It's a Tuesday afternoon and Law could normally be found studying more than one medical book in his flat while his friends—a term used loosely for some, but others truly are his friends—try to get him to attend a college party that results in a morning after with a stranger in his bed and the thoughts, 'What the fuck did I do?' or 'That was fun, we should hook up again.' and puke afterwards. Law won't deny that he hasn't indulged in all of these things more than once, but he's three exams away from acquiring his medical license, so Penguin and Shachi's whining can wait until he's passed.
It just happens to be the day that his one of many next door neighbors literally bumps into him, causing him to almost spill his coffee. The neighbor responsible only laughs and mutters an apology that's as believable as saying that his little brother is nice and friendly, and not the tall, dirty mouthed stop sign that he is.
"Sorry, sorry!"
His neighbor is of average height, with two dark eyes a blend between black and brown that start gleaming from the sun peeking through the hall window, a small scar under his eye, and naturally tan skin. He has multiple scars, but it's not like the idiot is trying to hide them if his unbuttoned red vest and hastily thrown on blue shorts is any indication. With a ratty old straw hat on top of his messy, tangled black hair, Law finds that his neighbor's not... unattractive.
A scarred hand is offered to the med-student who eyes the scars present on the back of his neighbor's hand that alludes to a life of fighting. Begrudgingly, Law shakes the outstretched hand, an old habit instilled in him before meeting his clumsy, well-mannered father.
His neighbor grins, before noticing the tattoos poorly concealed by Law's yellow hoodie and, without consent, begins to trace the shape with his fingertips. His eyes have become alit with curiosity, resembling a small child admiring its newest toy.
The comparison is enough to simultaneously please and annoy the med-student and takes his arm back with a frown. He stares at his curious neighbor with disinterest, who, slighted by the action, pouts childishly at him.
"No fair, Torao!"
Between trying to figure out what the hell a 'Torao' is or what it means, Law finds himself on his couch with his neighbor going through his fridge and babbling about people he doesn't know. During this time, he starts swearing internally due to unlocking his door at the exact time his neighbor bumped into him and listening about how 'Zoro and Nami argue all the time, but it's okay, 'cause their friends', how 'Nami and Vivi are cool together', that 'Sanji's being weird about it', and how 'Chopper and Robin are good for each other, even though everyone else says they're not, they're stupid though, 'cause they totally are.' He suddenly startles himself by finding that he is more at ease than he has been for the past few weeks.
Eventually, he starts watching the younger male bounce on the heels of his feet—his sandals were placed by the door—who is consuming Law's chips at a rapid fire pace which is only rivaled by his babbling. Law eyes the straw hat before finally asking the first obvious question that should have been asked before his unwanted visitor began rummaging through his fridge.
"Who are you, Straw Hat?"
The idiot blinks owlishly before grinning.
"Monkey D. Luffy!"
Luffy plops himself beside Law with a snicker. He has a bag of chips in one hand and the TV remote in the other and turns the TV on to watch cartoons. Law remedies the situation by snatching his remote from Luffy's barbeque flavored hands and changing the TV to the crime shows.
A pout is his response and it soon falls quiet with only brief interruptions from the younger male. Eventually, all good things— since when did a stranger stealing his barbeque chips and watch tv become a good thing? —come to an end as the idiot snickered and said he had to go because 'Nami would be mad.'
It feels strangely quiet after he leaves.
It's been awhile since he last saw the idiot. His apartment was left with an emptiness that was not noticeable before. It was as if Luffy's absence seemingly took what little life and energy it possessed. Law has tried to rationalize why ever since Luffy left.
Now, staring at the sight before him, he's still struggling with the answer.
This wasn't what he was expecting to come home to after hours of college and irritating friends.
Upon noticing him, the idiot, Luffy, grins and waves, shouting 'Torao' at the top of his lungs. It was as if the few feet that they were apart is a mountain and not the welcome mat from their other neighbor who is a young girl that Kid eyes from time to time whenever he decides to grace Law with his presence.
Law frowns, narrowing his eyes at the large, brown paper bag clutched against the other's chest, before he steps past his shorter neighbor and unlocks the door. As he squints at the bag from the corner of his eye, briefly glancing at the teeth displayed from the idiotic grin being flashed at him, he sighs.
"It better be strong—none of that cheap shit."
Luffy flashes another grin, his eyes appearing half-lidded, before he laughs.
"Nope!" he pats the bag as if it holds the cure to all of Law's problems. "Only the best for Torao!"
With a smirk, Law opens the door.
It's only a few hours later that Law feels a drunk smile curve against his lips and the world becomes a hazy blur. Luffy is lying on the floor flat on his vest-clad back with a stupid, drunken smile on those lips. When their eyes meet, Law realizes that he has a fucking problem. It's name is Monkey D. Luffy.
Luffy laughs and they stay that way until the shorter male staggers to the door hours later, and says that 'Sanji won't feed him if he pisses off Nami.'
During this time, drunk and happy, Law doesn't notice the unmistakable purple hickey on the the other's neck. He doesn't realize it until he's walking home from college with his mind occasionally supplying an intoxicated grin and lidded eyes from nights before.
