he couldn't keep on living like this for long. It was only a temporary job he had taken on to save enough money to start studying literature. But, so far it had proved to be a wonderful job.
The hardest part of the job was to see the children. The children who were batting sicknesses that they were not supposed to have. The children who were supposed to be outside exploring and instead they sat inside waiting. The youngest children who weren't going to make it and didn't quite understand what dying meant. The older children who weren't going to make it and knew what dying meant. The children who had once run but now lost their legs. The children who had once drawn but now lost their arm.
The children who fought a battle most people dreaded and feared.
The children who fought that battle every single day.
The children who never gave up despite being dragged down daily.
One day things changed.
Roci went to work like he always did. He changed his clothes and put on his make-up like it was any other day. It was a quite sunny day; people were walking outside, enjoying the sun that had returned after the long, disgustingly cold winter. Admittedly he longed to take a stroll himself, or maybe take a ride with his bike to a nice place and eat a small picnic there.
Seagulls screeched as they spread their wings and flew over the ocean. One girl had even dared to put on a sundress, hoping that the cold and nasty wind by the ocean would calm down. Roci himself had decided to wear his jean jacket and leave the thicker trench coat at home.
Just before Roci entered the department for sick children, a colleague came up to him, pulled on his shirt to catch his attention. It was a doctor. She had a stern expression and fixed her white glasses with a used hand, as if her glasses fell down all the time. Roci blinked and wondered what had happened.
"We got a new patient during the past two days you were gone", she explained, her voice as sweet as hot water with slices of lemon and honey. Roci had always liked her. She was married and had a daughter. She was an experienced doctor who always made sure to help every patient.
"Huh?" Roci had taken a two-day-holiday to visit a couple of old friends from high school, because two of them had gotten engaged.
"He has leukemia. He was transferred to another hospital two weeks ago but the doctors there were not competent enough to help him. His family was supposed to arrive with a plane yesterday morning, they had troubles with outdated passports and the security guards at the airport couldn't overlook it. They finally got their passports fixed two days ago and took the first plane here", taking a deep breath, the doctor looked past Roci. Roci mentally prepared himself. "The plane crashed and his parents and younger sister all died. He's currently alone in a hospital room to recover from the shock. We know how much the other children mean to you, but we ask you to keep this one a little more company."
"Yes, of course", Roci replied, feeling strange. He didn't know how to handle the situation. This was beyond him. He was no psychologist, he had no idea if it would help the kid to have a stranger sit and talk with him. But Roci felt that he had to do something.
"Right now it is unsure whether he will live or not", the doctor continued, her voice as soft as ever. "The leukemia has developed quite much and he is in a weak state. We're doing our best, but he's only five years old and lost a lot of will to live when he heard about his parents and sister. He had really been waiting to see them. Unfortunately, he'll only get to see them at their funeral."
Roci swallowed and nodded shakily. The doctor told him to follow her as she led him to the room where the boy was. With a blank and dizzy mind, Roci didn't expect anything special so when he saw the scrawny boy with golden eyes look at him, he felt the world spin around him. The eyes glistened dimly, as the boy blinked tiredly. The room smelled sadness.
"Law, this is Corazon, a clown, he'll be stopping by for a moment okay?" the doctor smiled and waited for the young boy to say anything.
The boy remained silent and only blinked at the doctor and at Roci. Then he lowered his gaze and proceeded to stare at the book in his lap. The doctor patted Roci on his shoulder, gave him an empathic smile and left. Roci swallowed again, before he slowly walked up to the boy. A little chat wouldn't hurt anyone.
"Is that your favorite book?" Roci asked and sat down next to the hospital bed. One could see how the boy had started to lose hair due to the treatment. His skin looked pale and he looked as if he hadn't slept nor eaten for weeks. Roci knew that the boy had both slept and eaten normally every day though. The medication was just draining his energy away from him.
"No, I hate this book", the reply came sincerely. Roci blinked.
"Why?"
