Chapter Text
Trafalgar Law was far from your ordinary university student. A junior at the top of his class, he majored in medicine, aiming to become a world-renowned heart surgeon. He was destined for it.
He mainly kept to himself, only having a small group of study friends. Bepo was his closest friend, whom Law confided in with just about everything. Shachi and Penguin were less so, though Law was still close with the two troublemakers.
His life seemed to be heading straight for success, with no visible obstacles in his way.
Well, maybe one.
The day started as usual. Breakfast, then classes, then studying during lunch.
Law sat at a small table in the library, a medical textbook in hand, studying. He was hidden away in between shelves of books, so much so that he was hard to spot in the central area.
His concentration was broken by a familiar flaming red mop of hair standing next to him.
"What do you want now, Eustass-ya? Don't you have a party to go to?" Law spoke, looking back down to his book.
Although Kid was in a completely different major, and managed to fail one class five times, he and Law had mutual 'friends', who had managed to force Law into befriending him. He swears Bonney will get what's coming to her one day.
"Course I do! But some kid in my calc class needed a tutor, said he was willing to pay. Once a week until the semesters over. Sound good?"
"What's the catch?"
"What catch?"
"The people you know, Eustass-ya, aren't that great. What's wrong with him? Is he a drug dealer? Does he maim animals for fun? Does he play video games 24/7 and force his mom to take care of him? All three?"
"Pff, how lovely of you to lump me in with freaks. He's none of the above. He's a freshman, just out of high school. Dumb as a sack of rocks and is more hyper than someone with ADHD on crack."
"Why on Earth do you expect me to have the kind of patience to tutor someone like that?"
"Cause I already said you would. He'll meet you here after your last class. Good luck!" he said, clapping Law on the back.
"Wait! What?!?" Law stood up in shock, but Eustass was already out the door.
He slumped back down in his chair. He hit the open book with his head, already beginning to prepare for the worst.
What a fun day this would be.
Law's classes passed by quicker than expected. It was understandable, given how stressed out he already was with lessons, plus the large amount of homework, projects and papers he had to do, with a tutoring session added on top.
After classes finished, he headed for the library, dread weighing him down.
He noticed that the boy wasn't there yet, and he was not surprised.
Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Then thirty.
He pulled out his phone and began to text Eustass, asking where the hell the kid was, before a wild mane of black hair with a swinging straw hat hanging from his neck came running up to him, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Hey! Sorry I'm late. Got hungry." He said, grinning. He pulled a chair out and sat across from Law. "You're the guy that's gonna tutor me, right?"
"I assume so. And your name is..."
"I'm Luffy!"
"Trafalgar Law. A pleasure." He said, extending a hand to shake.
Luffy ignored it completely, instead trying to pronounce his name.
"Traf...Tor...Tra..."
"It's Tra-fal-gar."
"Got it! Torao!"
Law sighed, forcing a smile on his face, but internally, he was crying.
"Sure. We'll go with that." He could live with the nickname. After all, a couple tutoring sessions won't matter, right? It'll go by quick. He won't have to deal with it very long. Right?
Luffy pulled a crumpled stack of papers and a few notebooks out of his bag. Law was already stressed just looking at the mess.
Tutoring the boy was like tutoring a very lively monkey. His attention was constantly being directed elsewhere, especially when another student came in with food. He talked nonstop, his topics changing constantly.
After an hour, Law decided Luffy needed to be bribed into paying attention.
"Look," he started, annoyance obvious in his voice, "we're getting nowhere. If I buy you lunch tomorrow, will you focus?"
Luffy's attention was finally drawed to Law.
"Really? You'll buy me whatever I want?"
"Not necessarily whatever, but--"
"Sure! That sounds great!"
What had Law just gotten himself into?
Things went relatively smoothly, though Law was worried that Luffy wouldn't retain the information. Although, Law definitely learned, about Luffy that is.
He came from a somewhat large family. He had his two brothers, Ace and Sabo. Ace was a sophomore, studying at the same university as Law and Luffy, but Sabo was a sophomore at a university across the country.
"What made him decide to go there?"
"Dunno. Some kind of scholarship, I guess. He's pretty smart, cuz he's my older brother!" He said, laughing and grinning. Law doubted he was smart because he was Luffy's brother. In fact, Law wouldn't doubt if he was the same as the younger boy. Although, if he was smart enough to get a scholarship, he had to at least have a brain, which Law doubted Luffy even had.
As for parents, Luffy was an orphan.
"Ace, Sabo and I are all adopted. Grandpa's my only living relative, and he couldn't take care of me cause he was away for business too much, so a friend of his took me in. Mom died when I was a baby, Dad's kinda missing. S'okay though, I got my brothers with me!" Again with the smile. Luffy seemed so optimistic about life, the exact opposite of Law.
"Have you got any friends? Why couldn't one of them tutor you? Surely one of them must know calculus."
"Half of them didn't wanna tutor me, the other half are too busy. They got jobs n'stuff. Two of them, Franky and Robin, are married and got a kid on the way. I only know them cause they're my neighbors. The old guy across the street is my friend too. His name's Brook, and he used to be a musician, and he plays for me all the time. He's really cool. And he's got a big afro. He makes jokes all the time, too. The rest of my friends go here, too. That's how I met them. Nami, Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro are in my classes, and Zoro's even on the soccer team with me. He's not as invested in that as he is in his Kendo class though. He wants to be a professional Kendo fighter. I guess you could call it a fighter. Chopper's in my biology class. He's studying to be a doctor, like you I guess. He graduated early and got into university a bit early, so he's a year younger than the rest of us. Sanji and I are both taking a food class, though he wants to be a professional chef. I just wanna learn about good stuff to eat. Nami and I share a math class, but she's bad at it too, though not as bad as I am. Plus she gets mad at me all the time. I only know Usopp cause we're roommates by random chance, but we're really good friends now. We play pranks on everyone, it's so funny. They're all so cool." He seemed to have stars in his eyes the whole time he was talking.
Even though Luffy was only talking about his friends, Law felt as if he were really invested in his life. Luffy could've kept droning on, and Law would have paid attention to every single detail. He didn't understand what made the boy so captivating and likeable.
By the time Law was scheduled to finish the tutoring session, it was already almost dark.
"We were in there for a long time! I don't feel any smarter though. Can you walk me home? The last bus left an hour ago, and walking by myself is so boring." Luffy groaned.
"Will I get paid for walking with you? I have a lot of business to attend to, you know." Law spoke, looking at his watch. He'd barely be able to get any work done and still get a decent night's rest. Although, who needs a decent night's rest? Definitely not a medical student.
"Sure, if that's what you want!"
"Once I buy you lunch, we'll call it even. Do you mind the Baratie? It's inexpensive, but the food is really good."
"Ooh, I love that place! Sanji works there part time. I hope he's working tomorrow so I can see him!"
Law groaned. Of all the places, he chose where Luffy's friend works. If someone could handle Luffy, they'd more than likely be a piece of work themselves. But Law had already, unfortunately and unintentionally, agreed to go.
"Ugh. You're going to cause me to die early of a heart attack. I expect you to pay for my inevitable funeral."
"You're a weird guy, Torao." Luffy said, laughing.
Law smirked, trying a bit to hide it.
"I suppose so."