Chapter Thirty-Three: Law

Trafalgar Law was not a morning person. Not really. But certain aspects of his life required him to be up at questionable hours.

Basically anything before noon was questionable.

Saturdays were supposed to be his days to do whatever he liked in the morning (usually sleep) before going into All Blue and seeing the boss. But on occasion, when the boss was feeling like being a dick, he called meetings at eight o'clock in the morning. Law wasn't the only one who hated early mornings in the boss's crew, but everyone knew better than to question the boss.

So at seven in the morning, Law was standing outside the orphanage that Crocodile ran, waiting for that twat Nami to get her ass out there so they could catch a cab to All Blue. If she made him wait more than a minute, Law was going to leave without her and let her figure out how to get to the meeting herself.

He waited exactly thirty-eight seconds.

The door opened and an orange mop of tangled strands stepped into his view. Well, stepped wasn't the right word. More like hobbled. Law eyed her for a few seconds before hailing a cab. He heard her shuffle behind him to get into the cab and he eyed her more critically as she meekly climbed in.

She looked bad. Really bad. Losing end of a prizefight bad. Her hair wasn't the only thing that was a mess. The capillaries in her eyes had been popped, there were purple bruises around her neck, and dried blood running down from her nose. Beneath her school uniform, he spied several reddish purple marks.

"The fuck happened to you?" he couldn't stop himself from asking. A glance at the rear view mirror of the driver showed that the driver was looking at Nami with wide eyes.

"Nothing," she rasped. Her voice sounded like she had sandpaper in her throat.

Law shrugged. He didn't care enough to pry. He addressed the cabbie. "Dressrosa Square."

The cabbie alternated glances between Nami and Law for a moment before shaking his head in dismay and pulling out into traffic. Law watched as Nami curled in on herself in the seat, attempting to keep most of her body from touching anything. Law smirked. She was hurting pretty bad.

The part of him that was training to be a doctor saw what needed to be done to ease her pain. But she was a pain in general, and he thought she could use some humility. He decided to let her suffer for awhile.

"You ever been to All Blue before?" Law asked, knowing it probably felt like knives in her throat to talk.

"No," she answered. Unsurprisingly, she did not elaborate any further.

"You heard of Dressrosa Square?" he prodded. She nodded once. "What have you heard?"

He watched her sigh. Probably in irritation. "It's known for its ambiance. Great food, great atmosphere, great entertainment."

Law snorted. "You sound like a tourist information pamphlet."

"Go fuck yourself," she muttered.

"Well, let me tell you a little more about it, since you don't seem to know very much," Law commented snidely. "Dressrosa Square is the home of one of the founding fathers of the Central Government. It is one of the twenty Must-See sights of One Piece. In short, it's part a part of our country's National Treasure."

He watched as Nami's eyes narrowed at the information. He could almost hear the thought running through her head: then why are we headed there? He let her stew on that question for the remainder of their forty-five minute trip.

Dressrosa Square was, in a way, as Nami had described. The Dressrosa Mansion took up an entire block as the center, and ringing the mansion's outer blocks were several restaurants, fashion boutiques, pubs, and specialty shops. Around the mansion were flowing flower gardens with walkways for tourists to walk through. The mansion itself was available to be toured throughout the day as well. It looked like an up and up area.

If only one knew the truth.

There was also a night club on the outer block of Dressrosa squire. This club was called Joker's, and had a very strict waiting list. Joker's, which always had a line waiting outside of it from dusk until dawn, was where they were headed. Law had the cabbie drop them off at the mansion's main gate and waited for the cab to disappear around the block before leading Nami across the street and down the block to Joker's. The club was closed at this time of day, but that didn't mean there was no one occupying the building.

Law banged on the door of the main entrance hard. He wasn't a patient man by nature, so when no one answered after a mere half minute, he banged on the door again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," complained Caesar Clown, opening the door. "I heard you, I heard you."

"Took you long enough," Law complained right back. "If I had been late because of you, I'd have ripped that stolen heart from your chest with my bare hands."

