~

Law stared at the wooden roof of the treehouse with half-lidded eyes, the sunlight was surprisingly only filtering in through the windows when the curtains swayed from the wind, other than that, the cabin was dark and chilly. The doctor had been awake for a few hours and considered it too early to wake Luffy since they both slept at just about sunrise, the younger talked nonstop and kept consuming so much sugar that Law had to reluctantly eat more than necessary so he could keep Luffy's consumption under control. They both had been in a food coma soon after and it was Luffy who had fallen asleep first.

Law still didn't want to wake Luffy but his shoulder and abdomen were starting to ache, he hadn't applied his medicine last night and he was now bearing its effects. He hadn't known he would be spending the night at a treehouse so he didn't take his medicines with him when he went for the café. He needed his medicines before the soreness turned into actual pain and before it rendered Law unable to descend the treehouse stairs.

"Luffy." The older called. "Luffy wake up." The younger only stirred and rolled over to Law. "Wake up, I have to get to my medicines at the hotel. I would go alone but I know I'd get lost in the forest."

"Ok lesgo." Luffy slurred immediately getting up and drinking two entire bottles of water to wake himself up. "You ok getting down on your own?"

Law's face turned red from embarrassment. "Yes, I can manage right now."

"Ok. I can carry you if you want-"

"That won't be necessary!"

"Nishishi shy Torao." Luffy sniggered gathering his things and descending first. "I will catch you if you fall."

"If I fall, please let me die." Law waited at the edge.

"No can do Torao, we are finally boyfriends, I wanna be with you forever."

Law hid his face under his hat, Luffy was always so vocal. "Boyfriends?" Law has to ask.

"Yeah, that's what Ace calls it with Marco." Luffy stopped halfway down as if something occurred to him and rested his elbows on the step nearest to them and looked up Law. "Let's set up a rule right now."

"I'm listening." Law was curious since Luffy was setting the first rule. LUFFY.

"You're not allowed to make jokes about wanting to die." The boy was frowning.

Law raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Torao I know I am idiot but I can guess something happened with you and you want to die. So, as long as we are together, you are not allowed to make jokes about it. This is just for the jokes ok? When you feel like wanting to die, you come talk to me alright? I will help you."

Even if Law was an ostrich, he knew he wouldn't be able to dig a hole deep enough to hide his face or his entire self. Law knew he made jokes about dying but that was a manifestation of his declining mental health and Luffy, without really understanding and knowing why Law made these jokes, picked on the repetition and offered help, Law was touched and a bit annoyed because he wanted to agree to the rule and not agree because those kinds of jokes were attached to his personality and he would have to give them up. Regardless, the way Luffy offered help, Law couldn't refuse.

"Deal, but only if you stop calling yourself an idiot." Law provided, remembering the time of Luffy's outburst in his infirmary. "Promise to call each other out for the misspoken ones?"

"You got it Torao." Luffy grinned, he looked relieved and Law wondered why he was even considering not agreeing to the rule. If he got to see Luffy grin like that as a reward, he would probably do anything he asked.

"Be careful on your way down, don't get distracted."

Once Luffy bounded off the last few steps, Law found firm footing and descended the treehouse stairs as quick as he could, he didn't want to extend the possibility of Luffy commenting about his ass. The moment Law's feet touched the ground, Luffy took one of his hands and they were off to walk out of the forest.

The younger was very sleepy and was literally walking with his eyes closed but Law trusted Luffy because he remembered how much he used to talk about his days in the forest when Luffy was with Law in Flevance. Luffy crossed the forest purely on muscle memory and both arrived on concrete pavement some time later and from there, Law took charge, he remembered most of the roads by now from his late night walking habits. The doctor stopped to buy food and Luffy barely noticed, then they were on their way to the hotel.

Law put his things on the coffee table along with the food. "You go ahead and eat, I'm going for a bath."

"Mhmmok." Luffy answered eyes still closed and Law suppressed a laugh seeing the younger eat while sleeping.

Law went for his bag and pulled out fresh clothes and his rubbing medicines then went for the shower. It was quick and Luffy was still eating when he got back but he was slightly more awake by then. The older sat down beside his boyfriend and slid the towel a little back to access his shoulder wound.

"Can I do it?" Luffy asked eyes going from the medicine container on the table to Law's shoulder.

