Chapter Text
Trafalgar Law
Finding one’s soulmate isn’t a guaranteed thing. The reason being one has to physically touch their soulmate for the soulmate’s full name to appear on the skin over their heart. There are ways to hide the soul mark. One is by covering it with concealer, bandages or other materials. The second is by damaging it. Many people set fire to the soul mark, forever disguising it as unreadable burn tissue.
Pirates choose the second option most often because the soul mark cannot be tattooed over, the ink will not stay under the skin and bleeds out in hours. They sear their flesh to protect their soulmates. After all, in the navy’s eyes anyone that associates with a pirate is a criminal too, no matter how innocent they are. The most famous case had been Gol D. Roger, when the navy finally had him in their grasp and ripped his shirt open to find out who his rumored pregnant soulmate was, there was only old scar tissue where her name once rested.
Trafalgar Law never expected to find his soulmate. He is gloomy, anti-social, and abhorred physical contact from others. Even as a doctor he did his best to wear gloves and never touch his patients’ skin to skin; just in case one of them was his soulmate. He didn’t deserve a soulmate, not after the burning massacre of Flevance and the loss of Corazon. So, it was to his abject horror that he found his soulmate at Marineford. In fact, he had his hands wrapped around their very heart working desperately to save them.
Monkey D. Luffy and Portgas D. Ace were both in his operating room aboard the Polar Tang. It was only because of his Devil fruit powers that both had a chance at making it through this alive. His crew assisted him as much as possible switching back and forth with him from patient to patient and seamlessly taking over what he started once it was past a certain point. Providing extra hands where needed or preparing the patients for continued work and repair. Law and his crew worked desperately and ceaselessly to fix up and stabilize both parties with gaping holes in their chests.
Law had to take multiple blood transfusions from several of the remnants of the Whitebeard crew, all pale faced and injured themselves, but equally as desperate to help their comrades. The ones beyond saving but still barely clinging to life were given the chance to donate their organs to save their remaining crew members. Ace himself received no less than three organ transplants from his brothers and sisters. Whitebeard had not survived the war, but he had bought time to save as many of the lives of his children as he could.
What remained available of Law’s crew helped treat the rest of them. Other captains in the past had made rude comments on the stupidity of Law having a whole crew that valued medical knowledge over fighting prowess, but after today his crew would gain new respect from people like those brainless fools. Anyone can learn to fight well enough to injure others. But not anyone can learn to heal others from their injuries. In the same way it is far harder to save a life on the brink of death than to force a life to the edge of death.
Law didn’t sleep for over 78 hours, (many of his crew collapsed earlier) when his body finally gave in to exhaustion he was out for a mere few hours before returning to the operation room, his veins filled with more coffee than blood. Ace had remained comatose throughout his surgeries, Luffy on the other hand had woken up briefly when Law was working on his heart. The dismembered appendage beating weakly in his bloody gloved hands. He can only imagine what he looked like to Luffy in that moment.
He’d seen Luffy’s eyes creak open and look sightlessly at him and his detached organ. Law had been too busy to offer more than the sharp mumbled words, “Sleep Strawhat-ya.” And to his mild surprise Luffy simply closed his eyes and strangely the heartbeat in his hand got a bit stronger.
During the week that followed as they sailed to Amazon Lily escorted by both Boa Hancock’s ship and a portion of the Whitebeard crew, Law’s submarine had more visitors than he was comfortable with. At one-point Law got so fed up with Boa Hancock’s relentless demands to see Luffy and turning his crew members that tried to stop her to stone that he “roomed” her right off the ship into the fucking ocean. After so little sleep and constant medical care he was on his last nerve, and tossed more than the annoying Snake Princess into the salty depths.
Following this little demonstration Law informed all non-Heart pirates they were to leave him and his crew the fuck alone or he’d mercy kill every patient in their care himself. After that, Marco in none too delicate terms ordered everyone to behave, and kept Boa Hancock away. Ace and Luffy remained comatose even after they reached Amazon Lily. Both had stabilized and were healing far better than ordinary humans thanks to the abilities of their devil fruits. Marco helped by sharing his healing Phoenix flames with them as often as possible and lending a hand with his own medical expertise. Ace’s chances of living increased exponentially thanks Marco.
Despite his patients increasing recovery speed, Law was in a state of distress. He’d finally had time to shower after the fourth day of caring for the crazy brothers and as hot water drenched his aching body, he’d seen it. There, on his chest in black scrawl was the name Monkey D. Luffy. Law had rubbed at it desperately praying it was a dream; when it didn’t fade, he punched the wall and yelled “Damnit!” before sinking to the floor water pelting at his face and back as he curled up.
