Chapter Text
Decades of adventure, loyalty, and love came to a surprisingly quiet end. On their cherished Thousand Sunny, they gathered for the last time. Allies and enemies, friends and nakama; ships that never passed each other in the night came to a stop together, somewhere in the wide blue seas.
It was a warm, cloudless spring day.
Fitting for a King’s final farewells.
Luffy sat atop the figurehead, all of fifty years old, his almost unwrinkled face turned up towards the sun. Having never built the bulk of his Monkey genes, he remained short and slender. Youthful. Yet it was a miracle he’d lived this long. Years of near death incidents and white faded scars had taken its payment in earnest. A ten-year deposit to Iva and now, the rest was finally due. Having only known strength, it was sobering to witness that vitality crumble so quickly.
“Lu-ya.”
“Torao!” Instinctively, he moved to spring out his limbs and launch himself carelessly into the air; his grin wide and joyous. As he’d done a million times before. This time, those arms failed him. Suddenly careening towards the floor, not even halfway to his destination, the King’s startled yelp brought a rush of attention from the hordes who’d gathered on his ship.
Law caught him centimeters from impact. “Lu-ya! I said no stretching!” Picking up the smaller man, his back protested the action but the day he couldn’t carry around his husband would be an icy day in hell. Discreetly, he scanned Luffy’s body and found no comfort in the act.
“Sorry Torao!” Luffy giggled but neither missed how harsh his breath came in. Everything, even walking, was now beyond the freest man in the world. The lengths the Surgeon of Death had gone to keep him alive had been desperate and now, grimly resigned.
Complete organ failure was imminent.
If Luffy was in agony, it didn’t even show.
“Luffy!” Nami raised a hand as if to deliver a blow but stopped halfway. “You idiot!” It came down to ruffle his hair instead. “Listen to Torao and stop trying to give us heart attacks! Do you know how much berry you owe me!? You think I’m gonna let you off easy just because—"
“Give it a rest, witch.” Zoro, despite his words, had not strayed from his captain’s side for weeks. His one eye was heavy from those sleepless nights. Still tense from almost throwing himself forward to catch the idiot himself, only the cook’s hand on his shoulder kept him grounded.
“Don’t talk to our beloved Nami that way.” Sanji’s words came out half-hearted at best.
Usopp stifled a sob. “You forgave his debt months ago!”
“Torao, I wanna lay down on the grass.” A quiet whine stopped everything. Conversations stalled as people parted way to make it easier for Law to get past. The King had wanted one last party and no one would deny him. Everyone important had already made their peace and moving down to the lawn, he gently lowered Luffy to the ground. For a long moment, he basked under the midday sun with his strawhat tipped forward to cover his eyes.
“Ne, Torao? What about my heart?”
“You’re not getting it back.”
His answer was final. Though the years had been kind to them both, Law’s dark hair had gone silver at the temples and slight laugh lines had settled gently around his eyes and mouth. Having always thought he’d die young it was an easy decision.
He refused to outlive the sun.
“Shishishi. I love you too, Torao.”
The smile that appeared was selfish but oh so beautiful.
Inside Law’s chest, he felt the heart slowing down. Making a decision, he laid down beside his partner and closed his own eyes. When fingers came to intertwine with his own, Law even felt himself smile. He heard the voices of their crews. Their family. Their attempts to remain calm. Who knew how long they laid there, side-by-side, surrounded by their love.
Their determination to send their sun to rest easy.
Goodbyes and thanks filled their last breaths.
Monkey D. Luffy’s heart slowed to nothing.
~~~
“Torao! Toraooo!”
“Too early, Lu-ya.”
“Torao! Get up! Did we die!?”
“Of course we died. You—”
Their heads nearly collided as Law jolted upright into a sitting position. Disoriented and immediately closing his eyes against the harsh sunlight, he forced them open—only to close them again. Rubbing his entire face with his hands, he looked between his fingers to see… not his Luffy.
Not his husband of nearly thirty years.
“Who are you!?” He demanded.
A slow blink. “King of the Pirates?”
Okay, maybe it was him.
“You’re young.”
“No! Torao’s too young!” Luffy immediately huffed. “Torao needs his glasses.”
His glasses. A dozen pairs made out of plundered gold Luffy had given him to match his “pretty treasure eyes”. He wasn’t wearing them. Reaching out, he marveled at how sharp his vision was. Not even the Ope-Ope no Mi had been able to restore this level of ocular acuity. His fingertips brushed against Luffy’s cheek, tracing the curved scar he loved so much.
