Sequel to Saving A Child(Can be read separately)
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
Story Title: Trafalgar D. Luffy
Warnings: Things get weird.
Summary: Luffy's found happiness with a new family. Unwanted events continue to occur, and he begins to wonder just how long this happiness will last.
Word Count: 2,487

Luffy finds himself waiting patiently at the entrance of the preschool Law was supposed to pick him up at. Even though he trusted the man, he also had reasons to believe that the man had forgotten him. It wouldn't be the first time he was forgotten. Like the last family, they loved him for a couple of days before almost completely forgetting him. He hated to think it, but he hoped to god that Law hadn't forgotten him.

The woman watching him assures that he hasn't been forgotten as she plays with a phone idly in her hands.

Law was ten minutes late.

Luffy could only hope that nothing had happened to his brother.

The worry disappears and was proven unnecessary as the doors open and Law appears. He's slightly out of breath, there's a small layer of sweat dripping from his forehead, and he hunches over as if trying to catch his breath. Once he's finally able to speak again, the first word that comes out of his mouth is, 'Sorry'. It's an apology that Luffy doesn't care for it. He's just glad Law's okay, and that Law remembered him. He hadn't been that late after all, so what was there to worry about?

For the first time in a long time, Luffy intertwines his fingers with Law and follows the man home. However, they turn a different direction and go on a path away from home instead of towards it. Luffy frowns as they come across a street. It's small and there's not much traffic, but Luffy stops in his tracks and refuses to move.

His eyes are widened and he feels sick at the sight of the cars moving down the street at dangerous paces. Normally he'd be okay with cars. He can ride in them, he can look at them when they're running; but on the street, they were terrifying. "Hold onto my hand, we're crossing." Law says, tightening his hold on Luffy's hand and taking a step onto the road once it was safe. However, Luffy continues to stand, staring at the street with an absolutely terrified expression on his face.

If Law was anyone else at this moment, Luffy would have stepped backwards, let go of his hand, and ran away all at the same time. Because Law was Law, he stays and forces his legs forwards. His eyes dart from one area to another, and he feels nervousness in his chest. He swallows dryly and tightens his grip on Law's hand. Despite all of these reassuring actions, he freezes again when he reaches the middle of the street. Law looks down at him with an absolutely confused expression drawn onto his face.

"Luffy are you okay?" He asks, and he's rewarded with watering eyes and a quivering lip.

"It's scary!" The small child cries, and it's at this moment that Luffy takes the true appearance of a child. "I don't wanna cross, I don't wanna cross! Don't make me go! I'm scared, it's scary! We're gonna die, we're going to fucking die!" A car appears around the corner, and when Luffy becomes stiff once again, Law picks him up and carries him across the street. Law's not surprised when Luffy tightens his grip around his waist and buries his head.

This was obviously far more than just being afraid of crossing the street. Law wanted to find out why Luffy was so terrified of the street, and then later he'd worry about the swear word. 'Fucking'. What a horrible word for a child to know. It's probably the Gol. family that taught it to him. He clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Law's not going to leave?" Luffy asks as he tightens his grip on Law's shirt. Luffy's still shaking from his breakdown. He looks absolutely petrified with widen eyes that were focused on the street behind them, pale skin, and a quivering lip.

"See?" Law forces his voice out. "It's safe."

Luffy doesn't reply, paying no attention to the world as he hides himself in Law's shirt. For the next thirty minutes, Law walks with a child in his arms. His shirt is soaked from tears, but that's the least of his worries right now.

He feels strangely happy that Luffy is able to rely on him like this.

oOo

Law holds a still shaking Luffy in his arms as he stares at the figure in his doorway. Tiredly, Luffy pivots to catch sight of the man who blocked the doorway; he was huge, in the small child's opinion. He towered over even Law himself, and he was bulky with defined muscle. The young child avoids eyes contact and hides his face for the second time that day. "Dude, I know it's been a while, but did you really have a kid? He looks like, five." The tall man asks nonchalantly as he stares at the human bundled up into Law's arms.

"He's my little brother." Law replies with a heated glare, his eyes narrow. "What are you doing here, anyway?" He sighs as he pushes past the intruder and unlocks the door, allowing the man to follow him and close the door behind them.

"Take a guess."

Law pauses for a moment, but no longer. It doesn't take very long for him to realize what kind of situation would have to be approaching for Eustass Kidd to show up. "Da-" He cuts himself off, remembering that there was indeed, a child in his arms. He would prefer to avoid Luffy repeating anything that could be deemed as a swear word under his care.

"Okay, okay." He grabs his suddenly throbbing head with a free hand. "I've got something else to deal with, so I'm going upstairs." The red haired man nods towards him and watches as Law tracks upstairs with a child whose name he didn't know.

"Are you okay, Luffy?" Law asks at the top of the stairs. As a reply, the little boy wriggles out of Law's grip and bobs his head up and down. His tiny hands furiously wipe away the tears, and soon acts as if he hadn't been crying in the first place. His eyes stare straight ahead and he blinks dully while standing to his feet.

"I'm fine." Luffy states, his voice monotonous and plain. He turns to the direction of his room."I'm fine." He repeats.

The door closes behind him, and Law can only blink as he watches.

He's never had to deal with such a situation before.

Law massages his temples as he sits at the kitchen table, the constant throbbing just wouldn't go away, no matter how much he willed it. "So. My older brother's coming to visit?" He runs his hands through his hair. "Fucking wonderful." He whispers.

