Wishfull-star: (@^◡^)


Katakuri got out of the car, tired. They'd been at the hospital all day as they floundered at the sheer amount of weird things that had happened to Luffy. First was the floating, and then the fish. After that, Katakuri had been keeping track of every strange thing that happened. The wall paper color changed in the whole room, Luffy's fingernails turned a shimmery blue, his left earlobe elongated a bit before going back.

After that, a massive bubble enveloped the bed and caused a mess. It was just one thing after another, but it turned very problematic when Luffy attempted to attack the doctor when he found there was no blood in the room for him. The strange incidents were caused by Luffy, but doing too many caused him to get painfully thirsty and desperate for blood.

He was no longer welcome at that quirk hospital, even if he'd not intended to cause harm. But he was sleeping now, and Katakuri was emotionally exhausted by the day and previous night. All they found out was that Luffy could do a lot of random things, but that there was a price to pay. Too much, and he was depleted of his blood source. It turned dangerous.

Hopefully he didn't remember that bit. When they got inside, Luffy under a blanket since they had forgotten sunscreen the night before, he put the boy on the couch and went to get a couple bottles of blood. Luffy woke when the lid was popped off, and he smelled the liquid. "Hmm… thirsty," he said in a sleepy voice. Katakuri handed him the bottle, and he drank it greedily.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't wanna do that again," Luffy mumbled. Damn, he remembered. "I'm sorryyyyy!"

"I was thinking you could draw them a picture with an apology letter. I'll help, too," Katakuri replied kindly, sounding understanding. "And Zoro has been calling since 4:30." Luffy said he wanted to talk to Zoro, and so Katakuri gave him the phone. He wished he had two phones so he could have his while Luffy could speak to Zoro.

But Luffy was only five, Katakuri wasn't going to buy him his own phone like some parents did. Katakuri came from nothing, there was no way he'd let his kid grow up that way, too, but he'd not let Luffy be spoiled with anything but affection.

Katakuri took their dirty clothes to the hamper and started the load of laundry he'd planned the day before but hadn't been able to do once Luffy started to float. There was no game plan on what to do right now, but he knew Luffy wasn't going to go wild with all of these new, various and unpredictable powers. He never wanted to lose control, and would rather be quirkless than have what happened happen again.

The only reason nobody had been hurt was because Katakuri had been there. Well… another problem to deal with. He wouldn't be going to school the rest of the week. So he had three weeks of school left before the year was over. Barely any time to get to be a kindergartener. Katakuri was just thankful that the teacher thought he'd done well with his home schooling to prepare him eductionwise.

After awhile of speaking with Zoro, Luffy brought back the phone. He was teary. "How's Zoro?"

"...He's still my friend."

"Oh, were you worried he wouldn't be?" Katakuri asked sadly, crouching to be level with the poor boy. Luffy nodded, tears down his cheeks.

"I h-hate being a vampire!" he cried, for the first time saying that. At least, the first time he'd said it to Katakuri. He hugged him, rubbing his back. "I w-wanna be better!"

"You'll have vampirism the rest of your life. But that doesn't mean it will be terrible. Smoker - remember him? He must have had a tough time, too, right? But now he's a police officer, putting others above himself and being safe and reliable enough to be trusted by everyone. Being a vampire doesn't make you a monster," he said in a kind, slightly firm voice.

Luffy nodded. "It'll be trial and error a bit. But you have the summer break coming up soon to have time to get a lot of practice in control." He nodded again, calming down more before he fell asleep, exhausted emotionally. Katakuri brought his poor boy to bed, sad but believing in his determination and mental strength. He had no doubt Luffy could live happily and manage - if not conquer - the issues that were to no doubt come.

-x-

"My daddy told me to stay away from you," Toma said to Luffy one day when he was on the swings. Zoro was napping against the wall. He started to get sleepy a lot and took naps in strange places. Even when he was at Luffy's house, sometimes he just went and took a nap for a couple minutes.

Luffy frowned, but said nothing. "I saw a video of you attacking a bunch of hospital workers." Luffy looked ashamed, unable to hide the reaction. "It was you, then! You're a monster!" he cried, and ran off to spread the news. Bellmere wasn't fast enough to stop him, and soon he was no longer respected by anybody in the class. They feared him.

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to!" Luffy insisted. Zoro felt his feelings and woke up, hurrying over.

