Chapter Text
Ch. 1: I hold you closer than I ever knew I could do.
Law found himself knocking quietly on the door, Luffy’s laughs echoing from the other side.
“Hold up guys, Traffy’s at the door,” they hear from within the room, “Go take this moment to pee or something.”
The door clicks open a moment later and Luffy gives a big smile and picks up the kid next to Law, “Hey Chopper.”
Chopper looks up at him and he settles on Luffy’s hip, “Torwo said we can have pancakes for dinner!”
Luffy’s eyes went wide, “Oh is that so?”
Law just hums, “Tony has to pick a food to tell his class about and he picked pancakes. We’re heading out to the store to grab some stuff, need anything?”
Luffy thought for a moment before shaking his head, and turned his attention back to the small child who had started playing with the strings on Luffy’s hoodie.
“I’ll eat pancakes, but only if you’re the one cooking them, “ He leans in closer to Chopper and whispers, “Your pancakes are always fun shapes while Torao’s are so boring.”
Chopper just giggles as Luffy puts him down with a kiss on the head, and Law pretends that he didn’t hear what they’d said. He runs off to put on his raincoat and boots while Law ruffles Luffy’s hair, dragging his hand down until he is cupping his cheek.
Law gives him a smile, “Have a good stream, we’ll be back in about an hour.”
Luffy blew a raspberry at him, “Always such a tease, be safe.”
He gives a pointed look before returning to the stream, hearing Law’s chuckle from behind the door. He sets himself back up at the computer, slipping his headphones back on and unmuting his mic before turning the camera back on.
He could hear the two hotheads bickering on the other end, “Alright losers I’m back.”
“ About time, ” Zoro gruffs out, “ We almost went on without you, you kiss your girlfriend goodbye or something? ”
Luffy’s eyes went wide, “Huh?!”
Nami snickers, “ Your face is bright red, I think you hit the nail on the head .”
“I hate you all.” Luffy states as he switches his screen back over to their usual minecraft server, “And for the hundredth time, Traffy is my roommate, you guys know this.”
Despite none of them voicing it on stream, Luffy could hear the disbelief through their silence. Torao never appeared on stream, afraid it would give him a bad rep at the hospital he’s doing his residency at, so he’d nicknamed him Traffy long ago. And while he’s never claimed Torao to be a female, his friends and fans took the name and ran with it, theories circulating about his roommate actually being his secret girlfriend that he was hiding from the world.
While their history was slightly more complicated than that, Luffy didn’t mind the speculation, if anything he found it funny. Chopper on the other hand was never mentioned, not in passing, not accidentally, not anything. As far as his friends knew, Chopper didn't exist.
Letting out a small sigh, he realizes that his avatar was seemingly trapped in an enclosure that wasn’t there when he had stepped away.
“Frankie, did you build a whole fucking house in two minutes?” Luffy exclaimed, looking for a way out, he knew better than to start destroying Frankie’s building.
Frankie lets out a loud laugh, “ Isn’t it suuuuuuuper? ”
“Well it would be suuuuuper if I could find the stupid door.” Luffy whines, only to turn a corner and see another avatar trapped with him.
“ I don’t think there is a door .” Zoro mumbles, walking away from him.
“ Zoro bro how did you even get in there?” Frankie asks.
Zoro just grunts before starting to forcibly mine through the walls.
The stream continues on for a bit longer, before they decide to wind down and read some reddit stories instead. The girls have a running series where they gossip and read ‘Am I the Asshole…’ stories, but every now and then they read a few to the boys to get their reactions instead.
“ This one’s pretty controversial, ” Nami begins, she loved narrating them, “ Am I the asshole for refusing to support my girlfriend and her pregnancy? ”
“ Oh this should be good ,” Sanji scoffs, “ Nami-swan I love it when you talk like that. ”
“ Oh shut up, curly. ”
Luffy keeps quiet as the two begin to get yelled at to quiet down, stories like this always go two ways.
“ Me, 17 male, and my girlfriend, 18 female, have just entered our senior year of high school, when she told me that she was pregnant. I hadn’t believed her, so she brought over two other tests and took them in front of me. Both turned up positive, ” Nami continues, and Luffy began to shake his leg under the table as he couldn’t help but feel like this story was familiar, “ While she claimed the child was mine, there was absolutely no way it could be. On the few occasions that we did get intimate, I wore a condom and she had promised me she was on the pill. So when I confronted her about this and asked why she was here and not with the guy who knocked her up, she grew hysterical and started crying that it was mine and she never slept with anyone else. ”
“Sounds like he’s the asshole,” Luffy couldn’t help himself from interrupting her, but with Torao being a doctor, he knew the statistics of both failsafe methods failing.
