Chapter Text
Tonight Law's doing a night shift since he had gotten called in for an emergency surgery last minute. So Luffy had told Nami he would lock up the shop tonight for her, trying to drag out his shift as much as possible since he's not a fan of being home alone. She had left about an hour ago after giving him some kind of sad look, though he still couldn't figure out why. He had wiped down the counters, swept the floor, counted and locked the till, and even checked stock since they were more busy today than they had been expecting to be. Now all that was really left was to take out any trash, grab his things and send Nami a text he was done and lock up and leave.
Letting out a frustrated sigh as he had been hoping for this to take longer, he grabs the last bit of trash and headed to the back door. At first wen he made it out into the alleyway he though the possums or rats where at it again. He had been hearing some rustling of something messing around back here halfway through his time finishing the store chores and had assumed it to be more rodents and made a mental not to inform Nami that they were back. What he wasn't expecting was to come face to face with what looked like a starved 6 year old in ratty clothing trying to get into the dumpster.
The kid, at first, is so focused on trying to hop up into the dumpster before they finally notice Luffy, as soon as they quickly look over he gets a few seconds to get a better look at the kid. He can see the greasy and choppy, black hair they have, along with a few faded scars, wondering what a kid this young could even do to get them. He also notices a few lighter patches near their cheeks, and neck ,of skin, which had made him think of Torao, and he hoped that didn't mean the kid was sick like he had been.
Once the kid seemed to realize Luffy was staring they quickly took off down the alleyway, Luffy yelling out a quick "Wait!" but the kid either didn't hear him, or was ignoring him. he stared back at the now empty alleyway before letting another sigh. He had been doing that a lot today. He quickly threw the trash away before making his way inside with a new idea in mind. He may have just cleaned but a bit more cleaning wasn't going to kill him.
He sets out with making a simple sandwich with a few chip packets. He hopes the kid likes turkey and potato chips. He sets down the plate next to the dumpster after making sure to put it in a plastic bag, and as a last thought, takes off his red hoodie he was wearing to set next to them so the kid has something warm to wear. He just hopes the kid comes back and sees them.
He spends some more time cleaning up the mess that lay in his wake from making a sandwich, he should learn how to not be as messy, and puts up everything and after deeming it clean enough he sits down at one of the tables and dials his brothers number. He knows there are a lot of rules, to many for him to keep track, wen it comes to abandoned or abused kids. So he decided if he asked Ace, he may get more of an idea of what to do about this, and even if he never saw the kid again, although he sure hopes he does, he can maybe help kids later on in life if he stumbles upon this again.
"Hello -yoi" Oh! That's Marco. Guess Ace is either away doing something like eating or asleep. "Ah Marco! Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to Ace, there's an issue i had stumbled upon and wanted to ask him about it, Shishishishi" Well, he supposed Marco was also a cop, but he'd rather ask Ace's opinion, especially since he was know for running away wen they were younger, so he would most likely understand the kids point of view a bit better. "Yeah, he's just eating right now, but I can hand you over" he heard some rustling from the receiver before another voice popped in "'uffi'" he could hear some chewing " 'ats ub? ou, mi' 'our bi'b, brober"
"Ace, I cant believe I'm the one saying this, but don't talk with your mouth full please." Yeah he may do it all the time as well and always get reprimanded by Nami and Sanji for it, but now isn't the time for that. He hears some for rustling and after a minute Ace starts talking again. "Hey, what's wrong, you never tell me to not talk with my mouth full, has hell frozen over or something?"
"What do you do if you find a random kid scrounging around a dumpster behind a coffee shop??" there's was silence for a second "Well, that's definitely not what I was expecting. Does the kid look like any other normal kid just trying to cause issues, or do they look abused, in trouble, a teen up to mischief, what kind of kid are we talking about?" He thought back to the hollowed cheeks and scars "Abused most likely, they looked starved, had scars all over their body, and were wearing old tattered clothing that was way to big and way falling of their frame. definitely not a teen."
"Okay, well that's not good. We should call CPS with things like this, but I'm assuming you have a reason not to since you called me." he glanced back at the now locked back door. "They had so many scars, both new and old. They barley looked even 6 at the most. How does someone hurt a kid let alone someone that young!" he wanted to cry, punch the guardians, help the kid, do something, he wasn't sure in which order either.