Caesar didn't look to happy at the prospect. "Butcherer."

"That's the pot calling the kettle black," Law smirked. He nudged Nami through the door.

"What's this?" Caesar asked, intrigued by Nami. He caressed her bruised cheek and Nami swung out fast and decked him. "Fuck!"

"Careful," Law chuckled. "This little Cat-Burglar has claws."

But even as he said it, he watched Nami slightly curl in on herself again. The action had its consequences. Before Caesar could enact his revenge, Law prodded Nami forward down some stairs.

"Hurry up," Law commanded. "I don't wanna be late."

They wouldn't be late; it was only seven-forty-eight. But though Law wanted Nami to learn some humility, and taking a beating from Caesar was certainly one way to learn it, Law didn't want to explain to the boss why Nami was practically dead when he brought her to him.

Also, he pretty much despised Caesar, so…

Nami made it down the stairs slowly and he directed her to the room to the right. It was the boss's private meeting room. Only members of the boss's gang were allowed in here. Law looked around and saw a mish-mash of faces he knew and coincidentally, also despised: Trebol, Diamante, Pica, Monet, and some of their subordinates. Even Corazon was there.

Full house, then.

The only face missing was the boss's. Law directed Nami over to a couch to sit. Sitting probably wasn't any less painful than standing, but Law noticed something peculiar: she was moving like she wasn't hurting. He knew she was, but she was faking it pretty damn well. Aside from the visible wounds, no one probably would have been the wiser.

His respect for her raised minutely.

They waited until near eight on the dot before the boss walked in. He had on his usual sunglasses and that hideous giant pink feathered coat, despite it being the middle of summer. He grinned widely when he took sight of them. He advanced on them quickly, which wasn't hard for him to do because of his long legs. But then again, everything about the boss was long—his legs, his torso, his arms. He was over seven foot.

"There's my girl," he purred at Nami. Law watched as Monet bristled. The boss held out his hand to Nami and she didn't hesitate to take it. Law's respect rose again. He knew that she was terrified of him.

The boss gently pulled Nami to her feet and then to the center of the room. He then spun her in a slow circle, still grinning all the while.

"Well, I dare say that you've been giving Crocodile a hard time," the boss said, wiping the dried blood away from her upper lip. "What, pray tell, did you do to deserve such a rebuke?"

"I spit in his face," she managed to say without much rasp in her voice. Law's eyes widened. She did what?

The boss laughed heartily for nearly half a minute. "Ah, my lovely girl, you are a treasure! A Diamond in the rough! To think that you had the gall to stand up to such a man! Half of my own subordinates wouldn't even do that. I see that I picked the right candidate."

Murmurs erupted. Law kept a poker face. He'd heard rumors about this, but no one had heard anything concrete about there being candidates. The boss finally addressed the whole room.

"I've been thinking," he announced, "that my empire is ready to grow. To do that, I need candidates for lead positions. These candidates will take over certain parts of One Piece, as directed by me. This little flower, who has the ballsiness to stand up to another Shichibukai, she just may have what it takes to head my organization in the East Blue."

Law smirked. Yep, that had been what the rumors were. Only the underlings of Trebol's, Diamante's and Pica's groups looked like they had no prior knowledge to this. But one thing was for sure: absolutely no one looked happy.

"Why is Trafalgar Law's face the only one smiling?" the boss asked slowly. "Does no one else wish to help head this organization? Should I go out and seek more new subordinates?"

"Come now, boss," Monet's voice spoke up. "You've scared them. They're all worried that you're going to oust them from their jobs."

Like she was one to talk. The smile that had finally graced Monet's face was one full of malice.

"Perhaps I should, be they so ungrateful," the boss shrugged. "I have three more positions open; North, South, and West Blue. Though for the North Blue, I imagine Law would be willing to take over that area for me. But if no one's interested in the other Blues…"

Suddenly it was a bidding war. Everyone was speaking up all at once to claim candidacy for a Blue. Law smirked at the morons that were playing right into the boss's hands. Little did they know what it meant to be one of the boss's Suits.

