Chapter Text
The white lead was gone. He was going to live, just like Cora-san had wanted.
What now?
It did not take Law long to figure out a rough plan. Very rough, because in the year and a half it took him to slowly work through his new devil fruit power to carefully remove all traces of the white lead from his body, he hadn’t actually processed the idea that there would be an after. He just knew that Cora-san had died to get him this power, so Law had to cut himself open and apart again and again and again until every fleck of white lead was gone.
And now, he needed to finish what Cora-san had started. He needed to destroy every single thing Doflamingo had built, make sure he knew it would all burn, and then kill him.
Like he said, it was a rough plan.
Luckily, he knew his enemy. He knew what he was capable of, the kind of power he had under him, and the absolute loyalty of the family. All to a man who had shot his own brother in the snow.
It would be pointless to try anything now. He had figured out how to make a room large enough to cover himself so that he could operate on his own body, but he couldn’t even beat Lao G with his power now. He needed to be smart about this, or Cora-san’s dream would never come true. He needed to be patient.
He needed someplace to hide. Somewhere to train, until he was strong enough and had enough control of his devil fruit that he could start making a real plan. One that Doflamingo wouldn’t be able to worm his way out of, and would make Cora-san proud.
Law didn’t actually care where he hid. He thought about staying in the north blue. It would be easiest, but it was also a risk. Doflamingo’s network was large and entrenched in this sea, and he was sure it would only grow in the time it took him to gain power. To grow up.
He couldn’t have another Virgo situation. He couldn’t risk everything going up in smoke because the wrong person saw him at the wrong time.
Doflamingo had connections in all of the seas, as well as the grand line. Law couldn’t completely eliminate the possibility of being found, but he could reduce it as much as possible.
The easiest way out of the north blue was stowing away on a navy ship. It was better than hiding under the dead bodies to get out of Flevance, even if it took a lot longer. Two and a half weeks, to be exact. He’d managed to figure out how to extend his room to also encompass the crates next to his, so that he could pop the food over to his side. It meant he had to go out a lot less, which meant less risk of anyone spotting him.
When he finally stepped off the ship, he was in the east blue. He picked east for a couple of reasons. One, it was across the red line from the north blue, which meant travel for anyone but the navy was hard and expensive. Two, it was known as the weakest sea, so Doflamingo never seemed all that interested in it. His networks did extend to the east blue as far as weapon sales and such, but it was barely an afterthought to the man.
Law didn’t know what island he was on, but as he sneaked off the ship he was relieved by a few things. It seemed like a pretty small island, with a large jungle that did not look particularly bustling with people. There was clearly a population center, he could hear the navy soldiers talking about restocking in Goa fast so that they could get a move on.
Without any hesitation Law slipped into that dark jungle.
-
He had two and a half days of peace.
Law spent that time getting a rough idea of the layout of the island. He figured after he got the general idea he could go back and refine it over time. The large, walled town at the edge of the forest was surrounded by a large slum, and he made a note to keep a wide berth from the area for now. There was a small village on the other side of the mountain the jungle grew around, and Law marked it as a safer place to go in and steal any supplies he might need. Food didn’t seem like it would be a problem, the jungle was more alive than any place he’d ever seen before. It was also clear that he wasn’t the only person in this jungle. He’d found makeshift trails that seemed to be used frequently enough that Law would guess a group of anywhere between twenty and forty people making their lives on this mountain. It was a given to avoid these trails as well.
It started with a feeling of eyes on him from behind. It wasn’t the first time, he’d had a few run ins with the wildlife already, and he expected to have more. He didn’t react, just kept walking. It was a lot easier if an animal thought it had the element of surprise.
There it was, the rustling of quick movement, and- not growling. Giggling?
Law jumped back, just in time to see a hand shoot past him. It kept going, and going, and then finally the body attached to the arm caught up as well.
For a split second Law locked eyes with a smiling face with wide black eyes and a scar on one cheek.
Then he shot off, and he watched as the kid slammed head first into the trunk of a tree.
“Aw, you dodged!” the kid complained, apparently not phased at all by the blunt force trauma to the head. “I was being so sneaky too,” he grumbled, dusting himself off with two arms that were definitely a normal length now. When the kid finally looked up at Law, he already had his knife clenched in one hand, eyes locked as he held a fighting stance.
The weird kid looked confused, but Law didn’t budge.
“Sorry if I scared you, I’ve never seen you before. Are you from the Gray Terminal?” he asked. Law had no idea what that was, and kept his mouth firmly shut. That only seemed to annoy the kid more, who puffed his cheeks out. “That’s a cool knife,” he tried next.
Law stayed silent. The kid sighed heavily.
“Can you not speak? I guess its okay if you can’t,” he said, as if he had any say in the matter. He shook off the annoyed look and smiled, brighter than anyone had any right to be. “My name is Monkey D. Luffy! I’m gonna be king of the pirates!”
D.
Law dropped the knife.
“Shit,” he muttered, quickly making a room and teleporting the knife back into his hand.
“You can speak! How did you do that?” this kid, Luffy or whatever, asked.
