~

Luffy stole glances at Law’s frown, then looked away whenever their eyes made contact. Law was checking the younger’s ankle to decide if Luffy was allowed to walk properly or not, it had been two weeks to the sprain anyway, Law was only deliberately torturing his boyfriend, the older knew Luffy was holding his breath, preparing himself for the worst.

“You’re ok.” Law said finally and took off his glasses.

“Does that mean we can go to the bar with the guys?” Luffy asked and cringed when Law groaned.

“I don’t like bars but if you want to go, you don’t need my permission.”

“But I wanna go with you.”

Law knew Luffy was pouting but the older had his back turned to put away his examination things. ”No thank you.”

“Why don’t you like bars?”

“There’s alcohol I can’t drink, people who always try to pick me up and get aggressive after a ‘no,’ the atmosphere is overwhelming on the senses, frankly, it sucks.”

“You sure you’re not just afraid that you would lose at the games and embarrass yourself?” Luffy hopped off the bed and grinned when Law rolled his eyes.

“Bars don’t have games in Flevance, Luffy.”

“That’s not what Peng said.”

“Peng’s lying then.” Law shrugged.

“Wait a second… if you don’t like going to bars, when was the last time you went to one and how do you know there are no games?” Luffy pushed.

“Being a smartass is not going to get you anywhere.”

“I just wanna spend time with you.” With the way Law looked Luffy over, it told the younger he was considering accompanying him. “I don’t wanna drink alcohol too so we could be juice buddies and I will keep the bad people away from you and if you lose at games, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“Half the world knows about me getting shot that one time, I am not trusting you to keep things to yourself.” Law rolled his eyes. “And I don’t lose, honey.”

“So we‘re going?”

“Sure why not.”

“Yay!” Luffy ran off to tell the other Hearts who were also going to the bar. Penguin was the one who actually suggested going since he had the next day off and it had been a while since he got wasted, his words, but the way Penguin was suggesting going to the bar had Law convinced that it was something else that was going on.

When it was time to go, Law decided to show Luffy how the older actually liked going to bars, putting his whole personality on display, so he got dressed into a low-neck, tight white tanktop, black leather pants, a black tight leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up enough to put the forearm tattoos on display. The black boots Law wore were two inches higher than his normal heeled boots.

“You’re going full out huh…” Penguin commented when he went to call Law for leaving.

“Well Luffy so graciously offered to keep the baddies away.” Law shrugged and put final touches on his black eyeliner, and, to seal the look, his black lipstick, his nails were already painted galaxy black from two days ago when Luffy wanted to do it for Law. The doctor left his hair untamed and his hat forgotten because he knew how much younger he looked without the white fluff on his head.

“Ok so Law…” The older of the two began, nervously, as Law put his things back. “There are going to be folks from the South Blue there at the bar, so… I just wanted to say please don’t start something if you’re provoked.”

Law raised an eyebrow at the heads-up, then the doctor smirked. “Are you dating one of them?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it was weird when you suggested we go, especially since your drinking buddy Shachi is busy at the hospital.”

“Yeah…” Penguin answered and went to leave.

“Wait, how long have you known this… person?” Law wasn’t sure which way his friend was swinging at the moment, in the past it had been all sorts of… people.

“Five-“

“Five years??? Peng!”

“In my defense, it was kinda on off-“ Penguin put his hands in front of him. “And your weird relationship with his friend was kinda coming between us a little so now that we can all see you’re invested in Luffy, we are trying again.”

“Wha-? My what with his friend? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Law shook his head.

“You will once we get to the bar, please don’t murder anyone.”

“You got it.”

“Thanks.” Penguin left before his friend remembered something else and held him up, he needed to talk to Luffy before Law found the younger. “Luffy!” Penguin spotted the young man in the lobby, munching on a chocolate bar.

“You guys good to go?” Luffy asked stuffing the wrapping in his pockets.

