Their meeting at airport was filled with chatter and laughter, after they realized that they were making a scene in the middle of the airport they decided to leave. The drive home was loud and rowdy. Luffy was excited to see Sabo again. He hadn't come back ever since last year when he had sent him a message. Sabo told them he had souvenirs for them and would give them as soon as they got home which made him even more ecstatic. The drive seemed short and when they started pulling up they noticed Garp's car in the drive way. Sabo came to a slow crawl infant of the house.
"How about we go out for lunch today?" Sabo suggested in a nervous tone. Luffy and Ace nodded quickly as Sabo sped away. Every time Sabo came over he made sure he was the one driving the siblings around, which Luffy didn't get because they usually managed just fine driving themselves.
"Where should we go?" Sabo asked sparing them a quick glance.
"Sanji!" Luffy said excitedly. Ace and Sabo both laughed at his enthusiasm.
"I guess we could do that. It's been a while since I've seen him." Sabo said thoughtfully after he finished laughing. Luffy caught himself drooling a bit just by thinking of all the delicious things he was going to try to eat once they got to the restaurant. His attention started drifting towards all the menu dishes that could be possibilities in the near future. Ace and Sabo's chatter became background noise as his thoughts started steering into a different direction than food. He thought about spotted hats and hints of shinning gold.
"Oi Luffy! Are you going to get out?" Ace asked as he popped in front of him. Luffy jumped at the sudden movements.
"Food?! Where?!" Luffy looked around and realized that they were parked in front of the Baratie. He got out of the car quickly and made his way to the front door, straw hat trailing behind him. Ace and Sabo looked at each other for a brief moment before following after him. By the time they had caught up with Luffy they could see he was already making a ruckus with one of the hostesses.
"We have to wait?" Luffy whined. The hostess looked troubled and tried to nicely tell Luffy that it wouldn't be that long. Luffy tried not to look so defeated.
"Oh my dear don't worry about this neanderthal I will take care of it." Sanji's flattering voice came up from behind her. The waitress blushed a bit and nodded. "Oi, idiot, don't make such a racket every time you come."
"Sanji!" Luffy cried out as he ran up to him earning himself a kick to the face from said chef. "Hurry up and make some food I'm starving." Luffy urged him earning him another kick.
"Fine. Come o- Sabo?" Sanji had finally noticed the third brother standing behind Ace. "Sabo it is you!" Sanji walked up to him and shook his hand. "It's been a while!" Sanji enjoyed both of the older brothers company because they were always polite and well mannered a complete opposite to the energetic ball called their younger brother.
"It's been a while Sanji." Sabo said pleasantly. After they got the pleasantries out of the way Sanji ushered them to a table in the back. Sanji secretly liked to keep a table open for his friends in case any of them drop by, everyone knew but just chose to keep quiet. They got settled down and started scanning the menu's that Sanji placed in front of them. They bickered for a while unavailable to come to a decision for the opening course. Sanji huffed in annoyance and just took the menus from them grumbling as he left for the kitchen.
"Wait Sanji! I haven't decided what to get yet!" Luffy exclaimed after him.
"Shut up moron I'll bring you something in a bit." Sanji's voice came from the kitchen. Some people chuckled at the exchange politely while others looked right out amused by the shenanigans of their little group. Sabo himself was holding back a chuckle. He had missed his brothers.
"Settle down Luffy and let Sanji do what he does best." Ace finally said growing tired with the sad glances Luffy kept throwing the kitchen. Sabo watched some more with a fond smile as his brothers started bickering back and forth. They only stopped bickering when Sanji came back with a lot of different plates filled with all kinds of different dishes. Sanji visibly flinch when he saw Luffy and Ace start to drool. He tried to quickly place the plates on the table but not before kicking Luffy a few times. He watched them dig into their food with a passion that only the brothers could manage, even Sabo.
The time in the restaurant went by in a flash and soon the brothers were full and patting down their belies. They all left contempt sighs and just enjoyed the feeling of being full until Luffy started to get restless. Sabo got up to pay the bill followed by his brothers. Sanji watched the brothers walk out, it never ceased to amuse him when he caught sight of the three brothers together. They were as different as their hats and yet so similar it was scary sometimes.
