~

Wano was free. They had set out to topple one Yonko but ended up dethroning two. The country rejoiced. The crews rested and ultimately it was time for them to leave. The Thousand Sunny and Polar Tang were docked side by side, all ready and waiting just for the Captains. Both the crews were already on decks watching the captains talk in the distance.

"Alright then, guess this concludes-" Law started, his heart heavy.

"Torao." Luffy looked at Law and the elder's breathing stopped for a moment. Whatever Luffy wanted to say, Law knew it had to be heard away from the crews' sights. Law opened a ROOM and shambles-ed them both in the nearby forest. As soon as Luffy registered they were both on solid ground and surrounded by trees nobody could see through, he wrapped his arms around Law along with the tree he was standing in front of multiple times, and kept him from moving. "Gimme your vivre card," came a desperate request from the rubber captain.

"This alliance is over, why would I do that?" Law found himself saying before stopping to think the implications of his statement. He did not want the alliance to be over. He did not want to part with Luffy. He wanted to stay and enjoy life with his lover. But Law also had plans, he wanted to find out about the Will of D. He wanted to know the history of the world. It pained Law to decide that if Luffy's and his feelings were true, they would find each other again but right now, they needed to go their separate ways. Apart from that, if Law were being honest, he did not want to handover his vivre card to anybody.

"You're nakama-"

"No I'm not." Luffy rolled his eyes and kissed Law on the lips, to which Law responded in kind. "That doesn't change anything."

"Toraaaoooooooooooo!" Luffy whined resting his chin on Law's chest and looking up at him with puppy eyes.

"Nami-ya has Bepo's, there is no need for mine. You can track us anytime." Law wondered why he was relenting to even be tracked.

"Yeah the Heart pirates but not you." Law hated to admit that Luffy had a point. "We have no reason to travel together anymore since Kaido is down but... I don't wanna let you go. What if something happens to you and I can't do anything because I didn't know? I can't let that happen again."

Law sighed. Not only was Luffy making a whole lot of sense, it also reminded Law that the otherwise sunny captain struggled with PTSD over his brother's death. "Fine. But you're not allowed to find me every time it starts burning a little and don't hand it to anybody else or I'll detach your balls and stick them to your nose."

"Torao's funny!" Luffy laughed unwinding himself and letting Law go, not uttering agreements to any of Law's conditions. Law activated his ROOM and detached a part of his skin on his chest and brought out his vivre card. "And paranoid."

"Safe and cautious." Law bit and neatly tore a piece, giving it to Luffy.

"You don't want mine?" Luffy asked pouting, folding the piece and stuffing it in the ribbon of his strawhat.

"I already have it."

"Whaaattt?! When did that happen?!"

"When your brother made one for you on Dressrosa."

"You had it all this time?! Torao that's cheating!"

"To quote something extremely cheesy and out of character," Law took Luffy's chin and smirked, "all is fair in love and war." He lightly kissed Luffy on the lips and let him go, chuckling a bit at the fuming monkey boy. They both started the walk back, leaving a lot unsaid and as soon as the sun started peaking from the trees, Law held Luffy back by the arm. "Take care of yourself."

"Hmm?" Luffy looked at him.

"Your abilities...," Law took a breath, "don't take any of it lightly. I am sure you've heard from Tony-ya but I need to say it too, rest properly. Don't overdo shit till your resident doctor says so-"

"But I'm fine!" Luffy said extending his arms and sending them in random directions, but suddenly deflated, out of breath, still stretched arms falling on his sides.

"Idiot." Law muttered sighing, scanning Luffy for anything he could fix with his abilities.

"Torao!! You're not supposed to use your abilities too!!" Luffy was suddenly full of energy and very close to Law.

"I'm always careful." Law deadpanned. "I swear if I get a call that you injured yourself... things would get nasty." Law warned. Before Luffy could say anything, Law shambles-ed him on the Sunny and went to the Tang himself. "Set sail." Law commanded and went inside, not sparing a glance at the obvious and loud Luffy, screaming on his deck. Law smiled to himself liking the feeling of not saying goodbye.

~

"Prepare to submerge!" Law commanded, gesturing his crew to go inside the sub while he defended the deck. They had been attacked by a whole fleet of pirates just yesterday and now the marines were somehow on their tail. Everyone was tired, battered and reaching their limits, Law more than the others but he refused to let any of the crew member get hurt. "Go in, quick!" He deflected a particularly strange bout of bullet rounds sent his way and backed to the door on the deck, ready to shut it so they could submerge and get the hell out of there.

