Work Text:
First Touch
"Doctor, please calm down!"
"You're going to make us all nervous!"
"Really, Torao, now sit down!"
Restlessly, Trafalgar D Water Law paced up and down. The monotonous clicking of the PA system in the background, from which supposedly soothing music emanated, filling the sterile hospital hallway, sounded almost simultaneously with his footsteps. He ran his hands through his disheveled hair. The hoodie was suddenly far too warm and he pushed the sleeves back to his elbows. Normally he groaned in exasperation when patients or relatives of his patients paced up and down the corridor so restlessly, but today it was he who did just that, probably driving doctors and nurses up the wall. But how could he not run around excitedly like a startled chicken? Half an hour ago he had been standing in the delivery room with his beloved Omega, holding his hand! But now he was condemned to wait out here because he was not allowed to be present with his own partner during the emergency operation!
Yet the birth had started so well! Everything had gone according to plan, his husband wanted to be awake for the C-section and witness as much as possible. In preparation, he had been in the delivery room with two other pregnant women, but when they had given him the local anesthetic and were about to take him next door, suddenly everything went wrong! His oxygen saturation dropped rapidly to below 90%, his blood pressure shot up and then everything had to happen very quickly. And now Law was standing here waiting and fearing for the life of his husband and that of their unborn child!
"Please, Torao, sit down. Your colleagues know what they're doing. Luffy can handle it."
Nami stood in his way and looked at him worriedly. Her orange hair was in stark contrast to the unadorned white hospital décor around her. It was all... too sterile. Too white. Law's heart pounded too hard in his chest. He shook his head tensely.
"I can't sit still. Not when he's in there..." he left the sentence unfinished, averting his eyes and staring again at the old familiar door of OP6, behind which Luffy had disappeared.
"He needs me after all, Nami-ya!"
His hands balled into fists and he bit his lower lip. There had to be something he could do! His omega was all alone in there, after all!
All right, with about four doctors, three nurses, and probably the watchful eyes of the management tuned in through the monitor, but none of that mattered to Law as long as he wasn't with him.
Law was chief of surgery at the hospital. He knew every doctor, nearly every nurse and, of course, all the procedures for emergencies. Often enough, he would send even annoying... concerned relatives out of the room when he needed to attend to his patients. And yet, he had never expected to be in the situation on the other side. For the first time, perhaps, he could truly understand what it meant to tell relatives over and over again not to worry and that he would take care of everything.
How he wished he was in that God damn OP now! But even as an alpha, he wasn't allowed in there. So he was doomed to wait out here.
He snorted once more and pushed Nami aside before continuing his unwavering path up and down the hallway, ignoring all the nurses and friends.
His gaze continued to linger on the red light above the wide door, still glowing.
"No news yet?" a familiar voice reached Law's ears as he next turned back. He turned his head and spotted Zoro and Sanji with a couple of mugs of coffee, joining Nami and Chopper who were already sitting on the plastic chairs, along with Bepo, Shachi and Penguin.
Law didn't care. If he couldn't be a doctor with his husband, he didn't care about the rest. As long as Luffy was okay! Him and the baby.
Two more hours whizzed by.
By now their families were fully assembled, and although so many people were present, it was unbearably quiet in the hallway.
Law had stopped walking around - in part because he had simply run out of room to do so - and had switched to standing on the opposite side of the hall from the OR, staring at the red light.
He had let Shachi give him his fourth cup of bad coffee and was vowing for the three dozenth time to buy a new vending machine when the light suddenly went out.
The tension in his chest took on unbearable proportions until the door slid open a bit and a young nurse peered out into the crowded hallway, smiling. He could not put into words the relief that flooded his chest. He struggled to take a deep breath.
"Doctor?" he asked himself politely, nodding at him. Without a second thought, he left the cup and crossed the hall.
He couldn't get a word past his lips when he reached the nurse, who took a step aside and let him enter the operating room. Law knew this room. He knew the overhead lights, the bright linoleum and the large hospital bed that stood in the middle of it. Hundreds of times he had passed the instruments to his left and had entered and exited the room through the door on the right. The sounds from the hallway faded, and the monotonous beeping of the instruments took over his attention. He didn't even notice the soft words whispered by the nurse. Luffy's scent mingled with the penetrating smell of disinfectant. And very gently, another scent stole in. Something new. Something Law didn't know yet. The surgeon could feel Luffy's heartbeat the moment he entered the room.
The door slid shut a bit behind him again, and they were alone. He heard his husband breathing, couldn't see him yet. The nurses had already moved Luffy from the operating table back to his bed, and the half-erect backrest was facing him.
