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Law’s soulmate didn’t seem to write on his own hands or arms very much, like most kids did during school and the like. He saw his classmates do it frequently, and had a few times hopefully penned a message to his soulmate on the inside of his wrist, only to receive no answer. His mother told him to be patient and give it time–maybe his special person was a little younger than him, and couldn’t yet write back.

He waited, hopefully. Most of his classmates had already seen something from their soulmates, even if it was just a doodle, or in one kid’s case, an incomprehensible jumble of characters that their teacher told them was another language entirely. 

And, just when Law was starting to lose hope, as they were eating dinner one night, his palms burned. His fork clattered to his plate, and his mother rushed to his side. When he turned his hands up, they were blackened, as if by soot. Only the color faded, and then his feet burned, too, and by the time he had torn his sock off to look at one, the color had faded to an ashen grey.

His father started to laugh.

“Well, Law, it seems like your soulmate has arrived.”

“Arrived?” Law asked, confused. “If it’s my soulmate, why don’t they write something?”

His mother was smiling, too, and traced her fingers along his palm, which was nearly normal again save for the faintest discoloration. “See how the ink has already faded, Law?” when he nodded, she continued. “That means it wasn’t written by your soulmate. It was put there by someone else.”

He watched as his fingertips darkened while she spoke, accompanied by a faint tingling. 

“Why would someone else be doing that?”

“They’re taking your soulmate’s prints, Law. You’re going to have to take good care of them, because they’re younger than you. They were only just born, and the doctor is making their birth records.”

Law stared, then blushed a little. “They were just born ?” then he made a face and glanced at his little sister. “They’re younger than Lami?”

His father laughed again. “Yes, they are. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll both be great for each other. You are soulmates, after all.”

He thought it was kind of gross, for his soulmate to be seven whole years younger than he was, but that was fine. He would just make sure to be able to take care of them, like his mother told him to. He was going to be a doctor, just like his parents, so if his soulmate ever got sick or hurt, he’d be right there with them to help them out.

It was a few years later when he wondered, idly, if the white patches from Amber Lead Syndrome showed up on his soulmate’s skin. It wasn’t ink, but he’d heard that sometimes things other than ink transferred through the soulmate bond. Scars, makeup, paint. Sometimes the sensation of touch. 

In the days when there was still a flicker of hope in his chest, he silently wished for his soulmate to be free of the white patches. If his soulmate had to suffer the same patches on their skin, then maybe other people would hate them and try to kill them for it, like they’d done to Flevance. As much as his hatred filled him, this mystery person he’d never get to meet was the one person he wanted to find happiness, somehow. 

His soulmate was the only one he had left, after all. Even if they’d never met.

Law took notes across his hands frequently as he grew and studied and planned. It was just natural to him, and he decided that he didn’t give a damn if his soulmate saw. He was living to carry on Corazon’s mission and take down Doflamingo, even if it was going to be a long plan. First he needed to learn, to get stronger, and to surround himself with allies. As much as he wanted to go straight for the kill, Law knew he couldn’t outmaneuver Doflamingo as he was.

And, for their part, his soulmate never answered back. Though he wasn’t sure if notes like three litres of blood, F type or room, 30 yds would mean anything to them at all. Lists like blood, IV, antiseptics, scalpels , for when they were restocking their medical supplies, or bounties when he wanted to remind himself to check out what other pirates in his area were up to. If his soulmate was going to grow up to be a marine, maybe they’d end up trying to use their bond to lure him into a trap, with all the questionable shit he wrote across his hands.

Should they falsely assume, that is, that he gave a shit. It was a rare day when he thought fondly of a soulmate, not since he was young and still full of so much hope.

Plus…his soulmate was seven years younger than he was, and must have very immature friends at that age. The number of times he’d woken up to the sensation of questionable markings being inked on his cheeks and begrudgingly checked the mirror to watch the drawings fade away…he didn’t want to think about it. Once or twice he understood, but it happened at least twice a week.

When Law was about sixteen, he wondered how his tattoos showed up on his soulmate’s skin, as he was under the needle of one of his capable crewmates for the first of many times. Would his soulmate have faded mirrors of his tattoos, like he’d heard in the past? Would they get the tattoos stark against their skin for the first few hours, and then watch it fade away? Or would it be like the ink on the day his soulmate was born–show up briefly, as it was inflicted by someone else, before it slips away? And would those first tattoos, the DEATH he’d inflicted upon himself a few months ago, last any longer since they were inked by his own hand?

The thought faded quickly.

And then, at last, it happened. Law held no hopes of hearing from his soulmate, and his soulmate never seemed to draw or write on their own skin, so when a drawing he thought might’ve been a skull and crossbones, some Jolly Roger, appeared on his left arm while he was about to cut open a patient, it took him a little by surprise. The lines were crude and squiggly and so bad and he stared blankly at it before he sighed and shook his sleeves over it. By then, his soulmate was about…ten years old? Were they playing pirates and marines with their little friends, or trying to draw their own pirate flag? Who knew.

“Captain?” Penguin asked, confused.

“It’s nothing. Do you have the IV ready?”

“Yes, sir!”

Law nodded, and moved to start the surgery.

Vaguely, he wondered if the blood on his hands ever showed up against his soulmate’s skin. He wondered if it terrified his other half, and thought it might be better if it did. Law may have been saved from the illness that should have killed him, but it didn’t mean he expected a long life. He was slowly gathering a pirate crew, and when the time was right, he’d hit the Grand Line. 

His first bounty was when he was twenty-two, and it was a measly 15,000,000 berries. He could do better.

He was still bitter when, around two years later, the rookie Monkey D. Luffy gradually began to take the world by storm. He came from the weakest of the four Blues, and yet this scrawny kid with a sunshine smile had a starting bounty of 30,000,000 berries, double that of Law’s first bounty. It was a modest amount for a pirate in the first half of the Grand Line, but a starting bounty that high was unprecedented in the East Blue.

Monkey D. Luffy might be one to keep an eye on, but Law had his sights on bigger prizes. He was finally, at long last, setting the wheels in motion. With time, he’d have more intel on Doflamingo and his plans, and he could figure out how to drag him down. He’d drag him to hell, kicking and screaming, even if he had to go with him.

Law was reading a medical journal in a brief moment of respite when he felt the tell-tale itching of something appearing on his skin. He looked for a moment at the crude, wobbly X on his arm, and wondered why. Was his soulmate about to get a shot there? Were they testing out a pen? 

And then he watched as it faded as though scrubbed off, and then the X reappeared. This time the lines were straight and sure and bold , an “X marks the spot” kind of drawing if he ever saw one, and then it was gone. Someone else had forced his soulmate to erase the awful one so that they could take it upon themselves to fix it, it seemed. His soulmate was rather terrible at drawing, after all. He’d seen at least four variations of a Jolly Roger across his skin–the strangest place and drawing, perhaps, being the one on the sole of his foot.