"That means you can't control yourself, then!"

"It was only that one time!" He felt terrible about it. Zoro hugged him, the smaller boy facing away from the crowd of kids who hated and were scared of him. He glared at them all while Luffy cried. His emotions boiled over like they had when his home was destroyed by the floor, and the sun started to burn him, even if it wasn't noon yet.

He sprinted inside, the burns on his forehead and shoulders pretty bad. Bad enough for him to need to go to the nurses, even if they'd heal on their own eventually. Luffy was crying the whole way he was escorted to the health office. They were away from the sun inside the campus, and Luffy had bandages and burn cream put on before he had to call his papa to come get him.

Luffy was very upset on the phone over how everyone hated him, now. He felt anger through the bond while he spoke to Katakuri on the phone. At the moment, he was at the bank, so Oven said he could bring him home and stay with him until Katakuri got back. He regret being unable to pick him up himself.

The cop car was still outside. Mama hadn't shown her face, and they were considering stopping the escort, but the department had become fond of Luffy and weren't annoyed with the protection order. Smoker went there, even if he didn't interact with Luffy personally.

The helper lady brought Luffy the umbrella and his things and he went outside when Oven pulled up. He had a spare car seat with him, so Luffy was clipped inside, and when the car started, and their guard followed, Luffy started to cry. "Don't worry. You'll be in a new class soon. Those people won't know you," Oven said nicely.

Luffy said he wanted to just act normal. "You'll get there, don't worry! Things could be hard for a bit, but you'll get there. You have lots of your life to improve, right?" Luffy wanted to get better sooner. He didn't want to wait and have hard times! Oven offered to get him a smoothie, and Luffy was all for it.

So they went and got food. The back windows had screens over them so the light didn't bother Luffy. In his papa's car, the windows were all tinted dark to keep more sunlight out. They got a smoothie, and then Luffy noticed a car following them a long time. "Uncle oven, a car is following us."

"You mean the cops?"

"No, a car with a big person inside. Right there!" Luffy said, but Oven didn't see him point so he had no idea where. Then the car pulled up beside them, and Oven's eyes popped and he saw the bad woman there! But then the cop car pulled around the corner, finally catching up. The siren went on, and Luffy was scared. It was a car chase, now! And Oven had to speed up on the freeway once the bad woman's car started tailgating them. Luffy was scared when the car bumped into their bumper, moving them forward and making them swerve a bit.

More cop cars started chasing, and Oven was swearing profuse as he tried to pull into another lane, but was unable to without risking a worse hit. The cops were shouting at her to pull over or they'd shoot her tires. But Oven hated that because she could go out of control an hit them. Luffy was screaming and crying, but uncle wasn't paying attention the the vampire boy's panic.

The car was shoved forward more, and Luffy wanted to do something to help. He thought of any power to help, and he imagined the fishies, only that didn't work, and all of Mama's tires burst, and the car ran into an invisible wall, crunching it to pieces with her inside. Oven pulled over a bit away, breathing rapidly.

But now that it started, more powers started to come. "Blood! Uncle, my blood baggies!" Luffy screeched, not wanting to lose control. Oven hurried to the bags and got out the single undrunken bottle and handed it to Luffy, who was breathing rapidly. He grabbed the blood roughly, spilling some on his hand as he chugged it down, eyes scrunched closed. It wasn't enough, and he started to growl and try to get out of the car seat.

Oven put Katakuri on video call, and got the issue quickly when he saw Luffy writhing and thrashing around in his car seat, very out of it that he couldn't easily clip himself out. "Luffy, you're safe, calm down. You got some blood, shhhh, you're okay. Calm - breath in and out. Yes, slowly, in and out." He calmed down Luffy, who then fell asleep, exhausted.

The uncle was sweating profusely and shaking a bit from the ordeal. A police car pulled up next to them, asking if they were alright. Luffy was asleep, thankfully. Katakuri was leaving the bank immediately to come get his son. The car was unable to be driven, the tires messed up, so they moved Luffy into the back of the police car, and Oven sat next to him.

They drove to the nearest station, and Mama was being pulled out of the wreck, covered in blood but alive and heavily restrained. Oven took Luffy's small, sweaty hand, feeling bad but grateful to the boy for whatever he'd done to help.

