A/N: The basic idea of this fic is from one of my favorite chapters of One Piece Party, where Law was de-aged twice with modo modo no mi until he became a baby (with his tattoos intact!) and then Luffy had to take care of him. I tried to change the situation a bit. Law is not a baby in this fic, he's twelve, and Kid will be the one who has to care for him. Romantic relationship is only between adult Law and Kid. I hope you enjoy it!

Cover Image by my friend, the talented riel-chi on Tumblr.

Chapter 1

Doubt

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Trafalgar D. Water Law, twelve years old, woke up on the deck of an unfamiliar ship.

Over him was an awning shaped weirdly like the inside mouth of a fish. Beside him lay a sleeping form of a big, mysterious man with striking red hair and a lot of scars on his body. A pair of goggles was squeezed in the man's palm. His other hand—

His other arm was not flesh-and-blood, but a huge metal arm. The hand of that monstrosity was draped over Law's little body and nearly swallowed him whole. It didn't hurt, but it was a little suffocating and too heavy for his liking. He attempted to move, his skin rubbing against a rather soft fur underneath his body. Law realized he was lying on a dark-red fur coat.

Law didn't know where he was. Clearly, he wasn't on the Donquixote Pirates ship, the Numancia Flamingo, where he should belong. Both this man and this ship were unfamiliar.

The beating of his heart quickened as Law tried to assess his situation.

He might have been kidnapped.

The last memory he could recall was going to sleep with Buffalo and Baby 5 in their shared bedroom inside Numancia Flamingo. The next time he woke up, Law was here. There was no other explanation. He was kidnapped, wasn't he?

But why? Who in their right mind would want to sneak into Donquixote Pirates ship and then kidnap him, and for what purpose? Ransom?

Now was not the time to contemplate a kidnapper's motive. Luckily he wasn't tied up or anything. Did they think just assigning one big guy with a metal arm to keep him from escaping was enough? Idiot pirates.

Law pressed his hands against the palm of that metal hand, testing its weight. He adjusted his strength to accommodate lifting the hand a little bit only until he was able to quietly slip away. Law shifted slowly, carefully—

And he was out.

The boy smirked while he gently put down that hand to rest against the fur coat. The man hadn't woken up yet. Law stood up silently and tried to find his usual spotted hat. Then he realized something odd.

He was wearing an adult-sized yellow-and-black jacket. It was so big that it covered him down near his ankle, and the collar hung on his shoulders. Underneath this jacket, he was wearing absolutely nothing else. Law aggressively rolled the black sleeves to get his arms to pop out of the fabric.

His gaze shifted down at the fur coat where he was lying a few moments before. There was a spotted hat, but the model looked different. This one had a thick visor instead of a brim, and it was so big it would likely eat his face. There was a pair of adult-sized blue spotted pants lying there, too. These looked exactly like the kind of fashion Law might wear if he was an adult, which was really odd to see their presence here.

Law shook his head to ground himself back to his main objective of escaping. Then he realized there were things stuck on his ears. Law carefully lifted his hands and touched his ears. Rings. Earrings? Why was he wearing earrings? From the location of these rings on his ears, they were probably piercings. Each ear held a pair of them.

What did these kidnappers do to him? More importantly, why?

Law shuddered at the thought.

He tiptoed toward the railing and looked around. It seemed like they were in the middle of the sea. Law had no way of escaping now, but perhaps he could hide somewhere in this giant ship until it reached an island with a town, or a village, or at least people.

He might even try to steal or use a transponder snail in this ship to contact Doflamingo, so the Donquixote Pirates could come to his rescue. That might be a quicker method. From a brief glance, Law didn't recognize this ship. Hopefully, they were lower-level pirates that could be easily destroyed by the young master.

Although it was already embarrassing enough for Law that he could get captured without his awareness, he would rather handle embarrassment any day over staying here as a prisoner.

The big, red-haired man suddenly groaned behind him. Law jumped in surprise and quickly turned, hand searching for a knife somewhere in this jacket, but of course, he didn't carry any weapon. The man only turned on the fur coat to the other side, and then Law heard a soft snore.

The boy realized he could breathe again.

Law didn't know why, but he felt good, as if he was actually healthy. It had been so long since he last felt this good about his body. Law lifted up his arms, eyes widening in surprise and bewilderment. He didn't have any white blotch. In place of white blotches, there were tattoos—lots of them, all across his arms. Each of his ten fingers was tattooed with a single letter that made up the word 'DEATH' on each hand.

Then, he pulled the jacket to take a look inside his chest and stomach. His body was clean from white blotches, but there was a huge heart tattoo that stretched from his chest down to his abdomen.

No freaking way.

