Chapter 14

Write your own definitions
for love and happiness
and let everyone else
do the same.

- Jeff Hood

Law really should have realized it. He really should have. One minute he was helping the crew clean up after the party, bringing things back to the ship, and the next, the ship was moving. Moby Dick has left the island without so much as a warning, leaving him stranded on the ship. By the time he realized they'd left, it was already too late for him to dive overboard and swim back to shore.

As soon as he was shown to a room where he'd be staying, because everyone there was convinced that he's staying with them, Law heaved a sigh and figured he's stuck with them. Or at least until he finds a way to get away from them. If he even feels like it. It was tempting to stay with the offer of learning from real surgeons. There's only so much he can learn from books and dead animals.

A week later, a week of saving Lu from drowning herself by almost every strange happenings he'd never thought could happen, Law found himself unable to leave the strange girl alone on a potentially dangerous place. Not that the crew members were dangerous, everyone there seems to dot on the trio, but because the girl seems to find trouble just about everyday. Law mildly wondered if anyone ever taught the girl any common sense. Really, how can anyone nearly strangle and drown herself doing laundry?

Not to mention that the trio grew on him. It was like living with his sister again, to have a younger sibling to look after. There is no replacing his sister, but his older brother instincts is still with him after so long. The three of them were crazy, they need someone sane to watch over them.

He's going to ignore the fact that there's plenty of others on the ship to watch over them and the fact that his heart was already set on staying ever since telling Whitebeard what Joker wanted from him.

-*/-*/-*/

Law woke up one morning to someone opening the door to the room they gave him, which was across from Marco's. He groaned as he opened his eyes and turned his head to see Thatch peeking in his room. That's the first time that's happened since his stay here.

"Opps," the man said sheepishly. "I forgot. Just give me a minute." He went over to move the desk and placed a hand on the floor and held the board up as he crouched down.

"Why is there a trap door in this room?" Law yawned, rubbing his already messed up hair.

"There's one in every room, or did you not notice how the brats tends to show up anywhere and everywhere at any given time? But this is the only entrance we can use," Thatch said as he stuck his head down. "Good morning, brats."

"Go away," Law heard someone say from beneath, voice laced with sleep. Curious he walked over to get a peek. "You don't like it when we show up in your room unannounced, so don't do that to poor Law, you hypocrite." It sounded like Sabo the closer he got.

"Aww, don't be like that. It's almost time for your shift."

"We know." That one sounded like Ace. He got on his hands and knees to take a peek and saw them in a hammock right under where his bed is. He saw Ace and Sabo glare at the both of them with bleary eyes, with Lu snuggled in between them, still asleep.

"You have thirty minutes to get up and ready," Thatch said, trying to coax them out of bed.

"So?" Sabo dropped his head back down and closed his eyes.

"Lu's not awake yet," Ace followed suit, squishing his face into Lu's back. "We'll come out when he's awake."

"'m awake," Lu mumbled with his face pressed into Sabo's side. "Don't wanna get up. Tired."

"You boys stayed up late again? You really need to stop doing that. Sleep is good for growing kids." They groaned in response.

"So this is where they sleep," Law said thoughtfully. "I just assumed they slept with the rest of the crew. This is interesting." He looked at Thatch questioningly when he was stopped from going down.

"They bobby trapped the place. I wouldn't go down there if I were you."

"Bobby trapped like they do to the rest of the ship? They're harmless," Law tried again but was stopped once more.

"No. Bobby trapped as in, they don't want unwanted visitors. The last time I tried, I was nearly taken out by a hammer, a really big hammer."

"That's because all you commanders know about that door, and the last time we let you all in, you threw a party down here. Everything was trashed, and we had to clean everything," Sabo glared at the man. "Do you know how hard it is to get cleaning supplies in and out of this place? And all those delicate toys that were broken had to be replaced."

"My toys," Lu moaned.

"Sabo's already made new ones, Lu," Ace said.

"Oh, okay. I'm awake now," Lu sat up and waved at the two above him. "Good morning! Come on, Ace, Sabo. We have work. Let's go find birds."

With another groan the other two sat up and rubbed their eyes and got off their hammock. Lu climbed up to the beam right above him and crawled to the other end and did something before coming back. "Wanna come down, Trao?"

"Don't worry. Lu already disengaged the trap. There won't be any sharp objects flying at you," Sabo said when he looked up and saw Law's wary look.

Thatch left as Law climbed down the ladder, the door closing on its own. He looked at the door in interest. An auto close mechanism. He thought to himself.

