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psychotecha · 3 years ago

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Title: Once Forward, Twice Back Pairing: Kid x Law Prompt: 21. Law never gets his arm back in Dressrosa and Kid makes him a new prosthetic one Warnings: Deals with the amputation and loss of a limb. Notes: Entry for one of the KidLaw Summer event put on by @kidlawevents.

Not everyone can be saved. Law learned that early in life just from watching his parents work. The dark years after only made sure that Law didn’t just know that fact but also understood it. Some things were just inevitable and fighting against it was nothing more than a waste of energy that could be put to better use elsewhere.

“I’m sorry,” the small fairy princess says, tears glimmering in her eyes that go unshed because there is nothing more to be done here, and she doesn’t have the energy to spare. Maybe, if Law had stayed out of the fight, if he hadn’t been so focused on seeing it through to the very end….

What ifs do not matter now though, and Law knows there’s no point in following that line of thought any further. He made his choices and now he has to deal with the consequences.

“It’s fine,” Law says as he stares up into the dark rafters of the house he’s laid up in. He knew it would come to this the moment he woke up and felt nothing from his unresponsive right arm. When turning his head gave him a whiff of something putrid and off. The last few hours have allowed him to come to terms with it. He raises his left hand and looks Mansherry in the eyes. “Are you ready?”

She nods. Solemn and resolute dispute the sad guilt written in her overlarge eyes as she waits for his cue.

“Room,” it’s small and localized to his arm, wavering as Law is hit with a wave of exhaustion that reminds him how very little rest he’s gotten. Law pushes that aside though and Scans himself to pinpoint the exact point where living flesh meets dying. He closes his eyes, takes a breath and reaches for Kikoku. “Amputate.”

There are a startlingly large number of people in the world who see Law’s missing arm as a sign of weakness.

(There are moments when Law agrees. Long moments between reports and planning sessions when nothing is burning down and he’s left alone with his thoughts. With the ache that never seems to fully go away and the sense his fingernails are digging into his palm despite neither being there anymore. It’s a trap in his own mind, and Law learns to make a habit of never allowing himself the luxury of being alone with his own thoughts.)

Law takes great pleasure in disabusing the stupider ones of this idea whenever he can. It’s harder to counter those who look at him with pity, but Law has never been a quitter. It rarely takes more than a few encounters with the sharper side of his tongue, and a show of how very helpless Law is not to get rid of those misconceptions.

The pity of others is the most tiring thing to deal with he’s found. Mostly because it can be hard to spot in some, their thoughts hidden until Law finds someone making stupid assumptions about what he can or cannot do. An annoying and potentially dangerous situation to find himself in while forming a revolution. Law has, out of necessity, become very aware of the way people treat him now. He’s become tetchier according to Shachi, but Law’s found that starting off an encounter aggressively is the best way to nip that particular problem in the bud.

It’s a particularly annoying thing to have to do when dealing with people that knew him before he lost his arm. By all rights they should know better. Most of them have seen Law fight and know what he’s capable of after all, but there’s always that first glance. A flinch, subtle or not, when the person Law’s facing realizes there’s something missing. A long look at the empty sleeve where an arm once was transforms into something that inevitably makes Law’s teeth grind in anger. That moment of pity they always give him before he can beat it out of them. Law hates it but he’s come to expect it from meeting with other pirates he’s known before.

Most, but not all.

“I’m hurt,” Eustass starts, malice all but dripping off the hulking man. The broad grin on his face is smug and slightly demented, but there’s no trace of actual hurt on the man’s face at all as he corners Law against a pile of lumber waiting to be used by any of the many shipwrights swarming the dock. Each and every single one of whom find it very important to draw from another pile the second they see the two captains facing off. “You haven’t even asked me for help once.”

Law wonders, briefly, how many people have dared to look at Eustass with pity. How many fools had lost their lives for the unforgivable sin of not believing Eustass wasn’t stronger than ever.

Eustass’ metal hand shifts against the wood as he reaches out with his flesh hand. Fingers delicately plucking up Law’s right sleeve. Empty and fluttering annoyingly since it escaped Law’s last attempt to pin it up. A tug is all it takes for Eustass to dispel any misunderstandings about what he’s saying, not that it wasn’t clear exactly what he was going to say from the moment he sauntered up to Law.

