Hello lovely people of the internet! (:

I know this took me a while to write, but I've been very busy lately ;_; I also hit writer's block and had some troubles writing because of that. But I'd still like to thank you for your wonderful patience. You all deserve cookies and hugs~ :)

Waaaah! I can't believe that I have over 50 followers (; v ;) 53 kind souls reading my weird fic~ *virtually hugs each one of you*

And now to the kind reviews I received:

viv-heart: Lawsy is so cute isn't he?! I wanna hug himmm~ And we share many headcanons I've noticed...xD Kekekeke... And I do ship SmoLaw... You'll notice that in this chappie. Omg I'm so mean towards poor Lawsy ;A; And Frobin is always nice, ne? ;3 Kiddo is naturally playing basket! Because I love basket! xD *selfish reasons are the best reasons* Awww thanks for liking the chappieee~ :'3

LaraLuvKakashi: This chappie will have a little LESS KidLaw than normally, but there will be some, I promise ;) And I'm sorry but you'll have to wait a looooong time before any more hints regarding Lawsy's past :3 And yes, there is a lil' SmoLaw, and yes there is some more in this chapter. :') Thanks for taking your time to review!

Mia: And I super love you for loving the story! :'D And here's another chappie lovely!

suheo1601: Good that I made you laugh! :) And tired-Law is always adorable x3 Sorry, but it'll take a while until you'll get to know more abut Law's background ;) AAAH, no don't feel bad for your English! It's good! :) And thanks so much for reviewing! x)

gaarablack: WAH! Thanks so much for reviewing for each chapter! That was so sweet! And thanks so so much for liking the story! Here's a bit more! ;3

3D waffle: Aaa, I love your username. ( - v - ) I really want waffles now. And thank you for reviewing for each chapter, seriously, that means a lot to me. :) And thanks so much for liking the story, hopefully you'll keep reading :3

-KittieKat: Waah! Thanks for liking the storyyyy~ *hugs you* Here's an update, I'm sorry that it took a while :')

Hotaru Vie Jaegerjaquez: I'm glad to hear that it's interesting :3 You'll have to wait for an explanation for Law ending up in that school though... o_O Here's an update lovely! Thanks for the review! :)

This chappie will introduce the ASL-brothers some more (mostly Ace tho') and then it'll also have some KidLaw later on. And potential SmoLaw. *cough**cough*

Well, I hope you will enjoy it nevertheless! :) Stay awesome! ;)

~Enjoy~

Ace slumped down on his bed in the dorm room. A heavy sigh filled with tiredness picked up during the day went through his lips as he made himself comfortable. He lay there a while, enjoying the silence and the repose, feeling way too content about the fact that he was alone. He had ended class earlier than Luffy and Sabo – simply because Luffy was younger and therefore had another timetable and Sabo had signed up for some kind of odd music class. That was the exact reason why he loved Thursdays. If Thursday was a person, no matter how ugly, pimply, disgusting and slimy that person would be, Ace would still kiss him or her.

Don't get Ace wrong, he loved his brothers – even though he sometimes wanted to grill them alive – he did love them. And always would perhaps. But some days, like this day for example, loneliness was the best for him. Ace was the kind of person who could be both very social and very asocial at the same time. He needed a certain amount of complete privacy in order maintain his sanity –or the kind of sanity a pyromaniac person has. And this time of privacy included absolute silence, a sketchpad and a pencil. If anything else was to appear during his time of privacy, his balance between sociality and asociality would be rubbed and he would go insane. Or that was what he believed. So far he had only gotten very irritated whenever someone had ruined his privacy.

Nevertheless, Ace took out his sketchpad and his pencil from the nightstand next to his bed. The dorm room he stayed at was larger than normal dorm rooms, as it was designed for three students. There were some dorm rooms like this in the school, simply because the headmaster of the school thought it was a good idea to put different kinds of insane people in one room in order to teach them to get along with different kinds of psychos. Practically it had affected the students pretty indifferently – the ones who didn't get along still didn't get along even if they shared a room together. A fine example of this was Trafalgar Law and that new redheaded dude. So far Ace had only seen them argue in the corridors – Trafalgar being ever the teasing, little shit he was and Eustass Kidd being way too easily provoked by Trafalgar's teasing.

Ace slowly drew an arch of some kind, wondering what it would develop into this time. Sometimes he just drew without anything on his mind, like a dreamer wandering around in the mountains aimlessly. It was always equally entertaining to see what his hand came up with while his mind was occupying itself with completely other thoughts. Sometimes it could be fantastic drawings – accurate details, neat shadowing and fanciful landscapes – other times it was nothing special but normal sketches with dull details and characters.

While drawing, Ace thought back at the school day. It had started off as a pretty regular Thursday, Sabo shrugging him awake and Luffy hysterically running around, searching for his school uniform. Every morning started like this, actually. Luffy managed to lose his school uniform every single afternoon; when class ended the students were allowed to dress like they pleased and since Luffy detested the school uniform, the first thing he did when coming to the dorm room was to undress himself stark naked. That was why Luffy often forgot where he had placed it the next morning. It was a too long period between the afternoon and the morning for his goldfish-like memory to handle. Why Luffy had to be as dramatic as undressing himself stark naked was something Ace had never understood, but at least Luffy dressed himself afterwards too.

Regardless, his morning had been pretty average, with Sabo two centimeters from his face when waking up. Honestly though, if it wasn't for Sabo he would perhaps skip school completely. Sabo wasn't a very ambitious student, but he at least made sure that both Ace and Luffy attended to school. In many ways Sabo was like the oldest, responsible brother. But like any other person, Sabo also had a bad side, namely his clumsiness. He dropped things all the time, often forgot to put his pants on and fell in the stairs at least five times a week. He was very messy and forgot to take care of himself a lot. Not once had he remembered to take care of Ace instead of taking care of himself.

Well, after waking up, taking a shower and finishing all of those other morning procedures, Ace had been ready for school. Almost at least. Suddenly narcolepsy had kicked in and he had almost missed breakfast because of this. Once again Sabo had made sure to look after him by smuggling some breakfast from the canteen to their dorm room. Luffy, in other hand, had only gone and eaten himself –Luffy never skipped a meal after all.

