Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.
Rating: T/PG-13, because of swearing and a list of pirate crimes. (Remember, Law's supposed to be known for his cruelty.)
Notes:
Written for andersandrew's request on my livejournal one-fic-a-day meme : "first impressions". This fic was a monster compared to what I usually write, and it ruined my meme by taking way too much time to write, but I like the finished product, so it's okay.
Not very shippy, since it's in Kidd's POV and I tried to write the ship as a growing obsession of sorts.
On another note: I HATE FFNET'S AUTO DE-FORMATING CRAP. Geez, I hadn't posted anything in years, and I forgot about that part. Not only do I have to check all my paragraphs, it doesn't allow me to leave blank lines. For a website entirely dedicated to hosting pieces of writing, this really sucks. So yeah, apologies for all the "o"s everywhere. The fic is available with the original, decent formating on my LJ, if you want.

o

oOo

o

The first time you see Trafalgar's face is, of course, on a wanted poster.

o

It's a silly habit but when you have some time, you go to the boards where they put those on and pick up some of you and your crew. You have an entire collection of them in your room, all carefully dated, so that you can see how damn fast your bounty rises.

They've just increased it to 140 million berry, and finding out has put you in a great mood. So while you're at it, you take a look at the other posters - to check out your future targets, and get a good laugh at the pathetic bounties of your so-called rivals.
And it's there, right beside Killer's new poster (70 million, now that's worthy of being your first mate), waiting for everybody to read and burst out laughing.

"Trafalgar Law?"

You stare at the poster for a fucking minute - then you start cackling like a maniac. This one is so precious, you just have to pick up a poster and add it to your collection.

o

You don't pay any mind to the bounty, let alone the details of the guy's crimes. Doesn't matter what he tried to get himself attention, a pirate named Law can't be nothing but a joke.

o

Killer's the one to point your mistake out to you, as always.

"100 million berry bounty for piracy, armed robbery, murder, torture and maiming of civilians, anatomy murder and organ theft, grave-robbing and corpse mutilation. If he's a joke, he's a nasty one."

You stop smiling and take a closer look at the picture. Trafalgar sure doesn't look like that much trouble: short black hair, some stubble on his chin, gray eyes with huge bags under them and a cocky grin. If anything, the guy looks like a druggie. Definitely not the face of a beast.

Killer digs out one of his newspapers and shows you the front page.
Okay, so maybe Trafalgar looks meaner full-body than with just his face. He's suspiciously lean and those tattoos are anything but subtle. (Death on his fingers, really.) Also, the sword he's wielding looks as long as he is.

Then you read the headline, and cringe.

A doctor. A fucking doctor. With death tattoos and a psycho grin and a huge sword instead of a scalpel and did you mention you hate doctors? Creepy fuckers, the lot of them.
So what if "Surgeon of Death" is the scariest pirate nickname you've heard so far?
You hiss.
"Never trust people with needles and scalpels. All fucking sadists."

Killer shrugs, and wisely chooses not to mention pots or kettles. Or your damn inconvenient loathing of all medical practitioners.

o

You quickly forget about the pirate doctor. He's on a different route on the Red Line, so you won't have to meet him anyway. What's the point?
(You also forget to throw away the poster. That's the only reason it stays in your room, at the bottom of a drawer.)

o

You're suddenly reminded of his existence a few months later, when you wait in a shipyard town for some repairs to be done.

You pass by a kiosk and look at the front pages of the papers. Some of them are still starring you and your crew, and the terrified headlines about the last marine base you ransacked make you cackle gleefully. Others mention the Government's last stupidity - which is, of course, as boring as it can be - or another pirate crew. You almost ignore that last one, but the headline you glimpse out of the corner of your eye makes you stop in your tracks.
You pick up the paper and stare at it for a whole minute.
Then you read the headline over, thrice, before you can believe your own eyes.

The Heart pirates. Someone actually named their crew the Heart pirates.

You look at what can be seen of the crew members on the picture: janitor uniforms, stupid hats of all shapes and colors and a fucking polar bear in the stupid uniform and kick-boxing a marine.

You just can't help yourself: you buy the stupid paper (even though Killer must already have a copy) and you go sit on a nearby barrel to read the entire article (even though reading bores the shit out of you and you don't even care about the losers who dare call themselves pirates on this side of the ocean).
When you turn the page, you're greeted by a portrait of one Trafalgar Law, captain of the bunch of wackos known as the Heart pirates.

Somehow, you're not surprised.