"It's stupid. Animals don't talk", his voice was tired and bitter. He sounded more like an eighty year old, grumpy man who was spending his last years at the retirement home.
"Well they talk in their own languages", Roci said, trying to bring some kind of positivity. He smiled and gently took the book from his lap to get a better look. He opened the book and looked at the shiny pictures of the animals. It was obviously a book the hospital had given the child.
When the kid didn't reply and instead looked away, Roci understood that joking around or reading some silly books wouldn't help. Neither would some comforting words or a pair of listening ears help. This child just needed to be for himself, while not being alone. He needed space but needed someone to remind him that he wasn't completely lonely. Roci needed to help him in a different way.
"What's your name?" he asked, putting the book away. He knew it would be a huge challenge for him to help this child. He would possibly make things worse. But at the same time, he felt like he maybe could open a window for the child and make the smell of sadness fly out. Maybe he could, with enough effort and patience, help the child overcome his huge, overwhelming sorrow.
"Law," the boy replied. His golden eyes looked at the wall tiredly. Roci wondered what the boy had been like before his illness. Before his family's death. Had he always been a quiet child? Or had he just developed this feature because of the endless pain?
"Well then Law, I promise I'll bring you a less stupid book tomorrow."
And even if Roci didn't know it back then, his entire life would slowly start to undergo an enormous change.
The change came gradually.
It started with Roci dropping by for a couple of minutes every day, bringing Law a new book and asking him how he was. Law didn't talk much and a lot of his time the boy spent either vomiting or sleeping. And when he wasn't vomiting nor sleeping he would often stay completely quiet or cry, even if he hated to cry in front of people.
A few days became weeks and a few weeks became months. Law became bald and his long eyelashes and dark eyebrows disappeared. He cried of pain and had to go through some surgeries. Roci didn't quite understand what was happening to Law, but silently cursed the doctors for making the small child live in such unbearable pain.
Roci didn't exactly know when it had happened, but Law had charmed him. The completely quiet boy had somehow gotten a special place in his heart and whenever Roci would walk past a store with books he'd think of Law. He'd think of what to say to Law before falling asleep. He'd put reminders on his phone to download episodes of Law's favorite shows. Anywhere, anytime, he caught himself thinking of the quiet, sad boy.
Over time, Law became chattier. Of course, the boy was still in a weak state and constantly mourned his dead family. But, he slowly started to reply to all of Roci's questions and even asked Roci some questions too.
Exactly three months after the horrible incident with Law's family, Law flashed his first smile and Roci knew that he had been charmed. He would never be able to forget about Law after that smile – that shy, sincere smile. The golden eyes had glistened. The beautiful shade of yellow, which looked like a mixture of scapolite, citrine and thousands of stars from all over the universe had looked like a torch that had danced.
Law was still incredibly shy when it came to other children. He never dared to speak with them and most of the time he spent alone, isolating himself. But for Roci it was enough that Law felt content to speak with him. He felt honored that Law thought Roci was trustworthy enough to talk to. He felt like he had accomplished something huge.
The couple of minutes Roci used to spend with Law became longer and longer every day and soon the nurses had to drag him out of Law's room and remind him that the other children were waiting for him. Roci had never intended to favor Law more than the other children, but it had still somehow happened. Somehow, in a peculiar way, Law had become the center of Roci's life and vice versa.
But Roci knew that when Law would get better he'd be placed with a new family, or even worse, an orphanage. And deep inside Roci kind of dreamed that he would become Law's new family.
The autumn had begun with a merciless wind and a cold shower of rain. Leaves danced around in the wind, the water in the lakes became clearer and colder and the sky was always either completely gray or completely blue.
Roci had always liked the autumn. It was in the autumn when a new school year begun. A fresh start after a long and sweaty summer. But this autumn was different, because Roci had still not decided on where to apply next. So he got no new fresh start, neither a new school year. He didn't know what he wanted of his future. He had turned 19 in July and still had no clue of what he wanted to work with. He only knew he wanted a nice apartment, a cozy family and lovely friends.
