14. Badittude

Law was tired. Physically and mentally.

"Oh dear, don't tell me you haven't had enough sleep last night," Dr. Dillan said as she passed his desk in the office.

His eyes were closed as he sat there with his head sunken into his hand, groaning quietly and muttering, "I'm done with this job."

She looked at the watch around her wrist. "It's 1 AM, why are you already here?"

In his sluggish posture, the young man straightened back and leaned relaxed against the chair, turning on it to face his coworker with a somewhat annoyed and dead face. "Three weeks night shift and now back to day shift. For fellow spontaneous uncertainty, I gonna quit."

Dr. Dillan smiled with a small laugh. "You'll get used to it. I've been working for over ten years in this hospital now, and my first three years I was complaining too."

"Your statement doesn't contribute to reducing my stress."

Putting her hands into the pockets of her white coat, the female doctor passed him again and told flippantly, "hey, if you're working over the day, please avoid scaring the children to easter like last year. As long as they don't shift you again."

"I don't know what you mean by 'scaring' them," he answered, his gaze following her to the coffee machine.

She poured the hot brown liquid into a mug and turned casual around with a lovely but humorous smile. "You know what I mean, being you."

"They ran into me, I did nothing wrong."

"You could've at least smile as you took their apology."

Law got up from his chair and left the room wordless, a little miffed by her attitude. He had no nerve to hear from anyone what he should have done or how he should behave. That was his and not their business. Did everyone had to complain those days?

Next month easter... Again an event that left him wondering why all the stress? Bunches of school kids that painted easter eggs, strolling around the corridors to hide them for other bedridden and ill kids. Wasn't it enough to buy some prior painted ones and have a nurse in a bunny costume that walked around and shared them?

Of course, it was not unusual for him to feel kind of exhausted or annoyed. He either was extremely laid-back or extremely stressed. Maybe it were just multiple things that added up like his work hours and lack of sleep, or maybe he was just exaggerating with his mood that time.

He had still over half an hour of his break left, so Law changed from his scrubs to his casual clothes and left the building. In town, he always had that one little shop he bought his Onigiris from. It was small, less occupied and had everything you need to live. Being often there, he never paid attention to the peanut shop across the street though, which name was really plain 'The Peanut Shop'. Just as it said, it were peanuts they sold in various creative forms he could never come up himself. The outer interior of the shop was not really eye-catching and made it forgivable that he hadn't noticed it once before, but wondrous that he did one day.

That blonde was allergic to peanuts. It was just an extremely random fact that he remembered as he passed the shop, got him thinking it as 'her chamber of death'. If he remembered correctly had they had a little boy suffering from peanuts once and died on the stretcher as the paramedics shifted him in. So many natural death causers were on that world, from heart diseases to dangerous allergies, but the blonde was just as bubbly as no one. Not that Law would talk it bad to have a positive attitude, but for him, she seemed to be too positive, thus careless.

However, it was not his business anymore, he shouldn't care about her in any way, let alone wasting a thought on that girl. Quinn Heady had been an amusing variety in the bunch of people he was looking for in the hospital, but not enough to be affected of her rejection. Work shouldn't be amusing, either good-looking.

Walking into the little shop to buy his snack before returning to the hospital, he heard a familiar voice calling him. "Law?"

As he turned to it, it was the brunette he occasionally slept with.

"I haven't expected to see you here," Judy said with a smile and walked up to him.

"Dito," was his flat response and he went to the Onigiris, grabbing two.

She was following the young man like it was the most casual thing. "What are you doing here? Are you heading home later?"

"I'm having my break right now and gonna return to work."

"Oh, weren't you night shifting?"

"Occurrence."

"Ah okay." Judy then became a little unsure with her voice. "Law... I have a question."

"I listen," he said and his flatness made everything weirder for the woman.

She furrowed her brows a little as she asked, "you made Quinn mad, what happened?"

Law wasn't expecting that his behavior concerned the blonde that much, and it was something between amusement and disinterest he felt. With a slight smirk, he asked her back, "she was complaining to you but wasn't precise?"

"Well, not certainly," the brunette replied with her eyes shifting half-lidded to the side. "She didn't say much and when I reduced my request to one word, she answered 'badittude'."

Badittude? Seriously? He found it... as always amusing but held his emotions back, answering only with a small sly smile. "I did nothing wrong, just my job."

"But-" Judy stopped and her eyes made a round inside the shop as she was unsure how to approach him. She knew Law was a little hard to reach, somewhat mysterious and all those personal unreachable issues, and it went a little against her pride to even try solving the problem by piercing him with the same question that long already. "Quinn's rarely that mad at someone, I thought you could help out by telling what you've said."

