I apologize for any mistakes or derp moments in this chapter; understand that when I got home, it was late. Later than the set published time I chose (if that's make sense). Also, I want to apologize for how long this was, if it felt long to you.
Enjoy!

Chapter 6.
N.Y.U

Friday came to Law in the form of a harsh light spilling across his sleep-drawn face and an ear-splitting alarm attacking his left ear. He was slow into getting up which allowed the incessant ringing to prolong for more minutes than one would have allowed. After thirty seconds of attempted snoozing had passed, Law opened one eye to search for the ringing. It fell onto the phone directly beside him, half underneath the black pillow and the other half vibrating against the white bed sheet.

Law grabbed the phone and pressed the button to shut the alarm off. With the atrocious noise finally put to rest, he slammed his head back onto the pillow and starting shutting his eyes once more. Why do I set that damn thing all the time? he thought, drifting closer and closer into sleep. His eyes hadn't closed for a full minute before the alarm started up again, sounding way louder than previously.

This had Law muttering curses under his native tongue as he turned the alarm off again. It was as if the phone was just waiting for the raven-haired male to fall asleep, and while Law desperately wanted to get a few extra minutes, in his gut prevented him from doing so. Law groaned while sliding the phone towards the nightstand beside his bed. He searched for the clock mounted on the wall with sleepy eyes while unwinding the covers around his legs.

When his vision settled, the numbers he read on the wall were like a punch to the gut; a second groan slipped from his mouth. It was 6:15; his first class would start at 8:30. Law came in last night close to two in the morning due to traffic being a total bitch. With the calculations running amok in his mind, the man fell back and slammed his head into the pillows, groans and curses spilling from his lips.

He slept for a total of four hours. And he had to sit in a class and listen to a lecture for two hours, depending on how much his professor wanted to go over. Law half-groaned into his pillow and began to close his eyes. He started contemplating how much time he would have if he just took a 30-minute snooze; sleep was beginning to sound enticing to him at the moment.

However, reflexes within his body refused to go back to sleep, thus keeping Law awake. With another half-groan in the form of a yawn slipping between his lips, Law raised himself back up and slid off the bed. He threw his covers back across the bed so it looked half decent when he came back in and began to amble towards the hallway like a sleep-deprived zombie. Halfway there he stopped in front of his wall mirror to get a good look at himself.

A yawn split across his face and somehow depleted more color to his already pale complexion. He had on plaid gray and black pajama pants with a white tank top that was running off his shoulders. With another yawn splitting his pale, tired face in two, Law continued ambling down the hallway of his two-bedroom apartment.

His living room and kitchen were combined as one, the bar providing the only border between the tiled floor and the grayish carpet. Law went over to the kitchen to where his black Keurig coffee maker was sitting, grabbing a white mug from the cupboards along the way. He then started to fill up the water container of the Keurig and grabbed the specific type of coffee he had every morning; French roast.

It didn't take long for the man to make the dark brown liquid. He poured it into the mug and started applying sugars and creams to it before stirring them together with a small metal spoon. Once the coffee was completed, Law rested in the crevice of his L-shaped counter and took small sips of the scalding hot liquid.

Coffee did wonders for the man. It jolted him awake and kept him up for hours and hours on end until he came home, unlike the energy drinks that have him crashed minutes after he finished them. His pale lips curved into an appreciative smirk while he sipped at the liquid, which was slowly beginning to warm up. Whoever invented coffee definitely had Law's praise and approval.

Once the entire mug was gone, Law ran tap water inside, swished it about, and placed it in the sink he barely touches. The only dishes collected there were his coffee mug and the metal spoon he used to mix the ingredients with. Returning back to his room, Law redid his bed to what it looked like before he crawled in; the pillows were neatly aligned against one another and the fleece gray throw blanket was folded across the bottom.

While he searched for an outfit to wear for class, Law pressed the home button on his phone to see if any new notifications popped up. Surprisingly, there were none. That's surprising. I figured one of those dorks would be up this morning.

With his chosen attire draped over the freshly made bed, Law went across the hall to his porcelain bathroom. There, he turned to his shower and slid open the frosted glass doors. He turned the golden handles to allow the frigid water run hot and adjusted the other so it could run warm. With that going on he slid the door close and started to tend to his mouth and face.

Law didn't hear the bombardment of phone calls and messages he received with the shower running and the tap water going on. After he finished with brushing his teeth and washing his face (it was more like scrubbing at the bags underneath his eyes and sunken cheeks to make them glow a bit), he started peeling apart his layer of clothing. The shirt came off first, revealing a slightly toned chest and abs faded olive in color.