Law must be dreaming. He must be. It was plain impossible that he could just wake up one day and was suddenly cured. This wasn't real. The tattoos probably meant something. Did they serve as a mark? Maybe in place of white blotches, he would die like his fingers showed him? The kidnappers might have put a mark to mock his inevitable demise, a reminder of what was to come.

He fought a sudden urge to cry. What kind of sick joke his kidnappers were playing by covering his white blotches and tattooing his body?

Yet, his body did feel healthy. Did his kidnappers actually cure him?

That didn't make a fucking sense.

Law couldn't tell the truth right now, but he would indulge in this healthy feeling for as long as he was able.

He breathed a soft sigh to calm down. Now what he had to do was make a proper escape plan—

"Law?" The red-haired man slowly shifted his body and began to sit down.

Law cursed quietly under his breath. Damn. He had been spending too much time here. He needed to get out of sight.

"Law, where—" The man ran a hand through the red strands of his own hair. "Such an early bird, that one. I just wanna give a morning kiss and he's already gone," he complained before pausing as he looked down. "What? Why did he leave his pants here?"

The boy swallowed his confusion down his throat as he assessed his surrounding. No. There was only a very small chance for him to pass this man unnoticed. All the metal guy needed to do was turn and he would see Law. He looked at the fish awning overhead. There was a small hole he could climb up to get out of sight, but if he made a sound it would be game-over. Or he could stay still and hope that the man wouldn't turn at all.

Please. Don't turn.

The man chuckled. "I know you're there. Gonna tease me with your sexy legs in the morning, Law?" He turned with a very cruel, villainous evil grin.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, that cruel grin gradually vanished. Those intense, deep amber eyes widened in what appeared like a complete and utter shock.

"What the ever-loving fuck—" the redhead started, but he was at loss for words again.

Law didn't know what was going on with this man, but this was a chance.

The boy lunged at him. Too bad he didn't have a weapon, but he would climb on this man and strangle him blue with all the strength Law could muster. It was time to make full use of Lao G's martial arts.

The man quickly recovered and easily caught Law's body with his metal hand. "Whoa. You really have the intention to kill," he said, confusion still lingering on his face. "Wait! More importantly, what's going on here?" he shouted. "Who are you? Trafalgar's child? He never told me he has a child!"

What nonsense was he babbling about?

Law struggled violently against his grasp. "Let go!" he growled. His arms were pinned to his sides and the hand didn't loosen. The way this man held him, Law was helplessly locked in place. "Who are you?" Law shouted back in frustration. "Why did you kidnap me?"

"Kidnap? What?" The redhead shouted back, "Nobody kidnapped you! Why are you here? No, who are you? Are you Trafalgar's child?"

"You know my father?" Law asked, still struggling against the tight grip. "If you have business with my father, you can't get anything. He's already gone."

"What? Nonsense. I just slept with your daddy last night!" the redhead insisted.

Law was so shocked that he froze right there and then, his eyes were blown wide open. When he could find words again, he spat, "You sick, sick bastard! Father already had my mother, and they were shot dead two years ago! Are you telling me you were having an affair with my dead father last night?"

"The fuck was that? Of course not—" the anger and frustration of this metal-armed guy were mimicking Law's at this point. They were glaring at each other. "Tell me your name."

"Trafalgar Law," the boy answered honestly, glaring daggers with what he hoped was a threatening look. "I belong to the Donquixote Pirates. You know what that means, right? They'll destroy you."

"What Grand Line nonsensical phenomenon is this?" The man rubbed his forehead with his flesh-and-blood arm. "You are Trafalgar Law."

"That's right." Law maintained his glare.

"How old are you?"

"Twelve years old."

"Alright." The redhead mumbled something under his breath before he shot another question, "What year is this?"

"You're saying this is time-travel bullshit?" Law asked once he was seated together in the dining hall with the red-haired man and his crew. As soon as Law told this man the year he believed he was in, the man began to gather his crew to have a discussion.

"What great language you already have at this young age," the red-haired man, who introduced himself as Eustass Kid, commented with arms crossed over his chest. It looked a little unbalanced with that metal arm so huge. Eustass Kid was sitting right next to Law, unfortunately. This man was the scariest among them, and he also happened to be the captain. The rest of the crew was sitting around the dining table.

"Like your mouth is any cleaner."

"Who cares? I'm a pirate."

"I'm a pirate too," Law argued. He pointed his finger at Eustass. "I don't buy it. You kidnapped me and you were trying to confuse me. I'm not falling into your strange brainwashing method."

"You brat, even I can lie better than saying you came from the past." Eustass was clearly offended. Law wondered if the man would harm him. That didn't matter. Law would fight him to the death.

"Who knows? You don't look smart enough to craft a believable deception," Law countered.

"Like you're any better!" Eustass started to lose his temper. "Who the hell disguised himself while still wearing his jolly roger on his clothes or his signature spotted hat?"