"Spacious," he said as he wondered about their 'room.' There were childish scribbles and drawings hanging on one wall.

"Yeah, well, we did take over three quarters of their cargo hold. This ship is huge. You won't believe how many times we got lost when we first joined," Ace said as he changed his clothes before rummaging through another closet full of dresses. "Lu, come here."

"Aww, I wanna wear Sabo's clothes today," Lu whined, tugging at the end of her too large T-shirt that came down to the thigh of her shorts.

"Should be fine," Sabo said as he eyed Law.

Law averted his eyes as he heard a cheer and walked over to a bookshelf. "You have an interest in medicine?" he asked as he fingered a book.

"I'm interested in everything," Sabo said from next to him. "You want to be a doctor right? You can have those books. I'm done with them. Not sure what you what you already know, but it wouldn't hurt, right?"

Law nodded as he looked at the other titles. "You really are interested in everything," he mused as he saw the all the variety of topics the shelves held; guns, swords, ship building, recipes, history books of various islands, arts, children's books, coloring books, fairy tales, and some journals just to name a few.

"Sabo's teaching me lots of stuff," Lu said as she bounced up to them.

Law took in the clothes the girl had on. Long blue shorts with a small knife strapped on one leg, a small pistol on the other, blue jacket over a white dress shirt, and a neckerchief. "Fancy. The hat clashes though," he said. "You've always wore things like that?" he turned to Sabo. "Looks stifling."

Sabo brought his fists down to his side, wearing an almost identical outfit, but maroon in color. "They're comfortable," he said as if daring Law to say otherwise.

"Looks stifling," Law repeated himself with a smirk.

"Breakfast is ready," Thatch called out from somewhere before Sabo could retort back.

"Amazing. You can hear everything," he said as he listened to the going ons above deck.

"It's because Sabo's smart," Lu said as she took his hand and dragged him towards a ladder and headed up.

"So Sabo-ya's the one to build all this," Law mused as he watched Lu pulled open another door to the galley.

"Blamenco built it. He said he didn't want kids to be playing with dangerous tools. Ace thought of all the ideas. I made the plans," Sabo said as he climbed up and made room for Ace to come up, with the door closing right behind him.

Law bent down to inspect the floor. It was seamless. He couldn't even see where the door opened at and pressed down to see how it worked. It didn't budge. He shrugged it off and followed the trio to their usual bench.

They finished their meal and was just getting up to go to their post when Haruta came by with another man. "Hey, Lu. Could you come to the training room in about an hour? Jonny here needs practice with the sword. I got permission from Marco already. He's the one that suggested it, saying that you'd know how to gauge his strength and adjust. It'd be good training for you too."

"Okay."

"Thanks so much, kid," Jonny said.

"Could I watch?" Law was interested watching swordsmanship training.

"I'd rather you not," Jonny said bashfully. "I'm still no good, and it'd be embarrassing."

"Yeah, no slacking. You're on lookout," Ace pointed out. Since there wasn't much else to do with so many crew members on Moby Dick, Marco had Law follow the same schedule as Ace and Sabo. Leaving Luffy to do whatever else any commander needs him to do. Izo told him he could come to the infirmary during his free time to learn.

Law joined them in the crow's nest after detouring to his room to retrieve his long sword. "So you're a swordsman, Lu-ya?"

"Lu's an all-rounder," Sabo said from his position on the east side. The crow's nest is large enough to hold a table, four chairs and room to hold a few more adults. "Lu's amazing. We've been working on her strenght, so that she can take on someone as strong as Vista one day."

"And working on using Lu's rubber ability. Aim sucks, packs a punch but aim sucks," Ace said from the north. He gave the taller teen a look, "I don't recommend asking for a duel. You'll be sorry," he warned while holding up a flaming fist.

"Right. Dully noted."

An hour later after Lu jumped off the tower, Law finally asked what he's been wanting to know. He couldn't ask before in the week he's been with them because the girl was always with them. "So what is it that Joker-ya wants that you have?"

Sabo hummed and grinned. "You used to be in on everything that goes on in that family of his for a few years, right? I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

"That doesn't seem fair," Law grumbled.

"Hint: we're not really hiding it," Ace grinned.

"You've already seen it," Sabo giggled.

Law couldn't only sigh at the response. If he's already seen it, does it mean it was something in their room? He gave another sigh.

They kept lookout in comfortable silence before Law asked quietly, "Was Lu…was Lu-ya with you when you had to work for that man?"