He wrote it off in the back of his head, as he had done on any small occasion before. 

Law ignored it another time when someone else drew all the way up his soulmate’s arms, what looked like swirly clouds. Bepo stared at the gradient while Law patched his friend’s furry arm up, until he shook his sleeves down over his arms and hid them from sight. Bepo knew not to ask about them, then, and merely uttered apologies for getting wounded in their last scuffle with the navy. Law pinched the bridge of his nose and told him, “You don’t have to apologize, Bepo. Just be more careful.”

“Sorry, Captain.”

He sighed, finished tying off the bandage, and shook his head before moving on to where Shachi was scolding Penguin and trying to set his clearly broken ankle. 

“Boss, look what this idiot did!” he whined when he saw Law approach, like a petulant child tattling on their sibling.

He ignored the bright smiling face that flashed through his memories, and scowled. “What did I tell you about jumping off of their ship back to the sub?”

Penguin looked like he wanted to be snarky, but one look at Law and he sighed, sank back a little, and then admitted, “To wait until the sub was closer, or I’d hurt myself.”

Law just hummed at that, acknowledging him and also maybe giving him a bit of an I-told-you-so stare, and helped Shachi set the bone.

Waves rippled across his hands as he worked, drawn on his soulmate’s skin in a pen as blue as the ocean all around them. Law noticed them, filed them away in the depths of his memory once more, and then took the daily newspaper to his room to catch up on everything.

New wanted posters slipped out, and the front page was all about the Warlord Crocodile’s downfall and plot in Alabasta. The navy had apparently worked with the kingdom to dig up the plot and save the kingdom, and they were rewarding the marine Smoker for his work there.

He shuffled the wanted posters then, wondering if Crocodile’s reinstated bounty would be there even though it clearly stated he was bound for Impel Down, and paused.

Monkey D. Luffy once more, with a 100,000,000 berry bounty. Law’s own was only 90,000,000 at the time, and he could scarcely fathom a pirate newer to piracy than him and younger than he was gaining so much notoriety already. And then the next wanted poster was Pirate Hunter Zoro . Roronoa Zoro, 60,000,000 berries. He’d become something of a legend among bounty hunters over the last couple of years over in the East Blue, to the point that criminals in other seas had started wondering when he would come after them.

Below his bounty information, it listed him as the first mate to Strawhat Luffy.

Law took a moment to let that sink in, even as he felt someone drawing on his soulmate’s other arm this time. He glanced, saw more of the same from before, and turned back to the bounties in his hands. The fact that this Monkey D. Luffy had convinced the notorious pirate hunter to join his pirate crew was a point of interest.

He wondered if it might have something to do with that mysterious D. initial that he shared.

He put the thoughts aside to finish perusing the newspaper. He knew at least one or two of his crew would want to see it after him, and contrary to his outward asshole persona, he didn’t want to deny them that small luxury. It was better for the crew to be informed about the way the world worked, instead of just sailing out into the seas, ignorant of everything else.

Law wasn’t sure when his skin started showing the blood.

He did know that the first time he was made aware of it, Penguin panicked in the middle of an operation, scrambled away from the patient’s bedside, and pointed at Law’s head. 

“Penguin–” he began, but watched as Shachi paled when he turned to look at Law.

“When did you start bleeding?!” Penguin demanded, nearly screeching. 

“ Bleeding? ” Law asked, incredulously. “I’m not bleeding, Penguin.”

The patient was under, the surgery done, and his wounds just needed to be cleaned and sewed up. Law usually preferred to finish what he’d started, but when Penguin continued to stare and Shachi asked him if he was sure, he directed Shachi to stay and finish the stitching while he slipped into the adjacent bathroom to look in the mirror. Penguin trailed behind him, and Ikkaku took his place to help Shachi if needed.

Blood was dripping down his forehead, from under his hat and his hair, and Law felt a brief moment of panic. Head wounds were never to be taken lightly, after all. But when he took his hat off, there was no blood on it, nor was his hair damp. There was no pain. And when he dragged his fingers across the bloodstains, there was no blood. His skin felt the same as normal. 

“What the fuck?” were the first words that slipped out of his mouth.

Against his better judgement, Law demanded that Penguin come to touch it, too.

“It…it’s not there?” he asked, bewildered. “But I can see it, plain as day! You can, too!”

Law reached up, still looking in the mirror, to brush across it again, and then noticed that his knuckles looked as though they were raw and bleeding, too. But they weren’t. He’d discarded his bloody surgical gloves, and he didn’t make a habit of punching things when his hands were one of his most useful tools as a doctor.

Then, gradually, the pieces fell into place.

“My soulmate…” he said softly, flexing his hand. No pain. “It’s…my soulmate bleeding?”

Penguin stared at him. Law stared back.

When Penguin opened his mouth, Law cut him off. “Just ignore it.”

“But–”

“Penguin.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but then he sighed. “Aye, aye,” he said instead, and they went back to the operating room as Shachi finished the task, Law tugging his hat lower on his head. The blood was still on his knuckles so he figured it was still dripping down his forehead, but Penguin was quick to blab that, “It’s not Captain’s blood, it’s his soulmate’s, he says to just ignore it.”

“His soulmate’s ?” Shachi asked, incredulously. He was wiping his hands after finishing the stitches, while Ikkaku moved to clean the area around the wound again and start bandaging it. 

With one glance at Law, he didn’t push, but the others started talking amongst themselves, and he caught bits about how it was unusual and has that been documented before? Law duly ignored these comments, instructed them to finish up here, and went towards his own quarters. 

He had heard of curious cases about things other than ink appearing on a soulmate’s skin, of course, had even wondered if the blood on his hand had ever appeared on his soulmate’s hands, but had never considered the reverse. He had to think about it some himself, process it as well as he could, and then he would push it to the back of his mind. Rinse and repeat, the same process he used whenever something regarding his soulmate came up.

He probably wouldn’t live to meet them anyway, whoever they were.

He read in the papers over the next few days that Strawhat Luffy and his crew had declared war on the World Government and razed Enies Lobby to the ground, all to save Nico Robin , the Demon Child, since she was now a member of his crew.

Law couldn’t wrap his mind around the feats that they got up to, nor could he comprehend the names filling the ranks of the Strawhat Pirates, but when the bounties shuffled out, he was able to see the members for the first time. Some of them seemed rather unassuming, like the Cat Burglar and…Sogeking? But the sheer knowledge that the crew contained both Pirate Hunter and the Demon Child from Ohara was damning. It meant that Monkey D. Luffy had the ability to rally others to his cause, and that could be dangerous to the navy. 

