WOOP! MIDNIGHT WRITING!

Hello~!

I tried to update a bit faster this time because I know I will be a bit busier the rest of May so~ ( - v - )

I'm so grateful for all of the diligent reviewers and follows/favorites I have! If any of you guys have exams coming up I wish you the best of luck! (Or a lot of school projects, or a lot of stress at work.) :)

Onto the reviews:

NobodyOriginal: Oh, the hints will come sooner or later ;3 And you will get to know about Smoker as well~ :) Oh! I'm glad you like my characterizations! I'm usually not very good at writing characters, but I try my best! Thanks for the lovely review~ :3

rain aiden: Hahaha! x) And yeah, Sabo was quite an ass in the last chapter.. Thanks for leaving a review! It means a lot to me! :3

nachtwolke: And I'm sure the brothers will solve their fight sooner of later! The all love each other too much to stay like that forever :) Ahh~! Thanks for the awesome compliments and for the wonderful review~ ( u v u )

hiddlover69: here is chapter 10... ;)

yukiko hyuga-chan: You're right. Fights are always bad. But I'm sure they will solve it! ;3 Kidd trying to do stuff is always a bit funny ;D Aahh~! Thank you so much~! :)

I hope people will like this chapter! And if you have time, I'd really appreciate a small review! :)

~Enjoy~

Zoro usually trained his thoughts away. A few sets of push-ups or HIIT-running would make him forget all about whatever dominated him mind, making him unable to completely relax. It was only when his entire body was sweating and moving, exhausted and high on adrenaline when he forgot everything. Only then, he was able to forget all about homework, complicated coordination training schedules and Sanji.

Yes, Sanji.

It had grown utterly bothersome by now. The blond guy had of course noticed Zoro's absent and withdrawn behavior and had started to do the same. Soon they had stopped looking at each other as well. Now their habit of fighting had died out and a new, disturbingly cold habit had emerged. A habit to ignore each other. To not speak to each other. To barely interact whenever being forced to do group projects together.

Zoro had stopped talking to Sanji because he had grown terrified. He had grown terrified of himself. He didn't want to think of friends like he thought of Sanji. Friends were friends and love interests were love interests. There were never any good consequences with mixing those two up. And yet, somehow, Sanji had grown to be a love interest.

It was so odd. To be in love was so odd. It was like being there, being alive, being able to run three marathons in one go, being able to climb a mountain. But at the same time it was like not being there, not being alive, only being able to lift one weight at a time, only being able to walk a mile and then collapsing. He felt strong and weak at the same time. And he had gotten even weaker when he had realized what being in love with a friend meant; he could never actually confess to Sanji.

Confessing to Sanji would ruin the unique relationship they had built up; being friends and rivals. Caring for each other while constantly longing for beating each other. It was a relationship that had brought Zoro excitement – a spice that had given his life a little extra. A pinch of fun. Bon appetite.

But the relationship they had built up was based on friendship. And Zoro hadn't understood – or actually noticed – that the spice that had been added into his life when he had met Sanji wasn't an excitement of rivalry or friendship. It was a spice of love, which he now realized would be unrequited forever.

He had never given his sensations much thought. Zoro was a doer and acted before he thought. He had instantly fallen for Sanji's tired eyes and the smug grin. He had liked the blond hair and the slim legs. But he had thought he only had liked Sanji's appearance in the same way he appreciated a nice sculpture or painting at the museums – nice to watch, no sexual feelings. But he had been wrong. The sexual feelings weren't very strong, but they were there. Mostly he desired to just be with Sanji though. Just sit next to the work of art, enjoy it and touch it. But the signs at the museums were big and easy to read; DO NOT TOUCH THE ARTWORKS.

Of course, Luffy had also noticed the odd change in their relationship and Zoro had recognized how the silly boy had been trying to reunite Sanji and Zoro. Lately, however, it seemed like Luffy had a lot on his mind himself. He seemed to be in a quite serious quarrel with his older brothers. Zoro hadn't asked about it. He knew Luffy would come forward and tell him if he felt like it. He knew Luffy well enough.

