Chapter Text
Bepo was exhausted. After escaping Blackbeard, he had been swimming for hours, at first he hoped to go around the island and find a point where he and Law could hide out and regroup. But Blackbeard’s people spread out to prevent that very thing. He had faith that the other Heart Pirates would be able to hide out and get to safety, after all now that Blackbeard had the poneglyph drawings all he would really want was Law’s devil fruit.
So Bepo’s only choice was to swim into the open ocean with his Captain on his back and hope that he was heading to some kind of island. Law was unconscious, either from the sea water zapping his strength or from the injuries he sustained from his fight with Blackbeard. It was pushing closer to sunset, and Bepo prayed for something to help them get through this. Law had told him that in his research on people with the name of D, it seemed that they seemed to have uncanny luck in common. Law told him years ago that he didn’t believe in luck, and that probability could be changed by skill, reason and planning. But after Kaido and Big Mom were defeated in Wano, the Captain admitted that while he had managed to seize on several good opportunities during the past few months (and had to do a lot of thinking on his feet thanks to Strawhat) there were several things that came together that he couldn’t describe any other way than “lucky”.
Law had planned for months to become a warlord in order to get close to Caesar Clown. He had contingencies after contingencies planned for, Bepo couldn’t count how many nights he had seen his Captain stay up obsessing over details. But what was the probability of Law meeting Strawhat Luffy and Kozuki Momonosuke on Punk Hazard? And then the probability that they all came to Zou to and their objectives had aligned so perfectly?
Bepo prayed that some of that D luck would help them survive this situation.
He lost track of time as he was swimming, and stopped to tread water for a second to try to get his bearings. He had positioned Law’s arms around his neck, and Law’s sword in between their bodies, tying both to him with the Captain’s jacket. It was hard to smell anything over the salt water that kept lapping at his nose, or to hear over top of the waves crashing by his ears. But he could swear that he heard the sound of yelling, and although observation haki was still pretty new to him, he could feel something getting closer to them.
When he turned, he felt relieved that his senses weren’t going haywire and there was a ship gaining on them quickly from behind. Bepo hoped that the ship would save them, because if it meant to harm them, there wasn’t much he could do to stop them.
The ship pulled up beside them and a rope was thrown down. Bepo tied it around them and allowed himself to be pulled up. Once on the deck, Bepo sat on the deck barely moving as he saw a blonde-haired man with a short pony-tail looking over his unconscious captain.
“What did I tell you Beck? He is a mink!”
Bepo looked up at the man who spoke. He had an air of authority around him, although he looked very casual, and although Bepo had never met him before it was impossible for him to not recognise the scarred face and red hair of the fourth Emperor of the Sea.
“You’re Red Haired Shanks!” Bepo felt himself a little horrified that they had escaped one Emperor to be caught by another.
“And that is Trafalgar Law.” The Emperor had a kind and patient smile despite his ruthless reputation, “Now, what can I call you?”
“Bepo.”
Red Haired Shanks smiled, “I met a Polar Bear Mink once, his name was Zepo, any relation?”
“Zepo was my big brother.” Bepo said in awe, “He died 5 years ago. When did you meet him?”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Bepo.” Shanks offered Bepo his hand and pulled him to his feet. He gestured towards the blond haired man. “This is my doctor Hongo, Trafalgar will be in good hands with him. You look exhausted, you should get checked out and rest. In the morning I can tell you about when I met Zepo, and you can tell us about what happened to you.”
~~~~
Bepo had changed out of his tattered boiler suit, and shook the water out of his fur as best as he could. He slept very little on his cot in the infirmary, his worry for his captain and crew made his sleep restless. His hosts gave him some pants and a shirt to wear, but he missed own clothes with his own jolly roger on them. The Red-haired Pirates’ large cook brought him a large bowl of steaming porridge, and once he was done, a steaming cup of tea. He sat at a table on the middeck with Emperor Shanks and his vice-captain Benn Beckman. He had just finished explaining how Blackbeard and his crew had chased them down, destroyed the Polar Tang, and had ultimately overpowered their crew. “I only managed to save myself and the captain with my Sulong transformation.”
“Your Sulong transformation? I thought you said this happened in the morning? Isn’t the sulong transformation only possible the night of the full moon?” Benn questioned.
“Ordinarily yes. But my friend developed an experimental drug that triggers the sulong transformation for 5 minutes. I hadn’t had the opportunity to try it yet, thankfully it worked.”
“That is lucky.” The Red-Haired Emperor hummed. “We can host you two for a few days, allow Traflagar to heal, and drop you off at a friendly port. But it sounds like you’ll have a mission to gather the rest of crew, and if I know Blackbeard at all then, he will capture any of your crew he can find in order to lure you to him. He has been collecting devil fruits, and now that he has seen what Trafalgar can do he is likely to want the Ope Ope no mi even more.”
