I'll Be Your Strength
A/N: This is my first One Piece fic ever! So, I'm not really confident of capturing the characters'…well…character. And it's also my first time writing anything serious. Most of my other fic are humor-centric and I haven't written anything for a while, so please drop a review to tell me your opinion and possibly suggestion to improve? happy reading! –Scarlet
Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters do not belong to me.
Warning: Boy x Boy, Suicidal thoughts and Cursing
Chapter 1 – Encounter
The blinking light of the city, buzzing of the busy street and nightlife echoing faintly below, people scuttling about and drinking away the night waiting for the clock to strike twelve to have the last celebration to mark the end of another year. It was a brilliant sight from the building above as behold by a young man standing near the railing on the roof of the hospital. A gush of wind brushes through his raven hair and teasing the thin fabric of the white hospital gown he was wearing underneath his unzipped jacket .He closed his eyes to feel more of them. The roof was such a calming place, it was quite and no one ever came here, and that's how he liked it to be, a place of solitude and a place to call his own. Taking in another breath of cold air. He pondered upon his next step as he gazed upon the street below, quite literally.
Should he take another step forward, a step of no turning back or rather he go back to the prison he called home? It should've been an easy choice. He's tired of all these string of experiments. He's tired of trapped in suffocating white room. It has been years since he was trapped in it, alone. With no friends or family to visit. He was adopted by doctor Kureha and as far as he knew his parents was dead. He did have friends of course, but they either work in the hospital or was a fellow patient as he was. It doesn't count. He reminded himself. He yearned for a life outside of the hospital, a life he could only dreamed of clinging to the false hope of the doctors ever found out what's wrong with him, and let him leave. They've been trying for years, and still the doctors didn't have a clue to what caused his condition. Yes, he had a strange illness and had been a lab rat for as long as he could remember and the only thing they found from his disease is that it's genetic. Apparently his name Trafalgar Law, was not the only thing given by his parents, but also the life of confinement and suffering he was currently living.
Law sighed. Just before he was about to make the greatest decision, or rather mistake of his life the door slammed open and he turned to look at what had interrupted his peace. He couldn't see well in the dark, but a flash of firework gave him a hint on the bastard ruining his possibly last moment.
A red-haired man in black fur-rimmed coat, not much older than himself was running out of the door holding a bottle of booze laughing his ass off.
Great. He thought. Just what he needed, a drunken man rampaging on his safe haven. He was trying to ignore the man and proceed with what he was about to do, until someone spoke up, the source of the voice much closer to his liking.
"Hey, what are you trying to do?"
Law turned around once more to find the redhead just two feet away from him, violating his personal space. He would've like to shove the other man away, but the muscles peeping from his unbuttoned coat convinced him that it'd take a hell lot of a work just for him to move the other man even an inch.
"Hey, don't you try to ignore me." The man said again in a gruff voice as he pulled Law's arm so sudden and harsh sending a jolt of surprise up his spine. He was about to snap when a horrible smell of alcohol hit him and nausea rose in his stomach. He was so tempted to puke his gut out on the other man. Instead, he spat bitterly.
"I have no obligation to answer you, sir. Now would you please kindly let go of my arm." Albeit Law's words were put together in a polite manner, his tone was laced with venom.
The redhead considered for a while and tossed his empty bottle he was holding on his other hand.
"My arm, kind sir. Or are you in too drunk of a state to even hear me correctly?" Law had begun to get more and more irritated. Fuck it, He never planned to have his last glorious breathing moment to be such a mess.
"I heard you the first time. But I won't let go till you answer me what were you trying to do?" Despite the strong smell of alcohol coming from the man, Law for once saw that the muscular troll was indeed sober. He made the mistake of looking into the man's eyes. They were sharp and blazing red matching his red hair, the lack of eyebrow made the man looked even more intimidating.
Law cursed under his breath and spat, "I was going to jump off the fucking roof. Now let me go and fuck off if you know what's best for you!"
To his surprise, the redhead let go of his arm and took a few steps away without turning his back from Law. He just stood there with an amused grin on his face.
"Go on then, jump!"
Had his hearing deceived him? Or did he really…
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said, jump." The grin was still intact. To Law's horror and disbelieve, the guy was fucking challenging him. Law didn't even know how to respond to that.
"Or are you too cowardly to take the challenge I assume?" This guy is sick.
Law wanted backed off from the railing and stomped toward the man and take him down with him. But part of his mind still in its rational state conclude that he'd die a painful death involving hard fists connecting with parts of his body and splatter of blood should he tried to take on the taller man.
"I don't think you should provoke me into my eventual death, Mister."
"Kidd. Eustass Kidd." He answered.
