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Slumping over the kitchen table while waiting for his snack, Luffy turned his head to gaze up at Law. The man was sitting next to him, leaning back into his chair comfortably while he studied some thick, ancient looking history book that Robin had lent him earlier that day. He was so engrossed in the complicated words that he was already almost half-way through, the coffee mug in front of him had long since gone cold, completely forgotten.
He really was beautiful. Luffy could see why Nami always teased him about Law’s supposed fans and admirers.
Not that that mattered to Luffy; Torao was his soulmate and no one else’s. Also Torao was free to do whatever he wanted. He could have a fanclub like Luffy had the Barto Club and everyone else in the self-proclaimed fleet. It was basically the same thing, right?
Right.
Luffy snickered to himself when he realised just how busy Law was with his book. Usually, he would have snapped at Luffy to stop staring at him by now but today, it seemed like he had all the freedom to study Law’s features and—
“Stop staring at me.”
—or not.
“Sorry, Torao. But I’m bored,” Luffy whined.
“Then go out to fuck around with God-ya and Tony-ya or something,” Law suggested, shooting Luffy a look.
“Don’t wanna.” Luffy stuck out his bottom lip in a small pout. “I wanna hang out with you and also I’m hungry, Sanji!”
“You have to wait, I told you it will take a while,” Sanji snapped from where he was busy cooking at the stove while there was also a pie being baked in the oven.
Both dinner and dessert smelled heavenly already. Luffy’s mouth was watering just thinking about being able to eat it all soon.
Luffy groaned again, the pout on his lips growing ever so slightly. He wanted to eat it now…
“Be a big boy and wait for the man,” Law said with amusement.
Putting his book on the table, he went to ruffle Luffy’s hair like he so loved doing for some reason… but Luffy grabbed his hand before he could so much as touch his hair. Law’s eyebrows shot up but he didn’t say anything, only watched as Luffy took his hand and brought it up to his face, studying the back of it intently.
Even Law’s hands were beautiful, Luffy thought. Long elegant fingers, deft and trained to do precise work during surgeries, his nails kept perfectly clean, cut and filed to be the exact length they needed to be. And then, of course, there were the tattoos.
When they had first met, Luffy thought they were cool; really edgy, but so incredibly cool. Now, years later, he knew that not only were they still cool, the DEATH spelled out on both of his hands fit Torao better than anything else could and he couldn’t imagine Law’s hands without it—or any of the many other tattoos Law carried on his skin.
Luffy tried counting them once but he lost count at some point and settled to simply admire them.
But there weren't just tattoos for Luffy to admire; there was also the chain that covered most of his left arm, broken. Setting Law free and giving him the room to fly. It always made Luffy smile when he looked at the soulmark. He only regretted that it took 26 years of Law’s life to make the mark fulfil its purpose—and for Luffy’s to fulfil its own. 26 years of Law’s life to mimic the way the giant fist on Luffy’s thigh was crushing a birdcage until it was nothing but pieces of crooked metal junk.
As it should be. It was so suffocating inside.
He was really glad that was over with.
Letting his fingers gently trace over the soulmark, and the tattoo partly covering it, Luffy hummed thoughtfully.
“What is it?” Law asked finally, his voice quiet as if not to disturb Luffy’s thoughts.
Luffy, however, replied immediately, without a second thought, “I want a tattoo.”
A beat of silence passed but before Law could say anything, Luffy corrected himself. “Wait no. I want us to get tattoos. Matching ones.”
“Why would we need matching tattoos?” Law asked slowly, voice carefully measured—Luffy wasn’t sure if that was because he was struggling not to show how touched he was by the suggestion… or how unimpressed he was by Luffy’s impulsive decisions.
Either one wouldn’t be the first time. Or last time.
“To show we’re together?” Luffy tried. He wasn’t entirely sure how to explain it; after all, he had decided on it exactly 30 seconds ago.
“Luffy, we are literally soulmates. We already have matching soulmarks. And Big News Morgans wrote so much shit about us already that I’d be shocked if someone didn’t know about us being together.” Okay, yeah, he was definitely unimpressed.
But Luffy wasn’t about to give up. “Hardly anyone can tell our marks match though!” he complained, poking at Law’s forearm where the chain on it was breaking to stress his point.
“The point is—” Law sighed— “that we don’t need matching tattoos.”
“We so do! I mean, getting tattoos that match exactly would be more obvious to anyone, right? Like when I put ‘ME’ stickers on Sanji’s pirate bentos!”
A beat of silence followed before—
Law snorted.
“Did you just compare me to a piece of meat?” he asked, trying to sound offended but failing in the delivery with the way his voice was shaking.
“Yes.” Luffy didn’t even try to refute him; it was a compliment, after all.
“You’re impossible,” Law said, prying his hand from Luffy’s hold to grab his book once more.
“Torao~! Come on!”
“Don’t be a brat,” Torao huffed, shooting Luffy a glare.
Puffing up his cheeks, Luffy blinked up at Law innocently. “Torao…”
“Puppy eyes won’t work. I don’t want a matching tattoo, it’s embarrassing.” With one final huff, Law turned away, raising the book up to his face to signify the matter over.
“But I love you, Torao. Please. For me?”
“If you two are going to keep being an annoying couple over there, I’m going to kick you out of the kitchen!” Sanji snapped then, apparently having had enough of listening to the exchange.
Luffy totally forgot he was there…
Whoops?
“Sorry, Sanji,” Luffy mumbled sheepishly.
Law, however, pulled his book down a little, just enough to be able to look at the back of Sanji’s head for a moment, the corners of his mouth twitching like they did every time he was about to say something that made Luffy laugh—and that always got them both into trouble. “Should I go get Zoro-ya so you don’t feel so lonely?”
Luffy held his breath as silence settled over the kitchen.
“Get the fuck out.”
Luffy didn’t bother stifling his laughter—not even when a knife came flying at him, landing mere inches away from his head. Honestly, the fact that Sanji got angry enough to use a knife as a weapon only made it funnier.
He continued laughing when Law used his power to move them to the deck to escape Sanji’s wrath, he continued laughing when Law pulled him on his lap, pressing a soft kiss to his temple… and he continued laughing quietly even once they settled into each other, with Luffy sitting between Law’s legs and leaning back against his chest while Law finally went back to his book. It was so warm and comfortable and in that moment, Luffy was happy.
Ah, Luffy really wanted to slap a sticker on this man.
One that would make it clear to everyone who he belonged to.