A/N: Someone pointed out today that you guys had to wait 2 months for an update! Damn, I'm sorry I took so long! I won't even start to make excuses - but I won't take that long for the next one! Thanks for your patience!

Chapter Nine

Revelations - a.k.a. The Party

Die lang erwartete Party

Law wasn't sure if he should give Kidd a quick call. Or text him. Maybe something short and sweet – scratch the sweet. Kidd wasn't one who would appreciate sappy text messages, hell he didn't appreciate sappy texts either. God. Was he really thinking that hard about if he should call or text Kidd?

It should've been the other way around. Kidd was the one that didn't show up this night – and now he was the one laying awake in bed wondering why. He didn't like that he was worrying about the red haired beast. Worry meant personal attachment and that was the last thing he wanted, contemplating that he was about to sell Kidd's soul to Doflamingo.

So Kidd hadn't turned up. So what? Let him be.

But the fucker could've at least notified him! A short text, just two or three words that he wasn't able to stop by tonight. Hadn't they exchanged numbers for that exact occasion? Well, apparently Kidd forgot. Or didn't feel that he was important enough. Whatever. He should only worry about the two hundred and fifty bucks he wasn't getting. Yeah, nothing else. So shut down, brain, and let me sleep. And he wasn't calling Kidd. No way in hell. In the end he would sound like a stood up girlfriend. He wouldn't sink that low.

But the next night Kidd didn't turn up - again. Now he certainly was worrying. Thoughts like: Did he find someone else? Is he alright? Did Doflamingo seek him out? Is he still alive? Did something serious happen to him? circled in his head. He didn't want to be like this. The uncertainty. He hated not being completely in control, and even if Doflamingo had taken most of the control he had over his life away, he still had some left. And that tiny bit was slipping away now too.

He finally decided to give Kidd a call.

He dialed. He waited. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Then the line was disconnected. Five minutes later he got a text from Kidd saying: I'm busy right now.

So the fucker was still alive. Only too busy to notify him. Too busy to answer his call. Too busy to send him a text in the first place.

Bastard.

And another two hundred and fifty bucks were slipping through his fingers. Damn, he needed the money. If he couldn't get any information out of Kidd, he was seriously screwed. And if Kidd wasn't coming over any more to pay the usual two hundred and fifty bucks – chances of getting rid of Doflamingo were rapidly decreasing.

Kidd didn't know why he was ignoring Law. In reality he was far from busy, he had just used being busy as an excuse. He didn't particularly feel like explaining to that lying fucker why he didn't wanna see him. He could probably not even look that man in the eye any more. He wondered how Law did it. Looking him in his eyes like he did. Law's mesmerizing gray eyes.

He wanted to punch something. He had been so stupid. And he was bored. Really bored. Suddenly he didn't know any more what to do with his time. What did he do in the evenings before he had met Law? Sitting around in that shitty bar and getting drunk? Right now he was working on ship, repeating the same motions again and again.

He just didn't get it. Why did Law feel the need to conceal his true job? Why did he have to prostitute himself? He just wasn't getting it. He had been mulling over the same questions over the last two days, over and over again. Maybe he should confront Law, ask him what it was about, maybe there was a perfectly reasonable and logical explanation-

"Oi, Kidd!" Suddenly Zoro shouted from the entrance of the office building.

"What do ya want, Zoro?"

"There's a meeting in Shanks office, now! Have you seen Lucci around?"

"He's right there." He pointed to the part of the ship Lucci was working on right now.

"Tell him to come too."

He nodded, put his working tools away and went to fetch Lucci. Zoro picked a soundly snoring Ace up from a pile of timber and slung him over his shoulder. Apparently Ace was also invited. He shrugged and hoped that whatever the meeting would be about, it would bring some excitement back.

In Shanks' office Zoro simply dumped Ace on the ground, who finally woke up. They ignored his curses and let Eisberg brief them about the situation: "You all probably heard of the latest arson case, The Baratie, two nights ago, downtown."

"What? The Baratie burnt down? It wasn't me, I swear, I didn't burn any houses last week-" Ace interrupted. Kidd chuckled secretly. It never mattered how serious a topic was, trust Ace to light the mood on the most depressing topics.

