"So what now?" Leo asked.

"Now it's the same as always. We keep moving." You answered.

Atticus stood by quietly. His hands in his pockets, watching the flames lick up the side of the building hungrily.

Your temporary home was now in flames. It helped hide your tracks but it still hurt to do it. This little cabin had been home longer than anywhere else had been. It was burning to the ground now. The glass canister of oil you held in your hand had done a great job of getting the fire up pretty fast.

You tossed it to the flames and it exploded from the heat. The remaining oil popped and sizzled as it burned away. For a second, the smell of it overpowered the strong scent of burning wood. But it was just for a second.

"We've got another job on another island kiddos." Atticus spoke up.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" Leo asked with a sigh. He was more tired of the constant moving than anyone.

"Not much hopefully. I think we're on the way to doing our last job. After that, the world's our oyster." He chuckled to himself like it was a funny joke.

You were ready to be done and live a more normal life with Leo and Atticus. Maybe toss the idea around of working until you could afford a ship and just sail around the seas. That sounded pretty good to you.

"Well let's get it done then." You said, never looking away from the fire.

The dark smoke climbed up above the trees before disappearing in the air. You wondered if given enough time, your bounty could disappear too, if it could be forgotten. That'd be nice. Life would be so much easier if it could do that.

----

"(Y/n)-ya. Hey."

You were shook awake by Law. You could feel the deep frown you slept with and the wet streaks that tears left down your face. The memories with the Celestial Dragon sucked but this one hurt in a completely different way. It left you with an ache. Like there was something in that dream you wanted, something that left you feeling empty.

"What's the matter? You've been distant since you met with Atticus-ya and now this..."

He squeezed you close and wiped away the tear trails with his thumb.

"I thought he cared." You burrowed into his chest, choking back a sob. It was hard to believe one thing and learn another. "He was just using us and I'm trying to figure out why."

You felt so confident that you could come to terms with everything on your own when you left Impel Down a couple days ago. It was proving to be much harder than you thought. You'd given Law an even more quick version of the story that you'd gotten so he knew how much understanding this all meant to you. It was literally your entire life and it was nothing like how you thought it was.

"You'll figure it out soon enough." He kissed your forehead and rubbed your back. "Why don't we move on to finding out what we can about your brother instead? That might help."

As much as you wanted to say he was right, you didn't feel ready to start looking for Leo. You wanted to. Badly. But you needed to get yourself put together before that. And wherever he was, you hoped he wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer to see you again.

"Not yet. I can't yet."

He didn't pry as to why not and settled for comforting you until you started mumbling about the dream.

"We burned down one of the places we were living at. I think it was one of the last homes."

"Why burn it?" He asked.

"Cover our tracks I guess. I liked it, the little cabin. I hated having to burn it down."

"There'll be no more doing that around here." He spoke carefully with the smallest hint of amusement to lighten the mood.

It worked. You cracked a small smile and felt a little better as you continued on.

"Funny thing, I remember thinking about sailing after I finished my work with Atticus."

"Maybe dreams do come true." He chuckled.

"That one sure did."

You yawned and of course Law did the same. It was still late at night and you needed more sleep. You were too tired to be delving into the issues of your life. Future you could take care of that.

"I love you (Y/n)-ya. I know this is a rough patch for you but it'll pass in time. Things will get better. I promise."

You didn't say anything but slowly dozed off instead, curling up against Law and clinging to him like a lifeline. He was the one thing that made sense for you right now.

----

When you woke up again you could see sunlight steaming through the porthole. The ship wasn't very far underwater and it lit up all the fish that swam by. You'd never get tired of the view. Even when you felt like shit, it made you feel a little better.

Law was still fast asleep beside you. That was rare, usually he was up first. You laid on your side and admired his form. He was laying on his belly with his head turned towards you. An arm shoved under his pillow and blankets pooled around his waist. The tattoo on his back smiled away at you while his brows furrowed and twitched as he dreamed. Even sleeping he managed to look grumpy.

You reached forward and brushed a finger along the bridge of his nose. It scrunched up as you did it, making you giggle. You did it again and realized it was tickling him. This was too good of a moment to pass up. You kept doing it and his brows furrowed deeper each time until his eyes cracked open and he let out a sneeze.

"What're you doing (Y/n)-ya?" He groaned, rubbing his nose.

"Giving you a hard time."

You grinned as he grumbled, not happy about being woken up.

"I see you're better than last night." He said.

"I guess? There's still a lot I have to think over."

"You'll have plenty of time for that on Punk Hazard you know." He mentioned the island you were currently sailing to.

While there was still some loose ends for you to work on for your life, Law was moving on with his plan to ruin Doflamingo. That was alright with you. It'd take time to figure out what you were going to do about Leo anyway. You hadn't even opened up your locket to investigate it more like Atticus suggested yet. It was a slow process for you.

