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the-bar-sinister · 10 months ago

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Bleeding, Broken, Mended (32218 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth Chapters: 6/?

Summary: Law is certain that he was 'rescued' just so Doflamingo could kill him himself, but Doffy has other plans. As far as he's concerned, Law's decade-long quest for revenge was nothing more than a sad misunderstanding. He wants to remind Law how things used to be. He wants to find a way to bring Law back into the fold-- back to him-- forever.

catch up here

Law was Doflamingo's protege, in training to become the next 'Corazon' of the Donquixote family— one of the most powerful members of the group. Sometimes that meant he had swordsmanship practice with Diamante, or pistol training. Sometimes it meant standing quietly in the room while Doflamingo himself conducted deals and negotiations. Sometimes, like at the moment, it meant sitting quietly at a desk with Baby 5 and Buffalo while Trebol lectured them about military history and theory.

It was interesting enough, sure. Military History and theory was…well. It wasn't as interesting as medicine. And it sure as hell wasn't as interesting as the Sora comics, and those had practically the same kind of lessons if you read the Germa 66 arcs.

So maybe it wasn't that interesting. He leaned on his hand, trying not to fall asleep as Trebol went on and on about flanking or something. Baby 5 was upright with attention, eagerly listening with that people-pleasing smile on her face ever since

Trebol had told her that he needed her to listen.

Buffalo, meanwhile, may have been drawing.

"— if you had been the commander at that battle?"

Law realized dimly that Trebol had asked him a question while his mind was wandering.

Law's head shot up and he answered as best he could. "Thrown a bomb at the enemy commander."

Baby 5 broke out into a tittering laugh, clapping her hands together. "That'd be the stupidest plan I've ever heard!"

Trebol pinched the bridge of his nose. "Admittedly that would certainly have the element of surprise," he said thickly, obviously thinking exactly the same as Baby 5. "But it's reckless, as always Law, and doesn't fit the situation at hand. I gather that you haven't been listening."

Law grimaced, rubbing his arm. "...sorry Trebol sir."

Baby 5 nudged his shoulder with a huff. "You shoulda been listening, like I was Law. If you keep this up you're gonna grow up to be stupid."

Buffalo looked up from his drawing just long enough to snicker at him as well.

Trebol sighed with his hands on his hips and swept over to Law's desk. "You're certainly not going to fulfill the young master's high expectations for you at this rate."

Law looked down at the table with a small frown on his face. "I'm not going to live long enough to, either." he said in a low and miserable mutter.

"Not with that attitude, huh?" Buffalo snickered.

Trebol again pinched the bridge of his nose. "The lot of you, I swear. Law, listen to me, I–"

He was cut off by a sharp, unmistakable knock on the door before Doflamingo himself walked through it.

"Knock knock!" Doffy cooed, swaggering in slump shouldered and smiling. "Sorry to interrupt the lesson, prof."

Baby 5 nearly fell all over herself sitting up and clasping her hands together with a coo of, "Young master!!!"

Law looked up from his, admittedly sparse, notes and waved to him. "Morning, sir."

Even Buffalo sat up at attention, and Trebol's manner immediately changed.

"Doffy! Well, I won't deny it's an interruption, but to what do we owe the pleasure?"

Doflamingo leaned against the opposite side of Law's desk. "You're not gonna love it, Tre, I'm here to hijack one of your students."

Trebol looked down at Law with something like resignation. "I thought that might be it."

Before Law could open his mouth, Baby 5 leaned halfway across the desk with a grin. "Is it me? Is it me??"

Doflamingo leaned over and patted her on the head from over Law's desk. "Sorry, Baby 5, for today I need you here studying. I need Law for another part of his training."

Baby 5 seemed rather content with the head pat, though Law saw her pout for a moment. It wasn't a surprise; Law got a lot of special training for the Corazon position, even if part of him felt it was kind of a hopeless endeavor.

"Another part of my training, Doffy?"

Doflamingo nodded seriously. "That's right. You up for anything, Law?"

Law stood from his desk with a wry smile. "I'm ready for anything that isn't more military theory." It wasn't that Trebol's lessons were boring, it was more— when would he ever be in a war? They were pirates, gangsters. Not military commanders.

Trebol, meanwhile Law noticed, had taken the moment to inspect Law's notes and was taking a red pen to them.

At that, Law had the good grace to look a little sheepish.

Doffy glanced at the notes with a smile. "Border defense and sneak attacks, eh? You can learn about that later, yeah."

With that, Law felt Doflamingo's threads wrap around his wrists and help tug him to his feet.

Law hopped to his feet with a wave to Trebol and the others. "Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Trebol. I'll be back."

As he wound his hand lightly around Doffy's strings, he followed him along with a curious tilt of his head. Doflamingo had high hopes for him, Trebol wasn't wrong about that. Those hopes meant that Law was often shuffled from strange lesson to strange lesson to learn all sorts of stuff that surprised him that he'd even have to know.

"Sometimes I think Trebol thinks books and theories are the most important thing in the world," Doffy chuckled conspiratorially after they were a little way down the hallway.

Law laughed, thinking of the older man and his library, and his stubborn insistence on the importance of his lesson. "Knowing him, if you gave him the choice between a treasure chest and a collection of old books he'd probably go for the books, Doffy."

"And justify it with an hour-long lecture about the pricelessness of knowledge," he agreed, nodding. "Trust me, I've been right where you are. Trebol's always been the same."

Doffy smiled down at him as he walked closely beside Law. Something about him looked more tired than usual, a little pale and drawn like Law often felt himself.

Worry pinged Law's mind as he leaned towards him with a serious furrow of his brow. Doffy wasn't feeling well? Or…maybe it was something more personal, more emotional.

He nodded seriously. "He's not wrong…I mean, knowledge is important. And I wanna learn, it's just…"

Doflamingo cocked his head, not interrupting, letting Law speak. Doffy often treated him that way, like a grownup, with important, interesting things to say that were worth listening to.

"I'm not a military commander, I don't know why military strategy is important for me to become the Corazon with…or if I'm even going to be alive to take the position by the time…y-you know. Corazon steps down."

Doffy put his hand on Law's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Trebol always told me that military strategy was important because it teaches you how to think in a conflict– any conflict, not just a war. And I admit, one of the roles of my Corazon is to give me advice on how to resolve conflicts, you know?"

Law noticed where they were headed– Doflamingo's room.

"As for if you'll be alive," he continued. "You will. I promised, didn't I? And in the meantime there are parts of being my Corazon you can do for me even now."

"You did promise, that's true…" Amber Lead Syndrome was terminal. But if anyone could do it, it was Doflamingo. 'Nothing is Impossible for me or my family' he'd always say— and Law believed him.

He tilted his head to the side as they approached Doffy's room. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Doffy's fingers flicked and his door opened as if by magic, subtle threads shimmering in the wan light of the hall.

"Like keeping me company," he said with a surprisingly serious tone. "My Corazon is out on a mission right now, so this will be part of your training to take the station."

The room was a mess. Often it was disorganized and cluttered, but right now it was a mess. The covers had been pulled off the bed, and there was an empty bottle of wine tipped over on the table, too close to a stack of books. The wastebasket had been tipped over.

It must have been one of his bad dreams again…or maybe he was lonely? Even great and powerful pirates like Doffy got lonely sometimes.

Law shook his head with a huff, flicking one of the strings with his fingertip.

"Geeze Doffy, what are we gonna do with you?" he trailed into the bedroom. "But as your future Corazon…I'll do it. I'll keep you company, promise."

Doffy chuckled, almost sounding a little embarrassed and he picked up the bottle as his strings closed the door. "I had a bad dream," he admitted, confirming Law's assumption.

The whole family knew about 'the young master's' nightmares, an enduring mark on him from the horrible things he'd seen as a child. Right around when he'd been Law's age.

Law picked up the wastebasket, standing it up and tossing some of the scattered trash into it with a frown. It was something that they had in common. Childhoods marked by tragedy and death.

He was still stuck right in the middle of his, the memories fresh, but he imagined if he ever got to Doffy's age, he might have wound up haunted by very, very similar fits of nightmare-tinged memory.

He bit his lip. "I'm sorry, Doffy. We should do something fun to forget about it. Play a game of chess or somethin'. Unless you wanna vent, of course."

Doffy shook his head, his back slumped against the post of his fancy bed frame.

"Nice of you to ask, Law, but no, I'd rather be distracted. I was thinking maybe you'd want to do some reading with me?" His tired smile grew wider. "Not the kind of reading Trebol had you at."

Law's own smile grew wider as he tossed the covers back on the bed. "Really? Are we gonna read comics then?"

Doffy flopped down on the bed as soon as the covers were down and smiled widely up at Law. "Damn right we are. Grab that stack over there and come sit with me."

He scooped up the pile of Sora comics, and hopped onto the bed with Doflamingo with an ear to ear grin. He loved reading stories of adventure, of villains, of strange machines and stranger plots.

Doffy had introduced him to the Sora comics when he'd arrived and Law found himself very invested in the villains and their mad science antics.

Law immediately found himself scooped against Doflamingo with his back to his chest, like he was an oversized stuffed animal as Doffy opened one of the thick newsprint collections.

"We finished the last one, right, Law? This is the newest collection."

Law immediately leaned forward a little to look down at it.

"Woah…when did they release it?" Sometimes he tried to keep up as they came out in the paper, but the news coos were…sometimes inconsistent in this area, and he'd miss important updates.

"Just the other day," Doffy said, turning to the first page. "I haven't read it all yet either. There's a new bad guy team in this one."

"Wait, a new one?" Law thumped back against him with a grin. "Think they're going to be cooler than Sparkling Red and his siblings?"

"Guess we'll find out," he snickered. "I still love that your favorite team is the villains younger than you are. Well, I guess they've already made a hell of a name for themselves, huh?"

The so-called 'evil army' Germa 66 had been introduced into the comics around a year ago, about the same time that Law had started reading them. Doffy told him that they were based on a real mercenary company– supposedly at least.

"I mean…" Law pouted huffily. "They're cool! They've got all those gadgets and catchphrases to try taking a bit out of Sora's hide. And anyone who can give the marine hero a run for his money is cool in my book!"

He tilted his head "I wonder what they're really like."

"Work hard to be my Corazon, and maybe one day you can meet them," Doffy teased. "A mercenary army of evil would be great to have ties with, in our line of work."

Law felt a bit of a thrill at the idea, though he tried not to show it. If he became his Corazon, he could one day meet the mercenary army of evil, maybe even convince them to fight a marine hero together.

Maybe he and Doffy would wind up in the comics themselves.

With renewed excitement, he snuggled against Doflamingo and read. A tale of dashing adventure, where Sora barely escaped death by the skin of his teeth against a new and deadly threat from some mysterious island having set out into the Grand Line.

An army of warrior women intent on the eradication of men, it seemed. It was a punchy, exciting tale, and Law couldn't help but gush about parts of it to Doffy as they read, only to find eventually the leader of the Donquixote pirates was no longer answering.