Swallowing hard, Law forced himself to move on. He was unspeakably hot, the air in the room seemed to stand still. Luffy was so close to him and he could almost touch him, but his steps became slower and slower.
Until he arrived at the bed and took a deep breath of the scent of his Omega. And nervousness rushed loudly through his veins. He hardly dared to lean all the way toward Luffy. Nervousness flooded his thoughts. What if something had gone wrong? What if Luffy or the baby were not well? What if he wasn't going to be a good father? His hands were sweaty, but Luffy seemed to sense his fears, for he sent calming pheromones in his direction, and Law took another deep breath.
"Torao," he whispered, and at last he leaned forward a bit, taking the last half step to come to a stop beside his man.
Luffy was pale. Pale as a corpse almost, but the smile that graced his lips was the most beautiful Law had ever seen. Love for his omega masked all fears for a moment as he dove into that radiant smile, returning the gaze of those dull eyes. Luffy looked tired, so infinitely tired. And yet his smile was as radiant as the sun at the height of summer. For Law, Luffy was the most important and the most beautiful thing in his life. Nothing would ever change that. His gaze wandered over the slender figure, over the loving smile, the bare chest to the small bundle of white cloth in which something was barely visible stirring. Through the white bedspread he saw clearly how Luffy's now again much flatter belly stood out. His eyes darted back to his chest and lingered on the small bundle. He gasped silently for air.
"Mugiwara-ya," he brought barely audibly over his quivering lips. He slowly leaned further down to him, carefully brushed the black strands from his face and kissed the sweaty forehead of his beloved Omega. He heard his heartbeat, felt it sheer beneath his own lips. Luffy was here. Everything was all right.
And at last he managed to focus his attention on this new life. He caught a whiff of lotus. Black hair peaked out from under the white towel in which the newborn had been wrapped. Law swallowed hard. There they were again, the fears inside him.
With trembling fingers, he stroked the tiny figure's back.
"May I?" he asked softly, his gaze darting to his husband. The gleam in Luffy's eyes grew even stronger.
"It's our baby. Of course you may, Torao."
Madly afraid his hands might be too cold, Law rubbed his palms briefly against his thighs to warm them before gingerly reaching for the little bundle. His fingers trembled. Swallowing once more, he took a determined breath.
"Don't be afraid, Alpha," Luffy's soft voice reached him and goosebumps crept over his tense body.
He closed his hands around the warm body and carefully lifted the infant. Even before he could place it against his own chest, even before he could close his hand around the tiny back, he felt irrepressible affection growing inside him. Affection and warmth that spread from his chest to every corner of his body. Images flashed before his inner eye. Images of Luffy, beaming and with red cheeks, holding the positive pregnancy test under his nose. Law would never forget that day. It had been stormy and cold, raining and the wind had whipped the branches of the old chestnut tree against the windows. And yet the moment had been as heartwarming as the sun that had beamed at him from his husband's smile.
Luffy pulling him into a baby clothes store to look at the little dresses and pants.
Luffy begging him at three-thirty at night, in tears, to get him his favorite meat, which had been forbidden to him during his pregnancy.
Luffy, who could no longer lie on his back in pain.
Luffy, in whose belly he had been able to feel the baby's gentle kicks....
So much he had been through in the last few months. So much chaos, joy, uncertainty, hope, pain and fear. He had waited so long for this moment. Yearned for it, even though he had worried so much. What if he wouldn't be good enough? What if he couldn't do justice to Luffy and her baby? What if the baby didn't like him? Or even worse - what if something happened to Luffy or the baby at birth? Questions that had kept him awake for nights. The thoughts in his head were racing, overlapping, losing meaning, reassembling, and yet everything faded away. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.
Only this infant in his arms, slowly opening his large, dark blue eyes to look his father in the face. Love flooded Law's chest, the tension instantly fell from him, and the gentle scent of his beloved was once again mixed with the unmistakable hint of lotus that was inherent in new life. His lips twisted into a loving smile as the little body touched his chest and he gently pressed it against him. The newborn was quite warm and the touch seeped through every fiber of his body.
He was a father.
Very slowly this truth trickled into his consciousness and when it arrived, it hit him with full force. He was a father!
They were parents!
With tears in his eyes, he turned to his husband, the baby firmly in his arms on his shoulder - and kissed him gently on the little head full of black hair.
Deeply he sucked in the scent of the new.
Sunflowers - and the faint note of lotus.
"I love you," he whispered simply, his gaze firmly intertwined with Luffy's and their shared happiness in his arms. He couldn't wait to start this life. Their new life as a threesome