So this autumn, Roci got on his bike like always, biked his way to the hospital and spent some time with the sick children. Like always he spent almost two hours with Law, and even stayed and chatted with the kid after his shift had ended.
He let out a deep sigh when he sat down on the chair by Law's hospital bed after a long day.
"Did you work a lot today, Mr. Cora?" Law asked. He had just woken up from a nap and the last time he had gotten chemotherapy had been one and a half week ago, so he was slowly getting livelier. The hardest thing for Roci was to see Law right after getting chemotherapy. The small boy would be trembling and vomiting, sweating and crying.
"Yeah", Roci replied. By now he had gotten used to the children calling him Corazon, thinking that was his real name. It was merely a name he had come up with and used when he worked as a clown, because it had a nicer ring to it than Rocinante had. "What about you? Are you up for some Trouble?"
Law nodded and sat properly up in his bed. Roci knew that the child didn't trust a lot of people. In fact, Law only trusted Roci and one nurse. Law really hated the doctors that treated him, and it did make sense. Law probably felt as if the doctors poisoned him instead of treating him, because every time they would treat him, the side-effects would be so taxing on his body that he'd suffer greatly. Even if Law was a smart child, he didn't understand what was happening to him, or why the doctors were forced to put him through such pain. He only knew he was sick and the doctors were torturing him.
Law always wanted to play as the blue one, and Roci switched between green, red and yellow. They arranged the pieces on the board game and started playing. Law pressed the Pop-O-Matic bubble on the board and the dice jumped inside.
"Did you watch the shows I recorded for you?" Roci asked and moved his yellow piece forwards.
"Yea, they were nice. But then I fell asleep", Law replied, obviously a bit ashamed of the fact that he had fallen asleep. Roci smiled at the shy boy and resisted the urge to cuddle him.
"I see", Roci said and moved his piece forwards again. "Sleeping is good. It'll make you grow strong and big."
"But it's a bit boring", Law remarked. He was somehow mature for his age. Roci was often forced to remind himself that the child only was five. Speaking of age, Roci had never asked Law when his birthday was.
"It is indeed", Roci agreed, looking at the concentrated look on Law's face. The child hated to lose and didn't realize that Trouble was a game you won with pure luck. So Law always tried to use strategies and plans to win, not understanding that all of his tactics were in vain. "I never asked you, but when is your birthday?"
"It's the 26th of October", Law replied. His small, tanned hands moved a blue piece forwards, golden eyes desperately focusing and the lithe body tense of concentration. It took Roci a lot of willpower not to squeal because of the cute look on Law's face.
"That's pretty soon right? Because it's the 13th today", Roci smiled, and patted Law's bald head. Admittedly, Roci missed the dark locks, even if they had been very thin when they had met. Oh well, they would always grow back when Law got better. Because the kid would get better, Roci had overheard that the other day.
"Yea", Law blushed. Apparently he was shy about birthdays too.
"Is there anything special you want?" Roci asked, seeing a small smile spreading across Law's face. The kid was still quite grumpy, despite being chattier, so smiles were rare. Therefore, it always made Roci's day when Law smiled. Suddenly he wasn't as exhausted anymore.
Law nodded shyly. "Uh-huh."
"And may I ask what that is?"
Law looked up at Roci with golden eyes that shone like halos and looked as if he was about to tell Roci a secret.
"I saw it on TV", Law whispered. "I need it."
"What is it? You're making me horribly curious."
"They said it could walk and if you taught it, it could say your name!" Law whispered again. "Do you know it? It's that walking polar bear! Bepo! It's fluffy and big and white and it moves! I saw it on TV and it looks so big."
"Oh, yea, I've seen some Bepos in the stores", Roci remembered seeing a big pile of packages filled with those things at a toy store. They were quite pricey, but Roci wouldn't mind living with instant noodles for a month or two if it meant that he could get Law one of those Bepos. "Well, who knows, maybe you'll get one if you eat well and sleep enough."
