Oh, look, this story is not dead! :DDD I owe you all an apology for this monstrous delay. All I can say is that I've been so pissed at Doflamingo for most of Dressrosa that I just didn't feel like writing him, but now I'm back.

Like last year, I'm doing a massive birthday update. And this story is two years old today :DDD

I hope you still like it after so long. I had it all plotted, so getting back to write it, once I decided I could, wasn't so hard.

Also, next Monday I'm starting exams, so I can't make any promises in regards to updates until at least mid-June. That applies to most stories, but, honestly, I don't think I'll update this one so soon. It's going to be a slow process, but I'm not dropping the story. There are maybe ten chapters left (it might grow, stories tend to grow on me).

Beta-read by Aerle ^^

Chapter 34: The first contact

Kid cursed out loud, paused for a moment, cursed again and kicked the wall.

He had been studying in Law's bedroom again when Monet had come to get him. She hadn't said much, only that something had happened, before bringing him to an unused guest room where Doflamingo, Law, Vergo, and Killer had already been waiting. It didn't go unnoticed to Kid that the people present were the only ones who knew the truth about the whole mess with Crocodile. He had realized that Law's hand was bandaged, but then Doflamingo had told them about the attack on Whitebeard and Kid was too busy cursing to comment anything about Law.

If there was someone in this city you wanted to piss off even less than Doflamingo, it was Whitebeard.

"I agree, Kid," Doflamingo said, and there was no trace of amusement in his voice, "but hitting walls won't solve anything."

"You got an idea? 'Cause I don't feel like going to war against fucking Whitebeard," he snapped.

Kid saw Vergo open his mouth, probably to reprimand him for talking like that to Doflamingo, but Doflamingo didn't seem to notice. He addressed them all.

"As I see things, we have two choices: we can let this game continue and fight Whitebeard, or we can talk to him."

At a glance, this place didn't stand out at all. It was a normal bar, not too shabby and not too posh, in a nice enough neighborhood of the city, and most of the patrons were people who lived in the area and spent part of their lives at the bar, be it with friends, drinking alone or meeting strangers.

One needed a certain amount of knowledge to realize something was odd in this place, and yet most of the oddities were so well hidden than the ones that could actually be spotted were in the people themselves. There was the boy of around twenty years of age who was taking an order at a table to the left of the entrance door. He cast a quick glance at the door when it opened, it would seem he was just checking who had come in, but there was a certain calculating air to the gesture. He had made a name for himself lately, had gained a pretty impressive reputation in barely any time, but he wasn't the one to really worry about here.

No, the one someone should really worry about here was the man calmly wiping a cup behind the bar. Blond, muscular and slightly taller than his companion, some of the stories about him were hard to believe. There was people who claimed he had survived a bomb exploding right next to him, others said he had been shot in the chest, and his heart hadn't been hit by millimeters. If you asked around to the right people long enough, you could hear ten different stories like those.

Even though they didn't change their demeanor outwardly, Law knew he had the attention of Fire Fist Ace and Marco the Phoenix, because there was no way that they had missed the very obvious necklace he was wearing with the crest of the Donquixote Family.

As he approached the bar, Marco lowered a hand, and most would think he did so only to put the cup back in its place. Law sat on a free barstool.

"What can I get you?" Marco asked lightly.

"Just a beer," Law asked in a similar tone. "But you don't mind if I ask you to open it here, do you?"

Poisoning may not be the style of the Whitebeard Family, but in the last few months Law had learned –even more than he had already known— that one could never be paranoid enough.

There was a hard edge to Marco's smile.

"Of course not."

Law saw Ace approach. He handed a slip of paper with the orders to Marco with a cheerful "there you go!", and Marco very pointedly walked three steps to the left turned around and handed the paper over through the small window to whoever was in the kitchen. Law guessed there were a good deal of weapons in there.

Marco then came back with Law's beer and opened it in an exaggerated gesture to show he wasn't putting anything in it.

Ace casually sat down on the stool next to Law's.

"So, what's one of Doflamingo's goons doing here?" he asked in a low enough voice that no one aside from the three of them would be able to hear.

"I'm not a goon," Law muttered, picking the bottle up with his good hand and taking a sip from his beer as he gave them a pointed look. "And I'm just a messenger, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't fire whatever weapon you have aimed at me, Phoenix-ya."

Marco smirked.

"I won't, for now, but it's aimed at your crotch, just so you know."

Law grimaced. He had guessed Marco had a way to shoot under the bar despite the barrier it posed.

"Then, even more, I ask you not to shoot. I need that."

"Who are you?" Ace asked next to him, and Law had to admit he was good: by all means, he looked like he was talking to a friend.

"Name's Heart." Law hated having to use that name again, but he had been forced to agree that it was the best choice for this job.