—At least save for the occasional soft snore, leaned on his shoulder. Doflamingo was out, finally sleeping. Law flipped the last page of the book back and forth in his fingertips with a quiet smile. Maybe, if he was here, Doflamingo wouldn't have a nightmare.

Law woke up in darkness from the dream that had been a memory. There was a warm body wrapped around him from behind, but it was Bepo's, not Doflamingo's.

His breath caught in his throat, and he leaned back into Bepo's arms with a furrow of his brow. It'd been so long since he'd dreamed of the past. At least, so long that he'd dreamed of Doflamingo instead of the painful nights in the bodies of the dead.

He rested his head against Bepo with a soft sigh. It was a good memory…a good dream. And a reminder.

Before he'd left, he had good times with Doffy, it was true and he'd seen the more 'human' parts of him that Rosi had tried to scrub away in his stories of ideological evil.

Doffy woke up drenched with sweat, every muscle in his body tense enough to snap. He couldn't get his vocal cords to work right, so he thumped heavily on the wall of his cabin hoping Vergo, in the cabin next door, would hear him and understand.

The smell of fire seemed to linger in his nose. He tried to banish it. It wasn't real. It was just a memory. Why, thirty years later, did it still haunt him? Why did it mix now, in dreams with other violent memories of blood and pain?

Wasn't it enough to dream again and again of that night on the wall at the mercy of the mob, without having it mix with Rosi's limp body? With Monet's? With the people of Dressrosa screaming as his strings tugged at their fates as his mind roared with mad desperation?

He thumped on the wall again.

The door flew open not a moment later, Vergo entering with a grim frown on his face; a concerned frown.

"Doffy…a nightmare?" he asked as the door shut behind him and he hurried over to the bedside.

He nodded, still unable to make his voice work, and tugged Vergo even closer with his threads, before looping his arms around him tightly and pressing his head to his stomach.

He finally managed to rasp out a croaking, "Yeah," in answer.

Doffy desperately needed a drink but he'd been drinking all day, and the day before, and the day before that. He was as wet as a fish, and he was starting to feel a terrible headache at the base of his skull.

Vergo wrapped his strong arms around him and held him tightly to his stomach. He was warm— his devil fruit power often made him feel warm— and firm as he brushed his fingers over the back of his head.

"You don't gotta talk, Doffy. I got you."

Doffy clung to him like a lifeline, like a thousand nights he had when they were children together, taking long, deep breaths and trying to calm himself against Vergo's warm body. Trying to remember that he was here, and now and safe, and not somewhere far away and long ago.

It was harder than it had been in a long time. It was harder with the new faces in the dreams. But Vergo was there. First Corazon, brother not by blood but of his heart. Vergo who he'd almost lost, but was still there.

Eventually he felt his thundering heart start to slow, and the heat from his own body dissolved into clammy cool.

"Could you get me some water?" he asked in a small, rough voice, slowly loosening his hold on him.

Vergo placed his hand on top of his head, and nodded once before the contact vanished and he meandered over to the table and its pitcher. "You got it, Doffy. Sounds like it was worse than usual."

"Yeah." Doffy flopped back against the headboard and stared up at the ceiling. "I think I might have drank too much tonight."

He felt the bed creak as Vergo sat on the edge of it and pushed a cool cup of water into his hand. "You've been drunk for a few days straight, Doffy. I think you've more than hit your limit."

He took the cup in his hands gratefully and took a long drink before leaning his head on Vergo's shoulder. "Yeah. It's been a rough few days."

Really, that didn't even begin to cut it.

"It's been a fuckin' mess, emotionally speaking, sir." Vergo leaned on the bed, one arm around him to rest on his back. "Started when Violet saw Blackbeard hunting down Law, right?"

"Yeah," Doffy nodded, keeping Vergo close, his warm body a reassurance as he greedily drank the water his body was desperate for. "After Crocodile had us check out the situation with Shanks' ship I had her keep an eye on Blackbeard. And then she saw Law."

She'd seen Law, and Doffy had immediately downed half a bottle as he told everyone to change course, despite Trebol's concerns.

"And you rushed to rescue him. LIke ya always did. Even when he was yelling about being our sworn enemy."

"I sure fucking did," he said heavily. "It was all instinct. I just couldn't– I—"

He shook his head and handed Vergo back the empty glass, leaning away from him slightly and trusting that his former Corazon would know what he wanted.

Vergo took it with a solemn nod. "I get it, Doffy. I get it. And I already told you. I'm behind you 100%, like always."

He stood and wandered back to the pitcher to pour him another glass.

"I asked him at dinner." It was hard to talk about, but it was easier than thinking about the dream. Anything was easier than that. "I wasn't going to, but it came up naturally. I asked him to come back to the family."

Vergo paused, holding the glass in his hand as he turned with muted surprise. "...you did, huh? Did he say yes?"

"He didn't say no." Law hadn't said no. That was… that was huge. That was almost overwhelming. In Dressrosa, Law had thrown his words back in his face. Had taunted him. Had made coming back to the family sound like the most absurd and disgusting impossibility in the world. But this time… "He challenged me on it, Vergo. He told me to convince him."

"Huh.." Vergo walked over and handed him the cup with a raise of his eyebrow. "Sounds like a gamble that might pay off then…he didn't say no. Given what you told me of the last time, I'd have thought he'd toss his plate in your face the minute you asked."

Doffy took the cup and drank thirstily from it again before once more leaning on Vergo.

"That's exactly what I was afraid of too. I almost didn't even ask. But then I was thinking, he probably doesn't even think I'd want him back." He took a deep, shuddering breath, remembering his initial conversation with Law when he woke up. "You know he didn't even know my brother stole the fruit from us?"

Vergo brushed his fingers through his hair again with a low huff. "Hearing it isn't exactly a surprise…not with the way Rosi tried to use him to deliver a message to the Navy."

Doffy remembered that he was repeating himself from earlier in the day. Vergo had either forgotten the conversation they'd had before (likely) or he was humoring him and pretending like Doffy wasn't a babbling, nervous wreck of a man who was talking in circles. (Just as likely).

Doffy leaned into Vergo's comforting hand and took another long breath. His hair was absolutely disgustingly full of sweat, practically matted to his skull, but he knew Vergo didn't mind.

"Yeah. He didn't know. And Rosi spent all those months telling Law I was some kind of inhuman monster who used people up and threw them away." He felt his voice hitch and tremble, and he tried to control it with another breath. "And of course killing him sealed the deal that it must be true."

"Because Law was a scared, dyin' kid." Vergo said. "with no context for any of it, and a bunch of lies from a guy who thought you were the devil incarnate. So he had no idea why you killed Rosi that night. Right?"

"Yeah," he rasped, closing his eyes. "He told me he thought I killed Rosi for trying to save him."

That gave Vergo pause…that gave him a moment to stare at Doffy in open surprise. "You're fucking kidding me."

That sealed it. Vergo had forgotten the conversation from earlier. That was fine. He didn't mind repeating himself. Especially not now, when it gave him something else to focus on than the nightmares.

Doffy shook his head against him. He tittered nervously, thinking back on it once again. It seemed even more absurd now, here in the dark of the night, than it had in the galley earlier that day when he was first telling Vergo about it.

"Nooooope. Isn't that the stupidest fucking thing you ever heard? I laughed, Vergo. I fucking laughed when I heard it. Then I remembered he was barely 13 fucking years old, and— and he spent the next 13 years apparently acting on a bunch of complete lies. Like a big… a big fucking misunderstanding."

"A big, deadly fucking misunderstanding." Vergo muttered quietly. "...because of course it was. A 13 year old kid who trusted us got convinced he was surrounded by monsters by a scaremongering marine, and spent years on a quest of revenge for the guy when all he ever did was lie."

He flopped his body on Vergo's chest, and thumped it lightly with his fist. "I just wish I hadn't fucking shot the bastard right then and there. I know. I know why I had to. He was a marine. He hated me. All he wanted was to fuck over the family. He couldn't be reasoned with. But it just— it feels like a fucking mistake, sometimes, Vergo."

"I get it, Doffy." Vergo murmured down at him, his chest making a hollow sound as it was thunked. "I do. You did what you had to do, but if you'd managed to find Law, maybe you coulda explained it before you had to take Rosi out. Or…hell. I dunno."

"Yeah. I've been thinking about that. I think about it a lot." He closed his eyes, taking soft, deep breaths. "And I know Trebol thinks that it's the same way with Law, but I don't want it to end the same way. Law's not a marine. He's never been anything but a pirate. A pirate and an angry fucking kid who wanted to find somebody to hurt for everything he's been through. You and me know just what that's like, huh?"

Vergo nodded seriously, and the expression on his face spoke to the memories playing behind his sunglasses. "Damn right we do…it's something we've got in common. All of us."

"I want him back, Vergo," Doffy growled. The nightmare was starting to fade, and the water had taken the edge off his headache. "I want him back and I think he wants to come back. Why else would he have told me to convince him? That's practically a 'yes' with extra steps, right? He just needs time to process how wrong he's been all this time. He wants me to remind him how good things were when he was part of the family."

He looked up plaintively at Vergo, his face mostly in shadow and behind his glasses, like Doffy knew his own was. "Right?"

Vergo reached up and gently pushed Doflamingo's glasses up his nose, before he leaned in to squeeze him tightly to his chest.

"Right," he rumbled. "He wants to be convinced, so…convince him. Bring him home, Doffy."

Doflamingo leaned into Vergo's hand and smiled. Bring him home. That was exactly what he was going to do. It was 13 years too late, but…

"I'm gonna do it, Vergo. Better late than never."

The poker game had wound down leaving nothing but a mess on the table and one by one the family members had excused themselves off to bed. Doffy, unusually, had been first to go— drunk as a lord, as they say— and the others had followed slowly after him, until it was only Trebol and Diamante left at the table across from him.

Dia was quiet and about half way through a cigarette. Trebol had lost count of how many it was that night. Trebol didn't smoke, and frankly he wished the rest of the family wouldn't– it was hell on his fragile lungs– but he never said a word about it and he never would. At least Doffy had never picked up the habit; no, drinking had been Doffy's vice since shortly after they'd met.

Doffy— Trebol was worried about him. He was sure Doffy thought he was mad at him, but he was worried. Worried sick. Worried enough to raise his voice. Worried enough to tell him what he ought to already know.

"You're up late," Dia said, breaking the silence as he crushed out his cigarette butt in favor of swinging his guitar onto his lap.

Worried enough not to be able to sleep.

"Don't want my company, old friend?" he grumbled, leaning on his arms on the table.

"Hah. I didn't say that, Tre." Dia strummed a few soft notes. "Can't sleep, huh? Because of Doffy?"

"If I can't sleep, it's because we have an enemy on board the ship, Dia, and he isn't even chained up. An enemy who I hope I don't need to remind you destroyed-– at the very least— ten years worth of our hard work and a very comfortable position only a few months ago."

