Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Brooklyn. 1985.

“The usual, please.” He sat down in the booth, not even looking at the laminated menu in front of him. Law threw his briefcase carelessly next to him, rummaging through his pockets and taking out a crumpled ten-dollar bill. “Great to see you again, dear.”, Kokoro greeted him. “How have you been doing, honey?”, the blonde asked while filling up the cup beside him with coffee.

“Hmm.”

Having known Law since his early days as a mere uniformed officer, she knew better than to expect casual small talk. But it was part of her routine to welcome her customers, and Law was no exception. And although he would never admit it, he needed that little fragment of human interaction. A routine in his everyday life, and a small reminder of humanity: the opposite of what he encountered in his now 5-year-long career.

“Food will be ready in a minute, but why don´t you tell me what´s gotten you so upset, dear?”

“Just a case again.”

A case.

Well, not exactly a case.

It was the case.

A series of murders, all in the span of eight - no, nine years now. And the worst part about it was the sheer lack of -. Well, just everything. No reliable witnesses. No evidence to base any sort of investigation. And no real suspect. Just the pile of broken pieces that piled up in the last ten years mixed with the pressure of concerned citizens and furious politicians.

This long ongoing case was hanging over the streets of Brooklyn: like a translucent yet suffocating mist. Especially in the kind of community this bastard was targeting.

His thoughts were interrupted by Kokoro again, who placed a plate of fresh riddle cakes with maple sirup in front of him. An additional plate for the side of eggs, and already she was gone again, taking care of the others in her section.

Law picked up the fork, only for him to half-heartedly poke around his food. The feeling of hunger left him all at once when he thought back to the call from his supervisor in the morning.

“I´m sorry to tell you this… but we had another victim.” Just thinking back to the phone call from the morning made both his blood boil and freeze right up in his veins. Oh, how it reminded him of the dreadful visit by the police he got almost nine years ago.

“We´re terribly sorry to tell you this, son. But there has been another incident in Midwood. Your father…”

He remembered the way both police detectives looked at each other, with the task no man wants to be burdened with: No room for any misunderstanding. How none of them dared to look into Law´s face directly, too scared reveal their own failure in capturing the culprit and consequently leaving another grieving family member with nowhere to turn to for answers.

“Honey, are you alright?” Kokoro now gently tried to get him to eat a bit or at least finish his now cold coffee. But to no one’s surprise he just stood up from his booth, silently slid over the bill and left the Diner with his briefcase under his arm.

No time to waste

He dragged out the walk to the precinct: Walking at a speed that would make the other pedestrians roll their eyes for a split second, only for them to pass right by him. The usual five-minute walk easily turned into a fifteen-minute stall, with two small breaks on Law´s side to rummage in his coat pocket and pull out his cigarettes and lighter. And only when his second cig was all smoked up, with even the filter starting to burn up, did he drop it carelessly onto the sidewalk and started walking again. Only then did he reach the station with a dreading feeling of emptiness, from both his lack of hope in ever having a breakthrough in this case and the lack of breakfast.

“Morning, detective.” The lady at the front desk greeted him. She´s worked here for almost two months now, but Law couldn´t be bothered to learn her name. Something with an S… Saki? No, Shelly? No. It didn´t matter anyway…

“The Lieutenant will be in the office soon to go through the files of the Brooklyn Butcher case again. He told me to let you know so could join them.”

“Hmm…”

Brooklyn Butcher. How he hated this name. It started with the media almost ten years ago coming up with this name to incentivize fear and suspense in the media. And unfortunately, the public picked up that name and ran with it, giving that monster all the recognition while leaving all the victims in a veil of anonymity and indifference.

The detective opened the door, expecting his supervisor. But to his surprise the only people in the conference room, where three of his subordinates waited for him. And before any of the officers could greet their college his voice cut through the air.

“Why didn´t any of you call me last week when you knew we had another victim?? And why did the Lieutenant only call me this morning when the victim had been found almost a week ago?”

“I´m sorry, Sir.” Officer Bepo admitted not daring to look up from the floor, too scared to face the detective´s rage. “But Garp gave us an order not to call you. He said it was the first time since you joined the academy that you took off a few days. And he said that you-”

“Like he has any say in that! I´m the lead detective in this damn case! If a new murder comes in I´m to be notified im-”

“Detective.”

The voice made Law stop in the middle of his yelling, with such calmness, yet authority that brought Law right back to his usual contained self. “Morning, Lieutenant.”