Sabo slipped into the driver seat while Ace rode shotgun leaving Luffy to take the back seat again. The atmosphere in the car quickly changed into a gloomy one when they settled down. They knew Garp was home and didn't want to see him yet, however, they could not evade it forever. The drive to the house felt extremely short and Luffy wasn't looking forward to seeing the old man again.
When they arrived the it was getting dark and the living room lights were on. Sabo swallowed loudly. The last time Sabo had come over he had been in a hurry and didn't have enough time exchange pleasantries with the man; He was mentally trying to prepare himself for the worst.
"We're home old man!" Luffy called out when he crashed into the house rapidly making his way upstairs and into the safety of his room. Ace and Sabo were not as lucky as him. Luffy could hear Garp from his room saying something to his brothers. He plopped down on the bed feeling a bit drained from the days events. He could feel his stomach start to rumble and groaned. Food sounded good right about now, he still had room in his stomach for a bit more dessert, but he didn't want to risk running into Garp at the moment. He curled into his bed and yawned.
"Luffy dinner time!" Luffy felt himself being jolted awake by Ace's shout from outside his room. He quickly jumped out of the bed and zipped passed Ace and ran towards the kitchen in search of the delectable smell that filled his nostrils. He didn't remember when but at some point he had fallen asleep. Sabo and Garp were already at the table digging into the food. Luffy grabbed a plate and proceeded to pile food onto it.
"Don't eat it all!" Ace told Luffy as soon as he got inside the dinning room and then proceeded to do the same thing Luffy had done moments earlier with the food. Garp gave them all a quiet look and then just dug in into his food. Dinner was loud and quiet at the same time; it seemed like always, however, there was a bit of tension underneath that even Luffy could sense. He finished eating and quickly went back to his room. He knew it was bad to leave Sabo face Garp's wrath by himself but he had other things in his mind.
He sat down the desk that sat by his window and pulled out his laptop from his discarded backpack. He knew that his paper wasn't due until next week but with Garp being here there was no way he could go out at this time. Resigned to do homework he quickly opened his word software and started to think of what to type. He swiped over and opened his search engine determined to start looking up reference material for his paper.
He typed in a few different articles and wrote down a few reference points however after ten minutes of that he found himself researching a certain doctor in the city. Surprisingly the search came up empty with the search word being 'Torao.' Luffy gave an impatient huff and tried typing 'Tra-guy," which also came up empty. Realizing what he was doing Luffy shut off his computer and stepped out of his room with the intent of getting a snack.
"So tell me what did you come here for?" Garp's strong voice floated up from the living room.
"What? I can't come see my brother's whenever I want?" Sabo's quiet voice questioned slightly defensive.
"Yes you can, however, this time you brought luggage with the intention to stay. Remember thought I might be old you brat it doesn't mean I don't see what's going on." Garp grunted. Luffy could hear Sabo sigh.
"I am honestly here to see Luffy and Ace." Some silence followed that statement until Sabo continued. "I guess I might also be on a small assignment which requires Ace's connections-" Luffy hadn't realized that he was leaning a little too far and managed to stub his toe on the corner of the stair case. Before he could make a sound there was a hand over his mouth and saw Ace give him a quiet signal and motion towards his room. Luffy nodded and made his way back towards his room.
"So my connections, huh?" was the last thing Luffy heard as he closed the door and threw himself on his bed curling up. His foot hurt and he wanted to know more about what Sabo was doing here. He shrugged and felt sleep crawling up on him. He was never really good with thinking about things that people deemed 'complicated' because there was no reason for them to be complicated. Simple and straightforward was always the way to solve everything.
Luffy felt himself be awaken the next morning by the raging growls his stomach was making. He jumped out of bed and catching a small whiff of something in the air. Running quickly towards the smell of food in the kitchen he recognized a specific scent. There was something really familiar to it that he loved.
