Chapter 20: A Moment of Calm Before the Storm - Part 2
There was a sound like something spring-loaded being deployed and Kidd exploded up out of his seat. "WHAT?! HOW?! I mean fuck Law, I know yer good, but that oughta be fuckin' physically impossible! Even fer you! I remember that-that-that," his voice choked, "discussion about reproductive fuckin' parts you made me—HOW?!"
His voice was nearly a shriek as he paced, bouncing around their spacious kitchen as he grappled with the impossibility that had been pounded into his head years and years ago when one day he'd been stupid, turned to Law and said "let's have kids". The surgeon had made it very clear that children were not in their life options.
"Well, that was then, and this is now. I had to do something to pass the time while you were meddling with that blasted compass."
The brunet was referring to the months where his lover had been obsessed with creating a way for all Pirates to find the All-Blue from no matter where in the New World they were. It had been a rather boring several months, but the question that he'd so vehemently squashed before had plagued him like no other. Within his Room, he was God. So, why couldn't he create a place for his beloved to procreate? Of course, that had turned into how long could he keep an organ working and functional outside of the body it was born in? Then there had been the Devil Fruit issues. Really, and truly, if it hadn't been for the troubles the Strawhats had faced, he wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Of course, now the timing just sucked, but there wasn't much he could do about it, the deed was done.
He explained all of this in a vastly technical and long-winded speech that he'd practiced several times to make sure he followed all of the steps in the correct order, because he was certain his lover wouldn't understand a word of it. Judging by the continued vacant expression, he wasn't wrong.
Kidd patiently waited until he was done, then put his hand on the table and leaned on it. "Law, ya know when ya get inta the science-medical-god thing ya do, ya lose me. I love ya, baby, but yer brain just leaves me the fuck behind. Speak stupid fer me. Ya did what? I mean seriously, I would've remembered fuckin' within yer Room recently." He was sure he would have, since in the Room Law was God. They got into their weirdest, kinkiest shit there, since it was safe. "So run that by me one more time in layman's terms."
With a heavy sigh, Law rolled his eyes, and began again. "Three months ago, when we were up near Amazon Lily, and Hancock demanded that I come and give them all a check-up, I demanded that one of her virgin warriors be given to me in payment for my services. I took the woman's uterus and implanted it within myself. That evening we engaged in intercourse, or has my lovemaking become something that is so trivial you don't remember?"
"Oh no, I remember Amazon Lily Night... fuck you'd gone goddamn wild-ass crazy. Climbed me like a tree and… well, yer sayin' the whole reason ya blindfolded me an' stuck me in instead o' lettin' me lead wasn't ta re-establish yerself as a virile in-control male after bein' assaulted by women all day, but rather so you could use me like an insemination machine ta knock ya up?"
Now that he'd caught on, the redhead was sort of hurt. Why hadn't Law trusted him? Sure, the thought of girl parts kind of made him wilt, but this was Law, his amazing, sexy, hot as hell Doctor. He could get hard for him on command—the subterfuge hadn't been necessary.
"When you say it like that, Eustass-ya, it sounds disgusting." Unconsciously, the brunet crossed his arms over his ribs, and turned slightly away. "Perhaps I didn't want you to see something you could become attached to. Perhaps the thought of your endowments penetrating something that didn't inherently belong to me was bothersome! Perhaps I simply didn't want you to see me halfway between male and female!"
His words increasingly grew tighter and sharper, betraying his inner turmoil. The game was no longer entertaining. Now that he was playing it, the risk to his own well-being was much greater than he'd first calculated. There wasn't anything to be done now, his father's Rules ensured that, but if it came down to it, he had a vivrecard for the Kuja girl. The child could go with her if he needed to be rid of it, though that possibility opened something like a numbing chill in the base of his spine.
Kidd massaged his temple with his hand, and his shoulder moved as he tried to raise the arm that wasn't there as well, making him glare at it. That was getting distracting.
"Okay, fair 'nough. But just… just fer my peace a mind, I will never be attached ta girly parts. The second one ya gotta good point, an' it's kinda weird now that I'm thinkin' about it. An' the third… erm... actually never mind. You'll hit me if I say that," his voice dropped to a mutter.
It was actually hot in ways he didn't want to examine too deeply to think of Law as a child-bearing being. He tugged on the collar of his shirt and coughed, redirecting his thoughts.
"But… um… anyway… Shit… How… no wait, if ya tell me the details I'll jus' get confused again. Okay. Fuck. Stress is bad fer babies and we're ridin' inta fuckin' battle. Dear gods." Rubbing his forehead, he groaned. Red was creeping up his neck as he struggled to adjust, but he still wasn't in the best of health. "Law, where's those headache pills ya give me...?"
