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Rosinante wakes up.
Before opening his eyes Rosinante reflexively catalogues himself from years of habit. He’s in the Polar Tang, the distinctive sounds of the submarine filtering in. He feels heavy, almost leaden, overheated and… uncomfortably turned on.
He remembers what had immediately preceded this nap and grimaces. Careful not to jostle Law still sleeping on his chest, he covers his face with one hand. He’s embarrassed, weirded out by both himself and Law. And worse: he’s even more turned on.
—
The Heart Pirates had arrived at a peaceful looking island that boasted multiple picturesque swimming spots with waterfalls and a sprawling market. The crew had all jockeyed for the premium shifts for shore leave. Law magnanimously allowed everyone to go explore the island until sundown when they would return to regular shifts. Everyone except himself and Rosinante.
Rosinante had smiled in response to the exuberant cheering of the crew, though he didn’t meet anyones’ eyes. He knew what was driving Law’s generosity.
It had taken them awhile, but after being reunited Law and Rosinante had eventually fallen into a romantic relationship. After their first frantic time together, Law had suggested that they keep things quiet to keep the crew out of their business. Rosinante had jumped at the idea. His relationship experience was limited to passing hook-ups and the occasional ‘helping hand’ while he was in the marines, and those times were spartan given his intimidating stature. He desperately wanted to avoid the extra scrutiny from the crew.
After they had sex, Rosinante would typically leave Law’s quarters to sleep in his own bunk with the rest of the crew. Every once in awhile he’d end up falling asleep and would wake up still in Law’s bed. Often Law would already be up, but Rosinante treasured the few times he caught Law still asleep, his face unguarded and soft.
(Despite this, Rosinante is pretty sure the crew is still clueless or he assumes he would have been pestered for details. He’s fairly sure that the crew had lost their awe of Rosinante as Law’s savior by now. Shachi and Penguin could at least be counted on to give him a hard time, if they knew).
Rosinante enjoys sex, especially now that he’s having it with someone he trusts, someone he actually loves. But he’s also aware that they spend the majority of their time in close quarters with a crew of twenty, who at any time might need their captain for one reason or another. Given the circumstances, Rosinante doesn't let Law enact his more elaborate fantasies unless they’re truly alone. It’s one thing to stop things mid-blow job, it’s another when Rosinante is strung up in ropes, or something equally as involved.
With the crew out of the way, Rosinante had let Law take him to bed. Which lead to his current predicament.
Law’s head is pillowed against Rosinante’s chest, just over his heart. But the sweetness of the moment is undermined by Rosinante’s legs and most of his torso left in disembodied pieces on the floor. Not to mention Rosinante still had his sleeping captain’s dick snug inside him.
Rosinante distantly feels his disconnected legs twitch. He’s never felt particularly in tune with his body. The same reason Rosinante frequently trips and knocks into things ironically makes him relatively immune to the more distressing effects of Law’s devil fruit. Law had once mentioned that even though it doesn’t hurt, most people find having their body parts separated from their body extremely disorienting (knowledge he gained early in his Devil Fruit career by experimenting on teen Shachi and Penguin, apparently).
When they had first taken up with each other, it had been a little rocky. Rosinante had a meter on Law’s height and despite having experience negotiating what was and wasn’t possible with past hook-ups, he was anxious to please Law. Law in turn had been very gentlemanly, almost hesitant in their first weeks, which made Rosinante anxious and second-guess the wisdom of starting something.
Rosinante had interpreted Law’s hesitance as unease with their size difference, age difference, or even his scarred body when it turned out Law was trying to figure out how to broach the topic of… escalating their play. Over the coming weeks, Rosinante had been strung up in ropes and edged for what felt like hours, cuffed and ridden, gagged, choked, and one memorable time, slowly and lovingly fisted after lots of prep and stretching.
Before Law, Rosinante didn’t know he enjoyed any of these things. But he could admit in the privacy of his own mind that he was a little too devoted to making Law happy, eager to hand over control. If anything, Rosinante’s own perversion was giving himself fully to Law, for Law to do with him as he pleased.
Really, it was only a matter of time before Law had introduced his Devil Fruit to the bedroom.
