Silence filled the room as everyone tried to process what the gray-haired man had just said. Law in the arms of the old man opened his eyes surprised. His father? The biological one? That had to be a joke, he had always been alone, no one had ever sought him out, he had never remembered that time, he had not even bothered to do it since, why worry about someone who abandons you? for him his life had started with Garp and his two brothers. Nothing else.
But that man had just claimed him as his son, and from the tears he shed silently, or from the possessive way he held him, it was clear that he was serious about the statement, or that he believed it was true.
Although Law could swear he had never seen the man.
"Excuse me, sir, but I think you got the wrong person" He said, speaking for the first time since he had entered.
He watched Kidd, behind the man, close his eyes and tremble slightly when he heard him, as if his mere voice moved him. God, he could not take his eyes off him, fuck the old gray-haired man, he loved Kidd, he wanted to embrace him, not a man who now claimed to be his father after several years.
Unfortunately, not everything was so easy and the man squeezed him again in his arms not ready to let him go.
"No, it's you, you have the same smile of your mother and my same gray eyes, plus the tattoos ... no, there's no mistake, it's you" the man commented again, stroking Law's face with tenderness.
Law, struggling in the arms of the other, broke loose and separated from the man as politely as he could. After all, because of the clothes he wore, he seemed to be someone important. "Excuse me sir, but I have not seen you in my life, and I definitely do not remember you"
"Of course not" protested the other indignant "you were barely three years old when we lost you, I would really be surprised if you even remembered your mother's name"
Law narrowed his eyes annoyed at the comment. No, he hadn't known his mother and he barely remembered her more than a blur of forms and murmur in his memory. And it was one of the things he always regretted and hated, not remembering, not really knowing who he was or where he belonged.
The man came back to him and held him by the shoulders. It was as if he did not want to let him go too far away, as if he were afraid of losing him again. Like Kidd had been.
"But do not worry, everything will be fine now" he commented with a smile.
Law backed down. He did not understand. This morning he was nobody, he led an isolated life with the sole purpose of satisfying the needs of the god and without any concern over the future. This morning he had nothing. And now everything came back at once. Luffy and Ace who looked surprised and totally pleading for him to return, that man who had just proclaimed to be his father as if nothing, and finally Kidd, the man who just a few hours ago was dead along with his hopes and Law's life.
"I do not understand" he murmured as he rested a hand on his forehead, it was beginning to get dizzy "I do not understand"
Darius was on Law instantly, helping him keep his balance with his arm around his shoulders, then leading him to where Doflamingo was and helping him sit in one of the chairs next to the god.
Doflamingo instantly took his hand and squeezed it hard. Although it was a hidden gesture, as if he was preventing the rest from noticing the show of affection. Especially his newly named father. The face of the god did not change in the least when he turned to look at him and he continued to maintain the boring and indifferent look, but Law could perfectly feel his huge hand squeezing his in a mute show of support and concern. Timidly, he squeezed it in response, although inside he would preferred Kidd doing it, not the blonde.
God, he had not even greeted him yet.
"I'll try to explain myself" Darius began seeing his lost look "Law, when you were barely three years old...
... your mother and I received an invitation from some friends from a neighboring Greek city. They were important people and quite influential and therefore, as monarchs of Persia, we could not deny it, besides your mother and that lady were old friends and she was eager to see her old friend, and I couldn't say no. Your mother could be very convincing in some ways.
You, of course, didn't want to leave the palace, you had never go out and you were afraid to leave everything you knew, but we didn't leave you another option. We were your parents and you had to start to understand what it was like to be royalty and the obligations that it entailed. We had already made you the tattoos that marked you as successor and, according to the law of our country, you were officially recognized as the legitimate heir, so you had to accompany us out of the country.
