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Law frowned as he moved a finger over the words on his arm, he had seen them pop up now and again. Not always paying attention to what he was seeing, and when he was it was always a happy event.
Cora-san had told him what it was, that written on his arm was what his soulmate would live through that day. Most of the time, luckily, it was happy things. A fun day with brothers, or tea with Makino.
He was glad his soulmate had such good days, he was also sure that whatever appeared on his soulmate’s arm weren’t all that good things. Law was falling from one disaster into the other, not knowing what to do now that he was sick and most likely dying.
Moving his finger over the words on his arm in an effort to think that there was someone out there waiting for him. He wasn’t meant to be alone all his life.
“That is, if I live long enough to meet them.”
A choked up sound came from Cora-san where his guardian had come back from wherever he went.
“Don’t think like that, Law.”
Sighing and looking at Corazon, Law shrugged, “It’s the truth, isn't it? I’m only getting sicker, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make it to my soulmate.”
Rubbing a finger over the words again, “Going on an adventure seems like a nice thing to do.”
A hand on his hat had him looking at Rosinante, the blond smiling sadly at him, “We’re not giving up, Law. I heard rumors of a devil fruit that’s being transported as we speak. If we manage to get it I'm sure you’ll be able to heal yourself just fine.”
Law sighed again, how many times had he been told that. How many more hospitals needed to be burned down before Rosinante saw that Law was dying. He made peace with it, had been suicidal ever since setting foot inside of the Donquixote familia, wanting to take out as many others as he could if he was to die anyway.
“I’m not letting you die, Law, you’re going to meet your soulmate. If it’s the last thing I do.”
Law wanted so badly to believe him, to believe the man who had been looking after him and trying to find a cure for an incurable disease. He didn’t have the heart to tell Cora-san that it was no use.
“If you say so.”
His guardian smiled at him, part of that smile very obviously fake. But another part of that smile was the same kind of smile he had seen his father sporting so many times before. The smile a parent had whenever they were proud of whatever their child had done.
“I do want to meet them, Cora-san.”
The hand returned to his hat, before Rosinante hummed, “And you will, I’m certain you will.”
Law, despite what he had told his guardian, hadn’t been so sure that he would make it through the week. He was tired a lot, and had to depend on Rosinante to carry him around. They had arrived at the island the ope ope no mi should be on, having been bundled up by Rosinante before the man went to get it. The sounds he could hear from all around him weren’t good. What if Cora-san never made it back.
Shivering, Law tried to stand. Coughing as he did so, frowning at the way his body refused to cooperate.
Whimpering when he heard footsteps close to where he was hiding, Cora-san was nowhere to be seen and in no state to defend himself.
A hulking figure was the first one he saw, followed by three smaller ones. Children, younger than he was, came out of the shadows first. The youngest, or the smallest at least, wearing a straw hat gaped at him.
Stepping towards Law when the other twee children called him back, “Luffy!”
The now named Luffy stopped right in front of him, biting his lip as he showed Law the inside of his wrist. His insides freezing up as he read what was written there, ‘Rosinante dies’.
“No…”
Trying to get up, Rosinante choses that moment to come bursting through the door of the cabin they had been hiding out in. Bullet holes littering his torso with blood still making its way out of the wounds he could see.
For once though, he wasn’t looking for Law, wide eyed at the still hulking figure standing in the shadows.
“Garp-san?”
A gruff chuckle was heard before a marine came out of the shadows, dressed in a suit with a marine coat thrown over his shoulders.
“Rosi, you have no idea how worried Senny is about you.”
He swore he could see Rosinante flinch, looking down in guilt, before he saw the fruit in his hands.
“Law!”
Disregarding Garp, and the children around them, Rosinante made his way to Law, “I got it Law, can you eat it.”
Before he could, Luffy spoke up, “That’s a devil fruit! That’s so cool, you’ll be like me then!”
Without further explanation he took a hold of his cheek and pulled far too wide then was humanly possible. Releasing it to make it snap back, almost making the sound of a rubber band snapping.