"Shit!" Clione cursed and Law found one of the bullets had hit him in the leg. Law used the last of his energy, quickly activated his ROOM, took out the bullet and teleported the guy in the sub. Before Law himself went inside and closed the door for good, he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder, the intensity of which made his vision swim and coupled with the tiredness, the Hearts captain hit the floor.

~

The Strawhats were all lounging in the kitchen after dinner, casually chatting, not wanting to go to bed just yet, enjoying each other's company and conversation. It had been a month since Wano and parting ways with the Heart pirates, everyone had healed and recovered.

Luffy had put his strawhat down on the table in front of him in favour of Chopper playing on his head. Luffy was feeling especially restless tonight, couldn't place the reason for it. He thought maybe it had something to do with missing Torao, it had been a month since he had last seen him and the other captain was quite adamant on staying out of the news too so Luffy didn't know what he was up to, they only talked once a week and that was also usually cut short by one thing or another.

Luffy reached for his hat and pulled out Law's vivre card, it was just a quick check, to make sure everything was ok but the sight that awaited the boy stopped his laughter. Fear crept in Luffy's heart looking at the half-burnt paper in his hand.

Chattering stopped all round the kitchen, all focused on Luffy, the nakama all tense at the implications of the burning vivre card in Luffy's hand. Nami silently got up and picked the den den mushi, dialing for the Heart pirates quickly to decide a route with their navigator to meet.

"Three days Luffy." Nami informed putting the phone down.

"Thanks, Nami." The captain replied solemnly and walked out of the kitchen to occupy the masthead for solitude.

~

Law groaned in his pillow, pain radiating from his shoulder. He had been going in and out of consciousness and did not have the mental stability to check the wounds he had sustained during the battle...how many days ago was that? Law blinked his mind awake enough to sit up. He found some medicines and water on his bedside table, he downed that despite the pain from the movement, hoping those were painkillers. He needed to check his shoulder, he needed to check his crew, if they were all ok, he needed to inform Luffy-

"Captain, the Strawhats are signaling. Are you up?" Bepo informed knocking on door of the captain's quarters. Law wanted to get up and open the door and let Bepo know he was up and ask about everyone's condition too but he could not muster the energy at the moment.

"I'll be there." Law said loud enough for the navigator to hear.

"Ok!"

Law took a few deep breaths and stood up in an instant. Not a good idea. His head had started spinning and his shoulder throbbed violently from the sudden jerk. When the dizziness subsided enough for the Hearts captain to make sense of what he was seeing, he picked up a random shirt and threw it on. He knew at the back of his mind that he should check on his injuries first but if the Strawhats were close enough to signal, it was only a matter of minutes before Luffy jumped on his deck, demanding all his time and attention, so Law opted to ignore his injuries for the time being. Law walked slowly to the door and even slower out of it. He was in a very sour mood from all the pain and pain medication.

Once they had noticed that Law was barely conscious the entire first day, the Hearts had all planned to call the Strawhats and have their doctor check on the captain but the other crew beat them to it because Nami called and asked for a route to meet up. So they decided that they'd both dock at the nearest the island and Luffy would somehow lure Law on the Sunny and have Chopper take a look at Law's wound not because they doubted Law's skill once he was conscious but because they were idiots worried sick about their captain. Right now, some of the Hearts crew was present on the deck, ready to guide the other captain about their plan.

"Toraooooo!" Luffy yelled jumping on the Tang's deck right from Sunny's.

"Mugiwara!-" Peng started.

"Where's Torao?" Luffy ignored everyone else, he needed to see Law, make sure he was ok but his vivre card was still burning slightly so he wasn't ok, Luffy knew that but refused to acknowledge it.

"Yeah he's coming but have your doctor take a look at him please-"

"Is he injured bad?" Luffy frowned, serious.

"These few minutes are the longest he's stayed conscious so he's probably going to be ok but we are still worried."

"Toraoo!!!" Luffy rushed past Peng when the deck door opened and glomped Law who groaned from the impact, his body weak from not moving and from the injuries he sustained, and glared at Luffy so intensely that all the Hearts stepped back three paces.

"Weren't you supposed to be sailing in the opposite direction?" Law asked, his tone biting. Luffy slid off Law and crossed his arms. The older looked like he would crumble any moment.

"You were hurt so I came-"

"This was exactly what I meant when I said to not be invasive of my space and freedom." All the Hearts gulped. Law was being a bitch. They realised they might have made a mistake by agreeing to arrange a meeting with the Strawhats.

