Chapter Text
Soulmates were sacred.
Not everyone had them or ever met theirs, but if you did, you would supposedly develop an instantaneous connection that went beyond any other relationship in your life. Sometimes you were lucky and that person was your parent and would be there for most of your life. Sometimes it was a friend who always stuck by your side. Other times, you might meet someone and develop an intense romantic relationship. Sometimes that intense relationship only lasted a short time before you died–pirates tended to have that type.
Sometimes, it wasn’t just someone special, but someone special you were supposed to do something with. Not many people had bonds like that, but when they did, supposedly you couldn’t leave each other’s side until the task was done. It was always some ridiculous moment–doing something that could change the course of history and all that.
Law thought it was stupid, if it was even real.
Soulmates were real, sure. You could visibly see the mark of that person’s first touch on your skin. But history-shaping bonds? It had to be a bunch of crap. There was no proof for any of it.
Law assumed that if he had a soulmate, they must have died long ago like everyone else from Flevance. His sister’s soulmate had been their mother. In Flevance, a familial bond was more of a curse than a blessing. Law had seen their mother’s tears when Lamie was born and her skin turned blue at their mother’s touch. Unlike most parent-child bonds, theirs already had a fast-approaching expiration date since each generation was dying at a younger and younger age. Having a soulmate just meant waiting for that person’s death.
Being alone was better.
He’d never been interested in a romantic partner or lifelong friendship. He didn’t want to doom anyone to a short-lived bond. Even after he gained the Op-Op fruit and postponed his inevitable death, every movement Law made was part of his plan for vengeance, which he’d probably die while accomplishing. Doflamingo was no easy target, but Law was already living on borrowed time. The least he could do was to honor Cora-san’s memory by removing Doflamingo from this planet.
So why, as he was sitting in Doflamingo’s auction house gathering information and minding his own business did he feel a jolt of electricity when Mugiwara grabbed his arm, leaning over him to get a closer look at Bepo?
"Ouch!" Mugiwara blinked, peering down at Law for a second before lifting his hand in confusion. "I'm rubber. Electricity doesn't work on me, so why... Oh cool! I'm blue!"
What.
Law's gaze moved from Mugiwara's blue palm to the red handprint that now covered the tattoo on his own right forearm.
Shit.
"That means you're my soulmate, right?" Mugiwara’s grin was blindingly bright.
This did not fit in Law’s plans.
He needed a distraction before Mugiwara became attached. His eyes searched the room–there. A marine guard. "We need to deal with these marines and get out of here before the admiral shows up."
No matter what Strawhat's redhead crew member said, he was not trying to show off or engage in some primal dick-measuring contest by seeing who could get rid of the most marines. Law just didn't want to be indebted to these two, that was all.
Of course, when they finally had a chance to split off, Law should have realized that any effort to do so would be doomed to failure. Yes, he managed to shambles out of Mugiwara's rubbery grasp and depart with his crew, but as he ran toward the Polar Tang there was a sickening tug around his torso.
A tug that would only let him move west–away from his submarine.
Damn it all.
Law did not have time for this. He had plans! Plans that did not involve Mugiwara, or a soulmate, or doing whatever the heck fate wanted them to do!
Because apparently that really was a thing. Law had to be unlucky enough to not only find his soulmate at a particularly inopportune moment, they also had to have a soulmate bond that insisted they accomplish something together. And whatever Mugiwara wanted, he apparently wanted it more than Law wanted to go with his crew and continue his plans.
Which meant Law was being tugged straight toward the bright annoyance.
Fate really did hate him.
Reluctantly, he called out to his crew, "We need to rendezvous with the Straw Hats."
"Captain?" Bepo was staring at him incredulously. Law sympathized. He didn't think he'd ever utter those words, either. Going toward the Straw Hats while a Navy admiral was actively looking for the chaotic crew was like asking for every single one of his plans to be derailed.
At least he’d gained a new crewmate from this fiasco–Jean Bart would be a strong and reliable addition to the Heart Pirates.
Law sighed and motioned to the red handprint on his arm. "I have to, at least. You all find a safe place to lay low. I'll call you or track down your vivre card once it's safe."
"Sorry, Captain." Bepo looked particularly apologetic, even though it wasn't his fault.
Law would find the Strawhats, figure out what the hell fate wanted with this bond, and return to his crew. Then he would once more continue his plans. This was a minor side trip, that's all.
Except Law never made it to Mugiwara.
He'd gotten closer, making the pull less intense, when suddenly he was yanked off his feet and sent flying by something slamming against him--no. Not against him. Against Mugiwara. Something had hit the other pirate so hard that Mugiwara was flying through the air and pulling Law with him.