"Do you have experience?" Law asked, unsure. He remembered Luffy had applied ointment on his hand when he busted his knuckles that one time but it was superficial and not a proper flesh injury like the current one and Law was sort of afraid that the younger would accidentally apply more pressure than necessary and Law would not be able to hide it and then Luffy would end up blaming himself. Law's brain was a mess.

"Not really but you can teach me. I want to take care of you."

"Alright. It's more than a month old but it's still sensitive on direct touch so be careful not to press too much on it accidentally, the area around it can handle some pressure but not much." Law explained and realized he was confusing the younger. "Ok how about you start and I can guide you."

"Ok! Just lemme go wash my hands, Chopper always does that." When Luffy got back, he sat down in front of Law and scooped up the paste and looked at the older for directions.

"Start from the center and work your way till here." Law pointed to the radius that included his collarbone. "Thin layers so it gets absorbed alright."

"Got it." Luffy first spread the medicine on the whole area that the doctor pointed at and very gingerly touched the pink flesh that was where the bullet had went through. "Will you get a scar?"

"You can put more force, and yes, a scar would remain but maybe it would be light like all my other ones." When it didn't look like Luffy was going to put more pressure to rub the medicine, Law took the younger's hand and helped him along.

"It's squishy!" Luffy laughed when his fingers pressed a little on the exposed flesh. "Is that what we are like beneath our skins?"

Law was surprised at the question but Luffy had always been curious about weird things so it shouldn't have been that surprising. Law grinned. "Yes and it is so much fun to poke and prod at it."

"Is that why you became a doctor?" Law had withdrawn his hand and the younger was doing a good job all on his own.

"I became a doctor because my parents were doctors and back then I wanted to help people."

"You don't want to help people now?"

"I do but... things are different now."

"How?"

Law closed his eyes and sat back, Luffy moved forward to rub the medicine properly. The surgeon wanted to answer truthfully but guessed it was too early for that, maybe he would die or they would break up because Law was too much for Luffy so Law wouldn't even have to explain. Regardless, the older answered as much as he could. "There are other things that have priority right now."

Luffy hummed a curious response. "Like what?"

"Let's not do this on our first day."

Luffy had a hunch whatever Law's plans were for his own future were not that good and probably not that long-term either, in his experience, anybody who avoided talking about the future was someone who didn't see one for themselves. "It's ok, you can talk to me when you want to."

"Thank you."

When Luffy was done with the shoulder, he shifted to the abdomen and applied the medicine there too with Law's help because it was worse than the shoulder one. After Luffy washed his hands, he dragged Law to sleep again. It wasn't until much later that the two got woken up by Luffy's phone ringing.

"Yeah?" Luffy answered the call sleepily and moved closer to Law but the older had already gotten up and went to the bathroom.

"You are coming today right? Boss thinks you aren't." Dogra's voice came out of the phone.

"What time was it again?"

"In an hour."

"Ok yeah I'm coming." Luffy reluctantly left the bed and rubbed his eyes until Law got out of the bathroom. "I gotta go."

"Ok." Law grabbed his phone and sat down when Luffy got up.

"You're coming with."

"Where?" Law raised an eyebrow.

"Remember Dadan?" Luffy paced around until he went out to sit on the sofa and Law followed.

"The thug your grandfather made you live with?"

"Yeah her, I have to meet her today, so you're coming along." Luffy said simply.

"And why do you think I should?" Law couldn't follow, he didn't understand what Luffy was getting at.

"We are together, she is like my mom but Sabo's my actual mom, but she cares even though I hated her and the thugs in the beginning and then everyone I know who's in a relationship always introduces their partner to their parents, so that's why."

"Right." It made sense to Law but it was still unexpected. "Does she know about us?"

"Everybody does, they all kinda guessed this would happen when I kept talking about you. Man, people are amazing. They can predict the future."

"Ok... But won't I be intruding? I don't want to go unannounced, she's only expecting you-"

"Nah, it's ok. You know we got into trouble with some thugs one day and Sabo had to abandon his shelter so Ace and I, we took him to live with us at Dadan's. She was so surprised to find another kid in the morning." Luffy laughed at the recollection. "But she accepted him, took care of all of us, in her own way." Law thought it was awfully sober and grown-up coming from Luffy but he looked so peaceful recalling all the events. "She'll accept you too."