That afternoon, Law had already taken Rosinante apart to better kiss and bite his neck while fucking him. After some trial and error, they had learned that separating Rosinante’s hips from his legs and torso opened them up to more creative options for fucking, Law’s favorite being having access to Rosinante’s mouth for kissing and ass for fucking when he normally could only reach one or the other.
Law had finished inside him, panting and quivering for a moment before he gently shifted to nestle Rosinante’s hips under his own and kept his softening cock inside. He groaned with satisfaction.
“Can we take a nap while I stay inside you?” Law had asked. “It’d be hot to wake up like this.”
Rosinante shivered at the want in Law’s words, easily drawn in by those golden bedroom eyes Law seemed to have for him all the time now.
“Mmm,” Rosinante moaned quietly as Law shifted inside him, “You want to keep your cock in me?”
“Yeah,” Law murmured. He laid down, carefully keeping himself inside Rosinante while arranging himself to drape across what was left of Rosinante’s upper body. “I always want to be inside you. I want to feel you squeezing me, milking my cock. I think about bending you over all the time. In the mess, in the control room. In front of everyone. I bet I could get you whining on my cock while I perform a surgery.”
“Fuck, Law!” Rosinante groaned. Law liked to paint vivid fantasies with his words, getting Rosinante hot, but just as often that fantasy would be strange and off-putting, which just made Rosinante hot and shame-faced. “I can’t believe how much of a pervert you’ve become.”
Law lifted his head, digging his chin into Rosinante’s chest. “But you like it, right?” he smirked. “You’ll let me, won’t you?”
Rosinante sighed. For all that Law tried to project an aura of a ruthless pirate captain, he was still such a smug little shit when it suited him. He shoved playfully at Law’s face and got a snap of teeth in response. “Yes to the napping with your dick in me, no to the public exhibition surgery sex. I love you, but there are limits.”
Law snickered, already shifting around to get comfortable. Rosinante felt him grab and shift his hips around one more time, felt Law’s cock slide out a bit before pushing back in, deeper than before as he finally finished arranging Rosinante’s lower half to his liking. He settled, head against Rosinante’s chest, his ear pressed just over his heart. Law liked to wrap himself around Rosinante after sex to doze while listening to his heartbeat.
A recent string of late nights combined with an orgasm meant Law actually fell asleep quickly. Rosinante didn’t feel particularly sleepy and he was craving a post-coital cigarette. But Law’s quiet breathing and the weight of a warm body eventually conspired to put him to sleep as well.
And now Rosinante is awake and horny and has his sleeping captain’s cock up his ass.
Rosinante doesn’t really want to wake Law before he has to. Despite falling asleep easily for his nap, Law rarely gets more than 5 hours a night, and it’s Rosinante’s personal mission to get Law to eat, drink and sleep more than he would left to his own devices.
Rosinante shifts his hips experimentally, trying to gauge how much dried cum has stuck to his ass when Law makes a quiet noise. He goes still, watching Law for any signs of waking. Nothing happens for a few breaths, but then Law sighs and his hips gently pulse against him.
Rosinante grunts quietly. At first the pull of Law’s dick burns just slightly, unpleasantly dragging against the dried cum and sparse hair around his hole. But Law keeps shifting, restless movements resolving into uncoordinated humping, and the sticky drag becomes a pleasant slide as Law unintentionally reintroduces the lube still lingering deeper inside him.
Rosinante garbles an inelegant moan, not awake enough to be self-conscious, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the animal movements of Law’s hips.
It’s not long before Rosinante feels Law lean up off his chest, and the humping resolves into smooth pumps into his body. Rosinante opens his eyes to see Law looming over him, watching his face as he often does during sex, cataloguing every minute reaction with hungry eyes. Whatever he sees in Rosinante’s face has him smirking, and the pumps become fast rabbiting jabs.
“Fuck!” Rosinante gasps, his hands coming up to grab Law’s biceps. “Law,” he cries, and gasps again at another vigorous thrust. “Put me back together if you’re going to fuck me again!”
For just a moment it seems like Law is ignoring him, still fucking hard into Rosinante. But then Law’s hips slow to a stop and he’s staring again. “What if I don’t want to?”
“W-what?”
“What if I want to take you apart more?”
Rosinante gapes at Law, surprised and a little afraid of what Law means. How much more does Law want to take him apart? Has he even thought this through?
