Chapter 4. My source of life.

Before Law realized it, the deafening sound of the bell had shooed the students away.
Two years ago, Law would've never imagined going to class to actually learn about terrible ways to kill your opponent instead of learning how photosynthesis is the source of life.

As he shove the books from his table into his bag, he began to ponder.

What was his source of life?

He didn't stick to that question for too long, though. As he threw his bag over his shoulders, he left the classroom without even waving a "Merry Christmas" to Ace, who was focused on his paperwork which was piled in 3 neat queues.

The past two years everything had changed so much. The fourteen year old Law, for instance, was quick tempered and showed more interest in human beings, the sixteen year old Law was the complete opposite.
Everything had changed one year ago, when the Revolutionary army found another reincarnation.
What was his name again, Kidd?
Yes, it was Kidd.
On his first day, Law and he had almost ripped each others limbs off after they were left alone for two minutes.

Law smirked.

In the past two years everything changed so much.
Not only Law had changed completely, but also his friends matured - And no, that wasn't something negative.

Ace, for example, started his study six months ago, - Dragon afforded him a scholarship, that guy was like a freaking billionaire! - when he is not training or giving class, he's studying.
All the paperwork on his desk? Yes, Ace had to finish all of that before the weekend ended - And it as Friday afternoon already!

Also Robin slightly changed, she acted like a freaking 30 year old from the very beginning, that wasn't deniable , but since she started dating this guy - his name was Franky, and like the exact opposite of Robin - she wasn't that dark woman from before anymore, her hair had grown longer, she didn't talk in riddles anymore and she actually wore dresses.

Law smiled.

It's been two years already, and he'd seen boss Dragon only twice - And that was during Christmas.
Since it was 25 December tomorrow already, he got the chance to see him again during tonight's dinner, there was so much he wanted to ask him!

Law gradually shove his way trough the corridor, heading towards the exit.
Sharpening his ears, he could pick up the conversations between the few remaining students - the rest probably returned towards the mansion again.

Italy was great, it was always sunny and the food was so neat!
They lived on a small private island, south from Sicily. The only inhabitants were the members of the Revolutionary Army, which was pretty freaky in the beginning, but Law got used to it as the months passed.

Outside it was cold, although the sun shone trough the grey veils of clouds which dropped white snowflakes that whirled around Law as soon as set foot outside.

Walking trough the forest of pink sakura trees, the same question from before started to bother Law again, "What is your source of life?"
What did that question even mean?
He frowned. The conversations to himself sometimes managed to bring him at the edge of hitting himself, but okay.

Law stopped with walking when he spotted small footsteps in the thick layer of snow. As he followed their direction, he found himself staring at the shimmering ice, it once used to be the flowing river where Law mostly spent his time when he wasn't training.
His eyes didn't rest on the beautiful area of of transparent ice, no, his eyes were glued to the back of the certain person he'd known really well.
His way too long winter coat had those familiar red and white horizontal strips, under his round straw hat his black, messy hair was hidden, his ears were isolated from the freezing atmosphere by the yellow earmuffs.

From all the people he met in those two years, Luffy was the one who had matured the least - Day in, day out he laughed, like there was no tomorrow, he radiated a warm sort of positivity, which would wrap around you as soon as you would come near to him and give you a feeling of peace and tranquility, yet he was so hyperactive and loud.

The smile on his face he was unaware of disappeared as soon as his narrowed eyes spotted the back of that red head sitting comfortable next to Luffy.
Kidd.
They laughed.
His eyebrows slightly pointed down, revealing the frowns of irritation in his forehead, but he hand't realized that Luffy and Kidd were only a small number of the whole group gathered around the frozen river, laughing, singing and drinking the hot chocolate Robin and Franky poured in the cups everyone was impatiently waving with.

At first sight, this was something that would made you smile by only looking at it, Law grunted though.
And he stood there, pouting and mocking without anyone noticing his presence, until he was out of patience. With his bare hands he created a ball out of the snow, and threw this certain snowball right on Kidd's red head.

