What the fever reveals
It was no surprise to Chopper when Law collapsed at dinner time. Chopper's skilled medical eyes had seen through Law's attempts to hide his fever but when he offered to help him all he got was a gruff "I can handle my own fevers Tanuki-ya!" His alarm bells were ringing as he kept an eye on Law throughout the meal. Law usually was quite reserved but tonight he seemed to be going out of his way not to engage in conversation. Zoro jokily asked him if he was drunk when Law started swaying a little on his bar stool but Law's lack of response caught everyone's attention. He didn't even try to glare at Zoro. He looked as if he was trying to hold onto the table but eventually he fell of his stool to the right, unconscious with a high fever. Chopper wasted no time moving him to the infirmary.
Robin was the first to take first watch and settled quietly next to Law with a book. She chuckled at Law's change in demeanor. Usually Law kept a straight poker face throughout the day, hiding whatever must be going on in his head, only letting slip when Luffy was doing something outrageous. Now, unconscious with a high fever, he was in no state to keep that up and now just looked vulnerable. She tilted her head slightly. At a stretch he even looked cute. Not in a attractive way, more like an adorable cute like a kitten. His fluffy hair was sort of like a kitten now that you think about it. No wonder he wore his hat almost all the time; nobody would be able to take him seriously without it. It was a little heart-warming to know he was capable of letting his exterior go, albeit unconscious. Robin noticed he was mumbling and leaned in an attempt to hear any comprehensible words. There was only one: Flevance.
When her shift ended she visited the library to try and do some research. She wasn't able to find Flevance the main part of the library so she decided to have one last shot with her secret shelf. Hidden right at the top behind the main books were some scrolls she had gotten from the revolutionary army which held information about events that the World government had hidden from the public. She hadn't heard of Flevance before so she figured if it wasn't in these scrolls then it wasn't going to be anywhere in the library.
She eventually found the case-study on Flevance and sat down at the table to study it. She took in all the information; about Amber lead, about the disease from it; the massacre that followed, she took it in and when she finished, she closed her eyes and thought deeply about it. A whole country wiped out just like that for a disease that was not their fault; it reminded her of her homeland, Ohara, burnt to the ground for wanting to study the Poneglyphs. She didn't have concrete proof but assuming Law was a survivor of this tragedy, she figured he must have a serious amount of emotional scarring. She didn't know his age but she guessed that he couldn't have been much older than ten when this happened. Robin could see the similarities forming between them. He wasn't quite there yet, but maybe, she hoped, he could one day let go of his past, stop it from chaining him down and free himself. Maybe Luffy could help him; he'd helped Robin after all and look where she was now.
Usopp hesitantly stood at the door, gulping. He hadn't wanted to take the second watch but alas, he'd taken a short straw and he couldn't back out of it now. To be honest, he still wasn't comfortable around Law. Sure he was as strong as, if not stronger than his captain but that didn't make him feel more comfortable, rather it made him feel wary. His paranoia was high around this cunning and seemingly emotionless (save for a smirk or confused look from time to time but who didn't when Luffy was around) man and he didn't understand how everyone already trusted him within a couple of days of him forming an alliance with them. He'd never really agreed to the alliance in the first place but as usual he'd just gone along with what Luffy wanted.
He jumped a little when Chopper came out and told him to go in. He peered in then tip-toed in looking around before stopping in front of the bed and taking a breath before he looked down... and coughed with surprise. He thought he was unnerved by Law's lack of emotion but he clearly wasn't prepared for what he was going to be hanging around with for the next hour or so. If it weren't for the tattoos and the fact this was Trafalgar fucking Law, 'The Surgeon of Death', he could have easily mistaken him for an angel. Usopp blushed a little at the thought. Everything hard about him, all the walls he'd put around himself were gone. His expression looked so... fragile and damn, how soft did that hair look. Law looked anything but what his reputation famed him for.
Usopp couldn't hold back his temptation and tentatively stroked Law's hair to see if it was as soft as he thought it was. No sooner had he thought "What conditioner does this guy use? It's so soft and fluffy" he jumped back in surprise at a sudden movement. He quickly babbled "SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO TOUCH YOUR HAIR FORGIVE ME!" before realising Law had only turned to his side and hadn't even woken up.
Later, Usopp heard some sniffling and realised he was crying in his sleep. He was absolutely flabbergasted; this was absurd. Law couldn't possibly be crying, he never cried. He looked uncomfortable at times but nothing more than that.
He jumped back when Law moved again and saw he had cocooned himself in the blanket. He sighed. What an absolute dork. He attempted to take the blanket off Law and met some resistance.
"Come on you're gonna suffocate yourself if you stay like that."
"Go away."
