It's kind of weird when you see there is people who read a story but it gets almost no reviews… (And thank you to those who did leave one ^^)
Oh, well, I leave this here anyway.
Once again, thanks to Dearshul for her amazing work :D
Chapter 2: The victims
"Come with me." Kid said, standing in front of Law at the park.
"Where?" Law asked, making little snowmen using the snow that had fallen that morning.
"To my house. You'll freeze if you stay here."
"Won't your father get mad?"
Even though Kid didn't talk much about himself, he's told some things to Law; 'enough for the dark-haired man to know that his father was a violent drunkard and a junkie, and that Kid's mother had died of overdose years ago.
"He's just got his pension, he won't be aware of his surroundings for a few days." Kid assured, thinking disdainfully of how his father would most likely be sniffing his widower's pension right now, along with Kid's own orphan's pension.
"In that case…" Law crushed the small snowmen and stood up. "I think I'll accept your offer, Mr. Eustass."
A girl ran through the city's empty streets. It was a dark and rainy night, but that didn't matter; the only thing in her mind was to run as fast as her legs could carry her, no matter how soaked she was getting, that she'd lost her bag somewhere on the way or the bleeding wound in her leg. She had to get out of there.
She had been too careless to go out that night; although she knew that today was the weather during which the madman liked to go hunt, but she ran out of oil and didn't think that a walk to the corner shop would be dangerous.
She hadn't seen him coming, she didn't know that man, hadn't seen him before today and that's why she hadn't paid him any attention. He was just someone walking on the street. She hadn't even realized he was following her until she turned around the corner, entering the deserted street where her home was, and heard the first gunshot. The bullet had scratched her right knee and she, used as she was to firearms, had snapped out of the shock and sprang out running. She didn't try to enter her house, as she knew the man would have shot her down before she could even get the key in the lock, and that's why she tried to get to the base, hoping there would be someone who could help her.
A gunshot. Two. Almost in a row, and the young woman found herself on the ground before she could even notice the pain coming from her knees. Tears welled in her eyes, and she bit on her lower lip to stop them from falling. With the rain, she would bleed out in a matter of minutes, and she knew it.
"Who are you, you son of a bitch?!" She screamed. She knew nobody would dare to come out of their homes, since in this neighborhood people hid when they heard shoots and there would be no help, but, at least, she wanted to see her murderer's face. She wanted to know who he was, who had been chasing them for years. From which gang was that man.
She heard steps over the rain and a pair of shoes appeared before her eyes. With some difficulty, she lifted her head, and felt as if her heart had stopped before it should have. That was not the man from the street, no, but she knew him…
"You?! That's impossible!" She screamed, desperate. "It's impossible! How can you be here?!"
"I told you, remember?" He answered calmly, mockingly. Smirking.
And that smirk was the last thing the girl saw before darkness swallowed her, that voice the last thing she heard.
Portgas D. Ace was woken up by his phone, ringing noisily. He opened his eyes heavily and looked at the hour on the nightstand's clock before answering the call. 2:45.
"Yeah?"
"There's been another murder." Came Marco's voice from the other side of the line.
Ace felt suddenly awake.
"Where?" He asked, getting out of bed.
"In the third district, in an alley next to 'Franky's' pub."
"That's a horrible area." Ace muttered.
"I'll pick you up in ten minutes."
"Ok, I'll be waiting."
The place was already secured by police forces when they arrived, and full of people, the coroners, the agents who first got there and a group of curious civilians.
"We got the call half an hour ago; a couple that had left to 'have a bit of fresh air' found the body. The coroner says she's been there three or four hours. Of course, no one has heard or seen anything, even though the girl has three shots in her legs."
"Who is she?" Marco asked.
They reached the body and Ace felt his stomach churning uncomfortably. There, laying down on her stomach, was a girl of around twenty six or twenty seven years old, with her knees completely shattered, the rain that had fallen until a couple of hours ago mixed with her blood in a pinkish pool around her. Her eyes were open in a terrified expression, her mouth hanging as if she had been talking just before her death, and her hair, long and dyed a strange tone of soft green, covered her to her waist.