Even after one sweaty hour of intense training, Zoro's mind still felt heavy with different kinds of thoughts. He wondered what to do about Sanji. He had hoped that his disturbing attraction towards the other male would have died out by not interacting with the said male. But he had been wrong. The desire had not died out and now it would be extremely awkward to randomly start talking with Sanji again – even if talking with Sanji was all Zoro wanted to do.

He wondered if there was any way he could fix his stupid actions. It was too late to start rebuilding what he had destroyed. In a way, Zoro had also hoped that by destroying their earlier friendship by ignoring Sanji, it'd be easier to confess. But instead, it had only grown harder, and now it was close to impossible to have a completely mundane conversation with Sanji.

But what would happen if he just told Sanji? Told him upright – talked things through? Told him that he was okay with Sanji never returning these feelings? Explain his peculiar behavior? It would make things easier on the long run. But then again, soon the school year would be over and the two of them would maybe never see each other again. Zoro would find new love interests and would never have to risk getting laughed at. The worst case scenario Zoro could imagine was Sanji making fun of him, telling everyone about an awkward confession.

Zoro took a towel and dried the sweat away from his face. It was incredible how much training affected his life – it had grown to become a mandatory routine in his life. Almost like an obsession of some sort.

While gently stretching, Zoro sighed and decided that he would plan how and when to approach Sanji. There was no point in not telling the blond. Even if the entire school would laugh at him, he didn't want to hurt Sanji. And he could sense that the cold ignoring had hurt Sanji quite badly. He would just tell him. Take a deep breath, find his words and utter them as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Now he just had to prepare what he was supposed to say. Zoro had never been a person who easily could improvise smooth sentences, after all. A bit of preparing would make the whole confession less awkward. And of course, a lot of courage would make it less embarrassing.

§

An unpleasant sensation had lain down in his stomach, almost like a fog does when the weather conditions were right. However, despite a somehow creepy appearance, fogs still had a sense of sensuality and gracefulness, like every natural phenomenon. And this feeling residing in his stomach was most definitely not sensual or graceful in any way. In fact, it was quite objectionable, making it difficult to exist normally.

Taking a deep breath to ease the uneasy sensation in his stomach, Sanji looked down at the book in his pale hands. Sitting in the canteen had never been very charming, but today it was a good place to study. Usually empty and silent, it had been an ideal place to study, in fact. Sanji knew that Luffy also did it sometimes and had secretly picked up that habit from his goofy friend.

Sanji had never been dumb. He had always known that himself – he was not dumb. The problem lay nearly in the fact that Sanji didn't bother to learn about things that didn't interest him. And it was mostly cooking and other culinary industries that interested him. He wanted to know how to open a restaurant of his own, not how to balance redox reactions. But even if Sanji wasn't dumb and easily would have been able to understand how the orbitals of the atoms worked and how they were classified, he still could not concentrate. He hadn't been able to concentrate for a while.

He walked around, lived his life and constantly felt shitty.

Ever since Zoro had stopped communicating with him, Sanji had gotten a bad feeling. And then Luffy had grown distant and spent most of his time alone and avoiding his brothers. Sanji had felt left out. With only Usopp left, Sanji only waited for the day when Usopp too would walk out of his life. His friends were busy with other more important people and things in their lives. It felt horrible to be cut out just like that. Of course, he comprehended that you couldn't always choose friends before family or studies or other things that mattered a lot for you. But that didn't mean you had to stop talking with someone.

Honestly, Sanji wasn't sure if they still liked him, or if they even had liked him in first place. He knew he was paranoid. Luffy always liked everyone. But the feeling in his stomach never left and instead reminded him every day that he was being pushed away. It was especially Zoro's cold behavior that made him feel shitty.

It was natural that Sanji had started to wonder if he accidentally had done something to disgust Zoro. Had he accidentally touched his hand in a way that had made Zoro realize? Had that small action really disgusted Zoro that much? Or had it been a sentence that Sanji quietly had uttered? He felt like he had grown insane.

He longed back to the days where he at least had been able to be close to the green-haired dork. But now, he'd only appear as desperate if he'd continue talking to Zoro without receiving replies. It was true that he was desperate by now. Soon it would be Christmas and after that there would still be a lot of school left. It wasn't like he could go on like this, pretending that everything was fine and find new friends.