"Sanji's food!" he exclaimed happily. He saw Sanji surrounded by a lot of different dishes and started to reach for whatever was nearest to him. Sanji smacked his hand with a stick he kept around the Monkey household for such occasions and glared at him. Sanji dropped by to cook their meals every now and then thanks to Garp hiring him as a part time cook whenever he wasn't home knowing full well the disaster Luffy and Ace could cause in the kitchen. Luffy enjoyed coming home on the weekends for this sole reason; Even though they were roommates somehow the food was always so much fancier and plentiful at home than at the dorms.
"You touch something when I'm not done yet, I swear I will make sure to kick your ass to next year." Sanji threatened. Luffy pouted and slowly walked back to the dinning room where he sat down still pouting. "Are you coming back to the dorms today?" Sanji asked glancing upstairs for a brief second. Luffy nodded vigorously.
"Is Sanji here today?" Sabo's sleepy voice cut through their conversation he was followed by a very sleepy looking Ace.
"Good morning to you." Sanji said as he meticulously worked in the kitchen. He received a few grunts so he placed some coffee in front of the two brothers and a cup of juice in front of Luffy. They each took their cup happily before taking a sip. Sanji could easily see the two older brothers starting to perk up with the help of the coffee.
Slowly the brother's started making small talk after a few seconds of waking up with the coffee. Soon their small talk turned to a full blown out brother's squabble about something that Sanji couldn't possibly bring himself to care about. The chattered died abruptly when he heard the brother's cry in pain, sparing a quick glance from the sizzling dish he was working on, he saw Garp taking a seat not the other side of the table grumbling as he unfolded the newspaper. The brothers sat there letting small whines of pain and Sanji saw that as his cue to start serving breakfast.
Once again the dinning room became loud with the sounds of viciously devoured food. No matter how many times he saw Luffy he could still not get over seeing all three brothers together with their monster appetite. Either way it made him happy to see the brothers always enjoyed his food. Breakfast went by quickly and Luffy rushed back up stairs and gathered all his belongings and went out to Sanji's car in record time.
"Bye Mr. Garp, Ace, Sabo." Sanji waved goodbye and drove away with Luffy bouncing in his seat. "I take it you couldn't get away from Garp fast enough?" Sanji joked. Luffy shrugged.
"He just goes on and on about him wanting us to be well standing members of society with res-resapn-respossss."
"Okay I get it." Sanji cut him off sure that if he didn't Luffy was going to hurt himself somehow. Luffy was eager to get back to the dorm and take a nap and maybe eat some more. When they got back to the dorm the stumbled upon Nami and Robin hanging outside of the dorms with a very disgruntled Zoro.
"Nami swan! Dear Robin!" Sanji called out as soon as he got out of the car. Luffy could never understand why Sanji acted different towards the girls but he supposed if that made him happy then there was nothing wrong with it. He joined them where they seemed to have a very animated chat about something that didn't seem that interesting. He started to doze off until he felt someone start to pull him inside the dorms.
In the end his dorm was crowded with almost everyone except Brook, who was busy with some gig, Franky, they already knew Sunday's were not usually good for him, and Robin, who left early due to a busy morning schedule the next day. The rest of the guys enjoyed playing around well into midnight until everyone started to go back home or to their dorms. Luffy barely remembered being hustled into his room half awake. Luffy never got tired of hanging out with their friends and treasured every time they spent together.
The following week was full of classes and track practice, by the end of the week he could practically feel himself wanting to do something fun. He was on his way back to the dorms with Zoro after walking around for half an hour, to what was supposed to be a five minute walk, to the dorm, Luffy felt something vibrate on his shorts' pocket. Everyone always seemed to look at him curiously with his shorts and sandals but he had grown used to it. He knew Ace and him had higher body temperature than most so it was a bit harder for them to be cold, hence the need for Ace to walk around shirtless most of the time. Luffy could relate there. It was Thursday and he was already wanting to go home now that he knew that Garp was gone again and he could hangout with Sabo in peace.
"Huh..? Yeah? This is Monkey D. Luffy the man who will be king of the pirates!" Luffy exclaimed into the phone. He fumbled around with his phone a bit until he could hear the person on the other side properly.
"…recently?" the voice ended with a questioning tone.
"Huh… What?" Luffy asked confused.
"It's me Killer. I was wondering if you had seen Law recently?" Killer asked with a bit of concern.
