Insomniac, Alcoholic, and Insane

+~O~+

Ch.8

A sudden break in cloud coverage allowed bright light to bask the Kid Pirate's ship in a warm glow. The sunlight shined through a porthole window, illuminating an otherwise dark room. One of the occupants groaned, the change in light disturbing him from his slumber, and shifted around in the twisted sheets. Sighing in contentment, the man drew the smooth warmth closer against his chest and belly, and buried his pale face further into the warm object to block out the light. Vague musk still lingered in the room, but the smell seemed to be losing potency, at least to the redhead's nose.

'Wait, light? Even though I constantly threaten them not to wake me up early, the crew never lets me sleep in this late.' The sunlight was too strong to be early morning light, and there was no way he had slept until evening, so what? Had he really slept till noon? If he listened hard enough, the sound of seagulls and the crew scuffling around the metal ship could be heard. While he still did not really want to get up, the sudden low gurgle of his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten anything since dealing with a certain psychopathic doctor.

Two burnt orange eyes slowly blinked themselves open, their owner reluctantly resigning himself to facing the day. The first thing Eustass Kid noticed was the warmth pressed against his body apparently belonged to someone sharing his bed. 'That's funny, I don't remember bringing any chick into my room last night,' he thought, staring blearily at the darkly tanned body for a moment. The red-haired pirate sat up, yawned, and rubbed at his face before looking back at the other occupant of his bead.

'…Trafalgar…?' Kid sat on the bed in stupefied silence. If it had been a smoking hot broad in his bed, then maybe the gears of his brain wouldn't be processing at the speed of snail. However, that didn't change the fact that there was a very much naked man passed out in his bed. Even as the pirate captain was slowly coming to accept that what he was seeing was not a delusion generated by booze or a brain damaging level of a hangover, a single thought dawned on him. It was his fault. Kid was the one responsible for making Law pass out. And was he snuggling?!'Oh my shit. Oh my goddamn fucking shit! Holy Oda on crack fucking shit!'

Only now was the horrible reality and the implications- no- the ultimate repercussions - of those sinfully amazing actions of what they- no- what he had done last night finally sinking in like a shock of cold water rushing through his ear straight to his brain, down his throat, and closing its icy clawed fist around his heart- and oh sweet Oda what did he do!? He had taken advantage of a sick man, a mentally unstable nutcase, a deranged pirate captain, a fellow supernova, the Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar fucking Law!

Eustass Kid threw the sheets off, rushing out of the bed in such a hurry he slipped on the beds comforter and landed flat on his face. No sooner had the face plant occurred then he was already springing back to his feet in panic induced speed. 'Clothes,' Kid snapped to himself mentally. He made a mad sprint for his dresser, kicking an occasional wrench aside and dirty clothes out of the way in his desperate crusade for pants. Yanking a pair of boxers on, Kid began shoving his legs into a pair of his usual lava lamp splotch patterned pants, all the while turning back to face the bed. In his frenzy like movements, he stumbled back onto the floor as he remembered Law still was ass naked under the covers. 'Shiiiiiit!'

With his pants barely around his hips, Kid scuttled on his hands and knees over to the plaid pajama bottoms that had somehow ended up on the floor. Snatching the pants up, the red-haired supernova bolted upright. A fleeting thought, which seemed to make his already rapidly beating heart jerk erratically, caused him to shoot an overly intense glare towards the door. With a quick snap of his powers, Kid made sure all the locks on the door were locked.

Looking back down at the unresponsive face of Law, his heart seemed to speed up to a point it was almost painful and white was beginning to flood into the corner of his vision. It was a miracle his insane scrambling to get dressed hadn't woken him up. More than once there had been loud bangs whenever a metal wrench hit the wall, or he had tripped to the floor in his haste. 'Holy fuck, it's a miracle I haven't been caught.' However, the the danger of being discovered was still very real. 'Shit, Trafalgar is going to be pissed when he wakes up…' Kid began gnawing on his finger nails, but after realizing what he was doing, he quickly yanked his hand away from his mouth and settled for combing his pale fingers through his fiery locks.

