Chapter Text
The harsh winter temperature does nothing to ease Law’s steadily flowing tears. His face feels frozen, but it does nothing to quell his sobbing. He’s broken, unrepairable, and it makes him want to simultaneously make the world feel the pain that it has given him, as well as dig himself into the earth to make it all stop.
He can’t do either of those, though. Cora-san would be disappointed in him if Law let his sacrifice go to waste so soon.
Law owes so, so much to the man. Cora-san had saved his life, and before that he was traversing the world with Law just to find him a cure. Him, a no-good, unworthy, unruly kid that was supposed to have died twice over. He didn’t deserve Cora-san’s love, and he sure as shit didn’t deserve the man’s life. Just as he was starting to think that maybe he should finally accept the affection thrown at him and relent into his thoughts of seeing the man as a father figure, Cora-san was ripped away from him.
Not by the world, not this time. Cora-san was killed by his own brother, without hesitation, without remorse.
This is one reason why Law can’t let himself succumb to his woes. Cora-san gave up his life and the freedom of an entire country to spare Law’s. The memory sparks up the flare in his chest, that fire that was slowly dying along with him after Flevance, and it makes determination flow in his blood like adrenaline. Law can’t die until he brings Donquixote Doflamingo into the grave with him and force the pirate captain to choke on his sins, dying slowly in pure agony.
But there is a second reason now, one which makes Law stifle his sobs into minute whimpers that do not deter his tears. This reason makes Law go faster through the heavy snowfall, and it had made his escape attempt not as seamlessly perfect as he would have liked. This reason is bundled up safely in multiple blankets, and Law clutches him closer, protecting the tiny sleeping face from the roiling winds.
The baby made no noise. He was sleeping peacefully in Law’s arms, especially after hours and hours of crying and Law trying his damned best to calm him down. Law was deathly afraid that the baby’s cries would have alerted someone at least, but if fate was real then it seemed to have given the two of them a lucky break. Law was able to run off mostly unscathed - in physical terms - with no one the wiser. And if he remembers correctly the location that he’s coming up on is called Pleasure Town.
Law doesn’t know what’s in this little village or if it’s a safe enough place to lay low for a while. Him and Cora-san had planned to meet up on Swallow Island originally, and Law didn’t have time to question it or its inhabitants. He does know one thing: if it’s not safe for Cora-san’s baby then he’ll keep on walking until he does find a home that is. He’ll keep on going and even steal a boat to sail by himself if he has to, because both him and Cora-san’s baby are wanted by the Donquixote Pirates, and Law won’t let anyone even fucking touch them if he can help it.
Law leans his head over to wipe his eyes as best as he could with his shoulders, and he takes a deep breath. He hasn’t had the time to cure himself of Amber Lead just yet and it’s ruining his stamina, but that’ll have to wait just a little bit longer. He has to make it to Pleasure Town and find good enough cover for a three-week-old, and then find a food source for said three-week-old, and then he should be able to heal himself. The Ope-Ope Fruit had given Law a little more time and energy left for a few more days, so he will use every last available second he has to find the two of them protection.
If he can’t find something until then, well… he’ll make sure Cora-san’s baby wasn’t looking his way when he has to inevitably cut himself open.
A sudden draft ricochets into Law, smacking snowflakes onto his numb face. Law doesn’t even try to shield himself, instead tucking the bundle in his arms even closer into the crook of his warm neck, where cold snow wouldn’t interrupt the baby’s peaceful sleep. His steps stagger, but he quickly catches himself and moves onward.
Law blinks. His cries and the storm weren’t doing any favors to his vision, but if Law squints he thinks he can see the outlines of houses further on ahead. The shape of roofs and sturdy walls were standing in defiance of the weather, and it made Law let out a breath of relief. His shoulders don’t ease up and his pace doesn’t lessen, but warmth and food and safety is so close, and it would be the first good thing that he has done for Cora-san and his child. This time, Law has won.
Then, suddenly, faint from the gusts but still within distance--
SMACK!
…What the hell was that?
Law instinctively clutches Cora-san’s baby closer in protective rage, and it makes the three-week-old let out a noise. He eases up his grip immediately, feeling guilt rise in his chest like a tidal wave, but when Law eases the tiny face away from his neck to see if he accidentally hurt the most precious thing in the world, he sees bright blue eyes flutter back closed.
There’s the sound of another smack. Looking in the direction of where it’s coming from, Law can just make out three figures through the gales of falling white, two moving avidly and a third down on the ground. Actually, upon closer inspection, is that third thing even a human? It looked too big and round, white and… fluffy?