The Suits were code-named after the suits of cards. To call Nami a Diamond meant that she was considered now to be one of the boss's Suits, and subject to all the so-called 'perks' of it. Law had been the Heart for years, stealing the hearts from those his boss told him to kill since the age of twelve. Just who would become the Spade and the Club? It was an intriguing question.

"For now," the boss spoke up, "let's just say that I will be keeping an eye on my little family and will know who to choose to help lead my organization by the acts they perform…"

The rabble died down after that. There wasn't much to discuss beyond that, so within fifteen minutes of starting the oh-so-important-had-to-start-first-thing-in-the-morning meeting, it was over. Law was annoyed, but not surprised.

"My dear Surgeon, would you speak with me for a moment?" the boss asked. Law was instantly on edge. Surely, the boss wasn't in the mood for that this early in the morning?

"Yeah, boss?" Law asked, standing and approaching Nami and the boss.

"Do make sure to take care of my beautiful Diamond a little better," the boss commanded. "I do like to be the one to break my toys. It would be a shame if I paid out a King's ransom for this little Diamond only to have her broken before I can play with her."

Law watched Nami out of the corner of his eye. Though she remained stoic, he saw that her jaw tightened at the idea of being played with by their boss. Yep, she was terrified of the boss.

"Sure," Law agreed, knowing that his ass would be on the line if Nami got the shit knocked out of her again under his watch. "No problem."

"Good," the boss said, smiling widely. "Now, I want this business of Crocodile's sorted by the end of next week. He's not paying nearly enough to be using two of my subordinates, and my goodwill towards another Shichibukai is running thin."

Law nodded in understanding. Either the Nefeltari heir had to be found within the next week, or Law would have to find a reason for the boss to pull them from their assignment to Crocodile; namely, a reason to turn on Crocodile. One look at Nami had Law hoping they found the Nefeltari heir. Turning on Crocodile didn't seem like a very good idea.

The boss gave him one last creepy grin before going off to chat with Monet, who was waiting by the door to talk to him. Nami was still holding herself together, but Law could see cracks in her composure. And bloodstains on her shirt. She was still bleeding somewhere.

"Let's blow this place," Law suggested, heading for the door as well. The boss and Monet were still standing there talking, but when Law approached, the two separated to let him pass. Apparently, Monet wasn't going to be so generous to Nami.

Law only heard a slight scuffle before he turned around and saw Nami holding a gun to Monet's head, aimed right between the eyes. Monet looked displeased to say the least, but she was at least smart enough to know she was not in charge of that moment.

"Look, lady," Nami snapped. "I get it, you don't like me. Well guess what? I don't like you either."

The boss was almost shaking with silent chuckles of amusement. Law was pretty impressed too, considering that the gun Nami held to Monet's head was one of the boss's. So she had picked a gun off of the boss? That was beyond ballsy. It was plain suicidal.

"Now, we have two choices," Nami continued, ignoring her small audience. "We can either agree to not like each other and leave it at that, or I can splatter your brains on the carpet."

"You wouldn't dare," Monet challenged. Nami's eyes narrowed and she pulled the trigger.

Monet was lucky that the boss liked her. He had reached out lightening quick and pushed Nami's hand up so the bullet went sailing up to the ceiling. Monet looked shocked for a second before she turned livid.

"That's enough now, my lovelies," the boss commanded, taking his gun back. Monet's outrage showed clear on her face.

"She would have killed me!" she squawked. "That bitch would have killed me!"

"Touch me again, and you won't get lucky," Nami threatened Monet. The boss put a hand on each of their shoulders.

"I said, that's enough," he repeated in a low voice. "Monet, go wait for me in my office."

Monet looked like she'd rather throw down with Nami right then and there, but she moved on down the hall. The boss turned to Nami.

"I would prefer it if you didn't kill my other subordinates," he said resignedly, "but I won't say that Monet didn't have it coming. Will you trust me to deal with her?"

Nami appraised him silently for a moment. "Fine."

"Good girl," the boss praised. "Now, go on and get out of here, before I have to break up another attempted murder."

