Back in Raftel with his old roommates, the rules of breakfast goes like this: there are no rules.
Killer, the only morning person amongst them - the only responsible one, more like - would already be standing in front of the stove at 7 in the morning, still wearing a sweaty shirt from his morning run. The smell of bacon and egg that he'd make for himself would wake the other three, and they would proceed to steal little bits and pieces from the still sizzling pan, despite the man berating them that 'if they're hungry, go get their own'. He was a little more lenient when it comes to toast, if only because they're easier to make again for himself.
Kid, Heat, and Wire doesn't care much for healthy and balanced diet, and proceed to make whatever it is they felt like that morning. Kid would always opted for sugary cereal, a mix of them in fact, doused with milk, and he would call Heat a heathen while he's at it, for adding milk after he poured in the cereal and make a soggy mess of his breakfast. Sometimes, when he's hungover, he would go for ice cream for breakfast, or beg Killer for some sunny side-up egg cooked over bacon fat. Coffee only entered their system on their way to the construction site, from that little bakery on the side of the street with the cute cashier that likes to flirt with Wire.
Mornings never had any restrictions, not where they get to eat their breakfast - he sometimes brought his cereal to shower with him - not rule about when you can take your breakfast - hangovers sometimes mean breakfast is 1 pm in the afternoon - and there's certainly no etiquette for it. He can drink his cereal if he wanted to, or just chew on his egg without any utensil because he had forgotten to wash the dishes for the last 3 days and no one else bothered to.
It was the lifestyle of a quartet of bachelors, so obviously the same could not be said about the Newgate-Portgas household.
At 6.30 am, Kid was already woken up by banging from the kitchen, and he entered the dining room adjoining it to find the house's occupants already awake and dressed. On the dining table was Sabo, dressed in some sort of a uniform complete with a navy blue hat, talking to Luffy about some story or another. Luffy sat next to him on a tall baby chair, babbling nonsensically back to Sabo, looking as if the two of them were having a conversation that only made sense for both sides. Directly on their opposite was a tall newspaper, held up above the table by a pair of disembodied hands.
The tall newspaper fell, to reveal Marco behind it, dressed in a pressed dress shirt and a tie to match, glasses perched on his nose. For a brief moment, Kid reached down to tug his uniform in properly, until he remembered that he's not wearing a uniform, he's no longer in school and that the man was no longer his teacher.
Talk about muscle memory.
"Ah, you're awake," the blonde greeted him, folding the newspaper away, "Ace wanted to let you sleep in, but i disagree. It would be much more beneficial for your health to wake up early," he placed the now folded papers next to him, pulling in its place a mug of what Kid would guess to be coffee, "Take a seat wherever you like and help yourself with breakfast,"
Kid glanced at the aforementioned breakfast laid on the table, noting that while there's not a lot, he could still hear sounds from the kitchen, which means that there are more to come. There's two different brands of cereals, and not even the good kind of cereal, with colourful balls and too much sugar, but the bland ones that promotes extra vitamin and fibre. A plate of eggs and bacons was placed right next to it at least, though much to Kid's absolute distaste, there's also a bowl of steamed vegetables next to it.
He sat down next to Sabo - since he's pretty sure that the seat next to Marco's got to be Ace's - and was about to reach over for the bacons when he heard his ex-teacher clear his throat, "I hope you're not thinking of only consuming fat and skipping everything else,"
The redhead paused, glancing at the plate and the disapproving look levelled at him, "I, uh, don't usually eat my veggies during breakfast,"
He liked to think he ate his veggies never.
Suddenly, Sabo whipped his head to his direction, wearing a large cheeky grin on his face and looking mighty pleased with himself, "You don't?!" he asked with full glee, though the cause for the excitement was lost to Kid, "Pops, he doesn't eat veggies for breakfast! See, i told you no one does!"
Across from the table, Marco looked even less pleased, giving Kid a piercing glare not unlike one he would usually give him whenever a high-school age Kid was caught misbehaving.
It's been 8 years, but oh boy, that actually still shake him a little.
"I mean, uh, not every morning, just every 2 mornings. And i didn't have any yesterday so that means i have to have some today," Kid added hastily, making sure to be seen taking some of the offered greens to his plate right next to the bacons. He grimaced as soon as Marco shifted his gaze away from him and to his eldest.
"Yet, as you can see, Sabo, he does,"
Sabo pouted, looking back down to his bowl of cereal sulkily before a hand was placed on top of his fuzzy head. A plate suddenly came into Kid's line of focus, followed by a mouthwatering scent of fresh berries and melting butter, "Oh, let him live a little, Marco. Not eating gross greens once in a while won't hurt anyone," Ace's voice came fleeting in from behind their backs, and after depositing no less than 3 small jars of what looks like baby foods on the table attached to Luffy's baby chair, he rounded the table and entered Kid's line of vision.
