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It was a sunny spring day, and eleven-year-old Law was deep in concentration perfecting the flowers in the shelves outside the store. He didn't really care about flowers as much as his father did, but he liked to put his heart into everything he did, and Corazon always stressed to him how proud he was of him for it.
When Law finished arranging the amaryllis, large six-petaled flowers that came in shades of white and red, he went on to arrange the sunflowers. His father loved these flowers for some reason he didn't understand so he always had plenty of them.
The moment he took several sunflowers in his hands, Law felt something bump into him causing him to stagger on the spot, and nearly knocking the sunflowers to the ground. He turned with a frown to see what it was that had crashed into him and found a straw hat decorated with a red ribbon being worn by a boy looking no more than nine years old.
"Hey, watch where you're running!" Law exclaimed to the strawhat boy, the little boy was still lying on the ground crestfallen.
The boy stood up quickly and looked at Law with a shocked expression for a few seconds, without releasing a word. Law could finally see his face, his eyes were big and bulging, and he was very struck by his scar under his left eye which stood out on his face and made Law question how he got it. Was it an accident? Did someone give it to him? Was it self-inflicted?
"I'm sorry!" The boy spoke with a big grin from ear to ear, his voice squeaky. "I was following a dog and I lost sight of it. Do you know where it went? You should have seen it, it was huge and its fur was very sof-!"
Law turned a deaf ear at that moment, completely dumbfounded because he was being blinded by the brightest and warmest smile he had ever seen in his life, one that surpassed the very rays of the sun. A warm smile. Law's heart began to beat wildly and he didn't understand why, this was a new experience for him.
"So?" asked the strawhat boy again, snapping Law out of his trance.
"Eh... "Law didn't retain anything of what the little boy said, only that it was about a dog "A dog"
"Yes, did you see it?"
"No, I'm sorry I didn't see-” He was interrupted by the little boy, who looked away to admire the huge sunflowers in the flower beds.
"Woah, how beautiful! I love sunflowers, they're my favorite you know" his eyes sparkled with excitement, they were like two well-polished gems.
«You are like a sunflower» Law thought to himself.
It was impossible not to make that comparison. As Corazon had explained to him, sunflowers are strongly related to the sun and carried several meanings but the one that stood out the most was that they expressed positivity and joy, because of their vibrant yellow color, and Luffy's glowing smile only made it more evident.
The scarred boy let out a laugh, alerting a confused Law who didn't understand why the little boy was laughing.
"I'm a sunflower? You're so funny!" mentioned the little boy with a chuckle.
"Shit, did I say that out loud?" Law with his cheeks flushed wanted to bury himself twenty meters under the ground and never come out of the embarrassment he was going through, he hid his face with his black spotted hat.
"Yep, I heard it! Shishishi."
In spite of the embarrassment Law felt at that moment, he took the courage to ask for his name. "What's your name?"
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy! and yours?"
"Trafalgar D. Water Law"
"Tra...Trafar...Traf...I'll call you Torao!" he concluded with a smirk.
"Torao? I've never been called that before, but my name is Law, not Torao" he spoke with a slight annoyance, although he actually thought the nickname the little boy had given him was kinda cute.
"Dont care, from now on I'll call you Torao, I like it better.” Before Law could protest Luffy approached the shelves of flowers and looked at them with an excited smile, "Is this your flower shop, can you show me the flowers?"
Law held back what he had to say and approached the little boy, who was gawking at the colorful flowers on the shelves.
"Sure, I'm an expert. "He grabbed a bouquet of white flowers. "These are gardenias" Luffy walked over to the flowers to smell them.
"Mmm! They smell so good"
"Luffy!"
They were both interrupted by two children that Law didn't know but Luffy apparently did because he smiled at the sight of them as they approached.
"Ace! Sabo!” Luffy turned to see his brothers running towards them, "They are my brothers" he mentioned to Law.
"We've been looking all over for you, dumb!" said the black-haired, freckled man with an annoyed but worried look on his face. "Don't run away from us like that."
"And you are...?" spoke the blond-haired boy with a galera addressing Law, he showed a serene smile but his voice denoted anything but kindness.
"This idiot is bothering you, Luffy?” asked the dark-haired boy with a frown, the anger in his eyes was much more evident than in the blond's.
Law clenched his fists, annoyed at the freckled boy's insult. "I'm not bothering him, he just bumped into me and now we were just talking."
"That's right, Ace! I bumped into him when I was chasing a giant dog,”.
"Whatever” spoke Sabo taking Luffy's arm. "We have to go or Garp will find out we ran away."
Luffy nodded somewhat saddened at no longer being able to spend time with Torao, “Okay” he turned to look at Law and Law looked at him expectantly. "I really liked you, Torao!"
Law just nodded, “Me too, Luffy” As Luffy was about to leave, Law realized that he might not see the little straw-hatted boy anymore. “Wait" Luffy stopped and Law, aware that he was probably going to regret what he was about to do, grabbed one of the bunches of sunflowers that had six large ones wrapped in gray paper and approached to the small bo.
"These... these are for you, Luffy,” Luffy's cheeks were completely flushed and his heart was beating fast, "The sunflowers represent the sun and you... you shine like one. I want to give them to you because they remind me your bright smile."
Luffy's chubby cheeks had turned crimson at those beautiful words of the older boy, happy and full of emotion running through his body he accepted the bouquet of sunflowers from Law, jumping up and down on the spot.
«Cute» thought Law when he saw the little Luffy jumping with so much emotion.
"Thank you thank you, Torao! I love them, they're so beautiful!!!!"
"You're welcome, Luffy."
Luffy stopped admiring the sunflowers to approach Law again, standing on his tiptoes and taking everyone present by surprise he gave Law a little kiss on the cheek, leaving Law completely stupefied, frozen in place.
He just gave him
A
kiss
On the cheek.
"Why... Why did you give me a kiss?” asked the older boy exalted, touching his cheek that had been kissed, if before his face was red for giving a bouquet of flowers to Luffy now it was redder for the kiss of the younger one, his face looked like a tomato.
"Mmm well once someone gave Makino flowers and she gave him a kiss on the cheek in return,” explained the little boy with an innocent smile.
"Luffy!" Sabo protested with a fury in his eyes that he couldn't hide. "You can't go around giving kisses to strangers.!" Law thought his brothers were too overprotective of Luffy, but he understood their behavior to a certain level, he also had a younger sister after all.
"But-" Luffy turned to look at his brothers who were enraged "Torao is not a stranger, he's my friend now! right, Torao? " He looked back at Law with a beaming smile that would blind anyone's eyes.
The question took Law by surprise, he had just met Luffy and the boy already considered him his friend.
"Uh... yes... we are friends,” he answered with some embarrassment, inside he was choking with happiness to see how the little boy considered him his friend.
"See?!!!” Luffy exclaimed excitedly at Law's affirmation.
"Ugh whatever, let's go or Garp will kill us!" said Ace taking Luffy's arm.
"That's it, let's go Luffy” said Sabo.
"Bye, Torao, I hope to see you again” greeted Luffy from a distance.
"Goodbye... little sunflower." he said as he watched the little strawhat boy and his brothers run away and and disappear into the distance.
«I hope to see you again too»