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The second day after the Prisoner Mine in Udon fell, Luffy was still struggling to get the hang of Ryuo. Despite how easy the old man had made it sound, letting his haki flow through his body and injecting it into his target was apparently not something that was possible to master overnight.
A shame, but that didn’t mean Luffy was about to give up. He was going to do it. He was going to learn how to break Kaido’s scales and he was going to do it by the night of the Fire Festival if it killed him. He knew he could do it; he had broken the collars the balloon guy had put on them, and he had succeeded a few times since then, too—it was really just a matter of time now until he was able to do it every time.
Time he had precious little of.
But well… worst came to worst, he simply wouldn’t sleep until then.
Chopper had disagreed quite passionately when Luffy had voiced this plan earlier but it honestly just seemed like the most reasonable option. After all, there wasn’t any point in going to kick Kaido’s ass if he couldn’t even hit him properly and he would really rather miss out on sleep than food.
Pausing in his efforts to blow up the iron wall in front of him from the inside, Luffy gratefully accepted the cup of water that Tama brought him. “Thank you, Tama,” Luffy said with a smile before downing the cup in a single gulp.
“Do you want more, big bro? There’s this huge tub of clean water in the guards’ building!” Tama explained while throwing her arms as far apart as she could to indicate the size.
“I’m okay for now,” Luffy laughed, Tama’s innocent excitement and eagerness making him forget all the frustration from his training. “Did you eat your lunch yet?”
Tama shook her head after she took the cup back from Luffy. “I’m waiting for Momo to finish his training!”
“Make sure you eat a lot!” Luffy told her in a joking manner but he still gave Tama a stern look. The girl was still only skin and bones and Luffy would be damned if he didn’t see to it that she got some meat on her.
A smile pulled on Luffy’s lips easily when Tama nodded happily, a wide smile of her own on her face. Satisfied, Luffy nodded at the little girl, then reached behind his back, his fingers closing around the straw hat hanging off his neck. New-found determination coursing through his veins as he put his hat on and looked at the beaten up iron wall full of dents.
But then, something fluttered across his vision and fell towards the ground.
“Eh?” Luffy barely let out as his eyes widened. It couldn’t be…
“Why is it burning?” Tama squatted down, carefully picking up the small piece of paper off the dusty ground.
Luffy gulped heavily. There was one vivre card beside his own under the hat’s band right now.
Just one.
“Torao?” he breathed weakly, reaching out to grab the card from Tama’s small fingers.
As he studied the small piece of paper on his palm, his heart started pounding against his ribcage. There was no doubt it was smaller—the charred edges were a dead give away—but thankfully, it wasn’t by a lot. Not that the knowledge made him feel any better.
Luffy closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, his fingers curling into a fist as he clutched at the tiny piece of Law’s soul.
“Big bro? Are you okay?” Tama asked with obvious worry.
Slowly opening his eyes, his gaze fell down to meet Tama’s, the girl peering up at him with an adorable frown on her face.
Luffy forced a smile on his lips and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Tama didn’t look convinced but she nodded in turn before she stepped back to leave Luffy’s side. She looked back at him once, her eyebrows still furrowed in concern, but when Luffy simply waved at her, she turned away and went to drag Momo to eat.
Luffy let go of a sigh of relief. Once again, he opened his fist again to look at Law’s vivre card closer. He studied the burning edges, the tiny embers warm against his skin; he felt the paper move ever so slightly across his palm in the direction of its owner, and watched as the ash was carried away by the wind.
But, no matter how long he stared, the vivre card didn’t get any smaller. That could only mean Law wasn’t losing any more life force than he already had and hopefully, he would recover soon. Luffy didn’t know what was going on but he did know Torao was strong—he had cool powers, he had his sword, he was incredibly smart.
And he had willpower to match Luffy’s.
Torao wouldn’t leave just like that.
He would fight.
He would survive.
He would come back to Luffy, smirks and scowls and all—if anything, Luffy was probably the one who was going to get a lecture about being reckless and risking his life once it was all over.
A small, but genuine smile pulled at Luffy’s lips. He couldn’t wait to watch Law while he paced around and ranted at Luffy about his ‘lack of brain cells’ and ‘you put the plan and everyone at risk again’ and ‘What were you thinking, you nearly died! Don’t make me worry like this, you idiot!’
Giving the card one last squeeze, Luffy took off his hat to tuck the paper safely away. He was going to believe in Torao for now. He was going to wait.
But, if the card didn’t grow bigger by tomorrow…
Then Luffy was tearing the entire Land of Wano apart.
Luffy startled awake when Nami not-so-gently pulled him off Chopper. He hadn’t even noticed their arrival at Amigasa Village; he had been using the ride back from Udon to catch up on all the sleep he had missed while training and apparently, his doctor was so relieved to see him finally resting that he didn’t want to wake him. Instead, he had allowed Luffy to sleep on his back until his reindeer legs started to go numb, which was the cue for Nami to drag him off their poor crewmate.
