~

Law looked around the house he would be living in once Franky was done renovating it. The blue-haired cyborg had told Law days ago that he could go and see the house and make plans for further renovations but the doctor had been so tired the first day he was told, then the sleepless nights had made him entirely unavailable for anything during the day except for the clinics. Law felt awful at having delayed going to the house so much and made sure Franky knew that but the robot-man also knew that Law had problems that he was taking care of so he let him be, not minding in the slightest.

Luffy did arrive with Law but they soon got separated since Law was looking over every detail and noting everything down and that held Luffy up so the older let his boyfriend go and roam the place, and by the sounds of it, the younger was definitely running in circles in the big, walled backyard – Law had the wall added immediately because no way was he looking at people or allowing them to look at him.

The doctor walked through the living room and with the help of Usopp decided on what sort of arrangements he should be making so he could have maximum free space even with the furniture. The long-nosed man gave Law very efficient advice and they moved on to the only room in the house the doctor didn't know what to do with.

"What's this room for?" Luffy asked, appearing beside Law suddenly.

"I seriously have no idea." Law looked at the wall length glass panels that were installed from one end of the long wall to the other, they weren't windows.

"Carpet and curtain it for the time being then?" Usopp suggested and Law wrote it down.

"Works, there is already the living room for any sort of gatherings so I don't see a point in turning this room into a meetup room too." Law thought out loud. "Have you seen the other rooms?" Law turned to Luffy.

"Yapp! There's three bedrooms!" The younger jumped excited.

"Mine, yours and a guest bedroom I guess."

"Luffy gets his own bedroom?" Usopp asked looking between the boyfriends. "Why not share with you when he's here?"

"I like my space." Law said.

"Torao likes his space." Luffy said at the same time.

"That's suppeeeerrrrrrrr!" Franky struck a pose. "I fixed the plumbing the last time I was here so since there are no major structural renovations, you can start putting stuff here."

"That's going to be so much work..." Law sighed, already more tired.

"We will all help, Law-bro, don't worry about that."

"It's gonna be so much fun!" Luffy grinned then sagged. "But that means you'll move out from beside my room."

"You can then just stay here." Law shrugged and walked to the one other room that remained. Usopp and Franky stayed behind this time to take measurements for the tints on the windows.

"What's this going to be?" Luffy asked peeking inside the empty room, it wasn't that big but not that small either.

"This, is going to be my panic room."

"What room?"

"Panic room."

Luffy shook his head to get the words right. "No, I mean, why do you need one? You already have a bedroom for that, no?"

Law leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms with a tired sigh. "My room is open to you, this entire house is open to friends and family, but this particular room, is going to be just mine."

"Even I'm not allowed?" Luffy pouted a little.

"Even you're not allowed." Then the doctor decided on expand on the topic. "I am sometimes... very irritable and well, I have sensory overload and meltdowns and I don't want anyone near me when that happens, not even a single sound or the slightest touch. I want to be completely alone to get through that without hurting anyone, verbally or physically. This room is for that, it's not going to have any foreign presence so the scent is always going to be the same, the placement of things is always going to be the same unless I change it, it's going to be a controlled atmosphere because that helps my brain calm down."

"Do these meltdowns happen often?" Luffy asked closing the door and walking towards the living with Law, hand in hand.

"Not that much but I can't figure out the triggers so it's best to have a safe room."

"When was the last time you had a meltdown?"

Law raised his eyebrow at the number of questions from his boyfriend. Luffy only shrugged but Law decided to answer nonetheless. "When I woke up in the infirmary in Flevance after... after that whole arrest thing."

Luffy hummed and walking absently lost his balance and hit his shoulder on one of the room doors. "Wait, this isn't wood." The boy rubbed his shoulder, glaring at the door.

"The main doors are metal, all others are metal plated." Law answered and resumed walking with Luffy, finally arriving at the living room.

"Oh yeah, you don't like the wood knocking sounds."

