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Getting blown halfway across the city of Dressrosa wasn’t Luffy’s favourite way of making use of his devil fruit but he did have to say being rubber really came in handy in these situations. Twisting his body so that his back was facing the ground, Luffy grabbed tighter onto the almost lifeless body in his arms and braced himself for impact.
“Fuck,” came a quiet, pained groan a moment later.
Luffy winced. He himself felt the landing harder than he thought he would so even though it was cushioned by Luffy’s body, the crash still had to hurt the injured man in his arms badly. “Sorry, Torao,” he apologized, equally quietly as he glanced down to check if the man was alright.
Thankfully, except the furrowed brow and the dirty glare he was giving Luffy, Law looked mostly fine; it didn’t look like he had received any more bruises at least. Still, Luffy wanted to make sure he didn’t get hurt any worse than he already was… but he could see it in Law’s eyes that if he asked any more, he would be dead, seastone handcuffs or not.
And so, Luffy only sighed and tore his eyes away from Torao’s to look around the area instead. “We really flew a ways. Where are we?” he asked no one in particular. He had a feeling he recognized the buildings around but the city was so damaged it was hard to be certain. At least the stone assimilation guy with the funny voice had turned himself into a statue so huge that it was really easy to at least see where they should be heading from anywhere.
As long as they didn’t follow Zoro’s lead at least.
“Damn that stone assimilation man,” Zoro grumbled to himself a little ways away. “He’s even bigger than Oars! If only I could figure out how to beat him.”
Luffy was about to respond, to tell Zoro that they could figure that out on the go—they were in a hurry, after all—but before he could so much as open his mouth, someone else interrupted them. “Straw Hat!”
Luffy hummed questioningly, letting his head fall back to look at whoever was calling him. “Oh, Cabbage!” he called in recognition when his eyes fell on the blond who was coming to them from the direction of the coliseum behind them. So that was where they were; Luffy knew he recognized this area.
Stopping right above them, Cavendish turned away from Luffy to look at the others. “And Pirate Hunter Zoro, as well as Trafal—” he paused, his eye twitching momentarily.
Luffy’s hand immediately shot out to grab for Law and pull him out of the way. He could see the way Cabbage’s hand reached for his sword and Luffy wasn’t about to let him take out his weird grudge or whatever his issue was on Law of all people—especially since he couldn’t even defend himself right now.
However, as soon as Cabbage’s eyes fell on Law, his expression turned to surprised, then to something else that Luffy couldn’t quite place before his posture relaxed “—gar Law,” he finished, his voice soft, a dazzling smile on his lips.
Luffy blinked. He had no idea what just happened but he was honestly just glad Cavendish was not trying to kill Law anymore. Letting go of a sigh of relief, Luffy waved off Zoro who looked ready to attack at the first sign of movement from the unknown man.
“Here, I found this. It’s yours, Trafalgar, isn’t it?” Cavendish asked a moment later, holding the white and grey spotted cap between his fingers.
“Yeah, thanks,” Law said as he slowly sat up. It looked like even the simple movement took too much effort for him and Luffy had to stop himself from jumping forward to support him.
When Law raised one of his arms to grab the hat, however, Cavendish quickly pulled it away and out of reach, his smile turning into a smirk. “I don’t think so. You know, you’re a lot more handsome in person and without the hat than your wanted poster. Obviously not as handsome as me, but I wouldn’t mind it if you wanted to thank me after I defeat Doflamingo.”
Both Law and Luffy with Zoro could only stare at Cavendish for a moment, unsure what to say until Law clicked his tongue and looked away, prompting Zoro to start laughing.
Luffy, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as amused. He wasn’t entirely sure what just happened but he certainly didn’t like it any of it; he didn’t like what Cavendish had said, didn’t like his tone, didn’t like his smirk, and he sure as hell didn’t like that Law looked embarrassed by it. He didn’t know what the sinking feeling in his chest meant and he didn’t care enough to think about it but he did know what he was going to do about it.