"We already know the responsible parties. It was an old mafia boss who stepped over his boundaries. Apparently he held onto a decade's long grudge and decided to act on it. The owner of The Baratie died from smoke poisoning, and he had been an old friend of mine, a friend of the whole Company. Also Zeff's son is Zoro's new partner and will be our new cook-"

"WHAT? We'll have our own personal cook? AWESOME!" Ace cried. He had to agree with Ace, the prospect of having a private chef for the Company was appealing. Zoro smacked Ace in the back of his head. "Shut up and listen what Eisberg says."

Eisberg nodded and continued: "Well, Zeff's son, Sanji, is from now on one of us, a full member of the Galleya-Company. He just lost his home, his family and his entire life substance. You all know what that means." Everyone in the room nodded in understanding. Hurting one of their nakama meant that they would hurt back. Unconditionally. This Sanji was now one of them, a part of their family, and even if he had never seen this man before, he would gladly avenge him. Loyalty was their first priority.

"By chance, do we know this Sanji somehow?" he asked.

"A month ago, at the Rock, the last time you've been at the Rock with me, remember the blonde man I fought? That's him." Zoro said.

"He was a pretty decent fighter, right?"

"Hell yeah."

"So it's settled." Eisberg continued. "The old mafia boss is known as Don Krieg. Let's plan our response to Krieg's provocation. I say we take action as soon as possible. I don't know what goes on in that twisted mind of his, but I don't want any more innocent people to get hurt. And he just proved that he doesn't care if civilians are in danger. Shanks said he got a fair idea where his hideout is, from which he operates his business..."

Eisberg and Shanks laid out a plan. It was pretty simple, but required a lot of force. Just his thing. And a great distraction from his business with Law. He listened closely to what Eisberg and Shanks had to say about the operation. When they were done with planning he left the office and prepared himself for the night. The mission would go down this night, and even if he was a pretty decent fighter, he wasn't invincible, bullets could still pierce his skin, and he wasn't too bigheaded for a bulletproof vest. Well, maybe sometimes he was bigheaded, but not tonight. And maybe the little incident with Shanks not too long ago had made him a little self-conscious again. Just because his skin was thicker didn't mean that knifes wouldn't come through.

He took a quick shower, dressed in black, but still put his colorful fur coat on. Next were the weapons. He carefully cleaned them, checked them, filled the magazines. Two guns in his coat, two in his holster, one in his waistband. Two knifes in his coat, one in his boot, another one in his waistband. He also checked his artificial arm. He had to admit, he didn't really have an idea how it exactly worked, but he understood the basics, and he liked the routine of cleaning some bits of dust or grime from it, oiling the joints and inspecting it a bit. The arm was after all his deadliest weapon.

He ate a quiet dinner with the others, the tension was tangible. Chopper worried the most, but he did that every time when they were going on a larger mission. It felt nice that someone worried for their wellbeing; that someone was waiting for them when they would come home. Tonight he wished that someone waiting for him would be Law. He knew that thought was irrational, he was the one who broke of contact with the man, who refused to see him until he had figured out what he really wanted to do with the latest revelation.

After dinner he and Lucci went over some last details, and then it was time.

The mission itself went exactly as planned. In the end Don Krieg ended up dead, and the Galleya Company proved once again that you did not fuck with them.

They all got home around two in the morning and he was fucking tired. He nodded the others good night, then he retired to his room, took a shower to wash off all that blood and grime, and then went to bed. The moment he closed his eyes he immediately drifted off to sleep.

The next day he worked in the lawn, and purposely put his phone away. He didn't wanna know if a certain someone had called. No. Definitely not.

The day was pretty uneventful, but he knew that they had their typical party planned, where they would celebrate a successful raid. And last night's raid had been damn successful. Apparently Sanji and Nami, Luffy's new girl, had invited some of their friends. He didn't like that idea. He didn't trust anyone outside the Company, and those outsiders always meant a threat to their security. The Company didn't need some random noisy people snuffing around the Galleya grounds. No thanks.

After he was done working on the ship he went inside and realized that Franky had outdone himself with the party preparations. The prospect of Nami's girlfriends coming over must've short-circuited something in his brain. Their communal living room looked more like a club than the cozy living room it had once been. Franky had set up a huge dance floor, their bar was extended – no objections there – and the lights were dim, so that you could hardly see the couches, which were pushed all the way to the wall to create nice make-out spots.

