The Beast of the Beyond
Chapter. 4 – Eustass Kid
A/N: Of course Law is a brat in this! One shouldn't expect too much out of someone raised by the overly doting Donquixote duo. Hahaha…
Warning: Gore
...
It has been a while since Law last showed his face to the outside world. Kid, who he labeled as a savage animal out of all people, had dared to accuse him of being a spoiled brat. No, it wasn't Kid's fault. He had known all along, he just refused to admit it. Maybe if he kept on denying everything, it won't be true. Law walked to the bathroom and took off his shirt.
'Look at yourself.'
He looked into the mirror and he felt disgusted with what he found. He saw his reflection staring back at him with the eyes of a dead fish. Lifeless and tired. He noticed that the dark circle around his eyes had grown over the past few nights. Even his uncle was beginning to notice and chided his change of behavior after his last meeting with the redhead. Doflamingo had sent him to his room after he launched profanities to Sugar, his adoptive little sister, at the dinner table. He winced at her name. His uncle insisted on that name, because she was just so God damn sweet.
Law did nothing to dispel Kid's accusation of him being spoiled. Even through his massive ego, he was beginning to see the truth of those words, echoing in his sleep.
He grew restless day after day, he got no one to blame but himself. He could either drown in all the hatred towards the world, or he could learn to swim in the murky water. Learning to cope.
Law pressed his forehead to the bathroom mirror, thinking about the last time he threw a tantrum like this. It was after his uncle informed him of his father's passing earlier this year. It wasn't too long ago, but his memory was muddled after he drank himself to oblivion despite Doflamingo's chiding.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." The raven bumped his head to the mirror with each syllable.
He stormed out of his room and this time, leaving his mask behind.
…
He didn't know what got into him, he didn't want to know what was lying in wait if he decided to go through with this. The trail of blood and corpses was not what bothered the raven-haired man, a bloodbath happened beyond the wall. It wasn't like it has never happened before –Heck, he participated in the last one! But why was he back here, after he swore to never come back again? The decision was his to make, whether to follow the path of red, and faced with two possibilities again; either he found the body of the brute, or he would find him with the cocky grin smeared on his face.
What he found at the end of the bloodied path was the answer to one of the numerous questions he threw at the redhead.
There he was, Kid hunched towards a bloodied corpse that he had seemingly dragged away from the rest of the pile.
It was hard to make out what was happening, and so the raven-haired man gingerly stepped closer to the redhead. Upon closer inspection, Law's stomach churned, but at the same time his heart did a little tap dance out of excitement. It was screwed up. Law stood there and watched as Kid sank his fangs into the throat of his victim, pulled the flesh out, chewed, and swallowed. Kid's face was stained with red, matching his flaming hair and paid no heed to the stunned spectator as he ripped apart meat from the bone.
Law knew he should run while he could. Being cannibalized was not what he signed up for, but the sight was so mesmerizing. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. 'Abomination. But does the law even applicable here?'
In the midst of his meal, Kid's golden eyes flashed to regard his visitor, but no more than that to acknowledge his arrival.
Feral.
It was the word that crossed Law's mind as he continued to watch Kid devouring the man's body. So this was how he survived all this while. Committing one's self to the foul act, but in all honesty, who could blame him? Out here, the only law that was enforced was the law of nature, it was the survival of the fittest, to kill or be killed.
The silver gleam of a hunting knife caught Kid's attention as he found Law crouched in front of him, aiming the blade at Kid's throat. The redhead continued to chew, and greeted Law with a deadpan look, unimpressed, as if saying 'you're not the first one to try to kill me today.'
Law stabbed his knife into the lifeless body, and earned himself a questioning look from the redhead.
"It'd be a task to chew through the ligament."
Golden eyes met their silver counterpart, spotted with uncertainty. After a long while of silence and Kid finished his meal, the redhead washed down the metallic taste of blood with a bottle of murky water before he began speaking.
