35. Unprofessional purpose

A heterosexual man liked a lot about things their opposite gender did to attract. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a totally subjective thing; everyone had their own preferences; another taste in hair color, body shape, personality or whatever there was to differ the female from each other. But there was one thing that let many men turn eye the moment they sighted it.

Sundresses.

It was a hot day, nearly at the end of May; probably the hottest so far this year. The street was filled with sweaty people in shorts and tank tops, and for once every few a fluttering piece of fabric, tucked to a woman's body, turning gazes.

Quinn never liked the shallow look of men on her, checking her out like she was to rent; but she loved her cute little dress with the light fabric that swang with her motion along the street, paired with brown summer wedges. They stared, but she kept smiling. For some, high temperatures might be hell; but she loved them. When the sun lighted the streets, emphasizing the green on the trees while a crisp and clean blue sky hovered above.

"A customer?" a guy asked his coworker, looking up from the car he was working on, black stains and sweat marking his face.

The other guy with a cigar in his mouth looked over as well, eyeing the young woman up and down that was getting closer, a few meters away in the bright sun. "A pretty hot customer."

Quinn smiled at them, stopping in front of the two mechanics and they stared at her in the protecting shadow of the garage. "Greet ya, lil' lady. How can we help?" said the one on the ground, getting up.

"Hi, sorry, I'm looking for Penguin."

"Penguin?" the guy with the cigar repeated, and took it out, throwing it to ground. He talked and moved slowly while his small eyes scanned her decently. "I'll get him for you, what's your name?"

"Tell him, it's Quinn," she said.

As he turned around, he perked his head at his, also staring, coworker. "Work."

He got back down to the car after he gave Quinn a small flirty smile while the other disappeared in the back. Trying not to show her concern, she briefly smiled back before she looked away and hoped for her friend's quick appearance. Penguin's workplace was how she imagined the stereotypical craftsman's environment, dominated by the pretty manly men. Beside the smell of metal and gasoline, a cloud of sweat lingered around. Perhaps it was also just the weather today that made those body scents so obvious.

"Geez, shut up," she heard Penguin's voice minutes later from afar.

"Just the number."

"Quinn!" Penguin called out in joy, ignoring the other guy he came back with. He eyed her from head to toe, cheeks coloring pink as she stood in her summerly outfit, the dress tight to the waist, but falling softly in the length.

"Hellooo, my favorite Penguin," she said and hugged him, but backed off as he warned her about his wet shirt.

"Ah, it's pretty hot today, I'm quite sticky. It's nice to see you, what are you doing here?" That was the first time she was visiting him at his workplace out from any fight.

"Due to the heat, our school released everyone earlier," she replied and lifted a white plastic bag in her hand. "I was worried about you and brought you something cold to drink."

"Huh? For me?!" he said surprised and took the bag with cans of juice in different flavors. "Thanks! I think the heat's getting a little on my circulation, but else I'm fine. Law said I can do light work, my ribs will be healed in a few weeks."

"Aw, that's good to hear," she said, "but your arm's alright now?"

"Almost cured! However, these days I'm just in the back on the phone or sorting tools and screws," he said. Quinn listened to him then as he started telling a little about his work in small talk manner, but got distracted as she heard some murmur from the side.

She occasionally gazed discreetly over to his standing coworkers, who talked to each other, obviously about the two. "As if he could land at something like that," one said while the other replied, "yeah, that's never his girlfriend."

Madly, she lowered her eyelids about those chit-chatters and decided to step closer to Penguin, wrapping her arms around him to kiss him without hiding or shame on the cheek. What was that anyway? Something like that?

Penguin blushed in confusion and stared at her. "Qu-Qui-?"

"Psst," she said quietly and smiled, backing off. "Let's get back to your work, you don't mind me around, right?"

"O-of course not...! Follow me...!" he responded and tried to lead her the way confidently, still shy about her move. Though it was not a one-timer for her to kiss his cheek in a friendly sense, it probably will always stay surprising and nice.

The two passed his coworkers, both men staring baffled ahead while Quinn behaved casually with Penguin on her side, who had noted nothing.