Law braced himself for the inevitable jarring impact of landing, but slowly he began to realize that it wasn't going to come. He just kept flying sideways through the clouds, seemingly defying gravity. At least he still had Kikoku. Whatever this was, he wasn’t unarmed. Not that he was ever really without a weapon thanks to his powers.
Second after second, they just kept flying.
Law was going to murder Mugiwara.
It took two days before he even saw land again, and thankfully he was wide awake (not like he could have slept while flying) because when the clouds cleared and Law could actually see Mugiwara ahead of him, they were hurtling toward the ground at a deadly speed.
"Room!" Law barely had time to get the word out before Mugiwara hit the treetops, and he frantically switched himself with a passing leaf, his heart thudding in relief that he was finally, finally, kneeling on a solid object. The bark was strong and unbending underneath his feet, the leaves blocking anything else from view
He’d never been so grateful for a branch poking him in the side, but now it meant he was finally back on the ground.
A loud thud beneath him followed by a groan announced Mugiwara's own landing, and Law cautiously pulled aside the lower branches, sliding down and crouching so that he could glimpse his 'soulmate.'
Said soulmate was facedown on the ground, groaning in the middle of some sort of paw print-shaped crater.
Slowly, Mugiwara sat up, blinking in disbelief at the paw print. "I'm alive. And this crater saved me? Hopefully that means everyone else is ok..." As Mugiwara's voice trailed off into silence, Law found that he hated the way his soulmate's face morphed into a look of sadness.
With a sigh, Law jumped down from his branch, landing a few feet away from his soulmate.
Mugiwara screamed.
Law stared at him incredulously. "You didn't even notice that I was pulled along, did you? Whatever kind of soul bond we have, we can't separate too far. When you were hit, I was sent flying, as well. Apparently we’re connected until we accomplish whatever fate wants us to do."
"That's..." Mugiwara blinked. A bright grin transformed his face. "So I'm not alone?!" He jumped up, rubbery limbs wrapping around Law as the brim of a straw hat smashed against the side of his face. "Torao! We gotta get back to Saobody!"
Mugiwara was hugging him. Again. This was the second time the same person had forcibly hugged him. No one did that. Law struggled to push the arms away, but then froze. "Torao?" Why did Mugi-- Law groaned. "Mugiwara-ya, my name is Trafalgar."
"That's too long. I'm gonna call you Torao!"
Fate definitely hated him.
"Oh, yeah!" Mugiwara jumped back a few feet, his arms snapping back into place as he took off his hat. He peered inside, fishing around its liner for a few seconds before he produced a white slip of paper. "My whole crew has this vivre card thingy! We were gonna use it to meet back up!"
A vivre card? Law's eyes widened at the name on the slip of paper. "Is that Dark King Rayleigh's vivre card?!"
"Yup!" Completely unfazed by Law's incredulity, Mugiwara placed the vivre card on his palm, watching for a second as it struggled toward the left. "That way to Sabaody!"
And then he was running, forcing Law to run, as well, or else be dragged through the underbrush. "Mugiwara-ya! We were flying for days! We'll have to take a ship and we don't know where the nearest port is!"
"There will be one in this direction eventually!"
… What.
“That’s not how it works!” How did the strawhats ever get anywhere?! There could be a desert in that direction! There could be no ports for miles! Law was not going to run away from their one chance at reaching his crew. “Room!”
Immediately the familiar blue dome surrounded them, and Law switched the vivre card with a rock at his feet, then bent to pick up the struggling paper.
Mugiwara screeched, flailing for a second before he looked back and noticed that Law now had the paper he’d been following. “How’d you do that?!”
Law gestured at the blue dome around them. “My devil fruit lets me create this blue space and control whatever is inside it.”
“That’s so cool!!” Mugiwara’s eyes were practically shining, and then he started drooling…? Oh. There was a giant boar behind them. “Can you kill that since it’s in the blue dome thingy?!”
Law shrugged, then unsheathed Kikoku, cutting through the boar in one smooth motion.
The boar immediately started squealing, its legs moving frantically on the ground, completely separated from its torso. “It doesn’t actually kill things when I cut them like this, though.”
“So cool!!”
Law’s eyebrow twitched.
That was not the normal reaction to his abilities. He turned and walked away from Mugiwara, his stride determined. Even after only knowing Mugiwara for a few hours, Law knew he wanted nothing to do with this idiot’s insanity.
Law would find a way to follow his own plans, fate be damned.