Chapter Text
The sunlight was peaking through the KISS tapestry Kid used as a curtain. Through sleepy eyes, he could see Killer standing by his bed, his blonde hair in a high ponytail and bangs pushed back with an elastic hairband, which meant that he was mid-cleaning when he came to wake Kid up.
“Corazon’s in our living room, he wants to talk to you.”
Not this shit again, Kid was about to tell Killer to tell the big clown in their living room that he had died in a mountain climbing accident. But, since Killer was already pulling the blanket off of Kid, he figured there was no real way out. You know what was actually making him freak out? Law uttering I just tell him it was a hookup gone wrong from the previous night. I swear, if he had the balls to tell Corazon I’m the hookup that went wrong, he thought in frustration, sitting up. No hiding now, and Kid wasn’t someone who hid anyway, he always faced his conflicts head on, and sure, that got him a fair share of trouble, but hopefully this wouldn’t be one of those times. Kid got up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and ruffling his hair, “if he kills me, you can have my CD collection.”
“I don’t want it,” Killer said, pushing Kid towards the door, “get moving.”
Corazon was sitting on their couch, his abnormally long limbs folded like a praying mantis, a cigarette was in between his teeth, and he was in a white dress shirt, and was missing his huge feathered mantle and red hat, it made him look a lot less intimidating, since you could see just how scrawny he actually was. Wait, wasn’t this guy in the marines? Where were all his muscles? He was zoning out, it seemed, because he hadn’t heard Killer and Kid come back into the living room, and Killer had to clear his throat for the man to turn his head and quickly go to get up. Only as soon as he got up, he tripped over the small coffee table, stumbling onto the ground head first. Before either Kid or Killer could help him up though, Corazon was back up to his feet, his head tilted down since he was just about the height of their ceiling. He cleared his throat, taking his cigarette out, “Law told me you went on a date.”
Oh fuck, here we go, Kid thought, fully prepared to take a beating for being falsely accused of bruising Law up. He watched Killer walk around Corazon, picking up the discarded rag and continuing his chore of wiping the windows, which was a nonverbal signal of I won’t let him try anything. “Yeah, I took him to Baratie. I know it ain’t much but it’s the fanciest place that’ll let me in.”
The blonde man approached Kid, looking down at him, “hm.” Wow, a man of few words.
“Your uh,” Kid gestured at the man’s shoulder, “there’s a little uh, your shirt’s on fire, man.” he quickly patted the small flame out. Jesus, this guy really was a clown, it wasn’t just a makeup choice, he was a mess. He was clumsy, and had no idea how to articulate himself; no wonder Doflamingo was the man in charge.
“Did he leave at any time during your date?” When Kid gave him a confused look, Corazon cleared his throat, sticking the cigarette back in between his lips, “was there any time during the date when he left and came back?”
“Like to go for a piss?”
“Don’t say things like that,” Corazon snapped, “he… he’s got bruising on him, like he bit off more than he could chew. This happens a lot, I… I try to tell him to be careful, but this is happening more and more, and I know you wouldn’t do that.”
“Really?” Kid drawled, crossing his arms, his eyes locking with Killer’s, “look, I know who did that to him, but I don’t wanna get involved in whatever family beef it’s gonna cook up. You people are all crazy, I hear it all the time,” he didn’t miss the way Corazon’s eyes shifted at the words family beef, so he put up his hands in an I surrender motion, “I’ll tell you, but whatever you’re selling, I ain’t buying, yo,” clearly, Corazon didn’t watch Breaking Bad, what a shame, it would totally be a show he would like, “Law told me it was–”
A loud sound of glass breaking caught them both off guard, and as Kid watched Killer mumble out my bad while picking up the shattered glass pieces of a dollar store mug, he realized what was going on. Kid and Killer were close, a lot closer than normal people were with their friends; they spent their entire childhood building a secret language together, ways to communicate without being caught. Killer wasn’t a clumsy person, not by any means, everything he did was meticulous, perfect and neatly put together, and that level of care increased tenfold when he was cleaning. So he didn’t drop a mug because it was slippery or he let go before it was over the table; he dropped the mug because it was code for don’t, it’s a trap, a code they’d used before. “Law told me it was someone in your family. I don’t know who, he didn’t even use he or she shit. He showed up to my doorstep in the middle of the night battered up, mumbling about how he didn’t want you to know he was beefing with someone in your family,” he looked over at Killer, don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, “he just said your big brother is covering their ass.” Juuuust enough to put Corazon on Doflamingo’s trail, but no outright snitching.