Red Hair looked at him over his sake cup. “So Vice-Captain Bepo, what do you want to do now? We can probably accommodate any requests you have, within reason, I owe Nekomamushi and Inurashi that, at least.”
Bepo frowned, looking away nervously, Red Hair was being surprisingly kind. But they had just met and Bepo had no reason to trust that there would be no catch any request he made. Captain definitely wouldn’t trust him, although Law very rarely trusted anyone. Bepo understood that any delay he made in deciding their next move could mean dire consequences for the rest of the crew. Law always said that whatever decision you made it had to be a decisive one. His big brother Zepo had always told him to follow his gut, even if it disagrees with your mind. His mind was telling him that Law wouldn’t agree with his gut, and would come up with a complicated plan that Bepo wouldn’t have a hope of predicting.
“Can I use your den den mushi?”
~~~~~
Pura pura pura… pura pura pura… ga cha.
“Monkey D Luffy, future Pirate King.” Straw hat Luffy sounded out of breath, like he had been laughing. Bepo let out the breath that he didn’t realize he was holding.
“Hi Strawhat, it’s Bepo.”
“Bepo? GUYS! ITS BEPO ON THE DEN DEN. Hey Bepo! It is so lucky you called now! If you had called an hour ago, none of us would have been here! We just finished a crazy battle shishishi!” Luffy’s laugh was really comforting, even though he had seen the Strawhats a week ago, it felt like ages.
“Strawhat, Captain wouldn't be happy that I am calling, but he is hurt and I think we need your help please.” You could almost hear the smile slide off Luffy’s face.
“Torao— what happened?!” Bepo wasn’t sure he had heard Strawhat Luffy so serious before.
“We were attacked by Blackbeard and we lost. They destroyed the Polar Tang, and I don’t know where the rest of the crew is. Blackbeard was going to kill the Captain, so I just took him and swam as fast as I could.” Bepo’s voice was heavy with emotion. “We got rescued, but Captain’s still unconscious. I hoped if Chopper still has my vivre card, that maybe you can pick us up?”
In the background they could hear someone asking. “When did you get his vivre card?”
“In Wano before we left. He was teaching me to make them. I have it on my desk.” Chopper said.
“I’ll go with him and set our course, Luffy” probably Nami said, but Bepo hadn’t spent enough time with her to be sure.
“Where are you Bepo? Who rescued you?!” Luffy demanded. “Are they there with you now?”
“We were picked up by the Red-Haired Pirates. They’ve actually been really nice!They said it would be okay to call an ally. Oh Gosh!” Bepo said, looking at Shanks and Benn, “I didn’t even think about it, that Strawhat is considered an emperor now! I’m sorry! Is it alright that I called them?”
Shanks was grinning ear to ear and just nodded at him. “Hello Luffy. Long time no see.”
“...Shanks?” Luffy sounded hesitant, but it was obvious from the sound of his voice that he was grinning. “Shanks!!!”
“Don’t worry Luffy, we’ll take care of these guys until you get here. You just left Egghead Island right? You should be here in maybe a day, we’ll drop anchor and wait for you.” Shanks was still grinning impossibly wide.
“Yosh! Shanks, Bepo we will see you soon!”
“Gacha.” The den den mushi closed its eyes and mouth signaling that Strawhat was gone.
Shanks laughed, “Well Beck, I guess it is time to get reunited with our old friend. Could you let the crew know we are going to be hosting the Strawhats. …Everyone except Yassop.”
Benn chuckled, “you got it Boss.”
Shanks turned to Bepo, “while we are waiting for Luffy, let's go see how your captain is doing. I believe I owe you a story about how I met your brother.”
****
When Law woke up he was in a soft dry bed. He could tell he must be in a ship’s infirmary because of the smell of bleached linens and the motion of the rocking waves.
His senses were dulled by some sort of painkiller, probably administered by the IV hanging to his right. He looked down and found Bepo sleeping bent over his bedside.
He moved his hand slightly to pet the fur above Bepo’s forehead. He remembered Bepo diving with him under the water before he lost consciousness. He remembered how soundly he and his crew were defeated, the fear that he would die in that moment, and it took him back to watching the hospital burn and realizing that he was helpless to stop Lammie from burning to death. To realize that everyone he knew was dead. ‘I told her I was coming back for her.’ He thought in despair.
Bepo was waking up next to him, and put his paw over top of his hand. They made eye contact and Law realized Bepo was wincing and his paw wasn’t laying over his hand to comfort him, but to gently pry it out of the death grip he had on his fur.
Law released his grip with a gasp “Sorry,” he said quickly.
Bepo shook his head, nothing to apologize for, he had seen him triggered and experiencing flashbacks before he knew that he wouldn’t judge him. “It's okay, Captain.”