But reservations do little to deter him from giving Law what he wants.
Rosinante blushes, chewing his bottom lip. He watches as Law’s gaze flicks away from his eyes to stare fixedly at his mouth.
“You really want that?” Rosinante asks.
“Yes,” Law says. He sounds hoarse. Desperate.
With a quiet sigh, Rosinante drops his head back down to the pillow behind him. He lets go of Law’s bicep to drape his own arm over his eyes. “Okay Law. You can.”
Almost instantly Rosinante feels a familiar cold pressure on his shoulder and opens his eyes to see Law pulling his own arm up and away from his face, before tossing it across the bed. His other hand is holding a scalpel aloft. Rosinante has a brief and fanciful vision of Law dressed as a magician, wielding a scalpel like a wand.
“Law! What the hell!”
“I don’t want you to hide,” Law mutters, a familiar mulish set to his mouth. With another draw of his scalpel, Rosinante’s other arm is separated from his shoulders and similarly tossed aside. He feels it land on the edge of the bed and tumble to the floor.
Law studies Rosinante again, now just a head and chest. He absently hovers the scalpel over Rosinante’s chest, over his heart. Rosinante wonders if Law is going to behead him, and what he would plan to do with just his head.
“I don’t want you to run away from me,” Law says quietly, reaching with his other hand to trace his fingers across Rosinante’s chest in nonsense patterns. “I want you right here with me.”
Rosinante watches Law. In this moment, Law doesn’t sound sexy or domineering. He sounds sad, melancholy.
“I’ll stay with you as long as I can,” Rosinante murmurs.
Law’s eyes flick up again to meet his eyes, then back down Rosinante’s chest, and finally down at where they’re still connected.
Law licks his lips. “Can I play with you?”
Rosinante startles at the emotional whiplash. “A-aren’t you doing that already?!” he asks, his voice pitched embarrassingly high.
Instead of answering, Law pulls out - Rosinante winces - and tugs Rosinante’s hips over, exposing his mostly hard cock from where it has been crushed into the sheets. Law hovers his scalpel over Rosinante’s cock, waving it back and forth lazily. He’s watching Rosinante, smirking again, but in that look is a question.
The blade, the implication of what Law wants to do should terrify Rosinante. But it’s so bizarre and indecent that even as his mind goes blank, he feels his cock throb. It bobs slightly, enough movement to catch Law’s notice. As he watches Rosinante’s cock fill out, Law’s smirk becomes a full-on grin. After another glance up at his blushing face, Law slowly, carefully draws his blade across Rosinante’s skin. There’s cold and pressure and then his cock in freed from his body and rests in Law’s hand.
Rosinante squeezes his eyes shut, groaning, not from being turned on so much as a lamentation for being like this. For liking this.
Law carefully sets down the scalpel on his night stand and admires Rosinante’s cock, turning it back and forth with both hands. He runs a finger gently down a thick vein, then circles Rosinante’s glans with a light touch. Rosinante moans low and long. His legs twitch on the ground, futilely trying to squeeze together.
“Fuck,” he bites out.
Law clumsily crawls up the bed, one hand held up cradling Rosinante’s cock, and hunches over what remains of him. He holds Rosinante’s cock in front of Rosinante’s face, the shiny pink tip peeking out from retracting skin, just shy of brushing his lips.
“Open up,” Law drawls, no longer smirking. He’s staring fixedly at Rosinante’s mouth, breathing heavily from parted lips.
Rosinante can’t believe it. He can’t believe what Law is doing, what he’s asking of him. This is obscene, even for Law.
Rosinante swallows, wide eyes flicking from the tip of his cock to Law’s intense gaze.
He licks his lips.
Rosinante obediently opens his mouth wide and lets Law feed him his own cock.
The first slide of his dick against his own tongue is as jarring as it is divine. His cock is salty and hot, much bigger than any dick he’s ever tasted. Saliva floods his mouth as Law gives Rosinante’s cock a few exploratory pushes in and out.
Law starts prodding Rosinante’s cheeks with his cock from the inside, admiring his bulging face with heavy-lidded eyes. He rubs the outside of Rosinante’s cheek with gentle fingertips, massaging Rosinante’s cock with velvety wet skin from the outside in. Rosinante moans quietly, his body feebly attempts a spasm from their disparate places in the room. Drool starts to leak out from the corner of his mouth.
