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Law’s least favourite holiday was winter break. He hated having to go home for holidays as it is, seeing all the people he didn’t want to see was a waste of his time. He wished he could have stayed at his flat close to university. Alone. It’d have been much better than this.
Instead, he was holed up in his much too tiny room, trying to waste time. Summer was a lot better, he could actually go out and do stuff. Stay away from ‘home’ for a week or two.
Winter was much too cold, too dark. He didn’t like it.
He wanted to go back to his harsh and tiring, but fulfilling routine already. Three hours away from this place. Out of his adoptive family’s reach.
Just as he was about close his eyes and nap, his cellphone vibrated in his pants’ pocket. He took it out and scanned the screen. A smile and a pang of happiness were his reaction to the name on the screen. At least his phone was in range up here. If things stayed this way, he could just…
He heard a scream downstairs, something’s shattering and more upset voices joined the screaming.
… seriously get used to staying up here, locked into his room without leaving it all too often. Maybe he’d even eat up here… Sleep a lot and hope it’s over soon.
He opened the message he’d received and was surprised at how short it was.
'Can I call u r/n' was all it said. The person usually texted at least a page full, which made him reflect on whether or not something was wrong with them. He replied with a single 'ok' and the phone rang less than one minute after he did.
"Law? Hey,", he heard a voice frantically speak on the other end. They sounded excited… He wondered what for - it was usually hard to excite them.
"Eustass-ya.", Law greeted in return. "What is it? It’s not like you to initiate a call out of nowhere."
"It’s been a while I’ve wanted to make this call.", he hears Kidd’s voice speak into his ear. "I’ve decided to do it today, as the occasion fits."
"Ooh?", Law closed his eyes and sunk back into the bed. It’s been at least a week since he’s last heard Kidd’s voice and it really felt good. He was one of his best friends after all.
There’s some noise in he background of the line. “Bold? Hehehe, I like that! Who’s on the line, is it Traf? Say hello to him for me!”
Law rolled his eyes at the other familiar voice in the background and his smile widened as they started bickering. A few moments later, Kidd returned to continue talking to him.
"Law? Sorry.", he apologized sheepishly. "He’s gone now."
"Say hello to him for me, too. Later.", Law replied and rolled over to the side, watching smoke floating by the small, dirty window. "So what are you gonna be bold about?"
"Thing is… Since it’s the last year of the day, even though midnight is still a bit away… I wanted to tell you something.", Kidd took a break and Law listened to his even breathing for a couple of seconds. He must be taking a break to gather his thoughts - he always did that. "Hey, Law. I wanna date you come this year. I really like you and so on."
Law’s the one to take a break at that. His heart skipped a beat and he shifted positions once more. He was on his stomach now, face pressed into his pillow. Of all the things, he hadn’t expected this one. There was silence on the line, but it wasn’t an extremely uncomfortable or awkward one. At least not to him.
Yet, he knew that Kidd was waiting for a response of any kind. But there were just too many thoughts in his head for now, and right as he’s about to ask the other for some time to think about it, there’s a yell coming from downstairs.
"Law, you’re having dinner with us tonight. Move out of that stinking room!"
He groaned and sat up in his bed. “Eustass-ya, don’t take this the wrong way but I have to go. I’ll call you back in a matter of minutes, promise.”
"Kay, I’ll be waiting. Straw hat boy here is also itching to say somethin’, but we can wait.", Kidd spoke and Law apologized again before hanging up. He hid his phone under the pillow and begrudgingly left the room.
So one of his roommates had evolved feelings for him… how odd it felt. He’d never had any sort of feelings for anyone, let alone a relationship, so he’s at loss of what to do in this situation. Feelings rarely ever were mutual upon a confession. Could he come to like Kidd in that way? Should he just try? He stretched, unlocked the door and walked downstairs.
Thinking was impossible with the amount of noise around him during dinner. He ate his share, as quickly as possible and proceeded to sneak back to his room at the first best possibility. Thank god an argument had broken out, making it easier for him to do so without being noticed by anyone.
The first thing he did upon entering his room again was locking the door twice. He then flopped down on his bed again and sighed. Around five more hours till the change of years.
The cellphone is retrieved from it’s hiding place and blankly stared upon.
What should he say?
It wasn’t really a question about whether Law wanted to go out with Kidd, it was more of a decision that they would.
"That’s so like him.", Law whispered to himself and his eyes closed for a few seconds. The noise downstairs continued - much louder than before. It’d be nice to have some peace. Though he wasn’t even sure if he should be thinking so much about it instead of finding out how he felt about it. About Kidd.
Certainly, they were good friends and relationships, from what he knew, were a risk to friendships. If they failed, things would just go awkward… and no matter how much you tried, your former friendship would never be the same.
That was…
His fingers started typing on the phone again, almost unconsciously dialling the second number on his speed dial. He HAD promised to call back as soon as possible after all. Even if he was uncertain about everything.
Just like before, it didn’t take long for Kidd to be on the line. He sounded just as excited as before, despite having lowered his voice. He was whispering, which was something so out of character for him, Law had to take a second to reply his frantic “welcome back”,
Kidd usually didn’t bother to whisper - he didn’t care about who heard him. If they gave him shit, he could just beat them up.
"Thank you. I’m glad they didn’t notice my presence.", Law crossed his legs.
