This was the second time within a few days that you walked into your house sopping wet.

"You took your sweet time." Kid commented as he shoveled pizza into his mouth. "That was like, what, an hour?"

"Yep." You grimaced as you kicked off your shoes and tossed them back outside to dry off and felt water begin to seep into the carpet from your socks. "You've got clean jeans in the dryer Law." You said as you passed both men to go to your room for a fresh change of clothes.

The room was messy, just as you thought it'd be after suffering a night with Kid in it. Bedsheets were wadded up in a pile on your bed, the dresser looked like he'd peeked in the drawers and didn't close them fully. Most of your decorative knickknacks and such were all in the wrong spots. You sighed as you took it all in. None of your stuff felt like yours anymore.

"What're you doing in here?" Kid growled. He'd trailed after you for some ungodly reason.

"Well it's my room and it happens to also have my clothes. Do me a favor and don't go through my stuff again." You snapped, bad mood returning with a vengeance.

"I didn't touch anything." He said with a snicker, still shoveling food in his face.

"Okay." You clenched your teeth and it took everything in you to not punch him in the jaw. "You and Law need to go sit down and we're going to have a talk."

"Don't wanna."

"I didn't ask if you wanted to, I told you that's what's going to happen, so move your happy ass to a chair somewhere and wait for me to change." You glared daggers at him as you pointed to the doorway.

Kid licked his lips and drew himself to his full, intimidating height, giving you a malicious grin as he stepped forward.

"Who are you to make demands sweetheart?" He flexed his metal limb, closing the large hand into a fist.

You didn't back up. He was scary, sure, but you've had a bad week and weren't in the mood to be cowed by the red beast. "I took your happy ass shopping, bought you new clothes, let you stay and have a roof over your head, and," You pointed to the remnants of his meal on the plate he held. "fed you. If you would like me to continue to take care of you, I suggest you do what I said."

"Or what?" He snarled.

"Or I take the clothes I just bought you out back and start a fire. I'm not one to waste but I'd have no problem tossing out all those groceries too." You shrugged. "And I might just decide you aren't worth helping."

He was furious. You could see the muscles in his jaw go taut, his amber eyes burn with rage. He was fully expecting you to cower and beg for his forgiveness. Nope, you weren't about to play that game.

"I could kill you, snap your neck like a twig." He hissed in his anger.

"Then do it." You answered flatly.

You weren't one to throw your life away but so much had been happening and you felt like your life was spiraling out of control. In that moment you truly wouldn't have minded if he did just that. You had college acquaintances but no friends, the ones you had in the past you'd lost touch with years ago. The family you cared about had all passed away. All you had was a house to your name and a degree to work towards. And you weren't even sure why you were even in school, it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

"What?" Kid was taken aback by your cool demeanor.

"Either do it or quit making empty threats." You said. "Now if you aren't going to kill me, I'd appreciate it if you'd go sit down and wait for me to finish up in here."

He took in your appearance like he was seeing you for the first time. Exhaustion hung around you like a dark cloud, there was a distant look to your eyes, like you weren't quite there but somewhere in your mind instead. Your clothes were dripping water onto the carpet that greedily soaked it up but you didn't seem to mind. There was too much going on in your life to care about the little things. But at the same time, you didn't have much to focus on anymore.

Kid let out a growl of distaste. "Fine. Make it snappy, I want this done."

"That makes two of us." You said to no one in particular as he left the room, slamming the door closed behind him. At least he had the courtesy to close it.

You changed into something clean quickly, settling for a pair of sweatpants and a loose fitted tee. Comfortable and modest. Couldn't be too careful with a couple strange men living in your house temporarily. When you came back out, both Kid and Law were sitting in the living room. The latter had on a fresh pair of jeans but you hadn't gotten around to cleaning the rest of their new clothes, so he opted to go without a shirt. It gave you a view of the other tattoos adorning his torso. They were well done and held their color like they were still new, or at least only a couple years old at most. You couldn't be sure.

While he had reclined back into the couch, clearly at ease with himself, Kid had hunched over in the rocking chair. He was sitting at the edge, arms slung across his thighs and head downcast as he glared at the floor. You'd managed to put him in a sour mood.

"Eustass-ya said you wanted to talk?" Law asked casually.