“Good,” Law breathes quietly. “That’s so good, Cora-san.” Rosinante groans again. He feels like he’s glowing from Law’s praise. His favorite part of sex is this warm, silly feeling he only ever gets with Law. Rosinante lets himself relax, his strewn-about body parts going limp. He gives himself permission to not keep track of where he is and what’s going on. Law’s got him. Law will play with him sweet and rough and then put him back together again.
Law smiles, then twists to reach behind himself to grab one of Rosinante’s arms. He hefts it in one hand, maneuvering the arm until Rosinante’s bicep aligns with his shoulder. His arm melds back into place like it was never separated. “I’m going to go a bit harder now,” Law says. “You’ll tap me if you need me to stop.”
Rosinante hums in agreement around his cock still in his mouth.
As soon as he’s settled again, Law pushes Rosinante’s cock on his tongue. “How deep can you take it?” he asks. Law slowly slides Rosinante’s cock deeper and deeper until the glans rubs against the back of his throat and he holds it there for several long seconds. Rosinante chokes, coughing and swallowing around the intrusion. The feedback loop of choking and pleasure is intense. His senses narrow down to the tight, wet vibrations on his cock and the pressure on his throat. The lack of oxygen goes to his head.
Just as his vision starts to spin out of control, his cock is pulled back, and Law rubs it on the front of Rosinante’s tongue so he can pull in a few deep breathes around it. The salty tang of precum floods his palate.
When Rosinante has recovered enough to stop gasping for air, Law shoves his cock back in, this time jamming it hard and fast against the back of his throat again and again.
Rosinante gags, a disgusting wet glug coming from his throat over and over with each jab of his cock. His head feels so full of noise and sensation - the wet squelch of saliva, his gross guttural gagging, mucus spilling over to his face - all of this a distant background to velvety wet pressure, the hot throbbing of his dick.
Law finds a rhythm of fucking Rosinante’s mouth. A slew of fast pumps, pulling wet noises from Rosinante, before pressing his cock all the way in, holding it there for longer and longer periods before going back to pumping, only pulling out when Rosinante’s body starts to spasm and jerk from the lack of oxygen.
Time passes in a haze of pleasure and choking. Rosinante feels a sharp sting on the top of his head, and opens his eyes to see Law staring intently at him again, his hand fisted in Rosinante’s hair. Rosinante doesn’t remember closing his eyes. Everything is blurry and the angle of his vision confusing, but he can make out Law’s face. His lips are parted, his tongue compulsively wetting his lips, and his eyes are wide and shiny.
Law draws Rosinante’s cock from his mouth. A thick string of mucus, precum and saliva connects his cock to his upper lip. He pants wetly, the thick concoction of fluids still filling his mouth. He feels a liquid bubbling around his nose. He must be a revolting sight, but Law is smiling at him in that soft adoring way he only does during sex, when Rosinante is particularly mindless or pathetic.
“You’re so addicting, Cora-san,” Law says, low and soft. “I want to use you all the time. I love how much you like it, how much you trust me.”
Law rubs Rosinante’s cock on his face, smearing fluids up one cheek, then the other. “You want to come, Cora-san?”
Rosinante moans. He’s so horny and has been close for a while, but he can’t get any words out.
Law seems to understand. He relaxes the hand fisted in Rosinante’s hair and pets his hair back from his face. “You’re so messy. You’d let me do anything to you, huh?”
Rosinante hums in agreement, smiling at his captain. He always wants to be good for Law.
“Alright Cora-san. I’m going to fuck your mouth again, and when I tell you to, you’re going to come.”
Before Rosinante can react, his cock is down his throat again, pistoning in and out. He feels a warm hand palm his neck, squeezing firmly against his bulging throat.
Time floats away again. Rosinante feels tears spill down his face, choking and gagging and feeling so, so good, floating on the sensations and his building arousal until he hears -
“Cora-san. Come.”
- and with a broken cry, he does, feeling his heartbeat in his cock as his own come pulses down his throat.
“Cora-san,” Law groans, long and drawn out. After several long moments of tension, Rosinante finally slumps, hazy and spent. Law slowly draws the cock out of his mouth, small spurts of come still pulsing out lazily, dripping down his tongue, chin, neck. Tears spill down Rosinante’s face and add to the mess.