"Kid, don't lose your cool over a small child," the masked man interrupted.

Eustass seemed to try holding himself back. "Just be grateful you're cute," he murmured.

"What was that?" Law asked, confused.

The masked man sighed. At least, he seemed to be sighing. The air probably came out of those small holes on his mask. "It may not be time travel."

"A de-aging?" asked Eustass.

"Yes. This child is probably Trafalgar himself. He didn't come from the past. He was de-aged with no memories. You do know some devil fruits have powers to de-age or age people, like Jewelry Bonney's. Except this one doesn't retain his memory for whatever reason. Plus, he woke up wearing Trafalgar's clothes and still has all his tattoos."

"Tch. What a pain," Eustass ground his teeth. "At least this theory is more acceptable. I would rather have the same Law than a different one from some past, even though he's transformed to a brat." He turned to Law. "Listen up. We're going to find a way to age you back to twenty-six. In the meantime, stay out of trouble."

"Age me up?" Law looked up to him in horror. "I don't want to! I want to experience growing up!"

"You already experienced growing up! You just have no memories of it. Once we recover you, you'll also recover your memories." Eustass glared at him. "You better, because we have a lot of history together, Trafalgar!"

"Who are you, anyway?" Law huffed and leaned against the chair. "Who are you to me?"

"At your current state, this will only sound very wrong. You should ask 'who were you'. You were—" Eustass paused, his face began to flush, "forget it. There's no way I can say it. You're only twelve, for fuck's sake."

Law's head tilted questioningly. Why would his age matter to what relationship they previously had in the past? "Anyway, I don't believe any of you yet. You might have drugged me with something that makes me think I'm healthy, and then branded me with your creepy tattoos—" he flinched at his own erratic thoughts. He was trembling when he jumped out of the chair and kept his distance away from the rest of the crew. He stuttered, "A-are you trying to sell me away as a s-slave?"

"Hey, how far can your imagination go?" Eustass's face twisted into annoyance.

"M-maybe you were planning to trick your customers by covering up my blotches, then branded me these tats f-for—" Law forced himself to stop shivering to no avail. Tears threatened to break out, but there was no freaking way he would cry in front of these people.

He wanted to destroy the world for revenge and take as much as he could down with him, but the world kept trampling over him with victory. If he would be sold off as a slave, Law would rather die now.

"Didn't you listen to a word we said?" Eustass asked. He only looked angrier. Damn, this guy was scary and intimidating, but Law had to stand tough. "No way we will do that to you, you dumb brat! Who do you think we are?"

"Pirates."

"Exactly," Eustass nodded, then shook his head. "No! Toss our reputation aside. We just won't do it! Damn you, Trafalgar!" The redhead stood from his chair.

Law grabbed a knife near a basket of fruits and brandished it in front of them. "Don't come closer. Don't touch me, or I'll kill you."

He was expecting Eustass Kid to ignore his warning and attack him in some way. Law had failed to kill Wellington, a ten-million-berries pirate. He didn't know how much Eustass Kid was worth in berries, but he wouldn't go down without a fight.

Eustass Kid only lifted up his hand, and Law's knife suddenly flew off his grip and into the man's hand. The boy stood there in shock. What kind of power was that? Magnetism?

He was once again without weapons.

All of a sudden, helplessness washed over him like a waterfall. Hope began to slip away from his chest, and it was replaced with panic and anxiety. The water veiling his yellow eyes dissolved to roll down the side of his cheek.

"Seriously, Kid. This is not the time to be childish. You're making that boy cry," said Killer.

"So what? I don't care," Eustass replied cruelly. "He needs to learn—" those amber eyes shone like blazing fire when they stared down at Law. He took a deep breath. "Tch, alright." The man approached him.

Law had to fight back. He had to use Lao G's martial arts, no matter how futile that would be. He had to hurt this man somehow, but his feet felt like they were nailed to the floor. His body was already frozen in fear.

Eustass Kid placed his flesh-and-blood palm over Law's head and gently ruffled his dark blue hair. "We won't hurt you. Promise." Eustass carefully said, "So don't get freaked out." He turned to his crewmember. "Hey, Killer, how far is the nearest town?"

"We should be able to get there in a day."

"Let's get you some proper clothes." Eustass turned to Law again, "And, uh, things you like. Medical books, that sea-warrior-something comic books, and fluffy stuffed bears, maybe?"

Law couldn't make sense of how this mysterious man knew the things he liked.

"Who knows, if we're lucky, we can even get an anniversary coin." Eustass grinned at him. It looked sinister, but the man no longer scared him.

The boy's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Coins?"

Eustass produced the newly modeled spotted hat Law saw on the deck. He pushed it over Law's head. It was too big and it quickly covered both his eyes. While he wasn't able to see, he heard the man laugh. "Let's find out."