Hey there again,

So, first of all, I want to apologize, not for the so long delay on posting this chapter but because I was intending on stopping writing this story altogether, I just didn't have the excitement I first had, I wasn't motivated for it and didn't like what I wrote. I had until chapter 8 all written and saved in my computer, but the chapters just seemed so off, so dull and so out of context that I just deleted them altogether.

I had this idea before I started tipping, and it sounded good at the time, but now it doesn't anymore. I once read one should only write about what they already know, and I guess that's true, at least a bit.

The mom of one of my best and dearest friends died more or less a month ago, and it was such a shock to everyone that knew him that is still hard to put into words. I had this concept of how I should write Law helping Luffy cope with everything in my mind, but I never experienced a death in the family, at least not in the family that is close to me, or in my group of friends, which I'm really glad. And this experience, my friend needing me and everyone around but at the same time pushing us away, my friend changing so much after his lost, all of it made me realize that my concept was totally wrong. I know everyone has a different way to cope with death, but my friend's way scared me so much I was actually afraid of what he might've done.

He's a lot better now.

So, my point is, I'm sorry for keeping this without an update for so long, I'm sorry I lost my motivation. I opened my account last week and saw so many reviews and new followers that I felt overwhelmed and guilty. When I was just a reader, I got angry every time I read a story only to find it abandoned, and suddenly I became one of those writers.

So this note is to tell you I'm not abandoning this story, I'm not, no matter how long I take to update the next chapter. I remember when I stayed awake so many nights reading, I remember how it helped me getting distracted for a while when I was going through bad times. So, to everyone that's like the younger me, I'm not letting you down, just please have in consideration that this story has some stuff that I relate to, now more than ever, and that sometimes it is hard to find the right words to express what I want.

I'm actually glad I didn't post those chapters I wrote, because now I can grab this little baby of mine in a point where I still liked it and just let it flow.

As for this chapter, it's a long one. I've been writing it all week, and I like it, it's such an improvement compared to the other ones I wrote. It's long and slow paced, but I like it nevertheless, I love Law being a drama queen, I hope you do too.

And without further rambling, I will let you read.


A week passes by and Law barely notices it. He has met more people in those short seven days than in great part of his life. He has somehow made his way through Luffy's circle of friends, may it be while making small talk to break the tension inside Luffy's room, or while waiting in the lobby for their turn and cards.

They're all so different, from each other and from him, and it's all so disconcerting that sometimes Law just wants to run off. He feels out of place, so much it's hard to put in words. He has felt out of place before, who hasn't really, during parties where he didn't know anyone else other than Shachi and Penguin and when he ended up having a date with a random girl instead of one of his friends at lunch. But nothing like this.

Law doesn't share the moments they share with Luffy, doesn't share their bonds and memories, doesn't share their pain and suffering because Law's not Luffy's friend and all his moments with him englobe the Bell-mere's, pastries, coffee and a lot of bad mood from Law's part and joy from Luffy's.

But Law's sad too, in a weird way he can't quite explain. He's not wandering around with blank face and puffy eyes, he doesn't sigh every two seconds, he doesn't stare into the void and circle around in the lobby, he doesn't sit with a whole group on the overly used plastic chairs to remember and share past memories or to try and make a plan for how the hell they will help Luffy cope with all this shit once he wakes up. He's not them, but he feels sadness too, in his own way.

Law hears their stories and can't help but feel a bit jealous because when they ask him what he used to do with Luffy he just responds he used to put food in front of him with a pun written on a piece of paper. Law hears their plans and can't help but think that none of the stuff they're saying would be in any way recomforting, but he doesn't know Luffy as they do, he doesn't know what he likes and dislikes, what makes him sad and what cheers him up.

He doesn't know shit.

But, God, he wants to help him too, he wants to help him so much it surprises him. He doesn't know if that's due to the fact he misses the joy Luffy used to irradiate and he's sick of seeing him laying in the same bed, day after day, breathing loudly through the ventilator and surrounded by machines and the noises they make. He doesn't know if that's due to the fact Luffy's friends want to help him is so contagious, he doesn't know if that's due the fact he's tired of seeing Shachi being behind the counter, using Luffy's uniform but not at all resembling him.

He has never felt as clueless as he feels now. He finds himself glaring at random people more often than not and for no reason at all, his throat gets tight whenever he hears Luffy's name and it just feels like a black cloud keeps following him around, blocking the sun and the colors of the spring flowers that have finally bloomed.

He remembers the excitement he felt the first time he went visiting Luffy, remembers how he just had eyes to all the machines and the nurses and doctors walking around, too mesmerized by all the ambiance to even pay that much attention to Luffy who was the main reason why he was there in the first place, even if he keeps telling him he just went because of Nami and Nojiko.

He remembers how in the first days he wasn't really that worried about Luffy's condition, remembers that he thought he would wake up and recover in no time, that he thought the real problem would come after he woke up, after he discovered what happened to him and to his brother. He remembers thinking it would be the main problem and that, by the time that problem finally arrived, he would back off and let his friends help him. But now he feels stupid about his thoughts, feels bad.

As the days passed, Law stayed in the hospital, kept going visit Luffy and sometimes stayed in his room while he knew some of Luffy's friends were in the lobby, just waiting for a card, even though he promised himself that he would never take visiting time from one of Luffy's friends. He stayed there and met his friends, heard their stories, even comforted a few of them with kind words and aight pats on their backs. Stayed there and didn't complain when they added him to their facebook's chat group, added him to their plans to help with Luffy's recover and to the schedule where everyone had a specific hour to come, just to not unnecessarily overcrowd the hospital's lobby and to make sure Luffy's bedroom had at least one person all the time, ready for when he woke up. Law didn't complain at all when all of them opened a gap in their circle for him to join in without any hesitation.

And sometimes he regrets ever accepting to make a part of their plans because, if he didn't, he wouldn't have the need to go to the hospital every day, wouldn't need to acknowledge the fact that Luffy should've woken up days ago and still hasn't, wouldn't ever meet Zoro or Usopp, or Franky or Robin, or anyone else, wouldn't know Luffy's dog is under Usopp's care and that he whines every day when he realizes Luffy isn't coming to bring him home with him for yet another day. Wouldn't know Luffy's brother was cremated and that his remains are just waiting for Luffy to wake up so he can throw them into the ocean, just like Ace apparently always rambled about wanting.

And Law starts feeling anxious more often than not whenever he looks at Luffy's unconscious body because he thought he would've woken by now, but now he's afraid he never will. Or worse, that he wakes up and is not the Luffy everyone knows anymore.

Shachi keeps coming to his apartment, day after day, and Law doesn't mind it as much as he should because while shit happened around him, Shachi kept unaffected, even though he works with Nami and Nojiko. And him being around is such a breath of fresh air that he sometimes feels overwhelmed by Shachi's capacity to distract him with the most mundane things one can imagine.

One day, he brought alcohol with him, bottles and bottles of beer and a few of vodka, stating that he was in the mood to get a bit light-headed and forget about college for a few hours. He asked if Law also wanted to participate, or if he only wanted to play the responsible part instead of the funny one. Law discorded, for him, being drunk is not at all funny, he loses his senses and his filter and starts rambling about whatever the hell comes to his mind, not minding if it was a secret or a very personal and embarrassing information about himself, and let's not forget the headaches and nausea that come after. But even so, Law abdicated of his usual responsible role and entered Shachi's fun, only to drink twice as him.

He doesn't remember most of the things he said, or most of the things he has done but, once he wakes up in the living room, his apartment seems to still be in one piece and he and Shachi end up eating a whole box of cereal afterward. Whatever he may have said that could possibly embarrass him, or Shachi doesn't remember too or he decided to not mention it.

Monet subtly invites him over one day after telling him she's alone in her house and with an inexplicable desire to watch a movie. He was just leaving the hospital after Robin came to take his place. She tried to make small talk with him before he left the room, but her eyes and tone of voice are so disconcerting that Law's uncomfortable every time she just greets him.

Law's actually surprised he still remembers most of the way to Monet's house and freak ass neighborhood. Needless is to say they end up not watching a movie at all.

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It's Wednesday late afternoon when Nami calls. Law was in the shower when he heard his phone ringing. He didn't think much about it at first, thought it was probably just Shachi asking if he could come and hang out, but when he left the bathroom, towel still around his waist and hair dripping wet, and saw Nami's name written across his phone's screen, his breath got caught in his throat. He returned the call right away, but it was her turn to not answer it. So he calls her again, and again, and again. But she doesn't answer any of them.

His breath gets uneven and he can feel his heart hammering against his ribcage. His soaked hair soaked keeps dripping drops into his phone's screen and onto his shoulders. Thoughts keep coming to his brain, bad thoughts, horrible thoughts until all he can think about his Luffy, Luffy, Luffy.

He goes to his room and grabs the first clothes he sees, leaving his apartment while in the process of putting his shirt on and he sprints, oh if he sprints, down the stairs because he couldn't bare to wait for the elevator, and on the street, maneuvering through the people coming towards him. He arrives at the Bell-mere's, tired and out of breath, but only Shachi's there, taking the order of an old man.

"Where's Nami?" Law asks, coming to the counter and making the old man jump a bit.

Shachi hands the customer his coffee before turning his attention to Law. "Nami and Nojiko went to the hospital and left me here, all by myself, can you believe it? The pastries are running out and-"

"Why?" Law interrupts him. "Tell me why, Shachi."

"Because of Luffy, of course, he's awake or something. But what is wrong with you, Law? Are you feeling okay?-" Law hears him, until he doesn't anymore. Suddenly his ears don't catch the sound of the words coming out of Shachi's mouth. Luffy's awake, it's all that crosses his mind, he's awake. And Law smiles until he's grinning, and he doesn't even know why.

Luffy's awake.

Suddenly he's not tired anymore and he runs out of the coffee shop with Shachi yelling "Don't go now, everyone is there!" at his back, and Law laughs, out loud and like a maniac, right in the middle of the street. Of course everyone's there, Luffy's awake, does Shachi even know how many people must be there, does he even know how many people must be smiling right now because of this? Does he even- no, he doesn't, he doesn't know anything about Luffy, he doesn't know shit, but that doesn't matter, because Luffy's awake now.

