Title: Control
Author: kikokus (AoiTsukikage)
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairing: Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others
Chapter: 10/?
Word Count: 4428
Summary: In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

Chapter Ten

Sanji had never been inside the boardroom before.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, exactly, but so many of the rooms in the building were dungeon-esque and even the editing suites were stark and practical, but this room was almost opulent in comparison.

The wall was lined with windows that overlooked the city, the view stretching so far that Sanji could see the harbor and the Baratie anchored there. The table was made of rich, dark mahogany, polished to a shine so brilliant that Sanji could damn near see his reflection, and the chairs circling it looked so plush that Sanji thought it would be easy to curl up and go to sleep in them.

There was a silver serving platter set off to the side, stacked up with pastries that looked good even by his rather high standards, and a top of the line espresso maker on the counter beside it.

All in all, it looked like the room high-ranking executives would use, and not the administrators of a porn site, but Sanji wasn't really one to judge because they did pay well.

"Do you have any idea what the fuck is happening?" Ace looked halfway between worried and angry, but his mouth snapped shut when he saw Law. "I don't know whether to punch you or kiss you," he glanced at Sanji again as if looking for guidance.

"I don't know either," Sanji admitted with a shrug, "but hopefully we're here to get answers so you can decide later."

Law flinched back at that, something undeniably guilty in his expression, and Sanji immediately felt a sense of dread again because he really didn't want to come out of this hating Law.

"You'll get your answers."

Sanji looked up, his eyes drawn to the man who'd spoken. He wasn't particularly remarkable physically, of average height and stature, and he was dressed down to his shirtsleeves, leaning back casually against the counter. His thick, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and aside from the rather severe arch of his eyebrows, by far the most interesting thing about him was the large white bird currently settled on his shoulder.

A large white bird that, by the looks of it, was currently holding a tiny espresso cup in its wing and was dunking its beak into it periodically.

"Rob, behave," Kalifa said brusquely as she went to sit in one of the chairs, and Sanji blinked.

"You're…"

"The one who wouldn't stop texting me, yes."

Sanji stiffened when an arm slid around his waist but soon relaxed into the embrace, reaching back and cupping his hand over the hip of the man holding him from behind. "Hey. How're you doing?"

"Better," Kaku's chin was resting on his shoulder. "I didn't want you worrying about me."

"Of course I'm gonna worry," Sanji snorted.

"He should be at home resting but you probably know how damn stubborn he is already," the pigeon…and Sanji blinked, because what the fuck…said.

"Rob," Kalifa said again, and Sanji had the sense that she was probably one of the few people he actually listened to.

Not that Sanji could blame him, because Kalifa was fucking intimidating in her own right.

"Ignore him," Kaku chuckled. "I think his mission in live is to drive people up the wall."

"And apparently send you a million texts in a row," Ace grunted, staring rather intently at the man.

"You don't have to be suspicious of me, boy, I'm not your enemy," he took a step forward and held out his hand, Ace hesitantly shaking it after a moment's hesitation. "Rob Lucci."

"Ace Portgas, but I have a feeling you know that," Ace's eyes flicked over to Kaku again. "And since all I know about you is that you called him out on some 'classified' bullshit and he showed up the next day covered in bandages and looking fucking awful, you'll forgive me for being wary."

"It's not his fault," Kaku hugged Sanji a little tighter before letting go and moving to lay a hand on Ace's shoulder. "I was careless, and in all honestly he's been a better nursemaid than I would ever have given him credit for."

Sanji heard a shuffling behind him and turned to look as Marco entered the room, though the sight of him made Law's shoulders hunch as he apparently tried to hide himself inside the collar of his hooded sweatshirt.

"Ah, good, we're all here. Well. Almost," Marco lightly brushed Ace's arm on the way by, a gesture that would have gone unnoticed to most people but that Sanji zeroed in on right away. "We just have to wait for the other admins, but please, take a seat…have some coffee and donuts if you want," he looked as unfazed as ever, eyes half-closed and posture relaxed as he dropped into one of the chairs.

"The term 'fashionably late' was not invented for important meetings!"

"You know I like to make an entrance, and it's only like five fucking minutes!"