He noticed that Sanji was in the kitchen, preparing food like crazy. At least the food would be worth to attend the party, he thought.

He went up in his room, took a quick shower and changed in clean clothes. He chose a long sleeved button down to conceal his arm, and then donned a leather jacket. He made sure that a gun was securely placed in the heavy jacket – he hated it to be unarmed – and made his way back downstairs. Ace was already at the bar, drinking, and Kidd joined him. The only possible way to make this party bearable was drowning in liquor.

More and more Galleya workers filled the large room, Franky acted as the DJ and started playing some relaxed tunes, Sanji arranged the last bits of his superb buffet, which Luffy and the others almost immediately devoured. To his surprise Ace stayed at the bar and continued drinking, instead of running for the food. Usopp and Chopper started dancing and jumping around the room, Nami yelled at them and the usual chaos began.

Lucci and Zoro joined him and Ace at the bar. They looked like they weren't very keen on joining the trouble, either.

And then the guests arrived.

Law didn't know if it had been a good idea to go with Robin and the others to the welcome party they held in some apartment building. All the information Nami and Sanji had given them were really vague, but Robin had smiled her mysterious smile and told him to come. He hadn't been around much the clique the last few weeks, so he didn't really know what was going on.

Robin filled him in on their cab ride to the party. Apparently Nami and Sanji both found a partner in the same clique, or gang, or whatever. It all sounded rather shady in Law's ears, but he kept his mouth shut. Nami usually knew what she was doing, but then he was quite surprised to hear about all the trouble Sanji had been through. His new boyfriend apparently helped him quite a lot to deal with all the shit he had been forced to face.

It all suddenly dawned him when the cap came to a stop in front of a messy looking shipyard. Robin paid the cap driver when he got out of the car. A fucking shipyard.

Kidd had told him that he worked on a shipyard. And Doflamingo insisted that Kidd was an undergrounder. It all added up. The shipyard was the part of the cover of the legendary Galleya-Company. The gang that had saved Sanji – it had to be the Galleya-Company!

Damn his luck. Being here meant most likely seeing Kidd again. He wasn't sure if he should hope for or dread a meeting with him. Something must've happened that Kidd had stopped coming over. He itched to confront Kidd, but then he didn't want a shouting match in front of his friends. And he didn't exactly want his friends to know that he was fucking Kidd for money. In the end it would be for the best if he wouldn't run into Kidd at the party.

Robin seemed to know her way around the shipyard and he followed, lost in his thoughts, trying to find a way out of the dilemma. He wasn't really prepared to face Kidd, not in front of his friends. But he didn't even know for sure that Kidd would be there! But now he knew where he worked, and maybe he could confront him later, now that he knew where to find the man.

But if Kidd would be there… He guessed he just would need to improvise.

God fucking damned! Kidd thought when he saw Law coming through the door with a beautiful black haired woman in tow. Damn his luck. Of course Law had to be friends with Sanji and Nami. He was a pretentious doctor after all. Of course he would know Sanji, the most wanted gourmet chef of Grand Line City and Nami, the most ruthless banker in town, would know the most renowned heart surgeon. Damn rich bastards. He felt the urge to punch himself. And then drown him in liquor.

He sighed and poured himself another glass. When he was at it, he gave Zoro, Lucci and Ace a refill, too. They looked like they needed it probably as bad as he did. He felt the urge to talk to Law, but then, what was there to talk about? Law was a rich bastard, whose hobby it was to fuck rough guys he picked up in bars. And to let those idiots even pay for the sex. He sighed again, emptied his glass in one gulp and stared at Law. And the bastard acted like he had never met him. Currently he was talking to Chopper, who seemed really excited to have another doctor to talk shop with him.

He either wanted to go mope in his room with a bottle of Jack, or punch Law in the face. But he didn't do it. He stayed where he was, drinking with his closest buddies in their gang. Lucci, Zoro and Ace were right with him on the road to get shitfaced. He took another look around the room. Most of the other Galleya members were getting cozy with Sanji's and Nami's friends. Khoza was snuggling up to the blue haired girl, Franky was trying to get into black haired girls pants, Nami and Luffy were dancing, and soon after Kalifa and Eisberg joined them.

