Chapter Text
The Polar Tang is a fascinating ship. Made from a legendary metal that’s stronger and more durable than even the Sunny, it’s both a boat and a submarine at once. Inside, is a labyrinth of winding corridors that twist throughout its enormous body, and there are so many rooms and nooks to explore that it’s an adventurer’s dream. Or in Robin’s case, an archaeologist’s.
At face value, the Polar Tang looked like it would be cold, cramped and uncomfortable to stay in for the next two weeks that Robin, Franky, Usopp, Zoro and the Wano group will be sailing with the Heart pirates to Wano. But as Bepo, Penguin and Shachi enthusiastically led them on a tour through the ship, trailed by Law, they quickly discovered that it’s anything but.
There are so many windows that when it’s doing its job as a boat, sunlight is constantly streaming in, lighting up the rooms and corridors with warmth. When submerged, it turns into an aquarium, bright blue and glowing, as though they were back in Fishman Island. Apart from the control rooms and corridors, the interior rooms are panelled with warm woods and white tiled floors covered in carpets that makes everything surprisingly cosy and welcoming. To Robin, it feels akin to a great library, overflowing with hidden secrets and fascinating stories to discover.
When they reached the navigation room, filled with so many blinking lights and wires and screens, Franky went ballistic. Bepo and Penguin led him, Usopp and the Wano group (who were still complete novices when it came to modern technology and were almost as excited as the cyborg) into the bowels of the ship to go all starry-eyed over every nail and every sheet of metal that formed the impressive vessel. Zoro yawned and headed back up onto deck to get a nap in the sun. Shachi hurried after to lead him in the right direction and then start on lunch.
“Well, I think they’re all quite happily occupied,” Robin said to Law with a smile. They could still hear Franky and Usopp screeching over the ship almost a floor down.
Law snorted. “If I’d known they were going to be this excited, I wouldn’t have let them on board.” But he didn’t look too annoyed. “Come on, I’ll show you where you can sleep.” He led her down the corridor that wound in so many loops it would have made anyone else dizzy. They passed other members of the Heart pirates as they went. As they weren’t planning to make any submersions for the next week at least, they were dressed in casual clothing, and they all greeted Law with such excitement that Robin couldn’t help but smile.
“Hello Captain!”
“Hi Captain!”
“Captain, it’s good to see you!”
Law waved good-naturedly and greeted them back with far more restrained enthusiasm. But he still sounded happy.
Robin watched him curiously. She’d been conscious of how he must have felt in the lead-up to their plan in Dressrosa – after all, it was risky to take on one of the craziest Warlords of the Sea (Usopp’s words), and teaming up with someone like Luffy when you weren’t used to him was anything but stress-free. But now that she had more of an idea of just how serious the entire situation with Doflamingo had been for Law, she was starting to appreciate just how stressed he’d been and, comparatively, how much more relaxed he seemed now.
He'd been slightly more at ease at Zou, but now that he was back onboard his boat with his crew again, the change was obvious. There was less tension in his shoulders when he walked, every movement didn’t seem quite so calculated, his hand wasn’t clenching his sword but just holding it, his other hand was resting in his pocket. And every time a member of his crew greeted him, the edge of his lips turned up in a smile.
“Why are you staring at me?” Law asked her.
Robin wasn’t surprised that he’d realised, though she was slightly surprised at herself for being so blatant about it. She was usually better than that. “Oh nothing, it’s just nice to see you with your crew, that’s all.” She smiled at him.
He scowled and turned his head away. “Yeah, well, I haven’t seen them in a couple of months."
Robin hid a laugh behind her hand.
They reached a wooden door on the second floor below deck.
“You can stay in here,” Law said, opening the door. “This used to be Ikkaku’s room but she moved in with another member of the crew a while ago, so it’s been empty since.” The room was smaller than Robin’s one back on the Sunny, but still quite spacious. It was panelled in wood and fit with a standard bed, wardrobe, wash basin and chair. A door led to a private bathroom and a sizeable pothole provided an excellent view of the ocean.
“This is one of the only rooms with a private bathroom, so you won’t have to share with the guys,” Law continued. “If you need anything, blankets or whatever, feel free to ask. My room’s just two doors down.”
Robin smiled at him. “This is lovely, thank you.”
“Right, well, enjoy, I guess,” Law said, suddenly looking unusually uncomfortable. “Um, lunch will be in about an hour. Shachi will ring the bell. Come up if you’re hungry.”
He left the room abruptly and closed the door behind him. Robin turned to look at her room and took a deep breath. It smelled of pine and the salt of the sea. It wasn’t the Sunny, but it would definitely do for the next two weeks. She took out her bag and put her clothes in the wardrobe, her skincare in the bathroom, and arranged her books in reading order on the table. She’d brought 10 but looking at them, she wasn’t sure they’d last the two weeks. I’ll have to ask Law if he has a library, I’m sure he does, he certainly read enough books while on the Sunny.
Robin smiled slightly at the memory and settled down on the bed. For now, she’d take a nap.
After lunch, Robin decided to do some exploring. Usopp and Franky had headed back down into the ship with the Heart engineers, and Zoro was practising with his swords up on deck, so Robin was left to her own devices.
She wandered through the ship at her own pace, taking her time to analyse every room, every window, every strange painting on the wall. She soon found, with great amusement, that there was a room entirely dedicated to boasting about Law’s achievements. It was absolutely covered in all his wanted posters across the years, and so many newspaper clippings of his and the crew’s various feats that the wood wall could hardly be seen. His current wanted poster had prime place on a pedestal right in the centre of the room with a spotlight over it. It was utterly adorable to say the least and she had a feeling it was a room Law never went into if he could help it.
Robin found herself lingering to read the newspaper clippings. They dated back over 13 years and most had something to do with the Heart pirates disrupting human trafficking operations, freeing the slaves in the process. Robin wondered how many of this crew were once slaves.
There was one clipping in particular that caught her eye. It was the only one not about Law and it was situated right below the pothole window. The title was underlined in bright red.
DOFLAMINGO THE NEW KING OF DRESSROSA
This was from 10 years ago and it looked like it had been folded, crumpled up, opened, crumpled and reopened again many times.
Law really had a grudge against him, didn’t he? Robin thought in wonder.
“Oh no, how’d you find this room of all places?”
Robin turned to see Law standing the doorway. He looked unusually bare without his enormous sword in hand nor his trademark hat, and was wearing a simple black shirt. He looks nice, Robin found herself thinking.
“The door was open. I – uh – assume you didn’t put all this together yourself?”
Law rolled his eyes and walked in, “Absolutely not. I keep asking them to take it down but they insist.”
Robin smiled. “It’s so sweet how much they like you.”
“Yeah, well,” he rubbed his neck, scowling again.
“I noticed that you freed a lot of people from slave trafficking. Are some of your crew from that?” Robin asked, indicating to one of the nearby clippings.
“Yeah. Whenever we freed them I’d ask if they wanted to join. Most declined and fair enough, but more than I expected said yes. Quite a few had lost their homes and purpose in life, so to have somewhere to go was a big deal for them.” His grey eyes hardened and Robin felt a hum of sympathy in her chest. She could relate to that.
He shook his head and came over to her. “Which one were you looking at? Oh.” He pressed his lips together as his eyes fell on the clipping.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry, it just stood out.”
He stared at the clipping and it was like he wasn’t in this room anymore, as though he’d gone somewhere far away.
“Traffy-kun?” she said softly.
“I could have stopped that,” he muttered, and his voice didn’t sound like him. His arms were crossed and a combination of fury and guilt were flashing in his grey eyes.
“When you were 16?” she asked gently.
Law’s eyes narrowed. “When I was 13. There was … I screwed up.” He rubbed his eyes and Robin found herself noticing the dark shadows under them. He always looked so tired.
“You know, the funny thing about becoming an adult, is that I find I spend a lot of time thinking about all the things I could have done differently when I was younger.” Robin leaned against the wall, hands clasped behind her back. “I used to really beat myself up over it. I even used to tell myself that, if I’d been a bit smarter and stronger, I could have saved my entire island.” She shook her head with a dry laugh. “I think it’s taken all the way up until now for me to finally start finding peace within myself for it. There was nothing I could have done and if I’d tried I wouldn’t be here now.”
Law was watching her, his grey eyes alight and curious. “I must confess I don’t know much about what happened in Ohara, though from what I have heard it seems we might have something in common.”
Robin raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“I’m from Flevance,” Law said with a smile that conveyed a mixture of irony and dark humour.
“Oh!” Robin blinked her blue eyes rapidly. She’d been 14 when Flevance had been eradicated. She’d only caught vague glimpses of the newspapers in between her stints of running from place to place, but she remembered the painful twist of her chest when she’d read the headlines about Flevance. The terrifying memories. The smell of singed flesh and the sound of shot after shot after shot.
He was a lone survivor, just like her.
“I had no idea,” she said.
“Yes well, it’s not something I share around,” he snorted.
Robin smiled, “I’m sure you share it as much as I do about Ohara.” Law chuckled at that. “Well then, Traffy-kun, not only are we both the last surviving people of our home countries, but we also each served a warlord.”
“And two of the most narcissistic ones at that,” Law added with a smirk, he leaned his shoulder against the wall.
Robin laughed. “Crocodile definitely had a few too many silk cravats and fur coats.”
“At least it wasn’t all bright pink. Or I assume it wasn’t.”
“I never saw any hint of pink in his wardrobe. That might have been intentional, I don’t think he likes Doflamingo very much.”
“Does anyone?” Law rolled his eyes. His gaze fell on the clipping with its angry red underline. His eyes hardened again and Robin knew that he was beating himself up again for whatever had happened back then.
Carefully, she reached forward and pulled the pin off the clipping and held the paper out to him. “You defeated him,” she said gently. “Does this still need to be here?”
Law stared at it, grey eyes unfathomable and, for a moment, she worried that she’d pushed too far.
Without warning, he grabbed the paper from her hand and scrunched it up into a ball, pushed open the pothole and threw it out into the ocean where it landed on the waters with a light splash. “Nope, it doesn’t,” he said.
Robin laughed incredulously. “Well, that’s one way to get rid of it.”
Law grinned at her and, for the barest hint of a second, Robin’s heart stopped beating.
“That actually felt pretty good,” he said and Robin’s heart returned to normal. She clenched her fingers together against her back. What on the Grand Line had that been about? She tried to laugh normally.
“I felt the same way when I could finally get rid of my bounty poster from when I was a child. Usopp helped me set it on fire.”
“That must have been very cathartic.”
“You have no idea,” Robin smirked. He grinned back and oh dear her heart stopped again. She cleared her throat and her heart once more returned to normal. “I was actually going to ask if you have a library somewhere. I brought some books but I’m worried they won’t be enough.”
“Yeah, of course. Come on.” Law headed out of the room without another word and Robin followed, she glanced back inside the room before closing the door. It really was adorable how much his crew loved him. She smiled and hurried after him.
They walked together down the corridor and around to a room situated on the other side of the boat. The library was far larger than Robin would have expected to fit into the Polar Tang, though, considering how much of a bookworm Law was, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Every wall was covered floor-to-ceiling in books, a sizeable table for studying sat in the middle and there were large chairs under each one of the three potholes lined up on the far wall.
“You can take whatever you like, whenever you want, there’s quite a lot here as you can see,” Law gestured vaguely.
“Thank you. It’s very impressive,” Robin said. She walked along the shelves slowly, looking over all the books. He seemed to have a variety of everything, from medical and history, to cooking, fiction and even comic books.
“I need to head back to the brig; I was originally on my way to check our coordinates with Bepo,” Law said.
“No problems, I’ll see you at dinner,” Robin smiled at him.
Law began to head off but stopped at the door. “Uh, by the way, Nico-ya, I’d appreciate it if you never mentioned that room to anyone – ever.”
Robin hid a smile and nodded very seriously. “Of course not, Traffy-kun. My lips are sealed.”
“OK, good,” Law looked visibly relieved as he headed off, closing the door behind him.
Robin looked around the library and wandered about slowly, taking in each book and trying to decide what she wanted to read. She had her stack in her room of course, but now that she was here it wouldn’t do to leave without a book or two – or three.
He really is an interesting man, that Trafalgar Law, Robin thought. He’d been very closed off in Dressrosa, only opening up just the smallest bit on the boat to Zou and just the smallest bit more on the elephant island. Today it seemed he’d allowed himself to open up a fraction more, giving her a glimpse of who he really was.
Robin was finding herself more intrigued by the moment.
Her hand hesitated over a blue-bound book. Words embossed on it in silver read Flevance. She took it off the shelf and flipped it open. It was a comprehensive history of the city up until the last decade, but inside it was shoved a series of newspaper clippings, leaflets, ripped pages from other books and notes.
Curiously, Robin took out one of the clippings. It read the headline WHITE LEAD DISEASE ERADICATED THANKS TO INITIATIVE BY WORLD GOVERNMENT. Above it was a hastily scrawled note: For you boys to read, don’t show Law – Wolf. Most of the rest of the contents seemed to be the same, a collection of bits and pieces of information on what had happened to the white city of Flevance, collated by the person called Wolf, and sometimes Shachi, Penguin and other members of the crew.
It seemed that they had tried to piece together the truth of Law’s past without him knowing. She supposed keeping it all in a book about Flevance was the best way to go about it, Law wouldn’t want to go anywhere near that book.
Robin took a seat by the window and carefully pulled out the clippings and placed them on the side table. She began to read.
Notes:
This will be a slow burn but they'll get there in the end.
Chapter 2: Safe
Notes:
It's been lovely to see such a positive reaction to the first chapter already! So here's the second, this time from our boy Law.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Fire. Screaming. Bullets. Lami crying. Smoke and roasting flesh burning his mouth and eyes.
A prison made of wood. Silence.
Red eyes.
Laughter.
Law wrenched upright in bed, gasping and choking for breath. He was drenched in cold sweat and his throat was burning as though it really had just been coated in a sticky mass of ash and smoke. He grappled with shaking hands for the glass of water beside his bed and gulped it down.
He threw the tangled, sweat-soaked sheets off his legs and stumbled to the basin in his private bathroom where he poured another glass of water and sculled it down. And another. And another. Until the burning in his throat began to subside.
Shit! He hadn’t had a dream like that since the night before they arrived in Dressrosa. That had been a bad one. Most of his dreams blended into an indistinguishable mess, but that one had been so disgustingly vivid he’d spent most of the night curled up on the floor of the Straw Hat’s bathroom, vomiting into the toilet.
His crew dead, torn up into little pieces and piled on the ground in a mountain of flesh, the Straw Hats mixed in with them. The Polar Tang burning, Wolf locked inside, screaming for help. Corazon’s head hanging from the sky by a string, his warm smile now frozen distortedly on his face. His own body lying broken on the ground, limbless, screaming in rage and agony.
And Doflamingo perched on top of the mountain, drenched in blood in a grotesque imitation of his pink coat, laughing. Laughing. Laughing.
Law shook his head roughly. He had to get out, he needed fresh air.
“R-room,” he gasped. “Shambles.”
In a second, he was up on the deck of the ship, having swapped with a broom that someone had left lying against the mast. He stumbled forward and practically fell onto the balustrade, grasping the smooth, cold yellow rail in his hot hands, using it as a lifeline.
“One … two … three … four …”
He counted out slowly, taking deep breaths. He was here on the Polar Tang. His old family was dead and his old home was gone – that was true – but his new family and his new home was here and safe. Wolf was on Swallow Island where he should be. Doflamingo hadn’t won. He hadn’t punished Law for losing by seeking out to destroy his crew. He was buried in the depths of Impel Down where he would rot forever.
“Five … six … seven …”
It was because of that damn book. In retrospect, maybe it hadn’t been the smartest idea to read the full history of Ohara in one sitting. He’d already known bits and pieces about it, of course, the poneglyphs and world history was one of his big interests. But he’d never actually sat down to read about the people who made reading the legendary poneglyphs possible.
To say that it had brought up painful memories was an understatement.
“Eight … nine … ten.”
Law finished counting out his breaths and slumped against the rail. He was back here where he should be, but his heart was still beating erratically and his back was prickling as though he was being watched.
“Traffy-kun?”
Law jumped and turned to see Robin looking at him, leaning against the rail. She was dressed in light linen pants and a silk top, a shawl was wrapped around her shoulders to keep off the evening chill that he hadn’t even noticed until now. In one hand, she was holding a book. Her blue eyes were staring at him with concern.
He didn’t know why, but his erratically pulsing heart began to slow down.
“Sorry,” he said, rubbing his hair. He noticed that just behind her was a lounge chair and a lamp. “I didn’t realise you were here.”
“I was struggling to sleep so I came up here to read.”
“What are you reading?” he asked in an attempt to keep the conversation normal and not address how he was still sweating and breathing heavily. He also, he realised, was shirtless.
Robin bit her lip and for a moment he thought she wasn’t going to show him, but then she held up the book with an apologetic grimace. Flevance. “Sorry, I just got curious.”
He snorted and ran his hand over his face. “Don’t be. I was reading a book on Ohara before I went to bed.”
“Is that why – why you’re up here now?” she asked cautiously.
Law nodded shortly. “Brought up some … memories.”
Robin’s mouth twitched slightly. “Isn’t it funny how trauma has a way of showing up when you’re trying to get a good sleep?”
Law nodded with a faint smirk. “It’s very rude of it.”
“Very. It really needs to learn to save the panic episodes for when you’re in the shower or on an abandoned beach somewhere.”
“Better places to scream out loud for sure.”
“Or sing your feelings, depending on what you’re into.”
Law raised an eyebrow. “Do you sing your feelings on abandoned beaches?”
“Only once. Franky and Brook, however, do it very often. Both on abandoned beaches and in the shower.”
Law made a face. “That sounds … terrible.”
“They’re not too bad. Sometimes they harmonise,” Robin laughed.
Law shuddered. “No thanks.”
Robin laughed again and he found himself chuckling. She had a nice laugh, it was warm and pleasant and he could feel the tension in his muscles easing. He’d never had someone he could laugh about his past with like this, in such a morbid sense. It was the only way he really knew how to cope with it, but he’d yet to meet many other people who shared his rather unorthodox coping method. Most would sidle away cautiously, muttering under their breath about seeing a doctor. The irony of that was never lost on him.
Robin’s laugh faded and she turned to concerned again. “Are you alright?” she asked gently.
Law turned to lean fully against the rail, looking out over the dark ocean lit by a half-moon and scores of stars. “Yeah. I guess. I just –” he hesitated, this wasn’t something he had ever planned on sharing with anyone. It was too stupid. Too pathetic. Too weak.
Robin put the book down and stood beside him, leaning against the rail. She didn’t say anything but he knew that she was listening. He knew that she wouldn’t judge him.
“I feel like he’s right behind me,” Law found himself saying, clenching his hands together tightly. “Like we didn’t really win and it was all a dream or some twisted joke. I’ll turn around and he’ll be there. I can’t sleep because I’m worried if I do, I’ll wake up and my crew will be dead. I can’t read the newspaper without feeling sick. I have a feeling that one day his name will be on the front page and it won’t be because he succumbed to some horrible disease that he happened to contract in prison.” He swallowed thickly. Now that he was saying it out loud, it felt even more stupid.
But Robin was listening with an understanding expression. She didn’t look like she pitied him or thought he was crazy, instead she looked like she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“I was like this before Dressrosa,” Law continued. “I thought it would get better once we defeated him but now it feels like it’s only getting worse. Probably because I know that if – when – he gets out of Impel Down, he’ll stop at nothing until he gets his revenge.” Law was clenching his hands so tightly together the bones were starting to ache. He glanced at Robin. “I sound insane, don’t I?”
Robin smiled slightly but shook her head. “If you’d managed to come out of this whole thing without being phased one bit, then I’d think you were insane. I don’t know the full story between you and him but …” she paused and clasped her long, elegant fingers together tightly. “After we defeated CP9 – and Crocodile to some extent – I felt the exact same way. I kept waiting for them to pop up right behind me, cuff me up again and tell me it was all over.” Her voice went soft and her blue eyes glazed over as she stared out at the sea. “I’d lived with that kind of terror most of my life. It was ... difficult to rewire it so to speak. But, I did it,” she turned to Law with a smile and the midnight wind pushed strands of her long black hair away from her face.
“How?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But one day I realised I wasn’t afraid anymore. It took months and I wasn’t even with the Straw Hats at the time, but I was just walking around the Revolutionary Army HQ and I realised that I hadn’t once jumped at someone opening a door or glanced cautiously around a corner, or analysed a room when I walked in. It takes time but, eventually, those fears will pass and they’ll just become bad memories.”
Law nodded slowly. He knew this, of course. He was a surgeon and he’d helped more people recover from trauma than he could count – many of whom were his own crew. But telling a patient something and actually being able to do it yourself were two very different things.
Robin’s blue eyes were staring intensely at him and she looked ethereal standing there with the moonlight shining on her. He suddenly remembered with vivid clarity being held in her arms as he lay, half-unconscious and desperate, clutching at what remained of his life and his sanity – whatever had remained at that point that Doflamingo hadn’t stolen from him. He remembered feeling, for the first time in a long time, human again.
He didn’t know how to describe it, to himself let alone anyone else, but Doflamingo had a real talent for stripping you of everything that had ever made you, you. He tore you apart, mind and body, until you were an empty husk that lived only to serve him or die by his hands.
Law had fought and struggled and bled to take that monster down. He’d been so focused on destroying the bastard that he hadn’t even realised his own trauma was holding him back from fighting Doflamingo at his best. He hadn’t even been able to use his awakened abilities, he’d been too broken. And Doflamingo had known this and used it to his advantage.
“I could have pulled the trigger.” Law had said to him.
“I bet you could have.”
Law had been so filled with rage and hate that he hadn’t even realised how much of himself he’d lost over the years of simmering hatred and how much more he’d lost in that one afternoon. He hadn’t realised it until he’d felt himself lying in Robin’s arms. She’d held his broken body, clutching him as though he was a real person who was deserving of being protected.
“We’ll get through this. Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” Hearing her voice say those words, after hours of spewing hate and being beaten down like he was a toy, had meant more to him than even he’d understood at the time.
He’d finally felt like himself again. Like Trafalgar D Water Law and not Doflamingo’s puppet.
He’d wanted to say something to her about it, to thank her or at least acknowledge it. But as he stared at her now, standing there with the wind brushing her face and the moon illuminating her pale skin, he felt the words die in his throat.
Instead, he stretched his arms above his head, trying to look like he was fine now, and let his shoulders and arms pop with a satisfying crack. “So, how are you finding the book so far?”
“Oh it’s quite good, very interesting worldbuilding and the story has some unique characters,” Robin said lightly. “But I’m finding the final act to be a letdown. The disease seems like a contrived plot twist and it’s difficult to suspend my disbelief. Also it seems like the author doesn’t know how to end it properly and is just using the interference of the government as a way to finish it off quickly.”
“I thought the same about Ohara. Fascinating story and worldbuilding but the author just didn’t know how to conclude it and used the buster call as a deus ex machina. Very boring and overused.”
“You’d think they’d try to be more original these days, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes but that’s asking too much.”
Robin covered her mouth with a laugh and Law found himself grinning.
“Are you going to try and go back to sleep?” Robin asked, her voice turning gentle.
Law shook his head. “No, it’s usually worse and if I take a sleeping pill this late, I won’t be able to wake up until the afternoon.”
“Well, you’re welcome to sit up here and read with me,” she said. “I have no plans of going to bed soon either.”
Law nodded, “Yeah I think I’ll do that.” He put his hand in his pocket and took out a handful of rocks – he always kept some on hand, even when sleeping. He threw them on the ground and held his hand out. “Room. Shambles.” With a pop! the rocks were replaced with a book (not the one about Ohara) and a jacket. Law picked them up and donned the jacket.
“That sure is a useful ability,” Robin said, returning to her seat on the lounge chair. A pair of hands appeared from the arms of the chair and picked up her book, holding it up so she could read it comfortably. He noticed that it was no longer the one on Flevance but a book on the workings of submarines.
“It has it’s perks,” Law smirked. “And you’re one to talk.” He took the empty chair next to her and sat down. Without even looking his way, Robin conjured another set of hands on the rests of his own chair. He handed the book to them and they settled over the chair to hold the book up. “Thanks.”
“It doesn’t weird you out?” Robin glanced at him.
“Nico-ya, I’m a surgeon who has a habit of pulling off marines’ heads and tossing them around like juggling balls,” he said dryly.
Robin chuckled. “Oh yes, I remember seeing you do that in Sabaody, Traffy-kun. It was very impressive.”
“I know,” Law smirked and he lay back on the chair with his hands behind his head to read. Most people thought his abilities were disconcerting to say the least and horrifying to say the most. He supposed she must have experienced very similar reactions.
“Is that a comic book?” Robin asked, a smile playing at her lips.
“Be quiet, I need a break after the disappointing conclusion to Ohara.”
Robin laughed and returned to reading her book and Law settled in to read his. They stayed like that for the rest of the night.
Notes:
Poor Law really does need a hug.
I always wondered how he felt about Robin catching him like that in Dressrosa and this is my take on it. After being dragged around by both Doffy and Luffy for half an arc, I feel like he might have really appreciated being actually treated like a human by Robin.
Chapter 3: Fun & Games
Notes:
Thank you for all the lovely comments on the previous chapter!
Fun fact: I started to ship Law and Robin way back in Punk Hazard when they were taking the train out of the factory and they both made the exact same morbid joke about the rocks crushing them to death and freaked Usopp out. I just thought that was really funny and they would probably make a cute couple but I didn't actually think anything would come from it - One Piece is a shonen after all.
Little did I know that they would go on to have many, many more interactions, plus very similar backstories, plus a shared/similar dream and love for history and cute things.
So this chapter is a commemoration to their shared weirdness and morbidity that first lit the shipping flame in my heart.
The first part is inspired by an art I saw on Tumblr and I thought it would be fun to write about it, so full credits for the idea to OopenSandwich: https://oopensandwich.tumblr.com/post/627713520509796352/usopp-oh-boy-theres-two-of-them-now-bonus
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“What in the Grand Line are you two doing?” Usopp screeched.
“Limb jenga,” Law said.
“Would you like to join us, Usopp?” Robin said pleasantly. “We could always use more limbs.”
It had been almost a week since the Straw Hats joined the Heart pirates to travel to Wano. On the third day, Law and Robin had found themselves discussing the potentials of combining their powers together, both in combat and for fun. They’d already started up a game of hide and seek with all the limbs Robin could create, and had taken to leaving various body parts around the ship in unsuspecting places, much to the chagrin of most of the crew.
Today, Law and Robin were sitting on the deck under an umbrella of hands that Robin had created to keep them shaded from the boiling sun. Using a combination of Robin's ability to create limbs and Law's ability to move them, they'd built a small tower of legs that they were currently using to play a game of jenga.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Usopp wailed, clutching his head. “I found a goddamn hand in my bag this morning and now this?”
“So that’s where you put it,” Robin said to Law.
“I just chose a random place, I didn’t know it was your bag,” Law said mildly.
Usopp’s eye twitched. “Like hell you didn’t!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to join us, Usopp?” Robin continued. “You can take my turn.”
“Absolutely not! You two disgust me!” Robin shrugged and started to pull a leg out from near the bottom of the leg jenga (legga?) tower. Usopp gagged and turned away, clutching his mouth. “Gross!” he groaned. “Oi Zoro! Do something!”
Zoro was sitting nearby, lifting an enormous weight with one hand. “Huh? Why?”
“You’re the first mate and with Luffy not here that makes you captain by default!” Usopp snapped, storming up to him. “Stop this monstrous display right now!”
“Nah, this is Traffy’s ship and he’s the captain,” Zoro said with a yawn. “Besides, I don’t have a problem with it. Let the weirdos do their thing.”
“Fine!” Usopp shouted. “I’m going to find Franky, at least he’s somewhat normal. And I can’t believe out of everyone he’s the one I’m saying that about!” Usopp screamed in frustration and stormed off.
Robin bit her lip and shared a look with Law. For a moment they remained straight-faced, then they laughed at the same time.
“Poor thing,” Robin said with a chuckle.
“For someone on your crew, I’m surprised he’s so uptight,” Law sniggered.
Robin laughed as she put her leg up on top of the tower. “He’s never been good with this stuff.”
Zoro spoke up, “I don’t really care but you two might wanna lay off Usopp just a bit. We don’t want him broken before we get to Wano. Let Kaido do that.”
“That’s a good point,” Robin said. “Do you want to join us, Zoro?”
“Nope. I prefer to slice limbs.”
“Fair enough. You’re turn then, Traffy-kun.”
Law sighed. “Fine, we’ll take it easier on him. Guess I should remove that leg I put on his bed this morning. Room.” He threw a small stone up as the blue dome appeared. “Shambles.” A leg suddenly appeared on top of the tower.
Robin put her hands on her hips. “Cheater. You can’t just add a new limb onto it.”
“Is there any rule that says I can’t?” Robin gave him a frosty look that would have sent Usopp running to his room in terror. “Fine, fine,” Law quickly backtracked. “Shambles,” he flicked his fingers and the leg disappeared to be replaced by a pair of goggles.
Somewhere below, they heard a disgusted scream of outrage and horror.
“AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!”
Even Zoro joined Robin and Law’s laughter.
Robin bit her lip in concentration as she read a fascinating paragraph about the kingdom of Lulusia in her encyclopedia on New World geography. The flora and fauna on that island were almost identical to another island in the East Blue, yet they were so far away. How could that be the case?
She reached for her pen to underline the paragraph – and found herself holding an eraser instead. She blinked in surprise as she picked it up. Since when that been next to her? And where was her pen?
She looked up and saw that it had somehow ended up halfway across the table, near where Law was sitting with his head buried in a hefty medical journal.
It was a rainy afternoon and the two had found themselves in the library together while their crews went about their day.
Robin reached across the table for the pen. With a soft pop it was replaced by a scrunched-up piece of paper and the pen was now right at the other end of the table next to Law’s mug of lukewarm coffee. She looked up and realised that they were under the pale blue dome of his Room. When had he put that up?
Robin bloomed a hand at the end of the table, intending to pick up the pen but, with another small pop, it appeared in Law’s hand and her fist clutched a rock instead.
Law twirled the pen with his long, tattooed fingers. His gaze was fixed on his book as though he was utterly engrossed in it.
Robin’s mouth twitched. “Excuse me.”
“Something wrong, Nico-ya?” Law said mildly, still twirling the pen. He didn’t look up.
Robin smiled pleasantly. “Nothing at all, Traffy-kun. However, I believe you have something of mine.”
“And what is that?”
With a pop the pen disappeared and in Law’s hand was another rock. Robin frowned and looked around for the pen. Where had he put it? She finally spied it on top of a bookshelf. Her mouth twitched again. So he was messing with her now as well as Usopp? Well, that simply wouldn’t do.
Her hand appeared on top of the shelf to take the pen.
Both the hand and pen disappeared to the other side of the room to hang from the ceiling.
“I thought you needed to say your little word to make things move.”
“I don’t if it’s something small,” Law said. He leisurely turned a page of his book. Two hands appeared on the arm rests of his chair to yank the book out of his reach. “That’s rude,” he commented.
“What is, Traffy-kun?” Robin asked, keeping her voice just as casual as his. Her hands suddenly disappeared to reappear inside a bookshelf, and two books fell onto the armrests where they’d previously been. Law reached down for his book, which had fallen onto the tiled floor. Robin conjured a large hand that was at least triple the normal size right underneath the book. The hand tossed the volume into the air and it was caught by a long arm that hung from the ceiling.
“Shambles,” Law said, holding his hand out. So this was the point where he had to actually say his words? That was good to know.
She was prepared now. Just as the book fell into his outstretched palm, Robin conjured an enormous hand as big as the table to catch it. The hand threw it up and she extended hands from her body to catch it.
Law grabbed his sword from where it had been resting against the table and began to draw it. He was fast, but not quite as fast as Zoro. In seconds, Robin had conjured two hands to grasp the sword on both its hilt and sheath, stopping him from drawing the sword fully.
Law smirked and let go of the sword. “Takt,” he said, raising his fingers.
“Cien fleur,” Robin said, putting her arms together.
Every limb, book, paper, mug and pen in the room flew up to the ceiling. Robin conjured two enormous hands to cover the entire space. He looked awed for the barest second, before he shambles'd her hands off his sword, drew it and slashed through the air.
“Shambles.”
Her arms disassembled into uneven pieces and began to fly through the room. Robin found herself laughing. It was such a bizarre sight that even she was stunned by it. But she wasn’t going to be outdone. Faster than he could move her arms around, she conjured more – and not just arms but legs, torsos and even eyes.
Law laughed incredulously. “Your power is ridiculous, I see why you’re called the Demon Child.”
“Says you, Surgeon of Death.”
She wasn’t even sure what they were doing now or what they were even trying to accomplish, but she didn’t care. She was having too much fun. She grew arms around his body, circling him in a kind of web of limbs. She was vaguely aware that she could feel his warm skin underneath them but she refused to let herself get distracted, she had a battle to win.
“Clutch.” She was confident that he wouldn’t actually be caught by her hands in a way that would genuinely hurt him – and she was right.
“Shambles.”
They switched places and she was the one that her own arms were holding. Well, this was odd. She halted her own clutch quickly.
“Giganto mano.”
Two monstrous legs appeared to stomp down on Law’s head. His mouth dropped slightly as he stared up at the bizarre sight, but his reflexes were still quick enough to slice the legs apart with his sword before they could land on him. When he turned back to face Robin, she had disappeared. He looked up and his mouth twitched in a chuckle as he saw her upper body had appeared on top of a bookshelf. In her hand, she triumphantly grasped the red pen.
“Shambles.”
Robin’s full body popped in front of him. She opened her mouth to announce her victory, when she realised that he was holding her pen up in front of her eyes, a smug smirk spreading on his handsome face. In her hand was the eraser again.
“You really shouldn’t leave your things lying around for just anyone to take it, Nico-ya,” Law said, handing the pen to her. His clear grey eyes were dancing with a mischievous light that she’d started to see more and more over the past week. She was discovering that she liked it – a lot.
Robin took the pen. “Now, now, Traffy-kun, you really shouldn’t take other people’s possessions without their permission.” She locked eyes with him seriously.
The library door open. “Hey, what are you two doing? Shachi rang the lunch bell and – AAARRRRGHHHHH!”
Usopp was standing in the doorway, mouth dropped open, eyes wide with shock. Robin suddenly realised that they were standing in the midst of sliced up floating limbs, eyes, books and shelves. Oh dear, so much for trying to take it easy on him.
“Thank you, Usopp, we’ll be up in a moment,” Robin said pleasantly.
Usopp swayed on the spot, his face turning grey. “Y-yeah, s-s-sure …” He turned to go, and promptly fainted in a collapsed heap on the floor.
“Maybe we shouldn’t ever try to actually fight each other,” Law suggested.
“Don’t give us a reason to,” Robin said. They looked around the room and then back at each other. Robin bit her lip and Law’s smirk widened. Before they knew what had happened, they burst into laughter.
Usopp groaned on the ground and Robin pressed her lips together to stop laughing. “We should probably –”
“Clean the room?”
“Take care of Usopp. But that, too.”
“Oh right. Shambles.”
“Cien fleur.”
Notes:
Poor Usopp. He's really going to need therapy after this trip to Wano.
Chapter Text
“There’s an island in the sky?” Law asked dubiously, raising an eyebrow.
Robin nodded, her lips turned up in a gentle smile. It was a warm spring day and they were sitting at a table out on the deck. She was painting flowers in a sketchpad with a set of watercolour paints. “It’s wonderful. The ground is made of clouds, there’s a city of gold, an enormous bell you can hear from all the way back on our ocean and people with wings.”
Law frowned at her. “People with wings? As in angels?”
“I suppose you could call them that.”
“OK, now you’re just making things up to mess with me,” Law said, shaking his head.
Robin laughed. She really did have a nice laugh, it was soft and soothing, but full of good humour. Although sometimes it had a sinister undertone with a very different type of humour. That was a nice laugh, too. Especially when she was throwing limbs at him.
He bit the inside of his cheek to stop from smiling at the memory. He’d just been bored and had only intended to mess with her a little bit, just enough to work her up and get her to do that cute little frown she sometimes did. He hadn’t expected it become quite so chaotic and thrilling – even fun.
Not only could he rile her up, but she had a knack for riling him up as well in a way he’d never experienced before.
“It’s true!” she insisted. “I know it sounds unbelievable but it really is incredible. Even Gol D. Roger himself went there. I saw his message etched beside the poneglyph.”
“There’s a poneglyph there?” Law asked. He blobbed some yellow paint on his own piece of paper. He rarely painted or drew outside of designing his tattoos and jolly roger, and he was the first to admit that he wasn’t good at it, at all. But Robin had asked if he’d wanted to join her – and the wind had been brushing back her long hair and gently tugging the hem of her white dress and the sunlight had been sparkling in her blue eyes and he’d found himself saying yes.
So now he was doing some kind of weird abstract painting … thing … that looked utterly ridiculous next to her artistic depiction of purple irises.
Robin nodded, her blue eyes lighting up. “Carved into ancient stones. It’s incredible! I discovered so much on that island. There’s all these ruins and hidden caves and wonders to explore. I only wish I’d been able to have more time there.”
“You’ll have to go back sometime then, if you can,” Law said.
“I’d love to, though unfortunately it’s difficult to get up there. But perhaps someday I could go back. You should definitely try and go if you ever get the chance. You’d love it,” she smiled at him and suddenly he forgot how to hold a damn paint brush. “It’s got all the ancient ruins and strange inventions you could want.”
“I’m still not sure I believe you.” He clutched the brush and dabbed harder than he’d intended on the paper just to make sure he remembered how to use it properly – the yellow splattered all over the page like a child had painted it and not a 26-year-old man.
Speaking of children, Momonosuke had initially insisted on joinin them, so Robin had provided him with paper and paints of his own, and he’d sat with them for a while before becoming bored with their conversation about topics he didn’t understand or care for. Now, he was sitting on the deck by the balustrade, painting happily and talking to himself.
Robin frowned at him in that surprisingly cute way and he had to bite his cheek again. “What do you mean you don’t believe me, Traffy-kun? Zoro!” she called, turning over her shoulder to where Zoro was, as always, training with a set of weights that would have intimidated a man 10 times his size. “Tell him!”
Zoro didn’t look up from his push-ups, the enormous weight on his back. “She’s right. But don’t take our word for it, just go there yourself. There’s an old man with a chestnut on his head and two gorillas who can help you get up there.”
“Oh yes, Cricket-san!” Robin turned back to Law and gestured with her paintbrush. “He’s the descendant of Montblanc Noland, if you know him from the stories.”
Law blinked at them. “Shockingly, none of this is helping me to believe you. Noland the Liar is just a famous story from the North Blue. He’s not real.”
“He’s real alright!” Robin insisted. “Have I ever given you reason to doubt me, Traffy-kun?” She looked right at him with those big blue eyes and he felt his resolve waning.
“Fine, fine, if you say so,” Law consented. He loaded his brush with light blue and began to blob it across the page. “Guess, I’ll just have to go there to find out for myself. Once we deal with those pesky little things called Kaido and the One Piece and everything else going on.”
He paused his dabbing. He’d been trying not to think about it too much, to keep going ahead with this stage of his grand master plan with a rational and detached mind. Except that now his intense fears of Doflamingo were – well, not gone, not by a long shot – but they were morphing into fears of the future, and looming over them was the monster that was Kaido.
Kaido was an entirely different beast to Doflamingo. Law wasn’t afraid of him, at least not when it came to himself. Whatever happened to him, happened. But he was starting to worry about his crew. About the Straw Hats. About one Straw Hat in particular.
Doflamingo had been a villain of unadulterated cruelty and emotional manipulation. Kaido was a villain of monstrous strength and power. He could probably crush this entire ship in a second and both crews in half that time. And it was well-known that he had a poneglyph but with no means to read it. They were essentially sailing the very person he needed to find the One Piece right into his lair. And that didn’t sit right with Law at all.
Robin was talking and Law forced himself to halt his erratic thoughts, and return to the sun-soaked deck where it was safe and peaceful, and the only sound was the waves and her voice.
“You’ll have to visit the other islands in the Grand Line while you’re on that side of the world,” she was saying. “Water 7 is magnificent, as is Alabasta. Although, I unfortunately didn’t get to experience either of them as much as I would have liked,” she chuckled dryly. “Perhaps I should go back to and explore them all properly without worrying about the government trying to chop me up into little pieces.”
Law looked up at her. She was laughing but he could see the subtle furrow of her brows and crinkle under her eyes. He remembered what she’d said the other night, about how it had taken her such a long time to take each day without fear. But did that fear ever truly go away? Perhaps if the World Government was destroyed and CP0 taken down and the Warlords crushed and the Emperors unseated and the Celestial Dragons brought crumbling to the ground.
But would even that be enough?
A cool breeze blew across the ship and Law twitched involuntarily. It was just a harmless wind, but for a moment it felt like the sharp rush of air that came with a piece of string that could slice your neck in half if you lost your concentration for even a second.
Law reached for a cup of coffee that was sitting on the table and took a quick sip. It was lukewarm but the rich flavour and bitterness still soothed him, and brought him back to reality again. Get a grip! he hissed to himself. This was ridiculous, he shouldn’t be acting like this.
“Traffy-kun?” Robin said and he realised she was staring at him and the crinkle of her eyes was an entirely different type of worry.
Good job, shithead, you’ve made her worry about you.
She’s worried about me …? His mind seemed to stop for a second at that thought. He clenched his fists together tightly, just enough that his nails bit into the flesh of his palms.
“I’d like to visit those places, I’ve heard a lot about Water 7," he said casually. "Maybe you should join us if you want to see them again.”
Robin blinked and he froze. Shit, what the hell did I just say? His stupid, exhausted brain was making him say even stupider things. Not that he didn’t want her to join them. In fact, the thought of exploring places like Alabasta and this so-called sky island with her made him feel warm in his chest in a way he couldn’t explain, plus a little bit excited. If anyone was going to appreciate islands buried in history with him, it would be her.
“That would be –” she began but she was interrupted.
“Hey everyone, let’s get together to chat about our plan!” called Usopp from the upper deck. Kin’emon was with him, nodding importantly.
Momonosuke jumped up. “Yes! Plan talk! These paints are starting to bore me.” He ran up to Kin’emon, abandoning the paper and paints on the deck. Law frowned, that kid really was a spoiled brat.
Robin stood. “Now, now, Momo-chan, we don’t just leave things without packing them away, do we?” she chided gently.
Momo’s chubby face turned pink and he hurried back. “S-sorry Robin.” He collected the paints and paper, and handed them to her bashfully.
“That’s quite alright, just remember next time,” Robin smiled as she took them with a conjured pair of hands and Momo turned pale. Law shared a smirk with Zoro, there were times when Robin’s smile bordered on the terrifying and you remembered that she had once been a ruthless assassin.
I bet she would have been a real sight to see like that. He pictured her with her long dark hair flowing in the wind, using her hands to quietly strangle victims in the dead of night. He shivered. Hmm …
She turned back to their table and, in a flurry of flower petals, her hands appeared to pack up the paints and hold the paper down to let it dry. “Your painting is nice, Traffy-kun.”
Law looked down at his abstract mess. “Are you mocking me?”
Robin chuckled. “Not at all. Art is in the eye of the beholder, you know.”
“If that beholder is blind, sure.”
She laughed and he found himself grinning.
“Oi come on guys!” Usopp called. “Zoro, dammit, where are you going? That’s the prow of the ship, you idiot!”
Law rolled his eyes. “Room. Shambles.” With a pop, he, Robin, Zoro and Momonosuke appeared up next to Usopp who – right on cue – screamed.
“Will. You. Stop. THAT?!”
“No.”
“You really need to get used to it, Usopp,” Robin chided gently.
Usopp turned and marched towards the navigation room where they were holding their meeting, grumbling under his breath. Zoro snorted and followed after a careful push from Robin in the right direction. Momonosuke ran ahead of them to catch up to Kin’emon.
Robin turned to Law. “It would be wonderful to join you back on the other side of the Grand Line.” She smiled at him and headed off after Zoro.