Inside the garage, it was even 'manlier' than she had expected with cliches that she had hoped to be not real. They passed a table with a full ashtray and half to empty drunk coke and energy drink cans, betimes also piled with beer. On the floor gathered full trash bags, maybe taken out of the container and knotted, but left standing out of laziness. The jewel in the crown was, of course, that calendar with half-naked women posing with cars tugged on her mouth corners. It was hard for her to see her lovely friend to be part of this chaos, thus she talked herself into that he was not (he was).

Penguin put the cans into the refrigerator that stood in the staff room, also filled else with a box of fried noodles and moldy chicken soup; the lunch box of someone else and a water bottle. The guy turned to her with a sheepish smile, excusing the unsavoriness that he and his roommate also secretly hide in front of her at their own apartment. She took it easy with the conviction that you couldn't choose your co-workers, made him laughed insincerely.

As he returned to his work, sitting on the ground to literally sort screws, Quinn took place on a chair in front of him, watching his work. "I didn't know you've got tattoos too," she said in surprise, looking on his, for the first time, exposed forearms. "I thought only Trafalgar and Shachi do."

"Ah, those." He looked at them himself swiftly, telling, "we three actually went together to get them stitched."

"Oh, really? How cool!"

"Yeah, Law had his hands tattooed before, and we somehow got the idea to follow him as he was doing his forearms."

"I see..." Quinn eyed the tribal muster on his arms intently. "That's so cute of you three, it's like friendship tattoos."

He blushed with a slight laugh. "Tell it Law and he won't find it funny at all."

"I imagine tattoos to hurt pretty much, have you got some on your torso as well like him?"

His eyes shifted to her wordless, thinking how shameless Law was to show-off his body in front of any women again. Well, he was actually just... envying him. "Oh yes, they hurt like shit," said he, amused about the memories. "Shach' and I stopped by our arms."

"Hm... I also want a tattoo, something cute maybe," she said, pursing her lips and pondered about a motive.

He grinned. "I warn you, it hurts like hell."

"Oh buddy, I got my heart broken two times, I guess my pain tolerance's high enough," she joked quite boyish, returning his grin with subtle snicker.

"You're right, that's totally the same," he responded, also humorously.

"Uhhh, by the way, can I ask you something more... private?"

"Huh?" Penguin looked at her. "Sure?"

Quinn's eyes drifted to the side and she kneaded her neck with one hand while carrying a smile, suiting her sudden discomfort. "Well... it's more about... Trafalgar's privacy..."

He put the screws in his hand down to give her his full attention. "Okay? Don't get me wrong then when I can't answer, depending on what it is."

"It's nothing big!" she assured, her eyes darted immediately back at him. "Just a little about his... well... love life. Do you know if he had ever been in love before or any sort of feelings like that?"

"Honestly, not that I know," Penguin said. "He was as good as always closed off towards women; you and Judy are the only one I know he spends private time with aside from, you know."

She leaned a little forward, her hands on the sides of the chair next to her legs holding her weight while she thought about it more thoroughly, looking to ground. Law was a total anti-social; he was extremely intelligent when it came to getting what he wanted, even though he was only with a few people really in touch; it was actually a sad fact that he shut out everyone in his life, keeping his good sides for himself. He had them, he had many; she saw that from the moment he had carried drunken Judy voluntarily out of the bar, up into her bed. Quinn knew it was not easy to lead a carefree social life, she had been in that role herself, but the difference though seemed that she wanted friends, and he not. "Don't you think he... needs someone?"

Penguin glared at her in wonder, not grasping her mind.

Smiling a little to ground, she thought about every moment Law was actually in joy of something that involved social interactions. "Well, I mean," said she and looked at the mechanic, "someone who'd give him the care he needs. You know, I'm not a therapist or any psychologist; I can only talk about what I've observed multiple times. I have a group of two graders at school. Each of them had suffered loss of their parents in an early stage of their life or never met them, neither ever received the right care. I think they were that asocial and mistrusting, because of missing love." She laughed a bit, rolling her eyes. "I know, those are just children and not at any stage to find the love."

"There are exceptions," Penguin remarked with a joyful snap and she nodded in agreement, pointing at him with her finger since she liked the thought of a one and only true love, especially since childhood.