"Lu…" Ace trailed as his thoughts turned back to the past, voice somber. "Lu's been with them longer than we had. She was with the family for about a year before we met her. Lu was so small back then…"

"Only two, I think. Didn't know a thing about her or her age until we came to Whitebeard," Sabo continued when Ace trailed off once more. "You seem awfully interested in our Lu. You've been keeping careful eyes her since you joined," Sabo grinned. Both he and Ace knew they could trust Law. They could see how much he cares for their brother.

Law shrugged. "I used to have a younger sister. I guess she reminds me of her. Though, my sister wasn't anywhere near as stupid. Made me want to protect her. Big brother instinct, I guess."

"You and everyone else here," Sabo turned back to look at the sea somberly. "Lu doesn't need us to protect her, though. She needs us to protect ourselves. We're important to her, so we have to get stronger so she doesn't need to worry about us."

"Why did you willingly join Joker? You don't have to answer if you don't want to. Just curious," Ace said.

Law leaned back and looked to the sky to clear his thoughts. "I was born and raised in Flevance, in North Blue. It was a flourishing island where Amber Lead was mined. What we didn't know was that the Amber Lead that was being mined was poisonous. It was slowly killing the people there. The World Government and the royal family knew about the poisoning but didn't do a thing about it. A neighboring island went to war with Flevance, thinking Amber Lead poisoning was contagious. It wasn't. Everyone was killed. My parents, my sister, my friends, everyone. I was only nine.

"I was done with everything. I wanted to destroy as much of the world as I could before I died from the poison. I estimated that I only had about three years left to live. I escaped by hiding in a pile of corpse that were taken out of the island. I'm not even sure how I did it, but I found the Donquixote Pirates and asked them to let me join." He paused there to collect his thoughts. He continued with a softer tone of voice. "That was where I met Cora-san. Joker-ya's blood brother. Cora-san was actually a marine spy, but Joker-ya didn't know. He was the one to give me the Ope-ope no mi to save my life.

"You know," Law said in thought, "Joker-ya used to brag about this kid he raised. Something about making an army of the brat. He'd bring in kids after kids, sometimes babies, while I was with him. I don't know what he did to them, but they all died without lasting a week. When I asked about that kid he raised once, he told me he sent his boy out to train with two other promising kids. I'm actually surprised that he didn't send those monsters after me."

"Who knows, maybe you'll meet them someday," Ace mumbled with his head perched in his hand.

"Wouldn't want to. I've heard the reports," Law said crossed his arm on the ledge and perched his head on them. "They're ruthless. Nothing but corpse, success rate 100%. Not to say I haven't killed, but those were all in self-defense. These boys are much younger than I am. To be able to kill that many people at such young age is something only someone without moral can do. Or a psychopath."

"Or maybe he wasn't taught any better," Ace said. "You said he was raised by Joker..."

"...maybe he was brainwashed," Sabo finished.

"Maybe," Law sighed.

Ace and Sabo hummed, but didn't say anything else. There was nothing else they can say. They were the monsters he's heard about after all.

"I used to be a noble," Sabo said to clear the uncomfortable silence that fell on them. "I was practically my parent's puppet. I was to be married to the princess of our kingdom to bring up my parent's status. After learning that my parents never really cared about me, just what I could do for them, I ran away to live in a trash heap."

"From riches to rags," Ace laughed. "That's where I met Sabo. I was living with mountain bandits at the time. They were okay. I survived. They let me do what I want and mostly left me alone, unless it was to teach me to hunt so they didn't have to get their own food. From what Gramps said, I guess they cared for us in their own strange way."

"It was during one of our trips to the forest with the bandit leader that we were kidnapped, and well, the rest is history, I guess," Sabo grinned at Law. "Now we have a warm family who cares for us."

"And Lu," Ace said with a lopsided smile, "Lu made my life so much brighter. Even though we met in what has to be hell, Lu just made things better. My dad is Gol D. Roger." He smirked at Law's stunned face. "I used to hate my life and my blood just because of that man. Thought that my life wasn't worth my own mother's life. I should have been the one to die. I was a kid with a death wish, fighting with men three times my size. But Lu didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to stay by my side, no matter how many times I tried to push her away. Whitebeard and Shanks made it all better. It's nice hearing about my dad from people who really knew him. I was used to hearing how much of a monster he was and that he deserved to die. Grandpops told me, 'We're all children of the sea. Who are parents are doesn't matter.'"