Law smirked. The way the boss had said it, it sounded like he was proud of her. Maybe he was. The boss knew things about people that ordinary people didn't know. Maybe he'd known, that night back in Arlong Park, what kind of girl Nami was even before he'd decided to buy her.

Law and Nami made their way up the stairs towards the door. Once outside, Law hailed another taxi. Nami kept up her façade until they were in the cab and rolling down the street. Then she curled up on herself again and tried not to move. Law chuckled at her discomfort, but remembered the boss's request to keep Nami in better condition. He was going to have to take care of her wounds.

They made it back to the clinic by a little after nine. Nami got out of the cab and started shuffling in the direction of the orphanage while Law paid the cabbie. He grabbed her before she could get very far.

"Come on," he said. "We're not done yet."

"Damn it," she muttered. "Can't you wait like a day or so? Until I don't feel like I've been through the meat tenderizer?"

Law ignored her plea and dragged her into the clinic. The boy from yesterday, Kohza or whatever, was awake and being seen to by Law's father. Law ignored them and grabbed a jar from one of the cabinets and resumed dragging Nami up to his room.

"Take off your shirt," Law ordered as he kicked the door to his room shut with his heel. He locked the door for good measure, so Tsu didn't walk in on him.

"I'll pay," she offered while he backed her into the wall. "I'll pay five thousand berries if you wait until tomorrow."

"Just take off your damn shirt," Law ordered, quickly losing patience. Nami groaned and pulled her shirt over her head. As he had suspected, there were lashings all down her torso. Some of them were still oozing, too. Law took in the other superficial scratches and bruises as he unscrewed the jar of salve and dipped two fingers into it.

As generous as he was feeling, he still wasn't a nice person in general, so he simply started smearing the salve onto her wounds without warning, applying firm pressure to insure that the salve went deeply into the wounds. Nami yelped and tried to move away, but being stuck between him and the wall left her with little option of where she could go. Eventually she did stop struggling, probably feeling the numbing effects of the salve starting to kick in.

Law finished with her torso and spread the salve on the bruises of her neck. It wouldn't do much in terms of helping her voice along, but it would make the bruises fade faster. Done with that, his eyes swept downward.

"Skirt too," Law told her. Nami only sighed in annoyance this time, but quickly followed orders. She was still moving pretty gingerly now that it was just him around, so it took longer than Law had the patience for to remove it. Law tsked and shoved her roughly onto the bed.

"Hey!" she protested. Law ignored her, sliding her skirt off the rest of the way. More lashes on her legs. Well, damn. Apparently she'd really pissed off Crocodile. Law wasn't sure that the boss would have approved of this much damage to one of his toys.

"So you spit in his face," Law said. "What'd he say that made you do that?"

"That he was getting off on hurting me," Nami answered.

"Why'd he start beating the shit out of you in the first place?" Law asked. "Is he one of those sadistic fucks who blow their load after beating the shit out of you?"

"Probably," Nami replied. Law looked up from his application of the salve to see her looking tired as hell and all but falling asleep on his bed. He pinched her leg. "What?"

"Why'd he beat the hell out of you?" he repeated more insistently. Law had to know. If there was something that pushed Crocodile's buttons, it was information worth having.

"Because I told him what you told me to say," she snapped. "About you lubing me up for him. He started whipping me and claiming ownership of me—"

"He doesn't own you," Law interrupted, irritated.

"I know," she hissed. "I said that too and he tried to choke me. So I fought back."

Law was slightly impressed, but also slightly exasperated. She actually fought back? Against Crocodile? And she had passed on his message? Those were both ballsy, but stupid moves.

"You're smarter than that," he reminded her.

"What the fuck do you care?" she asked, probably trying to sound abrasive, but it came out more of a mumble since she was on the verge of falling asleep. But she had a point. What did he care?

"I don't," he told her, but she was already asleep. Law shook his head in annoyance before kicking off his shoes and climbing on the bed too. It was a tight fit; the two of them on a full size bed. But he was too fucking tired to care. He decided to sleep away the rest of the morning, and hopefully most of the afternoon.