You nodded. "So here's the deal, for the sake of my sanity, I'm going to need to put some rules in place while you're here."

Law raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"First off, don't touch my shit." That was directed to Kid. "You're here temporarily, in theory, so I'd like to treat it as such. So don't make yourselves comfortable. Secondly, we'll find your weird orb but we'll go at my pace. You're more than welcome to check around the house and woods all you want but if we need to check other places, we'll have to do it around my schedule. I have school work to do still and I plan on staying on top of it. And third, if you want my help, what I say goes around this house. If I tell you to jump I want you to ask how high."

Kid's mouth twisted into a snarl as he got ready to say something in return. He didn't seem to like being told what to do.

"And of you can't work with any of that, you're more than welcome to leave. I'm providing for two crazy ass men who demanded I help find some stupid object. Keep that in mind if you decide I'm not being fair."

"Though it's not typical for someone in your position to make such calls, it's all understandable." Law answered smoothly. "You don't seem like the type of person to make outrageous requests so I'm fine with it."

"Good." You turned your attention to Kid.

He was watching you from his peripherals, head still downcast with the snarl fading from his face. It was slowly being replaced with a deep set frown.

"We're not crazy." He growled.

"Well from my perspective you are, so deal with it. Are you staying or are you out?"

He grumbled something under his breath.

"I'm not playing these games tonight."

"I'm in!" He snapped.

"Alright." You crossed your arms. "Law if you're hungry Kid can show you how to make one of those pizzas."

"I don't like bread." He blurted out, scrunching his nose up in disgust.

"Of course you don't." You sighed. "Eat whatever then. You're a grown man, you can figure it out. Just don't burn down the house."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to bed. There's a paper I need to finish first thing in the morning and studying I have to do."

"So we start the search when you're done?" Kid asked grumpily.

"Yep."

"How long will that take?"

"Depends on how long I can go without being distracted."

He got the hint.

After a moment of silence you headed to your current bedroom, assuming they were both done with this talk. "I'm calling it a night, do whatever."

When you were out of sight, Law turned to Kid. "What'd you do to aggravate her?"

"Piss off."

They both stared each other down intensely, refusing to get along, as always.

"As much as I hate to say it, we're in this together Eustass-ya. Don't ruin things by dissuading her from helping."

"I'm not trying to fuck with her." He grit his teeth as he spoke, trying to control his temper. "Something about her just pisses me off."

"Deal with it. She's our ticket back home."

"I know."

----

While you passed out easily the night before, you hardly got any sleep this time and ended up getting out of bed before the sun was even up. You were smart this time and brought some clothes into Wren's room so you wouldn't have to worry about not being able to get to any. You also figured if you were going to be searching around for their mysterious item, you'd need to dress accordingly. So jeans, a tee, and boots it was.

Once again, you spent another morning doing school work, this time in the house. The entire time you typed away, you had a headache building that no amount of coffee could tame. But you pushed through it and got the paper done before the guys even woke up. From there you moved on to dragging out one of your heavy textbooks and going through the chapters for one of your classes. The professor was a real slave driver and had you reading a few chapters a day, if you could keep up that was. At least they were nice enough to give you more leeway with your current situation. If only they knew what all you were exactly putting up with.

You placed your textbook in your lap for a moment to rub your temples as the headache began to demand your attention.

"Schoolwork that hard huh?" Law remarked as he stepped out of the hallway, dressed the same as last night, nothing but jeans. You'd have to get laundry going again as soon as Kid woke up so they'd have clean shirts.

"No, it's not. My head's just killing me."

He frowned as his whole demeanor shifted. "Have you been drinking enough water? Or do you have problems with allergies?"

"Yes to the first, no for the second." You sighed and leaned your head back, closing your eyes for a moment in hopes to dull the throbbing.

"Hmm." He shuffled about until you could feel his presence standing in front of you. "I think I know what your problem is."

"Really?" You answered sarcastically. "Oh please tell me doctor."

He chuckled. "You know I actually am a doctor."

"Coolio." You mumbled, not really caring all that much.

You don't know when it happened, but at some point in the past couple days, you'd stopped feeling the need to be wary around him or Kid. They hadn't done anything to hurt you yet and though they were annoying, they weren't aggressive. Well, not to the point that they'd scared you any. Kid was pretty bad about it but you assumed he was used to spooking people into giving him what he wanted.