“Take a seat, son. We have a lot to talk about. I´ll keep it short for now: We have a few people that wanna help us catch that son of a bitch. You should take a look at this shop.” And with those words he slid over a file with a bunch of photos.

Law quickly flipped through the files in front of him. Victoria Punk. Law couldn´t help but roll his eyes at a ridiculous name like that. But looking at the other pictures he quickly realized that the name seemed to match the design and overall atmosphere in the shop.

The whole place seemed like a bunch of garage sales mixed together: a hoarder´s dream. One corner had a giant, six-foot bear, taxidermized and fixed up to look as scary and threatening as possible. With the claws extended and an expression in the face that showed as many teeth as possible. To top it all off, the thing was fucking dressed. The head with an oversized cowboy hat, the torso in a giant safety west. A grotesque display in Law´s opinion.

He flipped through the other photos. A wall tapestry that can be called abstract at best. With different jewelry all pinned in the center, like some sort of provisional display. They ranged from small stud earrings all the way to quite elaborate and artful pieces.

Right next to it was a blackboard that covered the other half of that wall. A list of prices, probably for the jewelry. ALL SELFMADE it said in handwriting only fit for a damn middle schooler. It looked weird, but very much fit into the whole interior design.

One side of the store had a giant counter: The top looked like a heavy wooden board with everything a proper till would need. A big cash register and four recycled tins for the tip. Each one had a name in a different handwriting. Killer. Wire. Heat. The one that stood out the most happened to be the most battered. In the same handwriting the blackboard was covered in. The name on the can? EUSTASS.

Behind the counter were several documents and certificates, all in wooded frames and surprisingly neatly hung up onto the wall behind. From one-day training courses to week or even month-long seminars all covering the different areas of body modification. Proper hygiene & aftercare, the design process & different art styles, and anything else important for a tattoo & piercing shop.

The last wall was covered in an almost obscene number of polaroids. All placed there with no real system or order, which didn´t give the object of the photos and chance to be put to the fore. Some of them weren´t even properly in focus.

But the spotlight of those pictures was all the same: Tattoos and piercings. From minimalist tattoos that couldn´t be bigger than a penny, all the way to giant works that covered entire limbs. Law eyed the different tattoos again.

Most of them weren´t his cup of tea to be honest. Very loud and bold. The opposite of his usual simple, yet neat and orderly style. But he had to admit: They were quite good.

“And these guys wanna help us, huh?”, Law asks not looking up from the files. “Yes, sir.” Officer Bepo replied

“That studio is right in the epicentrum of all the murders.”, he continued pointing at the map, spread out, and hung up on the backboard. A green pin in the middle and about twenty red ones in close proximity.

“Wait, we had twenty-one murders, why are there only twenty marks on the map?”

“Well…”, Officer Shachi now chimed in: “The very first murder was at that exact location. That young woman that was murdered in her family’s home in 1975. The single father sold the property about two years ago, to this man right here.” And with that the officer handed him a small file.

“Eustass Kid, huh?” Now Law was scanning through the new folder in front of him.

Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI)

04/20/1976 (Age: 14)

Offense Type: Infraction

Offense Description: Trespassing

06/14/1979 (Age: 17)

Offense Type: Infraction

Offense Description: Disorderly Conduct

06/29/1979 (Age: 17)

Offense Type: Misdemeanor

Offense Description: Threatening

10/22/1982 (Age: 20)

Offense Type: Misdemeanor

Offense Description: Simple Assault

08/13/1983 (Age: 21)

Offense Type: Misdemeanor

Offense Description: Assault

12/24/1985 (Age 23)

Offense Type: Misdemeanor

Offense Description: Public Intoxication

“No way in hell!” Law could feel the irritation and frustration growing by just scanning through this ridiculous record. “Why on earth should we cooperate with this scum.” He started to grumble. “And how can we really know what know that this dump of a tattoo shop has nothing to do with these murders.” “The murders started almost eleven years ago, in 1975, that Eustass Guy would´ve been 13 at the start of that.” The remaining officer now chimed in. “I really doubt he could be the killer.”

“Well age didn´t stop him in racking up this shitshow of a Criminal Record, right?” He practically threw the file back at the table, not paying attention to the pages that flew out of it. “Noone that starts with this stuff at 14 should be trusted in a criminal investigat-”

“Now, now Detective.” A voice cut through the room, making Law look up from the files, only to be met with an almost disappointed look from his superior. “Apologies, Lieutenant.” Law managed to force out, still furious about this ridiculous proposal.

