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“He is the god of the hunt, of the moon, of sudden death,” went the whispers of gossiping nymphs.
“He is the one who will live forever alone.”
On a hot summer’s night, water nymphs huddled along the shores of a moonlit lake. They discussed their master – he, who refused their offers to dance, who drank his nectar alone and in silence, who lived far from his family in Olympus.
Law, son of Doflamingo, simply did not seem to desire companionship.
As the deity in question listened from atop an oak tree’s branches, he scoffed. Seclusion had its benefits, and an isolated lifestyle helped him to hone his craft. Besides, Law had no need for connections to his mostly deceitful relatives, or to those who talked behind his back.
The nymphs were thus not the reason why Law had approached the lake, and he tuned out their pitying voices until he found what he sought. Hearing the tiniest rustle of movement, he drew his silver bow, famed symbol of the crescent moon.
When the tawny head of a squirrel popped into his view, Law picked an arrow from his quiver and glanced down the shaft’s spine to confirm his shot, the motions as familiar to him as breathing.
However, before he could release the arrow, a distant rumbling startled every animal nearby. The squirrel had started to run, but Law flicked his wrist and fired.
With a clean paff, the arrow met its mark.
Irritated by how the noise had nearly ruined a perfect kill, Law picked up his catch and strode off in the direction of the ruckus. Along the way, he left the squirrel next to the form of a snoozing brown bear, whom he had recently come to know as Bepo. He suppressed the urge to pat the bear’s head, reminding himself that it was better to not risk waking him up.
Soon, the rumbling stopped, and Law came face to face with its source.
Heavy clouds covered the sky above, all except for a sliver of moonlight that shone upon a giant several times Law’s size. His cream-colored hair flowed in constant upward motion, bouncy curls rising and falling like the flames of a campfire. His skin was a warm beige, with a dark scar creeping across his chest in the shape of an X, and a white and gold gladiator’s skirt wrapped around his waist.
He was no god – Law kept careful tabs on everyone in the pantheon – yet he managed to look ethereal.
The giant laughed boisterously, startling a flock of birds to fly away from their tree. “I was looking for you!”
“And I for you.” Sidestepping any chance of small talk, Law asked, “Giant-ya, could you leave the forest? I don’t mean to be blunt, but you’re scaring off all the animals.”
The young giant met Law’s eyes with his own in a way that almost felt uncomfortable, as if he were inspecting Law’s very core. A cheeky grin spread across his face.
Pointing at Law, he exclaimed, “I challenge you to a hunting contest!”
Law blinked. “What?”
“A competition to see who’s the better hunter.”
At the other’s unwavering smile, Law sighed. “You know, they call me the best.”
“I heard, but who cares what they say? I’ll beat you anyway!”
Normally, Law would have chased him out of here long ago, but something about the new challenger made Law want to give him a chance. “And what do they call you?”
The giant’s grin seemed to get impossibly wider. “The name’s Luffy.”
“Law, son of Doflamingo,” Law responded warily, wondering if the realization that his father was the head of the pantheon would finally scare Luffy off.
Neither seeming to realize nor care, Luffy continued. “So, will you hunt with me, Dofla– Doff— Doffy?”
“Don’t call me that,” Law hissed. “My name is Law.”
“I’ll call you that, if you catch more game than me.”
Struggling to suppress a headache, Law gritted out, “I don’t normally let people on my hunting grounds, but if it gets you to leave, fine. The contest will end when the moon moves halfway across the sky, and whoever has the most impressive catches wins.”
Luffy cheered and took out a branch in the rough shape of a bow, painted with a motley of garish colors. Still, the tool was faded and scored by scratch marks, the sure sign of years of use.
Luffy’s acorn-colored eyes settled into a determined look of resolve, though Law noticed that they appeared slightly cloudy in the moonlight. The giant asked, “You ready?”
Nodding at him, Law replied, “Let’s start after the count of three. Three… Two…”
“ONE!” Luffy yelled, then charged back into the forest. Muttering curses under his breath, Law ran after him.
Luffy was the strangest hunter Law had ever met.
