Chapter 2

The week had gone by way to slowly for Law's liking. The scenery disinterested him as he had been on this very same road about a week ago but now it was scotching hot instead of the nice light breeze it had been before.

Now Dressrosa was usually hot, unbearably so even after the few years he had been living here for. He had been born and raised in the cold, icy North though, raised against the cold bitterness which lead to his current state. Sticky, sweaty and dizzy which left him feeling disgusted with himself, meanwhile Eustass seemed perfectly at ease, which was understandable as he was from the South. That meant rich, warm weather with sunny skies and beaches.

Law hated it all.

He was tempted to hand the reigns to Eustass and tell him to get himself to the castle by himself while he jumped into a hopefully cold lake. That would make him feel a lot better.

"Captain!" He heard a voice call to him, making him look over at Bepo who was offering a smile. "We have reached village."

Law nodded, glancing back to catch Penguin's eye who met his own. "Penguin, take yourself and the others to find some accommodations, I shall find you later."

"Where will you be going Captain?" Penguin sounding disapproving nearly making Law sigh.

They babied him too much at times.

"Eustass-ya needs new clothes soon so we might as well get them while we are here. So he and I will be heading to a store."

His companion nodded. "Alright, but Captain try have the three of you head back quickly, we should have dinner quickly and an early night."

'The three of you'? "That was a hint wasn't it Penguin?"

He nodded in confirmation. "Of course we won't just leave you alone with an assassin Captain. If you dislike that you can come with me and Bepo and Shachi can go buy clothes for Eustass with some spare money."

"Don't you have any faith in your Captain?" Law frowned lightly, earning an expected shake of Penguin's head.

"Of course we believe in you Captain but your safety comes first. Besides I believe it would be better if you came with me. You could catch up on some sleep-"

Law felt himself nearly twitch. "I believe Shachi and I can handle Eustass-ya for a while by ourselves. I'll find you later."

Law quickly steered his horse away, tugging Eustass's reign lightly to get his horse to follow. Law was relieved he managed to get away from Penguin before he decided Law really needed to sleep otherwise he would never get away from his stubborn friend.

"Did you just run away from your subordinate?" He heard Eustass snort.

"I merely just left him. We are on a time limit to get to the castle so the early we sleep the quicker we can awaken." Law replied, after all he wasn't going to admit to the redhead he just retreated him one of his well wishing friends.

"Captain you know I could easily look after the assassin." Law nearly groaned when he heard Shachi start up. "The shadows under your eyes look worse. We could go back, I'll take Bepo with me and we can both keep an eye on this guy while you rest."

He could already picture Eustass' smirk, so restraining a groan he glanced back. "I'm perfectly fine Shachi, I always have shadows under my eyes."

"But Captain-"

Law managed to block out the next whine, shaking his head bitterly.

"Excuse me ,sir?"

Kid paused in his sniggering when he heard a little girl's voice interrupting his thoughts about the quack doctor running away, he spotted her beside Law's horse which had slowed down to a halt as she held up a bouquet of flowers, smiling softly. The quack doctor was offering her a friendly smile which startled Kid a bit, usually used to that insincere or smug one and surprisingly the friendly smile looked... Nice...

Kid twitched, shaking his head in disgust before looking over at Trafalgar who was listening to the girl speak.

"Is something wrong?" The Captain asked, his eyes were inspecting her, flickering over her before stilling.

He was gathering his thoughts, Kid noted, with just one glance over. Kid did the same, trying to mentally note anything interesting about the girl but there was nothing of importance, just another ordinary brat.

"I'm selling flowers for my grandfather, he is sick and I want to get some money to buy him medicine." The little girl frowned but it quickly changed, a smile back on her face as she gazed up at Law. "Would you like to buy some sir?"

Law leaned back, Kid knew he would say no, they didn't have the time for this, one thing Penguin was right about was that they had a strict time limit and a lot of ground to cover. All Law would say was no, maybe add in a 'sorry' and they would be off, leaving the girl to sell her flowers desperately.

"Fortunately I happen to be a doctor. If you would like I could look over your grandfather?"

Wait what?! "Really?!" The girl beamed before frowning. "But I don't have any money to pay you... I..."

"I happen to need someone to help me around town. You could help me out with that instead?" Law offered, making the girl squeal in delight.

"Really?! Of course! I'll take you anywhere you would like!" She cried out, beginning to move away eagerly. "I'll take you back to my house! I can cook you something nice while you look at my grandfather!"

"That is generous of you, thank you but if you are short on food you do not need to." Law smiled, Kid hearing Shachi's whine but either the Captain didn't hear it or ignored it.

"I insist!"

"Woohoo!" They heard Shachi cheer.

-OoO-

"Here we are! We have a fence we can tie your horses to!" The girl smiled, watching Law and Shachi work while Kid carefully slipped off the horse, his hands still bound.

He didn't topple over which was a good sign he noted once he had planted both feet firmly on the ground. His hands however did seemed to catch the girl's attention though which he spotted when she gasped.

"Are you okay?! Do you need help?! How did you get handcuffed?!"

"It's fine." He glanced over to see Trafalgar smiled reassuringly. "It was just a dare between a few friends, his was to see how he would cope being handcuffed for a whole day."

Damn that fucking Trafalgar.

"...Oh... Okay..." The girl nodded, looking unsure but accept it as she rushed towards the door. "Well this is my house! Well my grandfather's house! His name is Bokuden!" Then she froze. "Oh I never told you my name! I'm so rude! I'm Apis."

