Law was in an all too familiar dark enclosed space, the chill of the winter air nipping at him from all directions, surfacing from the cracks in the wood. Realizing where he was, as if with a strange sense of deja vu, he immediately started panicking, when he heard Corazon's words from outside of the chest. Dumb, stupid Corazon had gotten into a situation that he couldn't get out of. He let out a choked sob, and he wasn't even entirely sure why.

But as if his body somehow knew what would happen, he started trying to yell "Corasan!" to get the man's attention, but he was too fatigued and he couldn't even hear his voice coming out, feeling warm tears sliding down his face, contrasting the painful cold surrounding him. He continued screaming and even banging on the wooden walls of the box he was in.

"If you ever think of me in the future, I want you to remember me smiling." The words, straight from Corasan's mouth, started to echo repeatedly almost painfully in Law's mind. Law winced and grabbed at his head, almost pawing with his tiny child hands, trying to make the noises stop.

And then…

The gunshot.

Law awoke with a start, immediately sitting upright in his bed and huffing to the point of almost hyperventilating. Sweat pooled on his hairline and tears slid idly down his face, as he tried to gather up what had just happened. He put his head in his hands for a moment, thinking about how he hadn't had that dream in months, he began to wonder why the bad memories suddenly decided to come back to haunt him for virtually no reason. After his breathing had finally slowed to a reasonable pace, he wiped his gross combination of sweat and tears from his face with his forearm and stood up, mildly wobbly at first as he shook off the groggy morning feelings.

As much as he could spend his time dwelling on sad past events, he'd much rather focus on the fact that he couldn't be late to his first morning class. It was just a regular day, but Law was not a regular person and he found it crucial to be at any place at least 5 minutes early, so he was quick to worry at the slightest possibility that he could be late to wherever he was going. Law really had no idea why he did that, but it was just another quirk attributing to his perfectionist and neat-freak personality.

Sluggishly, he went into his closet, digging around before lazily pulling out his favorite black and yellow sweatshirt and a pair of comfy blue jeans, tattered with various black stains from… he wasn't even sure where but he knew he had them ever since he leant them to his close friend Bepo. Then again, the other man was an engineer, so a plausible theory would be the marks just being oil. Mad at first, Law now just thought of it as his own silly little signature on his clothes, like a custom design but way less expensive and unnecessary. At the very last second, Law pulled on his favorite fluffy beanie with black polka dots that he had left on his hat rack and the pair of black converse high tops left right by the door. The perfect outfit.

Rushing to grab his phone, his keys, and his earbuds, he hurried out the door and eventually found himself in the apartment parking lot. As routine, he lead himself over to his black sports car. It's unusual for a college student to have anything even remotely close to this cars price, but when your uncle was the Donquixote Doflamingo (Law wasn't entirely sure why his parents thought that was a good name, but they must have been insane), the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world, it's really not that hard to believe.

Doflamingo… The one who… Law made a guttural noise very close to a growl, but quickly shook it off and busied himself with driving. Really, Law wasn't sure what the sudden overflow of bad thoughts was but he really didn't like that. Turning on the radio, he listened to the catchy 70's beat of the song currently playing.

With approximately 25 minutes left to get to school, and the school not being far away at all, there was really no reason for his persistent need to go as fast as possible. But as they always say "Better to be dead than late!" Actually, nobody ever says that but Law firmly sticks to his idea that "tons of people do."

Humming a random tune, Law noticed a place he was very fond of, "The Heart Cafe." He pulled into the large, visibly crowded parking lot in front of the place and pulled his keys out of the ignition, unlocking his car door and stepping out. As he felt the morning rays of both warm sunlight and a cool breeze, he immediately sighed and just stood there for a moment enjoying the serenity. After realizing he probably looked crazy standing like that, he turned and begun the travel towards the quaint and cozy building.

As much as Law didn't like the outdoors and being around people, he could always make a tiny exception for this place. Putting his earbuds in for a quick bit just to ignore the annoying noises he knew all the people were going to be making, he walked up to the front of the building, he noticed the influx of people there today, almost a gigantic crowd. He had noticed a lot more cars in the parking lot than usual before, but had chalked it up to being a mere coincidence. After all, it was a Monday and that was an entirely valid reason for more people being there.

As he tried to slip into the door, he was almost knocked over by a tall and lithe man who appeared to be a reporter, complete with a camera and all. Wobbling and cursing a few select potty words under his breath, he steadied himself and walked up to the register. As he leaned on the countertop, he looked at the person in front of him and, recognizing a familiar face, smiled softly at them. Thankful it wasn't some annoying newbie, he got to see his friend Shachi.

"Hey Shachi," he said, trying to convey his tiredness and need for coffee with his eyes in a way that only good friends would truly get. Shachi laughed softly and smiled one of those smirks that just showed he understood.

"Gonna go ahead and guess that you just want the usual?"

