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It had been a long fucking day. Not the roughest of Law’s life, nothing could ever beat that, but too fucking long.
Half of the Strawhats were asleep already, while the rest were talking in hushed voice just outside of Kyros‘ bathroom, which Law had shut himself into. He had reattached his own arm during the battle haphazardly, but it needed some more work. If it had been his own crew he would have just done it right there, but half the Strawhats would probably be morbidly curious and the other freaked out beyond comprehension and he didn’t quite have the energy to navigate either of those reactions at the moment. So he had retreated.
He was just fusing some of the nerves together, biting his lip trying not to wince through the zaps of pain, when the door creaked open a little without so much as a knock.
“Can I help?” Luffy asked, and Law frowned at him.
“No offense, but I doubt this is your area of expertise.” The pain made his words even sharper than usual.
Luffy shut the door behind himself. “You could bite down on my arm,” he offered.
Law scoffed. “You’re insane.” Then he stopped. “Wait… did I make noise?”
“Not much,” Luffy said with a shake of his head. “But Robin said someone should better check on you.” Of course. The ever perceptive Nico Robin. “I thought your powers were pain free?”
“Depends on how I use them,” Law said and refocused on his efforts to reconnect the nerves. “But if it wasn’t me who severed something, the reattachment process is harder.” He let out a pained breath as he finally succeeded and his thumb twitched. Talking to Luffy actually helped distract him from the pain though. “I could just leave it the way it is now and let it heal naturally, but I kind of… need the arm.”
Luffy nodded almost sagely, making Law chuckle through the pain. “Makes sense.”
He was almost done now, the nerves mostly reconnected, blood vessels perfusing already. Only the rest of the tissue left to knit together properly. It would leave a mark, but at least it wouldn’t be as jagged as regular scars. No staples needed for him.
“Have you done this before?” Luffy asked now.
“Not on myself like this,” Law answered vaguely. Extracting Amber Lead from himself and healing cells had been different, as had been reattaching limbs on his crew members. “On myself I know much quicker what works and what doesn’t, but also only having one hand to work with isn’t ideal.”
“I’m sorry,” Luffy offered and Law frowned at him.
“For what?”
“That you have to do it on your own.”
“It’s fine,” Law said. A lie he had told himself again and again, until he believed it. He closed his eyes against the truth and mended the last of his muscles and finally the skin. When he opened them again, Luffy was staring down at the angry red mark around Law’s bare arm.
“Are you going to get a tattoo over that?”
“It’s too early to think about that,” Law said, doing his best to evade the actual question. “The scar needs to fade first.” He finally dismissed his Room, the exhaustion of the day and the last hour flooding in.
“Can’t you do that?”
“I need to let my body do some things on its own.”
Luffy reached out. “I would be way too impatient for that.”
“Well, sometimes we don’t have a choice,” Law said, as Luffy made contact with the scar. He gently ran his fingers over it. Then he looked at Law, searching, and whatever he found must have been enough, because suddenly he bent down and kissed the scar, featherlight, and all Law could do was gape at him. He remembered the exact moment someone had done this for him the last time – Corazón, fifteen years ago, right before Law had punched him in the jaw and told him never to do it again. Because before that, it had been his mother, who had gently soothed a scraped knee for him. It confused him to find that the action stung less now.
“Thank you,” he said, and Luffy laughed as he straightened up.
“You don’t have to thank me for that.”
But it had been a thank you for a saved life, and Law wasn’t quite sure how to convey it any other way, so he gently cradled Luffy’s jaw in his good hand and brought their lips together. It was a tired kiss, barely there, a slight brush of skin against skin, until Law pressed in a little more insistently before pulling back.
And maybe that would have to be enough for now.