Work Text:
Law was walking around the Sabaody Art Museum, absently looking at the paintings on the walls. The museum was right next to the hospital, and Law was killing time, waiting for the next bus to take him home. He had been delayed leaving work, and exited the hospital just in time to see the bus drive away. It wasn’t the first time.
At least looking at art was a pleasant way to spend time while waiting and calming down after a stressful day. Law often visited before or after work, or sometimes during his lunch breaks. The museum cafeteria was pricier than the one in the hospital, but it also had much better food.
Law had been walking around aimlessly for a while, looking at nothing in particular, and yet his feet always seemed to take him to the same place.
“...and here we see the famous Sogeking’s final known work, an untitled portrait of the ageing Pirate King and his equally infamous ally and sometimes rival, the Surgeon of Death. While little is known about the private lives of these two major historical figures, this portrait in particular has led to a lot of speculation over the last three hundred years…”
Law tuned out the tour guide, and the inevitable questions and opinions of his audience. Instead, he looked at the painting. At how close the two old men stood. The looks they were giving each other. The bright smile on the face of the Pirate King, and the shyer but no less radiant smile on the other. The Surgeon of Death wearing The Pirate King’s infamous straw hat. The sunflowers surrounding them.
“Speculation” indeed. Law had never seen two people so clearly in love. It was enough to make even him, an eternal bachelor, a little jealous. And a little sad. Like something was missing from his life.
“I promise I’ll find you again.”
Law closed his eyes. He could almost hear the words in his mind, but why he associated them with this particular painting he wasn’t entirely sure. Still, it felt important. Maybe that’s why he kept returning to the painting every time he visited the Museum.
Law shook his head, feeling a bit foolish. It was just a painting, nothing but oil on canvas. There was no reason for him to obsess over it like this. And yet, as he followed the group of tourists to the next room to eavesdrop on the guided tour, he couldn’t help but glance back towards the portrait, and the Pirate King's bright smile.
***
The museum wasn’t as bad as Luffy had expected.
He didn’t do well in museums, generally. Or libraries. Or any place that expected him to be calm and quiet. The Sabaody Art Museum was a pretty lively place, though. Usopp had dragged him along to the modern art exhibition, and it was actually kind of fun. Some of the art was interactive, making it more interesting than just dusty paintings on the wall.
Usopp still wanted to see the dusty paintings before they left, though.
“Come on, Luffy,” he pleaded. “We paid the entrance fee, and this place has a permanent exhibition of paintings from the Great Pirate Era. You like pirates, right?”
“Yeah, in movies. You know, when they move,” Luffy said. “It’s a bit boring to just see pictures.”
“Some of them almost look like they are moving, though,” Usopp said. “There’s this one painting I’ve been wanting to see in person, depicting the fall of Mary Geoise. It really looks like a real, actual battle.”
Luffy supposed that did sound kind of interesting, so he followed Usopp away from all the modern installations and into the section of the museum that had more traditional paintings in fancy gilded frames and signs that said “do not touch.”
The paintings were very realistic, at least. Many of them were just portraits of supposedly important people, and Luffy impatiently walked past them to find something more fun. As Usopp had said, there were some pretty cool paintings of battle scenes further in. Swordfights, devil fruit powers, even an entire dragon!
“Ah, Sogeking never disappoints,” Usopp sighed in satisfaction. “I’ve seen pictures of these paintings all my life, but it’s so different in person. Just look at those brush strokes!”
Luffy didn’t see any brush strokes. Instead, something else caught his eye, something yellow on the wall in the next room.
He moved through the crowd to find out what it was, and found himself in front of a painting of two old men surrounded by sunflowers. Luffy stared at it, transfixed, particularly at the man wearing glasses and two hats. It should just have been another boring portrait, but this was different. Luffy didn’t know why, but it was.
“Give me the freedom to love you in another life.”
He wasn’t sure where the thought had come from, but his heart hurt. Why did he feel like he had lost something?
