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“I have a plan to take down a Yonkō."
Standing on top of the ridge above him and Nami/Franky, Tora- o looks like both a savior and a god of misfortune dressed the way that he is. Especially with that look on his face, one of the cruel grins that Luffy's seen before, but never with that much emotion behind it. Maybe it's that expression that draws him in, makes him consider that statement, but given the man is his literal savior it wouldn't have taken much coaxing anyway.
Nami/Franky seems to know that, it's why they're snapping at him not to fall for it, telling the man above them that there's no chance they'll join his alliance. For his part Luffy's listened to both, but his interest has only risen. Tora- o is smart in ways he isn't, that most of his crew that he considers brilliant at what they do, aren't. He's strong. And there's something else below all of that, maybe him having saved him, that makes the rubber captain serious.
His own expression blank, Luffy cuts his nakama off casually, "When you say ' a Yonkō ' which one do you mean?"
He hears the shouts, hears the argument against this loud and clear, but his blood sings with a sense of challenge when Tora- o responds and tells him exactly which one it is. Who could turn down that sort of challenging adventure? A chance to take out Kaido and ally up, making a new friend, in the process? Hell, he means to take them all down eventually anyway, says as much, even Shanks, though obviously he’d rather that particular man be last. His grin is a ray of sunshine.
"I'm in!"
"WHAT?!"
He'll deal with whatever beating he's about to get later, Luffy's eyes and smile are locked on his new ally who's own crueler grin has gotten wider. Tora- o 's golden eyes seem to glow from beneath the brim of his hat as excitement pulses from them like it's alive. He wishes he could see more of that exact wild look on the man's face, though he doesn't know why he feels that way.
But he's ready to find out.
----
Really, he should have known the second Mugiwara- ya told him he'd follow the whims of one of his subordinates regardless of their alliance, and then asked him to help out, that this was more a mistake than he'd imagined. Or possibly when a whole ass baby reindeer was tied over his hat on the top of his head. That should have been another red flag that nothing but headaches and pain and chaos were in his future.
Though if Law's truly honest with himself, it was the way they'd made their first appearance, bursting obliviously through a door in front of a ship full of marines with those half dressed and mostly giant as fuck kids in tow. That was the moment he should have reconsidered his life's choices.
All of them.
As a result he'd had to fight a Vice Admiral, one of the few marines he in fact had a soft spot for. Though he'd slice himself into a thousand pieces above an ocean before admitting that Smoker- ya reminded him of Cora- san . It was his sense of justice and the way he actually gave a fuck about people, his humbleness even, maybe. Whatever it was he'd been loath to fight him, despite his subordinate rushing head first at him and needing a lesson. Between that and the Straw Hat induced mania, he'd gotten chokeslammed into the ground by a logia and had to take his heart.
The Hippocratic Oath he tried to live by saved everyone present. But Seas help him, it was tempting to break right then, with his neck fisted in a hand the size of his face and his back throbbing.
Law, chained up tight and stuck in a cage with a gaggle of lunatics, his own heart used against him for torture, is still beating himself up for missing every red flag. Has come up with over ten instances he should have turned around and called Bepo on the Tang already. Listing them off in his mind petulantly. What's done is done, but despite his exhaustion and the throbbing pain in his chest, Law wants to be logical, even if it's a petty and pitiful sort of logic that he's currently clinging to.
Then again, given Vergo has his heart and tried to club the sense right out of him, he supposes he should be grateful he's still even alive. For the time being Law takes the small solace that the bastard doesn't know his real plan, if he did he would be dead, all of them in fact. Monet only heard part of it.
A wheeze leaves his body against his will, blood trailing from his lips after a particularly brutal squeeze from Caesar.
"You're amazing! They have your heart, and you're still alive ?!" Mugiwara- ya 's voice is filled with entirely too much awe for someone that should be trusting his ally and it makes him narrow his eyes. But given his current position Law can't begrudge him that. Smoker- ya 's mocking tone in pointing out his current painful situation is a low blow, but then he supposes did cut his heart out, leaving him alive. Which means that Law has no one to blame but himself for the fact that the Marine can still talk. Now he wants to squeeze the damn thing himself, but even the Clown doesn't get the opportunity to do that. Which is lucky given who's heart it really is.