"R… Really?" Law's eyes shone even more as he looked up at Roci. Yea, Roci was most definitely getting Law one of those things. "Then I'll eat real well!" It was even rarer to see Law so excited. Roci's heart was slowly melting into a puddle of goo.
"Speaking of food what did you eat today?" the game proceeded and Law had to focus on the small pieces again. He didn't want to lose after all.
"I got soup", Law replied, a content expression painting his tanned face. Roci swore that he never would be able to forget about Law, not even if he'd get run over by a car and lose all of his other memories in the process. Never.
"What did you do with the bread you got with it?" Roci asked jokingly. Over the past months, the kid had grown to really hate bread. It was because the only thing Law was capable of consuming during his worst periods was sandwiches of different kinds. Afterwards, he would relate the horrible feeling of sickness to bread, and feel sick when trying to eat any kind of bread.
Law looked around himself to see if any nurses were around and then quietly whispered: "I hid it in a napkin."
Roci held back laughter. He could only imagine the confused nurse who found untouched bread in a napkin. Then again, the nurses should have understood not to bring Law any bread by then. The kid would not eat it unless he just had gotten chemotherapy.
"I promise you I will make sure you won't get bread on your birthday."
Law had gotten chemotherapy a few days before his birthday and was feeling quite unwell when Roci dropped by. Therefore Roci put the cake aside and told Law it was okay if he ate it a few days later. He told Law that one was able to celebrate their birthdays whenever it suited them.
"Everything is spinning", Law complained. The tiny, scrawny boy had spent the last three days vomiting and right now he was mostly exhausted and felt sick. He had nasty dark rings beneath his young eyes that now looked empty and wet.
"It's okay", Roci said, sat down next to Law and stroked his bald head carefully.
The doctors had said that Law currently was beating the living hell out of his leukemia. The kid was fighting as hard as he could. And the fight proved to be successful; the doctors said that he would only be in need of two more chemotherapies. He would be dismissed in less than three months. They were sure that Law would be ready to be taken home before Christmas. If they wouldn't have found him a home by then, he would be forced to stay a while longer, because other children at orphanages could easily infect him with flus and even the smallest colds could be pernicious for Law in his weak state.
"Everything tastes weird… Chili tastes like strawberries and strawberries like cinnamon", Law whimpered.
"It will be better in a few days Law", Roci continued to caress the head. "Guess who has eaten well and slept enough?" He slowly reached for the huge box on the floor.
Law blinked tiredly at the box. "Is that..?"
"Do you want to open it yourself or should I open it for you?" Roci asked. He had spent one long hour trying to properly package the huge present. In the end it still looked quite horrible.
"I'm six years old now I think I can open it myself", Law said weakly and Roci helped him to sit up properly. Law shakily managed to open the present, even if Roci secretly helped Law to open it from the other side of the box. Law blinked at the box when he realized what it was. "Bepo..!" He gasped.
"Yea", Roci replied proudly. He had loaned some money from Doffy, who hadn't been able to say no when Roci had said he was buying a birthday present for a six-year-old cancer patient. "I think you've earned it."
Roci opened the box and took out the huge polar bear toy and carefully placed it in Law's lap. Law only stared at the toy until he shakily reached out his hands and grabbed it.
"It's so… fluffy", he whispered in awe. Inhaling deeply, Law turned to Roci and then back to the polar bear. "And big."
"It sure is", Roci smiled. Somehow, the toy had awakened a bit of life inside of Law. Even if it still was clear that Law was endlessly exhausted right now, he still seemed excited and content. "And you're too. Like you said, you're six years old now. Happy birthday, Law."
"Thank you so much", Law mumbled as he hugged the toy.
There occurred a moment of silence as Law looked at the bear and then looked down at his lap. Before Roci even knew it, the kid had started crying. Roci literally panicked. Hadn't Law wanted a Bepo? Had he bought the wrong gift after all? Was he in pain?
"What's wrong?" Roci asked, ready to call a nurse in case Law was getting random pain cramps.
