~

Penguin very carefully made a small incision on Law's wrist to insert the funnel that would allow the dye tube and the camera to pass through the blood vessels, to let the three Hearts performing the angiography know what was causing the tingling in Law's heart.

"I would have liked to do this in a proper OR." Penguin mumbled but since the room was so silent, everyone heard what the eldest said. The room in question was far back inside the infirmary, sterilized and air conditioned especially for emergency procedures that required delicate handling.

"You'd be doing it without a patient then." Law bit back immediately.

"We get you don't like hospitals and Flevance General in particular, but man there's so many things that can go wrong here." Shachi put in.

"It's entirely your fault for allowing Luffy in here then." Law joked, eyes pointing to his unusually silent boyfriend standing in a corner in all the gear.

"You'd have lied about this Torao, again, that's why I wanna see for myself." The youngest snapped, his tone conveying the annoyance and anger he was keeping inside.

"Yikes." Penguin bit his lip. "Push the dye."

"Pushing." Bepo called and all four doctors looked at the screen that was projecting the inside of Law's chest. "Pushing again."

"What the..." Shachi started.

"Fucking dammit." Law cursed and closed his eyes, opening them again and shaking his head at Penguin to tell him to not tell Luffy about this.

"You know I can see, right?" Luffy rolled his eyes and walked closer to the bed. "If you guys lie to me, I'll kick your asses too." The young man threatened the three other Hearts.

"It's a blood vessel blockage-" Penguin said.

"Peng what the fuck!" Law glared at his friend for spilling the truth.

"He's still here after the shit you pulled, do him the courtesy of not lying anymore." Penguin pointed to Luffy beside him. Law didn't say anything. "So, the blockage is restricting blood flow to his heart, we can open the blood vessel with the balloon already in there but to keep the vessel open, we would need to go to a hospital since we don't have stents here."

"Can you guys arrange for a stent? I don't think Torao's gonna be willing enough to do this a second time." Luffy pointed.

"We can't keep the instruments in there for that long a time even if we can somehow acquire the stent in question."

"But that stent would make everything ok forever?"

"He would need a lifestyle change so this doesn't happen anymore." Shachi sighed.

"Can you guys stop talking like I'm not here?" Law huffed.

"Shut up Torao, the responsible people are talking." Luffy said, all the irritation now clear on his face.

"Excuse me?" Law sat up a little, causing alarm for the three doctors. "I'm not going to a hospital for one, you can't talk to me like that either, three, a stent after-care is a lifetime of medicines and it stings all the time despite what anyone says, so, if it's not clear from all this, let me say in simpler words, I'm not going through all that."

"What happens if you don't get the stent?" Luffy asked Law directly.

"Nothing, this goes away on its own."

"Liar." The youngest said and turned to Shachi. "What happens if he doesn't get a stent?"

"His heart might not be able to pump blood properly and he might go into cardiogenic shock- actually let's just say, a very bad heart attack can happen and kill him."

"You would like that very much, wouldn't you?" Luffy asked Law, venom in his sarcasm. This was a Luffy that rarely came out.

"I don't think I need to spell it out for you, but yes." Law said.

"I promised your parents Torao, that I wouldn't let you be stupid and end yourself before your time."

"You made promises to nobody, they're dead and cannot listen."

"If that's what you think, why do you visit the memorial site so often?" Luffy countered.

Law didn't know what to say to that, somewhere in his heart he still believed that the memorial stones were a pathway to his family, that they were watching over him. The doctor decided he didn't want to think about it for now so he shifted his focus elsewhere. "How about I acquire a stent and you guys fix it here and not at the hospital?" Law asked his friends, hoping they would agree.

"How are you going to acquire one?" Bepo narrowed his eyes.

"I can buy it from the underworld markets, they have a lot of stuff there."

"I want to do this in a hospital-" Penguin started again.

"Not a chance." Law interjected. "And at least I'm willing to get this shit fixed, so don't push your luck."

"We don't know you will really come back to this bed though." Shachi pointed.

"Look, the reason for my revenge is gone, so I won't be actively trying to kill myself." Law tried his best.

All the Hearts had been keeping an eye on Law, at least one of them present at all times to make sure their captain wasn't going to hurt or kill himself. Luffy took the night duty so he could get his boyfriend to sleep too in the process. They were all mad at Law for doing what he did but the man in question was not open for communication on that particular thing himself, so everyone let it go for the time being as well.

"This is your last chance Law." Penguin glared.

"Yeah whatever." Law rolled his eyes and relaxed when the tube and camera was taken out from his arm.

