Law stared down at Kid's unconscious body with mild interest. He was rather surprised that one of the red head's own allies would clock him out into forced slumber, as the lawyer would have liked that honor. Still, it was satisfying to watch Kid flop back limply on the floor and Law tired in vain to ignore the fact that with the way the man was sprawled out, he was treated to the nice sight of Kid's muscles.
The blue haired man promptly made a harder effort to ignore his obvious interest in those muscles. Law wouldn't give in so easily a second time, no matter how Kid flexed those muscles or tried to use them against him in an effort to try and make out with him. Law wasn't interested in pretending to go out with Kid if it was the red head's poor excuse to try and feel him up. The blue haired man was done with it all and wanted nothing more than to go home and forget that any of this had ever happened.
"He is such an idiot at times." The long haired blond commented, ignorant of the lawyer's thoughts. "It's hard to imagine sometimes that he actually has a college degree with the way he acts so impulsively."
"College? Him? You can't be serious." Law said, clearly dubious at the very idea. Kid only seemed to be good at thinking with one head, and it wasn't his mind that got the workout. It was a wonder that Kid could even evade the cops when he went out when all the red head wanted to do was touch Law when he came back to the apartment.
"Yes, he has a degree in mechanics. Not that he uses those talents for anything but crime at the moment." The blond seemed rather willing to give out information on the unconscious man on the ground.
"You were the one on the phone earlier." Law presumed the blond was friends with Kid, or at the very least, acquaintances. "I highly doubt that you are a cop."
"That's right. And since Kid is unlikely to have said anything, my name is Killer." The blond shook his head. "I can't believe that he got himself into such a mess. Kid usually at least gives some thought to what he's going to do, though I have to say, he does not make the best decisions if left to his own devices."
"Considering he had plans to kill me for someone, he didn't think hard enough." Law deadpanned, and nudged Kid cautiously in the side to ensure the man was actually unconscious.
No response.
Law lightly kicked the red head in the side out of spite, and was satisfied that Kid was down and out for the time being. It was a good thing too; if Killer hadn't called Kid when he had, the blue haired man was concerned that Kid might have forgotten himself and removed their clothing and-
"So he didn't kill you, because he found you attractive?" Killer's bangs hid his eyes, but the thin line of his mouth seemed to speak to the utter ridiculousness of his friend's thought process.
"That is what he said." Law agreed, before his features darkened. "And to avoid the fact that he hadn't killed me like he was supposed to, he kidnapped me, after he fucked me with my hands behind my back using a zip tie." The blue haired lawyer glanced down at Kid's prone form and considered kicking him harder. He didn't have a knife right now, and Law doubted Killer would let him harm his friend, but Law didn't want Kid to get off scot free for all that he had done. That Law was conflicted when Kid's hands were on him earlier made the lawyer even more in favor of incapacitating Kid past being punched unconscious.
It seemed too easy for the red head to be let off with such a thing. Law wanted to cause Kid some more grief, and right now, he was not in the position to do anything, and it was incredibly frustrating. Unbeknownst to Law, Killer was of a similar mind as he was, though not enough to physically harm the red head on the floor further. Law backed away slightly when Killer stepped forward, and eyed the blond suspiciously from against the wall as Killer picked Kid up off of the floor and laid him on the couch.
"He had sex with you when you didn't want it?" Killer's voice was flat.
"Yes, and you can call it what it is. Rape." Law said tartly. He gave Kid a nasty glare even though the man was unconscious and couldn't see all of the hate in those golden eyes. "And to add to the stupidity of his actions, he still doesn't seem to fully understand just why I despise him so much."
"He does have a way with selectively choosing to remember what he wants." Killer replied, looking down at Kid and seeming to give off the impression that he was thinking that he should have hit the red head harder. "Though this is the first I've heard him do something like that."
"I'm sure that, deep down, he does seem to have realized that I don't see him in the best light after forcing himself on me, and the whole kidnapping me afterward didn't make things any better." Law let out a derisive laugh. "I think he might have even wanted to try and salvage some kind of relationship with me, as absurd as the thought is."
"Kid can be persistent." Killer said casually. He was quiet a moment before twisting to the side to face Law. "I suppose that even when the cops find you, they will still go after Kid, correct?"
"Yes." Law said spitefully. "If nothing else I want him in jail."
