~

Monolith pulled her paws under her, resting more firmly against Godfather, the two in their beds in Law's room. Godfather let out a huff to let the feline know he was awake too. Monolith though, wanted nothing to do with the big dog, it was a mere coincidence that he was resting beside her, the cat didn't seek him out on her own, no. Godfather was another matter, but Luffy, Monolith wanted to sit on his head and suffocate him so her hooman would start paying more attention to her. Monolith stared at the sleeping Luffy, ideas of murder in her head, the feeling of Luffy's skin she had scratched a few hours earlier still fresh on her claws, then Godfather nudged her head with his snout, to push those dark thoughts out of the feline's head. The sound that escaped Monolith was akin to a human's tsk, she cursed that her thoughts were found out, by that goofyass dog no less. Monolith stretched in her place, thinking she would spare Luffy for a while longer, she didn't want to upset Law anyway, and feeling the disturbance in Luffy's energy, Monolith knew she wouldn't have to cause damage herself, the young human was already hurt, enough that it sent Godfather on his feet to calm Luffy before he even woke up screaming.

"Holy fuck-!" Law woke up with a start, hands immediately going to cover his ears at the loud screaming that he saw next was coming from Luffy. When the initial shock of the situation wore off, Law tried to get an idea of what was actually going on.

It didn't look like a panic attack, or any meltdown Law had ever seen, not with the way Luffy was screaming and crying and shaking as if he was thrown in a blizzard with little to no clothes.

"Get away from me!" Luffy pushed at Godfather's head when the dog tried getting close to comfort his human.

"It's ok, I've got this." Law told the dog in a small voice and patted the space on the bed next to him so the dog would be out of harm's way. "Good job."

Law then turned his attention to his boyfriend, contemplating whether he should touch the younger or not. Shaking his head and making peace with the fact the he could get punched in the face, Law put a firm hand on Luffy's shoulder.

"Luffy-"

And he got punched in his face.

"Stay away from me!" Luffy yelled. "Stay away from me!"

Law held his nose, briefly checked if he was bleeding, thanked his luck that he wasn't, then quickly assessed the situation in front of him. Luffy looked beyond spooked. But before Law could start acting, the younger's crying intensified.

"Get it off! Get this off me!" Luffy started scratching at his left thigh. Law couldn't understand why the bandages on the scrapes Luffy got earlier were bothering him like that.

"Luffy, stop, you're hurting yourself." The older grabbed Luffy's hands because he had started to draw blood under the bandages.

"Get away from me! Leave me alone!" Luffy thrashed and fell off the bed, looking around in a panic, then the young man crawled under Law's table and made himself small. "Leave me alone- I don't want to do it- don't make me do it- please-"

Law got off his bed too and went to sit in front of Luffy, deciding not to touch him. When Luffy didn't acknowledge the older's presence despite looking at him, Law realized what this could be. "Is your mind stuck in a bad time?"

"Leave me alone- leave me alone- leave me alone-" Luffy was rocking back and forth, arms around his knees, nails digging in the bandages on his arms. Law would have let the younger calm down on his own but when Luffy's nails started drawing blood again, the older decided to fuck it all to hell and use a little force.

Law grabbed one of Luffy's wrists and dragged him out from under the table, pressed the younger's back against his chest, keeping a firm grip on the wrists so Luffy wouldn't hurt himself again. Law circled his arms around the younger in a tight hug, letting him scream and cry and thrash all he wanted. It was well after an hour or so that Luffy stopped trying to get free and his breathing started getting even, but his mind hadn't returned yet, and the shaking hadn't stopped.

"Don't make me do it... please..." Luffy kept repeating in a small voice until even that stopped. "Cold..."

Law took notice how his boyfriend was still shaking in his arms, maybe he really was cold, the reason the doctor couldn't figure out at the moment. So, Law helped Luffy on the bed and wrapped blankets around him to ease the shaking. Luffy still looked out of it and kept shivering. Law didn't care about the time and dialed Den, hoping he would have a clue. The other doctor was already at the ER in the Goa General.

"Doc? Everything ok?" Den asked when he answered the call.

"Did you run a blood culture on Luffy when he was in this morning?" Law asked, eyes not leaving the younger. Luffy had sustained multiple scrapes, it wouldn't be a surprise if he got blood infection from all that, and ceaseless cold and shivering was a tell-tale sign of that.

"You know it's not standard procedure unless someone is presenting symptoms, but I did – got chewed out for it by the head nurse too." Den sighed. "But the results showed no signs of any infection, his blood was clean." Then something clicked. "Wait, is he manifesting symptoms?"

"No, just occurred to me. Good job, thank you."

"You got it. Hope he's ok though for real, six of us had to hold him down for his shots."

"I'll let you get back to work, thanks."

Law put his phone aside and felt guilt consume him. After talking to Den, Law understood what was happening. It was because Law had treated the younger's wounds himself, had left it to others, six of those others had to hold him down... It all must have triggered the bad memories from Swallow Island. Swallow Island, that was bone-chilling cold. Not letting the guilt and vacuum stop him for helping his boyfriend, Law brought out everything that was used to provide heat and warmth, the heatpad, the electric heater, but Luffy was still cold.

Then as suddenly as it had happened, it stopped. It still took Luffy a few minutes to kick the blankets off him though.

"What happened?" Luffy asked, because Godfather looked spooked, Law looked relieved, and Luffy felt really weird himself.

"You were stuck in a bad time in your past." Law was surprised his own voice came out so small. "I'm sorry..."

Luffy looked down too, he was trying so hard to not cause that guilt to Law that he internalized everything and ended up having a nightmare and causing Law guilt anyway. "You didn't know something like this would happen."

"I should have anticipated it."

The younger sighed, Law was not going to let it go. So Luffy used a different approach. "Then help me change the bandages... it's the fourth time today now."