When he had come to this school, he hadn't liked it at all and had been convinced that he wouldn't make any friends. He had been positively surprised when he had noticed that he had gotten friends – awesome friends as well. Even if Zoro always had made fun of him or insulted him, Sanji had understood that they still had been friends. But now, the friendships he had built up were disappearing before his eyes. And the worst part of it was that he wasn't sure of how to affect the situation. Could he even affect it at all? Could he make his friends stay?

Swallowing as if he was about to make a speech, Sanji desperately tried to make his brain understand the atoms displayed in front of him. But no matter how hard he tried to stare at the page, reciting the names and texts in his head, he learnt absolutely nothing. He didn't even know how this would be useful in the future. He doubted he'd have any use of it working at a restaurant.

§

Trafalgar had no fucking idea of what he was causing. The guy was completely clueless, sitting with a bunch of friends by the dinner table, eating his meal casually, smirking at something silly and then chuckling gently. By now he had changed from the school uniform to a pair of black, tight jeans and was wearing a stylish, gray polo. Anyone could notice that both the pants and the polo were brand new and it was odd to see the social klutz wear normal, fashionable clothes that complimented his figures more than enough.

It all had started the same day when Kidd had entered their dorm room during the lunch break and Trafalgar had been pretty much naked, dressing himself for the school day he yet hadn't started. It had been like a scene from a porn movie; Trafalgar's sun kissed skin bathing in drops of water, his hair wet and messy and shining drops of fresh water falling down from the long eyelashes. His body had moved smoothly, dressing himself in a way that only made Kidd want to undress him again. And then Trafalgar had noticed the stare and had accused Kidd for being a disgusting pervert who always thought about fucking around.

Ever since that incident, Kidd hadn't been able to forget the scene, and whenever he saw Trafalgar, he just remembered the smooth skin right before him. It didn't help that the bastard was wearing tight clothes, sitting sloppily, making his polo go up a little, revealing a bit of the tanned skin every now and then. Fuck. Kidd really had to do something about this. He couldn't go around horny forever. First the dreams, now this.

Finishing his meal a bit too fast, Kidd excused himself and stood up from the table, making Bartolomeo and the rest give him odd looks. Kidd wondered if he smelled sex, because fuck, he was so desperate right now. It was a torture to sit there in the canteen, seeing Trafalgar and only being able to think of the exposed skin. Jean Bart had said that Kidd had been both unlucky and lucky to share the dorm room with Trafalgar Law, but so far it had mostly caused Kidd trouble. There had been the nasty comments, the fights, the sexual dreams and thoughts and now random boners and constant horniness. Like fuck. Trafalgar was ruining his life.

While he walked through the unnecessary long corridors of the school building, the muscular redhead desperately tried to think of something to ease his horniness. He thought back at the weekend he had spent at home with Nami and Nojiko, who had asked him question after question. They had asked about the facilities, food quality, dorm room, dorm mate, friends, teachers, class rooms and homework. Kidd hadn't minded the attention and after a while the girls had been done interrogating him and they had gone back to live like they usually did. Dad hadn't come home and Nojiko had saved a bit of her salary to treat her younger siblings to a small pizzeria. It had been a good weekend.

But, even if Kidd tried to think of the cozy pizzeria and the mozzarella cheese on the enormous pizza they had decided to share, he still couldn't shake Trafalgar out of the picture. Trafalgar was always there somewhere, whether it was on the pizza or if the pizza was on him, he was always there.

Kidd exited the school building and started to walk to the dormitory where his and Trafalgar's room was. The air outside was oddly mild. It was cold but the coldness wasn't dry and biting. Instead it was a bit humid, creating a nice, mild feeling. Snowdrifts creaked beneath his shoes, reminding him that winter was there and that it would be a white, snowy Christmas. Kidd had always loved Christmas.

When he reached the dormitory, he walked straight to their dorm room, took off his shoes and sat down on his bed and sighed. It was still dinner time and he had left unusually early, meaning that most people would still be busy eating. Trafalgar hadn't even eaten half of his meal yet and had seemed to be enjoying himself with his friends, so Kidd doubted the guy was leaving any time soon. No one would walk in and bother him, and even if the walls weren't completely soundproof, they were still blocking out just enough sound.

