Well I'm deeply sorry for taking so long to update, but I'm hella busy, in a new city and trying to get used to the mess here. Also my dear beta is out kicking rugby teams with pasion so yeah, it's complicated. In any case I hope you like this one, I'm pretty happy with how the things had ended up. As always thanks a lot for the coment's the fan arts (you can see them in my page in tumblr since I wan't post links here), and the support, love you my perverts. For the anon:

Jennifer: Was the little bear Bepo? Oh God, this chapter was so thrilling! Kid's jealousy was just wonderfully amusing. And the heartwarming moment between Kid and Law makes my heart racing. Thank you so much, Cucuxumusu! You made my day.

I'm afraid not, he wasn't Bepo, that will be a bit creepy with Kidd trying to kill him, they were just polar bears, I don't know if Bepo will came out cos he is a dificult character, I can make him human or an animal, but not something in between. So yeah, complicated. In any case I'm glad you liked the chapter, I hope you like this one too XD

One for sorrow, two for mirth

Three for a funeral, four for birth

Five for heaven, six for hell

Seven for a secret that must never be tell.

-Nurse rhyme from Law's village

Law walked through the corridors with their huge walls of the castle and home of Roronoa Zoro, god of the sea. Despite having spent several days already living in the palace, Law was still discovering new mysteries and new rooms to explore. The huge, silent glass corridors seemed to extend in all directions under the sea, empty, naked, and without the slightest decoration. Cold and silent like the man they belonged to.

Despite the immensity of the place and not knowing its twists and dangers, Law had a fixed course today, and that was in the opposite direction to where the red-haired god was.

The hunter simply couldn't stand another minute with the man, he was an idiot, reckless, empathyless, and worshiped the blood on his hands and the suffering of others. His only pleasure in life seemed to be to anger and kill things. They had been screaming at each other ever since Law had come to this world, yesterday he had been about to kill an innocent life without remorse, he did not want to stop the rain that was killing hundreds ... Law had not managed to flee the monster in his own world to end up falling in another one's hands.

However, there were certain aspects of the redhead that did not quite match the behavior of the monster Law remembered from his own world. Kidd had saved his life the first day. He had offered him shelter, food, clothes. The monster in his world would have never done something like that. Because of this Law felt confused, there was something, an instinct, that would not let him hate the bloodthirsty redhead, there was something that screamed that inside, deep inside the other, there was something worthwhile.

But Law was tired of trying to find what it was. Especially when Kidd himself did not even try to do it himself and seemed to revel in the suffering of others. So Law decided to ignore him, tried to get away from the man and tried to prepare for when the door would open and he would have to return to his world. With the real monster. With empty hands.

Without realizing where his steps were taking him, Law began to delve deeper and deeper into the labyrinthine palace, through transparent glass corridors immersed in bright green algae. Further and further down. Until finally the corridors and recesses ended in what seemed to be the bottom and heart of that strange sea of shiny creatures and crystals. Until Law only found an old door, of well-known chestnut wood, with splinters and scratches and runes.

Law watched it, suddenly awakening from his trance and his thoughts. He did not even know where he was, or how to get back to where he had come from, but the silence and darkness in that place were absolute. Disturbing. Dead.

Law doubted for a moment.

This place looked different from the other parts of the castle. The wall seemed to have been carved with fury, and the rough surface gave the place an even wilder look. There were no fish on the other side of the glass, no plants or anything. Just the door. Like a terrible, dark secret.

Maybe Law should not be there, maybe he should turn around and leave, but again there was his curiosity. That part of his mind that sought knowledge, the power it gave him and the sense of security he gained. Knowledge had long since become his way of survival, and old habits often take time to die.

So Law pushed the strange door slightly open. The first one in the whole castle that did not seem to be made out of glass or some transparent material like the amber of his room or the obsidian of Kidd. It was vulgar, cracked, and a human-made wood, to plain for such a fancy place.

Law opened the heavy door even further and crossed to the other side. The biting cold from the outside world and the pure white snow greeted him. The small room seemed to be covered with a thick layer of ice, and the cold inside was so intense that Law felt his breath begin to form clouds of mist in front of his face, he felt his fingers numbing, his heat being stolen in the frozen air.

