Shachi and Penguin are (Not) Dead (3363 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 1/?
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Penguin/Shachi (One Piece), Donquixote Doflamingo/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Characters: Shachi (One Piece), Penguin (One Piece), Donquixote Pirates (One Piece)
Additional Tags: Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Comedy, Fish out of Water, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Getting to Know Each Other, POV Shachi, POV Penguin, Third Corazon Trafalgar D. Water Law
Summary: After the sinking of the Polar Tang, Shachi, Penguin and the rest of the crew were separated from their captain, and feared him dead. Thankfully, they were wrong about that. Less thankfully, the person who rescued Law was his old enemy, Doflamingo. However, instead of being enemies, now Law says he's the Donquixote pirates' new "Corazon".
An extremely dubious Shachi and Penguin are forced to play along with this new turn of events, as the Heart Pirates integrate into the Donquixotes as the new 'Corazon Army'.
And that means they're going to have to meet all the Donquixotes.
Shachi and Penguin are just a couple of guys, you know? They aren't cut out for this. Or are they?
Shachi and Penguin are (Not) Dead (13459 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 3/?
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Penguin/Shachi (One Piece), Donquixote Doflamingo/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Characters: Shachi (One Piece), Penguin (One Piece), Donquixote Pirates (One Piece)
Additional Tags: Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Comedy, Fish out of Water, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Getting to Know Each Other, POV Shachi, POV Penguin, Third Corazon Trafalgar D. Water Law, Crack Treated Seriously, Crack Relationships
Summary: After the sinking of the Polar Tang, Shachi, Penguin and the rest of the crew were separated from their captain, and feared him dead. Thankfully, they were wrong about that. Less thankfully, the person who rescued Law was his old enemy, Doflamingo. However, instead of being enemies, now Law says he's the Donquixote pirates' new "Corazon".
An extremely dubious Shachi and Penguin are forced to play along with this new turn of events, as the Heart Pirates integrate into the Donquixotes as the new 'Corazon Army'.
Gawk as the two former Heart Pirates as drawn down further and further into the twisted world of Donquixote madness.
Read it on AO3
This fic keeps getting weirder and I have no idea how to pump the breaks on it. XD
Like everything the Donquixotes did, Doffy's birthday party was bombastic and loud. Drinks were flowing in the kitchen between every member of the family as they'd gathered to celebrate their captain's birthday in that special DQ Style.
Intoxicated singing, toasting, birthday cake and shouts of 'happy birthday' and babbled praise—it was chaos.
Chaos that Law was now a fucking part of for the first time in over a decade. He sipped his wine, watching as Baby 5 attempted to cut the cake with a katana formed of her own arm. He'd yet to really lose himself in the spirit—though as his new Corazon, Law made sure to wish Doffy at least a happy birthday when they came in before he tried to fade into the crowd.
Doflamingo, however, had other ideas. Instead of letting him fade into the background, he bent down and looped an arm around him, offering him one of the neatly cut slices of cake.
"You're not going to leave me alone on my birthday, are you, Corazon?"
"I'd hardly call 'being in the center of a crowd that can be heard all the way to Alabasta' leaving you alone, Doffy." Law sniffed, though he took the cake and leaned into his arm. "Happy Birthday again, by the way."
"Thank you," Doffy cooed at him. "We'll do a big one for your birthday, too."
Before he could protest, Doffy had scooped a large swath of frosting from the cake onto his finger, and shoved it into Law's mouth.
Law felt his face flushing red as the smooth sweetness played over his tongue against the pressure of Doffy's finger against it. He huffed through his nose and sucked the frosting off his fingers with an embarrassed glare, before he pulled away with a low chuckle. "...Tempting, I guess."
"I think you've noticed I can be very tempting, Law. I'll put a smile on your grumpy little face yet."
-
As he enjoyed watching Law suck the frosting off of his finger– much more suggestively than at the last birthday celebration they had both been at many years ago– Doffy wondered if Law knew how much it meant to have him there. To have him, his Corazon, at this frivolous party just for Doflamingo, taking time out of the chaos of the world just to have a little fun.
It was the culmination of everything Doffy had ever wanted for Law. It wasn't just a meaningless temptation when he said he'd throw a big party for Law's birthday, too. Marking the years was important. It meant that despite the world's best efforts, they were still here.
Doffy planted a kiss on the side of his Corazon's face, and stole a bite of his cake.
Bleeding, Broken, Mended (3676 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 1/?
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Donquixote Doflamingo/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Protective Donquixote Doflamingo, Getting Back Together, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance (see AO3 for more tags)
Summary: When Law's ship is blown to hell by Blackbeard he wakes up in the worst case scenario-- rescued by Doflamingo and the Donquixote pirates, trapped at sea and at their mercy. With the destruction of his crew he's alone in enemy territory with only Bepo, and the new crewmate he picked up on Wano.
Law is certain that he was 'rescued' just so Doflamingo could kill him himself, but Doffy has other plans. As far as he's concerned, Law's decade-long quest for revenge was nothing more than a sad misunderstanding. He wants to remind Law how things used to be. He wants to find a way to bring Law back into the fold-- back to him-- forever.
-
Law woke slowly, feeling heavy and disoriented.
The last thing in his mind were the chaotic fragments of the aftermath of Blackbeard's attack. He remembered the icy sting of the water as it choked him and pulled him down. He remembered Komurasaki's arms around him as she dragged him back to the surface, kicking and grasping futilely to keep both their heads above water. That was the last thing he remembered distinctly. That, and a flash of Bepo's powerful sulong form scooping both of them from the icy jaws of the endless sea, pulling them away from the fragments of the sinking ship.
After that, only darkness, and cold.
But he was warm now. And laying down somewhere. Before he could open his eyes he felt the weight of a blanket on him, and he could hear the soft sounds of someone else in the room. Quiet breathing. Rustling fabric.
The Polar Tang. He remembered it split in half, and the sharp decompression sending everyone he cared about into the darkness of the sea. He stirred against the blanket, sucking in a sharp breath.
Blackbeard. That sneering, unpleasant oaf of an upstart. Blackbeard— the monster who somehow kept rising the ranks despite everything.
Blackbeard the creeping darkness infecting the era of piracy with a desire to drag everyone down to his fucking level.
Blackbeard, the man who beat him to shit and threw him in the ocean and killed his best friends in the world. He felt the churn of something sick in his stomach as he tried to open his eyes again. "...damn it all.."
Law managed to pull his eyes open and as his vision swam into focus he found himself in a cot in a narrow room— on a ship, judging by the porthole window high in the wooden wall. There was very little to see, other than the bed he was in, a small table with a jug of water, and a chair at the foot of the bed where Komurasaki was dozing, dressed in something unfamiliar, not her usual kimono, with a blanket around her shoulders.
He tried to sit up, shifting his arm to prop himself up and stare around the room, at Komurasaki's clothes, and out the porthole.
"...Someone picked us up? It can't be Blackbeard, Komurasaki'd be in chains or worse." He murmured to himself as he tried to activate his 'room' to give himself a sense of the surrounding area.
He felt an unfortunately familiar wooziness as he moved— and even worse as he tried to call on his devil fruit abilities— and realized with a start that there was still a sting of biting cold around one wrist. As he managed to sit up and pulled his arms out from under the covers, he saw a chainless, bracelet-like manacle locked around one wrist. The outside of it was metal, but lined certainly with sea-stone.
Komurasaki sat up, hearing him speak. "Mm? Ah, captain, you're awake?"
"Komurasaki," he said slowly, cautiously, "...why am I chained with sea-stone?"
His mind was going a mile a minute, only stopping to hitch on the image of the bodies in the water. His heart beat faster in his chest as he sucked in an uncomfortable breath. "I hope you have more context for all this than I do."
"I do, captain," she nodded. "Our rescuer asked me in advance to apologize to you for the precaution. He said that he was concerned your first instinct might be to try to kill everyone on the ship."
Komurasaki's face had that same placid, almost amused look on it, that Law was still learning how to tell when it was genuine, and when it was a mask for her anxieties. The answer seemed obvious now, but he still couldn't be sure.
He stared at her for a long moment with a twitch of his lips, before he laughed weakly and fell back onto the sheets.
"Thanks Komurasaki. I'll try not to go on a rampage. Promise." He looked over her outfit again, judging identifying markings. She must have gotten it from someone on the ship, it'd serve as a clue to exactly who had 'rescued' them, and if this was going from the frying pan to the fire. "Seems like a pretty sensible precaution, depending on the rescuer is. It ain't Kid. Kid's ship couldn't possibly look this normal."
She was wearing a quite ostentatious dress, florid and ruffled, and very unfamiliar to her usual style, though the blue and yellow pattern of azaleas on it wouldn't have been entirely out of place on a kimono. A kimono wouldn't be that low cut however, or sleeveless like the dress was, judging by what he could see of her arms underneath the animal print blanket over her shoulders. Neither really suited her pale green hair or her complexion.
"No, it's no one I'd ever met before," she said, shaking her head. "Though they seem to know you, captain."
"....."
