"Dad. I wanna go home." :3
It all comes to a screeching halt.
Distant sounds of the battles filling the streets far below them; Doflamingo’s cruel, mirthless mockery on its endless loop in the Heart captain’s head; whatever pain he’s been tuning out from his own litany of assorted injuries - even the rage that’s carried him this far, dragged him across seas and more than a decade in pursuit of this specific encounter – all of it. Just... Stops.
Everything Corazon spent his life achieving was wasted in the end.
That’s for me to decide! Everything I do until the moment I die… represents what Cora achieved!
The echo of his and Doflamingo’s words alike fading into the background even as Blue’s distress overshadows all of it and it occurs to Law now, so gods-damned late it’s almost laughable, that he does represent all of what his benefactor accomplished. He might never have come this far and he still would have represented everything Cora-san achieved because he was here, living this life he had died to secure for him.
He's here, standing between Doflamingo and this – his own stubborn kid he’d never consciously made the choice to protect from the world around her (he hadn’t – there was no reason – he’d never needed a reason-) and he is –
He’s an idiot. Cora-san wouldn’t have wanted this. That he’d found her, found something he’d throw everything else away for to see her live through it – yes. But to leave her the way he’d left Law behind, when he’d been given the means to never have to…
From where he’s forced himself into a sitting position, Law turns to look at her, catching Blue’s worried stare from where she crouches behind the nearest pile of rubble. Doflamingo won’t stay distracted for long – not long enough to alter the plan he’d been piecing together entirely, but… It changes, when he looks at her.
He will not be the one to put an end to this. The final attack might not be his, but it no longer matters. Because Blue is looking at him, wide-eyed, shaken, small in the middle of this warzone he had no business dragging her to in the first place, and she wants to go home, Dad.
And he is going to get her there, he swears – to Blue, to Cora-san, to himself in that moment.
❝We’re going home, Blue,❞ he says in the shelter of that distracted moment, so quietly only she can hear it. Steels himself against the urge to wince as he clutches what’s left of the arm Doflamingo’s just sliced off in front of her. Fuck. ❝I promise. I promise I’ll get you back there – but I need you to.. do something for me first. Put your head down, okay? Don't look up until I tell you it’s safe again. Know I’ve probably made it difficult after all this, but – trust me. I’ll-❞
The reprieve comes to its end; he doesn’t get to explain any further. Doflamingo draws nearer and all he can do is hope she still trusts him enough to listen before he braces himself for the hell he knows is coming.