Chapter 49: Misunderstood
"Jay, are you awake yet." I groaned as I reached up and massaged my head. "Jay, you tread a very thin line with me." I sat up.
"Hush. I need a moment to make sure everything is working properly." I was still breathing and I didn't feel light headed, so that was all in order. I wiggled my fingers and toes. I let out a sigh.
"Is this why you don't use this ability in a fight." I nodded in response. I crawled over to the side of the bed where Law had been sleeping. I reached over and pulled open the drawer to his night stand. Sitting right on top was the picture. I snatched it up. I climbed off of the bed and walked over to place the picture safely inside the box. I dug through the box and pulled out a picture that I had a duplicate of.
"I need to go find Felix." Law looked over at me. "He wanted a picture of Inari." I closed up the box and looked the picture over.
"Felix came in while you were casually strolling through my head. He assumed you were asleep. He said he could wait until you woke up." I placed the picture on Law's desk and walked over to the bathroom. I went inside and kicked the door shut.
I was looking in the mirror as I pulled off my clothes. I went to pull off my top. That's when I saw the bite mark that hadn't healed yet and the small trail of blood. I leaned all the way over the counter to get a closer look in the mirror. I pulled at a scab and it started to bleed again.
"LAW!" I pulled the bathroom door open. Poor Penguin. Poor, poor Penguin. He was unfortunately about to say something to Law when I opened the bathroom door to find him standing there. He turned and looked at me. A blush spread across his face. "Get out." It was a low growl. Penguin just stood there stunned. I walked over and grabbed Penguin by the back of his boiler suit at the collar. I dragged him over to the bedroom door and pulled it open. Standing out in the hallway was Shachi and Ire. I threw Penguin out. They turned their heads away as their cheeks turned pink. "You three say any damn thing and you'll never be able to get a good night's sleep ever again." They all gulped.
"Nice tattoos." I looked up to see Ire had took another look. I let out a sigh. Men, most were all the same. I watched as his face turned to some emotion that was a mix of disgust and confusion.
"That should stop you from ever thinking I look attractive. These are all of my scars." Ire cringed slightly. "Now stay the hell out." I turned and walked back into the room slamming the door behind me. "Law, what the hell is this?" He smirked.
"It is exactly what it looks like a bite mark." I ran a hand over my face and shook my head. "There is nothing special about it." I walked closer to him.
"You broke through the damn skin you fucking idiot." He just shrugged. "You have no idea what that means do you?" He just looked at me with a blank expression. "Out of all the things in the world I do not want nor need, a mate is one of them, and yet there you fucking sit. There's a reason why I allowed your parents to use my blood on Lami. She was female. If a vampire drinks someone of the opposite sex's blood and does not kill them, then that someone could become the vampire's mate at any point in the future if they consume the vampire's blood. That is only so long as the vampire doesn't already have a mate." I pulled at my hair. "Stay the hell away from me. I don't want to have to end another life before it even gets a chance to thrive ever again." Law frowned at my last statement. I walked back into the bathroom. I shut the door and leaned back against it. I slid down to the floor. "Grandfather will not be happy about this. I may need to rethink my plans a little." I chewed on the inside of my jaw.
The bathroom door was pushed open and I was slid across the bathroom floor. Law stepped in and shut the door behind him. I looked up at him as he stood there looking down at me. He knelt down and reached out to grab my hand.
"Where did you get all of these scars?" He grabbed my hand and looked it over. "A lot of them are on the joint itself." I pulled my hand away.
"My mother cut me into pieces starting when I was five. It ended when I was six. Malice killed her." Law looked down at me with a scrutinizing eye. "All for information I couldn't give her. Still it is a rather effective way to torture a vampire. I've used it once or twice. It's the only thing that she left me with that was useful." Law looked over each scar.
"I am not pleased that my men saw you like this." I looked down. I was wearing my underwear. I watched as he ran a finger delicately over some of the scars. I grabbed his hand.
"I said to stay away from me Law." He looked me in the eye. "That means get the fuck out." He narrowed his eyes at me.
"This is my bathroom. I come and go as I please." I gave him a playful smile. I reached up and ran a finger over his jaw.
"You're not a corpse, but I can control you the same way that I control my own body." He reached up to pull my hand away, but his hand stopped halfway up to my hand. "I know that the feeling is unpleasant. It was for me too at first." Law was resisting the control that I had over his body. "If I lock the door, you'll just get in using your devil fruit powers, so I think I'll take them away for now." He glared down at me.