Law's hand went to his shoulder that had started bleeding again from all the movement. His breathing was labored and he was also probably running a fever. Law knew he pulled some stitches or whatever was binding his shoulder wound in place when Luffy jumped on him.

"Why are you so angry? I was worried-"

"I'm a captain of my own pirate crew. I don't need another captain to be worried for me."

"You're cranky. Come on, I'll get Sanji to make you something, you'll feel better-"

"No thanks!-"

"Oh and Chopper will take a look at that." Luffy stated and wrapped his arm around Law multiple times, slingshoting them both to the Sunny. When the two left, all the hearts took a breath of relief.

Chopper was ready with the medical supplies on the Sunny, he had heard of the ordeal the other pirate crew had went through for days so he had been preparing in advance. When Luffy brought Law in the infirmary, the older had stopped fighting him but was overall in a really bad mood. He cringed looking at the state of his shoulder when Chopper undid the bandages after he had taken off his shirt.

"It's infected."

"It's infected." Both the doctors said at the same time and Law deflated. He would leave this in the capable hands of Tony-ya. He didn't have enough energy to deal with everything at all. Law leaned his head on Luffy's shoulder who was sitting beside him, holding his hand and let Chopper have the wheel.

"Luffy, Law is short on blood-" Chopper gathered Luffy's attention.

"I don't need blood. It'll get better-" Law started but Luffy put his hand on Law's face to shut him up. It irked Law a little but he didn't say anything to that. "We have blood at the sub-"

"And we don't have time. Lay down Law." Chopper advised and after receiving a look from Luffy, Law grumbled and obliged. He laid down on the infirmary bed. "You too Luffy."

"I'm fine like this." Luffy insisted and shifted so he was sitting with Law's head in his lap.

"You'll get lightheaded." Chopper warned again.

"It's ok."

Chopper sighed and prepared for the blood transfusion. "This will take some time so I'll be back in a few minutes." He said and left.

"Who snitched?" Law asked a little into the silence when Chopper left.

"Your crew was worried about you."

"So all of them huh."

"They love you Torao." Law sighed and breathed easy, feeling better after getting stitched back and having the pain relieving ointment rubbed by Chopper. It was doing wonders and since he wasn't in extreme pain anymore, he was comparatively less cranky.

"Yeah...they do."

"I was worried too."

"So you mentioned." Law closed his eyes and smiled a little at the words from Luffy. He berated himself for being an ass to him before.

"Your vivre card was burning bad."

"I am alive."

"Yes." Luffy whispered and bent to kiss Law's forehead. A few minutes passed and Law was starting to get sleepy again but Luffy broke the silence.

"Why is your crew so scared every time I land on your deck?" Luffy asked innocently. Law scoffed.

"I don't think they can forget what happened with you on my sub."

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Law was surprised. "Makes sense. You were pretty high on painkillers."

"What happened?" Luffy insisted. Law took the risk of telling Luffy the truth.

"After Marineford, when you were recuperating in the med-bay, you had bouts of explosive grief and anger. It was their job to try and stop you so you won't open your wounds and really die that time. You were just very...disturbed so some of them had to bear the brunt of that, my sub too."

"It was after..." Luffy didn't finish. He sighed. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault. We all act differently in grief and loss. You actually handled your loss better than I handled mine." Law commented enjoying the soothing motion of Luffy's fingers in his hair.

"I destroyed stuff Torao, how is that better?"

"When I lost Flevance, I joined Doflamingo so I could kill as many people as I could before I kicked the bucket. I had lost everyone and everything, I was really alone. I remember I had only maybe three years to live by that time and I hated the world enough to take a great many with me." Law confided then added as an afterthought, chuckling, "I showed up at Doflamingo's with grenades strapped to myself."

"Why did you have only three years left?" Luffy's fingers stopped suddenly and Law opened his eyes.

"I was sick." Law said quietly, looking directly at Luffy.

Luffy peaked at Law's face. "Torao." Law looked at him. "You're not alone ok? You can call me anytime you want." He kissed Law's forehead once more and sat back again, resuming his fingers.

"Ok." Law breathed and felt sleep pulling his eyes close.

"I'm here, you're ok."

Luffy made sure Law slept peacefully even through the rest of the treatment from Chopper and the numerous visit from very worried Hearts who came to check on their captain. All the while Law slept, Luffy debated within himself whether he should give Law shit about being the one who got injured while Law was the one who repeatedly told Luffy to be careful. Taking a look at Law's sleeping face and the many healing cuts on his arms and chest, Luffy decided to not do that, he was after all, happy that Law was alive.

~

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Itachi_Warrior desu~! ^/_\^