Dressrosan fashion. That was a Dressrosan dress, very clearly. A dancer's dress, like one he'd seen recently enough for it to be seared into his memory. His brow furrowed as his lips drew into a tight line.
"They seem to know me, do they. What'd they look like, if ya don't mind me asking. Our rescuers who knew me so well."
He had a sinking feeling in his gut. It couldn't possibly be. It had to be a coincidence…or maybe it was Rebecca and Violet who…
No, Violet had left Dressrosa. She sure as fuck had left Dressrosa. Rebecca too , but…
Komurasaki leaned her chin in her hands, elbows on her knees, peering at him. "Well, I can describe them for you, but their captain did introduce himself. He wanted me to tell you one thing before I said who he was, though."
Law shot up to a sitting position despite the fatigue and discomfort, having to painfully raise his hand to his head to steady himself. ".....hahahhhhhhhh fuck. Fuck. Alright. I'm listenin'."
"He wanted me to make sure you knew they're treating Bepo in their infirmary for his wounds and fatigue. I don't know if you remember, but he passed out just as we were being fished out of the water."
Law lurched forward the nausea washing through him and making him swoon against his hand.
"Hhh…Bepo…he's…" Tears welled up in his eyes. "Thank hell he's at least okay. Him, you, me, thank hell at least some of us survived."
Penguin and Shachi… Ikkaku… the whole crew sucked into the darkness of the ocean. Besides them.
"And it's…good…good knowin' they're taking care of him."
Even if they were who he was increasingly terrified they were.
Doflamingo and his gang; the very gang that Violet had reportedly fled and turned up in the company of. A gang that shouldn't have existed.
Komurasaki nodded. "I heard that it seems like he's going to be okay, thank goodness. He took some kind of drug, didn't he? To induce that state? I don't think it was good for him."
Law grit his teeth.
"Yeah…the artificial Sulong state. It ain't good for him, it's only for emergencies. I'm glad he's pulling through…"
"Indeed… Ah, anyway, you wanted to know who rescued us?"
He rubbed his fingers over the outside of the bangle around his wrist. "...I have a creeping suspicion, but it's better if you just let me know."
"The name he gave was Doflamingo. He says you'll know it."
He felt sicker than ever, a worse nausea than the seastone washing over him as he made a low gurgling sound.
"Komurasaki, hon. It's been fun having you in my crew, wish it was for longer." He dropped back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling with a twitch of his lips. "I'm screwed. He's gonna kill me while I'm down."
Doflamingo. Doflamingo. Doflamingo Donquixote. The name repeated over and over in his mind as his teeth grit together. "I should have been DONE with him! I'd …Shit, we'd won! And now here he is dragging me outta the sea? For what? To end me himself??"
"How would I know?" Komurasaki seemed both unalarmed by, and unimpressed with, his outburst. She leaned a little closer to him as he fell back on the bed. "I take it the two of you have some kind of history that I'm not privy to."
He looked up at her with tired eyes.
"Yeah. Sorry, Komurasaki, it's… complicated. I was venting. Rest assured, this is the worst ship we coulda been picked up by right now barring fuckin' Blackbeard." He looked at the bangle around his wrist with a grimace. "He's the man I spent years trying to bury."
Metaphorically and literally. Bury the memory of any good times they may have had when he was growing up— and bury him for the death of Rosinante in the snows of the north blue. "He killed someone who tried to save me, and I tried to kill him to even the scales."
"I see. Then it's certainly strange that he bothered to fish us out of the ocean at all." She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "Stranger still that they've been caring for Bepo."
Komurasaki had been sailing with them for a total of five days. Five days since she'd left her home shore of Wano to become a pirate on his ship. And now that ship was blown to hell, and she was here with him, with absolutely no context for it. Considering all of it, she seemed remarkably unperturbed.
"Yeah, it's– it's real odd. You seem pretty calm, Komurasaki. I'm impressed. Even considering you don't know exactly what kind of guys captured us…it's impressive."
Law pressed his hand to his face, looking at her with one eye and laughed bitterly. "...my ship's sunk. My men— my friends— are dead. I've got nothin' but you and Bepo anymore. And now we're captured, saved, whatever…by the Donquixote pirates. You've got nerves of steel. I respect that. Hope this massive fuckup hasn't completely dashed any respect you mighta had for me."
"Hardly," she said, shaking her head. her gaze was steely. "Tragedy and setback aren't what define a man's character, but how he moves forward from them. And if I'm calm, it's because I've been trained that way since I was small, captain, to maintain dignity and composure in the face of chaos and loss. And I've had practice. Lots of it."
He sat up slowly again, taking a deep breath with a nod.
"I'd heard. And it's pretty damn remarkable to see, Komurasaki. I'd say sorry to add a lil' more chaos to your life, but you asked to be a pirate…this is the pirate's life."
He rested his head against his knees, drawing them up. "We're gonna heal up from this. If Doffy—" He bit his tongue on the nickname. "Doflamingo— if he really 'rescued us' or not, we'll deal with it. We'll get through this.Shachi, Penguin, Ikkaku…they woulda wanted us to."
Komurasaki nodded. She stood, finally, and came and sat on the edge of Law's cot. "I did ask to be a pirate. And I intend to continue to pursue the life of a pirate at your side, captain, assuming you'll have me. I hope you don't feel like I've brought some curse on you from Wano."
The tone was conversational-– flippant, even— but something in her eyes told him that it was a thought she'd had on her own, and one that didn't amuse her.
He reached out, with the great difficulty of a cursed man fighting sea-stone, and squeezed her shoulder with a weak grin.
"Of course I'll have ya, Komurasaki. I promised I'd take you to sea, didn't I? You're my crew. That means somethin' to me. And…this ain't a curse, neither. Real as curses can be, this ain't on your shoulders. This was bad luck. This was Blackbeard and one hell of a terrible coincidence."
She smiled; beautifully, grimly, with determination. "I'll take your word for it. You've the more experience between the two of us. So what then, is our path forward, captain? What's the 'plan', so to speak— if only in the short term."
"I'll tell you one thing…" He leaned towards her with a feral edge to his smile, a dark mania welling within him. "We're going to get strong enough to sever Teach's head from his body and sink his freakshow of a crew to the bottom of the sea. But that's long term."
His eyes darted to the door. "...the short term plan is figuring out what Dof…Doflamingo's intentions are here and how we can work forward with him here. If this is his ship, the whole DQ family's on board. Which means a whole slew of hideously awkward reunions."
He hesitated before he murmured. "I used to be one of them, just… so you know that."
"Really?" She sat up with interest. "And you spent, in your own words, years trying to bury their captain. It must be a complicated history you have indeed. What a fate to bring you into reunion now."
Komurasaki's tone was gentle and sympathetic. But there was something at the edge of her voice, in the look of her eyes, that almost felt like she was excitedly reaching for popcorn. Maybe she did have a pirate's temperament. Maybe growing up in a brothel had left some interesting marks on her.
He wouldn't have been surprised. Honestly, the hint of those interesting marks had been the very thing that convinced him to take her along when she gave her pitch. She was a fascinating girl, after all.
Of course, that was one thing, being grilled about his sordid past was another. He felt himself flush a bit under the scrutiny, shifting in the sheets.
"Yeah uh, it's sure a fucking tangled web of fate. If I didn't know any better I'd suspect Doflamingo's fucking strings to somehow be behind it. But this is even outta his hands." He rubbed his neck. "...Doffy and I have a lot of history. He stopped me from suicide bombing myself when I was a kid and took me into his gang, but…"
So much had happened. He'd grown to love and respect the man…up until he very much didn't. Up until Rosi snatched him away and told him exactly what Doflamingo's plans for him were— and exactly how cruel he could be. "Things happened. It went south between me and the other members of the family."
"I see," she nodded, thoughtfully. "Interesting. So far everyone I've met has been fairly cordial to me, if… admittedly very odd, Captain Doflamingo included. Though I have little way to measure what counts as odd outside of Wano."
"Cordial. The Donquixote Family?" He wasn't exactly incredulous…no, they could be very charming. Something he knew all too well. They weren't exactly very polite but they were charming and friendly up until the point they weren't. "They're absolutely odd. Doflamingo's fond of gathering up all kinds of folks… who'd you meet? That looks like one of Viole— Viola's dresses."
Violet— Princess Viola— hadn't been with the family when Law was there. But he'd heard about her extensively from Monet on Punk Hazard, and he'd seen her, however briefly, in Dressrosa.
"It is, yes. It's a little big on me in some areas, but she was very kind to lend it to me." Komurasaki tugged at the chest self-consciously. "Ah, besides her and their captain? There was quite the bunch— they didn't all introduce themselves. There's a precious little doll woman who was called Sugar. And a woman in a maid uniform they all call 'Baby'. I don't know if that's her name. I also caught the names 'Vergo' and 'Dia', and I could pick them easily out of a line up. I'm good at putting names with faces."
Certainly one of her many skills as an Oiran.