“Oh, do you like that one?” Usopp asked, catching up behind him. “It’s pretty sweet, isn’t it? Not Sogeking’s usual style, but you can really see how his mastery of colours has developed from his earlier works.”
“I want it,” Luffy said, still looking at the old man with the yellow eyes.
“We can ask in the shop if they sell prints of it,” Usopp said, and started moving on. After some hesitation, Luffy followed. He barely paid any attention to the rest of the exhibition, even though Usopp tried to show off the battle scene he had been wanting to see.
As it turned out, the gift shop didn’t have prints of the painting Luffy wanted.
“But we’ve noticed an increasing popularity around that painting, so we’re working on it,” the girl behind the counter said. “If all goes well we should have high-quality prints ready for sale in a few weeks. We already have one name on the waiting list, we can put you down as well if you want?”
Luffy ended up agreeing. It felt like a strange thing to do, but he wanted that painting. And this was probably better than trying to break in and steal it.
Probably.
***
Luffy returned to the museum a couple of times to look at the painting. He wasn’t really sure why, there was just something about it that spoke to him, that drew him towards it.
The museum was expensive, though. Usopp had paid for them both on the first visit, and Luffy had paid the second time, but the third and fourth time he had just snuck in when the lady behind the counter looked away. He was only there to look at one painting for a couple of minutes, anyway. Paying full price for that was just silly.
The museum was often quite busy during the afternoons when Luffy visited. School groups, tourists, and other patrons crowded up the exhibitions, but they tended not to stay by Luffy’s favourite painting very long. Usually they glanced at it as long as the guide talked, then moved on.
This time, however, there was someone else standing in front of the painting when Luffy arrived, staying where he was despite the group moving on around him. Maybe he wasn't part of the group.
He was tall, with black hair, a beard and yellow eyes. His tanned face, neck and hands were covered in patches of lighter skin.
Something eased in Luffy’s chest.
I found you.
Except, that didn’t make any sense, did it? Luffy didn’t know this man. And yet…. Luffy glanced from him, to the painting, and back again.
“Hey,” he said out loud, and the man startled a bit, then turned towards Luffy. “That really looks like you!”
The man looked back at the painting, then turned towards Luffy again. “I could tell you the same thing,” he said, a smirk in the corners of his mouth. “Give it 30-40 years or so.”
Luffy blinked. He hadn’t considered that, but looking at the painting he supposed the man had a point. Luffy’s eyes tended to be drawn to the man with two hats, but the other guy did kinda look like him. They both had black hair and a scar under one eye. That was a funny coincidence, he supposed.
“I guess,” he said. “Not as much as you. You have basically the same-” he gestured vaguely towards the man “-everything.” He paused. “Except the clothes. And the wrinkles.”
“I should hope so,” the man huffed, but his skin did wrinkle a bit in the corners of his eyes, showing a hint of amusement. He held out his hand towards Luffy. “Trafalgar Law.”
“Nice to meet you!” Luffy grinned, enthusiastically shaking his hand. “I’m-”
“Hey, you! With the straw hat!”
Luffy looked around to see a uniformed man approaching them. “Do you have a valid ticket?”
“Crap!” Luffy muttered. “See you later, Torao!”
He hurried off the other way, away from the guard. “Hey! Stop!” the guard shouted after him, but Luffy was faster, and made it out of the museum in record time.
Only afterwards did he start to wonder if maybe he should have just stayed and paid. They would probably recognise him now, so sneaking in would be harder. But he still wanted to see that painting again.
And more than that, he wanted to see Torao again.
***
The young man from the museum stuck in Law’s mind.
Maybe it wasn’t so strange. The man with the straw hat had looked so much like the ageing Pirate King on Sogeking’s painting, after all. Of course Law would think about that.
There was something else, though. Something in the back of his mind, a barely audible echo of a conversation he’d heard…somewhere. A long time ago.
“ I promise I’ll find you again. ”
“Give me the freedom to love you in another life.”
Who had said it? Where had Law heard it? He wasn’t sure. But something about the painting always made him think of it, and the man with the straw hat just made the words clearer. Law wasn’t sure what it meant, although… He had a hunch, but it was an insane idea.
