Disclaimer: I do not own anything. This is fanfiction.

Summary: Mission control said nothing about it but the mercenary couldn't just let the straw hatted boy fall into his demise. Additional action wouldn't hurt him anyway.

Warning: slight KidLu, sci-fi AU, metal gear rising inspired, out of character, errors

SIDE MISSION

"Your mission had been to determine the whereabouts of the heads of the Kendiyo private military company, deemed responsible for the capture and withholding a diplomat from Alabasta."

The chief eyed the scrawny teen sheepishly smiling behind the mercenary's metal clad figure. He looked underage, unfed and unkempt, a classic street rat. An outdated straw hat is perched on his head. X-Drake had nothing against children but it was the base of operations and no one is allowed inside without his permission or proper authorization. Not that he's a prude or what, they're running a private security and military company here for crying out loud, not a daycare center.

"So Kid…"

"Yeah?" The red-haired mercenary stared back.

X-Drake sighed. "What's with the kid?"

He looked calm but everyone knew the chief was ticked. The way he stood was rigid. A hand placed near his hip - near a holster, Kid presumed.

"Look, I'll keep him out of trouble. No need to get your fucking panties in a twist."

Another sigh was heard in the room, this time from the mission support team. Neither Killer nor Bonney were informed of Kid's haul. Given that the enemy had chaffed the facility, disenabling further communications when the mercenary descended underground. All they know was that he was able to make it out in one piece as indicated by his vitals.

The boy finally disengaged himself from the mercenary and decided to introduce himself. He assumed that if they were Kid's friends, they must be good people too. He beamed a smile.

"Hi, I'm Luffy! Nice to meet you all! But I'm not a kid – I'm already nineteen."

His stomach grumbled on cue, earning a chuckle from Apoo who had been curious as well.

"Eustass-ya, I know you don't require nourishment but you could have at least given the boy something." The cybernetics expert looked at the boy, visibly amused.

Kid could have sworn that the damn scientist had something sinister in his thoughts again. He didn't bring Luffy here to subject him to the same fate he would have had if Kid weren't there to save him. A course of action not entailed in the mission briefing.

Then everyone looked at Bonney who had two boxes of large sized pizza on her station.

"What?"

When she heard another rumble from the boy, she begrudgingly offered Luffy a piece of her pizza to which the teen happily gobbled up – no, breathe in.

But a measly piece of pizza wasn't enough to dent the gaping hole of his hunger as they heard the same echoing sound from the boy's stomach. Kid scratched his nose as everyone now squinted at him.

"I'll take him to the dining area."

After eating several potful's of rice and stew (which thoroughly exhausted the cook, bless his soul, and baffled Kid), the boy finally felt sleepy. Luffy literally doze off after cleaning off his umpteenth serving. So the mercenary took it upon himself to carry the boy towards his sleeping quarters. No one slept on the lower bunk anyway – or at the top, for that matter. He never used his bed for sleeping.

The chief allowed him to let the boy stay, given that Luffy would do menial work around and Law would be allowed to perform minor tests on the escaped experiment. Kid had almost punched the smug smile off the scientist face when Law shove into his face a folder detailing the scientist's plans. The redhead carefully skimmed through it and realized they were pretty harmless, nothing too intrusive.

Still, he requested to be around whenever Law performs any of the test.

"Why Eustass-ya, I hadn't peg you for someone so caring."

"You're a fucking creep and ya know that."

"While I appreciate the compliment, you do understand I can't possibly be so mindful of your itinerary just to accommodate your request, no matter how kindly you placed it."

"Look, I know... I know. But I just don't... Don't be too harsh on Luffy."

"Eustass cares, what a surprise! Might I know the reason behind this change of heart? Figuratively, that is."

"That's it, I'll fucking –"

Killer tried to restrain him but only managed to soften the blow. However, the punch only dented the steel wall behind the scientist. Law dodged it completely, the frequency of the scenario apparent. He gave the other another smirk and was about to say a probably witty comeback but the mission support technician glared at him through his mask (not sure how Killer did that, but Law definitely felt it). So Law guaranteed the clearly agitated Kid that he won't be doing anything bad to Luffy.

