I want to remind you all that I have absolutely no medical knowledge, and what is said in this chapter came from some (admittedly not very thorough) research on the internet and what passes for my common sense.

For some reason, I never expected this to happen: the review number 100 was left by an anonymous Guest; as I have no way to contact you, tell me in your next review which you prefer, an one-shot (in that case you should give me an idea of what you want in it, the only condition is that it has to be about One Piece) or a translation of one of my one-shots in Spanish (I've posted the translated summaries at the bottom of my profile). If I don't get a response by the time the next chapter is published I'll pass to the next review :/


Chapter 12: The doctor

He felt strange, distant, disconnected, but it wasn't one of those out-of-body experiences that he had heard about.

No, Eustass Kid was still in his body, and was aware of it, but at the same time he felt as if, for some reason, all the sensations he had - the cold, the dizziness, the pain - had lost a part of their intensity.

Oh, he still felt pain, but the urge to rip his skin off to see if it disappeared even if just a bit, the need to center all his efforts in containing the screams had passed now: he didn't want to scream so badly that, had he opened his mouth, that would have been the only sound to leave it.

The nausea had calmed somewhat, after all he had nothing in his stomach to throw up, or he would have tried to do so over one of those two bastards.

And regarding the cold, he barely felt it. Probably it had something to do with the amount of warm blood covering his body.

The only thing that was the same, though only in his right eye, was his sight: blurry, as it had been part of that night, though he didn't remember since when exactly, and far more unfocused that he felt comfortable having it.

His left eye was something on which he was trying not to center his attention. He would rather think about the carnage his left arm had become.

Perhaps he should be trying to find help, but Kid wasn't stupid: in his current state he wouldn't reach the end of the alley, much less find a doctor.

Something moving in the shadows caught his attention, and soon he saw a pair of feet come out from behind the dumpster, walking towards him with sure steps.

For a moment Kid thought it was someone who had come to help him, and he would have shaken his head at that thought if he had been able to move it.

Then the figure crouched next to him and Kid felt like bursting out laughing.

It's going to be true people have hallucinations before dying. Way better than seeing your life flash before your eyes.

Crouching next to him and looking curiously at his body was none other than Law.

Come on, take your clothes off, then I'll at least go off with a good memory.

Kid was confused when he saw the dark haired man's eyes open in surprise, and when he spoke it was as if the world had stopped for a moment.

"Eustass-ya…?"

Kid had never heard that voice from the man: disconcerted, surprised and… insecure.

That wasn't what Kid would have expected of a hallucination starring Law.

The dizziness decided to appear again, whatever was the hormone that had held it at bay diminishing its effects, and was followed by the intense pain from which his brain had tried to protect itself.

He barely felt the hands on his skin, and the words he saw forming on Law's lips didn't make sense in his mind, but when he saw the man take something out he instinctively knew what it was and gathered almost all of his strength to grasp the man's hand.

"No… quest'ns…"

Feeling frustrated at being barely able to articulate words, Kid let out a trembling sigh when he saw the other man put away the phone.

"Alright." He understood that, good. "I'm goi… al… ds…"

Kid blinked, trying to keep himself awake and make sense of what Law had just said. He blinked again and Law had turned his head and seemed to be looking at something. The third time his eyelid fell, Eustass Kid wasn't aware of anything else.


Kid didn't know if what awoke him was the renewed nausea or the sudden movement, but the urge to throw up made him double over, though from his mouth didn't fall anything else than a bit of saliva through his retching.

An arm holding him around the shoulders kept him sitting up, and a hand appeared on his right arm.

It was when he tried to move that the redhead became aware of the pain again, it assaulting his body with the same intensity as before, and a jolt of pain had to course through his body for him to notice something restraining his left arm's movements, something that, now that he was aware of it, also covered part of his hand and his still closed left eye and seemed to wrap a good portion of his torso.

"Eustass-ya?"

Upon hearing that voice, Kid turned his head to the side and was met with Law's gray eyes, their faces inches apart from each other.

So he hadn't imagined it.

"We have to go upstairs, but you'll have to help me." He could hear him well this time, that was an improvement.

Wait, help him?

Law moved, using the hand holding Kid's right arm to pass it over his shoulders and lowering the arm on Kid's shoulders until it was around the redhead's back.