Or something like that. Luffy wasn’t exactly paying attention to what Nami was yelling at him about.
What could he say, Chopper’s fur was too soft, too warm, and too comfortable for anyone to ever want to leave it.
“Seriously. There are futons in the houses around us, go sleep there,” Nami sighed, pointing in the general direction of one of the houses in question.
Luffy groaned, the exhaustion in his body preventing him from even attempting to get up. “That’s such a pain though,” he whined before he simply slumped to the ground. “Here’s good enough.”
Nami shrugged. “Fine but don’t go crying to Chopper when your body’s all achy later.”
“I won’t,” Luffy said with a lazy, tired grin.
“I’ll remind you of those words later,” Nami replied, her voice carrying an undeniable spark of amusement. After only a moment, her voice softened and she added, “Get some sleep, Captain.”
“Aye aye, Sir,” Luffy laughed.
Nami’s playful eyeroll was the last thing Luffy saw before his heavy eyelids finally fell shut again, the rubber man unable to fight their weight any longer. He was so tired; it felt like all the training he had done in the past few days was coming back all at once, draining him of all energy. Maybe he should listen to his body—and Chopper and Nami—and just rest as much as he could for now. He still needed to train more but he couldn’t really do that when he was barely able to stay awake, could he?
He felt Nami turning away from him, leaving him alone so he could go back to sleep.
But…
“Have you seen Torao?” Luffy asked, his voice so quiet that he wasn’t sure Nami could even hear him.
Even so, his navigator stopped. She took a second to turn back around to face him, meeting Luffy’s exhausted, half-lidded eyes, only looking at him in silence for a few seconds until she slowly shook her head. “Not since the day Yasuie was killed.”
“I see…” Luffy simply muttered.
Nami was quiet for a while, just watching Luffy chewing on his bottom lip as his eyebrows furrowed, a deep frown appearing on his face. He didn’t know what to do. Law’s vivre card had started slowly growing back partway through the third day of Udon’s liberation, just in time to stop Luffy from taking off and running all the way to the Flower Capital—the last place anyone had seen Law and the place his crew was still at. It was already mostly whole by the time he, Chopper and Tama had left Udon; Luffy wouldn’t be surprised to see the last specs of ash gone if he had the energy to look at it now.
He knew Torao was fine now. He knew whatever Law had gone through, it was over.
Yet, somehow, Luffy couldn’t calm down.
He wanted to see him.
He had actually thought about asking Chopper to follow Torao’s vivre card earlier but… Torao hated feeling vulnerable—or being seen vulnerable. Not by people he didn’t trust completely and unconditionally, the very few he had allowed himself to fully open up to. Bepo, Shachi, Penguin…
Luffy liked to think he counted among those few people.
It wasn’t like Torao had much choice in the matter of letting Luffy inside his bubble—after all, even before they shared their first kiss after kicking Mingo’s ass, Luffy had made it his mission to become Torao’s friend—but he knew Law was comfortable with him forcing his way in there. If he wasn’t, they wouldn’t be where they were now.
But, Luffy also knew him well enough to know that bringing Chopper and Tama with him would be too much for him in this situation. He wouldn’t allow himself to be vulnerable. He’d just retreat into his shell, shutting everyone out to protect himself and not telling them, or Luffy, anything.
It would only end up making Luffy worry more.
And so, Luffy had decided to wait once again and allowed Chopper to take them back to Kuri where their friends and the samurai were busy preparing for the raid.
He let his eyes fall shut, Nami’s worried expression disappearing in the darkness. He was going to sleep and then train some more, making sure he was ready to kick Kaido’s ass when the night of the Fire Festival came.
After all, there was no point fussing over this. There was nothing he could do at this point, and it wasn’t like he was the type to think about things too hard anyway. He knew Torao was physically alright right now and that was all that really mattered. Everything else could wait.
Law would come see him once he was comfortable with it.
The next time Luffy woke up, it was already so dark that he wasn’t even sure if he had opened his eyes or if he was simply staring at the back of his eyelids. But then he noticed movement around him—or more accurately, the entire world around him changed, the open area of the village surrounded by a bamboo forest replaced by a roof and four walls.
Luffy smiled as relief washed over him. If he was really awake, there was only one reason something like this would happen.
“Torao,” Luffy called, his voice coming out as more of a whine than anything else.
A quiet chuckle came in response a second later, coming from somewhere in the direction of the entrance to the tiny, damaged house. “Straw Hat-ya, I thought you were asleep,” the man himself said, his voice equally soft when he came to stand directly above Luffy.
“I could tell you were here so I woke up!” Luffy announced.