As Kidd flinched, Law laughed.
The crowd looked into Law's direction, and then to Kidd's red - fused with white - hair.
Besides from Nami and Robin, who had just affectionately smiled, everyone roared whilst pointing to Kidd.

"Nice one, Law!" Usopp yelled, clapping in his hands as if Law was the pianist, and he, the public.
Maybe the fact Law threw a snowball right on the top of Kidd's head wasn't event that funny, but Kidd's reaction was.
He stood up, and whilst wiping the snow off his head and lap, he scowled at Law.

"Wanna fight me?" he asked defying as he cracked his knuckles.

Law bristled; not out of anger or fear, but out if excitement. With a mean smirk plastered on his face, he pulled his long sword out of its black sheath. A scabbard.
Law clutched its oblong shaped hand-guard which was coated with white fur, as if his life hung onto it.

The crowd bristled too; not out of excitement, but out of utter fear. They gasped

"Hey, put that sword back, Trafalgar! It's not SUPER to fight your nakama!" Franky yelled.
His voice didn't break trough Law's adrenaline though, so he stood up, but he was too late.

Kidd had thrown his head in his neck,
"Ha ha ha! You know swords won't work on me!" He shouted.

Law glared, yet his lips were curled up. "We'll see."

Kidd ran into Law, exclaiming a loud; "You'll regret that, shit head!"

Law closed his eyes, dropped his sword and whispered:

"Room."

"Law, don't!" Yelled Usopp, covering his eyes.

The blue, round, transparent room had the size from one inch before Law until the place Luffy - who was surprisingly enough encouraging Law - sat.

As the distance between Law's calm eyes and Kidd's humiliated look was one inch precisely, Law muttered "Shambles."

Kidd and Luffy switched places; Luffy ran into Law's arms when he lost his balance, Kidd ran into the ice - which once was the beautiful river - and it started to crack as soon as Kidd slipped on it.

The sound of a "splash" automatically was followed by Kidd's - Oh so manly - shriek, on which everyone - even Nami and Robin - laughed.

Law had grabbed his sword with his one hand, wrapped his other hand around Luffy's waist and they started to run, laughing and yelling they ran through the sakura forest.
Knowing Kidd couldn't swim made Law even feel better.

As the sakura petals danced around them, the snowflakes stopped falling down - all the white spots on the ground were covered with the pink petals, that belonged to the enormous trees enclosing the two.
A sakura forest in the south of Europe was a rather strange phenomena, but Monkey D. Dragon was a mysterious man.

Out of his eye corners, Law saw Luffy happily running next to him, not knowing where his feet should lead them.

The difference between the two was huge, and not only in the way they both act and behave, but also physically. Law looks like an adult, while Luffy seems like he just entered puberty - and they were the same age!
People viewed Law dark sided, as well as serious, while Luffy seems like he just entered puberty - and they were the same age!
People viewed Law dark sided, as well as serious, while Luffy radiates happiness and positivity - like they were the exact opposites!
And at least, Luffy had a rich father, two older brothers who cared for him with all their hearts and he seems to be raised in a good family, as his brother Ace was studying and his other brother Sabo was a high ranked revolutionary.
Law didn't have a rich father who could afford fancy houses and expensive scholarships, Law didn't have any guardian to begin with. He wasn't raised in a proper family, he didn't even have siblings. And at least, Law isn't smart or insanely strong - his life seemed so saddening compared to Luffy.
Sometimes he had the urge to press his nodachi trough his thick throat, but he knew he couldn't do that. No because he didn't have enough guts to kill himself, but because of Luffy - he felt like repaying a debt to Luffy for what he had done for Law the past two years.
It started even before he became a revolutionary, when Law was about to get shot by that "CP-whatever" agents, Luffy protected, claiming they were friends.
He shook his head.
Luffy had done so much for him, he wanted to repay him in any possible way, so he had to stay alive until he repaid his bet to Luffy - No, after that he had still something he promised himself to do as soon as he was strong enough.

"Where are we going?" Luffy asked, still snickering about what just happened.
"Where do you want to go?