He catches a cab and soon enough he's heading towards the hospital, but it's a long way and the traffic is slow and it doesn't take that long for Law's brain to start to think and overthink. Nami called, once, and didn't answer his four calls. She told him to call her in case Luffy waked up in his turn, and he told her to do the same if it was in her turn, but it wasn't in her turn, because she was at Bell-mere's, so someone warned her too.

He tries to call her again, only for her not answering the fucking phone again, maybe she left it in the car, his positive part of his brain tells him, but that's highly improbable. She always carries her phone around and even got more paranoid with always keeping it in hand reach after Luffy's accident. And the line isn't occupied, or the phone turned off, it just isn't answered.

He feels his smile dropping and his frown taking over as the bad thoughts are back in full force. Something happened, something bad.

Law tries to imagine what happened. Luffy waking up must've terrified the person who has inside the bedroom with him, having to be the one explaining everything to him was one hell of a task, Law just hopes it was someone careful with the words. And after the explanation, Law doesn't even want to imagine. Luffy must've felt so disoriented, so out of place after waking up after weeks unconscious, surrounded by beeps and with a ventilator covering his mouth and nose and suddenly without a brother. Luffy must've felt so lost after hearing what happened.

He leaves the cab as soon as he's close enough to the hospital, not minding doing the rest of the way by foot. The happiness and excitement are gone and left a hole in his stomach, he doesn't sprint or run to the hospital, just walks, he's sure he won't like what he will see there.

Shachi was right, so right when he said everyone was in the hospital. It's even more people than what Law's has met and they're all gathered in the small green area just outside the lobby's main doors. Law sees the group from afar, a big group of people talking way too loudly, they're not that hard to recognize. He wonders if they were kicked out of the lobby, or if they decided to go outside voluntary so they could talk freely.

He approaches them and sees as not even one face is smiling like he first thought they would be. They all look tense and scared.

It's not that hard to find Nami and Nojiko and they both seem surprised to see him there.

"Why didn't you answered my calls?" Law asks Nami when all she does is look at him with her big eyes.

"I, hum. Sorry, my phone's lost somewhere inside my purse," she says, motioning to her big ass purse currently on the ground, the top of if leaning and touching her legs.

"What happened? Why is everyone here at-" Law starts, but is cut short when she starts dragging him by his arm and only stops when there's enough distance between them and the group for them to be able to talk properly.

And so Nami starts explaining it all. Starts explaining how Zoro was the one that was inside of Luffy's room when he started coming back to conscience and had to deal with the whole situation of being the carrier of the bad news. Law feels bad for Zoro, doing what the guy had to do was the only part Law wasn't at all looking forward to, telling the bad news to someone you don't know must be horrible, he can only imagine how it feels like if the someone is one of your best friends.

Law's glad it was Zoro, even though he doesn't really know the guy that well Law can easily see how strong his friendship with Luffy must be, he must've known how to approach the whole situation, or so Law hopes. But he's even gladder Zoro's a strong guy when Nami tells him Luffy had to be sedated right after he woke up and that if it wasn't for Zoro, the three nurses wouldn't be able to get a grip on Luffy by themselves and Luffy's wounds would've eventually opened up. Law doesn't want to think what would've happened if Zoro wasn't there.

Law follows the finger Nami lifts after ending her explanation and sees Zoro at the end of it, sitting in one of the few wooden benches that small green area has, elbows on his knees and fingers tangled under his chin. He looks shocked and sweaty, his shirt is a mess with a few red stains on it.

He remembers Nami commenting one night, during a very long phone call, about the amount of time Zoro spent inside Luffy's room, even though she couldn't be that far behind. He remembers telling her to tell him just how unhealthy that was, and hoped she also took the hint for herself. At the time, Law didn't really care about Zoro's actions, he gave no shits about him, but it was hard to tell Nami to shut up, to stop rambling and monologuing about the mess all of their lives turned into. Now though, Law does feel genuinely bad for Zoro.

They approach the group again then, Nami redirecting towards her sister and Law going to sit next to Zoro. They don't say anything to each other, Zoro doesn't even glance at him or acknowledge his presence, in fact, the guy just comes out of his bubble when Robin comes with news, her being the one that stayed in the lobby for when the doctors came downstairs.

He tells them Luffy's okay, sedated, but okay, and that he won't be receiving more visits until the next day. Some of Luffy's friends get exalted and start asking her question after question to which she has no answers to most of them. Law wants to slap them, punch them until he feels their noses breaking under his fist. They should be glad none of Luffy's wounds opened and not angry because they can't see him, that's selfish, so selfish.

Eventually, some start to say their goodbyes and walk away, and then it doesn't take long for the others to do the same. Nojiko asks if he wants a ride, which he accepts immediately. Her car was parked at the very end of the hospital's parking lot and she and her sister wave at their friends driving past them. Nojiko's car had even more crap than what he remembers it to have. He crawls to the backseat after letting Nami arranging all the papers and journals and maps lying around until he has a small place to seat.

As he suspected, Nojiko doesn't drive as fast when Nami's seating beside her than what she does when alone. The ride home's quiet, too quiet for Law's liking, he can feel the tension and see Nami's frown reflected in the window's glass. But he doesn't say anything, only tells them he lives next to Bell-mere's and gives Nojiko directions when needed. He thanks them before stepping out of the car.

He takes his time getting to his apartment.

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It's weird how as soon as Luffy's able to receive visitors, all the plans and schedules his friends made go completely forgotten. Now there isn't such thing as this hour is yours, next one is mine, and there also isn't such thing as I'll warn everyone in the chat group if I'm in Luffy's room either. Now it's everyone by themselves and, after the seventh time that Law gets to the hospital and has no card to visit Luffy, no matter how long he waits in the lobby, he gets tired of it.

So he just quits going there altogether. He can see Luffy when he's back home or, if not, he can see him when he's back at Bell-mere's instead. Until then, he has to deal with Shachi that really tries to be comprehensive and to cheer him up, for whatever reason, but only gets him more annoyed. He just drinks coffee and doesn't even look at the display and, eventually, he's not craving for sugar anymore and feels his weight dropping back to normal.

He never catches Nami behind the counter and doesn't see Nojiko coming out of the kitchen with her pastries on her hand, so Shachi's the one that sometimes tells him what's happening with Luffy. And even if the information isn't really that much, it's welcome nevertheless.

Nami made sure to tell Shachi he would be fired as soon as Luffy was ready to start working again, and he didn't make a drama out of it, mostly because Law had already warned him about the exact same fact even before Shachi got the job. But it would still take some time until Luffy's ready for that, so Nami likes to keep Shachi updated, and he doesn't mind to update Law too.

Shachi tells him over the week how Luffy's condition gets better and better, how Ace's death apparently sunk in and how he got transferred from the ICU to another room. Law wonders how he's dealing with it though, and that's something Shachi can't tell him. He wonders if Luffy likes all his friends around, all at the same time, being loud and occupying most of the chairs in the lobby. He wonders if Luffy likes all the ins and outs of his room and all the repetitive questions Law's sure his friends keep asking. He wonders if Luffy likes all that, he must appreciate knowing so many people care about him and are there whenever he needs, but he also must feel overwhelmed, suffocated with all that simultaneous support.

Law doesn't like to think about Luffy, it distracts him from his studies and gets him mad, and he doesn't have time for distractions, not with the finals just around the corner. So he studies, and studies and studies a bit more and the days pass by in a blur of letters and information and images of the insides of the human body. He goes to Bell-mere's and drinks three or four coffee in two hours because Shachi doesn't care how much caffeine Law puts inside his system, him being also too glued to his books to even fully notice Law's orders.

Law sits in his corner, surrounded by papers and books and occasionally his computer. Nami still hasn't put the couch there, like she said she would do for his nerdy ass, so Law has to sit in that freaking chair that starts to get uncomfortable if used for too long. But he doesn't mind, he doubts the thought of putting a couch in the corner of her coffee shop has even crossed Nami's brain at the moment.

Shachi comes and sits in front of him whenever there aren't any customers to be attended, and keeps silent and focused on the notes Law has laying around, as if trying to memorize everything in one go. And it's okay, the thoughts about Luffy start getting fewer and fewer, mixed inside his brain along with all the things he needs to memorize if he wants to get over finals. And, eventually, he stops thinking about him altogether, it's not like he could do anything for him, it's not like it's right for him to take the place beside Luffy of one of his friends, he reminds himself, although he takes him some time to really convince himself of that fact.

Of course, that is until he stops red hair behind the counter.

Law's not sure why, but the first thought that crosses his mind when he saw her is to turn away, to run back to where he came from and come again another time. But he doesn't, he steps forward and every time his feet touch the wooden floor his frown deepens.

"Hey there, Law," Nami greets him with a small smile. He notices the bags underneath her eyes, along with her lack of makeup. He has always seen her with flawless skin and long eyelashes, not with red spots here and there and with her eyes with nothing on them.

"Yeah, hey there Law!" Shachi greets him too, the counter in front of him with three opened books. He doesn't pay more attention than to Law.

Law nods at them both and lets Nami make his coffee before asking if she can join him for a moment. She looks around the coffee shop, a few people are sat and reading the newspaper, others talking. No one comes in so she nods and goes around the counter.

"Tell me how he is," Law says as soon as he sits in his chair, she sitting in front of him. She tells him and doesn't stop until a group of teenagers enter through the door, the bell tingling above the first one as he opens the door and holds it for his friends to enter, and then she's out to go help Shachi.

Luffy keeps getting better and better apparently, at least physically. She said he stopped being dizzy and disoriented due to all the medication, but that sometimes his chest hurt so much the doctors have to give him medication that makes him sleepy. Said that he started walking oroud the corridor too, back and forward, whenever he's feeling better and bored.

And said Luffy asked for him when he found Law had been there when he was unconscious.

