ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ; ʟᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
ʟᴀᴡ x ɢ/ɴ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ
ᴡᴄ ; 2.1ᴋ.
ʀᴀᴛᴇᴅ ; ᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ. ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ᴋɪꜱꜱ. ᴘᴏꜱᴛ-ᴄᴏɴꜰᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴ ᴍᴏᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ. ᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ʏ/ɴ ꜰᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ. ʟᴀᴡ ɪꜱ ᴀᴡᴋᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪᴛ ᴄᴏᴍᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ ʙᴜᴛ ʜᴇ ᴀᴅᴏʀᴇꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀᴛʜᴇʟᴇꜱꜱ. ꜱᴇʟꜰ-ʙᴇᴛᴀ'ᴅ.
♡ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ ʜᴇʀᴇ ♡
“-eep looking around that area, you'll find the mistake. Go over your notes again if you need to, but-” There's a slight pause as Law sighs through his nose and snaps his fingers in your face, shaking you from your staring contest with his chest. “Y/N, you're not paying attention.”
Your cheeks burn as you give a slight shrug, your eyes wandering from his hands back to his chest and up to his face before you give a cheeky chuckle and tease, "It's hard to stay focused when you've got your tits in my face.”
Law gawks with an irritated huff. “Unbelievable,” he mutters to himself as he turns around with his own cheeks burning a bright red, a stark difference against his tanned skin, splotched with scar-like lighter patches from his lead poisoning. His fingers quickly did up the buttons on his shirt before he turned back around, glaring you down non-menacingly as he began once more.
“Like I was saying, you've made a small error in your stitching, I need to find the mistake and fix it before your crewmate bleeds out everywhere.” He motions down to the volunteered body laying on bed, who only grins up at you with a smirk and a flex of his muscles, which earns him a flick in the side of the head from Law. “Shachi, be more dead. You're doing a terrible job of being a cadaver.”
“Aww, come on, boss! What's the point in being this handsome if I can't flaunt what I got?!”
Both you and Law stare down at Shachi with thinly-veiled disdain and matching annoyance as you snark back, “No one here is impressed with your noodle arms, Shach.”
Shachi gasps, throwing his uninjured hand over his chest quite dramatically as he huffs at you, “Yeah, tell that to my super sexy, hot and beautiful girlfriend! She LOVES these noodles- wait, HEY!”
You snicker to yourself, shoving him back down as he suddenly sits up while barking back at you, only to grunt as his back hits the medbay mattress once more. “Trust me, she never shuts up about you. I would say she's lucky, but…” you grimace jokingly, waving a hand over Shachi as if motioning to his entirety. “Eh. You seem to be the lucky one, I suppose.”
Shachi laughs, noticing your teasing and before he's able to reply, Law slaps a gloved hand over his mouth and sighs at you, “Y/N, please stop bullying him, he enjoys it too much and I just want to be finished with your examinations.”
You look down at your stitching on Shachi's inner arm, too embarrassed to look back at Law. You run your own gloved finger down the length of the stitching, only stopping when you finally feel where you made the mistake. You hum to yourself, picking up the thread cutters and snipping, giving the thread a little tug and watching as it slides through Shachi's skin. You move the old thread off to the side and try again, making your knot and giving Shachi a small look before beginning to stitch the wound shut again.
Unbeknownst to you, Law watches your movements with prideful eyes, pleased with your motions and attention to detail. There was something about how you begged him to teach you, something that he saw in you that was in him as a child, and he found himself unable to deny you.
The first few weeks were rough, you getting little to no sleep as you cracked through every single book Law threw at you, even going so far to make copies of some of his books just so you could make notes of your own. Law found himself more and more impressed with you, getting up every time he knocked you down and even finding the nights much more pleasant with your company.
Your consistency and abundant cheer gave him a little lift in his heart, and it shocked both of you when he was going through your notes one late night, and he stopped to confess his feelings for you. His words were quiet, slipped through honest and kind lips that you ate up like a starved animal before you slowly admitted feelings yourself. He clung to your words so tightly that even to this day, almost six months later, they still rang in his head like a rogue church bell.
“Jeez, are ya almost done? I've got a hot date after this and I can't be late!”
You took a deep breath as Shachi moved slightly, causing your needle to poke him in a spot to the side of his wound by accident. “Yeouch!! Oi! Are you trying to heal me or hurt me!?”
You glance up at Law through your lashes, giving him a pointed look but he simply ignores you by shrugging, motioning back to Shachi with a lazy hand before crossing his arms again. ‘Keep going,’ his look says, a small smirk rising on his lips as you sigh deeply and give Shachi a dark look.
“Obviously trying to heal you, but I'll fuckin’ hurt you again if you don't stop moving!” You threaten with a hiss, giving a slightly rougher tug on the thread to show promise, causing him to whine and pout behind his sunglasses.
“Wah.” Shachi murmurs with a frown, sighing heavily through his nose like an old dog.
You finally tie off the stitching with a pleased hum, taking a step back and snapping off your blue gloves as you wave a hand to Shachi's arm with a nervous smile. “Let me know what you think, Doc.”