"Isn't it?" Kidd asks jokingly as he places a cup of tea in front of his friend. "He freaks the hell outta me."

"Try growing up with him."

"Yeah," A short laugh. "Anyway, what's the deal with the kid? I don't remember you having a little brother before."

"'The kid's' name is Luffy. I adopted him. He hasn't been living with me for long, but I thought he was finally adjusting, until this new trauma came up. He just freaked out when when we crossing the street. Now he's pretty much shutting me out and... I just don't know what to do."

"I wouldn't know how to help." Kidd replies as he places a reassuring hand on his friend's back, "I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, so this seems like something you'd be better at. Just talk to him, Law. Don't let the same thing that happened with you and your brother again."

Law tenses, but he doesn't reply.

An idea arises in his head.

"I'm going out for a little while."

"Where'd Law go?" A certain raven haired child asks as he trudges down the steps, his hands grip tightly onto the sides of his shirt and his teeth bite down on his bottom lip. It's obvious that he's upset. "Is he studying? I can't... I can't find him."

"Oh, he left." Kidd says without looking up from his phone, a concentrated frown on his face as he stares down at the glowing blue screen. Luffy blinks once as he process the information, his tiny fists balling up even tighter than they were as he stares at the stranger in his house.

"Where did he go?"

Kidd shrugs his shoulders.

Luffy silently backs away from him, eyes widened in surprise at the very thought of Law leaving him. Leaving him because he was too annoying and forgetting about him because he just wasn't important enough to remember. He takes a few steps backward before he spins on his heels and heads for the door, it's far easier for him to leave than is should be. However, it's even easier for him to be stopped at the door by the very person who had supposedly left him behind.

"Where are you going?" He questions as he stares down at the child, a frown on his face as analyzes him carefully. "Were you going to look for me?"

"The... The weird man in the kitchen said you left!" Luffy stutters, releasing his own shirt in favor of taking hold of Law's. "I'm sorry that I didn't cross the road with you. It's scary! Last time... Last time I crossed there... there was blood and screaming and..." He cuts himself off, and buries his head into Law's shirt.

"Tell me, Luffy-ya."

Flashback

A child no older than five wobbles down the street behind his adoptive family; Ace, Rouge, and Roger were quite a few steps ahead of him. It was hard for his tiny, still developing limbs to follow such big people, and he was getting tired from trying to keep up with them. He won't cry out or call for them, he's tried that before and he knows that it clearly doesn't work. So he forces his legs forward just as he turns around the corner and loses everyone completely.

He stops walking.

He doesn't really recognize the street signs, and the buildings he passed were unrecognizable too. He stands dumbfounded at a street corner as he wonders whether or not he had been abandoned, left behind on purpose because he wasn't wanted. Feeling lost, he barely notices the tears streaming down his face. His lip trembles and his fists curl up into balls as he tries to figure out what he was supposed to do.

A small smile lights up his face when he catches sight of his family crossing the street.

Luffy's birth parents never taught him how to cross the street. They lived in an area that hadn't needed it, and he was too young to be crossing the street at that time in the first place. His adoptive family hadn't taught him in the first place, as they spent most of their time ignoring him or pretending he didn't exist. The idea of teaching him to cross the street had probably never crossed their mind in the first place.

So basically, Luffy doesn't know how to cross the street. He doesn't know to look both ways before crossing and to make sure that there were no cars coming. So he runs blindly towards the family who hadn't yet noticed he wasn't with them anymore, he stops dead in his tracks with a truck appears a couple of feet away from him. The headlights blare, and Luffy can only stare dumbly, stricken with fear. He can't move.

It's literally a second later that he's thrown harshly to the side, his body hits the ground. His eyes are still wide at the sight of the blood that seemed to cover everything; it came from the many scrapes he had gained from briefly skidding against the gravel, and from the man who had thrown him out of the way. His eyes widen, and despite how hard he tries to stand, he keeps falling to his knees helplessly. He allows his already scraped knees to rub against the ground as crawls towards the fallen man. "M...Mister... Mister are you okay?!"

"Dahahaha!" The man laughs loudly, a smile on his face. It's as if he were completely oblivious to his condition. The sight of the truck driver dialing an ambulance goes unnoticed. "Of course I am!" He briefly attempts to stand to his feet, only to fall once again when an overwhelming pain takes over the left side of his body. He can't feel anything from there. His face doesn't show even a glimpse of pain, other than a brief wince when he tries to move. "Didn't your parents tell you to never run in front of cars? You could have died there!"

"T...They died! N-No on told me!"

Forcing his body to move even though it was an obviously bad idea, he removes the straw hat from his head and places it on Luffy's. He watches with a smile as Luffy lifts the top of it up so it doesn't cover his eyes. "Keep it, it's yours! It's my treasure, so protect it okay?" Luffy nods with tears and snot dripping down his face; the rushing of the medics and the people surrounding them go unnoticed to Luffy.

"The name's Shanks, by the way!"

"'M... 'M Luffy!" He watches as the man's eyes close, right before he's lifted onto a stretcher and quickly taken away. The young boy stands; unsure of whether he should be happy that he made a new friend or sad that he got someone injured. He turns away from the disappearing scene, and heads towards the direction his family had disappeared towards. Perhaps he should be happy and sad.

One day, Luffy hopes to see Shanks again.

His hero.

End.

A/N: Consolidated the rest of chapter three with chapter 4.

Leave a review! Let me know what you think :)

~Crimsy