A couple dreadful hours passed. Zoro, Ace, Lucci and he became more and more drunk. The party seemed pretty successful; there was a lot of dancing going on, smoking, drinking…

"I fucking hate snobs." he declared. His friends nodded and kept on drinking, until Zoro nudged Ace in the shoulder and asked: "Hey, Ace, what's going on with you, bro?"

"It's kinda weird that you're here, drinking with us, instead of being out there, wrecking the dance floor."

"Yeah. You're grumpy-"

"Shit, Zoro, why can't I be grumpy? You three can be grumpy and mad all the time!" Ace ranted.

"No shit, Ace, what's going on with you?"

"You need me to beat someone up for you?" Kidd offered.

"No, thanks, I'm perfectly able to defend myself, thank you very much."

"Damn, Ace, did your lighter break, or what?"

"Fine. I'll tell you, so you'll stop bitching – but I have one condition: If I'll tell you my story, you all will tell me your stories, because you are grumpier than ever. There's a reason why we are all sulking at the bar right now."

"We're not sulking!" Kidd protested.

"Oh, shut up, Kidd."

Ace sighed and started his story: "You all probably know the rumors about me and some police officer."

"Kinda." There had been some rumors in the Company that Ace was screwing around with some police officer, but he didn't think there was something behind them. They had some pretty bad gossips in the Company – Usopp – and they were used to ignoring most of what came out of Usopp's mouth.

"Yeah, so there is this one officer, let me start my pathetic story from the beginning - so this one night I'm on my way back from the 'Ring' and I caught a glimpse of a member of the Blackbeards. He was getting into a car and I couldn't miss the opportunity, so I followed him. They must've noticed me, I guess my bike isn't really inconspicuous, so we started racing and I was so close – " He demonstrated them how close he was with his fingers. "And then this son of a bitch police car joins the race. I lost track of the Blackbeards and I got pulled over by this cop. I was so mad, I was about to shoot the cop right in the face, didn't do it, though, since I got yelled at by Eisberg a couple nights ago because I'd pulled a similar stunt. So I let the cop live."

"So that's how you met your police officer?"

"Pretty much. His name was Smoker, fucking weird ass name, told him that after he introduced himself, got punched in the face for my remark – and I was like this: 'Hey, Smokie, how do we solve this mess?' And he was like, with his voice all raspy and smoky: 'Damn brat, you were like twice the speed limit-' And I was like: 'Dude, really? Only twice?' … I kinda ended up giving him a nice and deep blow job, I mean it was dark out and I always wanted to blow an officer instead of getting arrested, it was kinda a classy fantasy of mine… Well, we actually met again, a couple days later, similar situation, I had been speeding, maybe on purpose in the same area and around the same time I had been caught the other night… This time we fucked and I gave him my number… In the beginning we would see each other in a cheap hotel, fucking all night long… I mean he was good, really good, never had such a good fuck… After a while we actually started meeting at his house, he would invite me over and our fucks became actually sessions of intense love making… Some time passed like this and we even started eating dinner together and we would actually talk after the sex… We would cuddle, I mean, shit, I do not fucking cuddle, but with him it was different…Then I would actually stay the night over at his house, we woke up together… He made me breakfast… Yeah…"

"That doesn't sound pathetic at all-"

"Yeah, shit, I'm not finished yet. So I guess he knew my name and he knew I liked to play with fire, so I thought he might've had a suspicion I was the legendary Firefist, but hey, apparently not. I mean he's an arson investigator and shit. One night he told me that he basically tried to catch me his whole career long, and I was like shit, apparently he has no idea who I am and what I do. He found out, though. He was screaming and shouting and shit, like: 'I can't fucking believe you work for the Galleya-Company! What the fuck, Ace?' He was so grossed out by me being a part of the Galleya-Company, I mean, I knew he had some issues with some of the undergrounders, I mean he has his reasons to be a police officer, but I didn't think that this would affect us - So he had this huge fit when he found out that I'm Firefist. I've never seen him that mad. He wouldn't even listen to me, he kicked me straight out of his house-"

"Literally?" Kidd wanted to know. He was kinda intrigued by Ace's story. At least he wasn't the only one who had trouble in paradise.