The move and posturing are all taunting, and clearly just a ploy to get a rise out of Law. If it were anyone else it would have worked the moment they reached for the empty sleeve. The whole situation is different when coming from Eustass though, and Law only feels amused as he makes a show of relaxing against the uncomfortable wood behind him.

Law was there after Eustass threw himself at the Emperor Shanks. Days late so that there was no mistaking his presence as some kind of alliance. He’d cleaned up what Eustass’ own doctor could not handle and had to fight the fever stricken man the whole time to do it. Eustass had fought and snarled the whole time. Not allowing anyone to think he might be weak even when the act of sitting up was enough to make him almost pass out.

There is zero chance of the other captain seeing Law as weak or pitying him.

(Not like Law. Eustass no doubt saw the pity Law hadn’t allowed to color his actions as he dealt with the operation. It had been in the hatred and anger that had been leveled at him, and only the severity of the wounds had kept Law from being killed that day. He wonders if this is Kid’s way of getting back at him for it, because there is no way in hell the other captain ever forgot it.)

“Somehow I don’t think having a massive slab of metal tied on to my side will do me as much good as it does for you Eustass-ya,” Law shifts Kikoku fluidly to his other shoulder –left hand still clutching the sheath– so that the hilt can tap pointedly against the mess of cannibalized metal Eustass controls with his own power. “It’s not really my style, but I do appreciate your thoughtful offer.”

Eustass’ teeth nearly glint in the light of the sun and Law can feel a shift even though the man doesn’t move an inch. The sleeve flutters free when Kid lets it go, knuckles brushing against the stump of what’s left of Law’s arm. A jolt of sensation that Law suppresses out of reflex. Just because he’s more amused than angered by Eustass’ antics doesn’t mean he’s going to give the man any reaction at all.

“Hell no, you couldn’t handle one of these,” wood cracks and crunches under a flex of metal fingers, a few splinters fluttering in the corner of Law’s vision as the man finally straightens up. “Nah, bastard like you’d need something lighter. Make it easy to run around like you do. Consider it a favor.”

Like the one Eustass still owes for Law’s help. The one he’d never had the need to cash in on before, but had constantly reminded the other captain of every chance he got. Refusal rises automatically, because being owes something by one of the most ruthless pirates out there is no small thing. He’d considered using it to go after Doflamingo, had been days from calling it in, but the unpredictability of the Strawhats had won out in the end.

“I really don’t see the point,” Law hedges after a moment. The thought of something- no, of a prosthetic arm is uncomfortable to him. “It’s more likely to be a hindrance than any kind of help. I can do just fine with my power.”

Law has done just fine. He’s taken down an Emperor with one arm and his power. He tries to imagine what the fight would have been like with a prosthetic. With some dead weight attached to his shoulder and swinging uselessly as he dodged or attacked. There’s a practical use for them, Law knows, but it often required the kind of carefully deliberate precision that can never be found in the heat of battle. Unless one had powers like Eustass, it was simply better to go without and learn to deal with it.

“Shut the fuck up,” Eustass growls and pushes at Law’s chest even though his back is flat to the wood and he has no where to go. “There’s a ton of shit it can help with, and you know it! What, you don’t think I can make you something?”

Eustass’ tone of voice is low and even. A warning of real anger burning below that has Law sighing in annoyance. The mechanical expertise of the Kid Pirates is something they are weirdly proud of. More so than their bloodthirsty reputation. Law has no reason to doubt it, he’s listened to his crew exchanging shop talk with Eustass’ crew. He knows they’re all good and that Eustass is better.

“No, Eustass-ya, I don’t doubt you,” Law drawls out in his most bored tone. He swings Kikoku back, using the long sheath to pry himself enough space to slip away so that he can stand up to his full height. “What I doubt is the necessity of it. I am more than capable-”

“Oh fuck this!” Eustass snaps and the sound of grinding metal is the only warning Law gets before he’s being pulled down the dock. “If I have to wait for your dumb ass to decide on something I’ll grow old and gray. Come on, let me get some measurements so I can get this over with.”

“Don’t you-” Law grunts as he loses his balance and gets dragged a few feet before getting his feet back under him enough to plant them and bring them both to a stop. The metal of Eustass’ detached fingers still pulling under the man’s power as Law glares and a Room snaps open around them both. “Don’t order me around!”

this one might get longer when I can figure out something about Kid.

