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Law had not been an accident prone child, and any small cuts or scrapes he had sustained had never scarred. The first thing to leave a permanent mark on his body was Amber Lead Syndrome. The second thing was a mark just beneath his eye that was barely visible through the vitiligo. The third thing was a long scar up his elbow from when he had been training with Baby 5. And after Corazón it was the tattoos.
Luffy didn’t even remember his first scar. He had been born with a birth mark, and from then it had been a knife to his face, narrowly missing the eye socket and chipping the bone, both knees scraped so often that they were thinly webbed with scar tissue, a bite mark on his leg where a fox had attacked him, a pucker of puncture scars from Porchemy’s spiked gloves. All before the age of eight.
Law had known about soulmates his whole life. Lamy had talked about it a lot as a kid, thought he had never gotten the appeal, and by the time he had been old enough for it to become relevant, he had pushed it all away. None of it had been important compared to his revenge.
Luffy hadn’t known about soulmates for 17 years, until, in a quiet moment, Nami had showed him the tiny silver scar on her forehead just below her hairline and told him it had just appeared one day. He had laughed, and found it funny, and even said that there was a certain kind of romance in it, but not for him. She had only eyed the birthmark on his neck and shrugged, and they had moved on.
He had ignored it when Vivi had shown up with that same scar, but much more pronounced, in her hairline, and how glad Nami had been when Vivi’s mark had been the faint scar from falling off a tangerine tree on her ankle and not the outline of her first tattoo.
Law only ever aquired more scars and tattoos, and he tried not to think about any other marks.
Until one day, Bepo – kind, fluffy Bepo who had repayed Law for everything by tending to all the wounds he couldn’t – slapped a Wanted poster down in front of him, pointing at the smiling face in it. “That looks like the scar under your eye.” And Law had to admit the scar didn’t belong to him. Bepo had sat with him while he tried to tamp down the breakdown, and Bepo hadn’t said a word to the others even after Law started reading the newspapers more thoroughly instead of just scouring them for news from the Donquixote family.
Once they got to Sabaody Archipelago, and Law realized that everyone and their mother seemed to be there except Monkey D. Luffy, he almost let himself relax. Until Luffy literally came crashing into his life in a rain of wood splinters and high treason, and all Law could look at was the mark on his neck that matched the first patch of vitiligo that had ever shown up on his own body. The only one he had never been able to get rid off even with the Ope Ope no Mi. He knew Bepo clocked him immediately, despite his own anxiety, and the way the ginger haired woman’s eyes lingered on Law’s face for just a second too long told him she had made him, too.
And Luffy…. didn’t. Not through the scrappy, sweaty fight they got into with the Marines, not through the ridiculous, competitive argument, and certainly not when he was there one second and gone the next.
Law tried not to think about it too much, clearly the guy was a little air headed and a lot preoccupied with other things. But when the news about the ensuing battle at Marineford hit, there was no doubt in his mind that he had to go. Doflamingo be damned. (Or maybe he was part of the reason. Even in the years after, Law could never quite figure out the entirety of his reasons.)
And when he took Luffy from Buggy – was entrusted him – all he could think about was not how he couldn’t let Luffy die, but how devastating it could have been if the deep wound in his chest had been his first scar. (It wasn’t. And it wouldn’t be his last.)
He patched him up as best as he could and then just… watched, for a while, under the guise of monitoring his patient. Ran his hand over the faint vitiligo on his neck where it peaked out from under the bandages. He left the scar under his eye alone, because as much as it was his in a way, it had been Luffy’s first.
Of course he didn’t tell him, either. When Luffy woke up, he was first entirely out of it and then so distraught no one could get through to him, and Law didn’t want to burden him even more. So he let him go.
For two long years Law didn’t know what became of Luffy after that day on Amazon Lily, because while he was sure Silvers Rayleigh knew, somehow, he hadn’t asked for updates.
And then one day, when Law had just barely even read the news that the Strawhats had reappeared on Sabaody, Luffy was standing in front of him on Punk Hazard, alive and well and smiling and it took everything in Law not to smile back. Of course he soon learned that Luffy was still insufferable, but just like the rest of the world, he grew on Law. Maybe even a little quicker than the rest of the world.
It really wasn’t until Dressrosa, until after the birdcage, after Doflamingo – as they were lying in on the dusty roof of a building next to each other – that Luffy looked at Law. Really looked for the first time. And said “Hey, you’ve got my scar” as his face split into the brightest smile yet.
“And you’ve got mine.”