"However, but I think there're still parallels. Like they found as a group together, tightened as a squad where they receive genuine love in a friendly way; I think Trafalgar needs the same. The time I had observed that I could see the difference in their eyes!"

"Huuh? Are you saying we're not friends enough to him?" he asked shocked.

"No, you idiot," she replied and rolled her eyes amused. "I mean, when he's able to open up to his friends more, maybe he'll be even happier when he has someone special in his life. You know, the next level."

"I see..." Penguin glared at her without a blink, saying frank- and monotonously, "someone he can trust, who's there for him when he's vulnerable, who gives him the love and care he missed. Everything in the deepest depth of his privacy..."

"Uh..." Quinn glared back with a blank smile, surprised about that great summary. "...Right! Exactly that."

The guy on the floor loosened his neck he had stiffed as he had looked up, looking back to the case of screws and sighed. "You know what Quinn? I actually shouldn't tell you this, but I do because I trust you." He continued to sort them, Quinn listened curiously. "You remember Cecilia?"

"Of course I do, the pineapple lady!"

"The what?" he said, looking at her with a confused smile.

"Uhm, she wore a cute shirt with pineapple prints that day."

He laughed about her odd memory in little unnecessary details and shook his head, carrying on his work. "Well, Law had never much contact with girls when he was younger. He didn't distinguish gender, for him all were equal human beings."

"Wow, he did?" Quinn said with a brow rose, hardly believing it. But when she imagined it properly, it was actually not that improbable that he was either the ultimate sexist and womanizer or the 'I don't give a damn about your gender, you're all the same biological dreg'. If he wasn't out for intercourse, he indeed treated everyone the same.

"Yeah. But after he had slept with Cecilia, his view had changed drastically." Penguin looked back up, settling his chin in his hand while his elbow did on his leg, supporting his head. He sighed out loudly one more. "Cecilia was quite a bitch. She spread her bed story with Law and his request for a second time around until it reached the whole university. Didn't come good for him since he was topic number one then on the campus."

"Whaaat, no waaay! She's not sexy at all anymore that stupid woman!"

Penguin looked at her.

Silence.

"I mean, he was known before too, since he was the youngest bachelor degree holder and about to finish his master."

"Oh yes, he's a total genius..."

Penguin looked at her.

Silence.

He ignored her outspaced reaction and continued with the story. "Well, but he then was the showpiece of a nerdy virgin. Due to his good looks, the girls didn't feel ashamed at all to approach him, trying to witness the rumor with their own eyes. You can imagine, he was pretty making fun of and- hey, wh-why are you crying?!"

Quinn stared at him with big wet puppy eyes, mouth corners sunken deep, sobbing. "When I imagine how he had felt, this makes me soooo sad."

"Aww, Quinn, don't be! He's a strong guy!"

She nodded, trying to get hold of herself until she turned back to normal, straightening confident. "Okay, back to the story!"

Penguin sweat-dropped to her quick mood change and she gave him a thumbs up. "Anyway, there's not much story left. He had slept with many girls from there and well, that's how his view on women developed. They all are branded as objects in his mind, simply due to the fact that they were ready to spread their legs in front of him, only for their entertainment and gossip."

Because of the air conditioners in the hospital, none of the occupations noticed the slightest of the heat that rampant outside those walls. Law just had released his last patient from the examination room and walked out himself, checking the time on his watch. Again, he had overdrawn when his break actually had already started almost 20 minutes ago; but well, he was used to that anyway. As he walked past the waiting halls all carefree, Law thought his heart would stop for a second as his eyes suddenly caught something rather unwelcome.

Not her again.

In between all the other people, Quinn was sitting on one of the benches, staring on her phone. He only saw her from behind, but she was unmistakable. Annoyed from her presence here, probably looking for him again, Law tried to ignore her and continued his way through the hall like nothing bothered. It were only a few meters he managed to walk before her quirky voice called out for him, "Bread Trafalgar!"

He stopped. His eyes rolled with a deep inhalation before he turned around to her and god, she looked gorgeous in that sundress. Fuck. Still froze with a cold expression, Law asked, "your need, Miss Heady?"

"Wow, did you forget to take your pills again?" she said.