"I wouldn't know why that should be helpful."

"Maybe she misunderstood you..."

"Maybe I misunderstood her," he replied with some mockery. "As her friend, you should be on her side."

"I am on her side!"

Sure you are, he thought in sarcasm and walked off. For him, the issue was over. If that blonde was mad at him, she should keep concerning her mind with it, he didn't care, he didn't need her to like him.

"Wait, Law," her friend stopped him. Geez, that she really had to run after a guy, how unnecessary was that please? Narrowing her eyebrows a little, Judy pulled herself together and changed her tone to a more arrogant and ordering sound. "I think this is not funny. You should apologize to her." Being bitchy was the last thing she wanted to in front of a guy she was interested in, but for Quinn's sake.

Law turned back to her and raised displeased a brow. "Are you telling me what I'm supposed to do?"

She placed her hands on her hips, talking quite provocative. "Yes, I do."

"Judy. I do not well in taking orders," Law said and stepped slowly closer to her until he stopped in front of the brunette, telling coldly into her face, "stop annoying me."

Judy paused by his closeness and tried to stay in her confident posture. She loved the scent of his aftershave and those fierce, dominating, gray eyes. "I... You should stop telling me what to do. I have the right to voice my thoughts, and I'm not defiant enough to listen to someone telling me to shut my mouth."

God, he wanted to stuff her mouth.

Easy.

Leaning a little down, Law told quietly to her ear, "9 PM at your place, I want you naked."

Judy's cheeks blushed lightly and she looked nervous to the side, her arms sunken down from her confidence. His voice, it was making her weak, but she tried to fight against it. "I have to reject..."

Knowing that she wanted it too, just by the wording 'have to', he smirked and placed one of his hand gently to her hip what startled her a little. Yes, she wanted more of those, his touch, his odor, his voice, his taste, she felt like doing it right away.

"See you," he said as he straightened back and left the spot.

The last hours before school would end were always those where the kids went rage. They were tired, impatient and always for scrap.

"You idiot, who said I can't use my hands?!" A little boy with green hair shouted annoyed to his classmate Sanji.

That one shouted in the same manner back at him. "I said that moss-head!"

"Just because you're a bad thrower?!"

The conflict right then was simple. While Quinn was standing at the side and took notes, her class was playing Rugby in the gym, and as always it were the same two that annoyed each other.

"The rules of Rugby said you can only kick to the front," Luffy, who was a substitute at the moment, stated as he was watching the two quarreling.

And of course, Quinn did know that too and sighed with a somewhat fed up face. Those brats, she thought and walked up to them as they caused a pause to the game due to their little argument. She was tired of that because it had been the fourth time for them to have been in disagreement during PE lesson.

With her hands, Quinn held the two apart by their heads as they wanted to start a physical fight. "Enough for now. Zoro has made a mistake, but nothing to get wild on."

"Told you," Sanji said and folded his arms.

The green haired boy, Zoro, gritted his teeth and turned away from him. "I have no time for this kid's stuff."

Mentally, the young teacher was already rolling her eyes. She wasn't sure if she should find it cute or annoying that her students were behaving like they were adults. Pretty much depended on the situation she guessed, and in that case, it was rather bulky.

"Zoro," Quinn said and stopped him. "Don't be a bad loser."

"Yeah, just be a loser," Sanji exclaimed from behind, and Quinn put her finger to his lips to seal them, turning his cheeks pink. "I'm sorry, Miss Heady!"

Keeping her attention back to the green haired boy as she was squatting to the kids' eye level, she told him, "losing to someone is no disgrace. Right now, you know you did something wrong, and if you stand to it, no one will take that amiss. That's what you learn in your dojo as well, right?"

Zoro quirked his lips, miffed about his teacher saying the truth and about his blonde classmate. "I won't apologize to that guy."

"And what if he apologized as well for being rude to you?"

"Huuh? But Miss Heady...!" Sanji said.

Quinn got up again and looked at the two. "Don't have a badittude."

"Badittude?" The two repeated confused, but not impressed.

"That's a bad attitude," she responded. "And now, apologize to each other."

They looked at one another in displeasure and their lips twitched with the hard attempt to do as their teacher said. But the two eventually managed to defeat their pride and spoke out their apologies, making the game carrying on.

Quinn sighed in relief and walked back to the bench, sitting down next to Luffy. "I'm surprised you remember the rule," she told him as he was normally deaf when it came to rules.

"Yeah, my big brother used to be in the rugby team when he was in high school, so I know the rules!"