Law pondered for a moment, dramatically rubbing his chin and stroking his goatee. "Hmmmmmm…" he started out, drawing out the word as much as possible. "Nah, I'm running low on fuel so I think I'll spice things up and get something with lots of sugar in it." Knowing that he was probably going to regret this hasty decision very soon, :aw just kept smiling and waited for Shachi to ring him up, hoping he would do it before the dark-haired man could try to change his mind about what he wanted.

Shachi's mouth gaped as if he wanted to say something, but he eventually just closed it, after a moment finding the courage to say "W-Wow, never expected that from you of all people, dude! Such a change in taste. What happened to 'I want it as black and bitter as my soul'?" Shachi teased, even trying to mimic Law's voice and mannerisms, earning a dramatic pout followed by a peeved face from the taller man. Laughing, the shorter of the two stuck his tongue out for a brief moment before pressing a few buttons on the register.

"Put the money in the bag." Shachi said with faked seriousness and a dangerous face. Then he just chuckled softly and grabbed the handful of money Law gave him, paying attention to when he rolled his eyes. They both stared at each other before both bursting into laughter, probably disturbing every tired soul behind Law in line waiting for coffee. "Alright, alright… whew. Well, your coffee will be right out… ma'am." That snarky little comment earned a scowl from Law.

Not staying mad for long, Law leaned even more onto the counter with his elbow, a soft smile of his face as he just relished in the good moment he just had with his friend. It was the little moments like this that really made him glad to have friends like Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo. Then again, they also were his only friends and that made him evermore grateful that they were the select few who could deal with his crap.

As he got his coffee, he moved on auto pilot, automatically seeking out a place to sit. When he found a table at the very end of the cafe, he smiled to himself. Usually the isolated seats were taken by other introverts like him, so he was grateful to finally get the awesome seat to himself. He had noticed that all the tables around him were unoccupied, though. it was as if there was some strange force pulling everybody to the center of the cafe. As he pondered over what it could be that fascinated everybody so much, he took a hesitant sip of his coffee.

Overwhelmed with the sweetness of the coffee, he nearly choked. This was definitely not a feeling he was used to. But if the caffeine and the sugar rush combined is what it took him to get through this dreadful Monday, then so be it. But as he focused in to the obnoxious crowd in front of him, he realized that they were not only crowding around a specific area, they were crowding around a table. Wondering what the commotion was and for some reason wanting to check it out, Law pretended that he was gonna get up to go to the bathroom.

As he walked by all slow-like, he saw a glimpse of a small space inbetween the group of people surrounding the table. From what he saw, there was a boy with messy black hair with bangs, similar to a bed head but better looking. He had large doe eyes, pink, plump lips and a very adorable aura. Just looking at him made the man's cheeks heat up. 'What the hell, Law? Why are you thinking like that? God, you sound like a creep.'' Shaking his head as if that would somehow get those embarrassing thoughts out of his head, he decided he would take one more tiny glimpse at the cute guy, he noticed that on the apple of his left cheek, there was a small scar.

Looking at that scar, he started to piece things together, he realized that the guy wasn't just any old cutie ("Ugh, brain, stop thinking that!"), but in fact the famous pop star Monkey D. Luffy. Suddenly nervous, he began to wonder why the man was here of all places instead of at some high class cafe that puts gold flakes in their coffee and charges 1k for it. Then he thought about how much publicity the place would be getting from this, and the amount of positive effects that it would all cause. This made him smile, happy that his favorite place would finally be getting the recognition it deserved.

"Guys, can you please scoot back?" he heard a young voice say over the crowd of questioning voices. For some reason, Law thought the person was talking to him and turned his head around, feeling his cheeks slightly heat up from some strange embarrassment when he saw nobody was there. What he did notice, though, was when Luffy was sitting there obviously uncomfortable, not wanting all those people to be near him. For some reason it made Law angry that those people were making him feel like that. Then Law cursed himself for being so weird about someone he didn't even know and that was definitely out of his league. But again, he knew how it felt to be surrounded by people and feeling uncomfortable so he immediately felt sympathy for the poor teen.

Suddenly, as if it was the caffeine and sugar in his system talking and not him, Law had an idea that could either go really well or really horrible. With new found determination, he briskly walked back over to his table. Grabbing his coffee, he turned back around and started to casually stroll over to the crowd before pushing people aside gently and pulling out a chair for himself. Seeing the people questioning him, he said "Alright, alright, guys. Can you stop harassing my date for just one second?" Law felt both horrified that he pushed himself into a way too social situation like this, and proud that he managed to say that without self destructing.

There was a quiet pause for about 5 seconds, then everybody started questioning even louder. "Is this really your date, Luffy?" a young reporter woman asked. Luffy looked at the woman, lips parted softly as he wondered what to say. All Law could think was how pretty Luff- No. Stop it, brain. Stop.

