Work Text:
The Coffee-Machine
- coffee prompt by klutzysurgeon
Law hated these inevitable nights of sleeplessness and pure terror. Nights when everything in his body and mind was screaming danger and panic. He was not even sure what was causing this. He might have assumptions but no evidence…
Law did not remember much of his childhood, he did not remember much before being sent to an orphanage together with children sharing a similar fate. He only remembered screams and fire. Fire and heat and pain and screams. Mostly screams. Maybe it was good that he could not remember? Who knows what those memories might have done to him. Probably worse than these… sleepless nights.
In the end, Law was not sure what was worse though. Not being able to sleep and therefore distracting his mind with studying and working as hard as he could. Or the creepy and general feeling of being unwell that got a hold of him after he finally managed to sleep.
Whenever Law woke up from a nice and long sleep he felt disorientated. Sometimes he was confused where he was. Why was he laying in a king-sized bed in a giant room? Why was he not in a small and stuffed room shared with three other boys in the orphanage? Where were Penguin, Shachi and Bepo?
Confused he would look around, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, while slowly starting to panic. It was not much different this time. Noises had woken him up. But what noises?! They were coming from the adjacent room. Curiosity won over panic. Slowly he got up, raising to his feet with a dizzy feeling in his head.
The room itself was decorated nicely. Bright colours, expensive looking furniture. There were pictures on the wall. Pictures of him with his friends, of him graduating school of him being with another person…? A tall blonde person was hugging a grumpy looking Law from behind, while showing the peace-sign with his fingers. The picture looked kind of goofy and out of place compared to the tidy and clean and minimalistic bedroom.
His mind needed a few moments to process the pictures. Right. Cora-san. His goofy, clumsy boyfriend.
Just as he remembered who the people on the pictures were, the sounds from the other room got louder. A loud bang, something was bursting, someone cursed, another bang. That sounded like spilt liquid. What was happening?
Law frowned. Slowly he walked towards the door, opened it and immediately took a step back. It was bright, too bright. His eyes were still used to the gloomy light of the bedroom. The TV was on, the lights were on, illuminating the room and hurting his eyes. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes again, slowly adapting to the brightness.
“Cora…?” He asked, before walking through the living room into the kitchen. He leaned against the doorframe, watching the ongoing scene with confusion and amusement at the same time.
Corazon, his boyfriend, his partner, was kneeling on the floor. There were shards of glass and porcelain surrounding him.
“Oh, Law- fuck! I hope I did not wake you up!” The Blonde looked up with a sorry look on his face.
“I eh- let me quickly clean everything and then-“ He hissed as he grabbed one of the bigger shards a bit to careless. Dark, red blood was slowly trickling down the shard and dripping on the floor.
“Damn it!”
Why did something like this always happen whenever Law finally managed to get a nice amount of sleep?!
“You did not wake me, mh. Do not worry. Just let me see.”
He took a few careful steps towards Rocinante, watching out to not step into the glass, before crouching down next to him.
“The cut is not deep, mh.”
Slowly he put the bleeding finger into his mouth, sucking on the smaller wound, while looking up to his boyfriend. How fast the pale skin of Rocinante was blushing~
Rocinante flinched.
“Are you still drowsy?” He tilted his head a little bit and tried to free his finger from the other one. Law was barely awake and already started to tease him!
“I will make you a-“ He stopped before slowly looking towards the kitchen counter. Oh right. The reason why he had been loud earlier. While trying to prepare Laws coffee he had knocked over the coffee machine, breaking it while doing so. In addition, he had destroyed two cups and pushed the box containing the coffee powder off the counter. Shards, broken pieces of the machine and brown powder was covering the floor.
“…?”
Law followed the others stare and his eyes widened in shock.
From all the things Corazon could have broken. From all the things the other one could have destroyed during his attacks of clumsiness… why did it have to be the coffee machine?!
The realization that he might not get any coffee until they fixed the machine hit him hard. It woke him up better than any brown liquid had done in quite some while.
Slowly he turned his head to his beloved boyfriend. Rocinante shuddered.
“Law. Sweetheart, I-“
“Yes, Cora-san?”
“Uhm, how about… you take a shower and I will.. clean this mess and we order a new… machine online? I pay the express delivery so that you have a new one by tomorrow.”
“Coffee by tomorrow. No coffee till tomorrow.”
“Yes… until then, mh.. you will survive, won’t you?”