"Yeah, check this bruise out!" Ace turned around and lifted his shirt up. There was definitely a shoe sized bruise on Ace's back.

"Are you sure you don't want me to beat this son of a bitch up?" Kidd had to ask again. Kicking someone out – that wasn't exactly nice. And if he considered Ace's background it made the situation even worse. Most of the Galleya workers were orphans, abandoned kids, and with that in mind kicking someone out of the house had an entirely different meaning.

"Damn, this sucks."

"Yeah, things got fucked up, I guess. It's too late now."

"So, I figure you really like Smoker?" Zoro asked.

"You know, I always thought that I would be a happy single forever, you know, just fucking around, blowing shit up, playing with fire for the rest of my life, protecting Luffy with all I got-" Ace made a pause and glanced over to Luffy, who was happily dancing with Nami, "but I guess I kinda fell in love with Smoker."

"Does he know?"

"What?"

"That you're in love with him."

"No, are you insane? I would never ever tell him this! This started as a casual fuck-buddy-relationship, and he made it pretty clear in the beginning that he was just using me for sex. So no motherfucking way that I'm going to tell him that I fell in love with him. You know, that's actually the pathetic part about it - I always knew this couldn't go on as it did, I knew he or I would end this sooner or later, and I still fell in fucking love!"

"Shit, this is pathetic." Kidd said.

"Yeah. So don't give me shit that I'm trying to drown myself in booze right now. I have to get over him."

"When did he kick you out of his house?"

"Last night after the raid. I thought I could take a shower at his place, so I didn't even bother changing my clothes… I left them on the bathroom floor… He picked them up, immediately became suspicious about the bloodstains, my matches fell out of my hoodie and I had to answer some questions… I trusted him so I told him about me being Firefist, he asked some more questions-"

"You didn't tell him anything important?" Lucci asked on alert that maybe he blew off all their covers.

"Nah, Lucci, I ain't stupid, neither mentioned names nor places."

"Shit, Ace, I'm sorry. That sucks." Zoro said.

"Yeah, Zoro's right. What are you going to do now?" Kidd asked.

"Don't know yet. Maybe set something on fire, preferably his car, fire always helps to improve my mood." Ace laughed bitterly. "But shit happens; he didn't arrest me, that's the bright side. So my story is told, now it's your time, Lucci, Kidd, Zoro? You all are wearing the same expression as you guys did when I accidently set your bikes on fire."

"Motherfucker." Kidd voiced his opinion about Ace's situation and looked at Lucci, whose always so controlled mask was close to slipping of his face. He had never seen so much emotion, so much dark energy in Lucci's face. Something must've seriously gone wrong.

Lucci nodded and slowly turned his head towards the partying crowd: "See the fucker with the long nose?"

"Usopp? What's up with Usopp? Did he blow something up?"

Kidd rolled his eyes and Lucci shot Ace a death glare. "No, you little shit, square-nose of course. Remember when we saw him at the Ring?"

"Yeah, that bitch could fight."

"Hey, didn't he use the same technique as you did?" Zoro asked.

"He did. It was exactly the same technique, but I was still the better fighter. I won the fight and I guess if I look back now it was a mistake to fight him, since he got curious about my fighting style too."

"So did you meet him again?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. He works for the government."

"Fuck."

"Motherfucking bitch."

"Should I set his car on fire?"

"He actually works for the same governmental department I supposedly work for, but I never had much contact with my coworkers, I'm don't like to socialize with them. And in addition to that I can't show my face there anymore since I'm supposed to be an undercover agent, infiltrating the Galleya Company. CP9 still has no idea that I switched sides long ago. They still suspect nothing."

"So Square-nose is an underground agent, just like you?"

"Yeah. And this is why this situation is so shitty. I've been feeding CP9 with a bunch of false information over the past years. I've built a perfect net of lies, so they are never going to find us. But now our square-nosed fellow over there is here and endangering everything. If he's friends with Nami and Sanji, and if he's going to visit this place more often, I mean, if this one visit right now isn't enough for him to figure out that everything I've told them about us is one huge lie. Kalifa assisted me a lot in constructing this net of false information. The point is – there is a lot of false information out there, and square-nose just needs to put one and one together. He is a serious danger to our position, a ticking time bomb."