Law felt like he’d just taken his stomach and shambles’d it right off the side of the ship and into the ocean.
Notes:
You'll probably notice that Law is quite relaxed here. I noted that he was the most relaxed we've seen him in Zou, seeing as this was after Dressrosa and he finally reunited with his crew, so I figured he'd maintain that kind of demeanour for a bit while back on the boat with them. But don't worry, Wano is coming and so is stressed-out Law.
Chapter Text
“Oh wow, you have so many nice clothes!” Ikkaku gushed as she rifled through Robin’s wardrobe.
The Polar Tang was getting close to reaching the dangerous borders of Wano, which meant that tonight was their last night of being above water before they inevitably had to submerge for the next five days. To celebrate their last few hours of fresh air and sky, Franky had suggested they have a big party. Everyone except for Law had enthusiastically agreed, and it had taken some careful prodding from Penguin and Shachi to convince their captain to begrudgingly allow it.
So tonight, everyone was going to dress up and head out onto the deck to dance, drink and eat.
Robin had offered for Ikkaku to join her in getting ready. From her own experiences jumping from crew to crew over the years, and even somewhat with being with the Straw Hats, she knew how lonely it could be when you were the only girl. Ikkaku had been absolutely thrilled and she was now going through Robin’s room, gushing over all the nice things she had.
“Gosh I wish I had stuff like this,” Ikkaku continued, pulling out a white and red polka-dot dress and sighing over it wistfully. “There’s just not much point when I mostly have to wear a boiler suit and it’s easier to just wear jeans on casual days anyway.”
“Feel free to take anything to wear tonight, if you’d like,” Robin said with a smile.
“Really? Thanks! I don’t know if I’ll fit into this though. You’re much taller and curvier than I am,” Ikkaku laughed.
“That’s a wrap dress so with a bit of pinning I think we could make it work. You’ll look lovely in it.”
Ikkaku turned pink. “You think so?”
“Absolutely. Feel free to use my makeup too, I remember you mentioning the other day that you don’t have a lot.”
“Ooh OK!” Ikkaku took the dress out and laid it carefully on Robin’s bed, then turned her attention to the vanity. Robin went to her wardrobe and sorted through her clothes, looking for something to wear. “Woah this lipstick is incredible!” Ikkaku gasped, picking up a cherry-red lipstick. She held it up to her face, admiring it against her skin tone. “Where did you get it?”
“Dressrosa, actually,” Robin said. “Princess Viola gave me some makeup and jewellery as a thank you gift.”
“Wow that’s nice of her. It’s beautiful.”
“It’s a lovely colour, isn’t it? For all its faults, Dressrosa has incredible fashion. I suppose it comes from having a surprisingly stylish psychopath as it’s ruler,” she chuckled.
Ikkaku blinked and gave a short, uncomfortable laugh. “Aha, yeah, sure, I guess. I’ll just, uh, check this colour first if you don’t mind.” She hurried to the bathroom.
Whoops, Robin thought ruefully. Perhaps making a joke about the man who'd caused her captain so much trauma wasn't the most tactful thing to say. She’d become so used to talking to Law over the past week that she’d let her guard down with her occasionally tasteless sense of humour. Law would have laughed, she thought and for a moment, she felt an odd pang in her chest. It was the feeling of … missing something. But that was silly, she wasn’t missing anything.
It must be about the rest of the crew. She hadn’t seen them in over a week after all.
Robin returned to looking through her wardrobe and finally selected a floaty, light pink floral dress that she hadn’t had the chance to wear yet.
“What do you think?” Ikkaku asked, coming back out with the lipstick on. The vibrant red suited her well, brightening her cool-toned skin and lighting up her brown eyes.
“Lovely! That will go perfectly with the dress,” Robin said.
Ikkaku’s brown eyes lit up. “You really think so?”
“Absolutely.”
Ikkaku turned to look at herself in the mirror, smiling broadly. “Yeah, I really like it. Ooh I’d better take it off while I get changed, I don’t want to get it on that pretty dress of yours.” She hurried back to the bathroom to remove the lipstick. Robin smiled, she was very cute. A bit like a far more innocent Nami. Robin pulled off her top and shorts and threw them onto the bed, and began to undo the buttons on the dress.
Ikkaku came back in and gasped loudly “Wow!” Robin looked up at her and saw that her hands were covering her mouth and her eyes had gone as wide as a ship’s wheel. “You have an amazing body!”
Robin laughed incredulously. “Why thank you, that’s very kind of you to say. Sorry, I completely forgot that I wasn’t with Nami, I’m so used to just changing.”
“Oh no it’s fine, we’re just girls here, right?” Ikkaku giggled. “It’s just that wow you have the flattest stomach I’ve ever seen and oh my gosh your hips and your boobs!”
Robin laughed again. “You’re not one to talk, you have such an elegant figure.”
Ikkaku turned bright pink. “N-not really.”
Robin gave her a stern look. “Don’t be silly, you’re very pretty, Ikkaku.”
Ikkaku beamed. “Coming from you, that’s a real compliment.”
“Could you help me with these buttons, please?”
“Oh yeah.”
Ikkaku helped button Robin’s dress up and then Robin helped her put on and arrange the polka-dot wrap dress so that it fit her perfectly.
“I bet you must miss the rest of your crew, huh?” Ikkaku said as Robin hitched up the skirt from the back so that it wasn’t quite so long on her shorter legs. “Especially Nami.”
“It’s certainly strange not having them here,” Robin said. “Especially as we didn’t get to see that lot much while we were in Dressrosa. I do miss them, but I know they’ll return to us safely soon. There you go,” she pat Ikkaku on her shoulder. “What do you think?”
Ikkaku twirled in front of the mirror, beaming. “It looks so pretty! Thanks so much. Do you think you could do my hair as well? I seriously have no idea what to do with it.” She pat her dark curls with a disgruntled expression.
“I’m not the best with hair but I can give it a go. Sit here.” Robin bloomed a hand to pull out the chair at the vanity and indicated for Ikkaku to sit. She conjured more hands to help her with styling the hair.
Ikkaku watched the hands with wide eyes. “Your powers are so ... unusual," she said, clearly attempting to be tactful.
Robin chuckled, “I get that a lot.”
“The captain thinks they’re cool, he said so after he met you all in Sabaody.”
Robin’s real hands paused for a second in her gentle brushing of the unruly curls. “Oh?” She resumed her combing.
“Yeah, he mentioned how interesting you were. He was right,” Ikkaku giggled. “You’re much nicer than I expected, though. I think it’s so funny how the government tries to make all us pirates out to be these monsters going around terrorising people, when I’ve met far more nice pirates than mean ones.”
“The government has a habit of doing that,” Robin said with a wry smile. She used one of her hands brush Ikkaku’s curls with a comb and another \to spray hair oil to smooth it down.
“They sure do,” Ikkaku rolled her eyes. “The captain said you guys weren’t as bad as the papers made you out to be. I see what he means now. You’re all really fun, especially Usopp and Franky.”
“They’re good guys.”
“Yeah. It’s nice seeing the captain more relaxed. He’s been so tense for so long, we were worried he was going to have a seizure or something.”
Robin carefully twisted some of the curls, pulling them back from Ikkaku’s forehead. “It’s good that he can finally calm down after Dressrosa,” she said, though she knew from her conversation with him the other day that he wasn’t as relaxed as he was pretending to be.
"Yeah. Having you on board has helped a lot for sure.”
“Well, it’s hard to stay too serious when you have someone like Usopp around,” Robin said, pressing her lips together to hide her smile. For Ikkaku she meant that Usopp had a jovial personality but to her own personal humour, she meant that he was fun to mess with.
The younger girl laughed. “Yes, but that’s not what I meant. I mean you personally.”
Robin’s hands paused again – all of them. She laughed lightly and resumed her work on Ikkaku’s hair. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh I dunno, just that I’ve never seen him laugh with someone so much before. It’s nice.”
Robin pushed down a breath that seemed to have become stuck in her throat. “Well, we do have quite a bit of fun combining our powers together. There’s a lot of possibilities.”
Ikkaku made a face, “Yeah and I thought his powers were weird. Not that yours aren’t cool though of course,” she quickly added. “I bet he appreciates having someone around who doesn’t cringe every time he does something kinda freaky. It almost makes me jealous,” she laughed.
Robin raised an eyebrow as she braided two strands of hair and joined them into the twist she’d already made. “Jealous of what?”
“I used to have a huge crush on him,” Ikkaku waved her hand lightly.
“Oh? On Traffy-kun, really?”
Ikkaku looked at Robin in the mirror. “Look, when you’re a 17-year-old girl about to be sold into sex trafficking and then a tall, dark, incredibly handsome, tattooed man appears to rescue you and gives you a home, it’s hard not to fall completely head over heels in love with him.”
Robin smiled. She could see what Ikkaku was talking about, that would have probably been quite the thing to turn a young girl’s heart. She had a sudden image of Law appearing to rescue her from some unsavoury marine or CP agent when she was a young teenager and felt her stomach jump. Well, it was just a good thing she wasn’t so young and impressionable anymore.
“I’m not the only one,” Ikkaku continued. “To be honest, I think most of the crew had a crush on him at one point,” she giggled. Robin laughed at that, judging from the poster room she’d come across, she could believe it.
“But you got over it?” Robin said as she secured the strands of hair with safety pins.
“Oh yeah. He’s hot and cool and all that, but kind of unattainable, you know? He cares for all of us of course, but the only ones he really opens up to are Bepo, Penguin and Shachi – and he doesn’t even tell them everything. Back when I was a teenager I found it all enticing; the hot, emotionally unavailable captain of the crew. But as I got older, I realised that it was just a pipe dream, and while I’ll always love him as my captain and the man who saved me, he’s absolutely not someone I could give my heart to. He’s just too distant.”
“Mm,” Robin nodded absently. Distant? Is that what Ikkaku thought of him? Robin knew he could be reserved but she’d never thought of him as distant or unattainable. Ikkaku seemed to think of him as some great man, far above her, but Robin privately thought she was letting her own bias get in the way. He was really quite normal once you got to know him.
Robin finished securing the hair and tapped Ikkaku on the shoulder. “There you go, how’s that?”
“Oh wow!” Ikkaku turned her head from side to side, admiring the way Robin had twisted and braided the curls into a stylish updo. “I love it! You’re so good at this. Thanks!”
“You’re welcome. I’ve been learning from Nami but I must confess I’m not the best at it.”
“I think it’s great,” Ikkaku beamed.
Robin got to work on putting up her own hair in a simple, half-back style while Ikkaku began to put on makeup.
“This is so much fun,” she said, as she pat foundation on her cheeks. “It’s so nice getting to hang out with another girl and do these kinds of things. It’s like hanging out with a big sister. And I’m so excited for the party! I really thought the captain was going to say no,” she pouted.
Robin laughed, tying a pink ribbon in her hair. “Does he usually have such a stoic disposition when it comes to parties?”
“He’s not the biggest fan of them,” Ikkaku giggled. “But once you mentioned it would be nice to dress up – oh and Roronoa-san said it would be good to get drunk – he changed his mind pretty quickly.”
Robin missed the sly look Ikkaku sent her as she reached for her eyeliner. “See? He’s not so unattainable as you thought, he’s human just like the rest of us,” Robin teased.
Ikkaku giggled, “I suppose that’s true. Could you help me with makeup, too? I’m terrible with eyeliner and I never bother.”
“Of course.”
When Robin was done with her makeup, Ikkaku stood in front of the mirror, bouncing up and down on the toes of the only heeled sandals she owned. “I can honestly say I’ve never felt so pretty before.”
Robin smiled, “You’re a very pretty girl and you deserve to feel it. That’s something I realised a while back, even putting in just a little bit of effort every day can make you feel so much more confident.”
“Gosh, you’re so wise,” Ikkaku said, shaking her head in awe. She looked back to the mirror, “I really love this lipstick. I’ve only got an old lipstick that I picked up once in Sabaody but I don’t think the colour suits me, it’s too pale.”
“Maybe we could look for something together in Wano?” Robin suggested as she rifled through her wardrobe. “In between learning how to be a geisha of course,” she added. She still wasn’t completely sure how she felt about that. Kin’emon’s suggestion made sense; she was naturally well versed in using her charms and skills to get information, but having to return to that kind of espionage wasn’t something she’d thought she would have to do again.
Law had actually spoken up against it. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? She’ll be the most exposed out of all of us, what if something goes wrong?”
Zoro, Franky and Usopp had also voiced their objections.
“Thank you for your concern, boys, but I can handle it,” she’d replied confidently. And she could, she knew she could. But for some reason, out of all of them who’d spoken up for her, his response had been the one that had touched her the most.
“Ooh like a girl’s shopping trip? That would be wonderful!” Ikkaku was saying. “I’ve always wanted to do that! I drag the boys along with me and some of them do actually care about their clothes – especially the captain – but it’s just not the same.”
“We’ll bring Nami as well,” Robin said, “she’s got a similar skin tone to you so I’m sure she’d be able to help you find something that suits your complexion.”
Ikkaku clapped her hands together. “That would be so fun! I can’t wait.”
The girls looked up as they heard the sound of a fiddle and drums starting to play up on deck, courtesy of the musicians on the Heart crew.
“We’d better get up there before they forget about us,” Robin said.
“Forget about me maybe, but no one’s gonna forget about you when you look like that,” Ikkaku said.
“Oh hush, you look beautiful. Come on.” Robin gently pushed her out of the room.
Notes:
I really wanted to include some Robin and Ikkaku interaction, because I feel like both would appreciate the girl company amongst the sausage-fest - especially Ikkaku who never gets to hang out with a girl ever.
Thanks as always for the support and lovely comments! <3
Chapter 6: A Step Together
Chapter Text
The party was in full swing. The designated musicians of the Heart Pirates had set up their drums, fiddles and guitars, and were playing a rowdy tune that had almost everyone up and dancing. Shachi had loaded up a table full of his best North Blue party food including roasted meat, vegetables cooked in butter and vanilla cakes. Everyone was either drunk or halfway to drunk. Usopp and Penguin had swapped hats and were swaying together, arm-in-arm, singing hideously out of tune.
Law was standing by the balustrade with Zoro, who was already three barrels deep into the sake and didn’t look like he was slowing down anytime soon. Law was only on his second mug. The temptation to keep drinking like everyone else was strong, but he was all too familiar with the repercussions of his behaviour if he went too far and was determined to keep himself sober. Or at least sober enough to maintain his sense of reasoning.
He sipped on his sake, watching the combined crews as they partied. Robin was dancing with Ikkaku, the girls shaking and shimmying together, laughing. Robin’s pink dress swirled around her legs as she danced, accentuating her long legs and elegant movements. Her black hair hung down her back, just touching the top of her tailbone.
“Luffy’s gonna be so mad when he hears we had a party without him,” Zoro said with a chuckle as he slammed down his once-again empty cup.
Law snorted. “Yeah well, I’m sure he’ll insist on having a party of his own if we beat Kaido.”
“When we beat Kaido,” Zoro said without missing a beat.
“Yeah … when …” Law drank his sake. He knew that Luffy was capable of achieving what could be considered miracles, he’d even bragged about it to Doflamingo with what he’d thought would be his last breaths, but he still couldn’t completely envision a future where they actually managed to beat Kaido and his armies. Everything the Straw Hats had achieved until now was nothing short of incredible, but Law had seen Luffy facing off against the admirals in Marineford and, if he hadn’t been rescued multiple times by very unlikely allies (Law himself included), he wouldn’t have left that battlefield alive.
As far as Law was concerned, Kaido was stronger, meaner and more terrifying than all the admirals combined – and that included the living volcano Akainu and Mr I’m-Going-to-Throw-Meteors-on-People-Just-Because Fujitora.
“We’ll beat Kaido and we’ll have a party to celebrate,” Zoro continued, either oblivious to Law’s moody silence or choosing not to care. “Luffy’s all about a good party.”
“Yeah, what’s with that?”
“Who knows?” Zoro smirked, pouring another mug of ale and passing it to Law. “Drink.”
Law frowned. “Don’t tell me what to do. And I’m not having more than two.”
“Why not? It’s a party. Drink up!” Zoro laughed and tipped his head back to down another mug. Law sighed and picked up the mug, he considered it for a moment before, reluctantly, taking a sip.
“Hello, boys.”
Law’s head jerked up so fast from the mug he almost spilled it. Robin was standing next to him, leaning against the balustrade. The bright light of the setting sun was shining on her, turning her pale skin and pink dress gold.
“Downing the sake, I see?” she said with a smile.
“He is,” Law shook his head at Zoro.
“Of course I am, that’s what this whole thing is for, isn’t it?” Zoro grinned.
Robin laughed. “That and dancing. I know you won’t dance Zoro but what about you Law? Come dance with us.”
Law grimaced. “I’ll pass, I don’t dance.”
“Ah, well that’s a shame,” Robin said and Law felt his heartbeat quicken. What did she mean by that exactly? “What do you think of Ikkaku’s outfit?” she asked.
“Huh?” Law tore his gaze away from her to look. He hadn’t noticed that Ikkaku, who was dancing happily with Clione, was wearing in a spotted dress that he was fairly sure he’d seen Robin wear before. “Yeah. Looks nice.”
“She does, doesn’t she? I think it’s the lipstick I leant her. We’re going to look for one for her in Wano but I don’t think we’ll be able to find the same shade. Viola mentioned that Dressrosan lipstick is quite unique. She’s the one who gave it to me,” she added as way of explanation.
“I see.” He remembered her quite well, the princess who’d worked for Doflamingo, the one he’d had to save at the last minute from a stupid suicide mission. He remembered clearly the look in her eyes when he'd saved her. The look of rage, hate, despair, terror and ... something else. He knew it far too well - it was the look of someone who'd had their entire life twisted by Doflamingo.
“To be honest, I was surprised by how good the fashion and makeup is over there," Robin continued. "I suppose it comes from having a surprisingly stylish psychotic dictator as it’s ruler.”
Law snorted. “Would we call him stylish, though?”
“I’d say so. Very few people could pull off that shade of pink.”
“We talking about the coat or the pants? ‘Cause the pants, maybe, but the coat is … a choice.”
“Both,” she laughed and Law found himself joining in. It was weird to laugh about the man he still considered to be his mortal nemesis in such a lighthearted manner. To anyone else it might have seemed insensitive but he found that it was surprisingly helpful. It made Doflamingo appear less like a threat and more like a bad joke that he could just brush off.
He noticed Robin smiling like she was hiding some kind of secret joke. “What?” he asked.
“Oh nothing,” she shook her head, still smiling. “Are you sure you don’t want to dance?” She held out her slender hand and, for the barest hint of a second, he felt his resolve waver. But then he saw Franky thrusting in a way that should be considered illegal, and Usopp spinning around with his arms in the air, and Kin’emon whirling Momonosuke, and Bepo doing some kind of worm movement on the floor – and he remembered exactly why he didn’t dance in the first place. Or dance with them, anyway.
“No. You go ahead.”
“Oh, very well,” she said, retracting her hand. Was it just him, or did she pull it back slower than would be expected? “Zoro?”
Zoro raised his mug. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Fine, fine, I’ll leave you boys to it,” she said with a gentle laugh. She walked back to the dancefloor where Shachi caught her arm and pulled her into the group.
Law suddenly had a very strange urge to shove Shachi out of the way and take Robin’s hand instead. But that was ridiculous. Why would he want to dance with her? He hated dancing and dancing with her over anyone else wasn’t going to change that.
He tipped his head back and gulped down the entirety of his mug of sake in one go, then he held it out to Zoro. “More,” he demanded.
Zoro whistled. “Not bad. Here you go, drink up!”
Law drank slowly this time, watching the crews as they danced and partied without a care in the world. As though they weren’t just a few hours off the edge of the coast of one of the most mysterious islands in the world. As though it wasn’t the country where an Emperor reigned with a fist of terror and an army of beasts. As though they weren’t about to enter their tomb.
He grimaced down at his mug, suddenly the alcohol didn’t taste so soothing anymore. Now it just tasted harsh and bitter, like truth.
“Oi, can I see your sword?” Zoro’s voice broke through his thoughts.
“Huh?” Law looked down at the swordsman. Zoro pointed to Kikoku, which Law had left leaning against the mast. “Why?”
“I like swords, especially cursed ones.”
“How did you know it was cursed?”
“Can feel it.”
Law would think that was a bit freaky if he didn’t know exactly what Zoro meant. “Go ahead. Just be careful.”
Zoro gave him a withering look as he stood. His three swords were also leaning against the mast. “You don’t need to tell me to be careful with a sword.”
Law snorted into his sake, that was probably true. Zoro picked up Kikoku and ran his hands along the sleek black sheath. He grasped the hilt and drew the sword, holding it up to the sky, the last remnants of the setting sun lighting the blade on fire. He analysed the steel, running his calloused hands over it. Then he gave it some light practice swings.
“I’m not used to such a long blade,” Zoro said. “I guess you don’t really use this like a swordsman, though, do you?”
Law bristled at the words. “I’m a swordsman well enough. But no, I suppose I don’t use it the way you would.”
Zoro sliced it carefully through the air. “It’s very well-crafted. One of those swords that’s far lighter than it looks. Did you have any trouble getting it to behave when you first got it?”
“Not really. It was a little stubborn at first but I’m more so,” he smirked.
“I can believe that,” Zoro smirked, continuing to practice with the sword. “What’s its name?”
“Kikoku.”
“Huh. The wailings of a restless ghost.”
“That’s right.” It was a morbid name – or at least that’s what Penguin and Shachi said – but he’d always found it fitting. It was symbolic of his continuous drive to avenge Corazon and his family.
“I like it, very sinister,” Zoro grinned, sheathing the blade smoothly. He leant the sword back against the mast. “You should tell Robin, she’d think it was the coolest thing ever.”
Law felt the corners of his mouth twitch slightly. He looked over at the crew dancing around on the deck. They’d started to light the lanterns as the sun began to hide under the horizon and stars appeared up above. Robin was at the edge of a circle that had formed, clapping her hands (six of them that she’d conjured up from her back) and laughing as Usopp and Penguin performed a ridiculous dance-off. She looked beautiful, even with the extra hands – especially with the extra hands, if Law was being honest. There was something about the way they enhanced her already elegant, tall frame that was so enticing it made it difficult for him to pull his eyes away.
“Oi! Captain!” called Bepo, waving at them. “Come join us, you two!”
“Nah,” Zoro said.
“No,” Law said.
“Awwww.” Bepo crossed his arms and pouted his furry little mouth and widened his big black eyes to make himself appear cute. “Come on Captain, please!” Law pressed his lips together tightly. He would not allow himself to be pulled in by Bepo’s manipulation.
“Stop that!” he snapped.
Bepo stuck his lower lip out. “Pleeeeease!”
“No,” Law growled deep in his throat. He wouldn’t give in, he wouldn’t!
“But Captaaaaaiiinn!” Bepo wailed.
“I said no, stop trying to be cute just to get me to give in.”
Without warning, two hands appeared out of thin air and grabbed both his and Zoro’s arms.
“Oi! Robin!” Zoro complained.
“Hey!” shouted Law.
They were dragged across the deck until they found themselves right at the edge of the dancing circle. Robin giggled at their expressions and released her hands.
“You owe me a drink for that,” Zoro grumbled good-naturedly. A hand appeared, holding his drink and he took it, a grin spreading across his face. “That’ll do.” He turned to Uri and clinked his mug before they downed their drinks together.
Law turned to glare at Robin. “Well, I’m not going to –” he stopped as a hand appeared, holding onigiri in its flat palm.
“Sorry but I didn’t want you to miss out on the fun,” Robin said with a smile. She didn’t look sorry at all. “It’s your favourite right?”
She remembered? He took the onigiri and shoved it in his mouth, chewing grumpily. He did like Shachi’s onigiri, made exactly the way he liked. Robin laughed and he rolled his eyes.
The night wore on and the party continued. They ate, they drank, everyone but Law and Zoro sang and danced, though both did quietly chime in when Bink’s Sake was played. Raizo even performed some of his impressive ninja feats, cheered on loudly by everyone except for Robin and Ikkaku who watched with bemused expressions.
“I don’t get it,” Robin said to Law as Raizo performed a shadow clone jutsu. “You can do almost everything he can with your own powers.”
“He’s a ninja. Ninjas are cool,” Law said, shaking his head at her. How could she not get it? Ninjas were up there with robots and his favourite comic, Sora Warrior of the Sea, as one of the coolest things ever. “Woah!” he grinned as Raizo suddenly disappeared.
“COOOOOL!” Usopp, Penguin, Shachi and Franky exclaimed.
After Raizo did his tricks, Franky performed a laser show for them, which was even cooler than the ninja stuff. Robin and Ikkaku, again, didn’t seem to get it, but they cheered anyway.
When he was done, Usopp shot fireworks in the air, Kanjuro painted some sickly-looking birds to fly around and Bepo performed ridiculous but nonetheless crowd-pleasing kung-fu moves. After that, Robin offered to do some tricks with her devil fruit. Law was the only one to agree while everyone else hurriedly suggested they get back to dancing.
Kin’emon grabbed Momonosuke. “It’s well past this one’s bedtime so we’ll, er, all be off now. Come on Kanjuro, Raizo. Us samurai need to get our sleep.”
The Wano group headed below deck and the pirates resumed their partying with even more gusto than before.
As the night wore on, the pirates also began to slowly head off. Ikkaku and Clione were first, then the others followed. Soon, the only people left were the fiddle and guitar musicians, Bepo, Penguin, Shachi and Law, and the Straw Hats. Most of them were sitting around, talking over mugs of sake and the remains of the food.
Law was back to leaning against the balustrade beside Zoro who was, miraculously, still mostly functioning, despite having gone through more than half of the alcohol stocks just by himself. He watched Usopp swinging a giggling Robin around drunkenly to the music.
“‘S’good you agreed to this,” Zoro said. Law was impressed that he was only now starting to slur.
“Yeah, it’s good for the crew to have some fun, I guess.”
“Mm yeah, that. But also us, y’know. The ones who’re gonna have to do the real fighting against the big guys. I used to treat every day like it might be my last,” Zoro crossed his arms, “used to spend every minute thinking that I had to be prepared to die and it was depressing as hell. But if being with Luffy has taught me anything, it’s that it’s better to live every day in the moment. Don’t think about the future – just do and enjoy the things you want to do right here and now. Which, for me, is drinking as much as I can,” he grinned wolfishly and raised his mug of sake in a self-toast.
Law watched Robin as Usopp tried to spin her around. She was much taller than him and had to do an awkward duck to get under his spindly arms.
“I don’t know if I can afford to think like that,” Law said.
“You should try it,” Zoro said, “trust me.”
“I’m not sure I can trust a man who doesn’t know his left from his right,” Law said.
“Oi! Can so!” Zoro insisted.
Law didn’t hear him. Robin was giggling uncontrollably as Usopp whirled her out and back in. Before he knew what he was doing, he found himself walking over.
“We – we might have to practice that, Usopp,” Robin laughed breathlessly, as she practically crashed into the smaller man.
“Whoops sooorrrrryyy Robiiiiin,” Usopp slurred.
Robin stepped out of his hold and was about to take his hands again, when Law tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to him with surprise and a gentle smile graced her lovely face. “Traffy-kun.”
“Mind if I cut in?” Law said.
“Naaaaah go for it maaaan,” Usopp said, waving his hands around. He stumbled back across the deck to stand next to Zoro.
Law held his hand out to Robin and she took it with a smile. His hand was large and calloused from years of using his sword and medical instruments, but hers was warm and soft and gentle. He pulled her closer and put his other hand on her shoulder, and she did likewise with him. Then they danced.
They moved slowly together, taking the steps in perfect harmony with ease, as though they’d been dancing this way for a long, long time.
“I thought you said you didn’t dance,” she teased.
“I said I didn’t, I never said I couldn’t.”
“Perhaps you should have specified. Here I thought you might be terribly uncoordinated like Zoro and would trip all over me.”
“Please,” Law rolled his eyes. “Just because we both have swords doesn’t mean you have to compare us.”
“I’d never dream of it Traffy-kun.”
“Besides, I’m from Flevance.”
Robin raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“I grew up learning how to dance. It’s just muscle memory for me, even if I haven’t done it in a long time.”
“How impressive, I clearly underestimated you,” she said coyly.
Law smirked, “That’s foolish of you. Are you forgetting that I’m the Surgeon of Death?”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed. Perhaps you should put more tattoos on yourself with the words DEATH written on it, or stick a permanently glowing sign on your head?”
A cool breeze blew across the deck, causing Robin’s dress to brush against Law’s legs. She’d worn a similar colour that time they’d arrived at Zou, when she’d sat in front of him on that silly (albeit kind of cute) dragon. It had been a long way up to the top of the elephant and he’d had a lot of time to see the long strands of her black hair getting caught in the threads of her pink knit shirt.
He remembered thinking the colour was nice on her.
“Maybe I should. I mean, if even you, the notorious demon child and infamous assassin couldn’t pick it up, I really should do my best to make it clearer.”
“Absolutely. You don’t want people to get the wrong idea and think you’re the Surgeon of Life or, God forbid, not a surgeon at all and just a common pirate,” Robin mock-gasped and Law chuckled.
“That would be terrible, Nico-ya,” he said as he spun her around gently.
“Truly awful, Traffy-kun.”
They didn’t notice that the music had become softer and slower. They didn’t see Zoro and Usopp grinning at each other, nor Penguin and Shachi smirking, nor Franky smiling at them with his head in his hands.
They just danced together under the stars, talking softly about nothing.
Law could feel the anxiety-ridden recesses of his brain starting to go into overdrive but maybe because he was more drunk than he’d intended to be, or maybe because of something else, he ignored it for once. Perhaps Zoro had been right, and it was good sometimes to forget about the future and just enjoy things as they were in that moment.
He didn’t know if he’d ever get the chance to do this again.
Notes:
This might be one of the first scenes I ever envisioned for them all the way back in Dressrosa when I really picked up the shipping bug. It was nice to finally get to write it out!
Chapter 7: Submerged
Notes:
I'm sorry that this chapter isn't as nice and happy as the previous one.
TW: Mentions of self-harm
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been three days since the Polar Tang went into full submarine mode.
The first day had been fun. It was like living in an aquarium, almost like the one on the Sunny, and Robin found herself spending most of her time looking through the potholes and admiring the incredible species of fish that swam by.
On the second day, it started to grow old. She was feeling the pressure of being under the sea, and her Devil Fruit-enhanced body became sore and tired. Zoro grumbled that there wasn’t enough space to train with the deck now off-limits. Usopp cried at seeing so many sharks and he could no longer look outside a window without suffering a small heart-attack. Franky, at least, was completely unphased – bless him – and was getting along famously with the Heart Pirates.
By the third day, being submerged had become downright depressing. It reminded Robin of being in Crocodile’s ridiculous lair, where the enormous bananagators had drifted lazily through the water with the sole purpose of intimidating both his enemies and his subordinates. She remembered the people she’d killed in that room as he laughed. She’d laughed too. Because it had been easy to laugh then, because it was them being killed and not her. Because it meant she was safe and could live another day trying to find the Rio Poneglyph.
How she’d hated herself back then.
On the fourth day, she found herself staring listlessly out the window, an unread book sitting open in her hands. She normally didn’t let a good book go to waste, but she was so tired that her body felt like it was sinking into the chair and her mind was filled with so many unpleasant memories that she was struggling to function as she normally would.
She wasn’t the only one. Kin’emon and Kanjuro had become terse and tense, and spent their days lying in their room, listlessly trying to entertain Momonosuke who grew quieter by the day.
Law seemed to be the most affected. Robin had assumed he would be used to this and thus it would barely bother him, but with every passing hour, he became more and more irritable – even more so than he had been prior to Dressrosa.
At first, Robin thought it was just the result of being under the sea for so long, and it hadn’t escaped her notice that he was the kind of person to be easily influenced by his environment. But that morning at breakfast, he’d sat hunched at the table, eating his onigiri in silence, staring at nothing, and she recognised the furrow of his brows and the deep shadows under his eyes.
He was worried.
She couldn’t blame him. Sure, they’d defeated Doflamingo, but even she had to admit that it had been a close call and it was only thanks to being able to buy more time that Luffy had inevitably won. Even with their combined efforts, Law and Luffy had struggled. And that was just the Warlord Doflamingo. Not the Emperor Kaido, the so-called strongest man in the world.
Robin wasn’t afraid. She’d been with Luffy long enough to know that he would win – he would always win. And she’d been with her crew long enough to know that they would all protect each other, that they would fight and win together. But she also knew that the Straw Hats were a very unusual crew. Most crews didn’t have almost all members with bounties that could rival a captain, and most crews didn’t have a Luffy at its helm. A Luffy was a rare find – Robin had yet to find any other crew with a Luffy.
Law was far, far more practical, pragmatic, logical and trepidatious. He was also – by all accounts – smarter than Luffy. He thought things through. Sometimes too much. She supposed it was both a good and bad thing. Without Law’s intelligence and natural intuition, they never would have been able to take down Doflamingo – and in the same vein, without Luffy’s impulsiveness and fighting instinct, they also never would have won.
If she was to be honest, Law’s way of analysing and thinking things through was far more her style. She also preferred to know everything that was going to happen before it happened. But she’d come to learn through being with the Straw Hats that, sometimes, you just had to live by the seat of your pants and take things as they came.
But Law didn’t live like that and, while his crew was strong and capable, they weren’t on the same level as an Emperor’s crew. Honestly, Robin wasn’t even entirely sure that the Straw Hats were either. While she had great faith in them, apart from Luffy, Zoro and Sanji (and herself of course), she did worry that they would struggle against the Beast Pirates.
His concerns were valid. His worries made sense. He had every right to be anxious. But seeing him like this again, after she’d watched him make progress in the wake of Dressrosa, was starting to … hurt. She didn’t know how or why, but something in her chest ached every time she saw him. She wanted to help him feel better and to let him know that they would win, but she knew that whatever she said wouldn’t help. He would just think that she was pitying him and he would hate it.
Robin’s fingers twitched against the pages of her book and she sighed. That was another reason she was struggling to read. She found her mind kept drifting to either her crewmates on Whole Cake Island (was Sanji alright? Were they already on their way back? Had Luffy inevitably angered the Emperor Big Mom and now they would have to deal with two emperors?), or to Law and, specifically, that night they’d danced together at the party.
At the time, she hadn’t thought much of it. It had felt so natural, so normal, so easy. Like dancing with someone she’d known her whole life. But now that her exhausted mind was latching onto the strangest things to think about, that was one of them. And she was starting to think about it more, and more, and more.
The way his strong, tattooed hand had held hers so gently, the way her hand had rested on his broad shoulder, the way his grey eyes had glimmered in the light of the full moon, the way his lips had turned up a smile as they’d talked and laughed and joked. The way the night breeze had ruffled his black hair. The way his blue shirt had fit so well on his body.
It was so strange. She usually didn’t give men much thought – at least, not like this. She’d been on the run for most of her life and had been an assassin at that; she’d had to use men and let men use her just to survive. If she’d ever been slightly interested in a man, they usually turned out to be at best a disappointment, at worst another victim for her to snap the neck of. No man had ever been able to match her pace and no man had ever enticed her enough regardless, either physically or emotionally.
Then suddenly, Trafalgar Law appeared, quite literally out of nowhere on Punk Hazard. She’d found herself watching him with a keen eye from the moment Luffy brought him into the cave. His ability was more than a little bit intriguing, his status as a warlord and his history even more so. She’d been suspicious at first. He was notorious in a way that almost compared to Luffy, and she was surprised by his sudden and very odd request to form an alliance. She’d been with enough pirate groups to know that they betrayed easily and often with little remorse.
But by the end of that strange day in Punk Hazard, she’d come to realise that he was genuine and ambitious in a way that was also so similar and yet so unlike Luffy. The poor thing had been completely pulled into Luffy’s pace – he’d handled it about as well as could be expected for someone like him, though she had a feeling that he might have sacrificed a few brain cells in the process.
It wasn’t just his actions that piqued her interest, though. She and Nami had exchanged glances when he boarded the Sunny with them and, as silly and teenage-girl as it might be, they’d giggled about how attractive he was that night as they got ready for bed.
She couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t absolutely a breath of fresh air compared to the Straw Hat men. Sanji was the only one who bathed regularly but he layered himself up in so much cologne, which clashed horribly with the constant smell of smoke, that it was almost as bad as being around Zoro for too long. Law was quiet, he was neat, he was clean, he bathed every day (a miracle that she and Nami had giggled even more about), he complained about silly things but not nearly as much as everyone else in the crew did, he was occasionally bratty but, again, not as much as nearly everyone else, and was able to function as an adult human being without any hand-holding.
He didn’t scream for meat at midnight, he didn’t get lost when the path was right in front of him, he was incredibly respectful to her and Nami, he didn’t loudly proclaim his fake achievements, he was always fully clothed, and he never, never asked to see their underwear.
He was so normal that he felt alien compared to the rest of the crew.
But goodness was it a nice change. Robin loved her crew, she loved their weird quirks and idiosyncrasies, but sometimes it all got a bit much for her naturally introverted personality and she would retreat to the library or her little garden. And he would join her.
They barely spoke at all – it seemed more like a subconscious instinct from him to seek out the one other introverted bookworm on the ship. She’d read or tend to her flowers, and he would be so focused on going over and over and over his plan to take down Doflamingo that sometimes he forgot she was there. But that had been fine, she’d enjoyed the sound of his silence.
The most they’d talked was when she helped him put together the groups for his “Take down Doflamingo” plan. He’d requested her assistance and it had been quite fun to go through the plan with him and discuss who would suit which job. It reminded her of her days working for Crocodile, where the only part she’d enjoyed was putting together plans and doing admin.
Law had been the one to suggest she join his group on the mission. “I need someone that I can rely on.”
That had brought a smile to her face.
She wished he’d been able to rely on her a bit more. She felt guilty that she’d been pulled away by the tontattas as he faced Doflamingo by himself. When she saw Luffy jumping out of the exploding building, Law hanging limp and broken in his arms, she’d felt fear. A deep, intense fear that she hadn’t felt since that day Kuma had separated them all.
She still wasn’t entirely sure why she’d been so upset. After all, she’d barely known him even a week. But her fear had been real. She’d clutched his body in her arms, feeling his erratic, laboured breathing pulsing through her fingertips. Seeing him so utterly broken like that, not just his body, but the pain and emptiness in his eyes, had triggered something in her that she’d been able to repress since joining the Straw Hats. It reminded her of Enies Lobby. When she’d been an empty shell waiting to die.
She refused to let that happen to him. She made a subconscious vow in her heart then and there to protect him, and keep him from being hurt any further, even if it meant risking her life. Strangely enough, that vow hadn’t dissipated since then. Or maybe it had morphed into something else?
She was the first to admit that she wasn’t good with feelings. She’d spent her entire life trying to repress them and even now she struggled to be honest about her emotions, even to her crew – even to herself. So she couldn’t quite decipher at this point what she felt for him, or why, or how. Did she call him a friend? Maybe.
Did he call her a friend?
She had no idea.
She’d tried to engage with him after Dressrosa, ask what he would do now that Doflamingo had been defeated. In hindsight, it had been too soon to ask him that. He’d smiled, told her not to worry and walked off. It hadn’t been a straight-up dismissal but it hadn’t exactly been an open invitation to talk either.
So, she’d left him alone. He wanted space, she could understand that. He needed time to process and heal what had happened. She could definitely understand that, too.
In Zou, they’d maintained that distance – for the most part. It hadn’t escaped her notice that, when she was the first person to get onto the back of Ryunosuke (poor, poor Ryunosuke, such a valiant dragon who’d tried his best), he’d chosen to sit behind her before anyone else could take their seat.
It was probably just a coincidence, she didn’t want to think too much into it. But she’d spent most of the incredible journey up the elephant being far too aware of the fact that he was right behind her. They’d even locked eyes a few times and she’d smiled and remarked at how amazing it was – he’d agreed.
It had been small. Barely anything at all. But still, it had made her feel something.
And now, after over a week of being in such close proximity together on the Polar Tang, she was finding herself feeling something even more and becoming increasingly confused. On the outside, she was a professional at maintaining her calm, unphased demeanour. On the inside, her mind was now a jumbled mess and her heart stuttered in a strange way every time she saw or thought of him.
Perhaps yes, she did consider him a friend. But did he think of her as one? Something more? Something less?
She didn’t know and she hated not knowing. She was an archaeologist by nature and an assassin by nurture, it was in her very essence to know the ins and outs of things and people. It was her survival instinct. She liked to know the truth and leave no doubts hanging around to overanalyse to death.
Robin sighed deeply and rubbed her head. A migraine had been forming behind her eyes since morning and she’d forgotten to pack her tablets. She’d hoped it would go away by itself but it stubbornly refused. I’ll see if Law has any lying around. She stood, her exhausted body screaming in protest, and dragged herself out into the corridor and down the hall to his room. She mostly needed the tablets but she would be lying if she said this wasn’t partially an excuse to talk to him. She needed to talk to someone at least to get out of her own head and he was the only one whose energy she could match right now. Plus, she rather liked talking to him.
She knocked slowly on the door.
After a while where Robin considered either knocking again or leaving, Law cracked the door open just a bit, saw who it was and then opened it enough so that he could lean against the doorframe, arms crossed. He looked terrible. The dark circles under his eyes were even more prominent than usual, his brown skin was pallid and his black hair was a mess, sticking up at all angles. She had never seen him dressed so casually before in a loose black t-shirt and slacks. If she was being honest, the whole tormented look was doing things to her.
“Sorry to disturb,” Robin said apologetically.
“It’s fine,” he yawned and ran a hand through his hair, making the spikes stick up even more. “I was just lying in bed staring into the abyss, anyway.”
“Ah, I have that scheduled for 4pm.”
“Yeah?” a tired smirk lifted the corners of his lips. “What’s on now, then?”
“My planned existential crisis.”
“Nice. I’ve got that in my diary for 2am.”
“That’s the time where I remember every terrible thing I’ve ever done and wonder if I should just jump into the ocean to end it all.”
“Huh, that one usually hits me at 4am.” They chuckled together tiredly. He rubbed the heel of his hand over his eyes. “Do you need something?”
“Oh yes, do you have medicine for a migraine?”
“Plenty,” Law snorted. He opened the door fully. “Come in, I’ll find you some.”
He walked into his room and headed over to a drawer beside his bed, where he began rummaging around. Robin followed and looked around curiously around the room of the infamous Surgeon of Death. It was simple and minimalist. There was a large diagram of the human body on one wall that was covered in little notes and markings in small, scrawling script. A skeleton stood in the corner, acting as a coatrack of all things with his signature white hat on its head and a blue coat hanging from its shoulders.
Surprisingly, succulent plants were stacked along every surface, bringing some much-needed greenery to the otherwise neutral room. Books were stacked in a neat pile beside the bed and all over the desk that sat under the pothole window.
On the desk, she noted a large, detailed list of notes and diagrams that she guessed might have to do with their plan to defeat Kaido. There was also a table with a set of tattoo inking equipment, above which was a photograph of what looked to be a microscopic view of blood cells.
Robin approached the table and photography curiously. She looked up at it, analysing the size of the cells and the colour. “Are these cells?”
“Uhuh, it’s a photograph of blood cells that have been mutated after ingesting a devil fruit,” Law said, still rummaging in the drawer. “The way they connect together is different to that of a normal person.”
“Fascinating,” Robin said with wonder, reaching up to trace the photograph. “I’ve seen descriptions and diagrams in books but I’ve never seen such a detailed photograph before.”
“Yeah, it was a real find on the black market.”
“And is that skeleton over there real?”
Law straightened up with a smirk, “What do you think?” Robin bit her lip. Surgeon of Death indeed. He walked over and held out his hand, offering up three different packets of pills. “Here, I’ve got strong, extra-strong and so strong it’ll knock you out for a night. Take them all.”
Robin smiled. “Perfect, thank you. I haven’t had a migraine in a while so hopefully the strong will work but you never know when I might need the others.” She took them, her fingers brushing against his warm hand as she did so.