"Are you not afraid of me?" His voice was raspy, either from disuse or the 'food' he just consumed.
"Are you going to eat me too?"
Kid found the question amusing. Would he want to eat the man? "No."
"Then, no."
'Cheeky brat.'
"Why are you back?"
"You told me I was spoiled, that didn't sit well with me." Law swallowed, he felt a lump in the back of his throat and the sudden urge to punch the light out of the redheaded freak before him.
"Yeah. Is that why you're back here without your fancy mask?"
"Might be."
"Hah."
"What's so funny?"
Law stared at Kid, bracing himself for insults that never came.
"You've grown balls since I last saw you, boy. I like that." Kid flashed his teeth with a grin, still somewhat tainted with blood. Still, there was no humor in his eyes.
"I don't care much for your likes and dislikes." It wasn't entirely true. This past month, he has been fixated on the redheaded outcast. Piecing together the puzzle in his brain to find out the man he was. Like a kid getting to know a mutt he just picked up from the corner of the street.
"Then why are you back out here? You wanted answer on how I survived, you got it. I EAT PEOPLE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" He started to yell, even after months of living like this, he still couldn't get used to it. Couldn't, wouldn't, and shouldn't.
Law jumped to his feet, his instinct to fight or flight was triggered, damn, he shouldn't have given Kid his knife.
"Now that you know, do you think you'd be able to flee the city and live like I do?" There was a tone in Kid's voice. Not utterly unfamiliar, though it was unbefitting for the man. Was it, shame?
"No, I suppose not." Law answered, alerted by Kid's sudden outburst. Clearly, it was a sensitive subject when it came to the abominable act.
Law found it oddly amusing that this time around, the brute was the one with the questions and Law with the vague answers. Silence returned once again to the junkyard, but before it set too long, Law spoke up.
"You asked me why I was back here."
Law looked at the redhead, still seated in the pool of blood.
"I would reason that it was for-" Where was he going with this? Law himself didn't know. He came for an answer? Revenge? Confirmation? On what? He came for Kid, but he sure as hell was not gonna say that. So, he decided that he went for the truth. "Fuck it. To be frank, I have no fucking idea, mister Eustass."
Kid stared at him, picking at the dry skin of his chapped lips, but question him no further on the raven's motive. If he wanted to tell, he would spill it, but if he won't, no amount of convincing would do Kid any good.
"Maybe there were still answers that I have yet to get from you."
Always in a quest for answers, but one has to know what question to ask, and one has to be prepared for the answers it held.
"Who are you, mister Eustass?"
…
"What do you want here, kiddo? Run along!" The boy staggered as he was pushed aside by a burly man carrying a large wooden box. Little Eustass Kid stared around in awe of the machine around him, and the large men tending to their stations. It was simply a work of art to be marveled at. The boy hoped that one day he could be one of them, a part of a well-oiled machine, a part of the functioning member of society.
"Please, sir. Do you have any work for me to do?" Kid pleaded to the foreman, raising his voice above the churning and clanking of the factory machine.
"Go away, boy. Ye ain't got no qualification to work here. Besides, we don't employ minors." The man didn't even bother to look up.
Persistent little brat he was, he came to the factory every day to ask for a job. His golden eyes, hopeful and determined. A boy who picked up a broom when no one's watching, and began to clean when no one asked. A week after, the factory gained a new broom boy.
Whatever happened to that little boy, even Kid himself didn't know. He wouldn't recognize himself if he find a mirror in the dump.
"Dead man walking." He answered, finally.
He recalled that he wanted to make something out of his life, to be a part of the society. A society that discarded him, spat him out and left him to death. It was already too late when he realized how broken the system was. How there were leeway in the law, favoring, and covering for the rich.
"Maybe to the city, but not to me." Said Law.
"As I said, Eustass Kid is dead." Kid repeated with the air of finality.
Law sighed at Kid's refusal to answer his question and he began to feel very conscious of the blue sky above and the fact that he wasn't wearing his mask. Out of the blue, he remembered a stupid saying his father told him every time he buried his nose in books.