Maybe he was losing his mind.
Law shook his head and walked out of the hospital. He was on lunch break, and planned to head to the museum for some overpriced food.
He didn’t really need to go back to look at the painting anymore. The shop finally had prints of it, and Law had bought two, one for his office at the hospital, and one for his home. Still, he had kept up the habit of visiting the museum, because… because seeing the real thing was better. Yes. That was the only reason.
The guy with the straw hat was never there, anyway. It had been months. Any reasonable person would have forgotten about the encounter by now. Law was a reasonable person. So he was heading to the museum for lunch, and that was all.
Lunch might have to wait, though. As Law approached the museum, he saw there was some kind of commotion happening outside. A car was stopped at a weird angle, and a guard was talking to a policeman and a guy Law assumed was the driver. Between them stood a familiar man with a straw hat on a string around his neck, holding his head and bleeding.
Law moved forward before he knew what he was doing.
“-ran right out in front of me, I didn’t see,” the driver was saying.
“Look, it’s fine. See? I’m fine,” Straw Hat was saying, waving his hands around as if to demonstrate how fine he was, but it was undercut by his bleeding head, hands and knees.
“And then there’s the matter of the museum fee...” the museum guard said, and Straw Hat gave a sheepish laugh, before his eyes fell on Law. “Torao!” he exclaimed. “There you are! Finally!”
He must have been looking for Law as well, Law supposed. Something to revisit later when the guy wasn’t bleeding.
“Officer, I understand there’s been an accident,” Law said as he butted into the conversation. “Why isn’t this man receiving medical attention?”
“I’m fine, Torao, it’s just bruises and scrapes,” Straw Hat protested, and Law glared at him..
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he said before turning back towards the cop. “I’m a doctor at the hospital next door. Let me see to his injuries before anything else.”
It took some convincing, and the cop only released Straw Hat into Law’s care after getting his name and contact information. Monkey D. Luffy, apparently. Strange name.
He led Luffy back to his office to look at his injuries. It meant forgoing lunch, but it was hardly the first time. And Law had finally met the strange young man again, so it was worth the sacrifice. Wasn’t it?
“Hey! It’s the painting!” Luffy exclaimed as they entered Law’s office. “It still really looks like you!”
He laughed like he was relieved to have confirmed it. Law glanced at the print, then back at Luffy. He felt similarly, he supposed. He had started to think that maybe he had imagined the resemblance, but no, it was there. Plain to see.
And the words still rang in his mind as he looked at Luffy.
“ I promise I’ll find you again. ”
Law ignored it for now, instead focusing on the easiest problem to deal with.
“Sit down,” Law urged him, pointing towards the patient chair. Mostly it was for consultations and follow-ups after surgeries, not for this kind of basic first aid. Still, Law liked to be prepared for anything, and had the tools to clean and dress wounds readily available, so he started on that when Luffy sat down.
“I was looking for you outside the museum, but you were never there,” Luffy said. “So I figured I’d sneak in again and see if you were by the painting, but the guard saw me and chased me out again.”
“And you got hit by a car as you ran out?” Law asked, and Luffy laughed.
“Nah, it didn’t hit me, I dodged away in time,” he said. “I didn’t manage to fall right, though, so I hit my head and got some scrapes.”
“So I see. Are you feeling nauseous or do you have difficulty focusing your eyes?”
“No, I’m just excited to see you!” Luffy said, then hesitated. “I’m not really sure why. I just really wanted to see you again.”
“Hmm,” Law said. So it wasn’t just him, then. He wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.
“We haven’t met before, have we?” Luffy asked, sounding very uncertain. “Before the museum, I mean?”
“No,” Law said. Not in this life, he didn’t say. It seemed so insane. But what other explanation was there for all this?
Law briefly glanced back at the painting, and noticed Luffy doing the same thing.
“I found you,” Luffy said quietly, and Law didn’t answer. How was he supposed to answer something like that?