“Now I know some of you would like a different sort of… how do I put it… cooperation in this case.” Lieutenant Monkey D. Garp started. “But given our limited resources in this case, and the growing pressure in this matter, we should be grateful for all the help of our citizens we can get. Especially since those boys offered us a quite interesting starting point for our upcoming undercover investigation there.”

“What do you mean by undercover, Sir?!”

But before Law could get even one more word in Garp continued, not paying attention to his subordinate.

“Since all the murders have occurred in close proximity to this shop, we have to assume that the killer knows this part of the town like the back of his hand. What better location than the literal epicenter of all of this? Not to mention that the last two victims had a connection to this very shop.”

“Shouldn´t that be another reason for us not to take them up on their offer? How can these civilians help in a giant case like this. Can we trust those people, knowing how close they are to this case and the last two victims?! We can´t-”

“I don´t have to remind you that you yourself also have a very personal incentive to solve this case, right detective?” Garp´s voice cut right through Law´s objection, not giving him another opportunity to talk back again.

“I´ve spoken with Inspector Sengoku on this matter. He gave us the green light to bring in one of our boys into the shop and so did this Eustass guy. To give us an insight into those groups of people and detect any suspicious actions and individuals. Since this… subgroup of people is usually not a group that is responding very well to police presence we have even more reason to go in there undercover.”

Suspicious? I got your suspicious individuals right here. Law thought to himself looking at the files again. A criminal running a shop right in the middle of a killer´s playing field? What a damn shitshow.

“Now… the only issue that´s left to address is the questions of the person that goes in there. If none of you volunteer, I can get an officer from the other units and-”

“No. I´ll do it”

There wasn´t any doubt in Law´s mind that he would be the person to go in there. He had been the lead detective for this case since he got promoted to detective 3 years ago and was not willing to let his grasp on the case go.

“But Sir, none of us are trained for any sort of undercover investigation.” Officer Shachi objected, also not too sure about this whole idea.

“That doesn´t matter, Officer. I´ll do it.”

Just the possibility of someone else, an outsider, infiltrating that shop and possibly messing up the only chance they have to get into the hunting territory of this monster was, in the detective´s head, even worse than him having to play dress up and disguise in a shop he would voluntarily not even step one foot in. It didn´t matter at this point.

He gave up his dream of becoming a doctor, to follow in the footsteps of his father. To avenge him and personally arrest this monster and perhaps to get the nightmareless nights and peace and quiet he´s been chasing unsuccessfully for the last years. There is only one person cut out for that job, and it was him.

“It´s settled then. Thank you, detective. I´ll give you the details for the undercover job. We´ll start this operation in a few days, so stay alert, guys.” With those words the Lieutenant took his leave, leaving behind the other men, all of which were not too sure what to think about this idea of a ‘new approach in this case’.

Before Law followed Garp to his office he reached over the table to grab one of the photos that slid out of the file when Law carelessly threw it onto the table. It was one of the photos from Eustass´s record. He looked at the corner of the pictures trying to make out a date:

08/13/1983

A man, with scratches and blood splatters in his face that stood in stark contrast to his pale skin. Goggles, that unsuccessfully tried to keep the red stands of hair out of the bruised face. Golden eyes that dangerously glared at the camera, all finished up with a cocky grin spread on half of his face. No regret, no guilt, no nothing. Just an arrogant little bastard.

The longer he stared at the picture, the less likeable did that redhead come across. The complete opposite to Law´s usual calm, almost stone-cold mask.

“Let´s see if you can really help with this… Eustass-ya.”

Chapter Text

2

A fucking dump. Law thought to himself, as he stood in front of the run-down shop that was now supposed to be their new base of operation. Punk was it, what Garp called this far-fetched plan. Operation Punk. What a joke.

He looked down at his watch: 9:17. Garp had assured Law that both of them had their meeting with Mr. Eustass at 9 o’clock sharp. So much for that. But what bothered him even more, except for the absence of the other two parties, was the sheer faith the Lieutenant had seemingly placed into that criminal. Nothing good would come out of a plan like this, and what bothered him even more was that this was their only hope for now.

“There you are, Law!” The all too familiar gruff voice echoed from behind him. He turned his head and dropped the long-finished cigarette he was holding. “Morning, Sir.”