“Doffy? Bullshit, he would never–” he cut himself off like he couldn’t even finish the lie, before sitting back down on the couch, his legs folding like a praying mantis again. “It… it could be anyone. No one… no one gets along with Law in the house, they’re all jealous and get angry easily… I just don’t know who would have the courage to lay a hand on my Law.” Yeesh, talk about overprotectiveness. Corazon took the finished cigarette out of his mouth, pressing it into the ash tray on the coffee table, clearly deep in thought. His eyes were darting around like he was visualizing a list of potential suspects; Kid hoped Doflamingo would be on it, he didn’t know the rest of the family members, but if Corazon couldn’t instantly zero in on one person, that meant that Law had pissed of a decent amount of people. Law had practically waltzed into the Donquixote family, got himself education in the best university in the country and secured a spot as the next Corazon, was living lavishly with a nice car and sleeping around like it was no one’s business, all on the Donquixote money. As far as Kid was aware, everyone in the Donquixote family worked to an extent; everyone except for Law. Shit, he couldn’t blame them either, since Law did all of that and then hid under Corazon’s feathers to avoid consequences? Kid would’ve been pissed to all hell too. “Maybe… Trebol?” he mumbled, getting up, “I’ll figure it out,” he said as he headed for the door, hitting his head on the lintel of the door as he walked out.
As soon as the door closed, Killer started talking. “Did he do it? Doflamingo?” When Kid nodded, Killer groaned, “Kid, stop this! You’re throwing yourself into the deep end, you’re gonna fucking die like this. Law doesn’t love you, he’s just thrill seeking, he’s using you. You’re getting involved with the fucking Donquixote clan, these people push a button, people disappear dude!” He wasn’t wrong, Killer was never wrong. Kid was absolutely biting off more than he could chew, he was getting involved with personal family beef, telling Corazon that Doflamingo was somehow involved with Law being battered up, just how much more could he push?
Kid never believed that love made you crazy, but man, he was sure to change his mind. His recklessness was always speeding on his motorcycle when on the highway, picking drunk fights with men twice his size at the bar, they were stupid and arrogant, but the dangers were short term. Fucking with the Donquxiote clan meant long term paranoia, stalking and his friends going missing one by one. “What do you want me to do, huh?!”
“Break it up! Stop seeing Law, stop getting involved with these people, they’re a gang, Kid. Not just a petty street gang like Arlong’s crew, this is a real fucking gang, a gang with power, mafia shit!”
“I… fine,” admitting defeat was embarrassing for Kid, but not in front of Killer, “I’ll tell him that I… don’t wanna see him anymore. Next time I see him.”
But the next time never came. Kid went from seeing Law pretty much every other day to a straight two weeks with no peep from him. And truth to be told, Kid was worried, he was scared shitless actually, because the last encounter he had with the Donquixote clan was putting Corazon onto Doflamingo’s trail about Law’s abuse. Throughout the week, Kid tried to busy himself with going to work more often, and spending most of his free time tuning his guitar and learning every Nirvana song under the sun. But, just like Killer had said, Kid was starting to come face to face with paranoia, every car that took the same turn as him was definitely following him, every person who sat behind him at the bar was watching him, it was becoming relentless, but he tried his best to chalk it up to just paranoia and nothing more.
Until his suspicions were confirmed. On a random Tuesday, while at the Franky Family’s autoshop, busily changing the engine air filter out of a client’s car, Kid heard Franky approach him with heavy steps, “almost done with this one, the housing’s full of dust so I popped in a new OEM filter, I’ll check for debris in the intake ducts.”
“Yo!” he shouted, pressing against the post beam next to Kid, “we have a SUPER private client ready to pay huge bucks for your work, even Zambai was shocked,” a private client? Huge bucks? Kid was about to ask how much ‘big bucks’ was, but Franky beat him to it, “four thousand berries for a fixup! Ow! If that’s not SUPER, I dunno what is!”
