Law didn't know the trigger behind the sudden tug at his heart whenever the café's door would suddenly swing open. His hardworking functioning hands would stop moving momentarily, his eyes would involuntarily turn to the café's entrance, hoping for a certain duo to enter and for a certain individual not to appear in his sight, whilst his lungs would stop properly operating as he would neglect breathing, directing all his energy on thoughts on who's entering the café and how fast his heart was erratically pounding uncharacteristically.

This has been unfortunately happening in every single shift since Wednesday's disastrous event had unraveled. Law had informed Penguin after their shift had ended on Sunday, and Ace who was nearby didn't stop himself from overhearing.

"Oh? Maybe you're not prepared to meet Killer and Kid again. Will this turn into a love triangle, perhaps?" Ace wiggled his eyebrows as he added his unnecessary comment to the conversation. Penguin's eyes widened, his face reddening and hand clenching tightly, from worry or anger, Law couldn't tell.

Law sighed, and started reassuring his friend, even though Penguin was in denial about harboring feelings for a certain blond. "I'm not in love with Killer."

Penguin's hands gradually unclenched.

"Oh, so Kid?" teased Ace.

Law just rolled his eyes at that comment.

"I have to admit; he has an ogle worthy body. I won't blame you if you fell for him."

Law mentally approved that he didn't disagree with Ace's observation about Mr. Eustass' body, but continued looking indifferently at his smiling coworker, stunned at the man's choice of topic when him and Penguin were near their breaking point because of their recent dreadful problem. Well, Law predicted that Ace would be relaxed given that he had nothing to do with what had unraveled on Wednesday, in view of the fact that Kid and Killer were the ones who ruined Doflamingo's unknown plan. Not to mention that Ace was Luffy's brother, and Luffy who had everything to do with what ensued on Wednesday was calmer than Ace himself. Even if they weren't actually biological brothers, and didn't have the same features, they unluckily shared their frustrating traits, Law sadly noted.

Wanting to shift everybody back to a more serious topic, Law said, "I think this is because of Doflamingo. I haven't met him in years, and the thought of encountering him now is discomforting."

Once Ace positioned himself on the seat next to him, Penguin pulled his seat closer towards the circular table, and started whispering, "Yeah, we should take this more seriously. Whenever I'm working the only thoughts crossing my mind is that one of the costumers will pull out a gun all of a sudden while we're immersed in our work and when we least expect it…" He took a large intake of air, and continued in a scratchy voice, "shoot us in the head!"

Ace just gawked at Penguin as those words unpleasantly made their way to his ears. "You should seriously stop hanging out with those two. Your thoughts are becoming quite gory."

"This is had nothing to do with Killer and— "

"Sure."

"Really! This has nothing— "

"Says the person who used to have panic attacks at the thoughts of fistfights in high school!"

And at that note Penguin and Ace began an incessant quarrel about meaningless things.

Now it was Tuesday and his heart kept irksomely pounding whenever the café's door would swing open, but optimistically this time around, the tiring process wouldn't occur when he was busy interacting with his costumers, only when he was free. And at a night shift, freedom was seldom.

Gratefully, today Sanji was at his part time job as a food preparation worker, and because of that orders have been finishing at a smoother rate without any unneeded mistakes, making it easier on Law, Penguin, Usopp, Koala and the other people working here to get quicker to people who hadn't ordered yet or needed help or just needed the check. However, Sanji was slightly exhausted since he had just come back from his other part time job with Zeff, hence the service was smooth, nevertheless not as smooth as other times.

Over the years, the workers had split and labeled the café into two parts, the ying and the yang, heaven and hell, the part of the café where someone either turns into an angel from lack of hassle, or into a creature far worse than the devil because of the ceaseless pressure.

There was the wearying area of the café where people could enter and sit wherever they please and order whatever they're craving, in which Law had to constantly worry if the costumer's orders have been running late and to make sure not to mess up any order because he would usually have had hardly any sleep the night before, and to ensure to give the right orders to the right people, etc., usual waiter problems. Then there was the other less stressful part of the café, where Law stands behind the counter for most of his shift, and people came to him and ordered, and he would usually have two other people helping him out preparing the drinks or food for the costumers, also where Eustass Kid had ordered yesterday.

Unfortunately, today he was standing in the ying part of the circle.