Nothing serious happened during the visit but the night before leaving, a skirmish broke out. A band of bandits came down from the mountains and, taking advantage of our visit, they looted and set fire to the town. We had to flee the place, however, when your mother went to look for your room, it was deserted. I guess you sneaked away as you always did in the palace, fleeing from classes and obligations to go snooping somewhere. We panicked. The bandits entered the house and we had to flee or be killed. We looked for you, I swear that we looked for you, but in the end we have no choice but to leave.
When we returned the following week with a support group, the city was devastated and not a single survivor was left. We keep looking, under any rock ... but we didn't find anything. In the end we gave up and were forced to return to the palace to fulfill our duties. Your mother's heart broke when she gave up, she quit her job, she stopped working, she stopped eating ... it killed me to see her like this, I tried to encourage her, I promised her I would find you, but it was not enough, she was getting thinner and kept calling you and begging to see you. In the end she died.
And the empire was divided.
I didn't want to get married again, I didn't want to forget about her or you. I spent years and years looking for you as I had promised, but I couldn't find you. I thought of the worst, that I had lost you as well as her. It was difficult, especially with the nobles asking for an heir to the crown and putting pressure on me to get married again. The nobles were divided, many told me they would not support me again until I changed my mind and had another heir, there were attacks, assassination attempts or threats ...
... but now everything is fine" concluded the man "now you are and you will unite us together again"
Law blinked back tears as the blurry image of a woman with long dark hair and a bright smile crossed his mind. God, his mother had died because of him and he did not even remember her face, nor had he tried to remember her. It was too much. Too petty on his part.
"Law please come with us" Kidd finally spoke.
"Everything is fine now, we can take you out of here" continued Luffy smiling happily. He had grown so much.
"Law please," Kidd pleaded again, and it was clear from his gaze that his life depended on Law's response.
Law stared at him, looking at him desperately. He wanted to run to him, hug him and take refuge in his arms, until he absorbed all that information, while Kidd kissed him again and made love to him. He wanted to go with his father, to show him his own country, his culture, his traditions, he wanted to make up for lost time- He wanted to go with Ace, with Luffy, go back to the beach and the secret cave. He wanted to do so many things.
But he couldn't.
He was no longer what they believed him to be. He did not deserve them. He was dirty, marked, corrupted. He could not be a king, he could not be a brother and he definitely couldn't be Kidd's lover. Kidd deserved something better, someone pure, clean and healthy, someone who would give him children and who could offer him the happiness he deserved.
Law could not be that person. He could not be with Kidd after all these years of abuse, the mere fact of being alone with Kidd, to sleep with Kidd made him tremble. What would Kidd think of him if he knew what the god had done to him? Would you continue accepting him? Would he forgive him for his betrayal? No, I couldn't do that to him. Maybe Kidd would accept him and love him again, but Law would never forgive himself for falling and losing hope. Kidd needed a strong and secure woman by his side, not someone broken, used and without a will to live like him.
And the same was true for his father.
What would happen if the monarch found out all the shit that Doflamingo had done him? Would he still want him as the lost son he had loved so much?
No, he could not, it was too late, too late for everything, he could no longer be considered even human, he was worse than garbage, he was not worth fighting for, risking all their lives for someone who was corrupted. It was better for them to leave, to continue their lives as they have done up to now.
Let them forget him.
"Law?" Kidd spoke his name again with that innocent concern coloring his voice.
And he couldn't stand this anymore.
It was too much. He did not deserve it. He could not be with him. His eyes moistened as he realized the situation and accepted it. God, he had to contain the tears, he was not going to cry. He blinked several times as the feeling of absolute loneliness seized him again. He suddenly got up from the chair and started to back away with a shake of his head.
"No, I will not go, I will not …"
The looks of confusion and disappointment appeared instantly as well as some slightly alarmed and surprised.
"Why not?" Kidd demanded, approaching him once he had processed the words and the surprise and betrayal disappeared from his eyes. "You don't want to be here, we all know it, why don't you want to leave? It's alright, nothing will happen to us, we can ..." the redhead began to announce with a reassuring voice, getting closer and closer.