There were little blue candles in the room, candles that despite the painful cold burned merrily and gave the place a strange and almost magical look. There were furniture covered by the ice, becoming part of the ominous looking stalactites on the floor and shining with the glitter of silver and gold. It was an odd place. Disturbing. Not right.

But what surprised Law the most was the large bed with white sheets embroidered with silk and purple little flowers where a person seemed to sleep.

Slowly approaching the strange scene and the statue asleep in the bed, Law watched the man with curious and weary eyes. He was a tall, dark-haired man with the signs of age beginning to appear on his face, and a perfectly trimmed beard like one of the lofty nobles from Law's world. His skin was pale, tremendously pale, and small crystals of ice were beginning to appear on his skin giving it an almost fragile touch.

Law frowned even more without understanding the palace and that room. The man seemed to be dead, he did not breathe, nevertheless, he had a pulse under his skin, but simply no one could endure such a low temperature for so long. No one except perhaps the weather god, but this man was not the temperamental redhead whose only purpose in life seemed to be to fight against the world.

Law studied the scene again. The man was lying in the position of a deceased knight, the beautiful embroidered white cloak covered his legs, a large steel sword decorated with more jewels rested on top of it, matching the steel armor he seemed to carry. Everything was made like the burial of a king. Everything seemed perfectly taken care of, from the candles placed at different intervals on the walls, to the ice covering the place and creating stalactites, or the man's proud posture, it was as if someone came here every now and then to fix the place and take care of the sleeping knight.

"What are you doing here?" Asked a voice suddenly behind Law's back, interrupting the almost ritual silence of the room. A pissed off voice, a deadly serious one.

Law spun around, feeling his instinct screaming like never before, just to watch the god of green hair and owner of the castle standing at the door. Zoro. Only the figure in the doorway did not look like the kind and taciturn man Law had been talking to hours before, no, this was Sedna, the god who kept souls and prepared them for death, who had died drowning in the sea to resurface as its owner and lord. The power oozed from each of the man's pores, his eyes even seemed to take on a bright and dangerous green hue, like the seaweed at the deepest part of a lake.

The god seemed to have lost all control over himself and who he was, the rage too intense to contain. Now it was only power contained within an immortal body.

"... I'm sorry" Law began, knowing that he had done something that he shouldn't, something that was about to cost him his life "I got lost and then ... "

The other, however, just entered the room, and kept the door open behind him. A clear invitation to leave. His whole body seemed to tremble under the rage, under the unleashed power. The pressure in the room seemed to increase a thousand times until Law struggled to just take a breathe.

"Leave" hissed the other without looking into Law's eyes, only focusing on the footprints that Law had left on the ice floor, just breathing deeply as if trying to calm down.

"I'm sorry," Law repeated.

"Go!" Zoro shouted, as if he could not stand Law's presence in the place for another second. The room seemed to tremble and stagger around him, stalactites clinking, the ice cracking. The world seemed to tremble with it. Every drop of water, every creature of the sea seemed to shudder and hide under the fury of the Lord of the Sea.

Law simply ran to the exit. The instinct taking control of his body and telling him to run, to flee and away from something so immense that it was impossible for him to fight it. A familiar old anxiety began to seize his mind. Law felt his lungs close, his head felt dizzy, and he had to take several gulps of air before panic took control of his body.

"If I see you here again, I'll kill you," Zoro said, closing the door behind him with a bang. He said it with a low tone of voice, but so charged with fury and contempt that curiously cleared the mind of the scared mortal.

The panic, helplessness, and frustration at being on the verge of death suddenly vanished. Law remembered who he was, the thousands of similar situations he had gone through and how he had survived each of them. He had forgotten everything that had happened when he had arrived, the luxuries of the castle, the magic that surrounded it, the almost acceptance by the gods had distracted him. But now he remembered his mission, he regained the instinct that had helped him survive and closed himself to everything else. Law had always been the lone wolf. No friends, no family, no ties. With nothing that could hurt him when it was lost or it betrayed him. Because friendship did not exist, love and affection were just a lie.

As the door closed behind him, Law regained his path and his concentration. No games, no pity, no new friendships, or lowering his guard for feeling more secure and appreciated than in his entire life. Law had come to this world to save his life, nothing more, nothing less. When he achieved his goal he would return to his world, he would survive and would eventually forget everything.