In the end Sabo had dragged Ace to class. They had barely made it, Marco had stepped into the classroom the very same second they had. In other words, they had once again been blessed with unique luck. Yes, one could call these three brothers lucky. Always when things looked the grimmest and darkest, luck would be served right before their eyes, and they'd be saved. It was slightly ironic, considering that they weren't the most guiltless citizens on the planet. But then again, good things should happen to bad people, and bad things to good people, right? Otherwise the world wouldn't be unfair, and the world always has to be unfair – that's what makes it so interesting anyway.

So, anyway, they had made it to class. Biology class, to be more specific. Biology class which was held by Marco, Ace's favorite teacher. So it had been a pretty calm morning, ignoring the chaos back at the dorm room. Luffy had sped off to his own class, which might have been P.E., but Ace wasn't completely sure. Not that he really cared about Luffy's timetable. His little brother did what he did, it wasn't Ace's business.

Marco had talked a long time during the class, while Ace had tried to stay awake. Ace really liked Marco both as a person and as a teacher; they would often go to the wall of the school that faced the parking lot to smoke together. There they would talk about random things – everything from historical trains to chili soup with shrimps. It was known that Marco and Ace were friends, but no one found it that odd. Or perhaps someone did, but no one made a huge deal about it. That was one of the best things with the school; the students were all so strange that they didn't find anything strange. Someone who walked weirdly? Okay, as long as the person wasn't a douchebag. Someone whose skin was oddly red all of the time? Yea, whatever, as long as the person was cool. Someone who was blind? Well, a good excuse to use sunglasses indoors. This was pretty much their attitude towards anything. Poor or disabled – they didn't care, as long as you were nice towards them, they would be nice towards you.

Unfortunately the students tended to hate rich and smart people, mostly because these kinds of people usually looked down on them. The rich found them dirty and disgusting, the smart found them dumb and useless. It was a good thing that people like Sabo or Trafalgar attended to the school – Sabo was originally a rich noble, but acted nothing like it. It was a known fact that he was rich, but the students had learnt that Sabo wasn't like their stereotypical aspect on rich people. The same applied with Trafalgar, who was anything but dumb. Of course, he sometimes called people idiots and hit them on the head with a book, but he would be really kind as well. When it came to the crunch, all Trafalgar really cared for was one's personality, not one's intelligence.

It was a pity though, that Sabo was so ashamed of his nobility. He had detested his biological parents so deeply that he had run away from home. That was practically how he had learnt to know both Luffy and Ace.

Back then, Ace had been living on the streets. Ace had lived there ever since a small child, when his father had been sent to prison. His father, Gol D. Roger, was usually known as a cheerful, kind man. But people also knew him as ruthless and sadistic. This was because he had suffered from schizophrenia. Ace's mother, in other hand, had died giving birth to him and Ace had never been registered into the social system because of his father. It was when he turned 15, Sabo arranged passport, citizenship and everything else for Ace. It had required a statement from his father in prison but it had been worth it.

One doesn't understand how it is to live on the streets if one hasn't experienced it. Ace had been forced to learn to survive on his own at the age of seven. He had fled from his house, scared of the police force, scared of the social workers but mostly scared of the orphanage. He had done this immediately when he had seen policemen entering the house through the window of his room. Swiftly out through the backdoor, quickly over the fence surrounding the garden and sneakily far away from the house. It hadn't taken long before he had been lost. He had known, the exact moment when he had spotted the policemen that the day had come. The day when his father would be arrested for all of the murders he had committed while being like that.

Cardboard boxes had served as houses, thrown away food had served as dinners and old rags had served as clothes. Quickly dumps had become Ace's kingdoms. There were other homeless people as well, but Ace had found a dump that soon had become his alone. It was an unknown place to most, but he had learnt to know about it and he had been proud. Very proud.

Miraculously Ace had lived there for three years, hungry, tired and dirty, but still somewhat alive. He had spoken with other homeless people that occasionally had dropped by, had stolen food from different kinds of stores and had learnt to lie. It was in this age Ace had learnt most of his tricks. The small tricks for stealing, that is. He had been forced to steal to live. There was no rule simpler than that.

But it was also in this age Ace had learnt to hate himself. He had heard people whisper about his father, he had heard the news, he had known how they would have reacted if they would have been aware of his origin. Each time he had seen his reflection somewhere, he thought he had slowly started to resemble a monster more and more. He thought, that by stealing he'd achieve something that'd hide the monster, but the more he stole, the more wealth he got, the more the monster appeared. He was lonely. A nameless creature sitting in the lane, faceless for common citizens, anonymous for the society.

Then, one day, a blond boy in fancy clothes had entered his kingdom. Despite the fancy clothes, the boy had looked quite dirty and tired – but mostly lost. Don't misunderstand, not lost in the way we usually assume. No, his eyes had been flickering with another kind of anxiety. He had been thirsty for answers. He had lost himself in his own life.

Ace had by then learnt to remain very skeptic towards everything and anything – living on the streets implied no trust in anyone, even less in himself. Anyone could betray anyone. It was a world without any proper rules or laws. No morals, no ethics. It could be called a free man's world, it could be called pure hell. It all depended on how you viewed life after all.

Well, at the beginning, Ace had avoided the blond prick and vice versa. They had sat far apart from each other, occasionally throwing small, pitiful glances at each other. It had remained this for a few days, until the blond prick had come and asked about any possible shelter, pointing up at the sky, remarking that dark clouds were rolling in. And so, Ace and Sabo had shared a cardboard box house together for the first time.

That time, they had shared their stories with one another. Ace, the son of a notorious criminal, a boy who lived in the shame of the world, a genuine black elephant. Sabo, the son of nobles who hated him and were ashamed of him, a boy who detested the rich suburbs, desperately objecting the humongous gorge forming between the social classes. They could both be called black elephants, just from different aspects.