"Torao? Hmmm… not since…" Luffy blushed slightly remembering how he woke up next to him and then about the parking lot moment. "No I haven't seen him since that time at the restaurant?"
"Is that meant to be a question Luffy?" Killer asked a bit confused with Luffy's response.
"No sorry I haven't seen him recently." Luffy answered blush vanishing with his previous thoughts. "Why is there something wrong?" Luffy asked with a serious tone.
"We're not really sure yet. I got a call from Penguin and he said that Law hasn't shown up for work this week. We're about to go drop by his apartment." Killer ended with a sigh.
"Can I go to?" Luffy asked. He wasn't sure what was going on but he needed to make sure Law was alright in person.
"Yeah that'll be fine. Are you at the college right now?" Killer asked him.
"Yeah." Luffy replied a bit lost.
"Okay meet us by the entrance we're on our way." Killer hung up after that. Luffy was left there unsure of what to do first. He looked at Zoro who just rolled his eyes and stretched out his hand.
"Give me your backpack I'll take it back to the dorm." Luffy smiled widely and pushed his backpack into Zoro's waiting hand and ran towards the college entrance to wait for Killer. When he got there he started wondering who else might be with Killer at this moment. More importantly where was Law? Was he missing? Had something happened to him? Should they even be concern?
He sat down by the parking lot on the sidewalk. There were times where Ace would leave the house for several days at a time and came back just fine afterwards. Even Sabo who was gone months always came back fine. Garp wasn't even most of the time. He wasn't sure if maybe his family was the one that wasn't normal at this point. He shrugged to himself. It didn't matter as long as they were always together in the end.
"Space out a lot recently?" Luffy jumped from the sudden intrusion on his thoughts. He looked up and saw Kid smiling at him from the inside of a blue decked out jeep.
"No." Luffy answered with a bit of a pout. Kid smirked at him and motioned for him to get on. He climbed into the car and they sped off.
"We have nothing to worry about." Luffy said after a few minutes of being quiet.
"Yeah Law can take care of himself." Kid agreed.
"Well Penguin seems to be in a fuss and doesn't have a key to Law's apartment like we do so he asked that we at least drop by." Killer said while he skillfully weaved between cars on the road.
"He's fine. Penguin just likes to be in everyones business… like someone else I know…" Kid muttered the last part quietly.
"What was that?" Killer asked sparing a quick glance at Kid.
"Nothing. Oh look at that we have arrived." Kid smirked and got out of the car as soon as Killer parked. Luffy and Killer followed right behind him into the apartment building. Luffy noticed everyone giving them weird looks. They made the way towards the elevator and pressed the button until they heard the ding.
"Luffy?" Nami's shocked voiced startled him. "What are you doing here? Today isn't the day we're supposed to feed you is it?"
"Is Sanji here?" Luffy asked.
"No." Nami answered.
"Aw. No meat." Luffy said disappointed. Someone cleared their throat behind them and Nami visibly paled.
"The elevator is about to close." Killer said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"L-Luffy who are your friends?" Nami asked in a shaken voice. Kid snorted and Killer tried not to laugh out loud. People's reactions to them was always a riot when Kid didn't beat the shit out of them.
"Oh! Nami they are Kid and Killer we're here to see Torao." Luffy explained easily. Nami liked and hated that side of Luffy because he never explained things properly leaving them with the enigma of trying to figure out what he meant..
"Your friends are very interesting…hehehe…Hello." Luffy's friends never ceased to amaze her, sometimes she wondered where Luffy found all his friends. "I'm Nami Luffy's friend." She offered her hand although a bit shaky. They shook hands and she realized that maybe one of them should pressed a button in the elevator and get out instead of holding it up. "Did you say that you were here to see Law?" Nami asked after all the pleasantries were out of the way.
"Yeah. Freaking Penguin said he hasn't been showing up for work recently." Kid answered in a bored tone.
"Now that you mentioned it I haven't seemed him for a few days." Nami said as if thinking out loud to herself. The elevator's doors opened at Law's floor and they all stepped out. Nami wasn't sure why she went with them but figured this was going to be more interesting than going out shopping for the moment. Luffy and Nami let Kid lead the way towards Law's door where he pulled out a key ring filled with a lot of different kinds of keys.