In fact Law can't help but plan all the twisted ways he's going to pay that stupid bastard back for this as he watches the piss poor acting with this farce of a presentation. It's certainly horrifying knowing that the inept scientist has this much power, can poison the entire island, but then given the SMILE and their potential for life changing permanent torture, it isn't shocking. Fuck, he's even testing on kids, willingly shortening their lifespans and planning to toss them in so many unmarked graves.
Just like the people of his own home country had been.
If nothing else, Law hates Caesar and every atom of his gaseous body for that alone. If the images playing out on the screen, the horror show that is Caesar sacrificing his own men, the ones Law had replaced legs for only months before, the ones that worship their "master", is anything to go off of then the man deserves more than death. Death would be too good for him.
He'll remember Caesar's screams without a care for his survival, but he won't kill him.
"It's Zoro and the others! They're being chased by the smoke!" Mugiwara- ya 's shout breaks Law from the vengeful daydreaming he'd resorted to after the last time his heart was squished.
And that's… gonna be a problem.
"Fuck…" Law mutters so quietly under his breath while Caesar gloats that he's certain only Nico Robin actually heard him, given her glance. Somehow the woman never loses that soft smile, which he can only imagine comes from years of similar tense situations. She looks concerned for her crewmates as well though, just like the rest of the crew around her, just like Law himself is.
Despite what bitchy things he might think of them as a group, Law really does like Mugiwara- ya and his crew. They test his patience but they're genuinely good people, which makes them fuck all awful as pirates but good for his plan. They care, something he finds rare in even the average person and right now he's surrounded in this cage by caring bleeding hearts, feeling like the only real pirate present.
Tensing his jaw and then his body, because the mechanics of the cage they're in start to growl within his Room, Law lets it happen, alerting the only one that might be able to cause a ruckus before letting the giant bubble fade. Now to get out of this, if Mugiwara- ya would just play along for fucking once , they might manage. Otherwise he'll just be stuck reading down the list of options he had to sidestep this mess again while dealing with another bout of nonsense.
Letting their insipid comments and the Marine's squabbles about Vergo wash off him, Law sets about getting them out, swallowing his regrets in the process and stuffing them down deep. He didn't suffer months of living on this hellish island surrounded by idiots and horrors and losing the little bit of sleep he ever managed to get anyway, to let it all fall apart right when it should be coming together.
If he has to save some Marines in the process then so be it, but they're on their own once the damn door is shut. He's not as good a person as Mugiwara- ya , after all.
----
Seeing Tora- o 's injuries after his fight with Vergo had been… jarring. Generally Luffy doesn't really stress wounds or injuries overmuch if people are still up and moving around, so it confuses him why he suddenly cares. Maybe it's just how bloody he is, or the slight limp to his step that can only come from muscles tensed to their limits in pain. His anger at Luffy's having punched Caesar beyond their current reach would be understandable if he wasn't currently disgusted by the Clown's actions.
That stupid gas bastard deserves worse than what he got for everything he's done though. Let Tora- o be mad about that, Luffy would do it again. As many times as it takes.
But despite not letting it show on his face, it irks him that his stomach knotted up seeing him hurt, because he's seen all of his own people worse off. Knows Tora- o 's strong and trusts in that. In fact it almost feels like he's betraying his fellow ally by being worried and not just forgetting about it. But it's Tora- o . And Luffy hates seeing the people he cares about getting hurt, despite knowing that as pirates it's an all too common occurrence.
With all the stress going on that hurt could be anything from whatever happened with Vergo, to his injuries, to his anger about Caesar, to just general stress from being in this hell hole for so long. How he stood it for months Luffy doesn't know. Hell, he knows how he himself can be to others, he probably caused some of it. But there's something under all of that, something far more… raw. Luffy can sense it but he doesn't know what it is.