Already feeling like he was mothering his lover, the surgeon let out another exasperated breath, and reached into the cabinet above the sink. "Here."
He crossed the room, set the bottle on the table with the top off, and drew a glass of water for the redhead to drink. Then he returned to where he'd been standing and hopped up onto the counter. Only on the Flying Pan would he dare make that move, at least with Sanji floating around, but his ankles hurt. He shook his head, refusing to concentrate on it. He knew the risks going in, though there hadn't been a threat beyond the normal wild lifestyle of a Pirate at the time, but that was beside the point. So, he didn't even bother bringing it up.
"Yes, we are going into battle. Yes, there is risk, but quite frankly, you cannot expect me to just sit this out. Ignoring the cliché of life going on regardless of outside forces, the plaything has flown the Joker's colors. He has insulted my family, and must answer for his crime. No one but the Strawhats has more claim than I on the Hyena's life. And, besides," He smirked proudly, "He'll not touch me. Not if he knows I am with child. You know The Rules."
The master of magnetism grinned a little sideways. "Oh I know 'em as well as he does."
He separated two pills and tossed them back with the water before getting serious again, pushing the glass aside and coming to stand between the spindly legs that somehow supported his lover. Cupping his cheek with his hand, he kissed the smaller man's forehead, his eyes, his cheeks, and finally his lips in the most tender of ways. He wasn't good with words, but at least he could show Law how he felt.
"I know how ya get 'bout Don's flag. I can't blame ya. But we'd have ta tell him yer knocked, an' I kinna don't like tha'. Bellamy is one a Don's. He's trained. He's broken. But I gotta bad feelin', baby. My coat's tellin' me there's someone pullin' on the strings Joker left behind, an' whoever it is, I absolutely don't want 'em targetin' you."
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, beloved, but I fear they already are." His closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against his lover's. "How else do you explain the gall to fly that flag? If they weren't deliberately seeking us out, why bother with the Joker's colors? The plaything had his own flag to fly, and it isn't on Luffy-ya's banned list. I can't help but feel this is a message."
One of his oh-so-talented hands trailed across the craggy features of the redhead's face, before rubbing gently down his thick neck to the tense shoulder muscles continuing to try and move a limb that wasn't there. He wished fervently that he could find someone with an approximate build that he could simply replace the missing arm, but none were the right size. Or if they were, they had some other issue that prevented them from being used. It was endlessly frustrating on both ends.
Kidd's voice dropped to a growl. "Mebbe ta get Luffy's attention. Directly defyin' him. An' we both know Bellamy worshipped Don, he'd rather fly Don's flag than his own. Especially if he's aspirin' ta replace him."
His remaining arm wrapped around Law's waist and held him close as he forcibly relaxed the muscles, knowing without needing to ask what his lover was thinking. Even if Law could find an arm, Kidd wouldn't want it. He didn't want to steal from someone else what he had himself lost more or less honorably in battle.
The brunet sighed for a third time, allowing the last of his walls to come down because it was just the two of them, alone and locked in the galley of their own ship. "I suppose you're right, but I just can't help—Ungh!"
He spasmed, pain contorting his face, and his entire body curled around the trim midsection that was not his own. Without much warning, he shoved Kidd from him, tearing through his shirts as he did. Fear and pain combined to bring tears to his eyes. The places where his body was joined to the parts of the girl burned like they'd been dipped in acid and there was an empty feeling where his own stomach should have been, like it had been run through with something hard, twisted, and metal. He was panting, sweat building across his skin. Only one thing could cause this, and he prayed he was wrong.
"Eus... stass... get..." He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision, and waved a hand at his lover ineffectually to try and gain some space.
"Get what, get what?!"
The redhead was in full-on panic mode, power blazing through the ship to throw open every door as he roared for the goddamn doctor from the All Blue, his power rampaging first through the Mecha Lotus and startling Robin from her charts until it slammed through the All Blue to grab Sanji's doctor by the metal end of his stethoscope and start dragging him. Bluntly, he was terrified: he knew Law had told him sometimes bodies rejected organs. It could kill the person, and that was what he thought was happening.
Across from him, with his torso bare, the defined line where the woman's midsection and Law's own chest began to blur before their very eyes. He slid from the counter, one arm around his stomach and the other thrown up in an outward reaching motion. His hair, disheveled, fell into his face as he glared, and panted. He blinked several times to clear his vision, then power exploded from him, bathing the entire galley in his pale blue Room, though he hadn't said anything. Nothing could pass the boundary of his Room this time, meaning that when the All-Blue's doctor met the barrier, he slammed into it face first.
