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Law looked up from where he was looking out to sea from the coast, the night sky stretching out endlessly toward the horizon, when he felt a familiar presence approaching. Law was mildly surprised Luffy had torn himself away from the celebrations further inland.
Initially, after the battle had ended with the fall of Kaido and Big Mom, the inhabitants of Wano had thrown themselves into the tasks of treating the injured, burying the dead, arresting prisoners, and planning the rebuilding of their country. Yamato had joined forces with Momo and Hiyori to organize the relief efforts. Law had been helping to treat the injured as well as consulting with Chopper and Marco on how to reverse the effects of the failed SMILE fruits.
But once even the worst of the injured had been stabilized and the surviving Beast Pirates had been imprisoned, Wano’s citizens had cut loose and, for the first time in twenty years, truly allowed themselves to celebrate. Luffy, of course, had been at the very center of the parties, a new folk hero for yet another breathlessly thankful country.
The Heart and Kid Pirates had also been celebrated as heroes, and though many members of Law’s crew had thrown themselves into the celebration, Law had only been able to take so much. Eventually, he’d extracted himself with a shake of his head after Bepo had thrown him a concerned look and sought out some quiet.
After wandering from the celebration, Law ended up sitting on the beach, Kikoku resting on the sand next to him, not far from where the Polar Tang and Thousand Sunny were anchored side-by-side. Kid’s Victoria Punk was anchored further down the shoreline, as if he was afraid his ship might be associated with theirs. Law had given him a knowing smirk when he’d seen that, and Kid had flipped him off before stalking away.
Alone, Law had finally let his shoulders slump as he let the weight of the last several months truly hit him.
Between leaving his crew on Punk Hazard with no expectation of ever seeing them again to meeting the Straw Hats and the entire shitshow that was Dressrosa to Zou and weeks undercover on Wano and the raid and its aftermath, there hadn’t been much time to think. Every time the creeping question of what Law was going to do now that Doflamingo was locked away and Law was, despite all odds, still alive, he’d shoved it aside in favor of planning how to survive a confrontation with Kaido.
Now that he had not only survived but come out victorious after facing two Emperors, he had no choice but to consider what was next.
Law didn’t look over as Luffy settled in the sand next to him, instead continuing to look out to sea. For so long, the sea had been a means of hiding from Doflamingo, a barrier between the man who owned the skies and Law’s ship that sailed beneath the waves. Now, Law wasn’t sure what it meant.
“Found you, Torao,” Luffy said, sounding pleased with himself.
Law’s lips twitched despite himself. “I wasn’t hiding, Straw Hat-ya,” he said before glancing over at the other captain. “Aren’t you missing the party?”
Luffy shrugged, seeming unbothered. “I wanted to see Torao.”
Law’s heart most definitely did not do something funny at that. “Ah.”
Luffy, surprisingly, seemed content to sit in the silence as the waves lapped peacefully against the shore and the hulls of the two ships. Law’s eyes slid down to the copious bandages the other captain was still sporting, much like Law himself.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, unable to shut his doctor side off completely. He still remembered the sinking feeling behind his breast as he sensed Luffy’s Voice disappearing entirely from the rooftop. For a brutal few minutes, he’d thought Luffy dead.
“Fine,” Luffy said a little too quickly. He winced as he seemed to realize the response wasn’t as believable as he wanted it to be.
Law narrowed his eyes. “That new Gear you used…” he started, remembering his first sight of Luffy’s bright white form against the night sky above Onigashima. And finding the withered form of his ally in the aftermath of the fight with Kaido. “It nearly killed you.”
Luffy’s jaw tightened. “It’s just ‘cause it was the first time I used it.” He gave Law a forced grin. “I’ll get better at it!”
A wave of irritation hit Law at that. “Straw Hat-ya—”
“Besides,” Luffy said, reaching for Law’s hand. Law started when Luffy’s fingers entwined with his own against the sand but didn’t pull back. His irritation washed away in an instant. “Torao has my back.”
Law could hear the question in Luffy’s words as loudly as if the other captain had asked it directly, and he stiffened. Their alliance had, technically, achieved its aim. They should split up after this, their crews no longer beholden to one another.
He remembered Luffy telling him on Dressrosa, when Law tried to dissolve their alliance to protect the Straw Hats from Doflamingo’s ire, that he was the one who decided when their alliance was over. Now, Luffy was looking at him with a patient expression that made Law’s stomach tighten as he waited to hear what Law wanted.
Law could tell him that their alliance was done, and while Luffy might not be happy about it, he wouldn’t fight Law over it. Law really should tell him that, should take the Tang and focus on his crew the way they deserved now that Doflamingo wasn’t hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles, leaving Law little more than a vendetta in the shape of a man.
He should get his crew far away from the Straw Hats’ unique brand of crazy that pulled chaos into their wake.
