"Cora-san! Your tea's ready!" The giggling eight-year old trotted up to him, holding out a tray. "It's hot," she reminded. Regardless, the elite officer fell backwards, spraying steaming tea like a fountain. "Pff-haha! He burned his tongue!" Baby 5 danced in circles around Corazon, chanting the mistake.
Whack!
The little girl flew across the room with a short scream. Unlike other children her age, she sat up without a word and smiled, unfazed by the blond's slap. Corazon returned to his chair, wishing that she would stop giving him such an innocent grin. It reminded him that she had grown accustomed to his brutal punishments. It reminded him that the sting of his palm no longer bothered him. 'Keep it together,' he calmed himself, 'It's for their own good.' If he weren't worried about remaining silent, he would have laughed at how his thoughts sounded like the Vice Admiral's.
"Cora-san!" Baby 5 chirped.
He tilted his head, indicating he was listening. Baby 5 stood in front of the window, staring down into the metal heaps of the scrapyard. "Law's heading up this way. Should I go tell the Young Master?" Light metallic taps echoed from the approaching footsteps. "He still looks pissed off."
'When is he not?' Corazon mused. It came as no surprise, seeing as how the past three days the uninvited guest had been consistently thrown out the window and back into the broken beams and pipes below the waste plant. Gladius had gotten so annoyed with the sound of glass shattering that the remaining windows were being kept propped open for the officer's convenience.
Pushing the creaking door open, Law glanced around, presumably searching for the captain's flamboyant pink coat. Silver orbs narrowed into a menacing glare once he found black feathers instead. "Corazon…" he growled. Everything about him was painfully nostalgic to the man. The anger and lack of fear that dominated the boy's attitude brought flashes of vengeful screams and smoking guns to Corazon's mind. Part of him wanted to plead with Law to start anew, to not go down the road of misery and destruction that Doflamingo had chosen to create, but he knew his words would mean nothing. The tragedy of White Town had scarred the ten-year old beyond the point of sanity and he would only be stopped by the impending death that fate chose to give him.
The soft fur of Law's hat flattened under Corazon's fingers and he dragged the boy out the door by his head. At the railing, the agent paused a moment from his wind-up to observe his victim. A portion of a white patch was visible across Law's abdomen, nearly blending in with his sickly pale skin. Who would have thought such a small detail would be the cause of so much suffering in a child's life.
Law's cheeks flushed under the scrutiny and placed a hand over the mark to hide it from view. "You're afraid too, aren't you?" he spat.
The boy landed on the floor with a soft thud, blinking up at Corazon warily. This was the first time he hadn't been tossed aside by the executive. Corazon, instead, knelt in front of him, bringing himself near Law's height. He tugged at the raggedy shirt that covered the majority of the lead blotch. The poison was creeping toward Law's waist and beginning to ascend up to his ribs. "What do you think you're- UGH!" Before Law's question could be answered, a tight fist knocked against his discolored side and sent him flying back into the room, knocking him into the table. "What the hell was that about?" he yelled.
"Hey! Hey! Law, did Corazon beat you again?" Trebol eased down from his perch on the outside wall. "He's been clobbering you for the past few days, hasn't he? Hey! Don't you want to leave?" The sticky man detached himself and leaned in close to Corazon. "Hey! Hey! Corazon's being even rougher on you than he usually is with Baby 5 and Buffalo!"
Corazon's nose wrinkled in disgust. Of all three remaining officers, Trebol was the worst to handle. Diamante's insults were easy to tune out, especially with his Devil Fruit ability, and Pica hardly spoke, making him the most tolerable, but Trebol's disregard for personal space made it challenging to ignore him. The goo that oozed off his jacket didn't smell that appealing either. Digging into his back pocket, the blond grabbed his notepad and pen, quickly scribbling something down. "Where's Doffy?" the paper read.
"Doffy's back at the ship! He wanted to talk to you about your recent mission!"
Nodding, Corazon stood and made his way down the twisting staircase. From behind him, he could hear Law shouting the same thing he'd been saying since he met the man. "Don't think I've given up Corazon! I'll get back at you soon!"
"Are you stupid? Just because you're a kid, doesn't mean you can get away with whatever you want!"
"Hey! Hey! Let him get mad! It'll only make him quit sooner!"
Corazon pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. His fingers snapped and finally silenced the noisy bickering with a soundproof bubble. The ship was docked a little ways East of the waste plant and would provide him a nice, peaceful walk to soothe him. 'How Doffy stands this will always amaze me.'
(A.N. This one's a bit shorter than my previous entries, but I felt adding more would only drag on the story and make it dull. Plus, I'm still so overwhelmed with the new episode that it's hard to focus on anything but the White Town tragedy!)