“How did you stretch?” Law asked back immediately. This Luffy didn’t look bothered by the question.
“I ate a devil fruit. You?”
“I ate a devil fruit,” Law echoed back. It was true, after all. Somehow the kid only looked more excited, even though it wasn’t any different from his own answer.
“Cool! I’ve never met anyone else with a devil fruit!” he said, which explained that. It made sense, this was the east blue. They were practically legends all the way out here away from the chaos of the grand line. “I ate the gum gum fruit, I'm a rubber man!” Luffy explained, stretching his mouth out as an apparent demonstration. “What about you?”
“Why should I tell you?” Law asked, trying to figure out if he should just leave. It was only a story, one he didn’t even understand fully. He didn’t have time to be wasting with some kid just because of his name.
“I told you mine,” Luffy answers, just like a kid would. “What are you doing out here anyways? I’ve never seen you at the Grey terminal either, but you don’t look like you’re from high town, and you’re definitely not from Windmill Village,” he just kept going on.
“I’m not from this island!” Law finally snapped. Okay, he should just leave. He picked a direction and started walking.
The rubber kid followed after him without hesitation.
“Oooh! Where are you from?” he asked, because apparently he was just endless questions.
“Doesn’t matter,” he snapped.
“What are you doing here?” he asked again.
“None of your business.”
“Why do you look so tired? Are you hungry?”
“I’m not-" he started to shout, before faltering to figure out if he was denying the tiredness or the hunger. Somehow Luffy's face seemed to light up even more at his hesitation.
“I was just out to get lunch! Do you like bear? I can catch us a bear,” he offered, like that was a normal thing. Maybe it was for weird rubber jungle kids. “Come back with me! I’ve got snacks, you can even have some while I get us lunch,” he offered, and Law felt his eyes widen as the kid grabbed for him.
“Room!” He just barely managed to switch places with a log before Luffy could grab him. “Don’t touch me!” he shouted. The kid blinked, looking confused before turning and seeing where Law was now.
“That’s so cool!” he grinned, still just… unfazed. “I won’t touch,” he added, putting his hands up and taking a step back as if to placate him.
“I’m not going with you either. I’m not going anywhere with people,” Law still insisted. Ugh, this power really did take so much energy. He didn’t even move far, just a foot to the left, if that, but he wasn’t sure how much else he would be able to manage without resting and eating.
“That’s okay, its just me since Ace left,” Luffy said, which actually gave Law pause.
“You’re not with the group that lives out in these mountains?” he asked, because there were signs of people. He had no idea who the kid meant by Ace, but he also didn’t care.
“People? You mean the mountain bandits? We lived with them for a while, and I think Dadan gets mad if I don’t visit sometimes, but no, it’s just me,” he said, and something about this kid finally clicked.
He was desperately lonely.
“There won’t be anyone else?” he asked hesitantly, and Luffy nodded vigorously. “And you won’t touch me?” Another nod. “And you’ll give me food?”
“Definitely!”
Alright.
Fuck it.
“Fine, lead the way,” Law finally relented, and Luffy actually cheered.
-
They ended up at a tree house.
It definitely didn’t seem like a place anyone else would be. There was a makeshift pirate flag on top, with ASL written across it that looked like it had been made by children. Once inside, it was honestly better constructed than he expected.
“It’s not a lot but it shouldn’t take long for me to get lunch. Can you cook? I usually just stick it over a fire. Ace would always stick his food in the fire because it was faster, but Sa- but you’re supposed to put it over the fire. Everyone knows that!” the kid was rambling the whole time he rushed around the tree house, gathering up a rather large pile of food and dumping it in front of Law.
“Who’s Ace?” he asked, less because he was curious and more because he wanted to make sure whoever it was didn’t come stumbling up here. With this kid ‘he left’ might just mean he popped down to the store for an afternoon.
“My brother! He left last month to be a pirate! I’m going to too, but we made a promise to wait until we’re seventeen,” he explained, which did relieve Law somewhat. It did raise another question, though.
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
“Bullshit,” the word was out of Law’s mouth before he could think.
“What? No,” Luffy insisted, but it was pretty hard to believe.
“You look like you’re maybe twelve, if that,” Law insisted. Maybe it was just the big, wide eyes and round face, but he also acted pretty damn young too. Like now for instance, huffing and puffing out his cheeks.
“It’s probably just the rubber. People get wrinkles when they’re old, right? Rubber doesn’t wrinkle,” Luffy reasoned, and it seemed like even this kid could see that Law wasn’t very convinced by that logic. “Well how old are you?” he pressed, and he probably should have expected that question.
“Fifteen”
“Liar!”
“Why would I lie about that?” Law shot back. He was Fifteen, he’d been very particular about keeping track of his age. He shouldn’t have lived this long to begin with.
“You don’t look older than me,” Luffy insisted, and well, he wasn’t wrong. Law looked young, his growth having been stunted from the white lead. He still didn’t know if his body would fully bounce back or not yet either.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Law said simply, because he didn’t owe anyone an explanation.