Law drops the cock on the bed and swirls his fingertips through the come decorating Rosinante’s face before sticking those fingers in his mouth to inspect the inside. Two fingers press firmly on Rosinante’s tongue, causing him to cough, but he lets Law carry on his examination. He’s not sure what Law is searching for, but he feels fuzzy and good and enjoys the attention.
He quietly watches Law from heavy eyes, panting around his fingers.
“Cora, can I fuck you now? Please?” Law asks. He looks manic, eyes wide and hair a mess.
“Yeah,” Rosinante sighs, smiling dopily. Law grabs his face and kisses him, long and hard, swiping his tongue inside. He pulls away long enough to grab a discarded shirt and wipe down Rosinante’s face and neck.
Dropping the shirt, Law shuffles to Rosinante’s side and murmurs “Takt,” directing his discarded limbs to reattach to his person. Rosinante senses feel marginally clearer, usually a sign Law has dismissed his Room.
“Can you roll on your side?” Law asks, already gently pushing on Rosinante’s shoulder. He blearily cooperates, letting Law nudge him into position until he’s mostly on his stomach, one knee up higher on the bed, his ass in the air and face practically smothered into a pillow.
Law spreads his cheeks with both hands and spits on his hole. Rosinante whines. They both know he’s still soft and loose from before their nap, but Law tends to be lewd and possessive when he can get away with it.
Law rubs his cock against Rosinante’s hole, purposefully nudging against the pink furl before rubbing past it to the cleft of his ass. He does this a few more times, until eventually Rosinante feels Law’s tip catch against his rim and Law finally pushes inside. Rosinante sighs, enjoying the drag of Law’s cock against his walls, the heat and fullness.
Law moans, pushing up one of Rosinante’s legs further up the bed before starting to push into him with deep, slow thrusts. A loud moan punches out of Rosinante with every plunge of Law’s cock. He’s long since come to terms with the fact that he struggles to be quiet in bed, but these days Law is his only audience - unless he forgot to use Silent. He hopes to the fucking seas that the crew hasn’t come back yet.
Law gets a lucky strike on his prostate and Rosinante nearly screams at the sensation before gasping out a staccatoing moan. Law hones in on his reaction and starts unerringly hitting his sweet spot. It feels so good but also like Law is activating a live wire inside him. He can’t decide whether he wants it to stop or wants more, and he sobs.
Rosinante distantly feels Law’s hands roaming over his sides, gripping here and there, hard kisses raining over his back. At one point, Law pauses his onslaught long enough to shift Rosinante’s hips and push his legs further apart, before slamming back inside, deeper than before. Rosinante wails. Law’s breathing sounds like a hot engine behind him, rough and loud but controlled.
After what feels like ages, Law starts chanting his name between gasps - “Cora-san, Cora-san,” before he bites down hard onto the meat of his side. Rosinante cries out, well past overstimulated as Law’s thrusts stutter into a few deep plunges of his cock. Finally Law stops, shivering, and Rosinante feels his cock twitching and pulsing inside him.
Rosinante thinks he’s finished, but then Law starts leisurely fucking him again, slow easy slides made wet and messy with come. Rosinante relaxes into the bed, drowsy, still a bit over-sensitive but savoring the warm glide until Law’s cock goes completely soft. Law pulls out with a sigh.
He feels Law shuffling around again. His arm is shoved up and Law wriggles his way into Rosinante’s embrace. Law reaches up and peppers his face with kisses before kissing him slow and messy on the mouth.
“Thank you for indulging me,” Law says after he has his fill of kisses.
“You’re a terror,” Rosinante says with a soft smile. “But I like everything you give me.”
Law scoffs. “Just like it?” he asks, disbelieving.
“I love it,” Cora says breathlessly. He loves it when Law teases him.
Law kisses him again, slow and lingering, followed by a few pecks, like he doesn’t want to stop. “I love you.”
Rosinante grins. “I love you too.”
—
Rosinante holds Law and they doze for a bit longer. Later, after rising to wipe Rosinante free of fluids, Law offers to bring back dinner.
“No, I should get up,” Rosinante mumbles. “I feel like I’ve been in bed all day.”