Wants to know.
And now Luffy's up in his own head a little too much for his own liking. For the first time since he's seen his crew again, actually, because while his bad days since Marineford have had an audience before, it was only in Rayleigh and the animals of that island. None of who judged him in any way. In fact the first few times it happened his mentor even gave him rest days, impressing on him the importance of his mental state and teaching him different signs to look out for.
Triggers, he remembers him calling them. Sometimes for panic attacks, other times for low days.
What he’s currently feeling isn’t one of those triggers, not exactly anyway. But his concern has him looking for the signs on others as well and dammit, Tora- o is showing some clear signs. With their current predicament, hurtling down a hallway in a giant metal cart surrounded by Marines and sick kids and his own crew which has members that pick up on things even faster than Luffy himself, he can't point them out. It would be cruel to shine a light on a problem like that.
So he worries in his own silence, in his own way, and keeps an eye on Tora- o as best he can until a chance presents itself. When the others aren’t looking, or at least Luffy can’t sense them looking given how everything is falling apart around them, he takes a moment and wraps his hand around one of the man’s wrists, glancing up at him curiously, the gesture causing a skittish jump and forcing the other to look him in the eye to see what’s going on. His eyes flick back and forth between those two pretty gold ones he finds remind him of treasure and he tries his best to read what Tora- o won’t tell him. Time seems to freeze for a moment because the man doesn’t shake him off like Luffy fully expected, but he can see the walls. All of the walls built from what looks like pain.
And just for a second he sees a crack form before Tora- o ’s eyebrows knit together sternly, pulling his wrist away as if he suddenly received a shock. Time moves again and Luffy lets go, looks up and away at a boulder falling towards them and jumps to kick it, letting Tora- o pull himself together in what passes for privacy on this cart.
What he saw troubles him, but he knows there's more lying deeper.
----
Irrationally Law feels as though he was violated somehow.
When he'd felt fingers curl around his wrist he'd been in the process of immediately snatching it back when curious brown eyes halted him. Illogical as it sounds it felt as though Mugiwara- ya was staring straight through his skin, into his soul, with those innocent eyes as they flickered back and forth across his face. Unlike his archeologist there wasn't that feeling that he could read Law as easily as one of those damn poneglyphs, at least not usually.
Something had happened and whatever it was had made his skin crawl uneasily when he'd realized it was happening. The rubber captain had released him without a fight, looking away in a way that made Law feel as though he were being respectful. And honestly that almost is worse that he seemed to know what it was he was seeing, what Law has been hiding. Then again the man is more like a wild animal so it could have been more an instinctual response than anything.
Yet he can't shake the feeling that his defenses were stripped away from him, that those eyes had seen parts of him that he never shows anyone. There's very little chance of that, but Mugiwara- ya has pulled off the impossible before, performed miracles because he wanted to. Because, unlike Law, he's a dreamer.
The captain stares hard at the soup in his hand, not eating, not doing anything visible at all in fact. Meanwhile his brain is racing, tripping, streaking through plans, replaying the last twenty four hours, replaying the last hour at speeds that would make a normal man's head spin. Law needs answers, needs to make things happen, needs… needs to succeed.
So much of that relies on others, on Mugiwara- ya most of all. On his penchant for making miracles happen despite the odds. And the odds this time are so overwhelming.
"I know you tend to be quiet by nature but this is weird, even for you." Smoker- ya gruffs around both his cigars, gaze from the corner of his eye despite how he appears to otherwise be watching the raucous party before them. Only the Straw Hats and G5 could pull something this stupid off when time was of the essence and danger is literally looming on the horizon.
Hell, Buffalo is looking entirely too smug for Law's comfort, which means he's gonna have to see to that and soon.
"I have a lot on my mind White Chase- ya ." He sighs, taking another sip of admittedly delicious soup. Law had heard Black Leg- ya was a good chef but this is something on an entirely different level, it's as if his exhaustion is abating, even if he knows it can only be temporary.
