Sorry for the delay.
"Damn, Roronoa... where are you...?" Law mumbled, pulling his scarf tighter around him. He had been searching the Baltigo streets for Zoro for an hour now, but had been unable to see any sign of the green haired teenager whatsoever. What he was not awere of was that Zoro was heading to the hospital with Usopp and Chopper currently, having been told about the situation with Ace.
As you'd expect, Law was worried sick currently. After telling Zoro the truth about him and Robin last night, the green haired teen had punched Law before storming away angrily. Law didn't follow him, thinking it would be best to give him space. He didn't think something like this would happen though and Zoro would dissapear completely. Would... would he do something he'd regret?
Law shook his head, banishing that thought, but quickening his pace. Law wasn't sure what he'd say when/if he did find Zoro but he knew he had to know whether his friend was alright. Although whether Zoro would still call him his friend he wasn't sure...
And what would Robin say? What would happen between her and Zoro? If they broke up over this... would he have a chance to win her back? No, Law definitely couldn't do that, he couldn't do that to Zoro. Plus, what was more likely was that Robin would hate him too for what he did. Not to mention what Luffy and the others would think of Law too...
Law gritted his teeth. None of that mattered now. All that mattered was that Zoro was safe and well.
######
Doflamingo chuckled slightly. "The policeman? He's the one I spared before. If I had known you wanted him dead so much I would have ordered Baby 5 to shoot him too..."
Teach laughed. "Ze ha ha ha... it wouldn't have been the same Doffy. Besides, I wanted to recruit Ace more than anything. It's a shame he wasn't more agreeable. Thank you for inviting me for lunch by the way. I didn't know you had a hideout in Baltigo..."
"Heh heh heh heh... I have hideouts everywhere Teach. Helps me with my... business."
"I guess so... And speaking of Business, any luck finding that Monet?"
"Not yet, although you mentioned that you met Straw Hat, yes?"
Teach nodded, grinning at the memory of pinning the teenager to the ground. "I was this close to killing Ace's brother... Oh well, this won't be the last chance I have to do that."
Doflamingo leaned back in his chair and smiled. "If that boy means that much to you then getting rid of him will be easy. He's just in the process of signing for my team actually. It'll be easy to create a situation where you can deal with him."
"Oh really? That's quite the favour Doffy."
"It's nothing. To be honest, it's a total coincidence that the kid Diamante ended up recruiting was someone you have an interest in. But anyway, if Straw Hat is here I wonder... If Law is too."
"Who's that?"
"One of Straw Hat's little kiddie friends... and a pain in my ass. He's been chasing me for a while, not to mention he stopped Caesar and took out Vergo. On top of that he suspects Violet and he's looking for Monet too."
"Ze ha ha.. What a troublesome kid!"
"He is, but at the same time..." Doflamingo grinned widely. "I do enjoy playing with him."
######
Zoro gritted his teeth. "I can't believe something like this was happening. Ace... Luffy..."
Usopp nodded. "Yeah... Although now that I think about it, where have you been Zoro?"
Zoro shook his head. "Long story, it's not important now. How much further is the hospital?"
"It's only like a couple of minutes away... we just need to take the next right and then its not too far."
"Right, then..."
Zoro trailed off, him catching sight of a familiar face walking on the opposite side of the street to him, Usopp and Chopper. He stopped completely, startling Usopp and Chopper, who hadn't noticed the person Zoro was staring at, nor had she noticed Zoro staring at her. Usopp looked urgently at Zoro."Oi, what are you doing! What's wrong?"
"Guys, over there..."
Usopp and Chopper followed Zoro's gaze before they too froze. "That is..."
The girl stopped, her finally realising that the three boys were staring at her, although she hadn't registered who the three boys were yet. She turned around slowly before her eyes widened. "You guys are.."
######
Robin looked nervously at the man standing by the side of their table while Nami just ignored him. Dragon glanced at Nami once before looking at Robin. "I only want to ask... how is Luffy?"
"We... We haven't heard from him for a couple of hours now... but things were still up in the air."
"You don't have to tell him Robin," Nami sharply said. "He has nothing to do with this."
Dragon looked coldly at her. "How childish. Surely what is important right now is Luffy not-"
"You have nothing to do with Luffy. Stop pretending like you do."
Robin looked between Nami and Dragon, seeing she may have to play peacemaker here. "I think Luffy's father is just concerned... although Nami has a point. Until this is all sorted, it probably wouldn't be the best idea to spring this whole situation on Luffy."
"Speaking of which, why do you only give a fuck about Luffy? Don't you care about your other son, Ace?!" Nami said, glaring at Dragon.
Dragon blinked in surpise. "Garp... Garp didn't tell you?" Nami and Robin looked confusedly at him. He raised his eyebrows. "The old man really has kept all this a secret huh... I find it curious that you've directed all your hatred at me, but haven't even thought about all the lies Garp has told. Maybe there's more than one villain in this story of yours..."
"What lies?" Robin asked. Dragon shook his head.
"I'm not interested in telling you. If you want to find out, ask Garp."
A vein popped on Nami's forehead. "You rude jerk! You're not interested in telling us?! Well we're not interested in knowing you at all so why don't you just buzz off out of Luffy's life again like you did the first time!"
Dragon chuckled slightly before turning around. "You are quite the fiesty one. It's interesting that my son likes that in a girl..."
Nami continued to glare at Dragon as he walked away whilst Robin looked worriedly at her friend. Just how were they ever going to sort this whole mess out?