“Soon.” The older sat down beside Luffy and put a small package in his hand, talking in a small voice. “Luffy here, just in case.”

“What’s this and why are we whispering?” The younger looked at the grey pill in the clear packet.

“If Law gets drunk, if ok? Make him eat this, it knocks him right out.”

“Why would he get drunk?”

“Even if he isn’t supposed to drink, he sometimes gets rebellious and then there’s always a chance of someone spiking his drink so, this is a ‘just in case’, alright?”

Luffy looked at Penguin confused but nodded. “Ok.”

“What’re you two doing?” Law asked when he saw his friend and boyfriend sitting real close and whispering things.

“Peng’s showing me condoms!” Luffy cried, panicking, stuffing the pill in his back pocket.

“Why…? Are you looking for a hook-up, Mugiwara-ya?” Law raised an eyebrow and didn’t know how he felt about the question or how he would feel for whatever explanation Luffy had.

“Not for me! They’re his!” The younger got up and left Penguin to deal with the situation.

“Oh so it’s that kind of a date.” Law grinned eyeing his friend. “Make safe choices.”

“It- no- Luffy you-!” Penguin stammered and left hiding his face.

“Serves him right.” Law sniggered turning to his boyfriend. “You ready to go?”

“Do you usually go to bars like this?” Luffy asked craning his head up more than usual. “Are you taller now?”

“Yapp, shoes.” The older twisted his leg to show Luffy the heel on his boots.

“How can you even walk in these? I tried Nami’s once and fell on my butt.”

“Nami wears pencil heels, and those, I’m not willing to put my muscles through those. Mine are block heels that support the entire shoe so they’re easier to walk in.”

“Can I try it later?”

“Sure, if you can keep a close-toed shoe on for more than five minutes.”

“Can I get the lipstick too? Torao pleaseeeeee.”

“Let’s see.” Law mused and kissed Luffy on the lips to transfer the lipstick. “Oops, its transfer proof. Better luck next time.”

“Not fair!”

It was some ten more minutes before everyone was ready to leave, Luffy missed his strawhat a lot so Law offered his own hat, which the younger gladly took. They booked cabs because nobody knew who was going to get how drunk. Law at least knew he was not drinking and he was fine with being everyone’s designated driver but they still decided to go car-less.

Once at the bar, Penguin immediately went to look for his date and all the other guys dissipated too, Luffy looked here and there for the games he was promised. Law’s phone dinged and he was being called to a corner booth by Penguin, he was standing with two other people, whom Law couldn’t make out because their backs were to him but the hair colors together were very familiar.

Law looked over his shoulder to see where his own boyfriend was and deemed it safe that Luffy was at least not at the bar counter, the older then made his way to his friend.

“Is he still as uptight as ever or has his boyfriend loosened him up a little, if you know what I mean?” Law heard a rough voice, a voice he thought he wouldn’t ever hear in North Blue of all places, a voice that belonged to a certain redhead.

“Is your nose doing better or did you manage to piss someone off and got it more crooked?” Law commented back as a way of greeting and heard two groans and sighs at the same time.

“Still got your snark huh, Trafalgar.” The redhead said.

“Still got that ugly face, Eustass-ya.”

“Play nice you two, seriously.” The blond said and Law silently nodded to Killer, then it connected and he grinned at Penguin.

“Yeah, Killer and I are dating.” Penguin said with a roll of his eyes.

“Are you both on some kind of steroids?” Law asked eyeing both Killer and Kidd, the last time he met them they weren’t that beefy.

“Kidd starting working out after you dumped him.” Killer laughed.

“That’s not what happened at all!” Kidd barked, his face as red as his hair.

“It’s not dumping when there was nothing going on.” Law rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Only you both say that.” Penguin stuck his tongue out and motioned for Law to go away so he could spend time with Killer.