His heart feels heavier inside of his chest, and his ribcage doesn't seem to be large enough for his lungs to expand properly. He looks at Nami and Shachi, both busy attending annoying and indecisive teens, and he feels angry, with them but mostly with himself. And he doesn't even know why. He hates the fact he doesn't know why he's angry anymore, hates the fact he gets angry so easily nowadays. Luffy asked for him because Law was there when he was unconscious but isn't now that he's awake. Fucking hell.

He checks the time on his phone. He still has time, sometime at least, if he counts how long it will take to get to the hospital. So he packs his things and leaves the Bell-mere's, his coffee half drank still on top of his table. He enters a cab and, this time, he doesn't let his mind think about what he's doing, about how he will get there and don't get past the lobby like the other seven times he tried to.

He goes because Luffy asked for him, and when one who's in the hospital and asks for you, you shouldn't think twice before going, because it may as well be the last time you see them.

And it's so weird how he doesn't pay much attention to his surroundings as he makes his way to the hospital after he leaves the cab, it's weird how he already knows the way too damn well. It's weird how he enters and notices the lobby mostly empty, the visiting time almost over. It's weird how he approaches the receptionist and how she actually looks surprised she has a card to hand him instead of apologizing for not having one.

Luffy's room is in a different place now though, the post-critical unit being on the second floor. Law takes the elevator and looks at the number in the card more times than what he needs to, as if he will suddenly forget about it after five seconds.

Finding Luffy's room is relatively easy, it's the third door on the right of a very long hallway. The room is not as white or noisy as the other one, doesn't have nearly half of the machines the other had, and neither does Luffy's have attached to his body. He's laying on his side when Law steps inside the room, looking small and pale. There's another bed right next to Luffy's, but it's empty, the sheets folded at the end of it.

Law approaches him as silently as he can manage, trying to make the less amount of echo with every step as possible. He's sleeping, his breath heavy and stable.

Nami's words play over his mind, "sometimes his chest hurts so much the doctor gives him enough pills to give him an overdose, and then he's sleepy and only wakes up the next day. We prefer to leave him alone when that happens, let him sleep like he needs to."

That's why no one's here, Law thinks as he sits in the empty bed. Luffy's hair is a mess, Law notices, and needs a desperate comb too. It covers most of Luffy's face and his pillow and the blackness of it only makes him look paler. Law can see his cheekbones, salient, can see how the scar underneath his eye seems bigger and can see how thin he is just by looking at the arm he has on top of the covers, can see his veins, a mix of blue and purple. Luffy was never fat, he was slim and short but Law could see the muscles on his forearms as he made his coffees, could see the shape of the bones on his back whenever he turned around, could see his clavicles when he didn't button up his uniform all the way up. Now though, it seems like his muscles have been drained out of his body.

He looks around the room again then. There some balloons attached to the end of Luffy's bed saying get well soon, a few comic books and an mp3 on top of the bedside table in between the two beds. The other one is full of papers, all handwritten, and envelops with Luffy's name on them. Law suspects those are the letters everyone agreed with writing, to show Luffy their support and tell something personal.

Law sighs. He didn't write anything, even though he was present when everyone agreed into writing them, he didn't object, but what would he say anyway to oppose anyway? He doesn't have a special thing with Luffy, a special handshake or internal joke, he doesn't have past references worked mentioning, nothing.

The puns. They have the puns. Law doesn't know if Luffy just uses them with him or with everyone else too, but it was a pun and a waffle that started it all.

He feels ridiculous when he opens his backpack and takes out a pen and one of the big post-its he uses to write short and important notes. It's not a yellow colored one like the ones Luffy used, it's light green, but he guesses it doesn't matter what color the damn paper is.

At first, he's not sure of what he should write, he doesn't use puns, but Shachi and Penguin have been coming up with new ones every so often and randomly during the day ever since they all went to have the hungover breakfast and Luffy decided to still give Law his yellow paper. But the ones they use are horrible, and Luffy's ones are about food, he's not using those under these circumstances.

Then he looks at Luffy's arm again, thin and pale, just like a bone.

A nurse comes not long after and tells Law it's time to go home, she gives him a small smile before leaving the room again and Law leaves right after, looking at the back of Luffy's head and at the post-it note, now stick to one of Luffy's comic books, before doing so.

You're going tibia okay.

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It's three in the morning when Shachi calls him, drunk and lost somewhere in the city. Law groans and calls a cab and is so exhausted he almost falls asleep again before they can answer the call. He puts on some pants and shoes and doesn't bother in changing the t-shirt. He makes the taxi driver drive around the city, following some mild sense directions, for at least one hour, looking for Shachi until he sees the guy, sat on a bench right beside the road. Law comes out of the cab and almost punches him because Shachi's so immature and reckless but, when he looks at him with big and lost eyes, Law doesn't do anything more than help him climb in the cab's backseat.

The process is the same as always, he takes Shachi home with him so he can keep an eye on his sorry ass over the remaining few hours. He hates when Shachi acts like this, when he's so stupid and childish, but Law likes the feeling when he's helping him out of the cab and onto the elevator, when he's helping him enter his apartment and lay on the couch. He likes it when he's being useful, when he's needed. He likes to actually have an idea of what he's doing instead of just improvise and follow the flow like he's been doing lately. He likes it when he's being helpful to others while pushing his abilities further and further. He likes it when his friends rely on him, even if that happens at the most inconvenient times and if he keeps saying the contrary.

Shachi once told him he only felt that way because, deep down, he had a caretaker personality and that he couldn't control himself whenever there was a damsel in distress, which is ridiculous. He doesn't like helping others just for the sake of helping others, Law's not like that, he's selfish. He likes to help others because he likes even more the feeling of power that comes with it, the power over someone's life. Knowing that someone's depending on them, owning him one, makes him feel a lot more alive himself.

But, the next morning, by the time he has to wake Shachi up so they can go and eat breakfast at the Bell-mere's and for him to not be late to work, Law feels weird and empty all over again and not one slight bit powerful. The food is delicious as always, but Shachi barely touches it. Nami's behind the counter and gives Shachi a small lecture before deciding he's already suffering too much due to his own stupidity. Even Nojiko comes out of the kitchen to mock him about his night habits until she's forced to go back inside.

Law goes and takes the plates and the mugs to the counter, leaving Shachi sat and with his fists rubbing his red and watery eyes. Nami stops him before he has time to back off and raises her phone, right in front of his face. Tell him thank you, it's all the text on her phone's screen says. It doesn't mention Law's name or what he did to be thanked for, but somehow Nami figured out it was for him.

"I don't know what you did, but keep doing it," she tells him before grabbing the dirty plates and mugs and taking them to the kitchen.

Law lets out a little laugh before he goes get Shachi, who can't even stand on his own feet properly. He's lucky, Nami gave him the day out due to how miserably his state is with only a warning of not getting used to it and that next time it will get discounted on his salary. He takes him back to his apartment, stumbling through the street. Shachi's car is still somewhere in the city but none of them is in the mood to go search for it. It can be handled later on or even the next day.

Shachi goes straight to Law's bedroom as soon as he unlocks the front door, closing the blinds until the room gets as dark as it can possibly get at that hour of the day. Law knows Shachi's intending on sleeping on his bed, but he can't bring himself to care. He doesn't know what happened in whatever party Shachi was involved, he still hasn't told him and Law doesn't feel like it's time to start asking questions. It must've been something new though, something Shachi wasn't prepared for if the fact he called Law all lost and scared is anything to go by.

He knows Shachi won't repeat it, whatever it was.

The idea of sleeping then sounds so appealing and so tempting to Law, just go inside his dark bedroom and lie on the bed beside Shachi. Stay there and just wake up the next morning, it sounds such a good ideia. He doesn't even care that Shachi would most likely get all touchy and hug him like he's some sort of pillow somewhere after he's fast asleep. They could easily forget about it, pretend it didn't happen once they both wake up. It wouldn't be uncomfortable, neither of them would have enough energy to be uncomfortable with one another really, at least not with the bad mood both of them have.

So that's what Law does, he enters his bedroom and lays next to Shachi. It doesn't take long for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and, eventually, he can see the contour of Shachi's face, his eyes shiny and looking straight at him.

"I know I'm responsible and all, but the responsibility doesn't get along with my wallet that well, Shachi," Law tells him and it's the truth, all the times he has to rely on a cab it costs him a painfully big amount of money.

"I'm sorry, Law, I won't do that again," Shachi says, his voice low and rough.

"You better don't."

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The days pass and Law doesn't do much. His spring break starts and he manages his time between his apartment and the Bell-mere's.

Nami calls every night and does a monologue that lasts for at least an hour each time. She talks about Luffy, about her concerns once it's okay for him to leave the hospital and go back home. Talks about how scared she is about what Luffy might do because Ace's bedroom will be right there, along with all his things and all the memories they once shared. She tells him she knows how strong Luffy is, but how he tends to neglect himself, how he tends to not really care and talk to his friends about how he's feeling, about how he tends to accumulate everything inside of him. And Law can't quite blame him, he gets annoyed when Shachi and Penguin keep mocking him, telling him to sleep and sometimes to eat and to get out and interact with people, especially during the finals' week or similar stressing periods of time. Law can only imagine what it would be like if he had a whole group of friends doing the same.

And, eventually, Luffy does leave the hospital, and Nami's fears take place.

"I had a fight with him," she tells him one night and it doesn't surprise him, with all their talking Law noticed pretty fast how Luffy was starting to get under everyone's nerves, noticed how it would only be a matter of time before the discussions started to take place. It's like Luffy's is trying to push everyone back, trying to get some personal space now that he's at home and has a door he can close and block out the world, but his friends keep refusing and clinging even more onto him.