“And I’m fourteen!” Luffy declared, which, it wasn’t like Law’s own logic didn’t permit that. Hell, maybe it even was the rubber that made him look so young, although he doubted it had anything to do with wrinkles. “Anyway, eat! And don’t go anywhere! I’m gonna go get us a real lunch real quick. Stay here,” he added, bouncing over to the door.
“I will do what I want,” Law said simply, not about to make any promises. To his surprise the kid just nodded, a pleased smile on his face.
“Good,” he said, before dropping down out of the tree house. Law couldn’t help but look down, seeing where Luffy had landed badly but quickly got back up before grinning and waving at him. Law ducked back inside.
Stupid.
Once alone, Law sat down by the pile of food again. It was mostly stale bread and crackers and such, staples that could last for a bit, at least. He frowned at the bread, nibbling some crackers instead as he tried to think about his next move.
He could take this opportunity to leave. He didn’t owe this kid anything, and just because he had a D in his name didn’t mean anything, really. It was just a story, one made up to scare little kids in Mary Geoise. One that Cora-san believed in. One that explained why his parents had always told him to keep the name a secret. One that might explain why he was the one who had to live when everyone else kept dying around him no matter what he did.
A story that said he could do something to the ones who let his world burn. Someday.
Law stopped thinking about the Will of D, because that was getting him nowhere, and tried to think about this situation on a purely practical level. He came here to hide, and to get stronger. Luffy seemed like a loudmouth, so he might not make hiding the easiest. Still, he seemed to know a good deal about this island, and that could make information reconnaissance a lot easier.
It could also make him even more hidden, in a way. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, with some kid pretending to be a pirate? Even if anyone under Doflamingo did spot him, they would never make the connection. He would only be in danger if someone from the family saw him, and what reason would they have to come here?
He was picking through the bread to find any more crackers when he heard noises from below the tree house. Then he heard Luffy yelling.
“Spots! Spots, you still up there?”
Law felt a chill run down his spine. He glanced around quickly for a mirror, but there was none in this place. Of course there wasn’t, that kid lived in the jungle and looked it. As it was he examined his arms, but his skin was unblemished. No sign of white lead.
Law stormed over to the exit and glowered down. Luffy was standing there, smiling up at him and waving and yes, there was a dead bear.
“Why did you call me that?” he snapped, but Luffy didn’t look particularly bothered. Or bothered at all, really.
“Your hat,” he said, pointing to his own straw hat. “It has spots.” When Law only kept frowning down at him, he frowned back. “You never told me your name!”
“Oh.”
Well, now he felt kind of stupid.
“Anyway!” Luffy shouted, “come down here already Spots! We aren’t supposed to cook inside.”
Law climbed down the tree, a scowl on his face. Luffy was already starting a fire in a patch that had clearly been used for this many times before.
“Trafalgar Law.”
“Huh?” Luffy looked up at him, clearly confused.
“My name is Trafalgar Law,” he explained, “do not call me Spots.”
He wasn’t going to give out his full name just because this kid also had a D. His parents had been clear. Cora-san had been clear. He needed to be careful, and he didn’t know Luffy.
“Tra- Traug- Traff? Torao? Torao,” he said, nodding as if it was settled.
“It’s Trafalgar,” he insisted, watching as Luffy started chopping apart the bear and placing it on sticks above the fire.
“That’s too hard,” Luffy complained.
“What are you, eight?”
“I already told you, I’m fourteen. Are you dumb?”
Law could hear the grinding as he grit his teeth. He almost considered pulling out the blade again.
“Whatever! Fine, sure, Torao. As long as its not Spots,” he huffed, telling himself it would just be one less way for people to identify him. He was still frowning as he sat down by the fire, trying not to be too noticeably staring at the meat. He was hungry, crackers were barely one step above bread. As he watched the meat cook, he started to realize how much there was, and how large the bear had been. “Did you really hunt this by yourself?”
“Yeah! I wanted crocodile, but Ace made me promise not to hunt crocodile alone in case I fall in the water,” Luffy explained, and Law could see the gears spinning in his brain. “Oh! But since you’re here, we could-"
“I also have a devil fruit. If I tried to get you out of the water we would both drown,” Law cut him off, receiving a heavy frown from the rubber boy.
“Aw, boo.”
Once the food was cooked through enough they ate. Law tried to think to himself as he did, and not get distracted by the way Luffy could shovel meat into his face at a frankly alarming pace. His stomach actually bulged out as he ate more than his own weight in meat, which probably had to do with the rubber. Law wanted to take a scalpel to him, cut him open and see how it worked.
That wasn’t what he needed to be thinking about though. He could hide here, sure. Hiding was easy. Hiding wouldn’t get him any closer to avenging Cora-san. Hiding wouldn’t bring down Doflamingo. He’d managed to figure out the basics of his devil fruit, but it still took too much energy. He still had no idea how to fight with it.
“How did you kill the bear?” he asked. Most of the meat was gone at this point, and Law felt more full than he had since he’d been shuffling between hospitals with Cora-san.
“Punched it,” Luffy answered simply, and Law rolled his eyes, not sure why he expected anything more. Still, it apparently worked. “Do you wanna come with me tomorrow? Your knife seems kinda small to kill something with though.” Law wasn’t expecting the offer, or the comment about his blade.