This was just another test, another obstacle, and Law could do it and prove to the whole universe that he deserved a place in this world like everyone else.

...oOo…

Zoro knew he had lost his temper. Something that had not happened for centuries, something he'd even forgotten he could do. But despite the happiness of being able to feel something again, something so intense, even if it was rage, had not left him the satisfaction he had believed. Because, despite having recovered something that he had thought he would never recover, his fury had frightened the mortal.

Zoro had felt it in his eyes, in his change of his posture, the tightness of his lips, his attitude. Law had taken a big important step back. The mortal who had made Kidd react, the one who had made the sun shine again in the sky, had closed himself off again, and Zoro was becoming more and more certain that if they lost Law, they would also lose Kidd forever.

The green haired man had finally seen his friend react the previous day. The possessive attitude towards the boy, how Kidd always tried to get the mortal's attention even if achieved by arguing, and the scared confusion and blush on his face when they had both returned together from the "hunt". Zoro understood what was happening. Zoro saw the imperceptible changes in his friend and what this all meant.

Their race was ancient, millenary, the life of each one of them extended by generations along the time of a human life. So much longevity, so much wisdom and knowledge had also a great power behind it. Each and every one of the gods could annihilate the lives of thousands of mortals with a simple gesture, their power was so immense that they had needed to create another world apart from the mortals so that both could live together without one of them perishing or enslaved. Many among the gods considered such longevity and power an advantage, the difference that made them better, superior, immortal, arrogant.

But not Zoro.

The green haired god had understood early on the problem that such a long and powerful life meant. When you have seen everything, when nothing can surprise you anymore, emotions cease, fading away until they slowly disappear, becoming less intense, the terror becomes a simple feeling of insecurity, the fascination and most passionate love a mere infatuation. Until you simply stop feeling. Until you only live in a world of muted gray tones. The first god to die was a hard blow to their race, especially when that god had simply annihilated himself out of curiosity about what would be on the other side.

Without fear, without a warning instinct, Zoro's race was capable of killing itself.

That had been the beginning, eons ago, the warning scream that had seemed to ring like a bell reaching every corner of their world, but it had been Zoro who had then realized the real problem his race was facing. Because without feelings and emotions, what difference was there between good and evil? What makes you stop when you torture someone if you can't feel remorse? What makes you help someone else if not gratitude and satisfaction? Zoro just had needed to look at his brothers and sisters to find his answer.

Their race was slowly turning cruel, twisted, seeking the most intense emotions they could find, even if they came from a rotten class. Orgies, massacres, torture, his race had degenerated slowly, looking for something more without knowing why they were losing. Zoro realized then what he was doing, what he was becoming along with the rest of them, but instead of continuing to fall into the void, the green haired man had decided to isolate himself, flee and not hurt anyone.

Then he had found him.

Zoro stared at the mortal, sleeping, frozen for eternity in the deepest room of his world. He had changed everything, he had shown Zoro that the gods were not as powerful as they believed, that they needed mortals who lived briefly but intensely. They were their salvation.

However, now, Zoro might have destroyed the only chance that Kidd, his only and greatest friend, could have had to go back to being who he had been eons ago, the proud powerful warrior. He might have destroyed Kidd's voice, a second voice that would have risen along his, louder, so maybe this time Robin would have listened and solved the problem.

Zoro was a prince among those of his race, a god of second generation, only surpassed in power and prestige by their greater and powerful sovereign. But after the incident, all his benefits, all his titles and all his power had been of no avail. Since then Zoro had become a pariah, a hermit, he was still a prince, the blood was the blood, as a second-generation god would always be respected and worshiped by those of lower class, but he was to be kept away from the court and its intrigues.

Kidd however was different, he belonged to the third, and although his conduct was not fully accepted in court, he still had access to it, he would be well received, he would be listened to, maybe he would be able to...

Zoro frowned, looking again at the face of his one and tragic love, frozen for eternity in the depths of his palace. Maybe that was a bad idea. The first time had not gone well, why would they change for the better? Why would they reach another conclusion? No, he would not allow Kidd to suffer the same as he had. Kidd was different from the rest, Kidd was like him, and this time the story would have a happy ending. Zoro would keep the secret. Just as he hid this secret room from his queen and from the rest of the world.