And Strawhat’s bounty of 300,000,000 berries showed that the government was starting to consider him a real threat, along with the rest of the generation they were starting to call Supernovas . Roronoa would be considered one of those, too, now that his bounty exceeded the 100,000,000 baseline. While Law’s own bounty wasn’t anything to sneeze at, finally crossing 200,000,000, it seemed to pale in comparison to this younger captain’s somehow. 

Law couldn’t help wondering if it was about recklessness , which the Strawhats seemed to have in abundance, if the paper was anything to go by. The article implied that this was the entire crew–this motley jumble of seven people, including Nico Robin, and their assumed associate Cyborg Franky, who made eight. He couldn’t begin to think about taking on Enies Lobby just to save a single member of his crew with so few to begin with. And especially not when he had the weight of Cora’s goal on his shoulders.

Could he ever put a member of his own crew, as much as he loved them, above his revenge on Doflamingo?

This kid…he was one to watch. Law knew it for certain. And the wisp of a new plan formed in his mind’s eye, one in which he could, potentially, convince Monkey D. Luffy to help him take down Doflamingo. He was probably crazy enough to do it, and Law was beginning to think he needed more help than he’d be able to find.

But he still needed time, information, and power . There was nothing he could do yet, before he set his plans in motion, and he simply had to hope Doflamingo didn’t consider him too much of a threat before he could begin.

He shouldered Kikoku and left his desk, rolling his shoulders. They’d make landfall at the last island before the Sabaody Archipelago soon, and he was eager to know how long it would take the log pose to set. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long–he wouldn’t want to miss the chance to glimpse Strawhat if they happened to get there around the same time.

“So that’s him.”

Monkey D. Luffy’s entrance was certainly something else. Law watched as he easily extricated himself from the debris, and turned immediately to the mermaid on the stage. He called out a name that Law assumed to be hers, Camie , and charged towards the stage shouting about rescuing her until his friend tried to hold him back. 

She’d already been sold, and to one of those damned Celestial Dragons, no less. Even Strawhat’s recklessness had to know some boundaries. His friend would tell him it was over, that she was lost to them, and they would be kicked out of the auction house for causing a ruckus and displeasing the world nobles, probably. But this was a valuable chance to size up the man himself, and Law was going to glean what he could.

Tentacles wrapped around Strawhat, and Law arched a brow. His friend was a fishman, then, and probably a friend of the mermaid too. Strawhat broke free and continued charging–and then a gunshot rang out.

The Celestial Dragon danced around gleefully, and Law grit his teeth in distaste. “I captured it, Father, so that means it’s free! A fishman slave!”

Law’s eyes never left the other pirate. He had frozen at the shot, and even as the octopus fishman continued telling him not to do anything–no doubt seeing the same pure, unadulterated rage in his eyes that Law was seeing–he still placed himself between the fishman and the noble, glaring daggers.

He couldn’t help it. Law watched on, hardly daring to breathe with the tension he could feel settling around him. All eyes in the auction house were on Monkey D. Luffy, and the pirate only had eyes for the Celestial Dragon who had fired at his friend. And then, beyond all reason, Strawhat advanced. Law felt like time was moving at a snail’s pace. He could hear his own pulse racing– he couldn’t be serious?!

“Strawhat…” slipped out of his mouth, hardly above a whisper, as Strawhat Luffy dodged two shots fired and pulled his arm back. The whole auction house watched in mounting fear and awe as he punched the World Noble with everything he had.

The man went flying, his protective bubble popping on impact and his eyes rolling back. He crashed through rows of seating as other people dived out of the way. With the sheer power of that punch, Law wouldn’t even have been surprised if the fool was dead on impact, though he somehow doubted it. He didn’t know if the man’s death would have been better or worse for them all, though he did know that the government would be even more determined to snuff out this particular D. now that he’d done that.

There was a long moment of silence, until he heard Eustass Kidd start laughing in disbelief–and though he didn’t care for the punk, just from a glance, Law could relate to that. He could feel the smirk tugging at his own lips and was powerless to stop it.

“Ah, sorry guys,” Strawhat Luffy was looking back up the stairs, where Law knew his crew was waiting. “I heard that if you hit one of those guys, a marine admiral shows up with his battleships…”

“Why’d you have to go and hit him?” a deeper voice answered, almost disappointed, and out of the corner of his eye, Law watched as Roronoa Zoro sheathed his half-drawn blade. “I wanted to slice him up myself.”

The Cat Burglar trotted down the steps, past her captain, to kneel by the fishman. She told him to hang on, then said nonchalantly to the Pirate Hunter, and maybe to the protesting fishman, too. “Well, it’s not like we could do anything about it. He is Luffy, after all.”

Several other members of his crew agreed in their own ways, and the “pet” moved to the fishman’s side with…a medical kit?

The fact that anyone in the world could think this was normal behavior absolutely baffled Law, and the fact that none of them even seemed remotely concerned meant that they were used to it, at least from their captain. Didn’t they know an admiral would come down on their heads, now? The full wrath of the World Government?

He couldn’t help but grin. Strawhat was fucking crazy , and if they all lived through today, he couldn’t wait to see what he made of himself. 

Law might remember that meeting for the rest of his life, as a Celestial Dragon–the father of Luffy’s victim–started shouting at them, the rest of the auction house surged to their feet and towards the door. The order to call the marines was given, chaos ensued. The man who had to be Sanji from the hand-drawn wanted poster kicked the gun out of the noble’s hand as he continued to shout. He and Roronoa took out most of the noble’s entourage with ease, and then suddenly, in the midst of all of it, three more who were presumably Strawhats descended from the hole their captain had made.

One of them fell, screaming, on top of the apoplectic noble, and another wave of panic swept the auction house.

The fact that one of Strawhat’s crew was a skeleton drew Law’s gaze for a moment longer, but then he heard him updating his crew. When he told them that the marines would be coming soon, Law had to pipe up.

“The marines are already here, Strawhat.”

Even later, Law would probably always remember the first thing that Monkey D. Luffy said to him.

“Who’re you? And what’s with that bear?”

Chaos ensued, and Law couldn’t pass up the chance to fight alongside the other two notorious captains. Kidd and Luffy both had some strange devil fruit abilities, but he could tell both were pretty competent. Both annoying as hell, since they both kept trying to give orders, and of course summarily ignored him if he were to do the same. They were all captains, after all.

He almost lamented when it was time to split up, but living to die another day–preferably while taking out Doflamingo–took priority. So they ran, did their best to avoid pacifistas and the admiral, and somehow made it out. Back to the Polar Tang, where they could immediately submerge and hide out, at least until the navy admiral was gone.