“It’s a scalpel,” he corrected, receiving a blank look from the other boy. “It’s a knife used for surgery, not taking down large game,” he explained.
“Surgery? You can do that?” Luffy asked, and he didn’t sound as skeptical as Law expected.
“I can do more than that,” he said, this time giving into the urge and pulling out the scalpel. Now that he had eaten and rested, using his power wasn’t an issue. “Room,” he said, still being conservative and just making it around one hand.
Maybe he could just get the rubber kid to leave him alone. That way he could figure out his revenge in peace. It was simple as anything to slice off his pinky finger, tossing it over to the other boy.
He expected screaming the moment he realized what he was holding. Instead he was met with silence as Luffy stared at the digit in his hand, and then he could actually feel him holding the finger between his own as he inspected it. Law curled the figure, wondering if he was simply shocked.
“Cool!”
He was laughing.
That wasn’t what Law expected.
“Will it grow back? Or does it reattach? Its your devil fruit, right? You said room back then too, when you teleported,” Luffy asked, all excitement and wonder. It legitimately knocked Law for a loop, and it took him a moment to properly process the questions.
“Reattach,” he answered, because he wasn’t sure what else to do now. He thought that would scare the kid off for sure. Picking up a pebble, he put his hand out. “Room,” he said, making one just large enough to reach Luffy and switching his finger with the stone. “I ate the op-op fruit. I can make an operation room and control what’s inside,” he explained as he put his finger back into place.
“You’re weird!” Luffy declared with utter delight. “I like you!”
Well, that backfired.
-
He was just staying until he figured out something better.
The next day he decided to join Luffy on his ‘hunt.’ If he was going to be hanging around here, he needed to learn the land and practice fighting anyway.
“You mentioned a Grey Terminal, High Town, and Windmill Village yesterday,” Law started as they seemed to be trekking randomly through the jungle. Information was power, he needed to understand the lay of the land even someplace like this. “Also mountain bandits. I take it Windmill Village is that tiny town by the coast, and High Town is the walled city. What’s the Grey Terminal?”
“Did you see the place around the city? With all the trash and people? That,” Luffy told him, seemingly happy to answer any question. “There was a big fire there a few years ago, but it all came back really fast.”
That didn’t surprise Law in the slightest.
Every so often Luffy would stop, seem to almost sniff the air, before deciding a random direction to turn. Law genuinely wasn’t sure how long it would take them to find anything. He’d come back pretty quick with the bear last night, but that could have just been luck.
“You were out at sea before you came here, right?” Luffy asked, and Law just nodded. “What are you doing?”
Then question caught Law off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“You went to sea, stowaway yeah? So you’re doing something. I’m gonna be a pirate. What do you want?” He was grinning, clearly excited as he asked. Like life was just some big adventure, and being a pirate would be like playing with his brother in a tree house. Law was grinding his teeth, suddenly furious.
“Have you ever even met a pirate? Not your brother,” he added the last part quickly. If this guy’s brother was anything like him, he was probably already dead. The East Blue was calm, sure, but the world would still chew up and spit out anyone who wandered into it with such a blind nativity as this fool.
Luffy only looked mildly confused at the question, maybe slightly annoyed that Law was doubting him.
“Yeah! Shanks and his crew! He even gave me my hat,” he insisted, and that name caused Law to nearly stumble as he came to a sudden stop.
“Shanks? Like, Red Hair Shanks? That one?” he asked. He hadn’t heard much about the guy, but he had come up more than once when Law had listened to Doflamingo speaking to Kaido. The only man who could truly tell Doflamingo what to do, so of course, no one got to hear them speak too often, and it was always over den den mushi. Kaido’s instructions on Shanks were clear though.
No one, not even Doflamingo, was to touch anyone on his crew, or any island that waved his flag, without express permission from Kaido. It was to be treated the same as Big Mom or Whitebeard. He may be the newest Emperor of the Sea, but he was to be respected just the same as the rest of them.
“Yeah!” Luffy laughed excitedly, pulling down on the sides of his hat. “He’s the best!”
Law wanted to call him a liar.
It didn’t feel like a lie at all.
Thankfully, movement in the underbrush distracted Luffy before Law had to think of an answer besides dumbfounded staring, and the rubber boy was off chasing whatever it was.
-
“I’m bored.”
“Not my problem.”
It had been a week. Law now had a pretty thorough understanding of the island as well as its place in the East Blue. He was even more certain that Doflamingo would never be able to find him here. He could take his time trying to break down everything he knew about the intricate strings the man pulled as Joker, and figure out exactly which ones needed to be snapped to send the rest spooling out of control. He couldn’t get up to date information way out here, but it didn’t matter. It would be years before he was capable enough to stand up to someone like Doflamingo, so he didn’t need specifics yet.
Luffy was an annoyance, but one that Law was mostly able to ignore for now. If Law didn’t answer a question, that seemed to be the end of it for him, and he wouldn’t ask again. That was convenient. There were large chunks of the day where he went off into the jungle to hunt or ‘train,’ and Law was able to get some quiet time to himself. He never failed to bring back food either, so it was clear he had quite a bit of experience at this.