"I promise I'll be gentle with your Luffy."

The mercenary snarled at him.

"Don't worry, Kid. I'll look after Luffy when you're out on a mission." Killer assured. Then he turned to the scientist, "And Law... "

Law held his hands up in surrender and walked off. "Okay, okay... I'll just go grab my fifth coffee now"

Kid muttered a silent thanks - maybe to Killer's assurance or to Law finally leaving.

To say the days that followed after were refreshing was an understatement. It had thrown most of them off their usual cycle. Luffy had unexpectedly wedged himself into their routine. The chief had initially given him the task of being everyone's coffee boy and occasionally, their errand runner. But he often stayed too long in one station, either talking off the ear of whoever was there or listening animatedly to whatever was shared to him – unless it was too technical.

Even Capone from the finance department found him somewhat interesting.

However, at the end of each day, when the mercenary had finished his training and the necessary maintenance he had to undergo daily, Luffy would spring back to Kid and tell him how his day had been, asking the red-haired man how his was afterwards.

It was a breath of fresh air.

Though they did have their share of headaches with the straw hatted teen's clumsiness and zealousness.

It was during the night after he had just returned from the second S-class mission he had since Luffy came that the boy had seen him having his usually rare episode.

Kid had been quietly resting on the upper bunk when a suppressed memory flashed before his mind. He violently trashed around until he fell off the bed, Luffy long awakened. He tossed around – his mechanical arm clinking against the similar yet less expensive material of the desk and the bed, soundlessly screaming. Then all of a sudden, he felt a weight on his middle.

He felt Luffy's warm hands on his face, as the boy repeatedly told him to calm down while smiling. Continuing to do so, even if Kid had accidentally hit him on the face. It eventually calmed the mercenary down.

The next morning, he felt angry – really angry. Kid was fuming. He was mad. Marching to the infirmary, he was welcomed by the boy's bruised smiling face. And it only made him more infuriated. So he lashed out to the boy, scolded Luffy – telling him he had been real stupid and that he should not have done that. Luffy scratched the back of his head and said sorry when in fact, it was his forgiveness that Kid actually wanted.

He wasn't mad at Luffy – he was mad at himself.

Bonney patted his shoulder, telling him not to blame himself. It was nobody's fault. Everyone understood and she was sure Luffy would too.

But Kid had already appealed to be transferred into another room. The only other room available was where the communications director was. He didn't want to share a space with Apoo but it'll have to do for now, until he finds another arrangement.

For the rest of the week, he avoided Luffy. Until Killer approached him.

"Luffy, snuck out yesterday and slept on the streets."

"WHAT?"

"The night guard saw him sneak out and trailed him only to stop at a nearby convenience store where he dozed off a homeless family's cardboard. Urouge didn't have the heart to wake the exhausted boy. So the guy carried him back with the cardboard." Killer explained.

"Lu… "

"Kid, I know you're afraid you'd hurt him. But Luffy misses you, he really does. You should talk to him."

"But… "

"I'm sure he'll let it go."

He didn't mean for Luffy to blame himself. Honestly, just what had Bonney said – it wasn't his fault, it wasn't anyone's at all. It was a high time this mess was sorted. He was about to go to the artillery department when he saw the scientist lurking in the hall, looking at him with concern. As he passed by, Law spoke.

"I saw Luffy go by the chief's office."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't like what the kid is planning and I'm pretty sure you don't, too."

Kid's eyes widened and stormed the chief's office in a hurry. When he saw that Luffy wasn't there anymore, he immediately left and ran towards the security room. X-Drake wasn't sure what exactly is happening.

Using his mechanical legs, Kid ran. He didn't want Luffy to leave. He knew what the world was like for people like Luffy – for people like he was before as well. And he was getting used to the boy's company. He sorely missed the other during the time he avoided him.