The two people standing above it are kicking the third figure, the sound of mockery and laughter leaving their lips. One of them was even wielding a bat, but they were using it sparingly in favor of their legs and arms.
Law stands there raptly for a second, watching as the two most-likely teenagers continued to beat the poor thing into the snow.
But he turns his attention back to the village. That kind of trouble doesn’t concern him.
He should look for food first, right? The baby hasn’t eaten anything since last night, and Law knows from common sense, as well as sharing a boat with said baby and Cora-san for around two weeks or so, that infants eat a lot. Law’s pretty sure that the boy’s early persistent cries weren't just from the sounds of gunshots either. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any money for formula, as he was in too much of a rush to try and grab anything before he ran off from Doflamingo. That just means that Law will have to find a way to steal it, if this village has a store that sells it—
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Law stops. He holds in a sigh lest it wake up his precious bundle again, but he doesn’t hold back his glare as he looks over at the source of the voice.
One of the teens stops what he was doing and points the bat in his direction. His other half also stops to scowl at Law, leaving the fluffy white humanoid to whimper morosely in the snow.
Law doesn’t have time for this. He looks away, ignoring the affronted squawks of the other boys as he continues his pace.
“OI! You don’t just walk away from us! This is our town — you have to go through us before you can enter!” The boy with the cap and bat states, visibly gritting his teeth.
Whatever. Law doesn’t even bother giving them an eye roll. They’re just a sorry bunch of losers pretending to play tough.
“What do you have in your arms? Is it a weapon?!” The one with the hat flaps tries to challenge, taking a step forward as if he intends to block Law’s way. Oh, Law dares them to fucking try. He doesn’t want to fight, but he’d easily murder right now if any harm was to happen to this baby.
However, he has to avoid violence as much as possible right now. He only has so much time left until it becomes night, and then it’ll be too cold for either of them to stand. Once the moon rises, if Law hasn’t found sustainable shelter then it would mean certain death for the two of them. Hypothermia plus the remains of Amber Lead would absolutely be Law’s own undoing, needless to say what the below-freezing temperature would do to Cora-san’s child.
So Law keeps on ignoring the two bullies. Today will dictate whether or not Law gets to outsmart death a third time, and he sure as fuck doesn’t plan to let it grab at him again so soon.
Even so, his efforts are for naught.
The tallest teen, the one with the hat flaps, makes his way in front of Law. His face was set in a deep frown, pale skin reddened by the cold, and even though Law couldn’t see his eyes he was pretty sure that they were full of indignation. His hands were fisted in the pockets of his coat in an effort to make himself look more intimidating.
Behind him, the teen with the bat and pale orange hair was blocking off his other exits. For some sorry sack of shits, they apparently knew a thing or two about cornering someone. Still, they weren’t a cause for concern. If anything, they were giving Law a reason to effectively bury his sorrow, annoyance rising in its place.
“You have guts, runt,” the older boy says, gazing down at Law, “that, or you’re fucking stupid.”
“I bet it’s the latter,”the other one chimes in, rather unhelpfully. “That stupid hat probably hides all of the lumps from when he was dropped as a baby.”
Okay, they also seem to know how to make some actually mean comments. Law has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from making a sarcastic retort.
“Move, now.” He says instead, venom dripping from his words like poison.
That only seems to make the two bullies chuckle. “Oh shit, he really does have guts!” the one with the bat says, once again unhelpfully.
“Whatever. When we kick your ass, runt, you’ll think otherwise.” The two boys were grinning ferally, and wow, they really were that confident in themselves, huh?
Law can’t help it anymore. He growls out his next words, lethal intent in his voice and eyes.
“You can try. I’ll gut you open and leave your remains to rot in the snow.” Law wouldn’t usually take the bait this hard. Law would have usually kicked their asses and moved on. But Law isn’t thinking of himself right now. He has something to protect, and these two are threatening Cora-san’s baby just as much as they were him. They were in his way, and if they struck first they were going to pay.
The threat at least made their grins vanish. They were frowning again, now that they were realizing what exactly they were dealing with.
“Think that you’re tough shit, huh? Le—”
“No! Please!”
There was a higher pitched voice, interrupting the taller bully’s response. The three boys look down, and Law’s eyes widen when he realizes that what he was looking at was a literal polar bear. They seemed to have crawled on over to where the other three were standing, an indentation in the snow from where they made their way over.