"Maybe a little too much."
"You could use to have a little extra on your mind, with everything you just learned here and Joker heading this way. Being scarce sooner than later would be in your best interest." He has no idea why he's warning a Marine of his impending doom should he stay here, but Law'll blame his soft spot for him.
Smoker just snorts. "If only I could forget all my responsibilities and sail off like a damn pirate, eh? Must be nice. There's things I need to finish here first, men that deserve to be saved since we know how to now." The man takes a drink of the soup he'd been given as well. "What's with the warning anyway? If you wanted to silence me, you had plenty of opportunities. What are you using Mugiwara for? What're you starting?"
"I wonder who's using who?" Gritting his teeth Law berates himself profusely for what's about to come out of his mouth even as he's thinking it. But someone from his past would want him to say it, to save who he could if he could. Just had to be a fucking Marine though. "For what it's worth Smoker , Joker's killed enough marines that he wouldn't blink an eye at your death, probably would make you watch as he kills all your men first before doing it. So just…"
And Smoker stares straight at him, curiosity eclipsing his normal gruff demeanor by a hair, if only for a second. Images of Cora- san flash through his mind and it takes an iron will not to react to them. This is another Marine, he shouldn't care, it's so fucking stupid. He's so fucking stupid for even caring enough to try and save the man or any of his idiotic men.
"Just be quick about it. Don't die. The fact that I left you alive means absolutely nothing White Chase- ya ." With one last chug he finishes the soup in his bowl and flips it into the snow, hoping to distract from his previous plea with a razor edge to his voice. "Incidentally, I'm heading to Greenbit after this. We'll see if the Straw Hats are compliant enough to play along with my plan."
Standing without another word, Law leaves the Vice Admiral to marinate on his words in silence as he goes to see to the next step of this plan himself.
----
"You're alone?!" Nami's voice cuts through Luffy's thoughts, or rather his quiet zen, as he'd been observing more than thinking.
"Mmmmm."
"Luffy?" She leans into his view, her face not even masking it's concern. "What's wrong? You were in party mode just a minute or two ago. It's not like you to miss even a second of a party."
He'd perched himself on one of the little boulders covering the broken and scarred coast, using the chance to take a moment and just watch everyone as he shovels food into his face. Really there was only one he was the most worried about, but Luffy had checked over all his crew, the samurai and Momonosuke, the weird marines Kemurin and the lady swordsman were in charge of, the kids. Tora- o . The last one felt the most important given what he was feeling, but everyone's important to him, that they're all still alive to have this party makes him want to smile as wide as possible.
Hell, he had been.
Sometimes even he needs some time to breathe and check though, or at least he has since Ace's death. Knew after many conversations with Rayleigh that it isn't weak to take some time, even just a few minutes. That's all this is, but…
Slowly, somewhat hesitantly for her, Nami sits beside him, her eyes never leaving his face even if Luffy doesn't meet her gaze in return. "Wanna tell me about it?" Her voice is quieter this time, more respectful.
At that he looks at her from the corner of his eye and finally relaxes enough to flop into a sitting position beside her instead of a crouch. Making certain he can even respond first by clearing his throat, he finally relaxes. Not panic or a low moment then. Stress maybe. "Something seems wrong."
"Really? Just one thing seems wrong?" There's a very light hint of sarcasm in her voice and despite if she thinks he knows or not, Luffy's aware of what she means.
Shakes his head. "Not that, I'm still all for that. Something seems wrong with Tora- o though. I don't know exactly what and I don't like it. How do we help?"
"Well he has a lot on his mind with this plan of his… ours now I guess? Maybe he's just stressed out by it all, we didn't exactly make things easy for him all day today." Nami offers, chuckling gently and patting Luffy's shoulder. He flinches very very lightly and her eyes widen as his own eyes close.
Right, maybe there is a slight trigger there waiting to be pushed with all the stress from this island, from his worry.
"Sorry."
