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Law wonders if it’s possible to suffocate under the blanket of night.
The dark isn’t new to him. He spends his days deep underwater, at depths sunlight can’t penetrate. He’s more than familiar with the dark, he thrives in it.
But tonight, as he lays under the star-lit sky on the deck of the Polar Tang, it feels different. Only a few days ago, he’d seen the sun. Smiling and laughing and setting the night ablaze.
Law had only caught a glimpse, but the newspaper had immortalized him in the bounty poster nestled within its pages. The name “Monkey D. Luffy” written in bold beneath the photo.
Paper rustles as he pulls the bounty poster out of his pocket. He’d folded it in sharp, symmetrical lines, careful to preserve the picture and leave Luffy’s smile wrinkle free. He has already opened and closed it more times than he cares to count and the lines where it folds are beginning to turn white from overuse.
He unfolds it again now.
The details are difficult to make out in the moonlight, but Luffy’s smile is just as bright on the page as it is in person. Mouth open mid-laugh, whole face transformed. It’s a vicious, joyful thing. Tens of millions of lives have relied on this smile. On the freedom that follows it.
Law is one of those lives.
The pad of his finger skims over the paper, tracing the shape of Luffy’s mouth, before he presses it against his own lips. He swipes his finger to the side, lifting the corner of his mouth into a smile that’s a twisted mockery of Luffy’s.
He drops it, hand falling to the deck beside him.
The thunder of footsteps is the only warning Law gets before there’s a body landing on his lap, launched from the docks below. The poster in his hands is knocked to the ground and in its place is the man himself- his hair black but smile just as wide.
“Found you!” Luffy’s face is flushed, sweat beading at his temples.
Suddenly, Law can breathe.
“What do you want?”
“You need to join us for the last day of the banquet,” Luffy says, and Law can smell the festivities on him. The smoke and meat and booze. He can hear the conversation and laughter in his voice. Trademarks of Luffy’s world.
Law sighs and sits up, pushing Luffy off him. The man scrambles backwards until he’s sitting across from Law. Still close enough that if Law wanted to, he could reach out and trace the smile of the real Monkey D. Luffy. Kiss more than just the ghost of his grin.
“Can’t, too busy,” Law says, lying through his teeth. He’d prepared during the day. It’d taken his crew only four hours to fully stock the Polar Tang.
“Doing what?” Luffy frowns at him, then at the fallen bounty poster. “Reading?”
Before Law can stop him, Luffy grabs the paper. He holds it out in front of him, the edges wrinkling under his fingers. He tilts his head.
“I hadn’t seen this yet,” he says, sounding pleased. “I look free.”
He sees Luffy fighting Kaido, huge fist flaming as he sets the sky on fire. Then his arm, crashing through the ceiling of Kaido’s castle. Red eyes and flaming white hair. Mesmerizing.
The words leave Law's lips before he can stop them.
“Can you show me?”
There’s no logical reason for why Law asks. No excuse. Only a pure, disgustingly undisguised desire to see him transformed, smiling, and untethered to his world. One last time.
Luffy is too happy to oblige.
The other captain jumps up and stretches his arms wide. Wiggles his fingers. And the transformation washes over him.
His hair rises into flickering white flames and his clothes follow. His eyebrows curl, eyes becoming a burning red. He begins to glow. And then he’s bouncing, using the deck as a trampoline. His laughter rings into the night. The bounty poster, long forgotten, bounces up with Luffy, floating over the railing with the wind. Law doesn’t care.
Luffy whoops as he falls onto his back and flips in the air. His arms stretched wide like he’s flying, and Law believes that if he tried, then Luffy could.
“See?” Luffy shouts, like Law could see anything else. He flips once more and lands mid-air, floating on his stomach in front of Law. Red eyes burning into Law’s brown. “I’m free!”
The air around them fills with a charge. It feels like those moments before a lightning storm, electricity static through the air. Law’s hairs stand on end and Luffy vibrates like it’s impossible for him to sit still.
“You are,” Law responds, easily.
Luffy’s face is so close that Law would only have to lean forward. Half a degree and their noses would touch, and wouldn’t that be something. Skin touching skin. Feeling-- having-- Luffy loose and open and free.
Law has to feel it. Luffy’s body warm against his own. If only for a second.
He can’t stop himself.
He’s wrapping his arms around Luffy, yanking him in. Holding him close to his chest. And Luffy leans in. Letting Law do what he wants.
Law can hear Luffy’s heart hammering in his chest. Can feel it. An unnatural rhythm, too fast and too hard to be his natural heartbeat. His breathing is heavy, panting, and his muscles twitch, as though the effort to stay still in Law’s arms is monumental.
Luffy, Law realizes, isn’t someone he can cage in his arms.
Law lets Luffy go just as quickly and easily as he caught him.
Luffy bounds away and something in Law aches.
He bounces atop the deck, launching himself off the side of his ship and over the railing.
Law runs to the edge of the deck, room expanding to catch the idiot, but when he looks over the railing, Luffy is still floating in midair. Growing. Limbs blowing up and turning massive, entire body inflating to the size of a giant and then larger. Until Luffy can stand in the waters of the bay.
Luffy holds out a gigantic hand, palm flat. Law stares at him, awed.
“Do you want to see the party from here?” He asks, and there’s that ache again.
“Yeah.”
Law jumps over the railing, landing on the flesh of Luffy’s palm. There are wrinkles lining his skin, the juncture between his fingers and palm calloused and battle worn. And as Law finds his balance, he wishes Luffy was human sized again, just so that he could hold this hand. Although sitting within his palm feels more fitting.
“Up we go!” Luffy announces.
Law stumbles, falling to his knees as Luffy lifts him into the sky.
He’s slow about it, careful in a way that isn’t entirely Luffy-- he’s reckless and foolish and self-unaware-- but it fits him all the same. Because underneath all that, Luffy is fiercely protective of those he considers his friends, and to Luffy, that's exactly what Law is.
Luffy doesn’t stop until his hand is level with his face, held close to his cheek as if to say ‘look, see what I see’ and force Law to look away to the island. But Law doesn’t want to. He wants to keep staring at Luffy. At the heat-less, white flames of his hair. At his smile, wide and kind and everything Law wants to keep. Whole body glowing in robes of white, brighter than the moon and ethereally beautiful like a god.
But Luffy curls a finger, nudging him, and Law is forced to look away.
From his perch, Law can see the whole of Wano, lit up bright in post-war festivities. He can imagine his crew in the middle of it all, enjoying the only party they’re likely to see in months.
The Strawhats have a way of enthralling people. Arousing their emotions and sparking dying embers of revolution. Imbuing them with a force as unstoppable as the ocean’s currents. Sweeping them away into chaos. Saving them.
Law crawls over to the edge of Luffy’s hand, leaning against the bump of his thumb. Giant red eyes watch him.
“That tickles,” Luffy says. Law hums and folds his hands behind his neck, tilting his head back. “What are you doing?”
Luffy is warm beneath him, shining beside him, and as Law studies the night sky, stars washed out by Luffy’s light, he smiles. His chest feels light.
“Just feeling what it’s like to be free.”