"Oh, you didn't tell me you have a big brother."

Luffy smiled with pride. "I have two."

"Two? Really?" Quinn said with surprise, overdoing it a little as she talked to a child.

He nodded and told, "but they have other mothers though."

Now, that was really surprising. "Huh? They both were adopted by Dadan too?"

"No, only Ace, but when he was younger, Sabo was with him every day so we're practically brothers."

"Sabo?" Quinn's brows lifted as he said that name since she had heard it just a couple days ago. "He doesn't happen to have blonde hair?"

"Yeah, he has," Luffy responded and started to tell her with some excitement, "Ace's a traveler and rarely home. Sabo occasionally returns, but he's living with other people from his work and travels too. When I'm old enough, I wanna conquer the world as well!"

What a funny coincidence, the world was smaller than she thought. Especially the city they lived in. "Oh, but Sabo's home now, right? I saw him last time."

"Whaaaat?! You saw him?!" The little boy suddenly exclaimed in huge surprise and jumped up. "Is that really true?!"

Oh crap, looked like that was supposed to be a secret. Quinn placed her hands to her front and waved frantically with a wry smile. "Ah no no, that was just a joke."

"Hey! Why are you yelling at Miss Heady!?" From another corner, Sanji shouted to what Luffy shouted in response, "she saw my big brother in town!"

"Ah no..." What a great job. Now she could only hope that this Sabo guy wouldn't show up the next few weeks, or she would have to deal with a really mad Luffy and perhaps unpleased Sabo.

...

"You're too slow, Miss Heady!" Quinn's students shouted as they saw the young woman walking up to them after quite some time. They have been waiting for her to be done with her stuff so that they could return together back to the school building.

"I'm sorry," she said with a smile and unlocked the door of the gym. Quinn had distracted herself too much in her thoughts, thinking about Law and the last time in the hospital. She had wondered if she had exaggerated that moment, but repeating the situation and his behavior over and over again, she had come to the conclusion that she did nothing wrong.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

However, the gymnasium was not far from the actual school building and clearly in the sight of the bunch, just five minutes walk away. Strolling with the group relaxed back, a young blonde man appeared to their front, walking towards them.

Somehow...

"SABOOO!"

Quinn watched Luffy racing to the familiar face, jumping right onto him. Yeah, she knew that scar, how could she forget such significant mark on somebody's face?

Hanging onto the smiling young man, Luffy complained, "why didn't you say you're back?!"

"What are you talking? I just came home," Sabo lied and tried to keep an innocent smile.

"But Miss Heady said, she had seen you before, so don't lie to me!"

"Miss Heady?"

Oh crap..., Quinn thought and the bunch stopped as they stood in front of him.

"Sorry...," she said wryly and forced a smile at the guy.

He looked at her and his face fell to light thoughts, recognizing some familiarity as well. "Ah, you're..."

"I-I dropped your phone..." She used the rather uncomfortable reminder. Puking on people, dropping their phones, god she had to work on her first impression.

"Oh, right," Sabo said then and turned back to smiling. Realizing the coincidence as well, he paused for a quarter of a second before he pointed out, "wow wait, you are his teacher?"

"Yeah, Heady."

"What funny coincidence. I just wanted to surprise him, we haven't seen each other in six months."

Shifting her eyes unsure and in guilt to the side, Quinn said quite unhappy herself, "I'm sorry, it slipped out my tongue, I didn't know... but he was surprised!"

Sabo sighed and put Luffy back down. "Yeaah... you know, it's my little brother we're talking about and... if I don't get along with his teachers, it's a difficult thing and..."

Oh god, that conversation was going into a direction she didn't like. She knew she had missed her chance of good impression on that guy. But he hadn't been home for six months, he had no right to talk, right?

Seeing her tightened lips residing on a somewhat nervous face like a child was ready to get scold with so much shame and regret, Sabo snickered. "I was just kidding."

Huh? Her eyes turned blank and a little confused. That was not what she had expected him to say as his acting had been pretty on point.

He held his open hand to his mouth to form a wall, the back showing to the inside as he whispered, "but I've been here for quite a while now, don't tell him."

"Oh, uhm, okay?" Quinn was still a bit out of place.

Luffy grabbed her shirt and pulled it a little. "Miss Heady, what are we waiting for?"

"Oh, yeah, uhh, let's get back," she said somewhat flustered. "And uhm..."

"I'm actually here to pick him up," Sabo explained as the woman looked a bit helpless at him.

Woah, he was just like the girl she met in the rain back then, somehow giving her positive vibes and all the things she liked. "Oh I see, yeah, his stuff is still in the classroom."