Torao huffed, rolling his eyes at Luffy even while the corner of his mouth twitched upwards in undeniable amusement. That small gesture was enough to put a wide, if sleepy, grin on Luffy’s lips, the relief and happiness of seeing his Torao in person almost overwhelming. He had missed him. He really, honestly missed him.
After all, he barely saw him for half a day after he got to Wano before they got separated again, and even in that short time, they didn’t get to really spend a moment together. In between meeting in Okobore Town and Kaido arriving at Oden Castle, they had only a few minutes alone after Zoro got lost on their way up the hill—minutes that Law had decided to use just to be mean for literally no reason.
Luffy still hadn’t forgiven him for acting like Kin and the others were dead.
Not that Torao would have cared even if he did forgive him.
“Why were you sleeping in the middle of the village, anyway?” Law asked once he had leaned his nodachi against the wall, then took off his coat and folded it carefully, laying it on the floor next to Kikoku and placing his hat on top.
“I was too tired to move,” Luffy simply explained easily.
“Uh-huh,” Law drew out, raising an eyebrow. “And your crew just threw a blanket at you and left you there?”
“Not everyone has cool powers like you, Torao.“ Luffy frowned up at Law when he said that; wasn’t that obvious?
“That wasn’t—” Torao paused, then sighed and shook his head. “Nevermind.”
Luffy’s frown only deepened, unsure what Torao had been trying to say. But then he decided it didn’t matter.
It definitely didn’t matter once Law had kneeled down to pull Luffy’s blanket back.
A grin immediately replacing his frown, Luffy shuffled over to make more room for Law on the old futon, then immediately rolled over to throw his arm across Law’s chest, snuggling up to him.
He felt more than heard Law take a deep breath, his entire body relaxing as he exhaled. A second later, fingers started slowly running through his hair and Luffy hummed, welcoming the soft touch that made his skin tingle all over.
“I missed you,” Luffy sighed after a long moment when they simply laid there, soaking up each other’s presence.
“And whose fault is that?” Law asked his tone suggesting that he knew the answer all too well and was only trying to make Luffy say it.
Luffy wasn’t sure why.
He nodded to himself, replying easily and with absolute certainty, “Kaido’s.”
Torao inhaled sharply at that, holding his breath for a few seconds, and Luffy was pretty sure that he had closed his eyes, his brow scrunching up all cutely just like it did every time someone—usually Luffy—said something ‘stupid.’ But Luffy had only said the truth this time so he had no idea why Torao was acting like that.
“It’s your own fault, idiot,” Law hissed finally.
“How is it my fault?!” Luffy cried, raising up on his elbows to glare at Torao. “I wasn’t the one who tried to destroy Okobore Town and blew up the castle!”
Torao stared back at him blankly, raising an eyebrow before he opened his mouth to reply flatly, “So I guess you also weren’t the one who rushed down there, tried to fight Kaido while too angry to think, and then got thrown into a labour camp.”
At that, Luffy paused, blinking once, twice, before he slowly deflated. Maybe, just maybe… Torao had a point. But still! “It wasn’t my fault,” he insisted, yet his voice lacked any force or conviction. He couldn’t even look at Torao when he said it.
To his surprise, however, Law laughed. "Sure, whatever you say."
"Don't make fun of me," Luffy mumbled, then laid back down to basically sprawl over Torao and buried his face in the crook of his boyfriend's neck.
Torao turned his head to the side, pressing a kiss to Luffy's temple. "Sorry," he whispered into Luffy's hair… yet his voice was still shaking in laughter.
"I hate you." Luffy was tempted to bite Law's collarbone in retaliation but then decided against it. He was still too tired for this to turn into a sparring match.
"Hate you, too," Law replied, the words flowing out so easily, so earnestly, that it made Luffy snicker.
How was he supposed to be angry with him like this? It wasn't fair.
He was just so happy Torao was there.
And so, he simply threw his leg over Law's, wrapping himself around him as tightly as he could, and let his fingers run over Law's chest, tracing the tattoos on his skin.
As well as the fresh, barely healed scars.
“I’m really glad you’re okay,” Luffy said quietly after a long while.
“Not for long, if you keep pretending I’m a plush toy that you can crush with your rubber tentacles,” Law noted jokingly while he gestured towards Luffy’s legs which were now wrapped several times around Law’s own.
“I’m serious, Torao!” Luffy huffed in annoyance as he glared at his boyfriend.
He still let his legs come back to their natural shape, however, and Torao sighed in relief as soon as he was freed of the vice grip Luffy had had on him. Okay, maybe he was being a little bit too clingy. But he had a reason to be!
They were both quiet for a short moment until Luffy opened his mouth to speak once more. “I saw your vivre card.”