“Don’t hurt him! Just let him pass! I’m sorry that I got in your way, but he hasn’t done anything!” The literal talking animal begs, black eyes wide with worry.
The polar bear doesn’t get much of a chance to talk more, as the bat-wielder leans over to kick its shoulder. It whimpers in response, and Law thinks that he can see tears fall from its eyes.
“Shut up! We’ll deal with you, freak!” He snarls, and Law has had just about enough.
“Leave them alone!” Law snarls out, turning his eyes back to the orange-haired kid.
The boy scoffs, still thinking that they were the ones in control here. “It’s as we said, shitdick, this is our town. We don’t let walking animal freaks in, and we sure as shit don’t just let any strange kid in either. So either you walk away now, or we beat your head into the dirt.”
Law looks between the two older kids and the polar bear still shrunk into itself below him. Their words weren’t going to change his mind. Maybe Law could find a way into another town over the next few days, but…
He has to head into Pleasure Town, today. He feels Cora-san’s baby breathe gently against his neck. His resolve hasn’t wavered yet, especially not in the face of two overconfident local town bullies.
Law’s lived through a genocidal tragedy and three years with pirates. As if this could be anywhere close to his breaking point.
He cradles the tiny body closer to him. The baby’s sleep was about to be disturbed, and Law feels guilt and dread mix with his irritation. He won’t fight back, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve that these two shitheads weren’t expecting.
Law clutches his bundle closer and promptly feints ducking to the left. As expected, the orange-haired bully leans after him, getting ready to wield his bat above his shoulder. Law doesn’t intend to let him.
He quickly side steps, making the boy stumble in surprise before Law kicks a leg out and tucks it behind the taller’s ankle, putting all of his strength in his tug. The boy falls to the ground with a yelp, his center of gravity used against him.
The other teen takes a step towards Law, a fist raised and aimed towards him. Law ducks easily and digs his feet as much as he can into the unsteady ground, leaning his body to the side to aim his shoulder into the other boy’s stomach.
Law can hear the breath leave the taller teen’s lungs. Good. He uses the distraction to maneuver himself to the boy’s back and kicks out a leg to the back of the bully’s knees. It makes the other groan as he falls to the ground, helpless, but Law doesn’t have a chance to relish in his victory.
The orange-haired bully is back up and is already trying to swing at Law. Law swerves to the side, but he can hear the wind from the force of the bat barely missing him.
Law takes a step back as the other teen grimaces, and he takes a stance to do a wide berth to the boy’s right side when—
Two things happen at once.
Suddenly, a white furry paw juts forward to grab the bully’s foot, causing him to plummet face-first into the snow once again. Law blinks, looking down at the polar bear to see tears still in its eyes but a set frown on its face.
Secondly, a whine begins to pick up amongst the din of fighting. Law swallows, apprehension coiling up his body but refusing to let it show.
The three other presences seem to come to a standstill as the cry begins to pick up, the sound immediately recognizable. Law doesn’t give them a chance to question it.
He swiftly kicks forward, knocking the orange-haired bully in the side of his head. He grunts in pain, hands dropping the bat to instinctively protect his head.
The other begins to stand up, but Law quickly lets one hand go to grab the available weapon and knock it against the teen’s already hurt stomach. He crumples once more, groaning in agony as gloved hands go to cover his belly.
Law’s breathing heavily. If his stamina wasn’t fucked before, it sure is now. The baby in his arms begins to sob louder, and Law immediately drops the bat to better hold him.
Law doesn’t even notice that he’s trying to quietly hush the baby until he looks into teary blue eyes.
“Shh-sh-shhhh, I’m sorry,” Law apologizes, not knowing what else to say. “I’m so sorry. I’ll find a place for us soon. I’ll find you food, I promise. Hush, please, sh-sh-sh…”
He knows about this form of comfort after watching Cora-san do it for two weeks. Back on their boat, when it was just the three of them, Cora-san had used to hush his baby just like this when he had started to cry during random times in the night. At first the cries had made Law annoyed and even outright angry, making his insomnia already worse, but…
But Law would do anything to go back to those weeks. He misses those interrupted nights and sleepy mornings like a missing limb. They had meant that waking up to Cora-san being there was a sure thing. They had meant that someone in this world cared for Law by making him burnt breakfast and giving him fires to put out. They had meant that he wasn’t alone anymore.
Law feels tears prickle at his eyes again, memories washing to the forefront of his mind as he stares down at a pudgy face just as full of tears and sorrow.
No. He wasn’t alone by any stretch of the word.