But even if the dorm room probably was blocking out just enough sound, Kidd still stood up from his bed and walked to the bathroom, just in case. Besides, if Trafalgar would come back to the dorm room early after all, Kidd would still be able to make things less embarrassing by being in the bathroom.

He had been avoiding this. He really had. But he was just so horny, it was unbearable. He locked the bathroom door with a soft click and prayed to all the gods he knew. 'Please, fucking please, don't let anyone walk in here now.'

And then he let himself think of Trafalgar just as much as he needed to.

§

Penguin sat by the dinner table and enjoyed the merry atmosphere. There he was, with his friends, at a quite nice school, with quite nice food and quite nice people. It had been a good day. There had been nothing deplorable about it – but neither had there been anything especially fortunate about it.

Just a few minutes ago a certain Eustass Kidd had hurriedly exited the canteen and Penguin had naturally noticed that. Even if Penguin wasn't very fond of the guy, he still couldn't help but to get worried. The guy had seemed quite distressed. Penguin was sure that the two of them might have been able to get along if they just hadn't shared the same love interest. No, correction; the same, painfully clueless love interest.

Sometimes Penguin wondered if Law actually understood the subtle hints Penguin had been giving him the past year. The close touches and the nice comments. And Penguin was the one who failed to see how Law subtly hinted back that he wasn't interested.

When Law had come to the school the year before, Penguin hadn't thought much about it. In fact, Penguin and Shachi had both been shy, quiet guys who only hang out with each other because they shared the dorm room together. Penguin had of course heard how some people had spoken badly about the tenderfoot, accusing Law of being a creepy nerd who only hung out with teachers. But other than that, Penguin hadn't known anything else about the guy. Only that he was good-looking and glared at most people.

They had learnt to know each other during a chemistry lesson where they had been paired up, and Penguin had immediately fallen for Law's calm, structured way of working. And when Penguin had found out about the kind personality Law was hiding behind a façade of rude comments, he had known that he had been enchanted by Law's gentle personality for the rest of his life.

Law was the type of person who pulled you into his life slowly. The beginning was the hardest part; you just had to suffer through a long time of awkward silences, rude comments and quiet glares before Law let you actually know him. Penguin suspected that most people had judged Law's personality based on what he acted on the outside. Most people described Law as smart yet rude and heartless. But Penguin had seen how Law actually was; a very, very sensitive person.

Few people could imagine what kind of childhood Law had gone through. For people who had no idea, Law's odd eating habits probably seemed insane. No one knew that he stressed every time he drank one liter of water. Law's life was numbers. And at the same time, Penguin knew that Law's life was so much more. It was being afraid. Afraid of not being good enough. And it was a fear that never, ever went away.

That was one of the reasons Penguin didn't like Eustass Kidd. Of course, it wasn't Eustass Kidd's fault, but the redhead had no idea of how much comments could affect Law. Penguin knew. He knew all of these things. And yet, Penguin also knew that Law was quite fond of this particular Eustass Kidd. It felt unfair. It wasn't unfair, but it felt unfair.

Penguin smiled at something Law had said and then Shachi started talking about Vines and other videos he had seen online. One of them was about a crazy pigeon and Shachi made sure to narrate the whole video in outmost detail. Law burst out in a low chuckle:

"What a crazy bird!" he said. The dark rings beneath his eyes looked almost worse than normally. But it was probably due to the nasty winter darkness outside. It drove anyone mad. "Oh, oh! Speaking of that!" Law suddenly remembered something and started searching for something in his pockets. Most likely his phone. "I saw this crazy Vine of a goose! Wait, I have it here on my phone." He persisted to search through the pockets of his pants but found nothing.

"Did you forget your phone somewhere again?" Shachi whined. He was always a bit restless. But he wasn't as restless as Luffy.

"Seems like I did", Law mumbled, perplex over his own forgetful actions. Jean Bart sighed and muttered something about Law's unhealthy sleeping habits, blaming his forgetfulness on lack of sleep, to which Law delivered a nasty glare.

"Do you know where it is?" Penguin asked. He had just finished his meal but Shachi and Law were both still eating and it seemed like Jean Bart was going for more food.

