~

Law sighed and rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, he was compiling data from his recent research patients, Luffy was sleeping and this was the only time Law could do his work in peace. Except, he couldn’t quite focus on the text and pictures in front of him. With a silent groan, Law left his study table and his room altogether, maybe a walk in the night air would freshen his mind a little.

The doctor had thought that all the Strawhats were either asleep or busy doing whatever but Law found Zoro walking the halls silently, clearly too awake for that particular time of night.

“Lost?” Law called and stopped a foot away from the green haired swordsman.

“Oh, Law. Man this place is a maze.” Zoro responded and followed the older, sure that Law would lead him out of the hallways.

“No, you’re just geographically and spatially challenged.”

“Nami or Robin might understand that but I don’t.”

Law shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Force of habit.” Zoro started. “Something feels weird here.”

“Perhaps it’s the unrest born from the souls wrongly murdered, this country is full of it.” The doctor said and the two arrived at the lobby. “Gets me sometimes too.”

“Maybe Robin’s awake because of that too.” The swordsman wondered out loud, having seen his friend in the library a few wrong turns earlier. “Going out?”

“Yes.” Law put his shoes on then looked over his shoulder, contemplating whether he had enough energy to walk through the entire Flevance, multiple times, in case Zoro took him up on the offer. “Wanna come with?”

“I have nothing better to do.” 

“Please don’t wander off.” The doctor didn’t wait for an answer and the two left the building. The walk was quiet among the two, content with the silence. The streets were all empty, of course, but Law’s mind wasn’t. The older had stupidly allowed his own earlier comment about souls of old Flevance to haunt him. “There’s no danger here, why’d you bring your swords?” Law turned his attention elsewhere, he needed to.

“Feels safe.” Zoro quoted the older’s words from some time ago. “If there’s no danger, why’d you bring your sword along?” The younger swordsman could sense something was wrong with Law since a month ago but he hadn’t been able to pinpoint the reason or found something he could talk about to Luffy with.

“Feels safe.” Law cursed himself bringing Kikoku closer, he hadn’t anticipated Zoro to be that sharp that late at night.

“Why? Isn’t this your home?”

“This is just where I live, it’s not my home, not after what they did to it anyway.”

Zoro frowned, Law was being awfully chatty for someone who was reputed as hard-to-get-details-out-of. “What about Goa then?”

“That’s not home either.”

“I see, unfinished business.” With the way the older stopped for a second before walking again, Zoro knew he had hit the mark but before he could inquire more about it, Law was walking faster, but with a destination in sight. “Oi, where are you going?”

“I know that hat.” Law said walking towards the alley a mile away. The surgeon was glad for the opportunity to divert the flow of the conversation he was trapped into with Zoro.

“Could be someone else.” Zoro offered an explanation because it was Penguin’s hat, on the head of a person whose height matched Penguin’s too, in the alley, in the dark alley, at the ungodly hour of the night. Zoro offered that explanation because the older looked like he would slice and dice first, and ask questions later.

“I’ve seen that hat on that head for twelve years of my life, there is no way I’m mistaken.”

“You stay back, you look like you’re gonna murder him without asking anything.” 

“That would be his fault for appearing so shady-“

“I got this.” Zoro said and ran towards the alley before Law could comprehend and start following.

“Zoro-ya! The other way!” Law felt embarrassed for Zoro for having to yell him into the right direction. The surgeon kept his pace and arrived at the alley only a minute after his walking companion.

“I wasn’t doing anything bad!” Penguin defended himself and hid behind Zoro the moment he saw Law.

“He really wasn’t.” Zoro backed.

“Fine. Explain yourself.” Law sighed.

“Somebody’s been stealing organs and limbs from the bodies in the morgue at Flevance General-“ Penguin started.

“What the fuck- you didn’t tell me that.” Zoro interrupted.

“You just asked if I was dealing drugs, I wasn’t.”