"I wasn't asking for your name." Law said bitterly.
"But nevertheless you're heard it. So what's yours, or should I call you pussycat?" Kidd's grin got wider and his eyes flashed in devilish amusement in teasing the suicidal man.
Never had Law felt this humiliated in his life. Granted, he never had so much of a life to begin with but the man standing right before him expecting his death with so much eagerness got under his skin, which no one had ever managed to with so little effort. Law's usual calm demeanor shattered right there and then. He proceeded to stomp his way towards the man. Law's face was stone cold but his glaring stormy grey eyes reflected the rage boiling inside him.
The world around Law suddenly spun and the next thing he knew was he had been pinned to the ground by a pair of strong arms, face to face with the red eyes piercing into his own grey ones. Panting, Law was yet to overcome his shock of the recent event. Never had he thought that someone as muscular as Kidd would have that much agility.
"Get off me!" Law tried to kick his way free from Kidd's grasp, but realized that his legs too, were unable to move. Downing to realization of his predicament, Law refused to back down and glared as though he want to murder the man pinning him, and he did.
"Don't be so fierce, what's your name tiger?" Kidd cooed with a tinge of blush on his cheeks. Law started to think that he really was drunk and decided that it wouldn't be wise to enrage the man if he really was.
"Law. Trafalgar Law." He gritted his teeth trying to calm himself down though his glare remain intact and as poisonous as ever. Just when he was about to spat another bitter comment on Kidd, there was a commotion heading towards them from the stairs leading to the inside of the hospital. One of the security guards, apparently looking for the intruder, namely Kidd glanced through the opened door and shouted to his fellow guards.
"THERE HE IS!"
"Shit." With that, Kidd let go of his hostage as Law cowered trying not to get trampled as Kidd hastily got up and ran for the stairs, knocking over the poor guard in the process.
Law was still gaping and panting hard after the incident as he sat up and stared blankly at the direction Eustass Kidd had just ran to.
"What the hell just happened? How could you let that kind of guy into the hospital?" Law demanded, glaring at the guard with the casket hat he knew so well.
"I'm sorry Law. Uh, we got a bit of a trouble in the ER, some drunkards got into a fight and was send here, one of them escaped. And suppose you know what happened next." The guard helped him up and inspected him up and down, hands holding both of Law's shoulder as if preventing him to bolt. "Did he hurt you?"
"No. Now let me go, Shachi." Law hated to be handled as if he's some fragile object. He'd had enough shares of them for the next life.
"You ought to be back in your room. Dr. Kureha won't be pleased to find you out here in the cold. What are you doing here anyway?" Shachi straighten his casket hat, which Law thought was ridiculous paired with his guard uniform. But he insisted on wearing it anyway, saying that it was his lucky charm for girls. Shachi might not be the best security guard in the hospital, but Law kept him around as company so he could occasionally slipped out of his room knowing Shachi was extremely lenient unlike the other guards.
"Just out for some fresh air." He replied curtly, with his usual calm expression.
"You got a balcony in your room."
"I can get a better view from here"
"True." With that, he dropped the subject and started to ramble on what a disaster the ER had become since the new year's eve celebration started. Law ignored all the stuffs Shachi tried to inform him about, and went straight to his room with Shachi's escort.
Once he assured Shachi for the tenth time that he was not hurt in any way, the guard left him to his own. Law locked his door and slumped on his bed, only to stare at the white ceiling. Why did every damn thing in the hospital have to be white? It's suffocating. The only thing in his room that brought comfort to him was his collection of medical books he stashed under his mattress. Granted, it gave his back one hell of a night, but he bear with it not wanting for anyone to find out. Especially his adoptive mother, Dr. Kureha.
Law had always dreamed to be a doctor or to be more specific, a surgeon. But for some unknown reason, Dr. Kureha always tried to snuff out every attempt he made to achieve his dream. Law never understood what that old hag was thinking about. She wouldn't tell him the specific progress or deterioration of his own condition. The confinement drove him crazy. He was not allowed to study, to pursue his dream, to know about his own condition. Those thoughts alone almost made him goes up to the balcony and end it once and for all. Every month, he tried. Every month he would go up to the roof and tried to end it. But every single time, he couldn't bear to do it, and when he did decided to do it, something or someone always interrupted him.
His face remained stoic as the clock chimed twelve times and the crowd outside roar with delight. Another year had gone by, Law never understood the joy of year passing. It just meant a countdown to his death.
It was a long night for Law and he decided to bury his face in his pillow and drifted to sleep, only to dream about the weird red-haired man from before. Eustass fucking Kidd.
To be continued in the next chapter…
A/N: So how was it, was it too short? Reviews will be much appreciated.