"And now we're all here," Marco looked more exhausted just by hearing the voices, and while Sanji had never really met the other two site admins directly, there was no mistaking them.

"Hey, kids!"

This was spoken by a rather handsome red-haired man who waved enthusiastically, a wide grin on his face. "You probably already have half an idea, but I'm Shanks, and this grump over here," he gestured to his companion, who was as severe and stoic as Shanks seemed casual and carefree, "is Dracule Mihawk. He always looks like he just swallowed a lemon," he added in a stage-whisper and Sanji had to hide his smile because Mihawk didn't look like the kind of man that would appreciate jokes.

"This is all of us?" Mihawk set a hand on Shanks' shoulder to steer him toward the chairs, and Sanji noticed with a jolt that the man only had one arm. He vaguely remembered hearing something about that, but Shanks had such an aura of positivity about him that Sanji hadn't even registered the fact until now.

"Yeah," Marco yawned, running a hand through his floppy hair. "So I think we should get started. There's a lot to explain, and I don't think any of us quite know the whole story yet."

"Well. One of us does," Mihawk's sharp gaze turned to Law, and the younger man gulped and sank further into his shirt. "Still, I suppose for Ace and Sanji's sake we should start at the very beginning."

"Seriously, guys, sit down, this is gonna be long and you're making me nervous with your hovering," Shanks apparently decided that chairs were overrated and flopped right onto Mihawk's lap, something that, Sanji noted with some interest, the other man didn't seem at all fazed by.

Still, he took his seat after grabbing both a cup of coffee and a pastry, Ace ending up on one side of him and Law on the other.

"First things first, I think you'd better tell them who you are, Rob," Mihawk looked to Lucci, who nodded and took his own seat while the pigeon hopped onto the table and started pecking at a nearby donut.

"Probably. Well, as you've likely began to realize by now, these two," he made a sweeping gesture that encompassed both Kaku and Kalifa, "aren't employees here. Or, that is, this is merely a cover-up job for the real one that we all share."

Sanji leaned forward to look at Kaku, who was seated on the other side of Ace, raising a curled eyebrow.

"I'm sorry we couldn't tell you sooner, but it would defeat the purpose of our role here," Kaku wasn't meeting his eyes and he looked away entirely as soon as he'd finished speaking.

"Right. The truth is, we're part of a special task force known as CP9, and they're here on behalf of the city to essentially keep an eye on things and make sure everything is being done in accordance with labor laws. As you can well imagine, there are a fair number of people in town that don't look kindly upon the idea of a prominent kink site being headquartered in the city, and that number extends to the city council."

"Not the mayor, thankfully, because Iceburg is the fucking coolest politician I've ever met," Shanks grinned. "But he doesn't have the final say and pretty soon after we started council decided they'd only give us license to operate so long as things were totally by-the-book."

"Kalifa being sent in as one of the performers was a natural choice," Lucci took over the story again and Kalifa smirked at him. "And we decided Kaku posing as an editor would be perfectly logical given that he'd be able to see most of the employees at the studio that way and would be able to tell if any of them were troublemakers," he explained.

"We obviously couldn't let anybody but the admins know or else people would be constantly on their best behavior and trying to hide things from us, so we had to make you all believe we were just normal employees," Kalifa added, and while part of Sanji was a little hurt that he'd known Kaku for so long already and the other man hadn't seen fit to trust him with this, he could also see the logic in that.

"When you say 'troublemakers'…" Ace broke in, spinning his chair from side-to-side. "You mean…criminals?"

"In a way, yes," Lucci nodded slowly. "But…perhaps I'll let the admins continue the explanation from here," he looked to the three of them, and Marco heaved a sigh.

"Everybody in this room knows how much we stress proper treatment and safety here at the site, but the porn industry…it's a haven for illegal drug use," he sounded dejected. "And as much as we try to curb that by doing extensive background checks and making sure everybody working here is clean and healthy, there's always people that slip through the cracks."

"The truth is, some of the people that work here…they're only doing it for the money," Shanks added, leaning his elbow on the table. "Getting hundreds of dollars for a single shoot is too good an incentive to pass up, and considering that we get a lot of college-aged kids in here, it's probably because it's a way to get a lot of money right away. And, much as I want to think the best of everybody, I damn well know not all of them are putting it toward their tuition," he looked sad at that.