“That Eustass brat making us wait? What an insolent guy!” Garp fumed, making Law briefly roll his eyes. Us? Like you’re the one to talk.

But before he could give it another thought, the front door of the shop opened slowly with a high-pitched squeak, snapping him out of his thoughts and making him cringe internally. A pale hand with painted nails pushed the door open for a brief moment.

“Didn’t see ya there, badge. C’mon in.” It came in such an indifferent and disinteresting way that Garp returned a quick “watch it, brat.”, before slipping past Law and the ajar door, just for his subordinate to follow him with quick steps. He was no better off in his mood: Law couldn’t keep the distaste out of his face, even if he tried and that short yet disrespectful way he addressed them didn’t help put that Eustass guy in better light.

With Garp between the two, he wasn’t able to exactly make out a lot of the physical appearance of the younger. All he could say confidently was that the pictures in the files didn’t do the size of that guy any justice. By no means has Law ever considered himself short, with a proud height of over 6 feet. But for one of the first times in his life, just seeing the towering figure walked in front of him, made him feel shorter than he actually was.

After a short walk through the main entrance of the shop, the three were now standing in the middle of a room: the same room that was the center of all the images of the studio in all of its glory. Law’s gaze immediately fell onto the giant, taxidermized bear. Crude.

“Looks rad, right? Fixed her up myself.” It came from Eustass, a bit too proud for Law’s liking.

With that, Law, for the first time, took a good look at the large man in front of him. The same goggles as the ones from the pictures were keeping his unkempt hair in place, with small strands of hair sticking out from the sides. The golden eyes, admittedly, were less threatening and a touch more friendly than he expected, yet still sharp. And instead of small splatters of blood in his face, the colored lips now made the contrast in the pale man’s face, Law noticed.

“What, ya not much of a talker?” he followed up, after a long, awkward silence on Law’s end.

“…”

“Don’t mind him,” Garp cut in, not wanting to waste anyone’s time here “We’ll just go over everything really quick.”. He took out some papers, handing them out to Law and his counterpart. “Now, before we continue any of this, Eustass, did you tell any of your friends or colleagues of that idea of yours?” “No, no one.”

“Lieutenant, how sure can we be that he’s telling the truth?” Law intervened, not caring that the subject of his skepticism was standing right in front of him. “How sure can we be to trust him?” slipped out of his mouth before Garp had any chances to minimize Law’s doubt.

“Well, ya got some nerve to come into my joint, just to shit on me. If ya have no faith in the likes of me, you’re more than welcome to leave, pig!” Kid spat back, before he straightened up slowly and menacingly, which gave him the exact reaction in the other that he was looking for. Law, having been provoked for the second time now, also didn’t want to back down, or show any weakness. Especially not in front of this filthy criminal.

“Now, now guys. If you can’t get along together now, we have no real hopes for this undercover operation with the two of you.”

“Tzzch…”

Garp now turned his attention solely onto Kid, leaving the detective next to him with his remaining doubts to himself. “Going back to this” he gestured to the files in his hands again, “I’ve given you a brief overview over this ongoing investigation, but just in case, I wanted to give you a file you can look at for more details.” “Hmm alright.” Came the apathetic response again.

“The last two victims had been good friends of yours, correct?”

Right. Garp mentioned it briefly during the meeting, a couple days earlier. How the last two victims were somehow in association with this shop.

“Gotta be honest with you, cop. Don’t really remember that guy from last year. He came here lookin’ for a job, when we just opened. Guy was alright but the style didn’t really fit so I couldn’t take him on. Fella didn’t make a big deal about it though. Came in a couple of times after that to get some small tatts, so we kinda kept in touch. Name was Barto, I think.”

Law tried to think back for a moment. The guy from last year? Bartolomeo Bari was the name. The 20th victim of that bastard. 24 years old. He went out for a night with a couple of friends, disappeared into a crowd and never made it home, if Law remembered correctly. Found the next day in an alley, with multiple stab wounds. Date of death; 4th of August, last year.

“Dive on the other hand was a good friend of ours here.” Kid proceeded, and Law couldn’t help but notice a shift in Kid’s demeanor. In contrast to his confident presence from just a few moments ago, he was now leaning against the counter, slightly slumped into himself. His gaze fixed on the floor, like he was trying to escape the stares of the two men standing in front of him. The unbound papers in his hands got more and more creases, by the way Kid’s hands were crumbling the sheets, either in blind anger or thoughtless grief. Something Law could definitely relate to.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Eustass. Truly.” And Law realized that that was the first sentence he had directed at Kid that day, or ever, for that matter. In return, he looked up from the floor for a moment, where their eyes met for just a second, before a rushed “Hm, thanks.” escaped his lips.