Ace had been an obvious black elephant, anyone who had bypassed him could easily tell that he was a poor, dirty boy. Even if he wouldn't have been poor, he would have still been a black elephant because of his father. Sabo, in other hand, was a black elephant on another level. He had acted politely, had in the beginning looked somewhat fresh and it had been obvious that he wasn't poor. But in the truth lay the facts that he had left his parents because of own ideals at an age of seven, which had been amazingly stupid. Yet he had reasons more than that. His parents cared more about wealth than they cared about their son. When Sabo had become troublesome for the family, they had simply adopted a new, but mostly better, son.

In contrast to Ace, Sabo had strong morals. He had never stolen anything and hadn't been planning on doing so either. However, soon he learnt that a life without stealing would be impossible. So he disguised himself – people would have recognized him otherwise and he felt less like himself while being disguised. And that was how Sabo required one of his most distinguishing skills, namely his skills with disguises.

Ace learnt the wonderful tricks about lying and the wiles behind stealing. Sabo, in contrary, was the master of melting into any kind of situation. Together they had formed a perfect duo, gaining money and clothes, food and toys. Yet, it hadn't been enough for escaping the streets. But, it had been enough to make them one of the wealthier people on the streets.

Spending the years together, Ace and Sabo had developed a special bond. Neither of them had particularly trusted anyone in their lives before, both had been betrayed and lied to. So when they gained each other's trusts, it was something they both enjoyed, feasted on – simply never getting enough of the sentiment of certainty and safety from each other's supporting backs. They learnt to trust each other, and love each other on a friendly level. Soon they had become each other's backbones, bringing out the strengths of each other.

That was why, when a third individual appeared into their so-called kingdom, the balance was rubbed. Sabo had grown to be kind to strangers, finding it easier to adapt to the new situation. Ace, in other hand, was hostile, feeling threatened of each small change, not liking newbies and detesting younger children than him – mostly because he didn't know how to deal with the situation.

So when they one morning had woken up finding a younger boy sleeping underneath a gooey, old coat, Ace had freaked out. He had literally tried to throw out the boy of their kingdom, but Sabo had stopped him, feeling pity and sorrow for the small and obviously underweight boy. The first three months Ace had spent hating Luffy, but he had quickly learnt that the nose-picking, oblivious, obnoxious idiot wasn't as bad as he thought. In fact, they discovered that Luffy was pretty useful, despite his striking dumbness and idiotic appearance. He was uniquely flexible and could fit anywhere anytime. He became the master at sneaking into buildings through stuffy holes or claustrophobia-inducing air conditioners. And so Luffy also stumbled into the world of theft and criminality, becoming the third king of their kingdom – though Ace deep inside always thought himself as the only king.

The three of them became like each other's brothers, sharing the throne of their kingdom that they lamely had named ASL after their own names. Their lives had mostly consisted of regular thieving, gaining themselves a reputation as skilled thieves and heartless children. Never did they care about these meaningless reputations. Instead they cared about surviving and about getting along. Many years Ace and Luffy did nothing but argue, and Luffy clung like glue to Sabo because he was gentler and kinder than Ace who was hard-boiled, angry and hateful. Once Sabo told Luffy that Ace acted like this since he felt such great hatred towards himself. Still to this day, Ace detested himself, seeing the son of a monster when looking into the mirror.

At the age of fifteen, Sabo's parents died. At that time Luffy had been merely twelve, still resembling a young child due to late puberty because of lack of nutrition as younger. Even though Sabo had left the household as a seven-year-old, his parents had left him a great sum of money – mostly because of pity and regret. Sabo had learnt to know about this through his adopted asshole-brother Stelly, who one day had ran into Sabo in the local store when Sabo had been doing groceries. All Sabo had done had been to clean himself a bit, meet the family lawyer and arranged a move for the money from his deceased parent's safe-deposit box – old-fashioned people, yes – to his own safe-deposit box in the bank.

It is still unknown how or when exactly Sabo's parents died, but in all honesty, none of the three notorious brothers had cared. All they had cared for was the money, which had implied a tiny apartment, a chance for school attendance and somewhat regular dinners. They would have afforded much more, but according to the will Sabo was only allowed to use a fifth of the whole sum before turning 18. That was why they had to keep up with the stealing. And that was why they had planned the most perfect robbery.

The same year Sabo arranged citizenship for both Ace and Luffy. Luffy had also run away from home, escaping his abusive grandfather. Since Luffy's mother had thought it had been an act of kindness to save Luffy from eventual hatred from people, she had waited with registering him into the social system. She had been proud of her husband – Luffy's father – since he fought for the poor, even though it was illegal activity. That's also a reason why she had delayed the registration, she had not known which surname to give her son. Luffy had been nine months old when his mother had died, and his father had already left by then. He had been stuck with a mentally unstable grandfather who struggled with anger managements. Then one day Luffy had had enough and run away trying to find his former neighbor Shanks, yes the chemistry teacher at the school, who had moved away a few months back – it had been a childishly simple decision and in the end he also had gotten lost, ending up in their so-called kingdom.

So when Ace and Luffy finally had tried to register into the social system it seemed much more difficult. Ace had been forced to meet his father in prison, which then was followed by countless of investigations, interrogations, psychological tests and literary tests to see if he was a native speaker. Luffy's situation had been even more complicated and had taken an even longer time. His father had been untraceably gone and his abusive grandfather's statement hadn't been quite enough. Luckily Shanks, the person who had neighbored Luffy as a child, had stepped in and volunteered to "adopt" him and become his guardian. You can't probably imagine the great luck these three brats had been blessed with – the tiny apartment they had gotten had happened to be located across the street Shanks lived on. As mentioned earlier, these three children really were blessed with great luck. Ironically enough, they still had suffered from the unluckiest and most horrible childhood. Then again, a wise woman had once told them that each human being experiences a certain amount of misfortune, some just experience all of their misfortune at the beginning of their lives, some experience it later. Everyone does meet their ills at some point in their lives though. It's nothing we humans can control.

Nevertheless, at the age of fifteen, Ace, Sabo and Luffy lived together in an apartment, legally taken care of Shanks. Practically it did not work like this, because back then the chemistry teacher had been a young researcher and had done a lot of travelling. It was like destiny that the three brothers now had the same man as their teachers. The world is sure a strange place.