"It's either in my dorm room or then I've completely misplaced it", Law said. He usually never misplaced things, and when he did, he always found them quickly. This time, however, he had no idea of where he had left his phone. His memory was going a bit foggy again. He would try to go to sleep early tonight.

"I'll go fetch it for you", Penguin volunteered.

"Really? Thanks", Law handed over the key to the dorm room. "It's most likely on my bed somewhere. Or then it's charging on the desk. Either way, if it's in the dorm room, you should be able to spot it without much trouble."

Penguin nodded and walked off, promising to be back in a minute. He heard how Shachi told the other two some joke and how both Law and Jean Bart laughed at it. Penguin mentally told himself to hurry; he didn't want to miss all too many jokes.

It only took him a couple of minutes to reach the dorm room and he opened the door with a quiet click. He had kind of been expecting to encounter with Eustass Kidd, but the dorm room appeared to be completely empty. Shrugging for himself, Penguin didn't let the odd disappearance bother him and instead immediately started searching for the phone.

The phone wasn't that easy to find after all, because it had ended up being somewhere beneath Law's blanket in the bed. Penguin carefully pushed the blanket aside and found the thin, smooth phone. The blanket Law slept with smelled Law. The whole bed smelled Law. Penguin had never actually given it much thought, but realized that Law actually had a scent of his own. He wondered how his own bed smelled like to Law. Did it smell good or bad?

Just when Penguin was about to leave the spookily silent dorm room, he heard something from the bathroom. He blinked at the sudden noise and could swear that he head a moan. And then there was a grunt. He could easily hear whose voice it was. Tiptoeing to the bathroom door, Penguin silently leaned closer to hear more of the peculiar noises. The noises he could hear were very familiar – he had heard them many times before.

Eustass Kidd was jerking off in the bathroom.

That was normal for any teenager with sexual desires – male or female or anyone in between. Penguin did think it was a tad odd however. Eustass Kidd had left the dinner table to jerk off. But the most awkward part occurred when he heard just exactly what the redhead was moaning on the other side of the bathroom door;

"T-Trafalgar…"

The name came in between moans and was uttered in a quiet, whimpering voice. But Penguin was able to hear it. Face red like a tomato, Penguin thought about leaving until he remembered the phone in his hand and a deviously mean thought occurred to him. He would feel absolutely horrible doing it. But, somehow, he still felt like doing it. It was like he turned into someone else and suddenly he had absolutely no control over his own actions.

So he unlocked Law's phone, held it close to the bathroom door and turned on the voice recorder, hoping that the voice recorder would catch at least one of those whimpering moans. He stopped just in time and left the dorm room before Eustass Kidd would have been able to notice a thing.

§

"Law! I found your phone!" Penguin shouted, catching the lean youth's attention. He showed the phone to Law who by now had finished his tiny meal. Penguin was sure that Law was actually starving.

"Where was it?" Law asked, curious of where he had left the small device. He carried it with him almost everywhere so it was odd how he had been able to lose it so easily.

"In your bed", Penguin replied and was about to hand the device over when he saw how Eustass Kidd also returned to the canteen. The redhead walked over to his friends and probably asked if some of them wanted to hang out. Just a few minutes earlier he had been jerking off while imagining something involving Trafalgar. "I had to search for it for a while but eventually I found it. Anyway, I came across something super interesting."

This also caught Shachi's attention;

"Huh? What did you find? My long lost comic book?" Shachi asked. He had lost an old comic book the first year of his stay and no one had ever been able to find it. Shachi had never given up on finding it however. He was completely sure that the comic book still was hidden somewhere in the school building or the dormitory.

Penguin shook his head, feeling how the sensation of mischief returned. This was not who he was. But it felt like so much fun. He turned over and looked at the redhead.

"Hey, Eustass!" Penguin called, catching the pale boy's attention. Kidd blinked at the sudden shout but still walked over, utterly confused.

"The fuck is it?" he asked, not caring about the blood rule about cursing. He felt one-hundred percent better after jerking off. Like fuck, life wasn't all about sexy-Trafalgar anymore. He could think of normal things too.

"I have something I want to show you", Penguin smirked. The whole thing had caught Law's attention by now as well. Feeling how the sharp eyes watched him with a careful gaze, Penguin felt somewhat proud. He was the center of attention.