“Give that back,” he snapped, scowling, before he stretched out his arm to basically rip the hat out of Cavendish’s hands before handing it to Law without even taking his eyes off of the blond pirate. “And stop looking at him like that. Torao’s mine— My friend now!” He quickly corrected himself. After all, Law wasn’t his. Law didn’t belong to anyone, and that was how it should be. But even so, it didn’t not feel like Law belonged to him. Or maybe it was the other way around and Luffy belonged to Law. He supposed it didn’t matter in the end.
Shaking his head at his own confusing thoughts, Luffy’s focus returned back to the situation at hand, just as heavy silence settled over the other three at his words as they all turned to stare at Luffy.
A beat passed, and then Zoro started laughing all over again, even louder this time. As if on cue, Law clicked his tongue, quickly shoving Luffy away from him—a shove that might have felt weak but was probably the hardest Law’s weakened state allowed.
“Hey!” Luffy cried, turning to glare at Law instead, throwing in a pout for good measure. “What did I…” He trailed off, his annoyance evaporating as his his mind went blank at the sight in front of him.
Law was busy putting on his hat, taking his sweet time to pull it so far down over his eyes that Luffy was sure he couldn’t even see anything anymore. But what really caught Luffy off guard were his ears. They were red. So very red that Luffy was surprised they weren’t on fire. Tilting his head to the side, Luffy wondered what had happened that made Law blush like this.
“You don't have to worry, Luffy,” Zoro said when he managed to stop laughing long enough to get out a full sentence. “I don’t think Torao’s about to cheat on you with any random guy who flirts with him.”
Luffy frowned, feeling even more confused. “Cheat on me?”
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t realize you two were…” Cavendish let his sentence trail off before he shrugged. “Forget what I said.”
Law puffed up at that, hissing, “We’re not.”
“Yeah, because someone is being a coward.” Zoro nodded, looking solemn.
“Roronoa-ya,” Law snapped then, baring his teeth while his ears turned even brighter if at all possible.
“What?” Zoro asked, putting his hands up defensively.
“We agreed to never talk about this again,” Law replied, and suddenly he looked so very tired.
Zoro only smirked. “You decided that by yourself, neither me, nor Robin actually agreed.”
“Room— fuck.” Law let go of a frustrated groan, pulling at the seastone cuffs on his wrists in a vain attempt to get them off.
Luffy honestly had no idea what was going on but seeing Law struggle against his restraints reminded him what they were there for in the first place. Deciding to ignore whatever it was that the others were talking about, he finally got up to look around in search of funny voice statue man who blew them away earlier. However, before he could so much as point in the right direction, Zoro called out to him instead.
“Actually, Luffy! Don’t think about all this too hard, Nami’s going to forget the interest on the money I borrowed if you two keep your hands off of each other until we get off this island,” he said, walking up to Luffy to ruffle his hair.
Frowning, Luffy ran his own hand through his hair where Zoro had messed it up before putting his hat on instead. Ignoring Law’s distressed cry of ‘You people bet on this?’ Luffy looked at Zoro, then at Law, and finally at the grinning Cavendish before finally responding, his words slow, honest, and full of all the confusion he felt, “I don’t understand what either of you is saying.”
“Good,” both Zoro and Law sighed in unison and Luffy only shrugged, dismissing the issue completely, in favour of simply going to pick Law up once more so they could get back to kicking Mingo’s ass.
It was only a little while later, once they were already on Moocy's back, riding off and back to where Mingo was, that Cavendish led his horse to run up right next to the bull.
“Roronoa, can I get in on this bet?” Luffy heard Cavendish ask then, prompting both Zoro and Law to reply at the same time.
“Sure.”
“NO!”
Luffy sighed. At this point, he didn’t even want to know. He was just glad that no one was flirting with his Torao anymore.