'Whatever, I was supposed to get him to sleep and I did…' But even then, Kid couldn't fool himself into thinking he hadn't done anything wrong. His eyes flicked over to the relaxed expression of Law, and he groaned again as an unwanted feeling of anxiety slowly crept its way inside of his chest. Pushing that aside, Kid distracted himself by putting the borrow pajama bottoms back onto the tattooed supernova thin hips. For some reason that process took longer than usual. It wasn't like he was distracted with dying or a hot mess passed out in his bed. Still Law didn't wake, or even as much as stir. Just when Kid was sure he couldn't feel any worse about the situation, now he started to worry.

"Trafalgar?" Kid poked one of the caramel colored cheeks with his index finger, studying Law's face for any movement. Nothing. 'Uh oh.'

The pale captain resorted to trying several different methods of waking up the unconscious man. He tried peeling Law's eyelids back, clapping his hands in front of his face, yelling –though not too loud so he would not draw his crews attention-, somewhat gently slapping his cheeks, grabbing his nose, a wet willy, a purple nurple, tickling – he knew how much Law hated that-, and even splashing cold water onto his face. Still, nothing.

'Oh shit! I fucked him to death! No no no, that's not true, he is still breathing.'Eustass Kid stared at the gentle rise and fall of the doctor's tattooed chest for a moment, fighting back the feeling of anxiety that had worked its way up from his chest and into his throat. 'Maybe he is just sleeping. It would make sense that he needs more sleep.' Nodding to himself, Kid allowed that small thought to comfort his conscious.

Sighing heavily, Kid rubbed at his face, thinking to himself, 'What a goddamn mess. What was I thinking? Hell I can't even call it thinking. Maybe deranged psychopathic idiocy is contagious.' His eyes fell back on Law's face, watching as the slightly parted lips emitted quiet exhales and inhales. '…I'm scum, I took advantage of a drunken, deranged, idiot.' While Kid would freely admit he did some pretty shitty things to people, those guys usually had it coming. Trafalgar didn't. Hell, at Sabaody, the surgeon had even stabbed a pacifista in the head when it was about to get shot with a laser beam. While that had stolen some of his thunder, Kid privately admired the badass way Law had handled a robot of doom.

'I need some coffee, or booze, something!' Fastening his usual belt around to secure his pants, Kid glanced at his fur coat, but the thick fur was still drying. Grumbling in annoyance, the red-haired captain looked over his shoulder as he made his way to the door, giving Law one last look.

+~O~+

The Kid Pirates on deck watched as their captain emerged from his room. They each called out a loud greeting that seemed to go largely ignored by Eustass 'Captain' Kid, who was scuffling across the deck n a zombie-like manner. His spikey red mane of hair, unimpeded by the usual goggles, stuck out messily like a mini explosion of flames. They all flinched when their captain suddenly halted. Two vermillion discs, underlined with dark marks, slowly rolled in the direction, burning with something they had never seen in their captain's eyes before. Kid seemed to mutter something, grumbling lowly to himself, and briefly raised his hand in a form of greeting as he began shuffling towards the kitchen.

When the form of their captain disappeared back into their metallic ship, a newer member of the crew ventured to voice, "Geesh, we didn't even wake him up today."

+~O~+

Killer looked up from his place at the kitchen table, which was shoved into corner, as his captain suddenly stomped in. Apparently Kid had not seen him, so the blond supernova settled for watching. His eyebrows arched when the red-haired man banged open the cupboard doors, rattling several things as his pale arms searched for something. While he normally would have greeted his captain by now, a morbid curiosity took over, so his eyes remained fixated on the strange activity.

A sound of satisfaction sounded from Kid, who pulled a large tin from a shelf. He scanned the kitchen until his eyes fell on a sizeable mug on the top shelf. Soon the red-haired pirate had the tin popped open, and was scooping up generous amounts of dark coffee grinds into the mug. Kid gave the sink a brief glance, but ended up rummaging through the shelves again, looking for a certain something.

