" love me, love me not. " - Lulaw

06

Law's POV
☆☆☆ = pause in flashback
•••
The next few weeks were amazing. I enjoyed the long nights and early mornings in Luffy's arms. Since the party, Kidd had been much more obedient. Things were going good.
"Traffy?" Luffy said one night, as the lights were off and we were ready to sleep.
"Yeah?" I said quietly, my voice laced with sleep. Luffy was playing with my hair absent mindedly.
"I want to know what happened."
"With what?"
"The past two years." Luffy had settled into my arms, his arms around my torso and his head buried into my neck.
I sighed. "It's a bit of a long story."
"I'll listen."
I felt a pout form on my lips, and he pulled my face down lightly to kiss me.
"What is it?" Luffy asked.
"I think... I think your brothers should know too." Luffy smiled.
"Okay."
***
Flashback - 4 years ago
"Meeting."
•••
I spent most of my high school years with a joint friend group. I had mine, and Luffy had his. But the two groups did pretty much everything together. It started with Bepo and Chopper, and this slowly evolved into our entire groups hanging out. Luffy however, took a strange liking to me in particular.
"Hi! I'm Luffy, but everybody around here just calls me Straw Hat!" He had said introducing himself to me one day.
"People call me Trafalgar," I muttered.
"Truh-Fager?" I rolled my eyes, and the two groups laughed.
"Truh-Fal-Ger" I said, repeating my name slower.
"Truh-F- nice to meet you Traffy!" I blushed.
"Get used to this, you're forever Traffy now, Traffy." A long-nosed boy had loudly whispered into my ear.
***
I didn't like him very much at first. In fact, I actually resented him. But he really wanted to be my friend for some strange reason. I had a class with him, and one of our teachers asked me to tutor him.
"Law," our homeroom teacher Ms.Tashigi started, "you're acing every class. Your friend Luffy here on the other hand... not so much. You should tutor him."
"WILL YOU TRAFFY!! WILL YOU?" The raven-haired boy jumped up and down excitedly.
"Sure." I agreed. It wasn't like I had much of a choice.
"YAY!!!" Luffy yelled enthusiastically. He didn't hesitate before jumping on me and knocking me down.
"Jeez Luffy, don't break his arm." I heard a low voice speak, and I realized it was their green-haired swordsman who was carrying a blonde.
"Yeah, yeah." Luffy pouted. He stood up and offered me a hand, which I took. "Is that Sanji?" Luffy asked.
"Yeah, he fell asleep during science I didn't want to wake him." Luffy smiled, and I could see the blush slowly spread across Zoro's face. He cleared his throat. "So, I overheard you're tutoring Luffy, Law, wasn't it?"
"Uh, yeah." I said, effectively confirming both parts of his sentence.
He laughed. "Good luck with that, his brother Sabo gave up long ago."
"YOUR BROTHER IS SABO???" I yelled in absolute astonishment
"quiet, San- er, Curly-Brow is asleep." Zoro whisper yelled.
"Sorry," I said.
"Yeah? Sabo's my brother! Ace is too. They're the bestest brothers in the world!" I suddenly felt Luffy's full body weight lean on me.
"So tired..." Luffy groaned. "Traffy, carry me." I wanted to yell something about how I just met him a couple months ago, but I knew it wouldn't matter. So I sighed and let him climb onto my back. He fell asleep immediately.
Zoro smiled. "Guess we're in the same boat. Ace wouldn't be very fond of Luffy staying at some rando's house, so if you don't mind I'll drop Blondie here off at mine and then I can drive you to the ASL brother household." I nodded in agreement.
"Are you two-" I began to ask out of curiosity.
"No. Not in a million years." I knew this was a lie, but I simply responded with a quick "oh" and called it a day
***
"Luffy," I said softly to wake him up. He hummed a response.
"I need you to open the door to your house, I doubt your brothers would be very fond of some random guy walking into their house with their brother sitting on his back."