"Oh, Luffy, don't apologize about that." Though it's obvious that she wants to hug him, Nami just holds both of her hands straight up for now, like she's calming an animal. "We're all stressed out, I didn't see anything."
He narrows his eyes and tilts his head at her with a sigh.
"Well… okay I just mean I won't tell anybody. I have times where it's tough too. A different sort of tough than yours, but tough." Absently her right hand goes to rub the tattoo covering the scars on her left shoulder. She doesn't press him about what his definition of 'tough' is and it puts him at a bit more ease. Maybe just one person on his crew knowing is okay. "So you're worried about Tora- o , what is it you're seeing, maybe figuring it out will help take that edge off?"
Luffy leans his head to the side and looks back at Tora- o where he's standing in front of the two baddies that had blasted up the tanker. "You think he has more than one devil fruit?"
"Luffy, that's impossible. His heart would explode." Nami sounds slightly exasperated despite the still clear concern in her voice.
"I saw it happen once before, but yeah, you're right. Just seems like it since all those walls he puts up are so solid they almost seem real." Luffy elaborates slightly, resting his chin on his arms where they're crossed over his knees. "Wish they were real though, I'm still mad it bugs me that he's hurt. Feels stupid worrying."
Brown eyes widen hugely as they stare at him. "You got worried about his injuries? Was he hurt that bad? I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention." One of Nami's hands comes up to cover her mouth and now she's looking at Tora- o too.
"Not really. It's stupid." He can't look at her face as he sighs at himself, absently pulling all the meat off the bone he'd been holding as if to distract from his own feelings of idiocy. "I'm worried about what's going on in his head. I don't think Tora- o knows that he puts up all those walls, or if he does he should make them stronger. He's hurt and it's not just his body." Luffy rumbles around the bone now in his mouth, gnawing the edges of it until it's gone.
Nami’s peering at him strangely now, an expression on her face that Luffy’s seen before but doesn’t know the meaning of. “Luffy, what do you think about Tora- o when you look at him?”
“Um… that he’s fun? And grumpy. And his eyes are pretty!” Luffy offers, looking at her with a helpless grin, unsure if he’s about to get smacked by his navigator for something until she starts grinning as well. "But also that he worries me and I wanna know why he's in pain. Why he lives behind walls."
“You like him!” Her hands clap to both of his cheeks gently and pat, ignoring his earlier flinch, but at least it seems he's a bit steadier now since he doesn't do it again. Most of his crew have any permission they want to grab, stretch, or clobber him, so it would take more than one time of her seeing his triggers to remember anyway. Rayleigh really did teach him that well.
“Of course I like him! Why wouldn’t I like my friends?”
“Oh you’re hopeless. I mean you like him as more than just a friend. That's why you're worried about him so much.”
“Well I do like him as our ally too. He’s way smart and any plan he comes up with is always so complicated so it's gotta work. Right?” In Luffy’s opinion his entire crew is absolutely amazing and way smarter than himself, so Tora- o joining up as an ally can only benefit them and make them even smarter as a whole. It’s part of why he loves his crew so much, they’re all so perfectly different, so he’d love to add the other captain into that. But if he's dealing with problems Luffy wants to help him, cuz he's an ally.
Sighing, Nami pats both of his cheeks again and gives him a sad smile. “I love you Luffy and I really love how much money this is going to make me. You’ll figure it out, but don’t be in a rush to either.”
She winks at him and lets go of his face, hopping down to walk back towards the feast again, leaving Luffy terribly confused. How else is he supposed to like Tora- o than he already does? And how will that help him understand so he can help with whatever is bothering him?
Hold on… money? “Nami wait! Not again!” Images of Zoro threatening to lop off body parts from his friends he otherwise loved rise to his mind, quickly replaced by images of Tora- o actually going through with it rather than threatening, which just makes him run after her faster.
----
It’s not the skeleton’s fault by any means, but Law is two seconds from ripping that violin out of his bony fingers and throwing it into the ocean. With each passing moment the desire grows far stronger until the worn out captain is forced to remove himself from temptation in order to actually keep himself from following the desire. At least towards the back of the ship he can hide among the tangerine trees and play at relaxing should anyone show up to bother him.