A few more notes filled the air. "Oh trust me, Tre, I don't think I could forget that if I tried. What a fucking fiasco, am I right?"

"Right!" Trebol's derisive grunt of agreement brought on a coughing fit, and he muttered an apology when it was finished. His nerves always made the illness that had plagued him since he was a child flare up. When he'd caught his breath and wiped his mouth he stared over at Dia, who was still playing the guitar, politely ignoring him as usual. "So why the hell aren't you worried about it?"

"Did I say I wasn't worried about it, Tre?"

"You didn't say it, but you're acting pretty damned relaxed, Dia," he accused. Admittedly some of that was probably just Diamante's manner. He could be very casual, almost carefree sometimes, right up until the moment where he'd gone completely feral. Trebol often found it a little bit charming, but right now it was getting on his already tender nerves.

"What good would it do to get all fucking wound up? Besides, you're high strung enough for both of us. I keep telling you, you should really take up smoking. Take the edge off."

"And I will tell you again, it would fucking kill me, Dia." He dabbed his nose with his handkerchief. They'd been having the same argument for thirty years. It was a formality by this point.

"Sure, sure." Dia waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, if you're actually worried about having an 'enemy in our midst', I think you can ease up on the tension. It's just Law. His two crewmates don't even have devil fruits. He's seastoned up, in the middle of the ocean, and surrounded by the family. It's not the kind of situation like Punk Hazard or Dressrosa where he had a bunch of crazy allies from fuck even knows where. Any one of us could take Law in a fair fight, and any two of us could take him even with that fucking power of his. Right? So relax."

Trebol took a deep breath. He was right of course. Trebol hated to admit it, but he was right. The only reason that Law had scored such a devastating hit on the family was the allies he'd brought in at the last moment. The situation in Punk Hazard even Trebol had to admit had been firmly under control— right up to the moment it hadn't been. And that had been thanks to a chance encounter with the damned Straw Hat pirates. Law was very much on the backfoot here, essentially alone, and probably completely demoralized. Trebol did realize that.

"I guess, we both know if he was going to try something completely reckless he'd have done it already," Trebol grumbled. "I was waiting for it the minute he woke up."

"You mean like when he was a kid? Attacking without thinking and just going for the throat?" Diamante chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah I mean I was waiting for it too. Losing his whole crew like that, I figured there was a good chance he'd just be suicidal again."

"I suppose we don't have any firm proof that he isn't. He'd probably have tried something already, but he was biding his time on Punk Hazard."

Trebol remembered the day they'd met the kid, reckless and unstable, ready to throw his life away just to hurt someone else. He knew that Doffy felt a lot of empathy for Law, but Trebol could see the key difference. Doffy wanted to hurt people, but he was smart, and he knew the most important thing. That your life was the one thing you couldn't recover from losing. Law's sense of his own impending doom had destroyed his instinct for self preservation. It was an excellent trait in a lackey, and a terrible weakness in a future executive. He'd warned Doffy again and again back when Law was being positioned as the next Corazon.

For a while, while they were monitoring the situation on Punk Hazard, Trebol had wondered if Law had finally learned what they'd been trying to teach all along. But who knew, at this point?

"He could be biding his time, yeah." Diamante shrugged. He noodled on his guitar for a moment. "But I stand by everything I said. If he tries anything, it'll be over in ten minutes."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of, Dia," Trebol sighed, finally admitting it. He wasn't worried about Law actually managing any kind of large scale destruction at this point. They could handle him. Law, he was sure, knew such a thing would be a suicide attempt even if it wouldn't stop him. But that wasn't the point. "I'm afraid of Doffy getting his heart broken again."

Diamante let a sweet, plucked note hang for a long moment in the air between them before he smothered it with his thumb.

"Knew it. And there's where I can't fucking blame you, Trebol. Doffy walking into a kick in the teeth of heartache is a real fucking possibility."

"I'm glad you actually agree with me." He was relieved, honestly, to not be the only one to see it. To not be the only one worrying about it.

"Obviously I do," Dia huffed. "Doffy's only been fucked up by Law for more than a fucking decade. We both know he has a complex about losing family. And the fact that the one who took Law away from him is the same person who gave him that damned complex in the first place? Yeah. Yeah. He is primed to get his goose cooked on this."

"So what do we do?" Trebol asked finally, exasperated and lost. "I've been trying to come up with a plan of action but everything I come up with is worse than the last. If we kill Law behind his back he'll be sick about it for months. If we let Law break his heart again, if Doffy has to kill him, he might never recover!"

"As usual, you're thinking about it too hard, Tre." Dia put down his guitar and he reached over the table, putting his hand on Trebol's hands. "Here's what we do. We let Doffy make his move and try to win Law over. If it goes south, which it probably will, I'll kill Law and Doffy can be mad at me. And then we'll get him a new orphan. A really sad, pissed off one. Doffy hasn't had a new orphan since before Dressrosa."

Trebol was pretty sure the loss of Law was in fact the entire reason Doffy had stopped bringing home orphans in the first place. Trebol couldn't deny that he rather missed having children around, however, and the family had gotten unfortunately smaller lately. But he was surprised that Diamante of all people was suggesting it.

Trebol twisted his hand on the table to wind his fingers with Diamante's. "I thought you hated when we brought in orphans. As I recall, you were pretty pleased when he stopped."

"Sure," Diamante nodded, squeezing his fingers. "I won't pretend I'm thrilled with a bunch of annoying brats around, but if it makes Doffy happy? You know I'd do anything for him as much as you would. Doffy's been like a kid without a puppy. Get him a new project kid and he'll be able to move on."

Trebol sat limply back in his chair, his hand in Diamante's. "I fucking hope so, Dia. Alright, we'll go with your plan and wait it out. What do you think the odds are that he wins over Law, really?"

"The odds?" Diamante laughed, leaning forward with a grim grin. "Snowball's chance in hell, Tre. But hey… you never know. On the Grand Line you get weirder weather than that all the time."

He rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Dia, but I get what you're saying, and you're right. There's no way of telling. Ordinarily I'd say that it's completely impossible, but…"

"But it's Doffy, right?" Diamante said with a smile."That kid can do anything."

"So indeed," Trebol sighed.

Diamante hopped to his feet, slinging his guitar across his back. "Come on, old man, let's get you to bed, or you're going to be a worse grouch than fucking usual."

"Old man," Trebol huffed indignantly, clambering his way to his feet. He let Diamante help him up. "As if you're not almost as old as I am. As if we're not both pushing fifty by this point."

"Speak for yourself, Tre, I'm a youthful 45."

"Bastard."

"You should shave the beard if you want to look younger, you know."

"The beard makes me look dignified."

"It makes you look old."

Trebol had to admit as they bickered their way through the ship's corridors, that he was feeling at least a little better about the whole ordeal. At least now they had a plan. All he had to do now was wait, and keep a close eye on Law.

#doflaw #doflamingo x law #donquixote doflamingo #trafalgar law #trafalgar d water law #third corazon law #one piece #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #fic: one piece deicide

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bigball-thefrog · 2 years ago

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Rules for this account:

_____________________

Alright so hello again I am Kelly and for those of you that came for Dsmp fanfics I am sorry but I have lost interest in the Fandom and will no longer be writing for that Fandom. If you are upset I am sorry but I hope you will enjoy my new stuff :)

The only Fandom I write for currently is One Piece. (Will eventually write for others) so here is who I write for:

Romantic and platonic:

Luffy

Zoro

Nami

Usopp

Sanji

Robin

Franky

Brook

Jimbei

Ace

Mihawk

Buggy

Shanks

Smoker

Crocodile

Rob Lucci

Aokiji/Kuzan

Gecko Moria

Borsalino/Kizaru

Rayleigh

Boa Hancock

Law

Corazon

Doflamingo

Sabo

Platonic:

Chopper

Whitebeard

Does and don'ts:

I will write:

Yandere (Will not be romantic but more in a thriller or horror style)

Fluff

Angst (I will try)

Partial Smut (Except for the platonic ones)

Smut (Please not I have just started writing smut so if it's not good I am sorry. And also will not write smut for the platonic ones)

Any gender

I will not write:

Anything pedophilic (Most smut will take place during the Timeskip unless it's a character was 19 or older during the Timeskip and/or they died before the Timeskip)

Anything zoophilic

Anything racist (Only will add racism if there's a racist character but it doesn't reflect my opinions)

Anything homophobic, transphobic or LGBT phobic in general (Only will add it if there's a homophobic character but it doesn't reflect my opinions)

Anything incest related (step relationships, half related and adopted relationships count as incest, to me at least)

Anything discriminatory in general

Anything non consentual, if I do then it'll be implied and not descriptive and it won't be romanticized and will only be used when necessary for the writing scenario. (dubcon makes me uncomfortable too so it's will go under this category too)

Most dark romance type scenarios (basically anything that romantizes unhealthy or toxic type relationships)

Any sort of pregnancy kink/fetish (It just gives me a real big ick)

Any piss or shit kink scenarios

I will write in basically any AU. And please respect the rules and I hope we can have fun in this account. (Please note I have only watched up to Zou and will only write anime related fics up to there.)

I am sorry but I will no longer write requests. I used to write them to pass time at school, and now I plan to start writing my own book (I have a few ideas for books actually) and want to work on it, developing the world and it's characters, so I'll only post my own ideas every so often, this isn't goodbye but I will only post my own ideas from now on for writing practice, so feel free to leave some tips if you have any, I'll really appreciate it. On a better note, I am currently also working on my own little modern one piece AU also on the side, and I may eventually post about that on a second account where I will DRAW comics based on it (Please be warned, I am very shit at drawing and it's a very cartoony style, I'm still learning).

I've also started making bots on Character ai based on my shorts here in on Tumblr so if you want to go check them out you can find my account on there under the same name: BigBall_TheFrog

Kelly 🐸

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mugiwara-no-toshokan · 2 years ago

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Thrice Prophesized

CisFem Reader x Roronoa Zoro

CW: In-Universe levels of violence, amnesia, romance, reader gets some good bad-ass moments, but shouldn't feel Overpowered if I did my job well, surprisingly no smut in this one loves, but it's book 1 of 2.

Still 18+

Chapter 8: Routine

You and Brook returned to the Sunny, and you spent the rest of the day working on your Haki until Luffy and his group returned. You zoned out through most of the conversation during dinner, since they were talking about what they had found regarding the One Piece, but part of the conversation caught your attention.

“There was a lady that turned into snow!” Luffy exclaims. “The cold was making me sleepy, but Robin and Usopp drove her away.”

Drove her away and right into me, you muse to yourself.

“That was Monet,” Brook says. “We ran into her on Punk Hazard when we were assisting Sir Law.”

“Oooh! That’s right – she froze the gas guy before she flew away!” Luffy says nodding. “I remember.”

“When you drove her off we ran into her,” Brook says and you feel yourself flinch a little.