“I’m going to go find Luffy.” Law said and left before more words were exchanged. The doctor found his boyfriend at the bar, getting laughed at. “I want to join in on the joke, what’s so funny?” Law asked the three men who were crowding Luffy and laughing, they turned to look at the newcomer.

“This pipsqueak ordered juice in a bar!” One of the guys said, making the other two laugh and the bartender sigh, Law saw Luffy roll his eyes.

“I will have what he’s having.” Law told the bartender and pushed through the three obnoxious men to stand beside Luffy. “And you all better scram quietly because I am in mood to bloody my hands.”

“Fags, we should have guessed.” Another of the guys said. “Tell me, what did you even come here for if not for drinking and not hooking up?”

“Oh games! Let’s go to the games Torao!” Luffy remembered he saw darts and a pool table in one corner and was actually looking for Law before he got distracted by the juice he saw the bartender pour for someone else.

“Games? Really?” The three men laughed again and Law was getting a headache. The surgeon took the juice he was handed and drank it leisurely, deliberately ignoring the idiots around him.

“Tell you what, if you want to play games so bad, let’s have a match.” The leader of the three said.

“You’re on!” Luffy agreed before Law could get a word in. “Leave us alone when we win.”

“As if you could win.”

“I’m choosing darts.” Law said and slid his glass back to the serving side. The doctor pushed himself off the counter and walked to the darts wall.

“Can you even see with how black your eyes are?” The men laughed again.

“I can see you losing.” Law smirked and handed the first of the darts to Luffy who was itching to play. “You guys can go first.”

The three men took turns with their darts and someone neutral kept score of the match. Law didn’t doubt his boyfriend but was still surprised when Luffy hit a bull’s-eye with all his darts.

“Your turn Torao.” Luffy handed the darts to Law, he was also ignoring the three men in favour of getting to enjoy the game with the older.

“Wanna make this interesting?” Law asked.

“Yeah!”

“Do you trust me?”

“What kind of a stupid question is that?” Luffy tilted his head with a frown.

“Sorry, it was stupid indeed.” Law chuckled and that creeped the three men away from them a little. “How about you stand in front of the target and I get to make very precise throws?”

“Sounds fun!” The younger agreed in less than a second and after handing Law his hat, went to stand in front of the target board, a guy put target dots very close to Luffy on the board and invited Law to take his aim.

“Celebratory alcohol after this, ok?” Law called Luffy who gave him a thumbs-up and winked. The three men gagged at the display but turned serious the moment Law made the first throw and it landed on its mark on the dot above Luffy’s head. The next few were half a centimeter away from Luffy’s ears, jaw and neck. It must have looked like Luffy’s face was pink from the anxious blood rushing to his face but it was actually that Torao was meeting all the marks and it was kind of hot the way the air stung a little from the dart that whizzed past so close, from the dart that Law threw.

“Hey where did the guys go?” Luffy asked stepping away from the dart board, observing Law’s handiwork and noticing that the assholes who started the fight were nowhere to be found.

“Admitted defeat I’d say.” Law shrugged and both the men went to the bar to get themselves a little drink.

“Nice show back there Trafalgar.” Law groaned when Kidd leaned beside him. “And are you actually drinking?”

“Go away, this was a nice drink.” The doctor said and turned his head towards Luffy who had his eyebrows raised in question because the younger obviously knew the redhead.

“It’s you.” Luffy pointed and peeked over Law’s hunched form. “The guy we’re selling the metal to, from South Blue. What was your name again? Child? Baby?” Law laughed at the repetition of events from a few months back.

“It’s Kidd! Damn you Mugiwara!” Kidd growled.

“Sorry sorry!” Luffy laughed. “How do you know Torao?”

“We used to…” The redhead started, then trailed off when he got confused on how to explain. “What did we used to do?” Kidd asked Law.

“I don’t know, it was a weird flirting?” Law provided just as confused about the nature of his past relationship with Kidd. The oldest looked at Luffy. “In my very bad days, we used to fight and drink- remember when I told you I got jaundiced from drinking a lot one time? That was with him.”