"Alright. Do I need to take something with me? You said she's a thug, so she likes what, weapons, sake?"

"I dunno, I just take some fresh catch whenever I go."

"What the fuck- that's the- what do you mean fresh catch? Where do you even get it? Are you suggesting hunting?"

"Duh, and catch from the forest, I always hunt some animal before going." Luffy shrugged.

"And you never have trouble with any authorities that see you hauling a dead animal in town?" Law raised an eyebrow and seriously started wondering what kind of a lifestyle Luffy had sustained before he got to know the younger.

"Nobody bothers me."

"...alright."

"But you can't hunt right now with your injuries so I'll do it ok?"

"Do we even have that kind of time?"

"It only takes ten minutes Torao." Law didn't know what to feel at this, ashamed, threatened, stupid, impressed, turned on? He didn't know.

"I'll buy some sake then."

"Ok!" Luffy jumped off the sofa and went to put his shoes on. "I'm sending you the maps pin, you head there while I go catch a beast."

Both the boys parted ways at the hotel lobby. Law went ahead and bought a lot of expensive alcohol, without tasting it, he decided to trust the man behind the desk to guide him right. Luffy went into the jungle and straight for the river.

"What the fuck?" Law's jaw dropped at the 'catch' on Luffy's shoulder when the two met near the house. "That's a whole ass crocodile!" It was bigger than perhaps three Luffys combined.

"Yeah! Croco meat is so good with rice! You gotta try some!" Luffy was unscathed from his hunting endeavor and all grins as he led the way and knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a big woman with curly orange hair and a cigarette in her mouth, Law supposed she was Dadan. She looked from Luffy to the crocodile in his arms, to Law, then back to Luffy. "Who's this?"

"Torao, my boyfriend." Luffy answered the woman and made to head inside the house but was stopped.

"Wait." Dadan stepped closer to Luffy and sniffed the crocodile first, then the boy. "Magra! Dogra!" Two men stepped from behind the woman and one took the dead animal from Luffy and the other handed the woman a hose. "You," Dadan turned to Law, "when did you last take a bath?"

"Uh... this morning." Law answered on autopilot, he wasn't expecting such a question.

"Good. Come stand here." The woman pointed to inside the doorway. Law handed the sake to the thug who led him inside and watched what was about to happen.

"Dadan please, I promise I took a bath yesterday!" Luffy screamed, defending himself against something he knew very well was going to happen.

"Doesn't smell like it." Dadan answered and extended her hand to take Luffy's strawhat which the younger quietly obliged to. The woman put the hat on Law's head and stepped more on the road. "You guys know what to do."

A few voices of "Yes boss!" came to Law's ears before the hose was turned on and Luffy got sprayed with water, in the middle of the street. Law couldn't help the chuckles that escaped him at the display at Luffy's flailing arms trying to protect himself against the onslaught. When the water turned off, two guys walked past Law with soap and a long-handle brush. They threw the soap on Luffy who was still on the ground and proceeded to rub the brush all over him.

"You're treating me worse than Pochi!" Luffy yelled, now dripping with soap, standing facing the curly haired woman and staring at the hose that was going to be pointed at him soon again.

"That's what you get for smelling worse than him!" Dadan answered and sprayed the boy with water again. Law wondered who Pochi was but it was a dog name so there was a chance it was a dog, nothing was certain when it involved Luffy. "Dry him up." The woman told the two thugs that had brushed Luffy down and turned to walk back inside the house, Law instinctively stepped out of her way.

"Don't make Torao do any work, he's hurt!" Luffy called from outside.

"What?" Dadan asked looking at Law.

"I'm fine, I can help a little, it's not bad." The doctor answered, moving forward and walking when he was pushed.

"Then help set the table, the men will handle the animal." Law did as he was told while everyone worked around him and Luffy was drying on the street.

Law had been sat down beside Dadan when Luffy was allowed inside. The younger sat down beside Law and eyed the strawhat, decided it was safer with Torao and let him wear it for the time being. Law observed the house again, this was the place Luffy ran away from, no matter the reason, that led to a series of unfortunate events for the younger.

"Do you always get cleaned up like this?" Law teased with a small smirk and received a pout as his answer.

"What do you do for a living? This sake tastes very expensive." Dadan asked taking a chug directly from the bottle.

