~

"It's so shiny!" Luffy laughed looking at Law's medical degree, turning it around again and again to make sure he had looked at it from every angle. Kureha had handed Law the folder containing his documents a few hours ago and everyone had come over to congratulate the new doctor and to celebrate the achievement.

"What else is in there? That envelope is thick as fuck." Ace said pointing to the folder still in Law's hands, the older had been smiling too wide at just his degree that he hadn't had the mental motivation to move to the other stuff.

"I'll see." Law said, still smiling and it was so contagious, it sent everyone smiling too.

"You'll like it." Kureha said with a small smile of her own, feeling old once again seeing Law being so happy. To the old woman, it felt like just yesterday when Law was short and not even fifteen, learning from her for the little while that he did, exhibiting excellence Kureha hadn't seen in anyone for ages.

"It's my license!" Law grinned again, his cheeks starting to hurt from all the smiling and laughing. "Haha! I love my picture here!"

"Oh god, you went like that?!" Sabo peeked over the surgeon's shoulder and his eyes nearly popped out.

"Torao looked so sexy." Luffy said absentmindedly, also taking a look at the picture.

"When did you start thinking like that?!" Ace screamed shaking his little brother before Law could get in an embarrassed comment. "Who swapped his brain?!"

"Uwah! It's the emo Law!" Nami shook her head when the license got passed around to her, the picture was from the day of the exams. "He used to dress all black when he first started living with us in Cocoyashi."

"Nobody said anything?" Usopp raised an eyebrow, incredulous that the picture was even taken.

"They wanted to, I could tell, but when I made their brains dry from all the questions they had to think of to try and trip me, they gave up." Law smiled again.

"You look normal now though, you're even wearing white."

"I like making an impression where it matters."

"Your words and actions mean different things." Sanji put in. "But I'm so glad you got your license, we will have another dependable doctor in Goa now."

"You said it." Ace agreed.

"Right, so I relinquish the care of this stupid fuck to you now, yoi." Marco joked, pushing his boyfriend towards Law.

"Please, I have my own." Law said pulling Luffy beside him with an arm around the younger's shoulder.

"Oh right, that's worse." The blond doctor laughed.

"Maybe Luffy would start going to the hospital more now." Uta said from her seat beside Robin who was supporting the young woman so her abdomen wouldn't hurt from sitting for too long.

"No! I still hate hospitals!" Luffy was quick to say, pushing his tongue out as if he had tasted something bad.

"But if you want your moronic injuries or wounds treated, Law would only have the time to do it at the hospital, since he's gonna be there."

"That's not fair at all!" The young man protested.

"I'm still waiting for you to say that you would try and not get hurt, but I guess that's too much to ask for." Law shook his head at his boyfriend.

"If you both weren't together already, I can imagine you both getting together like in that trope where there's person A who gets injured a lot and person B is always his doctor!" Penguin thought out loud and caused everyone to laugh.

"Somebody has a lot of time thinking of fanfiction tropes, did you break up with Killer-ya or something?"

"I'll tell Ikkaku, she'd want to write a fic about this." Shachi said already typing the message to the Hearts.

"Killer and I are just fine." Penguin defended himself, face as red as Shachi's hair.

"Wait, what is this?" Law turned his attention to the bundle of sheets in the envelope he was cradling in his arms now.

"PhD recommendations." Doctorine said. "The deans said you are qualified for four PhDs if you can get your serum approved by the health committee for hospital use."

"FOUR?!" Everyone except Brook, Jinbei and Robin exclaimed.

"There's some room for fine tuning and I doubt the health committee would approve of the way I make it possible." Law scratched his head.

"Their board is full of idiots, they approve cough syrups that are killing children left and right because of high alcohol content, write up something believable, they don't have the brains to go against medical research." The woman advised with a shrug and everyone looked from Doctorine to Law.

"So you are responsible for our Law being so amoral?!" Shachi pointed at Kureha. "He was fine when we met him!"

"Yeah! Then he went and trained with you and- oh yeah! That was when he started being evil!" Penguin agreed.

"Chopper isn't like that so it wasn't me." Kureha laughed.

"Yeah I have always been evil." Law agreed. "You guys were just too starry-eyed to see my true nature."

"But how come you deceived Bepo too? Don't animals have better instincts?" Shachi inquired.