Kid eyed the content on the newly deposited plate - thick slices of french toast topped with drizzles of butter and berries - hungrily, and heard Marco groan from across his seat, "Ace, I am just trying to introduce healthy and balanced diet to our children, is that so wrong?"
"Well, it's bit too much to have him eat healthy all the time. It's called '5 a day', Marco, not 5 a breakfast, lunch and dinner,"
Marco lowered his head slightly, mumbling, "As if anyone in this house, aside from me, only eats during breakfast, lunch, and dinner,"
"Hmm, someone is dangerously close to losing their portion of toast this morning. I might have to give it to Dragon instead," Ace drawled, balancing the plate on his hand, the food on it identical to the one Kid has been eyeballing for a while and Sabo's starting to take bits out of, "Too bad, i even stuffed them with his favorite brand of cream cheese this morning, because someone kept saying he's been craving some,"
Once Sabo was finished taking his cut, Kid deposited the rest to his own plate, just in time to catch his ex-teacher sighing defeatedly with a pinched expression behind his coffee cup, "…You know dogs can't eat cream cheese,"
Ace grinned victoriously, depositing the - significantly better looking - toast in front of Marco. Kid saw him leaning down, thinking that he's going to continue on with his teasing when Marco turned and gave Ace a chaste kiss on his lips. He did it once, twice, and on the third time, they had their lips attached to each other's for far longer than Kid was comfortable of seeing.
He looked down to his plate, distracting himself with tasty looking french toast and rich, fatty bacon. But eating breakfast, no matter how delicious the food is, was rather difficult when every time you as much as raise your head a little, you notice that your childhood friend was inching down closer and closer to his husband, your old teacher, that there doesn't seem to be any space left in between them.
Kid took one bite of his rich toast, topped with one slice of bacon, and dared himself to look up. If Ace moved any closer in, he would've ended up on Marco's lap, and the only salvation Kid can take out of this situation, is that at least he hadn't seen any tongues involved.
Meanwhile, next to him, Sabo kept eating with gusto, and Luffy reached over for one of the baby food jar and started biting on the jar's lid with a mouth that only consist of gums and very little amount of teeth. Neither seems perturbed by this display.
When they finally separated, Ace took in a shaky breath and sat down, not bothering to hide the pleased smile on his lips. Marco didn't even seem ruffled, though Kid caught him licking his lower lips before he dug in to his own breakfast.
"Holy fuck,"
"Pops, Daddy, Mr. Eustass said a bad word,"
"So, what's your plan for the day?"
Kid turned from watching over Luffy to Ace, who was walking back into the dining room. Marco and Sabo already left earlier for school, to teach and study respectively, which left Ace to clean up the remnants of the morning's breakfast. Kid would've help if he could - or as he put it, give him a hand if he didn't only have one left - so instead, he volunteered to watch over Luffy while Ace busied himself with the dirty dishes.
Not that Luffy required much effort to be looked over. All Kid had to do the entire time was sit in front of him to open the jars of baby food and let the infant chug down the content himself. No mouth feeding necessary, and definitely no fussing around like he often saw in television or other children. Right now, there's about 4 empty jar of baby food next to his elbow, and Luffy was still staring hungrily at the 5th opened jar in his hand.
Kid handed the jar over - which was swiped away aggressively like the other ones before it - before replying, "I need to go to the general hospital. My old doctor back in Raftel gave me this recommendation letter i need to give to his colleague here, and told me to set up a check up schedule with him for my recovery and how to proceed,"
"Would a hospital in a small town like this be enough? I mean, from what i was told, they mostly deals with elderly with aching joints and children with flu, not necessarily grievous body harm,"
"It's not like i need therapy anymore, i did enough of it back in Raftel," Kid said with a grimace, remembering all those days of absolute pain, both in literal and metaphorical sense, "Nowadays, i think it's just to make sure i don't have infection or nerve damage or something. Plus, i need to get a clearance from a physician if i'm wanted to get a job. I barely have anything left in my bank account, and all of this hospital pay is going to drain even more out of me,"
In front of him, Ace frowned, "Kid, you know you can worry about that later and focus more on healing, right? That's why Marco and i offered to have you stay here in the first place, so you can at least have someone look after you. Hell, Bonney and the others said they wanted to help however they can,"
"Ace, you know me, i'm not going to just accept handouts—"
"It's not, it's just us wanting to help an old friend in need," Ace told him firmly, lips pinched and eyes hard. The angry look caused a twinge of familiarity in the back of Kid's mind, but somehow, it looks different. It was less a temperamental rage like he was used to seeing, and more akin to a scolding. It's the look he often saw on adults when it comes to misbehaving children, stern yet patient. Like a parent would give their child.