Deciding to march with the group then, Sabo looked down to his little brother and asked, "wanna ride on my back?"

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore!" Was Luffy's reaction, rather displeased by his question.

Oh dear..., Quinn thought as she watched the scene. She found it extremely cute, it left her speechless as it had been a while that she interacted with some male that lovely.

"Sure you're not," Sabo answered with shameless sarcasm, which the kid couldn't understand anyway. "How's school buddy?"

Luffy remained quiet about that question, in fact, stated it to be a boring topic. Just like Quinn knew him, so she interfered as a teacher and told the young man smiling, "now and then he's in a brawl, but he's a good boy."

"In a brawl? I hope those are legit."

From the side, another of her student jumped in and claimed loudly, "and I, Usopp, am the one to always save him from the bunch of punks!"

"What are you talking? I can handle it myself," Luffy said calmly with a somewhat annoyed and confused face.

Quinn didn't bother to look at them as her lids lowered half over her eyeballs, telling them monotonously, "what are you talking? No one but the teacher handles anything."

"I see you have fun," Sabo said with gladness. "Don't trouble Miss Henry, alright?"

"Heady," the young woman corrected but got ignored as Luffy shouted back at him, irked by his brother's way of communication. "Don't talk to me like I'm a kid!"

"Wow, this guy should be his brother?" Somewhere from behind, Nami said, not believing that they were related in any way.

And she got agreement with her classmates, Zoro stating, "he behaves more, right?"

Some brats' judgments..., Sabo thought with a wry smile as he overheard their little conversation like they were so mature themselves. It was funny to hear stuff like that from a bunch of two graders. And they kept talking about it. Anyway, he turned his attention back to Quinn. "So, you're his homeroom teacher?"

"Ah no no, only art and PE," she responded with her head shaking in negation.

"Is he doing well?"

Quinn smiled quite weird. "Honest?"

"I wouldn't ask then."

"PE's fine, art would be fine too if he's not constantly eating during class and accidentally destroying his classmates' works."

Hearing that and already expecting it as it was just how he knew him, the young man sighed. "Hahh Luffy..."

"But don't worry, otherwise he's doing enough to get through school... I guess..." Quinn started to imagine his nearer future and narrowed her eyes a little in thoughts, having some unpleasant pictures in her mind. "God, if he's in middle school... household arts, he'll surely eat instea-" She cut herself off right as she noticed those to be negative statements, looking over to the guy and waved it off in apology. "Ah, I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to judge a little kid, ...Luffy, ...your brother, ...anyone!"

"Ah no it's fine, I have the same guesses as you," he responded relaxed.

"Great big brother."

Her sudden sarcasm was so obvious, he got a little confused about the switch. "Huh?"

"Is this your confidence in an 8 years old boy? I mean, I'm nonpartisan, but you as his brother should've m-" Quinn stopped again within the sentence as she saw Sabo was just blankly staring at her, worries that he would misunderstand her grew in her mind so that she had to explain herself right away. "Ahh no! I was just kidding! Okay, actually was a part true though, but you know what I mean, this friends-family-trust-in-someone thing and- ahh sorry! I-I mean, uh-" She looked embarrassed away. "God, it's okay, I just keep quiet."

Sabo grinned a little amused and said, "It's fine, I get your point."

Covering her pink face in shame, she glanced insecure over to him through the gaps of her fingers. "Please don't think I'm an incompetent and mean teacher..."

"If he listens to you, I won't doubt your competence."

He was... different... to Law. She did a direct comparison because it were only a few days ago when she had met the doctor last, thus the difference somehow noticeable. She liked meeting kind and good-mooded people, and Sabo had unambiguously more charisma than him. Well, Law actually got no charisma.

Thinking about Koala, she wondered if she'll meet more people like the two. It's really refreshing since Quinn was actually not the one to socialize much with people. She was neither too shy nor too busy, just not good at meeting new people and making friends as she lived in her own little world. Especially men were on her death list, since her ex-boyfriend; and due to Law, she almost lost hope in the male gender.

This must be positive karma...

Zerom1v & Guest - I think the taking clothes off thing or not depends on the doctor. In my hospital, they ask to take off your shirt completely while with another doctor I know, it's the same but female patients get a cloth to cover their chest.

Anyway, Zerom1v, thanks for pointing out my goof, I 've corrected them :)

Sarge1130 - Every time you write a question in your comments, I'm unsure if it's rhetoric or to me haha. And 'cockblocker' had made me laugh hahaha.

However, thanks for your reviews guys~!