I have a short break between clases, so I'm updating now :)

Chapter 6: Ghosts

Kid dropped the bag next to his feet and looked around, to the run-down space that was the living room of his newly rented flat at the outskirts of his lifelong neighborhood; the paint on the walls was faded, and the old furniture, though it looked comfortable, lacking of any personal touch and waiting to be of any use.

"Not bad." Law observed, entering the room and plopping down on the sofa. "It's comfy." He added, stretching lazily.

"I don't care about your opinion." Kid said, going to what would be his bedroom from now on to put away his clothes in the wardrobe. It was old and the wood was starting to rot, but it would have to do, at least for a while.

"I'm offended, Mr. Eustass." Law said, not even bothering to feign that the comment had affected him.

"No one's asked your opinion, translucent squatter." Kid answered from the bedroom, and Law laughed.

"I'm quite opaque, thank you."

"When you want to." Muttered Kid, and would have glared at Law had he been in front of him.

"That's true." Law conceded, appearing next to Kid, who was too used to that by now to react at all and only glared at him. He owed Law that glare, after all.

"Who don't you make yourself useful and unpack something?"

Law looked at him.

"I'm going to live here after all, so…" And went to the bed, where Kid's backpack's contents were scattered, and took some clothes.

They worked awhile in silence, putting away Kid's clothes and then looking around the flat to see what was there and what Kid would have to buy.

"What will you do now?" Law asked, evaluating the state of some dishes he's found in one of the kitchen's cupboards.

"I've thought of studying to be a mechanic." Kid answered from under the pile, where he was checking the pipes.

"Sounds good. These dishes seem out of a shooting contest or something, you'll need new ones." As if to prove his point, Law threw one of said dishes to the floor, eliciting a yell and a murderous glare from Kid. The only reason the redhead didn't try to hit him was because Law has taken the habit of turning intangible every time Kid tried to do so, and Kid had had a couple of accidents because of that.

Law had been in the process of criticizing one of those shows that presented themselves as "about doctors" on television when he heard the front door open and saw Kid entering the flat, looking tired as always but with his a serious air about ('around') him.

"Is everything fine?" Law asked, gratefully turning off the TV. He'd been just about to lose his nerves with that thing, and Trafalgar Law thought himself a very patient person.

Kid looked at him, catching Law's gray eyes with his reddish ones, such gravity on them that told Law something had happened.

"They brought the car for its annual revision."

They stayed silent, staring at each other before Law said:

"Oh, I see."

"We have to go shopping." Kid said, still not moving from the door.

Law stood up, not waiting for Kid to say anything else, and approached him, stopping right in front of Kid and kissing him on the lips.

"We don't have to do anything if you don't-"

A hand on the back of his neck and a forceful kiss cut him off.

"Don't start with that now, I'm not backing off." Kid muttered against his lips.

Law smiled.

"I didn't expect you to, but I had to say it."

Ace and Marco went out to get something to eat, putting off the investigation for an hour or so. Not that it was advancing or anything.

They had investigated, with no results, Trafalgar Law, looking for something that pointed to him having been the first victim until a week ago, when they found a new body and had to leave that to investigate this new , the second in command of Donquixote Doflamingo's organization, appeared dead in an isolated and nearly God-forsaken alleyway after a rainy night, in an area where the shops didn't have security cameras. Everything pointed, from the pipe in his hand to the scratches on the floor and a mark on the wall, that Vergo had fought his murderer, but that was not the only difference with the other crimes: unlike the previous victims, Vergo didn't have a look of terror on his face, but one of anger that made them think the man had argued with his killer before his death, and that strengthened the theory that the mysterious killer knew his victims.

Unfortunately, they still had nothing that gave them any idea of who the said mysterious killer was.

"There's almost no one left in the organization, couldn't we put vigilance on them all and wait until one of them is attacked?" Ace suggested once he finished his third hamburger next to the street stand, but he noticed Marco wasn't paying attention: completely still, ignoring his own food, Marco's eyes were fixated somewhere on the other side of the street.