“I think we’re both young now, Lu-ya.”
Was this some sort of afterlife? Luffy looked all of twenty, maybe twenty-one at best. Which meant he was far younger than he ever wanted to be again… looking around, he only grew more uneasy. “Laughtale.” Law would recognize this island anywhere.
“Yeah.” Luffy nodded solemnly until a guggling growl from his stomach broke the tension. “Torao, I’m hungry! Food! Sanji!” He raised his voice to shout out the name. “Sanji! I’m hungry!”
“Shut up!” Law hissed. “We don’t know who’s around!”
Years of learning to listen to his husband kicked in and Luffy closed his mouth into a pout. “But Torao! I’m hungry!” His volume was lower, but not by much.
It hit him then.
Luffy was hungry.
He hadn’t been hungry for months.
“Okay.” Law swallowed before he could speak again. “How do you feel, Lu-ya? Are you up for hunting? I can make a fire and you can eat as much as you want.”
“Ah! Great idea! Be right back with meat!” Luffy jumped to his feet, restless energy leaking from his every pore. He raced away, one hand holding onto his hat while Law stared after him. Before he got too far away, Law ran a scan and a shaking hand went up to cover the lower half of his face. The operation scar from Marineford was still there but… none of the internal damage.
None of the irreversible trauma or nerve damage.
No neurogenic atrophy or disintegrating organs.
And there, in the center, Law’s still beating heart.
~~~
Days later, they finished the final adjustments on the boat that would take them away from Laughtale. Law had nothing against the island but after determining they were indeed alive and that no one was lying in wait for them, he was more than ready to leave.
After their clash with Blackbeard on Winner Island, his crew had been halved in number. Over time, the remaining Heart Pirates had gone their separate ways, whittling them down to only five members; Bepo, Penguin, Shachi, Jean Bart, and Ikkaku. In the last eight years, with him spending more time on the Sunny with his husband, even they’d taken extended sabbaticals away from the Arctic Tetra (Polar Tang’s successor). He wanted to see them again.
“I can’t wait to see Zoro and Nami and Brook and Sanji and Jimbe…” As Luffy continued to name people and mimic exaggerated faces about their miraculous revival, he affixed multiple log poses to the helm. Luckily, there was plenty of material to salvage from the island.
It was strange, how abandoned it still looked.
As if they’d never stepped foot on the ruins at all.
“Torao! Can I steer the ship!?”
“No.”
“Why not!? I’ve been practicing!”
Luffy would always be a terrible liar.
~~~
Even with Law manipulating the ship’s trajectory and Luffy acting as a living buffer, it was still nearly impossible to navigate past Reverse Mountain and into the East Blue. Not knowing how long they’d been gone or where the Sunny could be, they’d opted to go to one of their closest bases. There, they’d make use of their global den-den network and call the fleet.
Dawn Island was always a welcome sight.
“Land-ho!” Luffy cheered as soon as boat was close enough to launch himself towards land. “Race you there, Torao!” His laughter was high and jubilant, carefree in a way Law hadn’t heard in years. Where he would have scolded him before, he let Luffy do as he pleased now.
Even after days of being trapped on a small boat with an overactive bouncy ball, he would revel in seeing his husband leap and run and fly. Luffy had readjusted to his new lease on life as if he’d anticipated nothing else. What right did he have to scoff at such a gift?
“Makino! Makino!? You’re not Makino!”
Running was easier than Law remembered in this body. Huh. Either way, he could hear the murmurs of an agitated crowd and that in itself was reason for alarm. Windmill Village was not only tolerant of pirates, but openly celebrated their most infamous name. Had something happened in their absence? Was that why the village looked so run down? Law could swear that they’d helped renovate less than a year ago but the place looked as if it’d been left to slowly rot away.
The inside of Partys Bar, like the rest of Windmill, was worn down. The fresh coat of paint, new furniture, and polished wooden bar Franky had gifted were nowhere in sight. Behind the bar was a middle-aged man they’d never seen before. A rougher crowd occupied most of the seats.
“Where’s Makino!?” Luffy demanded.
“Who wants to know?” The barman sneered.
There was a brief pause as even Luffy seemed taken aback, his head tilting to the side in confusion. No one had asked such a thing of them in decades, not even sarcastically. Law was one of only three Emperors of the Sea with Luffy’s adopted father and uncle retired. His name and image were plastered everywhere but it was nothing compared to the notoriety of the strawhat.