Despite Sabo's heritage and some financial support from Shanks, the three brothers planned the most perfect crime to gain the last bits of money they needed for the average lifestyle that they all had dreamed of since small children. They knew about a famous jewel, which was worth millions. Naturally, they weren't in need of that much money, but they also sought challenge. The small, easy thefts in stores and even small robberies in banks had grown tiresome. They had already been so ridiculously skilled back then, that stealing had become like one of their hobbies. Striving after challenges and new obstacles, the three brothers took it upon themselves to steal this infamous jewel. How they technically did this is another story, but let's say that all of Ace's skill to lie, all of Luffy's unique flexibility and all of Sabo's skill with disguise had been required.

They had managed to steal the jewel. But then Luffy had been caught stealing a chocolate bar the day after their success. It didn't cause that much of a stir in their repose, Luffy just got into minor trouble and Ace's charm and Sabo's well-mannered atmosphere had pretty much saved their sorry asses. This had been, however, a start of another downhill in their lives.

By selling the jewel to a suspicious-looking, feathery, flamingo-like man, the three brothers had achieved a great sum of money. They had not bought a new apartment though, neither had they bought anything else. They had only achieved their lifelong goal of living like an average citizen of their fucked up society. Funny thing though, Shanks had supported them completely when they had stolen the jewel. Mostly because it "wasn't his business", "he had experienced similar things in his youth as well" and because "it's good to try out new things". Really it had been because he himself owed money to his best friend Benn and was in desperate need of extra cash.

Well, as mentioned earlier, when Luffy had been caught stealing that one chocolate bar, it had been the sign of the beginning of their downhill. It had happened very suddenly – Ace had grown attached to fire. Sabo, in other hand, had stopped thieving and developed into the responsible, gentle oldest brother, who tried to keep their small family together. Luffy had gone mad without the stealing – he had been banned from it for a while because of the chocolate-bar-incident – and instead had started about six different sports at one time and totally skipped school.

So what practically had occurred had been Ace's pyromania, Luffy's shitty grades and Sabo's stress with house chores. One night they all had snapped though. They had had a major fight which had resulted in Ace burning down the apartment, Luffy stabbing a man and Sabo screaming hysterically. And that's the criminal record that is official for both Ace and Luffy, though the other students had surely heard of them because they were pretty infamous thieves, they had just never been caught. There had been several close calls and a handful of polices involved, but that's just small fry. Anyway, that was pretty much how they had been transferred into this school. Or actually, it had been Shanks who had recommended it when they had been in deep shit, but you know, that's just small details.

Ace stared down at the picture he had drawn. It resembled the dump he had lived in as a child, ASL, their kingdom. It was quite logical why he had drawn that place of everything he could have drawn, he had been thinking back at his childhood after all. It had been two years since that incident when their apartment had burnt down, two years with a hell of a lot of changes.

During these two years, things had started to change between the three brothers. Or at least between Ace and Luffy. Ace had noticed it himself. He had noticed his a-little-too-long stares at Luffy, his hot cheeks and his awkward coughs. But most of all, he had noticed the disgusting sensations he felt for him.

It was insane, but he knew it was the truth. He was in love with his little brother. At first he thought it had been pure, brotherly affection. But then the dreams had started to appear, then the fantasies and lastly the attraction, the need to hug him, the lust to kiss him, the temptation to be close to him and spend more and more time with him.

Ace didn't know why or how, he had always disliked Luffy to a certain level after all. But all of sudden he had felt drawn to the boy with a scar underneath his left eye. He didn't find his dumbness annoying, but adorable. He didn't find his odd procedures strange, but homely. He didn't want Luffy to be just a friend or even less a brother anymore. He felt close with Luffy, and even if he felt close with Sabo as well, it was a different kind of closeness when it came to Luffy. They laughed more heartedly together, they had more things in common and they both were obsessed with strange things. Ace could tell that he felt like this because of his own feelings, and he knew that it was impossible for someone like Luffy to return his feelings, but he still enjoyed his time with Luffy as much as possible.

Even if Ace mentally had confessed that it indeed were romantic sensations, a part of him still felt that it only was brotherly affection. Who knew anyway? Maybe he just had grown up a little, learnt that hatred was a waste of time and therefore enjoyed Luffy's goofy presence more? Or maybe he just had started to unconsciously accept Luffy as the newbie, even if he had thought that he had accepted him into their small circle of friends a long time ago? The only problem was the attraction. The shades of his face always turned a few tints redder when Luffy changed clothes or when Luffy was too close. It was a sure indication of more-than-brotherly-feelings.

Possessive was an adjective that described Ace well. Or perhaps overprotective was a more fitting one. Regardless, both described Ace pretty well, and that was why he detested it when someone else but himself spent time with Luffy. One example was when Luffy one break had stood and talked and joked with his friend Usopp, who had been sent to this school because of a major anxiety disorder; their school was the only one which offered proper therapy for people like him. Even though if Ace knew that the two of them were friends, and could never be more than merely friends because Usopp was heterosexual, he had felt anger boil up inside of him, feeling that Usopp was a threat. This kind of possessive-like fear had remained within Ace since his childhood – Ace was socially a creature of habit and felt threatened with new people talking with his friends. Luckily Sabo had been there, talking with Ace about other stuff, preventing Ace from roasting the long-nosed scaredy-cat alive.

Another fine example of Ace's possessiveness was the closeness of the mentally ill greenhead Bartolomeo, who obviously had some kind of sick obsession with Ace, Sabo and mostly Luffy. He feared that the greenhead one day really would befriend Luffy and that Luffy would find him much cooler and forget all about Ace. Once again, Ace knew that his paranoia was unnecessary, he knew that Luffy never forgot a person he had met, but it still worried Ace. He couldn't help it. And who knew how far that greenhead could go? He seemed highly unpredictable and animalistic. Maybe he really would attack Luffy one day?

At first Ace had been possessive over Luffy in a brotherly way, now it had developed and become even worse. He knew that the more people Luffy befriended, the bigger the chance of Luffy falling in love grew. He feared that more than anything on the planet. Despite knowing that Luffy never would return his feelings, he didn't want him to love someone else either. Luffy was his little brother and was supposed to be with him. That was how things always had been and always should be, even if Ace wished for more. Ace knew that if it would develop into more than brotherhood, which it never would but hypothetically speaking, it'd rub the balance between the three brothers. Sabo would instantly become the awkward third wheel.