Following his gaze, Ace didn't even notice when the wrapper he had in one hand fell to the floor, trapped as he was by what he was seeing and completely disconcerted by it. At the other side of the street, walking away among the crowd, was a young man on his early twenties, tall and thin, with dark hair, goatee, sideburns, shadows under his eyes and a face Ace had memorized weeks ago.

"Fuck…" Ace muttered, advancing to try and cross the street, but he saw how the man disappeared into the subway with many other people, barely letting Ace notice the man who seemed to accompany him: tall, even taller than his companion, around his twenties as well, muscular and redheaded. Whoever that man was, he seemed to have been arguing with Trafalgar Law.

"Did you see that…?" Ace asked Marco, astonished. That didn't make sense, he'd seen the pictures of that man, but he was sure it was him.

Marco looked at him, looking even more surprised than before.

"You saw him too?"

Ace nodded, still unable to completely believe what had just happened.

"That was him? But how…?"

"Come with me." Marco said, leaving his unfinished lunch and taking Ace back to the building, practically dragging him by an arm, disconcerting the young man further.

Thatch was finishing his coffee and playing cards on his computer when Marco and Ace burst into the department and went straight to him, startling Thatch into closing the window even though he knew none of them would reprimand him for it. He felt sorry right away, remembering that he had had a very good score.

"Thatch." Marco spoke, stopping before his desk, and the brunette knew he was going to ask something work-related even before he opened his mouth away. "Do you still have that list of men over 6'2'' tall?"

Marco was very serious and Ace, Thatch noticed, looked too shocked to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Your thousand-something suspects? Sure."

"Narrow it to guys around twenty few years, over 6'6'' and redheaded."

Thatch looked stupidly at Marco for a moment before realizing they had a new lead.

"Right away."

He put the new data for the search and saw with satisfaction how the new list loaded and only a name was on it. Now that was precise.

Eustass Kid, twenty one years old, no criminal record, mechanic. Someone who they wouldn't have suspected of with all the other candidates.

Thatch stood, enthusiastic.

"Let's arrest him!"

Marco, who didn't look half as pleased as he should, shook his head.

"We have no proof."

Thatch looked at him, more disconcerted than before.

"Then how did you find him?"

Marco gestured, first to himself and then to Ace, and Thatch paid more attention to the completely astounded expression the boy wore. He looked at Marco, who nodded with a somewhat sad smile, and understood what he meant.

Oh. Of course, they should have expected it from Garp's grandson.

"That sucks, we'll need to relate the guy to Doflamingo some other way." Thatch complained, trying to lighten the mood. Now that they had a name, it would be a matter of time.

Thatch noticed Marco was looking thoughtfully at the screen, where the picture of the grinning redhead looked at them with obvious pride from his driver's license.

"The thing is, I know this guy."

That comment snapped Ace out of his disconcerted state and the black haired boy looked at his companion just like Thatch.

"Really?" The younger asked.

"His father died of an overdose some years ago. The boy didn't look like a junkie or anything of that sort, so I felt a bit happy for him: he seemed to have possibilities."

Thatch whistled, unable to hide the humor in his voice.

"He's turned into a model citizen."

Kid sat heavily on the sofa, throwing the small bag he'd just bought next to the remote, on the coffee table, and passed his arms over Law's shoulders once he sat next to him.

"I hate the subway." Kid complained.

"You made it clear, but there's no way to park around there and we couldn't risk for you to be found."

Kid snorted.

"I know, I know. What I don't get is what the fuck a drug dealer is doing selling next to a police precinct."

Law smirked.

"The last place where someone looks is right in front of their noses."

Kid returned the smirk with a grin of his own.

"Right."

They stayed silent, each enjoying just being with the other, and finally Kid asked:

"You got the plans?"

Law nodded distractedly, his head on Kid's shoulder and his lips brushing against his skin.

"I finished them months ago."

The arm around Law's shoulders went down to circle his waist and Kid brought him closer to his body.

"Perfect."

Law moved to straddle Kid's legs.

"You don't have to start right now, we still have a couple of days left." Law said just before kissing him.

Kid embraced Law's waist and kissed him back.

Yes, they still had a couple of days left.

To be continued

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