"Well. They could be abandoned, from an abusive household, or even abusive foster home. Hell, maybe they ran away. There's a lot of reasons they could be that way. Its a hard decision to make, because for all we know, their better off on the streets than in their home." That true, if he called the police he could end up with that kid in a worse place. "The most I can say is for now is its up to you. You can try making sure they have food and clothes for now, and if needed treat any wounds they have, but if it gets worse then you will have to call the police. "
He surprised Marco wasn't reprimanding Ace for suggesting a kid living out on the streets was better off that way, but then again, he was a foster kid who lucked out with his pops, so he at least know some of the troubles of the foster system. "If you end up having to call CPS, you should inform Sabo if you want to still be able to keep tabs on the kid. That way we can at least know the kid is better off." He's right.
"I'm gonna let you go, thanks for the help." He needed more time to think over his decision, and maybe another sighting of the kid. "Of course, I know its hard to make decisions like this Lu, You can always call me again if you need." Saying final goodbyes he hung up and put his phone into his pocket.
o0o
Later that night wen Law had finally gotten home, Luffy had happily cuddled up to the warm body that slipped into bed. He didn't want to make him worry much about any problems he has, especially since he has his own issues, but he did want to talk to him about one thing.
"Neh, Torao." he got a simple hum of acknowledgment "What if we sighed up for foster care or adoption." Law turned around to face him at that. "Luffy-ya. I know you always wanted us to have a kid, but isn't it still a bit to soon?" he was afraid of that. "I don't mean that so we can get a kid right now. I meant cause it takes for ever to get signed up and situated in foster care before they even allow you to be able to look at some of the kids."
"Well, your not wrong about that, but why the sudden want to?" "Well-" And so he delved into a long explanation about the kid he had found earlier that night in the alleyway, and the call he had with Ace. "So it's because your worried about a street gremlin? I get it, a kid shouldnt be wandering around let alone digging through the garbage at such a young age but what if you never see them again, and besides, what if its not them we adopt."
" I know I may never see the kid again, but knowing I can help other kids out of situations like that would help ease my mind even just abit." Law nodded an agreement at that. "Well, if its something you really want to do i wont stop you, next weekend i have saterday off we can go in and get the paperwork started."
o0o
T.W- Mentions of Abuse, neglect, Heavy cursing, anything along those lines,
(TLDR, Childs backstory is sad until she meets Luffy)
The Child didn't have a name. Most would call her by crude names like, Bitch, Whore, Piece of shit, and other nasty names. Some had slightly nicer names like Brat, or Runt, but that was a rare occasion and was only ever used by a few nicer old homeless men that would help her during winter. She liked those times.
She assumed she was around the age of 6 or 7 but was never quite sure. Her original caregivers, (she would never refer to the as parents) had gotten bored of her after her first 4 years of life. They had been willing to raise her enough those years to giver her some survival instincts, like wen to run away from men wen they got angry, or wen ma'am would go to slap her how to properly dodge, but she would get more angry if she did. She was often used as a maid from wen she could finally grab things and hand them over. It started small with sir making her fetch him beers from the fridge, she often dropped them in the beginning and wen ma'am tried to make her clean it only ever made a bigger mess and always ended with her crying with a palm shaped bruise on her face and cuts on her hands.
She learned how to sneak out food from the kitchen wen they had forgotten to give her food that night for dinner. But eventually they dropped her off at the side of the road not wanting to care for something they couldn't use. somehow all these years she had learned to survive by being helped by those nice men that would call her brat or runt with something in their voice that she could never pick out.
Then one day, although at that moment she didn't know it, her life had changed by meeting a man in a read hoodie wen she was trying to get food from the dumpster. She had run away once she noticed him, but she still needed food and that was the best place to find decent food that got thrown out. So eventually she had made her way back hours later wen it was too dark to see her hand infront of her face if it wasn't for the street lights, only to find a fresh sandwich, some chips, and his hoodie.
She was tempted to leave it as she didn't want to eat anything poisoned but she knew that even if she ate moldy food she could get food poising from that as well and in the end the sandwich won in her mind.