"I chose to ignore it since captain wasn't getting hurt." Bepo mentioned. "But speaking of animal instincts now..." The bear mink looked at Chopper and they agreed on something through their eyes, turning them to Law next who was subtly shaking his head for the two to drop it. Law didn't want Bepo and Chopper pointing it out loud that Luffy and him smelled the same for some reason, Law knew the reason, Chopper and Bepo would call it mating but the humans among them would never let Law live it down so he shook his head, promised Bepo lots of cuddles and Chopper lots of cotton candy to keep their mouths shut.

"Huh, what were you saying?" Penguin shook Bepo.

"Nothing... I got distracted." The polar bear laughed and diffused the attention.

Slowly everyone started leaving after the mandatory dinner for the celebration. The Strawhats were ironically the first to leave, Luffy's brothers and Uta next, until it was Kureha who Law was seeing off at the door.

"I expect to hear your name all the way to Sakura in a few months." The old woman said, patting Law's head, being close to him in terms of height.

"In good terms I suppose." Law grinned.

"Either way is fine with me but seeing how hard you worked for this, good terms would be preferred."

"Thank you for making this happen." The younger doctor said with a bow of his head in respect and gratitude.

"It's our duty as grown-ups to facilitate the next generation to take our place in the world, now you just make your parents proud." Kureha dismissed with a witchy laugh.

"I plan on it."

"Good." The old woman patted Law on his head one more time before she also left.

The three Hearts were too excited for Law to be able to sleep on a regular time at night, so they convinced Luffy to watch a movie with them, who in turn convinced Law to stay up all night too. It was supposed to be a movie but then Bepo wanted to watch something old so they ended up watching Doctor Who, and to their weirdly tired brains and bodies, the show provided an odd sense of childlike wonder. It was almost dawn by the time the five went to bed.

"What're you doing?" Luffy raised an eyebrow when he got out of the bathroom and saw Law sitting on his bed, smiling, looking at something in his hands.

"I'm just going to look at this for a while longer." Law answered flashing his medical license for the younger to see what he had in his hands.

"Ok." Luffy crawled into bed behind the older and pulled him back so Law's back and head were resting on Luffy's chest.

"You're responsible for this too, so thank you." Law said after a few minutes of silence, craning his neck to look up at his boyfriend.

"No problem Torao!" The younger smiled and pushed a quick kiss on Law's exposed forehead. "Now you just be a doctor."

"Yeah..." The more Law thought on those words, the more they settled in his heart that now he could be an actual doctor, the kind his parents were, the kind they were raising him to be, the kind that would change the dynamics of medicine, the kind Law himself wanted to be, and thinking about it, the older got so overwhelmed, so suddenly, that he couldn't keep tears from getting out of his eyes.

Luffy was humming the Bad Wolf theme under his breath, resting his chin on Law's head so he didn't notice it right away but when Godfather jumped on the bed and began to paw at the younger to pay attention, Luffy opened his eyes and looked at the older, only to see him wiping at his eyes. With the way Law was clutching his medical license near his heart, Luffy knew he didn't need to be alarmed over the reason for his boyfriend's tears so instead, the young man provided a solid shoulder to lean on and a comfortable space to cry into.

~

"Mmmmmm." Luffy hummed with narrowed eyes, looking at Law with his arms crossed. "I don't like this after all, I wanna come with."

"You can't backtrack on your words now." Law countered, crossing his own arms with a roll of his eyes. Law and his Hearts were at the airport, waiting to board their flight for Flevance because Law needed to get his stuff and show his face to his friends one last time before moving to Goa for good. Luffy had agreed to let the older go since it was with his friends but at the airport, when it was really time to part, the younger felt scared that he might not see Law again, again, and that the older might pull some stupid shit again.

"I know your friends will make sure you reach Flevance alive but you'd be coming back here alone and I don't trust you with that right now."

"And you have all the reason to too but it's so sad that there aren't any last minute tickets available and that I absolutely have to go too." Law stuck his tongue out.

"This isn't fair! I wanna come with!" Luffy stomped his foot.

"Come on, your friends trust me enough to return so they aren't even here to see me off." The older tried reasoning. The three Hearts were listening to the conversation but left it to the boyfriends to figure something out.

"No, they are here, hiding behind that wall." Luffy said plainly, pointing to the wall beside the escalators.

"What the fuck..." Law then shook his head. "Look, I am coming back, in a week's time." When Luffy narrowed his eyes, Law took a deep breath. "If I don't come back, I know you will actually hunt me down and you can see I'm too tired for that, so I won't be doing that stupid shit anymore."