As little as he’d slept in the past few months on Punk Hazard, and really who could blame him surrounded by danger and enemies as he was even if that wasn’t the actual reason, every single nerve ending in Law’s body seems to react to the smallest things that never bothered him before. Since his first physical symptoms of Amber Lead Poisoning he’d never been known to sleep all that well, the pain far too great to let him drift off into slumber the way he should have been able to, the way all kids in the rest of the world could. Still, he’d always been able to get some eventually, even if it was at the bidding of his crew.
It would be a lie though if he said that was the only reason, since the further they'd gotten from the cold the more clothing had been removed from everyone on deck. Which didn't actually bother him much with nearly all of this wild crew, Law never really concerns himself with feelings along those ridiculous lines, but their captain… The second Mugiwara- ya 's long coat came off and that giant scar was revealed to him for the first time, he'd run. Not obviously, Law had simply lost the ability to breathe for a short moment and had taken that as his cue to be on the other side of the ship that very instant.
He could see the melted skin again, see blood, hear the flatline that had happened twice and the way the teen's body had jolted under the defibrillation each time he closed his eyes. Just as he had for a number of days after it happened. Law had gone so far as to leave Kikoku at Mugiwara- ya 's side, out of respect for those two deaths and the one that had put him in that state, to act as protection when it looked like he wouldn’t make it. All he can do now is try and shake the memories and respect that the rubber captain survived such a state, especially after the breakdown he'd had when he woke. That was the real miracle, the one Mugiwara- ya should really thank. That Jinbe had stopped him somehow.
Law's body slumps.
It isn't often that memories of surgeries haunt him, as he's long since become clinically numb to it. But still, thank every Blue Sea for it, Luffy had survived. Sure, Law wouldn't have endured some headaches the last couple of days if he hadn't, but just thinking about the world without him in it does something to him. Something he can't dwell on, because what the fuck is he even thinking? It has to be a result of insomnia, that's it, for there's no way that his brain is telling him what it seems to be, Law won't entertain that path of chaos.
To get his mind off of that he resorts to the same paths of pain and torment that always help ignite the flames of his vengeance. It's far too easy to replay that snowy night, the gunshots and blood. Or, if he really feels like torturing himself, he can follow the lines of memories back to Flevance again. Instantly his throat dries out and Law buries his face in the palm of his free hand, lest anyone passing by see the wobble that shakes the line of his scowl.
It always works too well.
His mind distracted by thoughts of his one time home, a perverse part of him wonders against his will if his parents would be proud of him, if Cora- san would be proud of him, for everything that he’s achieved. For the mercy he’d shown others, for saving Luffy when he didn’t have to, for the lives he’d saved and made better and the friends that he’d found. Sometimes Law catches himself and realizes that he’s locked off so many doors to painful parts of himself, put up so many walls, that he forgets to remember them. Their faces, their voices, their hugs.
But he can’t afford weakness when things are finally starting to line up for his plans to bring down Doflamingo. Can’t afford to remember all the things he loves about them or wonder at their thoughts of his life when he’s ready to throw away everything, all the good and the bad together, just to kill one man. For the revenge he’s been harboring in his heart for thirteen years.
So close. So fucking close he can visualize it when he closes his eyes.
Yet all the same, he can’t stop the images of his parents, of his sister, of Cora- san , all with their backs to him and covered in blood, that rise to the front and erase his vengeful dreams with pain. And so he’s all but given up on sleeping, his blood at this point has to be more coffee than anything else with the specters of his own making haunting his rest. Someday, very soon, he’ll be able to sleep without them haunting him.
Whether that’s because of Doflamingo’s fall or his own death only time will tell.