And, after all he’d seen and heard, when later he heard the Strawhats were presumed dead, was it a surprise that he didn’t believe it?

The war was a whirlwind.

He knew that declaring the public execution of Portgas D. Ace would draw Whitebeard and his full force. Law wasn’t a fool. What he hadn’t expected was to hear that Ace was the biological son of the pirate king, or to see Monkey D. Luffy falling from the sky on the video feed, right into the middle of the battle with what turned out to be hundreds of escapees from Impel Down . He hadn’t expected to learn that Strawhat had single-handedly stormed Impel Down, the underwater, impenetrable prison, to try and save Fire-Fist Ace.

He definitely hadn’t expected to hear Luffy tell Fire-Fist that he was there because they were brothers , and to have the fact that they were adopted brothers be confirmed by Fleet Admiral Sengoku. 

Law couldn’t look away. He watched as Fleet Admiral Sengoku revealed that Strawhat’s father was Dragon, the revolutionary. Watched until he couldn’t watch anymore, when the last snail was snuffed out to blind the world to the battle happening, and then he knew he had to act.

“Set sail,” he commanded immediately.

“Where to, Captain?” Bepo asked, following immediately.

“Navy HQ.”

They didn’t protest, which was a blessing. At least he had a crew that trusted him enough to go with him into the den of vipers, in the middle of this turbulent war. Law had merely wanted to watch it reach its conclusion, rather than hear about it from the papers later. So he tapped his fingers impatiently against the table, waiting until the moment they could continue, ignoring the faint traces of red across his knuckles and his arms that denoted blood that wasn’t his and the tugging question, is my soulmate part of this war?

Observation fled when he saw the brothers fall.

A glance and he knew that Portgas was gone, and he saw Strawhat crumble in grief. 

“Surface,” he ordered. “All the way!”

“C-captain?”

“Surface!”

“A-aye!”

The look on his face must’ve truly been frightful, the way they obeyed him without further questioning. And they broke the surface of the turbulent sea just as he watched Strawhat and the First Son of the Sea, Jimbei, take another hit. And then they were zooming away, whoever was carrying them–a former member of Roger’s crew, if he remembered Sengoku’s announcement correctly–screaming angrily about something.

“ Give Strawhat to me !”

Law could scarcely believe the words coming out of his own mouth. But he was there and he was a doctor, dammit, so he was going to save the life of this incredibly brave and foolish and lucky and important man or he would die trying–he didn’t know why or how or what possessed him to do it, but something in him couldn’t watch Strawhat die here.

“I’m a doctor!”

Later, he’d tell himself it was because he was an important card in a hand he’d yet to play, but even then, he wouldn’t believe himself.

During the surgery, he told Shachi to clean and treat Strawhat’s bloody hands while his own were preoccupied trying to repair his organs and seal the gaping chest wound. Shachi cleaned his hands, and cleaned them again, and after a moment of shock, tended to the cuts. 

“Why are they still bleeding?” Law asked him sharply as he started to pull out bandages. Shachi shook his head. 

“They’re not, Captain. It’s…” he looked at Law’s hands, meticulous in surgery even though he was giving orders for both operations going on, and the line of his mouth drew thin for a moment. “It’s not his–” he paused, then said, “it’s not on his hands,” with enough emphasis that it clicked.

So Strawhat got to see blood whenever it was on his soulmate’s skin, too, huh?

It wasn’t until after he was confident the surgery was done, hours later, that Law disrobed to start his shower. Only, marring the lines of the painstakingly inked tattoo on his chest, there were small, black lines. His soulmate, again?

Small black lines…in the shape of an X across his chest.

A sensation like ice trickled down his spine, and he left the bathroom shirtless to step to Strawhat’s bedside, where Shachi and Penguin were wrapping the bandages so that Law could rest after hours and hours of work. He stopped them, halfway through, and looked at the stitches he himself had placed not minutes before. He looked down at the already fading lines on his chest, and back to the stitches.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he said, reaching forward and tracing the bottom line of stitches. Shachi looked at his chest, then down at Strawhat’s, and his face barely changed. 

“So I was right, about the blood on his hands,” he observed, then pushed Law’s hand away and told Penguin to help him finish with the bandages.

“No.” he shook his head. “It might not be. And don’t say a word,” Law warned him darkly, then stormed back off to the bathroom. He avoided glancing in the mirror, where the last of the stitches would be fading away, and took a shower to cleanse his soulmate’s blood from his skin.

No, there was still a chance it wasn’t him. There was .

A month later, weeks after they’d set off for the New World at last after leaving Monkey D. Luffy on Amazon Lily in the care of Silvers Rayleigh –seriously, was there a single person that wasn’t drawn to or inspired by that kid?–a tattoo appeared on his arm. Fleeting, there for a moment and then gone. 

Strawhat didn’t seem like the type to get a tattoo, so he tried to relax. The crossed out 3D didn’t seem very significant to him, nor did the 2Y, so he wasn’t sure what it meant and decided he didn’t care as it faded away. 

He was thankful he was the only one that saw it, and that Shachi had surprisingly listened and kept his observations to himself thus far, because the next day Strawhat Luffy was in the paper once again, ringing the bell 16 times to reign in a new era and observing a moment of silence…with that same tattoo on his arm.

It’s as if the world was determined to make Law the butt of its jokes.

If no one else knew, no one else could try to wax poetic about soulmates and try to convince him to pursue some sort of relationship. They couldn’t urge him to be careful. If it came down to giving his life to stop Doflamingo, they wouldn’t be able to ask him what his soulmate, what Monkey D. Luffy , of all people, would think. 

Which was good, because if he thought too much about what Luffy would think, he just knew that he wouldn’t consider death an option. Not for anyone but himself, and even then he’d cheat death.

No…it was best if Law tucked his knowledge close to his chest and tried to forget about it, bury his half-formed plans to team up with Strawhat to take down Doflamingo, and focus instead on the long plans he already had. He’d spent years plotting and planning and working his way through any and all leads, and he thought he might finally have a trail to follow. He’d do that and see where it took him.

He heard nothing about the Strawhat Pirates for two years. 

The world believed them dead or at least disbanded. Most of them thought Luffy himself was dead, but Law had occasional bloody knuckles that weren’t his own, or sometimes fingertips stained with what he could only assume was some sort of berry juice. Mulberries? Some other wild berry? Who knew. But they were indisputable signs that Monkey D. Luffy was still alive out there somewhere, biding his time.

And then there was Law. He had gained some notoriety, earning the moniker Heartstealer in addition to his Surgeon of Death by delivering a hundred beating pirate hearts to the Navy in order to become a Warlord, all to get closer to his goal. It gave him a bit more freedom in the seas, and gave his crew a bit of amnesty for now. He sent them to Bepo’s homeland of Zou to wait for his return, and Law himself followed his leads to the reportedly abandoned and off-limits Punk Hazard to find Caesar Clown.