"Good fuckin' skill to have, Komurasaki…very good skill." He complimented her as he put his hand to his head with a sharp hiss. "Baby…yeah. That's her name. Baby 5, actually. It's…"
It was a fucked up, tragic story for why she was called that. A dismissive 'non-name' for a child deemed dead-weight turned into an affectionate name by the gang. She'd become rather proud of it when they were growing up together.
"It's a hell of a story for why. Sugar…be careful with her." His eyes darted to the door. "...she's got the power to make the world forget you ever existed."
"Well,thank you, that's terrifying," Komurasaki huffed a nervous laugh. "I'll keep it in mind. She seemed very quiet, though that big man was even quieter. Is there anything else I ought to know? Well, I imagine the answer is 'a lot' but I don't expect a full annotated history given the circumstances."
"A whole lot," Law rubbed his temple with the side of his hand. "Sugar used to have a sister, Monet… I killed her. They probably ain't happy about that. Vergo was a fake marine who's one of Doflamingo's closest men. Beat the shit out of me a while back. Baby's got an explosive temper. Literally, if she turns into a bomb. Dia…he's one of the executives"
He counted off his fingers before he paused and he pointed to her. "and one more thing, Komurasaki. Doflamingo was the guy supplying the SMILE fruits to Kaidou that let him empower his men. That's part of his operation, the finding and smuggling of fruits and the production of artificial fruits."
She pressed her hands together and closed her eyes for a moment, perhaps committing it all to memory. "I see. So he was responsible for the SMILE fruits that found their way to Wano's shore. You were certainly not lying, captain. This is quite the situation for us to have found ourselves in. I admit, in hindsight I was acting quite blithely and naively these last two days."
Two days.
"T…" Law's eye twitched , his body suddenly feeling exhausted all over again. "...two days?"
"Ah. That's right, we hadn't yet spoken of how long you'd been unconscious." She bit her lip, and nodded. "Yes, captain, it's been two days. I was very worried."
It must have been the effect of the seawater on him. He'd certainly choked some down during the horrible encounter.f
"....the ocean's curse, probably…" He pressed his hand to his face with a shaky smile. "two days. Two days on the Donquixote family's ship. Two fucking days. Great, alright. Well I'm awake now, Komurasaki. Sorry to worry you, I'm…fine."He wasn't fine. His eyes flicked to the door, half expecting to see that horror show of a smile looming in it at any moment. "This is gonna work out."
-
Doffy gripped the neck of the bottle and took a swig from it. He'd had too many already. He'd been drinking almost constantly for the past two days.
He was tense.
He was on the outs with Trebol, who hadn't been shy about telling him how he felt when Doffy had fished Law and his crewmen out of the sea.
Trebol thought he should throw him back like a bad catch, and shoot him a few times on the way down for good measure.
Trebol thought that Law would only bring disaster on the family. He pointed out that he already had. The disaster of Dressrosa was barely three months behind them, and while yes, they were doing well with Cross Guild now, Law had broken their little empire. Law had been responsible for Monet's death. He had almost killed Vergo.
What sense did it make to save his life?
He was right— it didn't make any logical sense to rescue him. It had just been Doffy's first instinct.
It had been his first instinct when Violet had spotted the Polar Tang in Blackbeard's sights, to haul the ship forward at all speed.
It had been his first instinct when he'd seen Law, pale as fish belly in the arms of his monstrous crewmate.
It had been his first instinct when he'd seen Law for the first time, shaking and strapped with explosives.
He took another swig from the bottle.
It had been his first instinct when Rosi had kidnapped him.
All Doffy had wanted was to ride to the rescue.
He'd put the family over his feelings. Doffy was always putting the family over his feelings. When he'd killed his own brother to protect them. When he'd asked Monet to protect them all with the last of her strength. When he'd nearly had to say goodbye to Vergo.
All of it was putting the safety and success of the family over his own feelings.
His fingers shook on the bottle. So Trebol was mad at him? So what. So the rest of the family was confused, and angry. They'd get over it.
Assuming Law didn't kill all of them. Trebol's voice rang in the back of his mind. Law's always been difficult. Unpredictable. Destructive. Out for blood. You can't trust him.
He was right about all of it. Doffy knew that. In concession to 'trust', he'd put a seastone cuff on him, to keep him from lashing out immediately, at least.
To give Doffy time.
Time to talk Law down. Time to get him to see reason.
He'd done it once before, talked Law down from self-destructing. He wanted to believe that he could do it again. He hadn't had time in Dressrosa, not with the chaos. Not with Straw Hat. Not with the rest of the family dead set on interfering.
But this time. This time he would make time.
This time it wasn't going to end like that night so many years ago with his finger on a trigger, and Trebol's voice telling him that he had to put his feelings aside and protect the family.
Bleeding, Broken, Mended (88278 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 16/17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Donquixote Doflamingo/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Protective Donquixote Doflamingo, Getting Back Together, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Romance, Drama & Romance, Family Drama, eventual Third Corazon Trafalgar D. Water Law, Background Relationships, Donquixote Doflamingo Needs A Hug, Trafalgar D. Water Law Needs a Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, donquixote doflamingo has feelings, POV Third Person, POV Donquixote Doflamingo, POV Trafalgar D. Water Law, Mentioned Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, the world's cuddliest doflaw fic, smut is in chapter 15, please see chapter 15 authors note for any smut related warnings, Enthusiastic Consent
Summary: When Law's ship is blown to hell by Blackbeard he wakes up in the worst case scenario-- rescued by Doflamingo and the Donquixote pirates, trapped at sea and at their mercy. With the destruction of his crew he's alone in enemy territory with only Bepo, and the new crewmate he picked up on Wano.
Law is certain that he was 'rescued' just so Doflamingo could kill him himself, but Doffy has other plans. As far as he's concerned, Law's decade-long quest for revenge was nothing more than a sad misunderstanding. He wants to remind Law how things used to be. He wants to find a way to bring Law back into the fold-- back to him-- forever.
Bleeding, Broken, Mended (32218 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 6/?
Summary: Law is certain that he was 'rescued' just so Doflamingo could kill him himself, but Doffy has other plans. As far as he's concerned, Law's decade-long quest for revenge was nothing more than a sad misunderstanding. He wants to remind Law how things used to be. He wants to find a way to bring Law back into the fold-- back to him-- forever.
catch up here
-
Law was Doflamingo's protege, in training to become the next 'Corazon' of the Donquixote family— one of the most powerful members of the group. Sometimes that meant he had swordsmanship practice with Diamante, or pistol training. Sometimes it meant standing quietly in the room while Doflamingo himself conducted deals and negotiations. Sometimes, like at the moment, it meant sitting quietly at a desk with Baby 5 and Buffalo while Trebol lectured them about military history and theory.
It was interesting enough, sure. Military History and theory was…well. It wasn't as interesting as medicine. And it sure as hell wasn't as interesting as the Sora comics, and those had practically the same kind of lessons if you read the Germa 66 arcs.
So maybe it wasn't that interesting. He leaned on his hand, trying not to fall asleep as Trebol went on and on about flanking or something. Baby 5 was upright with attention, eagerly listening with that people-pleasing smile on her face ever since
Trebol had told her that he needed her to listen.
Buffalo, meanwhile, may have been drawing.
"— if you had been the commander at that battle?"
Law realized dimly that Trebol had asked him a question while his mind was wandering.
Law's head shot up and he answered as best he could. "Thrown a bomb at the enemy commander."
Baby 5 broke out into a tittering laugh, clapping her hands together. "That'd be the stupidest plan I've ever heard!"
Trebol pinched the bridge of his nose. "Admittedly that would certainly have the element of surprise," he said thickly, obviously thinking exactly the same as Baby 5. "But it's reckless, as always Law, and doesn't fit the situation at hand. I gather that you haven't been listening."
Law grimaced, rubbing his arm. "...sorry Trebol sir."
Baby 5 nudged his shoulder with a huff. "You shoulda been listening, like I was Law. If you keep this up you're gonna grow up to be stupid."
Buffalo looked up from his drawing just long enough to snicker at him as well.
Trebol sighed with his hands on his hips and swept over to Law's desk. "You're certainly not going to fulfill the young master's high expectations for you at this rate."
Law looked down at the table with a small frown on his face. "I'm not going to live long enough to, either." he said in a low and miserable mutter.
"Not with that attitude, huh?" Buffalo snickered.
Trebol again pinched the bridge of his nose. "The lot of you, I swear. Law, listen to me, I–"
He was cut off by a sharp, unmistakable knock on the door before Doflamingo himself walked through it.
"Knock knock!" Doffy cooed, swaggering in slump shouldered and smiling. "Sorry to interrupt the lesson, prof."
Baby 5 nearly fell all over herself sitting up and clasping her hands together with a coo of, "Young master!!!"
Law looked up from his, admittedly sparse, notes and waved to him. "Morning, sir."
Even Buffalo sat up at attention, and Trebol's manner immediately changed.
"Doffy! Well, I won't deny it's an interruption, but to what do we owe the pleasure?"
Doflamingo leaned against the opposite side of Law's desk. "You're not gonna love it, Tre, I'm here to hijack one of your students."