The young star stared for a short while, then looked at Law who winked at him (at this point Law was certain some force had taken him over) and he meekly answered "Yeah. W-We were hoping to have a quiet coffee date, but…" he gestured around at the crowd of people around the table. Some of them had guilty faces, and others asked more and more questions. Law's inner antisocial-ness that had been surppressed until this point somehow just flooded back, like snapping out of an awesome daydream and desperately trying to get it back but it not being the same. "How did you know Luffy was the one?" Law sighed and said "I-I… I just knew when I first s-saw him," he mentally cursed himself for stuttered but trying to keep Luffy's curious gaze without instinctively looking down at his hands.

The boss of this whole establishment, a chunky short man with a receding hairline came out of his office at the back of the cafe fuming. "ALRIGHT, ALL OF YOU OUT BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!" he barked, his voice nearly as intimidating as a drill sergeant. The paparazzi all fled like cattle being herded by a sheep dog, and Law actually scooted his chair back and was about to leave when the boss rolled his eyes and said "Not you." and then, grumbling, he disappeared back into his office.

"Ughhh…" Law breathed quietly as the realization of what the heck just happened dawned on him, slumping down in the comfy chair. Luffy kind of smiled an amused smile before immediately breaking out into a big grin. "Thank you for helping me! I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" The smile was so bright that Law felt he might be blinded.

Taking in what the star sitting in front of him had just said, he resisted the urge to snort and say something like "Everybody knows that" when he saw how genuinely happy the guy looked. A grin snuck onto his face and it felt foreign around his lips, he was still not very used to genuinely smiling or grinning, and especially not around someone that he barely knew for a total of about 5 minutes. "You're welcome." he said just before taking a sip of coffee, cringing mildly at the amount of sweetness, but he was getting used to it and God knows especially after what just happened, he would definitely need the caffeine.

"So, what's your name?"

Startled of the silent bliss, Law opened his eyes, not even realizing he'd had them closed. "Uhm… Law. Trafalgar Law," he said, already anticipating for the mispronunciation of his last name that was bound to happen. It was common, and so what? That was the thing with a lot of last names like his.

"Traflagra… Toarflagar… Toraofalgar… T-" Luffy abruptly sighed, seeing that he was getting the last name entirely wrong. "Uhm, sorry…" he said, cheeks turning pink. Well that was surprising, Law thought it was nearly impossible for celebrities to blush since they were used to this stuff. Yet somehow, he found it extremely cute. "Can I call you Torao instead?" he asked with a sheepish smile resting on his lips.

Though the name did slightly irk him, he liked the way it sounded coming from Luffy's lips and besides, he was in no position to say no to him anyway. "Sure." he answered quietly. Suddenly, Luffy's eyes lit up. "Hey, so we can talk again, how about I get your phone number?" Luffy asked excitedly, eyes wide and almost sparkling in that moment. Law chewed on his lip for a bit, but focused on what Luffy had just said instead.

Thinking about how that sentence sounded, Law could feel his cheeks lightly heating up but distracted from it by picking up his coffee cup and taking a big sip. Instead of answering, Law pulled his iPhone 5S out of his pocket (it's outdated, he knows. but he really doesn't care about phones enough), placing it in front of Luffy. Luffy put his number into Law's phone and texted himself so he could just add him as a contact when he got on his own phone.

Luffy smiled but then, as if remembering something, he suddenly frowned. Sighing, he stood from his chair. "Well, I've gotta go do some dumb recording stuff. See you later, Torao! Don't forget to text me!" as he called back, he held onto his signature straw hat and raced out the door.

Exhausted as if he had just woken up, Law went over to the register while sipping his coffee. Most of the workers stared in awe, and one of them named Penguin who was another one of Law's good friends went up to him and Shachi.

"Someone didn't tell me he was dating a pop star…" Penguin teased and Law pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not dating a pop star, it was just to help him…" he said as his face grew increasingly red.

"Yeah, but I bet you wished that it wasn't just that," Shachi interjected, causing Law's face to flush even more. Law scowled. Alright, whatever. They could mess with him if they wanted to, it didn't bother him. Except it did.

"Well, I'm gonna go, I have somewhere to be, anyway!" he said and started to walk out of the door. Just as he pushed it open he heard Shachi and Penguin both shout in near unison "Bye, lover boy!" and he immediately started walking faster, eventually back to his car.

Then he realized. 'Oh frick, I actually do have somewhere to be!' he shouted in panic internally remembering his class that he had about 5 minutes to get to. He quickly got in the car and turned it on, rushing to get out of that parking lot as fast as possible.

But in his rush, he thought about the pretty boy and his cute facial expressions, then to what he had said to the public, and finally to Shachi's words "Yeah, but I bet you wished it wasn't just that" and he found himself blushing, thinking about how yes, he did wish that. Brushing the thoughts off, he focused on getting to class on time.

Something told him that this week was going to be extremely long.