“Ok, Penguin, continue.” Law pushed.

“This person’s really smart, stealing so delicately from dead bodies where normally nobody would look. Shachi and I found out a few years ago but thought we were just imagining things because it wasn’t that much then, but now Bepo pointed it out too so we realized we really weren’t making things up-“

“Get to the point.” Law hurried his friend before Penguin talked himself into the realization their organ and limb thief was standing right in front of him asking him to hurry up with his explanation.

“So the three of us have been taking turns trying to slip hints to lure out the person from the hospital who’s been doing the stealing.”

“How do you know they’re from the hospital?”

“Well, they’re well-versed with the hospital schedule for one, knows the ins and outs and camera placement, knows about patient files and who to rob. It’s obvious it’s someone from the hospital, a staff or a former patient, we don’t know yet but it’s someone who’s frequenting to keep their logs updated.” Penguin counted all the facts on his fingers.

“All three of you are working together on this?”

“Yes.”

“And why wasn’t I told?” Law raised an eyebrow.

“You haven’t been in the right mental space for anything lately.” The oldest shrugged and Law knew he was right.

“Fair enough.” Law turned around and started walking out of the alley. “You guys keep up the good work but don’t try too hard and get hurt… maybe the stealing will stop on its own, you never know.”

But Law knew. The only reason his thievery got noticed was because he fucked all discretion to hell and stole as many organs and limbs as he needed when he had reached a milestone in his research where he could stop and let someone else take over after he- Law shook the thoughts out of his head, sure the time was near but it was still too soon to think about it.

~

“Torao! Torao!” Luffy ran through the entire building looking for his boyfriend. “Torao!”

“Luffy cover yourself!” Usopp ran after his friend, a sheet in his hands, because Luffy had again, forgotten to put a sheet on his lower half when he left his room, his skin was still healing and he wasn’t allowed to restrict oxygen exposure.

“But I can’t run with that thing on!” Luffy called back, not stopping his sprint.

“Then don’t run!” The long nosed man screamed and decided to tackle his friend to the ground, consequences be damned. “Law will have my nose if he finds out you were running around like this again and I didn’t do anything to stop it.” Usopp tied the sheet around Luffy’s waist and let the young man stand.

“Why?” Luffy asked confused.

“You might be ok with not wearing anything but Law was clearly uncomfortable the last time you did this.”

“Torao’s weird.”

“You’re weird!” Usopp slapped Luffy’s hand away from undoing the cloth. “And Law is in the library.”

“Thanks!” 

Before Luffy could run off, Usopp held him back. “Nice try buddy. I’m coming with you to make sure you actually reach Law with your sheet on.” 

“All of you guys are being like Torao.”

“I don’t want to be murdered in my sleep in a foreign country. Kaya would be sad.” When the two friends reached the library, Usopp knocked on the door to gather the attention of the residents. “Special delivery for one Trafalgar Law, it’s a fully clothed Luffy thanks to the Great Usopp.”

“Thank you.” Law said without looking away from his book but felt blood rushing to his face when Robin chuckled beside him, she clearly remembered how embarrassingly stumped the doctor had been the last time when Luffy jumped in front of him with nothing covering him below the waist.

“I look like Makino in this.” Luffy complained pulling at the sheet.

“More like Boa Hancock.” Law commented briefly glancing at his boyfriend before settling back to his book.

“I’m looking down on you.” Luffy said in a poor imitation of Hancock’s voice and bent backwards, pointing at Law.

“Sure.” The doctor mumbled.

“Hey Torao look!” Luffy called and Law sighed, closing his book altogether, he wasn’t going to be able to read anything anymore. When Luffy was sure the older’s eyes were on him, he bent further backwards on his knees and grinned. “WRRRYYYYYYY!”

“Pfft-“ Law coughed a laugh and hid it behind his fist. The doctor got up and pulled Luffy’s cloth so it was covering the younger properly. “You’re too cute to be Dio.”