Trebol looked down at Law with something like resignation. "I thought that might be it."
Before Law could open his mouth, Baby 5 leaned halfway across the desk with a grin. "Is it me? Is it me??"
Doflamingo leaned over and patted her on the head from over Law's desk. "Sorry, Baby 5, for today I need you here studying. I need Law for another part of his training."
Baby 5 seemed rather content with the head pat, though Law saw her pout for a moment. It wasn't a surprise; Law got a lot of special training for the Corazon position, even if part of him felt it was kind of a hopeless endeavor.
"Another part of my training, Doffy?"
Doflamingo nodded seriously. "That's right. You up for anything, Law?"
Law stood from his desk with a wry smile. "I'm ready for anything that isn't more military theory." It wasn't that Trebol's lessons were boring, it was more— when would he ever be in a war? They were pirates, gangsters. Not military commanders.
Trebol, meanwhile Law noticed, had taken the moment to inspect Law's notes and was taking a red pen to them.
At that, Law had the good grace to look a little sheepish.
Doffy glanced at the notes with a smile. "Border defense and sneak attacks, eh? You can learn about that later, yeah."
With that, Law felt Doflamingo's threads wrap around his wrists and help tug him to his feet.
Law hopped to his feet with a wave to Trebol and the others. "Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Trebol. I'll be back."
As he wound his hand lightly around Doffy's strings, he followed him along with a curious tilt of his head. Doflamingo had high hopes for him, Trebol wasn't wrong about that. Those hopes meant that Law was often shuffled from strange lesson to strange lesson to learn all sorts of stuff that surprised him that he'd even have to know.
"Sometimes I think Trebol thinks books and theories are the most important thing in the world," Doffy chuckled conspiratorially after they were a little way down the hallway.
Law laughed, thinking of the older man and his library, and his stubborn insistence on the importance of his lesson. "Knowing him, if you gave him the choice between a treasure chest and a collection of old books he'd probably go for the books, Doffy."
"And justify it with an hour-long lecture about the pricelessness of knowledge," he agreed, nodding. "Trust me, I've been right where you are. Trebol's always been the same."
Doffy smiled down at him as he walked closely beside Law. Something about him looked more tired than usual, a little pale and drawn like Law often felt himself.
Worry pinged Law's mind as he leaned towards him with a serious furrow of his brow. Doffy wasn't feeling well? Or…maybe it was something more personal, more emotional.
He nodded seriously. "He's not wrong…I mean, knowledge is important. And I wanna learn, it's just…"
Doflamingo cocked his head, not interrupting, letting Law speak. Doffy often treated him that way, like a grownup, with important, interesting things to say that were worth listening to.
"I'm not a military commander, I don't know why military strategy is important for me to become the Corazon with…or if I'm even going to be alive to take the position by the time…y-you know. Corazon steps down."
Doffy put his hand on Law's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Trebol always told me that military strategy was important because it teaches you how to think in a conflict– any conflict, not just a war. And I admit, one of the roles of my Corazon is to give me advice on how to resolve conflicts, you know?"
Law noticed where they were headed– Doflamingo's room.
"As for if you'll be alive," he continued. "You will. I promised, didn't I? And in the meantime there are parts of being my Corazon you can do for me even now."
"You did promise, that's true…" Amber Lead Syndrome was terminal. But if anyone could do it, it was Doflamingo. 'Nothing is Impossible for me or my family' he'd always say— and Law believed him.
He tilted his head to the side as they approached Doffy's room. "Oh yeah? Like what?"
Doffy's fingers flicked and his door opened as if by magic, subtle threads shimmering in the wan light of the hall.
"Like keeping me company," he said with a surprisingly serious tone. "My Corazon is out on a mission right now, so this will be part of your training to take the station."
The room was a mess. Often it was disorganized and cluttered, but right now it was a mess. The covers had been pulled off the bed, and there was an empty bottle of wine tipped over on the table, too close to a stack of books. The wastebasket had been tipped over.
It must have been one of his bad dreams again…or maybe he was lonely? Even great and powerful pirates like Doffy got lonely sometimes.
Law shook his head with a huff, flicking one of the strings with his fingertip.
"Geeze Doffy, what are we gonna do with you?" he trailed into the bedroom. "But as your future Corazon…I'll do it. I'll keep you company, promise."
Doffy chuckled, almost sounding a little embarrassed and he picked up the bottle as his strings closed the door. "I had a bad dream," he admitted, confirming Law's assumption.
The whole family knew about 'the young master's' nightmares, an enduring mark on him from the horrible things he'd seen as a child. Right around when he'd been Law's age.
Law picked up the wastebasket, standing it up and tossing some of the scattered trash into it with a frown. It was something that they had in common. Childhoods marked by tragedy and death.
He was still stuck right in the middle of his, the memories fresh, but he imagined if he ever got to Doffy's age, he might have wound up haunted by very, very similar fits of nightmare-tinged memory.
He bit his lip. "I'm sorry, Doffy. We should do something fun to forget about it. Play a game of chess or somethin'. Unless you wanna vent, of course."
Doffy shook his head, his back slumped against the post of his fancy bed frame.
"Nice of you to ask, Law, but no, I'd rather be distracted. I was thinking maybe you'd want to do some reading with me?" His tired smile grew wider. "Not the kind of reading Trebol had you at."
Law's own smile grew wider as he tossed the covers back on the bed. "Really? Are we gonna read comics then?"
Doffy flopped down on the bed as soon as the covers were down and smiled widely up at Law. "Damn right we are. Grab that stack over there and come sit with me."
He scooped up the pile of Sora comics, and hopped onto the bed with Doflamingo with an ear to ear grin. He loved reading stories of adventure, of villains, of strange machines and stranger plots.
Doffy had introduced him to the Sora comics when he'd arrived and Law found himself very invested in the villains and their mad science antics.
Law immediately found himself scooped against Doflamingo with his back to his chest, like he was an oversized stuffed animal as Doffy opened one of the thick newsprint collections.
"We finished the last one, right, Law? This is the newest collection."
Law immediately leaned forward a little to look down at it.
"Woah…when did they release it?" Sometimes he tried to keep up as they came out in the paper, but the news coos were…sometimes inconsistent in this area, and he'd miss important updates.
"Just the other day," Doffy said, turning to the first page. "I haven't read it all yet either. There's a new bad guy team in this one."
"Wait, a new one?" Law thumped back against him with a grin. "Think they're going to be cooler than Sparkling Red and his siblings?"
"Guess we'll find out," he snickered. "I still love that your favorite team is the villains younger than you are. Well, I guess they've already made a hell of a name for themselves, huh?"
The so-called 'evil army' Germa 66 had been introduced into the comics around a year ago, about the same time that Law had started reading them. Doffy told him that they were based on a real mercenary company– supposedly at least.
"I mean…" Law pouted huffily. "They're cool! They've got all those gadgets and catchphrases to try taking a bit out of Sora's hide. And anyone who can give the marine hero a run for his money is cool in my book!"
He tilted his head "I wonder what they're really like."
"Work hard to be my Corazon, and maybe one day you can meet them," Doffy teased. "A mercenary army of evil would be great to have ties with, in our line of work."
Law felt a bit of a thrill at the idea, though he tried not to show it. If he became his Corazon, he could one day meet the mercenary army of evil, maybe even convince them to fight a marine hero together.
Maybe he and Doffy would wind up in the comics themselves.
With renewed excitement, he snuggled against Doflamingo and read. A tale of dashing adventure, where Sora barely escaped death by the skin of his teeth against a new and deadly threat from some mysterious island having set out into the Grand Line.
An army of warrior women intent on the eradication of men, it seemed. It was a punchy, exciting tale, and Law couldn't help but gush about parts of it to Doffy as they read, only to find eventually the leader of the Donquixote pirates was no longer answering.
—At least save for the occasional soft snore, leaned on his shoulder. Doflamingo was out, finally sleeping. Law flipped the last page of the book back and forth in his fingertips with a quiet smile. Maybe, if he was here, Doflamingo wouldn't have a nightmare.
-
Law woke up in darkness from the dream that had been a memory. There was a warm body wrapped around him from behind, but it was Bepo's, not Doflamingo's.
His breath caught in his throat, and he leaned back into Bepo's arms with a furrow of his brow. It'd been so long since he'd dreamed of the past. At least, so long that he'd dreamed of Doflamingo instead of the painful nights in the bodies of the dead.
He rested his head against Bepo with a soft sigh. It was a good memory…a good dream. And a reminder.
Before he'd left, he had good times with Doffy, it was true and he'd seen the more 'human' parts of him that Rosi had tried to scrub away in his stories of ideological evil.
-
Doffy woke up drenched with sweat, every muscle in his body tense enough to snap. He couldn't get his vocal cords to work right, so he thumped heavily on the wall of his cabin hoping Vergo, in the cabin next door, would hear him and understand.
The smell of fire seemed to linger in his nose. He tried to banish it. It wasn't real. It was just a memory. Why, thirty years later, did it still haunt him? Why did it mix now, in dreams with other violent memories of blood and pain?