-x-

Katakuri slammed the station doors open and ran down the hall to his son, who was sleepy but not asleep. He had a sandwich in front of him and a bottle of half empty blood. When Luffy sensed and saw his father, he dropped out of the chair and ran to him, hugging his legs before Katakuri crouched down to hug him tightly.

Oven had explained what happened over the phone. What happened after Luffy stopped Mama's car. She was in custody now, so she wouldn't be causing anymore problems. There were extremely strong heroes dealing with her, as word of her spread around the law enforcement and hero community. She was a big threat they wanted under control immediately.

"You did good, Luffy," Katakuri praised kindly. Luffy sniffled and nodded, wiping his face. What a terrible day it had been for him. Hopefully things were better feeling now that the threat was gone. Maybe now they didn't need to be followed and escorted everywhere. Not that it had been a major inconvenience or anything.

They were only there a bit before Luffy could leave, already having given his story of what happened. The police were more than kind and understanding about Luffy's craving, and got him more blood in case anything else happened. It was nice they were not judgemental or scared of him after what had gone on.

He took luffy straight home and oven went to try and get his car fixed since he had a business trip the next day and needed his car. When they got home, Luffy went to his play room with Katakuri's phone to call Zoro, who must have been panicked. He had been unable to reach Luffy from school, but he had to have felt the intense emotion that Luffy felt.

Thank god she was caught, and all of the siblings were informed after dinner that she was going back behind the slammer in a more high security prison. This time, in Japan since in another country, it had been corrupted and the family had not been told. The prison that covered it up were being sanctioned and possibly shut down. Katakuri felt no remorse for them.

-x-

Luffy was at a play date with Zoro when his random, unpredictable abilities started to go out of control. They were in the pool, and Luffy lost control in panic and turned to Zoro, blood thirsty, eyes wide. Zoro seemed scared, but Luffy didn't attack. Even if he felt that frenzied state, panicked for blood as all of it was used up as his powers went out of control fast due to panic, but he did not attack Zoro. Had no drive to do so.

Zoro slowly walked around his rabid looking best friend vampire, and went inside to get him some blood they had in a fridge in the garage. He brought it back cautiously, and Luffy slurped it down, eyes losing the crazed look. The werewolf was smiling smugly.

Coming back to himself, Luffy was confused that he hadn't attacked the nearest source of blood. "There's no way you'd hurt me. I trust you completely, now. I never distrusted you, but I'm confident you'll never hurt me," Zoro said with a smile, looking proud and impressed. Luffy's mouth wobbled a bit before he smiled, so happy he hadn't attacked him even when painfully thirsty.

Zoro walked forward and hugged him, and Luffy hugged him back. He loved Zoro, he was the best!

-x-

"I'm going to talk to Mama," Perospero said at the coffee shop with Katakuri. Mama was in prison and was being interviewed. The children could speak with her if they'd like. "What will you do?"

"I'm better off not speaking to that monster ever again. I have no interest in speaking to someone like that. I just want to move on and help Luffy forget about it," the father replied, taking a sip of his coffee. His brother seemed unsurprised. An air of calm had overcome all the siblings and their spouses, with her finally being caught.

Oven was the most furious at her trying to run him off the road, with Luffy inside. It was bad enough to do it to him in the first place, but to do it with his little nephew in the car made him even more livid. But he wasn't going to see her, either. Knowing chewing her out would do nothing but frustrate him. So why do such a thing?

Katakuri was still shaken by it, but Luffy did his best to move on, even if he was ostracized and feared completely in his class. It didn't help he and Zoro had been caught sharing blood while waiting for their parents to come. Kappa reported them about it and the boys had been asked what on earth they were thinking.

When Luffy shared the situation, the teacher looked confused, and called both parents, thinking they hadn't known. It was lucky there was one week of school left, because the vampire and werewolf pair would be going to another school for first grade. Katakuri and Koushiro had been annoyed they did it at school, but Luffy was stressed and embarrassed.

When the teachers gave both of them red slips, they agreed to never do it at school again. Though Katakuri doubted they would be able to keep that promise. They were young and impulsive. They were bound to mess up again. It was just lucky CPS wasn't called on them or something about it.

It was something nobody knew about, so it was shocking and maybe concerning. With with all parties unbothered by it, there wasn't much they should and could do. But it only made them more ostracized and rejected. Zoro went off on all of them. Saying it was normal and they should all shut their pieholes. After that, he got a time out.