Law hated Caesar with every fiber of his being, but he persevered. 

Anything and everything to take out Doflamingo.

But, once again, his plans went awry. First, he heard about intruders being captured and held, but thought nothing of it. Then Smoker played a relay that was unmistakably Strawhat’s voice answering a plea for help from some of Brownbeard’s men, and Law had to school his face as carefully as possible. 

And then the prisoners who had apparently escaped burst out the doors next to him with the damn children Caesar was experimenting on, and all hell broke loose. Especially since the Cat Burglar burst through first, and other Strawhats followed. Any attempt to steer Smoker and the rest of G5 away was gone in an instant, and with it Law’s carefully crafted plans started to crumble. 

He had to adapt, then. It was lucky that he’d considered multiple options and, while this wasn’t exactly what he expected, he could adapt a few plans for it.

With a sigh, Law let the plan to exclude Strawhat from his plot to take down Doflamingo slip through his fingers. There was nothing for it, now. He’d need all the help he could get, now that he had to put the first stage of his plan into motion a lot faster than anticipated. He’d likely lose his Warlord status over this, so he wouldn’t get another chance as good as this for a very, very long time to come.

When the dust settled and the poison gas dispersed, when the impromptu farewell party with the marines of G5 was over, he found himself aboard the one ship he’d never expected to set foot on–had even told himself to never set foot on: The Thousand Sunny , home of the Strawhat Pirates. 

For what it was worth, even if some of them clearly didn’t trust him yet, they treated him well enough. Surprising, considering it was his fault that they had Caesar with them, bound in sea prism stone and hardly ever away from the watchful eyes of at least three people. The cook clearly despised the scientist and hardly took an eye off of him when on deck, and even though Roronoa always seemed to be asleep, Law had a feeling the man was ready to spring to action at a moment’s notice. Law himself considered Caesar his problem, and barely moved where he couldn’t see the man.

It was clear that the Strawhats all held their captain near and dear to their hearts. They each had their own little ways to threaten him if he so much as considered hurting Luffy in the end. The worst was probably Nico Robin, even for as subtle as her threat was. The most… endearing , probably, was Tony’s. 

It was…well, it was nice. How much they really cared. And Law knew that, if he had given it a thought, his own crew was probably pretty similar.

The next few weeks, as they drew nearer to Dressrosa, made his life seem rather small. He didn’t anticipate living past this encounter, had scarcely dared plan beyond it, and it made the years seem so short. Especially in comparison to the bright and shining captain of this crew and all the life he had in him. Luffy was life incarnate, the soulmate he’d stopped wanting to find somewhere in the nebulous years of his disease when he was angry and desperate and foolish yet somehow managed to stay this happy in spite of how cruel the world was.

And then…Dressrosa appeared as a speck on the horizon. Nose– Usopp spotted it first, and Law finished getting dressed. This coat…it had to be this coat. This coat was his vow to Corazon, and Law wanted Doflamingo to see it. To be pissed about it.

He didn’t think about the other repercussions of that, until he stepped out into the light of the Sunny’s grassy decks, and Strawhat bounded up to him.

“Torao! It’s there, it’s there, it’s Dressroba!”

“Dressrosa,” he corrected, automatically.

The other captain twisted his mouth in an almost scowl and finally turned his full attention to Law, letting his pointing finger drop. “You’re no fun, Torao.”

In the spirit of it, Law corrected, “It’s Trafalgar Law . Or Law, if it’s easier.”

He heard one of the Strawhats, probably Roronoa, snort somewhere behind him and ignored it, waiting for the captain’s answer. Probably another childish jab and a continued butchering of his name, but Law had grown used to it. Only he waited for it, for the whining and protesting, and it never came. 

Luffy was staring at him–or rather, at his chest, where his coat fell open.

“Strawhat?”

“That tattoo.” he said, squinting at it and then reaching forward to push Law’s coat wider, despite Law’s protest. “It is the same,” he observed, then grinned, a smile that stretched wide across his cheeks, and looked up at Law. “You know, it really looked terrible on me! I wondered why my special person wanted it, but it looks really good on you, so I get it now.”

Special person–oh.

“I-is that so?” he asked, and then cursed himself. He should’ve let it go.

Luffy nodded, then reached forward and grabbed Law’s hand, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his crew had fallen startlingly silent around them, and then ran his thumb across the inked letters on Law’s fingers. “And these! Ace said that my special person must be some kind of gangster, to get tattoos like this! And they stayed for a couple of weeks, so Makino got worried when she saw them, too. She thought I’d gotten them, and told me that nine was too young to get something like that written on me. You almost got me in a lot of trouble!”

Usopp dropped something he was carrying and nearly shouted, until a hand sprouted out of his shoulder and covered his mouth. Law saw this all over Luffy’s shoulder, and silently thanked Nico Robin for trying to keep this from being any more of a scene.

“I got myself in a lot more,” he said instead.

Luffy laughed, in that particular way he had. “I bet! Say, Torao, did you already know? How’d you find out?”

The tension was palpable for everyone but his soulmate, it seemed. Everyone wanted to know. And…dammit, Law couldn’t bring himself to lie. Not about something like this, even though it was practically the eve of his own death.

“Right after I finished the surgery, after the war.” Luffy didn’t break eye contact, cocking his head, so Law met his gaze. “Your blood was on my hands, but it showed up on yours, too. Like ink. And when I went to clean up, I saw the stitches,” Law reached out to trace the edges of the scar on Luffy’s chest, where he could see the tiny puckered lines of the stitches he’d placed himself. “They were fading fast, but they were on my chest, too. And then I pretended not to notice, because I thought it was a mistake somehow.”

He sighed and then tapped Luffy’s arm, right where that other fateful fake tattoo had been. “And then I saw the message to your crew, and the next day it was all over the newspapers.”

Once again, the younger captain just laughed. “Silly Torao, you think too much,” he decided, and then, not for the first time since Law had boarded his ship, Luffy surged forward into his space and wrapped his arms around him twice in a clingy hug. “Didn’t you want to meet your special person, too?”

“N…not since I was a kid,” he managed, voice tight from the embrace. And then it slipped out before he could stop himself, as things always seemed to do around Monkey D. Luffy, “I was kind of messed up, Strawhat. I didn’t think my soulmate would want to meet me .”

Luffy stiffened, then pulled back to look at Law, eyes fierce and burning, before he reared his head back and took Law by surprise by headbutting him so hard he saw stars.

“What the fuck –” he stumbled and fell ungracefully on his ass, Strawhat tumbling down with him and forcing him flat on his back. And then he sat on Law’s stomach, holding his shoulders down, and scowled at him.