"And of course if city council ever got wind that we're, even inadvertently, financing the drug trade in the city, it would be a rather convincing argument to shutting us down altogether," Mihawk took over, staring around the room with his sharp golden eyes as he spoke.

"So that's the problem?" Ace asked hesitantly, though Mihawk gave a quick shake of his head at the question.

"It leads into it, but the real issue, as it's come to light, is that there are several…dishonest employees working for the site," Lucci brushed some crumbs from the tabletop as the pigeon huffed in a rather irritated fashion and hopped back onto his shoulder. "And, as people whose job it is to go undercover, I'm rather embarrassed that we didn't see it."

"It isn't your fault, Rob," Shanks shook his head. "These guys…they're working for somebody who's spent his entire life doing this sort of shit, and because a high employee turnover isn't exactly uncommon in this industry, nothing looked outwardly suspicious."

"To clarify," Mihawk cleared his throat, glaring between the other two men in an apparent chiding for being far too vague for Sanji or Ace to follow, "these…employees…are soliciting new recruits to further their own goals. Illegal trafficking," he said slowly, and Sanji nodded, even though he still didn't understand most of what was going on.

"I think we'll let Law take over from here," Marco, true to his nature, looked incredibly bored with the proceedings. "He's the one who brought it to our attention, after all, so he'll have the best chance at explaining the whole story."

"Right," Law heaved a giant breath, grabbing his cup of coffee and downing almost all of it in one swallow. "Well. I suppose to start with…have either of you heard of the Donquixote Family?"

"Vaguely," Sanji looked over at Ace, who shrugged. "They're connected with that Doflamingo guy, right? The one who owns a bunch of shit around town?"

"Yes," Law nodded. "To most of the city he's known as an eccentric but affluent businessman, but that he's earned his wealth by illegal means is something he takes great strides to cover up."

"Huh," Sanji blinked, even though honestly he really had no opinion on Doflamingo one way or the other. "And how are you in the know?"

"Because," Law gave him a smile that was hardly pleasant. "I'm part of the Donquixote Family."

"No shit," Ace's voice was dry and Sanji found it impossible to tell what the dark-haired man was thinking, other than that his look toward Law was even more suspicious than before.

"Not by choice, mind you. I was orphaned when I was a young child and he took me in…he does that, you see, takes in orphaned children and portrays this image of a kindly man wanting to look out for the less fortunate, but in reality he only chooses those he believes can be useful to him or those he can groom to be the perfect minions. All of his Family were either those he grew up with or those he recruited from a young age, which is why they're the only ones privy to his secrets, because he seemingly can't fathom the idea that any of us would betray him."

"So what's your incentive to stay?" Ace asked coolly.

"Well, the threat of a bullet through the head goes a long way in being convincing," Law bared his teeth in a horribly forced grin. "But apart from that, he offers us what he thinks we crave most: a home, safety, a family, all the luxuries we want, in exchange for our loyalty and doing any and every whim he commands us to."

"Fuck," Sanji blinked, because that…sounded like it should be out of a movie or something, not real life. "So by telling us…"

"Yes, if word of this ever gets back to Doflamingo, I'll be dead," Law sighed, though when he looked around the room again he didn't seem frightened, just incredibly exhausted. "It's worth it, though. At best, I'll lose my tuition, since he's paying for me to go to school to become a surgeon, but I'd rather pay my own way than know it's being done with dirty money."

"So if this guy's doing illegal things all over the place, why hasn't he been caught yet? You could just turn him in," Ace shrugged, but Law let out a harsh laugh at that suggestion.

"He hides evidence of his activities extremely well, and without solid proof, I can't do a damn thing. Doflamingo's network is extensive, and whether he's bought people's silence or he's blackmailing them, there's a reason nobody's tried to take him down yet. Or, if they have, why they're six feet under the ground," he said the last part quietly, his eyes darkening.

"So you were sent here to recruit us," Sanji realized, sinking back into his chair. "Weren't you?"