Ace whistled.

"Doflamingo's toy boy?" He flashed Law a short smirk that made it clear he had aimed to be offensive, but Law was too used to that sort of comment to show his annoyance at them anymore if he didn't want to.

"What's the message?" Marco asked, giving Ace a slightly exasperated look. There were some rumors saying that these two were a couple, some even said that was how Ace had first joined the family, Law remembered. He thought it might be similar to Eustass-ya and himself.

"We didn't do it," Law said, and that caught them off guard, but they recovered fast.

Ace scoffed.

"And we're supposed to believe that?"

"Not from me." Law leaned his elbows on the bar and took another sip from the beer. "That's why my boss wants to meet yours, to talk about it."

Marco was silent, but it seemed that Ace wasn't someone to hold back his skepticism.

"Why the fuck should we agree to that?"

"Easy," Law said, because this was a part of the conversation he had known they would have, and thus had prepared for it. "Can you tell me, with full certainty, that nothing strange has happened in the last couple of years? Nothing you don't have an explanation for? Or nothing for which the explanation you have found doesn't convince you?"

Marco and Ace looked at each other, and they seemed to have an entire silent conversation with only their eyes and in a matter of seconds. It was Marco who spoke next.

"I hope you're not expecting Pops to just go wherever you want him to."

"Of course not," Law assured. That was something they had known Whitebeard would never agree to. "You choose the meeting place. A neutral meeting place," he clarified. "I'm going to take out my wallet, don't shoot, please," he asked.

Marco nodded, and Law did as he had said with slow movements, because he had heard that Fire Fist Ace was pretty trigger happy. Law was sure that he had a weapon as well, even if he hadn't seen it. He didn't think they would kill him before all the bar's patrons unless Law attacked first, but he wouldn't put it past Ace to punch him if he thought Law was doing something different.

He pulled out a thousand beli note and the paper with the phone number they had set especially for this event, and handed them to Marco.

"Here. If you decide you want to meet, contact this number with the time and place."

Law stood up and turned around, but he stopped before walking around.

"I almost forgot: you probably should keep that meeting to as little people as possible, because what's going on is pretty messed up."

Law didn't wait for an answer, because he knew that, whether they decided to listen to his advice or not, there was nothing he could do to change their minds without making them suspicious.

—

"How did it go?" Kid asked Law as soon as he entered through the passenger door of the car. He didn't wait for an answer before turning on the ignition and taking off, away from the bar. There were very few places right now near which he wanted to be less than this bar and the people inside of it.

"I'm alive," Law said, which was sort of an answer. Kid had spent the whole time since Law had walked in convincing himself that he didn't have to go in there because they wouldn't kill Law with so many witnesses. He had been about to go in many times.

"I see that. Did they agree?" Now, what worried Kid the most was how this whole operation would go. He really didn't feel like going up against Whitebeard: it wasn't just that the Whitebeard Family had some pretty dangerous people, Kid could deal with that, but they were also the largest family –and by far—which would made any war with them a very dangerous pain in the ass.

"They agreed to at least think about it. We couldn't expect more at this stage."

"No, I guess not. I still don't like it." He may not want to go to war, but he wasn't comfortable with the alternative either. Whitebeard and his 'sons' may be some of the few people that could be called honorable around here, but they had that strange concept of family –something that was a source of mockery for many people, though never to their face— and there was the very real possibility that Whitebeard refused to actually talk because some of his sons had died, and instead attended the meeting with the full intention to kill them.

"Stop fretting, you won't solve anything," Law told him, cutting his train of thought.

"I'm not fretting," Kid snapped.

"Oh, right, then you're clutching the steering wheel so tight because you're nervous about driving."

Kid glared at him, but Law just answered with a small and very annoying smirk. Kid loosened his hold on the steering wheel, blood flooding back into his knuckles.

When they returned to the manor, Kid headed straight for the gym as soon as they exited the garage. Law couldn't say he was surprised, because despite what he said, Kid was really wound up about the whole situation and needed to let off some steam. Law didn't feel sorry for whoever might be in the gym, even if they were about to get their asses very violently handed over to them.

Law, meanwhile, went to change the bandages of his injured hand. When he entered the bedroom, he found Doflamingo sitting on the bed, a notepad before him and a pencil held between his teeth. They would have to take some people with them to the meeting, even if only to keep guard, but anybody who came would know they were meeting with Whitebeard, and that was information that had to be kept away from certain ears. It meant they had to be as sure as possible that whoever they took was as trustworthy as possible, so Doflamingo was now going over what he knew of everybody in the family. A thrilling job, in Law's sarcastic opinion.

He waved at Doflamingo and headed for the bathroom and the supplies he kept in it.

To be continued

And now, I'm back to studying for my exams. Wish me luck, because I will need it.