“I’m Monkey D. Luffy! The King of the Pirates!”
They laughed.
Before Law could think to do anything—like cut their organs into ribbons with the nearest blunt butter knife—Makino walked through the doors that led to the back. The woman looked far more haggard than she had the last time they’d seen her, her long green hair now cut short and figure slimmer.
“Makino!” Luffy ran to her, arms wide and eyes relieved.
She, one of the only people to have known the Pirate King since he was an infant, stumbled back in fear, eyes wide with terror and suspicion. Her foot caught on her patched skirt as she tried to dodge the hands reaching for her and she tripped, hitting the ground hard.
“No touching! Bar rules!”
“What?” Luffy tried to help her up but Makino flinched back. “Why!? Did I do something wrong!? Where’s Shanks and Utai!? Where’s Dadan? Tell me who did this.”
With the command, the slightest hint of haki tinged the air. The stupid grins around them fell and hands moved to their weapons as a cold sweat ran down their backs. If Makino had been scared before, now her terror was evident for all to see. She’d never been scared of Luffy before.
“W-who are you?”
~~~
The base was gone.
After Luffy was dragged out of the bar by his husband, they’d gone to try and make sense of what exactly was happening on Dawn. Only there was nothing but open field where their base at the foot of Mt. Corvo used to stand. Even worse, there was no black flag hung proudly at the top of the mountain over a ramshackle treehouse. There was no evidence of a treehouse.
“Dadan. What about Dadan?”
It was rare to see him this serious.
With a single Room they appeared on the Dadan family’s doorstep and, showing unusual restraint, Luffy banged on the door with both fists. “Yo! Anyone home! It’s me! Open up!”
Perhaps restraint was not the word.
The door swung open and a gunshot rang at point blank range. Luffy’s neck stretched and the bullet nearly took Dogra’s head off in the recoil. Before he could try again, Luffy tackled the smaller man to the ground. Closing the door behind him, Law scrunched his nose in disgust. There were remnants of old meals and garbage piling against the walls. The scent of molding laundry and unwashed bodies dominated the dark interior. The floor was sticky.
Dadan had never allowed her house to be so disgusting.
“It’s me! Luffy! Where’s Dadan!? Why—”
“Dadan!? Dadan’s dead!”
~~~
The date was thirty years in the past.
There was no Pirate King in this reality.
“So it’s a mystery world.” Luffy nodded, lounging on the hammock he’d scrounged from a Grey Terminal they’d long ago demolished back home. His warm brown eyes watched Law pace back and forth in the treehouse they’d rebuilt. Newspapers covered almost every flat surface as Law scoured for evidence of either of their lives. “Torao worries too much.”
“Well having to think for both of us is a full-time job!”
“Torao.” He nearly sang, “I’m bored. Let’s set sail!”
“We need a plan, Mugiwara-ya! We can’t just—”
“I have a plan! Shishishi!” Luffy’s grin never failed to make his husband’s heart skip in his chest. As always, he thought it was cute. “I’m gonna become the King of the Pirates!”
“Lu-ya… we don’t even know if they’re alive.” The grin slipped and the hint of uncertainty stabbed Law through his softest parts. “Hey, wait. I’m here. You’re not alone, okay? I’m not going anywhere without you, Sunflower.” He let himself be pulled down onto the hammock and with years of practice, settled his limbs around the younger man. This was before even the small growth spurt he’d had in his twenties and Law had forgotten how small Luffy had really been.
Luffy’s fingers toyed with the earring in his left earlobe; a bright, golden sun with ruby and topaz rays; just as cheerful and defiant as the man who’d placed it there. He knew its partner: a white gold and silver moon with sapphire stars; was safely pinned to his husband’s ear and squeezed him a bit tighter at the reminder.
The strawhat tumbled back as Luffy pressed his cheek against Law’s bare chest. They only had one set of clothes each and they were currently drying from a wash. Law’s black spotted pants and dark blue sweater with the Heart’s jolly roger hung right beside light blue shorts, red cardigan, and bright yellow sash. The weather on Dawn was warm from the coming summer and hammock swayed gently, lulling them both towards the promise of a nap.
“Luffy! Luffy are you up there!?”
Voices called out from below.
It was Dogra.
And Makino.
~~~
They didn’t remember everything.
Both Dogra and Makino were having odd flashbacks. Not enough to know them, especially not Law, but enough to spook them. Enough that Makino had packed her things and carried her toddler all the way up Mt. Corvo days after they’d all but accosted her in the bar.
Utai, at least, was happy to see them.