“Yeah, well, save them for Wano,” Law said darkly, crossing his arms. She noticed that his demeanour changed immediately and a haunted look stormed over his grey eyes.
Robin pocketed the pills and glanced at the table. “Do you do your tattoos yourself?” she asked in an attempt to lighten his mood.
“Yeah, most of them,” Law said, and he did sound slightly less grumpy. “Except for these,” he held out one hand, showing the knuckles where the word DEATH was inked. “They were my first, I got them done when I was a kid before I knew how to do them myself.”
“When you were a kid?” Robin raised an eyebrow. “How old were you?”
“13. I had them done as a … reminder of what it means to be a surgeon and to have the power of the Op Op no Mi. That I have the ability to stop death and that I outlived my death sentence from the white lead disease.”
Robin smiled. “I think that’s wonderful.”
Law snorted, “Most people think it’s morbid. It’s just one of the reasons why I got my nickname.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with having a fearsome reputation, especially in the pirate world,” Robin teased. “We know people love to slap labels on us and call us monsters, Surgeon-san.”
Law eyed her, the edge of his mouth curled up in a smirk. “That’s true, Demon-ya.”
Robin chuckled. “Maybe I should get some tattoos. Perhaps I should write Demon Child: Beware right here,” she pointed to her chest, just above her sternum, “so that people know who I am from the get-go.”
“I’m sure that would strike fear into the hearts of your enemies,” he sniggered.
“Absolutely,” Robin said. Her voice turned serious, “Though, actually, I wouldn’t mind getting a tattoo. Something that’s meaningful to me.”
“Yeah? Where would you get it.”
“Hmm.” Robin held out her right hand, wrist-side facing up. “Maybe here.”
Law casually took her wrist and Robin’s lips parted in surprise. “That’s not a bad place for your first tattoo. You could get something small and see if you like it then build it up later if you wanted more.” His hand was so firm on her wrist and she could feel her heart fluttering like the petals of the flowers that sometimes appeared when she conjured her hands. He placed his finger gently on the middle of her wrist, right above the vein. Right above where a long, thin white scar lightly marred the surface. “Maybe there –” he began, but then his voice cut-off immediately as his finger found the ridge of the scar.
He dropped her hand and stepped back, crossing his arms tightly. Robin blinked at him. His face had returned to the dark, hardened expression he wore before Dressrosa. The fluttering of her heart now turned to heavy, slow thumps.
“Those pills should be enough for the rest of the trip and most of Wano.” His voice was now short and overly polite. “Is there anything else you need?”
“No, thank you.” Robin said, matching his tone. “I’ll see you at dinner.” They nodded courteously and she left his room without glancing back. She heard the door close behind her as she made her way back down the corridor and to her room.
Once inside, she leaned against the door, breathing heavily. Her stomach was churning and now she felt a completely different kind of headache. She held up her arms. The light from the lamp flickered over the lattice of shiny scars that traced and ridged over her white skin. it had been a long time since she’d thought about how they’d come to be.
How could she possibly think that Law would feel something for her? Sure, the Straw Hats had accepted her and made her want to live, but even with them she was still in the process of healing. Despite what she said and despite the fact that she knew, without question, that they loved her and would die for her, there was always that tiny little voice in the recesses of her mind that whispered they didn’t mean it, that they didn’t really need her, and soon the burden of Nico Robin would become too much and they would abandon her.
Despite the wounds that the Straw Hats had begun to patch up, some took far longer to heal and some never really did. Some left scars that would never fade.
She traced her scars with her little finger, following them along the curve of her arm. She remembered each one like an oath.
It was foolish to think she’d healed enough for someone who wasn’t family to care for her. He was broken too, the last thing he wanted was the burden of holding her patched body in his hands.
Robin took the packets of pills out of her pocket. She popped two and downed it with the remains of her cold tea. The migraine was now unbearable and she was struggling to see. She got into bed, covers pulled up to her chin and lay there, staring at the scars, until she fell into a restless sleep.
Notes:
I often wondered how Law coped with being in the submarine as a DF user, with even Bepo saying that it gets depressing, so this is my take on it. I also imagine that Robin would be heavily affected by it, especially with it reminding her of her time with Crocodile. Both of them just need a big hug right now.
Chapter 8: Down
Notes:
I'm sorry for the delay on this chapter and thanks a lot for your patience and lovely comments. I'm in the process of moving houses and it's been hectic. But you'll be happy to know that the first things to go up in my new office were, of course, my Law figures!
Also, I'm sorry for another sad chapter. This one is quite dark as well, just forewarning. Poor Law has a lot to work through.
TW: Suicidal thoughts, references to self-harm
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Seastone chains held him down, tying him to the stone floor that was so cold it made his very bones ache. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. His lungs were filled with fluid and he coughed. His disease had returned.
It was dark. So dark. He couldn’t see anything except – wait – yes he could. Coming towards him, marching with purposeful steps. Slow. Deliberate. Was that screaming he could hear in the distance? It sounded like Straw Hat. And Penguin. And Shachi. And Bepo. And there was a woman. Was that …?
Deep, slow, sinister laughter sounded with the footsteps. He wrenched on his chains, the metal sawing into his skin, desperate to get away. The laughter only increased, becoming loud and maniacal. Like it was savouring his pain.
Red eyes appeared in the dark followed by grinning teeth and a face he knew far too well. “Going so soon, Law?” the cruel voice said.
Law struggled harder. He knew it was useless but he had to try. He had to escape. He had to save everyone.
“Don’t worry, we’re taking very good care of them.”
Strings appeared, gleaming like a spider’s web. They sliced over his arms and wrists, creating long, agonising scars. Law tried to scream but his mouth was glued shut and no sound emerged.
“This is your punishment for thinking you’re anything more than a pathetic little boy.”
The laughter increased and his arms were sliced again and again and again until they were bloody ribbons and nothing remained.
Still he could hear them screaming.
And the laughter.
The never-ending laughter.
-
Law toppled out of bed and fell SMACK onto the floor. He lay on the cool tiles, heavy breaths wracking through his body. Each gasp of air was an effort.
“One … two ….” He tried to count out loud slowly. It felt like he was speaking through a mouthful of honey.
“Three … four ….” He could still hear the laughter and the screams. His beloved crew. The Straw Hats.
Robin.
“Five … six ….” His wrists were burning as though they had actually been lacerated by those hateful strings. He looked down at his arms. His very real scars were mostly hidden by black tattoos but they were still there, subtly shining on his dark skin.
“Seven … eight ….” He needed to get outside, get fresh air. But he couldn’t. He was stuck in the submarine for at least another day. The light of the water filtered through the window, turning his room blue. Was this what Impel Down felt like? Being stuck underwater, the effect of it eating away at you like a monster slowly gnawing at your skin and bones?
“Nine … Fuck it!” Law jumped up and ran to his bathroom. He stripped off his clothes, turned the tap of his shower on to cold and stepped in. The brutally icy water pummelled his hot, sweating skin. He welcomed the pain. At least it made him feel like he was here and not in Impel fucking Down of all places.
He leaned against the wall, letting the freezing water stream through his hair and down his back over his tattoos. He was so in over his goddamn head. What the fuck had made him think he could lead a challenge against a fucking emperor? And Kaido at that!
He knew the answer and it wasn’t a pleasant one. It had been to get at Doflamingo. He’d been so fucking determined to get his revenge on that sick, twisted motherfucker that he’d jumped all the normal steps to land near the end of the Grand Line. He’d been somewhat genuine about his intentions. After all, he wasn’t the kind of man to be content with just being yet another pirate sailing the Grand Line – he’d always wanted to get to the top eventually.
But that top should have been at least a few more years down the track, once he’d fully awakened his devil fruit, and once he’d established strong alliances and gathered a fleet of his own with enough power to take on an emperor. Except he’d let his own anger and yearning for revenge get the better of him. He’d jumped too far ahead too soon.
This was going to be a suicide mission.
They were all going to die.
Perhaps that would be for the best. With some luck, Kaido would just explode them all at once and that would be that. Then, at least, they wouldn’t have to face imminent enslavement, torture and imprisonment. His horrible nightmares wouldn’t come true.
At least, if he was dead, he could see Corazon again.
That would be nice, he thought. His back was now numb from the bitter water. It was soaking his hair and getting into his eyes, but he barely noticed anymore. He could finally talk to Corazon and introduce him to the crew. He could tell him how they’d taken down Doflamingo.
He could see his family. Lami. Mother. Father. He didn’t even remember what they looked like; he couldn’t picture their faces, he couldn’t remember if his parents were as tall as he now was, he couldn’t remember if they all shared the same dark hair and skin. He couldn’t remember anything about them at all.
He could hardly remember Corazon either. Just his goofy smile and clown makeup.
Robin could see her people again, too. She deserved that, to be reunited with the people of Ohara. She wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted down by the scum of the world. She would be free.
So would Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats.
So would his crew.
I could finally be free … the thought washed over him like the shower water, and he longed for it so much it made his bones ache. No more pain, no more suffering, no more trauma, no more fear.
Corazon would greet him with a smile and a hug, and everything would be right again. Maybe he would finally be happy.
Except … Corazon wouldn’t be smiling.
For over 16 years, Law had pictured his own death with vivid clarity. Whether he died by white lead disease, or at the hands of the Donquixote pirates, or in a suicide attack that would finally rid the world of the disgusting bastard that was Doflamingo, it had been as present in his mind as breathing.
For the first three years after Flevance, he’d dreamed of being reunited with his family. “Welcome home, Law. We’ve missed you!”
After Corazon’s death, his family has been replaced. The tall man stood with his arms wide open, the cheesy, goofy, loving smile on his face. “Welcome home, Law. You did it! You finally took him down. I’m so proud of you.”
Law had spent 13 years of his life working towards that inevitability – that dream. To die while killing Doflamingo, just as Corazon had wanted. Because why else would Corazon have sacrificed his life for Law? Why else would he have gone out of his way to save an unloved, dying child if it wasn’t for some greater purpose, some debt that needed to be paid?
It was only after Doflamingo had been defeated and Law found himself quite surprisingly alive that he realised his entire life had been built on death. He’d been so willing to throw it all away just to take down one man – one monstrous, bastard of a man who wasn’t worth Law’s entire personality being formed around his demise.
When he saw Doflamingo fall from the sky, he felt … empty.
Not filled with joy, not proud, not excited for the future. Just completely and utterly empty. As though everything he was had crashed down with Doflamingo.
He hadn’t been anybody in that moment. Not the next Corazon, not the Surgeon of Death, not Trafalgar Law the boy from Flevance. He’d just been nothing.
He heard the cheers from the people of Dressrosa. He saw Rebecca blubbering hysterically with innocent tears of joy. He saw the princess Viola, slumped to her knees, staring up at the sky, tears streaming down her face. Except, her tears hadn’t been of joy, either. She hadn’t looked happy, she hadn’t looked sad, she’d looked as empty as him.
And Law had realised the sad, pathetic lie of his life. He’d lived for Doflamingo – he’d lived to die for Doflamingo, just like that disgusting man had wanted.
It had taken Sengoku – the goddamn former Admiral of the goddamn fucking Marines of all people – to finally tell him what he needed to hear. “Don’t find a reason for someone’s love.”
Law’s entire worldview had shattered in that moment. Everything he ever was and had been had collapsed in on itself like a dying star, and he’d been left standing alone in the middle of the ruins of Dressrosa, sobbing in a way he hadn’t been able to in 13 years.
If he’d died while trying to take down Doflamingo and if he died now while trying to take down Kaido, Corazon wouldn’t greet him with open arms and a proud smile. He would be crying.
It was only now that Law had finally, finally realised that living didn’t mean living to die, it meant living to live! And that was exactly what Corazon had wanted him to do. Live for himself. Live for Corazon. Live for his family. Live for his town. Live for his crew. Live for a someday where there might be a better world, where countries and people were free.
Live for a possible future where he could learn to love without scars and maybe, just maybe, be loved unconditionally in return.
He’d been starting to learn to be that person again, the Trafalgar Law that he’d been before the white lead disease and before Doflamingo. He had more tattoos and scars now, but at least he was starting to slowly patch himself back up again. And … well, he’d be lying if he didn’t say that a certain Straw Hat archaeologist hadn’t been a significant influence in that.
He'd vaguely started to realise over the past week that there was something going on between them. At first, he hadn’t really considered it. Everything with her was so easy. He didn’t have to pretend to be ‘normal’ and ‘sane’, he didn’t have to hide his humour or his trauma. He could mess with her and she could mess with him right back. They could joke about their pain and sit in perfect, comfortable silence for hours on end.
When they’d danced on the deck at the party, he hadn’t done it as some great, over-the-top gesture, he’d just … done it. Because it had felt right. Because he’d wanted to. Because seeing her dance with Usopp instead of him had made his tipsy brain grumpy. Her hand had been so soft and warm and delicate in his, her shoulder had felt so slender. Her blue eyes had shimmered in the light of the moon and her smile had made him feel warm and safe in a way that was both unfamiliar and yet achingly familiar at the same time.
It was only the following day, when they submerged and the ocean trapped him in its depths and the inevitable trauma had reared its ugly head, that he’d started thinking about it. Why had he done it, why? Yes, he'd wanted to, but he shouldn't have let himself get carried away. What the actual fuck was wrong with him? He didn’t have the time or the energy or the emotional capacity to be acting like this. He had to stay focused! If he didn’t, they really were all going to die.
And now that he was fully awake and the water had knocked some sense back into his head, he remembered that he actually didn’t want to die after all. It wasn’t time to see Corazon or his family yet. It wasn’t time for any of them to leave this world.
Law turned the water off and continued to stand with his head leaning against the tiles. Yes, his plan to defeat Kaido was ridiculous, but maybe it would work. Maybe. If everything went according to plan. Which it had to. Otherwise they would die. Probably. So he couldn’t afford to distract himself, he couldn’t afford anything other than absolute laser focus on the task at hand.
He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. He dried himself roughly. As he rubbed his arms, he paused. His scars were reflecting coldly in the light of the bathroom lamp. He ran his fingers over them. They were long and puckered, and the weight of them was heavy. He remembered each one so well. The longest one over the centre of his wrist he remembered the most. He’d done that the day the article about Doflamingo becoming king of Dressrosa had appeared.
The event that he could have stopped if he hadn’t been so fucking –
Law clenched his fist and cut off the thought. No! He’d been trying his best to move on from that thinking. Ever since Robin had encouraged him to throw that article right out the window. Fuck if that hadn’t been seriously cathartic. Even in that small moment, she’d already seemed to understand him so well. She seemed to know what he needed before he did.
His eyes hardened as he remembered her visit that afternoon, when he’d had the audacity to take her arm and then drop it when he saw her scars. He could still see the hurt in her eyes. He hadn’t meant to react so badly, and probably on any other day he might have handled it better. But he was so fucking tired and so sick of his trauma rearing its ugly, red-eyed head that rational thinking had escaped his brain.
A tsunami of thoughts had crossed his mind in that moment. He’d had the gall to take her wrist so casually, as if they were more than friends. (No, not friends, they couldn’t be friends they could only be allies. Temporary allies until Kaido was defeated and then they would be enemies again. That was what was practical). Then he’d seen her scars. Of course she had them, too. She’d been broken many times before. But now she was whole again. The Straw Hats had been there to rescue her and heal her. She, for the most part, was now Nico Robin again, the Nico Robin that she could truly be. That last thing she needed was him, broken, scarred, pathetic, scared-to-live Trafalgar Law who’d thrown his life away on a warlord and a memory. She deserved better, so much better.
And the real, real kicker was that, as he’d felt her blood fluttering against his skin, and seen her blue eyes look up at him, all he’d wanted to do was take her beautiful face in his hands and –
No!
Law punched the tile wall and the pain shocked through his knuckles and up his arm. He grit his teeth. He had to stop this. They were allies, nothing more, nothing less. He’d promised Straw Hat that he wouldn’t betray him and he would hold that until their alliance was over. And that included getting anyway involved with any member of that crew. Maybe Straw Hat didn’t care, heck, most of that crew and his own crew didn’t care at all. They considered this to be some great friendship of all things.
But when the day inevitably came that they would be facing off against each other to find the One Piece and claim the greatest treasure that this world had to offer, they couldn’t be stuck with feelings that might hold them back. They were pirates for fuck’s sake! Pirates always purported their own agenda. Pirates fought for themselves and no one else.
He needed to get a fucking grip and focus only on the mission and on taking down Kaido. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else could matter. If he slipped up for even a second, they could all die – or worse.
And he would never, ever forgive himself if they lost because of him.
No, it was safer now to maintain a professional alliance, work on the plan, work on finding his purpose again, work on reminding himself that he was no longer living to die. That was the most important thing and he couldn’t let anyone distract him.
No matter how much he might want her to.
Notes:
Sorry again for two sad chapters in a row. I promise after this things will start looking up for our favourite traumatised nerds.
Thank you as always for reading and for your comments, they really do bring me so much joy and motivation <3
Chapter 9: A Smile & a Laugh
Notes:
Thank you as always for all your lovely comments and thank you for the well-wishes on moving! We're starting to get settled in now so hopefully updates will be more regular.
You'll be happy to know that this chapter isn't as depressing as the last one haha.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Finally, after almost a week of submersion, the Polar Tang docked on the shores of the Land of Wano. Kanjuro, Raizo and Kin’emon headed off to investigate the current state of the country before determining their next step of the plan, leaving the Heart Pirates and Straw Hats with a day to kill time. So, to celebrate their arrival and subsequent escape of the confines of the submarine, they decided to take advantage of the long golden beach where they had docked, and spend the day swimming and playing in the sand.
It didn’t take long for the non-Devil Fruit users of the two crews to leap straight into the water. Soon they were all screaming and splashing without a care in the world. Zoro swam broad strokes up and down the length of the beach, stretching his muscles. Usopp, Penguin, Bepo and Shachi crafted rafts out of driftwood and competed to see who could get the furthest before capsizing. Franky gave Momonosuke rides on his back and helped him build enormous sandcastles.
As the only two remaining Devil Fruit users, Law and Robin found themselves once again together, settled far away from the water on the sand. Robin had constructed a chair and umbrella out of her hands, and was settled comfortably with a book on ancient Alabasta relics. Law was lying on a towel (emblazoned with the Heart Pirates’ jolly roger, of course) with most of his body in the sun, keeping just his head under the shade of the ‘umbrella’. He had one of his favourite Sora, Warrior of the Sea comics in-hand but was finding himself increasingly distracted.
Now that he was out in the fresh air again and they’d reached Wano without a hitch, the weird, Doflamingo-induced hole he’d dug himself into over the past week was fading with every passing moment. Sure, he was still stressed, that wouldn’t pass until they maybe, possibly, eventually defeated Kaido, but it was much easier to manage now that the sun was shining brightly and the laughter of the crews was drifting over him.
Plus, it was difficult to be stressed when Robin was so calm as she relaxed in her hand-chair, leisurely turning the pages of her book and sipping on an iced drink Shachi had concocted. She was astonishingly pretty in a black, halter-neck bikini top that showed off her toned stomach nicely and a pink sarong. Her legs were crossed languidly at the ankles and her black hair was floating gently in the breeze around her face. She was the picture of elegance and serenity.
Law hadn’t taken note of it much before, since he’d attributed it to the relief of being free of Doflamingo, but after a week where he’d purposely avoided her in order to circumvent his own feelings, he was now starting to sheepishly come to the realisation that her presence had been largely to blame for any state of non-panic that he’d possessed.
He sighed internally as he stared unseeingly at the pages of his Sora comic. Why did he have to act like such a dick? If he hadn’t been so stubborn about facing his battles alone, he could have avoided digging himself into his stupid mental cage and just allowed himself to be friends with her. I bet that’s what Doflamingo wanted, as well, he thought bitterly. Knowing that his actions had caused Law to become trapped in a self-induced, isolation coma would have him laughing his ugly face off.
Law glanced at Robin out of the corner of his eye as she slowly turned the page of her book with her long, white fingers. She really had beautiful hands. He’d love to draw tattoos on them sometime. You could have, if you hadn’t been such a prick, he reminded himself savagely. He needed to make it up to her somehow. He couldn’t outright apologise for his actions because then he would have to bring up the topic of their scars and that would just open an enormous can of worms that he knew neither of them wanted to bridge right now. Maybe … maybe eventually. But not now.
He couldn’t breach the gap past a general friendship, he’d already promised himself that he wouldn’t for the sake of their crews and their future pirate adventures, but he could at least show that he wasn’t the cold-hearted, callous asshole that she probably now thought he was. So, he needed to be smart about it and find some other way to show her that he hadn’t meant to behave the way he had and that he didn’t dislike her. Which she probably thought that he did, considering the way he’d so rudely dropped her hand. Fuck you, asshole!
Shrieks of laughter and indignant shouting pulled him from his thoughts. In the ocean, Clien had pulled Ikkaku onto his shoulders and was trying to dunk her under the water, and Penguin and Shachi had teamed up against Bepo and Usopp in trying to sabotage each other’s rafts. Law found the corners of his mouth twitching. He really wished the crews had been more pragmatic about getting too close but he supposed he couldn’t blame them – at least they were having fun when they could. The water was a beautiful, sparkling deep blue that he’d never seen before and his hot skin prickled in the sun under his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. What he would give to be able to jump in and join them.
“It’s times like this that I think having a Devil Fruit can be inconvenient,” Law said casually. It was the first proper sentence he’d said to her since that day.
“Sometimes it would be nice to swim,” Robin replied. Her voice was cool and exaggeratedly polite, and she didn’t look up from her book. Law winced inwardly. Perhaps he was better off just leaving things be for now.
He returned to watching the crews, resting his arm against his raised knee. How did they manage to be so carefree on enemy soil? Even though Kin’emon and Kanjuro had insisted they were perfectly safe here, Law was on high alert. He had a Room up over them all, small enough that an enemy couldn’t see it from a distance but large enough that he would be able to sense if anyone entered.
Sometimes he wished he wasn’t captain and that he could be free and relaxed like them. Sometimes he also wished he wasn’t the one with all the power. Occasionally, it became a burden that overshadowed even him.
“Lucky them, being able to relax,” he muttered to himself. He didn’t expect a response.
“They can because they know there’s enough strong people around to protect them if something should happen,” Robin said, turning a page of her book. Her voice was still polite and it surprised him that she responded at all.
“What about you? You’re one of those strong people.”
“You think I’m strong?”
Law raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do. I wouldn’t have asked you to accompany me in Dressrosa nor would I have petitioned Straw Hat to make sure you were on this mission if I didn’t.”
“I’m not as strong as Zoro or Sanji.”
He frowned. “Not physically I suppose, but that’s not all strength is. It’s the emotional strength that you’ve built from your years of having to survive and the capability to use your intellect, to apply that to the abilities and limitations of your power. You also have a great capacity to understand people and situations. Zoro-ya might be able to slice through stone giants and Black Leg might be able to fight in the air with his legs on fire, but I’d far prefer to be fighting in a battle with you than either of them.”
Robin finally looked at him and there was something in her blue eyes that he couldn’t quite place. Law’s face grow hot as it dawned on him what he’d said. He’d only been speaking logically but now he realised it sounded far more intimate than he’d intended. Unless … that was what he’d intended. But she hated him right now so he really shouldn’t have gotten carried away. Shit I’ve messed up again! I should –
Robin smiled and his heart jumped like the Polar Tang up that crazy waterfall. It was the first genuine smile he’d seen from her since the night they’d danced. It was like her body had been held taut by a string this past week that had finally been cut loose. He realised that her apparent calm and poise had been just an act, and in fact she’d been incredibly rigid. Now, her entire being softened along with her smile.
“Thank you,” she said warmly. A strange ache throbbed in Law’s chest at the sound. “It means a lot that you feel you can rely on me.”
Law blinked at the frankness of her words and rubbed his neck. “Well, it’s the truth. Zoro-ya and Black Leg are idiots,” he said, in an attempt to make the situation more casual.
Robin laughed and he couldn’t help the smile that turned up the corner of his mouth. It was nice to hear her laugh again, she hadn’t laughed all week. Because of you, asshole! He tried to think of something else to say, some way to make amends for what he’d done, but before he could she pointed to the comic in his hand.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, what are those comics you read?”
“This?” Law held up the comic to her. “It’s Sora, Warrior of the Sea. It was a series published weekly in the World Economic Journal in the North Blue back when I was a kid."
"Ah yes, I seem to recall seeing a lot of them on the bookshelves in the library."
"I have every edition ever made, including the collector’s copies."
Robin’s lips twitched. “That’s very impressive, Traffy-kun. You must really like them.”
“Everyone in North Blue knows them,” Law shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant.
Robin rested her chin on her hand and smiled at him in a way that made his hands tingle. “Did you have a costume?”
“M-maybe. Every kid in the North Blue did,” he protested as her smile widened.
“I’m sure,” she giggled. "I think I've heard about them before. Aren't they meant to be government propaganda or something like that?"
"Yeah," Law sighed. He'd been devastated when he found out. "But I still like them, they're a comfort read.”
Robin nodded, “I can understand that. Sometimes you just need something mindless and fun to lose yourself in. I choose romance novels.”
Law sniggered. “Romance, really?” A hand appeared on his shoulder to slap him lightly on the head.
“You can't talk when you read children's comics," she chided playfully.
“Fine, fine, you're right, I’m sorry.” He raised his hands up in surrender and the hand disappeared in a flurry of petals that smelled like gardenias.
"I know it’s stupid and silly, but I like it. It’s escapism.”
“Is that how you manage to stay so calm with everything going on?” Law asked carefully.
Robin closed her book and turned to him properly. “I know I told you that the fears will pass but I am not a calm person by nature,” she confessed. “I do not smile easily and I’m not so relaxed as you might think.” Law nodded, even before now he’d already started to notice that. She was excellent at appearing calm but little things like the twitch of her fingers or the scrunch of her nose showed that she was worried beneath the peaceful exterior. “It’s something I’ve had to rigorously instil in myself over the years. Of course, being with my crew has made that easier and I could almost consider myself a calm person thanks to them. But before I met them, I had to consciously make the decision to smile or laugh in the face of adversity.”
Law watched her carefully, he hoped this wasn’t going to be a rude question. “It must have been very difficult to do before you met them. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you do it?”
Her hand-chair flattened so that she was sitting on the ground, level with him. A strand of hair fell over her face and Law had the sudden urge to push it back. “Well, it’s because of an old friend of mine. He taught me to laugh in any situation, even when everything seemed hopeless. It’s thanks to him that I was even able to get to where I am today. He saved me in every way that I could have been saved.” A sad smile graced her features.
“He sounds like an incredible man,” Law said.
“He was,” Robin nodded. She pushed the strand of hair behind her ear and he found his eyes drifting to her fingers that now rested against her neck. “He had a very funny laugh, possibly the strangest I’ve ever heard. He used to make me practice it.” Her smile turned fond.
“Strange how?”
Robin’s cheeks blushed pink. “I haven’t done his laugh in a while. It really is very strange.”
Law smirked. “Now you have to do it. Come on.”
“Oh, very well.” Robin put her hands down and clasped them around her knees. “Fair warning, this is going to sound terrible.” She cleared her throat. “Tereshishishi.”
Law had to physically clench his fists to stop himself from one, laughing out loud, and two, going bright red. Holy shit! That was quite possibly the cutest thing he’d ever seen anyone do ever, let alone Robin of all people. She was always so elegant and refined but when she did little cute things like pouting or that laugh, it was near impossible for him to keep it together. She smiled at him, her cheeks even pinker and he could feel his heart beating far too fast and he wouldn’t be surprised if it stopped working altogether in the next few seconds.
He kept his face as neutral as he possibly could – which was taking every bit of willpower he’d ever possessed – and nodded. “I see what you mean. Definitely a strange laugh.”
Robin giggled normally and he was able to relax, just slightly. “By far one of the strangest but it helped me a lot over the years.” Her smile turned sad again. “He made sure that the last thing I remembered of him was his laugh and his smile before he died.”
Law grimaced. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up – wait, did you say that the last thing he gave you to remember him by was his smile?”
Robin nodded. “He wanted to remind me to keep on living.”
Law ran a hand through his hair. “What a coincidence, seems like we have yet another thing in common, Nico-ya.”
“Hm?”
“The man who saved my life made sure that the last thing I remembered of him was his smile.” The memory of Corazon’s broken face grinning at him flashed into his mind and he clasped his hands together tightly.
“Goodness, what are the odds of that?” Robin mused.
“Right? He looked freaky as shit, though, his face had been all beaten up by Vergo,” Law shook his head. “But hey, at least he tried.”
“Vergo … that G5 marine who worked for Doflamingo?”
“Yeah.”
“The one you sliced up into little pieces?”
Law smirked, “Yeah. Had to get my revenge before I exploded him inside the factory.”
“Very good, Traffy-kun," Robin’s lips curved in a cheeky smile and her blue eyes twinkled. "Was he from Flevance, the man who saved you?”
“Flevance? No. This was after that. He was Doflamingo’s brother, Corazon.”
“His brother?” Robin leaned her chin against her hand to look at him in surprise.
“Yeah … long story,” Law said. He didn’t want to sound dismissive but it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about at this stage.
She took the hint and instead said, “Corazon … isn’t that the name you had embroidered on your coat?”
“Yeah,” he grinned savagely, “I had Uri make it to piss Doflamingo off.”
Robin blinked. “You had an entire coat custom-made just to personally annoy the man you were seeking revenge on?”
“It sounds so petty when you say it like that.”
“It is petty. I love it,” she laughed and Law grinned. “Did it work?”
“Oh yeah. A little too well,” he added with a dry laugh.
“Oh?”
“He shot me like 12 times in the back – until the gun ran out anyway.”
“Oh dear,” Robin giggled. “I have to say, you look very well for a man who’s dead. Far better than Brook anyway.”
“Thanks. It’s the skincare.”
Robin covered her mouth as her giggles increased and Law grinned again. Ah shit, this is so much better than being the depressed fuck I’ve been this past week. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“I actually just swapped my body with a dead soldier nearby,” Law continued. “He was so mad he didn’t even notice.”
“Doflamingo or the dead soldier?”
“Both.”
“Does that tell us then that he needs anger management or that you have the personality of a corpse?”
“Both.”
They laughed together.
Robin’s laugh faded and her expression turned to one of ardent sympathy. “Corazon must have been a very special person.”
“He was an idiot,” Law said flatly. He ran his hand through his hair again, “But yeah, he was. He also saved me in every way a person can be saved.” He looked up at Robin and was struck by the sincere warmth and understanding that were in her eyes as she looked at him. “If you don’t mind my asking, could you tell me more of that man with the strange laugh?”
“I don’t mind at all,” she said, a lovely smile lighting up her face. “He was a giant –”
“A giant?”
“Yes. He used to be a marine vice-admiral before defecting for standing up for the people of Ohara.”
He blinked rapidly at her. “You’re kidding?”
Robin raised an eyebrow, “No?”
“Cora-san was a marine, too. He was going to defect in order to run away with me.”
Robin shook her head incredulously. “That really is incredible, Traffy-kun. I wonder if they knew each other,” she mused, putting her finger to her lips. “His name was Saul. Jaguar D Saul.”
Law coughed. “D?”
“Yes,” Robin smiled slightly. “It was my first time meeting someone with D in their name. I knew that the historians of Ohara were studying the origins of it, though they wouldn’t let me into their secret library to find out,” she pouted and Law once again had to take extra care to keep his face neutral.
“Is that why Ohara was …?” Law let his question hang in the air.
“It was because they were studying the Void Century,” Robin said.
“The Void Century?” He leaned forward, trying not to let himself seem too eager. “You mean they discovered what happened?”
Robin nodded. “Or at least they were in the process of discovering it. They’d found out the existence of an ancient kingdom, one that had advanced centuries into the future.” Her eyes were sparkling with excitement and Law felt the tingles in his hands skitter up his arms.
“Do you know about it?”
“Sadly, I do not,” Robin sighed. “All of their research, all those books, the history tree, were destroyed by the World Government.” A trace of bitterness entered her voice.
Law shook his head. “Fucking marines.” It physically hurt him to think about all those books being burned in a buster call. As if he didn’t hate marines enough already.
Robin smiled at his response and her eyes flickered dangerously. “It makes me furious. Sometimes I wish I could find the marines who did it and knock their heads with a book until they realise the error of their ways.”
Law smirked. “You know, with my power, I could create a void room where they can be endlessly pelted by falling books.”
“You can do that?”
“Sort of. Alas it wouldn’t be permanent, but if I’ve got nothing else going on I could keep it up for a day at least. Or, I could just steal their hearts and smash those with a book?”
Robin leaned forward, her eyes shining. “Both sound like excellent options.”
He chuckled and found his gaze drifting to her lips. It wouldn’t take much effort to lean forward and –
He leaned back casually on one hand in an attempt to create some distance, as limited as it was with her sitting so close beside him, and tried to focus on more important things – like the fact that the man who had saved her was a D! That, truly was an incredible coincidence, considering that Cora-san had saved him initially because he was a D. What does she know? Did she have the answers he’d been searching for? If she did, she would probably want to know why he was so curious.
Should I tell her? he wondered slowly. His name wasn’t something he shared freely, partially because it would indicate him to be a member of the D clan and the less people who knew about that the better, but also mostly because a secret name was something sacred. A secret name was only revealed outside of family to a close friend or lover – someone with whom you shared a deep bond of trust. To his knowledge, his mother had only revealed her true name to her husband when he proposed and her closest childhood friend who had also been Law’s godmother.
Admittedly, he didn’t have to tell Robin his full name, he could just reveal that he was a D and leave it at that but … he wanted to. He hadn’t told anyone since revealing it to the disinterested Buffalo and Baby 5, and by extensions Cora-san – not even Bepo, Penguin or Shachi. His people being massacred by the World Government and then being raised for three years by Doflamingo, shockingly, resulted in serious trust issues. His guards were always up for the rest of the world, even his three closest friends. But with her it was different.
He realised with a start that he trusted her completely. She would never tell anyone else and she would understand the significance of his revealing it to her.
Maybe that’s how I can make it up to her. He couldn’t think of a stronger form of apology than revealing one of his deepest secrets.
“Nico-ya,” he began, “do you know anything about –”
“CAPTAAAIIIIIIIN!” Bepo shouted, running toward them at full speed.
Law grit his teeth and glared at his navigator. “There’s no need to scream my name like that.”
“But – but Kin’emon, Raizo and Kanjuro have returned. Didn’t you realise?” Bepo pointed at the shore where the Wano men were standing, talking with Momonoske. The crews were beginning to emerge from the sea and Franky was propelling through the water with cyborg engines bursting (so cool!) to catch Zoro who had managed to swim into the middle of the sea. Penguin and Shachi were glaring in Bepo’s direction with crossed arms and strangely disgruntled looks on their faces. Why were they so upset?
He looked up, his Room was still activated. Shit, he hadn’t felt the two Wano men enter his barrier at all. Had he really been so distracted talking to Robin?
He glanced at her, “I uh, didn’t realise.”
She smiled in a way that made the tingles feel like pricks of fire. “Perhaps we should have known better than to get onto such interesting topics when we’re trying to stay alert.”
“Nico-ya, we’re all in swimmers lying on the beach. We’re hardly staying alert,” he said dryly.
Robin stood gracefully. “Good, we deserved to relax like this, but I suppose now the real work must begin.” She extended her hand, from which two more hands followed. “Let’s go take on Kaido, Traffy-kun.”
Law smirked and took the offered hand (hands?) and let her pull him up. He stood right beside her, his head just a few centimetres taller than hers. It wasn’t the first time he’d thought she was the perfect height. This was, however, the first time that the word ‘Kaido’ hadn’t made his stomach churn with anxiety – now it was just excitement and anticipation.
“Sounds good, Nico-ya.”
Notes:
I swear the more I write this story the more I realise how much they have in common. Like they both get saved by marines who do their best to make sure the last thing Law and Robin remember is them smiling/being happy? I mean come on Oda!
Chapter 10: Trust
Notes:
It's chapter 10 and we've reached the iconic trust scene that occurs in episode 1010 - this honestly wasn't even planned, it just worked out that way!
The way that I screamed when I first watched this scene plus the whole mini Law flashback that followed. I've been so excited to write it out ever since I started working on this story so I hope I did it justice!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Wano might be the most beautiful country Robin had ever had the privilege of visiting. Kin’emon, Raizo and Kanjuro were now leading the Straw Hats, Law, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo up steep hills through emerald-green forests to where they would make camp. The remaining Heart Pirates had stayed to submerge the ship and investigate the waters surrounding Wano.
Usopp, Franky, Bepo, Shachi and Penguin were loud, exclaiming at the beautiful views and nature. Momonosuke was boasting about how this country was all his and they should bow down to him now that they were here. Everyone ignored him.
Zoro and Law were quiet, walking at a steady pace up the hill without breaking a sweat. Robin was quiet, too, choosing to enjoy the sounds of nature and take in the beautiful landscape.
Something caught her eye and she stopped. Nestled amongst the shrubs was a small, stone shrine. She hopped over the brush and knelt down to get a better look. There was an inscription that she couldn’t read but, judging from the stonework, it looked to be at least a millennia old!
“Find something interesting?” Law’s voice said above her.
“Yes, this stone dates back to pre-Void century!” she said, excitement creeping into her voice. “See the carvings here?” She ran her hand over the edges of the shrine roof, which had been shaped in a scalloped style unique to that era.
She felt Law step up and kneel beside her to look. He was close enough that she could smell the faint scent of his cologne – cinnamon with an undercurrent of cardamom. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was staring intently at the stone. From her position, she could make out the sharp line of his jaw and the tips of his surprisingly long lashes.
Hmm. Robin didn’t consider herself to be a carnal woman by any means but there was something about him that was just –
He reached his tattooed hand out to brush the top of the shrine, his fingers surprisingly gentle as they rested over the stone. “Fascinating,” he murmured and Robin felt her breath catch in her throat. Hmm.
“Oi! Lo – err you two, stop being nerds and hurry up!” Usopp called from the top of the hill. “You can look at rocks or whatever later.”
Robin stood. “Now, now Usopp, I know you didn’t just call an ancient shrine a ‘rock or whatever’.”
“If it’s made of stone then it’s a rock,” Usopp said dismissively, turning with a huff to continue marching up the hill.
Robin turned to Law as he stood, managing to miss seeing Penguin and Shachi smack Usopp on the head in unison.
“I’m sorry for his insolence, Traffy-kun,” she said with somewhat joking, somewhat serious sadness.
Law shook his head, “True idiocy.” They continued to follow the others. “Maybe we should teach him a lesson,” he suggested, adjusting his grip on his sword.
“Maybe we should,” Robin said. She held out her hand and an eyeball replica of her own eye appeared in a flurry of flower petals. “Would this suffice?”
“It would.” Law raised his own hand, “Room.” Robin bit the inside of her cheek as the blue void appeared over the group; there was something about the way he said that word that was starting to get to her. “Shambles.” Oh dear, that’s worse.
The eye in her hand was replaced by a wrapped lolly. Robin handed it to Law and he pocketed it, and pulled the Room back into his hand. They shared a quick, covert smile as they continued to walk up the hill in silence.
I suppose he doesn’t hate me after all, she found herself thinking. She still didn’t really understand what had happened back on the Polar Tang, why he’d dropped her hand so suddenly. She was starting to think that perhaps it had been a reflex reaction born from years of self-inflicted torment. Perhaps he just wanted to remain as close acquaintances, perhaps he didn’t like her in that way at all and had realised at the last moment that he was giving a false impression. She really wasn’t sure what the answer was and she had spent too much time since then trying to justify it in her mind.
But what he’d just said to her about trusting her to fight alongside him in battle, that had meant a lot, far more than he would have realised. In her years as an assassin, people typically went out of their way to avoid fighting alongside her. They didn’t trust her and her powers scared them. “Monster” they’d called her – just like the kids back in Ohara.
But Law didn’t think of her as a monster. If anything, it was her powers that interested him the most about her. That was better than nothing at least and the fact that he, Trafalgar Law, a warlord, infamous member of the Worst Generation, and one of the strongest pirates she’d ever met, considered her support to be preferable to Zoro or Sanji made her feel unexplainably warm and happy. She wasn’t even sure sometimes that her own crew felt like they could rely on her; they certainly hadn’t asked for her help in Dressrosa and had taken matters into their own hands. She'd been forced to find her own purpose in protecting Rebecca. So for Law to say that he would personally prefer to fight alongside her – it meant more than words could say.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as they walked up the hill. He had one a hand in his pocket, the other holding onto his sword as always. He’d traded the yellow Hawaiian shirt he’d been wearing on the beach (which, she had to admit, had looked quite nice – she’d never seen him in something so casual before but it suited him) for a dark blue hoodie with bear on the back. Back when she’d first met him in Punk Hazard, she never would have expected him to have such a surprising inclination for cute or nerdy things.
She hid a smile, it was quite adorable.
Beyond the top of the hill was the ruins of a castle. It must have been impressive back in the day, but now it was charred, rotting wood and collapsed stone.
"How fascinating," Robin murmured. What kinds of interesting secrets and history could she find inside?
"What happened to it?" Law said. "We should take a look."
"Wait a minute," Kin’emon said. He urged everyone to gather around him, Kanjuro, Raizo and Momonosuke, all of whom had serious looks on their faces. Behind them, Robin could make out what appeared to be nine tall gravestones. She shared a curious glance with Law. “We have something to show you,” Kin’emon indicated to the gravestones. “Please take a look.”
“Errr, do we h-have to?” Usopp stammered, clutching at his satchel with shaking hands.
“If you would,” Kanjuro said.
Robin and Law both stepped forward without hesitation. She read the first gravestone in front of her. “Kikunojo.”
Zoro read another, “Ashura Doji?”
“Kozuki Momo –” Law broke off and turned to glare at Momonosuke, who was staring down at the ground with a red face.
Penguin gasped from where he was reading one of the graves. “This one says Kin’emon!”
“And this says Kanjuro!” Shachi said.
“I found Raizo here!” Franky exclaimed.
The pirates all turned to stare at the Wano group.
Kin’emon crossed his arms. “Everyone, I’m sorry to reveal this in such a way, but 20 years ago we were pronounced dead.”
Usopp screamed and jumped back to hide behind Zoro who didn’t bat an eyelid. “D-d-d-dead? You’re dead? You’re – you’re GHOSTS! No, wait, you can’t be. So then you’re – you’re ZOMBIES!!!” He clutched his face and wailed.
“Don’t worry, Usopp,” Robin said with what she thought was a reassuring smile, “they’re not zombies. If they were, their bodies would be rotting corpses.”
“And their eyes would have fallen out of their heads,” Law said.
“WOULD YOU TWO STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE THAT WITH SUCH CALM FACES!” Usopp shrieked.
"Please calm down,” Raizo said. "We'll explain everything."
For over an hour, the Wano group sat everyone down and explained the full story of what had happened to them and the rest of the group called the Akazaya Nine, the shogun Oden, Momonosuke, his sister Hiyori and mother Toki, and the country of Wano under the rule of Kaido and his puppet Orochi, plus the influence of Doflamingo’s business.
Everyone listened with growing horror and Robin felt herself becoming increasingly angry. Kaido’s reign over this country was almost as bad as Doflamingo’s reign over Dressrosa, and it reminded her of Crocodile – using innocent people to fuel his own selfish ambitions and desire for war. She clutched her hands together as they talked, trying to keep her anger buried below the calm mask she wore. Several times, she shared glances with Law who wore a scarily similar expression to hers. Without speaking, she knew that while his main goal was to take down Kaido in order to overturn the pirate world, she also knew that his personal feelings were being riled as well.
When the full story had been conveyed, the Wano group led them to a nearby clearing in the forest, a distance away from the ruins and graves, and instructed them to set up a temporary campsite deep in the trees while they did a final bit of reconnaissance and gathered what was needed for the Straw Hats to take on their false identities. Robin watched them go, her nose scrunched as the hint of apprehension in her chest grew. She’d been trying not to think about it but now that she would have to turn to her role as a geisha within the next day or so, she was being forced to confront what she would have to do. She could handle it, of course, and she was more than happy to for the mission, but returning to a false version of herself wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
“I want to look closer at those ruins,” Law said beside her. He was eyeing her carefully.