"How are you going to avoid the people that want to kill you? Won't they just come after you whether or not Kid is in the picture?" Killer asked. Seeing the look on the blue haired lawyer's face, he added. "It's obvious, from what you said and what Kid won't say, that he took on a job from a group of people who don't want to get their hands dirty, or be connected to a murder of someone from such an influential firm. That said, if Kid is keeping you from running free, so to speak, he has his reasons, even if they aren't in your best interest apart from keeping someone assassinating you out in the open."
"That is one way of putting it." Law would never fess up to someone of Kid's acquaintances that he'd had his own hands on the red haired man when he'd been inadvertently turned on by the sight of Kid post-workout apperance.
"If they can't get to you themselves because Kid failed, they will find someone else." Killer said grimly. "I don't know who Kid took the job from, but if it has him hiding you away, he has to be scared or wary of whoever hired him for the hit."
"They contacted him. Gave him a deadline of later this evening to bring them my dead body in an alley outside of a bar." Law said tonelessly.
"That's typical of several groups that I can think of, though only two operate in this city." Killer said after a moment's pause. "And what did Kid decide to do about it?"
"You ask when you know him better than me?" Law let out a sigh of long-suffering. "Eustass-ya's brilliant plan was to go to the bar and try to pass me off as someone he was now going out with. And somehow that is supposed to prevent them from wanting me dead. Considering the fact I can't even have him touch me without flinching, I doubt the lie will hold, if they don't just shoot me dead as soon as they see me."
"I suppose I should have known it would be something like that." Killer commented with a shake of his head. "It figures."
"An idiotic plan that would end in nothing but a hail of bullet's and two dead bodies?" Law's lips curved into a smirk at the idea, despite the fact that he would be one of those bodies. That Kid would be the other made the hopelessness of the situation a little bit better.
"...You may not like to hear this, but from what I can see, you and Kid are a lot alike." Killer sounded like he didn't know if he should be amused or distressed by Law's interest in ending up dead while taking Kid down with him in the process. "That's rather twisted of you, you know, that death would be preferable. Kid's an idiot; he was just trying to find a way for you to not end up dead. He might, depending on the people who hired him. You could get away before the bullet's fly, depending on how Kid was thinking of going about this plan of his."
"You think he would go as far to sacrifice his own life to let me get away? I doubt that. He's too arrogant and full of himself to want to die for someone he only harassed and knows would rather see him in prison or dead for what he's done." Law said darkly. "You think too highly of him."
"He might surprise you." Killer said with a shrug. "He seems to have taken a liking to you, even if it's unhealthily."
"You're not the only one who thinks that." Law muttered crossly.
Killer didn't seem to know what to say, though the blond seemed to have realized that he didn't know everything that Kid had put Law through. Killer opened his mouth like he was about to add something, and was interrupted by Kid uttering a soft, semi-conscious groan from where he was sprawled on the couch, so Law spoke aloud instead.
"The only thing that would surprise me at this point would be Kid turning himself into police custody." Law said, his voice devoid of inflection. "But you're right about one thing. He does seem to have an interest in me, and keeping me alive, though probably to have me to himself. I don't know what I should feel about that, other than disgust that he has such a one track mind." Law knew that Killer wasn't likely to let him waltz out of the apartment because he had loyalty to Kid first, but that didn't mean that he was going to just sit there and wait for his impending death to come.
"I suppose asking for all of us to have a civilized conversation is too much to hope for?" Killer's tone indicated he knew the answer even before the golden eyed man answered him.
"No. He had his chance to leave my temporary home before I saw he'd broken in, but he chose not to. Why should I sit and converse with someone who's done nothing but prevent me from going home? Prevented me from getting into contact with people and trying to get into my personal space at every opportunity?" Law knew that Kid would follow through on his plan, whether Law liked it or not, and Killer, now that he was there, was likely to try and help the red head out with his hair brained scheme. So, before Killer or Kid, who was partially awake, could stop him, Law stole the red head's cell phone off the kitchen table and barricaded himself inside the bathroom.
From the angry snarl that came from the half awake Kid, Law didn't have a lot of time before the red head would break the door down.
Law didn't care; he wasn't going to do this anymore.
He didn't want to die, because there was noway that plan would work.
Law didn't want to do that to Cora-san.
Even though Law didn't know where he was or whether Kid's phone could be tracked, Law hastily dialed Corazon's phone number, and waited, jumpy when he heard the first strike against the bathroom door.
