ᴀᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴘᴀᴅᴇꜱ

Birthday Bash!

"Torao!" You yanked down your scarf and exclaimed, your rosy cheeks growing a bright red at the pervasive chill. "I come bearing gifts, so you don't have to worry about housing me without proper compensation!"

Law was stunned for a moment, his mind brain-farting as he took in your overall appearance. Maybe it was the strands of hair poking out of your coat or the way your scarf was riding up your face, but there was something about you that was... bothering him. That feeling of discomfort only increased tenfold when you hopped up and slung an arm around his shoulders, bringing him down to your level as you smiled brightly at him--almost like what Luffy would do whenever they met.

At least you looked better than the last time he had seen you.

The ravenette turned away and clicked his tongue, moving to the side so you could get inside. "Who said anything about housing, idiot. Don't get ahead of yourself, I'm only allowing you to stay here for a short while."

You blew at your hands once more before walking straight into his condo, immediately beelining for the couch.

"Don't be such a grouch all the time, you'll only end up getting more wrinkles. And here I'd thought that the tattoos I gave you would fix that..."

"I only get wrinkles because of people like you, and these tattoos," He lifted his hands and pointed to the slightly faded 'Alive' markings scrawled over his knuckles, "--they still haven't washed out yet. How do you expect me to explain these to my superiors, especially when I'm supposed to go into surgery?"

"Well, I wrote them in sharpie, what did you expect? On the plus side though, I think it looks pretty fashionable." The ravenette shot you an incredulous look as you nonchalantly blew out a piece of crud from your ear. He frowned when you smiled up at him innocently. "And you wear gloves when you're in surgery, right? I don't see the problem here."

"You're the problem, you dimwitted numbskull. And if we're talking about fashion, what's wrong with your hair?" He pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled before regaining his self-control. Your hand flew to the choppy, burnt ends of your hair.

"Oh, about that... I burned it the other day doing something dumb...with that idiot Ace..."

"I should've expected that--Don't know why I asked in the first place." He sighed.

The ravenette shut his door and walked over to his kitchen to take out two, hexagonal-shaped drinking glasses. "That aside, what did you come here for?"

You guffawed at him.

"You should know why!"

"No, I can't say that I do. You rarely visit my place."

Not a single thing came to mind, so he had no idea what you could have possibly been referring to. Had he forgotten to do something? Was today an important holiday he'd not been given a heads up to?

"You can be more of an airhead than Luffy sometimes."

That's the absolute last thing he wanted to hear today.

Law glared down at you as you walked over his way, presenting a large bag while exclaiming, "Happy Birthday!"

It took him another long minute to process that.

"Birthday?" He dumbly repeated.

Who's birthday? His birthday? It couldn't have--Wait, today was October 6th? Already?

It took him a while to comprehend your words, but when he did, you were already fixing him with an impatient glare.

He just blinked in confusion, as if you'd just asked him the world's hardest question.