"You wouldn't dare." I would dare. Law was just forgetting that I was perfectly fine with doing exactly as I said I would.
"It was you who said we weren't kids anymore. This is me agreeing with you. I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time. You are a jealous, possessive, egotistical asshole that needs a serious reality check on where you stand in the hierarchy around you. Over confidence gets you killed. Careless fucking mistakes that you make due to your over confidence costs the lives of those that you deem precious." I looked down at my twitching fingers. "Level two. Did you know that it was rather hard to learn to restrict a person's devil fruit abilities without killing them? I lost count of how many I killed to perfect the technique, but it was nowhere near the number that died for me to learn how to heal others. It's hard to remove a part of your soul once you inject it into someone else's body." I looked up at Law. "You won't be without your powers long. I just don't want you in here with me." I watched as his body moved on its own and he was forced from the bathroom. I closed the door behind him and locked it.
"Jay, open the door. Jay." He pounded on the door. I scooted back to lean against the door again. I tilted my head back and sang a few notes. The pounding on the door stopped, but I knew that Law hadn't left from the other side of the door. Then I started to sing.
Wish I'd died instead of lived
A zombie hides my face
Shell forgotten
with its memories
Diaries left
with cryptic entries
I shifted around to face the door. I continued to sing.
And you don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on,
I won't let go 'til it bleeds
I reached up and placed a hand on the door.
You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on:
I'll never live down my deceit
I pulled my hand away from the door and got up from the floor. I walked over to the tub and turned on the water. I adjusted the temperature to something that I guessed would have been comfortable. I pulled off the rest of my clothes. I then turned on the shower and climbed in. I looked around and grabbed whatever was available to wash my hair with. I felt like I was back at that house again in the North Blue. I let Law do most of the shopping back then, and he was the one in charge of buying the soaps and shampoos. He said I could use what he bought or go back into town to buy my own.
After all of the sweat and dirt was washed from my body. I turned off the shower. I stepped out to find a very irritated Law leaning against the counter. I watched as Law pushed himself off from the counter. He took the one or two steps it took to stand over me. He was seething with anger. I looked over at the door. I turned to look back at Law.
"Old habits die hard I see. You still have no problem smelling like a man after you walk out of the shower." I noticed the restrained anger in his voice, but I shrugged.
"At least I smell like a clean man. There are a large number of pirates gathering as well. I wonder why." Law narrowed his eyes at me.
"The marines plan to execute Portgas D. Ace." I tilted my head at the news. The marines were a daring bunch.
"Portgas D. Ace, originally from East Blue, appeared around three years ago. Two years ago he was the captain of the Spade pirates. Currently, he is Whitebeard's second division commander. I met him once, or it would be more correct to say that I had to pull Iseris off of him. She had this thing about people touching her food, and Ace is a gluten for food. He walked by and took the meat right off her plate. She was a calm, cool, relaxed woman that meticulously calculated every move she made unless you touched her food or attacked one of her nakama. At that point she threw all caution to the wind and would attack blindly. Ace was happy to have the attention of a woman, but I assure you that you definitely didn't want Iseris's attention." I looked away from Law. "As a child does not ask to be born into this world, it should not be judged for the sins committed by its parents no matter the sins they committed. Their reasons are wrong." I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around Law. I felt Law stiffen up when I did. "Law, I miss them. I miss the parties that they had. I miss Iseris muttering every curse word in the book and some not in the book the next morning. I miss their stupid games. I miss the bickering that always seemed erupt when the twins couldn't decide on which route was better, and I miss them choosing any route other than the one that I chose when they asked my opinion. I miss having to save Gene and Styles every time we set foot on an island because they couldn't resist stealing things. The thing that I miss the most is probably seeing them smile and hearing them laugh. I feel like I'm nine years old again. My mind that was filled with so much noise suddenly went quiet a year and a half ago. It has remained that way ever sense. This time there was no plan for what would happen if I were to lose everything. There was no Flevance waiting for me. There was no one to fill the void." Law placed a calming hand on my head.
"I have always been here you know. Also if you wish to continue this conversation, put some clothes on." I glanced over at the mirror. Well this would make for a scene that would be greatly misunderstood.
Song used in this chapter:
Title: Bother
Artist: Stone Sour