Law froze at his words—he obviously didn’t think Luffy knew, or that he would bring it up if he did—but then he groaned, the hand that wasn’t trapped under Luffy’s body coming to rub at his forehead. “You have no right to talk! You think I didn’t see your vivre card after you rushed off? Or while you were in Totto Land, for that matter?”
“At least you knew where I was and what was going on!” Luffy huffed, sticking his tongue out at Torao even though he knew the man couldn’t see it.
“Yes, because that perfectly justifies getting yourself nearly killed and then locked in Queen’s fucking labour camp,” Law stated matter-of-factly, shooting an annoyed glare at Luffy from between his fingers.
Luffy took a deep breath to shoot something back but then he noticed something in Law’s eyes, something that made him pause and study Law’s half-hidden expression closer. Obviously, he was annoyed and a little angry, but there was also a hint of something much softer, much more vulnerable, and despite himself, Luffy felt a smile tug on his lips.
Slowly, he reached out, gently taking hold of Law’s hand to pull it away from his face before he laced their fingers together. Law looked at him questioningly but Luffy simply shook his head; instead, he rolled off of Law to lie on his back, moving up on the futon a little before giving Law a smug look.
The man’s brow furrowed. “What are you—”
Before he could even finish his question, Luffy pulled on Law’s hand hard enough to force him to turn to his side, effectively switching their positions. Now it was Law who was lying snuggled up to Luffy with rubbery arms wrapped tightly around his back, and it was going to stay that way if the future pirate king had any say.
And he had every say in this.
“Let me go, Straw Hat-ya,” Law hissed as soon as he gathered himself enough to protest.
“Nope!” Luffy refused easily, a happy snicker accompanying his words, completely ignoring Law’s attempt to push him away. “You’re getting a hug whether you like it or not.”
“Fucking— What’s wrong with you?” Law groaned but he didn’t struggle anymore. Luffy decided it was because he knew he needed this and not because he was already so resigned to being forced to go along with everything Luffy wanted.
Luffy almost felt bad about that.
“Nothing’s wrong with me!” Luffy hugged Law just a little bit closer before he continued, voice much softer this time, “I’m okay, Torao. You’re okay. We’re both okay.”
Law let go of a deep sigh, one that Luffy could feel against his skin from where Law’s head was resting on his shoulder. “You’re seriously impossible.”
Luffy laughed. “Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Torao said flatly. Luffy was sure he rolled his eyes, too.
“Sounded like one to me.” He waved his hand dismissively, his grin widening when Law clicked his tongue in annoyance.
With Torao slowly relaxing in his arms, Luffy thought back to the moment the vivre card first fluttered to his feet only a few days ago. He had been scared. So very scared; the memory of Ace’s vivre card had flashed through his mind immediately, burned into his memory forever.
But now he was so incredibly grateful to the tiny piece of paper. It let him know, both about Law being in trouble and about him getting out of it. It gave him a means to find his Torao wherever he went.
And it did the same thing for Law.
A necessity in case Law still refused to join the crew after this—which was more than likely, but Luffy was still going to ask. If nothing else, just so he could see the annoyed face Torao would give him at the very suggestion.
Luffy shook his head a little bit to bring himself back to the present. There was no point thinking about what was going to happen later. For now, his Torao was there, warm and solid and not going anywhere anytime soon.
Letting his hand slide up and down Torao’s back, Luffy smiled to himself.
And his next words seemed so obvious, so natural, that Luffy had to wonder why he hadn’t said them earlier.
“I love you.”
Law didn’t say anything. He didn’t move at all either. Luffy realised he must have been asleep already, the exhaustion of whatever had happened while Luffy was locked up probably catching up to him. Luffy didn’t mind.
His own eyes falling shut, Luffy’s smile widened as he whispered, “Goodnight. I’ll tell you again tomorrow.”
“Go to sleep.”
“Oh, you’re awake?” Luffy asked, cracking one eye open to look at Law. Not that he saw much, Law’s hair effectively shielding his expression with the way his head was positioned. But even if he couldn’t see his face, it didn’t stop Luffy from repeating his words. “I love you, Torao.”
“God, shut up and go to sleep,” Law growled, trying to sound irritated but the words only coming out as incredibly embarrassed.
Luffy giggled at the way Law’s voice shook. “Okay but I’m still telling you again tomorrow.”
“I will actually kill you if you say that shit in front of anyone.” Okay, now there was a clear threat but it wasn’t like that had ever stopped Luffy.
“So I can say it in private all I want?” he asked cheekily.
“No.”
At that, Luffy laughed. He couldn’t help it. Law was just so cute; both in his refusal to let Luffy do whatever he wanted—which was useless, they both knew—as well as in the way his fingers curled into the fabric of Luffy’s kimono, gripping it tightly in a silent gesture.
A gesture that Luffy heard loud and clear.
I love you, too.