#kidlaw #fanfic #kidlawevents #trafalgar law #eustass kid #amputation #last one i have for this challenge

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psychotecha · 3 years ago

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Title: Once Forward, Twice Back Pairing: Kid x Law Prompt: 7. Taking a walk in the park with ice cream AND 32. Soulmate AU where you sometimes dream about the day the other person had. Warnings: Second part has a scene taking place in Flevance so violence and death there. Notes: Entry for one of the KidLaw Summer event put on by @kidlawevents.

Kid looks over the small park from the parking lot with a scowl pulling his face into severe lines that make more than a few people skirt wide around him as he walks in. The day is nice, the heat that’s been sapping the life out of the world eased by a storm, and a stiff breeze countering anything that lingers. It’s got the place packed full of families with their screaming kids, which is annoying enough to kill off any part of him that might have been looking forward to this meeting.

It’d been a small thing to begin with anyway. Despite Kid usually enjoying sniping back and forth with Law, today’s meeting is all but guaranteed to suck.

Owing Trafalgar Law a favor is not a position that anyone wants to be in, and yet it’s one that many have found themselves in over the years because the bastard has an annoying habit of making himself useful. Given how long he’s known Law, Kid’s been pretty proud of the fact that he’s managed to not find himself on the wrong end of owing him anything.

Had been until last week when he found himself in a fucking stupid bind and had been desperate enough to trade anything to not only get out of it but also keep Law fucking silent about the whole thing. A blank check Kid’s been dreading having cashed in every day since. Something that Law has been milking with the kind of sadistic glee Kid usually likes seeing in the man. But only when it’s directed at someone else.

He should probably be grateful the shithead hadn’t drawn it out for a month, like he did with Drake in their last year of high school, before calling it in, but Kid’s never had much patience in him to begin with and the wait has been hellish.

Finding Law is easy. He’s wearing one of his dozen eye-searing yellow shirts that stands out among the crowd because they’re all long sleeved. Kid would bet anything the lanky ass wore them through the worst of the summer heat. Just to prove to the world that he can’t be bothered by it and no other reason. Which Kid can grudgingly respect.

His mood is hovering between foul and mean as he stomps up to find out what his fate will be. “Alright, I’m here now. What the fuck do you want?”

The last person to owe Law anything had been Cavendish, and the stuck up prick still hasn’t fully recovered from it enough to tell anyone about it. Kid’s not counting whatever the mess with Luffy had been as one, because the stupid fucker likely would have gone along with the insanity Law launched them both into without having to be forced to play along. So he’s expecting something big and outrageous when Law fixes him with a look.

“Buy me some ice cream,” Law demands with a smirk that no sane man would ever trust. Pushing himself off the tree he’d been leaning against to step next to Kid.

“Excuse me?” Kid eventually says when Law doesn’t blink or back down, just to verify his ears are still working at the inane request.

"You heard me, Eustass-ya," Law tilts his head back to fix Kid with a look that he can't read, but that makes him start to sweat a little despite the nice weather. "I want you to buy me some ice cream and walk with me for a bit. Does that sound doable to you or should I find something simpler?"

"Sounds like a date for middle schoolers," Kid scowls as his temper rises at the mocking words even as he tries to find the angle Law's taking. He's not seeing it but that's not unusual for the man.

"Then it's perfect considering I've been waiting since then for you to get a clue before coming to the depressing realization that if I don't beat you over the head with it you'll never do anything on your own," Law says, managing to somehow look amused and annoyed. He turns to the park and starts to walk addressing his last comment to the air around him. "If that's still too much for you there's plenty of slides we can push each other off of or whatever it is elementary kids do when they like like someone."

Kid chokes on a noise that wavers between rage and surprise. Neither wins out when Law glances over his shoulder, one brow raised in a silent question, and Kid follows the infuriating man to buy him some fucking ice cream.

Kid’s never paid any attention to his dreams growing up. He has better things to focus on than some gross romance shit. He ignores all the stories and the other kids who talk about their dreams of their soulmate. It’s always boring things they talk about, seeing their soulmate’s hands doing chores or watching them take a walk. Stupid things like that. Nothing ever actually interesting or worth sharing.

