Chapter Text
--The Polar Tang, somewhere in the New World--
Law crumpled up the newspaper in his hand and tossed it off the deck of the sub into the ocean. The rays of sun still reached down to the deck despite the cloudy sky and stormy sea.
The article highlighting the miraculous reappearance and then disappearance of the straw hat pirates at Sabody Archipelago floated down towards the ocean. Evaded Marine capture, it had said. Most likely headed towards Fishman Island.
He looked out towards where he thought the red line might be. They were on their way to the new world.
Two years, two years without hearing anything from Straw Hat Luffy, the cannonball of a soulmate that had ricocheted his way through the first half of the grand line, toppling warlords and governments.
Law scoffed slightly, now that he held the warlord title, maybe Luffy’d come after him. He knew how unlikely it would be.
Having met the scatterbrained fool, he doubted that Straw Hat-ya had ever had a plan in his life, more likely he just ran from island to island and trouble found him.
“Has the News Coo come yet?” Asked Penguin, walking over from below decks.
“No.” Law said as Penguin squinted out at the horizon looking for the seagull which had already left. Law turned and headed back below decks as Penguin started to mutter to himself about “where that damn bird was”
It wasn’t just that they were rival captains and Straw Hat-ya was certainly going to complicate everything in the New World whatever it was he did. They were also, unfortunately for Law, soulmates.
When he was a kid law had always loved the concept of soulmates, someone who could understand you, and understand your emotions, who would support each other like his parents supported each other.
At first, when everything terrible happened with Flevance and Doflamingo, even though he thought that soulmates were stupid, he wanted one so badly, someone who understood him, but he didn’t want anyone to have to go through his pain. He didn’t want anyone to bother him. So: He wished he never found a soulmate.
Later, when he was studying to become a doctor, he got back interested in the scientific background of soulmates. There wasn’t a very good explanation for them, why other people could cause marks to appear on people they were compatible soulmates with, and why if you spent enough time with them, you would form an emotional bond that shared strong emotions over.
It was about as explained as devil fruits were.
People knew what they did. They knew about the marks that people who were so called 'compatible' with each other got when they first touched, and that the ones that were two-sided, where both people got marks when they touched each other, grew when they spent time around each other. They grew like any relationship would grow, with time and trust, except when they got strong enough, you could sense another persons emotional state.
People knew what they didn’t do, they weren't magic, they didn't mean that you were forever bound to a single person.
But people didn’t know why.
When Law became a pirate, he figured that soulmates wouldn’t be very practical to stick around with. Unless they were a member of your crew, it was unlikely that the second emotional bond would ever form. After all, being a pirate meant a life of danger and death, and not everyone liked pirates at that.
So it was almost unfortunate that his soulmate, who was supposed to be compatible him, was both a rival pirate a cannonball of energy so contrary to everything that Law was.
--Sabody Archipelago: 2 years earlier--
When they had first bumped into each other at the Sabody Archipelago, Luffy bumping into him while sprinting through the crowd at the auction house, he had fallen.
Bepo caught him, worried that the light blow, which he normally wouldn’t have fallen at, had knocked him down. “Are you okay captain.”
“Shit” Muttered Law, feeling the tingling sensation on the back of his left shoulder as his heart started to slow after the sudden burst of adrenaline. He righted himself back up on his feet, looking after the figure in the straw hat that darted away from him. The feeling of slight numbness in his shoulder coupled with the odd encounter and the adrenaline only meant one thing. The description matched almost textbook definition of soulmate first contact.
Expect textbooks generally alluded to the idea that every soulmate first contact would happen at a business meeting where two people shook hands.
“Are you okay captain?” Bepo asked again.
“I will be.” Law grumbled, looking around again. He called to his crew, they needed to get out of there fast before everything went to shit. Trafalgar D. Water Law didn’t have time for soulmates.
Which is why Law couldn’t quite explain why he had gone to Marineford and saved Luffy. He knew the consequences. The fading grey splotch which more of less resembled a bird (more of a splotch than a bird, if he was honest) would shift into the shape of an X while Law was wrists deep in Luffy's guts trying to fix him up. And it would stay there, messing up the symmetry of his back tattoo.
When Law dragged Luffy to his ship, he noticed that his soulmate had a mark, just like him, on the arm that was opposite his. A solid black line, drawn across his bicep. Like a tattoo, or a tourniquet.
As Law fixed up Luffy, even though he knew he should have left Luffy on the battlefield, he could feel the soul mark tingle, trying to form a bond between them. It would be a nuisance, that’s all. Law wouldn't let it be anything worse then a nuisance.
Besides, he thought, they wouldn’t see much of each other on the open seas of the Grand Line, they would never form a stronger soul bond. Law had his own agenda that he didn’t need luffy getting in the way of.
When he left Luffy back on Amazon Lilly, the distraught teen hadn’t taken any note of the band that curled around his arm. And Law left before his could even begin make the connection between the band on his arm and the X on Law's shoulder. Between the two marks and colliding into each other at the Auction house. Between the two of them and the strange feeling that Law kept feeling in his arm.
If he would make the connection, that is.
--Punk Hazard--
Law hadn’t had any intention in avoiding Luffy by locating himself at the remote island of Punk Hazard. He just had work to be done there. The Straw Hat captain hadn’t even held a footnote in his mind, because it would be ridiculous to entertain the notion of him sailing to punk hazard.
It would be ridiculous if Straw Hat was at Punk Hazard
Straw Hat just wouldn’t be there. He couldn’t. Law gritted his teeth and looked around the marine crew that stood in front of him on the side of the mountain, but he could still hear the broken echo of Straw Hat’s voice that came from the navy’s Den Den Mushi.
‘Fuck my life’ He thought as the Straw Hat crew burst from the facility into the snow filled mountainside. ‘Fuck’