Once he had served his last costumer his drink, the door swung open yet again. And the subconscious switch to Law's body mechanism involuntarily turned on again: heart began beating, lung wasn't properly functioning, his muscles hardly moving and he began uncontrollably sweating.

A tense figure and a fairly composed person made their way to one of the tables in the corner of the café. Their expressions not mirroring each other at all. As one eye was searching the building perceptively, and the others' pupils were moving frantically around the place, not really knowing what to look for.

The man's perceptive eye stopped on Penguin. Penguin, noticing that the man's thorough attention was on him, gently smiled and moved to Killer's and Kid's table instantly. As soon as his friend sat with the duo, Killer's steady hands held the menu firmly whilst Kid's pale fingers that were fidgeting uneasily, flipped through the menu with his awkward grasp.

Law was standing at the far end of the café near the kitchen but he could clearly see Eustass Kid's questionable behavior. Law raised his eyebrows, detecting that Kid didn't order anything after he had shaken his head when Penguin had asked them what they wanted to eat.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Penguin tried yet again. "Sanji's here today, and he's the best cook we have! You should really try his—"

"I told you I don't want anything." Kid cut in sharply, agitated with Penguin's constant implores to try today's menu.

Penguin was taken aback, and suddenly fell silent before nodding in affirmation and leaving with the orders. Once he left Killer had glared at his friend for the unnecessary rude manner and started saying, "Please, Kid. This is for me. Try acting nice, it's not so hard."

"Maybe he should try being less annoying, that's not so hard either!"

The red haired was making it apparent that he just came here to accompany his friend to meet Penguin and not because he was incredibly thrilled to, but Law wasn't worried as Penguin was the densest person on the planet. But why was Mr. Eustass so restless?

The doctor-to-be glanced at the watch above Koala's head.

20:00.

Penguin's shift had just ended. His friend didn't even bother to take off his working attire before seating himself across Killer. Ten minutes later, Law could visibly catch Kid rolling his eyes at the lovebirds in front him every now and then, the tense atmosphere around him gradually disappearing.

"You've been staring at them for the past fifteen minutes," said Usopp as he gave Law two orders that just finished. "Here is their orders. Why don't you serve them since you're so interested in their conversation," Usopp had said before taking another two plates to serve a table nearby.

Law wanted to reply, but didn't seeing as soon as the younger man had snuck on him, he left to continue with his work. Which is what he should be doing. Law grabbed the plates carefully and carried his feet to the table at the corner, fascinated with the trio progression with each other. "Here are your orders."

Law placed the orders in front of Killer and Penguin, given that Kid hadn't ordered anything. The blond thanked him, but his red haired friend just watched Law tensely, the peculiar air around him engulfing him again.

"I see that your bruises are nearly healed," remarked Law, satisfied with his work.

"Yeah. The cream that you gave us really helped," stated Killer, brushing his hands over the area where Doflamingo's worker had hit. Then added, "Kid and I were surprised by how the bruises were healing so quickly."

The tan student nodded, observing Killer's faint bruise. Law turned to look at Kid whose hands were in his pockets. "What about your knuckles, Mr. Eustass?"

Kid lowered his gaze to his hands that were now visible and muttered a reply, "Better."

Law nodded his head slowly at that answer and whilst discreetly hissing from annoyance at Kid's reply he left to the other table he was serving. His costumer frowned as Law hurriedly served his drink, nearly spilling it all over in the process.

The college student walked back to his previous spot near the kitchen to inspect the trio again. Eustass' attitude was irking him. Why was he acting so distant around him and Penguin? The accident was just a few days ago, it wasn't a long time for him to act as if nothing happened and that they've never met.

It didn't really bother him, but it was rude of the red haired to act this way after he helped him and his friend. At that thought, he looked back at the table, wondering if Penguin had told them already that Doflamingo was connected to what happened. But they were still talking calmly, so he guessed he didn't.

He raised his eyebrows at his friend's table, sighting an interesting change in Kid's facial expressions, whereas none of the other two were paying any attention as all their focus were gleefully on each other instead on Kid, who was at the moment interrupting their time to fully express their feelings.