"A pleasure to meet you Apis-ya, I am Law, this is Eustass-ya and Shachi."

She nodded, smiling brightly at each of them and entered the house while they followed, Kid scanned the house, spotting the kitchen through into the next room as they entered the living room, he spotted a frail looking old man lying on the couch, looking pale and exhausted, he was probably on his last legs, Kid noted. Law moved towards him immediately, checking over him as he glanced at Apis who looked concerned.

"This is your Grandfather correct? Bokuden?"

"Yes, will he be okay?"

Law nodded, making Kid frown. "I believe he should be. He seems to just have a fever but I will continue checking over him just in case."

"Okay, well I promised to make you dinner! So I'll go do that while you look after my Grandfather." Apis smiled, heading towards the kitchen, Kid still managed to here her talking though. "Grandfather hasn't been hungry for it at the moment but I hope you are!"

"I'll eat anything right now." Shachi laughed as he sat on the couch, turning to glare at Kid. "And you should sit out of the way. Far away from me and the Captain."

"Sorry, am I scaring you?" Kid mocked as he sat down, relaxing into the couch.

"You wish." Shachi sneered.

Suddenly though a black smoke coughed out of the kitchen, startling the three as Apis emerged carrying four plates with some dry, black creature shrivelled up on the plate. Kid grimaced, he was sure the gruel back in the mines would taste better than this thing, and had it really been okay that she had finished making dinner that quickly?

"You have all been so kind so I hope you'll like this." Apis beamed, handing out the plates to each of them before sitting beside Law on the floor. "I tried really hard and made it by myself. I believe the taste has been improved since last time."

He heard Law mutter 'last time' before turning his attention over to the oldest brat.

"You said you would eat anything right?" Kid grumbled at Shachi, who looked reluctant to try it.

"I'll taste it for the Captain! Not for you!" Shachi snapped back before shovelling a fork full into his mouth and swallowing, Kid noticed he and Law waited, hoping for a good sign, well in Kid's case a bad sign, maybe the kid poisoned the bastard after all, but Shachi gave a light nod before scooping up another fork full. "Actually really good."

"Really?!" Apis squealed, delighted.

"Yeah!" Shachi grinned.

He and Law eyed each other wearily before the quack doctor nodded. "He isn't dead so I guess it should be fine."

With that Kid took a generous fork full and swallowed it.

-OoO-

Law had lost track of how many glasses of water he drank, gulping down the fluid greedily, once the glass was empty again he slumped, panting heavily as he watched Shachi somehow finish everyone's plates much to his disgust. The assassin was sprawled across the floor, having drank several jugs of water while Apis was complaining she had added too much salt in, apologizing relentlessly.

"I'm afraid I don't know how to cook." Law admitted reluctantly after he regained himself. "I don't trust Shachi to cook either. Eustass-ya?"

Eustass nodded wearily. "I can cook. At least better than the kid, though I doubt that would be difficult."

"True, Shachi I want you to go buy this medicine." He shoved the note up into Shachi's hand who frowned and swallowed. "It will help Apis-ya's grandfather."

"Why should you let the assassin cook? He could poison you!"

"If I survived this I can survive that." Law chuckled, earning a snort from the redhead.

"I'm still amazed the brat survived four plates of it." He heard Eustass say from the kitchen.

"But there are knives in there!" Shachi protested.

"Then you better get the medicine quickly. Apis-ya would you be so kind to show him the way?"

"Of course." Apis nodded, heading towards the door.

As they left Law overheard Apis mention 'assassin' making him groan as he moved to sit nearby the elderly man.

"I have to admit I'm surprised your helping that girl without anything in return." Eustass was leaning against the doorway, watching him curiously. "And your trusting me to cook for you? I could poison you."

"If you poison me you would have to get past the guards who came with us all this way, and even if you escaped them you would be hunted down again and executed, or imprisoned back in the mines." Law pointed out. "Besides, I got us a free map."

Eustass rolled his eyes. "I think you're just a big softy at heart."

Law chuckled. "Well don't tell anyone. It would ruin my reputation."

"Do you think I would ever do such a thing to you?"

"Quite happily."

"You're breaking my heart Trafalgar, here I thought we were becoming friends."

"Don't worry, we'll be clothes shopping together soon."

"Ah, the one true way to bond together." He saw Eustass laugh before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Law made sure to check over Apis' grandfather before sitting on the couch and leaning back. Everything was calm, much calmer and quieter than it had been for days, usually the camp would be noisy, filled with laughter, arguments and tension from having an assassin around, they would always be on guard if Eustass was anywhere near Law, which was abliet, pretty much all the time.

With an exhausted sigh he felt his body relax into the lumpy cushions which were still much better than the ground which was usually hard and harsh against him.

And without realising it, he dozed off.

-OoO-

It was cute how damned trusting Trafalgar was but then again his subordinates had pointed out how tired he was way too many times. Kid had been waiting for Trafalgar to doze off as soon as things got too quiet and calm and soon loamed over him, lining the chef's knife up to his neck.

He wasn't going to bother poisoning him, not with the perfect opportunity right here, sleeping in front of him.

The doctor had gotten him out of the mines, so he might as well give him a swift, clean death as a reward. Not even Kid was sure how much longer he would have survived. Quickly he glanced over the Captain, noting how peaceful he looked making him smirk, Trafalgar was in a deep sleep and wouldn't be disturbed as long as he cut deep and quickly enough.

So with that he lowered the blade, moving his arm to give a long and large slice across the doctor's neck.

.:End of Chapter:.