“Torao can’t drink, you didn’t know that?” Luffy asked Kidd with a frown, his face calling the beefy man in front of him stupid.

“He was fucking wild, how was I supposed to know anything when he never talked and just threw himself on me-“ Kidd was cut short by the elbow Law jabbed in his abdomen.

“It would do you good to choose your words carefully, Eustass-ya.” Law warned.

“So you guys were friends with benefits?” Luffy asked shutting the two up. “Did I use that right?”

“There were no benefits and we were hardly friends.” Law clarified.

“Yeah you chickened out when we got so close to a hookup.” Kidd pointed. Luffy didn’t know if he liked what he was hearing but he felt that jealousy again and wanted to punch the redhead for having any sort of physical contact with his boyfriend, at whatever time in their lives.

“It was never going to happen so I didn’t chicken out, idiot.” Law rolled his eyes but it was true that it got real close to actual sex one time with Kidd and he… ran, he wasn’t ok enough to go through with something like that, not with Doflamingo-trauma bombarding his brain all the time, but nobody needed to know that.

“Then why did you run?” Kidd asked, he wanted to get to the bottom of the last fight he had with Law after which the older stopped seeing him.

“Torao does that a lot.” Luffy answered for Law.

“Then what’s he doing with you? Passing time?”

“I said, careful with your words.” Law warned Kidd again. “I stopped seeing you because I was passing time with you and when I didn’t need to pass time anymore, I left.”

”That’s not nice Torao.” Luffy pouted. “You left without saying goodbye that time too?”

“Why are you getting offended?” Law shook his head at the absurdity of his boyfriend getting angry with him on Kidd’s behalf. “And I did say goodbye, I just didn’t… explain myself very well.”

“As you do.” Luffy rolled his eyes and punched Law on his arm. “Explain now then and put it behind you.”

“Is he for real?” Kidd asked, just as weirded out. “I mean I knew he was an odd guy but…”

“Fine.” Law sighed and faced Kidd. “I was in a phase and I was using you. I didn’t mean to hurt you or lead you on so I am sorry about that. I left because I got my shit together.”

“You suddenly got your shit together last year? Yeah I’m not buying it.” Kidd laughed. “What really happened?”

Law breathed through his nose and made sure Luffy couldn’t see the blood rushing to his face. “I met him again.” Law pointed his thumb at Luffy behind him and the younger did see that.

“So you got lovestruck?” The redhead laughed. “Man this is hilarious! I thought you just dropped me because you lost interest- you’re less heartless than we all give you credit for!”

“But we didn’t get together till a lot of time later.” Luffy pointed.

“You must have dispelled his phase.” Kidd laughed and Law regretted being honest.

“This was why I wasn’t saying anything to him.” Law whispered to his boyfriend with a pout hidden behind his hands that were hiding his face. “Now he won’t shut up.”

“But did I really dispel your phase?” Luffy asked innocently, using Kidd’s words.

“What do you think?” Law couldn’t keep the smile off his face after seeing the grin that overtook Luffy’s.

“Awwwh Torao you’re so mushy!” Luffy laughed with the older redhead and hugged his boyfriend from the side.

It was supposed to be just one drink but one watered-down whiskey turned into a watered-down scotch and just like that Law felt his brain buzzing. The doctor was aware that Luffy was pouting because it was Law who said he wouldn’t drink but he didn’t exactly say no to the alcohol when Luffy offered some. What Law didn’t understand was why Luffy was pouting when he was the one who was getting him drinks too.

“I get why you don’t like coming to bars.” Law heard Luffy say.

“Yeah?” The older ordered himself some water and drank to get some sobriety back.

“People are looking at you wrong.”

“So that’s why you’re pouting.”

“Wanna go to the pool table? I’d like to see you win now.” Luffy contested.

“I don’t know how to play pool.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on then I’ll teach you.”