"Ahem." Killer pushed Kid out of the way and quickly unlocked the door.
"Since when do you have a key?" Kid accused.
"You were taking too long." Killer stepped into the apartment. Nami's eyes went wide. The apartment was gorgeous almost as good as Robin's except it felt a bit inhabited. Killer and Kid walked around the apartment for a bit leaving Nami and Luffy in the leaving room. Luffy was at a lost on what to do while Nami just gawked at the place.
"Killer I think we have a problem." Kid said after he returned from one of the hallways. Killer who had been in the kitchen just let out a sound of confirmation. "I think there is something wrong, maybe Penguin was right to be concerned." They went back into the living room and saw Kid flash something in front of them. It was Law's cellphone and car keys.
"You're right the trash hasn't even been taken out in while." Killer reported.
"There is also some dirty laundry and no signs that Law has been here in a while. His work stuff is still here." Kid motioned towards the bags that were on the couch. "Bepo is nowhere to be seen either." Killer's eyes landed on Nami and Luffy who looked a bit confused at his words.
"Law likes to keep his house very neat, so this for him would be dirty, and Bepo his dog is nowhere to be seen." Killer explained. Luffy just picked his nose while Nami looked a bit thoughtful.
"Then could we assume he's been missing for a while then?" She finally asked after a few seconds.
"Not sure. Give me a second." Killer took Law's phone from Kid's hand and walked towards the only sofa in the living room retrieving something from beside it.
"Should we be touching his things?" Nami asked a bit skeptical.
"On normal circumstances no, however, being that he is not here at the moment to bitch about it I see no harm." Killer said with a wicked grin. Luffy smiled back and gave small laugh. Nami opted to shake her head and just focus on whatever Killer was doing with the small device.
They heard a faint sound as the phone came to life and waited until the phone finished turning on to start messing with it until it started vibrating non stop. All sorts of voice mails and messages started popping up. Killer waited until the phone stop vibrating uncontrollably to finally scroll through it. "It would seem that he didn't check any of the texts and voicemail since Friday."
"Then we can assumed he hasn't been home since Friday?" Nami asked. Kid scratched his head and pondered for a while longer while Nami waked around the apartment. Law really did have a nice apartment. Clean well furnished and stylish. It almost seemed like it was from one of the tv shows that often televised homes on sale. She started opening some rooms until she stumbled on what seemed like Law's room. She smiled to herself and was about to enter when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Kid's voice was low and full of suspicion. She turned around slowly afraid that if she made one wrong move she would be skinned alive.
"I just wanted to see if anything looked out of place just in case he was robbed." Nami said a bit nervously. Kid glared at her and Nami could feel sweat starting to form on her forehead.
"Don't go in there. Law hates intruders." Reaching around her he closed the door shut and walked away. Nami sighed and followed after him. When they went back into the living room Killer was on the phone with Luffy nowhere to be seen.
CRASH
"The hell?!"Kid exclaimed running into the kitchen. What he saw was utter chaos. The kitchen looked like it was ravaged completely and in the middle of it there was luffy with a broken cup. He stared at them with a sheepish look face not knowing what to do until Nami went over there and smacked him on the head.
"Luffy what are you doing?" She screeched. Kid was just gaping at him. Luffy rubbed where he was hit and whined about something but stopped when Killer walked in to the room. Luffy noticed Killer shake his head before going back to the conversation he was having.
"Well I guess all we have to do is come tomorrow to confirm that he is still missing since we don't know exactly when he went missing and I doubt we can give the police a repot until we are sure he's been missing for 48 hours." Killer said to the other person on the line. Kid gave a low growl at that. Killer seem unperturbed by Kid's actions and continued his conversation as if he Kid wasn't in the room. "Who knows maybe Law will show up by tomorrow." Killer's shoulder made a half shrug gesture. Kid just glared the kind of glare he used on people to scare them away. Nami shivered a bit and noticed that Killer was either used to it or just didn't care for it.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Kid demanded after he hung up. Killer let out and incredibly long sigh at that and looked as he was about to speak to a child instead of a full grown, terrifying, man.