Wasn't it enough to dream again and again of that night on the wall at the mercy of the mob, without having it mix with Rosi's limp body? With Monet's? With the people of Dressrosa screaming as his strings tugged at their fates as his mind roared with mad desperation?
He thumped on the wall again.
The door flew open not a moment later, Vergo entering with a grim frown on his face; a concerned frown.
"Doffy…a nightmare?" he asked as the door shut behind him and he hurried over to the bedside.
He nodded, still unable to make his voice work, and tugged Vergo even closer with his threads, before looping his arms around him tightly and pressing his head to his stomach.
He finally managed to rasp out a croaking, "Yeah," in answer.
Doffy desperately needed a drink but he'd been drinking all day, and the day before, and the day before that. He was as wet as a fish, and he was starting to feel a terrible headache at the base of his skull.
Vergo wrapped his strong arms around him and held him tightly to his stomach. He was warm— his devil fruit power often made him feel warm— and firm as he brushed his fingers over the back of his head.
"You don't gotta talk, Doffy. I got you."
Doffy clung to him like a lifeline, like a thousand nights he had when they were children together, taking long, deep breaths and trying to calm himself against Vergo's warm body. Trying to remember that he was here, and now and safe, and not somewhere far away and long ago.
It was harder than it had been in a long time. It was harder with the new faces in the dreams. But Vergo was there. First Corazon, brother not by blood but of his heart. Vergo who he'd almost lost, but was still there.
Eventually he felt his thundering heart start to slow, and the heat from his own body dissolved into clammy cool.
"Could you get me some water?" he asked in a small, rough voice, slowly loosening his hold on him.
Vergo placed his hand on top of his head, and nodded once before the contact vanished and he meandered over to the table and its pitcher. "You got it, Doffy. Sounds like it was worse than usual."
"Yeah." Doffy flopped back against the headboard and stared up at the ceiling. "I think I might have drank too much tonight."
He felt the bed creak as Vergo sat on the edge of it and pushed a cool cup of water into his hand. "You've been drunk for a few days straight, Doffy. I think you've more than hit your limit."
He took the cup in his hands gratefully and took a long drink before leaning his head on Vergo's shoulder. "Yeah. It's been a rough few days."
Really, that didn't even begin to cut it.
"It's been a fuckin' mess, emotionally speaking, sir." Vergo leaned on the bed, one arm around him to rest on his back. "Started when Violet saw Blackbeard hunting down Law, right?"
"Yeah," Doffy nodded, keeping Vergo close, his warm body a reassurance as he greedily drank the water his body was desperate for. "After Crocodile had us check out the situation with Shanks' ship I had her keep an eye on Blackbeard. And then she saw Law."
She'd seen Law, and Doffy had immediately downed half a bottle as he told everyone to change course, despite Trebol's concerns.
"And you rushed to rescue him. LIke ya always did. Even when he was yelling about being our sworn enemy."
"I sure fucking did," he said heavily. "It was all instinct. I just couldn't– I—"
He shook his head and handed Vergo back the empty glass, leaning away from him slightly and trusting that his former Corazon would know what he wanted.
Vergo took it with a solemn nod. "I get it, Doffy. I get it. And I already told you. I'm behind you 100%, like always."
He stood and wandered back to the pitcher to pour him another glass.
"I asked him at dinner." It was hard to talk about, but it was easier than thinking about the dream. Anything was easier than that. "I wasn't going to, but it came up naturally. I asked him to come back to the family."
Vergo paused, holding the glass in his hand as he turned with muted surprise. "...you did, huh? Did he say yes?"
"He didn't say no." Law hadn't said no. That was… that was huge. That was almost overwhelming. In Dressrosa, Law had thrown his words back in his face. Had taunted him. Had made coming back to the family sound like the most absurd and disgusting impossibility in the world. But this time… "He challenged me on it, Vergo. He told me to convince him."
"Huh.." Vergo walked over and handed him the cup with a raise of his eyebrow. "Sounds like a gamble that might pay off then…he didn't say no. Given what you told me of the last time, I'd have thought he'd toss his plate in your face the minute you asked."
Doffy took the cup and drank thirstily from it again before once more leaning on Vergo.
"That's exactly what I was afraid of too. I almost didn't even ask. But then I was thinking, he probably doesn't even think I'd want him back." He took a deep, shuddering breath, remembering his initial conversation with Law when he woke up. "You know he didn't even know my brother stole the fruit from us?"
Vergo brushed his fingers through his hair again with a low huff. "Hearing it isn't exactly a surprise…not with the way Rosi tried to use him to deliver a message to the Navy."
Doffy remembered that he was repeating himself from earlier in the day. Vergo had either forgotten the conversation they'd had before (likely) or he was humoring him and pretending like Doffy wasn't a babbling, nervous wreck of a man who was talking in circles. (Just as likely).
Doffy leaned into Vergo's comforting hand and took another long breath. His hair was absolutely disgustingly full of sweat, practically matted to his skull, but he knew Vergo didn't mind.
"Yeah. He didn't know. And Rosi spent all those months telling Law I was some kind of inhuman monster who used people up and threw them away." He felt his voice hitch and tremble, and he tried to control it with another breath. "And of course killing him sealed the deal that it must be true."
"Because Law was a scared, dyin' kid." Vergo said. "with no context for any of it, and a bunch of lies from a guy who thought you were the devil incarnate. So he had no idea why you killed Rosi that night. Right?"
"Yeah," he rasped, closing his eyes. "He told me he thought I killed Rosi for trying to save him."
That gave Vergo pause…that gave him a moment to stare at Doffy in open surprise. "You're fucking kidding me."
That sealed it. Vergo had forgotten the conversation from earlier. That was fine. He didn't mind repeating himself. Especially not now, when it gave him something else to focus on than the nightmares.
Doffy shook his head against him. He tittered nervously, thinking back on it once again. It seemed even more absurd now, here in the dark of the night, than it had in the galley earlier that day when he was first telling Vergo about it.
"Nooooope. Isn't that the stupidest fucking thing you ever heard? I laughed, Vergo. I fucking laughed when I heard it. Then I remembered he was barely 13 fucking years old, and— and he spent the next 13 years apparently acting on a bunch of complete lies. Like a big… a big fucking misunderstanding."
"A big, deadly fucking misunderstanding." Vergo muttered quietly. "...because of course it was. A 13 year old kid who trusted us got convinced he was surrounded by monsters by a scaremongering marine, and spent years on a quest of revenge for the guy when all he ever did was lie."
He flopped his body on Vergo's chest, and thumped it lightly with his fist. "I just wish I hadn't fucking shot the bastard right then and there. I know. I know why I had to. He was a marine. He hated me. All he wanted was to fuck over the family. He couldn't be reasoned with. But it just— it feels like a fucking mistake, sometimes, Vergo."
"I get it, Doffy." Vergo murmured down at him, his chest making a hollow sound as it was thunked. "I do. You did what you had to do, but if you'd managed to find Law, maybe you coulda explained it before you had to take Rosi out. Or…hell. I dunno."
"Yeah. I've been thinking about that. I think about it a lot." He closed his eyes, taking soft, deep breaths. "And I know Trebol thinks that it's the same way with Law, but I don't want it to end the same way. Law's not a marine. He's never been anything but a pirate. A pirate and an angry fucking kid who wanted to find somebody to hurt for everything he's been through. You and me know just what that's like, huh?"
Vergo nodded seriously, and the expression on his face spoke to the memories playing behind his sunglasses. "Damn right we do…it's something we've got in common. All of us."
"I want him back, Vergo," Doffy growled. The nightmare was starting to fade, and the water had taken the edge off his headache. "I want him back and I think he wants to come back. Why else would he have told me to convince him? That's practically a 'yes' with extra steps, right? He just needs time to process how wrong he's been all this time. He wants me to remind him how good things were when he was part of the family."
He looked up plaintively at Vergo, his face mostly in shadow and behind his glasses, like Doffy knew his own was. "Right?"
Vergo reached up and gently pushed Doflamingo's glasses up his nose, before he leaned in to squeeze him tightly to his chest.
"Right," he rumbled. "He wants to be convinced, so…convince him. Bring him home, Doffy."
Doflamingo leaned into Vergo's hand and smiled. Bring him home. That was exactly what he was going to do. It was 13 years too late, but…
"I'm gonna do it, Vergo. Better late than never."
-
The poker game had wound down leaving nothing but a mess on the table and one by one the family members had excused themselves off to bed. Doffy, unusually, had been first to go— drunk as a lord, as they say— and the others had followed slowly after him, until it was only Trebol and Diamante left at the table across from him.
Dia was quiet and about half way through a cigarette. Trebol had lost count of how many it was that night. Trebol didn't smoke, and frankly he wished the rest of the family wouldn't– it was hell on his fragile lungs– but he never said a word about it and he never would. At least Doffy had never picked up the habit; no, drinking had been Doffy's vice since shortly after they'd met.
Doffy— Trebol was worried about him. He was sure Doffy thought he was mad at him, but he was worried. Worried sick. Worried enough to raise his voice. Worried enough to tell him what he ought to already know.