The last week of school went horrible, and Luffy hated it. He was just glad it was the end. Katakuri was, too. Right now, Luffy was at Pudding's house, who was baking him banana bread that the boy had been craving and whining about all day. There was no reason not to get him some when he didn't throw a tantrum about it or anything.

"Tell me what she says to you as long as it has nothing to do with Luffy. I don't want to feel angry anymore," Katakuri said, leaning forward in the nicely sized chair. Both of them were tall but fit comfortably. While they were leaving, Katakuri stayed at seeing Benn there. He went to speak to him, and they sat back down, Katakuri with a water, now.

Benn wanted to hear about Luffy, so Katakuri gave him the truth. "Well, for someone his age, he's done well to adapt, even as problems come up. I'm surprised about what happened with Zoro, though. I suppose we should have known something like that. Now we know." He sounded regretful.

"Don't worry, it seemed neither of them is bothered by it. Luffy is in control when he's around Zoro. I doubt he'd ever harm him," Katakuri said with confidence. "I"m sure he'd like to talk with you again. Is there any chance I can get your phone number?"

"Absolutely, I rarely get updates on former patients," Benn said brightly. They exchanged numbers, and the father was glad he had some good news to give his baby. They both left, and Katakuri headed home and waited for Pudding to call him over to pick the boy up.

When he did, Luffy was ecstatic to hear in the car that his helper would want to speak with him again. When they got home, he wanted to call him, but Katakuri remind him that Benn would call when he was available. "He's a busy man, helping little boys and girls in yours and Zoro's situation."

"Okay," Luffy moped a bit, wanting to talk soon. But then he went to jump on the trampoline for awhile, and was successfully distracted.

-x-

Luffy screamed and cried at his blood bottles on the ground. Someone took them from his cubby and dumped them outside! Now he didn't have any, and he was not allowed to drink from Zoro. The teacher was furious and demanded to know who had done it. The kids all denied until it was found out it was a girl from the other kindergarten class.

When the classes were mingling for the last day of school, they went to Luffy's cubby and took them away. But this was dangerous. Luffy needed blood often or he'd grow upset, and the kids thought him being upset was putting them in danger. Luffy only got uncomfortable unless he missed blood for at least twelve hours.

Zoro offered him some, but the teacher shot that down, and one of the nurses left the school to fetch a few blood bottles for Luffy for the last two hours of his time in kindergarten. He had so many things he wanted to do differently at his next class in the next school. The girl's name was Ulti, and she had a mask on, but her smirk was obvious. Even as she was sent home, she gave Luffy a nasty, rude look.

He sniffled at the treatment, and went to the corner of the room for the following two hours, having no reason to interact with everyone who was cruel to him and Zoro. Him especially and they were all scared to talk or anger him. It hurt! He felt terrible there, and wanted to start over already.

Zoro stuck with him and would bring him the lemon cupcakes. Luffy refused, not wanting to eat sugar. So Zoro brought him the strawberries, feeling for his best friend. They both knew the bad feelings very well.

When the class was over, Luffy said goodbye to nobody, and made no eye contact. He just went out under the umbrella and straight to the car. Zoro was coming too, and both boys were silent in the car. "Papa? Am I a good boy?" Luffy asked while music quietly played from the radio.

"Of course. There are issues you have with control, but you're a very good boy," Katakuri said sincerely. Luffy just nodded once, and looked out the tinted windows with a blank look. Zoro took his hand and squeezed it. His friend squeezed it back, but did not look away from the window at the other cars.

-x-

All summer, Luffy was wholly uninterested in trying to master his powers, which made no sense as nothing was consistent with them. He didn't want them at all, and resisted ever using them. No matter if Katakuri encouraged him to try, Luffy refused, never wanted to attack people again. So he wasn't training control, but training himself to resist.

For weeks, he was successful. Katakuri had a feeling that he knew he couldn't just keep switching schools if things went wrong, so he was trying to make sure nothing went wrong. Katakuri and Koushirou agreed on what school to place them in. It was a school for children whose quirks were failing them. They also were known to accept vampires and werewolf children, rare though they may be.

The teacher and principal were prematurely alerted to Zoro and Luffy's bond, which they were prepared for. Katakuri had some faith it would be the right place for the both of them. Even if there were mean children, the school seemed like it would have their backs.