The god occasionally caught glimpses of the golden, ever-shining giant running through the trees, pursuing prey in what was more of a chase than a hunt. Rather than scouting ahead and lying in wait, Luffy barreled through the underbrush, scaring all manner of animals out of their hiding spots, and bolted after them.
Law was not so uptight as to hold an unorthodox method against his opponent, especially when it was effective. He even found himself transfixed by Luffy’s movements at times. Like the wind, the giant was in constant motion – zipping through trees, soaring over ponds, dodging and leaping across the forest at a frenzied pace. Yet his smile remained easy, and his hands steadily grasped his colorful bow as he landed shot after impossible shot.
In a word, he looked free, freer than any god, man, demigod, or monster that Law had ever met.
A new sensation, curious and unyielding, stirred in his chest.
Luffy was still on the god’s mind as Law sprinted through the forest, searching for his next catch. By that point, Law had caught three deer, a boar, and a goose – all mature or elderly in order to allow younger animals to grow – and carried them in a bag against his back.
His hunt came to an abrupt end as the air surrounding him rapidly cooled in temperature, and at last, the clouds burst, releasing a downpour that rivaled rain brought by the Hyades.
Looking for cover, Law backtracked to a cave he recalled passing by. It was filled with a faint golden glow, one that was becoming increasingly familiar to him.
When Law hurried towards it, a friendly voice called out, “Hey, not-Doffy!” The giant seemed far too eager to see him.
“It’s you again, Luffy-ya.”
As he squeezed out the water soaking his dress, Luffy patted the ground beside him. Law then sat several meters away from the giant, who watched curiously as Law started a fire with the flint and stones in his bag.
A slight teasing in his tone, Luffy inquired, “How much did ya catch?”
Law took out his quarries and raised an eyebrow at Luffy, wordlessly asking about his own haul.
Looking through his pile of animals, Luffy counted them – three deer, a boar, and a large waterfowl. Bursting with laughter, he shouted, “Shishishi, it seems I’ve caught the exact same things as you!”
“The boar I caught is bigger,” Law huffed.
“It is not.”
“It is – actually, why am I even arguing with you like this?” Law shook his head and stopped the smirk that threatened to spread across his face.
Following a meal of roasted game – most of which was eaten by Luffy – the two sat in comfortable silence. Unable to stop his curiosity, Law found himself asking, “How did you start hunting? I don’t often meet people who can compete with me.”
Luffy was silent for a moment, a brief moment of indecision crossing his features before he admitted, “My brothers got me into hunting and taught me everything I know! But I lost them and then… A friend told me that I should look at what I still have. I saw the skills they gave me.
“So, I started training again – to become the kind of hunter that I’ve always wanted to be. The kind that my brothers can watch and smile at.” Luffy smiled softly, his lips staying closed, though the expression was no less fond.
Trying to distract himself from the funny things that grin did to his heart, Law pieced the rest of Luffy’s story together, finding clues in the form of scars, big and small, littered across the giant’s skin.
They were evidence of traps gone wrong, or of the claws of wounded animals who were underestimated. They were the mistakes of a beginner whose teachers had died before their brother could bloom.
Yet somehow, Luffy had persisted. He survived the scars. He built his own style from the ground up, one strange and powerful enough to catch the eyes of the god of the hunt himself.
The last piece that Law had yet to unravel was the large, X-shaped scar across Luffy’s chest. Filled with the need to complete the other’s story, Law pointed to his torso. “Where did you get that wound?”
“A group of crazy strong satyrs ambushed me.” Luffy’s cloud-shaped eyebrows dipped as he frowned at the memory. “Clawed my eyes out too.”
Law re-examined Luffy in the firelight, realization dawning upon him. It would explain why Luffy’s eyes had appeared cloudy earlier, why he kept crashing through the underbrush instead of avoiding it (or perhaps he just couldn’t be bothered). “Luffy-ya… are you blind?”
“Just partly, the sun kinda healed my eyes, but don’t worry about it! I may not really know what you look like, but I’d recognize your pretty voice anywhere.”
“Idiot, that’s not it. I…” Law trailed off, fighting in vain against the blush blooming across his face. Still, he couldn’t believe that someone had nearly bested him while struggling to see.