Law gives you a small look before moving around the bed and standing beside you to get a better view. He picks up Shachi's arm and twists it this way and that before he gives a nod, happy with your work. “Looks great, Y/N.”
Shachi gives a whoop and tries to sit up, only to have Law shove him back down on the bed, a wicked grin coming over his lips as he slowly asks, “Care to show me again?”
There's a moment of silence before the colour drains from Shachi's face as he croaks out, “Maybe can we do it tomorrow?”
Law rolls his eyes and sighs, lifting his hand from Shachi's chest and letting the redhead finally sit up in bed. “I suppose,” Law drawls, pretending not to be disappointed at the chance to watch your handiwork once more.
“Wow, this looks almost as good as the Captain's work! Great job, Y/N.” You give Shachi a genuine smile at his praise, watching the way Law wraps the wound with gauze and tapes it off before ripping his gloves off, tossing them into the nearby garbage.
“You've got a clean bill of health, Shach. Go enjoy your date.” Law waves him off before handing you the clipboard to fill out. “Make sure you make a note that you had to re-stitch the wound and that we wrapped it up at the end. Also, update the inventory so we know what to grab on the next island.”
You're nodding along as he speaks, only looking up from the clipboard when Shachi opens the media door and you hear your fellow heart pirate, and his girlfriend, cheer as he walks out and shows off your hard work. You wave back when she peeks her head in, giving you a quick thumbs up and a wide grin before letting Shachi pull her away with a laugh and giving her a wet kiss. She pretends to be grossed out, wiping at her face right as the door closes, though you can still hear the laughter and teasing between them as they finally walk away from the medbay.
The silence that covers you and your own lover feels suffocating, knowing that the unanswered question that floats between you two will continue to remain unasked and unanswered if you didn't speak up. When you finally finish writing down everything on Shachi's med sheet, you hand it over for Law to check as you make your way over to the small desk beside all the supplies and pull out the inventory list.
You're about to mark something down when you finally ask with a light tone, “How come you haven't kissed me yet?”
There's muted shuffling from Law as he slides up bedside you, opening the drawer to put the sheet into Shachi's file. He sighs softly as the drawer shuts, unsure of how to answer for a moment. He clearly struggles to find the right words, looking over to you with a slightly anxious look, which you try to comfort by placing a hand on his arm.
“Law, it's okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spring that on you like that.” You shift your weight from one foot to the other for a second before letting your hand fall and going back to the inventory. “I just… we've been together for a few months now and the most we've done is cuddle at night…”
You mark a few things down, still rambling gently, the words pouring out of your lips like an unstoppable waterfall. “If you're uncomfortable with PDA, or affections in general, that's okay, I love you regardless-”
Your cut off as a warm hand meets your jaw and cheek, lifting your head from the papers in your hands. You blink and suddenly warm lips meet yours, pulling a sharp inhale through your nose in shock as you stare at Law's furrowed brows. Your eyes fall shut when you notice how tight he kept his, only opening them again when he slowly pulls away.
His cheeks, ears and neck burn dark as he looked to the side, clearing his throat slightly as he gives a small shrug. “I uh, I hope that answers any of your questions…” He looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole, his hands moving to his pockets with another shrug of his shoulders.
You couldn't help but chuckle, giving him a little smirk of your own as you tease him lightly, "You're telling me, all I needed to do was complain about not getting a kiss?”
Law's face seems to get even redder, if that was possible. He scuffs the toe of his shoe into the floor a few times as he mumbles something you don't quite catch. You tilt your head towards him, an expectant look in your eyes as you ask, “Care to repeat that?”
Law groans and runs a hand over his face before pulling the brim of his hat down enough that it hides the top half of his face from your view as he finally bites out, “You… said you love me.”
Your face softens at his words, a gentle “awww…” escaping as you slide up to him, running a hand up his chest and resting your palm over his racing heart. You look up at him with a small smile, reaching up with your other hand to tug gently on his hat, relishing in the way both his hands move to rest on the small of your back and your waist. “Well, yeah, I said it because I do love you, stupid.”
Law huffs slightly, tugging your closer so your chests press together, laying your cheek against his collar as he lays the side of his chin and cheek against your temple. He runs his hands up and down your back, soothing himself more than anything as he murmurs against your skin, “You'd never said it before.”
You look up slightly so you were face to face, your hand moving from his chest to cup his cheek, lovingly running your thumb over the bridge of his nose and along his cheek under his eye as you apologized softly, “I wanted to say it sooner. I just… didn't want to scare you off.”
Law hums with a small smile before turning his head to pepper your palm with kisses, his facial hair tickling you slightly. “You could never scare me,” he admits gently. “You are my one constant joy, Y/N. You could never scare me.”
The look you give him causes his heart to soar, knowing he would die a coward's death if he ever did anything that let you smile like that at another man. He hadn't felt love like this since-
Giving you a look that mirrors the adoration in your eyes, Law cups your own cheek and kisses you again, unable to verbalize the way you make him feel. He feels blessed with his lips against yours, knowing there was nothing in this world that could top this feeling.