Usopp chimed in, “ I mean does he have any proof that she was actually cheating? Her story isn’t convincing enough to actually be a lie. ”
He couldn’t tell who but someone muttered, “ You would know. ”
Nami continues before they got off track, “ So I decided to appease her and offer to take her to a walk-in clinic down the road and get it taken care of. She seemed hesitant so I even offered to pay for everything myself. When she started asking if I could see myself raising this child with her, I grew angry. Was she trying to ruin my life? The last year of highschool for the both of us? Sure we had talked about having a family but that was supposed to be years in the future, many years. She stormed out of my house that night and cut off contact with me altogether. I tried to talk to her at school, but she would ignore me. A mutual friend had told me that a few weeks later that she had gotten kicked out of her parents house after they found out, and she showed up at my house that evening, asking if she could stay with me for a while. Of course I said no, as she had refused my efforts to talk to her, and my initial plan to get rid of it. I did all I could. I didn't owe her anything else. She disappeared after that, but rumors say she went to live with her grandparents or something and had a miscarriage. So, am I the asshole? ”
Luffy felt himself freeze as a few started to sympathize with the guy and his decision to outcast his pregnant girlfriend. He pinched his knee to keep from speaking up, as he wasn’t stupid enough to see how that would end.
“ I mean they’re kids so that’s a hard decision for them to make, personally I think he could have been a bit more understanding in the beginning, but she ghosted him first, and honestly I have a few questions, ” Frankie starts, “ How long were they together? A few months, I can kind of understand, but if they were together for a year or two? Like damn that’s cold. ”
“ I mean, ” Sanji starts, before taking a pause most likely inhaling his cigarette, “ She obviously wasn’t faking the pregnancy if she took the tests in front of him, but I don’t understand why she didn’t just take him up on the offer, they both would have been better off and maybe they would have been able to repair their relationship. ”
Luffy’s hands began to shake as he remembered his own positive pregnancy test that he’d destroyed beyond recognition so no one would find it. The two of them hadn’t even been dating, which according to his stream, meant that the problem should have been his alone.
“ While I’m not saying she did, there are a few different ways to fake a pregnancy test, ” Robin states, “I don’t believe she would have done that however, because if anything it would disrupt and derail both of their lives quite a bit. ”
“ Ruin their lives is what you mean to say ,” Brook starts, “ Maybe she was afraid they would break up after college and thought a fake pregnancy was the only way to make sure he stayed. The miscarriage feels like an important detail. ”
“ I don’t want to assume the worst of anyone, ” Nami sighs and he could hear Zoro snorting in disbelief, “ Losing a child can be hard for anyone, especially someone in a situation such as hers. However I can’t help but think that this all could have been avoided if she’d just taken him up on his initial offer .
He couldn’t stay quiet any longer, “I still think he’s the asshole. While they are still in highschool, they are old enough to make an informed decision and it’s hard to take her side when he's the one telling the story. If he was mature enough to sleep with her, he should own up and take responsibility. Even if he didn’t want to have a kid, he can’t put all the blame on her. And she came to him when she had nowhere else to stay and he just kicked her to the curb?”
The stream is quiet for a few moments, and Luffy feels the panic start to bubble up in his chest and waits for the rumors and allegations that he could have just started, but he’s been there , he knows what a shitty situation it is and to have everyone against him, it just… it sucks.
He’s a terrible liar and he doesn’t go along with what others say, speaking his mind is why he liked having his platform. The world is full of shitty people, and he refuses to be one of them.
“ It’s like I said earlier, ” Frankie says, “ There’s too many questions here, honestly the fact that he even posted this story makes him an asshole. This should have been a private affair .”
Nami begins reading through the chat, since she has the power as one of the moderators, but Luffy has since tuned it out.
The stream ends not too long later, and they stay on the line and chat for a couple minutes longer before the others have to get back to their normal jobs, but Luffy stays quiet. A few of his friends call him out, but he says he’s just tired after the stream, and that he had to head out.
He stays sitting in his chair for only a moment longer before throwing on a pair of running shoes and heads out the door, taking note of the rainboots on the mat which meant they had returned a bit ago.
He headed out on his normal route, it was raining, but he barely paid attention as he dodged a puddle that was forming.
He couldn’t help but wonder, in his life, was he the asshole?
_________________________________________________________________
It had been a few weeks since the party, since everything happened, and Luffy was feeling quite a bit of regret. This is the third morning he’s thrown up after waking up to the smell of bacon. He loved meat, it was his favorite food group. Which is why it made no sense that the smell was suddenly making him sick.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that his body was once again screwing him over. He didn’t want those parts anyway so it only made sense that they would take revenge.