“What? Hey, sorry about that (Y/N), we didn’t realize anyone else had left the ship.” Usopp says, turning away from Brook and looking at you apologetically.

“No, it was fine. She got away from us as well, but it wasn’t too much trouble. Neither Brook nor I can really feel the cold.” You assure him. “Besides, Brook was kind enough to assist only when I needed it, so it was good practice. I got to correct some of the things I did wrong when dealing with Smoker.”

You take a bite of food and a drink of tea before you remembered something important. “She recognized me.”

“She’s an assistant to one of the Warlords in the Grandline Metro,” Robin says. “Their information network is impressive, so it’s not surprising she was aware of your wanted poster.”

“Warlord?”

“I wasn’t going to get into it until we got back to the Metro,” Nami explains. “I’ll show you a map later and get into better detail, but the short version is that there are three powers in the Metro. The World Government, the Emperors, and the Warlords. They kind of… well, keep one another in check.”

“They’re all technically appointed by the Government,” Usopp says as Nami takes a break to eat more. “But while the Warlords are chosen by the Government, the Emperors earn their territories and title by sheer strength and capacity. The Government,” he waves his hand, “reluctantly names them Emperors, but they’re the biggest forces going against one another.”

“But a Warlord has power enough to be in that struggle, and the snow lady works for one of them?” You ask, and Nami and Usopp nod.

“Hm.” You grunt, making a face as you take a drink of something stronger than tea.

“Eh?”

“The snow lady said her boss – wait, she called him young master – that he’d have an interest in me.” You explain. “The wanted poster was bad enough, I don’t think the additional attention will be welcome.”

“Donquixote Doflamingo,” Jinbei says. “This crew has run afoul of him a couple times. I used to be a Warlord alongside him. He’s a crafty one.”

“I’ll draw you pictures of the warlords that I know,” Usopp says. “And we have posters of the Emperors as well.”

“Are there pictures of some of the marines? That Smoker was not an easy fight, but he seems unique among most marines. It would be useful to be aware of them as well.”

“I’ll help you with sketches.” Robin offers as Usopp starts to look a little nervous.

“Oh, it’s a lot to draw, it seems.” You say apologetically. “We’re setting sail tomorrow, right? You should have a couple days at least, don’t rush.”

“A week, more like.” Nami says, “there’s some nasty currents where we’re going, and since we can’t burst past all of them it’ll take a little meandering.”

. . . . . . .

You held onto the side of the railing, trying to keep your lunch in your stomach as the ship lurched with the combination “nasty current” and “sudden squall”. You didn’t have the sea legs for this, and it was embarrassing. After things calmed down though, you were going to have to ask the cook how it was that he pushed himself around in the air. It was like he was walking on the wind, and it seemed a useful skill to have.

Especially during a time like this, where getting up the rigging and securing the sails faster was important.

You had been concerned before that there weren’t enough people on this crew for the size of the ship, but their efficiency and capacity was almost terrifying. Nami and Jinbei were in perfect sync, and Franky knew every inch of the ship in order to keep it together. Robin’s devil fruit was ideal for assisting Zoro, Sanji and Usopp as they did most of the heavy lifting, with some light assistance from Brook. You and the small doctor were the only ones without much to do, but Chopper could at least make himself bigger to help anchor things.

All you could do right now was try and keep your barfing from landing on the deck of the ship, with Luffy checking on you every few seconds as he bounced around helping where ever he could. The young man’s energy was impressive on its own, but added with the elastic capacity of his body there wasn’t much he couldn’t do – except swim. You peered over the rail again and wondered if you’d be less sick in the water, not that it was a viable option, the current was shifting before your eyes.

The sudden squall ended just as abruptly as it had started, and you laid out on the grass for a second before you got to your feet. The current was still rough, but since the two ordeals weren’t overlapping everyone else was taking a moment to catch their breath along with you.

“This is normal?” You ask doing your best to walk around the deck so you could try and get your sea legs.

“For this world, yes.” Robin replies with a kind smile. Her hands sprout from your body and help steady you before you topple over. “Are the seas in your world calm?”

“I was not a sailor, but my experience was quite calm.” You admit as you find your feet again. “Ships could be lost at sea, but it was more likely they were raided, and not tormented by the seas themselves.”

The harsh current ended so swiftly you nearly toppled over from that. A single finger on your forehead helped balance you as Zoro walked by.

“Ah, thanks.” You mutter, rubbing your forehead idly. “Oh, hey Sanji – how’d you do that thing earlier?”

“Thing?” Sanji tilts his head as he turns toward you.

“You walked on the air.” You clarify, pointing along a path in the air up the sail. “I would’ve thought such was impossible, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Can you teach me?”

“Eh? Eh?! S-Sure!” Sanji’s face lights up. “It would be my pleasure to assist a lovely lady.”

Sanji wasn’t as good a teacher as Jinbei, but he did try his best. The two of you spent several hours going over the technique of his geppo, you even ended up helping him out in the kitchen to keep the flow of the conversation going. You had just enough time to help hand out snacks to the crew before another rough current grabbed the ship.

You braced against a railing by the helm, as Nami and Jinbei went back to work. You weren’t going to be able to practice much of anything while the ship was traveling like this, but you did pulse your haki when you felt like you could risk it. Having your feet leave the deck when the ship could be whisked right out from under you seemed like a bad idea, so you weren’t going to get any practical training in after all the theory crafting from earlier.

The second wave of rough currents didn’t have anything else accompany it, and so you did make use of the time to stumble around the deck and try to climb the rigging as the ship lurched so you would be more useful later. You could sense someone keeping an eye on you while you worked, but you couldn’t sort out who it was. Franky, Brook, Robin, Luffy and Zoro were all out on the deck, and no one seemed to be watching you directly.

It could be all of them, you realized as you reached the midway point of the rigging and started back down. The crew had amazing awareness, even those that didn’t seem to have any capacity for controlling haki had strong perception. Even though they didn’t overtly act as such, they all watched out for one another. If you ended up stranded in this world there would be far worse people to be stranded with.

Something about that thought warmed your heart, and for the first time since the portal closed you felt at peace. It wasn’t just acceptance of what had happened, but actual peace.

You still wanted to go home, but maybe you weren’t going to be okay with going home as a corpse. You didn’t want to just be buried back home, you wanted to be able to tell everyone the wild ride that this world was. You smile thinking about how your fellow knights would react to hearing about honorable pirates.

“Feeling better?” Zoro asks. He’s leaned against the stairs by the rigging, hands behind his head. He looked like he was grabbing a quick nap despite the turbulent current.

Your skeleton nearly leaps out of your skin, but you manage to restrain yourself to a small flinch. You hadn’t even noticed that he’d settled nearby you were so lost in your own thoughts.

“I… yeah.” You step around and squat down nearby. “Are you sure you’re not at least part demon?”

You can see the vein on his forehead twitch. “Why do you keep asking that?” He growls, looking at you.

“Demons in my world are very strong and can read your thoughts and emotions. You seem to do the same.” You admit bluntly.

Zoro clicks his tongue and looks away. You almost think he isn’t going to say anything else when he finally grumbles at you. “I’m going to be the strongest swordsman in the world, that’s why I’m strong.” He explains. His scowl deepens as he continues. “And… that was a real smile.”

Something about the scowl and the words catches you off guard and when the ship lurches you nearly tumble backward before over correcting and leaning forward. You reach out to steady yourself and feel your hand smack into Zoro’s chest. After you steady yourself you pat his chest a couple times before you snatch you hand back when you come to your senses.

“What was that about?!” He barks at you as you stand up and take a step away.

“Sorry, it was just – it was like – are you sure you’re not-.”

“I’M NOT A DEMON!” He bellows.

You tuck your lip into your mouth and bite down on it to keep from pointing out how much more demonic he looks bellowing like that. Your attempt to spare his feelings was completely shattered by the crew members that were nearby.

“Half of your moves have the word demon in them,” Franky points out as he walks by.

“Koby said you were a demon in the body of a man,” Luffy offers up with a smile.

“You sounded very demonic a moment ago,” Robin teases, not looking up from her book.

“Demonic brute.” Sanji scoffs, coming out of the kitchen.

You nearly choke on a laugh and fail miserably at holding it back. The delighted sound floats through the air for a second before you get your hands over your mouth. You take a few steps back before you’re laughing again, trying to apologize while gasping for air.

Zoro clicks his tongue and closes his eye with a grumbled, “Whatever.” You keep your apology and take a few steps back, trying your best not to continue laughing.

“Ah, (Y/N), come here, I have some drawings done.” Usopp says some moments later as the currents start to even out. Making your way over to where he had been tinkering, he pulls a small stack of papers out of his bag and hands them over. The first four are official wanted posters.

“Kaido, Big Mom – what a name,” you murmur looking through the posters. “Blackbeard, eaugh, that’s a face that makes my soul shudder. Shanks, oh.” You look at the poster for a long time, sitting down beside Usopp. “Do you have more posters of this man?”

“Eh? Maybe? Luffy knows him – oi, Luffy do you have any old wanted posters for Shanks?”

“Nope!” Luffy answers cheerfully.

You tilt your head. Something about the man seems familiar. You’re not entirely sure that you’ve ever actually seen him before, but there’s something that tickles at the back of your mind. You shake it off and move past that to the drawings Usopp and Robin had finished.

“This is Donquixote Doflamingo?” You ask and Usopp nods. “He’s a Warlord? He looks like a peacock.”

“Don’t let that fool you, the Warlords aren’t to be taken lightly.” Usopp warns. “No matter how odd they look.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You mutter as you flip through and take note of the faces of Kuma, Mihawk, Moira, Boa, Crocodile, Buggy. “I know you said what you said, Usopp, but… Is this man a clown? Or does this world not have jesters? Do clowns often become pirates?” You ask, pointing to Buggy’s drawing.

“Buggy is Buggy.” Usopp says with a shrug. “Clowns are a thing here. He’s known as Buggy the Clown.”

“Well.” You shake your head as you flip the page. “Akainu? He doesn’t look like a pirate.”

“He’s a big-name marine,” Usopp explains. “The biggest name one, actually. I haven’t drawn any others yet, but if you see him or hear the name, you need to just run as fast as you can. Another name I’ve heard for him is Sakazuki.”

“It’s a hard face to forget.” You admit, tucking the page behind the stack and seeing the start of the stack. “Thank you Usopp, this is a lot of help.”

He hands you one more page, but this is nothing but a list of names. “I’ll draw them when I can, but if you hear any of these names, they’re bad news too.”

“Borsalino, Issho, Aokiji– ah, he’s not a marine anymore according to your note, but he’s still troublesome it seems. Monkey D. Garp. Eh? Eh, isn’t that-?” You’re already looking for Luffy when the reply cuts your question short.

“He’s Luffy’s granddad.” Usopp admits. “He was hot on your tail when we first rescued you.”

“Oh… Oh, I know his face. He got closer than I would’ve liked. If the squall hadn’t nearly toppled his ship, I wouldn’t have gotten away.” You admit. “What a fearsome man. You said he’s Luffy’s granddad, is Luffy’s father another of these marines?”

