Chapter Text
“I’m all in!” Luffy declares, pushing his poker chips into the middle of the table. His eyes dart nervously over the other two members of his crew still in the game, lips pursed, eyebrows raised.
He’s never been a good liar but he’s trying so hard to win. If all goes well he’ll be able to make enough money to pay his debt to Nami, in return for which she’s agreed to coordinate a meeting with Law’s navigator to bring him there sooner than planned.
Luffy’s heart does a happy little flip inside his ribs at the thought. His stomach feels all… bubbly, like it’s full of really fizzy, shaken up cola. It’s a weird feeling, but he kind of likes it.
He shuffles his cards around in his hands. He doesn’t really know if they’re good or not, but they’ve got hearts on them, so he’s got a good feeling about it. Law has hearts on him and he gets good feelings just thinking about Law.
Law—being with him is the best feeling imaginable. It‘s the perfect kind of happiness mixed with a little excitement. Law is fun to be with. It’s thrilling to fight alongside him. And he makes silly plans even though they don't really work, because how can anyone predict the future and plan the exact best way to handle it? But in any case, just having adventures with Law makes those adventures all the more... exciting? Luffy would use the word ‘fun’ for their adventures too except Dressrosa wasn't actually all that fun. Law had been hurting really badly. It made him angry to think of it even now. Law didn’t deserve that. Law-
“What’s with that array of faces, Luffy?” Sanji asks from across the table. “Smiling one second then scowling the next. You purposely trying to make yourself hard to read?”
“La- what?” Luffy’s only half heard the question.
Usopp regards him with a raised eyebrow, sly smile on his lips and now suddenly Luffy’s much too aware that he’s been caught thinking of Law. He can feel his cheeks heating up, though he doesn’t really get why thinking about other people catching him thinking about Law makes him get all hot. It’s not really a bad feeling, just weird how he only feels like this when it’s about Law.
Sanji nudges Usopp, “You gonna call?”
“I’ll go easy on you guys this time. It’s not easy playing against a real card shark like me,” Usopp says confidently, laying his cards on the table, “I fold.”
Sanji leans back in his chair, taking a long drag on his cigarette as he inspects his cards. He squints at Luffy briefly before tossing his cards on the table. “Same here. I fold,” he concedes.
Luffy’s about to declare his victory when Nami herself interjects.
“Hey, Luffy, Bepo says Torao wants to talk to you,” she calls across the deck as she leans out the door of her navigator’s office, her hand over the receiver of the den-den mushi she keeps.
Luffy immediately sheds all of his playing cards on the table to cries of ‘What?! He didn’t have anything after all!’ and ‘Goddamnit Luffy! Why can’t you just be consistently shit at lying?!’
He dashes over to the door, hands grabbing for the receiver but Nami holds it away from him as she retreats into her office asking, “Did you win me lots of money?”
“Yeah, is Torao coming over?” Luffy follows her in, stretching to snatch the receiver from her without waiting for an answer.
His heart flutters light and happy at the thought of seeing the other captain again. It makes him euphoric, but maybe a little nervous. He doesn’t really get these feelings either, but he’s pretty addicted to the way it feels when he thinks about Law—he just can’t get enough. And as much as he likes thinking about Law, that’s nothing compared to actually talking to Law, or better yet, seeing him in person which is what he’s sure is about to happen in the near future.
“Torao!” he cries into the receiver, his excitement brimming over.
“Mugiwara-ya, I thought we agreed to meet in two weeks’ time,” Law speaks through the den den mushi, just a hint of annoyance on his voice, “Can’t you for once stick to a plan?” The snail mirrors Law’s apparent expression, frowning at him. Is Law disappointed? Is he mad?
No.
No, this isn’t right.
Luffy can feel his heart pounding anxious against his ribs, it’s happy fluttering turning to panicked skipping. Worries that he wasn’t even aware that he’d had now begin flooding into his mind. He doesn’t want to think that he’s done something wrong. He was just trying to organize a get-together. Does it mean Law is mad at him—that he won’t come? He thought Law liked seeing him too. Law should like seeing him too. But Law doesn’t seem happy. He doesn’t seem like he likes seeing him too. Law’s not just tolerating him because they’re allies, right?
“So what’s your reason for calling a meeting this time?” Law speaks through a sigh.
“I don’t wanna wait two weeks. I wanna-” Luffy starts. A sudden, sharp pain shoots through his chest, cutting off his words. He nearly drops the receiver, instinctively clutching his chest. He pauses a moment, hand over the scar that marks him. What a strange feeling—like something attacking him from the inside.
He leans over Nami’s desk trying to steady his breathing, willing his pain away as much as he can. His whole chest suddenly feels so tight. The heart beneath his shaking palm is thumping so hard he half-thinks it might fall out if he moves his hand.
“You’re breathing into the phone pretty heavily. Is everything alright?” Law asks, voice calm, serious.
“Yeah, I’m- ah!” almost as soon as he opens his mouth, the sharp pain is back, piercing him like a knife. He tries to take a deep breath and it stabs through his chest again. Luffy doubles over, leaning onto Nami’s desk, knocking over her mapping utensils, crumpling the map under his arm, but he’s hesitant to move any more.
“Speak to me,” Law tells him.
“It- hurts,” Luffy manages to grit out, panting shallow through his teeth.
“Get yourself to Tony-ya. I’ll be there in two days,” and with those terse words the line goes dead.