And that was what Kid was changing his expression over. His eyebrows were tightly knotted as he inspected the couple's faces as they talked to each other, and just as Law had noticed they weren't expressing themselves fully in view of the fact that they seemed to look at Kid every few minutes whenever they wanted to voice something private, but their words slowly died in their throats because they didn't want to embarrass themselves in front of Kid, or didn't want to purposefully leave him out of the conversation, which Law thinks they failed greatly to do so because Kid just said a few words in the past half an hour.

Mr. Eustass appeared to finally come to a decent decision, seeing as his eyebrows had unknotted and his face became rather determined and relaxed as he stood from his seat and made his way to the restroom which was located at the far end of the café, far away from their table. Killer and Penguin seemed not to mind as they talked even louder and with confidence, and gradually moved their chairs closer to each other the minute Kid had left.

Law faintly smiled at Mr. Eustass' actions. He never thought the man was considerate, his first impression of him was that he was a tempered person who never gave people much importance. But that seems not to be the case with his friends, seeing as he complied to come to a place which he obviously didn't like in the slightest, just to help Killer get closer to a person he was interested in.

But why was he acting so nervous and distant?

Law looked up at the clock again.

20:45.

Disheartened, Law sighed deeply. Many minutes remained until the end of his shift, and Kid was taking a long time in bathroom, not that Penguin and Killer were concerned. Might as well have fun with Mr. Eustass.

Law eagerly thought after walking to the men's bathroom. He was surprised at the sight before him. Kid was sitting on the floor and texting away on his phone, apparently quite bored.

"I wouldn't have imagined that Mr. Eustass was a considerate person," Law smugly smiled as he noticed Kid's startled eyes widening, his face turning slightly red in just a few seconds as he stood on his feet hurriedly. "How oddly cute."

"I… I wasn't being considerate! I felt sick to my stomach watching them look at each other with their annoying expressions!" Kid tried to reason as he walked to the restroom's exit hurriedly, not making any eye contact with Law. "Killer became so soft," shoving his phone into his pockets, he irritably mumbled to himself before turning the door's handle.

"I think you're the one who's becoming soft… sitting in the bathroom just to give them their space to express themselves."

Just as he exited the restroom, Kid turned around to voice his retort but instantly shut his mouth after seeing Law's playful face suddenly turning dark, not welcoming anymore useless chatter, instants after his eyes fell on the figure that entered the café.

Law could feel his heart beating unpredictably once again, which proved to him that his body acted this way not whenever the door opened, not because of Mr. Eustass, but because of Doflamingo. He grimly noted that he still felt nervous around Doflamingo after all these years, given that no matter how hard he tried to steady his shaky fingers he couldn't, and no matter how much he tried to look at Doflamingo's approaching figure walking directly towards him, he couldn't look him in the eyes.

"What is that shady bastard doing here?" Kid had asked, the news about Doflamingo's involvement with the black market obviously reaching Kid's ears, however he doesn't look as troubled as Law is, considering his straightened assured posture, and that he was daringly looking at Doflamingo in the eyes, highly skeptical about him showing up at this side of the town.

If only he knew that he might be here because of his actions a week ago.

"What are you…" but the rest of words died in Law's throat, as if a magnet had pulled his mouth down.

Click.

Costumers shot up from their seats. Gasps and yells could be heard instantly from all over the place, and he could see Sanji by the corner of his eyes exiting from the kitchen because of the sounds his guests were suddenly creating. He was understandably pissed, and the blond was about to intervene with what Doflamingo was apparently going to do, but Usopp tried pulling him by the shoulder trying to restraint Sanji from doing anything stupid.

"Hey! If you want to kill anybody do it outside the restaurant!" Sanji yelled as he pulled away from Usopp, his irritation with the unforeseen situation somewhat evident in his voice.

Doflamingo just ignored him.

A gun was pointing directly at Law. He didn't know much about gun's. He knew that there were many types, but he wouldn't know at sight what type of gun it was… but that particular weapon in Doflamingo's grip, even if it's color was slightly different than the one's the other members from Doflamingo's family possessed; he knew it too well. The shape, the size, and the slightly faded color at the lower half of the gun.

It was the same weapon that he killed Corazon mercilessly with, and Law would bet it wasn't a sickening coincidence that Doflamingo was pointing the same one at him.

Doflamingo knew. He knew and he's currently sadistically smirking when Law realized the gun in his grasp.