.o0o.

Law's cell phone was what woke him up a several hours later. He sighed and ignored it, burying his face in his pillow. When it went off a second time, Law reached one hand down into his pocket and dug out the phone. He cracked one eye open to see who was calling.

Crocodile.

Law groaned and answered the phone. "Yeah."

"Where is she?" Crocodile asked.

"Here at my place," Law answered, knowing he meant Nami.

"I want her here within the hour," Crocodile ordered.

"I ain't done with her yet," Law said, though he really didn't have any more business with Nami. He was just pissed that he'd been woken up and wanted to get a rise out of Crocodile. It worked beautifully.

"She will be in my office in the next thirty minutes," Crocodile demanded, "or I will call your boss and tell him you are being disobedient. And I know what happens to disobedient children in Donquixote's organization. Do you?"

"Yeah, I do," Law admitted. "But you go ahead and call him. See what happens."

Dead silence on the other end of the line.

"You are trifling with the wrong man, Trafalgar Water," Crocodile warned him. "Maybe you've forgotten who you're working for."

Law smirked. "I know exactly who I work for. You just don't know who you're dealing with."

Law swore that he could hear Crocodile's teeth grinding over the phone.

"But I suppose I can send Nami your way," Law conceded finally. "She might not make it in thirty minutes, though. She's moving pretty slow since you beat the ever-living shit out of her."

"Maybe you should heed the warning of what kind of punishment comes from smarting off to me," Crocodile advised coolly.

"Uh huh," Law replied, shaking Nami awake. She was not quick to wake up. "Look, I'm sending her your way now."

"Wise boy," Crocodile patronized. Just for that comment, Nami was walking. Fuck it. Let him beat the shit out of her again. Law would survive the punishment, but Crocodile wouldn't.

"Get up," Law prodded as he hung up the phone. "Time to go, toots."

Nami groaned as she sat up. Her hair was even more of a haystack than it had been earlier that day. There were more bruises too. But that was normal. Things always looked worse before they got better. She struggled to get her clothes back on and Law finally decided to take pity on her and at least make sure her hair looked somewhat normal.

"You got about twenty minutes to make it back to the orphanage," Law informed her. "That pompous asshole is in a state of irritation about something again. I wouldn't be late if I were you."

Nami only sighed in response. Her limping was worse as she moved to his door. Law followed her. Luckily, they didn't run into Tsu or his mother on the way to the clinic area. His so-called father was in his office, but that blonde kid was still there and looking alert again.

"The hell?" he mumbled as Nami shuffled past. "How's Vivi? Is she alright?"

"Probably," Nami croaked. "Stay away from her for awhile. It'll do you both some good."

The blonde looked like he would not be following such an order.

"Since you probably missed it while you were passed out," Nami added before walking out the door, "you should know that Crocodile is going to do a cleansing. You should take my advice."

The blonde looked a little disturbed. Actually, panicked was probably a better word. But Law didn't really care about the blonde, so he just grabbed a bottle of pain killers and followed Nami out the door. She hadn't made it very far, but it looked like she was heading toward the street to hail a cab.

"You got money for a cab?" Law inquired, handing her the pain pills. "Because I ain't paying for you."

"Why are you being so…helpful?" Nami asked him, sounding suspicious as she took the bottle of pills.

"What?" Law asked.

"The pain killers, fixing my hair, the salve," she listed off. "You're doing an awful lot for someone who supposedly doesn't care."

"You heard the boss," Law excused himself. "I'm supposed to keep you in better shape."

She eyed him critically for a moment before she turned away and looked down the street again. "I don't need money for a cab. I have a stalker. I'll get a ride from him."

Law's eyebrows dropped in confusion. "A stalker?"

Nami pointed down the street where there was a beat up sedan parked. "Smoker."

"He hasn't been following us all day, has he?" Law asked.

"Probably not," Nami dismissed. "I didn't see him around at Dressrosa Square."