"Harpy Monet." The agent identified her. "She was one of the higher ups in Donquixote Doflamingo's chain of command."
"He's gone for someone important this time." Marco muttered, crouching down next to her. "Have you found the bullets?"
"Just two. We're looking for the third."
"Perhaps the first shot is the one that only scratched her." Ace observed, trying to control his stomach to crouch next to Marco.
"Probably, he's done that before. I doubt it's a coincidence."
"With whom?" Ace asked, not taking his eyes off the girl's scared expression.
"Caesar Clown, a scientist who fabricated most of the drugs Doflamingo and his men sell, and Bellamy the Hyena, a petty thug without much relevance in the group."
"Do you think he knows them?"
"Perhaps. What is clear is that he's studied them well. The girl lived a couple of streets away from here."
"You can't pass, Sir!" They heard an agent yell.
Marco sighed and stood up.
"And the show begins." Ace heard the blonde say to himself, and decided to stand up as well.
Ignoring the agent and passing the security cord were two men whose faces Ace had memorized from the first moment. Donquixote Doflamingo and his second in command, Vergo, had just arrived in all the extravagance for which the first was known.
Marco walked to them and blocked their advance, impassible even though half the police agents were inconspicuously backing away from them and the whole group of civilians was leaving in an impressive speed.
"You can't be here, Doflamingo." Marco said.
Said man looked over the detective's shoulder and his expression, grim to begin with, darkened even more.
"Monet…"
Ace thought he heard real sadness in his voice.
"Have you discovered anything?" Doflamingo asked, immediately recovering.
"We've just started. And you know I wouldn't tell you even if we had something."
A huge and deranged smile stretched the lips of the man dressed in pink and bright patterns.
"Of course, detective, I didn't mean anything like that. You know, you just need to ask if I can help you with anything…"
"I'll keep it in mind." Marco answered dryly.
After directing another look to the girl's corpse, the two men left.
"Donquixote Doflamingo just offered you help?" Ace asked, incredulous.
"He's been doing that for years, since he realized he wouldn't be able to find the murderer on his own."
Ace whistled.
"He's got to be desperate."
"He has reasons to be: almost everyone in his organization is dead and it's been two years since anybody dared to enter it, but there's still no clue about the culprit."
That morning Kid woke up without the annoying beeping of his alarm clock, or the sun falling over his face like so many other times. He loved weekends, especially weekend days that dawned cloudy.
Kid opened his eyes and found himself face to face with a known pair of gray eyes that looked at him from mere millimeters of distance. Seeing the brightness behind the man, Kid guessed there was sun that morning, but his companion was blocking it.
"Morning." Kid greeted, his voice hoarse.
"Good morning." Answered Law, bending down to kiss him on the lips. "Did you sleep well?" The man asked, leaving a trail of kisses on Kid's cheek and reaching his earlobe, holding it between his lips.
"Yeah, great." Kid wound his fingers in Law's hair and pulled, separating them. "Quite."
"Why? You don't have to work today." Law complained, sliding a hand down Kid's chest, aiming for his crotch. Kid stopped it with one of his hands.
"I've told you a thousand times I'm not going to fuck with you, it'd be too fucking weird."
Law made a face that resembled suspiciously a pout.
"We can kiss but we can't fuck?"
"Exactly."
"What about a blowjob?"
"No."
"Handjob?"
"No."
"You're no fun, Mr. Eustass."
"Get off, I'm hungry." Kid growled, shoving Law off of him and standing up with some difficulty.
"You're hard."
"Fuck you, Trafalgar."
"I'm trying." Said the man, giving him a huge grin.
"Oh, fuck off!" Kid yelled, entering the bathroom and slamming the door closed.
To be continued
Now I really should go to sleep, it's almost 4 a.m. here.
If you feel like it, I'd love a review.