Feeling rather befuddled, Killer continued to watch in silence as his captain dug through the kitchen supplies. 'Is he trying to make coffee?' Kid would need water, or milk, if he wanted to make anything with those coffee grinds. When Captain Kid finally found what he was looking for, Killer slapped a hand over his face and shook his head. Still he said nothing, as his captain began mixing the coffee grinds with vodka and cream. He looked up at his companion, who quickly muffled a chuckle behind his hand. 'I'm glad someone finds my captains choices amusing.' Killer raised a finger to his lips, making a quiet shushing noise that Kid would not hear. A small smile graced his features as the man sitting across from him shrugged his thin shoulders apologetically while giving him a sheepish smile in return.

Kid, who was still oblivious to the two other men's presence, picked up his alcohol infused coffee and tilted his head back as he downed the mug in one go.

Killer's eyes widened as he watched his captain chug down the mug full of vodka mixed with coffee grinds. His companion merely winced and shoved a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"Aahhh…." Kid breathed out in satisfaction, slamming the mug down onto the counter and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. 'I'm a fucking genius.' His craving for alcohol and coffee had been sated in one ingenious creation! The sudden growl of his stomach ended his self-praise, reminding him he was still hungry. Not only had that, but the feeling of guilt had not been washed away with his drink.

Both of the men glanced at each other as the red-haired supernova finished his 'coffee' with a loud sigh, only to begin rummaging around in the freezer. Their jaws dropped, slight noises of disbelief escaping their mouths, as Eustass Kid emerged from the freezer with a large container in his hands.

With both of his hands currently occupied with his icy prize, Kid kicked the door shut and stretched one hand out towards a drawer, attracting a metal spoon to his hands. He pulled the lid of the bucket-like contained off with his teeth, spitting it onto the floor, and stabbed at the contents with his spoon. As he was turning towards the table to sit down and enjoy his 'meal', Kid lifted a spoonful of the stuff to his mouth, closing his eyes as he let out a very pleased moan around his mouthful that verged on being inappropriately erotic. "Mmmmmnnnnn…" 'Fuck yeah, rocky road ice cream.' The chocolate, no the gooey marshmallows, god the whole fucking mixture that was the chocolate flavored ice cream was almost as good as an orgasm.

No, a grown man who was able to enjoy his ice cream to the degree of such pleasure that he was completely raptured by the creamy texture that cascaded over his taste buds, the gooey marshmallow that melted on his tongue, and the rich chocolate that filled his mouth with a warm glow of cocoa was not weird in anyway. Definitely not.

When Kid finally opened his eyes, he halted in his path towards the table, which was occupied by two men staring at him. Spoons frozen in midair, and mouths gaping half open, they both had paused in their ice cream eating. One of them he recognized as his first mate, who had actually taken his mask off for once. There was a bucket of vanilla and toffee flavored ice cream, which he was sharing with a man he had never seen before. They were sharing that one bucket of ice cream between them and their two spoons. Sharing was nice and all, but didn't they realize they were also sharing saliva cooties? Gross.

The man sitting beside Killer had deep midnight blue hair, and bright bronze colored eyes. A spoonful of ice cream slid off of the blue-haired man's spoon, landing on the table with a pronounced splat that somehow went ignored by all three men. For a long moment the red-haired captain just stood there, with his spoon halfway between his mouth and the bucket. Seconds ticked by, melding into what felt like over a minute spent in dead awkward silence.

Kid slowly raised another spoonful of ice cream to his mouth, working the lump of creamy chocolate around on his tongue as he continued staring at the two men without saying a word. After that mouthful, and a good amount of more staring, he seemed to make his mind up. In a shuffling walk, he made his way over to the table, dumping himself into the chair across from Killer and the other man.

"…Good morning, Captain," Killer hesitantly greeted, lowering his spoon back to his frozen treat.

"Mhh…" Kid grunted around his mouthful of ice cream, staring at his first mate with a blank expression. Without the mask on, he could see the numerous lines of scars that appeared through the blonde stubble, arcing their way from his jawline and up to the shaggy fringe that obscured most of his face. Just barely he could make out the glassy blue eyes staring at him skeptically. Kid's own rust hued eyes eventually landed on the blue-haired man, who flinched and stared at him nervously.