"Behind the gritted teeth of each and every skull of a dead man, there is a tale to be told…"
"…for the truth etched in bones are truer than the black of ink, bloomed from hands of men." Kid finished the quote, to Law's surprise. He didn't take Kid for the educated kind, it was pleasant to know that his assumption was off. There was more to the redhead than he let on.
"Do you read, mister Eustass?"
Kid blinked.
"Don't take me as an imbecile. I may not have high education-"
"NOT what I meant." Law stopped Kid before he started to rant. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and rubbed his eyes. "Forget about it." He sighed.
"You reminded me of someone." The raven muttered to himself.
Kid caught that, and the alarm inside his mind went off. He was steering too dangerously close to the relation, to a man of whom they both knew. Sometimes, ignorance was indeed, bliss. Should Kid decide to tell Law the truth of the man he buried, the raven would never be able to walk into the city the same man.
'Truth is a burden he need not know.'
Those were his last words.
'Donquixote Rocinante.'
Dare he spoke of his name in front of his son? He has considered it. Of course the consequences would not be his to bear, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself. The men sent through the door, banished, he needed to kill. But getting Law, the son of the man to whom he was indebted, killed would be a major stab to his conscience.
"Eustass Kid, was a convict." The redhead said at last, though still in debate with himself.
"That is all I will say for today."
Law raised his eyebrow. Would the redhead cave at last?
"Tomorrow, I will give you another piece." Kid was careful, to not let anything slip. He was unsure if the entity perched on his shoulder, screaming for him to spill was an angel or a devil. All he knew was that the air was too tense with a thickness he could cut with a knife.
"For a price."
"Name it." Said Law, without so much as a bit of hesitation on his part. Silver eyes gleaming like a knife, sharp and determined. It was a shame that Law kept that pretty little face hidden behind his mask. The redhead was blessed to see it only by chance and each time with a different expression.
Fear, anger, and determination.
He wanted to see what else those pretty eyes hold. Dark brows, always furrowed with worries, maybe it'd do them good to relax for once.
"Kiss me." Kid blurted out, hoping to catch Law off guard.
Law blinked, his nose wrinkled in disdain. Kid wouldn't blame him. What a fine setting did they have over there. Crouched on the bloodstained ground, with half a corpse rotting away under the sun in between. The more Kid observed the changes in Law's expression, the more certain he became that a slap to the face was in order. His leg muscle was twitching in anticipation to jump out of arm's reach. But the offense never came, neither did the kiss.
"Name the price." Law repeated, as if the last sixty seconds did not happen.
Kid began to laugh, a deep rumbling laugh in his stomach. He admired the gall of the man who sat before him. He rubbed the tear out of the corner of his eyes, and finally, said with a smile, "You really are something, boy."
"Name. Your. Price." Law repeated, with less patience and as if on cue, his silver eyes turned stormy.
"Go to a bar in the East Blue district, named the Massacre's Pub." Kid's smile turned bitter, as he reminisced the days he used to spend passed out on the floor of said bar.
"You want me to bring you something from there?"
"Yes. The house blend, Captain Kid. Named after me, you can try it if you like, pack quite a punch."
Law gave the man a silent nod, and got up to leave. But before doing so, for the first time ever, Law turned and looked Kid in the eye. He shifted between his legs awkwardly, shifted his attention to a red spot on the ground and mumbled something. The raven-haired man heaved a deep breath, hopped on his ride and raced back to the wall.
The redhead on the other hand, was left staring blankly. He couldn't hear what Law said, but he could've sworn on Roci's grave that Law just muttered an apology.
The redhead huffed in disbelieve, and looked over his shoulder, towards the horizon.
"You were right Roci, he has a way to grow on you, that fucker."
…
TBC
A/N: Now it's getting to the interesting part. Stay tuned and let me know what you think about this chapter! Thanks for reading and have a good day, folks!