“I’d say.” Robin agreed from the back with a chuckled, embarrassing Law yet again.

“Now, why were you looking for me?”

“Oh yeah! There’s a festival starting at sundown! Let’s go!” Luffy jumped back on his feet excitedly and looked at Robin behind Law. “Robin too! We all gotta go!”

“Sure.” The woman agreed.

“I have things to do, you go with the guys.” Law excused himself, with all the Strawhats out of the building, he might get the chance to catch up on his work.

“You always have things to do.” Luffy pouted.

“Yes I do.” The doctor walked out of the library to his room and Luffy followed him at a distance, grumbling about Law being busy all the time. Law was not going to relent but then an image of his parents and Lami flashed behind his eyes and he remembered how this had all happened before, Lami being too excited for a festival but Law and their parents being too busy to spare time to actually go and when they did… Law shook his head. 

“Grumpy busy Torao.” Luffy mumbled looking at the ground and crashed into Law when the older stopped all of a sudden.

“Ok, I’ll come.”

“Yay!” The young man rejoiced and jumped to hug his boyfriend, finding out through the arms around him that Law was sad. “What’s wrong Torao?”

“Just some memories…” Law shook his head again to get rid of the images of his sister white as a sheet and in so much pain. The older wanted to let the topic go but the way Luffy’s eyebrows were raised, words needed to be uttered. “My Flevance used to have a lot of festivals, like one every other day so you can guess some people might get desensitized pretty quick.” Law started and went in his room, cleaning his work desk to have something to do with his hands. “I always had my nose in books, my father was teaching me important steps in cardiac surgeries at the age I should have been excited about those festivals, I really wasn’t. Lami was always excited though, kinda like you.” Law smiled sadly to himself. “Our parents were doctors so they were always busy and I didn’t like going out much so I was also always busy studying but my sister always wanted to go see the lights and the festivals. Mother and I were out with Lami on one such festival when she collapsed from her first symptoms of amber lead poisoning.”

“Yeah you said she was the first in the family.” Luffy frowned, sad now too.

“She was. That was the last time we had a festival and one we went to… Flevance burned after that, everyone died and I was left with the regret of not spending more time with everyone. I changed my mind about not going today when I remembered that just now, I don’t want that kind of regret to haunt me with you too.” Not that I am going to be there to feel it.

“So are the festivals the same?” Luffy asked to divert the conversation because Law looked like he would start cracking.

“No idea, my Flevance was awfully religious so there were always parades and stuff for the gods, I haven’t really paid much attention to this Flevance.” Law shrugged and sat down on the carpet beside Luffy’s feet dangling from the bed behind him.

“Were you religious?”

“I don’t remember honestly, I’ve always had science and human skill in front of me, saving lives and the like, I believe more in that than any god there might or might not be.” Law sighed content when Luffy started running his fingers through the older’s hair. “What about you? Do you believe in god?”

“I believe in my fists and my nakama and that meat can cure anything.”

“I don’t know about that last one, I’ve seen people die from eating too much meat.”

“Torao.” Luffy said after a while.

“Hmm?”

“Nami wanted to go to the memorial site.”

“Are you asking for permission?” Law sat up straight, scooted a little away from the hands in his hair, lulling him into sleep.

“Yeah.”

“You don’t need to and I’m not going so you can take her.”

“Ok.” Luffy moved forward and kissed the small swirl of hair on his boyfriend’s head. “Oh, what am I wearing for the festival?”

“Loose and warm clothes.” Law said and stood up to pilfer clothes for Luffy through his wardrobe. “All of my pants and shorts and pajamas are going to be too tight for you, I’ll go get something from Bepo’s.”

“That’s gonna be too loose.”

“You need all the air you can get on that skin, Tony-ya made an excellent salve but burns need oxygen.”

“Ok, then I’ll go out with Nami first, then we’ll go to the festival.”