But then again, if it really was to happen, still hypothetically speaking, would Ace be willing to shove Sabo aside for Luffy's sake?

§

With one swing with the baseball bat, the ball flew away and the players were forced to run.

And that pretty much summed up the P.E. lesson they were having for the moment. They were namely playing baseball.

Kidd was pretty good at most sports. Or in fact, he was very good at most sports. Sports were one of the rare things he understood and managed to succeed in. He understood how complicated coordination skills demanding sports worked, or how the body had to be used in order to move the smoothest. Things like these came naturally to him, like solving math problems came to mathematical geniuses.

Despite this, Kidd had often skipped the P.E. lessons in his old school. Mostly he had felt inferior to the rich kids who kept making fun of him.

"What? So that idiot-redhead is really capable of doing other things than getting drunk?"

Comments like these had not been unusual, and unfortunately he had never been brave enough to hit them. He knew that he was worth less than those people, entirely inferior to their wealth and intelligence. He knew the possible consequences of hitting those people. And he feared those people with all of his heart. Their ruthless way to look down on people, even people smarter and richer than them, was something so animalistic and brutal that it sent chills down his spine. In all honest, those kids had never even been particularly smart, not like the Trafalgar-bastard anyway, but they had still been remarkably smarter than Kidd. Those kids lived to ruin other people's lives, with their combed back hair and way-too-expensive suits, but mostly their cold, superior glances.

That was why Kidd's natural talent hadn't been praised so much. It was a shame, he knew it himself, and he felt a little regret that he hadn't given his best and shown those bastards that he was something they should fear. In the end it would all have been in vain though, since those bastards merely cared for anything else but themselves.

Well, luckily Kidd didn't have to suffer with those motherfuckers anymore. Instead he stood by the baseball court, praises showering over him, his team mates proud of him and Smoker impressed. Yes, this P.E. lesson they were taught by the hair-raising "Smo-ya", as Trafalgar called him.

Speaking of Trafalgar, the brat stood there awkwardly in sweatpants and in a loose T-shirt and glared at everyone. He looked like he suffered. It simply looked wrong on so many levels to see the lippy bastard in sportswear. Every time Kidd gave him a glance, the black-haired youth glared back, trying to look intimidate but ended up looking ridiculously adorable. Not that Kidd ever would admit that out loud, the bastard had been such a pain in the ass the past week. Slick comments in the corridors and small nagging all of the time. Skipping lessons in the mornings, appearing to lunch, coming to the dorm room in the last minute, reeking smoke and forgetting to brush his teeth. Interfering with calls to Nojiko, stealing Kidd's clothes, appearing at the most unexpected times at the most unexpected places, in other words; Trafalgar was purposely annoying him. And that was seriously driving Kidd mad.

Currently it was almost the other way around, since it now was Trafalgar who seemed utterly annoyed. It was obvious that he detested P.E. In fact, he had skipped each P.E. lesson until now. Kidd didn't know why he hated P.E. though. Maybe he sucked at it? Kidd couldn't tell, he hadn't seen the nerd do a shit yet. He had just stood there in the corner of the court looking bitter.

In the middle of his ponderings Kidd was reminded that it now was his turn to be the batter as he received a small clap on his shoulder from Bartolomeo.

"Do your shit, Chili."

Kidd chuckled as a reply. Chili was a new nickname Barto had come up with for him. And surprisingly enough, Kidd liked it. It described him very well. He was redheaded, hot-tempered and fucking hot and sexy, so of course it made sense. He really did resemble a chili. Chili was dangerous, so was he. Chili could cause many kinds of reactions, so could he. Chili changed boring things into less boring things, so did he. It had been a pretty smart nickname in Kidd's opinion. Barto had overall proved to be a really cool friend, showing him where it was common for students to smoke or inviting Kidd to his dorm room so that he could avoid Trafalgar's teasing. Kidd was genuinely happy that he had found someone who could be trusted, even if the school was filled with weirdoes.

The redhead walked to the batter's box, stood there a while, waiting for the pitcher to pitch and taking his position. It didn't take long until the baseball was far gone and Kidd was running to the first base. It appeared that the baseball had swished away pretty far, so Kidd decided to keep running to the second base. And then to the third. And then back home.

When he came back to the home, Smoker stood there and nodded approvingly. Next to him stood Robin, the history teacher, who apparently had nothing better to do than hang around on the sports field. She smiled kindly and chuckled gently at Kidd's goofily proud face. He had partly batted that well to impress her.

Robin wrote down the score of the homerun into a small notebook, keeping track of the game. It was a pretty even game, since many of the students were pretty athletic and sporty. There was this freckled guy, Ace, who was a really awesome pitcher, this oddball, Luffy, who was an all-around-type, and a blonde dude named Sabo who was a fast sprinter. Bartolomeo was good at pitching and at hitting the baseball and Blondie and Moss-Head were also pretty amazing. All in all, one could find many talented teens in their group.

"You also seem to be a fast sprinter Eustass. Interested in the school's athletics team?" the tone was pretty cold and stern, yet proud and filled with warmth. It was obvious that the gray-haired man enjoyed seeing talent. He himself appeared as a pretty sporty guy, so it was pretty logical why he favored sporty students.

"Nah, I've never liked that shi- I mean stuff. I like team sports more", Kidd replied, smirking at his team mates who high-fived with him. He gave Robin a small glance and hoped for her to return the glance, but she was smiling at the pouting Trafalgar with a somewhat sisterly affection. Kidd felt like swearing but over the past week he had almost grown out of the habit to swear. Notice the word almost.

"That's a shame. Well, we also have the basketball team. You can take a look someday if you want to", Smoker gave Kidd a small glance before looking back at the game with a stern expression for a while and then sighed a little. "Law, it's your turn now. You can't skip it." He looked at the fuming Trafalgar who glared back at him. Then Trafalgar's expression changed.

