Morning by tyreling/Nekocin

For: 27 Days of OTP (a varient challenge of 30 days of OTP)

Summary: AU. They're roommates. Much to Law's disgust.

aka 'Law is the senpai at a track team and Luffy is a freshman who wants to try out and they end up being roommates' AU

Prompt: #13 During their morning rituals

–6:00 am–

The alarm clock shrieked at 6 am sharp. Law's hand slapped the snooze button after the first five shrill rings, groaning as he blinked several times in the darkness of his room. Yawned. Scratched his belly. Wiped the drool from his cheek.

Sleep still cushioned his brain with dancing bears and twirling foxes, the last remnants of a peculiar strange dream he'd rather not divulge too much in. After a few seconds when his mind finally caught up, he kicked off the blankets constricting his legs and moved to the second bed in the room.

"Oi, wake up." He said and mussed his roommate's hair before tearing the blankets off.

"Mrprhr cold." His roommate scrunched his face and curled himself in a fetus position, one slow hand moving around to snatch back the blankets. When the fingers found nothing, his roommate peeled one eye open and gave Law an irritated growl, "Come on, Torao. It's too early."

"No excuses, Luffy. You said you wanted to join me today."

"Toraooooo." Luffy whined, pressing his face into the pillows.

"Up! Luffy. Or would you rather stay home?"

"YES!"

"Then our deal is off, Luffy."

"I don't care. It's too early! So coooold. Who in their right mind would wake up this early on their day off to jog ten kilometers?"

"Me." Law huffed. "Fine, suit yourself."

Law didn't wait for his roommate to climb off the bed, so instead he went to their adjoined bathroom, the blankets wrapped around his neck, and picked out the blue toothbrush at the sink. He dragged toothpaste across his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth, his eyes staring blankly at the reflection in the mirror.

Dark circles had formed underneath his eyes. Damn! He should do something about that haunted look. Can't be helped. He hadn't been sleeping well these days, not when his exams were piling up one another or when he still need to catch up filing the mass data entry projects at the research facility he worked at. Law bit back a long sigh as he felt the beginnings of his neck muscles contracting just thinking about being chained at the desk again the next day.

He then stared at bruise-colored spots on his cheeks. Hmmm.

After spitting out the paste and washing off the residue, he absently ran his fingers across the bruise. It didn't sting that much as opposed to the impressive color it hinted at.

"Does it still hurt?"

Law finally saw Luffy leaning against the bathroom door, staring at the bruises on Law's face.

"No. I'd put ice on it last night." He dropped his hand and looked his roommate over. Luffy's hair was mussed all over, sticking in various directions. Even his pajamas were bundled in odd creases. Sleep, though, was already gone from his eyes the moment he stared at Law's bruised face.

"I should've hit that bastard for knocking you down." Luffy balled his fist.

"It's fine. We just had a disagreement. And no, I don't need your protection. I did kick him down myself anyway."

Luffy pouted. "He was such a bastard. You won him fair and square over arm wrestling! He's just a sore loser."

"I know."

"Why did you even take on his challenge anyway?"

Law shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"Is this one of your man pride things?"

"Hardly." Law snorted. To be honest, he usually didn't resort to such means for entertainment like armwrestling bulky wanna-be big guys. But that guy said something that ticked Law off and Law just stepped in and challenged him over armwrestling. Now thinking back about the incident, Law felt a little stupid for being so easily goaded. He was supposed to be the cool, collected man who was unruffled by anything slapped into his face. Law changed topics immediately,"I thought you wanted to sleep in."

"I do." Luffy blinked. "But since I promised you last night, I can't go back on my word. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

Law crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. "Oh?"

"Yep! Sorry, Torao. I didn't mean to refuse. I'll come along today."

"All right. Brush your teeth, get dressed. Be ready in five minutes. After five, I'm leaving without you."

"Aye, Torao!" Luffy straightened and gave him a mock salute.

Law huffed, smiling for no reason and allowed Luffy to sidle beside him to get his teeth brushed. He's just about to leave the room when he finally realized something odd.

"Luffy, that toothbrush is mine!"

"Hrmm?" Luffy blinked at him, the foam overflowing his mouth as he pulled out the toothbrush from behind his teeth.

"Ugh, ew Luffy. Yours is the one with the Transformers handle!" Law snapped as he stabbed at the lone toothbrush hanging by the sink.

"Oh." Luffy spit out the foam and gave Law his best apologetic smile. "Sorry. Won't do it next time. Promise."

Law's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. A headache was starting to pound at the back of his eyes. Law grumbled and exited the bathroom, "Fine, fine. Whatever. Hurry up. I'm gonna leave you behind."

They jogged around the block five times before heading out towards the path leading to a nearby park. Conversation was one-sided, mostly it was Luffy doing the talking. He prattled on and on about whatever topics that came to mind. Sometimes he talked about what his brothers Ace or Sabo had written to him via text messages, sometimes he talked about his classmates Usopp and Nami and other times he talked about a beetle competition he had seen earlier at a documentary or a new manga series he'd started obsessing over.

Luffy had an impressive lung capacity and stamina. He didn't seem to mind exercising and talking about something interesting at the same time. He didn't even seem out of breath at all.

That's good, Law thought absently. It meant Luffy had built up his body strength in such a way that he could actually make it into the track club's try outs. After they finished their jog, with their clothes sticking onto their bodies and their hair matting their faces, Law offered to buy breakfast as they made their way to the nearest breakfast shop.

Luffy flashed him one of his brightest smile and cheered, throwing his arms in the air.

Belatedly, Law realized he had done something really wrong. He forgot Luffy's stomach worked like a vacuum.

Luffy proceeded to order every avalaible meat sandwich on the menu and tripled the amount.

"Thanks for the food, Law!" Luffy laughed and threw his arm around Law's neck. "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Law suppressed a whine at losing his one week's worth of lunch money. Before the end of the month he won't even be able to afford his own dinner with Luffy living in with him.

He quickly shot a message to Luffy's brothers: "TAKE HIM BACK, YOU ASSHOLES! WHY DID YOU LEAVE HIM WITH ME?"

Ace's reply was instant: "I thought you like my brother. You even confessed to him last night, didn't you? And here I thought we were doing you a favor by letting you live closer."

"What did he do this time?" Sabo's message followed right after. "Is it food again? You should know better than to pay for his food, Torao."

Before Law could type his reply, Ace's new reply popped up, "Man up, Torao. As long as you can take care of my brother's stomach, you'll get my full blessings."

And then Sabo's new reply followed. "Luffy just messaged us that he likes his new room too. Thank you for taking care of our simple brother, Torao."

Oi, oi, he only said he liked Luffy's hardworking style and that Luffy would be an essential clubmember for the track team.

He never said anything about liking Luffy enough to receive some blessings from his immediate family!

"We're not together!" Law blurted out with an irritated glare on Luffy's smiling face.

"Of course not." Luffy smiled.

"Tell your brothers that! They're under the impression that we're in a relationship."

"Of course we are." Luffy grinned. "We're nakama, after all."

End

Notes:

My headcanon - they have a potential to grow more romantically but but given their personalities, they will probably remain aromantic and asexual together. XD

And this actually does have potential to grow into a longer drabble story. Who knows

Thank you for reading!