"Think about it for a second before you do something rash. I remember about you telling me that he used to pull shit like this before so before you go out and look for him wait until tomorrow when we are certain he is gone alright?" Killer said with a tone full of exasperation. Kid looks like he could careless what Killer has to say but before he can say anything he is interrupted by Nami.
"Killer is right on this one. Anyways someone needs to stay the night here in case law can't get inside his apartment." Luffy instantly raises his hand. and Nami rolls her eyes. "Luffy you can't skip practice tomorrow." Nami points out. Luffy pouts a bit but suddenly he gets a look on his face that only spells trouble.
"Buuuut Nami Traffy is missing!" Luffy whined and she just gets the sudden urge to smack him into next week.
"Who is your coach tomorrow?"
"Kuzan." He responds after a bit of what Nami likes to think as 'painful thinking' on Luffy's part because of the way he scrunches up his face.
"You never told us you played a sport." Killer interjects a bit interested. He guessed that explained how Luffy could eat and still not gain weight.
"I do track." Luffy answers with a shrug.
"That is the only thing you are good at if you ask me." Nami mumbles and Luffy just laughs. "That's how he's going to college, through a track scholarship, other than that I'm pretty sure he would fail if it wasn't for all of us helping in everything else." Kid just lets out an impressed whistle.
"I guess take out is in order then," Killer said after he's done staring at Luffy up and down, "we'll drop you off after that at home." Luffy looks bit put out after hearing that. "You're welcome to come back tomorrow and check in case Law comes back. We'll be here." Luffy gives a quick nod at that.
Killer orders Chinese which seemed to delight Luffy to no ends, anything having to do with food always delighted him. They ate, surprisingly with Luffy around, quietly and Nami couldn't help but feel the unanswered questions in the air. Where was Law? Was he really missing? Is he ever going to comeback?
After the food was done, rather fast thanks to Luffy trying to steal from everyone else, Killer decided to drive Luffy back to the dorms. Nami said her goodbyes and went back to the apartment she shared with Robin. Kid was left to clean up the mess that they had left. He went about it quietly and cautiously not wanting to have an accidental spill or an even bigger mess in Law's apartment. He knew that if he did that Law would bitch at him for days. Where are you ya bastard? Kid wondered.
Kid thought back to their college days when they had just met and about his first impression of Law. They had met at an underground motorcycle racing match. Law had won having pulled the most ridiculous and dangerous stunt at the last curb with the cops on their tail. He clearly remembered thinking that Law was one crazy motherfucker. Shaking his head with a small smile at the past he finished cleaning all the mess he sat down and let out a long tired sigh. He knew what he must look like, overreacting and stuff, but he knew the kind of things Law had done in the past and was just simply scared for him and there were a few things that could scare Kid. Hell he didn't even go by Law when he met him. He went by another name which had puzzled the hell out of Kid at first until he heard his story.
Kid sat up abruptly and went to the kitchen in search for some alcohol to help him relax. After rummaging for a few minutes he finally found something suited to his taste and went back to the living room. He needed to relax and trust in Law. He briefly wondered if his actions were hurting Killer.
He had told Killer about Law, with Law's permission of course, which he had seemed to take in stride. He even told him about their brief hookup in college making several assurances later that he was not in love with Law but did feel overprotective of him like an older brother. He took another swing at the bottle in his hands and closed his eyes.
"Drinking already?" Killer mused. Kid opened his eyes heavy with sleep. He looked around until he finally focused on Killer and saw that he had blankets in his hands. Kid groaned and just got comfortable on the couch; they knew better than to use Law's bed. He felt Killer drape the blanket on him and turn off the lights. Kid heard more rustling somewhere near him and then a contempt sigh left out by Killer.
"You know he can take care of himself. I'm sure he's alright." Killer's voice was low and Kid sincerely hoped for Law's sake that he was right.
I know I'm trash and haven't updated in a while but I had to rewrite this chapter twice because I was stuck with a block. So here have a chapter. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and support. I would reply to them but I get really nervous about. Anyways please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. I love comments.