Law panicked. No, he could not let Kidd touch him, he would dirty him, and hurting Kidd was something he would never do. He recoiled with panic on his face as the redhead approached.
"Kidd is right," said his father approached him also with that smile of affection and happiness for having found him "everything will be, fine trust us"
Law then entered into an panic attack. His breath accelerated, his mind stopped working, pain bloomed on his chest. It was too much. It simply was too much. To see Kidd again, to find out who he was, to be asked to leave with them, offering him much more than freedom after so many years, the feeling of disgust for his person, to have them so close, the feeling that he had betrayed them... his breathing accelerated further as his eyes moved nervously from one side to the other.
"No!" He cried desperately. "No! I'm going to stay here, I will not leave, I'm going to stay" and without being able to stand all that pressure, he ran out inside the temple feeling his whole body threatening to fall apart in that same moment before the tremor that ran through him.
...oOo…
Doflamingo on his golden throne looked at the door where Law had just disappeared with a disbelieving face. In the sudden silence of the room he forced himself to breathe again and assimilate it all at once so that he could focus on the men who were trying to declare war to him.
But his mind just couldn't just focus. Law had had before him the perfect opportunity to escape, the perfect future with everything that could be asked for, friends, family, lovers, and he had rejected it all.
Why? For an eternity in the temple as his whore? For him? Doflamingo swallowed without being able to find another reasonable explanation, with the hope lost long ago returning to resurge in his chest with force. Had Law rejected a throne, a family, and his lifelong lover for him? Really?
A wave of relief and pure happiness flooded him inside. Unable to avoid it, it erupted in a wave of unbelieving laughter but totally happiness. Kidd glared at him in the next second and approached him with large, menacing steps. Doflamingo did not care. He was still reveling in the new revelation.
God and to think that he had been worried for a moment, that for a moment he had thought that nothing could be done, that Law would leave him forever and that he would not feel him moaning desperately under him in bed, that he would never fuck again that soft brown ass... But as Law always did, he surprised him, he was always incredible. In a moment Doflamingo gave everything up for lost, he prepared to have his heart broken painfully, and then Law simply gave him that. An eternity with the brunette. Yes, he was simply amazing.
Kidd grabbed his shirt tightly and lifted him off the throne, bringing him close to his face with a look that could summon the god of the underworld.
"What did you do to him?" He screamed with anger in his red eyes.
Doflamingo looked at him with a smile of total delight. He could feel the redhead tremble with rage, restraining himself from pouncing on his jugular. Now it seemed a waste of time all the jealousy he had felt for this boy, the stupid sense of inferiority every time he saw him, the times he had wondered what the redhead had for Law to risk everything for him, but that he himself lacked.
He gloated for a moment.
"That's the best part," he whispered to the boy evilly, feeling their breaths mixing with the aggressive proximity, "I have not done nothing to him"
Kidd's fist hit his cheek the next moment. The redhead looked at him with rage and murderous instinct on his eyes. "You lie!" He roared, threatening to hit him again.
Doflamingo laughed again, even though he felt the old taste of blood in his mouth.
"No, I don't, he has chosen freely, how do you expect me to prepare anything with so little time?" he explain logically.
Kidd tensed his jaw and looked at him as one looked at a dead man who has only two seconds left to live. Doflamingo words had logic, what the blond said had a damn and perfect logic, but Kidd didn't accept it. "I do not know how, but the fault of this is yours"
He raised a fist again.
However, this time, unlike the previous one that had been by surprise, people were ready. Vergo stood in front of Doflamingo to receive the punch and even one of the redhead's own men, a masked man with blond hair, approached and tried to push the redhead away from him.
"Kidd, stop, this will not help, you need to relax and think"
"There's nothing to think about, I'm going to kill him and then take Law, it's that simple"
"Fufufufu," laughed the blond on the throne as the blood fell from the corner of his mouth giving him an even more macabre look. "You are so depressing, you had come fully convinced that you would take him fufufufu. Where is your confidence now and your threats? Are you going to continue with the war despite the fact that he has told you he does not want to leave?" The blonde couldn't help but continue mocking.