"Do I really have to? I'm not going to need this kind of physical education in my future studies", Trafalgar literally whined and dragged his sorry ass to the batter's box. Robin chuckled a little at the sloppy attitude. "You know that don't you? So why do I have to do this?"

"Come on Mr. Genius, where is your attitude now?" Robin teased carefully, looking at Law who just rolled his eyes in reply.

"Shut up, this is just for imbeciles anyway."

"Don't worry Law, you're going to do great", Kidd glared at Penguin who tailed Trafalgar. Why was that motherfucking Penguin being so kind and supportive? Over the past week Kidd had grown to hate Penguin as well. The guy was possessive and weird, and was being way too close to Trafalgar all of the time. Even currently he was clinging to him like glue, almost massaging his shoulders suggestively and accidentally butt-fucking him. Kidd swore to god, that guy was probably seeing wet dreams about Trafalgar. And somehow Kidd felt threatened. He felt like Trafalgar was his horror-roommate, like they had a special bond and that Penguin had no right to interfere with their nagging or fights. Even though Kidd hated Trafalgar to a certain level, he also felt that no one else was allowed to nag with him like that, or even less be too close with him. Kidd didn't understand why he felt like this though. He hated Trafalgar after all, and the guy was amazingly annoying.

Law grunted as a reply to what Penguin had said and took the baseball bat unwillingly. He took position and the pitcher pitched. And Kidd was chocked. Never in his entire life had he seen someone who batted that badly. Trafalgar missed the ball completely, almost tripping over and forgot to run when he was supposed to. Kidd looked over at Robin looked at Trafalgar with eyes that expressed a certain amount of pity. Did she feel sorry for him? Why? That had been way too ludicrous for any kind of pity!

"Stop! Wait! Timeout!" Smoker stopped the game with a resolute hand gesture and then walked to Trafalgar who now sat on the ground in the batter's box lamely. He had namely managed to fall down on his butt. Kidd had a hard time not to laugh, and he could tell that other guys also had to turn around and giggle quietly, because that attempt to bat had been way too pitiful to be true.

"It was a good try Law", Penguin tried to reassure the pitiful-looking Trafalgar, and Kidd could feel the odd anger build up inside of him. And then he felt even angrier, because he couldn't comprehend his own sensations.

"What?! No it completely sucked!" Shachi, who was another friend of Trafalgar, said in all honesty. Admittedly, Kidd liked Shachi much more than he liked that Penguin-freak. Shachi seemed to be less creepy at least. "But that's okay. No one can be good at everything."

"He's right Law. But mostly you need practice", Smoker helped Trafalgar up and took the baseball bat in his hand. "Okay, so I'll try to help you. Get into position."

Oh god, that sounded so wrong. Get into position. And that demanding tone as well… Kidd felt his cheeks flush as different kinds of scenarios involving that sentence and Trafalgar swished through his mind. And it became even worse since it had been a teacher who had said those words. A motherfucking teacher!

Despite the pretty suggestive sentence, Trafalgar took the baseball bat and got into position again. Kidd thought that Trafalgar was going to try again, but he had been wrong. Smoker went behind Trafalgar, grabbed the baseball bat from behind and therefore pressed himself closer to Trafalgar and then slowly yet steadily started to swing the bat, assisting him along the way. Once again Kidd could feel his cheeks burn. That position just looked so very wrong on so many levels. And it looked like Smoker was, hm, enjoying himself there behind Trafalgar. With eyes wide as plates, Kidd froze completely and could do nothing but stare when Smoker's hand went to rest on Trafalgar's hip to show him how smoothly the hip was supposed to move.

Kidd looked over at the other teacher on the court, namely Robin, and could sense that she was not approving this kind of behavior. In fact, she looked ready to murder. Like a female cat ready to kill possible threats for her small kittens. Only that she was ready to kill for Trafalgar, not a kitten.

Poor Trafalgar though, he seemed completely unsuspecting. But then again, who would suspect a teacher? And if Trafalgar really had spent his first days at the school with Smoker, he had probably grown to trust Smoker on another level than other students. Or then it was just Kidd being perverted and imagining things that really weren't happening. But when he shared a small glance with Barto, the greenhead rolled his eyes and leaned a little closer.

"I bet the old man hasn't gotten laid since the dinosaurs died out. And that happened like, something like thousands of years ago", Bartolomeo whispered and smirked, apparently satisfied at his own comment. "He's always like this when it comes to Trafalgar. Pampering him like a small child. Creepy right?"

"Fucking disgusting", Kidd shuddered in disgust. "Are you sure it isn't just a weird rumor?"

"It might be. Personally I think that it's more like brotherly affection, but then there are these incidents…" Bartolomeo nodded at the duo, Smoker still trying to show Trafalgar, who seemed very embarrassed by now, how to bat properly.

The redhead grimaced and had to look away. He was feeling angrier again. Smoker was not allowed to be close to his horror-roomie. That was how Kidd felt. Trafalgar was his hate-object, whom Kidd was supposed to hate and detest, and Trafalgar was not allowed to give his attention to anyone else. Trafalgar was supposed to devote his time to annoy him, not someone else. He was supposed to be rude and bratty to him, not Smoker. Bartolomeo apparently noticed Kidd's anger, because the greenhead chuckled and clapped Kidd's shoulder, which only made him grow even angrier.

After a while Trafalgar finally managed to hit the ball and was fast enough to make it to the second base. It appeared that Trafalgar was a fast sprinter, but god did that brat hate sports. Ironically enough, P.E. was one of the rare subjects Kidd actually enjoyed.

The world is sure an ironic place.

§

With angry and straightforward steps, the woman took herself forwards over the marble floor. Eyes filled with lust to slay the next person in front of her, she carried a bunch of papers with her. Pink hair swished by as she walked with a ridiculously fast speed. Anger was not an adjective that described her sensation strongly enough right now. Neither seemed furious fitting. Was it unfitting for her to use the expression "fucking pissed off"?