######
Law sighed as he re-entered the University building. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't find Zoro anywhere and was literally just running around blind out there. He really wanted to find Zoro... but what could he do?
"Oh, Trafalgar, hi."
Law turned around to see Hancock walking towards him. "Oh, hey Boa-ya. How was your interview? You had one this morning, right?"
Hancock sighed. "It was difficult. It was hard to concentrate with... well, you know..."
"You know Roronoa's missing too?"
Hancock blinked in confusion. "What? No, I was talking about... Luffy's brother... Zoro is missing?"
"Uh yeah, but what do you mean Straw Hat-ya's brother?"
"I... you don't know? Trafalgar, Luffy's brother..."
######
Robin nearly dropped her phone in surprise at the sound of Zoro picking up on her 63rd (yes she'd counted them) attempt at calling him. "Zoro! Are you there?"
"Robin."
"Zoro, where are you? I've been trying to reach you for so long. I was so worried-"
"Robin, I'm at the hospital. I'm just in the elevator now with Chopper, on the way to Luffy's room. Some... some stuff has happened..."
After reaching the hospital, Zoro, Usopp, Chopper and their new companion had found Sanji in the main entrance area, him having gone downstairs to get something for Luffy to eat. Zoro and Chopper had left the other three behind to talk since Zoro was desperate to see Ace and Luffy and he of course needed Chopper to go with him to ensure he didn't get lost.
"What do you mean?" Robin asked.
"You should probably come and meet her for yourself when you can come over here. It's hard to believe we actually just happened to find her, but yeah..."
"What are you talking about, who-"
"Oh, and Law told me about what happened between you two..."
Robin froze. For a second the whole room around her went silent, those few seconds seeming to take much longer to pass. When she didn't reply, Zoro kept talking. "We can talk about that later though, for now we need to deal with the current situations."
Robin bit her lip. "Zoro, you have to understand, nothing happened, it was just a moment of weakness and we stopped before anything could even ha-"
"I know it s not like that. If it was just nothing you would have told me."
"Zoro..."
"I don't want to hear this now. Later."
Before Robin could say anything else, Zoro hung up. Robin stared hollowly at her phone, her expression alarming Nami. "Robin! What s wrong!?"
Robin didn't say anything, instead getting up. "We need to go to the hospital, now."
Law shivered slightly as he walked through the now heavy snow. The weather really had taken a turn for the worse. Not that that mattered to much to Law currently, he was trying to get to the hospital as soon as he could. "Straw Hat-ya..." Law muttered to himself, wondering just how Luffy was doing.
If Law was honest, he and Luffy were never all that close before. They had been in the same school for years, but their relationship had only really been a sort of rivalry before. It was difficult to describe why exactly, but there was something about the two which attracted people to themselves. Luffy and Law were natural leaders and people tended to want to be around them. Law had always respected Luffy, seeing him as his equal in a way and he felt that Luffy thought of him the same way.
But over the last year their relationship had changed. It had all started when Law had met Robin and wanted to get closer to her. Being around Robin automatically meant being around the rest of her friends. But it wasn t just that. The more time Law spent with Luffy, the more he felt himself almost getting sucked in by the goofy teenager. Law could now see it was impossible to be around Luffy and not become his friend. That was just his superpower.
######
Sanji looked over at Usopp, who was staring down at the table they were sitting at. The two were currently sitting in a cafe downstairs in the hospital, not really sure what to say to the person sitting opposite them.
Said girl chuckled slightly. "I can't believe I ended up running into you guys here..."
Usopp nodded slowly. "The same goes for us. I mean, Law hasn't stopped looking for you since you left..."
"I guess our hunch yesterday was correct then," Sanji said. "Law guessed you might be working at the University... It's a shame you didn't run into him there."
"He... He's at the University?"
Usopp nodded "He's got interviews. So do Nami, Robin and Hancock, actually that's why we're here, although things escalated quite a bit and we have ended up staying longer than we expected..."
"I see. Well, it's probably for the best that I haven't seen him. I... I need to stay away from Traffy. For his own safety."
Sanji shook his head. "No, that's not gonna work. Law's going after Doflamingo, he wants to stop him so that you can be free. And we're all helping him too."
"I... are you kidding? No, you guys need to stop now! I know you guys were able to stop Caesar... but Doflamingo is on a completely different level. You guys can't do this! I..."
The green haired girl trailed off at the sight of a familiar face entering the main building of the hospital. He headed straight to the front desk, not noticing her, Sanji and Usopp sitting there. "Tr... Traffy..."
Law turned around, his expression impatient as he waited for the receptionist at the desk to find out which room Ace was in. It seemed to take an eternity for Law's eyes to meet those of her, but when they did, they stayed met.
The lady at the desk smile triumphantly and turned back to Law, however he had completely forgotten she was even there. The receptionist looked worriedly at him, Law's expression that of someone who had seen a ghost. And she had no idea how apt that was.
Law had chosen to believe that she was alive, but he had always had that bad feeling, that maybe Vergo hadn't lied, and that she really was dead. But here she was, sitting just a hundred metres or so away from him. Was this a dream? No, it wasn't. This was real.
Sanji nudged Usopp. "We should probably go. These two will want to be alone..."
Usopp nodded and the two got up and made their way over to Law, Sanji patting him on the back as they passed him and began heading back in the direction of Ace's room. Law looked back at them before looking back at the girl before him. His angel.
"Monet..."
I feel like that reunion's been a long time coming...
Anyway, thanks for reading.