“Come train with me today!” Luffy insisted, and Law actually looked up from where he’d been scribbling out ideas for potential weak points in Doflamingo’s family.
“What?” he asked bluntly, which didn’t seem to dissuade the other boy at all.
“I used to train with Ace all the time, but now I’m just stuck with the animals. You’re trying to become stronger too, right?” he asked, and Law frowned slightly at that. So far he had been very intentional in not telling the rubber kid anything about his own plans. He had things written down, but he kept them away from him, and he honestly wasn’t even all that sure how much Luffy could read.
“What makes you think that?” he asked, and once again Luffy looked at him like it was a strange question.
“You wouldn’t be working so hard if you didn’t want something,” he said, like it was obvious. Maybe put so bluntly, it was. It was impossible to tell how much Luffy was actually paying attention at any given moment.
After a moment, Law made a decision.
“I want revenge,” he said, watching the other boy’s face carefully for his reaction. It didn’t change from the same usual mild curiosity, so he continued. “I want to kill someone. I’m going to kill him. A dangerous, ruthless pirate who murdered my friend in front of me.”
Like before, with his powers, Law was expecting some sort of reaction. Unsettlement or fear, disbelief or a stupid joke. Instead, Luffy just nodded.
“So, come train with me today.”
Law looked down at the scribbled pages and pages of plans and then put them aside, standing up and nodding.
“Yeah, alright.”
-
Training with Luffy became a daily occurrence, after that.
The kid wasn’t a pushover, by any means. Law supposed that was the whole point of being rubber, bouncing back and all that. Their devil fruits actually worked rather well off of each other, at least in helping the other grow. Luffy had moving targets that might disappear or warp at any given time, and Law was able to practice with making his room bigger, controlling and moving more at once, trying to be anywhere but where Luffy’s punches and kicks landed.
In the end, they usually both ended up sprawled on the forest floor, panting and exhausted and, from what Law could tell, just that little bit sharper.
“Hey Torao?”
“Hmm?” Law hummed. He was spent, but thankfully they still had quite a bit of boar left over from yesterday’s hunt, so they shouldn’t need to go out today. Luffy would complain, but Luffy complained all the time.
“Join my pirate crew.”
What?
“Hell no.”
“Why not?” Luffy whined, pushing himself up to look over at where Law was lying down. He didn’t appreciate being looked down on, so Law sat up as well, a frown on his face as he tried to figure out where the hell this had come from. Luffy was always talking about becoming a pirate, sure. He'd never tried to drag Law into it before though.
“I already told you, I have a goal,” he insisted. Luffy just nodded, like he hadn’t once forgotten about Law’s declaration of revenge.
“We can still do that. You’re my friend, I was gonna help you anyway,” he said, so very casually, once again catching Law off guard.
“You were- this isn’t a game,” he snapped, because every time he started to think maybe Luffy understood, he went and did something like this. Spouting off about becoming king of the pirates. “I mean kill. I will rip his heart from his chest and crush it in my own hands if I can. I’ll probably die instead! I’m going after one of the most powerful men on the seas! My friend he killed? It was his own brother! He wasn’t a kid either, he was an adult, with training, and a devil fruit, who knew Doflamingo better than anyone!” Law wasn’t sure when he started yelling. “I’m not playing pirates! I was already a part of a crew! His crew! You don’t know anything!”
Luffy just watched him scream with that same annoyed, nearly blank frown.
“I’m not playing either. Whether you become part of my crew or not, I’m still gonna help you take down this Mingo guy,” he said, as if it was simple as that, and it was only at the stupid name did Law realize what he’d said.
“Forget that name,” he demanded, speaking quickly. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“You’re my friend, I’ll do what I wanna do,” Luffy insisted, and Law knew at this point how goddamn stubborn the kid could be.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” Law said.
“I don’t care,” Luffy answered brightly. It was absolutely infuriating.
“I’m still not joining your crew,” Law managed after a moment, because that truly wasn’t an option. Of course that immediately had Luffy back to pouting and whining.
“Why not?”
“Because! You’re younger than me. No one wants to follow a captain who’s younger than them,” Law insisted, pulling out the first reason he could think of. That only made Luffy’s pout worse, of course. “Besides,” he continued, hesitating slightly, because he hadn’t intended on discussing this with anyone, “I’m going to captain my own crew.”
“Aw, why does everyone I meet wanna become a captain?” Luffy complained. He actually looked like that was an answer he would accept, though. “But you’re right. You can’t join my crew if you’re gonna be a captain,” he sighed. A little bit of tension wound up inside Law released at that. “I’m still gonna help you. We can be pirate friends!”
Ugh, this kid.
“Alliance,” Law insisted, because like hell was he going to have someone out there calling them ‘pirate friends.’ “When two pirate crews decide to help each other it's called an alliance. Not pirate friends.”
“We can be a pirate alliance then!” Luffy declared, giggling in excitement at the thought. Law rolled his eyes, huffing as he turned away.