Turning around, Zoro left the room, realizing that too many hours had passed. Hours in which the mortal had not left the room with the amber door, hours in which the sun had traveled the sky as for eons it had not, hours that Zoro had needed to be able to calm himself as he had forgotten to do.

This hidden part of his life, this secret room was a weak point, his only weakness, but even so he was a warrior, he must have controlled his temper and redirected his rage. After all, the mortal had not known better, he had not been able to avoid the mistake.

So Zoro decided he owed an apology. Strolling through his palace and traveling between the cold streams on the other side of the glass, Zoro rose among bubbles and headed to the boy's room until he materialized in front of his amber door in mere minutes.

With two blunt fingers he knocked on the door.

The mortal opened it in an instant with a piercing squeak from the hinges that filled the intense silence of the narrow corridor.

Zoro frowned.

Something was terribly wrong.

The raven had always had a sheltered air, he was smiling, he was joking, but he always seemed to do it as if it was a facade, a way of protecting himself. Zoro had at first wondered why, why should a mortal guard his emotions? Weren't they the free ones who could sleep without the fear of being stabbed in the back by the lower-class? Why didn't Law seem to trust anyone?

Now, however, Zoro realized that that behaviour was nothing compared to what the boy was doing now. The boy's eyes were so cold, so closed off, they almost seemed to compete with Zoro's. With a millennial god. The sea god had crossed a line, a line far more important than he had believed.

"I came to apologize," Zoro began anyway, he knew the mortals, maybe he could fix it, their emotions changed like the tides in his world "I shouldn't have threatened you and …"

"It does not matter." Replied the mortal, his tone without the slightest emotion, so frozen, so empty that Zoro couldn't help but remember the worst cases of his own race. The wicked ones, the monsters of the stories. A chill ran down his spine. What had he done? However, before he could say anything, the boy continued "You are a god, I am a mere mortal, you can do whatever you wish to my unworthy being, it is beyond my place to say anything to your highness"

Zoro frowned. The boy sounded uncaring, accustomed, his phrases ringed empty, as if he had repeated it thousand times. Educated, respectful, without the slightest inflection that could provoke anger. Just perfect for an arrogant king, or a proud man, but not for Zoro. Zoro felt the wrongness in it, the void. What kind of life had Law lived to learn how to use and pronounce such phrases?

"That's not true, I…"

"I apologize to have angered your highness or to have caused the slightest displeasure. I swear over my name and life that it will not happen again. When the door opens I will quickly return to my own naughty world and cease to cause you trouble. You will not have to see my unworthy again"

And without further ado, the boy closed the door delicately, lovingly, like the wind turning a leaf, making the silence in the corridor return more empty than ever. He closed the door as if Zoro meant nothing in his little ugly world, as if he was just another stranger he had needed to say goodbye before securing his home from the dark night.

The green haired god frowned even more as he realized that this might be a bigger problem than he had thought. The mortal could not return to his world, not like this, dead, without life, after having seen and felt the worst part of the gods' world, they had to solve it, Kidd had to...

Turning around with clenched fists, Zoro walked back and forth between the passages of his castle looking for his friend this time. Maybe between the two they could solve the problem. Zoro knew that Kidd, like the rest of the gods, despised mortals, but after the last incidents and changes in the climate in recent days, Zoro hoped that his friend would have changed his mind.

...oOo...

Kidd felt confused, something new to him. A god did not feel confused, he always knew what he was doing, what he should do and how to do it. But in the last few days his life seemed to have taken a big turn, bigger than it had ever done, and for a reason that, a few days ago, would have made him laugh: a mortal.

Kidd remembered the incident of the previous day, the boy stopping him, the anger, him marveling at the sun... The boy seemed to cover more emotions in a day than any god would in a year and Kidd had found out he liked to see them all, but what had confused him wasn't the mortal himself and the interesting flics of emotions over his elegant face, but his own reaction to it all.