Kid remembers the day he first met Luffy.

His mission led him to an underground facility where he saw a boy wearing something reserved for hospital patients, running away from two unmanned autonomous fighting vehicles – bipedal war machines called Gekkos. They were slightly shorter than a Pacifista and had machine gun turrets on its head, firing tranquilizer rounds.

He made short work of the AI weapons with his new enhancements and improved utilization of the nanomachines in his full metal body, rather at least mostly mechanic except for his head. He then asked the boy where he had come from and eventually where the laboratory he had escaped from was.

However, the boy didn't respond right away as he stared at the mercenary with starry eyes and happily cheered at the cyborg ninja – at Kid. He was about to leave the boy to his own amusement and find the lab himself when he noticed the odd holes at the back of the boy's neck.

When asked about it, the boy just told him how the people in white are about to get their brains and he was glad for the cyborg ninja – glad that Kid was there. He didn't understand it much coming from the boy but he told him to stay beside him. From that point, Kid felt protective towards the smiling stranger he just met.

It was when he entered the laboratory and analyzed the data inside that he understood what Luffy's fate was. The organization was gathering strays and pre-conditioning their brains until the specialist comes and extracts the said organs. These are then attached to humanoid bodies and are commissioned as hired soldiers – fighters without morals and hesitation, only programmed skills and experience.

Like child soldiers.

Just like how he had been.

It had been the reason why he was adamant about keeping Luffy around (as the rest of the boy's companions weren't as lucky). The boy's brain had already been pre-conditioned to store combat data thus it was impossible to assimilate him to a perfectly normal environment.

But as the days Luffy spent with them had become far too many to count, he had inevitably became part of them – their odd family.

For Kid, however, it was more than that. For him, the boy made him felt more human again. He couldn't exactly explain it but when he sees Luffy smile, hears Luffy telling him about his day and feels the presence of the straw hatted teen around, he felt alive.

He felt selfish but he needed Luffy to stay.

Kid found Luffy sitting at one of the crates in the helipad area.

As soon as Luffy sensed Kid around, he turned towards the mercenary and beamed an ear to ear smile. But to Kid, it looked painful. Not that it was stretched too wide on his face – no, his eyes didn't express the same mirth as those lips. Luffy was sad and Kid knew it.

The mercenary sat beside the straw hatted teen.

"Hey, I just dropped by the chief's office and got these bunch of paper. Look at this – I've never owned this much paper. But I bet Traffy has loads of these. Anyway, I'm going to transfer to the… "He scrunched his nose and showed the name of the facility instead.

"The Gurlukovich-Emmerich Eastern branch, huh?" Just uttering the name of the place already made him feel lonely.

"Yeah that, I'm going to go back inside soon and say goodbye to everyone. But I'm glad I get to say bye to you first."

"Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you want to say goodbye to me first?"

Luffy didn't respond immediately. Instead, his head just hung low as he looked at his feet, clutching the envelope in his lap. The straw hat obscured his eyes as he replied, "If I said goodbye to you last, I might not be able to go."

If Kid still had a heart made of flesh and pumped blood, he was sure it would be beating rapidly right now – like a piston completing a cycle in a combustion engine. But he wasn't sure what to do. It had been long since he felt so human. So he placed an artificial hand, covered with synthetic skin over the boy's natural hand.

"It wasn't your fault… it wasn't anyone's."

Luffy stared at him with glistened eyes.

"Don't go…"

His amber eyes, one of the few features of his body that was still human, held the other's gaze as his next words barely escaped his lips.

"Please."

When the sun finally set down, they made their way down to the common hall. Luffy was back to his usual sunny spirit and ran towards Bonney, hugging the pink-haired woman who patted his head.

"Man, you're creepy when you smile." Apoo commented as he approached the red-haired mercenary.

Kid couldn't help it.

Because when Luffy told him he won't go through the transfer anymore and consider joining the team for good – Kid cracked a smile. It had been long while since he last did.

-End-

A/N: Anyway, just wrote this to read more of KidLu :')