"I still don't like this..." The younger pouted and it got worse when there was an announcement for boarding.

"I was going to kiss you so you could survive the week, but nah, I changed my mind." Law shrugged with a grin.

"That's even worse!!"

"Trust me to come back then, you'll get your kisses." Law knew he had no right to ask Luffy to trust him, none whatsoever to even be so unfair but he had to do that for himself, to make sure he wouldn't stray and the yearning would definitely force him to come back to Goa, to Luffy. "Godfather, you know the drill." The doctor bent down to give a few treats to the pup, pointed at the wall Luffy had pointed at before, and the dog ran. No later than ten seconds, there was Zoro's cursing ringing through the entire airport lobby.

"So Godfather gets treats but I get nothing?" Luffy pouted even more.

"You get a see you later this time." Law said with a smile and hugged his boyfriend, letting go a minute later. "See you later."

"You better come back Torao!" Luffy called when Law and the Hearts started disappearing behind the gates.

~

"...what... am I looking at?" Law stopped at the door of the Hearts building and dropped his shoulder bag. The four Hears had just arrived in Flevance and had been driven back to the building only to find every other Hearts member screaming and running around like headless chickens.

"Oh cap's here! We are saved!!" Hakugan yelled when he saw Law and rushed to his captain, to hold his hands and lead him to the issue. "Musta's wife is having her baby, pleas-"

"What the fuck is she doing here then?! Why isn't she at the hospital?!" Law scolded and got angrier when Musta came into view. "You donkey! Why isn't she at the hospital already?!"

"It's early!" Musta cried, pulling at his hair.

"Oh crap." Penguin cursed and quickly moved to get the infirmary ready with Bepo's help.

"Look, it's not ideal to have a baby outside of a hospital, so there's still time, take her to a hospital." Law patted his friend on the shoulders to calm him down.

"She's too scared to move and kinda angry at me..." Musta said avoiding eye contact.

"Why...?" Law narrowed his eyes.

"I kind of... ignored her contractions..."

"You brought this on yourself buddy." The Hearts captain sighed and beckoned Shachi to follow him to Becca, Musta's wife. The poor woman was stuck to the lobby couch, eyes wide, clothes damp with sweat, breathing already so labored. Law knew with his three doctor friends kind of tired from the air travel, it was on him to make sure that everything would so smoothly. "Becca, we are going to move you to the infirmary ok?" Law sat down on his knees to bring himself to eye level with the trembling woman. The doctor was trying his best to be nice and kind about the situation because even when he was too young, his mother had drilled it into him that doctors had to be absolutely kind and patient with the ones suffering.

"O-ok-.." The woman nodded shakily.

"Do you want Musta in there with you or Ikkaku?"

"Ikka-ku."

"You heard the lady. Let's move." Law motioned for Ikkaku to wait at the infirmary while Shachi helped Becca on the wheelchair.

"Becs, cap's the best doctor in the entire world! You're gonna be ok!" Ikkaku provided words to comfort and encouragement when the older woman was shifted to the bed in the infirmary and the room was locked. The four doctors changed into their gears, went over the medical history together in a few seconds, made all the necessary preparations before the dilation was enough for the tiny human to get gushed out into the world of the living.

"You can boycott Musta for being an idiot and ignoring your pain." Law told Becca and shrugged, mischief written all over his face when he was taking off his gear after having finished patching her up, keeping the new mother's attention away from what his friends were doing to her baby boy. Bepo was leading Penguin and Shachi to check all vitals and organs. "I swear, men are just incompetent."

"Except Luffy, you mean." Ikkaku called Law out, hugging Becca closer to herself, helping her breathing to calm down and her hiccups to stop.

"I'll get Musta for this later, I don't want to rob him of this moment." Becca said so Ikkaku quickly went and got Musta.

Law looked back over his shoulder to see what was taking so long and found Bepo giving him an OK with a big grin. "Ready to meet your baby?" Law asked, a smile on his face, too big to even his own surprise.

"Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! Sithi uhm ingonyama!" Penguin and Shachi sang holding the bundled up new human up in the air and everyone lost it. Becca was handed her son and she could barely stop her laughter and tears from the two Hearts singing the Circle of Life, very poorly, her son in her arms, all that pain and suffering paying off.