“I ate the Gumo Gumo no mi, that makes me a rubber man!”
One of the other children, the other dark haired one scoffed, “Rubber is still a stupid power, Luffy.”
It seemed this was a discussion they’d had before, as Luffy puffed up and started telling his brother just how awesome he’d be with his rubber powers. Law was only able to blink not really sure this was actually happening or if he was hallucinating.
“Cora-san?”
His guardian crouched down in front of him, “Yeah Law.”
“Is this real?”
Rosinante gave a soft smile, “Yeah, kid, it is.”
Law just nodded, looking at the other children that were still arguing, and the old marine that was standing there with a grim look on his face. He said something to Cora-san, to which his guardian replied. He didn’t hear anything though, falling asleep.
He felt himself being shaken away before something was stuffed into his mouth, making him react lethargic and gag at the taste. He knew that devil fruits never tasted great, but this was almost as bad as spoiled food.
He did swallow, even if it asked a lot of him, heaving even after eating the piece of fruit stuffed into his mouth.
“Rosinante, we can’t stay here. There will be others looking for that fruit, or the wielder of it. He’s just a child, and I don’t condone using children in any way.”
That was the last thing Law heard before he fell asleep again. Happy that he did have someone willing to look out for him. Someone outside of Cora-san who didn’t even flinch at the white marks on his skin.
When he woke up, he knew they were on a ship. Cora-san’s breaths next to him made him relax. Even if looking saw his guardian wrapped up in bandages and hooked up to an IV. Standing to look at the chart he could see on the end of Cora-san’s bed, he read it over before sighing in relief that the bullets had missed all of his vital organs. He would need to rest a little more, but the man who had saved him would be alright.
Movement on the other side of the cot has Law turning to look at the other devil fruit user, Luffy, who was gaping at him with wide eyes.
“You’re awake.”
Nodding slowly, Law settled down again. He wasn’t feeling all that great, looking at his hand he felt the need to stretch out his fingers, eyes widening as a sphere of some kind seemed to pop up before it disappeared again.
With sparkling eyes, Luffy came closer, “That’s so cool! Can you do it again?”
Concentrating and holding out his hand, he called upon the sphere again, “Room.”
The sphere stayed, making Law aware of everything he could feel inside of the sphere. It was almost as if the sphere was his operating room where he had total control. Tilting his head, he listened to what his gut was telling him. Looking at some tissues on the bed next to Cora-san.
“Shambles.”
As he did that, the tissues were replaced by his hat. Making him grin as he gained control.
A coughing fit had him losing control of his ‘room’ causing it to flicker and go out. Frowning at that, he made another one, feeling out the particles causing the white lead disease in his body and getting them out making him feel so much better. He did it with particles of water in a class on his bedside table, able to bread much more easily as he did so.
Stopping when he started to pant, exhausted beyond belief.
He accepted a hand from Luffy to lead him back to his bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
He kept getting better, both at using his devil fruit, and in general now that he was able to do away with the particles that were rampaging through his body. Garp the Fist had saved them, telling Rosinante while he was pretending to sleep that Luffy had been getting more and more concerning messages on his wrist making him investigate.
When they started to show Rosinante’s name, Garp had called Sengoku and told him to cut the crap, asking what had happened to his adopted son. That Garp would go and get him, as they were family now.
“You didn’t tell him anything else, Garp-san?”
The marine hero had shaken his head, “Nah, Rosi, that’s up to you. I don’t know why you did it, and I don’t care. I’m just happy to get there before Law-kun was hurt more than he already was.”
Law didn’t need any explanation as to what could have happened, he was a doctor. Or had been raised by doctors and would be one soon. He knew what the wounds littering Cora-san could have meant. He didn’t want to think about what this could mean, what could have happened if Luffy didn’t convince his grandfather to come and look for them. What could have happened if Garp hadn’t come because he and Rosinante were connected through his best friend.
Opening his eyes as soon as Garp left the room, he looked at Rosinante, seeing the man sigh, “What did you hear?”