"Nothing in this house is going to be wood so I'm safe from that."

"What about the kitchen counters?" Luffy asked.

"Marble."

"Window panels?"

"Aluminum or some other metal that is lighter and rust proof."

"Uh..." Luffy thought about more things. "Tables and chairs, bed?"

"All metal framed."

"You really thought this through, huh." Luffy commented, impressed.

"I've been through this a lot of times."

After the day at the house, all of Luffy's nakama decided to stop by at their captain's house to help Law with the furniture and brought catalogues with them in case the doctor wanted to opt of online shopping. The one who had the most fun flipping pages and laughing pointing at items in the books was Luffy and that in turn made Law feel lighter too. In the end, they decided to actually go to the market and shop in person because Law didn't want any scams on materials and quality, and that trip was reserved for after-clinic hours at the Grey Terminal.

The next day, Law found himself in a better state of mind and higher levels of energy and so he was more efficient than usual in terms of dealing with patients. He undid a leg cast, stitched a few cuts, changed bandages on some old patients' wounds, it was relatively easy that day, and between Chopper and Law, the patients were dealt with very quickly. Law couldn't shake the feeling that the reason they were being able to wrap things up so early might be because of something else that would take their day away from them, and such intuition of the older doctor was often on point.

"Chopper! Torao!" Luffy's voice called them both from outside the clinic setup. Law sighed, there it was, the something that was the reason they had managed to save time today.

The two doctors looked at each other when along with Luffy's footsteps, they heard the bawling of a child, nearing them until Luffy stepped inside the clinic and the doctors saw for themselves, that it was indeed the crying of a child, barely five years old and Luffy was cradling the said child very close to him, blood on his shirt and arms that were holding the tiny human whose blood it probably was.

"Luffy! What happened?!" Chopper was immediately on the job, leading his friend to a clean bed and having him put the crying child on it so they could begin examining what was wrong.

"I'm fine, just help the kid." Luffy said, his eyes showing a rare anger that Law didn't miss.

"Sit there." Law told his boyfriend, pointing at the chair near the main table and pulled new gloves on, stationing himself near the bed and pulled the curtains around it to keep the matter private. The time it took for Law to pull the curtains, Chopper had managed to get the kid to stop crying but the moment Law was in view, the crying had begun again, especially hard when Law tried to touch the kid. The older doctor was kicked in the stomach by weak legs and punched by weak fists, he was ok with it but it was hindering his work. "Sedation?"

"On such a small child?" Chopper asked thinking of something else because they really needed to get to work and find out the source of bleeding before they had a bigger problem on their hands.

"I can measure a careful oral dose, I have done it before for echo patients."

"Ok."

Law left the curtain and walked to the main table to get the said careful dose of sedation in a syringe, he was aware of Luffy's eyes following him but the older didn't have time to stop and answer questions and provide assurances. Once Law was back in the curtain, he left the application of the oral shot to Chopper since the child was a lot calmer with the small reindeer.

The moment the kid was out of it, the two doctors began their job, they cut off the bloodied clothes and first found that the kid was a boy, it was very hard to determine before because of the haircut and the high pitched crying and overall weakness of the body. The next thing they found, shook Chopper and made Law close his eyes and take calculated breaths to compose himself so he wouldn't end up killing someone. The only saving grace of the entire situation was that Law was used to these kinds of injuries so he was quick at work, guiding Chopper and running tests, eventually deeming the boy's life out of danger.

While Chopper dealt with the other minor injuries, Law pulled himself away from the bed, he had to talk to his boyfriend about this situation and it was not going to be pleasant. Law threw his gloves and mask aside and nodded at Chopper.

"I'm going to take a look at Luffy's arm, I don't think we changed his dressing today." Law said getting new gloves and supplies for the said dressing.

"Ok."

"Torao!" Luffy left his chair and started walking to Law when he spotted the older leaving the curtained bed without his mask on, that meant that their job was done.

"Sit back." Law said from afar and dragged a stool to sit down himself. "I'm going to change your bandages."