He had a soulmate. Luffy was his god damned soulmate! It was Bepo who found him thirty minutes later still in the shower to call him back to the operating room for Ace. Bepo didn’t say anything about the soul mark when he saw it, instead he covered it with his paw and only said, “Captain we need your skills.”
Law cast aside his personal issues and assumed his role as doctor and kept it firmly in place. Sure, it wasn’t good to box up his problems and throw them away, but who was going to stop him? The fifth day docked at Amazon Lily, Luffy woke up. It was a very dramatic awakening with screaming, shouting, and the ripping out of IV cords which Law ruthlessly berated him for later. Luckily Bepo had been watching over his vitals at that time and had managed to somewhat restrain him long enough for Law to arrive at the scene.
A struggling Luffy screamed desperately for his brother over the repeated words of assurance Bepo told him. Law afraid he’d ruin all the progress of his recovery had simply barged in, grabbed Luffy’s rubbery face and yelled right into it. “Ace is alive Luffy, now calm the fuck down!” The second the words sank in Luffy sagged against him sobbing. Bepo released his tight hold and they hoisted the boy back into bed and reattached the IV cords. Luffy passed out shortly after thanks to some sedatives.
In the time following Law had Ace carefully moved into the room with Luffy. The next time the young boy woke up it was to see his comatose brother. Law made sure Luffy didn’t make a desperate grab for Ace and informed him sternly he could hold Ace’s hand and gently caress his face or hair but touch nothing else lest it harm the unconscious man.
Marco came to visit not much later and Law left them alone to talk. Luffy remained strangely quiet and obedient in the three days that followed. Law interacted with the silent teenager as little as he could, leaving most of the medical care for the boy to his crew and Marco. Ace however still received his personal attention often, and Luffy watched him tend to his brother intently. The rubber man always asked for Ace’s condition after the examination and never during.
On the eighth day of being docked at Amazon Lily Ace woke up. He didn’t come to screaming like Luffy. Instead, it was a quite wake up followed by silent sobbing, like a man that thought he was dreaming and what he saw was too good to be true. Law left the room after a quick check up, allowing the brothers to embrace and bawl against each other. Law felt a weight lift off his chest he didn’t know had even been there.
The next day was a lot livelier with both brothers awake and recovering. The Whitebeards celebrated with loud laughter and plentiful booze and food. They also held a memorial banquet for all their fallen brothers at sundown and danced around a bonfire telling stories of their deceased comrades into the wee hours of morning.
A few days after that a mysterious blond man showed up and Ace and Luffy broke into renewed bawling while clutching onto the stranger. Turns out it was their once presumed dead brother Sabo. Sabo had recovered his memories after seeing the newspaper announcement of the war at Marineford and Ace’s assumed death. A few threats and some tip offs had led him to Amazon Lily to discover his long-lost brothers. Law liked Sabo, he was much more level headed than either of the other two brothers. The Heart pirates took to calling them the Terrifying Trio, the nickname was quickly adopted by the Whitebeard pirates as well.
The third week on Amazon Lily, Law diagnosed Ace and Luffy well enough to leave his care and made a daring request of Sabo. Two days later he and Sabo set sail with some of Sabo’s fellow Revolutionaries. A month later they returned to Amazon Lily battered and beaten, but their goal accomplished. Sabo presented Marco with the news that they’d killed Blackbeard and most of his crew had been wiped out as well.
It had been Law’s idea to go after the Warlord newly turned Emperor. The reason being Blackbeard was still recovering from the war too, and he and his new Impel Down companions wouldn’t be proficient at fighting together yet; it would be the most vulnerable he’d ever be. Law wouldn’t risk his own crew (plus they were needed to keep tending to the war injured), but his specific power was necessary to take down Blackbeard.
Sabo's fellow Revolutionaries had also been quite capable and the attack had gone extremely well. The battle had been insanely fierce, the only reason they won was because of Law’s long-distance use powers and Sabo’s and his friends amazing fighting prowess coupled with the use of a literal ton of sea stone. Blackbeard had certainly been beyond surprised when they showed up. And even more surprised when Sabo landed the killing blow.