"Pills?" he questioned slowly, his muscle under his right eye already twitching skoshly.

"Those against facial paralysis."

Of course. Some stupid comment. Unamused, he turned again to ignore her joke.

"Oah, just kidding!" Quinn said then and rushed next to him.

"I thought we kinda talked about the reduction of your humor," he said, keeping his pace and look ahead.

"That's exactly why I'm here," she replied with a smiling eye roll, stating it as obvious. She reached inside her bag, pulling out a piece of paper and rolled it open, holding it up for him to look. "See? You haven't signed our contract yet."

Law glanced briefly at it from the corner of his eyes. "I forgot."

Prepared, Quinn also pulled out a ballpen and clicked it open, holding it up as well. "I've thought so, hence you can do it now."

He stopped and turned to her. "You'll be less annoying then?"

"It's practically in the contract," she answered with a shrug, extending the paper and pen.

It was probably the best way to get her out of his life, at least until he would get over his feelings. With lazy eyes he took it, not believing that he was really playing along her stupid game, ready to sign.

Quinn clapped her hands a little in subtle excitement, staring at the paper spot the ball pen was about to touch. "Hehe, when you've signed this, we're officially friends!"

He paused. Her smile faltered and he suddenly handed her back both items that never had contact with each other.

"Huh?"

"I refuse."

She stared at him confused, taking the stuff back automatically. "I'm sorry?"

"To be friends with you," said he and continued his way nonchalant.

Quietly, she stood still and didn't move, looking after him, left behind with both items like an idiot. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait- "What?!" She ran after him and got back to his side. "What do you mean, you refuse to be friends with me?!"

"I refuse to be friends with you," he repeated, a little slower.

"You refuse to be friends with me?!" she queried in disbelief, her brows furrowed in shock.

"You know that I've just said the same sentence again, only in slower."

"You can't refuse to be friends with me after I handed you the contract! We're practically already friends!"

Law took a deep breath, sighing loudly for her to hear. "And you're aware, contracts can be declined?"

"Noooo! Sign!" she insisted and held it closer to his face, stopping his walk.

Annoyed, he gritted his teeth and looked at her. "Geez, I said 'no'. Since when do you care about our relationship anyway?"

She puffed her cheeks, looking madly at him. "Anything wrong with it?! I like you, so I want you to sign the contract!"

Eyes rose open, his blood pressure betrayed him again, coloring his cheeks a little. "Oi, don't tell me you told Penguin to ask me when my break is?"

"Yeah, I did! Sign the contract!"

"No!" he persisted. "By the way, haven't I told you to only look for me in the hospital for professional purposes?!"

Her eyeballs made a round again. "Boy, when you told me that, it was World War II. Sign the contract!"

"Flaw number six - unhealthy amount of stubbornness!"

She rested her hands on her hips, pen and paper still in her hand while she countered, "your flaw number three - ridiculous amount of stubbornness! Sign the contract!"

"I have all rights to decline a contract!"

"Oh, but you take the gift basket and probably already ate from it, right?!"

(He had.)

They happened to stand just a little apart from the door of the staff room Law had aimed anyway, thus his ultimate escape for the time being. Still, with a pink mist over his face, he pulled it open, telling her to go home already.

In huff, Quinn pursed her lips with big blown cheeks while she glared at the door he had disappeared behind. With balled fists, she stiffly walked back to the lobby and halted at the reception, still with a mad face that unsettled and confused the nurse behind the counter. "I'm here to see Dr. Trafalgar after his break, I'm very sick!"

When Law's break was over, way too soon, but enough to cool him down from the previous encounter, he left the staff room to get back to work. It was just the same feeling he once had before, only much worse. His attraction to that woman bugged him, what he now could figure compared to before since it just developed into something bigger as to be left unnoticed. She and her bubbly personality, and god that outfit today. He couldn't remember to have found women in sundresses not pretty, but that amount was ridiculous. She's just an annoying, unfuckable child - get over it.

Walking into the examination room to see his next patient, calm and stoic, he only thought about a quick end to get home and fall asleep, completing that day. As he stepped to the doorway, nonchalant with both hands shoved into the pockets of his coat, his eyes saw first... that idiot again. Quinn sat on the examination table, smiling at him cheekily, already awaited the young man. They stared at each other in silence, his lips parted in disbelief half-open until he said, "I have no time for this," straight out and turned to leave.