They stopped running, as Luffy regarded the Ice-watch with was firmly tied around his thin pulse, but not as firm as the tight grip of Law's muscular arm around Luffy's shoulders.
"We've plenty of time," said Law with a mean smirk on his face.
Luffy smiled, "yeah, let's go and eat something, I'm starving~!"

Law was sure about it, Luffy didn't change a tiny bit in those two years. And judging from how happy Luffy was with his current lifestyle, he would never change.

XXX

As the afternoon ended, the moon lurked out of nowhere. Regarding from the calendar in the boy's room, it was 24 December. Christmas Eve.
Monkey D. Dragon had arrived three hours ago, and would announce tonight's dinner; this would be the best meal of the entire year, since the previous two Christmas dinners also were amazing.
He could remember how the elegant cook Sanji had served him the hot Capon. The smoked salmon also was one of Law's favorites, but he couldn't get his hands off "Mocha boche de noel", which was a rolled sponge cake distinguished by a rich coffee-flavored cream feeling.
When Luffy and owner Zeff had a fight last year (because Luffy was caught on steeling meat out of the mansion's kitchen), Luffy's christmas dinner was a mere plate of vegetables. He chuckled as he remembered Luffy dipping his vegetables in the chocolate fountain, because "Roots taste like shit~!"

There were two boys dorms and three girls dorms. Luffy, for some reason, was placed in another dorm than Law. And on the top of that, Law shared his room with Kidd. Of course there were some people who he could get along with (like Zoro and Sanji. Well, until those two almost killed each other. Now Sanji is placed in the dorm in which Luffy sleeps.)

The boys dorms differed from the girls dorms, although the two boy dorms were quite similar to each other.
In front of the entrance, a beautiful red carped led to the beds which were laid in queues next and opposite from each other.
The beds and beanbags formed the first part of the boys room. A wall with a huge port in it divided the first and second part of the room. In the second half there was a room which was known as the "relax-room" (Law despised that name, though.)
It was furnished the way the boys wanted it to be furnished and everyone had his own spot in that room. The huge cinema screen belonged to Usopp, who always invited Chopper, Nami and Koala to watch those cliche shojo animes, the weights and swords belonged to Zoro, who trained longer than he slept! The bookcase filled with shonen and seinen mangas belonged to Law.
If Law counted properly, there were about 25 boys in each dorm.
In the grey wall (which should be the dead end of the "relax room") a grand door was placed, it led to the boys' bathroom;
there was one big sauna, in which all the boys gathered to talk and watch hentai anime (yeah, a bunch of otakus and perverts were gathered in one big revolutionary army)
There also were private showers, which were also quite large. I mean, each private shower had a freaking Jacuzzi~!

The girls dorms were forbidden places, although Sanji claimed to have sneaked in Nami's dorm in his first year as a revolutionary.

"It smelled like fresh strawberries, It was clean and tidy and the girls wore their gowns, their legs were bare. My pants were just getting tighter every minute."

Law dropped himself on his bed, rubbing his eyes.
As there was one hour left for dinner, he quickly stretched his arms again, yawned and lifted himself out of his bed.
He stripped off his clothes as soon when he entered the warm sauna (which was overloaded by all the boys, who - just like him - tried their best to look decently for Christmas Dinner).
Before anyone could peek - not like they would - at his private parts, Law grabbed a white tail out of the closet next to the port and wrapped it around his body.
Usopp waved with his hand, as gesture for Law to join him, Zoro and ...
Law scowled at the red head.
Kidd.
Law had expected a mean or offensive comment when he almost slipped on his way to the trio, but against all his expectations Kidd was the only one who didn't say anything. He was pissed off, judging from the disgusting face he made as soon as Law sat next to them, but Law had smiled - maybe Kidd was intimidated by him after he fell into the freezing water.
He disliked that idea though, since that would mean Kidd was just another coward.
He at least expected a knife trough his hand when he wasn't paying attention, but that kid didn't do anything; he barely looked at Law.