Luffy smiled. "You're right."
***
We had been studying for an hour, and Luffy hadn't even paid attention most of the time.
I sighed. "Luffy isn't there anything I can do to get you to focus?"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!" Luffy yelled annoyed.
"Lu has ADHD," his brother Sabo explained from the living room. "and Ace watching TV out here definitely isn't helping. Try going to his room." Sabo suggested. Luffy having ADHD made perfect sense. He often bounced his leg and fidgets during class often. He also sleeps a lot. And he can never pay attention.
***
The weeks continued like this, Luffy eventually began to understand some of the concepts, and he asked questions when needed. I often brought food into the equation to cause him to focus and work towards a bigger goal. Until one day,
"Lu," I had picked this nickname up from his brothers, and he smiled everytime I said it.
"Yes?" He said quietly. I could tell he was tired.
"Let's make a deal. If you pass all your tests, I'll take you out for dinner and pay for everything." Luffy perked up.
"DEAL! But you have to take me to that new sushi place that just opened."
I smiled. "Okay."
He smiled back. "Okay. But now I need to sleep. I'm tired." He curled up into my lap, and I laid back on his bed.
"I need to go home." I said quietly. The truth was, I didn't really have a home to go back to. I spent most nights with Bepo, in a small apartment complex that barely fit the two of us.
"Stay here." Luffy mumbled.
"I don't have clothes to change into." I felt his arms wrap around my torso and I wrapped my arms around him in turn.
"I have a couple of your hoodies, and Sabo has slacks." I admitted defeat, and let myself sink into Luffy's comfortable bed. Luffy buried his head into my neck, and I was surprised at how intimate I was letting him be.
"Hey, Luffy?" I heard a female voice, but I didn't open my eyes to check who it was. Whoever it was, she sounded tired, like she'd been crying.
"Nami?" Luffy whispered tiredly into my neck. I felt a little embarrassed, and felt myself blush at the current position Luffy and I were currently in.
"Oh, hey Trafalgar." The orange-haired girl said quietly.
"Is everything okay?" Luffy asked. This set something off inside of the girl, and she began crying. Luffy jumped up abruptly, and elbowed me promptly in the ribs causing me to curse quietly.
"Hey, what happe-" Luffy began gently, but then he saw bruises on her arms and torso. "Who did this to you." It was said in a commanding tone, rather than a questioning one.
"It's- it's nothing." She was avoiding eye contact with me, I didnt know if she was embarrassed or not, but I now know the reason why:
I talked to Kidd. The very person who did this to her.
"Please, ola del océano. Tell me who did this to you." (Side note: Ola del océano means ocean wave. Nami's name roughly translates to ocean wave.)
I blushed, not expecting the sudden Spanish. I had forgotten he was hispanic.
"It doesn't matter." Luffy sighed, leaving the subject alone. He reached out to hug her but she flinched, and Luffy brought Nami to the bed.
Luffy laid his head on my shoulder, and clenched his hands into small fists.
"I'm calling Sanji." Luffy said sitting up after a while.
"Why?" Nami and I said at the same time.
"Food makes everything better." Nami looked at me and we both laughed for a second. The mood of the room instantly lightened.
Nami and I leaned our heads on Luffy's shoulders at the same time, and we fell asleep like that. Comfortable.
☆☆☆
"Wait," Ace looked puzzled. "I'm so confused. Kidd is an asshole, right?"
"Right." Luffy responded.
"But you liked Law and not Nami? And Nami didn't like you?" Ace continued.
"Right. Nami was crushing on Vivi back then, before she left."
"Okay. Zoro and Sanji weren't dating?"
"No, they just liked eachother."
"What the fuck."
"LANGUAGE!!" Sabo exclaimed.
"I'm the eldest."
"Only by three months!"
"Still makes me older." Ace teased back.
"SHUT UP, Traffy is telling a story."
I smiled. I loved their family.
I missed it. Missed all of it.
•••