"What about the kid?" Luffy asked taking his shirt off, it was bloodied and unsanitary.

"He's fine." The older said beginning to unwrap the old bandages, a headache already in place. "Where did you find him?"

"I was walking just outside the Grey Terminal, a black van stopped a few feet away and kicked that kid out, then left." Then something struck the younger. "What are the injuries?"

Law kept his mouth shut until he finished wrapping the new bandage and threw away his gloves, running a hand down his suddenly tired face with a more tired sigh escaping him. "There's the head wound from contact with the ground." Law began and when he felt the restlessness in Luffy's behavior, he looked his boyfriend in the eye and spilled the rest of it. "There is also damage from sexual assault."

When Luffy heard those words, his brain started ringing with rage and he couldn't hear anything else he knew Torao was telling him. He had an idea it would be something of the like when Luffy took the kid but he was hoping he was wrong. A hand on his cheek was what brought Luffy out of it.

"Are you ok?" Law asked, his voice low.

Luffy sniffled and noticed he had started crying. The boy rubbed at his eyes viciously and shook his head. "I'm gonna find who did this and make them pay."

"Calm down, you can't do that." Law said and took the younger's hands in his, rubbing circles on the back of them to calm him down. Luffy looked at Law like he was about to punch him for saying that but the older was quick to add his explanation. "These people operate in large rings so even if you find one of their hideouts, it's not going to make a difference, it will actually make things worse, they will relocate and you will lose your chance of ever finding them again, you can't help anybody like that."

"But you did, you attacked those people back at Swallow- wasn't that a ring too?" Luffy said immediately, his tone accusatory.

"I wasn't helping anybody, I just wanted to burn things up."

"But- what about the other kids they are- we have to help them!"

Law took a long look at Luffy's face and decided to tell him the harsh truth. "We can't help everybody and you are in no mental state to even think straight. Leave this matter either to the police or the revolutionaries, they have bigger groups and better resources."

Luffy couldn't believe what he was hearing, his boyfriend, his kind Torao was telling him to give the matter up to somebody else? In a moment of anger, Luffy opened his mouth. "You're heartless." And Luffy ran.

Law was hurt but didn't blame the younger, these things were often hard and difficult to comprehend and even worse to find a solution to. So the older let his boyfriend be, didn't hold it against him for being human and kind.

Luffy sulked and pouted and helped around the Grey Terminal angrily until he felt he would cry again so he dialed Sabo, to talk to his brother and confide in him of what he had seen. The younger was so angry during the first few hours that he completely forgot that he had his brother and father in the revolutionaries and that leaving the matter to them was not leaving it to 'other people.'

Sabo answered the call after three missed ones and after hearing the distress in his brother's voice, he first apologized for the delay then got to business. Luffy told Sabo about what had happened and got angry when his brother actually laughed.

"Sabo!" Luffy screamed, anger back in his voice again.

"I'm sorry! It's just, we've been keeping tabs on this ring for a few years now, and you're telling me you saw a van today, it means we almost got them Lu." Sabo clarified. "Now tell me the approximate age of the child you saw."

"He's around four or five I think, can't really tell, he's very weak." Luffy sniffled but was significantly calmer now.

"And where did you spot the black van?"

"At the gravel path behind Grey Terminal that comes from the last intersection on the forest's side. It went in the opposite direction after throwing the kid out."

"Tell Law and Chopper to preserve the clothes they got from the child, I will send some guys to the gravel site-"

"I wanna help too!"

"You," Sabo started, "will stay put and out of this."

"But-"

"This isn't Arlong or Captain Kuro, Luffy, not even Rob Lucci. This isn't a single foe so I'm not allowing you to sabotage our mission."

"But I can help..." Luffy said in a small voice, losing the anger from before, feeling drained of any energy he had until that moment.

"Sorry baby bro but you will just get in the way." Sabo said as clearly as possible. "I'm going to visit the clinic at Grey Terminal, texting Law and Chopper now, hopefully one of them will be there."