“I already told you, you think too much!” he declared again. “As your special person, or soulmate, or whatever you want to call it, I always wanted to meet you. I don’t care about the rest of that stuff. I like you just the way you are, Torao, even if bad things happened to you or you did bad things,” he crossed his arms, but Law didn’t move to shove him away. He was frozen by the notion that someone could be so indifferent to their soulmate’s past. 

Luffy wasn’t done, though. “And even if you were still doing bad things when we met, isn’t this whole thing supposed to help you find someone important who can help you if you need it?”

The words punched the air from his lungs, or what little he had left. What a straightforward, simpleminded observation of what this whole soulmate thing meant. But…Law couldn’t say it was wrong. There had definitely been studies that indicated a soulmate bond could lead you to someone important to you–whether that person would be a romantic interest, platonic, someone who would greatly impact your life in other ways, someone who could lead you to another important person–so Luffy’s understanding was feasible. Probable, even. 

And so… simple .

“Strawhat…”

“No.” 

“You didn’t even let me say anything!” Law dragged a hand down his face, scowling up at his soulmate . This foolish, brave, insane man.

“You were going to think too much again.” 

He groaned. “Then what do you want me to do?”

“Just stop thinking so much! At least about this,” Luffy stated, nodding once as if assuring himself it was an acceptable request. “You can think about all of your complicated plans for beating up Mingo so we can get to Kaido, but you don’t have to think about this. You’re my special person, but it’s not just because stuff I write on my skin shows up on yours. That just helps us out, when people like you think too much about it. No, you’re my special person–or soulmate or whatever–because I like you just the way you are, Law!”

He’d expected his world to be turned upside down more than once by Monkey D. Luffy, but never like this. Never in a way he didn’t know he needed to hear–but also didn’t want to hear on the eve of a battle he was certain he wouldn’t make it out of. It was too much, too fast. 

The childish thought, my soulmate doesn’t hate me ? resurfaced in the back of his mind, buried somewhere so deep he hadn’t considered it in years. And, more dangerous, were the thoughts he’d hadn’t allowed himself to think about since he’d realized that Luffy was his soulmate: how do I feel about him ?

“Well?” 

Luffy’s demanding voice snapped him out of a downward spiral of thoughts he couldn’t bear to consider right now.

“Well, what?” Law asked, his voice much tighter than he’d intended. He didn’t like to be knocked so off-kilter.

“Promise me,” Strawhat demanded. “Promise me that you’ll stop thinking too much. And that we’ll talk about it later, after we kick Mingo’s ass.”

He managed to keep his automatic reaction, a flinch at the possibility of promising to talk about it later , as if someone like him was entitled to the promise of a later when everything pointed to making Dressrosa his grave. Instead, he swallowed and answered, “Alright. I’ll stop thinking about this for now.”

“And?”

“We’ll talk later,” Law forced out, then scowled at him. “Happy?”

“For now,” Luffy allowed, looking at Law in a way that said he really was only letting it go for the moment, and that he would bring it back up later. That in itself was an unusual thing for him to do, since Luffy was the type that got what he wanted when he wanted it and never took no for an answer. Law could only surmise that the temporary reprieve was either because Dressrosa loomed ever closer, or because it was something he actually wanted to finish talking about in private, later, like promised. Or maybe it was both.

He decided he didn’t care which it was, and waited for Strawhwat to get off of him. Only a few moments of silence passed, and the younger captain remained sitting firmly on his stomach, watching Law.

After a long silence, Law sighed, a little agitated, and asked, “Can you get off of me so I can get up , Strawhat?”

He only laughed, and Law had to shove him off to get up.

As he would soon learn– had been learning–the harder you tried to push one Monkey D. Luffy away, the tighter he held on.

He still never meant to put Luffy in the position he did. Helpless, behind the sea prism stone bars of the coliseum as Doflamingo tossed Law into the street like a damned ragdoll. And as Law lay there, unable to move with the world spinning around him and his entire body protesting, in agony at the overuse of his power, for pushing himself too far…Luffy, his soulmate , was forced to simply watch as Donquixote Doflamingo shot him three times in the chest.

Law felt the bullets tear through his body, and couldn’t help crying out. His ears were ringing, he tasted blood and bile on his tongue, and consciousness ebbed. It was the third shot that did him in, and darkness encroached with Luffy’s desperate cry the clearest sound in his muddled brain.

Doflamingo’s manhandling was a fever dream, drowned in pain and weariness, and Law thought he was dead. When Law came to, it was a monumental effort to even open his eyes and he immediately knew that his binds were sea prism stone. He felt drained by more than just his wounds and overexertion, a certain bone deep weariness that only the press of the ocean or that damn stone could cause a devil fruit eater. But once he made the effort to open his eyes and focus, he glanced around and realized instantly where he must be sitting. The other chairs were nearby–the spade, the club, the diamond.

He was in the Heart seat.

Corazon’s seat.

He didn’t care about Doflamingo’s spiel about how he’d left that seat for Law all these years, even despite the betrayals. In front of him was a man that had killed his own brother for betraying him–Law didn’t believe for a moment that Doflamingo would have taken him alive for any other reason than the fact that he was the one who had eaten the Op-Op fruit.

And things became a blur again, as someone tried to kill Doflamingo, Strawhat burst in trying to save him , of all the inane, stupid, foolish, brave things he could have done–and he ended up seeing half the city by the time his soulmate stopped manhandling him and carrying him around not only like he weighed nothing, but also as if he wasn’t already injured.

They separated to fight. Doflamingo sent Bellamy after Luffy, who considered the man a friend, and Law was forced to face Doflamingo on his own. He was still in pain–so, so much pain–but he wouldn’t go down without a fight. So he fought, and fought, and somewhere in the midst of that he lost an arm and Doflamingo unloaded the rest of his clip, and he couldn’t shake the recurring thought of, that’s the same gun he killed Cora with, isn’t it? It was something that Donquixote Doflamingo wouldn’t even hesitate to do. Dramatic irony or some such nonsense.

Law could have died.

He should have died.

Sixteen years ago, in Flevance, with his mother and his father and little Lami. 

A few months later, when he’d walked into the den of the Donquixote Family with explosives strapped to himself and threatened them because he had nothing left to live for.

Thirteen years ago, when his disease finally reached its peak. With Cora, on that godforsaken island he’d forget about if it didn’t still haunt his dreams.

Dozens of times since–Sabaody two years ago, when he first met Monkey D. Luffy and he called the fury of an admiral down on their heads, or Marineford when he’d declared his intent to save the man he’d soon find out was his soulmate. Punk Hazard, when Caesar gave his heart to Vergo. Hell, there were probably dozens of times in Dressrosa alone that Law could have died, had it not been for the whirlwind of a man in a straw hat who had already turned his life completely upside down.

