Chapter Text
“Let me see,” Law says. “I want to know how it works.”
Asking for something like that, the important thing is—not to betray himself. If he maintains a serious expression, Strawhat will believe that this is just scientific inquiry—actually, if Law knows him at all, Strawhat will believe just about anything, and he won’t even ask questions.
True to himself, Strawhat Luffy doesn’t ask. He just says okay, and activates his fourth gear.
Dark patterns of haki rise on his skin—just where Law remembers them having been. Exactly where they’d been, when a single blow from Strawhat had sent Doflamingo plummeting down.
Law forgets to breathe.
He reaches out and runs his fingers along the spot on Luffy’s chest where the cold shield of haki meets warm skin. He almost expects to cut his fingers on the tattoo’s edge.
“And can you keep it up very long?” he asks, as if he’s really interested. As if he can’t time the duration of Strawhat’s fourth gear in the intakes of his own breath. Law doesn’t think he could forget a single moment of that fight, even if he should ever want to.
(He won’t want to.)
Luffy shrugs his shoulders.
“Longer, when I’m not attacking.”
Law had seen his attack. Watched, refusing to let himself so much as blink, trying not to a miss a moment of his—their, both of theirs—triumph or defeat. He’d wanted, desperately wanted, to be the one up above instead of Luffy; so that he, not Strawhat, would have been the one to risk his life to stop Doflamingo. He hates himself for the utterly Doflamingo-like ease with which he put his ally in harm’s way. Yes, it was him that ought to have been there, above Dressrosa, for Strawhat to slug with a haki-tattooed fist.
And as though he knows what Law’s thinking about Strawhat grabs him by the shoulders (the dark designs dance in front of Law’s eyes) and gives him a shake. Law didn’t give himself away, of course. It’s all Strawhat’s damned intuition, his devil’s senses that always find the truth and aren’t ever mistaken.
“Torao,” says Strawhat, querulous.
Law blinks, and drops his hand.
“You can stop,” he says.
Leave it a little longer, he thinks to himself.
Strawhat Luffy, of course, hears the true version. Or maybe he doesn’t hear anything at all save himself, just like always, when he laughs and throws a haki-darkened arm around Law’s neck and pulls him close.
Either way, Law doesn't intend to protest.