Ignoring the smile that threatened to pull at his lips.
-
Law woke up at the feeling of something wrapped around his arm.
“Luffy,” he groaned, trying to pull free. “Luffy, wake up,” he insisted.
“No,” came his answer, which definitely meant that he was awake.
“Let go of me,” Law insisted, trying to pull his arm free again. Luffy was like a vice though, rubber arms wrapped around several times.
“No, it’s cold,” he mumbled, squeezing even tighter. He wasn’t wrong, it was cold. It didn’t actually bother Law all that much, he’d experienced much colder up in the north blue. Still, Luffy always insisted that they couldn’t have a fire inside of the tree house. It seemed to be one of the few safety rules he had for himself, or more likely, that Ace had set for him before leaving.
“I don’t care! Get off!” he tried to wave his arm around, but it barely moved with the rubber boy attached. Kicking at him had similar ineffective results. “Damn it! Room!”
He had his scalpel in his hand, and the second he had his arm cut off he rolled away from Luffy. “There! Sleep with that!” he snapped. Luffy had never shown any fear of his power, but surely no one wanted to sleep with a severed arm. He watched as Luffy blinked eyes open, taking in the arm he was holding and the other boy now several feet away from him.
“Thanks Torao!”
All Law could do was blink and stare as Luffy snuggled his arm like it was a stuffed animal, totally unfazed. He could still feel the warmth of the way his arm was wrapped up, and he could feel his face heating up as well, in indignation or embarrassment or whatever, he wasn’t sure.
“Whatever!” he huffed, laying back down and facing firmly away from Luffy. He tried not to think about how he could still feel his arm. It wasn’t uncomfortable, so he could still sleep. Definitely.
He had nearly managed to fall back into a doze when he suddenly felt wet and... teeth?
“Don’t chew my arm you jackass!” he shouted, reaching out to kick him in the head. Luffy was just laughing.
“Sorry, sorry!” he apologized, in that way that didn’t make it seem like he was actually that sorry at all. “I forgot you could still feel it.”
“That doesn’t make it better!” Law insisted, laying back down in a huff. “Stupid Mugiwara-ya.”
Immediately he felt a rubber foot slam into the back of his head. “Hey!” Law snapped, sitting back up.
“Don’t call my hat stupid!” Luffy yelled, and Law slapped his forehead with the hand still attached to his body.
“That’s not- idiot! You are Mugiwara-ya! I was calling you stupid, not your hat,” Law insisted, immediately the anger on Luffy’s face was replaced with confusion, because of course he would only be mad about his hat, not an actual insult to himself. Law could tell he didn’t get it, so he sighed. “Pirates get names, you know? Red Hair Shanks? Whitebeard? Big Mom? Its usually something easily identifiable about them or their flag. If yours end up being anything other than that hat I’ll let you keep the arm.”
Luffy just stared at him for a moment, and even in the dark tree house Law could make out the smile breaking out on his face before he started giggling and squeezing the arm tight again.
“I like it!” he managed to say between laughter. Law quickly turned away again, his face feeling hot. Probably from how much the idiot was hugging his stupid arm. “What’s the ya?” he asked.
“The ya is just me,” Law answered, no intention of explaining more than that. Luffy didn’t seem to need more of an explanation anyway.
“Okay, goodnight Torao.”
“Night, Mugiwara-ya.”
-
He’d been on Dawn Island for about eight months now.
Luffy was acting weird today.
Law couldn’t really say how though. They were doing their regular routine. Hunting, training, Law planning while Luffy dreamed. There was just something… off.
“Don’t go easy on me! We won’t get better if you don’t fight for real!” Luffy insisted, stomping his foot when he managed to smash one of the logs Law had been using to defend himself.
“You know I was a real pirate, right?” he asked, and Luffy just glowered at him, setting back into his fighting stance. Law sighed, because this was far from the first time Luffy had been stubborn. Thinking for a moment, he warped another chunk of log into his hand. “How about this? I will do everything I can to keep this away from you, and you try to destroy it,” he offered. Luffy grinned, nodding sharply.
“Got it.”
It lasted longer than their usual fights.
That was kind of the point though. Luffy’s aim really was his weak spot, and Law’s was his stamina. They’d been training together long enough now that they could both predict the other’s usual move, which meant they had to think outside the box. Law had to react quickly as Luffy sent his fist ricocheting off nearby trees, tossing gravel and leaves to swap with the log and keep it out of reach.
“Shit,” Law barely managed to swap the log, but this time Luffy had grazed it. When he swapped it back close to him the bark and a few small chunks had been knocked off of one side.
Luffy didn’t relent, immediately sling-shotting his way across the clearing. Law only managed to keep in this game of theirs by swapping Luffy and the log itself this time, which sent them both flying in opposite directions.
He barely managed to breathe a sigh of relief when he noticed Luffy having caught himself on a tree, already springing back.
Law only managed to get a few more swaps off before the wood burst apart upon direct contact with his fist.
“Damn it,” Law snapped, even though it wasn’t like this was the most likely outcome. Luffy didn’t have a limit on his devil fruit, so these types of challenges tended to eventually end in his favor. That didn’t stop the idiot from cheering, throwing his fists up to the sky.