"Um…good morning Mister Captain Eustass, sir," the blue-haired man said quietly, fiddling with the spoon in his hands, as he peered from it and the pale captain timidly. He felt his anxiety start to climax to unbearable levels as the rival captain simply continued to study him with a straight face.

"Killer."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Who is that," Kid deadpanned, pointing at the blue-haired man with his spoon. He dug his spoon back into the bucket and ate another mouthful as he waited for his first mate to respond. When he had formed his crew, Kid had taken the upmost care into memorizing each and every face. He knew his men like the deck of his ship. It was more than a matter of security or whatever. This was something closer to a matter of pride. Kid knew every one of his shipmates, and this man was not one of them.

"Umm…this is Penguin, the Heart Pirate from before."

Kid snorted around his ice cream, almost choking on both the frozen desert and his spoon. Eyes wide as saucers, he looked at the blue-haired man, and back to Killer. Slowly a frown pulled the corners of his mouth down, and he suddenly voiced, "Are you sure, the penguin-hatted guy had a penguin hat…" This blue-haired dude clearly did not have a penguin hat.

Repressing the urge to sigh, Killer reaffirmed his point with a steady tone. "Yes, Captain, I am sure."

"Hmm," Kid hummed in response. His thoughts started to drift away from the two men sharing the table with him. His brain spiraled around last night's events. Kid hated to admit it, but he might have lost a bit of control last night. But he couldn't help it. Not when Trafalgar had been so...so… fucking something. Like how Law had made that tiny whimper when he had finally come…that was so cute. Or the slight twitches the doctor's thin legs had given whenever he found that special spot. Then there was the fact that he was the one responsible for all of that. Should he be guilty, or proud? Maybe both. Hell, he was still a fucking genius.

Narrowing his eyes, Killer continued eating his toffee and vanilla flavored desert as he observed his captain, who was still eating his bucketful of rocky road. The blond supernova was trying to fathom the odd actions of his captain this morning. Kid looked exceedingly pale, and not only due to the strange absence of purple that normally covered his lips. His face kept doing strange things too. One moment Kid would be looking off into space as he daydreamed, and then the next moment there would be a weird look in his eyes. Kid had even smiled for a few terrifying seconds. Just plain freaky.

Then a cold realization dawned on Killer.

"Captain…you only eat ice cream when you are feeling guilty. What did you do?" Killer watched as captain choked on the desert, all the while glaring at him like he had just told him he had on pink lipstick, which had completely floored Kid the last time he had told him that. That had been great, not that Killer enjoyed messing with his captain's mind or anything. But, it was kind of funny that Kid was so sensitive about his lipstick.

Penguin arched one dark eyebrow, but other than that, he kept silent by shoving more toffee flavored ice cream into his face.

Kid, who was red in the face from choking, narrowed his eyes at Killer. "What are you talking about? Can't I just eat ice cream when I feel like it?

"No."

"Grr… what the fuck Killer!? It's your fault! You're a bad influence with your ice cream scarfing ways!"

Killer gasped, looking highly offended that he was the one being called the bad influence! It didn't help when Penguin was choking on ice cream, trying his hardest not to laugh, and failing miserably. Kid, who was sticking his tongue out at him, just made it worse. Eventually the normally elegant speaker that was Killer managed to stammer, "H-How can you say that Captain!?"

"Because it's true." Kid narrowed his eyes, giving his first mate a hard look as he shoved another spoonful in his mouth. That's when the red-haired supernova noticed something odd about the state of his first mate and Penguin. Killer took pride in his great blond mane of hair, and this morning it was looking particularly unkempt and wild. He had not even bothered to put on a shirt and was just sitting there in wrinkly blue jeans. Can blue jeans even wrinkle? Not to mention his mask was off, which Killer never took off, even when if a crew mates asked him to. And it was off in front of some damned Heart Pirate he had decided to swap spit germs and ice cream with. Then Eustass Kid's eyes involuntarily widened, becoming riveted on said Heart Pirate. His hat was gone, and his jumpsuit had been rolled down, exposing the skin around his wife beater. Dark crescent shape marks and patches of bruises littered the blue-haired man's neck in suspicious teeth-like patterns. Skipping over the gray tank top, Kid's then discovered a white bag of frozen vegetables, which Penguin was sitting on top of.