Law silently made his leave from the infirmary and first texted Luffy of what had happened then went to take a bath. A ton of messages and missed calls awaited Law when he got out of the bath. The doctor abandoned everything he had scheduled for the remainder of his day and called Luffy back.

"I told you I was going to take a bath, did you think I took my phone in there with me?" Law asked with a roll of his eyes. "Why so many missed calls?"

"I miss youuuuuuuuuuu!" Luffy cried on the other end.

"That's concerning, it hasn't even been two days."

"Show me the babeeehhhhhhhh!"

"Look in the mirror." Law joked knowing full well what baby Luffy was talking about.

"Not me! The new baby you just got out!"

"The phrasing..."

"Show meeeee!" Luffy insisted and Law knew he wasn't going to shut up without getting a photograph.

"Fine, stay on call, I'll ask Becca." Law agreed and left his room to walk to the infirmary. The new parents, the new baby and Bepo were the only ones in the infirmary. The three looked up at Law when he entered their conscious radius. "Luffy's asking if he can see the baby." Law said pointing to his phone.

"Sure!" Musta agreed in an instant then yelped when he got pinched by his wife who scowled at him.

"Oh right, after not believing me, you get to decide everything huh?" Becca pulled her son closer to herself and Law sniggered at the way Musta's face paled.

"Sorry... you can decide." The man said.

"Of course Luffy can see him." Becca smiled at Law and laughed inwardly when her husband looked like he wanted to protest for being wronged.

"I'm putting you on video, do NOT make loud noises, the baby's asleep and new ears are sensitive to sounds." Law warned Luffy then put the younger on video and pointed the camera in the small family's direction.

"Hey guys! Good job mom!" Luffy said excitedly.

"Thank you." Becca said and moved the baby towards the camera so Luffy could see better.

"Nom nom nom nom nom!! I wanna nom his cheeks! They look so yummy!"

"You're not eating a human baby! I let you eat all sorts of animals but cannibalism is where I must draw the line." Law pulled his phone away and turned the video off. "Sorry guys." The doctor quickly told his friends and left the infirmary.

"Torao! I wanna see the baby again!"

"This time, really go see in a mirror."

"Noooo!"

"You're too loud, you were going to wake him up, then he would have remembered he was hungry and he would have wanted milk, then Becca wouldn't be able to rest."

"Fine... but you're sending me pictures later!" Luffy agreed only because his Torao's logic was sound.

"If the parents allow." Law shrugged.

"How many babies does that make? The ones you got out."

"Again, the phrasing..." The older shook his head and passed the lobby, saw Penguin realize that Law's hair were wet and got beckoned to get his hair dried. "That's five now."

"But this is the first doctor thing you did after your license! That's so cool!"

"Luffy we're counting on you to make sure Law's hair are dried after every bath!" Penguin yelled into the mic of Law's phone, using the proximity to his advantage. "And the rest of him too!"

"You ass! I know I won't at least miss you." Law pushed his friend's face away with his hand.

"Nyahahahaha!!" The younger's laughter rang even outside the phone and Penguin smiled to himself. "Put me on speaker Torao!"

"You better not say something weird." Law warned then did as his boyfriend had asked.

"Godfather will be with Torao for the baths when I can't, but even then I might miss sometimes. I'll make sure though that Torao doesn't get sick because he's stupid and he didn't dry his hair properly-"

"Oh like you're any better!" Law retorted immediately, cutting the younger's speech.

"I am! We can take baths together too though." Luffy thought out loud and Law had to put him off the speaker with a red face.

"I was going to comment some dirty things but then it's you both, you guys are aces so I'm not gonna say anything." Penguin shrugged. "But yeah, Luffy, baths for this guy are disastrous, help him."

"Tell Peng I said ok." Luffy told Law who relayed the words to his friend.

"I'll call you back after my hair are dried properly." Law made sure to imitate Penguin.

"Ok Torao, get your hair dried! And send me the baby pictures too!"

"Talk to you later."

~

Penguin and Shachi looked around Law's room, then at each other, then at the man himself. Law had invited the two to make sure he wasn't missing packing anything and to check if he had overlooked something because after their OK, Law was going to book a flight and be out of Flevance for good.

"You... haven't packed anything." Shachi scratched his head pointing to Law's desk that still had his stationery and books.

"Yeah, man what the hell." Penguin opened the closet and found nearly all the clothes still hanging.