“Fine with me.”

Law proceeded to pick out clothes for the younger and once he had reapplied the medicine and fitted his boyfriend into comfortable and warm clothes, he gave Luffy an OK to go out. While Luffy was out, Law didn’t see any one of the Strawhats in the building, even Robin wasn’t in the library anymore. The doctor didn’t pay it much mind and got back to his studies, he needed to finish writing up his research so he could move towards his actual goal, there were no clocks ticking but now that Law had seen the end of his research, he wanted to wrap everything up without any delays and that was making him anxious.

When Luffy found Law in the library again to go for the festival, the older found out all the Strawhats had went to the memorial site to pay their respects and assure Law’s parents that their son was in good and safe hands. Law wasn’t sure how he felt about that but something in him shouted that he was unworthy of such friends and care. Pushing those venom down, Law pulled on a jacket and a coat to go out for the festival with however many Hearts could spare time from their schedules.

The entire group was walking through the streets towards the festival, talking amongst themselves, Luffy was looking around more than talking so Law started looking around as well, that was when he spotted a few men walking on either side of their group. Law dismissed it at first thinking it was just a coincidence and they were all going in the same direction, but when they started matching paces and started bringing each other’s attentions to the women of the group, Law decided to take action. The doctor first tried to fend the assholes off by glaring at them but they were seasoned predators and Law was getting uncomfortable with the way they were looking the ladies up and down. Robin and Ikkaku were dressed in thick clothes according to the weather but Nami had preferred fashion over warmth and her shorts left next to nothing to imagination.

Law let go of Luffy’s hand and walked to the women and handed his coat to Nami. "Please take this, you must be cold with so little clothes." 

"What? Weak to a woman's skin?" Nami teased with a grin. Robin and Ikkaku laughed at Law’s expense.

"You wish Mikan." Law rolled his eyes and pushed the coat at her again, hoping he wouldn’t have to word out the exact reason for what he was doing.

“I’m fine, and not cold. And your coat is ugly.”

“Your shorts are ugly.” Law retaliated like a child. When it looked like Nami was not going to listen, Law put an arm around her shoulder and fell out of pace from the other two. “Take the coat, there’s people around that are staring at you wrong and I don’t know what can happen.”

“Lechers are everywhere I swear!” Nami complained and put her arms through the long coat and zipped the front.

“This is why I hate going out, people can’t mind their own fucking business.”

“Thanks for looking out for us.”

“I don’t want to have to hurt anyone.” Law said with a small grin, unaware that Luffy who was just a step behind him and Nami had heard the entire exchange. Even though Luffy knew and understood that Law and Nami had a sibling relationship, he still felt like he needed to bring the doctor’s attention back on himself.

“Woah it’s gotten so hot suddenly.” Luffy said and got Law to turn around for him. The young man took off his sweater and started pulling on the hem of the tight shirt he had opted to wear instead of the one Law had taken out for him.

“Please keep your shirt on.” Law said automatically when he started seeing the toned muscles on Luffy’s abdomen. The thoughts that went through the older’s head consisted of two words, ‘hot damn,’ before Law composed himself. Law wished he hadn’t given NAmi his coat, because there was something reacting that the long coat would have hidden better than his waist length jacket.

“I’m a guy, nobody’s going to look at me wrong.” Luffy said back, a challenge in his smile, thinking he had won that round. Nami stifled her chuckles and walked ahead to let the boyfriends settle that amongst themselves.

Such a small string of words but a long stretch of years for the older get thrown back into and root him in his place. Looking at the round, brown eyes of Luffy, all Law could see was the eleven year old kid Luffy, with much the same eyes, abused and beaten, underfed and sick. Law felt an overwhelming sense of protection surge through his veins and he wanted to scold Luffy for being so careless, for being so naïve that he failed to see that the same people who could abuse a child, could very well find him attractive with his lithe frame still carrying boyish features and not for a second let the wrongness of their actions stop them from taking advantage. Law’s thoughts went from the small kid he had rescued to his small sister he had failed, and came a twisted sense of relief that Lami would never have to go through those wrong looks and experience the wrongness of the world. 