She smiled, taking the hint. “I’ll join you.”
He nodded and, with a word to the others about where they were going, they walked off together through the trees and back to the strange ruins. They didn’t see the way their crewmates were grinning at each other.
They walked in a comfortable silence through the trees, enjoying the fresh air and sounds of the forest creatures of Wano. Even though he didn’t say anything, Robin had a feeling that he’d inadvertently asked for her company for a reason, more than just because he wanted to look at the ruins. They came out of the trees and walked up to the castle ruins. Even from here, the rock work was fascinating and she couldn't wait to get a closer look.
Just as she was about to step inside, Law spoke up, his voice serious. “Nico-ya, I have something I want to ask you.”
Robin raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Traffy-kun?”
He indicated for her to take a seat on a rock outside the ruined building. She did so, settling down with her legs crossed. She thought he was going to sit beside her but then he sat on the rock opposite in a rather blatant act of keeping the distance between them. Robin tried to ignore the stab of disappointment in her chest.
He crossed his legs and arms and regarded her seriously. Robin returned his gaze, her curiosity growing with every breath, but she kept her expression mildly curious. It must be important for him to request they come all the way out here.
“You mentioned earlier that the people of Ohara had been researching the Void Century. What do you know about the Will of D?” Robin blinked. Well, that wasn’t what she’d expected at all. Before she could answer, he continued. “Let me explain why I’m asking this. My name, as you know, is Trafalgar Law. However, that’s not my real name – or my full name anyway. Let me tell you my true name, it's Trafalgar D Water Law.”
A million thoughts raced through Robin’s head. “A secret name?”
“Yes.”
“I’m surprised, you have the D in your name, too!” But of course, now that she thought about it, it made perfect sense. He shared so many similarities to Luffy that were indicative of the people of D: his rebellious attitude, natural leadership and ability to bring people together, his enviable power, his blatant disregard for rules and the natural order of things.
“I told you because I trust you.” He glanced down at the ground in an unusual expression of uncertainty.
Robin’s lips parted in surprise. He … trusts me? Of all the people that he knows, I’m the one that he’s telling this to? If she’d thought her thoughts were numerous a moment ago, it was nothing compared to how they were now. Is this perhaps his way of making amends for the other night? If so, and if he truly did trust her, then that meant more to her than even his saying he could rely on her.
“Thank you,” she said warmly. He looked back up at her. It was brief, but she saw the glimmer of relief in his eyes. “Sadly, I don’t know much either. Luffy doesn’t care about the will of D …” his eyes narrowed slightly, “but I care a great deal. Perhaps … we'll learn together.” She said it as almost as much as a question as it was a statement.
Law took a breath and Robin found her eyes drifting to his lips. “All we can do is follow the red stones?” So he didn’t mind trying to discover the truth with her?
“That’s right,” Robin said with a coy smile. “Which means, we just have to defeat the Four Emperors. Because I don’t think they’ll just give it to us that easily.” Her blue eyes twinkled mischievously.
He snorted. “What, you don’t think that if we just ask nicely they’ll hand it over?”
“You’re welcome to try, Traffy-kun.”
“Law,” he said suddenly. “I’ve told you my secret name, you may as well now call me by it, Nico-ya.”
Robin’s heartbeat quickened but she hid it with a smile. “Robin.” His eyes widened imperceptibly in surprise but then he nodded. “I must ask, though, are you only interested in the Will of D because of your name, or are there other reasons?”
“Apart from my desire to learn more about the history of this world,” Law said, “there is another reason.” His arms relaxed from their tightly crossed position and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I told you about Corazon.” Robin nodded. “He … saved me for many reasons, but the reason that he took me out of Doflamingo’s clutches in the first place was because he overheard me reveal my name. I initially thought for a very long time that he only saved me because of that name.” He took a deep breath. “I recently learned that was … not the case. However, I still long to know why I’ve suffered this fate and lived this life that I have. And with that, I want to know the truth of our world.” He stared directly into her eyes, something shifting in them that made her heartbeat quicken. She was really regretting how far he’d chosen to sit from her. “I want to know why you and I have had to live this fateful existence, why our people had to suffer at the hands of the world government, why we have been hunted all our lives for daring to defy that which stands at the top. I want to know about the Void Century and the ancient kingdom, about the way this world is designed and built. I want it so bad I can barely stand it. And I think – I know you feel the same way.”
Robin was finding it difficult to breathe. Never had someone so completely encapsulated her own thoughts and reasons for wanting to understand the world the way that she did. After her people were destroyed, she thought she would never again find another who would have the yearning desire in their heart to learn about the world, who would cross seas and climb castles just to discover knowledge and truth. To know that he, of all people, felt the same way was exhilarating.
It made her body burn and her lips tingle.
“I – I understand,” she managed to say.
He smirked. “I thought you would.” They were silent for a long moment as they locked eyes. She could see the light shifting over his face, highlighting the bridge of his sharp nose and the golden tinge of his dark skin. She was still struggling to breathe normally.
Robin stood. “Well, shall we take a look at these ruins, seeing as that was what we initially said we were doing?”
“Indeed.” He stood also, dusting off the seat of his jeans.
Robin walked up to a gap in the rotting wooden walls of the building and glanced inside. “You might want to leave your hat out here, you wouldn’t want it to get covered in dust.” She’d meant to tease but he actually looked concerned and removed it. She bit her lip to hide her giggle as he placed it very carefully on the rock next to his sword. He really did love that hat. Perhaps that was another trait of the D clan.
She ducked her head beneath the sharp junctures of the wood and walked inside. Dust covered every surface and flickered through the air, sparkling like fairies of myth in the light of the lone beams of sunlight that streamed through the ruined roof. Law’s boots crunched over the charred remains of furniture that was strewn over the floor. The ceiling looked to have been built high but had buckled and collapsed from the flames.
They walked together in silence, stepping carefully, analysing every corner of the castle. It was cramped and they had to walk close together so that they didn’t disturb too much of the ruins. It was strangely quiet after the sound of the birds outside. She supposed that someone like Usopp would call it eerie but to her it was peaceful and calm. A walk through history. All she could hear was the comforting sound of Law’s boots and his gentle breaths.
His fingers brushed hers as they slipped through a crooked doorway. She grasped his shoulder briefly to steady herself as she stepped over a ruined stair.
Twice, he raised up his Room to do a “Scan” of the space. The second time, they were in a small room that might have once been a bedroom. He knelt down and sifted through some of the debris on the floor until he picked up an old oil painting that had somehow managed to escape most of the damage. Robin stepped up behind him and leaned over his shoulder to get a closer look. It was charred in places and horribly dusty, but underneath the layers of grime and soot was a portrait of a family. An enormous man with black hair, a petite woman with long hair and two children, a young girl and a boy who was clearly Momonosuke.
Robin found herself blinking rapidly as she stared at the portrait. Yet another family and another country that had been burned and broken apart by the greed of the strong.
A muscle in Law’s jaw twitched and he hastily put the frame down and stood. He turned to her and they were so close she could make out the pores on his handsome face. He was only an inch taller than her.
“I’m sorry, maybe we shouldn’t have come in here,” Robin said softly.
Law shook his head, “It’s good, it makes what we’re doing more real.” The light was reflecting in his grey eyes, making them appear silver. They were even more beautiful up close.
“Seeing all of this … it brings back memories …” Robin said slowly. She would never have said something like this to anyone else, never would have shown them that she was rattled.
“It does.”
His voice was low and his eyes were searching hers in a way that she normally would have found invasive, but with him she welcomed it. She wanted him to see who she really was.
“I know I said this before but thank you for telling me your real name,” she said, and she was whispering but she wasn’t sure why.
“Thank you, too.” He was also whispering.
“For what?”
“For saving me in Dressrosa.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
She was so aware of the way that his lips moved as he spoke. Of the sound of his voice that was so unbelievably tempting.
“I couldn’t leave you hurting like that,” she murmured, “and I couldn’t see you die. Especially not at the hands of someone like him.”
“If only I’d seen it that way back then.”
“Hm?” The urge to just reach up and kiss him was so strong it was overwhelming.
He shook his head. “I’m just glad that we’ve made it to this point.”
“Everything we’ve learned so far … I’m even more determined to take down Kaido.”
“As am I.” His eyes flickered to her lips and her breath hitched in her throat.
He reached his hand up to her face and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. The tips of his fingers lingered gently on her neck, just above the collar of her pink shirt. Her skin throbbed where he touched it. Her heart was beating so loudly she could hardly hear. Or think. Or breathe.
“Robin,” he said, his voice so husky it was unbearable, and she wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or just saying her name, but by the Grand Line it sounded so good to hear it on his lips. His head tilted down as though he was going to press his lips against hers.
“Law,” she murmured and she heard the softest groan in the depths of his throat. She inclined her face up to his. Just a few more inches and their lips would finally touch. His fingers pressed on her neck. Just an inch now. Just a breath …
Law stepped back. He was breathing heavily, his strong shoulders heaving, and Robin realised she was too. Her chest was rising up and down as though she’d just run all the way up the hill.
They stared at each other. His eyes were still shining and his lips were parted in a way where, if she just used her powers, she could pull him right back to her and kiss him fully and completely.
“This – this isn’t the time,” he said. His voice had returned to his usual serious tone, but there was a breathlessness behind it that betrayed his true feelings.
Understanding weighed down on Robin’s shoulders. He was right. They had a formidable emperor to fight and that was the only thing they should be focusing on right now. They didn’t have the time to get involved with each other.
“I – yes. You’re right. This isn’t the time,” she said firmly and her own breathlessness betrayed her, too.
But would there ever be a time? She didn’t know.
“We should return to our crews,” he said, and he emphasised the words as a reminder of who they were really here with and here for.
“Yes, we should.”
Without another word, Law raised his hand. “Room.” Robin had to close her eyes against the sound of his voice. “Shambles.” With a pop they were outside in the fresh air, the sun streaming down on their faces. Robin blinked against the light and put her sunglasses down over her eyes. Law reached for his hat and sword. “You go on ahead,” he said. “I just want to check the graves again.”
“Of course.” Robin turned her back on him and marched across the grass and back towards the trees. She tried to maintain a sense of casualness to her walk but as soon as she reached the blessed cover of the forest, she broke into a light run. She didn’t run far, but just enough so that she could feel she’d managed to put some distance between them.
She slumped against a tree and put her sunglasses back up on her head. Were her eyes wet? She rubbed them vigorously with her sleeve. It was too much to take in. He trusted her enough to tell her such a big secret, she’d made the grandiose statement of finding out their dream and the truth of the world together, he’d made it abundantly clear now that he had feelings for her – or at least a strong desire that she reciprocated wholeheartedly – and yet he’d had the most sense to back off before things went too far.
What if he hadn’t? Would she have been the one to pull away?
No, she would have let her heart and her body take over before her mind. Goodness, what had this man done to her? She was usually so rational and yet she’d been fully prepared to give herself up to him without a second thought.
A scream ripped through the forest, causing the birds to take off from the trees with indignant screeches. “THOSE PSYCHOS PUT AN EYE IN MY BAG!!!”
Robin chuckled. The plights of poor Usopp could at least make her feel somewhat better, even if his plights were because of her and Law. Perhaps it was a good thing that she was training as a geisha for a while, then at least they could have some separation and she could rationalise her feelings instead of being swept away by him.
She straightened herself up and rubbed her eyes again. She just hoped she looked normal enough. She began to march back towards the camp, there were far more important things to worry about right now. Law was right, now wasn’t the time. Now, they had an emperor to defeat.
Notes:
The level of analysis I did on that scene in the anime was wild. I went frame by frame to check their expressions, mannerisms and vocal patterns. I also went through both the Japanese and English dubs, and the Japanese and English translations in the manga just to check what they were really saying (I can read Japanese) and so the words that I ended up with for them were a bit of a combination depending on what I thought sounded best from each translation lol. I'm a sucker for the way the English dub sounds, though, so I leaned towards that a bit more.
Something I discovered while reading the Japanese is that Law technically says to Robin that he's telling her his name "because it's you", which I thought was interesting because it implies he already trusts her and he doesn't need to say it out loud. Plus, the way they speak to each other is super casual, even some couples don't speak that casually to that each other in Japan. It's so cute!
Also, is it just me, or is the sexual tension between the two of them off the charts in that scene? Like the exposed filter, the amount of zoom-ins on their lips, the slow pans. Toei knows what they're doing.
Thanks for reading and have a lovely Easter long weekend!
Chapter 11: Missing
Notes:
Fun fact: I have a Law and a Robin sticker on my laptop cover! They're super cute and make me so happy, especially when I sit down to write some LawBin!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Law lay inside the ruined castle on the only surface that was still fully formed and not a charred or rotting mess. His hands were behind his head and he had one leg crossed over his knee. He'd been lying like this for most of the day, just staring up at the blue sky with only one singular thought running through his mind:
He, Trafalgar D Water Law, was in love with Nico Robin.
It had been two weeks since they’d arrived in Wano and his crew had separated from the Straw Hats to begin the espionage stage of their plan to take down Kaido, and he’d finally had to face this unprecedented, frustrating and highly inconvenient truth.
When carefully mapping out his elaborate plan to take down Kaido and Doflamingo, he’d never had the forethought to note “falls in love with beautiful Straw Hat pirate”. That wasn’t part of the plan! That couldn’t be part of the plan. Of any plan! He was the captain of the Heart Pirates for fuck’s sake! A warlord, the Surgeon of Death, a logical strategist whose plans could take down empires and destroy the cogs that ran the world. Not some starry-eyed teenage boy who lost his mind at the sight of her long legs and pale skin and dark hair and beautiful smile and blue eyes that held so much truth, understanding and wisdom that he’d never seen in a person before let alone someone like her.
It was utterly infuriating!
He’d done an excellent job of being oblivious to those thoughts for the past month or so, but now that he was really thinking about it, he was coming to the even more unfortunate realisation that he’d been in love with her from the start, even if he hadn’t acknowledged it.
When she’d been so pragmatic about his alliance with Straw Hat, when she’d laughed that pretty little laugh of hers as they strapped Chopper onto his head (he still turned red remembering that), when he’d watched her fly down into a mass of enemies outside the factory and decimate them all in seconds with cracks and pops of bones, when she’d made the exact same comment as him about the destroyed factory killing them as they all tried to escape. Then she’d had the audacity to wear that adorable polar bear coat on the ship as they headed out of Punk Hazard.
He’d been aware of her watching him the whole time and if he hadn’t been quite so preoccupied with focusing on taking out the factory, Vergo and Doflamingo, he might have watched back.
It was lots of little things that had accumulated over time that he hadn’t even really been aware of until now. They’d so naturally gravitated toward each other from the moment he’d boarded the Thousand Sunny. Now, his mind was running marathon circuits as he was trying to decide if he should have had the brain to make a move sooner, or instead had the mental fortitude to tell himself to fuck off and focus on the mission. With nothing much to do lately except wait for the motions of the plan to take shape and for Straw Hat to finally arrive, he’d been left with little else to occupy his mind.
And fuck it, he was in love with her.
He’d caught several glimpses of her working as a geisha in his covert missions to gather food and supplies. She looked insanely beautiful – all elegant and mysterious, but he found that the look didn’t really suit her. It was too safe, too pretty. The Robin he knew liked to dress with a slight edge.
He could tell that she wasn’t exactly enjoying the experience, either. As always, she was the picture of calm and poise, but even from a distance he’d noticed the wrinkle around her nose or the crease at the corner of her eyes that suggested she wasn’t as calm as she let on. The knowledge that she wasn't particularly happy or that she didn't feel safe right now made this even more difficult. It took a lot for him to not immediately shambles away any of the unsightly men that came near her, begging for her attention, so he’d taken to keeping himself as far from her as possible – with the exception of one or two small excursions.
After essentially three months of being in near constant presence with each other, the separation hurt. It ached deep in his chest, akin to the way he’d felt when he’d had to say goodbye to his crew as he left for his mission in Punk Hazard, with the expectation that he might never see them again.
He missed her smile, he missed her laugh, he missed her dark jokes, he missed the way she talked about historical rock formations for hours on end – even though he didn’t get it. He missed the way he felt around her.
Maybe I should just take a quick look, see if she’s alright, he found himself thinking.
No get a grip! This is what it’ll be like when we all inevitably have to separate anyway. If anything, this was a good thing, it was practice for when their separation became that much further and more permanent. After all, as he’d been telling himself over and over again, they were from different crews and nothing good would come out of giving into his feelings.
He sighed as he watched the clouds drifting lazily overhead. It had been in this very castle just two rooms over where they’d almost kissed. He really didn’t know what had gotten into him. She’d been so close and looked so beautiful in her pink shirt and she’d been staring at him in a way that made everything he’d ever thought important seem trivial. Since he’d revealed his name, it was like an invisible barrier had broken down between them and now all the previous walls they’d kept up were starting to crumble.
I should have just kissed her, he thought for the hundredth time. No I shouldn’t have, he argued back for the thousandth time. He had to stick. to. the. plan! The plan was more important than anything – even her. If the plan fell apart, then so would everything they’d worked for.
He couldn’t let those walls between them fall completely. They didn’t have time. They were too close to their end goal. Kaido was the priority. Winning was their only option.
“CAPTAIIIIN!!!” Bepo screeched. The polar bear was running up the hill with Penguin and Shachi hot on his heels.
Law sighed. “What is it? Why are you so upset?” Couldn’t they just go away to leave him to his annoying thoughts?
“It’s Straw Hat and Roronoa!”
Law sat up, resting one hand on his knee. “Straw Hat-ya is finally here in Wano? That’s good. What’s the problem then?”
“Straw Hat and Roronoa are starting a fight in Bakura town!”
Law grabbed his sword and jumped up, anger pulsing through his veins. “Are you serious? They’re going to ruin the whole damn plan!”
“So it would seem,” sighed Penguin.
“Urgh!” Law stormed through his crew mates, clutching his sword so tightly his fingers ached. “Let’s go stop those idiots!” he barked.
“Aye aye, Captain!”
He supposed he should be grateful, if there was anything to distract him from the Straw Hat archaeologist, it was the idiotic tendencies of her boar-brained captain.
But fuck it, one day he was seriously going to shambles that kid right into the ocean.
“Would you like some more tea, Satoru-san?” Robin asked, lowering her eyes respectfully.
Her rotund customer chortled – he sounded like a pig. “Why yes I would, Orobi-chan.” Robin inched herself closer and poured the tea carefully, just as she’d been taught by the madam at her geisha house, Umi. A bead of sweat dropped down Satoru’s round, bald head. “I must say, Orobi-chan, your skills are quite impressive. And you’ve only been working as a geisha for a month?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How marvellous!”
“Your words flatter me, I’m not worthy of them.” Robin hid her demure smile behind her sleeve and turned her back on the pig-faced man to mix up more tea. Behind the smile she was screaming. I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!
She knew it was necessary for the mission and, out of everyone in the alliance, she was the only one who could do it. Though, privately, she thought Zoro would have made a lovely geisha and they should have given the job to him instead. Or Law. They were both pretty enough. Robin’s false smile turned genuine and she stirred the matcha to distract herself from giggling. The image of both cranky men with barely an ounce of tact between them, dressed as geishas and schmoozing customers with soft words and flattery was one of the funniest things she’d ever imagined.
Her humour was short-lived as the man continued to pile compliments on her. She was the prettiest geisha he’d ever seen – nay, the prettiest woman! Her hair was so perfect. Her smile was so genuine. He’d never met a woman so tall but he was so impressed by her stature.
She ducked her head and blushed and sighed and giggled, and he chortled, his cheeks turning red, thinking that he was the greatest man in the world. How she would love to snap that fat neck in half. At least that had been one good thing about being an assassin, in the end she could always kill them. It had made the work just slightly, slightly, more bearable.
“Now, Orobi,” Satoru said coyly and he put his arm around her shoulder.
“Satoru-san, please control yourself,” Robin giggled and she pulled away. “You should know better than to touch a geisha,” she scolded.
“Yes, yes, of course, my apologies,” he chortled. “You’re just so beautiful I can’t help myself. But now, see here, when I visit a geisha for the third time, I like to give them something special as a gift.”
“Oh my, Satoru-san.”
He reached into the voluptuous folds of his grey kimono and pulled out a long wooden box. He handed it to her as though he was presenting her with the crown jewels of Alabasta. “As you know, I’m a trader of fine and exotic goods and foods. This is something very special from outside the shores of Wano – no doubt you’ve never heard of it before.”
Robin took the box and opened it curiously. Inside was a single, long cinnamon stick. Its scent drifted through the air, overpowering the aroma of matcha and Satoru’s sweat-soaked brow. Law’s dark skin and grey eyes and subtle smirk flashed into her mind. She smiled.
“This is called cinnamon,” Satoru said importantly. “It’s very rare, mind you. You can use it in soups and desserts but I like to keep one in my room to provide a nice fragrance in the air. Do you like it?”
“Oh yes, I do, thank you Satoru-san,” Robin said enthusiastically. Perhaps too enthusiastically because his pudgy face broke into an enormous smile and he grabbed her hands.
“I knew you would! You are a woman of fine taste and discernment. I hope that you’ll keep it in your room and think of me.”
“Yes, I will do that.” Robin carefully extracted her hands from his grasp and put the box into the folds of her kimono.
“Marvellous! Would you play for me now, please, lovely Orobi?” He clasped his hands together and stared at her adoringly. Robin swallowed the bile in her throat.
“Of course.” Robin took up the shamisen that rested against the table of the little entertaining room and began to play. It hadn’t taken her long to learn the instrument, though she would be the first to admit that she was no master, certainly not as skilled as the famed local courtesan Komurasaki. But she played a simple tune and his eyes shone and he cooed as though she was the greatest player in the world.
“You truly are the perfect woman, Orobi!” he gushed.
Robin ducked her head and giggled. In her mind, she pictured Law’s expression of outrage if this man dared to ask him to play an instrument for his amusement. He’d probably slice the man’s head off and bat it around the room with the shamisen.
She let that amusing image follow her as she played.
That evening, when she returned to the geisha house, Robin set the box with the cinnamon stick on the dresser and opened it to allow the spiced scent to waft through the room. When she’d undressed, taken all that thick, caking makeup off her face and let her hair out of its headache-inducing updo, she sat herself down by the window with a cup of tea bitter matcha tea, and watched the people of Wano as they went about their evening in the streets below. She wished she had a book to read to take her mind off of things but, as it was, geisha weren’t allowed to read in case it filled their minds with the wrong thoughts. So she had to content herself with her own thoughts, which were anything but content as of late.
She missed her crew. Even though she was able to see Franky and Usopp every now and again, it was only in passing and it wasn’t the same – Zoro had wandered off somewhere of course. She missed her girl Nami. She missed Sanji even in his silliness, though she would have to have another talk with him about his behaviour. She missed funny Brook and sweet little Chopper. She missed Luffy. She regularly wondered how they were doing and if they were finally on their way here.
But most of all, right now, she missed Law.
It felt strange to miss someone so strongly who wasn’t from her crew. Yet, after three solid months of being together, it turned out that she’d spent more time with him than half of her crewmates. His presence had become such a constant that she’d been taking it for granted. Now that he wasn’t here, she felt a strange ache deep within her chest.
She took a sip of tea, letting the hot matcha soothe her body. It was probably a good thing that she was experiencing this now before their inevitable separation, but she would be lying if she said that it wasn’t making her rather crabby. The whole idea that she’d developed her first romantic feeling for someone that she couldn’t be with was highly frustrating and ironic.
She couldn’t have chosen someone from her crew instead?
The thought of that made her laugh out loud and wrinkle her nose. Her crew was like family, their own romance was adventure and travelling together. A relationship with any of them had simply never once crossed her mind, not even as a passing thought.
She propped her chin on her hand and gazed up at the stars. The scent of cinnamon wafted over her pleasantly. Was Law looking at them now, too? Was that the only way they could connect, by staring at the same sky? But what about when they inevitably had to separate forever and they crossed to different sides of the ocean? Then they wouldn’t even have the same sky to connect them.
She gazed down into the streets instead. At night, it was unlikely she’d catch a glimpse of him, nor would he be down there anyway, but she couldn’t help but look. She’d managed to catch two brief glimpses of him over the past fortnight. She knew without a doubt that they’d been intentional on his part – if he’d wanted to avoid her completely, he would have. It made her happy to know that he still wanted her to be aware that he was there, watching over her when he could. It made this entire thing just a little bit less lonely.
She wished they could have talked, even just once. But she never got a break from this and for a geisha like her to talk to a man dressed as a vagabond like him (a stylish one admittedly), it would raise questions.
Robin sighed deeply and took another sip of tea. This was exactly why she’d never entertained any thoughts of romance in her life. It was all far too complicated.
But goodness, did she wish he was here right now to warm up this cold, empty room. She recalled that moment in the castle and her cheeks grew hot. She remembered his warm breath, the way his hand had so gently brushed her hair, the way he’d leaned in towards her, lips parted. How she wished they’d both just ignored all logic and reasoning, and just kissed the way they’d wanted to.
Robin rubbed her aching eyes and moved away from the window to go to bed. She was exhausted, frustrated, lonely and unusually grumpy for her. It reminded her all too well of her days before the Straw Hats. It was better if she just tried to sleep.
At least, with the scent of cinnamon wafting through the cold, empty room, she could pretend that he was here. She just hoped Luffy arrived soon so that this torment could end.
Usopp sighed deeply and rubbed his head. This was bad. “I can’t believe he just walked off like that. What are we gonna do if he decides not to work with us? We’ll be screwed!”
Nami crossed her legs, worry pinching at her eyes. “It’s only fair that he wants to save his crew, I’m sure he’ll come back once they’re safe, this plan was his whole idea after all. Besides, you can’t put quite so much faith on him. Luffy was the one to defeat Doflamingo.”
Usopp shot her a dark look and shook his head. “You weren’t there, you didn’t see how much he struggled. If Traffy hadn’t been there, I honestly don’t know if Luffy would have won. And that’s just a warlord, not Kaido.”
Nami bit her lip. “Hmm, well when you say it like that.”
“Seriously, why did Shinobu have to say that to him of all people?” Usopp grumbled, glancing back inside the rickety building.
The kunoichi was talking. “I don’t get why you’re all looking at me like that. I stand by what I said! And we don’t need him anyway.”
“Shinobu-san,” Robin said. Usopp and Nami glanced at each other with wide eyes, they rarely heard Robin’s voice sound so cold these days. They both scrambled onto their knees to peer inside the room. Robin was smiling pleasantly but the temperature inside seemed to have dropped considerably.
“We would appreciate it if you wouldn’t put Trafalgar Law and the Heart Pirates’ integrity into question. We have been in an alliance with him for over three months now and have travelled with his crew for the past few weeks. To question their honesty and strength in the face of our enemies is both disrespectful to everything they have put on the line for this mission and, by extension, disrespectful to our own captain, who trusts Trafalgar Law explicitly.”
Shinobu’s face went bright red. “I – I – I didn’t mean to question –”
“No, but you did,” Robin continued, still smiling. Usopp and Nami shivered. “You owe him your respect and I can assure you that, when the time comes to defeat Kaido, we will need every ounce of strength that Trafalgar Law and his crew possess in order to restore your country.”
“Y-yes of – of course. I’m s-s-sorry,” Shinobu spluttered.
“Don’t apologise to me, apologise to him. Excuse me,” Robin began to walk to the door. “Oh and Sanji,” she turned back to look at the ballooned face of her crewmate, her smile gone. “Never do that again.”
She stepped outside and closed the door with a snap. Nami and Usopp, still on their knees, looked up at her with pale faces.
“I’m going for a walk,” she said tiredly, and she marched off down the street in the opposite direction to the way Law had gone, the purple sash of her kimono flowing behind her.
Nami and Usopp looked at each other with wide eyes and turned back to their seated position on the step.
“I agree with everything she said but wow,” Nami said, “I never would have expected our Robin to speak so frankly to Shinobu like that. She seemed unusually upset about Traffy-kun of all people.”
Usopp snorted, “Not that unusual.”
Nami raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Oh that’s right I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet.” He grabbed Nami’s shoulders. “Those two weeks on that ship was the most terrifying time of my life!”
“Get off me!” Nami shoved him away. “What do you mean? Were the Heart Pirates mean to you?”
“No, they were great! Bepo, Shachi and Penguin are seriously awesome and so are the others. They told us how Traffy saved them and stuff, he’s actually a pretty good guy under the grumpy exterior.”
“So then what was wrong?”
“The crew were fine. It was Traffy and Robin that were the problem!”
“And Robin?”
Usopp crossed his arms grumpily. “Those two discovered pretty quickly that their powers work really well together when your main goal is to terrify the living daylights out of the people around you!”
“What?”
“Limbs, Nami! LIMBS EVERYWHERE!” Usopp shrieked, flailing his arms around. “I spent every day in constant fear of when I’d find the next disembodied leg or hand! I found them playing leg jenga!”
“Leg …”
“JENGA! They stacked legs to make a jenga tower! I walked in on them in the library surrounded by floating body parts! I FOUND AN EYE IN MY BAG THE OTHER DAY!” Tears were streaming from his eyes now.
Nami grimaced. “And I thought being around Brook was bad enough! Sure am glad I wasn’t there. Although, I did have to deal with talking cakes and singing cutlery,” she shivered and pat him on the shoulder.
“It was terrible!” he wailed. “And I could never get a chance to tell Robin to lay off because she and Traffy were almost always together!”
“That’s really – wait, what?” Nami stopped patting him.
“They were practically inseparable for that first week.”
“Hang on, hang on!” Nami grabbed his face. “Inseparable? Robin and Traffy were inseparable?”
“Yesh,” Usopp said between his squished lips. “Alwaysh in the library or reading on the deck.”
Nami’s brown eyes began to sparkle mischievously and she shoved Usopp away. “Are you lying right now Usopp because I swear to everything I will kill you?”
“Ow,” he rubbed his cheeks ruefully. “No it’s true.”
“Ahhh!” Nami squealed and clapped her hands.
“What’s going on?” Franky said. He’d emerged from the hut and clanked down to sit beside them.
“Usopp’s telling me about Robin and Traffy-kun when you guys were with the Heart crew,” Nami giggled.
“Oh, yeah,” Franky laughed boisterously. “Man those two were always together! It was suuuupeerrrrrr cute.”
Nami clutched her face. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I know she’s been kind of keen on him for a while, but I didn’t think anything would actually come out of it!”
“Huh, a while?” Usopp asked.
“Yeah, she’s been checking him out since Punk Hazard,” Nami giggled. “I mean, to be fair, we both were.”
“What do you mean you both were?” Usopp snapped.
“Oh come on, we don’t get the chance to have an actual gentleman on the ship ever,” Nami waved her hand. “You can’t deny us a little indulgence. I wasn’t interested though, he’s so not my type. But oh my gosh I didn’t think something would actually happen between them.” She giggled loudly again.
“Hang on, hang on,” Franky said, raising his enormous hand up. “Don’t jump the gun too much, you two. They may have spent a lot of time together but that doesn’t mean they’ve started anything and it doesn’t mean we should jump to conclusions.”
“Franky, they danced together at the deck party,” Usopp said flatly.
“They danced?” Nami gasped.
“And they went for a rather long “walk” when we first arrived here.”
“They went for a walk?” she practically screamed.
Franky grinned. “True, those things did happen. But it’s still not our place to assume and we don’t want to make them uncomfortable.”
Nami sighed deeply. “I know I know. I want to ask her about it but you’re right, we’ve got more than enough to worry about right now. Still,” her eyes sparkled, “I can’t help being a little excited. Did she seem happy around him?”
“Oh yeah!” Franky nodded. “They both did. Penguin and Shachi were telling us how rare it was to see Law smile so much, even around them.”
“Oh wow, that’s so cute!” Nami clutched her face again.
“Is it?” Usopp said darkly, his eyes haunted.
“They were really keen to see him get along with her,” Franky said. “They didn’t tell us everything, but the poor kid’s had a rough life.”
“Well, you don’t need them to tell you that,” Nami scoffed, “you can tell just looking at him. His whole appearance absolutely screams ‘childhood trauma’.”
Franky laughed loudly.
“No wonder Robin’s keen on him, I bet she loves it,” Usopp groaned.
Franky’s expression turned serious. “I do hope those guys are alright though, they’re good kids. If I didn’t know Traffy was going to save them, I’d probably try to bust ‘em out myself.”
“What if his actions ruin the mission, though?” Nami said.
Franky shook his head. “Luffy’s already done that. Gee, no wonder Traffy’s so mad, it’s just been one thing after another.”
“Maybe he needs Robin to calm him down,” Nami teased and the boys chuckled.
“Maybe,” Franky chortled. “Or maybe she needs him to calm her down.” He looked off into the distance where Robin had headed. “She night not look it, but she’s wound up just as tight as he is.”
Nami nodded. “Well, I do hope that after all of this they can work it out. I just want to see her happy!”
“Agreed!” Usopp said.
Franky nodded. “If anyone on our crew deserves to find love, it’s her.”
Notes:
I just had to put in that little bonus section at the end. I don't know about you guys, but I got so mad when Shinobu had the audacity to have a go at Law and his crew - the actual nerve when she's literally useless lol. So it was very cathartic getting to write Robin telling her off :D
Also, I did feel a bit sad having to write a chapter where they weren't able to interact. But don't worry, from next chapter on it will be nonstop interactions!
As always, thanks for reading! <3 Will aim to get the next chapter out a bit sooner if possible!
Chapter 12: Aftermath
Notes:
I just had to post this chapter as soon as I could. I felt so sad with the last chapter where they didn't interact at all and I couldn't wait any longer to get this out!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Law stumbled tiredly through the ruined room. He sidestepped members of various crews, rocks, rubble, broken buildings and whatever else had been broken in the battle of Onigashima to reach the corner where patients were lying on mats, being tended to by Chopper and the mink doctors.
Brook hurried after him, his long, skeletal legs matching Law’s stride easily. “Traffy-san, Chopper did say that she didn’t seem hurt, I’m sure she’ll wake up shortly. I just wanted to make sure everything was alright as I‘m worried she pushed herself too hard.”
Law barely heard him. Worry was pounding through his body, forcing his exhausted bones and muscles to move like they were being controlled by a machine. If she was hurt – God forbid if she was hurt!
There she was! He could make out her lithe frame lying under a blanket on one of the mats at the far wall. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing heavily. Her face was covered in scratches and bruises – he was sure he looked worse. He practically threw his sword to the ground and knelt beside her in a flurry of his blue coat.
“Robin?” he said. His voice was so hoarse and tired that the words barely emerged. “Robin?” he repeated, louder. He reached out to take her shoulder and her eyes opened. She blinked up at him slowly, then she smiled. That beautiful, gentle smile of hers. She looked so happy to see him.
“Law.”
God it was amazing to hear her say his name like that.
She struggled to sit up and he reached out to help her. “Are you alright? Bone-ya said you overexerted yourself with your devil fruit powers and collapsed.”
Robin looked up at Brook and smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you, Brook. I’m fine, really. Just tired.” She glanced at Law and raised an eyebrow. “Though, I don’t think I’m the only one?”
Law smirked tiredly. It was nice of her to worry but what was most important now was making sure she wasn’t hurt. “Regardless, I want to do a scan to make sure you’re alright. Bone-ya said something about your body changing form? It’s best that I check you haven’t damaged any internal organs or something in the process. Is that fine with you?”
“Of course, I’d welcome it,” she said and his stomach jumped.
“Well then, you’re in good hands, Robin-san,” said Brook. “I’ll leave you two to it.” He bowed and headed off. Law had a feeling that if the skeleton had a face, he’d be smirking.
Law settled down on his knees and removed his coat to make himself more comfortable.
“I like your shirt,” Robin commented. “It reminds me of that jumper you wore when we first met in Sabaody.”
“Oh, thanks.” Boy, that had been a lifetime ago. “Yeah I felt like returning to my roots I guess. Room.” As he spoke, he noticed Robin’s fingers twitch lightly. He drew his sword and raised the blade with his hand. “Scan.”
“That coat is nice, too. Very captain-like,” she said with a serious nod.
He smirked slightly, “Well I had to upgrade the outfit now that I’ve moved on from taking down warlords to emperors.”
“Naturally,” she laughed and his heart soared at hearing that sound again after so many weeks.
He performed the scan carefully, checking through all of her vital organs, bones and muscles. Now that he was close to her, he could finally get a full look at her appearance, as well. He’d noticed that she looked very pretty when he spotted her in passing as their crews combined at the entrance to Onigashima, but he’d been too busy taking down enemies to look properly. (He would be lying if he pretended that he hadn’t been showing off just a bit while fighting with Luffy and Kid to impress her). Now that he was sitting close to her, he could properly see the elegant, purple, kimono-style dress, wrapped with an obi. A silken black coat lay on the ground beside her, leaving her white arms exposed. Her black hair had been tied back with a red ribbon in a low ponytail that he’d never seen her style before.
She looked beautiful.
“Find anything?” Robin asked.
He realised he’d been staring and focusing on the wrong thing. “Not too much. Your muscles seem like they’ve been stretched and returned to their original position. It’s nothing bad but you’ll want to exercise regularly to keep them from being damaged. I just need to check your organs more carefully, if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead.”
He increased the scan and let it work. It would take slightly longer to check deeper into the organs. “So, what did you do?” he asked. “I couldn’t understand what Bone-ya was babbling about.”
“Oh, I just turned into a demon and snapped a monster spider-woman in half,” she said matter-of-factly.
Law blinked. “Do you mean that corpse over there is your doing?” he pointed to the other side of the room where spider legs were pointed to the sky, belonging to the broken body of one of Kaido’s Tobi Roppo.
“Yes.”
Law grinned. “That’s badass.” And hot! He didn’t normally (ever) use that word but fuck it, the thought of her turning into a demon and literally breaking the spine of an enemy was doing some serious things to him.
Robin smirked. “Well, she tried to use my memories against me. She conjured up mirages of my mother and Saul.”
“Bitch,” Law growled.
“Indeed. So I had to get even,” she smiled in that enticing way of hers, eyes glittering. “What about you?”
“Not much. Threw some buildings around, awakened my fruit, shocked Big Mom’s organs into hell, threw her through this castle into a lava-filled crater I made that leads into the centre of the earth to boil to death.”
Robin stared at him. She was breathing heavily. “Oh,” she said and her voice sounded odd. “That’s all then?”
“And her screeching was annoying, so I created a silence bubble around her as she fell so that she couldn’t hear anything or call her homies, and we couldn’t hear her.”
Robin blinked rapidly and a sly smile spread over her face. “Now that’s positively cruel, Surgeon of Death.”
He smirked, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “I had to prove I was worthy of taking down an emperor after all.”
“I had no idea that you could do all of that.”
“Yeah, well, awakening takes a lot of energy to use and I’m far from perfect with it. I couldn’t use it on Doflamingo, I was too busy trying to stay sane,” he snorted. “But I wouldn’t have won without it this time around. The silence thing was actually inspired by Cora-san.”
“Oh?” Robin shifted slightly so that she was leaning closer to him. A glance down revealed that her kimono had a split right up the sides of her hips. Well fuck.
“Yeah. He had the Calm Calm fruit. He could create bubbles of silence. He used it for dumb stuff most of the time but sometimes it could be useful. It felt like an … homage to him, I suppose.”
Robin’s smile turned soft. “That’s lovely, Law. I think it’s wonderful you were able to do that for him. You know, I was able to do something similar. I told you that Black Maria used mirages against me, well, I used the laugh to help me get through it.”
Holy shit! He pictured her doing that adorable laugh in that outfit of hers. He cleared his throat and did his best to speak normally. “I’m sure he would have been proud of you.”
“As would Corazon of you.”
They locked eyes and something stirred in Law’s chest. He cleared his throat again. “I think there might be an issue with your liver. Do you mind if I check your pulse?”
“Not at all.”
Robin held her arm out, wrist facing upwards, and he took it. He pressed his thumb against the pulse-point on the wrist and waited. Her pressure was slightly higher than was normal but it wasn’t anything to be worried about. It could easily be attributed to the exertion of the day. He shifted his thumb and paused as he moved over a subtle ridge in the skin.
Her scars.
The memory of that day on the Polar Tang flooded back to him and he almost, almost dropped her hand again out of shame. But he didn’t, this time he held on for dear life. He wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
“Your pulse is fine,” he said softly. She nodded. He didn’t release her hand and her pulse increased again. He gently ran his thumb against the scar.
She breathed in and he was so aware of her staring at him. She was afraid. He carefully released her hand and pushed up the sleeve of his yellow shirt to show her the dark skin of his forearm. It was covered by dark hair and tattoos, but his scars were still just visible.
She gasped softly and they locked eyes.
“I got my tattoos to cover them,” he murmured, “but sometimes I wish I hadn’t. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. I just didn’t want everyone to worry.”
Robin nodded slowly. She didn’t say anything but she didn’t have to, he knew that she understood now.
He returned to speaking normally. “Do you mind if I take out your liver to check it?”
“Not at all!” she said, excitement creeping into her voice.
He chuckled, most people looked horrified when he made such suggestions. He placed his hand over her body. “Mes.”
Her liver popped out and into his hand. Robin’s eyes widened and she stared at the small, brown organ with fascination. “Goodness, it’s smaller than I thought.”
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “Do you want to hold it?”
“Ooh yes please!”
He grinned and handed it to her. She carefully held the liver in her hands like she was holding a baby bird. She flipped it around and analysed it from every angle.
“It’s so hot but of course that makes sense. And it’s still working, I assume?”
“Yes or you would know.”
“How fascinating!”
“Isn’t it?” He scooted closer and pointed to the edge of the liver. “See that tiny discolouration there? That’s a side-effect of overusing devil fruit powers when your body isn’t used to it yet. I can fix it easily enough but I’ll give you some pills to take that will help strengthen your body if you’re going to continue doing things like this. Which, I assume you will be.”
“I certainly plan on snapping many more people into pieces,” she said with a coy smile.
“Glad to hear it. Here, I just need to take it back to do the fix.” She handed the liver back with a reluctant sigh and he chuckled. “Do you want to see more?”
“Ooh, can I?”
“Of course. What else would you like to see? I can show you organs, muscles, even your bones.”
10 minutes later, the conscious members of their combined crews were gathered in a group nearby, watching with mixed expressions of fascination, adoration and utter horror. Law and Robin were surrounded by various organs and bones including her spine, lungs and pelvis. He was currently showing her an organ with the enthusiasm of someone showing off their favourite pet.
“Look at that! Do you see what I had to deal with?” Usopp wailed, grabbing Nami’s arm. She had one hand over her mouth.
“Urgh how can Robin look so happy while holding whatever the heck that is?”
“Spleen,” commented Penguin, Shachi and Bepo in unison. Usopp, Nami, Franky and Brook looked at them.
“You come to learn this stuff when you’ve been friends with Law for over a decade,” Penguin said with a shrug.
“And not by choice,” Shachi added with a shudder.
“I’m so glad I’m not on your crew,” Usopp said, blanching.
“Guess that would explain why he looks so happy,” Nami said, “he finally has someone who isn’t disgusted by it.”
“Isn’t it adorable?” cooed Ikkaku, clasping her hands together, her eyes shining.
“Superrrrrr cute!” Franky agreed, laughing loudly.
Bepo nodded in his slow way. “I don’t really get it but it’s nice to see him looking so relaxed.”
“Robin, too,” Nami said with a fond smile.
“Oi!” an obnoxious voice interrupted them and they turned to see Eustass Kid hobbling over. He looked terrible with blood streaming down his face and bruises all over his body.
Killer was following his captain, hands raised cautiously. “Kid, is this really the time?”
“Shut up! Where’s Trafalgar? I’ve got a bone to pick with him! Seems he’s been insinuating that taking down that bitch was all his work.”
“Err we don’t know where he is,” Penguin said quickly.
“Maybe try over there, Eustass-san,” Brook pointed vaguely in the opposite direction to where Law and Robin were sitting.