"But I'm veeeery ill, Doctor!" she claimed and his eyes rolled up in exasperation before he turned back again.

"Oh, here for an echocardiography?" he asked, walking idly inside.

"No-"

"Go home then."

She jumped on her butt, hands around her waist. "You can't just send a patient home without listening once!"

Law leaned down to her face, displeased. "I won't sign that contract."

She stretched her neck up to him. "Sign, the, contract!"

Stepping off, he veered his back to her, saying gruffly, "If you don't have any other complaint, leave the hospital; you're wasting mine and other patient's time."

"Oh, I have else to complain! You haven't apologized yet for the last time you've said that! And here I am now, being so kind and overlooking this, offering you a peace treaty with a gift you already have taken, only to receive your stupid refusal to sign, the, contract!"

He snapped back at her. "Geez, get ou-!"

A nurse got in, staring at the two, who hushed right away as she popped at the corner of their eyes. "Everything alright, Doctor?" asked she, her eyes shifting in turn from Quinn to him.

Inhaling deep but quietly, he looked away with a ghost of a smile, muttering, "yeah..."

The nurse walked to the computer as casual duty.

Quinn cocked her body with an over-friendly smile. "Sooo, thank you for taking your time, Dr. Trafalgar."

"You look pretty fine to me, Miss Heady. I think you can go home now," he responded.

"But Doctor, you haven't listened to my complaints yet," she said in mock-wonder, got him bumping his head against a wall mentally.

The nurse was operating the computer, thus he couldn't help but keeping that stupid act. He breathed out low with his typical face of missing emotions, looking at the girl on the examination table that dangled her legs in the air. "How can I help?"

"I guess I caught a terrible cold," she said and pretended to cough, really bad played, "got in contact with some ill and almost dying, ungrateful quack."

"Almost dying?" he repeated, his right mouth corner twitching lightly up about her exaggerating. "What evil symptoms did that 'quack' have to state that so confident?"

"An extremely high fever beside his hard head so that I have to force him staying in bed because I care for my friends," she answered with big eyes, her smile now even wider and more sarcastic than before. "Even they are suckers."

"And you got the same symptom as that 'sucker' now?"

"I feel it won't be long," said she and noticed the stare of the nurse in the back, made her adding quickly, "and constant coughing!" with her bad played emission of air to calm her confused look at her so that the nurse faced the screen again, noting what she had told.

Looking back up at Law, who held his stoical face with a sinister aura around him, they stared at each other silently. He then pulled out his stethoscope without a word, not leaving their intense eye contact while she kept her provocative smile.

But Quinn's smile showed soon more discomfort as she tilted a little, sensing Law settling down right behind her. "So Miss Heady, you don't mind when I free your back for a moment?" said he, hearing his mocking tone through that neutral question.

"Go ahead, Doctor," she replied, trying to stay calm.

He grabbed the little zipper behind her dress and pulled it slowly down what felt for her like minutes. "Lace suits your well, Miss Heady."

"Can you please not give my undergarment any attention?" she commented, her forced smile changed to a forced grin. "You're not paid for that."

He placed the cold resonator on her back, startling her swiftly with goosebumps. "Don't act like I've never seen you in your bra," he whispered behind her ear.

Quinn shivered, blushing annoyed. "Don't act like I wouldn't mind reporting you to the police for sexual harassment."

"Oh please, I was just speeding that examination," he said. "Assisting my patients, who do hard handling the undressing themselves."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"There are a few of elders or physically and mentally constrained people."

She tightened her fist, blushing even more just by the thought of their last appointment where he had been actually the first guy since long to see her that nude. Her eyes drifted over to the nurse and Quinn paused with a weird smile as that one looked at the two, completely perplexed and insecure about the situation.

"Everything alright?" she asked, maybe not had heard their conversation completely, but felt the tension between the two.

"No," Law replied and withdrew the stethoscope, "Miss Heady, guess your heart still has the very same complaints like months ago." He looked at the nurse. "Can you note that they should give her an appointment for an echocardiography?"