The pants were next and fell in a heap beside the clothes. As a habit that none of his parents ever addressed and he too content with other things to fix, Law slept with no underwear on. He himself couldn't figure out why; it felt good and the cotton felt good against his legs and made it more comfortable to sleep. He took off his golden earrings from both ears and set them near the sink. Fully stripped and ready for the shower, Law slid open the doors and stepped inside the steamy, pouring bliss.

A contented sigh full of relief pushed itself between Law's lips upon the first hot jets streaming across his chest. He didn't start washing himself until ten minutes later—in that time he thought about last night and the big shots he met. Capone Bege, the proclaimed king of poker—who lost, Law thought ruefully—and the entire Don Quixote mafia gang.

Eventful. Law nodded at the word. His thoughts poured to the brunette woman and the ridiculous favor she asked of him. Stealing five-hundred million dollars… Swiping dirty money from criminals should be a crime itself. Not to mention the many death threats he received that night. That was enough to not want him to steal anything from the mafia family.

His final thought was the leader of the family; Don Quixote Doflamingo. For some abnormal reason the name sounded perfect in his mind. It made peculiar feelings furl in the pit of his stomach, leaving it light and fluttering. Law pushed away the feelings; as he stated last night, there was no way in hell he could be falling for a gang executive. The bar of soap in his hand was just about to be applied to his skin when several gruesome thoughts flooded back into his mind—

Him imitating Doflamingo—him getting caught by Violet for imitating Doflamingo—he mesmerized by Doflamingo's painting above the treasury room. If those didn't scream out admiration and possible feelings for the man, what did? Total embarrassment.

Scenarios of him and Doflamingo started to play in his mind like an old film. Most left him shuddering in disgust and forcing the scenes away, yet few were an actual turn-on for him. It was becoming worse for the raven-haired male the more these thoughts were egged him on. His occupied hand was slowly lowering to his half-erected groin area with the soap starting to slip out.

An image of a shirtless Doflamingo left to be played by Law's imaginations appeared and sped up his hand to where it lightly brushed over the tip. Upon contact, the soap once dangling in his clutches slipped free and tumbled to the checkered floor. Law couldn't even get his hand wrapped around his slightly throbbing member before the soap crashed into the bone of his toes, sending aftershocks of pain coursing through his foot and up his ankle.

The fall was fortunate for him, though; Law glanced through narrowed eyes at how close he was to touching himself to an image of the dangerous criminal. A heated hiss passed through his lips as he yanked his hand away and instead grabbed the men's body wash. "Never will I jack off to that bastard," he vowed, and gave himself the thorough washing his body needed.

Once he finished showering, Law stepped in front of his fogged mirror to do a small touch-up on his chin and sideburns. He then stepped out of the bathroom, the steam once contained behind closed doors now free and spilling out into the hallway. Most of the steam followed him into his bedroom, where he dropped his clothes into the hamper next to his closet. Drying off the rest of his body, Law folded the blanket and placed it on the back of his computer chair and grabbed a pair of clean underwear from one of his brown dressers.

He checked his clock while taking out the iron board and hooked the ironer in. 7:03—still got plenty of time. Law didn't take long in giving his black jeans a formal touch-up, and went ahead applying heat to his slim-fit casual shirt, dark blue in color. He wore another white tank-top underneath before slipping the shirt on and then his pants.

Law moved over to his closet to fetch his belt and a choice of shoes he was going to wear. He laid his eyes on a pair of mahogany leather shoes, matching the color of his chosen belt. Law carried the shoes over and placed them at the foot of his bed while reaching over for a pair of socks from his nightstand. As if on cue, his phone lit up and a loud ringtone invaded his ear.

He grabbed the phone to see who was calling and nearly cringed, then realized he hadn't bothered him all last night or this morning. The caller ID read Shachi and had a picture of his smiling face as the icon. Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. "What is it Sha—"

"Dammit Law, I've been trying to get in touch with your for the past two hours! What the hell have you been doing?!"

"Well good morning to you to, hmph." His socks were finally on. Law rolled his eyes at his faintly peeved friend's exaggerated reply while slipping into his shoes and tying them while his free hand positioned the phone in between his shoulder and ear. "I've been getting ready for class, what on earth did you think I was doing?"

"Class—Law, you're not supposed to be going to class today! You're supposed to be with us for morning study session at seven. Did you forget?"

"Study—oh, damn."

He didn't want to admit it to his friend, but the promise he made a few days back did go through his head while he was getting ready. Law headed back to his kitchen, profusely apologizing to Shachi along the way. "Maybe another time Shachi, but just be realistic for one second. I didn't get in 'til two last night, I think later than that. There was no way I could have woken up, got dressed, and made my way to study hall. I probably would have wrecked somewhere."