“Ah, heh, no. Luffy’s dad is the leader of the Revolutionary Army.” He says sheepishly.

“Rev-…” You pause for a moment to consider the last few bits of information. “A marine, a pirate, and a revolutionary. Quite the family.” Your eyebrows raise in surprise before you add the name list to the stack of drawing. “I imagine family reunions are rather tense.”

“Yes and no.” Usopp says with a laugh. “We’ve had an amicable conversation with Luffy’s granddad before. I mean, he hurled cannonballs at us the next day, but that’s kind of how it goes. We haven’t really dealt with the Revolutionary Army, but one of Luffy’s brothers is an officer, and he keeps in touch. Luffy’s other brother – and none of them are blood relatives – has been traveling with the remnants of the Whitebeard pirates, who are trying to rebuild after their captain was killed. Whitebeard was one of the four Emperors before all hell broke loose last year.”

“And here I thought noble family relationships could get complicated.” You smile as you jot down notes on the empty space on the page of names. “What’re their names? I don’t want to mistake them for a threat if I run into them by myself.”

“His dad is Dragon, and the brothers are Ace and Sabo.”

“Dragon? Does this world have dragons?”

“… Technically.”

You close your eyes and shake your head. “No, no, don’t clarify that right now. I have enough in my head. I’m going to put these away for now and train. Thank you Usopp, I really appreciate it.”

“Aww, you’re welcome, I’m glad I could help.”

After you secure the posters, you train your haki, deal with the currents and random weather conditions, and that’s how the week goes. Eat, sleep, panic, train. By the end of the week, you’re really good at moving around the ship when it’s unstable, and you even managed to get both your feet off the deck practicing the geppo Sanji tried to teach you. Your haki was improving as well, and you were training it further by keeping it active for longer and longer. You doubted that you’d ever get to the point of being able to have it on constantly, but you wanted to be as adept at it as possible, in case you were separated from the crew again.

The only natural phenomenon that you experienced, the second to last day of your travels before reaching the island, that you absolutely hated was called a Knock-up Stream. Your only comfort was that Nami was amazingly adept at predicting them, and avoiding them, and Franky explained all the other options they had if they did get hit by one. It made it a little less terrifying, but before you had seen the event, you had assumed that whirlpools were the worst things in the sea.

Soon, the seas would be the least of worries. Knock-up streams or not.

#x reader #reader insert #one piece fanfiction #roronoa zoro x reader #zoro x reader #Thrice Prophesized #grandline metro au

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nehswritesstuffs · 2 years ago

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fly little seagull, that rock can be home - Part 1

I’m back! With another Trafalgar Nauja fic! [*confetti*] I was working on this alongside fly little seagull, you’re too far from the nest, because I’m apparently a sadist, but I knew I couldn’t let 13k words go to waste, and now it’s over 30k words and counting after being distracted by a bunch of other things, and although I didn’t set out to make this series a choose-your-own-adventure with Law and this OC child, that’s what it’s turned into and I wish I could say I’m sorry but I’m not in the slightest.

8568 words to start; deviates from the main story in the second section of the third chapter (so, like, 17.5k words in) and then this storyline effectively replaces the rest of the main fic in this continuum; tldr: Law is morphing into a little kid’s Cora-san and is about to say what he thinks is his final goodbye to her pre-Dressrosa; much slower in pace than the other variations of this fic, but also will be much steamier and domestic; there are so many fcking OCs in this that it’s almost just Law in OC Land for a long while and I am not sorry; shout out to all in the Rare Pears server for putting up with me and my nonsense they are true fandom heroes lol, as is Rimetin for being this fic’s first victim

fly little seagull, that rock can be home; Law is about to leave the Polar Tang as he heads to certain Death on Dressrosa. Then he goes to say goodbye to one specific person, only for half a lifetime’s worth of motivation to vanish in an instant. [AU where Law acquires a kid and realize the true gift Cora-san wanted for him]

The girl’s words piqued his interest. “You want to do medical illustrations?”

“Yeah! Well, I still want to be a doctor, like you, but I also want to be able to do drawings! I’m not very good at those yet, but I’m gonna practice real hard!” She pulled another drawing from her desk and showed him; it was a copy of an illustration of a hand’s skeletal structure from one of his textbooks. “See? I’m not good at that yet, but I’m still learning, right?”

“You are,” he agreed, chest filling with pride. “This is wonderful, Nauja-ya. You are very talented.” He watched as she put them away and sat next to him.

“What did you want to talk about?” she wondered. “Are we going to an island where I have to behave extra? I don’t like those islands.”

“No, actually…” He swallowed hard. “I’m…” He saw her face and all the happiness and joy it contained, melting away his prior conviction. How could he chose dying at the hands of Doflamingo over raising this child? Was getting revenge for Cora-san worth throwing away the gifts the man had given him in the first place? Maybe what he owed that foul-mouthed, accident-prone, absolute flaming mess of a spy—who was honestly the best spy he had ever seen—was to live and love. That that would be the best revenge levied on a man who never understood either. He still didn’t wholly understand why he did it after all these years, but maybe… just maybe… taking care of this kid would give him the answers… could help him with his guilt… might finally give him some peace.

If nowhere was safe from Donquixote Doflamingo, then he was simply going to have to run until they found nowhere.

“You and I are going to have to take a special trip soon, away from the Tang,” he said. “Be prepared to pack in the morning, alright? It’s going to be an adventure.”

Nauja’s eyes lit up. An adventure?! With just her and Law-san?! This was going to be the best!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They didn’t often get new visitors in Hinba, which was one of the first things that the barman noticed about the pair. It had been a rainy evening when they arrived—not storming, just the steady, reliable autumn rain that could lull a person to sleep. It seemed fairly normal a night until they walked in: a tallish man with a piercing glare, both a pack and a sword slung across his back, and a small child hiding under his feathered cloak. They both appeared to be worn from travel, though the man more so. He let the child find a table near the back and he went up to the bar, the proprietor now able to see the dark circles under his eyes and the glint of two rings on a chain hiding in the unbuttoned folds of his shirt.

“Food and drink, please,” the man said, “and a room if you have one.” His accent was something near-completely foreign to the barman, making him stop for a moment. The stranger caught his hesitation and spoke slower. “You do serve food here, yes?”

“We do; just don’t normally get strangers, is all,” the barman shrugged. “We’re a bit out of the way for most, and even the trade routes aren’t always consistent.”

“Is there a doctor around?”

“You in need of one?”

“No, but I am one, and I’ve been looking for a place to set up shop where I can fill a void. A good physician upholding their oath means that everyone gets care.”

“I see.” The barman put a glass of beer and a bottle of pop on the counter. “Any requests for that food?”

“No allergies, but I’m not fond of bread or pickled things.”

“…and is the kid picky?”

“No; my daughter is less picky than I am if you’ll believe it.” The man took the drinks, tattoos spelling DEATH across his knuckles flashing in the low lamplight. “Do you have a room? I’d like to not sleep on our ship tonight.”

“Yeah, I can get you a real bed, but you’ll have to share. It’ll be ready by the time you’re done eating.”

The stranger nodded in silent thanks and took the drinks over to the corner where the child had already set up with what looked like a book and drawing set. It was curious, but then again, things did rarely happen on their island.

“What do you think is up with him?” one of the regulars wondered. The barman watched as the stranger put the drinks down and settled into a chair with his back to the wall.

“None of our business,” he shrugged. He watched the strange man for a moment, taking note of his interactions with the child. She was completely at-ease and he seemed tired by simply looking at her—yes, that was a father and his daughter. “Maybe we’ll find out eventually.”

“What, do you think they’ll stay?”

“Nearest doctor’s been a three-day sail for a long time now; there’s a chance.”

“With that bedside manner? No fucking thanks.”

“Eh, that’s not our decision to make.” The barman then put down the glass that he had been cleaning and went into the kitchen, getting two plates of food. He brought them out to the strangers, chuckling as he saw the girl’s eyes light up happily. “Hungry, kid?”

“Yeah!” She put aside what she was working on and bounced up and down in her seat. Huh… she was drawing what looked like a medical diagram… “Thanks for the food, Barman-ya!”

“Eat up, buttercup,” the barman said. Huh. Her accent wasn’t like her father’s, though it was clearly influenced by it. “So… where you strangers from?”

“Here and there,” the man replied. “We used to live on the Grand Line, but we needed a change of scenery.”

“The Grand Line…? Must have been an adventure getting to these southern waters…”

“It was.” The man took a careful bite of his food and tried to ignore the barman. When he realized the conversation wasn’t entirely over, he glanced up. “Yes…?”

“Just… nothing. You must have a familiar face.”

“He looks like a pirate!” the kid sad cheerily around her food.

“Famke…” the man warned with a gentle sternness.

“Well, you do…!” she insisted before turning towards the barman. “Vaor’s not that guy, but lots of people think he’s that guy, because the person who takes the bounty photos is bad at it. He tried complaining but it’s no good.”

“Is that so?” the barman chuckled. He could see the man’s face get dark with blush—it was obviously a sore point. “Well, don’t worry, kiddo; even if your da here was some big-shot, we don’t give a shite about that.”

“You don’t…?”

“Last time I checked, the World Government doesn’t give a damn about us, so the least we can do is make it mutual,” the barman explained. It was faint, but he could see the kid’s father relax a little in the shoulders. Ah—so he was concerned about that; no wonder. “You could round up more than a couple bounties here on Diura… just saying.”

“Then I’m sure you are more than underserved from a medical standpoint if you take such an attitude towards piracy,” the stranger said. He then nudged his daughter’s shoulder with the back of his hand to get her attention. “Chew with your mouth closed.” He sounded as though it was something he’d already said well over a thousand times in her life and would likely say a thousand more.

“…but Vaor…!”

The barman didn’t stick around to hear the end of the argument; their first new visitors in a long time needed a place to sleep.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Later on, upstairs in their rented room, Law and Nauja were getting ready for bed. They were separated by a changing screen as the girl pulled on her pajamas, her father already in a fresh pair of shorts as he sorted through the contents of his pack.

“Is this the place we’re gonna stay?” she wondered from behind the screen.

“It might be,” he replied. She came out with her day clothes neatly folded and placed them on a chair before climbing atop the bed. “We don’t have too much left if we want to have the money to start a clinic when we do settle.”

“What are you looking for?”

“The Den Den.” He then found the transponder snail’s shell—it was sleeping—and placed it in a tray on the nightstand with some lettuce. “Can’t ignore that for too long.”

“…or we can’t call my uncles!”

“Correct.” He waited until Nauja was under the bedding before he handed her Professor Nanuk so he could replace everything else in the pack. “Go to sleep now, famke.”

“Vaor…?”

“Hmm…?”

“How did you meet Moetje?”