With one easy press on the screen, the voice record of Eustass' moans went off. It didn't take long until everyone realized what the noises were and whose voice it was. Kidd's face went from normal, to slightly red to a dark red that covered his entire face and the tips of his pale ears.

Fuck.

"Oh", was all Law was able to say and Kidd felt like dying.

Luckily, the bastard hadn't managed to catch any part where Kidd was moaning Trafalgar's name, because that had been even worse. This was, however, bad enough already. And if one listened very closely, one could maybe be able to hear the name 'Law' being moaned, but it was almost impossible to hear. Only Kidd heard it because he knew exactly when he had moaned it and when not.

The voice record stopped and everyone around the table stared at Kidd who seriously was completely red by now. His face felt uncomfortably hot and his ambient was spinning. This was so fucking embarrassing. He couldn't remember any other situation being as embarrassing.

"What's wrong with that?" Kidd asked, happy that his voice wasn't cracking. He would have been less embarrassed if he hadn't been jerking off to Trafalgar. Now he knew what he had been thinking of and knew that if Trafalgar ever would find out, he'd never let Kidd forget about this. Ever.

"Well, I don't know, but I kind of got the impression you were thinking of Law while you were doing this", Penguin replied bluntly and by now Law's face had started to grow red too.

Shit. Fuck. Fucking shitty fuck. Goddamn fucking shit. Fucking asshole-penguin-ass-sucker-motherfucking-ass-shit.

"That is not true", Kidd exclaimed and this time his voice cracked, making Shachi giggle and Trafalgar smirk. "Why did you even get that impression?"

"I didn't catch it on the recorder but I heard you moan his name", the voice was filled with malice and Penguin let a mischievous smirk paint his usually kind lips.

"Oh", Trafalgar said again. Kidd growled.

"That is not true", Kidd tried his best to seem intimidating and serious. But it was quite difficult, especially since he knew he was lying. "I was thinking of this hot girl I met on the weekend when I was home. I'm not a fag like you."

"Well, if you think Law is a hot girl and you met him on the weekend, then you're right", Penguin smirked. "Otherwise you are merely fabling."

"Fuck you! I wasn't thinking of Trafalgar! Besides, what were you even doing there, huh!? And why were you even listening? You sick perv!" Kidd defended himself and hoped that Trafalgar would say something as well. But Trafalgar only blinked at the whole thing and most likely thought the whole situation was entertaining.

"I was fetching Law's phone and happened to hear some odd sounds", the reply came calmly, which only pissed Kidd off even more. "And I must say that you are the disgusting perv here. We all know that you're telling tales. There is no reason for you to lie when we already know the truth."

"You're so frustrating", it took Kidd a hell of a lot of patience and strength not to strangle Penguin. "You think you're so fancy and smart because you know some long, complicated words and have better grades than many of us."

"Well, there is a reason for my good grades, is there not? It's not like I have magically gotten them with good luck", Penguin replied. He waited for Eustass to either give in or explode. Either way, he would just make a fool of himself. And that was exactly what Penguin was aiming for.

Kidd took a deep breath and desperately tried to find any fancy words. But none crossed his mind. The only fancy word that he came up with was the word auk, which is a type of Arctic seabird, so it was not handy at all. Instead Kidd just gave up and stared Penguin dead in the eyes and said:

"Fickity-fuckity-fuck you. Fancy enough for you yet?"

Silence is perhaps the worst kind of reaction. And that was the reaction he got, until Trafalgar suddenly burst out in merry laughter.

"Holy fuck", he wheezed in between his laughter. Trafalgar couldn't stop laughing and was soon followed by Shachi and Jean Bart too and Kidd felt how his face heated up again. "What the fuck was that?" Trafalgar literally couldn't stop laughing and hold onto his stomach as if it was cramping.

"Do you think that was fancy-", Penguin started, but was interrupted by the laughing Trafalgar.

"I think he won this debate", Trafalgar said and continued chuckling.

Even if Kidd had been completely and utterly degraded and embarrassed, he was secretly glad. Trafalgar had stood by his side.

§

Like Kidd had suspected, Trafalgar had not forgotten about the whole jerk-off-thing.

Instead, the lithe guy had made sure to constantly pester Kidd about it.