“HAAAA? Why wouldn’t you know where your own captain is? And what’re you all doing standing around here for? Where is – there he is!” Everyone cringed as Kid spotted Law and began to stalk in his direction. “OI TRAFALGAR! I’ve got something to say to – WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Kid roared as he was jumped and pinned to the ground simultaneously by Nami, Usopp, Franky, Brook, Penguin, Shachi, Bepo, Ikkaku and Clien. “GET OFF ME YOU INGRATES! KILLER, STOP THEM!”
Everyone sat down hard on Kid’s back, knocking the wind out of his already exhausted body, and Nami smacked him over the head with her clima tact, rendering him completely unconscious.
She smiled sheepishly at Killer. “Sorry about that. Would you mind just leaving him be for a while? This really isn’t the time.”
Killer glanced to Law and Robin, and then back to the group. “I think I’m going to find snacks for everyone while Kid takes a well-earned nap,” he said and he walked off without another word. He laughed as he passed Law and Robin. Despite the commotion, they were still sitting close together, talking animatedly over various internal body parts, and neither one had noticed anything else going on around them.
Notes:
When I first saw Robin's fight against Black Maria, I wondered how Law would react, and visa versa with Law's fight against Big Mom, so I just had to write them having a conversation about it! I have no doubt they would have been super into it haha.
Also I just absolutely adore Robin's Onigashima raid outfit, it's her best fit post-timeskip and I'm actually going to cosplay it at an upcoming convention! Can't wait!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks as always for reading <3
Chapter 13: Fireworks
Chapter Text
The Straw Hats had enjoyed many an end-of-battle party before but nothing quite like this one. As the burning sun set and night fell over the city, the people of Wano and their guests were in full party mode, enjoying the largest and greatest festival any of them had ever seen.
Stalls of food, drinks and games flooded the streets, lit by the glow of thousands of rainbow lanterns. The overwhelming smells of candy apples, hot udon, sake and sweets mingled together to form the most delectable scents imaginable. Drums serenaded the people and dancing took place spontaneously whenever anyone was overcome with the sudden urge to express their joy.
The crews of the Straw Hat Pirates, Heart Pirates and Kid Pirates mingled together, wholeheartedly enjoying the festivities with their new friends – those that they’d made with each other and in Wano. They danced, they sang, they ate until they were stuffed and they drank until they couldn’t see.
Robin sat with Hiyori by the window in a room just above the festivities as the Wano princess reapplied her makeup in preparation for her upcoming shamisen performance. Their rooms in the palace were adjacent to one another and they had found themselves becoming quick friends, spurred on by their shared experiences of having to wear a mask of pretend since childhood, and having to entertain men far more than either would have liked.
From the window, the girls could see the party in full swing. Robin took a sip of tea, admiring the view and smiling at the antics of her crew mates as they caused their usual havoc.
“Are you sure you don’t want to head down? You really don’t have to sit here with me,” Hiyori said as she carefully flicked eyeliner across her lid with enviable precision.
“That’s alright, I’m perfectly happy here," Robin said. "To be honest, parties aren’t really my cup of tea. I prefer to sit in bed with a good book.”
“I can understand that,” Hiyori laughed. “Though, I am certainly looking forward to finally experiencing a party where I don’t have to suck up to that disgusting Orochi.”
“I heard you set him on fire.”
The Wano princess smirked, allowing her vengeful side to come through. “I wish I could say it was all me but I’ll still take the credit.”
Robin smiled. “You should. He deserved it.”
“He sure did. I tell you,” she moved to lining her other lid, “I am so over men. I’m looking forward to not having to interact with them much from now on.”
Robin eyed her slyly, “All men?” Both girls looked down to the street where Zoro was clinking an enormous mug with Denjiro.
Hiyori gave her a brazen smile, “Well, maybe all men but that depends on him. He just doesn’t seem that interested, though it’s hard to tell. Sometimes I think he is and then sometimes I’m just not sure.”
“Hmm,” Robin took a sip of tea, “Zoro is very upfront about his feelings and he needs others to be the same. If he had no intentions whatsoever, he would say so outright.”
“Really?” Hiyori’s bright blue eyes lit up.
“Yes, he’s very honest. It’s certainly one of his most admirable traits. Admittedly, he does tend to think about his swords first and foremost, but that’s because he’s a man and he has a very one-track mind. I would say, if you’re serious, you should be forthright about your feelings and let him know tonight. If he’s not interested, he’ll tell you.”
“And if he is?”
Robin smiled coyly, “He’ll tell you that, too.”
Hiyori beamed. “Well that’s good to know. To be honest, that’s exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for. I’m over all these dishonest men.”
Robin nodded slowly, “I can absolutely empathise with that.”
“You’re so lucky!” Hiyori huffed as she pat blush over her cheeks. “It must be nice to be so loved.”
Robin smiled fondly and took a sip of tea. “Oh, yes, my crew are wonderful. We love each other deeply.”
Hiyori giggled and glanced at Robin in the mirror. “I’m sure you do but that’s not who I was meaning. I was talking about Trafalgar-san, of course.”
Robin nearly choked on her tea. “I’m sorry, what?”
Hiyori swung around to look at Robin properly. “You're not in a relationship? I’m sorry. I just … assumed –”
“Oh – no, no we’re not, we’re just friends.” The word sounded hollow in her mouth.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to cause any confusion!" Hiyori said, her face going so pink it matched her kimono. "I just thought … well, I’m just surprised that you’re not.”
Robin swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry. “What do you mean?”
Hiyori smiled gently. “It’s just that if I had a man look at me the way he looks at you, I wouldn’t be insisting we were just friends.” She turned back to the mirror and carefully applied bright pink lipstick. “I mean, just look at him right now.”
Robin looked down at the street. Law was standing in front of a sake stall with Penguin and Usopp who were arguing drunkenly with mugs of sake in their hands – he was looking straight at her.
They locked eyes. She breathed in deeply, remembering that day back in the ruined castle. He turned his head away abruptly, as though he didn’t want to admit that he’d been staring.
Robin took another deep breath. It had been several days since Onigashima and several days since they'd finally talked again. It had been so unbelievably wonderful to sit with him as he showed her fascinating organs and bones, and she’d loved hearing about his fight against Big Mom. The thought of him awakening his devil fruit and throwing the enormous emperor into a silent, fiery pit of hell was so unbelievably sexy that it had taken all of her willpower not to kiss him then and there.
She’d thought – hoped – that once they were settled in their rooms and recovered their strength, he would have made a move and come to discuss whatever it was that was going on between them. But nothing had happened. They’d only seen each other at mealtimes and nothing else had been said except for an occasional “good morning” and a smile.
They were both perfectly well now, the fight was over, the emperors were gone, there was no reason to hold back anymore. She didn’t know what to think and it was making her extremely frustrated. She wanted to march down there right now and demand to know what was going on.
“Robin, are you alright?” Hiyori asked, pulling her from her thoughts. “I’m so sorry I if I went too far and said something I shouldn’t have.”
“Oh, no,” Robin forced a smile. “Not at all, it was sweet of you to think that way, but as I said, we’re just friends. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go find the others, Nami was saying something about getting me to try a candy apple. Best of luck for your performance, I know you’ll be incredible.” She gave Hiyori a reassuring pat on the shoulder and headed out of the room before the princess could say anything further.
She didn’t want Hiyori to think she was upset because of her – it wasn’t the girl’s fault. If anything, it was Law’s fault for being far too pragmatic for his own good. Or perhaps it was hers for not having the guts to confront him either.
Robin sighed and pushed her ponytail over her shoulder. All of this thinking was doing her head in and the last thing she wanted to do right now was join the party and pretend everything was happy and wonderful when, really, she just wanted to lock herself up in her room and read.
A thought crossed her mind and she turned on her heel to head in the direction of the underground room where the poneglyph was located. What better time than now to use the thing she loved the most to pull her away from her biggest distraction?
“Stairs?” Robin asked as Tengu lifted a stone tile on the floor, revealing stairs descending into a cold darkness below. Excitement quickened in her chest, was this where the red poneglyph was hidden? Would she finally find it?
Footsteps sounded on the stairs leading back outside and she looked up curiously. They were light and purposeful and familiar, but it couldn’t be, could it? Excitement of an entirely different kind beat through her body as long, slender, jeaned legs emerged, followed by a yellow-shirted torso and, finally, the handsome face of the man she’d just been trying to escape from.
“Oh?” she said, unable to hide her surprise. “How did you sniff out that I was here?”
“You weren’t with the others, of course I was suspicious,” he said matter-of-factly. Robin’s eyes widened a fraction. He’d been suspicious of her absence? How strangely sweet of him. “Don’t act like I’m some kind of hyena,” he scoffed and her lips twitched with amusement.
Their own feelings of each other aside, she had no doubt as to why he was really here. “So, you want to know, too?”
He smirked and she matched his smile with one of her own. Even with a party raging outside celebrating their accomplishments, his far more than her own, he was just as much of an introvert as she was and far more preoccupied with the intrigue of the world’s secrets than drinking and party lights. It didn’t matter if she was or wasn’t a key part of why he’d come, the fact that he was here was more than enough.
It was thrilling to finally have someone else to experience this with.
They followed Tengu down the steep steps. They were slippery, covered with mould, moss and lichen. The biting cold and the smell of overgrown, dark places grew with each step down. Robin was careful in her wooden sandals and socks, and the tight skirt of her kimono. She wished she’d had the forethought to change into something more practical before coming here, but it couldn’t be helped.
Despite the narrow staircase, Law walked practically beside her, just a pace behind to give her enough room to manoeuvre. She glanced back briefly and noticed that he had his left hand positioned in an odd way, it was stiff and angled slightly towards her. He’s prepared in case I slip, she realised with a jolt. She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.
The walk was long and seemed to go on for ages. Even though she was confident in her own abilities, she still felt grateful that Law was here. It was comforting to know that he had her back – quite literally – should something happen.
She ran her hands along the stone walls as they walked. “These are very old, pre-Void century at least.”
“You have a good eye,” Tengu praised. “I never told Kaido or Orochi about this route. But because the lead Performer, Jack, is a fishman, they found the poneglyph in no time.”
“Why would being a fishman help?” Robin asked.
“That’s quicker to see for yourself.”
“How far does this go?” Law grumbled. She could practically feel his impatience growing behind her. He liked history as much as she did but clearly he was far more interested in getting to the answer rather than enjoying the journey.
“Well, let’s see, hundreds of years into the past.”
Robin’s eyes widened. So they really were entering a place that was pre-Void century. How exciting! A strange, blue light suddenly appeared on the stairs from a square gap in the wall. She stopped and looked through the gap, which travelled up at a slight angle, reaching some kind of blue glass at the end.
“Tengu-san, where does this light come from?”
Law stopped directly beside her and followed her gaze.
“That’s a glass block at the end of the tunnel. Go ahead and look through it, we’re on the seafloor at this point.”
Robin lifted her kimono and carefully crawled into the tunnel. She moved awkwardly on her hands and knees up the gradually rising slope, bits of rock and moss cutting into her hands. Hmm, it’ll be awkward if Law follows me, she realised. He would be getting a very inappropriate view of her if he did. Sweat dripped down her face as she crawled, it wasn't exactly easy in the kimono, and the space was cramped and humid.
“Room.”
The telltale blue dome appeared her she looked around. “What?” Law popped next to her. She frowned. “No fair!” Couldn’t he have at least done it with her so that she didn’t have to suffer like this? She noticed his overly serious expression and felt like rolling her eyes. It was the expression he wore when he was messing with someone even more than usual. He wore it whenever he called Chopper a tanuki just to see the little reindeer’s adorably annoyed reaction.
He was purposefully not looking at her and she realised that this was the closest they had been to each other since that time in the castle ruins. Their knees were just touching and his hand was resting close to her leg. She could smell the scent of cinnamon. It would take very little to close that gap between them.
His eyes suddenly widened. Frowning at his expression, Robin turned back to look through the glass and all thoughts of their close proximity vanished. Through the water and the masses of fish and sea plants, was the land of Wano, exactly as it appeared on the surface, but under the sea!
“The Land of Wano … on the seafloor?” Robin exclaimed.
“That’s Wano from about 800 years ago. A different Wano anyway,” Tengu said.
“800 years ago?” Law said in disbelief. “What do you mean?” Robin’s mouth dropped even more. How was this possible?
“Exactly what I said, but I don’t know how it ended up like that. Since that isn’t sea water, it’s well preserved. What it means is that there once was a land of Wano with an enormous mountain.” He continued to walk as he started to explain. Robin turned her body and shuffled frontways back down the tunnel. Law used his room ability and she frowned at him as she carefully jumped out of the tunnel and back onto the stairs. His serious expression told her that he was messing with her again. The nerve!
“At some point, great walls grew around the island and it filled up with rainwater,” Tengu continued, oblivious to their actions. “The people had to abandon their flooded towns and created a new land on the side of the mountain.
“And that’s the Wano of today?” Robin asked. She shared a look of intrigue with Law.
“It is.”
They continued down the long staircase until they reached the base. It was so dark they could hardly see.
“This is it,” Tengu announced. He pushed on the rock wall and it opened. He went through the gap, disappearing into the room beyond. Robin glanced back at Law and he met her gaze, this time his eyes were shining with a light that she knew was reflected in her own eyes. They steeled their nerves together in a shared breath and followed Tengu through the gap in the wall. They entered an enormous, wooden room, covered in moss and overgrown plants and held up by grand columns. A river flowed on one side.
In the centre of the room in all its enormous glory, was a gleaming red poneglyph. Robin’s entire being jumped with excitement. She and Law stood before it, gazing up at the impressive structure with awe. It was truly magnificent! It seemed to wear the importance of its age and meaning like the cloak of a king.
“The Road Poneglyph,” she breathed out softly. “This is the third. One more and we can get to Laugh Tale." She heard Law exhale a deep breath behind her. They were so close now to the One Piece.
Once Tengu explained about the location of Pluton and its connection to Wano, Robin got to work with trying to get a rubbing of the poneglyph.
“I hope you don’t mind, this will take a while,” she said apologetically to Law and Tengu.
“Do you have paper for it?” Law asked, coming up to stand beside her. His blue coat rustled behind him.
“I do,” she took out the rolls of parchment she’d brought.
Law held out his hand. “Give that to me.”
Did he always have to be so direct? It wouldn’t kill him to say please sometimes, she thought with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. She handed it to him.
“K-Room.”
Robin blinked at the new phrase. She watched, speechless, as the blue dome that usually fell over the immediate area that Law stood under instead appeared as a ball in his hand. He threw it at the poneglyph and it encased the red stone in its blue sheen, turning it a lovely shade of purple.
“Transcribe.”
Robin’s jaw dropped as the letters from the poneglyph appeared on the parchment in Law’s hand, glowing blue and turning into dark, inky letters. He handed the paper back to her and she could tell from his expression, despite how stoic he was being, that he was amused by her awe.
“Is that your awakening?”
“Yes.”
“Very impressive,” she said. “I should bring you on all of my poneglyph expeditions from now on.”
He grunted but didn’t say anything and she frowned. What was going on with him?
“Now that’s done, I assume you don’t need anything else,” Tengu said.
“Well, I’d like to look around,” Robin suggested hopefully.
“Hmm,” Tengu hesitated, “I’d rather you didn’t, I don’t like to leave this room open for too long in case it gets damaged by the outside air.”
“I see, of course we can leave if you’d prefer,” she said, trying not to sound too disappointed.
“Good. You can both head straight back up, I just need to ensure this room is still in good condition while I’m here.”
“Of course,” Robin said. “Thank you very much for letting us down here, Tengu-san.”
“Not at all, I owe you the life of this country and my grandchildren.”
He bowed his head and Law and Robin returned it. They left the room and began the long walk back up the steps.
“I should have worn pants and sneakers for this,” Robin said as they ascended.
Law snorted. "You'd think the old man would have allowed us some time to actually look around."
"I suppose it makes sense, but it is disappointing."
They stopped talking to focus on the arduous climb.
After 10 minutes, Law grumbled, “This is ridiculous! Room.” With a pop Robin found herself several steps higher. Pop! They were further up again. Pop! Again. And again and again, until they were right at the top of the staircase after only five minutes.
“You don’t need to say ‘shambles’ anymore?” Robin noted as they climbed the final few steps.
“If I have to move something big, I do, but just us doesn’t require much effort.”
They stepped out of the underground stairs and back into the room with the original poneglyph.
“Can you get me a rubbing of that one too?” she asked, pulling out another piece of parchment.
Law took it. “K-room. Transcribe.” He handed the paper back with the full inscription on it.
“Amazing,” she said, carefully rolling up the parchment and tucking it into her obi with the other one. “I can’t wait to transcribe these! I’ll be sure to give you a copy once I’m done, of course. You deserve it after everything we’ve been through together.”
“Of course I do,” he said. He sounded tired. She supposed that using his power including his awakening so much while still recovering from his fight with Kaido and Big Mom was causing significant strain on his body. He began to walk towards the steps that led back up to the party, barely sparing her a glance.
Robin glared at the back of his fluffy-hatted head. She was sick of this. Sick of dancing around the subject. Sick of trying to act like nothing happened between them, except that every time they were together something always inevitably happened.
“Trafalgar Law,” she said firmly, “I have a question for you. Purely hypothetical, of course.”
Law turned back to her sharply, she knew that would have piqued his naturally curious nature. She moved closer and noticed that he visibly stiffened and the hand around his sword clenched tighter.
“What is it?”
“Hypothetically, what would you do if I was to kiss you?”
To her surprise, Law didn’t miss a beat. “What kind of a kiss are we talking about here? A peck on the cheek, a kiss on the lips.”
“Lips.”
“Hypothetically, would tongues be involved?”
“Hypothetically, I could see there being tongues.”
“I see. Then I would kiss you back. Hypothetically.”
Robin stared into his grey eyes directly. “Then what?”
“Then that would be it.”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. “Why?”
“Because we’re from separate crews. I’m a captain. You have your own captain to follow. We’ll be going our separate ways in a few weeks when our log poses update. We’re technically enemies fighting for the One Piece. We’re pirates. We would never work.”
He had so many reasons that made sense, but she wasn’t satisfied.
“Why not?”
“Because –”
“And don’t give me another foolishly logical reason. I want a real one.”
Law blinked slowly. He opened and closed his mouth. Then he said in a low, husky voice that made her ache. “Because I don’t know how to give my heart to someone else - and you deserve better than me.”
She softened. There it was, finally, the real reason. Not the excuses, as technically logical as they were, but the real, emotional reason why he’d struggled so much. Why he’d been so reluctant at first to get to know her, why he’d dropped her hand in the Polar Tang, why he’d pulled back from kissing her in the ruins, why he hadn’t talked to her after Onigashima. Why, even though he so clearly wanted to be near her, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to look her in the eyes until now.
She was getting better at opening up to those around her, she had been able to process her trauma over the past couple of years and realise her worth, and yet, even after being rescued, she was also being challenged by these new feelings. With the idea of giving herself up to someone else and the idea of feeling like she was worthy of him. If she was still struggling, she knew that his struggles were worse. His trauma and his freedom was still so recent.
She took a step closer and saw the cartilage in his well-defined neck move as he swallowed. “Neither do I,” she admitted. “Not … not completely anyway. So, maybe we could stop overthinking things, stop coming up with so many silly reasons why we shouldn’t, stop letting logic and reason dictate our actions, and put ourselves first for once in our lives and learn together?”
He breathed in deeply. His grey eyes were burning with a light she’d never seen before. His dark skin seemed to glow, he smelled so warm and enticing, and she was so aware of her own heartbeat and pulse that it felt like her senses were on fire.
“I see,” he finally said. “Then here’s a hypothetical question for you, Nico Robin. What would you do if I was to kiss you?”
“Well, I –” and before she could finish her sentence, he threw down his sword, grabbed her face with his tattooed hands, and kissed her.
Finally.
They gasped with longing as their lips met. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him pull her up into the kiss. They kissed so deeply she forgot how to breathe, she forgot about the party, she forgot where they were, she even forgot about her beloved poneglyphs. It wasn't important anymore.
All that she cared about right now was Law and that he was finally, finally, kissing her.
They pulled apart only when they were both about to suffocate. He still held her face in his hands and their lips were still so close they were touching.
“Should – should we – do this somewhere more – more comfortable and – private?” Robin gasped out.
“Y-yeah, that sounds good,” Law breathed. He pressed his lips longingly against hers again and she moaned sweetly. “Oh God,” he groaned and his tongue went so far into her mouth that her knees began to shake.
“L-Law,” she gasped.
“Mm?” he murmured.
“M-move us, please,” she begged. The last thing she wanted was for Tengu or, God forbid, anyone else to show up unexpectedly and break this moment that they’d been wanting for so long.
He raised his hand. “Room.” She sighed deeply and kissed his neck. “Sh-shambles,” he grunted. She smirked, apparently when he was distracted he still needed to use his words. With a pop they disappeared from the dark, underground room and reappeared right in her bedroom. She didn’t bother to wonder how he knew exactly where her room was.
Robin threw his hat off his head, pushed his coat off his shoulders, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down onto the futon with her. He let out a laugh of surprise but before he could say anything she was on top of him, kissing him madly.
He practically ripped off her obi and the rest of her kimono fell apart, exposing her body to him. (In the back of her mind, she realised that he’d also moved the transcription papers onto the low table). She moaned loudly as he grasped her body and flipped her so that she was underneath him and then he was on top of her. Somehow, he was already shirtless and half the buttons were undone on his pants. She hadn’t even realised she’d done that.
He kissed her and his large hands began to roam up and down her body, exploring her in a way she’d never felt before.
“Law?” she moaned half-moaned, half-asked.
“Y-yeah?” he said into her mouth.
She pulled away quickly, “I don’t – don’t suppose you could use that silence thing you were talking about?”
He grinned fiendishly. “Nico Robin, you read my mind. Room. Silence.” And just like that, all sound outside of the room disappeared.
“Nice.”
“I dunno how Cora-san would feel knowing I’m using his power for this but hey, maybe he’d be proud.”
“I’m sure he would be,” she laughed.
Law’s smirk returned and he grabbed the back of her head, pulling her up so that their lips were just touching. “Now then, I’d better put that power to good use, hadn’t I?”
“You’d better or I’ll be very disappointed,” she teased, and she kissed him hard and bit down on his lip. He groaned so loudly that she couldn’t help but laugh into his mouth. “And you were actually trying to convince yourself that you didn’t want this?”
“No, I was trying to convince myself that I didn’t need it,” he said. He settled himself down onto the futon and pulled her onto his lap. He pushed her hair back from her sweating face – somehow it had also come out of its ponytail. He stared deep into her eyes and she stared back at him. “I was an idiot. I need you, Robin,” he growled and she gasped as he pushed her body up so close to his that every part of her skin seemed to be touching him.
He completely pulled off her kimono and she unbuttoned his shirt with frantic hands. He held her in his tattooed arms and then they were kissing and kissing and kissing and oh God!
Never had she ever experienced a night like this one. Sex, to her, had always been a necessity. Something to help her live another day. She knew it could be pleasurable but never had she thought she would ever be privileged enough to get to experience it.
But now she could understand what people went on about.
Law’s body and her body were intertwined. She couldn’t even say which was which anymore. All she knew was that she was desperate for him. She needed him in a way she’d never needed anyone before. Not just carnally, there was something that ached in her very bones, that yearned for the man called Trafalgar Law.
She’d been feeling it this whole time, since that first day when he’d so casually told Luffy that he wouldn’t betray him and worn Chopper on his head like a hat. She’d needed him then, she just hadn’t realised it.
And he needed her, too.
She was familiar with men who lied, cheated and gaslit their way to get a woman. She knew all their tricks and she knew every time that their promises and pleads were like paper, thin and breakable, especially once she put a hand to their necks and twisted. But Law was real. He was here and she knew that he’d been feeling the exact same way as she had.
He clutched her body like it was a lifeline, he caressed her skin like it was the softest silk, he murmured in her ear with his voice like velvet. He licked and bit and scratched but it didn’t hurt, it felt oh so good. It felt like she was alive. He said her name and she said his and she felt, for once in her life, whole. Complete. Like she was a real person.
When they came together, she saw stars and moons and galaxies, and she thought that maybe the poneglyphs weren’t all there was to life.
They lay, panting, on the futon, his tanned arm around her slender frame, tracing patterns on her arm as she lay against him. Breathing. Breathing. Breathing. She traced the tattoos on his chest that was glossed with sweat, admiring the way the ink contoured against his muscles.
“Who knew the infamous Surgeon of Death could sweat like this,” she teased.
He smirked and kissed her. “Who knew the infamous Demon Child could scream like that.”
She opened her mouth to scold him for his crassness but then he covered her with kisses and she forgot what she was going to say. She saw scars on his arms and she kissed them. He saw scars on her arms and back and ran his tongue along them. And then they were at it again, unable to be without each other for long now that they’d finally experienced it.
Finally, they conceded the defeat of their exhausted bodies. They lay together on the futon, watching the fireworks from the festival light up the sky with rainbow stars and they talked. They talked about everything.
He told her every detail of Flevance, how he met and worked for Doflamingo, about Corazon and how he saved him and was killed. How he met Bepo, Penguin and Shachi, and the man called Wolf who made them their submarine. How he became a pirate and saved people who had been enslaved under Doflamingo’s ruthless human trafficking business. How he spent his whole life living for revenge and how, when he finally saw Doflamingo fall, he realised that it had all amounted to nothing but emptiness. How now he was finally trying to learn to be himself and discover who he really was.
She told him about Ohara. About the mother who had abandoned her, about her indifferent relatives, about the researchers and Mr Clover. About Saul and Kuzan. How she'd struggled every day to survive, running from place to place, giving everything she had just to live – from her mind to her body. About working for Crocodile. How she met Luffy and how he and the others saved her in every way possible. How she learned to want to live again.
Finally, they fell into a silence as comfortable as though they’d known each other for their entire lives. They lay together, arms wrapped around each other, happy for once to completely forget why they were there and who they were. Because right now, it didn’t matter.
Nothing else mattered except them.
Law yawned as he carefully cracked open the sliding door from Robin’s room and stepped outside. He glanced back at where she was lying on the futon, her long, bare legs sticking out from under the covers. He wished he didn’t have to leave, especially so damn early in the morning, but they’d both agreed it was best to try and keep things on the downlow for the time being and his crew was going to get suspicious if they woke to find he wasn’t there. Plus, she’d mentioned Nami had a habit of bursting in and she was absolutely the last person they wanted to know about this right now.
Robin waved goodbye sleepily, a content smile on her face. He waved back and closed the door quietly. He turned to walk back to the men’s quarters, when the door to the adjacent room opened. Zoro stepped out.
The green-haired swordsman closed the door quietly and froze as he locked eyes with Law. The two men stared at each other. Their hair was sticking up at all angles, their shirts were unbuttoned and there were distinct bruises around their necks that they would both need to hide when the sun rose.
“Isn’t that Robin’s room?” Zoro said with a frown.
“Isn’t that Princess Hiyori’s?” Law responded.
They stared at each other for a long time.
Finally, Law said, “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“Deal.”
Notes:
Finally!! Gosh this was so much fun to write and I'm so happy I could finally get them together after so many chapters!
I went over and over this one so many times! The underwater date is such an important scene for them and I really wanted to get it right so I hope I did it justice. Like the trust scene, I went through both translations to check what they actually said. Unfortunately, the dub isn't out yet so I couldn't compare it to that, but the Japanese is still really cute with how casually they speak to each other.
The fun thing now is that there's some canon weeks left for them to actually be together before the inevitable separation, so I can write them being a couple for a few chapters! Yay! I've got a few things in mind but let me know if there's anything you want to see and I'll see what I can do.
Thanks as always for reading and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! <3
Chapter 14: A Plan
Notes:
Thank you all so much for all the lovely comments with the last chapter! I'm so happy that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it <3 . And so sorry for the delay with this one! It was my birthday last weekend and then we had various public holidays, plus I'm preparing to go travelling soon, so even though I'd already written this chapter, I wasn't able to find time to edit it and publish until now.
I got a lot of One Piece stuff for my birthday, lots of Law things of course including the Law with the Polar Tang pop vinyl - which I was so stoked to get because it's so rare! So a very good birthday for sure :D
Now, we finally get to see Lawbin being together without trying to hide their feelings. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Robin watched with barely disguised amusement as Law checked the map for the 15th time in the past 10 minutes.
“This can’t be right,” he muttered. He looked up at the large rock in front of them that was shaped like a wonky giraffe, then back down at the map. “This says that rock should be by the waterfall but we passed that ages ago.”
“Perhaps it’s an old map,” Robin suggested.
Law frowned. “So Kin’emon gave us something worthless? That bastard!”
“In his defense, he jumped 20 years into the future. It’s highly likely that the map he had was outdated,” she reasoned practically.
“That’s no excuse.” He flipped the map over in his hands, brow furrowed. “I don’t think we’re even anywhere near that old temple he was talking about.”
Robin shaded her eyes and turned to look at the sun. “He said it was northeast of the city on the top of a hill, so if we keep going in this direction and up then I’m sure we’ll find it eventually.”
“Eventually? We don’t have time for ‘eventually’! It’s almost midday, we’ll never be able to get back by 3pm like we’d planned.”
“That’s alright, we can just take it as it comes,” Robin shrugged under her light pink t-shirt.
“No, we can’t. We need to be back by 3!”
“Why?” she asked practically.
Law frowned. “What do we mean why? That was the plan. We left at 7, got to that outlook near the castle at 10 to have our coffee, then we were meant to be at the temple by now for lunch so that we could head back on the shorter side and be back in the capital by 3.”
Robin’s lips twitched. “Do we need to be back by 3?”
“Of course we do,” he insisted. “We agreed that we would so that our crews don’t get suspicious.”
“It will be fine if we’re a bit later than that. Besides, they’re all doing their own thing anyway, they’re hardly going to notice if we don’t return on the dot of 3.”
“Maybe your crew doesn’t notice these things but mine sure does,” Law retorted.
“That’s because you’ve amassed a crew of Trafalgar Law fangirls,” Robin teased.
He glared at her and she had to clench her fingers to stop from laughing out loud. “The point is that we made a plan and we have to stick to it. Unless this map starts actually making some goddamn fucking sense anytime soon, we’ll have to start heading back.”
“Sometimes, when exploring, you can’t always follow a plan and you need to take things as they come,” Robin suggested carefully. His eye twitched. “Look, let’s just keeping walking northeast up this hill and I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. If we don’t, then at least we enjoyed the adventure.”
“No. We’ve got the map, we need to follow it and the plan!” Law insisted stubbornly. Robin bit her lip, he was starting to look stressed, poor thing, and it made him look downright adorable, with his grey eyes all scrunched up and a muscle twitching in his jaw. “We planned to return by 3pm today and that’s what we’re going to do. So we’ll follow along the path here that’s outlined on this map and if we don’t see anything within the next 30 minutes we’ll head back.” He started to march to the left, opposite the way Robin had suggested.
Robin bit the inside of her cheek to keep down her smile. “Law?”
“Come on.”
“Law, just slow down for a second,” she urged. He sighed dramatically and turned back to her. “What if we just followed our instincts and ignored the map?” she suggested slowly.
Law gaped at her, utterly aghast. “Ignored the map? But what about the plan?”
Robin prepared herself for his response. “We ditch the plan.”
He stared at her like she was suddenly able to swim. “We ditch the plan?”
She nodded seriously. He looked so utterly horrified and adorable that it was taking all her willpower to keep herself from bursting with laughter. “No plan. Let’s just explore and have fun.”
He looked like he might have a conniption and she had to put her hand to her mouth to hold back her laugh.
“Right. Sure. Of course. No plan. That’s completely normal. Let’s just give into crackheaded madness while we’re at it, and change our powers into rubber and gum gum our way to the temple like a certain deranged captain who is clearly rubbing off on you!”
He was pacing up and down over the grassy forest floor, the map clenched so tightly in his hands it was in danger of ripping. Robin's shoulders were shaking with laughter now that she could no longer hold back.
“Are you laughing at me?” he snapped.
“Of course not,” she said behind her hand.
“You are!”
“I’m just surprised at how inflexible the Surgeon of Death is. I knew you were big on your plans I just didn’t realise how much it extended past world-shattering invasions to simple bushwalks.”
He opened and closed his mouth and this time she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her mouth. She clapped her hands over her lips, giggling. He glared at her, arms crossed over his navy blue t-shirt. He looked incredibly cranky and petulant, which contrasted so heavily against the “badass”, manly, tattooed exterior he liked to portray that it was making the situation even funnier.
“I can be flexible,” he growled.
Robin removed her hand from her mouth and gave him a withering look. “Oh really? Then ditch the plan.”
He stood still for almost a minute, his eye still twitching. Oh dear, he really was inflexible wasn’t he? Robin tried to give him a serious look that showed she was highly understanding of his terrible plight in making such a big decision, but it must have come across as more condescending than anything else because he glared fiercely at her.
“You don’t think I can do it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t need to.”
“Well, can you?”
“Of course I can!” he said far too loudly through gritted teeth and another giggle escaped her lips. He crumpled up the map and stuffed it in his pocket. “See? No plan!”
“That’s very big of you. Are you sure your neurotic brain can handle it?”
He crossed his arms and glared at her. “Don’t patronise me, Demon-ya.”
She crossed her own arms. “I would never dare, Surgeon-san.”
She held his death glare with a fixed look of her own, desperately trying to keep her lips from twitching.
His expression softened a little and he rolled his eyes. “OK fine, I guess, maybe I’m possibly, potentially overreacting.”
“Maybe? Possibly? Potentially?”
“Yeah yeah, alright.”
“So you admit that we don’t have to have lunch at midday at the temple or be back by 3 exactly? We can be back by 3:01 even.”
He sighed deeply and sent her a dark look. She returned it with a coy smile. “It’s, I suppose, not the end of the world if we don’t get back by 3.”
“There you go, that wasn’t so hard was it?” She held her hand out to him and he took it with begrudging acceptance. She began to walk northeast, pulling him along with her.
He rolled his eyes as he followed. “I swear to everything, Robin, if you keep patronising me I’ll –”
“Steal my heart?” she suggested mildly.
He stopped and tugged her hand so that she was forced to stop beside him. He smirked in a way that made her heart beat fast. “Too late for that I think,” he, the tone of his voice changing to match his smirk. He dropped her hand and tilted her chin up and kissed her tenderly and sweetly. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh.
He pulled out of the kiss just as she was starting to really get into it and her eyes flung open. He licked her lips, smirked and turned to continue walking up the hill.
Robin stood still, breathing heavily. Goodness, did he know how to turn her usually calm, calculating mind into an irrational mess.
“Coming?” he called. She could hear the smugness in his voice.
Robin pushed down her feelings with a huff, hefted her backpack on her shoulders and hurried after him. She took his hand as she caught up, squeezed it, kissed him on the cheek and continued walking alongside him.
The feeling of his strong hand in hers as they climbed up the hill together was so wonderful that it made her tingle warmly all over. Never in her life had she imagined that she’d be able to go on an expedition like this with anyone, let alone a man that she was becoming so deeply attached to. Even with her crew, her archaeological investigations has always been a solo project; she’d had to abandon them in Skypeia after all when they’d only held her back. When training with the Revolutionary Army, only Koala had come with her and she’d been easily distracted and only cared for girl talk instead of searching for history.
It was so nice to be able to finally share her deepest passion with someone else who cared about it almost as much as she did.
“It’s a shame that I can’t follow the plan anymore,” Law interrupted her thoughts, a casual slyness to his voice. “Part of my plan for us to return at 3 was so we would have enough time for sex before dinner. But I guess that won’t be the case now,” he sighed dramatically.
Robin shot him a look, the tingles turning into a very different kind of warmth. “Whose to say that we still can’t do it after dinner? Or just not go to dinner at all?”
“No, no, then that would be planning, and you said we shouldn’t follow any plan.”
Robin bloomed a hand on his shoulder to slap his arm and he sniggered. “Trafalgar Law you are being such a jerk right now!”
“You should be praising me for not being – what was it again? – oh yeah, neurotic,” he said with a smirk.
“Oh you’re still being neurotic but of an entirely different kind,” she scolded.
He grinned and she shook her head, unable to keep the smile from her face. He was being thoroughly annoying but she had to admit that she liked it. It was nice to see him so relaxed after everything that had happened over the past three months.
She was about to continue scolding, when the trees up ahead parted and she caught a glimpse of bright blue sky and the edge of a vibrant, red roof.
“Ooh!” Robin let go of Law’s hand and hurried up to the top. “Aha!” she exclaimed happily. She was standing on a peak that provided a magnificent view of the snowy landscape of Ringo, far below them. To the south, she could just make out the flower capital. Right in the centre of the peak was a magnificent, crumbling, red-painted temple. “See? I told you we’d find it.”
“Yes I can see that,” Law grumbled as he stepped up beside her.
“And would you look at that, it’s just past midday. So I suppose we could technically still be following the plan, but we did agree that we weren’t going to anymore, didn’t we?”
He rolled his eyes. “We did.”
“Well, in that case.” Robin marched up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and captured his mouth in a fierce kiss. He dropped his sword and grabbed her waist, lifting her up she that her legs were clenched around his hips, and returned her kiss passionately.
“You know what I really want to do right now?” she murmured into his mouth. He only grunted in response, his large hands moving under her pink shirt to light trails of fire over the skin on her back. “I want to investigate the temple and I think I’d like to start with the ceiling first. Kin’emon did mention it was magnificent.”
Law smirked and buried his tongue in her mouth. He somehow managed to say “Room” and “Shambles” and then they were inside the temple. She shrugged off her backpack and he lay his coat on the ground for her to lie on.
“Do you – do you think we’re perhaps being disrespectful to – to the people who used to worship here?” Robin asked breathlessly as Law unbuttoned her shirt and covered her in licks and kisses and touches.
“They’ve been dead for centuries. If anything, they’re cheering us on from the grave from bringing some life back to this place,” Law grunted. “And sound,” he added with a smirk, moving his lips down her stomach to where he already knew she liked his tongue to be.
By the time they were finished, it was late into the afternoon. Robin lay on his bare chest, their heavy breaths matching in time.
“Kin’emon was right, the ceiling is magnificent,” she said breathlessly.
Law looked up at the ceiling, which was covered in ancient paintings made from gold and silver paint. “Huh, not bad. I think I prefer looking at the floor though. It was far more picturesque from my vantage point.”
Robin smiled. “It’s well past 3 now,” she teased.
“Oh shut up, you,” he kissed the top of her black hair.
“I’m just saying, we haven’t even explored the temple yet and it doesn’t look like we’ll be back before dinner or possibly even after it.”
He glanced down at her, his fingers running circles along her back. “What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Perhaps we should explore the temple and then stay here for dinner.”
Law considered that carefully. “Are you for dinner?”
“I could be, though I’m not sure how I’d taste. Quite grisly I’d imagine.”
“Oh I don’t know about that, you’ve got some excellent meat on you,” he teased, running his hand non-too-subtly down her thighs. “I do think you’re perhaps a bit too sweet for dinner, though. You’re more like dessert.”
“Are you suggesting that you’re dinner, then?”
“Naturally. It’s always good to have dark meat for dinner. After all, it’s an excellent source of iron, riboflavin, selenium and zinc," he kissed her, "and vitamins like thiamine, niacin and cobalamin.”
“Well, how can I turn down such a nutritious meal?” Robin smiled, kissing him back.
He pulled away too soon and sat up. “Come on, let’s do what we came here to do and actually take a look around. This place does seem pretty incredible from what I’ve seen so far of the floorboards and that wall.” He handed Robin her clothes and pulled his pants and shirt back on, then stood. He held a hand out to help her up once she’d dressed. “Let’s explore and then we’ll have dinner.”
Robin finished buttoning up her shirt and took his hand, letting him pull her up. “Now, now, Law, what did we just talk about? That sounds far too much like a plan.”
“Demon-ya, if I didn’t like you so much, I would shambles you right off this cliff.”
“I’d like to see you try, Surgeon-san.”
Notes:
This was so much fun to write. After so many chapters of having to write them hiding their feelings, it was so great to just have them actually be romantic together, and I'm very keen to write more.
Thanks as always for reading! I'll aim to have another chapter out soon to make up for the wait with this one. Much love to you all <3
Chapter 15: Rocks & Spiders
Notes:
Next chapter up much more quickly this time as promised! Enjoy! xx
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sanji waltzed into the breakfast room, arms laden with plates of all the Straw Hats’ favourite food. They were gathered around the tables, talking and laughing with their usual chaos. He announced each dish as he placed them down.
“A big rack of meat for Luffy."
“OOOHHHH AMAZING!!” Luffy went bright-eyed and grabbed the meat before it was even set on the table.
“Sake and rice for Mosshead because you have no taste in cuisine.”
“Shut up, you shitty cook. I wouldn’t want to eat anything you made anyway.”
“Tangerine salad with homemade vanilla yoghurt topped with flowers, nuts, seeds and an umbrella, with a freshly-squeezed orange juice for my beloved and beautiful Nami-swaaaaan.”
“Looks great, Sanji-kun!”
“Wano pike for Usopp.”
“Excellent!”
“Cotton candy cereal for Chopper – which is just cotton candy with milk.”
“Yummy thanks Sanji!”
“Hamburger and fries for Franky!”
“Superrrrrrr!”
“Chicken curry for Brook.”
“This smells amazing Sanji-san, or it would if I had a nose yohohoho.”
“Yeah yeah. Seaweed and fruit salad for Jinbei.”
“Wonderful!”
“Aaaand a plate of fruit sandwiches and a hot cup of coffee topped with whipped cream and heart-shaped marshmallows for my beautiful, incredible, amazing, Robin-chwaaaaa – where’s Robin?” Sanji stopped in his tracks, holding an enormous plate of sandwiches that had been decorated with flowers. The rest of the crew kept eating.
“She’s out,” Nami said casually as she tucked into her salad.
Sanji blinked. “What do you mean out? It’s 9 in the morning. Where could she possibly be?”
“Well,” Nami speared a tangerine on her fork, “she left with Traffy-kun to go on a ruin expedition at 7am … yesterday.” She popped the tangerine in her mouth.
It took about five seconds for Sanji’s brain to click into gear. “Y-yesterday? Traffy? WHAT?” Everyone continued to eat as normal. “What – what do you mean?” Sanji spluttered. “Why is she out with him for over a day? What if he’s hurt our Robin-chwan? Why are you all so calm about this? WHAT IS GOING ON?”
Zoro slammed down his cup of sake. “Just shut up, curly-brows. It’s nothing to get upset over.”
Before Sanji could retort, Franky spoke up. “He’s right, Sanji. They’re perfectly fine together. Just let them be.”
Sanji’s brows twitched. “Fine … together? Are you insinuating what I think you are.”
Everyone ate in silence. Except for Luffy who was loudly devouring his meat, completely unaware of literally everything else going on around him.
Sanji slammed his hands on the table. “TOGETHER?”
Nami sighed deeply. “Sanji-kun, just relax. It was only a matter of time for them, anyway.”
“A matter of – a matter of time? How long has this been going on for?”
“Punk Hazard.”
Sanji’s face looked in danger of exploding. “Punk … Hazard?” he growled.
Zoro picked up his bowl of rice. “I thought it was since Zou?”
“Oh no, no, no, Zoro-san,” Brook chortled, “it’s been at least since he joined us on the Sunny to Dressrosa.”
Chopper clapped his hooves together, “I didn’t know at all but I’m so happy for them! He’s so cool.”
“HANG ON JUST A SECOND!” Sanji shouted, slamming his hands on the table again. “Why are you all so calm about this? And are you meaning to tell me, that I’ve been sailing with this crew since practically the start, but he’s only been with us for – what – three months and he’s already got one of the girls in his tattooed clutches?”
Nami frowned and pointed her fork at him threateningly. “Firstly, I’ve been telling you since the beginning that nothing was ever going to happen between any of us. Secondly, you lobbing Robin and I into “one of the girls” and referring to Traffy’s intents being “tattooed clutches” might be a significant contribution to any sort of lack of interest from either of our parts. Thirdly, she’s technically sailed with him for longer than you seeing as she joined our crew after two months and you were separated from us for a whole month while they were at Dressrosa and Wano. And, finally, it didn’t take three months for her to be interested – it took an hour.”
