Chapter Text
Lami was sick.
To Law, it came out of nowhere. One day Lami was happy and smiling and the next there was a small white spot on her cheek that wouldn't wash off.
When his parents had seen the spot, his mother immediately started crying. His father's face turned grim and he pulled Lami in for a hug.
Lami hadn't even known what was happening.
Law hadn't either. Until their parents sat them down on the couch and explained what was happening. They had been living in ignorant bliss up till now.
Amber Lead Syndrome.
Their parents had been researching how to cure it for years now. They called it a syndrome but in reality it was a poisoning. It had only been discovered a few years ago what the cause of the mysterious "Miner's Illness" was. Even when they discovered it, it had been too late to stop it from spreading further. The gleaming White City of the North. A tourist spot that has brought his grandparents together. An island that was now going to kill them all.
The poisoning was getting worse with every generation as the toxic lead built up in a person's bloodstream and passed from mother to child as they grew in the womb.
When they had learned about the Amber Lead Poisoning, Law's parents had thought that Law and Lami would be safe because their mother was from a different island and hadn't been born contaminated. Their parents had thought they would have time. The doctors of the country had all been researching. Trying and trying to find a cure.
They had even tried to start warning people away from the island. Trying to create initiatives to have the children moved to a different island.
But the World Government had stopped them.
Law had a name now for the evil people he was supposed to hide his name and soulmate from. They were called Celestial Dragons and whatever they wanted, they got.
The World Government had refused to evacuate the people and close down the island. Why? Because Amber Lead was safe once it was sealed into the objects the Celestial Dragons wanted. But for the people of Flevance? It was in the air and water, in the food they grew and the dirt their children played in.
The Celestial Dragons wanted the Amber Lead. They wanted it safely sealed away into their walls, floors, statues, toys, and anything else they wanted to have the shiny white color that Law had once thought was beautiful.
The Celestials didn't care if the peasant people died. And because they didn't care, the World Government didn't care. They refused to evacuate the island. Refused to stop the mining operations. Refused to even stop the fucking tourism. Because if the Dragons said nothing was wrong?
Then nothing was wrong.
But Lami still had a white spot on her cheek. The World Government said that nothing was wrong but Law's sister was sick and might die because Celestial Dragons wanted shiny white walls that were "pure."
Law sat there. Furious and scared and in disbelief.
"Law?" Luffy reached out to him. Having gone silent when Law had become upset, but now reaching out with words to try and know why his special person was so sad.
Luffy. The reminder of his soulmate was the final straw in Law accepting what was happening and realizing how dire the situation was.
Law audibly gasped out loud and whipped his head up to look at his parents in desperation. Something in his face must have been obvious because his mother sobbed and scrambled to pull him into her arms.
Her whispered, desperate apologies barely chipped at the growing pit in Law's stomach.
He looked up at his father and felt his angry tears turn into sad ones. The desperation and hopelessness felt all consuming.
If Lami was sick, then he was going to be sick. His parents were going to be sick. They were all going to be sick and there was no cure.
Law was going to die.
He was going to die without ever seeing Luffy.
Law sobbed.
He cried and screamed about how unfair it was. His mother held him and took his pounding fists to her chests without flinching. She just held him tight as he sobbed.
Law cried himself to sleep in her arms.
—---
Lami was sick.
Lami was so sick that she now stayed at the hospital everyday and couldn't come home because she was too weak.
Law went to go see her everyday after school. He stayed there till it was dark and then one of his parents would walk him home while the other stayed to take care of Lami and the other sick children.
Law would be taken home. He would eat a meal with one of his parents who would then tuck him into bed with a kiss to his forehead and whisper, "I love you," and then turn off the light.
His mom or dad would then go into their personal office and research for many more hours.
Law wasn't supposed to know about that.
Law lay in bed and stared into the darkness around him.
As was routine, he reached out to Luffy. With his new focus on school and his worry about Lami, Law didn't have a lot of time to talk to Luffy during the day. Luffy didn't understand the medical things he was reading and studying and while he understood how important they were, the three year old just didn't have the patience for it and Law didn't have the time to try and explain everything.