Kid himself never dreams of anything. If his soulmate’s sharing their day with him they’re obviously the most boring person in the world. Nothing at all like Kid. He makes sure that he’s doing something interesting every day with Killer. Just to show how much better Kid is than some stranger. He’s got a real dream to chase down after all, and there’s no time for him to laze around doing nothing to prepare for it.

No time for him to worry about a soulmate who’s got no presence at all to talk about. Not a good quality for the soulmate of the future King of Pirates. Kid shrugs the whole soulmate thing off early in his life because it’s obviously a load of shit that he’s not going to allow to hold him back.

There’s fire and screams everywhere. Bodies lay strewn about everywhere. Men, women, and children crumpled where they fell. Their blood staining the pretty white stones that make up the road as shots continue to ring out. Near, far, the sounds of violence and death assail their ears from every direction as the massacre continues.

They’re running. Dodging through streets that have become unfamiliar in the chaos as their heart pounds with a terror that doesn’t allow for any thought other than to get to safety, to get away, to go home. The uniform of the Marines blend in too well with the white washed city but they keep an eye out for the bit of blue or a muzzle flash to guide them away from clumps of them clogging the streets, and blocking all the paths out of the city. Stopping people from escaping. Because they are not trying to run away like so many of the bodies that pile up on the major roads it’s easy to avoid the worst of the Marines.

Their eyes sting with tears, smoke, and the blood of a woman who hadn’t been quick enough to turn away from a street lined with Marines. The muscles of their legs burn and their lungs beg for rest but they don’t stop. They push on even as it gets harder to breathe because they’re close. The buildings are absolutely familiar even as some of them blacken and fall to the spreading fire.

They push harder to round the corner, to dart through the gates of the fence that is never closed, and see for the first time what has happened to their home.

Flames roar high and hot as the hospital is fully ablaze. Licks of fire lashing out through the broken windows and two bodies lay slumped against the busted door. The blood spattered white coats smoking as the fire escapes and starts to consume their parents too.

Kid wakes up. Throat sore from a scream he never made and face wet with tears he furiously rubs away. His hands shake even when he clenches them into fists and it takes a long time for his heart to stop trying to pound it’s way out of his chest. His window is still dark, the sky barely showing the first hint of dawn, but Kid doesn’t go back to sleep.

He’s scared –for the first time in his life– of what he might see when he closes his eyes. And he is right to be.

There’s nothing boring about the dreams that slam into Kid over the next few days. They’re the rarest kind of dreams too. Not the snippets of memory or vague feelings that most people get, but long dreams with all the senses involved so that there’s no way for Kid to escape seeing up close as a whole ass land gets slaughtered by the government.

Marines are all asses. Kid’s always known that, but there’s something different about watching them callously mow down entire groups of panicked people. Begging to be saved, to be spared, to be shown just a little mercy. There’s a practiced precision to it that Kid notices in pieces as his soulmate plays a dangerous game of keep away. Dodging from a ruined home to an overflowing sewer with a group of people that steadily gets smaller. There is no fighting the Marines killing them, every single one of the people they hunt down are too weak and scared to even try.

Kid hates it. He hates the Marines hypocrisy, he hates the scared mass of people, and he hates the useless feeling that lodges itself into his soulmate’s chest that sticks with Kid even after he’s awake and running around. Doing what he needs to do and glaring at the bored looking Marines that do a sloppy patrol of Kid’s village knowing that if they decided to turn on them now it’d be no different. Kid can count the number of people who can do more than just drunkenly throw a punch on his hands with fingers to spare. And half of those people are too old to be able to put up more than a show of a fight.

Kid cannot count himself among any of those people.

The helpless feeling is disgusting and he hates his soulmate for putting it in him. For making Kid see how very unprepared he is to fight an actual group of marines for real.

“We need to learn to fight,” Kid growls out to Killer who hasn’t asked once why Kid’s been so snappish lately. He can still see the mangled remains of the girl who had been dragged out, inches from his soulmate’s hiding spot, by the hair. Her flailing somewhat effective and that Kid knew would’ve been enough to make him really have to work to win in a fight. It hadn’t been enough to keep her from getting killed. “We need to get stronger.”

