Work Text:
Hanahaki disease is a fictional illness where a person suffering from unrequited love constantly coughs up flower petals. The flowers can be removed via surgery, but the feelings of love will disappear as well.
“Hanahaki disease.”
“What?” Nami looks up, her eyes wide as the sound of retching from the medical bay makes them all flinch. “Chopper, is that a real thing?”
Law bristles a little at the remark, feeling that his medical knowledge is being insulted, but the tiny reindeer nods after a few seconds.
“I’ve never seen it before, but I’ve heard of it,” he taps his blue nose with one hoof. “They say it can only be contracted by touching infected flower petals, but…”
“The last island,” Robin breaks in, standing with her arms crossed and a tightness around her eyes that speaks volumes to Law about how worried she is. “He always tries to pick Nami and I flowers, so it would have been easy for him to accidentally contact one with the disease.”
“Well, since I don’t know of any other illnesses where all the person does is throw up flowers, it’s obvious that’s what it has to be,” Chopper looks sad as he sits down on the bench circling the mainmast, his feet dangling in the air.
“Is there a cure?” Nami’s back to being purely concerned. “There has to be, right? I mean…”
“No, he cannot keep coughing up flower petals forever,” Law concedes, speaking slowly and waiting until they’ve all turned to look at him before continuing. “If left untreated for too long, the flowers will eventually start to grow in his body and block his air supply.”
Another violent cough from the inner rooms of the ship makes Nami grimace, but soon her expression becomes determined. “Then we cure him before that can happen.”
“Curing him is simple enough with my ability,” Law waves a hand in the air casually. “But whether he wants to be cured is another matter entirely. I won’t do anything without his permission.”
“Why wouldn’t somebody want to be cured of th-that?” Usopp’s face is decidedly green, and Law has to admit that, even for him, listening to somebody throw up nearly constantly for the better part of a day makes his stomach churn a little.
“Because it’s a disease caused by love,” Robin speaks softly, her eyes meeting Law’s as he nods once to let her know she’s right. “Unrequited love, specifically. And if the disease is removed, legend says that the feelings of love disappear with it.”
“Sanji would never let go of love,” Luffy looks up from underneath the brim of his hat, his expression utterly serious.
“That idiot will probably let it kill him,” Nami groans, covering her eyes with one hand. “Is there any other way?”
“Not unless the object of his affections feels the same,” Robin murmurs, and the entire crew sighs at that.
“Knowing curly, he probably doesn’t even know who he’s in love with this time,” Zoro grunts, and while none of them are being that kind, Law knows their words come truly from a place of concern.
The next set of coughs is followed by a gasp that sounds suspiciously like a death rattle, and Law moves immediately, glaring behind him to let the others know not to crowd him as he stalks into the medical bay.
“Blackleg-ya.”
Sanji looks awful, his sweat-soaked skin a shade so pale he’s nearly transparent save for the dark circles under his eyes. The bed is strewn with flower petals, more still spilling from his lips and sticking to his wet skin as they fall to his chest.
“L-“ he tries to speak before coughing again, more petals coming out. “Hurts.”
“Don’t talk,” Law tries to keep his own personal feelings out of his dealings with patients, but it’s difficult when Sanji looks so pathetic.
Yes, the blond chef is…desirable, certainly: a deadly combination of long limbs, razor-sharp wit, and a strategic mind to rival Law’s own. He’s also one of the most compassionate people Law’s ever met, and while he tries to cover that side of him with brashness and harsh words, Law can’t fault him for that since it’s something he relates all-too-well to.
Still, he’s been around long enough to know that Sanji only desires women…and, apparently, desires one woman so strongly it’s likely going to kill him…so he’s tried to keep his own feelings as deeply hidden as he possibly can.
After all, this alliance is temporary; there’s no sense in letting his emotions take over...
…especially when he knows his advances will never be reciprocated.
Sanji coughs again in response, his body shaking as he tries to lean over the bed.
“Sanji,” Law drops the formality and uses his name for once, deciding that in this situation it’s warranted.
It earns him a rather appraising glance from the blond between bouts of coughing, and this time when it stops Sanji slumps onto his side, utterly exhausted.
“I want you to listen to me very carefully,” Law takes his arm and helps him lie back, going to move away when Sanji grabs his hand and holds on so tightly it hurts.
“Please…” he whispers, and there’s so much pain in his visible eye that Law knows, somehow, he’s going to accept the offer for Law to cure him.
“I can cut the infection out of you and remove the plants from your system, but if I do…whatever love you’re feeling toward the person causing it will disappear.”
Sanji nods. “I…know. I’ve heard…” he stops, swallowing. “Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“Can’t…live like this,” Sanji shivers a little, though the look he gives Law is searching and intense, like he’s trying to commit something to memory. Finally he nods, looking like the motion itself pains him. “Please.”
“Okay,” Law reaches to brush his hair back, a tender gesture that’s probably too bold, though Sanji’s response is to sigh and push against his hand. Law keeps stroking, his fingers slipping through the sweat-damp golden tresses. Sanji lets out a tiny murmur at that, sounding at least a little less in pain, but Law knows this apparent respite from throwing up will only be temporary so it’s best not to waste it. “I’ll get a sedative prepared.”
“Thank you,” Sanji half-closes his eyes, not letting go of Law, and it only dawns on the surgeon later that the only time in the past day Sanji’s stopped coughing had been when Law was holding his hand.
