Chapter Text
- The Witness
As the second member recruited to Luffy’s crew, Nami has watched Luffy meet most people that have mattered to the Straw Hat Pirates.
She regrets that while she was present when Luffy met Law, she was not precisely paying attention to either of their reactions to each other at the time. (Her regret is rooted in the fact that at their eventual wedding, if they ever become self-aware enough to make their whatever-it-is official, she will not be able to tell the story of the day they met without resorting to half-imagined anecdotes.)
She is so used to Luffy being the one taking charge, refusing to listen to others on principle, that the way he had stood still and listened to Law’s proposed alliance and plan had astonished her. That he had only asked which Emperor they were planning to take down before agreeing to said alliance had astonished her more.
Law falls into the familiar pattern of those whom Luffy collects in his orbit, baffled by her captain’s antics, though he seems to resign himself to going along with Luffy quicker than most.
She thinks, at first, that he is quick on the uptake, but then watches as he and Luffy continue orbiting each other all the way to Dressrosa and continue to orbit each other afterwards in Zou, where Law’s eyes have taken on a longing quality to the way they follow Luffy when he thinks no one is watching.
“I’ve found that it’s easier to just give yourself over to it,” she says to him during the banquet, quiet enough that no one else can hear. “If it helps, he’s attached to you, too.”
Law stares at her for a long moment, a line between his eyes.
“I have no idea what you’re trying to imply,” he says at last, his voice flat, and Nami can’t tell if he’s lying.
It’s not her problem, she supposes.
- The First Mate
Zoro has chosen to serve his captain come hell or high water.
His life is pledged to his captain, and if his heart is pledged with it, well—that’s his own problem.
Luffy is entirely too easy to love and to serve. It’s no surprise to Zoro that most everywhere they go, women and men alike become devoted to Luffy. The Pirate Empress, the Mermaid Princess, and so many others make no secret of the place Luffy has made for himself in their hearts.
So there is nothing surprising about watching Torao’s love for Luffy grow on the way to Dressrosa. If there is a surprise, it is the extent to which Luffy’s devotion seems to grow as a mirror to Torao’s. Luffy has rescued any number of acquaintances from enemies, but Zoro can’t remember a time when Luffy had held on to the person he was trying to rescue the way he holds on to Torao.
Zoro is Luffy’s right hand, and his crew. He does not and has never expected to be loved back. He had not known that Luffy could.
It is not his place to do anything but serve and love and obey Luffy.
But if Torao ever does harm to Luffy, Zoro will be at his captain’s side to rip Torao limb from limb.
- The Navigator
Bepo has watched his captain interact with any number of other pirate crews, but he has never seen him as himself as he is with the Straw Hat Pirates.
Trafalgar Law likes to be an enigma, and he tends to wear his sarcastic, sadistic mask even in front of his own crew.
But with the Straw Hat captain in particular, he is argumentative and rambunctious, and looks freer than he’s ever seemed before.
There is some pain in Bepo that he and the rest of the crew have not been enough to set Law free from whatever it is that has kept him shackled and resigned and dark all these years.
But he knows that no family can be everything to a person, and he is happy for Law.
Monkey D. Luffy is impossible to read in a way entirely different from Law, but Bepo knows that to read an inscrutable captain, one need only look to his crew.
The Straw Hats treat Law like one of their own. They are friendly with the rest of the Heart Pirates, but there is something particular about the camaraderie they all extend to Law, and while that could mean anything, Bepo likes to think they have seen and accepted in their captain what Bepo and his crewmates have accepted in theirs.
He supposes that between Straw Hat’s obliviousness and Law’s rejection of vulnerability, they have plenty of time before they have to worry about consolidating their two crews.
- The Enemy
Doflamingo flatters himself that he knows Trafalgar Law better than anyone on the planet.
He has, after all, shaped him from boyhood. He still sees the echoes of his teachings resonating throughout Law’s behavior, and he couldn’t be prouder.
Even Corazon hadn’t been able to totally uproot the seeds Doflamingo had planted in that boy as a child.
To Doflamingo, love is an act, not a feeling.
It has its value, showing his crew the ways in which he values them. But it also has its limitations, because when love overtakes reason, there is much to lose and nothing to gain.
Monkey D. Luffy does not seem to have any concept of this.
He lets his love rule him from start to finish. He does not heed reason at all, and he is all the stronger for it.
Doflamingo has no interest in whatever this love is that Law has found with Straw Hat. He is far more interested in the way that Straw Hat is shaking up the world order, sowing terror in the hearts of those at Mariejois.
- The Ally
Kin’emon is very much aware of the irony that he has become allies with the very pirate who cut him into pieces and scattered the parts across Punk Hazard.
But the more he gets to know Monkey D. Luffy, the more he realizes that this is a standard way of life around this future pirate king.
Luffy is constantly turning enemies in to allies—
Though not quite the same way as he does Trafalgar.
Kin’emon does not know what to make of the bond between the two captains, who never say a word about the bond between them but are undoubtably bound together as surely as Oden-sama and Toki-sama had been in those early days before any declarations had been made.
There is something bittersweet about being in the company of two men in love when he has no such reprieve—when he can only hope his wife is still alive these twenty years in the future. When he still has to take down Kaido before he can even think of returning to his wife.
He supposes he is grateful that the captains do not flaunt their relationship.
If he did not know better, he would suppose that they were not even aware.
But of course that would be ridiculous, and he has learned better than to presume the worst of pirates.
He cannot resist giving Trafalgar a wink as he strategizes their approach to Onigashima, including a flawless prediction of Luffy’s behavior.
Trafalgar scowls back, and Kin’emon grins wider.
+1. The Pirate
Kid doesn’t like to be left behind, but in his posturing with the captains of the Heart and Straw Hat Pirates, he does end up frequently feeling left out, and he’s not entirely sure why.
He supposes there’s the fact that they are trying to take down Kaido, as if Kid hasn’t been here fighting to liberate his crew since long before they got here. They already have some sort of dynamic, an alliance that hasn’t gone down the drain the way Kid’s alliance has.
He needles Trafalgar because the usually calm Trafalgar responds so well to it, when he used to be the type to roll his eyes and brush off accusations.
He supposes there is some insecurity there, after all the time he’s spent with Straw Hat Luffy, who is utterly overbearing and will not listen to anyone else.
It’s not that Kid wants in on the alliance between the Hearts and the Straw Hats. But they are fighting together, and it seems only fair to not be left out.
Trafalgar offers Kid an alliance to take down Big Mom together, and Kid feels a little less left out.
When Kaido announces the death of Straw Hat Luffy, Kid looks at Trafalgar.
His face is calm.
He doesn’t look frightened or grieving, and his eyes are fixed upward.
When Straw Hat shows up again, not at all dead and white all over for some reason, Trafalgar blinks up in something like awe, cracks visible just for a moment, and then quirks a winning smile full of triumph as if Straw Hat has already won.
The expression strikes something in Kid’s heart, but he’s not sure why.
They’ve taken Big Mom down, and once Straw Hat takes down Kaido, their alliances will all be terminated anyway.
Going forward, the board will be wiped clean again, and Kid will always have been part of the alliance that took down two Emperors.
That’s the important part, Kid knows.