“He’s usually so shy with strangers.” Makino kept her arms wrapped securely around their godchild, no matter how much Utai struggled to go to them. “… Are you strangers?”
“No. We’re not.” Luffy reached out his hand and Utai immediately chomped down on them. When he was teething, Luffy’s fingers had been his favorite chew toy. It was odd to see him as a baby again when the young man had already gone on to follow in their footsteps.
Somehow, Utai knew them.
“Where’s Shanks? He purchased the bar for you.” If Law remembered correctly, it should have already happened before Utai was born. “What about Garp?” He was still alive, wasn’t he?
“I don’t know.” Makino admitted, tears rising in her eyes. “It’s been years since I heard from him and Garp never came to Windmill… oh Luffy!” Makino deposited Utai into Law’s arms and finally hugged the boy she was rapidly recalling. “You were so little! But I never knew you!”
Luffy wordlessly wrapped his arms around her three, four, five times.
Dogra burst into tears himself and hugged Luffy from behind.
“Makino.” Law led her to a chair once she was calm. “Do you remember Luffy’s crew? Or see any major differences in your memories? Anything you can tell us would help.”
“It’s hazy.” She sniffled. “More like dreams than memories…”
“Holy shit.” Dogra blurted out, interrupting her. “Sabo!”
“Sabo!?” Luffy’s head turned all the way around at the name. “Is Sabo here!? What about Ace!? Is Ace still alive!? Is Sabo with my dad!? Is Ace with the old guy!? Is Sabo—”
“Ace ran away after Bluejam killed Dadan. Kid was burned bad but we couldn't stop him.” Dogra let out a heavy breath. “But yeah. Sabo’s still here. Never left really.” The mountain bandit raised a hand to point in the direction of the Goa Kingdom. “He’s there.”
The revolutionaries having a presence here wasn’t too far off from their own timeline, Law mused. If they could convince some of their key players, he could work with this—
“Sabo’s the King of Goa.”
~~~
That night, the King of Goa was kidnapped.
"Sabo isn’t eating enough meat!” Luffy laughed, one arm wrapped securely around the struggling blond man thrown over his shoulder while the other arm was used to swing them wildly around the castle towers. Hordes of people below were shouting at them funny. A few stray bullets ricocheted here or there but no one knew how to respond to such an outrageous sight.
A small, contained burst of haki had most of them unconscious.
Before the guards could regroup, the intruder vanished into thin air.
“Torao, no fair!” Luffy tumbled into Law’s legs, limbs akimbo after the sudden transport. “I can’t see your cool bubbles at night! And I almost dropped Sabo!”
“We agreed the moment you got caught, it was my turn.” He said, deadpan. “Also don’t give me that look. I’m not going to praise you. The plan went to shit, Lu-ya.” Ignoring the limbs wrapping around his torso, he walked over to the man whose ill-fitted crown had fallen off in the scuffle. “Sabo-ya.” He sighed, “Tell us you remember or you’ll feel like garbage later.”
“Goa isn’t going to provide much of a ransom.”
Sabo sounded calm, but a slight tremor betrayed him. The muscles and ease of self were missing from the man before them, as was the scar on his face. He wore white and pink clothes, frillier and fussy than their Sabo would be caught dead in and his hair was long and highly stylized. His eyes shifted between Law and Luffy and then all around the replicated tree house until his gaze landed on the ASL flag hung on the far wall. His right eye twitched before he looked away.
“Sabo!” Luffy’s neck stretched until he was directly in his older brother’s personal space. “I know you said you wouldn’t forget again but the first time wasn’t your fault either! You said you thought I was mad but I could never be mad at Sabo! So just remember and we can—”
Sabo’s hand went up and shoved Luffy’s face away from his.
“You’re going to regret that, Sabo-ya.” Law pulled until Luffy’s neck snapped back into place, his hand going to cradle the boy’s cheek in comfort. “And you. It takes a while, remember? Be patient.” And knowing that wouldn’t work, “Though it might help if you tell him stories.”
“Yosh!” Luffy jumped at the suggestion, literally leaping onto Sabo’s lap.
“Sabo you’ll never guess what happened since we died on the Sunny! But I guess you don’t remember that either? So should I tell you about Ace? Do you remember Ace? How about the gator that ate me that first time!? Or when I got eaten by that bird and you and Ace—”
This was going to take a while.
~~~
Coffee.