Law snorts. “You have, unless you count breakfast.”
Rosinante grumbles, stretching out in their bed. His legs stick off the side. Law’s bed is large enough for the two of them, if Rosinante curls up. The only time he’s ever had a bed large enough for his stature was when he was with his brother’s crew, and that had been wasted on him. Sleeping curled up had long become habit.
He debates the merits of another nap before forcing himself to roll over. He notices Law staring at his naked body, but he turns away at being caught. Law is so strange. He’s domineering in bed, cocky with his enemies, but faced with regular domesticity or affection he can be surprisingly shy.
“I’m going to borrow your shower. I’ll join you in a few,” Rosinante says, leaning down to peck Law on the mouth. He doesn’t hear Law’s response, fitting himself in the little bathroom.
Later when he’s cleaned and dressed Rosinante makes his way down to the mess, managing to not brain himself on any low-hanging ductwork.
Despite having had the option to eat on the island, the mess is remarkably full. Nearly half the Hearts are gathered at tables to eat dinner before the next shift, chatting and sharing their market finds.
“Rosinante, you’ve been holding out on us!” Shachi crows as soon as he spots him.
“What’s that?” Rosinante asks and ambles over.
“We didn’t know you’re to thank for Captain’s better mood,” Penguin adds. “We almost never got to have all these long shore leave shifts before you came along.”
“What’re you talking about?” Rosinante asks, hedging. He keeps himself from fidgeting, but with Shachi and Penguin’s twin shit-eating grins, he has a feeling it’s already too late to do anything about whatever is about to happen.
“It’s been at least since this past year,” Shachi says in a theatrically conspiratorial tone, ignoring Rosinante’s question.
“Not the whole time, I don’t think,” Penguin replies. "Remember how weird Captain was when Rosi first joined?”
“Totally. And - oh my god! This explains that whole thing with that blonde at Teracoast, doesn’t it?!” Shachi cries gleefully.
“Guys,” Rosinante tries, bracing himself. “I don’t know what you think you know - ”
“A big white birdie told us,” Shachi says, tapping his nose, “that he heard some loud noises near the captain’s quarters and was concerned when he thought he heard screaming - ”
“That’s enough.” Law suddenly appears behind his two senior crew members, gripping their shoulders threateningly. “What have I said about bothering Cora?”
“Oh, it’s Cora, is it?” Shachi cackles, unable to help himself. “What happened to ‘don’t call him Cora-san’ this and ‘call him Rosinante’ that?”
“I didn’t know you wanted to play another round of ‘find your own goddamn head’ again, Shachi,” Law growls. “And so soon after last time.” Law hefts Kikoku higher on his shoulder with menace.
“Sorry Captain!” Penguin says, cheerfully attempting to pacify and distract Law. “We’re just happy for you. And you haven’t given us anything good to wind you up about lately, you can’t blame us!”
“And how much of the crew thinks they know what this is?” Law asks. He’s baring his teeth; it’s not playful.
Penguin loses his grin. “Uh, I mean,” his eyes dart to the side, “You know we’re a gossipy bunch Captain. Should we not know?”
Law catches Rosinante’s eye, face blank and not giving anything away. Rosinante shrugs back helplessly with a nervous grin. He and Law haven’t really talked about what to tell the crew. Or whether to tell the crew. Rosinante has tried not to dwell on it. He doesn’t mind keeping things private, but at a certain point he’s started to wonder if Law’s embarrassed of their relationship.
Shachi and Penguin are wilting, and without looking Rosinante can tell the rest of the crew is listening in. This is so embarrassing. He’s nearly forty. His love life should not be the subject of gossip.
Rosinante really wishes he had talked to Law. Is the crew going to be weird about it? Is the age difference going to be a thing, or - will their difference in height be the subject of crass jokes? At least Rosinante isn’t unused to dealing with that sort of thing from his time in the marines. Sometimes he wishes he was more like Law or really even Doffy, and didn’t give a shit what others think of him.
Rosinante is abruptly pulled out from his anxious thoughts when Law calmly says “Rosinante is my partner.” Rosinante whips his head around, slack jawed. Partner?
Law is staring directly at him, seemingly stoic and frowning as always, if one didn’t account for the blush on his cheeks. Rosinante’s eyes widen, and he couldn’t keep a stupid smile off his face if he tried. Law is so cute!!