By now it was probably less of a routine for Law and more of an caffeine addiction. But the other one was the soon-to-be doctor. Rocinante had learned the hard way that arguing over Laws caffeine-intake would end not only fruitless but would also make him spent many, many lonely nights on the couch.
“Do I have any other option?”
Law got up with a sigh. Hopefully a shower would be enough to get rid of his dizzy (and slightly moping) state.
“Do not break anything else while cleaning this!” He said, huffing in annoyance before moving to the bathroom. Internally he was still cursing his klutz of a boyfriend. He could have broken literally everything else and Law would have been in a better mood…
Rocinante felt bitter and sad. He knew that Laws pissed mood now was his own fault, but still… Why did it have to be that damn machine?! For a moment he kept sitting on the floor, sulking at his own ineptitude.
When he heard the running water he jumped to his feet (and nearly fell down again). He should hurry! Maybe he had enough time to … make up to Law...? Oh yes. He already had an idea!
Law enjoyed the warm water running over his body. Usually he preferred to take a quick shower and get dressed immediately after. It simply held no appeal for him to waste his time with something futile like relaxing.
But today, mostly to give Corazon more time, he decided against hurrying up. What did normal people do in a shower. People that like to relax there? Did they do something special? He had no special products to use for his body and skin. Why should he?! Most of them were useless anyway. Praised products and special ingredients just to get money from the less educated. With basic chemistry knowledge you knew that it was mostly advertised garbage. Then again, people always liked to spent a small fortune on something that was supposed to make them look better and younger.
Before Law realized his thoughts were wandering off. Too high prices for surfactants, silicone-based polymers as well as parabens and alcohols. Alcohol… there was an assignment he had to finish for one of the organic chemistry courses. The last subject of his basic medicine courses. He should also get a new lab-coat. Maybe he could soon dissect some corpses again? Corazon disliked him cutting open animals. It did not help, when he mentioned that they were already dead when he had found them. Fur. Winter clothes. He needed a new hoodie. Should he get that yellow one? Corazon did really like it, if he wore color instead of his usual dark style.
His mind was jumping from one thing to another, until he realized that he might have spend more time in the shower than he initially intended to. Law did not feel relaxed.
Well.. Corazon should have had enough time by now! If there was a simple coffee grain left on the floor…!
He got out of the shower and put on some briefs as well as grey jogging pants. He looked over to the pile of clothes laying on the wardrobe. Corazons clothes.
Probably the things he wanted to put on after his shower. If the kitchen accident had gotten in the way of him taking a shower? Probably. A sly grin appeared on his face when he took the pale-blue Hoodie with a polar bear print on it. He put it on and looked in the mirror shortly. Corazons Hoodie was way too big for him, but Law did not mind. It was his now. That is what Corazon got for destroying his most important thing in this apartment!
When Law got out of the bathroom the lemony smell of their cleaning supplies hit his nose. There was something else. He took a deep breath. There was a well-known and well-liked scent hidden under the chemical stench of detergents. Coffee? Coffee!
Rocinante was resting on the couch, he heard Law opening the door and then… nothing for a few moments. He turns his head, leaning a bit over the couch watching Law.
He had to chuckle when he saw him walking into the kitchen just to immediately turn back again.
No coffee there. Law looked like a bloodhound hunting his prey. The thought was as amusing as horrifying.
Law ignored his lurking boyfriend; his eyes were focused on the three cups on the table.
“…!”
Coffee! He walked towards the table, took one of the cups and immediately took a sip. Sweet heaven. Coffee, no sugar, no milk, just plain, black liquid filled with his favourite molecule, Methyltheobromine. Corazon had gotten him coffee from the shop nearby! Blessed be his boyfriend!
“I am sorry I broke the machine Law. I hope this will last you till tomorrow!”
Law placed the half empty cup on the table before throwing himself in Corazons arms.
“…!”
The Blonde laughed before pulling Law close, wrapping his long arms around him and placing small kisses on his still wet hair. Law had used his shampoo again! His scent on the other one! He liked it!
The dark-haired closed his eyes and nestled himself against the taller one, humming in enjoyment. If Cora-san knew, that his heart was racing, and his cheeks were burning because of the sweet favour he had done? Law enjoyed coffee, he really did. But if there was something in his life that he loved, it would not be that brown, addictive liquid. It would be his Corazon.
Slowly he looked up into the face of Rocinante.
Yes. Cora-san knew.