He should…
But he knew before the doubts even started encroaching what he would say.
He squeezed Luffy’s hand in response, belying his gruff tone. “I suppose it’d be irresponsible of me to leave you alone after this.”
Luffy let out a pleased yip in surprise and practically tackled Law into the sand with a shishishi ringing on the night air. Law flailed at the rubbery form wrapping around him, his injuries protesting the assault.
“Straw Hat-ya,” Law grumbled in protest. He could have opened a Room and removed himself from the situation, but he just… didn’t.
Had anyone called him on it, he could have said his energy levels were still low after using so much stamina during the fight with Big Mom and later to help treat the injured, but in reality, he just didn’t feel like moving as he found himself on his back, Luffy straddling his hips with moonlight reflecting in his eyes.
“I’m glad, Torao,” Luffy said, squeezing the hand Law suddenly realized Luffy hadn’t let go of in the scuffle once more. “I like sailing and having adventures with you. I like when we fight together, though I still think you should spar with me. I like your nakama, especially the bear—” Law snorted at that. “—and I like the way you like my nakama.” Luffy’s expression softened, almost unbearably so. “I like you, Torao.”
Oh.
Law felt something slip into place in his chest there on the shore with Luffy. It was almost, his brain supplied, like coming home.
The very thought startled Law, and his breath caught.
Law had a… complicated relationship with the concept of home.
Once, several lifetimes ago, home had been a city of white, a loving mother, a doting father, and a precocious little sister. There had been days spent at school, family dinners, and plans for the future. Then came the plague, and streets of the White City had run red as it burned with his mother, father, and sister in it.
Law never considered Spider Miles home, not when he’d gone to Donquixote Pirates with the intention of dying. Doflamingo was a cruel man much the way Law’s father had been kind, but Law had expected nothing less—he’d learned by the time he’d strapped those bombs to his chest that the world was not kind and life was not fair. Belief in a benevolent creator had only gotten the sisters bullets to the head.
But then there had been Cora-san. Clumsy, selfless, brave Cora-san who wanted to cure Law when Law was resigned to his fate, who literally shoved years of life down Law’s throat with the Ope Ope no Mi. Cora-san, who wanted to run away and start over because he saw a hurting child and decided to love rather than groom him.
Over the six months they spent together, Law started to think that maybe home didn’t have to be a place—maybe home could be a person. For the briefest of times, Law had dared to imagine what it might be like to run away with Cora-san and start over. To make a new home.
Then six gunshots had ripped Law’s home away once more.
Those three years on Swallow Island at Wolf’s with Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin had come close to feeling like home but had never quite gotten there because he’d always known it would be temporary.
Law knew that, had he let it, sailing under the sea on the Polar Tang alongside his crew could have become home. But he also couldn’t afford that when he would inevitably leave these people to enact his revenge on Doflamingo. If he let them behind his walls and into his heart, it would be too hard to leave them, so he kept his distance and told himself it was for the best. He’d been living on borrowed time since he was thirteen anyway; dead men walking didn’t need homes.
(Watching the Polar Tang sail away after leaving him on Punk Hazard without the expectation of seeing his crew again had still nearly dropped him to his knees.)
On Punk Hazard, the children had cried for their homes. Law—haunted by memories of bloody streets and burning buildings, of the feel of bodies pressing him down and the sound of bullets whizzing by his ears—had shut his ears and his heart to their pleas and focused on his plan.
(He dismissed the thanks of the children after removing Caesar’s toxins from their bodies as they cheered about going home when Law had never gotten that chance. “There is always a merciful hand of salvation waiting to help,” the sister had said the night Flevance had fallen, and Law didn’t know what to do with the thought of being that hand for someone else.)
Then there was Dressrosa and Zou and Wano—they were a blur of plotting, fighting, nearly dying, and partying over and over in various combinations. Even the weeks they spent back on the Polar Tang on the way Wano wasn’t enough to settle the humming under Law’s skin when it seemed likely they were sailing toward another suicide mission.
Now, here on the beach of Wano with Luffy looking at Law with such fondness that Law wanted to squirm, he thought back to how it had felt with Cora-san for those months in the North Blue when he thought that maybe home could be another person.
Law pushed himself up onto his elbows and used his free hand to grab Luffy’s vest. Luffy made a pleased sound as Law pulled him down and slotted their lips together. Luffy’s lips were slightly chapped but tasted of ale he’d been drinking at the celebration.
They were perfect.
I like you, too, he tried to communicate.
Luffy grinned into the kiss and pushed Law back down to the sand. Law let him, reaching his free hand up to Luffy’s cheek, brushing his thumb over the scar under Luffy’s eye. Luffy leaned into the touch, squeezing their hands.
With Luffy in his arms, their anchored ships side-by-side, their crews safe and celebrating a hard-won victory, and the horizon stretching out with infinite possibility, maybe Law had found his home after all.