His chest had started to become sore as well, and he would fight the discomfort while binding, refusing to acknowledge what was possibly going on. He glared at the package of birth control, knowing that that had failed him along with his body and that if he’d only had been born in the right body that none of this would even be considered.
He emptied the rest of the bile from his stomach and brushed his teeth, before heading out for his first day of school.
He really was starting high school out with a bang.
During his free period he snuck out of the building and down to the convenience store a few blocks away. He pulled his hood up and kept his head down as he grabbed a test and a bottle of juice that sounded good and paid before heading back.
He was relieved when the bathroom was empty and dropped his bag at the front of the stall. He didn’t bother to read the instructions, he just peed on the stupid stick and watched as a second line slowly started to appear under the very word he was hoping to be wrong.
“Fuck.” He whispers before bringing his hands up to his head and gripping his hair as the panic began to bubble up in his chest. He tried to catch his breath but all of the pieces came together a bit too conveniently and he couldn't help himself.
By lunch he dragged himself out again and bought a few more tests, hoping to prove that the first one had been nothing but a fluke and that he could just forget everything.
All seven other tests were fucking positive.
He shoved them all into the bottom of his backpack planning on dropping them in a dumpster behind the school, but not before snapping them in half beyond recognition.
He never got the chance however, because his brother had been waiting for him to celebrate his first day of school, since Luffy had left without him that morning.
He kept a smile on and talked about the one class he could remember from that day and how he was excited. But his backpack felt like a fifty pound weight and his chest ached for more than one reason and his stomach growled because he’d forgotten to eat anything and he was a fucking idiot who found himself knocked up.
When they finally arrived home, Luffy snuck up to the bathroom where he turned on the shower and blasted music and finally let all of the emotions he’d been bottling up, free. He emptied his bag on the floor and shattered the tests into pieces and flushed them down the toilet.
It was as if they never existed.
And for a while he wanted to convince himself that they didn’t.
But he needed to tell someone, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be his brother.
_________________________________________________________________
Law didn’t say anything as Luffy left for a run without a word, instead he kept an eye on Tony who was making a few drawing ideas for his pancakes that night. He picked up his phone and pulled up twitter, and searched up StrawHatLuffy to check on the end of his stream.
And sure enough more than a few tweets showed up. He knows to take a lot of this not really at face value, as the internet tends to blow things completely out of context.
Strawcrewfan: Luffy really said y’all are assholes, didn’t he?
| NamiStan02: He’s never really gotten that heated over an AITA?? Why now?
Video Attachment
Law clicks on the video, it was a few clips together, and he was able to get the gist of what was going on. The comments had a few people speculating that he had someone who had this happen to them, most implying an old friend or such.
But he just closed out the app and made himself comfortable on the couch as he waited for Luffy to return. Law wasn’t pleased that he was out running in the rain, but he understood it.
Letting out a sigh, he allowed himself to close his eyes for a few minutes and tried to fall asleep to the sound of Tony’s coloring.
_________________________________________________________________
The lunch bell had rung and Law had been prepared to spend his lunch smoking on the roof, away from the noise and the annoying kids. He knew that his solitude would be short lived, but he wasn’t expecting the short freshman to seek him out.
Luffy sat not too far away, far enough to not be near the smoke cloud Law was creating. They hadn’t seen each other since the party.
Law smirked, feeling cocky, “Back for seconds?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Law feels himself drop the cigarette from his mouth, he swallows, “You sure?”
Luffy doesn’t look at him, instead tucks his legs into his sweatshirt to warm himself from the cold air.
“As sure as eight tests could be.”
Law’s mind was reeling. His first response he wanted to ask was if it was his, but with how nervous Luffy had been about the whole interaction, he’s not stupid enough to think that wasn’t his first time. The question is if he slept with anyone after, but the odds of that were pretty low as well.
So Law just says, “Alright.”
And with that Luffy gets up and leaves, leaves Law to come to terms with whatever the fuck had just happened. He knew that it was early enough that they had options but Luffy hadn’t made any demands, asked for any favors, nothing. Just simply informed him of their predicament and left.
_________________________________________________________________
He awoke to the sound of the door some time later, Tony was no longer coloring, and Luffy was soaking wet.
However as he went to stand up, he noticed the slight weight next to him on the couch, which showed that Tony had fallen asleep next to him. Law carefully stood up, watching as Tony curled up into a ball, and Law grabbed a nearby blanket to cover him. Before going after Luffy who had taken off his shoes and headed to the bathroom.
The door opened a crack so Law poked his head in before making his way inside.