Since she was the last victim, Law only knew about her from the files that the other officers had forwarded him belatedly. Her name was Dive Reymon. Only 15 years old, the poor thing. She left the parent’s house after an altercation with the mother and was just gone. A pedestrian found her two days after that, behind a container. According to the files, she had been strangled. Date of Death; 31st of August.

“Can I ask how you knew the last vi-, I mean, Dive?” Law corrected himself quickly.

“She came in a lot after school, just to hang. Told us she wanted to work here, when she’s all grown up.” Kid recalled while slowly walking up behind the counter and pulling some sheets out of a drawer. “These are some of her sketches, if ya wanna talk a look.” He handed them to Law, who slowly went over the different doddles.

Noticing the shift in atmosphere, Garp cleared his throat quietly to get the attention from the other two again. “I’m not planning on staying too long, so I need you two to listen to me.”

“The man to my right” he gestured to Law “his name is Trafalgar Law, and he will be the undercover detective in this investigation. He has a pager with him, not just to contact us but also to give us brief reports throughout the day. You told me, last time we met, you’d arrange for my man to be infiltrated into this shop of yours, without anyone suspecting something?”

“Plan was to make ‘em look like someone working here, ya know?” Kid took some time to examine the man in front of him, just before he let out an amused sigh. “Might have to change his style up a bit, though. Can’t have him working here while looking like Barney Fife.” Asshole.

“Are you sure none of your other employees are gonna suspect anything?” “Not really. ‘m just gonna tell ‘em that he’s an old friend of mine, lookin for new work. Have him keep an eye on customers and the shop, should be easy right?”

“Well as long as Law over here doesn’t need to actually tattoo some people, we shouldn’t be all too worried, eh.” Garp joked, which was followed by a quick remark by Kid. “No worry, Sir, won’t let that rookie within six feet of a tattoo gun.” Asshole. Again.

“If neither of you have any questions, I’d like to take my leave now. We’re not sure how long this entire operation will be going, so I’d suggest you two to get started on getting to know each other.” And with those last words Garp gave both of the men a quick nod, only to leave out the front door, leaving the two men behind. And just as quickly as he left; the room filled with an awkward silence once again.

“Ya not really a big talker, huh?” Kid tried to break the silence. He rummaged inside of the pocket of his hands for a minute, before pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. “Saw you smoke earlier. Wanna go out for a cig?” “Thought you said you didn’t see me outside” Law observed, before pulling out his own pack “or did you keep me waiting on purpose?” “Can’t blame me, can you?” Kid gave a crooked smile before lighting up the cigarette in between his fingers. Law followed shortly. “Only knew how Garp looked like, not his friends. Didn’t know if you were one of his friends, or just another pig lookin for trouble.”

“Weird of you to call us pigs, while still wanting to work for us, Eustass.” Law sneered, having been fed up with the constant mocking ways he’d find to call police officers.

“Wrong, badge. I’m not working for anyone. I’m working with you guys.” Kid responded snarly, looking Law up and down again. “And judging by the time this guy’s been walking all over you guys, ya can really use any help ya can get, huh Trafalgar?”

No response from Law. He wasn’t going to dignify that schoolyard taunt with a response. His only priority was catching the killer, not bickering around with someone he barely even knew, and had no intention of getting to know better.

“Not to pry or anything,” Kid started again, which earned him a short sigh from the other “but Garp said, that just like me, you also had some personal motives to catch the bastard.”

“…”

“If ya don’t wanna tell me, I’m not gonna force you, Trafalgar. No need to be so God damn hostile for no reason. But lemme tell you one thing: if you keep that up, the others might clock you as a cop before you even unpack.”

“’m just not that big of a talker, Eustass. Nothing personal.” Law explained, slowly putting the cigarette on his lips, before he took a drag and exhaled.

“You’re right, I got a personal motive just like you. The third victim was someone very dear to me.”

“The third?” Kid looked at him questioningly. “Don’t those murders go back all the way back to the mid-70s?” “1976 to be exact.” “Fuck, sorry to hear that.”

After a long break of no words being exchanged, Kid took the initiative once again to break the silence.