"You're up late," Dia said, breaking the silence as he crushed out his cigarette butt in favor of swinging his guitar onto his lap.
Worried enough not to be able to sleep.
"Don't want my company, old friend?" he grumbled, leaning on his arms on the table.
"Hah. I didn't say that, Tre." Dia strummed a few soft notes. "Can't sleep, huh? Because of Doffy?"
"If I can't sleep, it's because we have an enemy on board the ship, Dia, and he isn't even chained up. An enemy who I hope I don't need to remind you destroyed-– at the very least— ten years worth of our hard work and a very comfortable position only a few months ago."
A few more notes filled the air. "Oh trust me, Tre, I don't think I could forget that if I tried. What a fucking fiasco, am I right?"
"Right!" Trebol's derisive grunt of agreement brought on a coughing fit, and he muttered an apology when it was finished. His nerves always made the illness that had plagued him since he was a child flare up. When he'd caught his breath and wiped his mouth he stared over at Dia, who was still playing the guitar, politely ignoring him as usual. "So why the hell aren't you worried about it?"
"Did I say I wasn't worried about it, Tre?"
"You didn't say it, but you're acting pretty damned relaxed, Dia," he accused. Admittedly some of that was probably just Diamante's manner. He could be very casual, almost carefree sometimes, right up until the moment where he'd gone completely feral. Trebol often found it a little bit charming, but right now it was getting on his already tender nerves.
"What good would it do to get all fucking wound up? Besides, you're high strung enough for both of us. I keep telling you, you should really take up smoking. Take the edge off."
"And I will tell you again, it would fucking kill me, Dia." He dabbed his nose with his handkerchief. They'd been having the same argument for thirty years. It was a formality by this point.
"Sure, sure." Dia waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, if you're actually worried about having an 'enemy in our midst', I think you can ease up on the tension. It's just Law. His two crewmates don't even have devil fruits. He's seastoned up, in the middle of the ocean, and surrounded by the family. It's not the kind of situation like Punk Hazard or Dressrosa where he had a bunch of crazy allies from fuck even knows where. Any one of us could take Law in a fair fight, and any two of us could take him even with that fucking power of his. Right? So relax."
Trebol took a deep breath. He was right of course. Trebol hated to admit it, but he was right. The only reason that Law had scored such a devastating hit on the family was the allies he'd brought in at the last moment. The situation in Punk Hazard even Trebol had to admit had been firmly under control— right up to the moment it hadn't been. And that had been thanks to a chance encounter with the damned Straw Hat pirates. Law was very much on the backfoot here, essentially alone, and probably completely demoralized. Trebol did realize that.
"I guess, we both know if he was going to try something completely reckless he'd have done it already," Trebol grumbled. "I was waiting for it the minute he woke up."
"You mean like when he was a kid? Attacking without thinking and just going for the throat?" Diamante chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah I mean I was waiting for it too. Losing his whole crew like that, I figured there was a good chance he'd just be suicidal again."
"I suppose we don't have any firm proof that he isn't. He'd probably have tried something already, but he was biding his time on Punk Hazard."
Trebol remembered the day they'd met the kid, reckless and unstable, ready to throw his life away just to hurt someone else. He knew that Doffy felt a lot of empathy for Law, but Trebol could see the key difference. Doffy wanted to hurt people, but he was smart, and he knew the most important thing. That your life was the one thing you couldn't recover from losing. Law's sense of his own impending doom had destroyed his instinct for self preservation. It was an excellent trait in a lackey, and a terrible weakness in a future executive. He'd warned Doffy again and again back when Law was being positioned as the next Corazon.
For a while, while they were monitoring the situation on Punk Hazard, Trebol had wondered if Law had finally learned what they'd been trying to teach all along. But who knew, at this point?
"He could be biding his time, yeah." Diamante shrugged. He noodled on his guitar for a moment. "But I stand by everything I said. If he tries anything, it'll be over in ten minutes."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of, Dia," Trebol sighed, finally admitting it. He wasn't worried about Law actually managing any kind of large scale destruction at this point. They could handle him. Law, he was sure, knew such a thing would be a suicide attempt even if it wouldn't stop him. But that wasn't the point. "I'm afraid of Doffy getting his heart broken again."
Diamante let a sweet, plucked note hang for a long moment in the air between them before he smothered it with his thumb.
"Knew it. And there's where I can't fucking blame you, Trebol. Doffy walking into a kick in the teeth of heartache is a real fucking possibility."
"I'm glad you actually agree with me." He was relieved, honestly, to not be the only one to see it. To not be the only one worrying about it.
"Obviously I do," Dia huffed. "Doffy's only been fucked up by Law for more than a fucking decade. We both know he has a complex about losing family. And the fact that the one who took Law away from him is the same person who gave him that damned complex in the first place? Yeah. Yeah. He is primed to get his goose cooked on this."
"So what do we do?" Trebol asked finally, exasperated and lost. "I've been trying to come up with a plan of action but everything I come up with is worse than the last. If we kill Law behind his back he'll be sick about it for months. If we let Law break his heart again, if Doffy has to kill him, he might never recover!"
"As usual, you're thinking about it too hard, Tre." Dia put down his guitar and he reached over the table, putting his hand on Trebol's hands. "Here's what we do. We let Doffy make his move and try to win Law over. If it goes south, which it probably will, I'll kill Law and Doffy can be mad at me. And then we'll get him a new orphan. A really sad, pissed off one. Doffy hasn't had a new orphan since before Dressrosa."
Trebol was pretty sure the loss of Law was in fact the entire reason Doffy had stopped bringing home orphans in the first place. Trebol couldn't deny that he rather missed having children around, however, and the family had gotten unfortunately smaller lately. But he was surprised that Diamante of all people was suggesting it.
Trebol twisted his hand on the table to wind his fingers with Diamante's. "I thought you hated when we brought in orphans. As I recall, you were pretty pleased when he stopped."
"Sure," Diamante nodded, squeezing his fingers. "I won't pretend I'm thrilled with a bunch of annoying brats around, but if it makes Doffy happy? You know I'd do anything for him as much as you would. Doffy's been like a kid without a puppy. Get him a new project kid and he'll be able to move on."
Trebol sat limply back in his chair, his hand in Diamante's. "I fucking hope so, Dia. Alright, we'll go with your plan and wait it out. What do you think the odds are that he wins over Law, really?"
"The odds?" Diamante laughed, leaning forward with a grim grin. "Snowball's chance in hell, Tre. But hey… you never know. On the Grand Line you get weirder weather than that all the time."
He rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Dia, but I get what you're saying, and you're right. There's no way of telling. Ordinarily I'd say that it's completely impossible, but…"
"But it's Doffy, right?" Diamante said with a smile."That kid can do anything."
"So indeed," Trebol sighed.
Diamante hopped to his feet, slinging his guitar across his back. "Come on, old man, let's get you to bed, or you're going to be a worse grouch than fucking usual."
"Old man," Trebol huffed indignantly, clambering his way to his feet. He let Diamante help him up. "As if you're not almost as old as I am. As if we're not both pushing fifty by this point."
"Speak for yourself, Tre, I'm a youthful 45."
"Bastard."
"You should shave the beard if you want to look younger, you know."
"The beard makes me look dignified."
"It makes you look old."
Trebol had to admit as they bickered their way through the ship's corridors, that he was feeling at least a little better about the whole ordeal. At least now they had a plan. All he had to do now was wait, and keep a close eye on Law.
Bleeding, Broken, Mended (7725 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth
Chapters: 2/?
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Donquixote Doflamingo/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Protective Donquixote Doflamingo, Getting Back Together, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance (see AO3 for more tags)
Summary: When Law's ship is blown to hell by Blackbeard he wakes up in the worst case scenario-- rescued by Doflamingo and the Donquixote pirates, trapped at sea and at their mercy. With the destruction of his crew he's alone in enemy territory with only Bepo, and the new crewmate he picked up on Wano.
Law is certain that he was 'rescued' just so Doflamingo could kill him himself, but Doffy has other plans. As far as he's concerned, Law's decade-long quest for revenge was nothing more than a sad misunderstanding. He wants to remind Law how things used to be. He wants to find a way to bring Law back into the fold-- back to him-- forever.
-
Law's fear of Doflamingo coming through the door at any minute hadn't been realized. Quite the opposite. A few minutes of discussion later, Komurasaki told him that she'd been asked to let them know when Law woke up, and asked him what they should do.
There was no sense in lying. Not this deep into the belly of their ship, and not with his powers dulled by sea-stone. If nothing else, it was a formality. Viola could be spying on them as they spoke; they'd know.
So he had told Komurasaki to tell them. Before then, he'd given her a rundown of the family members he remembered; their abilities, and a little of the context about the predicament— mostly about the travesty in Dressrosa, with the promise to tell her the rest soon.
It was important she knew what to expect if things went tits up. When the tactics were done, he'd asked her again if she was okay, and thanked her honestly for staying by his side while he slept.