"I was," Law admitted. "Doflamingo basically told me that just going to school wasn't earning my keep, and out of all the choices he gave me this one was at least legal," he shrugged. "My job, and the job of all the other members of his Family he's got working here, is to convince select new employees that there are far easier ways to make money…namely being the middlemen for drug and weapons deliveries. All we need to do is plant the seed and say we 'heard' about a guy…somebody Doflamingo's hand-picked to be one of his suppliers, of course…give them a way to contact him, and they find out all they have to do is deliver a package to a specified address to get the cash. If something goes wrong and they happen to get caught…well, there are plenty of other sheep, as Doflamingo would say," he muttered.

"Which is where things get bad for us," Shanks pointed out. "If one of them gets caught? They might well point to us as the place that set them up, and ignorance is hardly a good defense when we're already on probation with city council. Doflamingo's got enough connections that he could probably get his people off the hook if it came to it, but we'd take the fall."

"We've been lucky so far that no real trouble has come of this scheme of his, though it very nearly did the other day," Mihawk looked at Kaku, who sighed.

"Law tipped us off to an exchange that was going to happen with a small-time dealer the police had been keeping an eye on, and if it had gone through both he and the unfortunate girl delivering the drug shipment would have been arrested," Kalifa murmured. "We managed to intercept the deal, thankfully, and we've got enough clout with the city that we can make things like that disappear if we want."

"This guy, though, he obviously knew he was being tailed, and he'd decided that shooting the messenger was easier than anything else, so we had to intervene," Lucci cleared his throat.

"Wait, you got shot?" Sanji's eyes widened and he turned to Kaku, the other man giving a rather nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"I didn't get 'shot', I got grazed by a bullet when I was trying to get the girl out of there," he mumbled, and Sanji could tell he didn't want to talk about it any longer. "She didn't say much, but from what you've said…" he looked at Law, "it wouldn't surprise me if Doflamingo…or his suppliers…threaten these poor kids to keep them quiet."

"It wouldn't surprise me, either," Law muttered dryly, his eyes narrowing.

"It doesn't matter," Marco said firmly. "Regardless of whether or not Doflamingo's trying to protect his assets here by using threats or blackmail or whatever else, all it takes is one slip-up or a mention that whoever was caught worked here recently and somebody from the city would be up our ass."

"And while things may have worked out this time, there's no guarantee that will happen again. We can't take that chance," Mihawk looked even more serious now. "The sooner we can dismantle this scheme, the better, but we can't just fire all of the employees that are secretly working for Doflamingo since that would be a major red flag that somebody had outed him."

Sanji nodded, because he could see that, and while the entire situation was still more than a little confusing, he was starting to get a clearer picture of what was going on.

It was a mess, certainly, but one thing still didn't add up.

"So why now? Why us?" Sanji looked at Law. "It seems like you've got a pretty cushy gig with Doflamingo and if you've been there since you were a kid…why betray him?"

"Because…" Law started, though his words were cut off by the rather shrill ringing of a phone.

Shanks huffed an irritated-sounding breath and pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at the screen.

"Trouble?" Mihawk asked, sounding marginally concerned for the first time since Sanji had met him.

"They need assistance at one of the shoots, so I guess I'd better go," he slid off of Mihawk's lap. "Take a break, kids; I know we just piled a shit-ton of information on you, but it's not quite over," he gave them a smile that Sanji thought was supposed to be reassuring, but in light of everything he'd just heard, it was hard to feel okay about anything that was happening.

Law got up the moment Shanks left the room, hurrying out with his hands in his pockets and his head down, and Sanji was up and following him before he even realized his feet were moving.

The door to the nearby men's washroom was swinging, which was as good as clue as any to where Law had disappeared to, and Sanji pushed it open and strode inside to find the older man gripping the counter and looking like he was going to be sick.

"Law?"

"Fuck," Law took a deep breath and stood up. "I suppose it's finally hitting me that I can't go back now. I'm a dead man walking. He's got eyes everywhere, he'll know…"

"He won't know," Sanji shook his head, though honestly he had no idea if that was true or not.

"And now I've dragged you into this," Law took a hesitant step forward, looking like he was about to collapse.

"It's okay."

Law's eyes snapped up and Sanji half-turned, not even having heard Ace enter behind him.

"How is it okay?"