"Fuck."

"Motherfucker!"

"I can still set his car on fire."

"Ace, that won't help."

"So what are you going to do?" Kidd wanted to know.

"I only see one solution: To get rid of him - permanently."

"Sanji and Nami will get suspicious if their friend disappears." Zoro objected.

"We could say it was an accident due to his job, and it wouldn't even be a lie."

"Do Eisberg and Shanks know about this?"

"Not yet. I told Kalifa not to do anything; Square-nose is my concern, and my concern only. I will keep an eye on him."

"He is a professional agent, and if he is almost as good as you are, it'll be pretty hard to keep an eye on him."

"I got my ways."

"How?" Ace voiced his curiosity.

"Well, after the fight at the Ring Square-nose might've revealed some interest in me."

"Interest?"

"Ace, you're fucking slow tonight. Square-noses wanted to fuck Lucci, or well, more likely, that he would take it up the ass-" Kidd mused.

"Thanks, Kidd."

"So did you do him?"

"Not yet."

"So you'll keep an eye on him due to faking romantic interest?" Zoro wanted to know.

"Damn, Lucci, you'll watch him, fuck him, assassinate him – that's pretty hardcore, even for you." Kidd said. Damn, that sounded really bad, but he trusted Lucci. Lucci was a damn capable man. He would handle the situation, and if he would need any help – well, Lucci knew that he could always count on him.

"I'm not exactly happy about the situation. But if he blows our cover, they'll need to check all the information they got from us – and that would be really bad. In addition to that Mihawk's cover would be blown, since he assigned us to this job, and with Mihawk's cover blown it's not only the Galleya-Company who is endangered, it's the whole fucking underground. Mihawk's trail leads directly to Shanks, Eisberg and recently to you, Zoro. So yeah, if he blows our cover, we're fucked. So what do you say; is it worth to spare his life and get this whole mess in exchange? A fucking bloody mess that would mean the end of the Galleya-Company?"

"But he looks so innocent!" Ace complained.

"He's Usopp's twin." Kidd objected.

"Well, shit, maybe you can turn him around like we did with you and Kalifa." Zoro suggested.

"Look, what happened to Kalifa and me, what do you think are the chances that a professional agent with deep beliefs in justice will get turned around by a pretty violent underground organization?"

"But you are on our side now!"

"To our defense – neither Kalifa nor I had really deep beliefs in governmental justice. We just like to kill. It never mattered to me for whom I was supposed to kill. I fight for this side because I don't have paperwork to do and there are no consequences if I might kill a little more violent than a usual agent. I also have more freedom and the sparring partners are way better, so yeah, those are the reasons I'm on this side."

"But Kalifa-"

"Kalifa is on this side of the law because she enjoys fucking Eisberg."

"So, why can't we turn Kaku around?"

"I checked his file. It said that he has exemplary beliefs in governmental justice. He is a model agent. No turning around, I guess."

"Fuck."

"Motherfucker."

"I can still set his car on fire –"

Kidd smacked Ace on the back of his head.

Lucci poured himself another drink. Kidd gulped down the remnants of his. Damn. Sanji and Nami seemed alright, pretty decent fellows, but shit, their friends meant trouble. Ace looked expectantly at him: "Well, Kidd, now it's your time to tell why you are in such a wonderful cheery mood tonight!"

Kidd grunted: "See the black-haired man over there? The one with the sly smile who's talking to Chopper?"

"Yeah, his name is Law, right?"

"Yeah, motherfucking Trafalgar Law."

"You know him?"

"Yeah, I know him, well, I thought I knew him."

"Should I set his car on fire – haha, I was just kidding!" God, sometimes Kidd thought a good smack on the back of Ace's head wasn't enough.

"I met him at the Arabasta, a couple weeks ago. I thought he was just another man looking for a quick fuck. I liked his body, I liked his face, and all I wanted was a quick and uncomplicated fuck. He actually approached me; he took me upstairs in one the bedrooms, he wanted money. So I thought that he was a prostitute. I didn't really mind, as long as the fuck was good and rough." Kidd knew that the fact that Law had acted like a prostitute had stirred him up way more than he was able to admit to his friends. He had never told them about the whore of a mother he had; that the term son of a bitch perfectly fitted him, in the exact meaning of the words.