After the realization dawns on him, Law frowns and changes directions. His destination the house that his brother and his brothers friends tend to occupy with the strongest of drugs and the sluttiest of people.
It's not until the next day when he wakes up on his baby brother's sofa feeling like an anvil fell on his head sometime the night before—knowing Kid, it wouldn't be surprising if he was hit with something—that Law realizes Luffy isn't just some random stranger he wants to fuck. Kid grins around a cigarette, his hair not in its usual gel and Law can see a woman's naked body visible in his bedroom.
"So, Trafalgar," Kid taps his cigarette, ashes falling, with a shit-eating grin on his pale lips. "Who stole the black thing known as your heart?"
Law frowns at the ceiling and pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to will his headache away with sheer will, while listening to his brother laugh.
"Didn't even know you fuckin' had one! Trafalgar Law, in fucking love!" Kid smiles in that special way of his that makes venom look favorable. "Poor whore."
"Yeah, Eustass-ya, you have a point."
His little brother's surprise provided all the time it took for Law to bloody his pale nose.
It's another week before Law sees the idiot again.
He's been busy ignoring the bitching calls from Kid, love advice from Baby 5, bitter congratulations from Bonney on ' finding someone to fuck you and love you, Trafalgar ', and a few attempted calls from his father, when an obnoxious knock on his door tears him away from his books. After he pushes away his irritation at the approach of finals, family, hickies, and untimely visitors, he swings open the door and frowns at the familiar face greeting him.
Luffy stares in that owlish way of his, before grinning.
"Shishishi~ Torao looks good in those!"
Before Law can figure out what the hell he's talking about, Luffy promptly snatches the forgotten glasses off the bridge of Law's nose and puts them on. He squints and starts whining. "How do you see in these things, Torao?"
In hindsight, Law's sure that he should have fucked someone, with how the mere sight of Luffy in black glasses— his black glasses—makes heat blossom in his stomach, turning what was supposed to be an annoyed remark into a breathy rasp.
"Take them off, Straw Hat."
Luffy blinks, swallows, and asks with that strange half-lidded look, "What does Torao want me to take off?"
"F-Fuck, Torao !" Luffy rasps, clutching the sheets of Law's bed. His cock is in Law's hand and that half-lidded look returned, accompanied with a bitten lip.
"Fuck, I... I wanna suck you off!"
Fuck! Law doesn't think that he's tugged his boxers down that fast since losing his virginity. It doesn't matter when Luffy takes him into his mouth. He starts pumping the base and hollowing his cheeks to suck at the head, before he opens his eyes and intentionally flicks his tongue against the head of Law's cock. Luffy moans and swallows, bobbing his head as if it's the best thing in the world, and fuck —
Law comes with a shudder.
Another week has passed since that night, and everything seems normal, before trouble arises in the form of Luffy's next sentence.
Luffy's lounging upside down on Law's sofa, both of them settling on a movie with action, humor, and mystery, when thoughts of the hickey-which had been gone from the med-student's mind-comes back.
"Whoops! Nami's gonna kill me if I'm late!"
Luffy laughs, sliding into his sandals and throwing a ' Bye, Torao! ' over his shoulder like every week since meeting. It's uncannily similar to the first time they officially met and, either from the frustration of his in pending exams or Luffy in general, Law frowns. His posture becomes tense compared to the relaxed state of his arms resting on top of the sofa and ankles crossed.
"Where are you going, Straw Hat?"
Unsurprisingly, Luffy freezes before he tries to cover his mistake with a laugh and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, where the hickey had faded away days before.
"To Nami's, Torao!"
Law feels something tense in his chest and, in return, he narrows his eyes at his shorter neighbor-turned-whatever-they-are.
"Fine, but you can't come back tomorrow."
Luffy pauses, a look of confusion contorting his features in a way that brings a cruel smirk to the med-student's lips.
"Huh? Why not?"
"I have someone coming over."
Hurt flashes across Luffy's face. His eyes widen and a frown stretches across his lips.
"Fine." Luffy mutters before leaving.
It occurs to Law that seeing the look of hurt and pain doesn't satisfy that cruel part of him like it should. The only thing that keeps coming back is Kid's comment. "Trafalgar Law, in fucking love."
The exams are over, and Law isn't as relieved as he should be. The cause? If Kid knows why, then it proves that any idiot could figure it out.
He hasn't sleep except for a few hours, trying and failing to focus. Kid kept messaging him and more than a few of those messages could have the walking stop sign in jail. It wouldn't work though because their father would bail him out. It would have provided a few hours of quiet that he has needed for a week. Sadly, it wouldn't have distracted Baby 5 in sending love advice messages, nor his father's 'innocent' checkup messages that are really trying to see what has—more like, who has —gotten into his eldest son.
Law's finally managed to get home, reclining on his sofa with the circles under his eyes stinging and his backpack placed on the table. There's no knock before the door is thrown open, revealing spiky red hair and the grinning face of his brother. But before he can utter a word, there's a pale fist flying towards him that results in a bloody nose and blackened eye gifted to him by his baby brother.
