Work Text:
It was 3am on the Polar Tang. Most of her crew was fast asleep, or fighting to stay awake while on watch. But no matter where you were on the ship, it was calm. Well, almost everywhere. The captain of the Heart Pirates was wide awake, and had been since everyone else turned in for the night. For Law, this was completely normal. It had become a nightly routine for Law to send his friends off to bed and mess around until he felt tired enough to sleep. Tonight, his activity of choice was polishing his coin collection.
“Perfect,” Law mumbled to himself, holding a freshly polished coin up to his desk lamp. Placing it back into his coin book, he made a fascinating and horrifying realization. It was the last coin, and he was not tired in the slightest.
Law stood up from his desk and cracked his back, sliding his slippers onto his feet as he wandered over to his bookcase (or “nerd shelves” according to Shachi). Pushing the book back into its place, Law began muttering as he made sure all of his Sora volumes were in order.
“Strange…coins usually do the trick.”
On most nights, Law would be struggling to keep his eyes open by now. Regardless of what activity he chose (checking the Tang’s inventory, reading new medical texts, writing Sora, Warrior of the Seas fanfiction, etc.), it would tire him out. The pure bliss of sleepiness would take over, and Law would drag himself to bed, tuck himself in and let the sounds of the New World lull him to sleep. Tonight, it seems, is not most nights.
“What else could I do right now?” Law looked around his room expecting there to be some other mundane task to do, only to find absolutely nothing. There was no laundry to put away or captain’s logs to fill out, and he had dusted the night before.
With a sigh of defeat, Law turned off his lamp and padded out of his quarters. Tiptoeing through the halls, Law had one last idea to try.
—
After watching water boil, Law crept back into the bowels of the Tang with drink in hand. There was one last idea to try before he resigned himself to a day of exhaustion and coffee. Slowly opening up the door to the infirmary, he poked his head inside to make sure the coast was clear before finding a bed and laying on it.
As he took sips of his tea, the smell of antiseptic and vinyl gloves began to surround him. The smells took him back, reminding him of shadowing his parents’ work in the hospital, or of playing with his sister when they were supposed to be dreaming away. With a small smile on his face, Law finally drifted off to memories of simpler times.