"So… Well, what do you say?", Kidd asked away.
"What if I say no to your confession?", Law retorted. He wasn’t sure, still, but he wanted to know just exactly how Kidd would react to rejection.
"Well then, the year would end in the worst possible way, but it’d be done with that.", Kidd explained.
"And if I say yes?", Law continued
"Well then the new year would start off the best possible way.", he heard the other speak more excitedly than before at the mentioning of his feelings being accepted rather than rejected. "Is that a yes?"
"I’m not sure, you know. I’d like to try… Maybe, I mean. If we’re going slowly. And if, in case it doesn’t work, we can go back to being friends?", Law rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say, but it was something close to this.
Another silence followed his words. He could almost picture Kidd’s mouth opening and closing the way it did when he wanted to form words but wasn’t entirely sure what to say. He could probably find that somewhat cute…
"Law.", he finally heard him talk again after a while. It was still uncertain, but Kidd attempted to talk. "It’s fine. There’s no rush or anything whatsoever. It’s just that… for a while now, you’ve been on my mind. A lot. That’s why I, uh.."
"That’s how it usually starts, doesn’t it?", Law uncrossed his legs and sank back down into the bed. He started to play with a hole in the sheets. "I like you a lot. Platonic, and possibly more. It’s not like with Luffy-ya - he’s like a younger brother who could never be any more than just that. It might just… with you and me, it might develop into more."
"So, for now, we’re a thing?", Kidd asked immediately after Law was done talking.
"Yeah, let’s try it.", Law agreed.
There was a noise on the other side of the line and then two voices started to loudly converse with each other. Law shook his head at them going on about what he’d just said.
"You didn’t have to wake me for that, dumbass!"
"Who cares, he fucking said yes!"
"Well, I DON’T care. I’m tired!"
"You’ll be fine, whatever, I’m a boyfriend with a boyfriend now! Fight me!"
Law listened as the punch he’d already predicted to come was delivered. If you told Luffy to fight you, he’d go for a punch. Even Kidd should know that by now…
They argued some more before the phone was picked up again. He’d expected Kidd to pick up where they had left off, but heard another voice instead.
"Traf! Hello!", Luffy greeted, seemingly out of breath and possibly moving around as he spoke. "How are things over there?"
"Good to hear from you, too.", Law greeted back. "Things are okay, boring."
"All is less fun without you! Uh oh, he’s crazy mad, hahaha!", Luffy laughed, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing. They were probably chasing each other through the house or something. Kidd usually didn’t react well to his phone being stolen after all.
"Don’t make a huge mess, okay?", Law sighed. He could just imagine them turning everything in their flat into a huge chaos…
"Don’t worry, we won’t.", Luffy promised, but his tone of voice told otherwise. Law knew he didn’t care one bit about the state of their place. "Say, Law."
Law listened, but there’s a break and he grimaced when it was followed by a big sound of something crashing on the other end. There really was no time to be here, when his two stupid roommates wrecked havoc at their home. “What just…”
"It’s nothing. Nothing, I swear. Ah! That’s right, it snowed here earlier! Can you believe it?", he sounded ecstatic at least. "Me and the mechanic dude had a ton of snow fights and I won more than half of them! He just can’t beat me!"
"Is that so.", Law couldn’t help but to smile at them. When he’d first met them, he hadn’t thought he’d grow as close to them, as attached. He’d tried to change his place to stay with someone less noisy. But they and their stupid fights, bad habits and all had really grown on him. Maybe it was because they were so useless together. Maybe, because they weren’t that bad after all. They really made incredible friends at the end of the day, despite all their flaws. With flaws came qualities - most of the time at least. He could say that said phrase applied to them without any second thought.
There was another thud and Law raised an eyebrow. It was much closer than the crashing sound from before. “Hey, I swear, if you broke anything…”
"Who can’t beat who now?", he heard Kidd exclaiming. He guessed the phone had returned to it’s rightful owner. The noises had stopped and all he heard was them panting. "I’m back, Law. Sneaky one, that straw hat brat, took my phone when I was off guard…"
"Not a hard thing to do, is it?", Law chuckled.
"I’d like to see you try next time..", Kidd grumbled. He took a break to properly catch his breath before he continued. "So, with this settled… I mean, what are you doing?"
"Ha, nothing much. Wasting time.", Law stated. "What about the both of you - what are you gonna do for midnight?"
"Eh, nothing much either. Just gonna watch fireworks and drink a bit. Will you really sleep through it?", Kidd asked.
"New Years holds no meaning to me.. It’s just another day, especially with them.", Law shrugged, despite knowing that no one could see him.
"Aw, don’t be like that. I’m gonna call you exactly at midnight.", Kidd announced.
"Is there any way to keep you from doing that?", Law inquired, his long good night sleep seemed out of reach now.
"Nope. No way at all. Even if I didn’t, straw hat would.", Kidd exclaimed firmly.
"Fine then. But let me sleep for now.", Law mumbled, pulling the sheets up to his chin and curling up.
"Alright, sleep well till then. And… I can’t wait to see you, come next year."
"Yeah, yeah, me too. Take care."
The call was cut off, and Law stared at the ugly, yellow wall. It still seemed surreal - all the things happening this evening did. But it also felt fuzzy, thinking about Kidd and all the possible ways this could go.
It felt like he’d made the right choice.