Kid grins in satisfaction.
"Get your shit together. We're going out tonight."
"Fuck off," Law grits, barely refraining from murdering his younger brother. "You're buying me a new fucking door."
"C'mon, Trafalgar! You just gonna sit around and mope about the fucker that stole your heart? Fuck no ! You fuckin' go out to get Pops off your back for a few days."
Kid's venomous grin comes back, his still bruised nose a soft purple. "But if you don't, I'll tell Baby 5 about how you fucked one of her friends a few years ago. You know how she is about evening the score."
Faced with the prospect of having to decide between comforting whichever of his friends that Baby 5 would decide to fuck and dump, or refrain from kicking—depending on the friend she chose—someone's ass for nailing his little sister, Law frowns and hates the way that Kid's grin turns smug.
The strip club is nice, bright, and loud. The women and men are beautiful and flirtatious, but he still he can't seem to get the image of Luffy's panting mouth and blissed filled eyes out of his mind.
Between Kid catcalling at a stripper named Camie—the young woman living near Law with the welcome mat—and debating whether he could find someone close enough to Luffy in looks for a night of release, when someone he least expected to see appears.
"Give a big applause for Lucy!"
Briefly, Kid leans towards him and whispers with a grin that would make their father proud. "I heard that he's supposed to be good."
It's among lights and cheers that the mess of black hair and a glittered chest with small scars become recognizable, and a face with familiar lips, scars, and eyes half-lidded, meet his own.
When their eyes meet, Luffy freezes.
It's during this time that Law thinks of the specific times that the other had left, of the flexibility, of the glitter that he would sometimes see in the dark of Luffy's hair. He grits his teeth and stands despite Kid's protest and the shout of ' Torao !' from the stage.
He doesn't make it to his car before a scarred palm grips his arm in an unspoken beg to stay.
Law grits his teeth. "Let go, Lucy ."
"No!"
"Straw H— !"
"I didn't tell Torao 'cause he wouldn't want to date me anymore!" The grip tightens, and the voice grows more desperate. "They never do."
Stunned, Law regains his composure and frowns, imagining Kid's, Shachi, and Penguin's reply, ' Who wouldn't want to fuck a stripper? ' The hickey makes more sense now. It wasn't a fling, but was most likely a past relationship that Luffy wanted to be more. After all, everyone wants to fuck the stripper, but how many of them would want to marry one? How many will love them and will be loved in return?
"Fuck," Law swears.
From behind him, Luffy makes a confused sound.
"Torao?"
Watching Luffy bounce on his dick in apology with no strings attached would have been easy, but love is never easy.
Instead, Law grips the thin hips and feels all the minor scars. He sees the significantly larger scars decorating the other's back and thighs. It was like knives of the past were dragged across his skin, and Law kisses the easy smile from Luffy's chapped lips.
Luffy takes to it easy enough, throwing back his head and moaning so loud that they'll most likely have noise complaints from their neighbors in the morning. His tan, but scarred, stomach flexes with every move. His cock is swollen against his stomach.
It isn't strange when those smoldering eyes and grinning lips brings Law over the edge, hearing ' Torao! ' yelled from the top of the other's lungs. Seeing the lazy smile Luffy gives afterwards, with cum dried on his stomach and Law's stolen pillow beneath his head, makes exams seem like a waste of time in comparison.
Luffy laughs with tiredness lidding his eyes and hickies decorating his neck and shoulders.
"Let's do that again tomorrow, Torao!"
Law smirks, running a hand through the messy locks tickling his nose and presses further against the warm body beside his own.
Now, with the knowledge that he passed his exams, it feels surreal.
It's at this time that Luffy's decided to come to the kitchen. He's in one of Law's old hoodies that barely reach his skinny knees with his messy hair a tangled mess and grinning with those smoldering eyes that are a decipherable brown with black around the edges.
"What's wrong, Torao?"
He peers at Law with a curious tilt to his head and a worried frown on his lips. It doesn't stop his wandering hand from snatching Law's toast.
It makes all the sense in the world to kiss him.
Staring at those half-lidded eyes and swollen lips curved in a pleased smile, Law brushes the mess known as Luffy's hair from his eyes and smirks.
"Don't worry about it, Luffy-ya."
"C'mon , What is it!?"
Law smirks, glancing at the calendar behind Luffy and absently threading his fingers through the tangled mess of the other's hair.
"It's Tuesday."
For the amazing Rei_the_Rat who's wrote more than one request for me, messaged me when the day wasn't always a good one, and helped me go over a few things regarding my stories.
You're lovely~
Also, plenty of thanks and hugs to the lovely Animelover0818 who had to deal with editing my mess and managed to turn it into this fic that's ten times better than it originally was.
When I originally wrote this, I didn't realize how it could relate to college or university students that have done or had to do stripping or something related just to get by and pay for everything until my beta pointed it out. I hope, if you're reading this and going or gone through something similar, that you go on to be who you want to be (if you haven't already) and just know that because some people might judge you, doesn't mean that we all do.
Until LawLu Week~