"You didn't want to get a stent just a minute ago Torao, you're being sus." Luffy said narrowing his eyes.

"I will have this one thing to lord over you all forever, every time it stings and itches, that's why I'm doing it."

"Petty asshole." Penguin sighed.

"We have some questions for you." Shachi said patching Law's wrist properly and letting the man out of the back room.

"It's not about the shitty thing you did." Penguin mentioned before Law refused to answer and ran away.

"Then what?" Law asked and took a seat on the infirmary bed, he had a feeling that voices would escalate and he didn't want the rest of the Hearts to listen.

"What was that weird purple serum you left on our desks?" Bepo asked, his eyes all sparkling so Law wouldn't shut him off.

"Welp, guess you guys at least deserve that truth." Law shrugged then turned to Luffy. "You might not want to be here for this."

"Nice try Torao." Luffy rolled his eyes and sat beside the older to let him know he wasn't going anywhere.

"Suit yourself." The surgeon scratched his head and began. "That serum is a sort of medicine that helps reduce the rejection rate in organ replacement or transplant. It works up to an eighty percent. This was the secret thing I was working on with my black market job."

"It works?" Shachi asked incredulous. "You made a medicine that- woah! That's-"

"Holy shit, it works? It will benefit so many people!" Penguin joined in the praise. "You're a genius!"

"There's a bad part to this, isn't there?" Bepo asked.

"I stole organs and limbs from Flevance General for transplantation, to experiment the drug. I'm your thief. I also killed many people and maimed them in alleys to get what I wanted. You can call me a genius but there is nothing ethical about how I made that drug." Law said and within the fraction of that same second, a fist connected with his face.

"What the hell!" Penguin screamed. "You're a doctor, Law! You're not supposed to be killing people for your gains!"

"I never took an oath, I can do whatever the fuck I want." Law said holding his face.

"Were they good people?" Luffy asked, vibrating in his spot, as if he was containing all the urge to hit Law. That was what got Law, Luffy hadn't hit him once, not the kind of punch in the face Law had heard Vivi received, not the kind Penguin was handing out, Luffy hadn't hit him once, ever since the whole ordeal started, and Law didn't want to push the younger to break that streak.

"I can't judge that but they were mostly criminals that got away from the police, muggers and robbers and rapists."

Luffy let out a sigh of relief and patted Law on the back. "So you're good."

"Hardly."

"And who did you experiment these things on?" Bepo questioned.

"People I found suffering limb loss at first, I took consents, offered them a chance and they took it. I have everything filed properly in a legal way so I won't get in any trouble-"

"But you're still not above murder and organ theft." Penguin scolded.

"Dead people don't need their organs and they can't tell if something's missing. Bad people had it coming."

"Wait, won't your patients tell on you though?" Luffy inquired, realizing in the moment that all the time when Law said he had patients to take care of, he always meant his experiment.

"Made a drug to fog that memory too, they only remember that they consented to it, just not what happened till I discharged them."

"Sounds shady as fuck." Shachi sighed. "But you're not doing that anymore right?"

"No, I destroyed all evidence of my facility's existence, so if I want to experiment more, I would have to do everything from scratch, and I'm too tired for that."

"You destroyed your warehouse already? So what were you going to destroy that day?" Luffy asked, wanting to know what Law had meant by 'that's a lie' too.

"I was going to take you to a random warehouse and drug you unconscious so I could leave."

"Then we found Cora-o so you didn't have to do that." Luffy grinned.

"Oh my god, Law, what the fuck man..." Penguin complained. "And you," the oldest turned to Luffy and continued, "don't forgive him so easily, he was going to drug you. This is so fucked up."

"I know Torao must have had a hard time deciding on doing that."

Law just gaped, he did have a hard time coming to the decision of drugging the younger and felt like shit for having thought of doing it, but even then, Luffy was indeed being too forgiving, it was either that or the younger was too indifferent to care, Law hoped it wasn't the latter but knew he didn't deserve it.

"So this was your research then?" Shachi asked while Penguin tried to regain his sense of calm.

"Yeap." Law hopped off the bed. "Now I'd like to check on Cora-san, make sure he's not on the road to burning this entire building down."

"I'm on your duty." Bepo walked with Law.

The two found Rosinante in the kitchen, trying to ignite the flame on the stove. Law quietly grabbed the fire extinguisher that was now in every room since Cora-san arrived. The father and son had been awkwardly distant, neither knowing how to go about talking to the other like they used or how it was in their memories.