“An hour?” Sanji spluttered. “AN HOUR? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? He’s not that great! What does Traffy have that I don’t?”
“A cool hat,” said Luffy, still completely oblivious to what the conversation was actually about.
“A $3B berry bounty,” said Zoro.
“Tattoos,” said Usopp.
“Dignity,” said Nami coolly.
“A brain,” said Brook. “I wish I had one.”
“He’s a doctor!” said Chopper.
“He was a warlord,” said Jinbei.
“He’s superrrrr hot,” said Franky with a loud laugh.
Sanji’s face went bright red. “He is not!”
“Yeah, nah he is,” Usopp said.
Chopper looked up at Jinbei who was chuckling. “But he’s not sick?”
“In this instance, hot means attractive or handsome,” Jinbei said kindly.
“Ooohhh! Yeah he is!” Chopper nodded emphatically.
Zoro nodded as he sculled his sake.
“Even I can see that and I don’t have eyes,” Brook laughed. “Third skull joke,” he whispered under his breath, sipping his tea.
“He’s definitely a 10,” Nami said.
“Are you serious?” Sanji gaped at them, his mouth practically on the floor. “I can’t believe you all don’t care! Luffy! You’re the captain, say something!”
Luffy blinked up from beneath the tower of meat he was devouring. “Huh? Why would I care what Traffy does? He’s cool.”
Sanji clenched his teeth together. “But what about Robin?”
“What about her? She’s cool, too, she can do whatever she wants. If they wanna hang out it doesn't bother me.”
“They’re not just hanging out they’re – urgh fine, whatever, I give up!” Sanji sat at the table in between Zoro and Nami, arms crossed, steam practically rising from his face.
“That’s the spirit,” Nami pat him on the shoulder. Then she grabbed his ear and twisted, hard. Sanji yelped and nearly spat out his pasta. “If you do anything and I mean anything to try and get in the way of them, I will personally beat you into a pulp and then kick you all the way back to Whole Cake Island!”
“I’ll slice you up,” Zoro said.
“I’ll slingshot you into the ocean,” Usopp said.
“I’ll laser your eyes out,” Franky said.
“I won’t give you medicine for your next cold!” Chopper said, crossing his arms menacingly. “Or – or not much at least. Less than usual.”
“I’ll scare you so hard you’ll die,” Brook said.
“And that’s just us,” Nami said, tugging his ear harder. “Don’t even think about what Robin and Traffy would do to you,” she warned.
Sanji went pale. “Fine, fine! I get it! I’ll stay away. But come on guys, how are you not more upset about this?”
Nami released his ear and returned to eating her salad. “Because there’s nothing to be upset about. They’re grown adults, they can make their own choices and do what they want. Besides, it’s nice to see her so happy,” she added with a smile.
“Traffy too,” Franky said, grinning. “Dude is always so uptight! It’s good for him to relax a bit.”
“Penguin and Shachi were saying the same thing,” Usopp said. “Apparently, he usually yells at them for not filling out the roster sheet properly but the other day he said it didn’t matter. Bepo nearly fainted from shock.”
Even Sanji joined in the crew’s laughter.
“Fine, I guess if he really makes Robin-chwan happy I can live with it,” he consented, spearing more pasta on his fork. “But if he does anything to hurt her I’ll kill him.”
Luffy put down his meat to punch his fist into a ball. “I don’t know why Traffy would hurt Robin but if he did, I’d beat him to a pulp.”
Everyone agreed emphatically. They would undoubtably unite to unleash the full might of the Straw Hat crew onto Trafalgar Law if anything happened to their girl.
Somewhere in the middle of the Wano forest, Law felt a strange chill go down his spine. He turned his head, looking back through the trees towards the city. Robin looked back at him, one hand on the strap of her backpack.
“Something wrong, Law?”
“No I just thought I felt something. Must just be the wind.” He shrugged and continued walking. “We should probably aim to be back by tonight though.”
“What’s this? Planning?”
“Robin, I swear to everything –”
She cut over him with a laugh. “Just teasing. I agree, we should get back by today. They’ve probably noticed that we’re not there.”
“Just as long as they don’t think we’re together,” Law grumbled, stepping up steep incline.
Robin conjured hands to help her walk neatly up the rock. “Would that really be such a bad thing?”
Law glared at her. “You couldn’t have used your hands to help me, too?”
“You are a $3B bounty pirate, you don’t need my help,” she responded primly. "Besides, I seem to recall you deliberately using your abilities the other day to get to the end of a tunnel while I had to crawl in a kimono."
"OK fair enough. And for the record, I did that to mess with you."
"Yes, I know."
He sighed and kept walking. “Anyway, yes it would be a bad thing, because then they’ll get all – you know – weird.”
“They’re always weird,” she said with a smile.
“Extra weird. My crew will tease me to no end and yours will probably try to murder me,” he grumbled.
Robin giggled. “Which is worse?”
He thought about for a long moment. “Hmm, constant humiliation from Penguin and Shachi or the combination of your crew members chasing me down for getting involved with you. Yeah, I’ll take your crew.”
“Oh will you?” she said slyly, hopping up another steep rock using her hands.
“I think I’ve got a good shot. Room.” Law flipped his fingers and appeared at the top of the rocky incline, smirking down at her. Robin returned his smile with a smug one of her own but didn’t move from her position on the rock below. A large hand suddenly shoved his back and he found himself stumbling forward and off the top rock. He flipped his fingers again and appeared on the rock below, right where Robin had been standing. Except, she was no longer there. He looked up to see that the giant hand had already pulled her up to where he’d been standing just a second ago.
“Maybe you should get that ego of yours in check,” Robin said with a coy smile.
Law flipped his fingers again and appeared with a pop right in front of her. “My ego is just fine. At the very least, I know I could beat you.”
Robin gasped indignantly and put her hands on her hips. “Oh is that so? Didn’t our little experiment back on your ship say otherwise?”
“I wasn’t really trying,” he teased.
“Neither was I.”
“Well in that case, maybe you shouldn’t underestimate me,” Law smirked. He leaned forward to kiss her. Just as their lips were about to touch, Robin jumped away with a gasp.
“Oh my! A quartz rock!” She pushed passed him and hurried over to a stack of ordinary-looking grey rocks in the trees.
Law turned after her incredulously. “Huh?”
“These are so rare! I’ve only ever seen two in my life,” Robin gushed. She knelt before the rock, running her long fingers over the rock surface.
Law followed her slowly, partially grumpy that she’d rejected his advance in favour of a rock of all things and partially amused that it was a rock of all things that had caused her interest to shift so quickly. She's such a nerd, he thought, shaking his head.
“You’ve only seen two rocks in your life?” he said.
“No, no, this is a blue phantom quartz. They’re millennia old and exceedingly rare.” It was a testament to how excited she was that she hadn’t even noticed his sarcasm. She was now inspecting the rock from every angle, her blue eyes shining. Law looked down at said rock, it really did just look like a standard rock to him.
“What’s so special about it?”
Robin took her backpack off and unzipped it, she stuck her arm into the bag and rifled around.
“What are you looking for?” he asked again.
“My rock excavating equipment.”
“Shambles,” Law flipped his fingers and replaced two blades of grass with a leather pouch.
Robin beamed at him and he felt his heart melt into a warm puddle like butter. “Thank you! Your abilities really are so useful. Look, I’ll show you why it’s special.” She knelt on the grass, not caring that she was getting stains on the knees on her purple capris. Law came to kneel beside her as she got to work, conjuring hands to take up various tools and tap away at the rock.
“See, this kind of quartz was so rare that it was used in the jewellery of the wealthiest royal families in the world and even mystical devices,” Robin explained as she worked. “Some ancient families like the Nefertaris of Alabasta and the Rikus of Dressrosa have small fragments of this quartz in their crown jewels. I managed to see some for myself when I worked for Crocodile. But other than that, there’s speculation that it was used in technology from the Void Century, especially in the ancient kingdom.”
“What kind of technology?” Law asked, propping his chin on his hand. This actually was pretty fascinating.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know,” Robin pouted and he fought the urge to poke her cheeks. “What the researchers of Ohara did manage to discover, however, is that it was a great conductor of electricity, so perhaps it could have been used for vehicles or machines, or even to enhance their jewellery into weapons, which is a fascinating concept to think about.” She sent him a sly smile. “You know of the theory that those from the D clan originated from the Ancient Kingdom?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“Maybe that means you’re descended from royalty there,” she suggested. Law scoffed. “Well, you could be! Perhaps we should use this rock to make you a pretty tiara to wear.”
“I would rather die,” he said flatly. “You can wear it.”
Robin chuckled and kissed him on the cheek, then returned to tapping at the rock, chipping away at it slowly. “You could also be related to Luffy, you know? Being that you’re both Ds.”
Law made a face. “That’s even worse!”
“Now, now, I think you two make adorable brothers.”
“Urgh, no thanks.”
She laughed and hit the rock hard with her chisel. A chip of the stone broke away and Robin gasped excitedly. “Incredible, look!” She indicated to the chipped piece of rock and Law’s eyes widened. The boring, grey rock had given way to a glowing blue quartz, shimmering with an array of colours that bloomed in the morning light.
“Woah!” He edged himself closer to look.
Robin handed him the piece of rock that had chipped away. “Here.” He held the cold stone in his hands and flipped it over to the side that showed the stone. It was truly something to behold. Maybe there was more to this whole rock thing than he’d initially thought.
“Isn’t it spectacular?” she said.
Law looked up at her and he found himself staring into her eyes for longer than he'd initially intended. As far as he was concerned, the blue there was far more impressive than the quartz she had uncovered.
He smirked and kissed her quickly. “Yes, it is.”
She gave him a withering look. “I meant the rock.”
“Who says I wasn’t talking about the rock?”
She sighed but a smile played at her lips. She kissed him back and then returned to looking at the quartz. “Should I excavate some to take back, do you think?”
“Definitely. It will cost a fortune! It’s literally the definition of pirate treasure.”
“Hmm true, though I don’t think I want to sell it. Nami would love it, as would Franky. I wonder if I could ask him to fashion it into some pieces for us, I bet he’d be able to find out if it can really be used to conduct electricity.”
“Don’t I get any?” Law said indigntantly.
“Now, now, don’t be impatient, you’ll get your tiara,” Robin teased.
He glared at her. “No tiaras.”
She giggled. “Yes of course you can have some. It might help to power your ship, you never know. We should probably give some to Momonosuke and Hiyori too, it is their country.”
“I guess,” Law said. He personally thought Momonosuke was a whiny brat, and he thought Hiyori was far too peppy and obtuse – he seriously had no idea what Zoro saw in her. Then again, I like a woman who’s currently knocking down a rock with eight arms, so who am I to judge? he thought with a slight smile. Robin had conjured her arms all across the rock to chip away large chunks that she could then put in her bag.
“I won’t take all of it,” she said, “just enough to give a bit to everybody, I’d still like to leave some here for nature.”
“Sure.”
“Oh look!” she suddenly exclaimed again. “A crystal spider, you hardly ever see these inside rocks.” One of her hands zoomed towards Law’s face, holding on its palm a large, fat, blue spider. Law scooted away as fast as he could with his hands, breathing heavily.
Robin turned to look at him, blue eyes wide. “Um, Law? What are you doing?”
“N-nothing, just put that thing back where you found it!” he snapped.
Robin blinked slowly, then a cheeky smile spread across her face. “Are you afraid of spiders?”
“No!” he said too loudly. Her smile widened. “I just … am not fond of them.”
Robin’s hand extended further from the rock towards him, still holding the spider. “Come on, he’s just a little one.”
Law flicked his fingers to teleport himself several feet away from the offending hand. “Get that thing away from me!”
“Are you really telling me that Trafalgar Law, the Surgeon of Death, infamous pirate and Emperor killer with a bounty of $3B on his head, is scared of spiders?” Robin said. She was fully grinning now, shoulders shaking with barely repressed laughter.
“I am not scared I just. Don’t. Like. Them,” he hissed.
“You’re a surgeon. You literally pull out organs and throw around body parts. How does none of that phase you and yet a spider is making you act like Usopp?”
“That’s just standard bodily functions, that’s normal! Spiders and bugs have lots of legs and eyes and they crawl around and urgh! No! It’s gross!”
Robin burst into laughter. She put her mouth to try and hold it back but it quickly became too much and she fell against the rock, clutching her sides. “I’m sorry – I’m sorry!” she heaved with giggles as he glared at her. “It’s just so funny! You’re a warlord and a supernova for crying out loud! You’re covered in tattoos! I can’t – I can’t –” she dissolved into hysterical laughter.
Law glared at her fiercely. She looked adorable laughing like that and it almost made him want to join her – she did have a point – but he was too annoyed to give in.
She finally quelled her laughter by pressing her lips together. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I won’t laugh anymore, I promise!” She insisted, a soft giggle still escaping her lips. “Here, look, I’ll put him right back.” Her hand moved to the other side of the rock and then disappeared. “He’s gone, see? Now come back here.”
Law frowned but finally began to scoot back over the grass to her warily.
“I promise I won’t do it again,” she giggled. “And I promise I won’t leave them in your bed or anything.”
“If you do that, I will actually kill you,” Law growled.
“I won’t, I won’t. Just come back.”
Law sighed and flipped his fingers to return to her side.
“Are you mad?” she said, laughter still in her eyes.
“Yes. But,” an idea entered his mind and a smirk played on his lips, “I know of a way you can make it up to me.”
“Oh?” she raised an eyebrow.
“You need to do the laugh for me again.”
“The laugh? Oh!” Robin’s cheeks went pink as she realised. “It’s so embarrassing, though.” Law narrowed his eyes and she sighed. “Fine, I suppose I do owe you that much for laughing at you.” She arranged herself primly in front of him and cleared her throat. “Tereshishishi – Law!”
Law pushed her up against the rock and kissed her fiercely. She was so freaking cute when she did that laugh it wasn’t fair. Robin wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kisses with just as much enthusiasm.
All too soon, she broke away from him, panting. “Law, let’s – let’s finish excavating this rock and return back to the city. I don’t think we should stay out here another night and I don’t want everyone to get worried.”
Law growled. “And stop kissing you? I don’t think so.”
She giggled and gently pushed his face away. “I didn’t say that necessarily. Don’t you think one of our bedrooms would be more comfortable?”
He paused. She made a good point. As much as last night had been fun, both of their backs were killing them that morning after a night spent on hard wood floors. He’d even had to take their spines out to realign them, which, admittedly, Robin had found very fun to watch.
“Fine,” he eventually consented.
“Good.” She kissed him tenderly and then bloomed hands to pull him away. “Come on, you can help me with this. I’m sure with your powers we can make this go a lot faster – getting back, too.”
“True, the sooner we get back the better.”
“You’re that eager to see your crew?”
“Yes, the crew, that’s it.”
Robin giggled and picked up her tools again. “Don’t worry, I’ll have your tiara made for you in no time.”
Notes:
I've had this headcanon for a while about Law secretly despising bugs and spiders, and I think it checks out because we know underneath his sexy, badboy act he's actually such a cute little loser XD
As always, thank you for reading! I'll aim to have one more chapter out in the next few days before I leave, just in case I don't get time to write/upload any while I'm away.
Chapter 16: Nerds
Notes:
Sorry for the delay with this one! I tried to get it out before I left on my trip, I was even working on it in the airport but the wifi was terrible and I couldn't get Archive to work. So here I am in my hotel in Japan, uploading a chapter before heading out to go sightseeing. Never say I'm not dedicated to the Lawbin cause haha!
Now please enjoy our two nerds being nerdy together.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Robin took her time to look around Law’s room. Last time she was here, she’d been fascinated by all the medical memoribilia and tattoo equipment, now she noticed all the little details that had completely slipped through her exhausted, underwater-addled mind before.
On his bedside table, she now noticed a collection of tiny organ replicas with smiley-faces on them – they were adorable. On his wall, she now saw a large photograph of a young Law with Penguin, Shachi, Bepo and the man he’d told her was called Wolf, who’d raised them and built the Polar Tang. Law looked to be around 16 in the photograph; even as a teenager he had been rather handsome.
What struck out to her the most now, though, was the large bookshelves that took up one wall. Initially, she’d barely glanced at it, thinking that it would be the usual medical journals and things that she would expect from the Surgeon of Death. Now, however, she realised it was full of comic books. Thin ones the depth of a ruler all the way to ones as large as an encyclopedia. All over this shelf were figurines of, what she assumed, various characters from the comics. She noticed in particular that there were a lot of one with a blue cape.
Of course, this time around, she couldn’t have avoided looking at this shelf even if she’d wanted to. Law was currently standing in front of it, pointing out every single comic and every single figure and explaining them to her – as he had been for the past 20 minutes.
She was sitting on the bed, cup of tea in hand, and had been nodding along and trying to listen as well as she possibly could.
“So this one here is when Sora the Warrior defeats the evil Germa Red,” Law said as he pointed to an elaborate figure that was twice the size of his head. “It was a set with the corresponding comic book, which you can see here. It’s limited edition with a special cover. See?” He took out the book and showed her the cover. It was, admittedly, quite spectacular, with an elaborate, hand-painted depiction of the fight over it in embossed leather.
“Wow. That must have been really difficult to get,” Robin said. She took a sip of tea.
“Yeah it was, had to go through the black market and everything,” he said proudly. There’s a comic book black market? she thought with amusement. “OK and this one was super hard to get. I had to go to an island in the East Blue for it – no idea why I had to go all the way there for a North Blue comic but anyway.” He held up a much smaller figure of a girl with pink hair in a pink suit, with purple waves around her. “This is Germa Pink. She’s super rare because she sells out so quickly.”
“I see. You, ah, didn’t have a crush on her when you were a kid did you?” Robin asked with a smile.
Law glared at her. “She’s a comic book character, of course I didn’t. Shachi did.”
“Ah, of course.” She hid her laugh as she took another sip of tea. It was beginning to get cold.
“Oh! And here is the full omnibus comic book set of volume 1.” Law held up one of the encyclopedia-sized books. “It’s all in colour, see?” He handed it to her and she bloomed a hand to take it and flip through the book. She had to admit that the colouring was incredible with over 1000 pages of fully coloured comic.
“This is pretty amazing. Must have cost a lot?”
“Yeah, about a month’s rations,” he said. “But we just went a town over and plundered it to make up the difference.”
“Very piratey of you,” Robin said with approval, handing it back to him.
He placed it carefully back on the shelf and moved to the next thing. “This is a portrait of the entire Germa 66.”
Robin nodded. “Very impressive. I thought you didn’t like Germa, though?”
“I don’t, I’m a Sora fan. However in volume 6, Germa Red has a redemption arc that pervades to his burgeoning relationship with Gaia the Warrior of the Earth – you don’t mind spoilers do you?”
“Not at all,” Robin said.
“OK great, so,” Law held up the portrait and Robin took another sip of tea, preparing herself for what was probably going to be a detailed explanation. “Gaia and Germa Red have had feelings growing since Volume 4 when – actually, wait, we need to go back to the beginning otherwise you won’t understand at all. So, they originally meet in Volume 2, chapter 4. Now, in this interaction they had a violent clash of ideals. Wait – you don’t understand Gaia’s character. OK let me take you back to Volume 1 chapter 7 where Gaia was introduced as Sora’s sister. She has a tragic backstory that relates to The Judge, the leader of Germa.”
Robin tried to look at interested as possible as Law info-dumped for the next 30 minutes. Originally, he started on the relationship but then he became sidetracked and had to explain to her the entirety of the character Gaia and Germa Red’s backstories and then all of their fights and how their relationship developed and, finally, the subsequent redemption of Germa Red.
“However, he eventually turned his back on her due to the way his brain was genetically programmed to be loyal to The Judge, so they engage in a heartbreaking battle against good and evil in Volume 7. I’ve got an official artwork of their fight here,” Law pointed at one of the posters on the wall. “And in the end, he kills her, thereby pushing Sora’s anger, which he uses to defeat them in Volume 8. Now, in Volume 9 they make a return and –”
“You know, Law,” Robin interrupted with as much tact as she could muster, “you telling me all of this means I don’t even need to read it.”
Law frowned. “Well, no, I’m only telling you of one tiny part of it. The great thing about Sora is that it’s an expanding multiverse with so many stories and character that you couldn’t possibly learn it all just from me.”
“Yes, I’m beginning to see that.”
“You should read it, I think you’d really like it!”
She nodded, smiling, “I will, I promise.” She had little interest in comics but as it was so important to him, she felt like she didn’t have a choice. Plus, it was lovely seeing him being so excited about it. Quite adorable even, like a little kid who was blurting out everything he liked. I bet he hasn’t mad many people to talk about this with since he lost his family.
He ran a hand through his messy hair, “You’re probably getting bored and thinking this is stupid, aren't you?.”
Robin bloomed a hand to take her tea and put it down. She stood and put her arms around him. “I don’t think it’s stupid and I’m not getting bored. I like hearing about things you like.” She kissed him.
He pulled back and frowned. “Are you sure? You’re not just saying that to make me happy?”
“Of course I’m saying it to make you happy but why should that mean it’s not true?” she laughed.
“Fair enough,” he said with a smirk and he kissed her back.
“Now, isn’t there one more thing you said you were going to show me?” Robin said.
“Oh yeah!”
Law untangled his arms from her and went to his drawers. He pulled out an enormous, leatherbound book that resembled a photo album and handed it to her. She raised an eyebrow, was he going to show her a collection of family photos or something? But he looked too proud for that to be the case. She opened it and her eyes widened. The album was an enormous collection of coins from all over the world.
“They’re organised by ocean, then island, then year,” Law said proudly, pointing at the album. Robin flipped through it. She had to admit it was impressive and, as an archaeologist, she was fascinated by the sheer amount and type, but she couldn’t help the way her lips were twitching in a smile.
“They’re wonderful,” she said.
Law’s eyes narrowed. “You’re laughing.”
“No, no I’m not!” she insisted, though the chuckle in her voice betrayed her.
“I thought you of all people would understand it,” he said defensively. Oh dear, she’d offended him.
“I do!” she hurriedly said. “I genuinely think it’s incredible. You have so many from all over the world, they’re truly amazing.”
“Then why are you laughing?” he crossed his arms.
“It’s just that … well …” she tried to think how to say it tactfully, “you just don’t seem like the type to collect coins and comic books and things.” She bit her lip to hide her giggle.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he frowned.
“You’ve got the whole traumatised, sexy, bad-boy thing going on,” she said, smiling. “It’s just quite funny seeing the dichotomy.
Law’s frown disappeared into an arrogant smirk, “You think I’m sexy?”
Robin gave him a flat look. “Trafalgar D Water Law, you go out of your way to dress and act exactly like the kind of man who knows he is.”
“That wasn’t my question.” His smirk widened. “You think I’m sexy?
“I’ve had sex with you more than 10 times in the past five days, I obviously think you are.”
“I know, I just like to hear it.”
She kissed him witheringly. “Please, your ego doesn’t need any further boosting.”
“I disagree.”
“I like it, though."
“What, that I’m sexy?”
Oh honestly! “Well, yes, but what I’m referring to is the fact that underneath all of that you’re the biggest nerd I’ve ever met. And that’s saying something as a woman from Ohara. It’s cute,” she smiled.
“You’re one to talk,” he tweaked her nose.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Law eyed her up and down. “Let’s see, you dress all pretty and you look so sweet and innocent with that long hair and smile, and then you open your mouth and you say the most morbid, nerdiest things I’ve ever heard from someone who isn’t me.”
“What do you mean by nerdy?”
“You talked about rocks for half of our excursion the other day,” he pointed out.
“Oh.” She went pink as she remembered. “But it’s the history of them that’s fascinating and –”
Her words were broken off as he put his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss. “I know,” he murmured, “that’s one of the reasons I like you.”
“Oh really?” she smiled into his mouth. “Apart from the fact that I might be the only person who can appreciate your elaborate coin collection.”
“That’s a bonus.”
“I’m sure. Now, I know you want to kiss me,” she said, pulling back, “but I know you also really want to talk me through all these coins. Am I correct?”
“Yeah, I do,” he grimaced. “I just have some really amazing ones from the South Blue that I think you’d like.”
She giggled and kissed him on the nose, and then moved away to sit back on the bed with the book on her lap. She pat the space next to her. “Come on then, Surgeon of Death, talk me through your coin collection.”
“You make it sound lame when you say it like that,” Law muttered.
“It is lame but it’s also cool, and it means something to you so whether it’s lame or not doesn’t matter,” Robin said practically.
Law sat beside her and, without any further prompting, eagerly launched into a very detailed explanation of every page of coins. Robin still found it funny but mostly she found it interesting. Each coin was an incredible glimpse into the history of the location, and he was very thorough in their origin and preservation.
“You’re missing a lot from the Grand Line,” Robin noted as they flipped to the final pages.
“Yeah, well I’ve spent most of my pirating career in the North Blue and New World. I need to head to the Grand Line once I’ve finished up on this side. You know, found the One Piece and become an Emperor - all of that.”
"Oh yes, just little things like that," she laughed. “You really should go to Alabasta, you’ll find some amazing coins there. I could even show you some of the ancient tombs and pyramids!” she blurted out before she realised what she’d said.
Law’s grey eyes flickered and he stood, closing the book. “Anyway, we should probably get some lunch soon.”
Robin bit her lip. They had both been very careful to stick with the present and not mention anything about the future, because thinking of that at all was far too painful. She hadn’t been joking when she’d said it, though, the thought of being able to show him all of her favourite landmarks and tombs in Alabasta filled her with an excitement that she couldn’t explain.
But that couldn’t happen – or at least, not anytime soon – and he certainly didn’t want to talk about it at all. She couldn’t blame him for that. This was all so new to them both, it was better to stay in the happy phase for as long as they could and put off the inevitable discussion – wasn’t it?
Trying to diffuse the sudden tension, Robin stood and put her arms around Law, leaning her chin on his shoulder as he put the book back into the cupboard.
“Thank you for showing me the things that are important to you,” she said, kissing him affectionately on the neck.
He turned in her arms and returned her affection with a hug and kiss of his own. “Thank you for listening. Most people have a glazed look in their eyes when I start bringing this stuff up,” he sighed.
“What, no one on your crew is a fan of Sora?”
“Penguin and Shachi are, but not as much as me.” He shrugged, looking disappointed.
Robin opened her mouth to reply but then her eyes caught a piece of clothing hanging at the far end of Law’s closet. It was blue and resembled his coat, except the fabric was shiny. It couldn’t be?
“Is that a superhero cape that I see?” she asked, a mischievous smile spreading on her face.
Law’s eyes widened. “No,” he said too quickly.
Robin conjured hands to pull out the clothing and held it up triumphantly above their heads. True to her suspicion, it was a long, dark-blue cape with an enormous gold pattern on the back that resembled the symbol for Sora that was stamped on the cover of all Law’s comics.
“It is!” she exclaimed with a triumphant laugh.
“Oi!” Law tried to pull out of her grip but she held on tight, still smiling.
“Now, now, let’s see you put it on.” Giggling, she used her hands to put the cape over his shoulders as he gave her his grumpiest, most put-out expression that was similar to the one he wore when dealing with Luffy. She used her real hands to tie the cape around his neck and then stood back. “There. Don’t you look like a handsome superhero?”
He crossed his arms and glared as she continued to laugh. He looked downright adorable with the cape hung over his white t-shirt.
“OK now I have to ask,” she said, “and you have to be honest with me: is the blue coat you wore for the raid on Onigashima an homage to this one?”
He rolled his eyes and looked away. “Maybe,” he muttered under his breath. Robin laughed and put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Law, that’s so cute!”
“Don’t mock me, Robin,” he said grumpily, though he softened under her kisses. “Besides, you’re one to talk. I bet you have a rock collection or something!”
Robin turned pink. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Law put his hands on either side of her face and made her look at him. His previously grumpy expression changed into a smirk. “Wait, you actually do?”
“Yes and it’s fascinating,” she said defensively.
He grinned. “Oh really? So here you’ve been having a go at me and yet you collect rocks? Do you draw faces on them and call them names?”
“No.” He raised an eyebrow. “I did when I was a kid,” she admitted. “I didn’t have many friends.”
Law’s smug expression dropped and he clutched her tighter. “Why?”
“Everyone thought I was weird and a monster,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Huh? Why?”
She smiled at him wryly, “Law, I create hands and I used to have an even more morbid sense of humour. It freaked people out.”
“Hands aren’t that freaky!” he insisted.
She laughed and kissed him gently. “Only you would say that.”
Law’s eyes darkened. “If they want freaky, I’ll give them freaky. I’ll slice their bodies up and arrange them into pinatas.”
Robin bit her lip, she liked it when he got all dark and creepy like this. “As enticing as that is, I’m afraid they’re all dead.”
“Oh right. Well, guess they got freaky anyway seeing as they got exploded,” he said.
Robin giggled. “True, if they’d thought I was a monster before I bet they were really surprised when they saw what the government could do. You know, they wouldn’t even let me on the boat to escape, and then they got blown up anyway.”
“Serves them right,” Law growled, pressing his lips to her forehead.
Robin relaxed into his arms, breathing in his comforting, cinnamon-spiced scent. “I used to think they deserved it and then I’d feel bad about it. I don’t know, is it bad to feel those things?”
“Hmm I used to think the same,” he said, his voice turning soft. “I would think about everyone who bullied me when I was a kid and feel some kind of vindication. The thing is that I felt that way because I knew they’d gotten the better deal. They were dead but at least they didn’t have to live in the hell I lived in back then. They got to end it all quickly. Now, I don’t know what to think about it anymore. The marines who did it are still living their normal lives, everyone from Flevance is dead and I’m the one stuck with the memories.”
Robin nodded into his chest. She understood exactly what he was saying, she’d felt the same way many times in her life.
“At least I get some joy in the knowledge that Doflamingo is rotting in prison,” Law continued. “Although, knowing him, he’s probably enjoying it. Sick fucker.”
“Oh I don’t know about that,” Robin looked up at him and pushed a lock of hair back from his eyes. “He must be terribly bored with no one to tell him how great he is. If anything, Level 6 is the worst place for him because there’s nothing to do and no one to torment. He must be driving himself mad.”
“Hmm, you have a point. Silence is probably the worst thing for him.” Law grinned savagely. “I bet the fact that he has no one to hear him prattle on and he hasn’t received a compliment from one of his minions in three months would torment him more than actual torture.”
“See? So he is suffering!” Robin said.
“Good.” Law kissed her. “Now, I want to see that rock collection of yours.”
Robin raised an eyebrow, trying not to look too excited. “Are you sure?”
“Robin, you just sat here for over an hour listening to me talk about Sora and my coin collection, yes I want to see your rocks.”
She smiled happily, “Very well then. They’re on the Sunny.”
"Will the others see us if we go there?"
"It's around midday so I expect they'll all be at lunch for at least a few hours. We should be fine."
"Good." In seconds, Law had teleported them out of his room on the Polar Tang and onto the deck of the Sunny, which was anchored beside the submarine.
“Um, Law?” Robin said, biting down her laugh.
“What?”
“You’re still wearing the cape,” she pointed.
Law’s eyes widened and the cape immediately disappeared back onto the boat, a pebble clattering to the ground behind him in its place.
“Aww you should have kept it on, you looked so cute,” Robin teased.
“Yeah, yeah, come on, show me your collection of rocks,” Law ordered, taking her hand and dragging her toward the girls’ room. Thankfully, it did seem that everyone was at lunch and so the boat and foreshore was blissfully empty, albeit covered in scaffolding. Robin let them into the room and got him to sit on her bed while she went to her dresser to get the box. He looked around the room curiously, just like she had when she’d looked around his room.
It was odd seeing him here, sitting on her pink floral bedspread, looking at her paintings of flowers and eyeing up Nami’s maps. She couldn’t lie and say that she hadn’t thought of him here more than a couple of times. Though, usually, those thoughts had involved both of them wearing far less clothing.
Robin pulled out a large, slightly battered box from the bottom of her wardrobe and put it on the floor. She knelt beside it on the shaggy carpet and Law joined her, sitting cross-legged. It was even stranger seeing him like that, sitting so casually in just his white tshirt and jeans.
“OK, don’t laugh,” she ordered seriously.
“I will laugh as much as you laughed at my Sora collection,” he said seriously.
Robin shot him a warning look as she opened the box. Inside was an enormous collection of rocks, all different sizes, shapes and colours. She even had stones like quartz and crystals. She picked up her favourite rock, one which had been developed over centuries and was a kaleidoscope of browns, whites and black in unique patterns.
“I found this one on the first island I left after Ohara,” she said, holding it out to him. “I liked the patterns, it made me smile for the first time since then. I named him Saul.” She watched Law closely to see if he was laughing, but he was completely serious as he held the rock and twisted it in his tattooed hands, examining every side and facet.
“I can see why you like it. It’s fascinating.”
“Are you just saying that?” she scolded.
“Well, I don’t really get it, but I think it looks cool and it’s important to you,” he said, handing it back to her. “It’s also cute that you named it Saul.”
She beamed as she took it and put it back in the box. She took out two more, they were a very dark, shiny black and she’d drawn smiley faces on them in chalk. “This is Sam and Betty, they were my – err – siblings,” she said, cheeks going pink.
He raised an eyebrow. “How old were you again when Ohara happened?”
“Eight.”
Law’s eyes flickered and put his arm around her neck and kissed her on the cheek. He pressed his forehead to hers. She smiled as she felt him breathe deeply against her. Never had she felt so seen by someone before, never had she felt someone who so completely understood and empathised with what she’d been through. It was scary, if she was being honest. But she liked it.
After a long moment, he pulled away and cleared his throat. “Right, so, Sam and Betty, yeah?”
“Yes. And this is our dad, John.” She picked up a large, brown rock that she’d drawn glasses on. “I never knew my dad so this rock was about as useful as he was.”
Law snorted. “Did you make one for your mum, too?”
“No, I couldn’t never bring myself to do it. She … well … it was a complicated relationship I guess,” Robin said softly. Law nodded. She’d told him about Olvia abandoning her as a child and their reunion only happening on the day of the buster call. He’d been good and hadn’t done anything except listen, but she’d seen the way he’d clenched his jaw when she’d explained how she'd had to live with her abusive aunt and uncle for her childhood while her mother travelled the world.
Even now, as an adult surrounded by people who loved her, she still struggled with it. She’d learned to just leave the memory be, but sometimes she couldn’t help but ask, yet again, why her mother had chosen history over her daughter – and if she, Robin, would do the same to her own child.
Law noticed her silence and picked up a strangely shaped green rock. “What about this one?”
Robin put down her “Dad” rock and took it eagerly. “Ooh this one was from a small island I visited when I was 11. The people were terrible but the pirate base was built literally on rocks and I had a lot of fun collecting them. I named it Mr Brain Explosion.”
“Very morbid,” Law said approvingly.
“See how the colours of the rock break down at the bottom?” she pointed. “That indicates a rising sea level. The whole island was covered in rocks like these and was slowly sinking into the ocean. Oh, I found these ones there, too.” She reached into the box and pulled out a blue rock and a red rock. “Mr Stabbed Eyeball and Mrs Ground Bones, of course.”
“Of course.”
“See how they have that same discolouration? Oh and if you look at the way the veins run through it, you can see that the sedimentary base was formed through coalescing with rocks of a similar type thousands of years ago.”
“Uhuh.”
Law sat with Robin patiently for the next hour as she eagerly took him through every single one of her rocks. As she babbled away she realised that his expression was probably exactly how she had looked when he’d taken her through all of his nerdy things. I should probably give him more credit for being so patient, she thought.
When she’d shown him the last rock she said, “You can be honest, what did you think of them all?”
Law looked into the box and rocks and then back up at her. “Honestly, I understood very little of that. But I greatly appreciate seeing that you’re just as much of an enthusiast as I am about things like this.”
“You mean a ‘nerd’,” Robin laughed.
“Enthusiast is better. So is that it?” Law looked around her room. “There’s no severed heads or a collection of limbs you want to show me?”
“Now that sounds far more like you,” Robin chided.
“Probably,” he gave her a crooked smile that made her stomach flip, “but I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“That’s a fair assessment.” She glanced at him and smiled slyly. “Law, I have a question about your powers?”
“Yes?” He sounded wary.
“Don’t look so suspicious,” she teased. She moved closer to him and looked him straight in the eyes. “Well, we know how our powers work when we’re trying to fight each other, but I just wondered what we could do with them when it comes to other things.”
He smirked. “What exactly did you have in mind?”
“I’ll show you,” she smiled coyly as she leaned forward to kiss him.
When they were done, Robin and Law lay for a solid 10 minutes on the bed, breathing heavily, unable to speak.
“Geez, woman,” Law finally managed to grunt out. “I knew you were dirty but fuck!”
Robin smirked and turned in his arms to look up at him. “Is that a problem?”
“Fuck no!” He squeezed her tightly and she laughed.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty hungry after all that. Should we get some lunch?”
Law glanced at Nami’s clock on the wall. “More like dinner, it’s almost 6.”
Robin sat up quickly and turned to look at the clock. “Oh dear, I thought it was 2 or something. No wonder I’m so hungry.” She got out of bed and stretched her long arms up to the ceiling. “I’ll have a shower and then we can – what?” she broke off as she caught Law staring at her hungrily.
“Yeah you’re not having a shower by yourself with you looking like that,” he smirked.
“What, naked?”
Before she could say anything else, he’d grabbed her around the waist, created a blue Room and Shambles’d them straight into the Sunny’s bathroom. Robin giggled as he pulled her into the shower and turned it on. He kissed her deeply as the hot water began to run down their backs.
“Law, shouldn’t we join or crews for dinner?” she laughed into his mouth.
“They’ll be fine, I’ll just tell them I was reading Sora comics and you can tell them you were translating the poneglyphs.”
“Hmm. Do you think they might have worked it out by now?” she said as she he began to kiss down her neck.
“No, we’ve been pretty covert for the most part.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She figured they had been pretty good at not letting their true intentions be seen by everyone. It wasn’t that she minded them knowing but it was just much easier if they didn’t – it would avoid lots of problems in the future.
“I’m always right,” Law smirked and without warning he pushed her up against the wall of the shower and pulled her legs up around his waist. “Now less talking and more kissing, Demon Child.”
Robin didn’t need telling twice and she kissed him back with just as much enthusiasm. “Whatever you say, Surgeon of Death.”
Notes:
I love writing them being cute and nerdy together! It fills me with so much joy.
The problem with writing a canon-compliant story is that we are, sadly, coming up to where they have to part ways. I've got a few chapters left until then but it is fast approaching, which means my mind is now coming up with new Lawbin stories to write because I'll have a hole in my heart when I finally have to publish the last chapter of this story.
I think this fandom is in desperate need of more long Lawbin fics and ones where they actually get to be together and have a happy ending, so I've got a few ideas that I've started: a Cinderella adaptation, a dark AU version of OP where Law and Robin never meet Luffy, a Pride & Prejudice/Bridgerton-themed story, and a few others floating around in my brain. Let me know if you have a preference :D
Anyway, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off while I enjoy my trip and spend my time searching for as much Law and Robin merch as I can!
As always, thank you for reading and the lovely comments <3
Chapter 17: Perfect
Notes:
Thank you for your patience with waiting for this chapter! I'm finally back from Japan and, yes, I bought a lot of Law and Robin merch and even managed to meet some fellow Law fans who took note of just how much Law stuff I had in my basket :D I honestly bought an insane amount of stuff and now I have to work out where to put it all. Thinking it might be time to finally start a Law shrine. I also managed to get the official Law and Robin perfumes and they're amazing!
Also, a very fun thing that I discovered was that Hiroshi Kamiya (Law's VA) does the train announcements for a lot of the lines in Tokyo. So I got to listen to Law almost every time I took the train. Truly a highlight of the trip!
Thanks again for your patience in waiting so long for an update. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“There’s a spelling mistake in this poneglyph!” Robin exclaimed indignantly.
Law paused his reading of an old medical journal to look at her sitting in bed beside him. One hand was holding up her mug of coffee, two hands were holding one of the many pages of poneglyph rubbings and two others held an enormous notebook. Her real hands were currently holding pens and writing across the notebook in beautiful, looping script that seemed to bloom from her fingertips like flowers.
Law took his pen out of his mouth. “How can there be a spelling mistake on an ancient, legendary stone?”
“I don’t know but there is! Gosh, no wonder I’ve been struggling to decipher this word. How by the Grand Line did that happen? Does no one spellcheck these things before they carve it into stone?” Robin flipped through her notebook, a frown creasing her forehead. “I don’t understand!”
“Maybe they were tired after so much carving and accidentally spelled the word wrong?” Law suggested. He snorted at the thought. “Could you imagine writing all these things out, and then making a mistake and having to do it again? I’d just quit.”
“Oh please, no you wouldn’t,” Robin said with a slight smile as she flicked back a page. “You’re a perfectionist, you’d do the entire thing again from scratch.”
“Hm, true,” he assented with a chuckle. “Can you still decipher it?”
“Yes, but it set me back almost a day in translations,” she sighed. “I can’t believe this.”
“You should write a strongly worded letter to the very dead man who wrote it.”
She huffed and pouted, “I very much intend to. I will research to the ends of the Grand Line to find who wrote this thing and then I’m going to find his grave, dig up his corpse, and stick a very aggressively written note on his skull to tell him exactly how I feel.”
“He’ll be rolling in his grave when he finds out.”
“Yes because I’ll be rolling him.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t suppose you can bring people back to life?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Not even for a minute so I can give him a piece of my mind?”
“No, but I will add my signature to your letter as a witness of disapproval.”
“I suppose that will have to do.” Robin sighed deeply and flipped back to the centre of the notebook where she had been writing. “I’m going to need more coffee, and breakfast soon, too.”
“I’ll get you some when I finish this chapter,” Law offered.
She smiled at him briefly, “That’s OK, take your time. Sorry for interrupting, I know you were really into it.”
He frowned at her, “How do you know that?”
“You start muttering under your breath when you’re deeply invested in reading something,” she said. “It’s cute.”
“What’s cute is you making that pouting face because you’re annoyed.” She frowned and pouted even more. He smirked. “See?”
“I can’t help it if I’m annoyed,” she protested.
“I know you can’t.” He stared at her for a long moment. “Can you do the laugh?”
“No, because I need to finish this translation and if I laugh you’ll get all distracted and won’t let me.”
He sighed deeply. “Fine. Get back to it then and I won’t disturb you. Once you’re done, you can write that letter.”
“Oh I very much intend to!”
Law kissed her on the cheek and returned to reading the journal while Robin went back to her poneglyph.
Despite originally intending to not stay all night together, Law had gradually been staying longer and longer until, finally, they conceded he may as well just stay until the morning. They’d come to the realisation that everyone probably knew anyway. With the sly looks they’d been receiving from their crewmates and even some of Kid’s crew (thankfully, neither Kid nor Luffy seemed to have any idea whatsoever and for once Law was incredibly grateful for their combined stupidity), they concluded that it was now common knowledge but not one that was shared openly.
That was fine with him. It meant he wasn’t forced to explain anything and, with luck, no one would ever bring it up. That was the last thing he wanted.
So, he’d taken to now staying all night. And he wasn’t the only one – he’d noticed that Zoro no longer left Hiyori’s room at odd hours of the morning anymore. Clearly, the swordsman had taken on the same mantra as Law, realising that most people had worked it out but as long as Luffy and Sanji stayed as dense as they were, it didn’t really matter.
The problem with it, however, was that Law was now starting to enjoy nights and mornings more than he ever had before. Night had always been the worst time for him. A natural night owl, he struggled to sleep and when he did he was plagued with traumatic dreams. Now, when he got to fall asleep with Robin, his dreams hovered on the milder side of traumatic, which, for him, was a significant improvement. This newfound ability to sleep while only in her arms was leaving him concerned for what would happen when –
Well, he didn’t want to think about that. He was a planner at heart but this entire thing was something he’d never planned for and, for once, he was content to let it stay that way. Planning the future would make the inevitability of what was going to happen too real.
“This isn’t working!” Robin exclaimed again. “I can’t concentrate because now I’m worried that everything has a mistake and I’m second-guessing myself.”