They need to get more than that, but Kid doesn’t really want to talk about it. It’s bad enough he has to deal with the shitty dreams at night. He’s not sure he can handle sharing it out loud. Even to Killer.

“Sure, Captain,” Killer agrees easily, Kid can see a flicker of eyes behind the curtain of hair as the boy pauses his wild swings with the stick he found earlier. “I can ask my cousin to teach us some things.”

these both have a real chance of becoming longer so you might see them again.

#kidlaw #fanfic #kidlawevents #eustass kid #trafalgar law

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psychotecha · 3 years ago

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Title: Once Forward, Twice Back Pairing: Kid x Law Prompt: 31. Kidlaw Titanic AU Warnings: References events that happened aboard the Carpathia when rescuing survivors of the Titanic. I very quickly stopped trying to make it accurate though. Notes: Entry for one of the KidLaw Summer event put on by @kidlawevents.

Kid helps Killer haul up another lifeboat, the two of them working in tandem to winch it up as slowly and easily as they can. There’s fewer survivors in this one but even from the deck of the Carpathia it’s obvious that these people are all hurt somehow. Killer reaches out when it comes close enough to swing it in, some of the crew rushing in to help offload as Kid locks the winch before shouldering a scrawny kid out of the way. Luffy’s got all the energy in the world, but these people are going to need steady arms to get them out.

“Do not move his head,” the only man upright in the boat instructs as he finishes laying a child in Killer’s arms, both of his hands cradling the boy’s neck until he’s satisfied that Killer has the kid right. He’s one of the more coherent people Kid’s already fished out of the water, which means he’s not a passenger. “He fell from an upper level and likely has broken bones. Take him to- Do not touch her!”

The man whirls quickly as he snaps, sudden and loud. Luffy, who had snuck in on Kid’s other side, freezes with his hands under the armpits of a soaked and shivering woman. Her lips blue with cold as her eyes stare out into nothing. “What, why?”

“Her ribs are broken,” the man hisses as he eels his way over and slaps at Luffy’s arms until he draws back. Though Kid’s sure it’s as much from the fierce glare as anything else. “You do not just tug on someone with broken ribs unless you want them to die from a punctured lung!”

“Get out of the way,” Kid knocks Luffy back again and steps into the space to scoop the woman up. Laying his arms out over the lip of the raft as the dark haired man carefully adjusts the unconscious woman to his satisfaction. He can hear Luffy grumble as he moves down to help Zoro with a fat looking man who is shaking too much to be of any help on his own.

“Lift carefully,” the man instructs and Kid rolls his eyes at the order but does it. The sun is still hours away from rising but this close the man’s piercing yellow gaze does not invite argument. Neither does the shout that goes up when another raft is spotted and Kid knows they’ll have to clear out the area before they can haul it up.

Kid steps back and turns to where he last saw the Carpathia’s doctor setting up to treat the people as they come aboard. The deck is crowded with soaked and shocked survivors but the people shuffle out of his way as he moves. The woman is small and still, only the slightly harsh sound of her breathing giving away that she’s alive at all as her head lolls back.

It takes some time to find the head surgeon –the youngest and shortest member of the crew is always hard to spot– but then he’s back to looking for survivors. Pacing along the railing looking for icebergs and survivors both. Calling out any flash of something that isn’t the dark water, and hauling frozen people on board until the sun finally rises and there’s no more survivors to see nor any more room aboard the ship to hold them.

It’s the longest four hours of Kid’s life.

The Carpathia is overcrowded as it makes a slow and ponderous turn back to land. They’ve doubled the number of people aboard and there’s not enough space for anyone. Not for the passengers and definitely not for the crew. It’s only 2 days to land though so everyone deals with it. Most are still too shocked to protest anyway. The work of dealing with the survivors helps to keep the crew too busy to think about how their small quarters have doubled from the usual four man bunks.

Kid isn’t the only one stepping up to take on more work just to stay out of that mess. He sticks with the boilers for the most part, but not everything that needs doing is underdeck. Just as often Kid’ll find himself wading through the crowded halls and packed guest rooms above. Which is where he sees the dark haired man again and again.