"Shut up," shouted one of Law's brothers, a boy with a scar under his eye.
"Poor people, so many preparations and sacrifices for nothing" continued the blonde "Tell me how do you feel now that your own brother does not want to go home with you?"
"Shut up!" The two shouted this time.
Kidd, on the other hand, had let go of the blonde that had tried to hold him and now was pouncing on Vergo without thinking, only with the murderous instinct and the desire to shed the blood of the god.
"Fufufu And what are you going to do now? Go away and come back in another six years to see if he has changed his mind?" Doflamingo was having a great time with all that.
The room was a chaos in itself. The blond mocking without caring about anything, simply enjoying the feeling of having been chosen for once. Kidd fighting against the masked blonde, and against Vergo. Luffy and Ace also advancing while a green haired boy clutched his swords with his eyes fixed on the guards in the room. The screams, the blows, the deranged laughter, and in the middle of everything, with the calm and determined gaze, was an immobile Darius.
"Quiet!" He said in a voice so firm and powerful that the whole room stopped even though it was barely audible among the screams.
All eyes fixed instantly on the unpredictable man with graying hair that suddenly moved with a calm step to stand in front of the God. His face revealed nothing like his body language, not even the slightest tension or anger. As if he was immune to all that.
Doflamingo, sat back in the throne waiting for the man to move, fully alert. This one was the dangerous one. Darío returned an intense and meaningful look of wisdom of those who have ruled a kingdom for many years. His hands crossed behind him in a vulnerable pose, as if he wanted to reassure Doflamingo and tell him he was not going to do anything wrong. As if the god was the frightened little animal.
"You know that this does not change anything" his deep and penetrating voice rumbled in the room "We had not come here to ask the opinion of my son, but to blackmail you"
Doflamingo opened his eyes in surprise, straining instantly. That had no logic and he protest accordingly. "But…"
Darius frowned slightly at his interruption.
And Doflamingo for the first time in the meeting found himself sweating in fear. Maybe he did not look like he was angry, maybe the old man controlled every minimal emotion of his body just like Law did, but that simple gesture had alerted every little instinct that the blond had. Darius was more than pissed off. It was like a thick, bitter feeling that made him tremble from just intuiting it. As if the old man's body gave off a murderous instinct stronger than anything he had ever faced.
Then Doflamingo began to doubt. Could he really beat such a man? A man who, with only a slight frown, had made him tremble?
"Formally," the old man continued, "Persia and I suppose also Rome, declare war on Greece with all its consequences. I will wait for your letter with the location of the battlefield as well as the date and time" he sentenced.
Doflamingo could not help but nod as he saw how everything he had planned went to hell with those words. He watched Kidd smile at him, still imprisoned in the blond's arms with that arrogant smile and hate-filled look. And then he realized. They had come here for him, not for Greece or for a higher position on the scale of power, not even Law, most of them were here only for him. In revenge for everything, in revenge for what he have done.
"I'm not going to make it easy" he said to the dark-skinned man with gray hair who was beginning to move towards the exit followed by his loyal entourage.
The man turned to him and smiled at him with the same smile that Law had. The sideways and playful one that did not announce anything good. They looked so much alike it was like facing Law instead of the old man, as if it were an old and defiant Law he was talking to.
"Wars are never easy kid," he said contemptuously, "but I'll practice a little more to slit your throat if that's what you want."
He said that last sentence without restraint. No hiding his emotions. Letting him see all the hatred and rage in his eyes and in his voice. Making him feel so helpless and weak as if he really had pierced his throat and was facing death.
As a vision of the future.
So Dofla is digging his own tomb. But well, we all knew he was a bit stupid in this fic. He is weird. I wanted to give him that double edge thing, so you don't know if he is good or bad, he cares for Law, he says some true things and defends him, but his way of loving it's just wrong.
In any case, war is coming. I will probably finish translating this fic this week.