Law looked at the red bandages and recalled Luffy scratching his wounds and drawing blood. "Yeah... do you want a bath?"

"Can I have a bath with these? It's not bad for the scrapes?"

"No, I will control the bad elements... least I can do."

"Come on then." Luffy got off the bed.

Law followed the younger to the bathroom where he first made sure the water was warm enough then he sat Luffy down in a stool and cleaned his skin, making sure not to expose the open wounds to too much water and soap. Law made faces at the bruises on Luffy's chest and back that he didn't know about, that he probably got from falling off the bike but his shirt must have hidden.

"I'm sorry." Law kept repeating all the while he was bandaging Luffy's arms and legs, applying salve and bandaging the torso too. "Punch me in the face next time I'm being an ass and you have wounds that need treated."

"Nyahahaha! That's be funny!" Luffy laughed then crawled into bed before Law turned off the lights and joined him.

Law relaxed knowing his boyfriend was feeling better, even if he himself was not.

~

Luffy only looked OK but he wasn't. When Law woke up the next morning, he found that the younger was awake, his eyes half-lidded and tired, like he had been awake the entire night.

"Couldn't sleep?" Law asked, tired himself.

"Mmm." Luffy responded.

It was evident in the younger's tired manner that he was reliving his nightmare behind his open eyes, not being able to cut those thoughts out at all.

Law took his phone and opened the chat with Qar.

|I'm sick, don't call me even if there is an emergency. Thank you.

With that done, Law opened the group chat that had the Strawhats and Luffy's brothers.

You

Luffy and I are not participating in Today.

DND.

After making sure that the messages were sent, Law turned his phone off, turned Luffy's phone off, bolted all the doors and windows from the inside and went back to sleep. Luffy wasn't feeling any better than he was in the night when he had that nightmare, so for Law the sun hadn't risen. The older helped Luffy fall back asleep even if it was for a few hours.

The few hours of sleep Law himself got during the night were more than enough for him so after making sure that the younger was fast asleep, Law left the bed to make preparations for food that Luffy might feel hungry enough to consume when he would wake up.

Law first cleaned the living room, put everything in its place, and while cleaning everything, Law found Luffy's strawhat under the living room table. The doctor pulled it out and turned it in his hands, fingers going over the damage on it. Abandoning everything, Law got his sewing kit and sat down on the living room couch to start mending the hat. He had to be careful, because the hat was precious to his boyfriend and Law didn't want to ruin it.

The doctor admired his work when he was done patching the strawhat, impressed with his own handiwork. Law went to his bedroom to put the strawhat beside Luffy, he found Monolith already occupying the spot near Luffy's head, purring. The feline had never been that close to the younger, without scratching and hissing at him. Law smiled and scratched his cat behind her ears.

"Thank you for staying with him." Law whispered and put the strawhat near Monolith, and suppressed a laugh when the cat looked back at him with a 'it's a mere coincidence that I'm sitting so close to this human' stare.

.

Luffy woke up to the aroma of meat being cooked, feeling hungry from it. When the younger opened his eyes though, he jerked back from the sight of Monolith so close to his head. Luffy sat up and then noticed is hat was there too, and all mended at that. Luffy smiled and put the strawhat on his head, loving how Law must have taken care of it.

Luffy washed his face and went to where the delicious meat aromas were coming from, and found Law cooking. Sanji had been teaching Law so the younger had no worried when it came to the point whether the food was edible or not, Law had come a long way.

"Feeling better?" Law asked from the stove.

"Yeah." Luffy stood beside him and peeked inside the pot the meat was in. "Your cat's weird Torao."

"How so?"

"Just now, I swear she was trying to eat my face!"

"Was she now?" Law smiled and stirred the gravy. At that Monolith came in the kitchen too and Law picked her up. "Were you trying to eat his face? I told you that won't fly, you'd get food poisoning."

"Hey!" Luffy pouted. The younger looked around then tilted his head. "Why does everything feel so quiet?"

"Oh yeah." Law recalled. "Doors are bolted, windows too, both our phones are powdered off, taking a break from everything and everyone outside of this house." The older hadn't taken into account how Luffy might react to all that, so he waited to see what the younger would say.

"Cool! A whole day for just us!"

The two ate, watched movies, played games, laughed at Godfather carrying Monolith on his back, ate more, watched more movies, until the two were tired. But they still didn't want to go to bed.

"If no bed, then," Law started. "That room has a rocking chair."

"What room?" Luffy inquired.

"It's just that room."

Luffy followed Law to the room that the older didn't know what to do with, the one with big wall-length windows.

"Oh this room." Luffy realized. "Still don't wanna sleep Torao."

"Same." Law sighed. "Come on." The doctor led the younger to the guest bedroom and got the spare mattress out, took them to the room, put sheets on it, put more snacks there and laid down to binge on more visual media. That room provided a change of space for the men and that was what their brains needed to let their guards down.

"Bandages are itching, and eepy." Luffy said sitting up, trying his best not to itch.

"I'll get the supplies, change your bandages, then sleep." Law said and brought the medical supplies. "Let me see your nails." Law said when he undid the bandages and was reminded that Luffy had scratched himself really bad. The younger spread his fingers and let Law see. "I'm cutting them after this."

"Tomorrowwwwwww."

"Fine, first thing tomorrow then."

"Ok!"

After Law had changed the bandages and put the supplies back, Luffy dragged Law to the rocking chair, it was big enough to fit them both.

"Today was fun." Luffy commented, his head on the older's chest, curled on his side.

"It was, we should do this more often." Law sighed in content and closed his eyes.

"Love you Torao."

"Love you."

~

So sorry for the lack of updates ;-;

It will continue like this for a while

Happy New Year in advance! <3