“Woohoo! I did it! Did you see that Sabo?!”
“What?”
The cheer sapped out of Luffy in an instant, and Law was frowning, trying to figure out if he’d ever heard that name before.
“Sabo? That’s even farther off than Torao,” he complained, running a hand through his hair as he tried to catch his breath after all that. “You could just call me Law, you know,” he tried. Looking back over at Luffy, Law froze for a moment.
Fuck.
Why was he crying?
“Hey, what are you- stop that!” he yelled, and to his surprise Luffy did. He bit his lip and whimpered but he stopped actively crying. Somehow that only made Law feel like even more of an asshole. “Don’t- shit- fine! You can call me Sabo, or Torao or-”
“No!” Luffy cut him off, shaking his head vigorously. “No! You’re not Sabo, you’re not,” he insisted, trying to rub away the tears on his face. He was clearly starting to cry again, and trying to hide it.
Damn it.
This was going to be a thing.
Law used what energy he had left to teleport a tree that had fallen in their fight over to sit down on. “Get over here, Mugiwara-ya,” he said. Luffy did so, sitting on the log and steadily avoiding looking at him. “Who is Sabo?”
“My brother,” Luffy answered quietly, and that... wasn’t what Law was expecting.
“You’ve only ever mentioned Ace before,” he said, and Luffy nodded. It seemed weird, for as much as Luffy talked about Ace, that he would have another brother that he’d never breathed a word of before. There were clear traces of Ace that had been left around too, but there wasn’t-
The flag.
ASL.
Ace, Sabo, Luffy.
“Was today his birthday or something?” he asked, and Law was pretty sure he was right on the money from the way Luffy’s head shot up, a look of shock on his face.
“How did you-”
“You’ve been acting weird all day, and now this. It was either his birthday or the day he died,” Law explained, because it was obvious as anything that this brother hadn’t left the same way Ace had. It’s not like Law was a stranger to death. Luffy still stared at him like the simple deduction was magic, before giving a weak smile and nodding.
“You’re so smart. That’s why you remind me so much of him. He was way smarter than me or Ace,” Luffy said. Law didn’t expect the compliment, but he brushed that aside. Luffy was always like that anyway.
“It doesn’t sound like that would be very difficult,” Law said bluntly, managing to get a laugh out of the other boy.
“You also remind me a lot of Ace, in that you’re both grumpy and mean.”
“Fuck off.”
“See?” Luffy was smiling again, but it dipped as he sighed. “Sabo was nice though. He made Ace happy too. He wasn’t- he wasn’t supposed to die,” the last part was practically a whisper.
It really wasn’t any of his business.
“How did he die?”
Luffy had mentioned a fire in the Grey Terminal. He was always so careful about fire, Law already had a theory.
“He wanted to be free,” Luffy started, looking up at the sky. “Something happened, and they took him away, back to High Town.” Law raised an eyebrow at that.
“Back?” he asked. Luffy had talked about the places he’d lived before. With the mountain bandits, out in Windmill Village, but he’d never mentioned High Town.
“That’s where he was from, but he hated it there. He wanted to be with us. He wanted to be our brother! That’s why we drank saki together, so that we would be,” Luffy explained, and now it clicked into place.
“I guess you know a bit about being a pirate after all,” Law said, which got a smile out of Luffy.
“Of course I do,” he said, before that easy joy faded again. “They took him back though, and we- we didn’t go after him. We thought... we thought it might be better for him, and if it wasn’t that he would just come back to us! He was so smart, we thought he’d know what to do, and- and he did. He tried to leave, and he never managed to set sail!” Luffy explained, and Law found himself more interested in knowing how the story ended than he expected to be.
“Dogra saw him leaving. Some stupid important person was coming, and Sabo used that distraction to get a boat and start sailing away. When he crossed the ship coming in though they... they shot at him. They blew up his ship, just for going past them! No one did anything, not even his parents! All because the person on the boat was a stupid space lizard.”
Wait.
“...What?”
“I don’t know!” Luffy huffed, throwing his hands in the air. “I don’t care who they were or how important they think they are, Sabo didn’t do anything to them! Dadan had to tie Ace to a tree to keep him from going after them, and no one cared! They set fire to the Grey Terminal and almost killed Ace and Dadan and they did kill Sabo and no one cared, everyone just celebrated because they were here.”
Law could feel his eyes widen as the pieces fell into place.
Space lizard.
“A Celestial Dragon,” Law said, because that’s all it could be. “Your brother was killed by a celestial dragon,” he continued, because it kind of didn’t seem real unless he said it out loud. Luffy nodded, wiping roughly at his cheek again.
“Yeah, that thing. I don’t care about his stupid title,” he said, but Law was frozen.
All he could think about was that first meeting. How he decided to stay based on a single letter and a stupid hope that fate was something real and could maybe work in his favor.
“Cora-san told me a story once,” he said, and Luffy looked up at him, confusion on his face. Law realized he’d never said his name before. “Cora-san was my friend, the one who was killed by his brother. The one I want to get revenge for,” he explained, and Luffy nodded. “He told me a story about what scares the Celestial Dragons.”