"Oh so you're jerking off to me as well? Interesting."

"Stay away horny dog, you might take pics of me and jerk off to them later."

"Can I be completely sure that you won't have a sex orgy here while I sleep?"

And the comments never stopped. It was like he always came up with new things to say or do all the time. Kidd was lucky that the whole incident hadn't leaked to too many people. It had already been embarrassing enough with only Trafalgar, Shachi and Jean Bart hearing that voice record. But it could have been way worse.

When Kidd had told Barto later, they both had agreed to hate Penguin from now on.

So only a handful of people knew about the incident. It was still a handful too many, especially since Trafalgar was one of them. It was odd, though, that Trafalgar only was teasing Kidd about it and didn't appear to be disgusted at all. Maybe Trafalgar didn't think that Kidd actually had jerked off to thinking of Trafalgar, because there had been no real evidence of it? Either way, Kidd was grateful that Trafalgar wasn't disgusted, even if the constant teasing was also tearing him apart.

A few weeks had passed and most pupils had started to grow tired of school work. Even the teachers had grown tired of school and were only waiting for Christmas. People were all hyped for Christmas and were constantly humming on familiar Christmas melodies or spoke excitedly about presents they had wished for. There were some people who were oddly quiet, however. Like Moss-Head and Blondie for example. Or 'Luffy-senpai' and his two older brothers.

Kidd knew that the odd silences between these people didn't concern him at all, but couldn't help that he was at least a little curious of what had happened. And he certainly hoped that the same wouldn't happen between Trafalgar and himself. He was quite content with their current relationship, even if Kidd sometimes wanted to punch Trafalgar in the face. Or kiss his lips.

Today, however, there was no room for any punches or kisses. It was the last day of school before Christmas holiday and the boys had been given their autumn semester grades. There had been a long closing ceremony, they had sung Christmas songs and some small awards had been given. Barto had gotten one for being good at history and English, which he was incredibly happy about. The freckled one, Ace, had gotten one for being good at art. Kidd was secretly hoping that he'd win at least one scholarship or award at the spring semester closing ceremony. The awards would be bigger and more meaningful then, and it would most likely make Nami and Nojiko proud. Probably even dad.

When Kidd had gotten his grades and was back at the dorm room where his packed bag was waiting, he looked at the grades he had gotten. His grades were still not remarkably good – they were still below average. But he was not failing in any subject anymore. It was incredible. He would be able to graduate. And if he would continue working hard, he might even be able to graduate with relatively good grades or at least average grades.

Even if Kidd currently was rather annoyed at Trafalgar because of the teasing, he still felt endlessly grateful for all the weekends the slim youth had spent helping Kidd with homework and other school projects. He had to thank Trafalgar properly before the school year ended.

Sitting on his bed and looking at his grades with proud eyes, Kidd failed to notice the small present on his bed. When he finally noticed the small, neatly packaged present, he blinked in confusion. A Christmas present? From who? Trafalgar? Or was it from Barto? Heat? Wire? He took it with tender and careful hands and looked at it with curious eyes. There was no name on it, but it had been so carefully placed on his bed that it just had to be meant for him. Trafalgar wasn't in the dorm room either, so Kidd couldn't ask him.

Kidd placed the small Christmas present in his bag together with the grades he had gotten. The train home would leave relatively soon and the taxi would soon come to pick him up. He would spend Christmas at home with his family. He had bought Nami and Nojiko some presents and hoped that dad either would be sober or not at home during the holiday. He knew they would not afford a fancy dinner or a lot of chocolate or things like that, but none of those things would matter as long as dad wouldn't be there to ruin the atmosphere.

When it finally was time to leave, Kidd picked up the bag he had filled with clothes and Christmas presents. The snow outside whipped him in the face, but he was happy that they had a snowy Christmas. Snowy Christmases were the best kinds of Christmases. There was something extra magical about sitting inside and watching the decorated Christmas tree while it was snowing outside, even if the Christmas trees they had at home were neither big nor neatly decorated.

The last thing Kidd saw of the school before he got into the taxi was how Trafalgar stood on the steps of the school completely alone. Kidd had completely forgotten to ask where Trafalgar would spend Christmas, but by the looks of it, he would spend it alone at the school.

~Thanks for Reading~