Whilst Zoro and Usopp had a conversation about what anime was better (Zoro liked Shingeki no Kyojin but Usopp preferred Beelzebub, because he thought that one of the main characters looked like Zoro, which he considered as hilarious), Law and Kidd remained in utter silence.
Once in a while Law faked a smile when either Usopp or Zoro made a joke, but for the rest of the time Law poker-faced.

Almost everyone had left the bathroom when they realized they only had 30 minutes left.
Following Usopp and Zoro, Law left the smoking room. He thought he was the last one, until ...

"You're going to die ..."

Said a deep voice in a horrible manner, licking his lips out of enjoyment. As he could swear there was no one behind him, someone grabbed his shoulders firmly.

"You're going to die ..."

Law released himself from the tight clutch and swirled around, clenching his fists until his knuckles became white.
But his sight was filled with clouds of smoke.
It must have been his imagination.

XXX

Nami enthusiastically called Law when he entered he enormous dinning room.
Really, it was almost as huge as twenty football fields and decorated by gold and silver streamers. There even was a podium, stealing almost 1/5th out of the entire dinning room. A beautiful Christmas tree, decorate by shiny baubles, almost hit the roof with its bronze peak.
Law grinned at his amazing sight.
The skeleton on the podium brought life to the entire room.
By singing, dancing, and playing his violin, Brook was officially the best male multitasker ever.

When Law looked at the waving Nami again, his eyes fell on all the groups of friends sitting together. It was funny to see how all cliques were claiming their own seats.
Their was one large table, and if Law's hypotheses was correct, the empty chair between Nami and Luffy was his.
Mistletoe's, Rudolph's and tiny Santa's graced entire room. Law couldn't help but smiling out of excitement: his sight was something you could do nothing but smile at.
The revolutionaries took Christmas to just an entire new level, sometimes it was just hard to imagine that all these people were incredibly strong fighters and spent their days by training.
While opening the first two buttons of his white blouse, Law marched towards the chair Luffy was impatiently patting on.

After a few minutes of talking and laughing, a dark stature took over the mic after Brook had sung his last song, called "Can I see your panties," The lyrics was ... interesting...
Everyone abruptly stopped talking and turned their faces to the man on the stage, who rapidly tapped his foot on the floor as gesture of impatience.
By narrowing his eyes, Law could see the man taking off his hoodie.

The silence was cut by the loud bawling that went trough the room, people cheered, shouted and clapped in their hands.

"Dragon! Dragon! Dragon!"

Law's eyes widened, it was indeed Dragon. He had recognized the black, spiky hair and the wide, affectionate grin plastered on his friendly face. he barely had eyebrows, although he did have fair stubble on his chin in the form of a goatee.
The red tattoo on the left side of his face impressed Law from the day he met him until now.
But as always, he wore his dark gown which danced around his muscular body.

His grin only widened, the longer everyone applauded. It revealed the deep wrinkles in his forehead; in some sort of way, Luffy looked like his father, although Law guessed (without having seen her) Luffy probably looked just more like his mother.
He lifted his hands, trying to shush the crowd of enthusiastic children.

"Alright, alright," he grinned in his microphone, "I've got an important announcement to make before our dinner starts."

Law was delighted; from the very moment he joined the revolutionaries he looked up to Dragon, although they've only had one or two quick conversations.
He must've been amazingly intelligent, since he was able to lead an entire secret organization without anyone outside this dinning room knowing so.

"First of all," he started as soon as everyone remained silent, "I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas."
Again, everyone applauded, "Yeah, I also have a soft side, okay," he muttered to owner Zeff, who had laughed at his "genteel" talking.

"Okay, okay. Second of all, I feel honored to welcome one of the highest executives who went on a risky mission eighteen months ago and succeeded his plans! Sabo has located the World Government's 'Cipher Pol 9's' main office, feel free to applaud!"

And so they did, every single one of them, but Luffy was the loudest of all of them .
Sabo appeared on the stage, modestly waving the complements away whilst smiling and winking, "Thanks to Sabo and his squad, it may take only a few years before we'll defeat the World Government! This is a huge success for the revolutionary army! Now, let's start the dinner!"