Murmuring more to himself than any of the other men in his room, Kid slowly voiced, "It was his ribs that had been hurt…not his ass." Pausing for a moment, the Kid Pirate captain looked up at Killer, who had gone rigid at his words. Then he glanced to Penguin, who was turning the color of ice and starting to shake like he was just cold. "Why is he sitting on the carrots?"

"Umm…because he was thawing them out so I could eat them later?" Killer offered the lame excuse weakly, glancing side long at his companion. Penguin was frozen in place, looking like the world was about to end. Hell, it probably was when his captain was done with them. He slowly stared turned his glass blue gaze back to the red-haired man. Kid's face had morphed slowly from shock to appalled, and now settled to a foreboding glower.

'Oh shit, he found us out,' Killer inwardly cursed, starting to sweat because of the look on his captain's darkening expression. Suddenly the red-haired man stood up with a loud scrape of his chair. Just as the blond was sure that his captain was going to explode, cursing him out for perverse mutiny, Kid fixed him with a deadly serious expression and pointed a finger right at his face.

"I told you. You are a bad influence," Kid rumbled darkly. Without another word or glance at the two men, who were sitting in eye twitching shock, he picked up his bucket of ice cream and started walking away from them.

Penguin and Killer watched in dumbstruck awe as Eustass Kid shuffled his way back to the kitchen door. They flinched when the pale captain stopped, glaring over his shoulder as he suddenly said, "You could have let Penguin-hat sit on those damned peas." In a more indignant tone he added, "Don't go wasting perfectly fine carrots on somebody's ass!" With that said, he slammed the door, leaving his pervert first mate and that seducing penguin-hat man in speechless shock.

Slowly Killer turned towards penguin, solemnly asking, "Is your captain's insanity contagious?"

Penguin sighed, placing a hand over his face. 'Which one of them is the bad influence again?'

+~O~+

Eustass Kid found himself back in his room, perching on his purple couch as he watched the doctor in his bed sleeping peacefully. One of his hands was embedded in his crown of fiery locks, the other having its nails gnawed on by his nervous mouth. No, that wasn't creepy at all, because his thoughts were not just there, but everywhere. Now he had the disturbing issue that both he and his first mate had apparently dabbled their fingers into the Heart Pirates figurative cookie jar. How could Killer even do that!? Ok maybe he was being a little insensitive. The man was only human, despite that robot mask he wore like his first face.

Then there was that tiny nagging thought of how Law had still not woken up. It was now evening and there had been no change in the tattooed doctor's condition at all. Well, that was if you didn't count the dark marks under his eyes losing a bit of territory. Even that small sign of recovery brought a brief feeling of relief. But it was like trying to sooth a burn with spit. It just didn't work well.

What if Law never woke up? What if this was some kind of coma? What if Law woke up, only to remember the not so consensual and mildly unmoral form of aid Kid had pretty much forced on him?

Plus Kid was pretty sure that Law could not eat if he was still sleeping. How long had it been since he ate anything? It had to be too long. No one should be that thin. 'I need help…' There was that undeniable need for a doctor, but the red-haired pirate knew he had pretty much burned that bridge when he assaulted Law into this coma-like sleep. Those Heart Pirates would bust a nut if they found ever out. There had to be some way.

Then a thought roared into the red-haired supernova's head. It was beautifully insane with the intellectual ingenuity behind it. 'That bear!' Bepo would help. Kid rose to his feet, standing on up on his couch, and clenched his fists in anticipation for certain victory. 'Not only will it make sure Law does not die, but fixing his captain will put the bear on his good side!' All he had to do was go over to the Heart Pirates little yellow boat submarine thingy and drag him over. Sure he had yelled at the bear to fuck off or something, but the opportunity to save his captain would be too good to resist, right?

'I'm a fucking genius!'

+~O~+

Sub Authors Note:

Ok...I might have gone a little insane. But it seems to be contagious. So...xD Thanks for your continued support and reviews :)

-Echo