"Trust me," Sabo sighed, "it wasn't easy to get him out of that stump. Then we get kidnapped and had to do things we didn't want. We were both ready to kick the bucket and be done with it when they toss us a toddler of all things. Next thing we knew, we had to do what we could to survive just so we could keep Lu safe. Who knew what would have happened to Lu if we were there. The next people who gets her might not take good care of her."

There was a few minutes of silence before Sabo asked another question, "How did your exam go with Izo?"

"Good," Law answered. "Nothing wrong with me, and since I'm only seventeen, Izo-ya told me to just go to Kobato-ya if I ever need medical treatment. 'There aren't enough patients on board for her,' he said."

After their shift was over, they found Jonny asleep in the training room against the wall, with Lu snuggled in his arms.

"Marco was right about Little Lu," Haruta said as he walked up to them. "We just might ask her to help out in here now and then, if you boys don't mind that is."

"We don't mind if Lu doesn't," Ace and Sabo said.

"Unknown ship sighted at 3 o'clock!" their lookout replacement shouted a half hour later as they sat in the training room, waiting for Luffy to wake up. The announcement woke the two sleeping.

"How far?" they heard Whitebeard ask. They all went out to see.

"About 30 minutes away. Black flag," there was a pause as the man strained to see the mark. "A rookie, sorry, I forgot their name."

"Let's wait and see what they want, but be ready for battle."

They didn't have to wait long. As soon as they were close enough, the other ship opened fire, and soon enough, there was a battle on Moby Dick.

Luffy took a seat along the cabin wall with Law doing the same. There were many others that joined them. They weren't all needed and left it to the ones that felt like it. It was how they did things. They gauge how strong the enemy is before sending a few more men to fight.

"You don't wanna fight?" Lu asked Law as he stared at the battle ahead of them.

"Nah. I'll just sit back and watch."

"Hey, Lu," Ace ran over to them with a large smile, "want to help?"

Luffy's eyes widened in understanding and grinned. "Okay? Come on, Trao," he pulled at the other teen's hand.

Unsure of what was going on, Law just followed them to the enemy ship. "Why, pray tell, are we on the enemy's ship?" he grunted as he knocked a man into the sea with his sword still sheathed.

"Treasure hunting," Lu laughed as he stretched his leg and whipped a few others overboard.

"You three go on ahead," Sabo said as he fended off a few of the attackers with a pipe he picked up from being trashed. Luckily, most of the pirates were on Moby, leaving just a few left to guard the ship.

The trio came back up with a large bag each filled to the brim to find Sabo waiting for them.

"What took so long, I was getting bored. Looks like everyone up there is done too."

Lu gave the blond a hug and giggled. "Sorry. I got lost."

"And I'm not surprised," he ruffled the dark hair, knocking the straw hat back. "Let's go back home."

"You boys got everything you want-yoi?" Marco asked once they boarded their ship.

"Yup!" Ace grinned.

"Good. Get rid of that ship-yoi," Marco said as he walked away.

Ace and Sabo shot down a combined Fire Fist at the ship, leaving it to burn in open sea.

Law whistled. "Devil Fruit users too, huh? I thought it wasn't possible to share Devil Fruit powers, or do you both have different Devil Fruit?"

"Same," they both answered. "It was an accident."

"Not sure if it can be replicated or not," Sabo shrugged.

"Let's go to the treasury and split it up. Half of this is for you," Ace said to Law.

"I thought you were getting this for the captain," Law asked as he watched Lu dragged the bag she had over to Thatch and opened it up to show him all the stolen food, before coming back to join them.

"Whitebeard rule: we keep what we plunder," Ace grinned. "You helped, so you get half. You can pick what you want to keep."

"Half seems much, considering there are three of you and one of me."

"The three of us already have our own stash. So don't worry about it," Ace waved it off.

Ace and Law dropped their bags on the floor once they made it in the treasury.

"This is our section," Sabo pointed out a corner filled with gold and other trinkets. He then pointed out sections dedicated to other divisions, while Luffy went around putting a few handfuls of their half into each division, adding more into the Fourth Division.

"What is she doing?" Law asked.

"Well, we figured since we don't really need this much money, we share our loot with the other divisions. Fourth Division gets more since we eat a lot, and that one," Ace pointed to a spot that wasn't designated to any division, "is for Kobato. We're adding funds for her to treat more kids. Our caretakers never had money for our treatment and had to steal medicines and stuff to take care of us, so we know what it's like to not have the money for medicines."

Sabo shuddered. "There were a few times when we weren't sure one or the other would make it because of some bad infections that could easily be fixed with the right treatment."

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: Another chapter this week! Yay! Let's see if I can get another on out before the weekend is over.