Even if he just saw the evidence this morning - heck, one of them was still next to him - Kid was still surprised when his mind reminded him over and over again that Ace is a parent now instead of a high school hooligan.
But although that one detail changed, his words were still rooted by the same fierce loyalty he'd recognize anywhere. 8 years ago, Kid had a group of friends who he shared all sorts of pain and joy with, and after leaving and coming back here, even if he had yet to meet with the rest, he at least knew that he still has them in his life.
There's a sense of elation in his chest, which caused a tug on the corners of his mouth.
A thud signalled him that Luffy was once again finished with his breakfast, and true enough, when Kid glanced over, the dark haired boy was enthusiastically banging the bottom of the jar against the little table on his chair and reaching over for another one, "Fine. Do what you guys want, but don't think i'm not going to repay it all. I'm not some charity case just because i lost a goddamn arm," he sighed, reaching over for the pile of baby food jars and opening it easily between his fingers in front of Ace, just to prove a point. It slipped a few times between his thumb and pointer before he finally get a decent grip on it and rotated the jar open.
The frown on Ace's face disappeared immediately in favour of stifling his laughter.
"Laugh all you want, you know i will. And i'm going to start out repaying all of you from now, starting from babysitting your hell spawn if i have to,"
"Even if i agree with you, don't let Marco hear you call them that. He liked to think that he's the reasonable authority figure around here, but he's softer than a soggy marshmallow when it comes to Sabo and Luffy. I'm usually the bad guy,"
It was proven true just a few minutes later. Luffy finished his new jar in record time, but before Kid could assist the boy into another bout of gluttony, Ace walked over and swooped his son up from his chair, clicking his tongue, "No, no, you don't get to eat more than 5, Luffy, or else you'd be spoilt for your formula later," the baby let out a displeased noise, as if understanding that he's being refused, scrunching up his face and looking like he's ready to throw a tantrum.
Ace sighed, tightening his hold around Luffy when the baby began sniffling, which quickly turned into an ear-piercing bawling, "I can take you to the hospital, but i hope that appointment of yours won't be for anytime soon. He's always like this every morning after breakfast,"
"I've heard of kids throwing tantrum about not wanting to eat, this might be the first time i've heard of one throwing a tantrum because he wanted to keep eating,"
"And for having bath times, for too long silence, and for not being allowed to climb up furnitures, or petting every animal he came across, for not being carried by every stranger he saw, for not being allowed to eat mine, Marco or Sabo's hair, aaand my absolute favorite, for not being allowed to play with his dirty diaper. I could go on, but we need to move sometime around this century. Like you said, hell spawn," the freckled male shook his head in exasperation, even if he gave the side of Luffy's reddening cheeks a quick peck afterwards, "But my cute little hellspawn. You'd want one too in the future,"
Luffy let out another piercing scream, as rivulets of tears dripped down from both corners of his eyes.
Kid took one look at that, and decided that no, he probably won't.
When Kid arrived in the hospital nearly half an hour late for his appointment, he didn't even have a chance to apologize to the receptionist when the cheery looking green haired nurse took one look behind him, saw Ace and a now slumbering Luffy in his hold, and gave him a pitying glance, "You're the one living with Ace and Professor Newgate, right? It's okay, everyone know that their boys are… quite a handful in the morning,"
"Understatement of the goddamn century, sister,"
(Calming Luffy down took exactly an hour, and it was only because it was time to feed him his baby formula. He latched on the nipple like a starving man, chugging down the entirety of 3 large bottles that Kid was sure should only be used for babies older than him.
"And he does this… 3 times a day?"
"The baby food jar? Yes. The bottles, no. This can go up to 6 times a day. He goes through milk cans faster than we went through condoms in a long weekend during high school,"
"THE FU—ACE!"
"What? It's not like Luffy can understand yet. What is he gonna do, tell his Pops? Marco and i are way worse than you and i ever was,"
"I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT! HOW DID WE GO FROM MILK BOTTLES TO THIS TOPIC?!")