"It's been a long time, Law," said Doflamingo, stepping three steps closer, still holding the gun at him. "I told you not to mess with my plans after the unfortunate accident with my dear brother." Doflamingo continued on sarcastically.

"What do you want?" This time Law looked directly into Doflamingo's eyes—which were his sunglasses, that were still worn at nine in the evening for some odd reason.

Then he saw red. Mr. Eustass' fur coat. He stood right between him and Doflamingo, before the space got smaller for him not to fit.

"Oh, is this the friend who ruined my plans?" questioned Doflamingo, aiming at Kid.

Law was in a state of panic and astonishment. No, not another person dead. He knew Mr. Eustass was daring, but not this daringly imprudent to get in the way of Doflamingo's plans knowingly, and the red haired didn't show a sliver of regret for his actions was astonishing, and to protect him, someone who he met a few days ago was even more astounding. Which was also a shocker to Killer who just stood up from his chair from disbelief like the rest of the costumers around him, not expecting that his friend was this foolish when making decisions, even in front of one of the most dangerous man in the city.

"I can handle this," said Law, annoyed with Kid's interference. He didn't need anyone to save him, and he knew for a fact Doflamingo wouldn't kill him, or he would like to believe he wouldn't. He stood in front of Kid. "Are you going to shoot? I'd thought you were the type of person to do your dirty work behind closed doors, this is a surprising change." Law smirked, not wanting to give Doflamingo the satisfaction of intimidating him.

Doflamingo began to laugh hysterically just as he slowly put his gun away, which made a lot of costumer's sigh in relief—Law thought this was amusing, they should be used to these types of situations in this café by now. "You know me so well," stated Doflamingo, his grin widening with every word. "Since you were being relatively obedient these past couple of years with your payments, I'll let this slide… for now." He looked around the room. "Just because I can't have my business partners looking at my face tomorrow in the newspaper for killing you. Consider you and your friend lucky."

Law felt relieved, he knew Doflamingo was smart about not tarnishing his image in front of his business partners just for of a single moment of anger. However, he also felt rather annoyed, he didn't want Mr. Eustass to hear any of those unpleasant details about his life.

Doflamingo began walking towards the restaurant's exit. "I lost a lot of money because of your foolish actions on Wednesday, so don't think I'd forget about it so easily," Doflamingo voiced loudly once he started pushing the door forward, nearly flinging an innocent passerby on the road.

After Doflamingo had left, Kid turned to look at him questionably and Penguin ran to his side while Sanji didn't waste any second to scold him.

"I don't care what problems you have with people in your personal life, but don't let it hinder your work and interfere and ruin my work and this café's reputation! I know we aren't the safest café around here but we never had a gun involved before and…"

Law rolled his eyes at Sanji's words. "Oh, so should I just send all my enemies a PSA, 'please kill me at my place or at least not in the restaurant because it will ruin my colleague's hard work and ruin my workplace's reputation'? I don't think it works that way, as you could have clearly seen."

Penguin and Usopp were alarmed at the sudden quarrel. "Uhh, we shouldn't fight guys, we should be happy that no one was shot," said Penguin.

Sanji shot Penguin an angry look. "And who's the one at fault? If it weren't for Law messing with that guy's plans, this whole thing wouldn't have happened—"

"Actually," Usopp began, scratching his head from embarrassment. "You remember the guy we were after last Wednesday…" Sanji's face fell. "Yeah, he worked for Doflamingo and that guy over there…" Usopp's eyes moved towards Kid, but then he lowered his gaze and voice when the red haired intimidatingly glared at him. "Well, he beat up the guy we were after and that disturbed Doflamingo's mysterious plan, and now we are all involved in this mess."

"But he seemed to be here just for Law," stated Sanji questionably.

Kid was exceptionally confused by what Usopp and Sanji were discussing. What did Doflamingo have to do with it? He kept listening to the straw-hat group's conversation to figure out what happened, but the information became more jumbled up in his brain.

"What the fuck do you mean? How is Doflamingo involved with the bastard I beat up on Wednesday?" Kid asked, vexed for not being told anything about the guy he punched. He turned to Killer. "Did you know about this?"

His friend shook his head before he focused his attention on Law and Penguin. "Are you two going to talk?" irritably asked Kid, clearly angry at the undisclosed details.