He looked at her as she rested herself against her pillow, hugging her stuffed toy tightly. It was a practical move, he knew that much, but it was still disarming. If there was anyone listening in on them—and he would have been surprised if no one was—they could mistake his hesitation for a widow’s melancholy, especially if they stayed and the rest of their story ended up sticking.

“We were in classes together,” he replied gently, deciding on a story. “It’s easy to not pay attention to who else is in the room when you’re in med school because you’re trying to concentrate on not failing, but partway through our first term I finally looked behind me and there she was…” He put their pack on the table and went into the bed, glad for how warm Nauja was against the chill of the rain. Reaching back into his memory, he tried to remember the name of a classmate… someone he barely recalled, but knew needed a memorial… because all of Flevance did. “Antje was a year older than me, and my fifteen-year-old heart couldn’t take how pretty she was.”

“Yeah… Moetje was pretty, wasn’t she?”

“She really was.” Fuck… he didn’t even know if he liked women, let alone anyone at all. That was something he might figure out now that he was a civilian… he just needed to find where they were going to settle first. “Go to sleep, alright? We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Mmmhmm…” She burrowed in close and quickly drifted off, her hand unconsciously reaching for the rings still on the chain on his neck. “I love you, Law-san.”

“I love you too, Nauja-ya,” he whispered back. He opened a Room long enough to turn off the lights and tried to go to sleep himself, though he knew it would be light and fitful as it had been since they left the Tang.

What the fuck had he gotten himself into?

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“I’ve made an important decision,” he told the late-night collection of his crew. “I cede captainship of the Heart Pirates and am going to live a civilian life.”

The entire mess hall was so quiet one could almost hear everyone breathing.

“Wait… what?!” Penguin abruptly stood, absolutely flabbergasted. “What the fuck?!”

“What got into your head?” Shachi asked. He stared down the younger man, trying to get a read on his face. “This was not part of the plan.”

“What plan?” Jean Bart asked.

“Yeah, what plan?”

“What’s going on?”

“What aren’t you telling us?”

“Quiet,” Law insisted, the room going silent again. “I was supposed to leave tonight to enact a plan to take out Donquixote Doflamingo and his criminal operation at its roots. Penguin, Shachi, and Bepo were supposed to be in charge while I did that anyhow. Everyone was supposed to hide in the Mokomo Dukedom until after it was safe…” He swallowed. “…well after I died at his hands.”

“Why fuck with Doflamingo?” Clione wondered. “Man’s a psychopath, sure, and what do we care that he’s an underworld broker? We just know what to avoid.”

“Doflamingo killed someone important to me once,” Law explained frankly, “and the past thirteen years of my life have been about me figuring out how to get revenge. I was saying my goodbyes to Nauja and…” he sighed, choking up, “…I can’t do it. I spent half my life meticulously planning how I was going to go out in a blaze of glory as I possibly killed one man… and I realized that, as I looked at Nauja, I didn’t know what I was going to do if I survived… that I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself for choosing death over raising her.” He felt hot tears stream down his cheeks as he licked his lips and avoided looking at anyone else in the crew. This was more information than he ever wanted to share, but knew that if anyone deserved it, it was them. “That person… he’d want me to live… to raise a child while growing older than my father ever got the chance to be… because that’s what he wanted to do with me when I was a kid…”

“…but Doflamingo denied you both that,” Jean Bart said, his voice grave and even. “Nauja is a chance to have that life and honor the one who saved you. A gentle revenge.”

“Can’t we just help you take him down?!” someone asked. Law shook his head.

“To go up against Doflamingo is choosing dying at his hands rather than raising her; I’d never forgive myself, more so if any of you were involved.”

“…but what if we wanted to help raise her too?”

“Please, just… let me be selfish. I just realized that I have a chance to truly be free of all this and… I can never repay you all for what you’ve done, so please…”

Law was cut off by the scraping of a chair against the floor. Everyone looked and saw that Bepo was now standing, tears in the Mink’s eyes.

“You’re going to have to tell us all about how the two of you are doing on a regular basis,” he insisted. “If we can’t be there, then we at least deserve that much.”

“Bepo, I…”

“I’m going to miss you,” the navigator cried. He lumbered up to his captain—no, his best friend—and tackled him in a shaky hug. “What would I have done without you?”

“Electrocute the goobers before you entered your teens?”

“You know what the bear means,” Penguin interjected. He and Shachi looked at one another, then Law. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

Law nodded, croaking out a tiny “Yeah.”

“Dreams change all the fucking time,” Shachi shrugged. “Sometimes all it takes is chasing one to realize you were after something else all along. Right?”

The thing was that he didn’t realize how right his words were.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Morning came, bringing sunshine with it. Law and Nauja soon found themselves in the village leader’s office, the greying woman in early middle-age staring them both down. Here was this strange, tattooed man explaining that he was a surgeon who wished to set up a practice, with a young girl at his side almost too old to be the daughter he claimed she was if he was not already lying about his own age.

“You are both strangers,” she reiterated, “and have yet been in town for an entire day. How am I to trust you with my people’s medical needs, of all things, under such circumstances? We’ve dealt with only a midwife on the island for well over fifteen years, so why stop now?”

“All I want is to give my daughter a stable life away from bad memories,” Law said. The village leader—Torilsbur Dervla according to the nameplate on the desk—did not seem like someone who could be easily convinced, which made him glad they prepared in advance. “You don’t have a doctor on the island and I can fill that void.”

“You already said you are a surgeon. I am not so ill-informed that I don’t know the difference.”

“My training and real-world experience meant I functioned as a hybrid family practitioner and surgeon—I am more than qualified to run a small hospital, let alone a rural clinic.”

“Of course.” She stared at his hands and frowned. “By what organization?”

“I began my formal training in what was Drum Kingdom, though I finished in Water 7. Plenty of fieldwork supplemented what I couldn’t learn in the classroom.”

“Couldn’t handle the strain?”

“No… the king had a poor idea of what public health should be and banished nearly all the medical practitioners—doctors, surgeons, nurses, researchers, you name it. The prestige might have returned when it became Sakura Kingdom, but my wife and I always wanted to help real people, not be locked away in a research tower.”

“…and she is…?”

“Moetje died,” Nauja said frankly. “That’s why we can’t stay in Water 7 anymore. Vaor called this a ‘fresh start’.”

“Then there is the question of you, Lawsdottir Nauja,” Dervla mused. “I know you must look like your mother, but I still have to note how the resemblance between you and your father is minimal.”

“Ma’am…? Why did you call me that…?”

“Lawsdottir? We don’t use family names here since not everyone is born with one, so that is how we trace our lineage, using son and dottir and bur. You are his daughter, thus Lawsdottir.”

“So I am Lawsdottir, and Vaor is Corasson?”

“If one of your grandparents was named Cora, then yes.”

Law watched Nauja consider this before nodding. “I… I don’t know if I could do it now, but could I go by Antjesdottir? Maybe later?”

“That would be up to you and your father,” Dervla said. Law saw her expression soften slightly before she turned back to him. “You really want to stay here?”

“With your permission—we won’t stay where we’re not wanted.”

“It’s true that a good doctor’s a long way off from here, and a good surgeon even further. I can show you where you can set up your practice, but understand that we do not accept strangers into our folds easily. You could live here until she is grown and you would still be the Lvneelish surgeon and his daughter, here for seas-knows-why.”

“You try leaving home as I did and attempt going back, with a child at that. No… I’d like for this to be our home. We would do well here.”

“I’m warning you now: although we are not poor, what we do have is of little interest to most. Aside from fishermen, there’s mostly sheep and potato and goat farmers around these parts, and while some of us won’t pay in beri, others won’t pay at all.”

“A doctor finds a way,” Law stated. Dervla nodded at him, now fully convinced.

“Come with me then, Doctor Corasson Law, Miss Lawsdottir Nauja, and I can bring you to where the last doctor used to live. If we’re lucky, you might still be able to make use of some of her things.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

With the night sky above them shining brightly, the little dinghy’s occupants sat quietly as the currents and wind gently guided the craft further into the South Blue. Nauja held Professor Nanuk in her arms as she stared up at the sky, taken in by the swirls and glittering specks above them.

“It’s so pretty,” she marveled. “Why don’t we ever see the sky like this when the Polar Tang is above water? There’s so many…”

“Whenever we use lights at night, it disrupts our ability to see the stars,” Law explained. He looked at her as she stared wide-eyed at the sky. “You like it?”

“I love it, Law-san!” she gasped. “I wonder if anyone else in the crew has seen the sky like this! I’ll have to ask when we get back!” When she turned her attention towards him, however, she tilted her head in confusion. “Why are you sad?”

“Nauja… we’re not going back to the Tang.” He saw her hug her toy a bit tighter in the starlight. “We’re going to find a place to stay, and then live there.”

“Wait… you mean… forever…?”

“For as long as we need to; if that’s forever, then it’s forever. Most likely we’ll need to move after a few years, but I won’t try to make it often.”

“Why…?”

“…because it’s too dangerous to keep constantly traveling, especially in a big group. The whole crew wants you to grow up in a good place, and I realized recently that place is probably not a pirate ship in the New World.” She stared at him, silent, and he tried not to panic. “Listen, I know I’m…” Fuck, this was awkward. “I know I’m not your real dad, but while we’re doing this, we should probably at least pretend like I am so no nosy aunties try anything.”

“Law-san… you are my real dad,” Nauja replied. There was an uncomfortable silence between them, the only sounds being the waves against the sides of the ship. “My first dad… he wasn’t like you. He wasn’t mean, but…” She avoided eye contact, instead seeming very interested in what was going on behind Professor Nanuk’s ear. “What did you call your dad? In Flevench?”

“Vaor, Vader, Papa…”

“My dad wasn’t mean, but he also didn’t really like me,” Nauja said, her head bobbing in a nod. “My vaor loves me, because he teaches me, and tells me I’m good and smart, and does things to protect me that my dad would have never done. You gave up the crew for me… and I don’t know why, other than that you’re my vaor… and he would have never done that.”

“Come here,” he requested, holding open his arms. The little girl stepped forward and allowed herself to be enveloped in his grasp, both glad that the hug was so warm against the cool night air. “You know, Cora-jiisan… I didn’t understand why he cared about me either. I thought that maybe it was pity for my situation, or out of fear of my name, but I look at you and I know… I know why he lov… why he cared for me so unconditionally, why he died to keep me alive and free.”

“…why…?”

“…because I think… that when he looked at me… he saw hope.” He leaned his head back until it tapped against the mast and he was looking up at the foreign night sky, so different than the stars he and Cora-san navigated by. “He saw hope that the bad man who eventually killed him wouldn’t win… that there could still be good that came from all the terrible things we had seen and done. Cora-jiisan needed me just as much as I needed him.”

“Does that mean that you need me as much as I need you?”

“In our way, yes,” he assured. He looked down at her and saw that she was happy and content. A frown then formed on her face, which he echoed. “What is it?”

“Who was the bad man who killed Cora-jiisan?”

