Desires of Men ~SEQUEL TO THE LIFE I LIVE~

Never Shall We Die

*Five Days Later*

The pirate alliance wasn't without it's drawbacks.

For one, Law's own crew never took their eyes off the Kid Pirates out of distrust. And vice versa. Law couldn't walk by the submarine without having 4 sets of eyes following his every move. It got to be quite taxing but there wasn't really much to do about that.

Treating their injuries had been difficult as well. Kid insisted he be first, just in case the Dark Doctor had any ideas of malpractice. What's more, every single thing Law did was questioned by the redhead. He had to explain what everything was or what it would do before he could even begin to touch his broken arm.

The rest of his men were just as suspicious, hesitant to give him their injured limbs when he was holding stitching needles or any sort of drug.

It took several days for his crew to start to heal, as they continued to agitate his ministrations despite his several warnings not to. Law gave up counting how many times he had to replace a pair of bandages or resew stitches. On several occasions he recalled how bad of a patient Summer herself could get. At the same time, though, she never was this stubborn as to ruin his handiwork so many times.

While they were recovering, Law put Shachi and Penguin in charge of fixing Kid's ship. Any leftover boards they had in storage were brought out and carefully inspected by Kid himself. With several complaints about the low quality of the wood they carried with them, he nodded and oversaw their repair work.

After the crew was almost entirely healed from their injuries, Law and Kid sat down together by the shore with the intention of hammering out the last details of the alliance.

"You'll tell us how you communicated with the buyer and help us find Summer-ya." Law said bluntly, not wanting to skirt the main topic. Kid shook his head.

"To hell with that. What would I be getting out of that deal?" He picked up a stone and weighed it in his hand. Tossing it, he winced when his shoulder shot a sharp pain across his arm. He wasn't fully healed yet. "I went through all the trouble of finding you guys and now I gotta help you out? What kinda bullshit is that?"

"We healed your injuries and fixed your ship." Law pointed out, watching as Kid picked up another, smaller stone.

"Huh, and here I thought that was out of the kindness of your heart." He quipped, tossing the stone out into the water with less force. This time his arm didn't hurt him.

"What exactly are you looking for out of this deal? You are, after all, the one who suggested this alliance in the first place." Law unconsciously fingered the three daggers attached to his belt. Upon realizing it, he tightly closed his fist and picked up a small stone to distract himself. He'd been doing that more and more lately. He was too proud to admit it was because he clung to anything that reminded him of her.

Kid tossed one more stone. "I want gold. Whatever gold is on that guy Viper's ship, I want. Also, whatever ships we run into, I want their loot."

"If that's all you want-" He raised a hand, stopping Law's sentence.

"And if you want me to cooperate, I gotta have some kind of insurance that nothing will happen to my crew." Law's eyes narrowed.

"And what insurance would that be?" Kid's own eyes became slits as he thought it over.

"I want you and your first mate to remain on my ship until we find the girl."

"And why exactly would I agree to that?" The Dark Doctor replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"If you really wanted my help, you would do whatever it took." He replied with a shrug.

Law was silent, trying to think of another possible way to give Kid that assurance that his crew would be unharmed. Kid's voice broke through his thoughts.