Cora-san had given Law the last thing that he had left of the man. The most precious thing that Cora-san had left behind in this world, and he gave him to Law to look after and raise.
Cora-san gave Law a gift — a memory of him made alive through tiny fingers, thin blond strands, and eyes that rattled Law’s very core.
Law would do anything for this child.
And first things first, he has to find food.
The thirteen-year-old turns away and tries to restart his track into town.
“Um…?” Comes the polar bear’s high-pitched voice, and Law stops.
“T-thank you… for helping me,” they continue, and when Law looks back at them he notices that they are standing again, face battered but still shy.
Law stares for a second. He didn’t really intend to help out at first. But, the tiny bear had tried to stand up to him in the face of his bullies, so… Law guesses it was merely fair.
“No need to thank me,” he responds over the din of the baby’s cries.
That seemed to make the polar bear flinch. “I’m sorry!” they cry out, paws coming together to rub each other unsurely. “I-I know you have a lot to do, and you have a baby human with you, and you just fought them off for your own safety… but- but still! I appreciate it!”
Law blinks at them for a moment. “You’re welcome,” he succumbs, since it seems like this wasn’t going anywhere else.
The bear continues to stand there, looking at their paws. Even though their eyes were black and their face wasn’t human, Law could still tell that this conversation wasn’t over. He stands there, waiting.
His patience proves him right. The bear then seems to gulp down whatever anxiety they were feeling, and then asks, just as shy as before, “Uh, can I… go into town with you? I, uh, I don’t think I could handle going into it on my own… If-if you don’t mind?”
Law wants to sigh. He really, really doesn’t have time for this, and his ears were starting to ring from the baby’s loud sobs.
But the poor thing is standing there, broken and bloody after being attacked by a bunch of stupid bullies. They look like they’re waiting for a rejection, and well… Law can’t tell someone no when they obviously need some help, especially on the medical side.
“Sure… Just don’t slow me down, okay?” Law responds, because he refuses to wait for somebody else when Cora-san’s baby will always be his first priority.
The bear blinks, ears obviously perking up in surprise. Holy crap, they were adorable. Law can already feel his heart start softening, and what does that say about him?
Refusing to think about that more, he turns back around and restarts his trek. He hears the bipedal bear quickly catch up to him, and it makes Law’s worry ease a bit that at least the thing’s breathing wasn’t irregular now that he could listen in.
“Thank you, again…” they thank him once more, and Law grunts in acknowledgment. “Uh…What’s your guys’ names? If you don’t mind me asking, that is! I’m sorry if it’s—“
“My name is Trafalgar Law,” Law interrupts, wanting to spare the poor thing’s rambling. “And his name is… Corvus.”
That makes the bear perk up more, and in fact their eyes seem to shine. “Corvus? Like, the constellation?”
Law nods. He still doesn’t know why Cora-san picked it of all names, especially due to the… bird motif, but he didn’t really get a solid answer then and he won’t question it now.
“That’s a good name!” The bear exclaims, and then slinks back down into shyness when Law blinks at them. “I mean, I, uh…? Well, I really like the stars… they’re good for navigating, and they all have fun stories behind them…”
“Hm… do you know the story behind Corvus then?” Law can’t help but ask, since he’s actually quite curious.
“I do!” The bear answers, smiling a little now that Law seems interested. “I can tell you, if you’d like to hear it?”
“Sure.” Law agrees, a small smirk coming to play on his lips. “So, what’s your name?”
“My name is Bepo,” they respond, “I’m a mink. I’ve been out here for a little while already, trying to find someone I know, but…”
They trail off. Law doesn’t push them to continue.
“I feel safe around you. You helped me out, so I’ll try to help you out too. If-if that’s okay?” They ask, and ooooh, okay, Law just has a soft spot for cute creatures.
“Might as well. You seem useful.” Law responds, trying to act casual, but his smirk still remains. The three of them have entered Pleasure Town now, and Law was able to quell Corvus’ cries into whines again.
Bepo smiles wider, showing sharp teeth. That’s actually kind of cool, but Law won’t comment on it.
“I need to get food first before we do anything else, though. Corvus is my priority, no matter what.”
“Okay, that’s fair.”
“…Also…if you, uh, don’t mind me asking… What are your pronouns?”
“Oh! I’m a boy!”
“So, uh, he-him, then?”
“Yep!”
“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”
At least Cora-san had taught Law how to ask about preferred pronouns in a polite way. The two continued to walk through Pleasure Town together, side by side, foot by fluffy paw.