Law cursed his life as he chased around a giggling Luffy. This was all Shanks' fault, the bastard had gone sailing to do pirate stuff for a week. That in itself wasn't bad, sure Cora-san was a bit mopey that his boyfriend was gone, but other than that, nothing bad had come of it. No, the bad part was when the red-headed bastard came back. He'd brought Luffy candy. Not only was candy bad for you, but Luffy now had enough energy to power around fifty marine bases.
He supposed it was his own stupidity that he was watching Luffy. He'd taken one look at how happy Cora-san was to see the pirate, and he'd offered to play with Luffy so that they could "catch up." Which had made Shanks laugh, and Corazon blush.
He watched as Luffy climbed a tree and jumped onto a roof close to it. "Never again. Fucking banning candy." he muttered as he ran after the ball of energy. He stayed on the ground as he ran along the houses following Luffy's erratic rooftop sprint.
He felt his heart stop as Luffy slipped and came crashing down, "Shit!" he cussed as he ran to catch the kid. They collided with a painful thud. Law dumped Luffy off of him, and started his room, running a diagnostic on him. When he found out that nothing was wrong he let out the breath he'd been holding. Relief flooding him that the idiot was safe. He frowned, when had he started really caring about the Monkey. Damn it, he didn't want to deal with this. He only needed to care about Cora-san, and his Jii-chan he supposed. Now he had Luffy, and Baka Shanks too.
He saw Luffy make a move to run off again, so he stole Luffy's legs. "Stay still you brat. You could have broken your neck, or died. Think of how that would have made your Grampa, or Shanks, or Cora-san feel? Or me? Did you even think of that you idiot?" he hissed.
Luffy looked at his older friend. The thirteen year old looked exasperated, and upset. Luffy started to sniffle. "S-sorry T-torao. I'm s-sorry." he said, big fat tears started to roll down his cheeks. "I'll be more careful, so can I have my legs back? I p-promise not to run on rooftops anymore." he said.
Law sighed, and put Luffy's legs back on. Luffy stood up then threw his arms around Law's neck, and hugged him tightly. Law froze. His brain forgot what to do, and his eyes searched around frantically until he saw Shanks' first mate Ben miming putting arms around someone and hugging. Law brought up his hands, and hugged Luffy back. His panic disappeared. Luffy pulled away and smiled at him before running off. He was being exaggeratedly careful, but Law felt it was better than earlier.
He walked over to where Ben was smoking a cigarette, "Thank you Beckmann-san." he said bowing his head slightly.
Ben looked down at the teenager. The kid always looked so serious. "No problem. You can call me Ben though. Why'd you look so panicked?" he asked, dropping his cigarette, and stomping it out. His captain was dating the kid's dad, but he, the first mate, had never actually talked to Law before.
"When he hugged me, I forgot what to do. I haven't had anyone hug me like that since Lamie..." he dropped off, his eyes turned shadowed. Flevance still haunted him.
Ben saw the shadows and frowned. A kid shouldn't have that look. It rubbed him wrong. "Come sit over here with me Law. We haven't ever talked before." he said, and motioned to a shady spot where they could sit in peace, but Law could still watch Luffy.
Law shrugged and did as he was bid. He didn't see any harm in it. He was tired of chasing Luffy anyways. He'd been doing it for hours already. He sat down in the shade, and looked up at Ben as the man sat next to him, already lighting another cigarette. "What do you wish to talk about Ben-ya?" he asked.
The older man glanced down at the teen, and a small smile tilted his lips, "Anything. My captain has fallen in love with your dad. By our crew's standards, that makes you family. Welcome to it by the way." he said then took a long drag on his smoke.
Law groaned, "My family is becoming too complicated. High ranking Marines and powerful pirates. My life used to be so simple. My parents were doctors, and my entire city was dying of poisoning. It was simple. Search for a cure, and hope you found it before you died. Now its all 'My brother wants to kill you and me, Law' and 'Don't tell Sengoku that his son has fallen in love with a pirate.' Let's not forget the whole 'You can be what ever you want to be Law, but if you become a pirate or a revolutionary, your grandfather will hunt you down, and you will most likely be executed.' thing. And now I am having a conversation with the first mate of Akagami no Shanks, who will very likely become my Okaa-san before too long." he said, then looked Ben in the eye. "Thanks for the welcome." he said as though he hadn't just had a mini-rant about family.
Ben started laughing, "Oh God. I hadn't thought about it like that. Shanks as the mother. That's great." he laughed so hard that he had to hold his stomach, "I haven't laughed this hard in years!" he said.
Law was a bit stunned, then he started laughing too. He found himself thinking, for the first time, that maybe having a family wasn't so bad, even a large, crazy family.