The receptionist nurse, Camie, let out a little giggle. She read through Kid's letter, had him sign a few paperwork and gestured him over to the waiting room, "I've pen you in, and the doctor shouldn't take long. You're in luck, there's only about 2 other patients before you,"
Instead of making his way immediately to the waiting area, Kid decided to take the long way around to take in his surrounding, as he was prone to do since yesterday. He came here quite often back in high school, for various injuries from brawls or just adolescence shenanigans, and aside from some more modern equipments lying about and a new pristine hall, there doesn't seem to be much difference.
Then again, the hospital was never that big in the first place. It definitely wasn't as big as the hospital back in Raftel - in fact, he's pretty sure that the entire place can fit in of their specialized wings - and back then, aside from the grumpy old physician who often tended to him, Dr. Crocus, he recalled that there's only 3 or 4 others around. It looks more like a clinic than a general hospital, but considering the low amount of population around, it's probably justified.
He had only reach a silver plaque that displays all of the hospital's doctor's names when Ace calls for him, "Do you need me to stick around? For moral support?"
"Probably if the doctor start taking out those big ass needles, though i doubt it," he said, hearing Ace snort at his little joke, "But i'll be fine. You got someplace else to be?"
The raven haired male nodded, running his hand through Luffy's very soft hair, "I need to pick up my neighbour's kids before he leaves for work. He understood that i'll be late, but he can't stay any longer. I'll be back here as soon as i got them,"
"Your neighbour's kids?"
"Yup. Single dad with two toddlers, one of Marco's co-worker from the university. He didn't trust hired babysitters, and his eldest is pretty much one of the few people in this world that can entertain Luffy for a long period of time, so it's convenient for us. Plus he keeps insisting to pay for his kids,"
"Huh, Bonney wasn't kidding when she said you turned out to be the best housewife in town,"
Ace left afterwards - though not before giving him a very well placed kick on the shin - and Kid turned his attention back to the name plaques, grimacing and rubbing his sore leg.
Dr. Crocus' name was still up there - how old is he now, 100? - although the other 3 from before was gone, replaced by some names he didn't recognize. Aside from the 4 new physician names, there's a couple of names that was noted to be medical students doing their residency instead of a full-fledge practitioner, and on the very bottom, with the shiniest - probably also newest - plate was a name was attached to several degrees and specialties.
"Cardiology, Internal medicine, Neurosurgery, Immunology, Radiology, what wasn't this guy? What is even half of this thing?" the redhead mumbled to himself, narrowing his eyes at every term, "Probably ancient as shit. Don't these sort of things takes like 10 years to study or something?"
He glanced to the name attached to all of those terms and qualifications, and nodded to himself, "Trafalgar Law. Yeah, that sounds like an old man's name,"
Though he felt like he heard it before. Where was it?
Time passed as the walked around some more, mindlessly exploring the hospital's lobby and noting the differences he could spot - like the vending machine, much to his joy - when his name was called again by Camie, "Eustass Kid? the doctor is waiting for you in his office. Room 2, just straight to the right from here," Kid thanked the receptionist, before making his way over.
After so many days staying in the hospital during recovery and after so many doctors he had seen during his treatment, Kid didn't really know what to expect now. He half expected Dr. Crocus to be the one attending to him throughout the rest of his recovery, but his doctor back in Raftel noted that the Doctor he was giving his case to is a young one, brilliant and newly moved to the area. Crocus was probably older than time itself by now, so that left Kid with absolutely nothing to go with.
One thing for sure, Kid didn't expect the sickly hot guy from RipOff bar yesterday to be standing in the middle of Room 2, holding a clipboard and dressed in a white lab coat, looking every inch like a doctor he claimed he was yesterday but Kid still had a hard time believing in.
The doctor spoke in a prim tone that betrayed the underlying boredom evident in his eyes when he looked up, "Hello, Mr. Eustass, i am Doctor Trafalgar, who will be assisting you today. Nurse Camie has told me of your condition and i—" he trailed off as soon as he caught sight of Kid, eyes wide and mouth agape. He looked as shocked as Kid felt, and they probably wore a near identical expression.
Kid closed his mouth fast enough to hear the resounding 'click' of his lower row teeth meeting the upper one.
One thing he knows now.
Dr. Trafalgar Law is most definitely not fucking ancient.
I wish there will be a chapter in the future showing Dragon struggling to raise a baby Luffy no matter how short of a time it may be. Or just Garp doing it.
Not a lot of KidLaw just yet but this will be fixed in the next chap, guarantee (i mean, the ending kind of guarantee it, right?)
Anyway.
Thanks for the kudos, comments and for reading! Sorry if i've been leaving this fic (and the other ones, but this seems to have the longest update time) for so long, i've been on holiday, but now i'm back!
Hope you liked it!