“Everything.”
Rosinante sighed again, “I see… I… Garp-san is taking us to his home island. Told me we’d be safe there. I think it’s the best thing we can do as we think about getting you better and deciding on what we’ll do starting from now on.”
Law bit his lip, “I want to be a pirate. I… It was the marines that killed everyone in Flevence. I also know that if Garp wasn’t the one who found us I don’t know if we’d be saved by marines.”
He could see Rosinante bit his lip, before he nodded, “I guess you’re right…”
Life on Dawn was boring, but not that dangerous as it had been before. There were other things to look out for, but between Rosinante, Law, Ace, Sabo and Luffy they had everything under control.
Not even Sabo’s biological father appearing and trying to get his son to get back home, using local thugs to threaten Ace and Luffy didn’t get them anywhere. This was about a year after Law and Rosinante had come to Dawn, a year that did a lot for learning to control your devil fruit as Law gladly demonstrated who he called on a room and switched Sabo with a thug close to Ace and Luffy.
Most of the wannabe pirates ran, in between Law’s use of shambles and scalpel and Rosinante’s lanky figure, figuring that they were no match for the duo. Add the ASL brothers and they knew they would lose.
Only the noble remained, soiling himself as Rosinante stalked towards the man, his black feather coat coming in handy to come over as intimidating. As soon as the noble turned and ran, Rosinante fell, taking away the intimidating factor. Not that the noble saw it.
When Law was 17 he set out, as the brothers had told them they had promised. He told them he would be the first one setting out, going back to his home sea and leaving from there, to search for a crew and make his name in the Grand Line when the time came.
He said his goodbyes to Ace and Sabo, both 13 and on good terms with their little brother’s soulmate. They wished him good luck, before dragging Rosinante with them.
Looking at Luffy, 10 years old and biting his lip to keep from crying as Law set out, he hugged his soulmate close to his chest.
“We’ll meet again, Lu-ya. Just keep an eye on your wrist and you’ll know.”
Luffy hid his face as he started sobbing, wrapping his arms around Law as he let the other boy leave. No matter how hard it was for him, he knew that Law had his own dream to chase.
It would be 7 years later, a rookie pirate captain making his way to Sabaody when he took notice of what was written on his wrist. Grinning widely when he saw, ‘reuniting with his soulmate’.
Almost buzzing with excitement, enough that his crew took notice about it. Keeping a close eye on him until they were making their way to the auction house when he felt someone hug him from the side. The straw hat on top of that someone’s head making him chuckle.
“Hi Lu-ya.”
His soulmate grinned, looking up with that beaming smile that he had to admit he had missed more than anything in the world.
Running from the marines after wasn’t what he had expected to happen, but he had never been happier it had happened. Happier to know he could keep Luffy from as much harm as possible as they made their way into Impel Down, Law’s heart hurting when he realized they were too late to get Ace out of there.
“Lu… Luffy, we need to start making our way to Marineford and we need to do so now.”
It would be on the deck of the Moby Dick, hours later, exhausted and shaking from overusing his devil fruit, that Law looked over towards where Ace was standing being hugged by his fellow commanders. Glancing at where Luffy was sleeping next to him and where Sabo was sitting kind of overwhelmed, Law couldn’t help but be glad that he had gotten a chance for all of this. A chance at life, to meet his soulmate early, and to be there when his soulmate needed him most to save his future brother-in-law from something as stupid as the marines wanting to kill him for who his father was.
“Trafalgar.”
Humming, he looked up to see Marco the Phoenix standing there, “Phoenix-ya.”
The man nodded, “Thank you for what you did -yoi. You saved Ace, and Oyaji, I don’t know how to thank you.”
Waving him off, Law shook his head, “Just looking out for my brother-in-law, Phoenix-ya.”
Something in Marco the Phoenix’s smile told Law that there was more to it, but he was left alone. The rest would start to make sense as soon as he had some sleep, he’d deal with it all after a nap. Especially a nap with Luffy, they’d deal with the world after that.