“His name is Donquixote Doflamingo, and he was supposed to be his brother.” They weren’t pirates anymore, yet it was still important she knew what not to trust. “He is a very mean, cruel man who is sick in the head and will do anything to get revenge for Cora-jiisan and me running away if he finds us… if he finds out that you exist. Even if we stuck to being on the Tang, you’d be in danger should he find you and realize that you’re my famke… that I’m your vaor…”

“Oh!” she gasped. “I know this is a different subject, but does this mean I’m a Trafalgar now?”

“I guess it does.” He smiled wanly at that, seeing that his daughter was smiling at him in the starlight. It made the night sky seem that much brighter. “Get to sleep, famke. We should be able to reach the next port tomorrow morning. We’ll talk more then, alright?”

“Yes!” She settled into his lap with Professor Nanuk firmly in her grasp, keeping both close as she closed her eyes and let sleep take her.

Vaor and famke.

They were father and daughter.

Neither of them couldn’t ask for anything better.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was a modest house on the edge of the village, with living upstairs and in the back; the front sitting room was a waiting area and other rooms set up as an office, a consultation room, a small infirmary, and combination larger-infirmary-and-operating theater. It was a bit bigger than most of the other houses, though with the amount of space in it dedicated to doctoring and medicine, it was almost like some apartments had been stuck onto a proper clinic. Nauja was nearly vibrating with excitement as they were being shown about, while Law was looking around at everything with concern.

“This is wonderful,” he acknowledged, “but I feel like there’s a catch.”

“No catch,” Dervla said. “Just do what you said you came here to do and it’s yours.”

“I have money,” he replied icily. “This just seems like a lot to just give away.”

“Vaor, some of these expired before I was born!” Nauja gasped, pointing at a glass-doored medicine cabinet.

“Don’t touch anything until I’ve had the chance to inspect it,” Law warned. He then turned back to the village leader. “Well, am I right?”

“Like I said: just do the job you say you’re here to do and there won’t be any problem,” Dervla repeated. She pat Law on the back of his shoulder and gave him a nod. “You know where to find someone if you have a question.”

“I do, but…”

“I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.” She then left the newcomers alone in the smaller infirmary, with Law able to hear her shut the front door on her way out.

“I don’t know…” he mused. He picked up a medical journal from a bookshelf and cracked it open—it was nearly twenty years old and filled with hand-written notations and commentary in the varying articles’ margins. “Something about this doesn’t feel right.”

“Vaor, we have a house, a place for medicine, there’s a school in town… it’s actually really neat here.”

“It’s still really suspicious when someone goes from not wanting you around at all to giving you a house specialized for your profession within an hour,” he replied. He kept flipping through the articles, a sense of familiarity washing over him. “You know… Oma used to do this.”

“Do what?” Nauja asked. She placed Professor Nanuk on the counter and bounced over towards Law, who sat on his haunches to show her the journal.

“Write in the margins like this,” he said, dragging his fingers over the ink scribbles. They were not far removed from the copperplate handwriting of his parents’ generation, the most prominent difference being the shakiness of the hand despite still being legible. “Opa did too, but not nearly as much as Oma did—it kind of annoyed him.”

“That’s silly,” she giggled. She then watched as he turned a page and almost instantly grew pale. “Vaor…? What’s wrong…?”

One look at the journal and she knew what it was: the next article was coauthored by her grandparents. Law sat directly on the dusty floor and tried his best to not cry.

“I… I remember when this was published,” he said shakily. “La—your Tante Lami was a toddler, and I had to watch her at night while they wrote.”

“I thought you said everything from… erm… home is gone,” Nauja said quietly. Law let out a laugh in disbelief, tears flowing freely down his face.

“The old doctor died before Flevance did; even if she had anything from there, unless someone bothered to come in here and take it…” He couldn’t continue, instead palming his eyes as he broke into a heaving sob. Nauja tackled him in a hug and he held her close, not wanting to let go.

There was still proof that Flevance had once lived, that his parents had lived, and that there was a legacy to pass down as he lived…

…wait a minute.

Shakily, Law disengaged Nauja and handed her the journal so that he could stand up. Tears still in his eyes, he looked at the other volumes on the shelf, running a pointer finger over their spines. Sure enough, there was plenty of medical journals and textbooks from Flevance. The collection was from a broad pool of sources—all the Cardinal Blues and the Grand Line were represented—if there had been someone on the island that was affiliated with the World Government, the entire shelf would have already been burned. He wiped his nose on his sleeve and ducked out of the room, heading into the office. His suspicions were confirmed and his jaw dropped laxly: whole bookshelves of medical publications going back decades… and many of them from the White City itself.

“Vaor…?” He glanced over and saw Nauja standing awkwardly in the doorway. “What is it?”

“I… erm…” He rubbed the back of his neck and waited until she stepped into the office properly. “It’s old, but there’s medical knowledge here that the Marines would kill this whole island over.”

“Really…?” She scrunched her nose and peered at the closest shelf. “This isn’t even from Flevance.”

“A lot of it is, or I’m sure is influenced by Flevance,” he replied, “and this one…? This is from an island that also doesn’t exist anymore. Rumor says it was destroyed for its thirst for history and knowledge.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah.” He licked his lips as he selected another book and flipped through it. “It makes sense if the previous doctor was well-learned that she would have had this sort of personal library, but it also tells me something else.”

“What’s that?”

“No one here is going to turn us in, even if they compare me to my bounty poster. We can stay here… for as long as it takes.”

“Really…?”

“Yeah.” He put the book down and knelt down on one knee to be at eye level with her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders. “This is our home now.”

“…but… how will I get strong and good at stuff if we stay put? What if I can’t?”

“Don’t you worry about that.” He brought his hands up to her face, holding her as though she might break. “You’re going to grow up to be an amazing person, Trafalgar D. Water Nauja… I’m going to make sure of it.”

She hugged him and, before they knew it, they were both crying.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

One of the things that was extremely evident when it came to living with Amber Lead Syndrome was that there were good days and bad days. What observers often referred to as bad days were usually the good ones, and when presented with a bad day, it was understandably cause for alarm.

It was a bad day as Law and Cora-san were huddled on some rock, glad for the break in weather that allowed them to camp on the seas-forsaken outcropping instead of attempting to find an island with an inn they hadn’t been run out of yet. The teen could barely move, causing his adult’s panic to skyrocket. He had fussed over the boy and made sure he ate before turning towards his alcohol supply, soaking his depressive thoughts though the afternoon sun had yet to dip low into the sky.

“One day, after we’ve figured this shit out, we’re going to get out of this Blue,” he said, fully drunk at that point. Law was barely able to turn his head and see Cora-san sitting next to him, staring off into the distance as he drank directly from the wine bottle. “There has to be a quiet place we can go.”

“The East and West are both hot,” the boy replied, his voice feeling like sandpaper against his throat.

“They’re quieter than here.”

“What about the South Blue? Do they have weather like the North?”

“Yeah, in some places, but,” he took another drink, “they have to contend with giant and fierce animals more than we do. The only places I can think of that doesn’t are too out of the way.”

“Cora-san… I’m not going to make it that long…”

“You can’t say that, Law!” he sniffled. “We’re going to get you a cure and then I’ll find us someplace nice to live! You can study medicine and open up a clinic and I’ll be there to help you!” He emptied the bottle and laid down—there was no mistaking that he was drunk. “My papa did not live to be very old. I think I’d like to get older than he did one day, raising a family peacefully amongst other people.”

“Then go and get married and acquire babies,” Law huffed. He tried to hide the fact he head tears in his eyes—it was something he knew he’d never see. Cora-san as a dad? Ridiculous.

“I have my family,” Cora-san replied. He placed a shaky hand on Law’s face and turned it towards him. They were both on the verge of crying, held together by barely a thread. “You are my family now, Law. Do you think I tell all those hospitals that you’re my son to be an asshole about it?”

“…no…?”

“Then it doesn’t matter if you end up being the eldest or the only.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Law’s. “It doesn’t matter what anyone fucking says: you’re my son now and I love you.”

“…but…!”

“I don’t know how many you lost, and I can’t replace them, but I can still love you, because everyone needs that, don’t they?”

“…but… what did I do…?” He watched Cora-san’s eyes flutter shut and he frowned. “Cora-san…? What did I do that makes you love me? I’m just some shitty kid who tried to kill you.”

A snore was his only reply. Fuck… and with him unable to move too.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

As Law feared: there was a steep learning curve to dropping himself and his daughter into the middle of a rural community. Curious passers-by kept popping their heads in and seeing who it was that was occupying the old doctor’s house. Children used to being able to barge into the front room without reprimand were shocked to discover that there were suddenly people living there. Local customs and traditions were plentiful as the young father tried to figure out what was going on around them. The Port and Village of Hinba was the only major population center on the Island and Country of Diura, which was otherwise dotted with varying farms and pastures as advertised, and yet there seemed to be no end to the amount of people that were coming in and out to meet them.

“You sure are an interesting pair,” chuckled the elderly neighbor lady—Svana—as she helped Law clean the infirmary. It was a quiet day, after Dervla had threatened everyone else to leave him alone or get kicked off the island. Nauja was outside with some of the other children who lived nearby, making it just the two adults in the house.

“Now why would you say that, Svana-ya?” he posed. Law was placing fresh bottles of antiseptic in one cupboard while she was washing the inside of another.

“Last time we got a new doctor we had to send to Roshawan for one,” she noted. “People don’t normally come here thinking that they might be able to stay and make a living… especially not if they arrive with a young one in-tow.”

“Consider us unique,” he said. He knew full-well that she was likely considered the island’s best font of information on them aside from Nauja, except no one was truly aware of how much they had planned beforehand. “What was the doctor like who was here before?”

“Dr. Ghar-Spartel was a hardy woman, who traveled the seas before settling here,” Svana nodded, her expression turning far-off as she reminisced. “We all mourned her when she passed—I think it’s part of why we never found another in all this time.”

“I was told you don’t take easily to strangers, yet you mourned someone you sent for?”

“We did; it turned out she was in town when our call was received and her heart fit here so well that no one could imagine anything different. With any luck, you two will acclimate as easily as she did.” She left the cupboard open and went to wring out the cloth and wet it again with the cleaning solution. “I get the feeling she would have liked the both of you—had a soft spot for Northern blokes who’d wander in town.”

“Was she Northern…?”

“Never publicly claimed a lick, but she was acquainted with quite a few. Came with the territory considering how far she sailed; she spent many an evening telling me tales of Lvneel and other places.”

“Maybe you can tell us some of those stories one day,” he said. “Leaving home young has… disadvantages. I don’t have a lot of stories to pass on to my daughter about my home sea. Not about Lvneel, or Kuenta, or Whiteland, or Flevance, or Notice…”

“I’ve got plenty, especially of Lvneel and Flevance,” she replied. “They were cultural hubs, and I’m sure you’ve heard how Flevance was known for their medical knowledge before the Plague, so she spent plenty of time there.”