Despite your best efforts to not be interested in the guy, you also notice his bounty has risen to 150 millions.
(Damn right it has. He's a doctor, bona fide psycho, and fuck if he's not good, in a ridiculous, batshit insane way.)

o

And then you reach Shabaody, and hear that other top-notch rookies are here, even though none of their bounties can hold a candle to yours.

Of course Law is here as well. Of fucking course.

o

Surprisingly, you don't get to meet the man himself until the human-auction-house mess.
(You weren't even looking for him anymore. Typical.)

Trafalgar Law is everything you expected, except he's not.

He's way too quiet and laid back for pirate worth 200 million berries. Way too laid back to just flip you off and turn right away, as if the thought of you wrecking his long, handsome little neck for it never occurred to him. His smirk pisses you off and amuses you at the same time - like some sort of joke between the two of you, only he's the one laughing and you're the one being laughed at, and nobody laughs at Eustass Kidd, dammit!

He doesn't move an inch when Strawhat attacks the Tenryuubito.

He doesn't move either when his Lordship Daddy Asshole starts yapping and firing at the Strawhats, then gets knocked down by a guy falling from the sky. All hell breaks loose and Trafalgar just. Keeps. Watching. So utterly relaxed he's sprawled on his seat like a goddamn cat.
When he explains to Strawhat that you're all surrounded by the marines, Trafalgar has the gall to sound amused.

Then the Dark King Rayleigh barges in to stop the brawl, and you stop caring about Trafalgar. Between a pirate legend complimenting you and the marines blaming you for Strawhat's bullshit, you're a little busy. And all puns be damned, this is the last straw. You leave the nut-jobs to each other and go find some marines to crush to relieve your stress.

o

Honestly, you expected Strawhat to get pissed. Stupid brat deserved it, for dragging you into his mess. Least he could do was let you enjoy some of the brawling.

You did not expect Trafalgar to get all prissy.
After all his smirks in the auction house, you'd put him in the "smirky-bastard-always-standing-aside-and-letting-others-do-the-work" category, and stopped paying him any attention. It must've been written somewhere that the Surgeon of Death will keep surprising you.
(So the doc doesn't take orders well. Makes some part of you eager to order him some more, just so you can force him to swallow that pride of his.)

You don't have much time to watch him use his powers the first round. You only see the results - weird.

You can't say the guy is deadly, because he doesn't seem to try for lethal, but as far as non-lethal goes, his tricks are impressive. Less goofy than Strawhat's, though not exactly pirate-like, either. "Surgeon of Death" doesn't seem like a very appropriate nickname for Trafalgar.

Then you come crashing into what you think is a warlord, and Trafalgar comes crashing after you.
Needless to say, this time you're the one who gets pissed. A wacko doc with non-lethal powers will only get in your way, you think.

You're wrong.

o

In the end, Trafalgar's the one who saves your sorry ass.

The bastard fights long range, so it's easier for him to notice things like how that "warlord" reacted to your magnetism. Still, you must admit none of your crew understood Kuma was a fucking robot after just ten seconds of watching you fight him. And none of your guys could lift up the robot to put it at the right angle for you to repel it to the other side of the island.
But the worst part is that in those ten seconds of fighting the thing, you got wounded, and once both your crew and the Heart pirates got away from the marines, you've lost way too much blood and are way beyond Killer's medical knowledge.
Which means Trafalgar is the one who patches your chest and shoulder.

He does it in record time, washing it carefully, his nimble fingers brushing around the gash without a single painful touch, and then pinching it together to stitch it up, the needle stinging way less than you're used to.
All the while sitting on your lap to keep you from squirming.

o

Long after he left you with instructions on how to clean the wound and some "don't thank me, it'd be a waste for you to die here, is all" bullshit, you still can't shake the feel of him sitting on you and touching your skin.

You grumble and ramble about him for all your convalescence - which is, admittedly, very short. Bastard just had to be the best doctor you've ever met.
You even dream of him, for fuck's sake, and to add insult to injury, you say his goddamn name in your sleep.

When Killer asks, you blame it on fever.

(The instructions Trafalgar left are pretty efficient, and your temperature is perfectly normal, but Killer knows better than to point it out.)

o

And if you keep picking up Trafalgar's posters and stealing Killer's newspapers when the Surgeon of Death makes the front page, it's only because he made an impression on you as a dangerous, unpredictable rival.

Not because your crew really could use a doctor and you've only ever met one that you might want. Want on your ship.