Law walked with slightly unsteady steps, he felt better after some water had entered his system, both the boys got to the pool table and Luffy began explaining the rules. The older felt a wave of nausea wash over him and he took support on Luffy’s shoulder.

“Sorry but can you get me some more water?” Law asked and Luffy sat the older down on the pool table, there were no chairs, before he left for the bar counter again.

Luffy quickly got an entire water bottle and made his way back to Law, he hadn’t planned on getting the older drunk, just a little tipsy so Law would make bad decisions and lose at pool and Luffy would win. The younger hadn’t accounted for the fact that his boyfriend was in a worse shape than he always let on and got properly drunk before Luffy even realized. So Luffy really didn’t blame Law when he saw the older acting very provocatively by the time the younger got back.

“Still don’t know how to play?” Luffy saw Kidd laugh at Law from a distance.

“Why don’t you come closer and teach me then?” Law asked, a smirk on his lips, legs parting in invitation, not for pool lessons, definitely. 

Luffy rolled his eyes and walked to the table, he slammed the water bottle beside Law, startling him a little. “You don’t spread your legs for anyone… but me.” Luffy scolded with a pout, pushing his boyfriend’s legs close. Then Luffy turned to Kidd and crossed his arms in an annoyed frown. “And you can back off.”

“So you’re the top in this relationship.” Kidd whistled. “Can’t say I’m disappointed. And don’t worry, I’m not trying anything with him.”

“You better not.” Luffy didn’t budge. Kidd was then called by one of his friends and that gave Luffy the opportunity to feed Law the water to make his brain better. “Lesgo Torao, you don’t look so good, I’m sorry for getting you drunk.” Luffy whispered and quickly typed a text for the other Hearts to let them know the two were leaving. The younger supported Law when the older stood on unsteady feet.

“I’m such a bad person-“ Law said in a low voice, the flirty behavior from a few moments ago gone.

“No it was my fault, I should have been careful.”

“I don’t deserve a person like you.” 

Luffy tried staying quiet because he was briefed on the various stages of drunkenness Law exhibited before coming to the bar, Penguin had been very clear that under no circumstance was Law to be allowed near people after his flirty drunkenness gave way to the sad drunk, because what came after those two, that was what the pill was for.

Luffy successfully got the two of them in a cab and buckled Law’s seatbelt, just about ready to tell the driver to go but then Law began to undo his seatbelt.

"What’re you doing?" Luffy asked and took a hold of Law’s arm to keep him from sliding out of the seatbelt.

"I want to see what that redhead would look like on my bed." Law said in a voice that sent chills up Luffy’s spine. Luffy didn’t like that one bit.

"What?"

"Just his head." Law brought out his scalpel and chuckled darkly.

"Torao, please put your seatbelt back on." Luffy warned.

"Awh why, I want to have some fun. You want me to have some fun right?"

"No. Killing people isn’t fun." 

"Yes it is."

What came as the last stage of drunkenness for Law was a psychopathic, coldblooded murderer.

Luffy sighed and decided to play a little trick. "Ok but I have a challenge for you first."

Law raised an eyebrow. “Ok darling.”

"I’ve got this hot sauce pill that Usopp gave me, if you’re able to down it without water and stay like that for three minutes then you can go."

"Works for me.” Law shrugged and took the pill his boyfriend was offering him. Luffy waited for the three minutes to pass and just like Penguin had said, it knocked Law right out. The younger adjusted the seatbelts again and told the cab driver to drive.

All the way back home, Luffy kept staring at Law’s sleeping face, the air the older had about him when he was talking about murder, regardless of being drunk, it reminded Luffy of the ‘young master’ back at the Swallow Island. Luffy was disturbed by how similar Law sounded and felt to that monster from back then. The younger didn’t like the reminder and hated to have seen that face on his kind Torao. Luffy had learned his lesson, he was never getting Law drunk again.

~