"Hmph, I guess that's a liable excuse. But it still sucks because we made this two days ago. I even texted you this morning—did you see that?"

"No, I was in the shower." Law repeated his coffee making process, this time grabbing a Styrofoam to-go cup. He could hear Shachi's exasperated groan on the other end, and while he was slightly peeved that his brunette friend was being selfish, he was also sad because he didn't keep his promise. In the end, all of this was his fault. "I'm sorry Shachi. You can understand that, right?"

"I could if you'd just tell me the place you work at with hectic hours. It's getting ridiculous Law; you can't even stay after school for football games and such because you gotta be at this stupid job of yours that you won't even tell me or Penguin!"

Now the man was annoyed. His rushed huff of breath concluded that fact. "Don't start now Shachi, it's too early in the morning."

"What, you haven't had your fix yet?"

"I'm making my second cup now."

"Oh," Rustling could be heard on the other end, and Law guessed he was getting ready to head out the door. "Well I don't want to mess you up while you make your coffee, so I'll leave. What time does your second class end?"

"Should be around eleven."

"Then I'll be seeing you for lunch?"

"Yeah."

The two agreed on a time and said their goodbyes to one another before Shachi hung up. He rested the Styrofoam cup near the coffee maker and made his way back to his bedroom for his final round. His black backpack stuffed with two textbooks and a thick binder slid onto his shoulders, and he went over to the small jewelry box resting on one of his taller dressers and pulled out two diamond earrings.

He attached them to his left ear and made his way to his second bedroom, which was more like a research/office room. Two shelves with nothing but medical books reached to the sky while a computer desk sat in between them. Law gathered his closed black laptop resting on the computer desk and its matching colored bag in which he placed it in. The last things Law grabbed before walking out the door was his wallet, coffee cup, and keys to apartment. He locked the door behind him and started heading down the hollow metal steps towards his life outside the Royal House; N.Y.U.

The walk to the university was peaceful, albeit chilly. Law hadn't reached the gates of his apartment complex when he turned back around to fetch his thick blue and gray argyle sweater. As he passed similar men and women around his age heading to the university, Law's schedule was running amid through his mind. He would have to attend two classes before hospital training with Shachi and Penguin. I should do something for those dorks to make up for this morning… Lunch, perhaps? That should be enough to tide them over until the next study session.

The gates of New York University stretched out before Law. A sign stood in the center of campus, framed by a variety of pink, purple, and dark red flowers. It read the university's title in black cursive letters, and had the statue of its founder built behind it. Law gave the statue his attention for a few seconds before he began crossing the large campus of the university.

Even with the chilly air surrounding him from all sides, the groups settled around campus seemed to warm the atmosphere. It brought a sheepish smirk to the man's lips as he started searching for his group. The autumn winds of November seemed to do nothing to the groups of college students; not even the threat of semester exams that were slowly peeking around the corner, or the onslaught of snow that was soon to arrive.

Law had started to prepare for the semester exams, but with the Royal House eating up his time he was barely able to open up a textbook. It's funny; I agreed to morning study session solely for that reason—and I couldn't even keep that promise. The more he thought about it, the more it sickened him. Law pushed away the thoughts as he traversed down the paved walkway towards his first building, searching for either Shachi or Penguin.

Both remained out of sight by the time Law reached the building where his first two classes were at. It disheartened him a bit; he was used to at least one of them showing up around the corner and walking him to his class. But the walk alone provided him with enough time to think about how to make it up for his two friends in missing an hour of study session.

I'll take them both to Bowery Diner for lunch. That'll make them happy for sure. The small restaurant, while it was a bit pricey, was also the nearest to NYU. He rounded the corner of the hallway and started up the flight of stairs to the second floor, the diner still fresh on his mind. When he reached the top floor, his classroom opened up to him like a beacon of light.

No, more like a light of despair when he saw Spandam. Law trudged into the classroom, giving a brief nod to the US Government professor, and went towards his seat next to the window. It was still fifteen minutes before class began, so to entertain himself Law pulled out his textbook and started reading over paragraphs he studied previous nights before. Other students attending the same class poured in, most muttering about the cold while others rambled excitedly about other things. Class had started when the twenty-first student arrived, and Law tucked the textbook away.

If boredom had been a disease, Law was severely diagnosed with it. The effects of the coffee couldn't keep him up with Spandam lectures, and thinking about the diner just made him hungry than he actually was. With his textbook for the class out, he wrote the important things down on pieces of loose-leaf and underlined others in the book, then doodled for a good thirty minutes into the lecture.