So they didn't talk much during the day anymore. Law would wake up early and go to school to study. Luffy would wake up and spend his day with Makino or around the village or at the beach. They would share their emotions back and forth, mainly Luffy sharing his emotions throughout his adventures. One of them might ask the other a question at some point but they mainly just existed together throughout their days.
So when Law got home from school and the hospital, that was when they would actually talk. Luffy would tell him about his adventures and Law would talk about what he learned and if there was anything new on a cure.
Law had gotten depressed since finding out about the Amber Lead. He knows it and his parents are aware and trying their best to help him manage it. Law knows his thoughts have gotten dark, but Luffy never cared. Luffy didn't care when he thought about making the Celestial Dragons pay for hurting his family.
Luffy only cared when Law started to give up. Giving up wasn't allowed.
Law had wondered once, when it first started, whether it was a cruel trick from the gods that he would be given a soulmate and never be able to meet them.
Luffy had shouted at him so loudly he had a massive headache for an hour. Luffy had screamed that Law wasn't allowed to give up and that if they were each other's special people (the boy still not using the term soulmates), then they were going to meet up and have the greatest adventure ever and nothing could stop them.
Luffy's adamant belief in them meeting in person had given Law hope for a few days. Until his father had done a blood test on him to check the progression of Amber Lead in Law's body.
Law had lost some of his hope after that.
It was strange. It still wasn't common knowledge what the Amber Lead was doing to people. Law still went to school, even as four of his classmates lay in beds next to his sister at the hospital. Law still ate his food, even knowing what it now contained, because there was no other option.
Law's parents were researching day and night for a cure. They had found some hope, treatment plans that lessened the pain the patients were in and kept them alive for longer.
Once the first white spot appeared on your skin, you now had three years left to live instead of two. A grim speck of hope in the sea of desperation that was slowly swallowing the island.
His parents were trying. Every single doctor on the island was trying. Law himself was trying even though his parents said that he shouldn't worry. Law read medical books and took notes. He paid attention to every lesson at school and had asked to test out the basic medical courses and had passed. He was now taking advanced medical classes with teenagers five years older than he was and getting better grades than they were.
But it still meant nothing.
The Amber Lead was in their blood, organs, skins, and bones.
A full liver transplant and regular blood lettings and transfusions were the only thing that came close to "curing" the poisonings. But those options were only temporary as well.
The liver filled back up with the toxic lead and there weren't enough people without the lead in their system to donate the organs and blood.
And as long as the patient remained on Flevance, they just continued to ingest more and more of the poison.
"I saw a cool beetle today!"
"Yeah?"
"Mhm! It was the same color as Maki's scarf!"
Law snorted at that. He felt bad for Makino sometimes. She was raising Luffy to the best of her abilities but Law would know just as well she probably does, that Luffy is his own force of nature and cannot be swayed by anything. If Luffy says the beetle was the same color as Makino's scarf, then the beetle had probably ended up on said scarf so that Luffy could compare the colors. Which meant the beetle had been in Makino's hair.
Makino wasn't Luffy's mom like Law's mom was his mom. Law had to explain to Luffy what a mom was before the boy realized that Makino was his mom. Law had told Luffy about adoption because that was probably what happened with Luffy, Makino had adopted him and that made her his mom even if she didn't give birth to him.
Luffy had giggled so much when he told the story, about how red Makino's face had turned when he called her "mom" the first time. Since then Luffy had called Makino "Maki" instead of her full name after Law told him that there were lots of words for mom, like "mama" and “mommy”. Luffy had thought it was funny to mash the two words together with the syllables from Makino’s name.
"You put the beetle in her hair didn't you?"
Luffy just giggled. "Maki didn't mind! She let him crawl around for a bit before she made me put him back by the flowers. She said that he was pretty but that she 'prefers hair pins that are less wiggly'."
Law snorted again before he started to talk again. "I read a new book today. It had cool diagrams of the stomach and intestines."
"Oooo. What'd you learn?"
Law started talking about the book and what he had learned today in class and soon enough he felt himself starting to fall asleep.
He yawned. "Night Luffy."
Luffy giggled, "Night Law!"
Law pushed his love for Luffy through the bond, doing his best to convey the hug he desperately wanted to give in person.
Luffy sent his own hug and Law drifted off to sleep.