Oh, no, tell me you're joking. Kid thought, ignoring the pang of pain that came from some point in his arm when it made contact with Law's body.

Law couldn't be seriously expecting Kid to be able to walk in his condition.

Apparently, he did, and Kid's face must have reflected his thoughts because the slightest of smirks, far duller than usual, appeared on Law's lips.

"There's no other option, Eustass-ya. It's right here, we only have to go up a storey. Though there's no elevator."

It probably wasn't a good idea to spend part of his limited energy to glare at Law, but Kid did it all the same and was rewarded with another of those smirks.

Kneeling on the ground in a way that would allow him to stand up without the need of his hands, Law held Kid's arm over his shoulders with his right hand and tightened his left arm around the man, making the redhead feel glad for a moment about not having any wound on his back.

Then they stood up, slowly, and Kid had to bite the inside of his cheek to the point of drawing blood to hold back a scream when he felt pain surging from several parts of his body.

Once standing, and the pain having subdued a bit, Kid was aware for the first time since he woke again of exactly how dizzy he was, no doubt due to the blood loss, and realized that, for what this situation could have been, he had been lucky he had received no wounds on his legs.

If he felt like shit as he was, he didn't want to know how it would be trying to walk with several cuts in his legs.

"Can you walk?" Law, who had been waiting in silence as he stabilized on his feet, asked.

"I-I think…" Kid answered, clenching his teeth at how weak his voice sounded.

And so they began the long process of advancing the few meters separating them from a building's old metallic door, moving in slow steps that required a great effort, each of them sending a new rush of pain through Kid's body, him faltering several times and would have fallen if it wasn't for Law's support.

When they reached the door, the dark haired man opened it with a kick and helped Kid in; the redhead noticed how the man pressed himself against the doorframe to leave him enough space and prevent him from hitting the other side of the frame.

The biggest challenge came when they had to go up the stairs. Kid had noticed from the beginning that Law was in good shape, but he hadn't really appreciated it until that moment, when the dark haired man, despite being shorter and having a smaller muscle mass than Kid, was able to help him walk up the steps and held him every time he was about to fall, be if due to fatigue or for stepping on the wrong place.

When they climbed the last step Kid was so tired he had stopped registering the pain, and he wasn't really aware of where he was. With his good eye closing constantly he didn't notice anything around himself, and the last of which he was aware was of losing the contact of those arms.


The next time Kid awoke, having to close his eye to protect it from the light, he was under warm blankets, laying on a comfortable mattress and his right arm over the covers, something stuck to the back of his hand that must have been an IV.

Remembering the previous night, Kid huffed, feeling frustrated when he thought that, after all, Law took him to a hospital.

Shit…

He would need to come up with a story that he had been mugged or something, and hope that the cops would believe it, because there was no doubt that, with his wounds, they would have called them. Besides, he would be forced to spend weeks in this room until the doctors decided his wounds were healed enough to let him go. And he would have to stand that annoying beeping machine for at least several days.

Kid was puzzled when he realized he didn't hear any beeping.

Slowly opening his eye to adapt to the light, Kid was met with a bedroom that, even without moving to look around and check, didn't have the walls white enough to belong to a hospital.

Noticing his left eye was still covered, Kid looked down to his right hand and, sure enough, saw the IV stuck to it, connected to a single plastic bag.

Kid moved that hand, his left arm still immobilized, and ignored the rather cold air of the room to lift the covers; he didn't only see he was naked, but his stomach and chest were covered in bandages, with barely a slip of skin visible between them, and his left arm, besides completely covered in bandages, was held to his chest by a splint. On his right forearm, too, he had some bandages, but they seemed almost ridiculous compared to everything else.

"You're finally awake."

Surprised, Kid turned his head and was face to face with Law, the man sitting on a swivel chair, a desk behind his back and he was reading some papers in his hand.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Around sixteen hours. It's five in the afternoon."

"What's that?" Kid asked, seeing the man's gaze was still on the papers.

"Your analytics."

"You made me an analytic?"

Law nodded his head and finally left the papers on the desk.

"They administered you rohypnol. I guess that explains why two men could leave you like that."