Musta walked in the kitchen a few minutes later and Law grabbed the man by his arm. "Why the fuck is he unsupervised?" Law asked.

"Oh Law! I was going to make you some onigiri! You still like that right?" Rosinante beamed and the lit matchstick he had in his hand briefly touched his sleeve and his entire shoulder caught fire.

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE CORA-SAN!" Law quickly sprayed the contents of the fire extinguisher on his adoptive father and successfully doused the fire. "You shouldn't be anywhere near a stove! When will you learn your lesson?!"

"I just wanted to do something for you..." The older man said sadly.

"You gave me my life, you don't have to do anything for me." The doctor extended a hand to help the blond up. "And if you really want to do something, you can start by talking to Luffy a little more."

Rosinante sighed, Law was right, the older man had been sort of ignoring Luffy on purpose, kind of holding it against the youngest for taking his son away from him. Rosinante berated himself for being more of a child than an actual child.

"Captain loves Luffy, you can gain his favour by gaining his boyfriend's favour." Bepo added and Musta laughed in his fist at how red Law turned.

"You're right, I can do that." Rosinante said and stood up.

"My friends mostly prepare my meals so I actually eat, so you don't need to do that. I've gotten very picky about food." Law said with a small smile.

"You still have trouble keeping track of your meals and sleep?"

"Luffy helps him with all that too." Bepo said making a heart with his paws.

"I will go talk to Luffy then." Corazon said and left to find the young man.

"Can I have some tea, please?" Law requested Musta the moment Cora left.

"Sure. Bepo you?" Musta got to work, thanking his stars that Law didn't threaten him with anything for laughing at him earlier.

"Milk and honey."

"Bepo I want those images as soon as possible so I can start looking for a stent." Law told his bear friend, referencing to the images Penguin had saved in the machine from his angiogram, they had measured everything and only needed to print the images so Law could get the consolidated data.

"Aye!"

~

It was Godfather's whimpering barks that made Luffy sure of the fact that Law wasn't ok. It was an hour into midnight and the boyfriends still couldn't sleep. Well, it was actually Law who was awake and by extension, Luffy didn't sleep either.

Law tried controlling his thoughts by pushing a pillow in his face but it wasn't working, his brain kept going back to what Luffy had said to him earlier in the day, about the memorial stones. The older wasn't angry about it, just disturbed that maybe the stones were the one thing left that were holding him down into the past and not letting him move on.

"Fuck my life." Law cursed under his breath and left the bed.

"Where are you going?" Luffy asked and patted Godfather to dismiss the alarm the dog had sensed in his master. The younger heard Law grumble something under his breath, grab something from his closet and saw him walk out. Quicker than ever being called for food, Luffy left the bed and beckoned Godfather to follow. "Torao." Luffy tried again but Law didn't answer and just put on his masks and coat at the front door and went out.

Putting his shoes on and a jacket delayed Luffy a few minutes but he wasn't far behind Law when he left the Hearts building. Godfather kept his nose connected to Luffy's palm because the younger's pulse was increasing with every step he took to follow Law. Some ten minutes later and Luffy realized Law was on the path to the memorial stones and the younger immediately realized it had something to do with what he had said earlier in the day. Luffy still couldn't see what Law was carrying in his hands but it wasn't a mystery for much longer.

Luffy ran the remaining distance to the memorial site because Law was power walking and with his long legs, the doctor was much faster than Luffy. By the time the younger reached the stones, he saw Law walk to where the stones for the older's parents and Lami were. Luffy watched Law look at the stones, his golden eyes sad and strangely hard. It came as something very sudden and raw for Luffy when Law raised his arms with the thing he had grabbed earlier and brought it down on the stones. With the first hit, Luffy recognized the thing in the older's hands as a big hammer. The younger could only watch, stunned, as Law brought the hammer down on the stones until they broke to pieces around his feet.

Luffy didn't understand what was happening, he couldn't believe what he was seeing but he brought himself out of his shock when Law walked towards him, his cheeks wet from the tears that were still falling out of his eyes. "Torao... what..."

"There, now you don't have any promises to keep to anyone." Law shoved the hammer in Luffy's arms and walked back to the Hearts building, sniffling occasionally.

Luffy looked at Law walking away for a few seconds before deciding to see what his boyfriend had done to the stones first and then follow him. It was horrible, the pristine stone broken and scattered on the ground, no longer home for something that Luffy believed Law needed in his life. It broke Luffy's heart that it was because of him that Law had opted to do such a thing, so the younger hurried back to the older's side, so he could help him through the consequences.