"When's the last time you ate anything?" Law asked.

"Ummmmm." You opened your eyes and furrowed your brows. He had a point. It'd been a while since you thought about eating anything. "Before you guys showed up."

He sighed. "I'm surprised all you have is a headache. Let's get some food in you."

The fact that it was him saying you needed food made you want to say no out of sheer stubbornness, but the more responsible part of you said he was right.

You got up and went to the kitchen with him practically breathing down your neck. He probably wouldn't leave until you had something in you. Problem was, even though you knew you needed something, you still didn't feel hungry and most of what you had didn't even look good. You looked through the fridge with a frown on your face, trying to figure out what you could stomach.

"Just eat something." Law huffed.

"Nothing sounds good."

"Pick something you think you can tolerate and I promise you'll find your appetite."

You did as he said, settling for (f/f) you had bought just in case you'd feel up to eating it. When you sat at the down at the dining room table, he sat across from you, watching intently. He'd snagged an apple for himself while you weren't looking, which was fine by you. That meant you wouldn't have to direct him on cooking like you did Kid the night before.

"You say it like you've had the same problem before." You said as you started picking at your breakfast.

"Losing someone can be very hard, especially when you were very close to them. It's difficult to go on with life like normal afterwards and sometimes even the most basic tasks become a chore."

"I thought you said you were a doctor, not a psychologist."

"I did." He smiled and took a bite of the apple. "Though where I come from, it's not uncommon for doctors to cover mental health too. To some degree at least."

You shook your head but didn't say anything.

"Don't believe we're from somewhere else yet, do you?"

"I'll believe it when I see proof."

"So you think we really are crazy?"

"Functioning more or less, but yeah. I think you're off your meds and need professional help."

"That hurts sweetheart." Kid sneered as he padded in the room and threw himself in the chair beside you. He was dressed almost identically to Law, but at least he had put on the vest he wore when you first saw him. It covered about half of the wide expanse of his chest but left his scars visible.

You rolled your eyes and went to go in for another bite of food, only to realize there was none left. You'd gone through it fast, just like Law said you would. And your headache was beginning to fade as well. All you'd have to do from now on is force feed yourself from what you could tell. That was doable.

"We already showed you proof, remember?" Kid wiggled his fingers a bit as your kitchen knives floated out of their block and into the dining room, dancing in the air above your head.

"Telekinesis." You said like there was no other answer.

"It's metal manipulation."

"Sure thing big guy."

"We don't need you to believe us to help." Law interrupted. "But it would be nice. Either way, you said we'd start looking for real today."

"Yeah. It'd be easier to know where exactly to search if you had an idea of where it could have landed."

"All I can be positive of is it landed somewhere outdoors." Law shrugged. "We did after all."

"Okay.....do you have an idea of the radius we should search."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it landed miles away from us."

"Perfect." You groaned. "I don't know why I thought this might be easy."

"So what's our plan then? Start in the immediate area and work out way out?" Kid offered.

"That'd take ages." You tapped a finger on the wood surface of the table.

"We'll split up." Law said. "I've already started searching around the house and woods so I can pick up where I left off. Eustass-ya, (Y/n)-ya, you can look out a bit further together."

"Is this because you think I'll run off?" You didn't like the idea of having a chaperone.

"Eustass-ya knows exactly what the orb looks like, he can identify it if you find it."

"And what if I decide to head back without you if I find it?" Kid tilted his head and wore a devilish smirk. He'd do just that in a heartbeat, you didn't doubt it.

"You won't because I want him gone too." You pointed at Law.

"And there you have it." Law gave a satisfactory smile. "You two will keep each other in check and I can promise I won't leave Eustass-ya behind if I find it first either. I promised we'd both leave and I'm a man of my word."

You weren't sure how much his word was worth, but it was the best you were going to get.

"Sounds like a plan to me." You got up and they did the same. "We'll get started after I get some more laundry done."

Looking over the two half naked men, that seemed like a good idea. If others saw them like this, they would be questioning on where they came from. Everyone knew just about everyone else around here, or at least knew faces. They'd stick out even worse than they already did if they weren't properly covered.

"Let's get it done and get to it then." Law said.

Kid nodded.

They could agree on one thing apparently.