He was lucky to have a crewmate like her still around, even after all that.
After that, he'd told her to tell them he was awake, and to try not to wander too far.
With a promise that she was really fine— as fine as she could be, considering— she'd left him alone in the room. Minutes ticked by too slowly, Law alone with his thoughts.
It was really the worst case scenario.
He'd heard Doflamingo had escaped Marine custody somehow and taken to the seas again. He'd heard that Viola was with them, too. And that was a hell of a surprise. But he never expected that of all the ships in the Grand Line to swoop in to his rescue, it'd be his.
Now he was here in the belly of the DQ ship, his first mate in traction and his newest crew member the only survivor of the mess that was the last couple days. His men…the crew he'd met piece by piece in the North Blue. Ruffians, a disgruntled mechanic, wannabe back alley doctors and scoundrels… They were precious to him. Family, friends…
Gone in a fucking instant because of Teach and that sick power of his. Law barely had a crew anymore, didn't have a ship; didn't have much in the way of hope.
And now he had to deal with Doflamingo, a man who surely hated his guts enough to want to kill him slowly, rather than just let him sink into the waves. It was like a family reunion in hell, and he was the main course for every member he'd stabbed in the back over the years.
A sharp knock on the door pulled him out of his reverie. To his surprise, it didn't open immediately afterward.
He jolted, his head snapping up with a sharp hiss. Why? Why didn't they just burst in? It was setting him on edge more than anything else.
"Come in?"
The door opened, and pink feathers and scarecrow-tall man filled it briefly as Doflamingo swaggered into the room. He looked very little the worse for wear given the last time Law had seen him; beaten and bloodied by Luffy. His habitual sunglasses were as firmly in place as his smile and his coat. The only thing 'new' was the shirt— a white one covered in embroidered marks that at this distance it was difficult to judge if they were meant to be cheetah spots or lipstick kisses.
Law felt a shiver up his spine as he shrank back a little in his cot, his teeth bared in a grimace that was almost a smile as he waved his bangle-clad hand.
"Shit… and here I thought you'd send one of the others in to soften me up first."
"Seriously, Law?" Doflamingo drawled. He folded himself awkwardly into the chair that Komurasaki had been occupying, his knees high. "Half of them were trying to convince me to throw you back in the ocean."
Komurasaki, he noticed, had been behind Doflamingo, and was now lingering awkwardly in the doorway of the small room.
Law's eyes flicked to her briefly. He'd told her to stay close…but this was a little closer than he'd expected.
Frankly, he imagined she was sticking around for the 'show' considering how interested she was in his background with Doffy.
"Trust me," Law hissed through his teeth. "I know. I'm not exactly the family's favorite guy, am I?" I'm more surprised you haven't yet, Doflamingo."
"I'm full of surprises. But the night's still young." He glanced at Komurasaki too, as if thinking the same as Law about her being in the room. "Shall we have some privacy, or do you need a chaperone?"
Law huffed as he curled his legs up towards his chest.
"I don't need a chaperone. She's just curious." He frowned sharply. "...she and Bepo, no matter what else happens, I want you to promise they'll be safe. If you drop me in the ocean, drop them on an island. Okay?"
Doflamingo put his hand over his heart, and nodded.
"Promise," he said, and Law knew he meant it. Doflamingo was exactly the type of bastard to always keep his promises. He turned and smiled widely at Komurasaki. "'Saki, why don't you go check on the infirmary while Law and I chat?"
Saki, huh? Doflamingo was always the type of guy to slap a nickname on someone as soon as he could. Once upon a time, Law found it really charming. Part of his 'friendly gang leader' schtick.
There was a flutter of warmth at that. Even when he was essentially a prisoner of a fellow former Warlord, she still looked to him as her captain.
Law ran his hand through his hair with effort and a low hiss.
"Check on Bepo for me, alright? I'll be alright. He made a promise, he'll stick to it." He gave her his best smile with a wink. "I'll tell ya all about how it went, 'Saki'."
She nodded, and raised a salute to him— something she'd already picked up on her short time on the Polar Tang. "Aye, captain. Til then."
She didn't wish him luck, but he could tell it was implied.
Once she was out of the door, it snapped closed almost as if by itself. But of course, the glimmer of thread hung in the air between it and Doflamingo's fingers.
Now that his crewmate was out of view, Law's smile turned back into the low-simmering grimace it'd been when Doflamingo first walked in, his eyes lingering on the glimmer of thread and the threat they carried.
"I'm gonna ask again— why haven't you just killed me. Your men want me dead. The family wants me dead. I sure as hell think YOU want me dead after Dressrosa. So what's with this? The cot, taking care of Bepo and Komurasaki. All of it."
Doflamingo leaned forward, his long arms resting on his knees, his hands together. He was quiet for a long moment, his expression inscrutable behind his scarlet lenses, still smiling, but only subtly.
When he finally spoke, he shrugged. "What can I say, Law? Every time I see you in trouble, I rush in to help."
Law's eyes flicked to the side, away from his sunglasses. Anything but looking him in the eyes. "Forgive me if I don't believe that."
Doflamingo was quiet again for a long moment, the awkward silence filling the room palpably like heat. Even out of the corner of his eye, Law could see the way his posture shifted and tightened.
"Sure, alright. I'll forgive you for it, even if I don't get it, Law. It's not like I've been trying to save you from yourself since the minute I met you or anything. But sure, you're right, completely out of character for me to pull your ass out of the ocean. I must be drunk and crazy."
Law's eyes snapped back over to Doflamingo, lurching forward with a movement that made his sluggish body reel.
"Hhhh…" He grit his teeth, bringing himself back to the here and now. "...save me from myself. Yeah, you… you stopped me from killing myself when I was a kid, but…"
But he was doing it to ensure the loyalty of a new pawn in his gang. He collected people and used them up, only for as long as they were useful to him. That's what Rosi had said to him back during their flight through the snow.
And it tracked, didn't it? How many of his underlings got thrown to the wolves the minute they failed? Bellamy, right? He hated the guy but he was undeniably obsessed with Doflamingo's approval and he'd been sent to die.
"But…"
"But what, Law?" Doflamingo leaned toward him. "We didn't exactly get a lot of time to talk in Dressrosa, what with the deranged lunatic in the hat you brought with you in an apparently sincere attempt to kill me. But we've got all the time in the world now. So go ahead. Unload."
Law's fingers tightened against the sheets as he stared Doflamingo down with narrowed eyes and a low hiss between his teeth. "Rosi told me all about how you operate, that's what."
Doflamingo slumped back in his chair like a puppet with his strings cut. He stared up at the ceiling, and Law watched as he drew his arms slowly up around himself.
"Rosi told you. Rosi, the undercover marine, who—" he cut himself off. "Okay, what did Rosi tell you about 'the way I operate'."
"You collect people and use them up," Law murmured. The way Doflamingo was crumpling into himself like that; it reminded Law of the times he'd seen Doflamingo waking up from one of his many nightmares or lost in his own head.
He leaned his chin on his own knee and stared him down. "You make them indebted to you, and use them as long as they're useful. He told me you were going to toss me away the minute I stopped being useful to your 'family'."
"Oh." Doflamingo's arms wrapped tighter around himself, and he didn't look at Law, just continued to stare up far away at the ceiling for a long moment. "Yeah, I guess Rosi would know all about using family and tossing them away, huh?"
"...." Law's eyes narrowed slightly before he ran his hand through his hair with a low hiss of breath. "Yeah, guess he would."
During their flight from the Donquixote family, hunting for a doctor to cure his illness, he'd figured out pretty early that Rosi was secretly a marine. A marine who infiltrated the family with the intention of taking down his blood brother because of his 'inherent evil' .
At first Law had been furious. It was a betrayal of the closest thing to a home he'd had since his own had burned to the ground among the bodies of the dead. But with each failed attempt at a cure and every horror story about the Donquixotes that Rosi had to tell he'd started to worry it was true.
Hearing Doffy execute his brother had sealed it. If he was willing to kill his brother, then what chance did Law have of staying in his good graces?
The silence hung over them again. Law saw Doflamingo's nails dig into his shoulder until he almost broke the skin. He took a breath that shuddered in his chest.
"So you believed him, huh?" His voice was quiet. He sat up a little straighter, and tugged on threads that appeared between his fingers. "You think that's how I am, and you wanted to avoid being thrown away. I mean, anyone would want to avoid that."
Law stared him down.
"I was dying, Dof..Doflamingo. He saved my life and then you shot him dead. How the hell wouldn't I believe him?" He took a deep and shaky breath and his voice raised louder. "If you killed your own brother for trying to save me, how the hell could I have mattered? How could I trust you wouldn't do the same to me!"
Even as his voice raised he couldn't avoid noticing it….
Doflamingo was uncomfortable. More than that— he was sad. Maybe even hurt. No, strike that…he was absolutely hurt.
Because Law didn't trust him?
Doflamingo froze, his body suddenly more tense than ever. He craned his neck like the kind of large bird that he resembled and stared at Law fully for the first time in minutes.