Law was burrowed in added blankets when Luffy took his place beside the older on the bed. Even through the multiple layers, Luffy could hear the sniffles that were leaving his boyfriend. Sighing, Luffy draped himself on the mass of blankets.

"I'm sorry for what I said about the memorial stones. I made you destroy them." Luffy said with a heavy heart.

"I did that for myself- they were holding me down." Law said moving the blankets to bring his head out.

"But you talked to them, and they calmed you..."

"Made me worse after venting... I don't need that." Law removed a few blankets and scooted so he could rest his head on Luffy's chest, the younger allowed it. "I should learn to talk to live humans, especially you since you can talk sense back into me."

"I couldn't talk you out of going to your death." Luffy whispered running his fingers through his boyfriend's hair.

"You didn't know I was going to do that."

"And I hate myself for not being able to know."

"I'm very good at acting."

"You're not getting an award from me if that's what you're hinting at."

Law exhaled, feeling a little better talking to the younger, this was the precise reason for breaking the stones and ending their existence, so he could move in the direction of actual healing. Law was trying to bring himself to the understanding that his family wasn't etched into some rocks, they weren't in the ground, they weren't in the heavens, they were nowhere and at the same time, they were everywhere Law wanted them to be, they were a part of him, always with him and thus, he didn't need a material reminder of their tragedy or their existence.

"You know you're allowed to be mad, right?" Law said after some moments of silence, Godfather had chosen that time to make himself comfortable near Law's feet.

"I know." Luffy answered immediately, his response short.

"Are you mad?"

"I am."

"Don't keep it in." The older said.

"You're already giving yourself a hard enough time, I don't wanna add to it, and I am mad, worse actually, but you don't need that right now, you need love and care, I can be mad another time."

"Thank you."

"What are you doing about that stent?" Luffy asked when Law had stopped sniffling.

"I already got a seller, will go pick it up in a few days."

"Is it true that it hurts all the time or were you lying?"

"I've heard people complain about spontaneous pain from stents and other such devices. It's said and believed that these things set within six months of the procedure but I don't believe it, you know our blood vessels also have pain receptors, so I believe that people who have said that their device aches or stings, they're telling the truth, for whatever reason but it must really sting." Law answered truthfully. "And I already have high anxiety and stress levels, mine would definitely sting all the time."

"I'll help you Torao, you're not dealing with any of this alone." Luffy reiterated.

"I feel like too much of a burden all the time to ask for help and feel undeserving of it when you're always there for me, especially after the stupid shit I get into."

"I'm hard to get rid of Torao." The younger laughed.

"I'm grateful for that." Law sighed.

"Why didn't you want to tell me though?"

Law thought Luffy was asking about his heart. "I don't know... I guess some part of me thought you would get angry at me for having so many health problems, but that's not you, I don't know why I think like that."

"And that other thing?"

"I don't want to involve you in that."

"Don't? Present tense? You're still thinking about carrying on with your revenge?"

"No... I don't know..." Law took a breath and a moment to answer completely. "Cora-san's alive so I don't have a reason to get any revenge anymore... but I don't know who I am without it. I was my parents' prodigal son when Flevance was still the White City, I was that bastard's tool to use as he pleased before Cora-san got me out, then I was the sickly child at death's door before I was Cora-san's adoptive child... since then I've only been someone who wanted revenge and now that's taken from me so I don't know who I am anymore, if that makes sense."

"You're Torao, silly." Luffy said in his usual simple manner, his words truth, as always. "You're my boyfriend, you're my constant person. You are Cora-o's son, funny guys' friend, Bepo's best friend, Nami and Nojiko's brother, a great doctor Chopper looks up to and Marco is impressed with, you're my savior, you're Ace's savior too, you're the good guy who thought I needed a service dog and got me Godfather, and then, you're kind." Listing everything, Luffy realized this was what Law meant when he said the stones couldn't talk back, he needed affirmations and reassurances that only people could provide. The young man hugged his boyfriend harder than usual.

"I need to believe in something right now, so I guess I will believe in your words."

"Good. And have you started thinking about what you wanna do from now on?"

"I don't know... I'm taking this one day at a time." Law stifled the urge to yawn and decided to give in to his eyes closing from the comfort of being safe and strong arms. The doctor thought he should have done it sooner, talked to Luffy earlier so he could feel the peace strangely only Luffy could provide.

"You take all the time you need, we're all going to be right here." Luffy patted Law's back and ran his fingers through the older's hair, feeling him dozing off, waiting till Law's sleep was strong enough to allow himself to sleep too. It was going to take time, but things would be ok.

~