That seemed to get his attention, and it seemed like they were fully past the crying at this point. That was good, Law wasn’t sure how much more of that he could deal with.
“They think they’re gods, so there isn’t much that scares them. They tell a story to their children though, of a monster from history that will come and eat them if they misbehave,” Law started, and he could tell that Luffy had no idea why this was important. “The monster is a bloodline, one that pops up again and again no matter how many times it’s killed. The Will of D,” Law looked directly at Luffy at that. He still didn’t seem to understand.
That was fine. It wasn’t like Law really understood either.
“Monkey D. Luffy. Trafalgar D. Water Law,” he said, saying his true name for the first time since Cora-san had overheard him. “We’re both a part of that monster they’re so scared of. A monster destined to destroy their world,” he gave Luffy a downright sinister grin. “I think they should be scared.”
Luffy’s smile, despite being so much brighter, was somehow far more chilling.
“Definitely,” he said with a nod. They were both quiet for a moment, simply staring up at the sky. “Hey Torao?” Luffy asked after a few breaths.
“Yeah?”
“I’m hungry.”
Law knew he was just being literal, but well, there was something a little unsettling about it, in the context of the story.
Law actually laughed. He wasn’t sure he laughed since Cora-san died.
Luffy did remind him a lot of Cora-san.
-
He didn’t expect to stay as long as he did.
It wasn’t time wasted, though.
“Why? It’s not fair! You didn’t make any promise, you could leave at any age!” Luffy complained on the docks. Law had been expecting this argument for a year now at least, ever since he finalized his plan.
“Yeah, I can Mugiwara-ya, and I’m leaving now, and you are going to wait here another seven months until you turn seventeen, because you did make a promise,” Law declared, teleporting several crates onto the small ship and ignoring Luffy’s pouting.
“I don’t get it. Why can’t we leave together?” he asked, and Law had an answer for that. He’d thought of all the questions Luffy could ask him and he had answers for all of them.
“If we left together, when would we split up?” he asked back, Luffy clearly confused by the question.
“I don’t know? Whenever we want?” he said, which was about what Law expected.
“We wouldn’t be considered two separate pirate crews,” he explained, and he could see Luffy already opening his mouth to argue, so he put a hand up and continued. “We could say we are all we want, but just like pirate names, it’s only real if the rest of the world agrees on it. “Plus, what about the crews?”
“They’d be friends!” Luffy inisted, and Law rolled his eyes, keeping any fondness for this idiot off his face.
“Probably, yeah. If our crews were gathered together, how would we decide who belongs to who? How would they even know? Would they even care, or do you think they would want to protect and stay together just as fiercely as they would with the rest of their crew?” Law continued, and he could see as the problems were slowly starting to come to light in Luffy’s mind. “That’s not an alliance, that’s one crew with two captains.”
“But I’m the captain, I’m gonna be-”
“King of the pirates, I know,” Law finished, this time not quite able to fend off the smile. He had brushed it off as Luffy just playing pirates for a long time, but well, it was more than that, wasn’t it? “I’m not your crew, Mugiwara-ya. The king of the pirates won’t have a captain equal at his side.”
He could see the argument had fallen out of Luffy, even as he still pouted and kicked at the docks.
“Stupid smart Torao,” he grumbled.
“Besides,” Law continued, because there was another reason. “You’re going to start gathering your crew here, in the East Blue, right?” he asked, Luffy nodding.
“Yeah, I’m gonna need a musician! Oh, and a cook!”
“Navigator,” Law tried to emphasize, like he had so many times before. “You need to get a navigator first, please.”
“Yeah, that too,” Luffy practically waved his concern away, and Law sighed. Right, he had a point.
“As I was saying, you are going to start gathering your crew in the East Blue. I want to start mine in the North Blue,” he explained. Luffy knew at this point that was where he was from, and he didn’t seem to question the decision at all.
“I guess there isn’t any choice then,” Luffy sighed, and Law was honestly a little proud of himself. He’d been preparing those arguments for months, knowing how stubborn Luffy could be if he didn’t agree with someone’s reasons.
“No, there isn’t. Plus, I’m older than you, it’s only natural that I would leave first,” he added, and he could immediately see the flash of anger on Luffy’s face at that.
“That doesn’t matter!” he shouted as Law stepped onto the small boat. That rage quickly faded when Law turned back to face him with a rare smile. “Say hi to Ace for me, if you see him.”
“If he doesn’t attack me first, maybe,” Law said, because it wasn’t like the other pirate would have any idea who he was. The possibility didn’t seem to bother Luffy at all.
“You’re good, he’ll be able to tell,” he said with utter confidence.
“See you on the Grand Line, Mugiwara-ya,” Law said, and instead of untying the rope holding the boat to the dock he simply warped it back onto the ship in a neat pile.
“See ya!” Luffy shouted after him. “Remember, we’re allies! Don’t go kicking that Mingo guy’s ass without me!”
“I’ll do whatever I want!” Law shouted back.
“Good!”