"Ok..."

"Don't worry Luffy, we will get them, and free all the children."

"Thanks Sabo."

~

Luffy hung around helping everyone for as long as he could until after sundown, he had seen Sabo walking towards the clinic a while ago but didn't follow him because Torao was also in there and Luffy felt too ashamed to face his boyfriend at the moment. Torao was the kindest person Luffy knew and yet he had called him heartless only for suggesting better ways of handling the situation.

Once the lights went off around the cleaning sites, Luffy took a deep breath and decided to go apologize to Law. Chopper had left for the other clinic after wrapping up the day's patients so it was only Law and Sabo in the clinic at the moment.

Luffy stopped in a distance, hidden in the dark and watched his brother and Torao talking. The small boy was seated in a high chair, IVs and machines still attached, he was barely conscious but he was giggling to something Sabo was saying and yanking at his blond hair. Luffy looked at Law with scissors in his hands, he cut a big lock of the boy's hair and bagged it, handing it to Sabo along with a few other wrapped things. Sabo didn't spot Luffy when he left so the younger kept himself hidden and watched as Law conversed with the kid, replaced the scissors with a hair trimmer, put the machine on the boy's head and stopped when the boy laughed and told him to stop, then began again. Luffy thought it would take forever with the way Law was handling the haircut but he didn't stop or reveal himself to suggest a better way because it was working, the child wasn't crying but enjoying and Law was also smiling and that made Luffy smile.

Luffy watched as Law dusted the fallen hair aside and cleaned everything up, then took the boy in his arms and began patting his back. It was then that Luffy decided to step outside the shadows but his timing was wrong because Law spotted him before Luffy had the chance to take a step in the light.

"The fuck, are you trying to be Batman?" Law whispered and moved languidly, still patting and rubbing the back of the small boy.

Luffy didn't know how to apologize so he said something else. "Chopper said he was kicking you a lot, he's not doing that now."

"That's because he's doped up and I'm waiting for it to make him go to sleep."

"He'll make it?"

"Tony-ya and I are looking after him, what do you think?" Law said with a harmless, smug grin.

"Yeah, he's gonna be fine." Luffy smiled and ran his hand on the now completely shaved head of the kid's. "Why cut it all?"

"He had ticks, big ones and a lot of them, better to shave the entire head than to risk another infestation."

Luffy hummed and smiled some more when Law put the boy back on the bed, as gently as it was possible and made sure he was comfortable before pulling the curtain and moving to close the clinic for the night. Luffy stood aside and only listened when Law explained the details of each patient to the volunteers from the other clinic who always stayed the night to look after the patients.

"Come on." Law called taking Luffy's hand and starting the long walk back home.

Luffy bit his lip and took another deep breath. "I'm sorry I called you heartless."

"I understand your anger, its ok." Law rubbed the back of the hand in his and pulled his boyfriend closer to put an arm around him.

"I talked to Sabo and he said they were already working on that case."

Law hummed. "He came to get the clothes for any sort of DNA or dirt and some hair to try and find an identity."

"I'm leaving this to Sabo, he said I'd only get in the way." Luffy still felt heavy in his chest and couldn't lift his eyes from the ground.

"Not if you learn to stay in the shadows like you did back at the clinic." Law joked and that got Luffy to laugh a little. "But that might take a lifetime for you."

Luffy pouted looking at Law and elbowed him playfully in the side. "I'm not that bad."

"You're literally the sun, Luffy. Even with the clouds in front of you, you still light up the world."

"Nah, I'm just hopeful." Luffy said then grinned when he remember something. "I'm hopelessly hopeful," Luffy started then winked at Law, "and you're just hopeless enough."

Law laughed openly at that and added to the sweet gesture. "What a match, I'm half-doomed and you're semi-sweet."

~

I love my sweet boys so much! <3 I also put up a One Year anniversary art on my Twitter so do check that out!