"I did pack." Law pointed to the three suitcases neatly tucked away in a corner. "I plan on coming back for vacations sometimes so of course I'm gonna leave some things behind."

"Oh." Shachi sighed in relief. "In that case, it's just us that you haven't packed yet."

"I thought you guys didn't want me to commit murder and mutilate human bodies anymore..." Law joked. "That's the only way you'd fit in my bags."

"We'd rather stay here." Penguin quickly said seeing the dangerous glint in the youngest's eyes.

"Counting on you both to keep everyone in check and out of trouble." Law told both of the Hearts, already having gone through with the overly emotional farewell hugs from the remaining Hearts.

"You got it." Shachi saluted. "No jobs for Bepo?"

"Bepo and Jean Bart are on the duty of hitting everyone who steps out of line." Law answered then walked out of his room, his friend following.

When Law put his keys and wallet in his pants, Penguin raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere."

"Should we be concerned?" Shachi asked next.

"No, and you shouldn't follow either if you want to be happy like Musta someday." Law stuck his tongue out and put his shoes on to leave.

"He's definitely going to the memorial site." Penguin shook his head and went to the kitchen to make some onigiri because Law would need it after coming back home.

Law clutched the bouquet of sunflowers in his hand and took a deep breath before opening his eyes to walk towards the memorial site, since after Luffy, nothing other than a sunflower felt right for that place. The doctor just wanted to look at that place one last time, put the flowers down then leave, well he knew he would be laying the flowers on the rubble of his own making but he felt like he needed to still do that to close that chapter forever.

Law had anticipated rubble, he had thought there would still be pieces of broken stones. Trafalgar Law had no plans of feeling so much love that it would hurt but that was what happened when he saw the stones of his family, the ones he had broken, glued back together. With a wet laugh at realizing that such a shitty job could only belong to one person, Law sat down in front of the stones and took his time to just look over all the cracks and imperfections the stones now had.

It was Luffy who had put the stones back together, Law knew that just by looking at it, and well, he could remember the younger coming back to the building one day with insane amounts of glue on his hands and clothes, dirt stuck to him, and fingers with bloody pricks from being careless with the sharp edges, and Luffy hadn't told Law what he had been doing, just that it was something he wanted to heal. Law hadn't questioned it at the time, too preoccupied with himself but now... Law loved Luffy so much.

Law traced the cracks with his fingertips and threaded a flower through the occasional space between them and by the end of it, the stones looked alive with the cracks that gave them character and the sunflowers that gave them colour. Walking away from the memorial site, Law felt a strange sense of peace, knowing this time for sure, he was carrying his family with him.

~

Luffy was vibrating with excitement at getting to see Law again but this time without deadlines. Beside Luffy was Godfather, panting with excitement just about the same, and beside the two was Rosinante, displaying no difference in his own happiness.

"You guys are going to exhaust yourself before Law even gets here. Calm down." Nami rolled her eyes at the three and relaxed further in the annoyingly creaking airport chair.

"Law seems more like a cat but it's strange how he's surrounded by dog energy." Usopp commented.

"Luffy stay back before the security apprehends you again!" Ace pulled his brother by the back of his shirt because the younger was very subtly moving closer and closer to the gates.

"That happened once! I'm not doing anything bad!" Luffy defended himself, he did get handcuffed and escorted to the security office one time. "Torao's gonna be here any moment anyway!"

"That doesn't mean you can just... nevermind." Nami tried but gave up when Law came into view. "Oh he really did come back alive."

"Guess you can trust him after all." Sabo wondered out loud but it got drowned in the loud wolf whistles by Franky and Nami because Luffy had ran to Law, jumped on him, that much was normal, but Law was the one who kissed the younger, publically. That did warrant loud, obnoxious and inappropriate whistling.

"Welcome home!" Luffy greeted with a huge grin, arms and legs still wrapped around the older, not budging even after Law started walking towards the group, letting everyone show their love in their own way. Law didn't say it aloud and by the smile on his face, it didn't need to be, but all through the airport and the streets of Goa to the Thousand Sunny for the party and then to his own house, in his bed, till the doctor fell asleep, the words were loud and clear in his head anyway.

I'm home.

~

Toriyama-sensei died TToTT

It's the end of an era, it's so sad!

Oda and Kishimoto's messages at the news made everything all the worse TToTT

May God rest his soul in peace <3