A pretty expensive Agnès B. jacket clothed her shoulders, it was a brand-new Edween Jacket from the newest collection, made of linen fabric and had been finished with topstitching. To the outfit also belonged the new T-shirt Graphique with an interesting white and black diamond-like pattern and the white Long skirt, along with the black, newly polished Jeanne Derbies. It was an outfit she had had ordered directly from the internet, not bothering to create an outfit of her own. She was a woman who enjoyed well-made clothes that looked fine, but she did not possess the talent to combine clothes well, unfortunately.

But it was not the lack of skill to combine clothes into breathtaking outfits that angered her today, no, it was something far more severe. Her Jeanne Derbies clicked dryly towards the marble surface as she still walked purposefully forwards, never forgetting her goal and never getting lost. She was a woman with determination and backbone. Despite this, she had an odd habit of speaking in third person, which made her resolute personality less intimidate. All in all, she was a pretty enigmatic woman.

Finally Hina reached the teacher's room, her eyes scanning through it before finally finding the man she was seeking for. Smoker sat by his desk unsuspectedly, not being aware of the ice-cold stare the pale woman was giving him. With two strides she stood right before the man who had caused her all of this trouble.

"The brat did it again!" she started with an angry tone, dropping down the bunch of papers on the desk. Smoker looked up, just now noticing the presence of the furious woman. "And it's entirely your fault for upsetting him!"

"Did what? Who did what?" Smoker was utterly confused, but quickly shoved his confusion aside to take a look on the papers. He couldn't help but to smirk and then chuckled a little. "He likes to cause a stir in the world, doesn't he?"

"It's not funny! This is the second time he proves a mathematical theory wrong! Hina is getting tired of it! Hina just taught those idiots how to use it and now they're completely confused because of that Trafalgar-brat's new formula!" Hina's voice was shrill as she hit the desk with her palms. "Don't you comprehend?! He did that because he got mad!"

"Mad? Mad because of what?" Smoker repeated the word with new confusion lingering to his voice.

"He hates P.E.! You know that! So why did you force him there!?" Hina's cold stare was almost drilling through Smoker's forehead, but luckily stares could not physically cause something like that. Mentally it was completely possible though.

"Well because he also needs physical education, or he'll grow to be unhealthy. Yea and I admit; I heard he skipped a few days of school after that lesson, but I thought he did that to make us worried so that he could skip the next P.E. lessons. I seriously didn't think he'd do something like this again. But shouldn't we be glad? This formula looks much simpler", Smoker remarked, and Hina's anger toned down a little. Then her face softened.

"That brat is really something else", she mumbled for herself and shook her head while taking the bunch of papers she had dropped down on Smoker's desk. "Well, regardless, Hina wishes that you won't push your luck next time. Who knows what he'll come up with next?"

"You're right. It's better to stay on the safe side with Law, he is really unpredictable", Smoker agreed, as Robin entered the teacher's room with a cup of tea in her hand. She looked like she searched for Franky. "Franky is not here. He's downstairs building something, I don't know what." Smoker answered the lost look and lit a cig.

"Oh, okay, thank you Mr. Smoker, but in fact I was searching for you", she smiled and looked at Hina. The two women had never really gotten along that well, maybe because they silently were competing for the attention they were receiving for both being young, comely women. "I heard that it was your decision to put Eustass and Law in the same room." Hina nodded while her eyes squinted. "I don't think it was a good idea. So far the two of them have devoted more time hating each other than actually achieving something. Even Law has been skipping more lessons lately."

"Nah, that was just because he was busy with proving this mathematical formula wrong", Hina held up the bunch of papers and smirked. "And I think it was a good idea to put those two in the same dorm room, opposites attract, right?"

Robin couldn't help but to chuckle as a reply.

"I guess you're right. It'll be interesting to see what develops between them, so far there is only hatred, but it is clear that neither of them actually hate each other."

§

The warm breath on his shoulder tickled him. And it started to frustrate him greatly.

Branches of trees leaned over them, protecting them from the gazing sun. A slightly wet, crunchy sound was created as he walked over the plants and small bushes which grew in the forest. Trees after trees they had passed and additional trees they were going to pass. That's how forests work. There were countless of trees, bees, mosquitos and plants which had to be passed. Otherwise one could never reach their goals. Someone's goal might be to find a comfortable place to sit, someone else's goal might be to pick flowers. However, this was not what Kidd and Trafalgar were doing in the forest.

Now, you may wonder why they were in a forest of all places in the world. You might also be pondering on why Kidd was giving Trafalgar a piggyback ride and why Trafalgar's left ankle was oddly swollen. Really, there was a logical explanation.

They were namely having biology. And this biology lesson they were supposed to go to the forest nearby the school, spot certain birds, take photos of them and show them to the teacher Marco. In the beginning of the lesson Marco had announced that every student was supposed to work together with the students they shared their dorm rooms with. Of course, both Trafalgar and Kidd had objected, but it had been in vain. They had still ended up working together.

So with a pretty foul start of the lesson, Trafalgar and Kidd had gone to the forest in order to photograph those motherfucking birds. But since Kidd had insisted to read the map and show the way, they had ended up completely lost. Trafalgar had not been able to shut up about how stupid Kidd was and had been whining about the mosquitos. In the end, Kidd had almost hit the annoying prick but had instead ended up screaming at Trafalgar. The black-haired youth had only found this entertaining though, and had started to laugh, annoying Kidd even more.

Then Trafalgar had spotted a rare bird and had attempted to photograph it. But since it had been up very high in the sky, Trafalgar had been forced to climb up for a tree to get a better picture of it. Kidd had tried to object, remarking that Trafalgar sucked at sports, reminding him about the baseball game a few days ago, which had resulted in provoking Trafalgar into really doing it. Naturally, this had ended up with Trafalgar falling down and spraining his left ankle. And now Kidd was stuck carrying the whining thing, even though Trafalgar had countlessly insisted that he was completely fine. Which obviously was a lie.

"We're getting nowhere Eustass-ya, just give me that goddamn map so we can get out of here", his voice was way too close to Kidd's ear, making a small chill go down his spine. Kidd would never admit it, but he really liked Trafalgar's voice. It was uncommonly soft and smooth, yet low and murmuring. It was a very sexy voice.