As the blur became bigger, the skin tone of the borrowed abdomen began to darken to match the surgeon's natural dusky complexion. He growled in fair mimicry of his lover, and tears, unbidden, burned down his cheeks under his glare. His dark eyes smoldered, locked with the crimson-wine that was his co-captain's. The hand around his middle clenched into a fist, as though a cylindrical object was impaling him, and blood poured from it. He coughed several times, dark, congealed clots escaping from between his lips, and for a moment, it seemed as though everything was collapsing in on the genius doctor. But then, as the color from the center of his body faded completely, the blood stopped, and the cramping began to ease.
He leaned heavily on the counter, panting and crying angrily, his voice strained, "Fuck! Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! Goddamned, motherfucking, piece of shit, bitch! I hope she rots in the Godforsaken pit of Hell designed specifically for idiots."
Kidd was trapped between the wall and the Room where the barrier had flung him after exploding outward, watching with worry and naked fear on his face. "Law? Law?! Fuck! Baby, talk to me, are you okay?! Are you alright?!"
He didn't bother even attempting to mask the sheer terror that had seized his every cell. His lover, his mate, of fifteen years had, for the first time EVER, lost control of his Room. It scared Kidd so deeply he could barely handle it, and at present was only managing to function because he was afraid if he weakened or passed out Law would leave him forever.
The brunet fell to his knees, heedless of the pool of quickly drying life fluid at his feet, swallowing huge gulps of air. His own panic was written across his face in plain fury, murder in his eyes and blood-stained teeth bared against the onslaught of what had happened. The hand that had been holding him up against the counter slammed into the floor, and several of the kitchen appliances split in half cleanly. Around his ribs a faint scar had appeared, like the site of a long-healed incision all the way around his body. Only the flicker of the lights showed that the skin was different there, and that barely raised line was the only trace of what had once been the separation between his own body and the parts that had belonged to the Kuja woman.
In a shaky voice, he called, "I'm fine."
The master of magnetism started to laugh—the hysterical laugh that usually preceded just one thing. His body twitched; he was resisting what his physical form was attempting to do from sheer force of will. "F-fine?! Yeah f-fuckin' right! You j-just spewed b-blood from every o-orfice a-and your Room w-went fucking cr-crazy, you are NOT FINE."
"You need to calm down, Eustass-ya..." The smaller man spoke slowly, though he made no attempt to move, and he swallowed several times against a wave of nausea.
More hysterical laughter, steadily rising in volume as the redhead's shaking got worse. Much worse. "L-l-like HELL I c-c-can calm d-down! You n-n-n-nearly fucking d-d-d-d-DIED r-ri-right in-n-n front of me!"
The co-captain was starting to slur as well as stutter. A subtle shake of his lover's head was all the denial the slender man could give. But it wasn't enough. The shock had been too great. Law had only seen It happen twice, and knew it only happened when Kidd faced something that he truly, honestly, could not handle, mentally, physically, or emotionally. Really only one thing could trigger It—the threat, or apparent threat, of death actually befalling the surgeon. So, it was without a shadow of a doubt, that Law adding up the symptoms with the potential triggers of the current situation came to only one conclusion.
It was coming, with all the force of a freight train…The Total Reset
The brunet lifted his bloody hand from his stomach to reveal there were no wounds, where the blood that he hadn't vomited had come from was a mystery to all but the surgeon himself. He knew it was pointless, but he reached for his lover anyway. His Room was obeying him again, somewhat, but though it allowed the expulsion of the coffeemaker, in three pieces, it refused to open to allow the redhead inside. His instincts could tell that to do so would be dangerous, and thus, kept him from exposing himself to the threat.
"Eustass... please..."
"I-I-I can't. I g-g-got too s-sc-sc-scared," Kidd managed, with an apologetic whine, before his body beat out his mind and his system ground to a complete halt.
If he'd had his metal arm, or even the shoulder mount, it would have sparked like an electrical short as his nerve system reached critical overload and swept up and down the redhead's body like the current in a wire. His eyes rolled into his head and snapped shut. His body collapsed entirely, right into Law's Room, where it hung suspended like a leaf plastered to a glass dome… And the past twenty-four hours was wiped from his memory, both physical and mental, like a microchip passed over an electro-magnet.
Defeated, Law slumped back against the cabinets. His jeans were ruined anyway, so what did it matter anymore if he just sat there to regain his strength for a few moments. He let his head rest against the metal door, and exhaled in a frustrated sigh.
He spoke to no one conscious, "This is why I kept it from you, though it would have gone better if the bint hadn't decided to die just now." He looked down, lightly brushing his fingertips across the female midsection that would now be a part of his body for the rest of his life. "I pray he still wants you, little heart, because if he doesn't there is no one else to give you to."