They only talk for half an hour that night, but he feels like the phone call lasted way longer. Nami ends up relieving all his frustration and stress on him in one go, and Law's so glad they are on opposite sides of a phone call, otherwise, he would most likely receive a few punches, even if her anger is not directed to him. He doesn't know why Nami chose him to unburden from all people. He never gave her advice or told her comforting and supporting words, he just heard her rambling nonstop, nothing more. And maybe that's only what she needed, a person whom she could spill all her worries and that wouldn't interfere with her anger, call her out on that. Maybe she just needed a person that would hear her, or maybe she just needed a person, someone, anyone. Maybe she didn't need those pieces of advice or supporting words, maybe she has had enough of them already. Or maybe she just needed someone out of Luffy's circle of friends to whom she could just ramble about how mad she is about Luffy's attitudes, just how sad she is with everything that has happened to him, just how useless she feels for not being able to help him properly. Maybe she just needed someone who would hear without criticizing her.

So that's what Law's gives her every night. He gives her his full attention and silence and lets her spill everything out. Because that's all he can give her.

"Have you tried going to his house?" Law asked one night, just so Nami could catch her breath.

"I have," she told him after a while, her voice low. "But he never opens the door when he realizes it's me. I know he's inside, he just never lets me in."

He wishes then he could give her some sort of advice, but he doubts telling her to force her way in next time Luffy doesn't answer her calls and doesn't open his door, or that next time she should go for the window and forget about the door altogether is going to help much. Luffy could live at the very top of a very high building for all he knows, so Law keeps his mouth shut and goes to sleep after she ends the call.

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The next day, it's eleven in the morning when Law wakes up. There is the alert of three new texts showing on his phone's screen, forgotten all night on the couch. Two from Nami and one from Penguin. He sees Penguin's one first.

Where you at, received at 10:41 AM. It's all it says and Law sends a simple 'home' in return.

The response comes two seconds later, because Penguin is always glued to his phone. He tells Law lunch is on him, and that Shachi and Jean will pop up at midday too, a small retribution for you responsible friendship, Penguin sends, making Law let out a smile.

He sees Nami's text next, and he's only mildly surprised to see an address with a, in case you want to take a shot, received at 11:06 PM. Law doesn't need to be a genius to know to whom that address belongs to. Law tells himself that it's not important, it's just Nami being Nami, it's just her trying to put someone inside Luffy's home to see if the guy's still breathing.

He understands what's she's doing, he really does, he just doesn't know why she thinks he's going to be luckier than her, luckier than everyone else. Why she thinks Luffy's going to open the door for him and not ignore him like he apparently is doing with everyone. Why she thinks Luffy's going to be home the moment Law decides to go there, and it's not like Law has his number to call him and check if he's home. And even if he did, why would Luffy answer his call and not his friends'.

But he could open, a voice at the back of his head tells him, he may not ignore you. And he feels stupid. So stupid.

He goes take a shower, to clean his mind from its stupidity and the sleepiness making his head feel too heavy for his neck. He hates oversleeping, it doesn't do him any good. He stays under the shower stall way more time than what he needs to and only leaves when the water starts running cold.

I wrote him a pun, the idea suddenly comes to his mind as he looks to his soaked state in the bathroom's mirror, what the hell was I thinking. Tibia, fuck tibia and fuck fibula and fuck femur and fuck every bone in the legs.

He gets out of the shower and puts on some clothes. He waits for Shachi and Penguin to arrive while watching TV, changing the channel every so often. They didn't even need to send him a text warning him of their arrival, he could hear them coming up the stairs, laughing loudly and with heavy steps. Jean comes with them too.

Soon enough, Law's apartment smells like Indian food, as Shachi and Penguin put the plastic bags on top of the dinner table and start taking out container after container. It's a good meal, all of them gathered around, eating like there's no tomorrow. They talk about nothing and everything at all once and it's weird how his mind gets so easily distracted, it's weird how suddenly he feels like nothing's wrong.

But when all of them leave, in the middle of the afternoon, he feels dead tired all over again. He doesn't feel like studying, nor does he feel like going to Bell-mere's. So he just sits in his couch and watches movies, pointless and cliché, with lines so bad he wants to punch the actors.

He gets bored, so beyond bored he feels like he's going to die while yawning or sighing. He grabs his phone instead of the TV controller, and suddenly Nami's text crosses his mind, Luffy's address.

He needs to give it a shot, he realizes then, otherwise, his mind won't stop mocking him about it. And once he fails, once Luffy doesn't even open the door, he can put the whole situation beyond his back because no one can say he didn't try.

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It's weird how dubious the driving skills of a taxi driver can be, how he can do the curves with way too much speed and still don't hit the other cars.

Law tries to memorize his surrounding, tries to identify where exactly in the town he's right now. But it's too hard, especially when the driver keeps choosing weird ass alleys to stay away from the traffic of the main road.

One thing Law realized pretty quickly once he put Luffy's address on Google Maps, is that the guy lives only on the other side of the town. Law sighed when he saw the distance and the time separating them and estimated the price it would cost him and it was only a small fortune.

Law leaves his neighborhood and the part of the town he knows like the palm of his hand by now, crosses the town's center, and, soon enough, he's in a foreign land where he has never put a foot on. The buildings are bigger than where Law lives, a difference of six or so floors, and they're strange looking, all similar in architecture but with different colors. There are also more trees, growing alongside the road, and more parks, even though they're way smaller than the only one that Law's neighborhood has to offer.

Graffities cover most of the walls near to the pavement, but there are some in big scale that cover most of a whole side of a building too. They're not the badly made ones, they were obviously done by professionals, not amateur vandals. The sea is portrayed in most of them, like a huge painting separated in dozens of tinier ones that are different in style but still connect with each other.

Law watches them as he passes by, stopping at every single red light available because the taxi driver doesn't know about speed limits.

He sees the forest, green and pure, just outside the town when the buildings start getting smaller and, soon enough, the taxi driver is kicking him out and draining most of the money inside his wallet. The street has a good vibe, it's clean and doesn't have too many people rushing past him.

Law doesn't take long finding Luffy's building. It's a light yellow colored complex shaped like the half of the moon, heightening five floors above the ground. In the middle, a parking lot with a few small and young trees is mostly empty. A butcher with a big and old sign, a hairdresser, a small convenience store, and laundromat occupy the ground level floors, but there are more, a whole community that Law's sure can managed to do everything without needing to get out of the neighborhood.

No wonder he doesn't want to leave the house, he has everything here, Law thinks as he enters the enclosure. He feels like someone's watching him, and he feels uncomfortable without really knowing why. There's no one on the street aside from him, but he can hear the hum of the hair dryers of the hairdresser and the strong and loud stabs coming from the butcher.

Law called Nami before catching the taxi because he's not stupid enough to come to Luffy's address without really knowing where the guy lives. She told him he first had to get past one of the four ground level doors to get inside the building, the B being the one that led to Luffy's apartment, and that Luffy lived on the first floor, the door on the left.

He didn't want to, but he needed that crucial information. He didn't want Nami to know he was giving it a shot, like she said he should, he didn't want her to know he was unsuccessful. If she didn't know, Law could've easily pretended nothing happened, pretend he wasn't reckless and stupid, pretend he didn't even receive her text. But now he can't, he will have to live with his failure for the rest of his life.

He approaches the B door, a big red thing with a dirty glass that reaches the top and has a handle and a door lock too low, even for someone as small as Luffy. He presses the button saying 1-L and it makes a high pitched noise. Law sees how that button is, by far, the most worn out of them all, due to the amount out times he has been used. Law waits and presses it again, waits and presses yet another time, and another, and another but there's no Luffy talking through the inter-communicator, asking who the fuck is so impatient, and there's no sound of a door lock opening beside him either.

He contemplates the idea of pressing the other buttons, bother the other people living in the building until one of them lets him in. He could also use the old trick of "Hello dear neighbor, I forgot my keys, could you help me with the door so I can enter the building. I know you never heard of me but I truly live here," but he quickly puts that idea aside, he wonders how many times Luffy's friends tried to do that already, just to not mention how ridiculous it sounds.

He looks through the door's glass, trying to take a sneak peek through the dusty and dirty glass, but he can't see much, just stairs in front and what appears to be the elevator on the left wall, badly illuminated.

Law wonders if he should go home, give up on his stupidity and just tell Nami there's nothing he can do.

The answer comes to him like it always does nowadays. He didn't even turn around fully, to walk away and pretend nothing happened, when he heard something, the sound of a door, closing with way too much force, echoing down the stairs. He approaches the door again, tries to look inside, still nothing but darkness, but he hears the elevator coming down even before he gets to the ground level

Law's doesn't know what crossed his mind when he grabbed his own apartment keys from his jeans pocket, attracted to all the keys he owns, even the ones that aren't used anymore because he can't remember to throw them away. He doesn't know why he thought pretending to be having a hard time finding the right one to open the door was a good idea. He was so bent down he felt his spine complaining.

Law also doesn't know what crossed his mind when a pink-haired woman, not much older than Law himself, opens the door and stands there, looking at him, and Law just says thanks, pretending she just saved him an eternity of trying to find the right key. She doesn't give him more than one quick and pointed look, between his face and the key bundle on his hands, before she passes right past him and barely even leaves enough time for Law to hold the door open.

She doesn't say anything, doesn't even ask his name or which apartment is his just to, you know, see if Law was lying about implying he lives in the building or not. Law hopes Luffy's neighbors aren't all like that, but he's actually glad this one was.

He manages to get in and it's so weird how his heart is hammering inside his ribcage, how his brain is suddenly completely focused, completely awake, as if a sudden wave of adrenaline just hit him. He doesn't have a reason to be like that, he just managed to get inside Luffy's building with nothing more than bad acting.

Law passes by the elevator and starts going up the stairs instead, he's not lazy enough to take the elevator just to get to the first floor. With every step he takes, the realization of what he's doing crosses his mind in a way it hasn't before, and the more he thinks about the whole situation, the more ridiculous it sounds.

Luffy doesn't know Law's there, doesn't suspect a thing because he decided to enter in incognito mode and without being invited. Sure, it will be hard for Luffy to just ignore him when he's not even expecting Law to be there but, what exactly will Law tell him if he does open the door? What reason does Law have to just be there, knocking on his door?

He hasn't thought this through, he hasn't made a plan. Law always has a plan.

His legs get him to the top of the stairs sooner than what he wanted, he didn't have enough time to organize the thoughts inside his head, to try and slow down his heart and lungs before they break his ribs.