"Was it worth the money?"

"Hell yeah. He was fine. I even tipped him. Felt generous that night. I thought it was an onetime thing, but shit, the next few times I've been at the Arabasta I tried to fuck these other guys, but shit, it wasn't as good as it had been with him, so I kinda stopped fucking around and just fucked with Law. I paid him each single time, I actually felt some compassion towards him, I mean, I thought he was a prostitute and all! So each time I've been down at the Arabasta I only fucked him. I became monogamous for a prostitute – that is pathetic. I actually changed my schedule so I could meet him more often. I basically spent most of my money on him. I even went to the Ring more often to earn a little additional money to pay the fucker."

"Never thought that Nami and Sanji would have a prostitute in their circle of friends."

"That's the point. Law isn't a hooker. He is a doctor, actually a surgeon. I found out when Shanks was shot and we've been to the Grand Line Hospital. He works there."

"That explains why our sweet little Chopper is so interested in him."

"Yeah. They've been talking 'bout medical crap since Chopper found out that he's a surgeon."

"Shit, and Chopper actually talking to him confirms that he has at least some deeper medical knowledge."

"Yeah. So he is a real doctor and just fucks around at night?"

"That's what I'm thinking. And I spent tons of money on that little shit! I even stopped fucking around!"

"Sucks, dude."

"Do you think Nami and Sanji know 'bout his nightly activities?"

"Definitely not. I mean, he fooled me all along, probably thought that scum like us undergrounders isn't worth the real background, you can just fuck with them if you disguise your true self or shit. Well, now I know who his friends are. I bet he doesn't want those snobs to find out about his dark side."

"Damn, Kidd, he got under your skin."

"Motherfucker, he did. Did you see his slightly scared look when he realized that I'm one of the new nakama of Sanji and Nami? It was fucking hilarious. But the fucker pulled his shit together real quick. Just watch him for a few seconds."

They all turned around and stared at Law's back. Law must've noticed the four intense stares on his back and turned his head. For a short moment Kidd met Law's eyes and saw the hounded and scared look in his eyes, but then Law frowned and turned his head back to Chopper who didn't notice their intense stare-encounter at all.

"Damn, he knows."

"Yeah, the fucker better watches his back."

They all refilled their glasses once again and Kidd contemplated once again going over to Law, grabbing his hair, dragging him outside and shout at him: What the fuck is wrong with you?

Now it was Zoro's time to tell his story, but in his opinion it was rather lame, all about him being a stupid lovesick fool, chasing after Sanji. By the heated looks Sanji was throwing at Zoro's back he guessed that they wouldn't need long to pull their shit together and make up.

"This is retarded." Zoro mumbled.

"Yeah, fuck, we all got our shit to deal with."

Suddenly Ace got up from his barstool and declared: "I guess now I'm drunk enough!"

"What for?" Zoro wanted to know.

"Going back to Smoker, of course."

"I thought he kicked you out of his house."

"Yeah, but he didn't arrest me. That means even if I'm his nemesis that he feels something for me. Who am I to let him go? I always get what I want. I want him – and he obviously wants me, too. He doesn't know it, though. So I'll have to show him."

"Good luck, call me if we need to post your bail, if you didn't work it out."

"Yeah, thanks. Take care."

They all watched Ace leave. Kidd silently wished him good luck. Shortly after Ace has left the party started dying down. Nami and Luffy vanished upstairs; Kalifa and Eisberg left, arms around each other, Eisberg grinning like a fool; somehow Zoro and Sanji had vanished too; Khoza and the blue haired girl were making out in a dim lit corner, Usopp and a blonde girl were kissing too, and Chopper was passed out in Law's lap.

Law.

He was tired of staring at the back of Law's head. He got up, felt a slight stagger in his step – apparently he had a lot to drink – and found a joint lying innocently in their stack of cigs, cigars and other smokeable drugs. A joint felt like a really good idea now.

He went outside, enjoyed the brisk night air and lit up. The first drag was always the best. He had stopped using a long time ago, but an occasional joint didn't hurt.

Then he heard how a door was opened and closed again. He didn't care enough to turn around. Steps came closer.

He took another deep drag from his joint. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale. Without turning around he drawled: "What do you want, Law?"

TBC