Chapter Text
Law died with a mad grin-
-and woke up again on the Polar Tang.
He’d been expecting more fire and brimstone and souls of the damned honestly. Either Hell had done some serious remodeling...
Or someone had majorly fucked up his afterlife.
Law was betting on Straw Hat-ya.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
God he needed some coffee.
Finding out that Law had time traveled had been decidedly underwhelming. He’d looked at the newspaper, noticed the date, thought about Straw Hat-ya’s ridiculous luck and decided: yeah, that fits before contemplating drowning himself in his cup of coffee because fuck his life.
All in all, per the status quo when it came to dealing with the Straw Hat Pirates and their Captain.
“Captain?” Penguin asked cautiously. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Law muttered stoically into his coffee, like he hadn’t just banged his head against the table out of sheer exasperation.
Penguin didn’t look like he believed him. That was fair. Law didn’t believe himself either.
Law stared blankly at the wall of his sub’s infirmary and ignored the banging on the infirmary door with practiced ease. He was in the middle of an existential crisis thank you very fucking much.
Time travel. What the fuck did he do with that. What the fuck did anyone do with that.
“Captain, we’re starting to get concerned!” Shachi called through the infirmary door. “We’re not sure you ever sleep anymore!”
Law did not, in fact, sleep. He just occasionally fell unconscious.
“Or eat!” Penguin added because Shachi and him were practically synonymous with each other.
Law wasn’t entirely sure he’d ever seen them more than 10ft apart much less one without the other. Hm. He might have to test that sometime.
“If you don’t come out soon we’re getting Bepo!” Shachi threatened.
Fuck. Now Law would actually have to deal with things otherwise Bepo would—ugh— worry.
(Law didn’t like being reminded that people cared about him. It gave him feelings and that was unacceptable for someone that liked to believe he didn’t have any.)
Fine. He could deal with bullshit time travel later. There was no guarantee it was permanent anyway.
Eventually—no matter how much Law distracted himself with lethal amounts of caffeine, various medical encyclopedias, randomly banging his head against the wall to induce a self imposed coma (which was more likely than Law actually falling asleep), and avoiding the increasingly concerned looks of his entire crew—Law was forced to concede defeat. He was stuck here.
Which meant he actually had to deal with this shit.
Fuck.
Well, if Law had to suffer through this then he sure as fuck wasn’t doing it alone. Straw Hat-ya better be here after getting him into this mess or Law would murder his past self.
Good luck becoming King of the Pirates from the bottom of the ocean.
Which basically summed up how Law found himself having this conversation.
“You... want to go to Dawn Island,” Bepo said slowly.
Law had spent an entire, unfortunate, week on Bartolomeo’s ship. At this point he knew more about the Straw Hat Pirates than he’d ever needed to. Or ever wanted to.
Which was the only reason why he knew it was six months before Straw Hat-ya left Dawn Island to set sail. After the 20th time listening to Straw Hat-ya’s life story you couldn’t help but pick up on some things.
The amount of times Law had considered throwing himself overboard in that week alone...
The only reason Law hadn’t actually tried to was because of his absolute certainty that Straw Hat-ya wouldn’t have let him die in peace and would’ve rescued him regardless of Law’s own wishes. Straw Hat-ya was a selfish bastard like that.
Worse still, Straw Hat-ya would’ve given Law a friendship speech about how he wasn’t allowed to die and that Straw Hat-ya wouldn’t let him-
Law was a hardened pirate that had witnessed the genocide of his entire city. But there were just some things that even he couldn’t stomach.
“In East Blue,” Bepo added, bringing Law back to the present as his navigator stared at Law like he would suddenly realize the impossibility of his statement.
Law didn’t.
“Yes,” Law said, staring back gamely.
“Why?” Bepo asked blankly, looking at Law like he’d lost his mind.
Which Law had. It had just happened years and not minutes ago like his navigator seemed to believe. Though it was a little flattering—and concerning, honestly—that Bepo had had any faith at all in Law’s incredibly sketchy mental health (even before the whole time travel thing).
Though Law supposed he didn’t have any real proof that his whole “time travel thing” wasn’t just the result of a psychotic break. It would explain a lot honestly. Hm.