Law had felt contentment to see the bastard fall, maybe it was because of his newfound bond with Luffy, or maybe it was just his sick satisfaction in seeing someone similar to Doflamingo plummet from a position of power at his hands. Either way Law felt elated and light bodied after the battle even as banged up as he was. Law patched up Sabo and the rest of the Revolutions before they returned to Amazon Lily. They were lucky, no one died on their side against the Yonko, a couple had come close to shaking hands with death and seven people were permanently maimed but very much alive. Law had told his crew beforehand he was leaving for a month or two, and once they were sailing back, he finally contacted them to receive weeping words of authority abuse and neglect.
Law accepted their tearful hugs and back pats upon return and joined in on the celebration party. Marco and the Whitebeard pirates had been pissed they were neither informed, nor included in the taking down of Blackbeard. But Sabo easily soothed their ruffled feathers, he was Ace’s brother before all of them after all, and since Blackbeard was both a Warlord and Yonko it was in all their best interests that a Revolutionary take him down instead of them.
After all the navy was already at war with the Revolutionary Army, and no one in the Revolutionary Army would take up the position of a Yonko, plus Blackbeard was on their hit list anyway. And Sabo reasoned that the Whitebeard’s had lost too many members to the war, and another devastating loss while they were recovering would be an injustice to Whitebeard and all their family members’ sacrifices at Marineford. If they still wanted revenge a few members of Blackbeard’s crew had managed to escape and were in need of hunting down.
A week after Law’s return to Amazon Lily with Sabo, he and his crew departed on the Polar Tang, their services no longer needed. Luffy and Ace were both staying on Amazon Lily for two years for special training from Rayleigh (Luffy had made a public display to inform his crew they’d meet in two years), and Ace was going to play dead for a while. The Whitebeards set off with Marco as their new Captain, and Sabo hitched a ride from them to his next destination with a promise to come check in on Luffy and Ace every few months.
Law debated on telling Luffy about his soulmark. He debated it for weeks while traveling with Sabo in hunt of Blackbeard and hiding it with bandages and concealer Bepo had slipped him before he left. He’d debated it as Luffy laughed by the bonfire with his brothers on either side, smiling happily. The giant X scar over Luffy’s chest had completely mutilated his soul mark, it couldn’t be seen at all except for a barely legible “v”, half the last letter in Law’s name. Luffy had met and touched (punched) hundreds, no thousands of people since Impel Down and so long as he never saw Law’s own mark, he’d never find him.
Bepo came to him one night after Law returned from Blackbeard’s manhunt and they discussed the future and what it would mean to hide the fact he was Luffy’s soulmate or reveal it. Bepo arguably knew the most about Law, including his past with Corazon, Flevance, and his future plans for revenge. After hours of arguing, sympathizing, apologizing, silent treatment, and a calming nap, Law’s decision was made and the coordinates set for the Polar Tang.
When the Heart Pirates departed Law made sure Luffy was with both Ace and Sabo when he said his goodbyes with his crew. Luffy smiled happily along with his brothers and Sabo fist bumped him (they had bonded a bit on their month-long voyage). Marco wished him smooth sailing and proclaimed with a handshake the Whitebeards were officially in his debt.
As the Polar Tang sailed away Law stood on the deck staring back at the island his hand rubbing absently at the spot over his heart under his shirt. Did he do the right thing? Bepo comes over to pull him below so they can submerge. As the sun disappears behind the closing hatch Law lets his thoughts about Luffy and the soulmate mark disappear too. Romance can’t have a place in his life right now and neither can Luffy.
Two Years Later
Doflamingo was on his way to Impel Down, Law is finally free. After two years apart, Law had called in the favor owed to him by the Whitebeard pirates, and formed an official alliance with the Strawhat Pirates, (and no Bepo the alliance wasn’t because of his soul mark). He’d made his intentions to take down the current King of Dressrossa known to Marco, Ace, and Luffy after two years of groundwork and a Warlord title. Sabo naturally found out too and brought some friends to join in.
The Terrible Trio being who they were made mayhem rain upon Dressrossa. Ace who had been in hiding all this time made the kingdom takeover his grand “I’M STILL ALIVE ASSHOLES!” debut. Doflamingo may have been able to take on Law, but he was no match for Law combined with the fury and raw power of Ace, Luffy, Sabo, Marco, their crews and members of the Revolutionary Army on top of that. Dressrossa fell within half a day and Doflamingo’s sins with the natives were exposed for the cruelty and abuse of power they were.
Law lost his Warlord title on Dressrossa while Luffy became an Emperor in all but name, not to mention gaining hundreds of loyal followers against his will. They went after Kaido and Big Mom afterwards. Somewhere along the way Law’s crew grew in number. The most troublesome thing though was Law’s feelings. It was impossible for the buds of love not to bloom in the environment given them.