The next few minutes pass in a haze. Luffy doesn’t know if he hung up the den den mushi and he doesn’t know if he knocked more of Nami’s stuff on the floor on his way out, but he somehow makes it down the hall to Chopper’s medical office. Luffy leans against the door, pushing it open with the weight of his body as he stumbles in.
"Luffy, what's wrong!?" Chopper cries, immediately abandoning his book to run to his captain's aid. He helps him to sit down on the infirmary bed.
"I didn't do anything, it just hurts here," Luffy insists through gritted teeth. He's apprehensive about moving his hand from over his heart in case it might cause the stabbing pain again. He’s never felt anything like it. He can’t even guess what’s going on with his body.
Chopper reaches for his stethoscope at his desk. He places the ear pieces into his ears and rejoins Luffy on the bed. He takes Luffy's hand from his chest, holding onto it as he places the stethoscope’s cool metal against his chest to listen to his heart. Chopper listens intently for what feels like much too long without saying anything. Then he instructs Luffy to lay down and uses a stethoscope to listen around in what seems like random places on his chest. Whatever Chopper’s doing it seems like it’s working because Luffy’s starting to feel a lot calmer. The pain is only kind of a little bit of a tightness inside of him now—like his heart is getting a hug from his lungs or something.
Whatever is happening to him is not fun, and Luffy doesn’t want to repeat the experience. Unfortunately for him, his body doesn’t seem to agree.
… … … … …
“So, what are we dealing with?” Law asks the small, antlered doctor as they pace down the hall toward the Thousand Sunny’s infirmary.
Chopper flips through several papers secured onto his clipboard before answering. “Well, the patient has been suffering from bouts of chest pain. I haven’t yet been able to find the cause. During the episodes he says there’s pain when he takes deep breaths, but there are no other symptoms that would suggest anything like pulmonary embolus or pleurisy.” The tiny reindeer doctor is taking his job very seriously. He seems to be doing his best at dealing with his captain objectively. He refers to him as ‘the patient’ although he speaks the words with a heavy-hearted wavering in his voice. It makes him sound as if he could break down at any confirmation that it’s Luffy they’re talking about.
“And this all started two days ago?” Law follows as Chopper slides open the door of the infirmary.
“My heart hurts,Torao,” Luffy whines from the infirmary bed when he sees him. “I don’t like it.”
“Thanks for your efforts doctor. If you don’t mind, I’d like to examine him myself,” Law addresses Chopper.
He’s heard that Chopper’s been looking after Luffy almost constantly over the past two days, and Luffy is always a pretty tough patient to handle. Law wouldn’t blame him if he felt relief at leaving his patient in his hands.
It’s not that Law doesn’t trust Chopper as a medical professional or that he takes a personal interest in this particular patient. It’s rather the case that he prefers to assess the patient to gain his own insight into the situation. It never hurts to have a second opinion.
Law takes his own stethoscope from around his shoulders to give his patient a standard preliminary check-up. Law tries not to feel too self conscious from the way Luffy stares up at him, those big, obsidian-dark eyes following his every movement. Law tries not to read too much into the situation—tries not to imagine that it’s his touch which triggers the soft blush on Luffy’s cheeks.
Law has to chase away inappropriate thoughts from his mind. He needs to remain professional, and focus on his work here. In the end he notes no irregularities, and even though Luffy’s heart seems to be racing bit, all of his vitals are well within normal range.
“What were you doing when you first felt chest pain?” he asks Luffy as he takes the clipboard from Chopper’s desk, flipping through the notes.
“Talking to you.”
“And the next time it happened?”
“Checking with Nami that you were still coming.”
“And this morning?”
“Eating pre-breakfast.”
“Pre-breakfast?” This is something Law has never heard of, and he’s stayed with the Strawhats for long enough to know that it’s not something their cook would indulge in.
“Well, since you were coming I went to the kitchen to eat all the food you don’t like.” Luffy explains, “‘cause you’re really picky, and-”
“I am not picky. I just don’t like bread-” Law interjects
“and pickled plums,” Luffy supplies.
“You remember that?” Law wouldn’t have expected him to remember any detail about him let alone that in particular. Luffy just doesn’t seem like the type to notice things.
“Yeah, ‘cause that one time you got one in your onigiri at lunch and you were surprised and spit it out. And I caught it in my mouth!” Luffy reminds him proudly.
‘That was disgusting,’ Law thinks.
“That was tasty,” Luffy says with a wide smile. He seems to be feeling better for now.
“Well,” Law hums, flipping over the pages and setting Chopper’s clipboard aside. “Nobody can find anything physically wrong with you. So I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s stress-related anxiety. I suggest you let me keep you under observation while you take a rest.”
That earns him an exasperated huff from the small, adventure-loving captain.
“There’s an island called Rosales nearby. It’s a popular tourist spot,” Law continues. “It’s renown for its flowers, but I hear there’s some unique local cuisine that you can’t find elsewhere in the world.” He hesitates to go any further but by the look on his face, Luffy doesn’t seem entirely sold on an ambiguous promise of unique foods. “If you agree to a relaxing vacation, I’ll call ahead and reserve us a table at a restaurant with a buffet,” Law tries.
This earns him an emphatic “Yes!” from an excited Luffy who jumps up and runs out of the room, shouting to his crew about a new adventure.
Law does not have ulterior motives—absolutely not. He is not at all trying to smooth-talk his way into a date with his ally. That’s right, he simply is looking out for the well being of his alliance and nothing more.