Four thousand berries? How wrecked was their car? Four grand was so much fucking money, Kid was practically drooling at the sound of it. It would secure his portion of the rent for more than half a fucking year, he could get all sorts of new tattoos, treat his friends to drinks, the possibilities, oh God– “bring them in, I’ll make sure their work’s done.” he said with an arrogant smile. But something was gnawing at the back of his mind, who was the client? And how did they know about Kid? He wasn’t exactly a world famous mechanic, he was just a high school dropout who just happened to be good at fixing cars. He would give anything to have traveled back in time to stop himself from accepting the job, because when Franky led him to the back office, the sight of bright pink feathers as soon as he entered the door made his heart drop.
“Ow! This is the man you’re after, our SUPER mechanic!”
As soon as Doflamingo turned around, Kid felt small, like he was a child again, with scraped knees, being looked down on by a rich person for being dirty, for being scrawny. “Fufufu… I’ve heard so much about you, Eustass Kid,” he held out his hand, but when Kid didn’t move, he chuckled, “oil on your hands, I get it, fufufu,” he pulled his hand back, cracking his neck, “well I’ll cut to the chase! Law, my dear nephew, not that his name matters, I doubt you know him,” this motherfucker, he was dangling Law in front of Kid like a carrot, waiting for a reaction, “he has a habit of taking my car and taking it for joyrides, which I disapprove of, but hey, he’s a firecracker! Now, he brought my car back with, well, some issues. I’m no mechanic, so I figured you can help me!”
Kid felt like he was going to throw up, but he nodded, “let’s see the damage.” he said, putting every ounce of energy and focus into making sure his voice didn’t flinch or shake. He and Doflamingo walked to the one of the open garage spots, where the same Lamborghini Revuelto that he’d been in, the same one he’d driven Law to Baratie in. “Don’t seem damaged to me, did you notice anything wrong when driving it? Weird sounds or anything like that?”
“Fufufu,” Doflamingo pointed to the driver’s side of the car, “definitely something wrong with it, when I was driving I heard a very strange sound, I didn’t want to crash, I’m sure you understand.”
Maybe you should’ve, Kid physically bit his tongue, rolling his tongue piercing in between his teeth, “probably your engine, mind if I haul it up?” It was such a surreal experience, he’d met Doflamingo, spoke to him, but here they were, pretending like it was their first time meeting. Kid knew what this meant, he wasn’t that stupid; this was a threat, Doflamingo, behind that arrogant smile, was saying my brother knows where you live, and now, I know where you work. Kid was being told to stay put and behave, and that was what he did as he clicked open the hood of the car, his blood running cold when he felt Doflamingo behind him, inches away.
“What is it they say? Snitches get stitches?” He reached around Kid, and to the security cameras, it just looked like Doflamingo was pointing something out to Kid, but really what his mass of feathers was covering was anything but. He opened his palm to reveal what he had been hiding in his fist; a simple, solid gold earring. “Fufufu… That’s your fault, you know.”
Kid’s stomach turned, the back of his neck grew cold as he swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat, but it only got worse when his eyes noticed small specks of dried blood on the earring. The motherfucker had torn it off of Law, “nothing wrong with your car,” Kid said loudly, slamming the hood shut, just barely missing Doflamingo’s hand, “so I won’t take the four grand, since there’s no real damage I can fix.” Bullshit, if Kid wanted four grand, he’d make up shit to “fix”, he just didn’t want a cent from the demon in front of him.
“I insist!” Doflamingo smiled wide, it was like his mouth could rip at any more movement, “at least a tip, my good friend.”
“Sure, give me a tip.” Kid challenged, holding out his open hand.
Doflamingo reached into his mantle’s inner pocket, retrieving three hundred berry bills, folding the earring into it, and placing them into Kid’s hand, “and here’s a non-monetary tip from me,” he leaned in, way too fucking close, Kid could just about see the cold, sadistic gaze behind the red shades, “don’t overstep your boundaries with the law, you’ll get in trouble. Me on the other hand? Fufufu… I can break the law anytime I want.” He slid into the driver’s seat, continuing his mocking chuckle as he revved the engine, pulling out of the garage.
Kid was a man of anger issues, that was for sure, because he shouted out asshole! before throwing the money and the earring in the direction he had driven down, following it with a string of curse words. It took a few minutes for him to calm down, and he slowly sank down onto the wooden stepstool near his toolbox, wiping at his forehead, “fuck…” he got back up, shamefully picking up the money and the earring, tucking it into his pocket.