Trafalgar Law, Kid learns, was an assistant surgeon aboard the Titanic, and the man does his best to keep busy. Kid sees the man nearly everywhere he goes, and he’s half convinced the doctor can teleport by mid-day. He’s completely sure that Trafalgar can flay a man alive with his tongue alone though as the doctor takes the lead from Chopper dealing with the more aggressive patients. The ones too stubborn to do as they’re told or too rich for the younger doctor to intimidate easily. Watching Trafalgar step in to shut that shit down with a few words is a beautiful scene that Kid’s down right honored to have witnessed before noon.

Killer cracks a grin when he shares the incident with him later. The closest the man will ever come to laughing and Kid’s known him long enough to know it’s not at the situation. “Out of the hundreds of rich and grateful people we pull up, it’s the sour doc you fixate on?”

“Shut up,” Kid growls and seriously considers pushing his friend over the rail as they both lean against it with piping hot mugs of soup. They’re out of the way of the worst of the people who refuse to leave the deck, but there’s too many hopeful eyes still straining for any sign of other survivors for Kid’s comfort. “You’re damn lucky there’s too many witnesses or I’d throw you overboard.”

Killer’s grin only gets wider, and Kid really might have given it a try if they didn’t have to get to their shift tending the boilers to keep the ship going. After their run to the Titanic, they’re all feeling the effects of keeping the fires stoked, and Kid will be damned if he has to do it alone.

There’s funerals to take care of. None from the survivors, yet, but they pulled in three bodies with the rafts. Luffy had even gone in the water to pull out a fourth. A stupid move that got the kid yelled from one side of the deck to the other, but that Kid has to grudgingly respect. Out of all the new crew they picked up in New York he’s one of the few who’re likely going to stick around after they dock. Kid’s had to snap at one too many people acting as dazed as the survivors who have an actual excuse for being stupid to believe the whole crew will be staying on after this.

Funerals at sea are not uncommon. Sometimes there just isn’t any way to get the body to dry land before it starts to rot, and with a ship full of people it’s better to just send the dead off into the depths of the water. Kid’s seen it plenty of times before, but this one is not like any of them. Usually, once the body is wrapped, someone’ll say a few words and then the weighted corpse will be sent off. A grim but practical affair that sees everyone back to working as quickly as possible. The ocean doesn’t allow for too much idle time after all.

This is different though.

There’s a godly man among the passengers who drones on over the bodies of the men. Words and prayers offered up in a sermon that Kid blocks out with practiced ease. The deck is packed. Passengers, survivors, and crew all coming up to see. They’re silent as they all bow their heads, the funeral standing for more than just the four men wrapped up.

Many of them still have hope of some kind. Kid hears it walking through the ship as the survivors talk about those they left behind that might be picked up by the other ships. The way they speak about their friends or family who are not on the Carpathia. They talk about them being found by another ship with a force and cheer that is nowhere to be seen now as they mouth prayers and allow themselves to doubt.

Kid watches over it all from behind where the crowd is thinnest and wonders how long it’ll take before the fact that there hasn’t been any calls over the wireless of any other survivors being found.

Trafalgar steps into the respectful space left between the crowd and the railing most of the survivors avoid. Kid notices the man’s presence immediately but not the subtle step Killer takes that forces first Zoro and then Kid away from the rail. The shift has him bumping into the doctor and the man grunts from the unexpected shove. Fixing Kid with an irritated glare that he returns before Kid turns his eyes to Killer.

Fucking asshole is just asking for a beatdown later as he ignores everything and does a very good impression of a pious person with his head down in prayer.

The three men straighten themselves quickly and when Kid looks again Trafalgar’s jaw is clenched tight but there’s no grief to be found there. Trafalgar is staring straight ahead at an older man who looks close to collapsing despite the two people on either side there to prop him up. In the light of day his eyes are gold and frustrated.

Kid cannot help bumping into the man again on purpose. Arm pressing against the man’s side and using the crowded gathering as an excuse though Trafalgar doesn’t look away at all. A slight furrow of his brow the only indication he gives that he notices anything other than his own impatience, and Kid has the urge to see how far he can push before the man snaps. He puts some of his actual weight onto the doctor who grunts but holds up under it and stubbornly refuses to look away.

The man doesn’t push Kid away though, and that is a fine enough start as far as Kid is concerned. They still have a few days before making land and Kid works well under pressure.

#kidlaw #fanfic #kidlawevents #eustass kid #trafalgar law #titanic au

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