Law looks at the door on his left, Luffy's. It's just a normal door, made out of dark wood. He rings the bell and notices how sweaty his palms are. He cleans them on his jeans before he decides to knock on the door instead. He knocks once, twice but nothing happens and he can't hear any sound coming from the other side. Luffy could be out for all he knows, or he could be standing inches apart from Law, looking at him and deciding he's going to ignore him too.

Law stops knocking and starts focusing on the sounds, using his inexplicably hyper-aware senses, but he doesn't hear anything, and neither can he feel Luffy on the other side of the door, looking at him.

So Law starts banging, with closed fists, just like he did when Bell-mere's was closed. If Luffy doesn't open up, one of his neighbors will, and he will only get out after seeing someone. A dog starts barking inside Luffy's apartment and scratching the door when Law starts banging harder. He can hear rushed hisses in the background too, telling the dog to shut up.

"I know you're there, Luffy. Open up," Law calls, and suddenly the dog goes quiet and the door in front of him opens. And Luffy just stands there, awkwardly, holding the door open with one hand the collar of his dog with the other. His eyes are bigger than what Law remembers, brown and salient of his bony and pale face.

He looks horrible.

Luffy doesn't say anything, and neither does Law. He just makes his way inside Luffy's apartment, breaking into his comfort and isolated zone without even being invited. Luffy's dog doesn't make a move to attract him for trespassing his territory, just stands there next to Luffy, a small and fluffy brown animal.

Law doesn't like how he's been doing things lately, doesn't like the fact he has been forcing his way in by banging on doors. He has managed to get inside the Bell-mere's when the place was closed just by banging with force enough, and he has managed the exact same thing with Luffy. What does that say about him? And what does that say about the other people, the ones that didn't manage what he did? Does that mean they didn't try hard enough, or that Law's overly persistent, or just overall lucky?

The first thing Law notices when he enters inside of Luffy's apartment, is the darkness of the place, along with a weird smell of mold and sweat. He goes to the living room's windows and opens them all, the light blue curtains fluttering as the wind enters, filling the place with sunlight, fresh air and the soft smell of the spring. Law can't imagine Luffy staying closed here, surrounded by mess and darkness, it's just not at all what Law imagined his place to be. He always thought Luffy's home would have a lot of colors and random things lying around, full of happiness and life. And maybe that's what it looked like before, but now the colors are gone, and so are the happiness and the life.

Law turns around and sees Luffy's still in the same position, just crouched next to his dog, looking like a confused mess. Law sees the oversized black t-shirt he's using, it makes him look smaller and paler. Chopper, the dog's name if Law remembers correctly, keeps looking at him, just like his owner, with big and brown eyes as well. Then he sniffs the air and looks behind, to the open door behind.

"Come on," Law says before he has time to think otherwise, his mind's blank and he can't form proper thoughts, but he needs to get Luffy and his dog out there, that's all he knows. "Let's go walk Chopper," he quickly adds when Luffy looks like he's about to refuse or to form some sort of excuse to not go.

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Law ends up waiting while Luffy goes look for Chopper's leash and then follows them down the stairs and down the street, passing by all the graffiti and all the goddamn trees without a word. Law only notices they're heading towards the forest when the buildings suddenly disappear and the green takes place. He keeps his eyes on the back of Luffy's head, on his wild and unkempt hair, on the straw hat hanging on his neck. He knows that hat, every time Law was in Bell-mere's, the damn thing had to be somewhere on top of the counter and, at the hospital, it was on the bedside table too. Only then he notices how old it must be, how old the straw looks and how it isn't really that tangled anymore at the end, the edge not having that round look it should.

The forest ends up being more of a park than an actual forest. There's a long pathway made of a mixture of flat rocks, gray and reddish-brown. Green herbs grow between the cracks and small shrubs on the edges of it. On the trees, the green of the leaves gets mingled with the pink and yellow from the flowers flourishing on them.

Luffy lets Chopper walk freely when the buildings and the road are long gone, hidden behind the trees. Luffy doesn't ask how Law entered his building, or how he even knew where he lived to begin with so, in return, Law doesn't ask how's doing, or how he's feeling. Law guesses it's a fair trade.

Law watches as Chopper starts running after another dog, way bigger than him, and stops every time he gets far away from them, looks back at Luffy to see if he's still there, and then starts heading backwards, then being the other dog's turn to follow Chopper. Luffy tugs at his arm and points to a small kid's playground, then starting to head towards the swings, now abandoned after two very energetic little girls were forced to leave after their mother receives a call. She looks stressed and with not that much patience for her kids, if they're even hers.

They're alone in the park, even the other dog suddenly disappears. Law sits in the swing beside the one Luffy's using, and it's so small his knees almost touch the ground and he swears the thing will break with his own weight. But it doesn't, only lets out creaks every time Law moves.

He can hear Luffy's breathing beside him, but he doesn't say anything. Law normally doesn't mind silence, actually prefers it over stupid and pointless conversations that don't lead to anything, but there's something in this silence that gets him a bit anxious. It's not an uncomfortable one, it's just a weird one. One where he can't find any words to fill, one where Luffy seems like he doesn't even care if Law talks or not, and that's what's messing with Law the most.

After a few sniffs on everything the playground has to offer, Chopper comes and lies between them, his chest contracting and expanding frenetically, his tongue hanging out like he has just run a marathon. Law leans to his right so he can rest his hand on Chopper's belly and gently strokes it.

He can feel Luffy's eyes on him when he slides down and sits on the ground next to Chopper that seems to appreciate his new position and comes close to his side, melting under Law's touch and smelling his hand when it comes close to his nose. It's cute to see.

"How did you know Chopper's name?" Luffy asks, surprising Law with such a low voice he almost didn't hear him. Law suppresses a smile, he shouldn't even know about Chopper's existence yet there he is, petting the dog as if he knows him for ages.

"I may have overheard a few conversations," Law says and is a bit ashamed after admitting it out loud. He shoved all the information he managed to get from Luffy and Nami's conversation at Bell-mere's, deep down inside his brain and he actually did his best to not hear them talking, but he's not deaf and, apparently, he didn't shove it deep down enough.

Luffy huffs in response and it sounds like an amused kind of huff, but when Law looks up at him, his expression hasn't changed one slight bit. He's staring at Chopper, at Law's hand as he pets the dog behind his ears and under his collar, where the fur is thicker.

The sky above them gets darker and darker, and the lamps of the park start to get illuminated. The air gets colder and, even though Law isn't affected by it, he still sees how it glues the front of Luffy's shirt to his chest and makes it flutter at his back, sees how he starts to shiver. Luffy doesn't say a word to complain, but Law knows it's time to take him home. They've made enough for the day, Luffy has left his apartment for an hour and took a breath of fresh air for the first time in only God knows how long. Chopper has relieved all his energy and seems ready to take a nap right there on Law's tight.

Sure they haven't said mostly anything, at least not anything important, but Law knows they will get there if Luffy wants to. It's just an amount of time, an amount of patience and silent support. And they will have more chances, Law's sure.

They walk back to Luffy's building, only this time, they walk side by side, with Chopper walking slowly on Luffy's side, instead of them walking fast paced at the front and Law following behind. They reach Luffy's building sooner than what Law expected, and Luffy takes a while to find the right key. He holds the door, letting Chopper enter, and then stands there awkwardly, as if debating if he should invite Law or not.

Law finds the similarity of the whole situation with the one he experienced a few time ago with the pink haired woman kind of amusing. Only this time, Law doesn't need to pretend he lives there, and neither does he enter, but Law doesn't mind.

"Thanks," Luffy says instead and it's so weird how that little word can have so many possible meanings. Thanks for coming to visit me, thanks for forcing your way into my apartment and for opening my windows, thanks for giving me a reason to leave my apartment, thanks for forcing me to walk Chopper. Thanks for not asking anything. Thanks for not offering your help out loud. Thanks for not saying that everything is going to be okay. Thanks for not saying that I look better when I clearly don't.

"No problem," Law says and they both stand there, waiting for the other to say something. Law wonders if he should ask Luffy for his number, or if maybe he should just give him his but he decides against it, he didn't need Luffy's number to find and make his way towards him, so it wouldn't make that much of a difference. He knows where he lives now and he can use that bad acting technique if he needs to, so they can exchange numbers later, when it's less awkward between them.

"Meet me here tomorrow," Law says and sounds like a warning, with a tone that one can't just say no. It's not an invitation, it's something that will happen whether Luffy wants it or not, whether Law wants it or not. Luffy nods in response and then Law's facing a closed door while hearing footsteps going up the stairs.

It's only when Law's already inside a taxi and halfway through the city that he notices that his phone has run out of battery. The taxi driver tells him it's almost eight and, when he arrives at his neighborhood, he sees Penguin and Shachi, sat in front of his building's door and surrounded by plastic bags. When they see him approach, Shachi frowns and Penguin just crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"Where have you been?" Shachi asks. "We were about to leave."

"And why didn't you then?" Law mutters, ignoring the question. Shachi's frown deepens.

"Who would bring you dinner if not us?" He says, grabbing one of the plastic bags and letting it hang in his hand, grinning.

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The next day, Law wakes up with Nami calling and he ignores her. Instead, he leaves his way too comfortable bed to go to the bathroom and take a well-deserved shower. When he gets out, his phone flashes and rings with a third call. Law doesn't want to talk to Nami, doesn't want to tell her that he has seen Luffy yesterday when she can't even manage to make him answer her calls, doesn't want to tell her that he entered Luffy's apartment and made him go outside when she can't even make him open the door for her to enter his building. He doesn't want to tell her, and, at the same time, doesn't want to lie to her either. So he ignores her calls and that's actually kind of funny, considering it all started with Luffy ignoring her and now Law has also decided to do the same. Law feels bad for her, but he also understands Luffy's side. Luffy doesn't want to lie to Nami while telling her he's better and doesn't want her to see him and realize he has lied. So he probably thinks the best option is to ignore her, just like Law's doing. It's not the best option, Law's aware of that, and he knows Luffy's is aware of that too, but that is just the easiest choice.