An indignant streak of competition mixed with what could have been concern compelled Law to open one of the pouches tied to his waist. He would offer no apologies or pity for the losses Luffy had gone through – it wasn’t what Law would have wanted – but this was one thing he could do.
Loosening the sack’s drawstring, Law withdrew one of his many poultices. “Crouch down so I can reach your head.”
Curiosity sparkling in his eyes, Luffy did as Law said. As he rubbed the mixture onto the giant’s eyelids, Law breathed in and thought he could pick out the scent of bay laurels and date palms from the poultice. Up close, Luffy’s hair resembled that of a sodden, white-furred dog. Law couldn’t help but ruffle his hair and feel warm at the sound of Luffy’s giggle.
“This remedy is good – I made it myself. But it’ll take a few hours to fully heal your eyes, and you will have to keep them closed during that time. Closed, got it?” Law lectured.
Surprisingly, Luffy hesitated. “I… I haven’t been without my sight for a while. It’s just a bit scary, y’know? Not that I’m scared, it’s just… the whole idea of not knowing what’s around you anymore.”
“I’ll keep watch in case, not that you can really be hurt by anything.”
“And how do I know you won’t leave?” Luffy sounded quiet.
Law got up and walked a few steps towards Luffy, feeling his heart race. It shouldn’t have been so exciting, but something about the proximity was clearly getting to him. He placed a hand around Luffy’s thumb, just barely able to cover the entire width of it.
“I’ll be right by your side,” Law muttered, cheeks flushing at how cheesy he was being, but it was worth it for the laughter that followed.
“Shishishi, you’re actually pretty nice, not-Doffy!” Leaving no time for Law to react, Luffy curled his body around Law, with his head and feet pressed against the cave’s grimy wall. He exclaimed, “Now I can go to sleep!”
Suddenly, instead of the campfire, all Law could see was Luffy’s torso, the giant’s scarred chest rising and falling with each quiet snore. Instead of hunting, healing, or any other of his beloved pastimes, all he could think of was the soft lightness, that strangely freeing feeling inside his heart.
So while he knew he could jump out of his Luffy-shaped corral, Law had trouble finding the will to move. Instead, he turned around to face the wall and settled against Luffy’s chest. He listened to the soft susurrations of the other’s breaths and the resounding beats coming from his ribcage, thinking about how close he was, and how much closer he might like to be.
“The cave wall is too hard on my back,” Law grumbled.
Luffy just exhaled in what sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Law woke up to see Luffy staring at him with newly healed eyes, his hand outstretched and just about to poke at the god’s hair with a pinky finger.
“What?” Law grumbled, rubbing the bleariness out of his eyes. He had had a surprisingly restful nap – as restful as it could be for a divine being who didn’t actually need to sleep. It might have had to do with the fleshy furnace next to him.
“You’re beautiful!” Luffy declared it as a matter of fact, as simple as saying that the sky was blue.
“Huh–” Law’s heart simultaneously soared and stuttered.
Perhaps it was the honesty of his words, or the eager shine of his eyes, or the racing thrum of his heart that Law could still hear because he was still settled against Luffy.
Perhaps it was how free Luffy had looked hunting in Law’s woods, or how much of himself he had laid bare for Law last night, but Law felt like he was falling into a pit of what he had thought impossible for himself.
Love was vulnerable and sweet and different from the physical desires that Doflamingo would crow about, yet Law knew it was what he wanted. No longer would he let the whispering of nymphs encourage his aloneness… his loneliness. Law didn’t know what he should do next, didn’t even know how to respond to what the giant had said, but–
“Don’t think too hard about it, not-Doffy.” Luffy teased him with a fond grin.
Law huffed easily, “I thought you weren’t going to call me that name.”
“I said I’d do that if you won.”
“My boar was still more impressive.” Law smirked, now certain of what he wanted to say. “Although Luffy-ya, do you want a rematch, just to confirm who’s truly the better hunter?”
“You’re on!” Luffy immediately leapt up from his curled position and bounded out of the cave, once again leaving Law in the other’s tracks.
But when Law walked outside, he saw Luffy waiting for him, brazenly standing in the dawn’s light.
As it turned out, hunting became easier with two.