Law finished stocking the cupboard and closed it. “Weird how that works: a place that was the best-equipped to handle a situation being wiped out by it instead.”

“It sounds suspicious to me, but that’s age and how life is here for you,” she sighed. She saw the confused, embarrassed look on Law’s face and she chuckled. “We don’t care about what the Government says in these parts. We’re not affiliated with them—never have been—so there’s no love lost if you know my meaning.”

“I know perfectly well your meaning, Svana-ya,” Law nodded. His face was still warm—it looked like embarrassment, but deep down, he was just happy he could continue to get something from his hometown… and something as intangible as stories? He was beyond elated. Now the only problem was making sure his neighbor didn’t catch on about how much he already knew… how much she was able to piece together…

Just then, the kitchen door at the back of the house slammed open and the sound of more than one child came barreling in. Nauja came sliding into the infirmary in her stocking feet, with a small gaggle of children close behind.

“See?!” she said, pointing at Law. “That’s my vaor! He’s a doctor, isn’t he, Svana-ya?!”

“He’s no midwife, but he’ll do,” the older woman chuckled. The village children all stared at Law and the ink visible thanks to his tank top shirt. “It’s impolite to stare—you act like you’ve never seen sailors’ marks before.”

“Are you a pirate?!” one of the children gasped. Nauja froze, yet Law knew exactly what to do. He crouched down with a wicked grin and wiggled his fingers, coming at the children until they screamed and ran away.

“I’m the worst pirate of them all! The Surgeon of Death!” The children that were not his all scurried out, with his daughter staring at him in confusion. “What…? It’s not like I’m not already mistaken for him.”

“Vaor… don’t do that again. You looked weird.”

“Oh, now you’re too cool?”

“Vaor…” Nauja rolled her eyes and went to find the other children, leaving Law with an expression of deadpan irritation on his face. Svana laughed merrily at that.

“What betrayal!” she cackled. “…and to think people wonder why I never had children!”

“I don’t know; maybe because you’re the island’s midwife?”

“Delivering children is not the same as having and raising them, young man,” she retorted. She forced her giggles under control as the man young enough to be her grandson attempted to get back to cleaning. “She is a good child; you should be proud.”

“I am.”

“…and I’m sure her mother is proud of you both.” He paused loading the cupboard for a moment, clearly lost in thought, before putting the vial back down on the counter. “How long has it been just the two of you?”

“…not… erm… long,” he admitted. He kept staring at the countertop, hoping she’d drop the topic, yet her hand gently touched his back in an effort to console him. “Can we please not talk about this, Svana-ya?”

“Bottling it up won’t be good, lad,” she cautioned. “You still have a lot of life left to be weighed down by something so heavy as those bits of metal on your neck.”

“I’ve carried more for longer,” he said, knowing the risk of saying so. The thin chain that held his parents’ wedding bands—scavenged from the ruins of the hospital when he was a reckless teen—suddenly felt very conspicuous, even though their presence was supposed to be part of the lie. “This is for my daughter—I don’t care what it does to me as long as she can grow up strong and free from everything.”

“She won’t if she loses both her parents this young.” The old woman rubbed his back and, for a moment, Law felt his stomach churn. He wasn’t used to genuine concern out of strangers and it made him feel guilty… guilty for everything. Flevance, Lami, Cora-san, the crew… everyone. Shit… did his classmate even like him back then? Had she tolerated him at the very least? He couldn’t remember…

“Being there for Nauja was part of why we moved from the Grand Line,” he stated. “I couldn’t stay there and raise her at the same time… it wasn’t right. It’s… cowardly to come here, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Corasson Law: it’s the bravest thing you could have done for her.”

Seas… he really hoped she was right.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The sense of déjà vu that Law was experiencing did not settle well with him, as it made him think of a time when he was the child, diminutive due to stunted growth and comparative height to his adult. He held Nauja close as he opened a large Room, the two of them surrounded by citizens of the small town they were in. Well, on the outskirts of, but that was besides the point.

“You don’t scare us,” a shop owner said. He had been a Marine for twenty years before retiring, the seagull tattoo still prominent on his upper arm. “A member of the Worst Generation would fetch a large price… especially one who tries to go into hiding while his cohorts make trouble elsewhere. What are you after, Rogue Shichibukai?!”

“I’m not here for trouble if that’s what you’re concerned about,” Law announced for about the sixteenth time.

“Then where’d you get the kid?”

“None of your business.”

“I’m making it my business, boy.”

Law sighed and twitched his fingers, the mob of citizens being replaced with their children and pets. The startled kids all looked at him and Nauja without really knowing what to say, let alone knowing what happened.

“You’re the man that Dad wanted us to stay away from,” a little boy realized. Law breathed a sigh of relief and put Nauja down; they had about five minutes before they needed to start running again.

“Perceptive,” he replied. “Do you always listen to your dad?”

“Yes…?”

“I doubt that, but close enough.” He stroked Nauja’s hair as she huddled against his leg, holding onto his trousers as she tried to hide from the other children in the safety of his coat. “What’s the matter? You were fine a little while ago…”

“That was before they tried to take me and run you out of town,” she mumbled.

“But he’s a bad man!” a girl declared.

“Maybe your dad’s the bad one!” Nauja shot back. “Mine just wants to take care of me! Why does that make him bad?!”

“Nauja…” Movement caught Law’s eye and he grimaced—the adults were back sooner than he expected. “Time to go.” He picked her up and waited just long enough for her to flip her middle fingers at the other children before he triggered a series of swaps that landed them in their boat, then switching the entire boat with a whale that was breaching just offshore so it could damage the wharf. He finally let out the breath he had been holding and put his daughter down, only for her to slump onto the deck in irritation.

“They hate us,” she grumbled. “Vaor… why do they hate us…?”

“…because they don’t know any better, and hating people who are different than them has worked for their survival in the past.” He made sure the wind was catching the sail correctly before pulling a map out of his coat pocket. “That’s another one down.”

“This stinks,” she said. “I feel like we’ve been searching forever.”

“Not forever, but definitely a long time,” he admitted. Law crossed off the island they had just been on and took a look at where they could go next. They were running out of options around the entrance to the Grand Line, meaning the further they went into the South Blue, the more dangerous it was likely to become. He sat down as he studied the map, propping his feet up on Nauja’s legs in order to rile her up. It worked and she wriggled out from under him in order to crawl over to his side and nestle in the crook of his arm.

“How long were you and Cora-jiisan running?” she wondered.

“Almost half a year—it’s only been a couple months for us,” he reminded her. He traced the line of a water current and nodded. “I think if we keep low and only stop for supplies, we might be able to get to this island in about two weeks or so.”

“…Diura…?” She peered at the paper and frowned. “Why there?”

“It’s far enough from Reverse Mountain that we’re out of the way of other pirates,” he reasoned. “Fewer pirates mean fewer people who would recognize me even if I don’t use my Devil Fruit. It even looks like it might be out of the way for people around there too.”

“How?”

“The currents are all wrong.” He took her hand and gently traced the current paths on the map with her finger. “This is a major water current that goes through that area of the South Blue, and this is the major wind current. Neither of them go near there, which means that it’s minor sailing traffic only.”

“…so… it would be no problem for the Tang, but it would for a normal ship?”

“Not a problem, just more difficult.” Shit, he wished Bepo and Penguin were there to explain it better, maybe even Hakugan, since he was admittedly less comfortable with specifics. He kissed the side of her head and squeezed her gently. “We’ll find someplace. I promise.”

“Why here?” she asked. “Why not the North Blue?”

“Too many people remember my face or my accent or both,” he admitted. “Besides, the Marines would be looking for me in my Home Blue if I simply vanished off their Grand Line radar.”

“Those villagers sure did know who you were…”

“…and they’re the only ones who caught us so far,” he reminded her. Their amount of close calls had been racking up exponentially—it was a surprise that they hadn’t been chased out of town before this. “One report does not make the military change course… not like that. Besides, it will look like they called the Marines because their harbor was wrecked and they didn’t want to pay for it.”

“…oh.” Nauja took the map and looked at it closer. “There’s a town on Diura. Do you think it’s big?”

“Probably not, but something tells me that they have the room to take in a girl who lost her mother… a man who lost his wife…” He watched as her face scrunched while trying to remember their cover story.

“It was a couple years ago,” she recited. “Moetje was sick, and you were really sad for a long time after she passed away, so my uncles told you that moving might help, since we can go where you don’t have memories of her.”

“Good—and where were we before that?”

“Water 7; you didn’t like needing to prepare for Aqua Laguna every year anyhow.”

“…and how did we get through to the South Blue?”

“A ship that could pass through the Calm Belt gave us passage, but no one has to know that it’s because it’s a submarine pirate ship and not a Marine ship.”

“Exactly.” He frowned and remembered the last time he was running like this, when it was with Cora-san, and how different this time was. “Can you remember something for me?”

The girl perked up. “What is it?”

“Remember that I love you, okay?” He watched as confusion crossed her face. “I never got the chance to tell Cora-jiisan that in all the time I spent with him. I love you…” he took a deep breath, “…and the crew loves you. That’s why we’re doing this. Do you understand?”

“You love me… and the crew loves me,” she echoed. “You loved Cora-jiisan, and he loved you. That’s why we’re running… why he ran with you… why the crew can’t run with us.”

“Yeah… that’s the gist of it.”

The little girl stayed quiet for a moment, mulling everything over as she idly picked at the hem of her sweater. She then nodded; she understood, and she was glad.

“I love you too, Vaor.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

That night, after the rest of Hinba was back in their homes for the evening, Law used his Devil Fruit to take apart the wall in the front sitting room, having found a space inside just big enough for Kikoku. While he had entertained the idea of leaving it out as a display, it was safest that he hid it away, at least for the time being.

“You’ll come out soon enough,” he murmured to the sword as he placed it inside the thin nook. He let his hand linger on the scabbard, giving the blade inside a moment to accept its oncoming rest.

“Do we need to put my knife away?” Nauja wondered. Law looked and saw the girl was holding up her weapon; he let go of Kikoku and shook his head.

“I still want you to train,” he said. “A knife is easier to keep out of sight than a long sword. Don’t worry—Kikoku understands.” He then replaced the paneling and plaster as though it had never been moved. “This is it. We’re home now.”

“…yeah…?”

“We still need to be careful, but yeah. I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.” He let her cling to him in a tight hug—it was time now to get on with the rest of their lives.

#One Piece #fan fiction #Trafalgar Law #Trafalgar Nauja #Law lives the life Cora wanted and (mostly) succeeds #much slower in pace than the other variations of this fic but also will be much steamier and domestic #The Great Dilfening of Trafalgar Law #lots of part lies and semi-truths and manipulating heteronominative assumptions #gratuitous abuse of multiple languages/cultures #accidentally wrote grace/demi Law enjoy folks #this man should have half the town trying to bed him but NOPE #I've had parts of this draft prepped for so long that it's the old post UI this is wild

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