Law and Penguin looked at each other for a few seconds, before Penguin glanced at Killer guiltily and explained, "The guy you guys hit was unfortunately going to transport something for Doflamingo. But before he got to Point A to start with the transportation, you stopped him, and as you heard Doflamingo lost a lot of money because of this ordeal. And uh… well now he wants to have his revenge because he lost a great deal of money." He paused patiently, waiting for Kid or Killer to voice their thoughts on the troublesome situation, but they just kept quiet, their expressions speaking for them; Kid's forehead veins growing larger by the second and his chilling glare intensifying, while Killer's eyes just widened in surprise, giving Penguin the chance to clarify his silence on the situation, "I wanted to tell you this a few days ago but you only showed up today."

"We were apartment hunting for Kid, so we didn't have the time to come here," said Killer after a few moments of silence.

"Ah."

Law saw that Kid was having a hard time with calming himself down. The man had closed his eyes for a minute to relax and get his thoughts sorted out in his brain, but when he spoke again his tone conveyed that he was still furious. "Then why the hell did he seem to be only targeting you?"

"We have our… differences. So I guess he's having fun dumping all this on me because I was there when everything happened?" Law guessed what the bothersome businessman was thinking, not expecting Kid to care much about how Doflamingo was handling the situation. "But you never know what Doflamingo's actually thinking."

"Yeah, it's weird that he came here just to shoot you, and not Kid or me for beating his worker up?" said Killer, then smiled slightly and carried on truthfully, "That's kind of relieving for me, but I guess it's unfair for you."

Kid tsked at that comment. "What the hell, if he wants his proper revenge why doesn't he take it?! I'm not fucking afraid of him just because he has a damn gun."

Law firmly clenched his fists as those words made their way to his ears, then eyed Kid icily, and warned, "Don't underestimate him. He's not your typical rich businessman."

"Then how are we going to stop him from coming after you?" asked a concerned Penguin.

"You don't."

And at that chilling answer, their conversation had ended.

Deciding to finally leave the gloomy café, Killer went to pay the check at the cashier with Penguin tagging along to say goodbye, leaving Kid and Law who were standing near the bathroom door.

"Uhh," uttered Kid, his suspicious behavior and body language from half an hour earlier returning little by little: hands in his pockets, constantly moving eyes and regularly moving body recurring, which was a bit annoying for Law. "I wanted to ask you something."

Law's eyebrows shot up. What the hell? It was already weird witnessing Eustass Kid acting this nervous a few minutes ago, but it was even stranger now for him noticing that Mr. Eustass was acting this way because of him, and he instantly felt exceptionally nervous as well, not to mention that his heart began to beat as quickly as it used to when the café's door would swing open this past week. Guess it wasn't only because I was afraid of meeting Doflamingo.

But beating for the Eustass Kid after only knowing him for one day? The same red haired that he mentally warned himself about once he first lay his eyes on him in one of their classes that they shared? The same mechanical engineer student who didn't seem to mind punching the life out of a man a few days ago?

Fuck.

Ting!

Before Law could listen to Kid's question he glanced at his phone's screen that just alerted him of a new message. From Doflamingo.

[Just as we got to a deal we both agreed on a few years ago, I'm sure I'll be able to find another agreement we'll both approve of for your friend's mess. Or you can just forget about this negotiation that you asked of me and I can go ahead and kill him so you won't have to agree to the arrangement?]

No, I'll stick with what I asked of you, and you coming here today to threaten me wasn't necessary. I was already going to negotiate with you. Law wrote back, somewhat ticked off with the sudden message, but he wanted to forget about it for now.

Law looked back at Kid in anticipation, whose nervousness has multiplied. "Yeah?"

Kid shook his head. "Never mind. I'll get going," said Kid as he moved to leave the place with his friend who just exited.

Law's eyebrows knitted at that peculiar reply and sudden action. He didn't know if he should be immersing himself in thinking about what Doflamingo might want to make a deal about or concentrate on thinking about what Kid might have wanted to ask. He had a few ideas for what Kid wanted to ask of him that sounded too good to be true, but the tiresome thoughts regarding the deal with Doflamingo didn't sound as great.

I don't own anything. All characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

A/N: omg this chapter took a long time to write because I'm traveling and I didn't know how to end the chapter, so yeah.