"Of course," she replied and did as he said, got Quinn sucking her lips with a suspense smile while Law zipped her dress back.

"And can you note a referral to a neurologist? I forgot that last time, but she has some serious brain issues that..." he smirked at Quinn as she looked at him getting up again, "aggravated her thinking."

You son of a-!

"Uhh Doctor, I think you confuse me with another patient, it wasn't me," she claimed, still over-friendly, "but that's okay, I know you told me that happens quite often to you."

Noticing the surprise reaction of his colleague as his eye captured it from the side, he increased his smirk at Quinn as she dared to challenge him. "If that's so, I have to apologize, Miss Heady," said he politely, the sarcasm spread on his face.

Quinn looked at him as if she had heard bad, forming with her hand a shell around her ear. "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"I said, I have to apologize," he repeated, a bit roughly the second time.

"Ah, you know, my cold affects my hearing quite bad, I'm not sure if I understand it right," she claimed and pointed to her ears, making a small 'sorry-me-stupid-hehe' laugh. "What's with rice?"

Law gritted his teeth, trying to hold back in attendance of the nurse. "I a-po-lo-gize," he repeated extra slow.

"Oh, apologize!" she said, nodding as final comprehension. "No biggie, but that's very polite of you!"

"I sent it to the front," said the nurse and prepared to walk out of the room.

"Thanks." Law looked at Quinn. "You can leave as well, the antibiotics I've prescribed you the last time shall be enough."

Quinn jumped from the examination table, keeping her act. "Alright." She walked right behind the nurse, who was leaving but stopped at the doorway, checking after her to see when she would be gone far enough so that she could close the door and stick back to their actual issue.

Alone now, she turned back. "Okay Doc, now sign the contra-" Quinn startled hard, stiffing her whole body as Law stood all of a sudden so close in front of her. She smiled insecurely while her eyes were wandering up to his face. "Wow, you can look really scary close-up."

"Peanut," he said, "you annoy me."

Her smile disappeared and she stared, clueless about his statement, at him. "But I-"

"Go home and don't look for me again."

"B-but I, I really don't wanna anno-" She paused when she noticed that he was somehow way more serious than usual. It was not just his dry and cold way, but more to make her realize he wasn't joking or playing at all this time. Guessing that she had overdone it again, her face dropped to ground, her shoulders slugging, and she slowly reopened the door to leave. "I'm sorry for bothering you again... see you, Doctor..."

She was gone then.

Law sighed and massaged his temples with his left hand. He regretted nothing but saw it as necessary to make her understanding that he didn't want to have her around. Though, it wasn't for his like to made her sad in any way, no in fact, he hated it.

Exhausting.

In the night of the same day, Judy sneaked out of her room, hearing the murmur of Quinn's voice across the dark hall. She tiptoed closer, listening to her talking on the phone while she held her own cellphone in her hand. Carefully, the woman pressed her ear against her roommate's door, trying to grasp her conversation with Sabo more precisely.

"Okay, don't forget it then! 1st June, so in a few days! And better bring clothes you don't mind getting dirty since Shachi's sure to paint the walls that day."

Quietly, she backwarded to her room and closed the door at which she leaned with her back against, sliding down with her cell phone in her hand as she typed a reply, "yes, they'll be to 100% there together. Better don't come then."

A/N: Since I'm not paying attention to chapter-length word-wise, I hope you don't mind them getting shorter now and then. The positive thing though: I'm updating faster like that lol.

Nightmare22 - Thank you, I'm very happy to hear that readers can see them together without any obvious and heavy-flirting interactions :) And I'm glad to hear positive about Quinn's relationship to Judy now, compared to what was before XD Uhm, Quinn was not necessarily into it, but she also hadn't minded the kissing but found it rather exciting until her panic attack.

Mei - I'm really glad to hear that the bunch come off as realistic to you, it's really a compliment :)! Welcome to my club, I'm a one-man woman as well hahaha (Law ftw *ahem*). Uhm... "Quinn-trees grow marshmallows after all!" - you got me dying there. Thanks again for your review 3

Guest - I have to thank for reading this :)! Hope you've enjoyed this chapter as well~