The scent filled his nose and he sat up from where Luffy’s familiar voice and nonsensical storytelling finally put him to sleep the night before. With his husband wrapped securely around his arm, the blood rushed back into the limb as soon as he Shambled himself onto his feet. Taking the blessed cup of black coffee, it took a second one before he pried his eyes all the way open.
“Trafalgar.” Sabo had taken off everything but his pants and a loose white shirt. Looking more like himself than before, he was staring down at Luffy’s dumb, sleeping face as if he didn’t know if he wanted to kiss him or smother him in his sleep. “He’s ridiculous.”
“He’s Luffy. One moment.” Law walked over and pinched a rubber nose closed. When that proved useless, he hauled him up and bit his lower lip, instantly getting a response. Before Luffy could traumatize Sabo with his enthusiasm, Law forcibly turned his husband’s face to the side.
“Oh yeah! Sabo!”
There was no resistance to his little brother’s octopus-like embrace this time. Sabo just took it as his head was buried against Luffy’s stomach and as legs were wrapped far too tight around his neck. In fact, if a few tears were shed into his shirt, no one mentioned it.
“Luffy. I’m not your Sabo.”
Sometime in the night, their guest must have gone hunting. How Luffy hadn’t woken up from the smell of cooking meat was unclear but Luffy just took another enormous bite and said nothing as they watched Sabo’s hands clench and unclench.
“Luffy. I don’t know how you and Law got here but you said last night that you died?” Sabo looked to Law for support and got nothing. “You two aren’t from here. I’ve never met you before. Ace… Ace left me behind. A long time ago and I’ve never had a younger brother! I’m the king of Goa now! I have responsibilities! I have a wife! You can’t just come here and—”
“Sabo’s being stupid.” Luffy swallowed his food.
Law poured himself a necessary fourth cup of coffee.
“Sabo didn’t want to go back to his stupid family.”
“I was just a kid! I didn’t know what I was doing!”
“Sabo wanted us to come get him but we didn’t.”
“You weren’t even there, Luffy! You weren’t—"
“Sabo thought he had to go to sea to be free.” Luffy stood up when Sabo did, the blond’s hands going for a long pipe that wasn’t even there. “But that’s not true.” He didn’t move an inch as Sabo took a step towards him. Then another. “Because Sabo can be free anywhere.”
Even the wind stopped to listen.
Sabo can be free anywhere.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Sabo was suddenly clutching at his head, crying out in pain and collapsing to his knees. “I’m not him! I don’t know you! No one ever helped me! Not Ace! Not you—” Sabo’s face twisted suddenly, his body going rigid. “Did I let Ace die!?” The muttered words grew in speed and volume as one image after another slammed into him. “I let Ace die. You were there. I let Ace die and you were there and I wasn’t and I let Ace die!?”
“No! Sabo never let anyone die!” Luffy tried to grab him but Sabo writhed away from his little brother as horror after horror came. “Sabo! Stop it! Sabo!”
“You stop! You’re not my brother! I’m no one’s brother… I’m going back.” He scrambled onto his feet, stumbling the first few steps. “I’m going back to Goa and don’t either of you fucking follow me or I swear I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping a noble. I’m going back. I’m going—”
“What about Koala, Sabo-ya?”
Koala. They married in another life, were extraordinarily happy, and frequently visited the Sunny. They traveled the world together. He eventually published his journals. Koala ran an orphanage for former slave kids. They’d had four of their own children.
All of them had loved their Uncle Law and Uncle Luffy.
“I never met Koala.” Sabo’s voice hollowed itself out in the words, brittle and dull.
“We could find her.” Law was fairly confident but more importantly, Luffy was not built to be ignored by the people he loved. In the decades since they’d toppled the government together, he and Sabo had come to an understanding of sorts.
Law was his friend too.
“You don’t understand!” He didn’t turn back around. “Your d—Dragon’s dead. The revolutionaries fell to the World Government two years ago. Koala was his chief of staff.” His laugh was bitter. Tired. “She’s probably dead and my wife—”
“Sabo-ya—”
“My wife is about to have a baby. Trafalgar. I can’t just leave my kid to fend for themselves. Don’t you get it!? This place isn’t anything like where you came from. I’m not your Sabo. I’m not a revolutionary. I never exchanged sake with anyone. I’m not him. I’ll never be him.”
As the first light of the sun reached its fingers through the canopy, Luffy’s quiet words seemed to echo against every brightening surface, every sky-reaching branch.
“But I don’t want Sabo to be anyone. I want Sabo to be Sabo.”
This Sabo ran away.
Luffy did not run after him.