Luffy had discarded his sweatshirt, leaving his scarred chest exposed, but Law was more focused on the glassed-over look in his eyes. Without saying anything, Law started a warm bath while Luffy took a seat on top of the toilet seat.
His hair was dripping wet, “Did you take your medication today?”
Luffy nodded slightly. It put Law at ease to know that Luffy’s risk of infection was slightly lowered. But warming him up would still help.
“How was the stream?” Law asks.
Luffy sighs, “According to the majority of my friends, I’m an asshole.”
Law leaned against the opposite wall as the water rose slightly, “I’ve seen the tweets.”
He groaned, “Do I even want to know what they’re saying?”
Law hummed, “Nothing bad, they just think you had a friend who went through something like it.”
Law stopped the bath, and Luffy stood up, “I dunno I wasn’t going to say anything but…”
“I get it.” He replies as Luffy finishes taking off his clothes and gets in the bath, “You mind if I grab Chopper?”
Luffy shook his head as he relaxed into the water, “Nah, he needs to wash up.”
The three of them enjoy the silence as Tony played with the few bath toys he brought with him, before Luffy’s stomach began to growl and the bathwater had turned cold. Law had sent Tony to his room to pick out pajamas and Luffy walked back wearing sweatpants and one of Law’s T-shirts. He picks up the towel around Luffy’s shoulder and carefully dries his hair.
“Do you want to postpone the pancake party till tomorrow?” Law asks softly.
“No, it’s important to Chopper,” Luffy says, “I just have to do a little bit of work stuff, so you guys can cook without me.”
He stops drying his hair, “Alright, I’ve got the late shift tonight so I’ll head out after we eat.”
Luffy just nods and heads into his streaming room, where he hears Chopper cheering about the pancakes.
He’d been offline for a few hours and had quite a few alerts, most were twitter mentions which he chose to ignore.The group chat was filled with various memes, and random talk, but there were a few private messages he knew he had to respond to.
Putting it off for a few moments more, Luffy began to select a few clips from his send to his editor, he added a note asking to keep the final segment out of any of the uploads.
It was then that he was forced to confront his friends before he was summoned for dinner.
Zorororo:
You good?
If someone did something I’ll tell them off.
Especially if it’s the cook.
Or the witch.
Loof:
I’m good.
Zorororo:
You sure?
You were good until Nami’s story.
He felt bad lying to his best friend but it’s easier doing it over message than in person. This part of his life is just separate from everything else. It didn’t need to be brought up publicly, and even if he trusted Zoro not to blab, it’s a lot to just drop on someone and be like oh yeah I’ve been hiding this from you guys for years .
Loof:
Yeah the story brought up some stuff that I didn’t like.
Reminded me of an old friend.
I’m good.
Thanks :D
Torao had said that was what the internet believed anyway, so he decided it wouldn’t hurt to lean into it a bit. Regardless if he really was the asshole in his life, Luffy didn’t regret it.
He heard Chopper call him, which meant it was time for the pancake party to begin.
_________________________________________________________________
A few days after finding out, Law saw the familiar red hoodie rushing towards the bathroom. He made it just in time to hear retching as Luffy sits in front of the toilet. Law felt himself grimace at the thought of sitting on the bathroom floor, but he knew that wasn’t the problem here.
He opened the door to the stall where he saw the backpack in front of, Luffy just glared up at him.
“I hate you.”
Law shrugs, “Yeah, that’s fair.”
As Luffy throws up again, Law reaches into his own backpack to pull out a bottle of water, and hands it to the other.
The toilet flushes and once he’s sure there isn’t anything left in his stomach, he takes the water.
The bell rang, and Law stood up before anyone could see him with a freshman on the bathroom floor.
Biting back his own pride, he says, “I’ll be on the roof at lunch.”
He leaves Luffy alone, and lets out the breath he was holding.
Just his luck he’d get someone pregnant when he was only sixteen. He tried to shove that thought and the whole situation to the back of his mind as he headed towards his next class. But he knew they had to figure something out, they both can’t stay in denial forever.
_________________________________________________________________
Law clocked himself in at work, and grabbed himself a cup of the shit coffee that was left in the pot and mentally prepared himself for the shift ahead of him.
“Hey Law, what do you think is more attractive on a woman, boobs or ass?” His idiot of a coworker asks, and Law downs the entire cup of coffee and pours himself a second one before he acknowledges the stupidity that he was too tired to deal with.
Penguin snorts as Law turns around and says, “You really have a death wish today, don’t you?”
He leaves the room, the two following like ducklings behind him as they start on their rounds, since he had a year senior on his two ‘friends’ he let them deal with the more problematic patients so he didn’t have to. That and because he wasn’t in the mood to deal with them, talking to the patients was always the worst part.