"…" Kid exhaled. He had guessed already they had drugged him, that was the only logical explanation to what had happened, but that didn't mean he wasn't angry at having it confirmed. He didn't know if he was more pissed at them for drugging him or at himself for not noticing it. Probably at them, he was going to kill them either way. Speaking of confirmation… "Where did you do that analytic?" He asked.

"At the hospital, obviously."

Kid looked at him, expecting to see a mocking smirk, but Law looked completely serious. Had he really gone to a hospital and asked for an analysis of his blood? Even if he had brought the blood sample they would have asked questions.

Before Kid could say anything, Law continued.

"Don't worry, no one realized it." The brunet was silent for a few seconds, seeming to be debating on something before continuing. "I'm doing practice at the hospital, I put them under a false name."

"Are you a doctor?" Kid asked, not really surprised at the revelation. After all, not only had Law saved his life, but Kid remembered when he had predicted how long Christopher had left: he had been right back then.

"Not yet."

They fell silent until Kid decided to ask something else.

"So, not-yet-a-doctor, what's my diagnosis?"

Even though he hadn't been smiling before, Law's expression turned more serious.

"You won't die, if that's what worries you."

"But…?"

Sighing, Law stood up and walked closer, sitting on the bed next to him. The dark haired man lifted a hand and rested the tips of his fingers over Kid's left arm without exerting any pressure over the bandaged skin.

"You had your left arm covered by cuts, I'm guessing it's the one with which you defended the most, and, besides the scars, it is very likely you will lose part of the sensibility on it." Law's hand went up to rest on the bandages of Kid's head, on the temple next to his left eye. "One of the cuts in your face crossed the left eye. It is a superficial wound, and I am reasonably sure you will recover your sight once the wound has healed, but I can't guarantee it one hundred per cent."

Kid didn't know what to say. He had expected something like that about the arm, after all he'd blocked over half the cuts with it, but the news that he'd been so close to lose an eye, and there was the possibility of not being able to see through it again, left him speechless, staring at the man sitting next to him.

The fingers slid down his face, following the path of the bandages that Kid could feel there, until they reached his neck.

"Despite everything, you've been very lucky: most of your wounds would have been deadly had they been any deeper. Concretely, this one, if the knife had sunk a couple more millimeters you would have bled to death in a little over a minute. Besides, what got my attention was a gunshot, and it looks like you managed to avoid it."

"That's what happens when you send two newbies to do the job." Growled Kid under his breath, and Law's smirk told him he had heard it.

"Then you should go thank them, don't you think?"

Kid grinned at that, no doubt matching the grin Law directed at him at that moment.

"Don't even doubt that. When do you think I could go?"

Law thought about it for a moment.

"That's harder to tell. For a month it's sure you won't, but I'd say a month and a half to be safe. The two first weeks of absolute rest are unarguable."

Kid grimaced at that, it was worse than expected.

"Absolute rest? Fuck."

Law chuckled.

"Don't complain, you've been lucky."

"I guess…" Kid grinned from ear to ear and took his right hand to Law's ass, which he touched as he could with the other sitting. "You're somewhat right."

Law grabbed his wrist.

"Don't even think of it, Eustass-ya. With those wounds you can say goodbye to sex for the next month."

"WHAT?!" Kid yelled, and he was probably heard in the whole building.

"You heard me. At first you won't even have the strength to last to the end, but even if you recover it you can't do anything until the risk of opening your wounds at any movement passes."

"Are you telling me I'm going to spend a month with you and I can't even fuck you?"

"I guess you could try," Law started, and Kid felt relieved for a moment, until the other man moved his hand to the redhead's cheek and leaned so close their noses touched, "but remember I have no obligation of helping you. If you go against my instructions I will rip your bandages off, reopen your wounds and abandon you in a dumpster, understood?"

They stared at each other for long seconds and then Law closed the remaining distance and kissed him chastely on the lips.

The dark haired man stood up and turned around.

"I'll bring you something to eat."

Kid didn't take his eyes off him until he had disappeared through the door. He would refuse to admit it later, but for a moment there, when they had been so close, Law had scared him.

He had no doubt the man would go through with his threat.

To be continued


I know many of you expected Kid to lose his arm, but not even Law could manage a successful amputation without access to, at least, a clandestine lab. And he doesn't have it without speaking to Doflamingo.

I did a bit of an experiment writing this chapter, tell me what you think of it :)