"Because we're not gonna let anything happen to you," he vowed. "Obviously we don't know the whole story yet, but if I'm reading this right…the reason you decided to try and bring this asshole down instead of trying to recruit us is because you like us…or you like Sanji, anyway," he teased, and from the blush on Law's cheeks he couldn't really deny that.

"My intentions aren't entirely altruistic," Law admitted softly. "But yes, the thought of any of you being pulled into his thrall after you'd been so incredibly accommodating and kind to me here…I couldn't live with that."

"Then don't worry about it," Ace propped his elbow up on Sanji's shoulder and leaned against him. "I've known Shanks since I was a kid, and he's not the kind of guy that's gonna let anybody take the fall if he can help it."

Sanji blinked, because this was news to him, but Ace didn't seem like he was about to elaborate so he stored it away as something to ask later

Law didn't look entirely reassured at the words, but eventually he nodded. "Well, I suppose we should go back…I've still got quite a bit of information to…" He paused when Ace reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Yes?"

"Stop being so fucking formal," Ace yanked him off-balance, pulling him into a kiss, and Sanji could literally see Law's body relax into it. "We don't hate you," Ace said quietly, almost too soft for Sanji to hear from where he was standing.

Law's hands were clenched into fists at his sides, but he relaxed a little and wrapped his arms around Ace's shoulders at the words. "Thank you. Though you have every right to…"

"Yeah. Maybe," ace conceded, stepping back. "But we want to help."

"We do," Sanji agreed, shrugging one shoulder.

Law's smile was a little more genuine this time when he turned to Sanji, but he still looked wary to move closer so Sanji sighed and stepped toward the other man.

"It's okay," he promised. "Trust me, if you want to touch me, I'm hardly going to complain."

Law let out a shaky breath and curled his arm around Sanji's waist, though his body was back to being tense.

"Hey," Ace looked up, a gleam in his dark eyes that Sanji didn't particularly like. "After this meeting…come back to Sanji's with us. I mean, we did do an entire shoot to get you to show up here again, so it'd be a shame if you never saw it…"

"Oh, God," Sanji turned his face into Law's shoulder, because the thought of being with Law when he watched it was more than a little embarrassing.

"We'll invite Kaku, too, and…"

"I'd love to," Law wrapped both arms around Sanji now, resting his chin on the blond's hair.

"He'll cook…"

"Can you stop volunteering my apartment and my food?" Sanji wasn't actually annoyed, but he didn't lift his head up because he was certain his cheeks were beet-red. "Fine, fine. Just don't expect too much from the video," he mumbled into Law's hoodie.

"Sanji, from seeing your…ah…previous work, I think I can safely say it'll be wonderful," Law sounded sheepish now, something that made Sanji feel a little better.

"Oh, it was," Ace sounded smug and Sanji peeked one eye open to glare at him. "He's gonna watch it anyway."

"I…this is probably true," Law admitted, one hand absently running down Sanji's back. "But if it truly makes you uncomfortable…"

"It's okay," Sanji moved back a little, not willing to break the embrace yet. "But we should probably go back in there."

"Yes," Law leaned closer, pressing his lips to Sanji's forehead in a gesture that somehow felt far more intimate than anything they'd done so far. "Thank you both."

"Of course," Ace laid a comforting hand on Law's shoulder. "You can trust us, man. We're here for you."

"I'm beginning to see that," Law sighed, sounding utterly resigned. "I don't trust many people, but with you both….it's easy," he finally let go of Sanji, though he stopped by the bathroom door and waited for both of them before heading back out into the hallway.

Sanji followed him back into the boardroom, seeing that Shanks was back and in a rather heated discussion with Mihawk about something (though, Sanji thought with a smirk, he couldn't be too angry since he was back in the other man's lap), and when they sat down again he reached to give Law's hand a squeeze and got a tiny smile in return.

He knew, and maybe he'd known since the meeting began, that he'd do anything to help Law, even if it fucked him over in the end.

All he could do now was trust that it wouldn't.

Notes

1. The plot ended up too long for one chapter so I had to cut it off here! I'm a little nervous about this chapter because there's a lot of plot to get through, but I hope that it makes sense and, rest assured, there's still going to be smut involved with this fic ;)

2. As always, thank you all so much for the comments/reviews/encouragement!