He looked at her with amusement. It was so rare to see her this flustered and frustrated that he was quite enjoying it.
“I think I need coffee and breakfast,” she continued. “I need to get away from this for a bit.”
Law closed the medical journal. “I’ll join you. Are you going to spend the rest of the day working on it?”
“I think so. I really do need to finish the translation soon so I can give it to everyone. It’s been taking longer than usual due to certain distractions,” she gave him a playful look.
“You seem to be implying that it’s my fault.”
“It is your fault.”
“No, it’s your fault for being unable to resist me,” Law smirked.
“Someone’s full of himself,” Robin chided. She swung her long legs off the bed but Law grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back down. “Hey, Law!” He kissed her and she swatted him playfully. “Enough of that. I really need to finish this translation otherwise we will have all come here for nothing. Besides, we should probably spend time with the rest of our crews. Have you checked on yours lately?”
Law let her sit up. “Yes, I saw them yesterday.”
“Seeing them isn’t the same as checking on them,” she reproached.
“Fine, I suppose you’re right.”
“Of course I am. Now, come on. Breakfast.”
They dressed, Robin in a purple dress and Law in yesterday’s black shirt and jeans. As Robin was pulling a light cardigan out of the bag of clothes she’d brought over from the Sunny, Law glimpsed a white hat. He shambles’d it to him in seconds.
“Is this a cowboy hat?” he asked, holding up the stiff, gold-trimmed hat.
Robin looked at it with a smile. “Yes it is. I used to wear them a lot while I worked for Crocodile in Alabasta. It was hot and sunny there so it made sense to wear a hat like that.”
Law looked down at the hat and up at Robin. “You wore cowboy hats?”
“Yes and long coats.” She giggled, “I suppose I dressed a bit like you back in the day.”
He looked at her carefully, trying to picture her in said outfit. He walked up to her and put the hat on her black hair and stepped back to look at her. “Hmm. Do you have that long coat you spoke about?”
“Afraid not. I left them in Alabasta,” Robin said. “What do you think of the hat?”
“I think you need to wear it more often.” She laughed. “Are there any other styles you used to wear that I should know about?”
Robin grew hands to pull a hairbrush out of the bag and ran it through her hair. “I used to wear leather and velvet dresses, and fishnet stockings.”
“Did you now?”
She smirked at him. “What, do you like that?”
“I think you’ll need to show these outfits to me so I can study them for science purposes.”
“Oh is that what it is?”
“Naturally.”
“And here I thought it was for some nefarious purpose.”
Law put his head on her shoulder and gently pressed his lips against her neck. “I’m offended that you would accuse me of something so improper; you know I’m the embodiment of piety.”
Robin laughed and kissed his cheek. “But of course. Everything we’ve been up to over the past couple of weeks has just been my imagination.”
“I always knew you were insane.”
“Now that’s just rude.” She put her hairbrush down and turned in his arms to deliver a frown that would have had a weaker man (probably Usopp) shuddering.
“That’s alright, I prefer insane anyway. Sane is boring.” He smirked and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
Robin wandered leisurely through the streets of Wano alongside Nami, Hiyori and Ikkaku, all dressed in their kimonos. Tama and Otoko were each holding Nami and Hiyori’s hands respectively, and were tugging them along to look at every single stall and shop they passed.
The three older girls had been present at breakfast and, at Hiyori’s suggestion, they had agreed to enjoy the morning shopping together. Robin had at first been reluctant, after all she really did have to finish translating the poneglyph, but she had made a promise to Ikkaku back on the Polar Tang and it would be nice to spend time with all the girls while she had the chance.
Law did a good job of looking like it didn’t bother him, but she’d seen the way his eyes had narrowed and his lips had pouted ever so slightly. Robin chuckled inwardly at the memory, she found him so easy to read now and he could be so childish sometimes. Though, she would be lying if she said that she hadn’t also felt like pouting a little bit – their time together was so limited and precious.
“Oh wow look at this!” Nami said, holding up an enormous gold necklace from a stall. Her eyes glimmered with greed.
“You have excellent taste,” said the man at the stall, rubbing his hands together. “That is a pure gold necklace embedded with diamonds from Ringo.”
“Pure gold you say?” Nami said. Robin raised an eyebrow at the necklace, it was very pretty but claiming it to be pure gold was quite the stretch. She didn’t need to say anything to Nami, though, as the girl instantly slammed the necklace down on the table and grabbed the man’s collar. “Do you really think you can lie to me? I know real gold when I see it and that’s as fake as can be. However, you're in luck, I like it enough to give you $200 berries for it.”
“T-two hundred?” the man stammered. He squealed as Nami pulled him closer to her face.
“Make that $100 or I’ll tell everyone here that you’re a thief. You know the Princess Hiyori, don’t you?” Nami indicated to Hiyori who waved coyly at the man.
He went deadly pale. “P-princess H-Hiyori! Your royal highness I never thought that –”
Nami shook him like he was a misbehaving puppy. “The necklace now, if you please.”
A few minutes later, they were back to walking down the streets, Nami humming happily with the necklace hung around her neck under her blue kimono.
“The gold paint on this is quite good, I’m going to resell it for a few thousand berries,” she said with a wicked grin.
“Wow you’re so cool!” Tama squealed, clapping her hands and jumping around.
“So cool so cool!” Otoko agreed, laughing and clapping along.
Ikkaku laughed nervously, “Is this – uh – a regular occurrence when shopping with you?”
“Yes,” Robin supplied with a smile. “You get used to it.”
“Like you can talk,” Nami laughed. “Last time we went shopping, you threatened to snap a man’s arm off for overcharging you for shoes.”
“I wasn’t going to give him so much when they weren’t even real leather,” Robin smirked. The girls laughed as they continued to walk up the street. “Ikkaku, were you still after getting a lip colour here?”
“Ooh yes, I would love that,” Ikkaku exclaimed.
“There’s a shop just up here that sells makeup, we could look there?” Hiyori suggested.
She led them to a large shop that displayed rows upon rows of makeup, wrapped in beautiful cloth packaging. Ikkaku and Nami squealed and hurried in to look around, followed by Tama and Otoko who squealed as well. Hiyori and Robin bowed to the bemused shopkeeper.
“Do you have a particular colour in mind?” Hiyori asked as she looked at a table that was covered in rows of lip paints.
Robin pulled out of her bag the lipstick from Dressrosa and pulled off the lid. The girls crowded round.
“Ooh that’s so pretty!” Nami exclaimed, taking it from her hand and holding it up. “Wow nice quality, too. Where did you get this?”
“Dressrosa. The Princess Viola gave it to me as a present along with some other makeup and things.”
“That’s nice of her,” Nami said. She handed the lipstick to Ikkaku who used it to compare against the various lip paints on display.
“Yes, she was lovely.” Robin examined a pretty pink blush. “I wish I’d been able to do something like this with her. I think she really could have used an outing like this – Rebecca too – but unfortunately we had to leave in a rush.” She turned to Hiyori. “You two would get along quite well, actually. She also had to serve the man who took her kingdom from her father and she’s just as over dishonest men as you are.”
“Where is she from again?” Hiyori asked, looking at the blush. “That’s nice, you should try it on.”
Robin took the puff out for testing and gently dabbed the colour on her cheeks. “Dressrosa, she served Doflamingo who worked for Kaido and provided the SMILE fruits.”
Hiyori’s eyes darkened and she glanced down at Otoko who was ogling with a big smile at the rows of eyeshadows. “Ah yes. I was unfortunate enough to meet him once. He came to Wano for a business meeting with Kaido and I had to serve them and Orochi as Oiran. There was something deeply unsettling about him, even more so than Orochi. I had the feeling he knew exactly who I really was under my disguise, even though he never said anything. Detestable man,” she said coldly.
“Very much so,” Robin said. Memories of Dressrosa flashed through her mind and she pushed them away with great effort, even she had to admit the entire situation had been rather traumatising now that she looked back on it. Especially what had happened to Law. She’d been finding that, with the increase of their proximity to one another, memories of that moment resurfaced regularly. It had made her angry then but now it made her furious and if she ever had the unlucky circumstance of encountering Doflamingo again, she vowed to pluck his eyes out and snap his unnaturally large neck in half.
“Do you have her den den mushi number?” Hiyori said. “I’d like to give her a call sometime.”
Robin’s anger faded and she smiled at the princess. “I think she would really appreciate that. I’ll be sure to give it to you before we leave.”
“Thank you. That blush suits you by the way, you should get it,” Hiyori said.
“Hmm,” Robin looked in the mirror, “maybe I will. Otoko, Tama, would you like to try this on?”
The girls hurried up to her with giggles and she conjured her hands to apply the blush on their faces. They laughed and oohed at the hands and Robin smiled down at them. They were such lovely girls, she was so glad that they could now look forward to a happy future with Kaido gone.
“What do you ladies think?” Nami said as she pushed forward Ikkaku who was now wearing a reddish-pink lip paint from the tester.
“You look beautiful!” Hiyori clapped her hands together.
“Pretty pretty!” Tama said.
“Pretty!” agreed Otoko.
Robin smiled. “Perfect. You should definitely get that one.”
Ikkaku blushed. “Aww you girls are too nice. Do you really think I should?”
“Absolutely!” Nami took her shoulders and steered her to the counter. “You should wear it for the farewell party.”
“That’s a good idea!”
Robin busied herself with looking closely at the eyeshadows on display as Tama and Otoko went to look at the lip paints. Luffy, in all his usual Luffy-ness, had heard about the party on the Polar Tang and insisted they have another such party before they all left Wano. Law had, surprisingly, agreed but Kid had outright declined – at least until Law made fun of him for being pathetic and Luffy called him a loser. After the inevitable argument that ensued, Kid ended up agreeing out of spite. They were still waiting for the log poses to update, but Nami had said it wouldn’t be long now and they should start preparing for their inevitable departure.
Robin had been trying hard not to think about it but, as time so often did, every day passed quicker than the last and the future was looming over her with greater clarity.
She was excited to continue sailing with her crew, there were so many exciting things to discover and with only one Red Poneglyph left to find, the One Piece was so close it sent chills up her spine. The adventure was going to be incredible and, from that aspect, she was itching to get going, but from the perspective of her relationship with Law, it was causing a slow sadness to build in her chest.
They still hadn’t talked about it but they were going to have to at some point and come to terms with their separation. They were adults, they would handle it with integrity and maturity, but that didn’t make it any easier.
“Those purple shadows are nice,” Hiyori said from beside Robin. She gave her a reassuring smile and Robin returned it – without speaking, she knew she were thinking the same thing. Law had told her of his little encounter with Zoro the morning after the Wano party and she figured Zoro had mentioned it to Hiyori.
“I was wondering if I should get Zoro a farewell present,” Hiyori said. “But then I think he might not be the present type.”
“Doesn’t he have your father’s sword?” Robin asked.
“Yes.”
“For Zoro that’s probably the best present you could ever give,” she said with a smile. “Trust me, he won’t want anything else. If I’m not mistaken, it has rather big implications in your culture does it not?”
Hiyori blushed. “It does, though I’m not sure if he knows about that.”
“I think he does,” Robin said with a coy smile. She turned away to walk up to Tama who was admiring a bright red lip paint. “Do you like that?”
“Yes I do!” she beamed.
“I like this one!” said Otoko, pointing to a bright pink one and laughing.
“Alright, why don’t you two pick those out and I’ll get them for you?”
The two young girls dissolved into happy squealing and laughter.
By the time they left the store, each girl had a bag full of makeup. Nami insisted that they look for kimonos for the farewell party and so Hiyori took them along the street to a store she recommended for the best kimonos, with a promise to stop at a coat store at Robin's request. But first, they stopped for a light snack when Otoko said she was hungry.
“I have to say, I’m really going to miss you girls,” Ikkaku sighed as they sat on a bench eating sticks of rainbow dango. Tama and Otoko were running around giggling and playing, having devoured their dango in seconds. “I love my crew but there’s way too many men.”
Nami laughed. “I feel that. Until Robin came along it was a real sausage-fest. Thank goodness for Carrot in Whole Cake Island or I would have gone insane having to deal with that again. Robin, I don’t know how you coped having to deal with those three by yourself,” she sighed.
Robin laughed. “It was fine. We were quite separated on the ship doing our own things anyway. I spent most of my time in the library,” with Law, she thought, though she didn’t say it out loud. Nami smiled coyly but remained tactfully silent as she ate her dango.
“It was really nice having you around!” Ikkaku said. “Also because the captain was more relaxed.” Robin bit her lip and ate her dango, apparently tact wasn’t Ikkaku’s strong point. “Err, I mean, because all of you were there and it helped him relax,” Ikkaku quickly backtracked. “Um but I think it’s because of you – all of you – that he’s been so much happier at the moment. Especially at this time of year, usually he gets very moody.”
“Why?” Robin asked.
Ikkaku’s eyes lowered, “Well, next week is the anniversary of both the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mentor, the man who our crew was named after.”
Nami and Hiyori gasped.
“His hometown was destroyed?” Hiyori exclaimed.
Nami glanced at Robin and she had a feeling the girl was starting to put some things together of how she and Law had started to bond. Robin chewed her dango thoughtfully, Law hadn’t mentioned this conjoined anniversary at all. To be fair, she had also failed to mention that the anniversary of Ohara’s destruction was in a few weeks as well. Yet another thing we have in common.
“I don’t know the full details but it was pretty horrific,” Ikkaku said. “And he greatly admired his mentor, he saved his life on multiple occasions from what I’ve heard. He usually shuts himself off around this time of year and the only people who can really talk to him are Penguin, Shachi and Bepo.”
“Poor thing, that’s so sad,” Hiyori said, her mouth pursed together in sympathy.
“Yeah. But it’s great that he’s been so much more relaxed this year. It’s so nice to see!” Ikkaku beamed with little subtlety at Robin.
“I’m sure he must be coming to peace with it all now that Doflamingo has been defeated,” Robin said.
“Oh … yes, of course,” Ikkaku turned pink and quickly ate her dango.
Robin looked up at the blue sky above. The anniversary for two of the most defining moments of his life was next week and he hadn’t mentioned it? Perhaps he didn’t want her to worry or perhaps he really was at peace with it now. Though, from what she’d come to understand about him, she had a feeling that it had more to do with his own habit of trying to pretend his problems didn’t exist.
It didn’t sit right with her that he wasn’t even going to acknowledge it. Then again, she rarely tried to acknowledge Ohara’s destruction when she could avoid it. Maybe that’s what we both need, she thought, to acknowledge it fully and completely, to understand what happened and make peace with it.
Tama and Otoko jumped up to them, Tama bouncing up and down and Otoko grabbing Hiyori’s hand.
“Can we look at kimonos now please?” Tama begged.
“Please please?” Otoko added, tugging Hiyori.
Hiyori laughed and stood. “I think we’re all finished so yes we can. Come on girls, let’s find something pretty to wear for the party."
Robin used her hands to throw all their dango sticks into the bin and followed after the girls down the street at a slower pace.
“Oh!” Nami suddenly exclaimed, stopping in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Hiyori asked.
Nami held up her wrist. “Would you look at that? The log pose has updated.”
Law shambles’d himself into Robin’s room as quietly as he could so as not to disturb her. it was late in the afternoon and she’d returned from her outing with the girls to work on the poneglyph. Currently, she was lying on her stomach on the floor, surrounded by papers and multicoloured pens held up by her hands. She was muttering softly to herself as she scratched her pen over her notebook. Law had been trying to be quiet in order to not disturb her, but looking at her level of concentration he figured he needn’t have bothered, she was far too engrossed to notice anything around her.
Sitting near her elbow was an empty mug that had once been filled with coffee. He teleported it into his hand and then teleported himself to the kitchen.
Sanji looked up from where he was expertly chopping onions for that night’s dinner. “Would it kill you to knock before teleporting?” he said grumpily.
“I didn’t think anything phased you, Black-leg-ya,” Law said. “Zoro-ya never lets it bother him.”
Sanji smacked his knife down on the last part of the root vegetable and shoved the full diced onion into a bowl with vigour. “Do not compare me to that mossheaded idiot.”
Law held out the coffee cup. “I need coffee for –”
“Make it yourself!”
“It’s for Robin. She’s busy working on the poneglyph translations and she likes your coffee the best.”
Sanji glared at him but snatched the cup from his hand. “I suppose you want some as well?” he grumbled.
“Yes but I can make it myself.”
“If I’m making one for her, I may as well make one for you,” Sanji said begrudgingly. Law sat at the kitchen bench as the cook got to work getting out a saucepan, milk and coffee beans, and began to make the coffee. As he frothed the milk, he glanced up at Law, a crease in his eyes.
“Thanks,” he suddenly muttered.
“What for?” Law asked, frowning.
Sanji sighed. “I’m only going to say this once so don’t ever make me repeat myself, but thanks for saving Nami-swan and the others in Dressrosa. I know you really went out of your way to make sure they were safe, despite the fact that it could have ruined everything, and I know it wasn’t easy to face that guy alone while trying to protect them.”
Law shrugged. “It’s only natural. I wasn’t going to let them die after getting pulled into my mess.”
“Still, there are very few pirates, even decent ones, who would put themselves on the line like that for their own crew, let alone a rival crew they’d just met,” Sanji said. “And thanks for saving Luffy and the others. I heard about everything you did. You deserve your bounty that’s for sure.”
Law raised an eyebrow, he hadn’t thought the Straw Hat chef was the sentimental type. “Well, again, I only did it because it was natural to me.”
“Even so,” Sanji grumbled, starting to go red under the collar of his burgundy shirt. “And thanks for … everything else.”
“Everything else?”
“You know what I mean!” Sanji snapped and he turned away to stir the hot milk on the stove. Law eyed him carefully. This certainly wasn’t what he’d expected.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Sanji said, his back still turned to Law. “My time at Whole Cake just reminded me of how disgustingly terrible some pirates can be and how rare it is to find pirates who are vaguely decent people.”
Law supposed that made sense. There was nothing like returning to your roots to remind yourself of the shortcomings of humanity. He supposed they were alike in that regard, and in disliking any expression of sentiment.
He tactfully changed topics. “I heard you destroyed the Germa suit?” he said, privately hoping that wasn’t true.
Sanji turned back to him, and began to grind up the coffee beans with a pestle and mortar. “Yes. I never want to wear that thing again,” he made a face.
Law hid his disappointment by putting his chin on his hand. Couldn’t he have at least given it to someone who would appreciate it instead of destroying it? It would have been a priceless collector’s item!
“Besides,” Sanji continued, bitterness entering his voice, “I found out most of the benefits it provided had been already done on my body anyway.”
Law raised an eyebrow. Interesting, so what Robin said about him being some kind of super soldier was true? His eyes narrowed as he took a closer look at Sanji’s body. I would just love to pull him apart and see what’s going on in there. I bet it’s a real scientific breakthrough. The things I could study!
Sanji glared at him, “Hey stop looking at me like that!”
“Like what?” Law shook his head out of his thoughts of dismemberment.
“Like the way Luffy looks at meat. I’m not some corpse you can study and you can’t dissect me!”
“It won’t hurt at all,” Law said. “I’ll just take out your endoskeleton and organs but you can keep functioning as normal. You can even keep cooking.” He smirked at Sanji’s irritated expression.
“Usopp’s right, you’re a real creep! No wonder you and Robin get along so well,” he added under his breath. “But at least she’s a beautiful goddess, while you’re just plain freaking weird.” He continued to mutter his under his breath as he poured freshly brewed coffee into two mugs. One he left decidedly plain and pushed it across the counter to Law with a short, “Here.” The other he topped with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, a marshmallow that he torched until it was golden-brown, a chocolate wafer and heart sprinkles. He carefully put that mug in front of Law.
“Black-leg-ya, I know you’re grateful but you shouldn’t have,” Law said with a smirk, picking up the mug.
Sanji’s face went red. “That’s not –”
“And you even put hearts on it for my crew, how thoughtful.” He should probably be nicer but he wasn’t about to let a comment calling him a creep just slide.
“Look you! That’s not for you and you know it. That’s for Robin-chwan and if you dare take a sip out of it I will personally –”
“I don’t like cream anyway,” Law said dismissively, standing.
Sanji slammed a plate with two slices of castella cake down on the counter as well. “There. That’s for her only! Don’t even think about touching it!”
The door opened and Usopp walked in. His face went purple and his eyes bulged out of his head as he saw Law. “You! You put a freaking brain beside my bed this morning! I swear I’ve had it with your antics! Both of you!”
Law stood and grinned snarkily at Usopp and Sanji. “Thanks for the coffee.” With a pop! he teleported out of the kitchen and back Robin’s room, the two cups of coffee in his hand and the plate of cake landing on the floor beside Robin. He took a sip from the plain, non-cream-covered cup, still smirking. Damn but if that wasn’t good. Sanji was annoying as all hell but the man could cook.
He quietly walked over to Robin and put the cup of coffee next to her. She looked up with a slight start, blinking her blue eyes as though she was remembering where she was. Her beautiful smile spread across her face.
“Hello. Oh thank you! I was just thinking I’d like some more coffee.” She sat up on her knees, pushed her hair back from her face and picked up the coffee. “I take it this is courtesy of Sanji?”
“No, I really like to cover coffee in whatever the fuck all of that is,” Law said. He sat cross-legged beside her.
She laughed and took a sip. “Oh and there’s cake too, how nice of him. He must like you, he normally wouldn’t give a slice for anyone who isn’t Nami or myself,” she said with a coy smile.
Law snorted and took another sip of coffee. “How was shopping?"
"It was lovely!" she beamed. "It was so nice to hang out with them all, we took Tama and Otoko as well and they had such a nice time. I know Ikkaku also really appreciated the girl time."
"Glad to hear it," Law said. He was still mildly disappointed they hadn't been able to be together much that day but he was glad she'd enjoyed herself, and Ikkaku. "How's the translation going? No more spelling mistakes I hope.”
“No, though there has been some grammar ones," Robin sighed like a mother who was disappointed in her child's school grades. “I’m afraid I’ll need to keep working on this all night and probably most of tomorrow.” Her eyes flickered to his face. “You probably know but the log pose –”
“Updated. Yeah, I know.” Bepo had announced it that day as he'd joined his crew and the others down at the foreshore. Luffy and Kid had been ecstatic and the three captains had gotten into an argument to decide the day they would leave. Now that he was back here, he was finding himself exhausted from all of their irritating, extroverted energy. Somehow, dealing with them was more tiring than taking on Big Mom.
Robin nodded and reached out to gently rest her hand on his knee. He took her hand with his and they sat together in silence for a while, just drinking coffee and eating cake. As much as he loved being physical with her and going exploring, it was these quiet moments that he loved the best.
Robin spoke up. “Ikkaku said it’s the anniversary of Flevance and Corazon next week.”
Law ran his thumb over the back of her hand. “Yeah.”
“I’m curious, why didn’t you mention it?” she asked gently.
He sighed and put his coffee down. “Honestly, I haven’t been thinking about it as much as I normally do. There’s been so much going on and … I don’t know … it feels like maybe it’s time to close my memories on that chapter of my life. Or at least, that’s what I want to do, but I don’t know if it’s right.”
Robin smiled sympathetically at him. “I suppose that’s the same reason I didn’t tell you that the anniversary of Ohara is the week after that.”
Law’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Very serious. I wonder if the government planned it,” she said with a chuckle.
“Probably. I bet they have a calendar and at this time of year they choose a country to completely obliterate.”
“How do you think they work it out? Random roulette? Shoot a dart?”
“I’d say they pick it out of a giant hat.”
“Ah that must be it.” They shared smiles and Law squeezed Robin’s hand gently. She leaned forward to look him directly in the eyes. “Law, I had an idea. You might not like it and it’s completely fine if you don’t.”
“What is it?”
“Well, I was thinking today that I’ve never really given myself the time to come to terms with what happened in Ohara and to say, well, to say farewell I guess. I’ve always tried to run from it or convince myself that I’d moved on. Even after everything that’s happened with the Straw Hats, I still don’t think I’ve honoured the memory of my people in the way I would like. I was thinking that I would like to do that here and now. With you.”
Law scooched closer to her. He took her other hand with his and ran his thumb along her palm, finding peace in the ridges of her skin. “What do you mean exactly?”
“I would like to take some offerings and give them a proper burial. What do you think?”
Law took a deep breath. The thought of having to confront the truth of the deaths of people he loved was painful, it hurt him deep in his chest like a burn, but it was a pain that he knew he needed. If there was any place to do it and with anyone so that he wasn’t alone, he wanted it to be here and with her. At a time when his life was perhaps the most peaceful and joyful it would ever be.
He nodded slowly. “That would be good.”
Robin smiled and leaned forward to kiss him tenderly. “I’m glad. Shall we do it once I’ve finished with the poneglyphs?”
“Alright.”
“Good. Speaking of which,” she glanced back down at the mass of papers, “I really do need to get back to it.”
“Yes you do. I can get a book and just read on the futon.”
“That would be nice – oh, wait, before we do that though.” Robin’s smile turned cheeky and she stood, pulling him up with her. “I have something to show you.”
“Oh?”
She let go of his hands and walked over where a large bag was sitting on the floor. “When I went out with the girls today, I came across something I think you’d like. Close your eyes.”
Law raised an eyebrow but dutifully did as she said. Was she going to present him with Sora merch perhaps? A collector’s coin? A rock?
After much rustling and moving around she finally said, “You can open your eyes.”
Law opened his eyes and his mouth dropped open. Robin stood there wearing the white cowboy hat and a long, white coat over her short purple dress. She looked incredible! Like a sexy sharpshooter who could blow his brains out with a gun.
She giggled at his expression. “What do you think?”
“Um, fuck yeah,” was all he managed to say. She laughed behind her hand and it all become too much for him. With a flick of his fingers, Robin was transported into his arms. He lifted her up, bridal-style, and grinned. “You need to show me exactly what kinds of things you got up to while wearing this.”
“Oh I think I can do that,” Robin smirked. “I really do need to get back to the translation, though.”
“Better make this quick, then,” Law said with a feral grin, and he leaned up to capture his mouth in a kiss.
A few hours later, they found themselves back to where they’d been that morning, sitting in bed, Law reading his medical journal and Robin scouring over her poneglyph translations. Law glanced at her as she ran a pen along her notebook, muttering softly under her breath. As much as he liked her in all forms (and positions), he really did think this one where they sat in peace together was the best.
Sex was great but this? This was perfect.
Notes:
Oda, please bring back cowboy hat Nico Robin. We were robbed of her. ROBBED! You know what we were also robbed of? Law being in Egghead and getting an Egghead fit like Zoro's. I demand justice for both!
Guys I'm genuinely devastated that there's a only a few chapters left. Logically I know I need to finish this soon but I'm becoming so reluctant to write it because I don't want it to end. I was also hoping that by the time this story finishes, we would have gotten an update on Law and his crew in the manga but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case :(
Well, guess I'll just have to write my own ending where they all lived happily ever after and nothing bad ever happens to any of them ever :D
Chapter 18: Love
Notes:
Happy slightly belated Lawbin day (6/6)! May Lawbin live long and prosper!
Also, you might want a comforting drink for this one. I'm sorry.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Law and Robin trekked through the forest of Wano in silence. It was a warm day and the sun streamed down from above, lighting up the forest in vibrant shades of green. Law barely noticed the beauty of it all. Since that morning, his mind had been far away, drifting from burning hospitals to snowed-in wastelands.
It was only Robin’s gentle prompting that had been able to get him out of bed that morning, to dress in a black shirt and his Corazon coat (which had seemed appropriate for the day), and to eat a light breakfast. They’d arisen early, before everyone except Zoro who’d greeted them with a brisk nod as he headed off for his usual morning training.
Now it was mid-morning and Law’s emotional state was fragile at best. He didn’t know why he was feeling so nervous. It wasn’t like they were facing Doflamingo again, or going up against a new enemy, they were only going to make a grave for their fallen people and make their peace with the past.
So why was he so scared?
“Shall we stop for morning tea?” Robin cut through his frazzled thoughts, her voice as gentle as a spring rain. Law nodded and she took them to an outcropping of rocks by a river. From her bag, she took out a thermos of coffee that was still piping hot and two bags, one with sandwiches and one with onigiri.
She held the bag of sandwiches out to him. “Your favourite.”
Law gave her a long look. “Don’t even joke about that.” She smiled and handed him the onigiri instead. Robin opened her bag and removed a fruit sandwich. Law wrinkled his nose as she took a delicate but nonetheless enthusiastic bite.
“Mm,” she said happily.
He shook his head in disgust. “How can you like that stuff? It’s disgusting.”
Robin swallowed her bite and said, “The same could be asked for you. How can you not like bread? It’s bread.”
Law bit into his onigiri. “It was all I could find after I escaped Flevance and before I met Doflamingo. I had to scavenge it from piles of garbage. It tasted of death.” He chewed the onigiri fervently, savouring the flavourful rice in order to push down the memories of mouldy, bug-infested bread.
Robin’s expression softened and she reached out to take his hand, squeezing it. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s fine, I know most people find it weird,” he said, wiping his mouth. He caught her concerned expression and smirked, “What is weird is how your favourite food is sandwiches and cakes, and my least favourite is bread.”
She laughed. “Very true. Perhaps it’s one of the few things we don’t have in common, and to such an extreme.”
Law snorted. “Well, there had to be something.”
“Excuse me, I’m not obsessed with comic book characters and coins.”
“No, but you are far too invested in rocks.”
“Rocks are a piece of history, thank you very much.”
“Sure, sure, whatever you say”
Robin shook her head at him with a withering smile and finished off her sandwich. Normally, he knew she would have probably slapped or poked him with one of her hands but it was a testament to how easily she now read his moods that she didn’t. As much as he was joking, it was stiff and awkward, and he was struggling to find his usual dark humour.
They finished their food and coffee in comfortable silence. As always, Law appreciated how peaceful it was to be with her. It made his mind feel just slightly less fractured.
As the sun rose higher into the sky, they continued their journey.
Hiyori had told them of a relatively unknown cliff that overlooked the sea, hidden in the midst of the woods leading to the west of Wano. The journey wasn’t too far but it was enough to give them a serious walk.
As they travelled, Law realised Robin hadn’t once stopped to look at an old rock formation or examine the surrounding flora. She must be nervous, too. As always, she was far better at hiding it than he was. He reached out to take her hand and found it was shaking. He held it tight and they walked together like that for the rest of the journey.
It was past midday when they arrived at the cliff. It cropped out over the country below, offering an impressive view of the western lands and the ocean. A cool breeze rustled their hair, bringing with it the scents of spring flowers and the tang of ocean salt.
“This is perfect,” Law said. Robin nodded and he saw her throat bob as she swallowed thickly. He squeezed her hand and she returned it.
They got to work. Robin headed back into the trees to find sticks and Law put down his sword and used a shovel to dig two long holes into the grassy soil on the cliffside. He could use his powers to complete both tasks in an instant, but the thought of using them for this made him sick.
Robin returned shortly with four long sticks. She left him to his digging as she carved the base of two of the longest sticks into spears with a knife, and then wrapped the smaller stick across each with twine until she’d created two crosses. She didn’t use her powers either.
When they were done, Robin used a knife to carve in the top and two sides of the cross: Ohara, Jaguar D Saul, Nico Olvia. Law took another knife to do the same on the remaining cross: Flevance, Father Mother Lami, Corazon. It was painstaking work. Law felt his fingers grow numb as he clenched them over the stick and the hilt of the knife. He was meticulous, taking his time to get every letter perfect. Robin finished long before he did and she sat patiently by his side, letting him take as long as he needed.
When he was finally done, they stuck the points of each cross into a hole, shoving them down until they hit the packed soil at the bottom. Then they filled in the surrounding soil until the crosses were now stuck firmly in place.
From Robin’s bag, they pulled out a small collection of things. On her cross, Robin hung a weathered brown cowboy hat at the top, nailed a poneglyph rubbing into the bottom stick, and placed an old history book at the base. On his cross, Law hung a stethoscope from the middle, tied a pink scrunchie around the left spoke, and draped a grey feather scarf around the other. Finally, Robin passed a handful of seeds to Law, keeping some in her palm for herself. Together, they dug the seeds into the base of the graves. Robin’s would bloom pink lilies, Law’s would bloom white orchid cacti – the flowers of Ohara and Flevance.
They took a deep breath in unison. It was well into the afternoon now, they were sweating and Law felt as tired as though he’d just fought Big Mom again. His bones ached from the physical effort and from a deepset pain that was dragging on his very bones.
They sat in silence for a long time, staring at the graves.
After a while, Robin finally spoke first. “Hi Mum, hi Saul.” She cleared her throat. “I hope it is well where you both are. I hope there are lots of flowers and lots of books. I hope people laugh and smile and are happy. I hope that Mr Clover and all the other researchers are there, too. Mum, I hope you can spend all your days learning with them, just like you always … wanted to.” Her voice stuttered.
Law looked at her and saw her blue eyes wavering. There was a pain behind them, resolved and yet not quite. He took her hand. She didn’t look at him but she continued to speak.
“Mr Saul, Thank you for teaching me how to laugh. Without it, I never would have survived. I laughed every time things were too hard and it got me through another day. Mum, Mr Saul, you told me to live – and I have. It wasn’t easy, in fact, most of the time it was very difficult. There were many times when I wanted it to end.” Law clenched his hand around his sword. “There were a lot of times when I thought it would be easier to give in. I’m glad I didn’t. Those 20 years were painful but without them, I never would have met the Straw Hats. I never would have been saved by Luffy and Nami and Zoro and Usopp and Chopper and Franky – and met Brook. I never would have travelled with them. And Mum, guess what? I found the red poneglyphs! Not all of them, there’s one left to go, but we’re almost there. I think we’re really going to find the One Piece! It’s so exciting, you would love it.”
Robin smiled widely though her mouth quivered. A single tear fell from her eye. “Thank you for telling me to live. I am and I’m happy. I really am! I also met someone. You’d both like him. He’s tall and handsome and brave and kind and smart. He’s also a bit silly but in the best way.” Law smiled slightly. “Mum, I planted the flowers you love here so hopefully you’ll be able to smell them instead of smoke, and I brought your favourite book so hopefully you can read it wherever you are.”
Robin’s voice broke off and she stared at the grave for a long moment. She took a deep breath, another tear slowly fell down her cheek. “Thank you, Mr Saul. Thank you, Mum.” She smiled through her tears and brushed them away. She turned to Law and said with a watery chuckle, “That wasn’t so hard, I guess.”
Law put his arm around her and held here against his chest for a long moment, letting her breathe deeply against him. “You did well,” he murmured, pressing his lips to her head.
He let her stay against him for as long as he could but, too soon, she pulled away and he was forced to confront the grave he’d made. It stared back at him menacingly, despite it being so small, far too small really for such great importance. It wasn’t enough! He should have put in more effort, should have built an entire shrine with multiple graves, one for every person who had died.
Robin looked at him carefully. “Law?” she said. “Are you alright to do this? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
He shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but the words became stuck. After Robin’s eloquent conversation, everything he had been about to say seemed feeble and pathetic. Nothing was right, nothing could properly convey the depths of his emotions.
He opened and closed his mouth several times. He felt like he was choking. Robin put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed soothingly. It helped, a little.
“You don’t have to say anything if it’s too much,” she said softly.
He shook his head again. He was pathetic! This was his chance to finally say everything he’d been meaning to and he couldn’t even allow a few measly words to escape his mouth, when normally he had no problem talking.
“I –” he saw his parents’ bodies lying on the floor of the hospital, Dad lying over Mum in a failed attempt to protect her from the bullets.
“I –” he saw Lami’s big brown eyes darken as he closed them inside a closet. A closet that had burned to ash.
“I –” he saw glimpses of Corazon’s body lying in the snow, blood pooling around him like a macabre imitation of a snow angel.
He heard the shots of guns pierce the bodies of his people – of Corazon. He smelled flesh burning and the reeking of rotten death as it was carted away from the scene of the crime while he hid inside. He tasted mouldy bread that coated his mouth with fungus.
“I –”
He couldn’t see anything else anymore. It was just death and anger and pain, gnawing at him like the depths of ravenous hunger.
“Law.”
A voice, soft and gentle, brought him back to life. He turned his haunted eyes away from his memories and looked into clear blue that saw him for who he was and what he’d been through and loved him anyway.
A warm hand held his. A cool breeze brushed his hair back from his face.
Law turned back to the grave. “I’m sorry.” His voice was hoarse as though he’d been screaming. “I’m sorry I didn’t join you, Sister, and the others to escape. I’m sorry I wasn’t with you, Mum and Dad. I’m so – I’m so sorry I left you in that closet, Lami. If I’d just – if I’d just taken you with me, you wouldn’t have had to burn. I’m sorry I lived. I’m sorry I can’t even remember your faces anymore!”
He could feel Robin wanting to say something, but she remained silent and let him speak.
“I’m sorry I let you die for me, Cora-san. I’m sorry I spent the life you gave me trying to avenge you, when all you wanted was for me to live. I’m sorry we didn’t get to live that life we talked about together, that we didn’t get to travel the world. I would have – I would have really liked to do that with you.” Rain fell into his lap. Except, it wasn’t raining. “I’m sorry we couldn’t spend our days sailing around, running from marines and making our own pirate crew together. I ... I miss you the most.”
His heart was burning with pain so strong he could hardly contain it. The words, before so stuck in his throat, now fell out of his mouth in a chaotic rush as every single thing he’d ever wanted to say tumbled from his mind.
“It’s terrible of me to say but it’s true. I don’t remember my family as much as I wish I did, but I remember you. I remember you falling over all the time, and catching fire out of nowhere, and smoking. You know, you probably would've died from lung cancer sooner or later with all that smoking!” Of course he just had to turn into a surgeon right now. “Ignore that. Anyway. Most of all - most of all I remember your smile. I remember it so well I can see it clearly, even now. I remember your words. I’m sorry it took me so long to realise what you meant, to realise that you just wanted me to live for myself and be happy.
“It’s been hard to fix my mind on all of that but I’m trying, I really am,” Law said. He sounded like the kid he’d been back then with Corazon, the lost little kid who’d just wanted to be loved. God, he hadn’t changed a bit, had he? But then again, maybe he didn’t need to. Even though you grew older, even though you officially became an adult, you never really lost the childish need to be loved and protected.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is – is thank you,” he finally managed to say. “Thank you so much for saving my life. Thank you so much for seeing a kid who was dying and for loving him. You are truly one of the kindest people ever born and this world would be far better with more people like you in it. When you died, the world never recovered. Thank you for setting me free.
“I’ve made a life now thanks to you. It’s broken and messy, but it's mine and I'm working on it. I’ve made friends, really good friends. You’d love them, they’re exactly your kind of people. They’re my crew and we stick together through anything. They’re my family. I’ve made other friends, too. Weird ones in unlikely places but I’m very grateful for them and for what they’ve helped me to accomplish. I’ve met the most amazing woman.” Robin’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “She’s beautiful and kind and funny and weird but in the best way. If it wasn’t for you, and for whatever strange twist of fate that led to us meeting and you hearing me reveal my name, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and I wouldn’t have met her.”
Law took a deep breath. He was fully aware of the tears that were streaming down his face now. Normally, he would feel ashamed to let his emotions run away with him like this, but today he was grateful for it. He felt better than he had in a long, long time. He felt peace. A deep peace that permeated through his veins, telling him everything was OK now, that he could rest and live his life without regret.
“Thank you, Corazon,” he said softly. “Thank you. I love you … and … goodbye.”
Robin leaned her head on his shoulder, she was shaking as much as he was. He put his arm around her and held her so tightly that she would never be able to slip away. That she would have to stay with him forever.
“I love you, Mum," she whispered. "Goodbye."
They sat together in front of the graves for a long, long time. They both knew that while their words had been for the people they lost, underneath it all, they were also for each other.
Notes:
I was an absolute sobbing mess while writing this. I genuinely couldn't see the words because I was crying so much. Editing was almost as bad.
The fact that Law can finally get closure and yet he's going to lose everyone again to Blackbeard made this so much worse.
But I'm in permanent denial about that. He's fine. They're all fine. Law and the Heart Pirates are having tea with Shanks on Elbaf and they're all perfectly safe and well. Right? Right!
Chapter 19: Take my Heart
Notes:
Very sorry for the delay with this one! I ended up rewriting the final two chapters a few times to get them right and it took longer than I'd expected. Plus, and in my sincerest defence, I kept having to look up clips from the episodes for research purposes, and I got distracted.
What can I say? I'm just a girl. I'm weak in the presence of many pages of Law reels and art.
Penultimate chapter let's go!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
In true Straw Hat style, the party to commemorate the end of their adventures in Wano with the Heart and Kid pirates was everything that could have been expected and more. Sanji worked tirelessly with the palace cooks to ensure an enormous feast that rivalled the Wano buffet was prepared, with more than enough food to satisfy even Luffy’s appetite. Hiyori, Brook, and the Heart and Kid musicians built an ensemble that provided the best music for everyone to dance, drink and party to all night long.
The party took place on the foreshore of Wano where their ships were docked and ready to set sail the following morning. Robin sat with the girls on the sand, sipping cocktails and talking. While they had all initially planned to wear kimonos, Hiyori, Otoko and Tama had each expressed a wish to wear dresses for the party, as they’d never had a chance to wear one before. So, with a little investigating, they’d managed to find an underground shop that sold dresses for a surprisingly reasonable price – or reasonable once Nami had brought out her threatening side and Robin had conjured giant hands from the ceiling to scare the shopkeeper.
Robin and Nami had joined the girls in Hiyori’s room to get ready. Ikkaku had found a pretty yellow dress that was complemented perfectly by her red lipstick, and had begged Robin to do her hair up again the way she had on the Polar Tang. Nami wore a strapless peacock-blue dress with her hair in a braided coronet, and Robin had found a backless, royal purple cocktail dress that fit her slender frame perfectly.
She sipped on her cocktail and watched as Otoko and Tama ran around the makeshift dancefloor in a game of tag. They wore matching blue and pink dresses with big sashes that made them look like butterflies, and had makeup all over their faces. Perhaps more than was necessary, but they’d both begged for as much as possible and the women had only been too happy to oblige them. Most of the Heart and Kid pirates were dancing, mugs of sake in their hands, joined by Usopp, Chopper and Franky. Sanji was at the food station with Shachi.
Robin’s eyes drifted to where the three captains were sitting on crates, arguing as per usual. Luffy was devouring an enormous leg of meat while yelling, Kid was gesturing wildly with his metal arm, and Law was sitting casually, arms crossed, scolding them with the vigour of a disappointed older brother.
She smiled. Law was typically so careful with how he displayed his emotions, but all it took was one word from Kid or Luffy and every veneer of composure was shattered. She liked to see him relax more around people who weren’t his crew – or herself. Even if that relaxation involved engaging in utterly ridiculous arguments.
Her smile turned into biting her lip as she found her eyes drifting over him. She wasn’t sure what was pulling her eyes the most, his completely bare arms covered in tattoos, or his long legs that were crossed at the ankles. I’m going to miss that view, she thought. This time tomorrow he won’t be so near.
As if he could feel her stare, Law turned his head and met her eyes. He indicated to Luffy and Kid who were shouting at an inconceivable volume, and rolled his eyes. Robin smiled and pulled her gaze from him to return to the conversation with the girls. There would be time to ogle him later. Though, not as much time as I would wish …
“Do you think any of the captains have realised we’re all scheduled to leave on the same day?” Ikkaku wondered, also looking over at where they captains were sitting. “I don’t think my captain has.”
“Luffy certainly hasn’t,” Nami said. “I doubt Kid has either. Killer was surprised to see Sanji prepping our meals for the next week in the kitchen this morning.”
“Oh dear, they are funny, aren’t they?” Hiyori laughed.
Robin knew that Law had. Not because he’d said it out loud but because she’d come to understand him so well that she knew there was no possibility he wouldn’t have realised it by now. She also had a feeling that both Luffy and Kid subconsciously knew too. Why else would they have scheduled the party for tonight?
She also knew why none of them had said anything out loud to each other about it.
“Mr Zoro, Mr Zoro!” Otoko called out. Zoro was walking past on his way to collect more sake. She ran up to him and tugged his hand. “Look look! What do you think of my face?” she pointed to her face, laughing.