If Luffy fell there, Law would have, too. After everything he’d seen, everything that Luffy had done , Law could never live with himself if he was the only one walking away from this.

And against all odds–he was still alive at the end.

Sure, he was absolutely exhausted. He was in so much pain that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to still be breathing, both from the beatings he’d taken and from his own overuse of his power. His arm had been reattached, his wounds tended, and he was a little mortified to admit how long he’d been out of it after everything was said and done. He still woke fully before Luffy did, although he kind of regretted it. He wanted nothing more than to sleep for a few more days, or weeks , but logic interfered with that plan.

If they stayed here, the marines would come after them.

Worse, if they stayed here, Kaido would come after them.

In the back of his mind, there was a voice that whispered, and rightly so, that Luffy would laugh and say let them come! , but Law was not as brash and reckless as his soulmate. Perhaps that’s why fate had led them to each other, or some such nonsense. He wasn’t really sure how much stock he put into it, and he still had trouble believing that Luffy tolerated him or liked him around simply because of who he was. Law wasn’t the type of person that the future Pirate King kept around him, really.

He never thought it would be the former Fleet Admiral, Sengoku, who would knock some sense into him.

Sengoku…who saw Corazon as his own son. Had adopted and raised him, and who had lost a son when Law had lost a father. It had pained Law to suggest something he’d suspected, when he missed, loved , Cora so much–but he asked if Cora had saved him because he was a D. and Sengoku seemed as pained by it as he was, but even more angry.

Don’t try to justify someone’s love .

The words echoed in his head even long after the Going Luffy-Senpai set sail for Zou and separated from the newly formed Strawhat Grand Fleet. They were there when Luffy himself sought Law, day after day, even just to spend an hour sitting by his side and babbling about the sea kings they’d caught and would be cooking for dinner. He remembered them when he kept a vigil on deck at night because the Barto Club was full of incompetent fools and now that he’d lived through Dressrosa, he didn’t want to die before reaching Zou. Law thought about those words when Luffy came up to him, planted himself in front of Law, and then sprawled backwards, gangly rubber limbs draping over Law’s own, looking back at him with a lazy grin.

“Torao’s the best, you know,” he said serenely, and in moments he was dozing across Law’s legs without allowing time for a coherent argument to rise to Law’s lips. Not that he would have one, when he saw just how at ease Luffy was with him. He was serene, and calm, and everything that Strawhat Luffy never was. That, and he couldn’t shake Sengoku’s words far enough to combat his mixed emotions concerning his soulmate. Not yet.

“I’m nothing special,” he said instead, grumpily.

Luffy’s face scrunched up in distaste, and he cracked an eye open to peer back at Law. “You’re the most special,” the younger captain insisted. “You’ve got these cool tattoos, and you’re smart, and you’ve got that awesome power. And you’ve got a bear on your crew, Torao. A bear .”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. He remembered Bepo, at least. But then Law quipped back, “None of that makes me any more special than most people, Strawhat.”

“Well, I’m not most people, and you’re special to me. That’s important, because I’m gonna be King of the Pirates, you know.”

Law never answered him then, and Luffy took his silence as answer enough, settling back down across his legs and dozing off for real this time.

Despite looking forward to it for ages, somehow it felt disturbingly bittersweet when they parted ways, even if only temporarily, at Zou.

Law had hated fighting side by side with Kidd when all he wanted was to be at Luffy’s side. He’d seen his soulmate pull off miracles with just his fists and his haki, and he wanted to see him defeat the undefeatable again. If anyone could take out Kaido, it was Monkey D. Luffy, and Law had wanted to be there with him for every step of the encounter. But…damn it all if he wasn’t sure , somehow, that he could pull it off.

His fight, however, was another story. Law held no delusions about how his own power matched up to Big Mom’s–it didn’t. He didn’t have the years of training or experience, he didn’t even have half the manpower of her family let alone extended crew, and just one hit from Kaido had drained him. On that last, at least, he knew Kidd fared no better. And he was coming off of months of imprisonment, so there was definitely still some lack of nutrition and some ingrained fatigue he was working through. 

Odds weren’t on their side. Hell, even when they’d just had Kaido to contend with, they weren’t likely to succeed. If there was something that having the damned Strawhat captain for a soulmate had taught him in just the last few months, though, it was that giving up wasn’t an option.

Luffy would never give up, so Law couldn’t either.

And when Big Mom toppled, Law did too, unable to catch himself. His vision was blurry, his powers overused and his body well beyond his own limits. He fell face first to the ground, the taste of dirt and blood and bile all on his tongue as he fought to stay conscious. He needed to be awake for if– when –Kaido fell. Luffy would undoubtedly need treatment, and regardless of the fact that Tony was perfectly capable of taking care of him, Law would be restless if he couldn’t at least watch or help.

His vision still went dark, despite how desperately he tried to cling to consciousness.

When Law came to, he was being dragged, and he heard muttering. 

“Jeez, for as skin and bones as you are, Torao, you’re so heavy!” the woman’s voice huffed, and even if it weren’t for the nickname, he would’ve recognized the tone by now.

“Na…mi?” the name was hard to force out, and he grimaced at how heavy everything felt.

“Torao!” she dropped him, and his upper half which she’d been pulling along by his clothes, hit the ground. Unbidden, a grunt of pain slipped out, but before he could say anything else, she moved. She dropped to the ground next to him to grab his shoulders and shake him, and he managed to peer at her as he blinked and steadied his vision. “What are you thinking, getting so beaten up like that?!” she demanded.

“Was I…supposed to ask Big Mom to stop?” he snarked before he could think, and she shook him again.

“Yes! No! I don’t know!”

Cat burglar looked conflicted. Law didn’t want to push that. There was something else much, much more important than his own injuries and his fight with Big Mom. 

“Luffy,” he said, trying to push himself up. She wasn’t a doctor–she didn’t try to stop him. “Where’s Luffy?”

She blinked. It might’ve been the first time he’d just used his name instead of his moniker, now that Law thought about it. But when he narrowed his eyes at her, she scrambled to answer. “He’s still fighting! I think you’ve only been out a little while, it’s only been about ten minutes since we heard a huge crash from your direction and we didn’t know what it was. I–”

He stopped listening, reaching out with his observation haki for that familiar presence–and sure enough, atop the island, his soulmate was still fighting. 

Law wanted to be there, with him, but knew that he would only get in his way. But…at the very least, he could try to get into a position where he could help if needed.

“I’m going to go up a few floors,” he cut her off, whatever she’d been saying. “I’m going to try and tend to my own wounds, and be ready if he needs me.”

“If he–” she paused, and looked at him, then sighed. “You won’t take no for an answer, will you?”