"The fuck are you doing, Trafalgar?" Kid's demand was loud, but also, just maybe, a little bit afraid.
Good.
Let him worry.
Law was just returning the favor of being raped, kidnapped, and held against his will in some random apartment by an incompetent idiot.
'Hello?' Corazon's voice was cautious. Hopeful. 'Law?'
"Cora-san." Law was relieved his adoptive father answered the phone, but from Kid's enthusiastic smashing of the door, he wasn't going to have the cell phone for long, no matter how hard Killer sounded to be trying to get the red head to stop. "I don't have long to be on the phone."
'Where are you, Law? Where?' Corazon sounded frantic. 'Did you figure it out?'
Law realized, foolishly, that he did. Hadn't Kid told Killer an address? What was it? He couldn't hear it all at the time it had been spoken, but surely even a partial address would do. "I didn't get it all, but here." The blue haired lawyer rattled off what he could remember, and he must have not been as quiet as he thought, because there was a pause of the pounding on the door, accompanied by a gasp, and then renewed vigor punctured by Killer's 'stop, Kid'. Law barreled onward, desperate to give as much information before Kid broke that door down and stopped him. Violently, from the sound of it.
'Law?'
"Kid was working for someone who wanted me dead. They contacted him and told him to bring me to a bar tonight. He was going to try and convince them not to kill me but I doubt it'll do any good." Law said hastily.
"Trafalgar!"
The door finally broke from the repeated flashing, and if Law hadn't become mostly immune to Kid's rage, he would have pissed himself with just how angry the red head was as Kid immediately dove at him and took him to the ground.
'Law!' Clearly Corazon could hear the door break and the yelling and cursing from both Killer and Kid. 'Where?'
Law gave himself credit for trying with a pissed off man pinning him to the ground, a hand wrapped around his wrist that held the cell, the grip painful. "A bar! The Jo-!" Law grunted as Kid's mouth covered his own in a heated kiss, the red head snarling something incoherently into it. Right before that kiss, Law could have sworn that in that one instant, Kid himself looked panicked instead of angry.
"What the hell are you doing Kid?"
Kid ignored Killer in favor of kissing Law and soon succeeded in getting the cell phone out of Law's grasp and turning it off.
From the low growl and nip into the kiss Kid gave him, Law hoped that Killer was close enough and capable of preventing Kid from murdering him. The kiss was rough and painful with the way Kid forced his way into the lawyer's mouth with a hint of teeth, getting what he wanted without asking Law if it had been fine with him. It flashed through Law's mind, as soon as he was allowed air, that Kid's furious, bared teeth expression was back, any lust far from his mind as he focused on the matter at hand. As were Kid's hands around his throat, squeezing, Law would have actually preferred that aggressive, almost panicked kiss Kid had given him moments before.
"Kid!"
"You fucking dumbass! You tell the cops where to go and we'll both end up dead no matter what!" Kid snarled. "Those bastards will shoot first before asking me why I was taking so fucking long!"
Law let out what suspiciously sounded like a squeak as he frantically scrabbled his hands against Kid's uselessly. Whereas the lawyer couldn't get his hands around Kid's neck, the red head had no problem doing so to him in return, and held on as if Law's desperate struggle meant nothing to him.
"Kid, let go of him!"
Law dimly saw a flash of blond and some pressure being taken off his throat. Killer was, it seemed, trying to pry Kid's hands off of him. Law's eyes rolled back as he wheezed for air when Kid's pressure seemed to increase in response to Killer's actions.
"How is this going to help?" The blond demanded.
"Fuck off, Killer! He nearly fucked things up!"
"So you're going to bring a body to someone after all?" Killer said in a disbelieving tone. "Think before you act! You're going to kill him at this rate. Is that really what you want?"
"...Fuck." Kid swore abruptly.
Law felt the pressure ease up instantly, but it didn't help him suck in any air as he dropped limply to the floor of the bathroom. Dimly the blue haired man heard Kid curse again, and wondered just why he thought this was a little different from the last time Kid had choked him. It would hit Law late that Kid had been afraid, but even if that was the case, the blue haired man wouldn't forgive Kid for harming him further in an attempt to keep police presence away.
Right now, however, Law was teetering on the edge of passing out, and much to his dismay, he didn't. He just lay there like he was, which was why Law supposed Kid picked him up and carried him out of the bathroom and onto some piece of furniture. When those hands touched his throat, the lawyer was too air deprived to do anything, and was merely taken aback when Kid massaged his throat gingerly, while cursing things like 'shit' and 'fucking hell' and then 'shit' again like he hadn't realized he'd been harming Law.