Everyone was full of enthusiasm and singing while slamming with their cutlery on the big table, as if they hadn't eaten for years. Everyone, except for Law. And Kidd. They sat opposite from each other, but the quiet Eustass Kidd from before no longer remained. He had restored his mean smirking and challenging looks.
Something must've happened in such a sort time, but Law didn't bother thinking about it. Until he was reminded to what happened just before he left the guys' bathroom,

"You're going to die

You're going to die."

But he shrugged it off, as soon as Sanji swirled around Nami's chair and gently served her her ravioli which she had liked so much.

"Bon appetite, ," he whispered in her ear whilst pouting his lips.

'Right, food,' thought Law as soon as he saw Luffy stretching his arms to steel the chicken legs from some randomly chosen plates; Law saw a bunch of kids fighting over the roasted potatoes; even some hands grew on the table and grabbed the french buns the cooks had served in reed baskets.
Dinner changed into a chaos, but in some sort of way it awakened the family-ish atmosphere. Law had enjoyed the reactions of upset kids when their seasoned meat was stolen from their plates.
Law grinned at the girls freaking out when hands growing out of their plates stole their buns.
Everything was perfect, he thought as he took a slow bit off his lasagna.
He felt like he finally had the family to whom he wished for for his entire, sad life.
Thinking back of the questions he asked himself earlier, "What is my source of life," Law thought he had his answer set. Yes, his source of life was-

"AAAAAHH!"

A loud shriek sliced trough the laughing crowd. Everyone's eyes widened as soon as they saw what happened: blood flew over Makino's white dress.
"Makino-san!" Yelled Robin, as she sprinted from her seat to Makino's. She was shot, in the heart. She gave no sign of life.
Law's heart sank as he realized it. Makino died.

The once so lively children had now gasped at maid Makino who laid on the floor, no longer remaining.

"EVERYONE, RUN!"

Panicking and screaming, everyone tried to find their way to the exit.
The sound of innocent victims being shot felt like a knife was stabbed in your heart, but going back and trying to save them would worsen the situation.

Law's vision grew hazy, the further he ran. Without being aware of it, he was crying.
Everyone around him stopped running when blood flowed over their fancy garbs.
He suddenly stopped running, realizing it;

"You're going to die ... You're going to die!"

At first he thought the person spoke about him, yet he didn't believe it, but now it made sense, that person referred to all the revolutionaries when he said "you".
He could've prevented it! He could've told Dragon what he had heard before, yet he didn't want to believe him.
His crying, screaming, dying friends ... He was the cause of it.

"LAW, WATCH OUT!" Yelled Luffy when Law collapsed and landed on his knees, people were blindly trying to escape, not realizing they stepped on him . Something ... Or someone had shot him in the leg.
He couldn't remember a gunshot being fired at him, yet he felt like something shot his leg.

Law's vision faded away.
Why did this happen? They were his friends ... They were his family ... Why did this happen?!
Anger flowed through his veins, despair shrouded his mind and his hate against humanity flared.
Everyone who he loved with all his heart died in a matter of a second.

He stood up, what did he have to lose? A family? No, they had died, all of their bodies laid around him, blood covering their once so happy faces.
He charged towards the shape of a shaping human, when a cold hand grabbed his arm.

Dragon ...!

"Hurry and go to the sea train!"

Law hesitated.

"Now!"

Whilst wiping away the tears out of his eye corners, Law stumbled his way to the exit, his leg burning with fierce pain.

He realized it all along, the source of his life was the love of his family.
A family he did not longer have.

A/N: I'm kinda late with it, but I'm saying it anyways: A Happy New Year, everyone!
Okay. For some reason I managed to write this chapter in four days, Thanks to my vacation tho. School is almost starting again, so I'm trying to write as much as I can before I'll get a shit load of homework again (didn't that just rhyme?!)
*sigh,* school is so depressing.
Nya, I shouldn't be complaining. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, honestly, I think it's one of the best chapters for so far. Well, don't forget to follow and favorite it! Reviews might help for sooner updates (~ • 3•)~