It may be selfish from Law and it may be self-destructive in Luffy's case, but it sure as hell is a lot easier to ignore the problems instead of facing them. Because that's what the human being does best, ignore the problems until they can't be ignored anymore, pretend not to see them, close their eyes or just turn around and face the other way.

Law knows Nami would ask him if he has had any luck in taking a sneak peek of Luffy, because that's really all they have to talk about, it's all they talk about. But Law doesn't want to, doesn't want to tell her he managed to enter Luffy's building, tell her he managed to get Luffy out, tell her how he looks like a skeleton, pale and skinny, doesn't want to tell her any of that because that happened between him and Luffy, and them only. And he wants to keep it a secret, because Law has seen Luffy's friend's chat group, has seen how they all share the little bits of information they know with everyone. Has seen how everyone seems to know everything, and Law knows how wrong that feels, how bad he felt with himself after reading thousands of messages that got accumulated over the time he didn't check the group. That's the main reason why he removed himself from it, even though he told Nami it was just because there wasn't a point for him to be there when Luffy already left the hospital.

If Law tould Nami what happened yesterday, she would almost instantaneously tell everyone in the group. But it's not like he can lie to her either, after all, he doesn't know if Luffy has talked to her or not, he could've already told her everything and she's just calling to thank him for all he knows. And if Nami caught him lying, she would hardly trust him again and he can't lose her trust, he just can't, because even though he isn't a viable source of information for her, she's still a viable source to him. And if he loses her trust, he loses important things about Luffy.

So Law decides to keep ignoring her until he has a better solution.

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As promised, Law is in front of Luffy's building's door by the time the clock on his phone tells him it's half past four. He thought about coming later, at the same hour as yesterday, but he decided against it, he wasn't doing anything at home anyway.

He stands in front of Luffy's door, staring at the buttons on his side and then hits Luffy's one with probably more force than what was necessary because, apparently, he can't even control his own force when it comes to hitting buttons. His palms are sweaty again.

Law ends up pressing the button three more times, just for Luffy to get a hint it's him, and then goes sit on a nearby wooden bench that's full of dried bird poop. He tries to sit on the edge and does his best to not move an inch. He waits for at least ten minutes before he hears a heavy door opening, and then there's a small dog jumping onto him, making Law even more unstable on his position.

"Hey," Luffy greets him, his voice rough. He's making eye contact with Law, that's progress since yesterday he didn't. But Luffy has weird eyes, still has after everything that happened, sometimes it's hard to look away from them and to keep track on the conversation and Law has experienced that a few times too many at the Bell-mere's.

Law nods at him. Chopper starts licking his palm then, his wet and hot tongue feeling weird against his skin and he fights the urge to take his hand away from the dog's reach, but it doesn't last long though, only a few licks and sniffs and Chopper's quickly positioned beside Luffy once more.

Law stands up. "Let's go then," he says as he starts walking, Luffy and Chopper following closely behind him.

They end up not doing anything, just like yesterday, just sit in the swings. However, this time, they take the empty seats from a few kids, which earn them a few glares from the moms around. Chopper plays with the other dogs longer this time, only coming a few times to sniff at Luffy's hand and maybe glare a bit at Law as if demanding him to fucking do something about its owner's mood, and then he's gone, back to where he was before.

The park has a lot more people than yesterday, not only in the amount of the kids at the playground and dogs running around, but other people too. People jogging like they're on a TV commercial, perfect hair and perfect tight clothes, and others not so glamorous, soaked in sweat and barely raising their feet from the ground for another step. Elderly people occupying most of the benches, talking slowly with each other or reading their journals, and younger people too, around their age, on dates or just meeting with their friends.

Law prefers the empty park, way more. The people annoy him, the noise and their smell annoy him. It's not that he hates people, it's more that he hates what comes associated with people. Yesterday, when no one was around, he could hear the birds and the wind passing through the trees, he could smell the dirt and the purified air and he could see and feel just how beautiful and relaxing scenery around them is. Now though, all he hears are the kids screaming and fast-paced footsteps, all he can smell are mothers' horrible perfume and the vanilla ice cream that was melting on the ground not far away from the swings, and all he can see and feel are the glares of the moms, their whispers, everything, just because he and Luffy are occupying a really good source of happiness from their kids.

Thanks to the Lord though, the swings area is actually far away from the rest of the playground, probably for the fact most kids like to jump off of it in the mid-air while the others are playing and running just in front of their trajectory.

Law pays attention to the dogs then, already too tired of trying to lip-read what the moms were saying, they were probably just being mean and noisy. He likes dogs, has actually wanted to have one himself for years now, but never did anything about it other than wanting. He guesses that's because he wouldn't provide a good environment for the poor dog. He's never at home and surely doesn't have enough time to regularly go for walks, he may have more than enough time now, but the spring break won't last forever. And he also has the food issue, he can't afford another mouth to fill every day, God knows how his wallet has been stretching like a fucking contortionist with only himself to feed with regular meals and coffee and pastries, let alone feed a dog and try to keep it healthy at the same time.

And let's not forget that he's talking about a dog, an alive being that needs everything that alive beings need. How the hell could he keep a dog healthy and well trained, he's not good at doing that for himself. There's no way he could take care of a dog properly, the poor thing would just be an unhappy dog, and there's no way the dog would like him either. He's just as good with animals as he is with people, which is saying is not good at all. Chopper may appear to like him, but Law knows that's just because he would he be stuck inside of Luffy's apartment if it wasn't for him.

"You look off," Luffy says beside him, his swing rocking slightly. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing. I mean, about dogs, nothing important," Law tells him and receives a skeptical look in response, yeah, it sounds crazy to Law's own ears as the words leave his mouth too. "I'm serious, I've always wanted a dog to keep me company, I was just thinking about the reasons why I couldn't take care of one, I guess."

"I think you would be a good owner. It's not that difficult anyway, if I can't take care of Chopper you can take care of one too," Luffy tells him and, as if knowing they were talking about him, Chopper appears, out of nowhere, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and panting furiously. He jumps onto the top of Luffy's legs and makes Luffy hold tightly on the swing ropes in an attempt to get some stability.

"I will have to disagree with you," Law says and the conversation ends there. He waits for Luffy to disagree with him too, to start saying that yes, he would be a good owner again, to start declaring argument after argument about how taking care of a dog isn't that difficult, how Law would be more than capable enough. But Luffy stays silent, and Law can't help but feel a bit disappointed.

They stay on the swings a bit more before Luffy stands up and makes Chopper jump onto the ground in the process. He doesn't need to tell Law that it's time to go.

The sun is still shining, although the sky's getting darker each second that passes. The day was what could be described as unusually hot, considering the time of the year, the spring finally hitting hard, and the unusually high temperature is still on the air.

Law's sweaty, can feel the sweat running down his temples as he makes his way back to Luffy's building. He has to raise his arm to clean his forehead more times than what he wanted. His sweater's weird against his back and Law's starting to lose his nerve with the itch. He guesses it was a bad choice from his part to bring such warm clothes, but it's not like he could predict the weather, not when it just keeps getting more and more unpredictable.

And so, there he is, sweating so unbelievable hard that he feels like he just got out of a pool and decided to walk on the street. He should have brought fresher clothes, lighter clothes, just other clothes. He wished he brought shorts and a loose t-shirt like Luffy did instead of his way too warm ones, he wished he brought beach slippers as Luffy did instead of his boots, he wished he brought a useful hat to block the sunlight like Luffy's straw hat instead of his fur-covered one. He wouldn't be sweaty and smelly if he brought those things. He wouldn't be grabbing his hat with all the force his fingers have, unloading his unnecessary fury on the poor thing, his hair wouldn't be a sweaty mess, he would look normal.

The walk back to Luffy's building takes longer than what it took yesterday. Luffy lets Chopper walk around with his leash loose so the dog takes every chance he has to stop and sniff randomly, taking his time every time he does so. Even Luffy seems to be walking slower, his feet dragging on the pavement almost like he's numb.

"Will you come tomorrow too?" Luffy asks when Chopper stops to sniff a small and still growing tree. In front of them stands a vitrine of a fancy store, with two fancy mannequins wearing dresses and facing the people walking outside with their weird poses and nonexistent faces. Law feels only slightly uncomfortable by their presence and judgmental figure.

"If you want me to," he responds .

Luffy stays silent for a while, watching Chopper. "Yeah, I guess," he says and tugs at Choppers collar for him to stop vandalizing the poor three with his nose. "If that's not an inconvenience, I mean."

I should be studying, Law thinks. "It's not," he says instead, because it's not like he has his finals next week, it's not like he's wasting precious time doing, well nothing. But also, it's not like he has left all his studies for the last minute, it's not like he doesn't have things more or less sorted out already, because he always has everything sorted out. So no, it's not an inconvenience.

By the time they start walking again, Law feels like he may collapse right there. Stay in the same place and receiving the sunlight directly in the face was not a good idea. He regrets ever complaining about how cold the spring was being, he regrets it tremendously. He wants the cold days back, he wants the rain and the snow and the wind back.

Luffy's a bit ahead of him which is weird, considering how slowly he's walking. He stops in his tracks then and looks back a Law. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Law responds and does a small wave with his hand, just to prove his point, even though his face must be saying the contrary.

Law doesn't know how Luffy does it, he's sweating too but he looks fine, honestly looks better than what Law has ever seen over the past few weeks. There is color on his cheeks, actual color. Law hasn't seen color on his checks since the last time they were both at Bell-mere's, which feels like ages ago. Luffy always had color on his cheeks when working, he always looked happy when he was talking to the customers. Law wants him to get back at work, fuck it if Shachi gets unemployed, it's not like he needs money or is the employer of the month anyway. And it would be so good if Shachi would just stop rambling about Nami every time he's with Law, it's exhausting.

"You sure?" Luffy tries again. They both ignore the fact Chopper is vandalizing another tree. "You look like you're melting."