Law loved and respected Luffy, but he knew the feeling didn’t go both ways and what’s more is, he still had doubts lingering in his heart about having a soulmate in the first place. That’s why he made the ultimate decision to leave Luffy, to bury the bond between them. He was Luffy’s ally, rival, friend, but not lover and he never would be. Law left Luffy after Wano and the defeat of Kaido. He took his crew and just departed during the celebration. His crew was disappointed and a couple of the newer members even stayed behind. But Law knew what they didn’t and he was afraid, afraid for his crew.
Luffy would become Pirate King, of that he was undoubtedly sure. Once Luffy did obtain this title he would become the Pirate King’s soulmate. Law would become Luffy’s weakness and his very existence would be a death sentence for his entire crew. The navy would never let the Pirate King live in peace, and if news got out who Law was, they’d stop at nothing to hunt him down.
Roger had been Pirate King, the strongest man in the world, yet the navy had still tracked his soulmate down even though the Pirate King perished and murdered hundreds of women and babies, all because there was a chance they could bear the Pirate King’s offspring. Ace is still relentlessly being chased by them and has been since before his very birth. The Whitebeards and his brothers are the only wall between them. They’d ruthlessly stolen the lives of innocent children, killing a few dozen pirates on the same crew as the new Pirate King’s soulmate would be nothing to them.
The newspaper had already made thousands of wild accusations on who Luffy’s soulmate was. The scar on his chest preventing the name from being known, but soulmates after meeting were drawn to each other, and with the only visible letter being a “v” it wouldn’t be super hard to narrow the list of people around Luffy down. There was even a disgusting rumor going around that Ivankov was his soulmate for a few months. Law still shudders with revulsion every time someone mentions it.
Many, many times, Law had thought of burning the soul mark on his own skin. The only proof of what he is to Luffy and vice versa. He’d managed to keep it hidden these last few years, but there is always a risk, and it had come far to close at times. But every time he made the movement to permanently erase the mark he’d faltered. It is just a mark, yet every fiber of his being screams at him that he shouldn’t remove its existence.
He’d asked Bepo to do it, but at the last second, he’d “roomed” the hot iron from Bepo’s hand thirty feet away. It was then he knew for sure, that no matter what he couldn’t bring himself to part with Luffy’s name over his heart. It was permanently inked into his skin, same as his tattoos, never to be forgotten or removed. So, he made the ultimate decision to take his crew, submarine, soul mark, and go into hiding. He spread the word only a few hours before the celebration on Wano.
While everyone else was stacking up booze and dancing up a storm, Law’s crew was stocking supplies and running last minute maintenance on the sub. Luffy was surrounded and in the thick of the merry making to Law’s relief. He went to Marco and gave his goodbyes and thanks. Ace was busy shoving food down his throat near Luffy, but luckily Sabo was easily accessible. Law walks over to him and gives the man an uncharacteristic hug goodbye.
Sabo stares at him searchingly, but doesn’t ask the questions no doubt burning on his tongue.
“I’m taking my crew and disappearing for an indeterminate time. Give this to Luffy, (Law hands Sabo a small sealed letter with Luffy’s name scrawled on it along with a snail phone) the den den mushi is for you personally Sabo. You can use it to contact me for emergencies only. I’ll check in once every few months to let you know we are still alive.” Law tells Sabo softly.
“Luffy will be mad you’re leaving like this. You should tell him yourself.” Sabo replies seriously.
“I know, but I also know if I talk to him, he’ll convince me to stay and that’s something I can’t afford to do. (Law’s face takes on a sad regretful look). Sabo, don’t let him search for me to long. It won’t do for the future Pirate King to be distracted by an absentee former alliance member.”
“Your dissolving your alliance?” Sabo asks surprised.
“…Yes.” Law replies starting to walk away, “I won’t be a good alliance member if the Pirate King summons me and I don’t heed his call.”
“You will come back right? ........Law?!” Sabo asks distressed.
Law looks back over his shoulder and gives Sabo a sad wistful smile, then turns his head and keeps walking away. Twenty minutes later he is descending once again into his submarine and leaving his soulmate behind without revealing his true intentions. Only this time he knows it won’t be just a couple of years before he sees that sunny heart-warming smile again. No, this time it just might be forever. The cold ocean waves embrace the Polar Tang and Law’s heart grows cold under his soul mark.
Goodbye Luffy.