He thought back to the Royal House, but that didn't last much longer than a second—he didn't even want to dream about getting another unexpected hard-on for a man that was probably on top of New York's most wanted list. Perhaps what Shachi told him this morning was true; perhaps all of this was getting ridiculous and he needed to stop before he damaged his already waning health.

But the reasoning as to why he was working at the place came back to him like a sudden slap across the face. Class had finally ended, and Law started packing up his things to leave. Bookmarking the chapter in which they covered to study for later, he squeezed out of the desk and followed the crowd out the door. His next class was on the same hall but downstairs—science. That wouldn't be too bad since science did interest him; the anatomy part at least.

Professor Henzo was constructing a large diagram on the dry-erase board when Law and several other students came in. He gave each a brief greeting, his eyes lingering on Law's for a second longer before he returned his attention back onto the board. "Good morning everyone. I hope your day hasn't been troublesome in the least and that you've gotten a good night's rest, because today we're doing labs."

Law snorted at the ironic greeting while grabbing a white coat and some goggles from the closet. His chosen lab partner, a man roughly around the same age as him with long blonde hair tied back in a loose ponytail, was setting out the equipment for their lab. Law helped by sorting out the different beakers. He was completely engrossed in his task to feel his partner's eyes bore into the side of his head, and when he did look up he saw a surprisingly placid face was fixed on his expression. "You seem a bit out of it today Trafalgar. Everything alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

"I'd have too—I don't want you singing half of your head because you failed to grab at least six hours of sleep the night before."

Law cringed at the words but said nothing more. His lab partner was always close into guessing how much he had slept, and it worried him. The rest of that day, they worked on their lab, which unfortunately to Law didn't interest him in the slightest. It was alchemy, turning base metals to gold, and a written lab report was due the following day they came back. How he was going to manage that was beyond him, and he pushed to the back of his mind to deal with later.

Now with his second class over and done with, an hour break ensued. Law hurried out of the science and history building and walked down the paved pathway across the campus in search of Shachi and Penguin. He noticed a slight change in temperature than this morning with the sun fully out, and pushed up his sleeves to allow a bit of the warmth to heat his skin.

Fifteen minutes into walking beside tall grand buildings within the campus and the raven-haired male heard his name being shouted from behind him. Law stopped to allow whoever was calling his name catch up and turned around with guesstimate of who it was. A flash of red was bouncing over to him, waving his hand as if telling the man to 'wait up'. "Hello, Eustass. I guess you're on your break too?"

The redhead stopped in front of Law, flashing him a wild smirk. Eustass Kid, while being several inches taller than the man, was younger than him. He wore a pair of faded jeans tucked into a pair of black combat boots, with a heavy black sweater on. Law could see a red shirt peeking underneath the partially zipped sweater before looking up into the others bright amber eyes. "Thank God, right? I swear that woman's classroom is about an eternity long than just a mere hour,"

Judging by the way he said it, Law guessed the redhead was talking about Tsuru. He shrugged and resumed to searching for Shachi and Penguin; Eustass went about following him without permission. "You don't mind if I join you, right?"

The other's shoulders went up in a half shrug. "I don't care; I'm searching for two people at the moment."

"Oh, those two idiot friends of yours?" A scoff came from Eustass's lips. Law shot him a heated sideways glance. "You don't see me talking about your crowd of hooligans you associate yourself with. So why should you?"

"Geesh, take it as a joke. You seem a bit uptight today—did you forget to take your coffee this morning?"

While Eustass saw it as a joke, Law rolled his eyes. The redhead noticed how far he was pushing it and apologized underneath his breath, in which the other merely muttered his assent. The two walked a bit further, the silence tightly cloaked around them. They were walking towards the plaza on the side of the campus which held the cafes and small restaurants. Perhaps they're at the plaza. Law almost forgot that was their meet up place ever since they enrolled in NYU.

Eustass was busy eyeing Law out the corner of his eye when a thought came to his mind. He quickly reached for Law's wrist, yanking him to a stop. "Hey Trafalgar, you want to see something cool?" An annoyed glare went through Law's eyes and bored upon the redhead's. "No. Did you not hear that I was looking for someone—"

"Oh don't be such a stuck-up. Just come with me, it'll take a minute."

"The last time something took a minute, I was late for my class."

"This is different, I swear!"

Law opened his mouth to retort, but when he saw pleading through Eustass's amber colored eyes, he closed his mouth. Instead, he sighed heavily in a sign of giving in and allowed Eustass to excitedly tug him in the complete opposite direction of the plaza. Out of slight remorse, Law sent a small apology to Shachi and Penguin in case this minute took two hours or more.