Law had just about time to see to Luffy's injuries and check for a concussion before his lunch time was up, and he was forced to send Luffy away to deal with his next appointment.
“Okay, Torao,” Luffy said when Law led him to the door. “But I’ll see you again soon. When does your work end?”
“In four hours,” Law said, and Luffy just grinned.
“Yeah, I can wait that long. This place has a cafeteria, right? I’m starving.”
Law looked at him. He seemed serious about it. “How about this?” Law suggested. “You come back in four hours, and I’ll take you out to eat someplace, and we can talk.”
“Great!” Luffy grinned. “I’ll see you later, then!”
He bounced away, still with that big smile on his face. Law looked after him, wondering if he had just made a mistake.
***
Torao looked a little nervous when they met up, about four and a half hours later. Luffy had spent most of that time in the cafeteria talking to random people and making new friends, but he was bored after four hours, and then Torao took even longer.
“Sorry about the wait,” Torao said. “Things were busy, and…” he trailed off, looking away.
Luffy frowned. “Didn’t you want to see me?”
“I’m not sure,” Torao sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get dinner.”
He started walking out of the building at a brisk pace, and Luffy hurried after him. Torao didn’t say anything during the walk, but he led them to a small restaurant just a few blocks away from the hospital. A pricier place than Luffy would usually go to, but not fancy enough for a dress code. The waiter still gave Luffy a weird look as he showed them to an empty table, but Luffy ignored him. The place smelled good, and he was hungry.
“Order whatever you want, it’s my treat,” Torao said, gesturing vaguely towards the menu the waiter had put down in front of Luffy. “For making you wait.”
Well, Luffy wasn’t going to say no to that, but something about the tone bothered him. “Why are you here if you don’t want to be here?” Luffy asked, and Torao just looked uncomfortable.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be here,” he said. “It’s just a… strange situation. We don’t know each other.”
“True,” Luffy nodded. “But I want to get to know you.” He reached out across the table, putting his hand over Torao’s. It seemed like the right thing to do. “I found you.”
Torao’s face was unreadable and complicated as he looked down at their hands. Something about the expression stirred a fondness in Luffy’s stomach. Maybe it didn’t quite make sense considering how they only just met, but that didn’t make the feeling less real.
“You’re overthinking it,” Luffy said. “We’re here. That’s all there is.”
“That’s not all there is,” Torao sighed. “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but… do you believe in reincarnation?”
Luffy thought about it for a moment. “I guess,” he concluded. “That would explain why you look like that.”
“Right back at you,” Torao grumbled. “But I’m not him. I may look like him, but I’m not him.”
“I know,” Luffy said. “So I want to get to know you. ” He smiled. “I’m not him, either. Even if being Pirate King sounds very cool.”
Torao studied him for a moment, then answered his smile with a smirk. “I wish I could say the same about my…counterpart,” he said. “A surgeon from 300 years ago? I can’t even begin imagine the malpractice.”
Luffy laughed. “But he was a pirate too, right? I bet he was even cooler than the Pirate King.”
“Well, looking at that portrait, I bet the Pirate King thought so. Among other things,” Torao said, and his smile faded again. “I don’t know if you…remember? the same conversation that I do. ‘I promise I’ll find you again…’ ”
“ ‘Give me the freedom to love you in another life,’ ” Luffy finished. “Yeah. I remember.”
“I’m… not opposed to getting to know you,” Torao said. “But I’m not going to promise to love you. In fact, I find it unlikely.”
Luffy shrugged. “That’s fine, I don’t love you either. Not yet, anyway,” he said. “Let’s just be friends.”
“Acquaintances,” Torao corrected, and Luffy just laughed.
“Friends,” he insisted. “I like you already, so you don’t get a choice.”
“We’ll see about that,” Torao said, but by the amused smirk on his lips he wasn’t offended. Luffy grinned.
Reincarnations or not, Luffy had a good feeling about this friendship. Especially since Torao was buying him food. He turned towards the menu, confident that whatever was between them, be it friendship or something more, would develop on its own, in time.
For now, he was looking forward to a good dinner in better company.