That's because I am, Law thinks. "I'm fine just-" he stops when a bunch of kids pass right between them and one not so accidentally shoves him out of the way. Stupid kids with their stupid energy and their stupid rudeness, he could've at least apologize. Law glares at their backs while they run, hoping that at least one of them fall and break his nose onto the ground.

None of them fall though, which is disappointing, but they do run towards an ice cream parlor which couldn't be more convenient. "Hey, do you want ice cream?" Law asks Luffy, turning his attention back to him, that smiles, slightly and revealing a hint of his big teeth in return. It's a win. "I'll take that as a yes."

Law ends up buying the ice creams while Luffy waits outside with Chopper. He buys two, randomly flavored because Luffy didn't tell him what flavor he liked and Law isn't a witch or that good at taking guesses. As soon as he gets outside, they start melting so fast his fingers get sticky before he even has time to hand Luffy his own.

He wished Chopper wasn't a dog, or that the ice cream parlor was somehow dog-friendly and let dogs in, because inside surely was a lot fresher than outside. They sit on a bunch of stairs right next to the place, eating the ice creams and doing some sort of advertisement just by doing so.

The ice cream is the most delicious thing Law has had in a while, Shachi doesn't give him free pastries and Law still refuses to buy them, so he has been a bit sugar deprived lately. Law feels fresher, fatter but fresher, and their view of the sunset is quite beautiful from their place on the stairs. Luffy eats his faster than Law does, but still makes a mess out of himself, with his mouth, fingers, and front of the shirt covered in the light blue of the ice cream.

Law could've understood the mess if Chopper had jumped or tried to eat the ice cream, but the dog stayed calm and actually sat on the step, waiting for Luffy to give him a piece only in the end like a civilized dog he is.

"Can I have your number?" Luffy asks once Law finishes eating and starts cleaning his hands to his pants because all the napkins he brought with him were used to clean Luffy's mess and he was too lazy to get up and go grab a few more. The question catches Law off guard and he stays looking at Luffy, trying to figure out what has just left his mouth. The corners of his mouth are blue too.

"Yeah, sure. Give me your phone," Law says then and extended his hand towards Luffy, hoping he doesn't mind getting his phone a bit mushy.

"Actually, I didn't bring mine with me," Luffy says and scratches the back of his neck. "Give me yours instead, I will wite mine on it."

"Did you forget it?" Law asks gets his phone out of his pocket.

"No, they keep calling and the vibration is annoying," Luffy mutters.

It's only when Law tries to unlock his phone that he realizes it isn't working, the battery ran out again. His phone is so useless nowadays, the battery is fucked up and it's so slow that is frustrating. He needs another one, badly.

"I don't have battery," Law says and feels stupid right after.

Luffy lets out that small smile again. "So, can I have your number tomorrow?"

Law was about to say yes when he remembers they don't need to have their phones there or working properly to exchange numbers, they can do it on the old fashioned way that works just the same. "Wait a second."

He goes back to the ice cream parlor. He noticed there was a bunch of pens, yellow and with the place's logotype in black, along with some candies and heart-shaped lollipops. He buys a pen, cursing mentally at the abnormally high price of that piece of shit and then grabs two more napkins and leaves.

Luffy's still in the same position, petting Chopper that's just laying on his back, his belly exposed. He watches as Law sits and puts a napkin on his knee, to write his number on it.

"No, wait," Luffy says and he realizes what Law's doing. "I don't want to lose it, just write on my hand. It's harder to lose."

Law huffs and rolls his eyes slightly, playfully. Luffy raises his hand in the air and lets Law grab it to write his number. It's weird, but Law has imagined Luffy hands to be soft or something, considering how delicate they look, but he's surprised to find they're actually calloused and warm in comparison to his cold and mushy ones.

Once, when Shachi got beat by the boyfriend of the girl he was flirting with, Law was the one that held a frozen bag of peas against his forehead. "Cold hands, warm heart", Shachi told him with his drunk voice and a soft smile before passing out. Luffy has warm hands, Law notices.

Law can sense Chopper looking at him from the ground while he writes on Luffy's back of the hand and it's disconcerting.

Luffy stares at the blue numbers on his hand for a while. "I still haven't memorized my new number, I thought I did but I keep messing up the order, " Luffy says then, refusing the pen Law was handing, seeming a bit shy.

Law remembers Nami telling him one day that Luffy's phone was destroyed during the accident and they had a problem with keeping the same number on the new one, so they just gave up altogether and asked for a new one. He can't really blame Luffy for not having enough patience to memorize the new number.

"Then call if you need me," Law says and shoves his new pen and useless phone in his pocket. "Now let's get you home."

They do the rest of the walk under a somewhat tolerable silence. This time though, when they get to Luffy's building's door, he asks what Law will do for the rest of the afternoon.

"Library," Law responds. Jean stayed with most of his notes the other day, he's getting them back now. "I'm meeting a friend there to exchange notes."

"See you tomorrow then," Luffy says, seeming pleased, and Law does a small wave before he goes inside his building and closes the door behind him, leaving Law's sweaty self all by himself.

Law wants a shower, so desperately it hurts. He wants to get rid of the layers of sweat covering him under his clothes and wants to get rid of the smell he knows he has but his nose can't quite catch anymore, but he can't, he needs the notes so he can start studying properly when he still has time and enough energy to do so. He has neglected his studies already for too damn long, and he knows this isn't going to be his last visit to Luffy, especially not now that the guy has his number. Only God knows how many time he's going to use it.

He gets on a bus and goes to the library. He stays there three hours because, apparently, he's great at explaining pathologies but doesn't have readable handwriting at times. He and Jean end up sharing a cab, Law getting out first.

The first thing he does when he gets home is put his phone charging but, when it takes too goddamn long to just switch back on, he heads for a well-deserved shower.

When he gets out, he's a bit disappointed to not see any missed calls from an unknown number, just from Nami.

.

.

.

On Saturday, he wakes up later than he wanted too. He ended up staying until late at night talking to Nami over the phone because he couldn't ignore her forever, even if she's annoyingly annoying. She gave him a lecture at first, doing a monolog for at least the first half of the phone call duration, but then she stopped talking altogether when Law started talking about Luffy.

Law didn't really tell her anything important though, or anything remotely interesting, because he's keeping it a secret still. But she seemed pleased to hear Luffy's has taken some fresh air on the face, which prevented a ton of a lot more questions.

During the night, Law didn't receive any more calls, or any texts that he was kind of hoping for. But Law didn't think about it much. Probably Luffy didn't call yesterday because he thought Law was still at the library with his phone without battery, even though Law did not plan to stay there until late, he still isn't desperate enough to stay at a library until midnight.

In the morning, Law realizes his apartment is too hot for him to be able to breathe properly and he has to open all the windows his apartment has to offer, which aren't really that many. When he opens the first one, the smell of the humidity in the air and the giant and whitish clouds in the part of the sky he can see tell him it's only a matter of time before it starts to rain.

His high school geography teacher would be proud of him, or maybe not, there's nothing that can impress that old and crazy ass woman after all, but, either way, she should be, because the first thing he remembers when he sees those clouds is her high pitched voice explaining the process of formation of the convecting precipitation. Fucking high temperatures make the fucking air masses fucking rise and cool and condense and form fucking thunderstorms. Or something like that.

That weather couldn't come at a more inconvenient time. It makes him sleepy and moody, and not at all focused like he needs to be since he has to study. Fuck those people that say the best weather to study is rain, fuck them, they don't know what they're talking about. Rain means sleep, and get under the covers and probably hot chocolate too, but since he can't do any of that, he will just stay with a headache mocking him for the rest of the day and the sleepiness that causes his eyes to feel heavy and his mouth to not stop opening with yawns.

When the clock on his phone marks two in the afternoon, Law realizes he has been already studying for five hours straight. He didn't have lunch, just a poor excuse for a snack, but he doesn't have enough appetite to go cook anything.

As he looks through his living room's windows, he notices that it still hasn't started to rain, which, by Law's calculations, should've been hours ago. That's why Law hates meteorology, there are just so many small and insignificant things that can change the weather in every single fucking aspect possible. Is just so unpredictable, at least for an average person like him that evaluate the weather through what he can see of the sky, which is basically just a rectangle if he looks through one of his windows.

Law feels tired and his head feels heavy. He misses caffeine and sleep and probably sugar too. He feels the sudden urge to go grab a cover and just seat on the couch and watch a stupid tv show that only people like Shachi would see, feels the sudden urge to call Shachi or Penguin, or even Jean to ask for company, but then he remembers they aren't available.

He suddenly feels what could be considered as lonely, alone inside of his dark and stuffy apartment and he doesn't like it.

He decides to go for a walk, only to change his mind right after. There are just so many places he can go, and only a few will protect him from the rain he knows will start falling anytime soon. He decides to call Shachi, only to then remember that the guy went with Penguin camping or whatever the hell it was and is probably still sleeping and hungover and not in the mood to put up with Law right now.

He decides to call Nami, only to then remember she's still working and won't even talk with him for more than a few seconds if the topic of the conversation doesn't somehow turn around Luffy. He decides to go make his own lunch, only to then see that his fridge is yet again basically empty because he forgot to go shopping and doesn't have enough creativity inside his system to improvise a healthy meal with the depressing amount and variety of ingredients he has available.

He decides to stay studying, using the remaining brain cells he has while they're still working. His brain will eventually forget about his problems once it's overloaded with information. But then his phone starts buzzing on top of his table, and Law tries to ignore it, he truly does, but his tentative doesn't last long.

He stares at the number flashing across his phone's screen, it's unknown, but Law knows it's Luffy. Is not like Law gives his phone number just like that to random people, so it can only be him.

And what should he do? Should he answer it right away, or wait a bit longer? Law just doesn't want to give the message that he spent all morning with his phone glued to his hand, hoping for Luffy to call him, because he didn't, he has had a productive morning and there's no way he could've written so much shit if his hand was occupied. He doesn't want to give the message that he may be a bit desperate for human interactions, or that his life is just a boring hell where he doesn't have anything to do, because he isn't desperate by any means and sure has tons of work to do.