Law only continued to sob quietly. With a scrawny, weak hand he wiped away the tears rolling down for his cheek. But he couldn't stop the tears, because only more and more tears rolled down and soon they dripped down on the blanket.
"M… Mom and dad… I miss them", Law sobbed, burying his face in the toy. "L-Lami too…"
Roci realized how horrible it must have been for Law, to spend his birthday alone at the hospital with a couple of nurses and a weird hospital clown. Even if Roci had sat hours on end talking with Law, he could impossibly replace the family Law once had had. Roci couldn't even imagine how Law felt. Only one year earlier Law had been a healthy boy, being able to spend his birthday at home, eating cake without feeling like vomiting, running around with his sister and his friends. And now he was so tired that he wasn't able to do anything he enjoyed doing. Now he had barely been celebrated at all.
What could he possibly do? Nothing. He could not tell Law that it would be okay, because the only thing that would feel okay for Law was to see his family again and that was impossible. The funeral had been held a few months ago. Law had attended with a nurse holding his hand. They had held the funeral two weeks after Law's chemotherapy, so that the child had been able to attend. Law had been endlessly depressed afterwards.
Law didn't have any close relatives that could take him into their care, as far as Roci was concerned. The boy was literally all alone. And he probably missed his family so much that his entire body ached. Roci wished he could do something, anything.
But in the end he was only a hospital clown and Law a child who needed his family.
Roci held back his own tears and decided that he would do whatever it took to take Law into his care.
He was one of the few people Law trusted, after all.
It had been like a long, bloody fight.
Papers after papers had been signed. Interviews after interviews had been held. Check-ups after check-ups had been done.
"What are your plans for your future?"
"You're only 19, are you actually ready to adopt a child?"
"Do you really believe your financial situation will be suitable for a child?"
"Is your apartment actually safe enough for children?"
"Do you have a stable job?"
"Why do you want to adopt Law?"
The questions never ended. They had tried their best to not let Roci adopt Law because of his age. He knew he was young, unprepared and probably had no clue of what he was doing. He didn't know how to cook, how to properly do laundry or how to fix broken things. He barely had money for himself, hadn't even decided what he wanted to study yet and his job contract with the hospital was going to end during the Christmas holiday.
But.
But he knew how to talk to children, how to act around them and how to make them trust you. He knew how to make them feel comfortable, how to support them and how to help them. He knew how to listen to them and how to comfort them. He knew how to make Law smile.
He was completely aware of the fact that his apartment was in a huge mess. He knew that he would need to learn to cook and that it would be tough to study, work and take care of a child. He knew he would have to take extra well care of the apartment, buy Law clothes and make sure that Law got to school in time. He knew it wouldn't be easy.
But.
But he wanted to make sure that Law got taken care of someone who genuinely cared for him. He wanted Law to be able to live with a person he already was comfortable with. He wanted to make sure that Law would be able to adapt to the new environment as easily as possible, while still being able to remember his dead family. And he knew he could make all of these things possible.
So when the social workers finally agreed after months of buts and ifs, Roci literally screamed of happiness and thanked them over and over again.
Roci wasn't the only one who was happy. Law was happy too, even if he thought it was weird that he would be living with the strange hospital clown Mr. Cora. But he was happy that he didn't have to stay at the hospital. He was happy that he got to live with Mr. Cora, who knew him better than anyone else did.
And even if every day hurt for Law, even if every step hurt like one thousand needles piercing through him and even if every breath reminded him of his family, he still walked out of the hospital holding Mr. Cora's hand, while snow fluttered down from the sky and he remembered how he had built snowmen with Lami.
And he shed a tear.
The scenery outside was now completely white. Snow had mercilessly fluttered down from the sky, covering streets, roofs and street lamps. Everything was covered in a layer of white coldness, making it looked as if the whole city was magical. Nature was truly a blessing.