“Torao?” Luffy waved his hand in front of Law’s eyes that were staring vacantly at his own. When the older was back in the present, Luffy is taken aback by the strange emotion in the older’s eyes that made them look like burning gold, so beautiful and so sad.

“Sorry… I…” Law cleared his throat and blinked to get the fog out of his head, he noticed the group had went ahead.

“Shit- I’m an idiot.” Luffy slapped his forehead and quietly, without fuss, adjusted his shirt and pulled his sweater back on, making sure he looked unappealing. It clicked in the younger’s head that through his actions, he had sent Law back to the bad times, of torture and torment, and mentally kicked himself because he knew bad memories and their reminders stuck in the older’s head worse than they did in his own. "Sorry, I made you remember something bad right?"

Law was surprised it was that obvious on his face, that Luffy had picked on it and amended the situation. "You realized, so you're not an idiot." Law pointed resuming walking. "Stop calling yourself that." 

"Yeah sorry about that too."

"And stop apologizing-"

"Sorry-oops." 

Law smiled a little at Luffy's antics and took in a deep breath, elbowing the younger lightly in his side. “But you're cute when you're jealous." Law teased. 

"I-I wasn't jealous!" Contrary to his statement, Luffy was red from embarrassment, finally on the receiving end of it.

"Sure."

It was a short walk before the two reached the festival lights and crowd. Law wished he had experienced the original Flevance festivals so he could have something to compare the current one with, but he didn’t dwell on it much longer since he had to run after his glutton of a boyfriend to first inspect if the food was hygienic then buy it for the younger’s black hole of a stomach. Talking with the people and the volunteers steering the crowd in the correct locations, the young men found out it was a festival in the honour of the Sun god, Nika. There were various posters and art going around, different illustrations of how the god looked like, it didn’t interest Law much and Luffy was only ever guided by his nose so they weren’t listening to the many stories.

Walking a little further, it was Zoro of all people who beckoned the two to the group. There was a huge bonfire, the kind seen in cartoons and movies, the surrounding space was all cleared up for people to mingle and enjoy. Law sat down as far away from the fire as he could, he appreciated that Luffy stayed beside him for a good five minutes before sprinting closer to the fire with Usopp and Chopper, to admire the high flames. Seeing Law sitting alone, Shachi, Penguin and Bepo quickly took the seats beside him, fighting a little over who would sit on the right and left.

Unable to let the wonderful evening be quiet like that, Brook brought out his violin and began playing a melody befitting the fire, alive and loud. Hearing the music, it was, as always, Luffy who started dancing first, letting his carefree energy and joyous demeanor bring other people into the activity as well.

Looking at Luffy dancing, with the fire behind him, lighting up his silhouette, making him look so ethereal with the way the moonlight was hitting him just right, Law didn’t know when he started likening Luffy to Nika, and although he had missed most of the stories, he remembered that the sun god was a warrior of liberation, freeing the enslaved and bringing laughter in his wake.

Law thought it silly how he was so wrapped in the moment that Luffy seemed like Nika to him and maybe it was how Luffy’s repertoire of ending tyranny, or Law’s own present circumstances or the knowledge of what was about to come, but his eyes were fixed on his boyfriend and with a sigh, a silent plea left Law’s heart, something he wished he was strong enough to entrust Luffy with.

Will you… liberate me too?

~

HEY HEY HEYYYYY!!! (yes Bokuto style)

Have a chapter XD
Well, three major events are wrapped up!
The cosplay pictures are on my instagram account (@wasia_w_holehearted)
And I'm definitely going to try posting as quick as possible!

Thank you all for waiting so patiently! TToTT