He feels stupid when he realizes he's stressing out over a phone call he keeps refusing to answer because he's an idiot. Who the hell cares really. Law doesn't like when his brain stops making sense, he feels dumb. He doesn't know how people can survive while being dumb, is such a weird feeling when the brain doesn't do a proper job.

Law answers the call then, when he notices the amount of time his brain just zoomed out and before his phone stopped buzzing. He apologizes, giving some sort of bad excuse, saying that he left the phone in his bedroom, even though he didn't have to. Law isn't a liar, and yet he's been lying a lot lately. It's weird.

They end up talking a lot more than what Law was expecting. He expected a hello this is my number bye sort of call, not a hey let's talk for hours one. Law expected a sort call and ended up talking about things he didn't even know he knew about or knew he had an opinion about.

Law ended up neglecting his studies, again, putting all his papers aside, slightly organized and then headed towards the couch. He doesn't remember having grabbed a blanket or having positioned himself in a weird position on the couch to be able to face the window. He doesn't remember when the sky became darker due to the clouds, or when it started to get colder. He doesn't remember when his phone started to get hot next to his ear or when his headache curled back to the deeps of his brain and left him alone.

He doesn't remember the point of the conversation he's currently having with Luffy, but when he moves his phone away from his ear momentarily to check the time, he's only merely surprised to see it's already past four. If things went like Law had planned, which they never do so he doesn't know why he keeps trying to do mental check-lists or try to prepare and organize his life beforehand, Law would be preparing himself to leave his apartment after studying for seven hours straight to go see Luffy and to do something with him.

Instead, he ended up studying only five hours and did nothing more. But, at least, he doesn't have to go see Luffy, Law guesses that was the whole point of the guy calling him. If Law doesn't need to cross the city to Luffy's apartment and spend an hour outdoors with him, only to then cross the city again back to his own, it will save him a good amount of time, and money. And he has time to study during that time instead, before he has to call Shachi and Penguin to make sure they're still alive in the woods and weren't eaten by a bear.

"Law? You still there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Law says and sighs, he hates it when his brain starts to zoom out of reality and creates a barrier between in and the world. "Just thinking about other things. Sorry."

"You're always thinking about other things," Luffy teases and Law fights the urge to roll his eyes, Shachi's always complaining about that fact, he finds the subject a bit odd. It's not his fault that his brain is always stressed out.

Law finds it hard to concentrate on the conversation after that. His belly growls and he feels dizzy. Luffy must've felt his lack of interest, because the call ends not long after that. He feels stupid when he throws always his phone and it crashes against the floor, he should've paid attention, that's all he's good at. And yet you still failed, no wonder no one relies on you to talk about their problems.

He wished he had things to occupy his mind with other than his studies, he wished he had more friends just to, you know, make plans and leave his depressing apartment for a few hours. He wished he had proper food in the kitchen. He can't remember the last time he had a proper meal, and it was probably take out brought by Shachi or Penguin. Sometimes he also wished he had a job, to have something to occupy himself and earn money so he could buy proper food and proper clothes.

He wished so many things and yet he isn't able to accomplish any of them. The days pass by him and he barely notices, he hates when he doesn't have productive days, and they're are just getting more and more frequent. The only things that mark the passage of time are the callus on his ring finger, caused by too many hours writing and too much force applied on the pen the bags underneath his eyes due to all the nights he spends looking at the dark ceiling, completely awake, and the mess that gets added to the mess already inside his apartment, each day there's more dirty clothes on his bathroom's floor, more thrash he needs to take outside and less food.

He decides to clean things a bit. It always makes him feel a bit better, a bit more accomplished with himself, a bit more functional as a human being. He takes the trash out and changes the bed sheets that were cleaned only ages ago, organizes all the books laying around and cleans the dirty containers in the sink.

Once he's satisfied with his work, he's sweaty and goes to take a shower. He rubs his skin until it's redish, until it hurts when the hot water runs over it. He still feels weird, bored, beyond bored, and he hates it.

Luffy called and didn't invite him. He called and didn't ask if Law was coming today too. He called, so that means Law doesn't need to go to his apartment today, he already made his part.

Law feels like punching something, someone. He wants to get rid of his bad mood with one well-given punch, he wants to break something, see red, blood. So he punches his bathroom's wall, right on the pastel colored tiles that he abominates. And he punches them again and again, until he his knuckles are skinned and the pain doesn't let him close his first again for another punch.

He looks at himself in the mirror, still humid due to the hot water of the shower, drops dripping down to the lavatory. The towel around his waist has fallen, exposing his hard cock, arching for attention.

Law has been like things a few times in his life. Clueless about what he's doing, drifting in the world without really anything to do, any goal, and angry with everything and mostly at himself for that. He remembers when he once broke his hand, he was still in high school and the concrete wall he chose ended fucking up his fingers, he was just glad he decided to punch with his left hand that day.

He remembers the rage he felt, how he had to choose between the wall or someone's face. And he remembers the excruciating pain, how he felt the bones breaking against the wall, how he fucked up the skin until his hand was just a disfigured thing covered in blood. He isn't stupid to the point of repeating that, at least not so soon, but he wants it, so much.

He wants to get savage, to punch and kick and just let his force and animalistic side get over him. Law looks at his reflection and wants to break the mirror into pieces.

But he doesn't, because his consciousness is always there, disapproving everything he does. So he just steps back inside the shower and deals with his dick. It always happens, every time he loses a bit of control over his mind so does he lose control over his body. And he hates it, he hates losing control, he hates his primal instincts and appetites.

Law places his hand against the shaft and curls his fingers around it, getting a firm grip. The strokes begin slow and steady, all the way up and then all the way down, but, soon enough, he goes faster and faster until he's coming, hard. He watches as his cum disappears through the holes in the drain, along with the cold water.

I'm getting insane, Law thinks once he looks at himself in the mirror again, I need to leave this fucking apartment. His hair his mostly dry by now, and he just needs to pass the towel on his lower half before leaving the bathroom. He picks his phone from the floor on his way to his bedroom and puts it between his ear and his shoulder while searching on his drawer for some clean and slightly pleasant clothes.

"Yo, Law! What a surprise!" Penguin greets him, overly excited as always. "Listen Shachi's kind of occupied now, he's trying to make a fire for tonight's barbecue. I will be his lovely assistant, what can I do for ya?"

Law takes a deep breath. "Tell me you have meat and space in the tent for another person," Law says and receives a long pause in response, followed by a long laugh and a phrase that's not directed to him and that he can't understand, and suddenly Shachi's the one on the phone.

"Of course we have!" He screams and Law can only imagine that's because Penguin must be holding the phone against his ear. "But bring potato chips, we've run out of them."

Then the lovely assistant is back, telling Law the directions to get to the camping park.

Law puts some spare clothes inside the only sports bag he owns and then he's out. He just needs to leave the town and go a bit farther. Law decides to take the train to get to the periphery and, during the twenty minutes he has for it to arrive, he goes and buys the potato chips, eight large bags, because he knows Shachi can eat four alone. He brought every flavor available on the small convenience store just outside the train station, pepper, ketchup, spice, onion, cheese and paprika.

It takes an hour before he's able to leave the train. The damn thing was old and uncomfortable, the seats creaking every time the train made a turn. His train carriage was mostly empty, just an old lady sleeping with her head again the window in front of him, and a couple of teens sat at the very end, whispering excitedly and laughing every so often. He spends the whole time looking through the window, watching as the buildings changed from large and monumental, to high and fancy and then to blocks and blocks of buildings with the same color, the same architectural design and with an exaggeration in the number of small windows. He watched as the sky above him started to get darker and darker with angry looking clouds. Only then he remembers that it was supposed to start raining hours ago, and it didn't. He just hopes the rain does start while Shachi's in the barbecue, Law's hungry as hell.

He has to take a taxi then, and Law almost cries when he had to pay the taxi driver.

The park is, well, a camping park. Full of recreational vehicle and tents and shirtless men doing bonfires of drinking beer even though the temperature is not that inviting. There are dogs running around and music every time he passes by people of his age, most of them being already drunk, even though it's still day time.

He calls Shachi to guide him through the park. He smells the barbecue before he sees them, a spicy smell that makes his stomach growl and his mouth water. Both Shachi and Penguin look like wild men when he sees them, wearing shorts, dirty tank tops and nothing on their feet. They look happy.

Shachi made chicken, the most delicious chicken Law has ever tasted and he made so much of it they ended up sharing with the nearby people that stayed to eat and share their own food with them too. And, along with all the food, there was beer, so much beer, and bottles and bottles of vodka and tequila, and the dinner lasted for at least three hours, with lots of talking and joking around with people Law's sure won't ever see again in his life.

But it was good, Law felt good, surrounded by happy and excited people made him forget his soreness.

They were finishing the cleanup of all the mess when it finally started to rain, furiously. Law followed Penguin and Shachi all the way to their tent, trying to not get behind and lost them in the confusion that the park turned into, people running towards their respective tents, people trying to grab all their shit and put inside their tents, dogs barking, the dirt ground turning into slippery mud.

He climbed into the tent after Penguin and Shachi, the tree of them soaked to the bones, water dripping to the tent's floor. But they laughed, hard, at their misery and unlucky circumstances. Law doesn't know if it was due all the alcohol in their system or because of their silly appearances, maybe both.

Trying to get out of their soaked clothes wasn't as funny, it involved a lot of punching each other and contortionism to get rid of the lower clothes, especially from Law who was wearing jeans. They put the clothes outside the tent, on the soaked and muddy ground, and changed into new ones, repeating the process all over again.

They fell asleep with the lights of the lightning every so often and with the angry and loud sounds of thunders and Penguin's snores.


Feel free to leave a PM^^

Remember to enjoy yourself, have fun, set free the wildness within yourself whenever the occasion calls. Forget to try to impress or try to catch anyone's attention all the time.

Don't let anyone tell you your opinion doesn't matter, because it does. Don't let anyone tell you to shut up when you know you're right, don't stop fighting for what you believe or change what you are for anyone.