"You're an idiot, Kid."
Law agreed with Killer but continued to do his best impression of a limp body as he let Kid work his fingers lightly along his throat. Law gasped in a deeper breath, coughed, and then lay still again, wheezing in his breath all the while not opening his eyes.
"How do you think you two could pull off 'being together' if you do shit like this? No wonder he has it in for you, if this is how you've been treating him." Killer wasn't going to let Kid interject, but it seemed the red head was allowing the scolding because he wanted it.
Odd.
Kid never seemed to listen to him. Maybe Killer was the voice of reason.
Poor man.
Law realized he must have blacked out briefly, because the conversation had taken a turn from where it had been before.
"And you have to go tonight, or they'll find you, yes?"
"Yeah." Kid's voice was low.
"And we need to go now before the police show up here. Law gave them a partial address, didn't he?"
"Yeah." Kid seemed distracted, his hand brushing lightly over one of Law's shoulders.
"We're going then, now." Killer opened a door, from the sound of it. "We'll talk about what you had in mind."
"Okay." Kid didn't protest, and Law really wanted to, because the red head was still holding him as the red head stood up and carried him over to the door.
"Wait a minute." Killer said.
Kid paused as asked, being rather obedient, infuriatingly enough.
Law hoped he was going to be left behind for the cops to rescue, but that just wasn't to be, as he felt soft material as it was wrapped lightly around his neck.
A scarf.
"He's going to bruise after that idiotic act of yours." Killer scolded.
"Yeah."
It appeared as if Kid was going to be monosyllabic for a time.
Law couldn't do anything to protest, his body still recovering and sucking in air. But as the apartment door closed, and Killer and Kid brought him who the hell knew where, Law's hope at being rescued diminished once again.
It seemed more likely that he was going to die as a result of Kid's stupid plan after all. As Law went in and out of consciousness, he could only hope that Bepo was found, and back inside a house. The blue haired man supposed he wanted Kid's cat, Miss Kitty Kit Kat, to be found as well. And had Law not been furious with Kid and the bullshit the red head was putting him through, Law would have given the man grief over his cat's name.
Because really, it didn't seem like Kid at all. And neither did the red head seem to be the same person who had been choking him out moments before when Kid spoke in a low, halting tone.
Law heard the barely there whisper against the side of his head, Kid's breath tickling his ear.
"Trafalgar...I...I'm sorry."
Law didn't think he had heard right. He couldn't have heard right, even as Kid muttered the same thing and held him closer to his chest as he walked, seeming unable to stop saying the same thing over and over out of Killer's earshot.
An apology after all that. An apology Kid couldn't prevent himself from apologizing repeatedly, as if it would make things better.
It didn't.
It wouldn't take back what had happened, it wouldn't take back the days that were lost, it wouldn't take back the fact that Cora-san had been shot, that repeated apology wouldn't take back anything, no matter how much the red head seemed to be saying he wanted that in his continual whispers.
Sorry for dragging you into this.
Sorry for having sex with you without asking.
Sorry for kidnapping you and your cat.
Sorry for not respecting your boundaries in the apartment.
Kid's tone seemed to reflect all of this in all those sorry's, but no matter how genuine it sounded, and no matter the fact that the red head finally seemed to have realized what he had done was wrong, it meant nothing at present.
To the blue haired man, it was far too late for a simple apology to suffice. Law wouldn't be accepting of any sort of an apology until the red haired man had paid for what he had done. And if Kid kept running away from the consequences of his actions, Law would only hate him even more than he already did before.
That tiny speck of trust Law that had given Kid in the past few days was gone after the red haired man had choked him again.
It would take a whole lot of effort on Kid's part to even get that much trust back, if at all.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
A/N: To be completely honest, I didn't expect to update this fic (even though I'm sorry some fics keep taking me nearly a year to update). I meant to update another one when I opened Word but I was struck with sudden inspiration and went for it. It's probably going to be this length of a chapter or less for the remainder of the fic. I finally managed to get what is left of the outline to fit the ending I wrote out (in return, there will only be mentions of the trail for Ace, as I lost interest in going into it too much in favor of resolving things between Law and Kid).
So much angst. Poor Kid finally admitting things and apologizing for them and Law not willing to be receptive to it.