“If we’re lucky: murder,” Law deadpanned.
Bepo looked like he regretted asking. “And if we’re not?”
Law stared grimly into the distance, pressed his lips into a thin line, and hiked Kikoku further up onto his shoulder with the demeanor of someone mentally preparing for war.
“Then we have an ally,” Law intoned gravely, eyes dead like the depths of his soul.
It was the expression of someone that had been repeatedly subjected to the force of nature that was Straw Hat Luffy and his whims. Bepo didn’t understand now—but he would. Oh, he would.
“Do you think he finally lost it?” Shachi whispered very unsubtly.
Penguin tilted his head, considering. “It’s... possible?” He made a so-so gesture with his hand. “The Captain was never really the most mentally stable to begin with.”
They would follow Law to the ends of the earth, but no one had ever accused Law of being mentally sound.
Bepo, bless his fuzzy heart, looked more concerned than anything else. “Do you think he’s okay?” He asked worriedly.
“Was he ever really?” Shachi asked.
It was a fair point.
Penguin elbowed him in the side for his insensitivity anyway as Bepo looked even more anxious than before. Penguin flapped his arms in Bepo’s direction in a ‘look what you did’ kind of gesture. Shachi looked slightly chastised at that.
“Um- I mean- I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Shachi said unconvincingly.
“Glad to hear it,” Law deadpanned behind them, arms crossed and looking distinctly unimpressed.
“ Shit! ” Shachi summed up nicely.
For most people getting to any of the other Blues was a distant dream bordering on impossible. For a New World pirate like Law it might as well have been a milk run.
“Captain...” Bepo said uneasily.
“It’s fine,” Law said, seemingly unconcerned as they entered the Calm Belt.
“ Captain ...” Penguin and Shachi stressed as they took in the unnaturally still sea.
“Wait for it,” Law muttered.
“CAPTAIN!” The rest of the crew cried in terror as a wave of giant sea kings broke through the surface of the water.
Law sighed. “Fine, fine. Room.”
“I can’t believe we’re still alive,” Shachi said, hugging the railings of the submarine’s deck.
“Let’s never do that again,” Penguin voted from his place on the ground to various agreements.
Law rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t that bad,” he said dismissively.
“SAYS YOU!” His crew yelled angrily.
Dawn Island was, at first glance at least, a quiet and peaceful place. Law didn’t see the resemblance with Straw Hat-ya.
“Wait here,” Law told his crew.
“You’ll be okay?” Shachi asked with a surprising amount of concern for someone that had been contemplating mutiny four hours ago.
“We’re in East Blue,” Law said, rolling his eyes. “The worst I’ll get is maybe some dust in my eyes.”
No one looked happy about it but his crew didn’t push it. They’d be fine once they remembered there was a bar on the island—as there was with every island inhabited by people.
It was only five minutes after Law had entered the forest that he heard it.
“-raaaaaaooOOOOO-!”
Law squinted through the trees.
“-TORAOOOOOO!” Straw Hat-ya yelled bursting from the trees to slam into him with what might, generously, be called a hug instead of an attack.
Well. That answered whether or not Straw Hat-ya remembered. And there went his plans for murder.
Damnit.
Law laid on the ground and wondered how this was his life and where he could get a refund. Or did time travel count as the refund?
“You’re here!” Straw Hat-ya laughed joyously, wrapped around him like a rubbery and clingy octopus.
Law was a notorious pirate known as the Surgeon of Death—or would be. Frankly, no one should be that happy to see him.
“Get off me Straw Hat-ya,” Law grumbled. “Before I cut off something important.”
The only reason he hadn’t yet was because, apparently, getting carried around like a sack of potatoes over the entirety of Dressrosa by the other captain incidentally made it easier to accept his touch without Law feeling like he was crawling out of his skin. Law kind of wanted to be irritated by that.
Straw Hat-ya just laughed. “Torao would put it back,” he said with the utmost confidence.
Law grimaced at the complete faith Straw Hat-ya had in him. “We need to talk,” he said seriously.
For once, Straw Hat-ya looked just as serious.
D’s always bring a storm.