It’s why Law wanted to go into surgery, at least then the patients were asleep and couldn’t talk back.
His companions however felt the need to talk to him. Constantly.
When Bepo clocks in a few hours later, Shachi bothers him with the same question, “I prefer a girl for her personality.”
Shachi just groans and goes on about how the two of them are so pointless, and Penguin just laughs along.
It was around four in the morning when Law was doing his rounds again that he couldn’t help but think of Tony. One of his patients had been only a few years older and he was super shy, his parents speaking for him most of the time.
To his coworker’s surprise Law had offered to take the kid’s vitals after he had been brought in for possible appendicitis.
The kid took one look at Law and decided he was terrified, and burst into tears. Before Shachi could offer to take over, he was shocked by Law pouting at the kid and assuring him he was harmless.
The patient didn’t look convinced but when Law started asking about the stuffed dog he had with him, the kid slowly calmed down enough for them to take a blood sample and insert the IV. He even humored the kid by grabbing a spare bandaid to place on the stuffed animal.
Shachi made sure that everyone on the hospital staff heard about how scary emotionless Trafalgar Law was, secretly a softie when it came to kids.
_________________________________________________________________
Law sat on the roof waiting, but refused to light a smoke, knowing that he probably shouldn’t be doing that around someone who was pregnant.
He heard Luffy approach, his converse quiet on the gravel. They sat in silence for a little while, and Law couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t eating.
Law skipped lunch pretty often, usually opting for a cigarette instead.
“Not hungry?” He tries.
Luffy just shrugs.
“I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure food is important, for someone in… y’know.”
Luffy laughs, “And what would you know?”
“My parents used to be doctors.”
“Oh.”
The silence found them once again.
Luffy’s eyes closed, and Law sighed. For fucks sake sure neither of them actually wanted to talk about it but they really needed to get a plan before it was too late.
Before he could speak however, Luffy broke the silence, “Do you want to get rid of it?”
Law kicked at the gravel, “I really don’t think it should be my decision.”
He watched as Luffy sunk into the ground, pulling his knees to his chest and placing his chin on top, “I really don’t know what to do.”
Law sits next to him, long legs stretched out in front of him, this isn’t what either of them had wanted. They got a little tipsy at the party and they ended up here. If Law wasn’t high, he probably wouldn’t have slept with an incoming freshman, and he probably would have had at least one brain cell telling him to wear a fucking condom, but it was a little late for that now.
“Tell you what,” He starts, his mouth dry and he’s unsure of what he’s about to say, “Why don’t we go to a clinic after school so we can confirm whether or not this is real.”
When Luffy shoots him a look, he continues, “Are you on any pills or hormones?”
Luffy flushes slightly, “My grandpa didn’t want to put me on blockers yet so we got birth control instead. Obviously that didn’t work.”
The bell sounds out below them but neither makes any sign of moving.
“You should probably stop taking it.”
Luffy hugs his knees, “I already did. I never got my-- I never got any sign after I stopped so it’s probably not a good thing.”
It takes Law a moment to realize that he’d meant his period, which was just another nail in the coffin. He wasn’t going to say it outloud, as he could tell Luffy already hated everything that was happening inside his body. The way he was curled up, the shirt that was too big with a denim jacket layered over him, just in case anyone would ever doubt that he was a dude.
“Okay.” Law says calmly, getting angry wouldn’t help either of them, “I parked in the lot behind the field, the way back. Find me after class, I’ll take you to the clinic, after that we can evaluate our options.”
“Okay.” Luffy says, so quietly Law could barely hear it.
It was nothing like he was at the party, he was loud and rambunctious, and Law would deny it if he was ever asked, but he honestly preferred that to the solemn kid next to him.
“I’ll let my brother know,” Luffy says as he stands up and pulls out his phone to send a quick text.
Law stands as well, raising an eyebrow, “He go to this school?”
He nodded, “He’s in the year above you, Portgas D. Ace, do you know him?.”
Oh fuck.
Yeah Law had heard of him, and the rumors surrounding him.
If he wasn’t fucked before, he was now.
_________________________________________________________________
When Law got home around eight thirty, he was just in time to say goodbye to Tony and wish him luck on his important presentation.
Luffy had greeted him with a large smile and leaned up to give him a quick peck before grabbing Tony’s hand and walking out the door.
There was a plate of breakfast waiting for him at the table, and Law let the tension fall from his shoulders.
At least until he opened up twitter and he saw his feed retweeting someone who said they knew Luffy in high school, and that he’d been hiding a baby bump.
Fuck.