Eustass was dragging him to where a row of bikes were lined up against one of the bike racks alongside the gate. "Wait, you don't own a bike." Confusion was etched across Law's expression just as the redhead pulled out a shiny black stunts bike. "You're right—I don't. I found this bad boy on my way here one day and had to tune it up—can you believe someone just threw this away?"

"You found that in a garbage dump, did you?" Disgust crawled up Law's spine. "Oh don't act like this is the first time it's every happened. It's still pretty new."

"It was trashed; therefore, it couldn't have been new, now could it?"

Eustass's lips curved into a small smirk. "I actually found it in an alley, so it wasn't like it was thrown in a dumpster."

"It doesn't matter, it was tossed out. Now, was this all you had to show me? If that's the case, disgusting and goodbye, because I'm off to find—"

"No, this is just the mode of transportation we're taking to get there. Now hop on."

Law wanted to curse the redhead out but couldn't find it in him to do so. Instead, he questioned the man like how he would question a five year old, with a biting sarcastic tone at the end. "And how, Eustass Kid, will two be able to get on that thing?"

The look of astonishment that came from Eustass's slack-jawed face almost made Law feel like he was the one getting punked. The redhead smacked his lips and sighed, then reached over to grab his wrist for the second time. Law was too slow when he was starting to get dragged onto the handlebars, and sudden memories flooded his mind. "Like we did back in high school! C'mon, don't tell me you forgot about those years."

A faint laugh came from the raven-haired male's end as he took his seat upon the handlebars. It took a lot of adjusting to get comfortable, but when he was it felt like he was nine years younger. Eustass backed out of the bike rack and shot pass the gates of the campus, his eyes switching from over Law's shoulder and atop his bedhead.

They didn't travel too much on the busy sidewalks and took many alleys filled with nothing but dumpsters and black trash bags. Law lost count as to how many they went through, but it seemed as after the twentieth one Law shouted a dead end. Eustass removed his foot from the pedals and scraped them against the inky black asphalt, where he skidded five more feet until they were face to face with a wooden fence.

"I probably should have warned you there were no brakes…" Law heard the mutter slip from underneath Eustass's lips as he hopped off the handlebars and nearly choked him. "You mean—"

"But on the bright side, I'm good driver. We haven't crashed into anything."

"We could have died dumbass! That's why the damn thing was trashed; because it didn't have any brakes!"

"Law, how many times have you ridden with me?" When the screaming man didn't answer, a smirk lit up on Eustass's lips. "And out of those times, how many did we crash?"

"One."

"Exactly—few. Now this is what I wanted to show you."

Eustass led the man to the maroon and brown bricked wall on their right side. Law's light yellow eyes traced the brick foundation up and down to find exactly what he was looking for; spray paint was splattered and shaped in the form of wild patterns and drawings all across the wall. Law took a step back to where Eustass was to admire it in full view.

Before him stood a masterpiece of graffiti d letters and three crudely drawn shapes that were supposed to resemble faces with what looked like a pirate skull at the bottom. While Law wasn't an artist, he could definitely tell the difference between a street painter and one of Jora's paintings. Dammit, I'm thinking about the gang again.

Law pushed the eccentric-haired woman out of his mind and focused back onto the art. "Let me guess, Luffy?"

"Yeah, can you believe that idiot? This is pretty neat though, right? From what Bart told me, the three faces are him, Luffy, and Ussop."

"You call those faces? Looks like a damn baby had drawn this." Law scoffed while Eustass chuckled at it lightly. Silence came in between them with the occasional car horn blaring in the distance. "Luffy's going to get thrown in jail if he keeps doing these things."

"You tell the idiot that. I gave up years ago."

"You're the one closest to that hooligan. If I say it, he'll just get me to join him." The redhead muttered his assent as he continued to admire the artwork, if one would call it that. Law went about fixing the straps on his computer bag and backpack. Taking his eyes away from the paint, Eustass looked down at him and sighed quietly.

Even though he wasn't the least bit interested in him, the redhead couldn't help but have feelings for Law. And the man knew that; he had to. It angered and saddened him, because that meant he would have zero chances of getting with the man no matter how hard he tried.

A second sigh passed through his lips, this one in the form of a huff. Law looked up to him with bewildered eyes. "What's wrong?" The redhead shook it off and started making his way back to the bike leaned up against the wall. "Nothing. There's another thing I wanted to show yo—"

"Forget it. I'm already late and I'm hungry." The authoritative voice Law had gave Eustass shivers and made him chuckle. Law was already making his way out of the alley, the redhead coming up behind. "Wait, don't you want a ride?"

"And die? No thanks."