“No.”

Nami threw her hands up. “You captain types are all alike, especially the two of you! No wonder you ended up soulmates! And he’ll have different reasons, but I bet if Kidd wakes up he’ll make his way straight up there too, just to make a nuisance of himself. Ugh.”

Alike?

He and Luffy were alike ?

There was no way in hell. Law was calculating and calm, and he wanted to be in a place that could give them an advantage if they needed it. He’d take a few moments to try and heal himself or patch himself up, and then he might not be a total liability to Luffy if he went up on the roof.

He only went up on the roof when Kaido’s haki faltered, and when his Room dropped him next to Luffy and a piece of debris to the ground where he’d previously stood, Law took in the surroundings. A wave of dizziness washed over him first, as he should have expected from overusing his power, but when everything righted itself, he saw Kaido in a bloodied heap across the roof. Luffy was still standing, fist raised, and then turned as Law appeared.

“T’rao,” he slurred a little, lowering his fist. “You don’t get to end the alliance here, even though I beat him up,” he declared, turning towards Law. He stumbled forward and Law immediately stepped into his space to catch him, the action almost automatic. “We gotta talk about it first. But…maybe after…a nap.”

His consciousness slipped right there, and Strawhat Luffy slumped in Law’s arms. 

A quick, panicked check of his vitals showed them all there, though Luffy was a wreck. Law expected nothing else. He looked like he’d taken a blow from the spiked club straight across his torso, and in addition to several bloody wounds, Law was pretty certain that Luffy had actually managed to break some ribs. Haki’s effect on a devil fruit user’s body was insane, considering that Luffy was literally rubber, and it should be damn near impossible to break his bones.

He’d need a lot of rest…but Law knew he’d never take it.

He sighed, but hefted his soulmate in his arms and cast his observation haki out for Tony Tony Chopper–he seemed well enough for medical procedures. He might need to do two, once Law used his ability to teleport them next to him, but he decided to think about the consequences of that later. 

Luffy came first, after all.

Somehow, Law thought he might always come first. That thought came with a whole other train of thoughts that Law thought there would be a different time and place for, so he closed his eyes and used Shambles . And if he was only able to get out, “He beat Kaido. He’ll live.” before he crumpled to the ground himself, well. He knew he’d overused his power, and he knew the consequences.

The next time he came to, he was in a medical bay on the Polar Tang. And after Bepo fretted over him for a bit, and Penguin cried on him that he thought he was dying, Law asked Shachi about why he was on the sub, and what had happened, and how long he’d been out.

The Tang had better medical equipment, and they were here at Dr. Chopper’s request. Everyone who was wounded was filling up either the Polar Tang’s rooms or the makeshift infirmary in Onigashima, and Onigashima itself was situated properly on the ground again. Both Emperors of the sea had been defeated, and somehow, miraculously, they had no casualties of their own, in either the Heart Pirates or the Strawhat Pirates. Roronoa was apparently pretty gravely injured, and was the only one aside from Law who hadn’t woken up yet.

Law had been out for three whole days. Luffy woke up the day before, and was already breaking every doctor’s order that Tony or any of Law’s crew had tried to impose.

When he heard that Law was awake, though, nothing would stop him from bursting into Law’s room, tackling him backwards into the bed when he’d only just sat up, and sitting on his stomach to hold him in place. It was very reminiscent of the day Luffy had figured out they were soulmates, and Law hated how vividly he remembered that moment. He grunted as his head returned to his pillow, and glared up at his soulmate. Luffy grinned widely down at him, paying no heed to the bandages wrapped around his own torso.

“You’re awake!”

“So are you,” Law groused, scowling.

“How are you feeling?” Luffy cocked his head. “Chopper said you were healing up well, but that you used your power too much again, so you would be asleep for a while. You slept for three whole days!”

“And you broke half your ribs,” he poked at the rubber man’s side, “and are still this energetic.”

Luffy laughed. “I’m fine! I slept, then I woke up and ate some meat!”

“Eating meat doesn’t solve everything, Luffy.”

He had meant to call him Strawhat , but the name slipped out, almost fondly, and Luffy looked at him for a moment, before letting out another chuckle. 

“I said I slept too!”

Law groaned. A moment later, Luffy shifted, and when Law pulled his hand away from his face, he could only stare for a moment as Luffy crossed his arms over Law’s chest and placed his chin on them, smiling. He was laying across Law as if they did this often, as if Law’s personal space didn’t matter to him, and beaming at him.

“What are you doing now?”

“Looking at Law.”

His own name on Luffy’s lips startled him, and he was sure the expression showed, because Luffy laughed again, making himself comfortable on Law’s chest. He struggled with himself for a moment before he managed a single, almost strangled, “Why?”

“Because you’re cool,” Luffy answered easily. “Cool and strong! You should eat more meat so you can get better faster, too. And you’re awake now. I’m glad. They wanted to have our banquet really soon, but I didn’t want you to miss it, so I’m glad you woke up!”

Law covered his face with his hand again. “I’m none of that,” he grunted, “and wouldn’t there be more for you if I wasn’t at the banquet?”

Once again, Luffy laughed, but this time he moved Law’s hand away from his face. “You’re the coolest! I’m the strongest, but you’re still pretty strong! And besides, if you just slept through everything, it wouldn’t be any fun that way!”

“I’m not fun , Luffy.”

Luffy’s fingers slotted between Law’s on the hand that he’d taken hold of, and he pressed it to the pillows as he leaned on the arm still across Law’s chest. “You’re lots of fun, when you let yourself have fun, Law.”

There it was again–his name.

He didn’t give Law a chance to say anything else before he spoke again. “And we only got this far because of you. You’re cool and strong and smart, even though you think too much about the wrong things, and people need to know that you helped out, too!”

“I don’t need–”

“I don’t care!” Luffy cut him off, leaning even further into Law’s space. “Now that you’re awake, you can come, too, and it’ll be fun! You’ll like it, I promise!”

He sighed. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Nope!”

Law resigned himself, then. And also resigned himself to Luffy curling up against him, yawning and saying he wanted a nap before dinner. He resisted any and all attempts that Law made to shove him off and tell him to take his nap elsewhere, and was soon dozing, curled against Law’s side with his head on his chest. Despite all odds, his soulmate was a heavy, comforting, warm weight that lulled Law back into a deep, restful sleep.

When he woke up, Luffy was gone, but if he listened he could hear him shouting about meat and sea kings somewhere above deck. Law took his time rising. His entire body protested the whole time, but his chest felt warm and for the first time in a while, Law thought he might be something close to content.

And when Luffy came to drag him along to the banquet, he let himself be grabbed and pulled along. 

Where his soulmate was concerned, maybe just this once, it would be alright to go with the flow.