Zoro blinked at her. “Uh. It’s fine.”
“Zoro, she means her makeup,” Robin chided.
“Huh?”
Nami huffed loudly. “She’s wearing makeup! Can’t you tell?”
He cocked his head at the young girl. “Um. Yeah, I guess.”
“Zoro!” Nami scolded.
Otoko laughed. “You can’t tell? Oh no, oh no! I should have put on more!”
“Shut up,” Zoro grunted at Nami. He looked down at Otoko. “Yeah, it’s great. Um, the liner around your eye is really pink. Good – good job.” He pat her on the head. She giggled loudly and spun around.
Tama joined her. “Mr Zoro what do you think of mine?”
“Yup. The purple is … purple. It’s good.”
Hiyori giggled behind her hand, and Robin and Nami shared amused looks. It was sweet to see the stoic swordsman thrown off like this.
“Mr Doctor! Mr Doctor!” Tama said and Robin looked up as Law, who had disengaged himself from the two still-arguing captains, walked over to them.
“I’m a surgeon,” he said bluntly.
“A what?” she gaped.
“A surg– doctor is fine. What do you want?”
“Look at my face! Do you like it?”
“If you mean your makeup, then yes, it’s very pretty.”
Zoro stared, “How did you realise she’s talking about that?”
“Because I have an emotional range bigger than a teaspoon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the swordsman scowled and Law smirked.
“Mr Doctor, do you like mine too?” Otoko also asked, jumping up and down.
“Yes.”
“Yaaay!”
“Yaaay!” cheered Tama and the two girls clapped loudly. Both Zoro and Law stepped back, looking perturbed.
“Hiyori-san, come play with us!” Brook called.
Hiyori excused herself and hurried over to join the band. In moments, the beach was filled with the vibrant sound of drums, fiddles, Brook’s guitar and Hiyori’s shamisen. Members of the joined crews cheered drunkenly, raising their mugs.
“Yeah Hiyori! Shred it girl!” Nami called out. Ikkaku whooped.
“She’s not bad,” Zoro grinned, arms crossed, his foot tapping along to the beat.
Tama exclaimed, “We should dance!”
“Yes yes!” Otoko laughed.
Tama grabbed Law’s hand. “Dance with me!”
“Wh-what? N-no I –” but either he was unwilling to hurt her feelings or Tama was a lot stronger than she looked because he was inevitably dragged out into the dancing circle. Robin laughed at his horrified expression and he looked back at her pleadingly, but she just smiled and waved. He glared and she laughed even more.
“Captain!” his crewmates cheered as he stumbled into their midst, pulled by a girl less than a quarter of his height.
Zoro snorted loudly, arms crossed. But he laughed too soon, for Otoko grabbed his hand and pulled him along after her as well. “Come on, Mr Zoro! Let’s dance!”
“Oi! No! Unhand me!”
“Come on!”
Robin put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter while Nami and Ikkaku collapsed into hysterics as the two awkward swordsmen were spun around by the younger girls who were grinning so brightly that neither man had the heart to stop them. She wiped the tears from her eyes, smiling fondly as Law resigned himself to his fate and let Tama spin him around. He looked like a father who had begrudgingly agreed to dance with his daughter. It was rather sweet.
“I see that smile,” Nami said coyly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Robin said.
Nami nudged her shoulder with a grin and Robin smiled back but kept her lips sealed.
“Do you think we should help them?” Ikkaku asked, biting her lip, though her lips were quivering.
Robin settled down on the sand and picked up her cocktail. “Oh, give them a little longer. This will help them build character.”
“As if they both need to build anymore of that,” Nami sniggered, also sipping her cocktail.
Clien soon pulled Ikkaku up to dance and, shortly after, Nami was asked by one of Kid’s crew, and so Robin sat by herself, watching the combined crews partying together without a care in the world.
This is special, she thought. Law’s grumpy expression had softened ever so slightly and he was now standing in place and letting Tama move his hands back and forth in a sort of dance that at least made the girl happy. Robin’s smile grew even fonder. She had no thoughts at all of having children anytime soon but it was small moments like this that brought out her maternal instincts.
Oh dear, I think I might be in love with him. She sipped her cocktail. It wasn’t really a revelation, she knew she’d had that feeling building up since she’d met him, and certainly even more since they'd started their covert relationship – but it did make things a tad inconvenient. I wonder if he feels the same about me?
She saw him wince as Tama tried to get him to spin her in a circle, and she placed down her cocktail and stood. It was time to put the poor man out of his misery. She walked into the midst of the dancers and carefully took Tama by the shoulder.
“Do you mind if I step in now, Tama?” she asked kindly. “Why don’t you dance with Otoko for a bit?”
“OK!” Tama beamed. She dropped Law’s hands and ran to Otoko, pulling her away from a red-faced Zoro to dance. He made to dash off the dance floor, but Nami took his arm and pulled him back in with an “Oh no you don’t!”.
Robin turned to Law with a cheeky smile and he frowned. “You really couldn’t have rescued me sooner?”
“It was far too much fun to see you like that,” she giggled.
“Yeah, yeah. Come here, you.” He took her waist in a sudden, uncharacteristic display of public affection and drew her in to dance.
“How indecent, Traffy-kun!” Robin mock-gasped. “What if one of these innocent young pirates were to see us?”
Law smirked. “Out of the only two people innocent enough to be shocked by this, one is currently stuffing his face with food and the other is drowning in so much alcohol he’ll be lucky if his liver survives the night. Unless, of course, the innocent pirate you’re referring to is you, Nico-ya.” His eyes glittered and he drew her closer.
She narrowed her eyes. “Well of course, Traffy-kun. I am a perfectly pure woman who has never done a single bad thing in my entire life.”
“Yeah that’s bullshit,” he murmured in her ear and she smirked. Her skin tingled with his breath and she felt the urge to kiss him passionately, but the sensible part of her brain stopped her. As much as it was that their relationship was now common knowledge, she still knew that they didn’t want to push it too far.
Because tomorrow, it would all end.
She swallowed the lump that started to form in her throat and pulled away from him. She opened her mouth to speak, but her words fell from her lips as he suddenly span her around.
“Law!” she gasped, laughing. “What are you doing?”
“Dancing with the rest of these idiots.”
Unable to stop her giggles, Robin let him pull her into a dance, just like the ones she’d seen couples do at the casino in Rainbase or the various clubs she’d visited in her lifetime. She’d always been envious of couples who danced like this, who spun around with a partner in perfect synergy like they were born to dance together.
She’d never thought she would have the privilege – no, the joy – of being able to dance with someone she loved like this.
There it was again. That word. Love.
She met his eyes as they swayed together. The way he was looking at her took her breath away. His grey eyes reflected so much emotion and affection, and she could see herself hovering in them like a memory. She smiled and they spun in a perfect little circle. Everyone else around them had disappeared. The only one she could see was him and she knew that he certainly wasn’t aware of anyone else either. They couldn’t even hear the music anymore, all they could hear was the rhythm of their hearts beating in unison.
It was extraordinary really, the circumstances that had brought them together. Almost as extraordinary as her joining the Straw Hats. If they hadn’t intercepted Kin’emon’s call from Punk Hazard and if Luffy hadn’t decided to change their course to help him, they never would have met Law. Or, if they had, it would have been in very different circumstances.
Would they have found each other like this if things had been different? Would he have simply been another pirate that passed her by? One she didn’t even look twice at, except perhaps to admire his good looks and skills? Would they have met at Wano regardless? Would they have eventually encountered each other at the One Piece?
“You look like you’re thinking very hard about something,” Law said.
Of course he could discern the look in her eyes. Really, the what-ifs didn’t matter. If they were destined to be together then they would have found each other regardless of the circumstances. But this circumstance, this here and now, was real and it was all about them.
Robin smiled and shook her head. “Nothing much, just silly things. Like how you had the audacity to wear this shirt tonight of all nights.”
Law smirked. He spun her out and back in, catching her with her back pressed against him. “Oh you like seeing my shoulders do you?” He spun her back out and into their normal dancing position again. “But you are not one to talk when you have the gall to wear this dress.” He pulled her in close and ran his fingers with a feather-light touch up her spine. “You know how much I like your back.”
“Hmm, is it the back itself or the spine you’re interested in? You certainly liked taking it out to look at the other day.”
“Exoskeleton, endoskeleton, I don’t care as long as it’s yours,” he said so simply and yet with so much affection she almost lost her footing. He swung her around and they swayed in time together, enjoying the feeling of being in each other’s arms as their crews danced chaotically around them.
Robin was vaguely aware that Ikkaku was watching starry-eyed in the background, and that Nami was having to pull Sanji into a dance with her to stop him from interfering. She was aware that Tama and Otoko were oohing and pointing at them, and that Penguin and Shachi were jumping up and down with glee.
But she didn’t care and right now they didn’t matter. All that mattered was his warm, strong arms holding her tightly, his chest against hers, the smile that played on his lips, and the look in his eyes that made her feel like she was the only woman in the entire world.
After a long time and yet not long enough, the music changed to popular pirate shanties, and Law released her. They held hands for as long as possible and then slowly dropped them.
Robin joined with the others as they sang. Law shook his head stubbornly – until Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats demanded Bink’s Sake.
To Hiyori’s credit, she picked up each tune with ease and soon a lively, drunken rendition of the popular song was being played with a band of the strangest collection of instruments that Robin had ever heard.
“Yohoho yohohoho, yohoho yohohoho,” Robin sang, bobbing her head side-to-side in time. She smiled at Law and nudged him. “Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out Bink’s brew, wave goodbye but don’t you cry our memories remain. Our days are but a passing dream, everlasting though they seem, beneath the moon we’ll meet again, the wind’s our lullaby.” She nudged him again and he, very quietly so only she could hear, joined in, his expression grumpy.
“Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out Bink’s brew, sing a song and play along for all the ocean’s wide. After all is said and done, you’ll end up a skeleton, so spread your tale from dawn to dusk upon these foamy seas. Yohoho yohohoho, yohoho yohohoho.”
Everyone cheered and shrieked and banged their mugs of ale on whatever surface they could find.
“AGAIN, AGAIN!” Luffy screeched.
“SHUT IT STRAW HAT!” Kid shouted back. “I’M GOING TO SAY PLAY IT AGAIN. PLAY IT AGAIN YOU MORONS!”
“Well that’s a bit rude,” Brook sniffed. “But very well, if you insist.”
The screaming cheers intensified as the band started from the beginning and everyone launched in to sing again.
Robin smiled at Law who looked like he had a serious migraine coming on. She could feel one of her own building. She covertly laced her fingers with his and they locked eyes. Not a single word needed to be passed between them for him to understand.
“Room,” he murmured. He made a space so big that no one else could see it and in seconds they left the beach, the music, the noise, and their crews behind, and were standing in comfortable silence in his room on the Polar Tang.
They stood still, eyes locked, breathing heavily. Robin wanted to make a move – to speak – to kiss him, but she was held back by the now very real fact that this, tonight, would be the last time. Whatever they did now would be it. Then it would be over.
She saw the flicker in his eyes and saw the ever-so-slight guard that was starting to come up. She realised now that it wasn’t intentional at all, it was simply the result of so much loss and pain that he was naturally inclined to want to protect himself from it.
Oh how she could understand that.
She took a deep breath. “Law.”
The muscles in his throat clenched as she said his name and she would have smiled at the rather enticing reaction if what she was about to say wasn’t so important.
“Law, I want to say something.”
His eyes narrowed but he nodded shortly.
“I know that it’s difficult for you to trust and I know now that you have a self-inflicted tendency to try to shut off your feelings in order to protect yourself. Don’t – don’t argue,” she held up her hand as she saw him open his mouth. He closed it and nodded. “I’m not criticising you for that. I used to have a very similar tendency,” she laughed dryly. “But, I know that you’re at a place now where you can accept things for what they are and not try to block them off in your mind. I know that, tomorrow, we’ll officially be enemies again, pirates fighting for the One Piece.” Law opened his mouth again and she shook her head slightly. He closed it, resigned. “If that’s what you need to call Luffy and Kid and the others from now on, that’s fine. And if that’s what you need to call me, that’s fine, too, but I want you to make a promise for me.”
She stepped forward and took his hands in her own and fixed his eyes with hers. “Promise me that you won’t try to forget just so that it doesn’t hurt. Promise me that tomorrow we’ll start the day with a smile for the memories we’ve made and that we’ll still be friends and still care for each other.”
Law’s taut expression relaxed and he dropped her hand to gently smooth his thumb across her cheek. “I promise,” he said. He pressed his forehead to hers and she took a deep breath of his warm scent and skin. “I knew when we started this what the consequences would be and I’ve been prepared for that. We’re adults and that’s how we’ve treated this. We’re not teenagers on some whirlwind romance, though, sometimes it has felt like that,” he chuckled.
Robin laughed softly with him. She reached up to run her hand through his hair. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. I was … well, I was a bit worried about you.”
“Hey, just who do you think you’re talking to?” he pulled away and grinned.
“A man with a planning complex and a tendency to overexplain comic books,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
“At least I don’t collect rocks.”
“But you do collect coins.”
“Coins are cool!”
“Coins are not cool.”
“Neither are rocks!”
“Rocks form the foundation of this world!” Robin put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
Law smirked and, before she could say another word, he pulled her in for a kiss. “I’m going to miss hearing you defend rocks like that,” he chuckled.
“I might possibly end up missing hearing you talk about Sora,” she teased. As Law began to go in for another kiss she pressed her finger to his lips. “Law, I just have one more thing to say. Well, a question actually.”
“Oh?”
“I like clarity and I know you do, too." Law nodded. “So seeing as we have only tonight left together - for now - I just wanted to check in about your feelings regarding us. As in how you feel about me.” Robin swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry. She didn’t know why she was feeling so nervous all of a sudden. It didn’t really matter, she supposed, she knew he had feelings for her, so what did it matter if those were just feelings of simple affection or of –
“I love you.”
He said it so surely and so simply that Robin felt everything around her stop like his powers had now expanded to time control. She stared at him, wide-eyed, her normally intelligent, fast-working brain grinding to a halt.
“What?”
“I love you. I’ve loved you since the day I told you my name and you said we could find out the truth of the world together. Actually, no, that’s not true. I’ve loved you since you held me in your arms in Dressrosa and said you wouldn’t let me go.”
Robin’s mouth dropped slightly and her face grew unusually hot. “You – you heard that?”
“I was only half-unconscious,” he admitted, smirking slightly.
“Oh my,” she put her hands to her face and he laughed incredulously.
He tugged her hands away and kissed her forehead. “Since when do you get so embarrassed?”
“It’s just – just –” Robin took a deep breath. Her feelings were mixing and twisting up with her words and she was finding it difficult to even breathe. Her heart was going to explode. She couldn’t believe it. He loved her. He really, truly loved her. Now that he said it out loud, it sounded so obvious. Of course he did! She knew that! But hearing him actually speak those words 'I love you' made it real and it was too much for her heart that had been so guarded for so long.
“Are you crying?” he said with a chuckle.
She shook her head but the tears streaming down her face betrayed her. “I love you, too,” she managed to say.
“I know." He held her tightly in his arms. They stayed in each other’s embrace for a while, just enjoying the feeling of their bodies close together and the comfort they brought each other.
Law kissed her on top of her head and pulled away. “I am a little offended, though, that you’d think I would really try to forget you.”
“Can you blame me?” Robin said, wiping her tears away.
“No,” he admitted. “And to prove to you that I won’t do that, I have something for you.”
“I thought we already gave each other presents yesterday?”
“This is different.” He sat her down on the bed and opened his bedside drawer. “Close your eyes and hold out your hand.”
Smiling with anticipation, Robin did as he said. After a moment of shuffling, he placed something small into her hand. She felt a cold chain so it must be a necklace, but the pendant hanging from it was warm and … was it moving?
“You can look now.”
Robin opened her eyes. In her hand was a tiny, beating heart enclosed in the small clear box that Law used to hold organs. It was hanging from a delicate silver chain. Robin touched the pendant curiously, feeling it throb beneath her fingers.
“Is this … your heart?” she asked in wonder, looking up at him.
“Yes.” His voice was soft.
“Not your real one, I’m assuming?”
“No,” he chuckled. “That would be quite a large thing to have hanging around your neck.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
“I know you wouldn’t but it probably isn’t the wisest decision to send my real heart off with your crew, as much as I trust you,” he smirked and Robin giggled. He had a point.
“I didn’t know you could make replicas. Like my ability.”
“Well, not exactly. I can replicate a smaller version of any of my organs but apart from it being fascinating and for research purposes, it’s rather useless. I can’t do it for anyone who isn’t myself and it only mimics my actual functions so there’s no point using it in battle or for anything else. However, for this purpose,” he pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear, “it’s perfect.”
She held the heart up to her face, admiring the veins and flesh, and the way it pulsed. “It’s so beautiful.”
He kissed her neck with a smirk. “Only you would say that.”
“And it really replicates your own heartbeat?”
“More or less. Though, I don’t know if it will work when we separate.”
Robin ran her finger over the glass-like square that ensconced the heart, a light blush dusting over her cheeks. For a man who struggled to show the deeper emotions of his soul, this was such an incredible display of his feelings for her that she could hardly comprehend it. It was the promise of a love that would quite literally cross oceans.
She handed the necklace to him and pulled her hair back. Law placed the necklace around her neck and clasped it into place with an expert precision. She turned to look at him with a smile. The tiny heart beat against her sternum like the soft wings of a butterfly.
“How does it look?”
He didn’t look at the necklace. “Beautiful.” He kissed her.
“Can you put those little boxes around anything?” she asked, pointing to the casing around the heart.
“Pretty much. Why?”
Robin held out her hand and concentrated carefully on the powers of her devil fruit – she’d never attempted to do this before. Slowly, like a flower blooming from soil, a tiny replica of her own heart grew in her palm. She held it out to him.
“If I get to take your heart then you get to take mine.”
He stared down at her hand for a long moment and she saw the cartilage in his neck constrict as he swallowed. He nodded shortly and she knew that he was so overwhelmed by emotion he couldn’t speak. He took Robin’s replica heart and held it up, similar to how she had done with him. She could see him admiring it with the practised eyes of a surgeon. He murmured something under his breath and then the heart was covered in a clear blue box. He murmured something else and suddenly the heart was attached to a gold chain. Robin took it from his hand and put it over his head and around his neck where it hung against his tattoos, shining in the soft moonlight that filtered through the pothole into the room.
“There. Now you can’t ever give it back,” she teased.
He took her face in his hands. “I don’t ever plan to.”
She looked deeply into his beautiful clear grey eyes. As they had when they were dancing, they showed so much longing and love that it took her breath away – and she knew her eyes reflected the same. His eyebrows furrowed slightly and he reached out with his thumb to trace the ridge of her cheekbone, and slowly up along her brow and down her nose, as though he was committing the shape of her face to memory.
Robin gently ran her delicate fingers along his face in unison with him. She found the slightest edge of a scar that had long since healed on the top of his forehead, she felt the smoothness of his dark skin that was like satin. She edged along the soft, dark hair of his small beard and sideburns. She tried to commit to memory every freckle, every mole, every wrinkle, every dent.
Their breaths inhaled and exhaled in unison with each other and with the waves that bobbed gently beneath the Polar Tang.
He moved his fingers to slowly, slowly trace her lips. She sighed softly. She could hear his love in the silence that surrounded them, in the gentle rush of the waves, in their soft breaths. She could feel it in the way his eyes shifted as they looked at every inch of her face, studying her like she was a book that he could commit to memory, like she was the rarest and most precious poneglyph in the world.
She moved her head close so that their lips were just barely touching, and his fingers guided over her cheek. She breathed in his scent and the feel of his breath on hers.
One last time, she thought.
A bittersweet smile tugged at her lips and, in harmony, they brought their shared yearning together in a kiss. This wasn’t like the other kisses from that night, this one was chaste and intense, passionate and sweet. It was desperate and longing, yet reserved and tender. He wound his hands through her long strands of black hair and tilted her face up to meet his. They sighed together – a deep sigh. He softly nibbled on her lip and she responded by biting his with fervour. He grunted and deepened the kiss, dancing his tongue inside her mouth.
He clutched her head, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and they fell into each other’s warmth like two stars colliding in a shower of light. Her longing for him transcended all understanding and her deep need to feel him on every inch of her skin made her ache.
She pushed her hands under the fabric of his sinfully tight shirt and felt the sinewy rolling of his muscles beneath her. He grasped her bare back with a groan and ran his hands under the fabric to feel every inch of skin that he could grasp. Each touch lit electric sparks through her body, as though he’d used his shockwave on her.
They took every moment slowly, deeply, passionately. Committing every touch, every sensation, every moan, every whisper to memory. The feel of his tender yet demanding lips, the grasp of his large hands, the bumps and rises of his chest, the sensation of his hot tongue in her mouth and over her skin and between her legs. The needy pressure of his tattooed fingers. The way that he filled her inside so completely that it felt like she'd been made for the very purpose of being with him. He fit her so perfectly, so comfortably, so enticingly, that she truly believed in her mind and heart that they had been constructed by creation for each other.
They said each other’s names over and over again like an oath.
“I love you Robin. I love you, I love you, I love you,” Law moaned into her mouth as they moved together with the synergy of lovers who had been together for years. Maybe they had been together for that long and she’d just never realised it. Now, she could hardly even remember a time without him. For how could there have a been a time when Nico Robin had existed without Trafalgar Law?
“I love you, Law,” she murmured. “I don’t want to leave you, I don’t!” she gasped out her confession.
He held her body like she was the only thing holding him together and pushed himself deeper inside her. His mouth spoke the word “stay” but nothing came out. They both knew what the deal was and that, as much as she loved him, she would never leave her crew and he would never leave his.
And that was alright.
That was OK.
That was reality.
But this reality for now, tonight, in this precious moment that they might never experience again, was entirely, completely, unconditionally about them.
They clutched onto each other as they finished together, breathing deeply, their hearts beating so fast they could feel it through their chests – and through the pendants around their necks.
Law looked deeply into her eyes and held her sweat-glossed face with his hand. “My love,” he whispered. He kissed her tenderly and she smiled, closing her eyes and leaning her head against his heaving forehead. “My flower,” he murmured, “my demon,” he kissed her, “my angel,” he kissed her again, “my Robin.”
He held her lips with his and she melted into him, bittersweet happiness flowing through every inch of her body, through her blood and her veins, her arms and legs, her lips, her core, her chest.
“My heart.”
Notes:
Can they just be together forever please Oda? Why you gotta separate them like this?!
I'm very sad the story is almost over but I do hope you enjoyed this chapter and it was worth the wait! And thank you for as always for the lovely comments, I really do appreciate them so so much and I get so much joy reading them <3
Note: For their dance, the song I was writing to was LOVE by Frank Sinatra, which inspired the title of this story.
Chapter 20: Keep it Forever
Chapter Text
Law and Robin lay in bed, Robin on his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her slender frame. They had been lying in silence for hours, listening to and feeling each other breathe. They were staring out the pothole window at the horizon that was slowly, painfully, growing lighter with each tick of the skull-face clock on the wall.
He ran his fingers up and down her back, over her arm, through her hair, sometimes tracing her eyes and lips. Her gentle fingers drew patterns over his tattoos and chest.
A pink tinge as soft as the blush that dusted Robin’s cheeks began to emerge on the sharp edge of the horizon. It spread like watercolour across the ocean below.
Law and Robin inhaled in unison.
She was the first to speak. “Law?”
“Mm?”
“One day, when we’ve found the One Piece and Luffy is pirate king.” Law grunted. “And you are, of course, a fearsome and terrifying Emperor of the sea –”
“Damn right.”
“We’ll return and explore as much of Wano as we can.” She pressed her fingers into his chest. “And not just Wano. We’ll go to Alabasta and Water 7. Fishman Island. You can show me Swallow Island in the North Blue, and I’ll take you up into the sky to Skypeia. We’ll go all around the world together, just the two of us.”
“What about our crews?”
“They can survive without us for a little while, don’t you think? We’ll still be a part of them, we’ll just take a short break. If – if you want to?”
Law sat up and looked down at her face - her beautiful, angelic face. He stroked her soft white cheek with his knuckles. “Of course I want to. I wouldn’t have blurted it out all those weeks ago if I didn’t.” He flushed slightly at the embarrassing memory. Damn, that felt like months ago instead of just a few weeks.
Her face burst into a smile as the first rays of the sun burst into the room. “Then it’s a promise!”
“A promise,” he agreed and he kissed her sweetly. Robin kissed him back and sat up. She looked out the window, blinking at the sun that had so traitorously risen. He sat behind her and rested his head on her shoulder. They entwined their fingers together and watched the sun creep far too quickly up the edge of the horizon. The rays illuminated the water, turning it gold, and Robin sighed.
“How beautiful. This is one of the reasons I love being a pirate.”
Law nodded against her shoulder. She smelled so sweet and enticing, like a field of spring flowers. It felt so perfect to have her sitting against his body like this, just sitting here in peace, enjoying the view of the world before them. How long before I get to feel like this again? he wondered.
Truthfully, although he’d made his promise to her and he would do his best to keep it, he knew that it would be hard to stop himself from instinctively trying to pretend they had ever happened.
A tiny beat pulsed against his chest – her heart. He ran his fingers over the small organ hanging from its chain. This wasn’t a final goodbye, they would see each other again soon. They still had to discover the will of D and the world history together – and the One Piece. Though, that didn’t mean quite as much to him except for the satisfaction of reaching it before Luffy.
When the sun had fully eclipsed the horizon, Robin was the first to move. She turned to Law, kissed him and stood.
“It’s time to go, Nami wanted to catch the tides before midday.”
“Bepo said the same,” Law said, but he didn’t move.
Robin held out her hand. “Come on. We knew that night we finally kissed that this was the inevitable outcome.”
Law sighed but took her hand and let her pull him up. She went to put her clothes back on and Law did the same. Methodically, he pulled on his boxers, jeans and white shirt, unable to keep his eyes from watching her as she put on her underwear and the sinfully-tight purple dress.
Fuck. How was he seriously going to get through each day now without being able to spend it holding her in his arms?
Robin brushed her hair and caught him watching her. He knew he must look absolutely pathetic. She put the brush down and took his hands.
“We’ll be OK,” she said firmly. He wondered if she was saying that more to herself than to him.
“Yeah. Yeah I know. It’s just gonna really fucking suck for a bit, that’s all.”
She laughed softly and pressed her forehead to his. “Yes. It’s going to really, really fucking suck.”
Law raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Well, well, who know you of all people could swear?”
“I swear when I mean it,” she said and he chuckled again. “But I also mean it when I say we’ll be OK. It’s not going to be forever and I’m sure we’ll see each other sooner than we think. We're both heading for the same final destination, after all.”
“I know. I know." He shook his head and pulled her into a big hug. “I know.”
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. They stood there for a long time, breathing together, as the room got brighter and warmer with the blooming sun.
Finally, Robin pulled away. They stared at each other. Don’t forget what she looks like, Law ordered himself. Don’t forget her high forehead and her long lashes, the way the edges of her eyes crinkle when she laughs, the lines around her mouth, her smile, her eyes. Her voice and her laugh. Don’t you dare forget anything!
“Law, can you send me to my room on the Sunny, please?” Robin said softly.
He nodded. With a deep breath, he took her face in his hands and looked deeply into her eyes that were the sky, the ocean, the stars and the galaxies all at once. “I love you, Demon Child, Nico Robin.”
She put her hands over his and smiled. “I love you, Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar D Water Law.” When she said his name, it sounded like a prayer.
They kissed. Lovingly, passionately, without reserve.
They stepped back from each other, Robin dropped his hands and he dropped her face.
“See you soon,” Robin smiled. Her eyes were bright, but otherwise her resolve was firm and her expression resolute.
“See you soon.” To his surprise, he didn’t sound the way that he felt. He sounded just as resolute as her. Just as mature. As though they were two ordinary friends sending each other off for the day.
He held out his hand. “Room. Shambles.”
Robin disappeared. A petal from one of the flowers in her bedroom fell onto the floor in her place.
Law stood alone in his room. Never had it felt so empty before. A tiny heartbeat throbbed at his sternum and he unclasped the gold chain. He held Robin’s small, replica heart in his hand. It was beating far faster than normal.
He slumped down on the bed, still staring at the heart. He could feel his mood already turning. It would be OK – they would be OK. Really. They were adults, they’d known this was going to happen. And she was right, they would see each other again, probably far sooner than they expected.
He just wished it didn’t hurt so much.
“I’m going to miss you girls!” Ikkaku wailed.
It was a bright, warm morning, with favourable winds and tide. The perfect day for all three crews to leave simultaneously. Everyone was rushing around, packing crates of food and treasure into their boats, talking with the friends they’d made from each crew and Wano.
“Now it’s back to being surrounded by boys! Hiyori, are you sure you don’t want to join us?”
Hiyori laughed behind her hand. “I would love to but my place is here. I’m sure we’ll all meet again soon, anyway. Luffy did say that Wano is under his protection now and Law mentioned this morning when I was helping them with their food that he wants to return to explore when he gets the chance.” She glanced at Robin as she said this.
Robin pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. Law was truly serious about his promise then if he’d even mentioned it to Hiyori. Her heart beat at the thought. I wonder if he can feel it. On the foreshore Law, Luffy and Kid were sitting on crates, talking – well, arguing – about something or other, but she didn’t look.
“Don’t worry, Ikkaku, we’ll call you whenever can! Let’s keep up the girl chats,” Nami said, raising her fist.
“Yes! And let me know if you encounter anywhere with good clothes shops, and I’ll bully the guys to take me there,” Ikkaku laughed. “Speaking of which, I like this combo you’ve got on, Robin, I’ve never seen you in those colours before.”
Robin smiled. She’d chosen a floaty peach shirt and a pair of yellow striped shorts to wear today. She’d initially been about to reach for one of her usual pink or purple ensembles but something had made her pause – she’d been wearing that colour so often around Law that she felt like she really needed a change today. Of course, now that she thought about it, she’d unknowingly chosen a yellow colour scheme.
Well, I suppose it’s only natural, she chuckled to herself.
“Thank you, Ikkaku. We’ll definitely meet up again soon and do another girls’ shopping trip,” Robin promised.
“Good!” Ikkaku nodded.
“Hiiiii!” a voice called out as Carrot and Wanda hurried up to them. Carrot jumped on Nami and Wanda reached out to hug Robin.
“H-hi Carrot!” Nami gasped, hugging her back.
Robin laughed and returned Wanda’s hug as well. “How nice of you to come see us off.”
“We’re going to miss you so much! But we’ll see each other soon I’m sure,” Wanda bared her canine teeth in a grin.
“Ah I can’t believe this is all ending,” Ikkaku wailed. “It’s been so much fun!”
“Aww, Ikkaku!” Nami cried out. She hugged Ikkaku again and both minks joined in.
Laughing, Hiyori turned to Robin. The girls shared similar smiles and hugged each other tightly.
As they pulled back, Robin said softly, “Are you alright?”
Hiyori smiled, her turquoise eyes shining. “I am. Are you?”
Robin nodded. “I am.” It was mostly true.
“We’ll all see each other again,” the princess said, squeezing Robin’s hand, and Robin knew exactly what she meant.
“Yes, we will. And please do stay in touch, you have our snail phone number so please don’t hesitate to call when you get the chance.”
“And you!”
Otoko and Tama came running up to them and joined in the farewells. After much crying, Robin gently reminded everyone that they needed to finish packing and set sail soon to take advantage of the tide. As final hugs and farewells were said, Ikkaku grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.
“Thank you,” she said fervently.
Robin blinked and returned the hug. “For what?”
Ikkaku pulled away and smiled, wiping her eyes that had suddenly filled with tears. “Oh nothing. Just … just thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Robin said, smiling with confusion.
Before she could move, she was suddenly wrapped up in an enormous pair of furry arms that pulled her into the squishiest, softest hug she’d ever experienced. Maybe I should petition Luffy to find us a bear for our crew, she thought as she returned the hug.
“Thank you!” Bepo said.
“Bepo, what’s this?” she laughed.
He pulled away and she had to stop herself from pouting, already missing the soft fluffiness. Before he could speak, however, both Penguin and Shachi hugged her simultaneously.
“Thank you!” they said.
As they released her, she saw all three of them were rubbing their eyes. She was beginning to understand what this was all about now, but she feigned ignorance.
“My, my, what’s all this about? It’s us who should be thanking you for helping us take down Kaido and Big Mom.”
“Oh yeah, we just … thanks for helping us take down Kaido,” Penguin said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Shachi added.
“Huh?” Bepo looked at his crewmates. “We’re not thanking her for that, we’re thanking her for –”
“Shut up!” the boys snapped.
“Sorry,” Bepo looked down dejectedly.
Robin laughed. “There’s no need to thank us. We all worked together as a team after all."
“Come on, boys, let’s get going or Captain will get angry!” Ikkaku called cheerfully. Robin waved her final farewells to the Heart Pirates and went to join her crew who were loading the remaining crates onto the Sunny. She walked past where the three captains were still loudly arguing about leaving that day.
“You picked the middle? Stupid children,” Law was saying.
Robin shook her head with a smile as she boarded the Sunny. In her hands, she held a cloth bag of things gifted to her from Hiyori. She headed straight to her and Nami's bedroom. Opening the door, she took a deep breath of the familiar scent of wood, Nami’s citrus perfume and her own floral sheets. She loved travelling and exploring new places, but she couldn’t deny that she loved the feeling of now being able to return to a place she could call home
She unpacked the bag's contents of various kimonos, the makeup they’d bought on the girls’ shopping trip, wrapped Wano sweets she’d become fond of, and a little collection of cakes that went perfectly with her morning coffee. She arranged everything in its new home and then stepped back to survey the room. There were a few more new things in here, now, as well.
On her bookshelf were impressive collector’s editions of the first four volumes of Sora, Warrior of the Sea.
“When we next meet, I expect you to be a fan,” Law had said with so much sincerity as he handed it to her a few days ago, she’d had to push down her laugh and nod seriously so that she didn’t hurt his feelings. She’d reciprocated by gifting him an enormous anthology on rocks and minerals, and had almost pulled a muscle in her jaw trying to keep her smile down when she saw the look on his face.
“You said you wanted to learn more about the world, didn’t you?” she’d said.
“I did …”
“Now you can learn all about its foundations."
“… Wonderful.”
The bedroom door banged open and Nami entered, holding a handbag on one arm, followed by Sanji who carried five enormous, overstuffed bags full of clothes, jewels and everything else Nami could get her hands on.
“Oh hi, Robin, are you – AAAAHHHHH!!” Nami’s cheerful greeting broke off into a high-pitched screech.
“Nami-swaaaan what – oh FUCK!” Sanji swore in a manner very unlike him.
Robin raised an eyebrow curiously. What on the Grand Line had brought on this reaction? She followed their horrified gazes. Standing at the foot of Robin’s bed beside the vanity was a preserved skeleton with all its organs still intact, dressed in her white coat and cowboy hat.
“What is that?” Nami cried, clutching her mouth.
“It’s a skeleton,” Robin said.
“Yes but … why?” she gasped.
“Well, right now it’s doubling as a coatrack.”
That was what Law had recommended when he’d shown the skeleton to her in his lab. “I find mine very useful to keep my coat and hat, but I thought you might be interested to see the organs and things so I’ve kept them in there and preserved them.”
Robin had bounced lightly up and down on her toes, eyes shining as she looked at the glorious skeleton. “This is so cute! I love it!”
“I knew you would.”
Robin smiled at the memory. Law really did know her well.
Sanji grimaced. “You have a skeleton as a coatrack?”
“I can also use him to study organs for archaeological purposes. I can even take the organs out and try putting them back in – like a puzzle!” Law had suggested that with great enthusiasm.
Nami looked like she was going to be sick.
Robin smiled. “You see Brook every day? Is this really that bad?”
“Brook is Brook! This is a – oh never mind. Gosh, I’m going to have nightmares.”
“I can move him if you’d prefer?” Robin suggested.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nami sighed, resigned. “Sanji-kun, just put those on the floor, I’ll deal with them later. I need some air.”
Nami stepped into the room to put down her bag, glanced at the shared vanity and let out another shriek. “What is THAT?” she pointed at the vanity.
Robin looked where she was pointing. “A jewellery holder.” Technically, it was one of her hands, which Law had preserved into an upright, arched shape. From its fingers hung long strands of necklaces and rings, and bracelets sat in the palm.
Nami’s face went white and she seemed to sway on the spot for a second. “That’s so creepy!” she wailed in a whisper.
Even Sanji was grimacing. “Oh man. I love you Robin-chan but that’s … yeah.”
“Don’t worry!” Robin hurried to reassure them. “It’s just my own hand.”
“Oh, great, that’s so much better!” Nami snapped.
“Well yes, it is. You wouldn’t want the hand of a stranger to be sitting there, now would you?”
Nami just shook her head. “OK girl, you do you, but this is a whole new level of creepy. Urgh, Usopp was right!”
“About what?” Robin cocked her head.
“Never mind. Sanji-kun, put that down and let’s get the rest.”
“Yes Nami-swaaaaaan!”
Nami dumped her bag on the bed and hurried out of the room, followed by Sanji.
“I still love you though, Robin-chwan!” Sanji promised as the door closed behind him.
Robin frowned. She supposed the skeleton was a little odd but surely it wasn’t that bad? And it was so cute wearing her hat and coat! Not to mention the hand jewellery holder was highly practical. Law had greatly approved of her application of his gifts. But then again, Law was special. Her kind of special.
Robin walked out of the room and back out onto the deck.
“Hey, Robin!” Franky called from the shore. She walked up to the balustrade and looked down. “Do you mind picking up this crate here and putting it in the engine room? It’s got cola.”
“Not at all.”
“Thanks! You’re a superrrrstar!”
Robin bloomed her hands to pick up the crate and lift it up to her on deck. She took it and dismissed them. As she was about to head inside, she couldn’t help overhearing some of the captains’ conversation from below.
“It’s a copy of a road poneglyph,” Law was saying. “You guys have the right to this as well. Cheating would take the fun out of it.”
Kid and Killer were looking at their copy of the rubbing. Robin had agreed to give them the rubbing but not the translation itself, electing to only give the translation to Law as another little parting gift.
Law had smirked when she handed it to him. “Guess it really pays off to sleep with the only person in the world who can translate these things.”
“Now, now, don’t be silly,” she’d teased. “You get it because you helped me find it.”
How nice of him, Robin thought with a smile. He’d insisted on being the one to give it to them so that there was no debt between them. It was typical of him, not realising his own natural, instinctive kindness.
“Now we just have to find the man with the burn scar,” Kid said. “We don’t have any leads, though.”
Hm, burn scar? Robin wondered. She’d never heard any mention of that before.
“Huh? Where’d you hear that?” Luffy whined.
Law walked off without a word and Robin allowed herself to look at him one last time, her brows furrowed with curiosity. She didn’t think he’d hide something from her if it was important but she could tell immediately from the tension in his shoulders as he walked that he knew more than he was letting on. Admittedly, that tension could be due to the fact that he was aware of her watching him as he walked, his blue coat flapping in the wind behind him.
She sighed. I’m going to miss that view.
She took one last, long look, and turned to head into the engine room of the Sunny. When she came back out, most of her crew were on the foreshore, assessing the remaining crates and making sure they had everything they needed for the journey. She leaned against the balustrade, her eyes resting on her crew as they talked and laughed and acted silly. She smiled. Yes, she was going to miss Law immensely, but this was her home and she could never, ever leave them. At least, not now.
“Hey,” Franky said, coming up to her.
She smiled up at him. “Hey.”
He leaned against the balustrade and looked down at their crew. “You OK?” He said it so simply and easily, and she knew immediately what he was referring to. Bless him, but she did so appreciate his natural instinct and maturity when it came down to it.
“Yes, I am,” she said. And she meant it.
“Glad to hear it,” he grinned. He pat her on the shoulder with his big metal hand. “I know you’ll be right but don’t forget we’re here if you ever need to talk about it. Err, although maybe not too much. Sanji mentioned you’ve got a skeleton in your room now.”
She laughed. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
The rest of the crew boarded while Luffy stayed on the ground to wave a cheerful farewell to his fellow captains.
“If we ever run into each other again, we’ll be enemies,” Law said from where he was about to board the submarine. “If people die, so be it.”
He might be taking this a bit harder than I thought, Robin considered. I suppose that makes sense. He did get quite attached to Luffy and the rest of the crew, as well, even if he won’t admit it.
“See ya, Traffy!” Chopper called, waving enthusiastically at the doctor he admired so much.
“Shut up.”
“Awww!”
Robin hid her laugh behind her hand. He really was upset. Poor Chopper, though, she would have to get Law to apologise to him in some way when they next met.
After they gave their farewells to Momonosuke, Nami ordered the boat to set off, just as the Polar Tang and Victoria Punk joined them. Robin watched with growing amusement as Kid, with so much ease it was comical, goaded both Luffy and Law into a ridiculous suicide mission to throw both their boats off the waterfall.
Honestly, Law was usually so much more pragmatic than this. It was adorable when he let his feelings take control of his usual reason. And quite attractive too, if she was being completely honest. Seeing him allow his sillier side to emerge around people that weren’t her was something she loved. It was like he was healing his inner child. She hoped he could relax even more going forward, now that his two greatest fears and greatest adversaries, Doflamingo and Kaido, were dealt with.
She relaxed against the side of the Sunny, using her hands to keep her steady as it inevitably careened over the edge alongside the other vessels, helmed by their screaming captains. She could hear Nami, Brook, Chopper and Usopp all shrieking their lungs out as they clutched the mast.
From the pocket of her shorts, she pulled out Law’s heart on its silver chain. It was beating erratically, he must truly be angry at Kid for his juvenile insults. She held it tightly in her hand as the three boats crashed into the ocean outside of Wano.
The back of the Sunny jolted, and Franky swore and ran to survey the damage.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU ABSOLUTE LUNATIC!” Nami screeched. She grabbed Luffy’s head and yanked him away from the ship’s wheel.
Robin released her hands and walked leisurely up the stairs to her little garden on the back deck. From up here, she had a good vantage of the ocean towards their next adventure and the two vessels on either side. She’d initially promised that she wouldn’t, but she simply couldn’t deny herself one last look. She leaned against the balustrade, surrounded by her flowers, and looked down at the Polar Tang.
Law was standing amongst his shellshocked crew. “Get ready to submerge!” he ordered, putting his sword on his shoulder, blue coat flapping in the breeze. His crew immediately jumped up and got to work without a single protest.
Robin clutched his heart tightly in the palm of her hand. The beating had returned mostly to normal, but it stuttered ever so slightly.
Law turned and looked right up at her. She noticed that his hand was in his pocket and knew instinctively that was where he was keeping her heart.
She smiled and raised her hand in a casual wave.
Law looked back, his face expressionless. For a moment she thought he might not respond, but then he pulled his hand from his pocket and waved back briefly, the barest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He put his hand back in his pocket, turned on his heel and marched onto the main deck of the ship.
“Let’s get moving!” he barked.
Robin put Law’s heart back in her pocket and turned to head back down into the fray of her chaotic, wonderful crew. They would see each other again soon. After all, when you give your heart to someone to keep forever, you couldn’t be parted for long.
Notes:
It hurts a little to write this ending knowing what's coming up. I strongly considered writing a little "what-if" epilogue of them at the end but I want to keep this as canon compliant as possible so I eventually decided against it. Alas, Oda's team has not yet contacted me to write the official Lawbin novel, but I'm confident it will be any day now :p
I'm very hopeful that Law's going to return to the story in Elbaf and we'll get lots of Lawbin moments, so if that's the case maybe I'll write a follow-up of their adventures there.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. All of your comments have given me so much joy and motivation, and I've genuinely been so overwhelmed by the response. It's also been so nice to find a little Lawbin community here. Love you all!!
Take care and please feel free to check out my other Lawbin stories if you're interested, with more on the way!
Note: There's a Lawbin Discord server for fellow Lawbin fans. If you're not already a part of it and would like to join, please let me know and I'll send you a link.
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