“Aww, isn’t boyfriend nicer though?” Shachi complains, leaning his cheek on one palm. “Partner’s too ambiguous. People’ll think he’s just a co-captain or something.”
“Yeah! You trying to get away with something Captain?” Penguin jumps in, pumped up now that it seems he didn’t make a social faux pas. “You’re trying to hide your love for Rosinante with imprecise language?”
“‘Boyfriend’ is too juvenile.” Law grumbles. “‘Partner’ is for unmarried adults in serious relationships.”
“If it’s serious, why’re you kicking him out of bed then?” Jean Bart unexpectedly chimes in from across the mess. He looks surprisingly unimpressed with his captain. “He’s in the crews’ quarters most nights.”
“Hey, yeah!”
“I thought Rosi had insomnia or a weird shift schedule. Captain’s been making booty calls?”
“Hey!” Law yells. “I don’t want any speculation on mine and Cora’s relationship!”
The crew starts booing and hissing at Law, Penguin and Shachi egging everyone on by loudly saying things like “Treat Rosi with respect!” And “Captain’s no good for you Rosi! Date me instead!”
The commotion summons a few more Hearts to the mess, including Bepo who starts crying.
Rosinante, embarrassingly, also bursts into tears. His weird sobbing laughing abruptly halts the crew’s heckling, and instantly Law is at his side. “Cora-san, what— ? Are you okay?”
Rosinante covers his face with his hands, desperately trying to stop the tears. “I just—” his breathe hitches. “I didn’t re- ealize how worried I was. About this,” he wails.
Nothing happens for a moment, all he can hear is his own dumb laughing sobs he tries and fails to smother, when he hears Bepo say, far more exasperated than Rosinante thought he was capable of, “Captain, do something.”
Rosinante feels more than sees reality shift and suddenly he’s sitting down at one of the tables, Law trying to pry his hands away while murmuring a litany of “It’s okay, Cora, you don’t need to worry, you’re okay. You’re with me right? Everything’s fine, you’re okay.”
He sounds so worried and flustered that Rosinante lets Law pull his hands away. Law is red-faced and wide-eyed, and it’s so absurd and cute it breaks Rosinante out of his spiral and he starts laughing helplessly. It’s almost definitely not making Law any less worried.
“Sorry, sorry! This is so embarrassing. I’m fine, I’m fine,” he gasps out once his laughter has mostly run its course.
Law is holding is hands and rubbing his thumbs on Rosinante’s palms, peering up at him, brows furrowed but less anxious than before. Shachi, Penguin and Bepo are hovering behind him, but the rest of the Hearts seem to be trying to give them some privacy without actually leaving the room.
“I’m sorry Cora-san. I didn’t mean to make it seem like we were sneaking around. I liked having a secret with just the two of us. I should have asked if you were alright with it.”
“I was, I did!” Rosinante assures him. “I liked it too. I should’ve just talked to you, but I thought I was being silly.”
Shachi and Penguin coo obnoxiously at them, Law attempts to swat them away but they duck out of his reach.
“I’m sorry Captain,” Bepo says, wringing his paws, “I told Penguin about the noises. I was worried, I didn’t realize you two were - ”
“It’s fine, Bepo,” Law interrupts loudly, “Maybe just talk to me next time.” He pauses. “Actually, please don’t talk to anyone about anything you hear from my quarters.”
“Aye-aye!”
Now that Rosinante has calmed down and is smiling, the crew goes back to giving Law a hard time.
“You know Captain, communication is the cornerstone of a strong relationship. Maybe you’re not ready for something serious,” Hakugan says as he passes by with a tray of food.
Ikkaku suddenly burst into the mess, followed by Blenny. “Captain’s making an ass of himself?”
“Aye!” The crew cries.
“Captain, Rosi’s too good for you! You’ll make him cry!” she hollers.
“He already did!”
“Boo!”
Uni is more supportive. “Ask Rosi to move in with you.”
“Put a ring on it!” Shachi and Penguin chorus.
“Shut it!” Law yells back. Rosinante smiles widely and kisses his temple. Law is unable to get his crew to stop cat-calling them for the rest of the evening. Rosinante loves it.