Even if the outside air was bitingly cold and the wind bitter and gusty, Roci had been sweating the whole day. He had moved around furniture of different kinds. The small extra room he had used as a study had now become a room for Law. The dirty, white curtains had been replaced with white and blue striped ones and the ugly, green rug had been replaced with a nice, round blue one. The desk had been sold and replaced with a bed. He had placed some dressers in the room and a big box for toys. Roci hated to admit it, but his older brother had bought a lot of the stuff. So far, Roci had refused to let Doffy meet Law.
Admittedly, Roci wasn't quite sure of what Law thought about the situation. The kid was quiet as usually, and the whole thing probably reminded him even more of how his parents and sister were dead. He probably thought of how he would have wanted to return home to his loving family. To an environment he was familiar with. To people he had spent several years with. To people whose scents meant the world to him. To people whose voices comforted him in his sleep. And the worst part was that Law soon would forget those scents and voices. And soon, he would forget their faces.
After a long day of furnishing, Roci slumped down on the sofa where Law awkwardly had sat the whole time. It had been three weeks since Law's last chemotherapy and his hair was slowly growing back. Law preferred to wear a scarf though. He thought he looked weird with almost no hair. It was sad to see how so young children already were affected by the beauty standards of the modern society.
Roci let out a sigh and looked at Law who stared at the floor. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, which was understandable. He had moved in two days ago and was completely new to the place. It was a huge step for Law to move in with a new person, a person he did know from the hospital, but a person he didn't know very well yet.
Roci was glad that Law didn't associate him with his sickness. He had been afraid that Law would start to hate him in the same way he hated doctors. Law had grown to hate doctors after all the countless of treatments that had left him in unbearable sickness and pain. The child was terrified of hospitals and said he never wanted to go back again.
"Are you hungry Law?" Roci asked after a while of silence. He knew he still had to give Law some space and wait for Law to make the first moves. He knew that Law still was deciding on whether he truly trusted Roci or not. And therefore, Roci thought it was immensely important that he showed Law that he was completely trustworthy.
"Yea, a bit", Law agreed. He was holding his dear Bepo in his lap. He had grown to love the toy. Roci sometimes heard how Law talked to it; "Please let me see mom and dad. And Lami too. Let me go see them. Let me spend Christmas with them, please." He had heard Law wish for that a few days before they had left the hospital. His face had been buried in the fur of Bepo while he had hugged the toy as tightly as possible. Roci had cried at home.
"Do you want some pizza?"
"Huh? When did you buy pizza?" Law asked, completely skeptical about the whole thing.
"I haven't yet. I'll order it", Roci replied, confused of Law's inquiries. Didn't the kid know about take-out?
"Y…You can order pizza?" Law was confused.
"Yea", Roci smiled. "I'll just call the right number, tell them what I want and they'll come with pizza. I'll pay them at the door of course."
Law blinked in awe. He had never heard about that before. Back at home, mom and dad usually cooked everything. They had barely eaten at restaurants too. So take-out was completely new for him.
"I've never done that before", Law admitted, growing a bit excited on the inside. "But, I don't want to eat the pizza edges…" Roci immediately understood why. They were almost like bread.
"It's okay Law. I can eat them for you", standing up from the rather comfortable fitment, Roci reached for his phone. "What do you want on your pizza?"
Law furrowed his non-existent eyebrows in thought. Once again, Roci held himself from squealing. Law always looked ridiculously adorable when he concentrated. After a few minutes of silent pondering, Law finally settled for something.
"A lot of cheese and tuna", the reply came calmly and seriously. Roci almost chuckled at the calm, mature way of speaking. Law was always comically correct when talking and rarely stumbled on words. Sometimes he would use words that one wouldn't expect a six-year-old to know, which would make the whole serious and mature way of talking even more entertaining.
"Then I'll order that", Roci said and was just about to dial the number when he felt how Law pulled on the hem of his shirt. He looked down to see how the boy frowned up at him with an adorably serious expression on his face. "Huh? What's wrong?"
"I want to order it myself", Law demanded.
How could Roci possibly say no to that?
"Sure", he smiled and gave the phone to Law.
In the end, Law loved the pizza with a lot of cheese and tuna.
~Thanks for Reading~