'Good,' Law thought. Alerted to the former detective's presence, Law took in his surroundings a little more closely. Usually, this close to home, he didn't worry about it. His home had previously belonged to the Fishman Village territory, and his father had a deal worked out with Arlong, but now that Arlong was gone, who knew what was lurking. He should have been more attentive.

Immediately, something felt off.

Law reached out and grabbed Nami's arm, ready to drag her back into the clinic. Three things happened simultaneously: the beat up sedan pulled out of its parking space and rolled toward them. A man who had been previously walking on the other side of the street abruptly changed his path and crossed the street towards them. A car with blacked out windows parked next to them rolled down the window a couple of inches to point a gun straight at them.

Well, not them. The gun was aimed at Law. Regardless, he didn't let go of Nami, who was staring at the guy crossing the street.

"Sabo?" she asked, looking rather flustered. Law finally recognized the man. It was the blonde from the ambulance. Shit.

"Hey, babe," he greeted easily, reaching out to envelope her into his arms. Still, Law did not let go. The man called Sabo hugged Nami briefly and smiled down at her, caressing her check. Eyes still trained on Nami, he addressed Law. "If you don't remove that hand, Bunny Joe is going to put two in your chest."

"You wanna do this in broad daylight?" Law countered. "In front of a district attorney and witnesses?"

Sabo shrugged. "Honestly don't give two fucks."

Law believed him. His lot were the Dragon's Brood. Those had been the ones who had brought down the building back at Arlong Park. They were a reckless bunch who usually didn't care about body counts.

"Can the pissing contest be over now?" Nami asked, pushing free of Sabo and yanking her arm from Law. "Look, I don't have time for this. I have to get back to the orphanage—"

"Don't worry about that place anymore," Sabo dismissed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and began directing her to the car with blacked out windows. "You're coming with us."

"The hell she is."

Law was annoyed with the entire situation. First the Brood was butting in, now the district attorney. It couldn't possibly get any worse. Smoker had double parked his car in front of the clinic and gotten out. He was walking towards the three of them now.

"I really need to get back to the orphanage," Nami insisted, ducking under Sabo's arm. "I have to be there in fifteen minutes."

"What's in fifteen minutes?" Smoker asked suspiciously. Nami rolled her eyes at him.

"Curfew," she replied dully. "Can we go now?"

"Nami—" Sabo tried, grabbing for her again.

"I'm fine, Sabo," Nami assured him. "I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me anymore."

"You're going to tell me that, looking like that?" Sabo snapped back.

"I just got into a fight is all," Nami lied. Law grew irritated with the lovers' spat. He shook his head and turned around to head back into the clinic. A hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Just where the fuck do you think you're going?" Sabo asked. Law glanced behind him and saw Nami climb into Smoker's car.

"I'm done with this bullshit," Law muttered. "Go chase your girlfriend or whatever. Leave me the fuck alone."

"She 'get into a fight' with you?" Sabo guessed, spinning Law around and taking two handfuls of shirt. "My brothers told me about you. About how you're supposedly her boyfriend, but a few weeks ago, you didn't even know her name."

"Right back at you," Law spat. "And I didn't beat her bloody. It was that fuck who runs the orphanage."

Law watched as Sabo fought internally with himself on whether or not to believe him.

"You lied to me straight faced before," Sabo said. "Why should I believe you now?"

Law rolled his eyes. "Don't believe me, I don't care. But while you're here debating, she's heading back there to the man who whipped the shit out of her."

Sabo's fists tightened for a moment around Law's shirt before he roughly shoved him away.

"I'll be back for you," Sabo promised him. "Count yourself lucky at the moment."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Law dismissed, turning to walk back into the clinic. "Whatever you say lover boy."

Behind him, the car with the blacked out windows pulled out into traffic and sped away. Law went upstairs into his room and grabbed his nodachi. He was heading for the orphanage too. There was no way he was going to miss this showdown.

Or be caught by the enemy empty-handed again.

A/N: So it's been awhile. Like a year and a half. Shit man. Covid. Sucks. Anyway, here's to hoping it doesn't take another year and a half to post again. Let me know if anyone's still reading or if you've all given up hope on me.