"I'm a doctor." Law answered and refused the glass he was offered. He was feeling awkward as hell, not knowing how to talk to a person such as this and what to say, Luffy was not talking either, his eyes were fixed on the crocodile that was roasting on the fire.

"How the hell did Luffy manage to score a doctor?"

"Hey!" Luffy's attention was on the conversation now.

"Do Ace and Sao know?"

"Not yet! And don't tell them."

"And Garp?"

"Not yet." Luffy answered again. "You're actually the first person to know, this just happened last night."

"And you're ok with him?" Dadan asked Law. "Shouldn't a doctor have better sense?"

"Dadan!" Luffy whined.

"I can assure you, it is mutual." Law chose his words carefully.

"Guess it works then." The woman commented before the meat and rice was brought to the table and all hell broke loose. Law was seeing first hand why Luffy always ate like his life depended on it, he had lived with these thugs for a good amount of time, it actually might have been that his life was depended on it. There were so many hands grabbing at the food that Law hesitated before diving in himself, he didn't want to hurt anyone who thought stealing from him would be easy, it wasn't. Luffy was protecting and serving himself and Law, he even punched a thug whose hand wandered a little too close to Law's rice.

"See wani meat is good with rice!" Luffy hummed content, stuffing his face.

"It surprisingly is." Law agreed.

After the food was done and the dishes put away, Luffy talked with Dadan, a lot. They both filled each other in on what they had been doing since the last time they met and how life had been since the brothers moved out. Law stayed quiet, just listening and sometimes zoning out. He was grateful that Luffy considered him enough to want to introduce him to his mother-figure. The surgeon was sipping on some tea that a thug handed him when his phone rang. Law excused himself and left for the back yard.

"Can we come to Goa?" Law heard Penguin ask the first thing when he answered the call.

"Why the fuck?"

"Vacation days!" Shachi yelled. Law pulled the phone away from his ear to let the idiots yell all they wanted.

"Have you confronted Mugiwara yet?" Bepo asked this time and the two went quiet. Law cleared his throat before answering.

"I did."

"DETAILS LAW!" Shachi yelled again.

"Ugh, shut up. He was avoiding me because he was thinking but then we ended up running into each other in the middle of the night so I... I told him-"

"Told him what?" Penguin was definitely smirking.

"Let me finish asshole. I told him I liked him but I also told him why I think this won't work. Luffy doesn't want to back out of it, he said we can figure it out as we go so..." Law shrugged as if his friends could see. There was silence.

"So you're telling me, that you two are together?!"

"Yes Peng."

"And we had to ask for you to tell us?!" Shachi joined.

"I didn't get any time to tell you guys, Luffy took me along to his mother-figure thug woman's house, I'm still here."

"He's introduced to his mom?!"

"Ok Law I don't care what you say, we are definitely coming to Goa now." Penguin finalized.

"Book a different hotel, I'm not keeping you in my room." Law provided.

"Of course, we wouldn't want to anyway, you might bring your boyfriend home for the night." Shachi said and Bepo snorted in the back.

"First, ew. Second, I'll cut your balls if you say this in front of Luffy."

"Man you're no fun."

"Bring some Flevance specialty meat with you. Lots of it." Law said.

"We'll get stopped at immigration." Penguin answered.

"Use the pass my grandfather gave me."

"That's for weird things that count as medicines."

"Mugiwara-ya is very ill, he needs that meat." Law rephrased.

"He's willing to get us in trouble for his boyfriend! We have been replaced! How the times have changed!"

"See you guys in a day then." Law said and ended the call. When he went back inside the house, Luffy was getting handed bags of what Law could only guess was food.

"Come one Torao! We're leaving!" Luffy called.

"Come back any time you kids want to and Torao you can come back without Luffy too, just know that." Dadan said when the boys were leaving.

"See! Told you she's accept you too!"

"Thank you ma'am." Law bowed politely to show his gratitude and they were off. Law had gained another home thanks to Luffy.

~

Hello ._.I am alive ._.

Unfortunately.

I contracted the coronavirus so I was down - still not out of the danger, it has the possibility of getting worse. I have set up my old twitter account for any such updates when I can't upload a chapter or if its's early so you guys can know. Its @Itachi_Warrior

I am very sorry about the recent late chapters, my health is just... bad.But the chapter is here now, so, enjoy!