"Very true." You worked your way out of bed and threw on some clothes.

Law watched you dress yourself in shorts and a tee from his spot in bed with wandering eyes. He didn't look ready to get up just yet.

"Want me to go get some coffee for you?" You offered. If you brought back a cup it'd entice him to get up and moving.

"That'd be perfect." He practically purred, gracing you with a smile.

"I'll be back in a minute then." You padded out on bare feet.

The rest of the crew was already up and about but they were taking their time since Law was. There wasn't much of a rush anyway. At this point, besides the usual chores, everyone was just waiting to reach their destination. It'd be at least another week until you got there. Another week and then the crew would drop you two off and head to Zou. As annoying as they were sometimes, you were going to miss them for however long you'd be separated. They were like family to you at this point, more so than Atticus was.

Speaking of the crew, you found your favorite members in the kitchen as you went in to make a couple cups of coffee. Bepo, Shachi, Penguin, and Jean Bart were all huddled around the coffee maker, chatting away as they all sipped at their own drinks.

"Hey guys." You greeted them as you wiggled your way through.

"Hiya (Y/n)." Shachi and Penguin said simultaneously.

"Sleeping in today?" Bart asked.

"Law is, or was I guess." You chuckled at the thought of his grumpy face earlier. "I woke him up, give him about an hour and he'll be up and at it."

"Captain usually doesn't sleep in." Bepo said, pondering what could make him do that.

"I had a dream last night and I think it woke him. He's making up for lost time."

"Another memory?" Penguin questioned as he sipped his coffee.

"Yeah, nothing important though."

You got ready to excuse yourself and head back to Law, but you paused. This was as good a time as any to get this out of the way, or at least work your way towards it.

"Bart, can I ask you something kinda personal?"

He looked a little taken aback by the request, as much as someone who looked permanently angry could.

"Sure. I'm an open book."

You didn't doubt that. There was nothing sacred with this crew and everyone had been asked one very personal question or another by someone else. It was a game for people like Penguin and Shachi.

"Everyone...knew about your being a slave when you first joined, right?" There was no way to ask that nicely.

"Yeah. Captain pretty much rescued me from it."

"Does it bother you that everyone knows?"

"No."

Why'd he have to make it seem like it was supposed to be easy? The rest of the guys listened in shamelessly, watching the exchange like it was a show.

"Why not?"

"Why would it matter? It's in the past."

You sighed, much to everyone else's confusion. "I guess you're right there."

"Why the sudden curiosity?"

"I thought I might have an easier time with this if I asked you about it." You picked up your own coffee mug and awkwardly tapped your fingers along it's warm surface.

"With what?" Bepo asked with a tilt of the head. 

The rest looked at you to spell it out for them. Who were you kidding, they were never able to catch on to subtle hints.

"I learned this kinda early on in my time here, not long after joining you guys."

"Go on..." Shachi said.

"Turns out I spent some time as a slave too. I'm not sure how long exactly but it was at least a year I'm thinking. I've got the mark on my back and everything."

There was an uncomfortable silence that no one knew how to fill. Great. You made everything weird. Maybe this should have waited for another time.

"Well, Law's not a fan of cold coffee. I'll see you guys later." You said stiffly, picking up the other cup of coffee and retreating quickly.

There was no fixing that mess you just made. Maybe if you played it off they would too. You weren't sure. You'd have to wait till later to see if they were going to keep being weird about it or not.

When you got back to Law, he was sitting up in bed, letting out a yawn as he started to wake up.

"Here you go." You gave him his mug and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out how to smooth over the small talk you had with the guys.

"What'd you do?" Law asked.

He watched as you fiddled with your own cup and scowled down at it intensely.

"Why do you assume it's something I did?"

"What happened then?" He shifted around until he was sitting by you.

"Okay it was something I did." You glanced at him and back at the dark liquid in your cup. "I ran into a few of the guys, including Bart, in the kitchen and got the wild idea to tell them about me being a slave before."

"And how'd that go?"

"They didn't say anything and it got really tense so I left."

Law chuckled and placed a hand over one of yours.

"That's not funny! They're never going to want to talk to me again!"

"Don't exaggerate, you just surprised them."

"How'd they handle Bart being one so well?"

"(Y/n)-ya, female slaves are treated very differently than the male ones. Bart never went through the same things you did."

"Right. I knew that."

"It'd be safe to say the other men know that too."

"Oh." Your face burned from embarrassment. "Their minds went straight to the gutter."

"Indeed they did." Law chuckled again. "They'll get over it once they realize the problem."

"Why does this have to be so difficult?" You grumbled.

"You did good, don't worry about it." He turned your head to face him and gave you a kiss. "If anyone wants to give you trouble about it I'll have them busy with chores for the next week at least."

"Oh so you're going to abuse your position as captain?" You giggled.

"I'm a pirate, I can do whatever I want."