"No way! You think you're so fucking smart just because of that math-shit-thingy, but trust me, I used to do a lot of wandering with my dad as a brat!" Kidd replied angrily, steadily holding onto Trafalgar so that he wouldn't fall while keeping the map folded in his pocket. What Kidd was referring with 'math-shit-thingy' was the incident when Trafalgar had skipped some days of school and then suddenly appeared at one math lesson with a bunch of papers in his hands, announcing that the mathematical formula they were using was incorrect. Kidd had merely seen the teen, as he had locked himself into their dorm room and been busy mumbling for himself and scribbling down things on some papers. In the end he had forced everyone to relearn the math they just had learnt. Goddamn brat.

"Trust me you say, but we are completely lost, you have no idea where we are and I'm growing hungry", Trafalgar whined. "I was in this forest last year and I know how to get out of here if I just get that godforsaken map!"

"Like hell I'm giving it to you. And good to hear that you're starving. Maybe you end up eating a weird mushroom and finally die", grunting the reply angrily, Kidd jumped over a small rock only to make it uncomfortable for Trafalgar on his back. He heard how said male growled angrily.

"What? Want my corpse for personal fun or? Huh, I always knew you were horny, but please, that's simply sick", teasing as always, Kidd could feel how Trafalgar smirked behind him.

"You're just full of yourself. Like I'd ever want to fuck you. Seriously. You don't even train. If I'd ever fuck a dude, it'd at least have to be a good-looking and well-trained one", Kidd knew that he was uttering a big lie by saying that. Over the past weeks he had caught himself staring at Trafalgar changing clothes at the dorm room too many times already. It was growing bothersome.

"Really? Not well-trained? Is that a sneaky way for you to get me undressed only to prove you wrong or?"

"No, shut up, you're making me have a headache."

"Great, because I'm already suffering from one."

"Fantastic."

Then there was just silence and the annoying sound of unseen birds singing. It was really provocative; they could hear the birds, but they could not see them and could therefore not photograph them. Not that photographing the birds was their biggest priority right now, in fact Kidd felt a little worried over Trafalgar's ankle and wanted to return to the school as fast as possible. Yet he didn't want to let Trafalgar read the map – he wanted to prove himself smarter than he really was. One could call it a dilemma of some sort.

After a while Trafalgar started whining again.

"Jesus motherfucking Christ, can't you walk a little faster?"

"Faster? Do you even know how much you weigh?" Kidd asked, once again being forced to jump over a rock with Trafalgar on his back.

"Oh, so suddenly I weigh a lot? But how is that possible if I'm not muscular at all?" the sarcasm did not go unnoticed.

"You're fat", the reply was childish, he knew that, but he didn't come up with anything better. He never did. At least not in the debates against Trafalgar.

"Fat?" Trafalgar replied the tone with a faked confused tone. "Wait a sec here… You said you only like well-trained guys… Yet you were ready to fuck with me though I'm fat? Did I get everything right now?"

"Shut up. First of all, I don't fuck guys. You just manipulated me. Second, I said if I'd ever fuck a guy, not when I fuck a guy. I thought you were smart but you mess up simple things", now this was a reply he was relatively happy with. Even Trafalgar should have trouble coming up with a reply to that.

"Yea, right, sorry, I totally forgot that", instead of hesitating, Trafalgar replied with teasing sarcasm, provoking Kidd even more. Sometimes Kidd really pondered on whether the guy was a masochist or not. Why provoke Kidd who was able to literally kill him with his own fists? Why?

"Yea you did. Sad to know that you suffer from dementia in that age", Kidd replied with the same kind of sarcasm and felt even happier with his new reply.

"Actually, it is not impossible for a person in my age to suffer from dementia. There are several occasions where young patients have suffered from for example Alzheimer's. Do you know what that is?" suddenly Trafalgar changed. He got eager, excited, like a small child. Kidd had not seen him like this before, so he shook his head no, letting Trafalgar continue speaking. "Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, which worsens as it progresses. Eventually it leads to death. Alzheimer's was discovered 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, who was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist. Chemically what happens in the brain during Alzheimer's disease is pretty interesting, you see, it may be caused by the imbalance of cholesterol sulfate. You see, cholesterol sulfate has a stabilizing role in cell formation. When there is a lack of it, phenomena like plaque or tangles appear in the brain, and it will gradually also become more difficult for neurons to transport nutrients within themselves. Soon neurons in the memory center start to wither and therefore the memory is ruined. Actually, this is only a theory, it's not been medically proved that it works like this, but from what I've rea-"

"Woah, you know a hell of a lot about that stuff", admittedly, Kidd was impressed. And admittedly, Kidd enjoyed the company of his horror-roomie. He had started to grow familiar with the everlasting nagging and the teasing comments. He had started to like fighting with Trafalgar. Yet he grew so angry at small things because of his temperament.

"I know. I like med stuff."

"I just don't understand a shit of what you're saying", Kidd replied, a little embarrassed of his own imbecility. He sounded like an uneducated gorilla compared to Trafalgar.

"Don't worry, no one does. Everyone are just idiots", Trafalgar sighed. He returned to his whiny-self after being interrupted from his med talk.

Kidd didn't even bother to reply. What could he even reply to something like that? He was an idiot and that was the truth. He just didn't want to hear it from Trafalgar as well. So when Kidd decided to quiet down, Trafalgar had no other option but to do the same. Birds were still singing up in the trees, provoking them to no extend. The sky was blue, the leaves of the trees green and the ground mossy. The crunchy, wet sound continued to be heard as Kidd walked over the plants and sticks on the ground. They really were lost.

The silence was awkward, especially since Trafalgar's slim body was pressed against his back like that. Kidd would have been lying if he had said that he didn't enjoy carrying Trafalgar like that. The dark-haired teen was warm, soft and felt nice against his back, like some kind of certainty of safety. His smell was also nice and his warm breath tickled Kidd's shoulder, sending small chills down his spines, activating his endorphins, making him go crazy for Trafalgar. In worst case, Kidd could end up being as creepy as Smoker or as annoying as Penguin. Luckily a lot of his concentration was needed for wandering in the forest.

"I hate birds", Trafalgar finally said after a while.

"Yea, me too."

At least they had one thing in common from now on.

~Thanks for Reading~