000
The operation is easy enough ,though the roots of the plants were already affixing themselves deep within Sanji’s body and there were vines snaking up his windpipe that would have likely choked him sooner rather than later.
Still, Law makes sure all traces of the plant are removed both from Sanji himself and from the medical bay, and he allows Usopp to shoot the bag full of plant detritus as far out into the ocean as he can with his slingshot to ensure that no other poor lovelorn soul comes into contact with it.
He assures all of the rest of the crew that the operation was a success and that the sedative should wear off soon, and with that the mood aboard the ship lightens considerably as everybody goes off to do their own business.
“Will he be okay? I mean, not physically, but…” Nami asks him, looking nothing but purely concerned now.
“As I said, he won’t remember having any feelings at all toward whoever he was in love with, so he’ll be fine,” he promises, and that seems to appease her as she heads toward the library.
Law goes back into the medical bay after a while, leaving a glass of water beside the bed as Sanji’s sure to be parched when he finally wakes, and settles into a chair with one of Chopper’s medical volumes to pass the time.
He hears the cook stir sometime later and sets the book aside, watching carefully as Sanji sits up and shakes his head.
“Fuck,” he rasps, his voice sounding as if somebody had scraped the inside of his throat with sandpaper. “What…”
“The plants are gone. Hopefully at the bottom of the ocean,” Law adds dryly, and Sanji blinks at him without comprehension for a second or two before his eyes widen.
“Oh! Thank you,” he says, curling his fingers into the blanket covering him.
“There’s water,” Law gestures, though he makes no move to get up or pass it to the other man.
Sanji nods and grabs it, almost downing the whole glass and sighing in relief when it hits his parched throat.
“And you should rest more. No doubt you’re still exhausted,” Law realizes that his bedside manner is lacking but, well, it’s better if he pretends he feels nothing for Sanji and treats him exactly as he would any other patient.
“Yeah,” Sanji’s regarding him with the same intensity he had before the operation, and finally he sighs. “It…didn’t work, though.”
“What didn’t work?” Law asks idly, already immersed in the book again.
“The surgery. I’m still in love with…” he breaks off, cheeks flushing and his words trailing into a nervous laugh.
“That’s good,” Law tries to sound positive, though the words are like a dagger to the heart. “When that happens, it means the person whose feelings you believed to be unrequited aren’t after all.”
“…Ah,” Sanji doesn’t sound nearly as happy as Law thought he would be, and he finally meets the blond’s eyes.
“Well? Isn’t that good news?”
“It would be, I guess,” Sanji sighs in a rather put-upon way, “but I’m having a hard time believing it.”
“And why is that? You haven’t even been out of this room yet,” Law points out, closing the book.
“Because if he fucking loved me back he wouldn’t be sitting in a chair reading a fucking book!” Sanji snaps, covering his mouth a second later as the eye not hidden by his bangs widens, and Law knows he probably looks just as shocked.
“You…”
“Get the fuck over here, shitty surgeon, or I’ll kick you into the fucking ocean with your fucking plants,” Sanji snarls and Law’s about to reprimand him for his rather limited current vocabulary but he decides it’s not the time and gets out of the chair, squawking when Sanji grabs his wrist and yanks him onto the bed.
“I thought you were in love with women.”
“And I thought you were too much a cold-hearted bastard to love anybody,” Sanji replies, wrapping his arms around Law’s neck and staring at him. “Law, don’t play with me.”
“I’m not. I couldn’t,” Law half-smiles. “The Hanahaki disease wouldn’t have affected you had your feelings not been real, and if those feelings were truly unrequited, they would have gone away with the surgery.”
“Fuck you,” Sanji says before kissing him, and Law feels something in his chest unknot as he moves his lips lazily against the other man’s. He’s still weak and Law can feel it in how his arms are trembling as they wrap around the surgeon’s shoulders, so Law shifts a little to get them both lying down.
“Mm, that’s not nice,” Law frowns as Sanji reaches to knock his hat off.
“You could have told me instead of letting me spend a day coughing up shitty flowers!” Sanji kisses him again, though, so he obviously isn’t too mad.
“I apologize,” Law pulls away to murmur. “It was never my intention to cause you more pain.”
“I know,” Sanji’s clutching at him almost desperately now, like he’s afraid Law’s still going to say it’s just a bad joke or something. “But I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it up to me,” he adds with a smirk.
Law smiles back, chuckling darkly. “Will I, now?”
“Ye-” Sanji yawns in the middle of that, blinking and looking confused.
“Maybe you should sleep first,” Law suggests. “Then you can eat something when you wake up.”
“Okay,” Sanji flops against the pillow, but his hand stays clenched in the collar of Law’s shirt. “Stay?”
“Of course,” Law sits up to kick his boots off before moving under the covers, and while he’s still not exactly in love with human contact, when it’s Sanji it feels…nice.
Sanji curls up against his chest, arms tight around him, and Law burrows his nose into golden hair and lets his eyes close as he relaxes.
“Thank you,” Sanji murmurs, and Law makes a questioning noise low in his throat. “For healing me, I mean.”
“I’m a doctor. It’s my job,” Law says, shrugging, and Sanji chuckles against his shirt.
“Still. Thank you,” he curls up even closer, and Law can tell when he falls asleep when his breathing evens out.
It sounds clear, at least - no more breath rattling ominously in his lungs - and Law doesn’t loosen his grip as he finally allows himself to fall asleep, too.