“How…” he started, not really knowing how to put his questions into words. “How do you know that all these murders are connected, ya know? I heard that Barto was knifed. The cops didn’t wanna give me too many details about Dive, but word on the street is, some bastard strangled her. You sure this has some connection to a killer?”

“Yeah…” Now it was Law’s turn to avoid eye contact, letting his gaze wander to the floor and fixating onto one point. “…the problem with that is…”

Law tapped the ashes of his cigs off, deliberating his next words carefully,“…it’s not really about the way he kills. It’s about the type.”

“Whatcha mean by tat ‘type’?” Kid questioned, seeming obviously tense by the mentioned topic.

“All the victims of that guy were of… certain communities.”

“Just spit it out, Trafalgar, we ain’t got all day for this bullshit.” Kid asked again, this time with obvious impatience, but already sensing what Law was hinting with his words. Certain communities. Communities people wanted nothing to do with. ‘Scum’ is what some people would call them.

“This killer has a knack for people that seem to be outcasts: homeless people, sex workers, different people in… stigmatized lifestyles.” “Cut the fancy talk crap, Trafalgar, what do you mean by that exactly?!”

“Just the two people you knew for example: Barto went missing in a very popular Gay Club in the city, and your other friend Dive: she had an altercation with her mother, because she recently began to express romantic interest in a classmate of hers. Name was —”

“Quincy.” Kid interrupted. “Both of ‘em came here on their little doodling dates.” He recalled, leaning back and thinking back about the couple times those little teens went into his shop. “Last time we saw ‘em, Dive told us super proud how she finally wanted to introduce Quin to her mother… saw how that went.”

Law walked over to Kid, to put the long-finished cigarette in his hands into the ashtray, who shortly followed suit.

“So now the city has some lunatic, going after all the pariahs of this world. What a bastard.”

“Couldn’t agree more, Eustass.”

“Ya know, I was wondering what kind of man that old cop would slip into my store, didn’t think it would be a guy like you.” Kid took some time to eye the cop in front of him.

“You can keep your prejudice about cops to yourself, Eustass. I will try to do the same about felons, Eustass.”

“I see so that’s why you’re so hostile, badge. Can’t stand that a man with a few scratches in his rap sheet is someone you gotta work with now, huh? No wonder you guys can’t ever make any progress in this shit. Noones gonna help you, if you ¬—”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, crook.” And while he didn’t know why, it struck a nerve in him. How this man, a nobody was getting involved in this case, and sticking his nose in affairs that had nothing to do with him.

However, Kid couldn’t put up with that comment, especially after he so graciously offered his help to these incompetent cops. He quickly reached over and grabbed Law by the scuff of his shirt, pulling him roughly towards him until their noses were merely inches apart. The shorter one was even lifted up off his heels for a second, only standing on the tip of his toes.

“Now listen here, you little bull. If it weren’t for me offering up my shop as a hub for this. My friend got killed and I have absolutely no intention in wasting my time with a little bitch like you, but if you don’t shut your mouth really quick, I might have to drag your scrawny little ass out of here, before we even open, you got me?”

“Oh, what now, Eustass.” Law only continued to provoke, not caring about the empty threats the hothead was spewing. He just didn’t care. “Wanna put one more badge on your rap sheet?”

Dirty criminal

“I can put my first through your face if you don’t shut up now, ya little shit.”

Fucking pig

“Excuse me, everything ok, Kid?” a voice echoed through the room, making both guys stop in their tracks and look at the entrance. It was a blonde guy, with disheveled hair, that was sticking out of his beanie. Even his bangs covered most of his eyes. Kid immediately let go of Law’s scuff and walked right over to that man, greeting him with a fist bump. “Nothing, we’re just talkin, that’s all.”

“That’s the guy I was talking about, Kil. A friend of mine from back in the day. He ran into some problems with the cops back home, so I’m taking him under my wing for a bit.” Kid shamelessly lied, making up a backstory for Law as he felt fit. Law did seem to mind, by the way he was throwing dirty looks into Kid’s direction.

“Well, whatever you guys were bitching about, drop it before the first customers walk in. Not really interested in a fight before I had my breakfast” he half-jokingly muttered. He looked into Law’s direction and he gave him a nod as a short greeting before walking past him, into his secluded part of the studio, leaving the two alone again.

“Just try not to stand in my way, Trafalgar.” Were the last words Kid uttered to the now officially, undercover cop, before taking his leave and leaving him alone in the room again.

“Will try my best, Eustass.”

Oh, how he hated this operation already.