When the boy had seen the sun, had marveled and had smiled, Kidd had felt the heat and a strange sense of pride filling his chest. In an overwhelming way. For a moment he hadn't been able to breathe. For a moment he had felt his face flush beneath the boy's praises and wonder. For a moment he had only been able to observe the boy under the light of the powerful sun as if he was what Kidd had waited for all his life.

But that was impossible, no, not with a mortal.

He had been repeating that phrase for the whole day and night. Kidd knew that denial of the problem would get him nowhere, he knew he was simply fooling himself, but he could not recognize it. His pride and the impossibility of having a relationship with a mortal prevented him, he would suffer, the boy would suffer, there would only be drama and unhappiness. He was better alone.

So Kidd had just sulked and locked himself in his room ignoring the world like an angry teenager. But then, to add to all his problems, Zoro had entered his room like a summer storm a few moments ago, pulling him out of his gloom.

What his friend had told him then had made him worry, mock the mortal who could not even stand an angry god, and finally worry again. Kidd had set out then to ignore the problem again, let the boy sulk, let him go back to his world without any gentle words and resentment in his heart for them. It was better if the boy hated them, he would be safe, he won't complicate things for Kidd even more. Kidd would be able to refuse his feeling towards him. But the anxiety that he could perceive in his quiet stoic friend and the strange anxiety that arose inside him at the same time, stopped him.

So Kidd, sacrificing himself for the common good, had gone to talk to the mortal.

In front of the pure amber door of the boy's room, Kidd felt his nerves rise like a teenager waiting to see the object of his desires. He remembered the boy's fascinated eyes from the day before and he found himself hesitating, wondering if perhaps he should have left the sword and the dagger he carried in the room, so as not to frighten the mortal even more, Kidd even observed himself combing his hair in a gesture of nervousness. What would the boy think of him now after what he had almost done yesterday? The lost control over his powers that had numbed his mind and almost provoked the dead of innocent lives? Would the mortal want to talk to him?

And that was the drop that overflowed the glass.

Kidd kicked himself. HE WAS A GOD! No, he did not fall in love, let alone with a mortal. Kidd had always lived alone, had remained alone, and had been perfectly fine alone. He would never have a partner. Much less a human who had been annoying since he had arrived, one who was too thin, too sarcastic, and had gray eyes like dirty water. Just no. They were better enemies than friends. His stupid feelings could go where they had come from because Kidd did not need them.

Still, he knocked on the door. Still, he felt his pulse startle as he heard footsteps on the other side, the door opening, his breath catching in his lungs when the boy received him without a shirt and sweaty after exercising or doing only god knows what.

Kidd's mind just stopped working and he could only feel, memorize, wonder, and shiver.

Law's gray eyes normally looked as gray as the storm that Kidd had unleashed for centuries in both their worlds, yesterday under the sun, they had seemed to shine, like fine expensive silver, but now those eyes, for the first time, looked at him cold, without hatred, without admiration, without anything. They were like a metal barrier that enclosed the boy inside, like a blade, deadly, cold and dangerous.

Kidd felt a strange fury seize him when he saw those empty dark eyes, the barrier, the closeness.

"We have to talk," he said without giving the boy the slightest chance. With something telling him that the boy wasn't fine, and that he needed to solve it if he wanted to see the boy's fascinated eyes like the previous evening, shining in the sun, watching him with pleasure and awe.

"No thanks", replied the boy easily. Before closing the door in front of his nose and leaving him where he was. Outside. In the cold silent hallway of his friend's house. Alone.

With a uproaring fury that Kidd had never felt, Kidd slammed on the amber door with a fist full of power he didn't remember having called. Thunder sparkled. The walls vibrated. The strange amber glass cracked and fractured as a house of cards, falling to the ground in large orange pieces the size of his head.

Kidd knew that Zoro was going to kill him for breaking his palace, for breaking a huge door of an incalculable material. Kidd knew he had lost control, that his actions could only scare the mortal even more, that he was doing the opposite of what he had set out to do. He was implicating himself with the mortal, caring, helping, bonding, seeking a way out of his perfect solitude.

But the rage within himself roared with satisfaction at seeing the amber broken at his feet. The anger only shouted at him to continue, to destroy all the barriers that stood between the boy and him, both the physical and the one he saw in the eyes of a boy. That rage only screamed a single thing until Kidd could hear nothing else.

'Mine'.