----
Eyebrows pulled together, Luffy sits on the deck of his ship with his arms crossed, stomach about half full from lunch they’d just had not long ago but head completely full of questions. He wants to know what Nami had meant on Punk Hazard, he wants to know why Tora-o still looks so tired and hurt, he wants to know why all the signs of one of his own low days are there on his new friend even if he's afraid of asking, he wants to know when they’re going to just get there already so he can work on helping make it better. They’d heard from Doflamingo already, about how he’d stepped down. But while everyone had looked excited, even Tora-o, now he looked like he was beating himself up internally.
Though he doesn’t like the reason he knows that look, Luffy knows that look very well and very personally. It’s why he hasn’t gone near Tora- o at all since lunch, because he knows that look means he needs space and time to hurt. And because of that he works his absolute best at giving him all the space he needs by spending time with his own crewmates; fishing for the aquarium with Usopp, pestering Zoro mid nap, harassing Sanji, listening to Brook play whatever instrument he's feeling inclined to that day.
But more often he sits on Sunny's figurehead and he listens. Listens to the sound the water makes, the low murmurings of conversation that he picks up on with an ease that comes with experience at just listening to others. His haki can often alert him to what his crew is doing, but what they're feeling is different. What they need. Sometimes he has to listen for it, because they don't always have it in them to tell him, which Luffy can respect.
But Tora- o … each day he's been getting worse. Every second they get closer to Dressrosa.
Luffy can think of only one way, one place, that'll give the man the space he needs to deal with whatever stress is eating him. Loath though he is to share it, something his whole crew is well aware of. Which is what makes it the best place.
"Ok, Tora- o ." Luffy squats before his bowed form where he sits among Nami's trees and the grouchy look, different from his normal one, that the other captain levels at him just solidifies his choice. "You’re coming with me."
If the other man wants to argue he seems to swallow it down, because Luffy's tone hadn't been normal either. Intentionally. So Tora- o , mercifully, doesn't put up a fight when Luffy takes his hand and guides him towards the front of the ship, but he does jump at the touch again. His silence is unsettling, but his whole body is one tense line of stress, so it isn't shocking either.
And when they make it he squawks only once as Luffy physically drags him up between the curves of Sunny's sunbeam mane and onto the lion's head. His haki is sharp enough that he can feel heads turn, but elects to ignore them.
“One slip and we’re dead men, you realize that?” Tora- o mutters under his breath, even his voice sounding strained as he peers at the water below.
“Sunny won’t let that happen.” Luffy responds, settling down beside the taller man so that there’s just enough space between them for Tora- o to escape if he wants. “She’s the best ship ever and she carries two ship’s love for us.”
All Luffy can do is grin at him for a moment before leaning back against the sunbeam behind him and staring out at the sea. He can still feel Tora- o ’s stress, the way that he can’t relax fully, can feel all the questions that the older captain wants to ask him. In fact his face is set in a grumpy line even now as he crosses his arms and glances behind him to see if it’s safe enough to lean backwards. After a few moments of struggling internally Tora- o seems to let himself ease into it just a little bit, enough that he casts a glance Luffy’s way from beneath the brim of his hat.
“Two ships?”
His mouth curves upwards into a closed grin and Luffy tips his straw hat lower over his eyes as he reaches out gently to those little spirits he’d been shocked to see for the first time two years later on Sabaody. “Yes. Two ships.”
Because Tora- o tilts his head slightly but doesn’t ask, doesn’t pry into his history, Luffy shares it willingly with this man he’s growing more and more fond of. Starting with the story of Going Merry, a ship he loved and who loved his entire crew just as much as he does, and her travels across the East Blue to the Grand Line. To the sky. To a miracle that only Merry could pull off because she loved them so very much. A miracle that took her to her grave. Law respects his tears that fall with continued silence, only a soft smile that carries no judgement and the story seems to be making the other captain relax, just a bit at least. Which is when Luffy realizes what he’s been trying to put words to, what Nami meant, or maybe just the edge of it. It’s something that can wait though, since it would just have the opposite effect.
So instead he tells him about Sunny Go’s birth too as the little spirits sit on the mast and smile down on their crew, watching over their safety, and what may possibly be some playfully well placed bets, just like he promised.