Still caught up in the battle, Law didn’t even question where he was. All he could think of was standing on the beach on Winner’s Island between his crew and Blackbeard.
“I told them I would protect them, Bepo.” Law looked at Bepo with pained eyes.
Bepo’s head drooped, before he puffed up his chest and looked Law in the eyes. “And we will! You have to trust them, Captain, they will survive, and we will find them!”
Law shook his head, but he wasn’t really disagreeing with Bepo, he was trying to clear the fog from his head.Trust wasn’t really his strong suit but he trusted his crew, right?
“—It's going to be okay, Captain. Once the Strawhats get here we’ll have all the help we’ll need to find the rest of the crew.”
“Strawhat-ya? Why did you call him? We’re not allies anymore!” Law felt the feelings of humiliation and shame rise up in his throat. He respected Strawhat. Before when they were allies, he had his crew, he had defeated Big Mom with Eustass, and he had awakened his devil fruit. Even when he had gotten Strawhat to fight Doflamingo, his plan wasn’t going perfectly, but his crew was safe on Zou, the only thing he was risking was his own life. How could he show his face to Strawhat as an equal now? He had been tested as a captain, and a leader, and he had been crushed.
“Doflamingo was right, the weak don’t get to choose how they die.” Law had zoned out and was staring off into space now.
“Captain, look at me!” Bepo touched his hand gently, forcing him to look up. “No good sentence starts with ‘Doflamingo was right’. Doflamingo can’t even make the right decision about what size pants to wear so he won’t be constantly walking like a freak!”
Law smiled at that and looked at his best friend, he still felt stressed and it was hard to think through the painkillers he was on. “So where are we anyway?” He asked.
Bepo grin fell a little bit, “Well, I was swimming for a few hours, and I didn’t see any ships for most of the time. If I had, I would have tried to get rescued then, you probably lost quite a bit of your strength to the seawater…”
“Bepo, you’re babbling.”
“Sorry.” Bepo bowed his head. “We got picked up by another crew of pirates, and they are very nice. I think we are pretty safe here until the Strawhats get here.”
Law was starting to feel worried and annoyed now. “Bepo…”
“We were rescued by the Red-Haired Pirates. But honestly Captain they are really nic-”
Law’s heart rate rose considerably, shit shit shit, he couldn’t believe that he was sitting there doped up while they were in danger. He needed to be ready if they needed to escape at a moment’s notice!
“Room.”
****
Shanks laughed and grinned at the story Lucky Roo telling the deck crew. “So I run into the clearing and these 3 jackasses were buck ass naked.” He gestured at Shanks, Beckman and Yassop. The crew members who hadn’t heard the story before looked at them in surprise. But then Roo pointed at Monster. “And this little Missy was up in the highest tree around rummaging through Beckman’s bag and wearing Shanks’ pants on her head.”
A roar of laughter filled the air, and Shanks couldn’t help but laugh harder at the delicate curtsying that Monster was doing sitting on Bonk Punch’s shoulder. “I thought you and Monster joined at the same time?” Kilroy asked Punch.
“He would have you believe that. But Monster is actually Punch’s senior crewmate!” Hollered Yassop, who was also doubled over laughing clapping Bonk Punch on the shoulder.
Bonk Punch looked like he was considering feigning offense when Yassop straightened up and put his hand up for quiet. Then he ran up to the bow of the ship.
Shanks smiled slyly and winked at Beckman. “Sail, ho!” Yassop yelled from out front. Yassop looked in his spy glass out ahead of them, his sensitive observation haki making out what none of them could yet. “Oh no.” Yassop turned and collided with Beckman’s broad chest.
“Oh shit!” Yassop hissed as he looked at Shanks. “It's the Strawhat Pirates! You knew! Oh my god, you dirty bilge rat! That’s who the mink called?!”
Shanks hid his smirk behind a feigned hurt look. “You think I would deceive you?”
Yassop was starting to look a little feral, clearly trying to plan his escape, while spitting curses at Shanks. But was cut off with an undignified squeak by Benn wrapping an arm around his shoulders, trapping him.
“Oh, relax Yassop, we just didn’t want you to get too drunk. You’ll be fine.” Beckman chuckled around his cigarette and handed his flask to the sniper.
The sniper grabbed the flask like a poisoned man would have grabbed for an antidote. Only to knock it back in one gulp and glare at Beckman, “There was hardly any in there!”
Beckmann shrugged. “It’s the end of the afternoon.”
Shanks was tracking the small dot on the horizon that was getting bigger and bigger.
His face was settled in a grin as he anticipated the coming meeting. In his mind’s eye he saw the future for the next few minutes. The rest of the crew watched as he shifted 3 paces to the left then braced his feet, all while grinning, they didn’t have to wait long until impact was made on the forward bow. Impact that looked like… a hand? And then they heard through the wind a yell that increased in volume as it drew closer to the ship.
“ssssshhhhaaaaNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKSS”
Until —Smack! Luffy hit Shanks at top speed and Shanks slid back a few inches on the deck. Shanks looked up into Luffy’s face with a grin that his officers hadn’t seen in years. The young rubber captain was wrapped full bodily around the Red Haired Captain, his arms wrapped around him a few times in a way that was rare for a crew of non-devil fruit eaters to see. The officers of the crew noticed with a sense of satisfaction the grin of pure happiness of the lonely little boy they all used to know.
Luffy grinned down into Shanks face. A look that never left him as his feet slid down to touch the deck, and he pulled his Strawhat on top of his head from where it was resting on his shoulders. The brim pulled over his eyes couldn’t hid the shy smile on his face. “You can’t have your hat back yet.” Luffy told his sandals rather than Shanks.
Shanks put his arm around Luffy’s shoulders, pulling him up to receive a kiss on the temple, which set the hat in question askew. “It’s not the hat I missed.”
Luffy squirmed out of the hold and pushed his hat further down on his face, as if to try to hid how hard he was blushing. Until a muffle sound sprang out from under his arm.
“Luffy, can you put me down now!”
Luffy set down a small person in a round blue hat that had been under his arm the whole time. “When you said you wanted me to come over with you, I didn’t think you meant you would slingshot us both over a kilometer of water, that could kill both of us.” the small person said, sounding very annoyed.
“What?! You know I wouldn’t drop you!” Luffy looked at him offended.
The small person sighed, “this is why, Nami is always mad at you.” He turned to Shanks, “Hello, I’m Chopper, I came to help your doctor with Torao, doctors make very bad patients, and I had a feeling he would be a bad patient.”
Shanks crouched down to eye level and shocked the offered… hoof? “Nice to meet you, Chopper, who is definitely a reindeer and not tanuki!”
Both Luffy and Chopper looked at Shanks in surprise at the statement. “Marco is very gossipy when he is drunk enough and we gave him a ride home from Wano.” Shanks explained. “He was very impressed with you.”
Chopper looked very pleased with this information, wiggling around while saying, “its not like that makes me happy, jerk.”
It was just then that Trafalgar Law burst out of the door to the infirmary with Hongo and Bepo hot on his heels. Law looked… horrible. He was extremely pale, and had deep shadows under his eyes, and looked like he was grinding his teeth hard enough to crack a tooth.
As Luffy saw him, he stretched his legs, clearing the entire deck in one step, and Chopper was fast behind him.
“Torao! Is he dying?!” He asked Hongo, clearly distressed.
“Not currently!” Hongo glared at his patient. “His ribs are completely shattered! The more he moves around the greater the risk that some of that bone cuts a internal organ. Yet I suppose the Ope Ope no mi allowed him to pull the morphine out of his veins.” He caught up with Law and looked him straight in the eyes. “I have no idea how you aren’t screaming in agony right now.”
Law just glared right back at Hongo. “I’m fine.”
Chopper transformed into a large-muscled gorilla-looking form and was now looking down at Law with his arms crossed. “You’re not fine, the adrenaline from your PTSD is blocking your brain from feeling pain, and with the morphine out of your system I am guessing you have the clarity to command your limbs to move.”
Law looked at Chopper with annoyance. “I’m fine, because I’m stitching my ribs back together as we speak! More importantly, Strawhat-ya our alliance is over! I don’t need your help to rescue my crew. You have no reason to help me!”
Even the observers who didn’t know Luffy, could recognize how delusional that statement was. Luffy frowned, and tilted his head to the side, then he walked up to Law and put his hands on the side of Law’s face.
“Torao, you came to me, after meeting me once, risking yourself and your crew for a stranger, on the worst day of my life. You saved my life. You trusted me enough to make that alliance with me, and let me fight Doflamingo and Kaido. Even if you weren’t part of it, your crew saved me when Kaido threw me in the ocean, although I’m pretty sure you told them to be there for just that scenario. So we would be coming to help them regardless." It looked like Luffy was speaking straight into Law’s soul. “Trust me, you are safe here. I care about you and I won’t let anything happen to you. You are going to heal and we are going to find your crew. ”
Law was looking into Luffy’s with widened eyes. What could he say to that? He looked into Luffy’s eyes and there was nowhere to hide. “I care about you,Torao,” Luffy repeated. “Let me take care of you.”
Law visibly sagged and let Chopper carry him back to the infirmary. Luffy cast a serious look towards the retreating forms of his friends and said to himself more than anyone else. “I am seriously going to kick Blackbeard’s ass.”
Lucky Roux put his hand on his collarbone. “Our baby is all grown up,” he said in an overly dramatic voice, “rescuing damsels, beating up emperors.”
Luffy turned around and laughed. “Shishishishi, don’t worry Shanks, you’re last.”