"I killed him for trying to save you? That's what you believe?" The edges of his lips hitched and twisted into an absolutely awful smile, and he started to giggle. The strings between his fingers went tight, and Law could see them dig little grooves into the flesh of his fingers. "I killed him for trying to save you. Oh. Oh that's…. that's funny."
His shoulders were shaking.
Law felt a sting of embarrassment, and a sick undercurrent of something else…guilt? Anger? It was hard to tell exactly what it was twisting in his guts.
"...no it's not. You're not laughing either. Not really." He grit his teeth. "You're upset, I can hardly believe it but you're upset."
Doflamingo looked away again, and Law saw him briefly lift his glasses and wipe his face, before he looked back, still smiling that miserable, grimacing smile.
"Can't imagine why I'd be upset, Law," he said thickly. The strings between his fingers had vanished, and he folded his hands carefully on top of one another. "That fruit you've got, Law. The one my brother fed you. The one you seem to think I killed him over. How'd he get it? How'd he know it existed? Do you know?"
Law shook his head slowly.
"No…I only know that he had it, and it was the last bet we had after all those fucking doctors he dragged me to did nothing." His fingers tensed against the cot again. He was shaking too, why was he shaking? His eyes felt hot as he grit his teeth again. "I assumed he found out about it from the marines."
Doflamingo giggled that awful, nasty little giggle again, and he tugged his fingers through his cropped blond hair, pulling on it. "Oh. Oh the marines, that's rich. No, uh. No, Law. He found out from me. When I managed to get in contact with him after he'd disappeared for months. And I told him he could bring you home because I finally found something that could cure you. You know, like I'd been promising you since we brought you in."
Law's eyes widened under the mop of his hair, and he hissed out a sharp.
"No fucking way…I…I mean..sure you'd always promised but…"
Why would Rosi have gone through everything on that frigid island if it was that simple? Why would Law have been locked in a box and left behind after he'd been shot to death? Was it so he'd get in contact with the Marines?
"...shit, shit!"
Doflamingo's head fell to rest in his hands.
"Of course you didn't know. How could you. Well–" he was interrupted briefly by another nervous spasm of giggling. "Well, see it turns out that you know, it would have really blown his cover to eat that fruit and cure you like I wanted him to. So my brother pulled a switcheroo with the navy instead, Law. And that's how I found out. That's how I found out that the brother I'd lost appeared back into my life with nothing in his heart but a desire to destroy me and the family I'd spent years making."
Law looked up at him and saw that his glasses had slipped down on his nose and part of his scarred eye was exposed. "That's how I found out he was selling us all out to the Navy. When he stole the fruit I found to cure you."
Law stared deep into his eye, his gaze lingering on the scar for a moment as he tensed on the bed. "...when he stole the fruit you found to cure me and gave it to me instead. And had me deliver a message to the Navy for him."
He kept giggling, staring down at the floor with his one good eye, the other hazy and pale and unseeing, the flesh around it a mass of shiny scar tissue. "Had you deliver a message, huh? Is that why we never found you?"
"Probably, it was Vergo who intercepted me though," Law looked down and away from his eyes. That uncomfortable feeling was writhing in him again, unplaceable…guilt? Maybe it was guilt after all.
"I ran away after that and found my crew."
"What a night," Doflamingo giggled. "What a fucking cursed night. Oh that's too much, really. So, uh, no, Law, I didn't kill my brother for trying to save you. I killed him because when he stole the fruit I was trying to save you with, he exposed himself for a traitor who was trying to destroy the family."
Law let his head drop onto his knee, hiding his face in his arms as he started to laugh too. "Hah! Yeah, guess that would make sense, wouldn't it? Rosi the traitor, or Rosi the martyr. He was the reason I had to get revenge. All these fucking years of fighting against you were because of him as thanks for saving me."
"How noble. In your usual chaotic way." He giggled roughly again for a moment before he fell quiet, almost bent double in the chair. The small room was chokingly thick with silence.
"I…ah…" He tightened around himself, glancing up at Doflamingo over his knees. What the hell was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to believe Doflamingo? Of course not— but at the same time…
He looked genuinely surprised and even hurt. More than he'd looked when Law had shown back up with the intent to kill him too.
"I'm starting to think maybe you shoulda just left me in the ocean," he laughed bitterly, muffled by his arms.
"I was advised to do that, repeatedly," Doflamingo said quietly. "That if I let you live, you'd hurt the family again. Like in Dressrosa. Like—"
He cut himself off and stared miserably– miserably!-- at the floor again. It was obvious what he had been about to say though.
Like Rosi.
"I bet you were. They hate me, after all," Law laughed sharply.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Rosi's painted picture of his brother was of a heartless tyrant. A man 'born evil' or some shit that Law didn't really believe. Someone who wouldn't be getting miserable, even melancholy about the idea of Law planting another dagger in his and the family's backs.
"I can't blame them. The family and I haven't been on good terms for a while."
"No," Doflamingo agreed. "Your girl, Komurasaki. Had her stay in the room the whole time in case Baby 5 decided she needed to smother you with a pillow to protect me."
"...Yeah. That tracks," Law laughed again, pressing his hand to his face. "Baby's proactive like that, ain't she? I bet she's frothing at the mouth about this."
"She's not alone. Everyone's pretty fucking pissed about Dressrosa, Law," he said thickly. "I can't say I'm thrilled. About that, or about Punk Hazard.."
The way his posture tightened again, Law almost would think Doflamingo himself was more upset about the latter than the former. Not surprising, perhaps, considering Law had found out that Monet had died there. And had been surprised to learn that Vergo had survived. Barely.
"Y-yeah, I can imagine why, Doflamingo."
He hissed softly through his teeth at the memory. He'd played his hand, made his gambit and it hadn't gone exactly how he planned it. Too many factors, too much chaos. It blew up into something worse than he could have ever anticipated.
"Punk Hazard…" he started to say, before he stopped himself and just rested his head in his arms. "nevermind."
Doflamingo looked up at him over his own arms. "Punk Hazard what?"
"It got out of hand," he muttered under his breath. "...I was supposed to destroy the SMILE production and get out. But then the fucking Marines appeared, along with Luffy and his crew and it just…"
His voice shook a little as he murmured. "It just got outta hand. I didn't expect Caesar to go right for a killing blow when I switched Smoker and Monet's hearts. I thought he'd…he'd notice in time to stop. And Vergo woulda killed me if I didn't go all out."
"It got out of hand," he huffed. It led into a giggle and he shook his head. "Well, we all know how it can be when things get out of hand."
Before Law could answer, Doflamingo took another deep, shuddering breath through his oversized chest and straightened up, squaring his shoulders and pushing up his glasses.
"Give it to me straight, Doc. Do I have to kill you? Are you going to try to hurt me or my family again?"
Despite the change in posture, Law could see that he was more nervous than ever. His hands were shaking.
Law was shaking too. He could feel his arms shaking against his legs as he looked up at Doflamingo with a weak smile.
"I quit. My whole revenge plan's long gone to shit, Doffy. Who knows if it ever really meant anything or was worth it at all." He shook his head and he smiled grimly. "I'm at your fucking mercy, but I don't have it in me to fight you anymore. I won't hurt the family again… I've just lost everything I built. I couldn't even if I wanted to."
Doflamingo smiled grimly back at him, and stood up.
"Hey, never say never. I've seen you do more with less. But. Good. I'm glad to hear that." He paced awkwardly over to the side of the bed. "I didn't want to kill you, Law. I spent to fucking long trying to save your damned life. You wanna go check on your bear friend?"
He reached a hand down to him.
Law stared at his hand for a moment, his lips twitching into the approximation of a smile before he sluggishly took it.
"...yeah. I've been worried about the poor guy. I mean, if I'm not careful Sugar might decide to steal him away as a living stuffed animal." He grimaced as he tried to stand on weakened legs. "I'm gonna have trouble walking as long as this bangle's on me"
Doflamingo didn't want to kill him…even after everything? It was unbelievable. Almost unbelievable. Before he left the family, he always did seem rather intent on saving Law from his disease— and from his own despair.
Was it possible that had never changed?
"I'll help you walk," he said, pulling Law up easily and smoothly out of bed. His large hands were slightly clammy on Law's skin— he'd been sweating. "I'm not taking it off of you until everyone's a little less fucking jumpy."
Law stood, supported by Doflamingo's hands as he took a soft breath and a tentative step.
"Probably for the best, given everyone's likely looking for an excuse to put a bullet between my eyes." He gave him a weak smile, conflicted feelings still stirring inside him. "Glad that you're not one of them."
It wasn't the worst case scenario; not like he'd feared anyway. He wasn't going to be executed. Doflamingo even seemed willing to take care of him and what remained of his crew for the moment. Genuinely, if his nervous sweating and the painful to witness emotion that'd been written on his face were anything to go by.
It was the worst case scenario in a different way.
The gnawing, writhing worry in his gut that all the blood, death, and chaos in the last few years had been for nothing but a fucking misunderstanding.
It was the worry that Doflamingo was hoping he'd come back around— and the worry that he might be persuaded.