Usopp kept tugging at the blanket, amazed at how tightly Law had wrapped himself in his asleep state, ignoring Law's demands for him to go away. He was unprepared as the blanket came free by itself and he was flung to the other side of the room.
"Go the fuck away!"
He winced, winded by the blow and looked up. Law looked panicky, panting and staring at nothing, running his hands through his hair in an attempt to root himself back into reality. His eyes held a haunted undertone much like Luffy's when he had nightmares about Ace. What could Law have been dreaming about?
Law was alerted to Usopps presence then by his shuffling and snapped out of it. His face quickly regained its usual passive expression and he muttered a short apology. Usopp made a quick excuse to go get Chopper and left. Despite being unprepared for his show of emotions, Usopp felt somewhat relieved that even Law did have insecurities. He was intrigued now, what could be hiding underneath Law's hard exterior?
Chopper made a hasty trip to the infirmary to check up on Law. Unfortunately Law was nowhere to be seen and Chopper angrily muttered to himself, complaining that stubborn patients like Zoro and Law were a pain. He literally only turned around before bumping into Law's leg.
"Law where the hell were you, you bastard!?"
"I...just finished cutting myself up" Law said with a smirk before realising he shouldn't have said that and tried to calm a screaming Chopper down.
"Tanuki-ya I was just joking jeez."
"Law you jerk! Stop messing round with me now and get back into bed NOW!"
"It's fine-"
"No it's not! You still have a fever."
"But it's not so serious that I need to be-"
Law was cut off by the feeling of a needle being inserted into his leg and looked down at Chopper surprised before falling unconscious. Chopper changed to heavy point to catch Law and move him to the bed.
"If you'd just stayed in bed like I wanted you to I wouldn't have to drug you."
Nami let out a sigh of relief. Arlong and his cronies were walking away, everything would be just fine. Then Belle-mere did the unthinkable and sacrificed herself for her beliefs. Why Belle-mere? Why couldn't you have just stayed quiet? Horror lanced through her as Belle-mere confessed to only having enough for her children, refusing to deny that she had a family. Nami couldn't breath as Arlong pointed his gun at her chest and Belle-mere said one last "I love you" before the trigger was pulled and she fell to the ground dead. Name let out an involuntary scream...
"Nami-ya wake up!"
Nami woke up with a jolt in a bed and her eyes shot around the room, unfocused until she landed her eyes on Law looking concerned. Then she realised where she was and who was in bed with her and leaped out.
"W-what are you doing?!"
"Waking you up from a nightmare obviously."
"Not that you idiot! What am I doing in bed with you? If you put me i-in there it'll cost you-"
"Not my fault," Law shrugged. "I appreciate the hug but it wasn't needed."
The Nami remembered what she had been doing in the infirmary.
She had been doing some cartography work on her shift when she had noticed some shuffling in the bed. It had been painfully obvious that Law was having a nightmare. His breathing was fast and his eyeballs twitched restlessly. He was clenching his bed sheets tightly and eventually tears started to leak out of his eyes.
Nami had felt some compassion for him. She knew all the signs of a traumatised person from sight. Either they were very tender or very hard. Law was the latter. She didn't know if the others had noticed but there had been little habits that Nami had been noticing. His tendency not to wear revealing clothes (excluding the outfit he had been wearing at Dressrosa...), his reluctance to bond with the crew, carefully guarded words and expressions and more. He could just be an introvert but Nami felt it was something psychologically deeper, after all she went through a similar stage herself (albeit more flamboyant in some ways). She wondered what his problem was.
Before she knew it she'd slid into bed with him and was gently stroking him, twiddling his hair, tracing his tattoos, marvelling at the tanned, well built muscles. Luffy and Zoro showed off up their abs all the time but it just seemed to be more satisfying seeing Law's, especially since he usually kept himself covered up. She was getting sleepy and she barely noticed herself unconsciously moving to embrace Law. She barely registered his involuntary gasp and a whispered "Cora-san..." before she fell asleep.
Nami turned away slightly and pouted. "Well you were having a nightmare so..."
Law's eyes widened a little before he shrugged it off, "I get them all the time."
"Don't shrug it off like its nothing! I've not seen you react like that before."
"Bear in mind I've only been around for a few days."
Law started getting up out of bed, ignoring Nami's warning that Chopper was going to get ballistic again. The next sentence wasn't something he could ignore however.
"Who is Cora-san?"
He stiffened and froze on the spot. Damn, he hadn't expected his fever to still have him delirious enough to mention such confidential things when he was out of it, especially about him. He debated on whether to ignore it or answer the question.
"I don't know what you are talking about Nami-ya." Law attempted to lie
"Don't pretend you don't know who he is, you were muttering his name in your sleep."
Law gritted his teeth. Of course he wouldn't forget who Corazon was, how could he after everything he had done for his sake? He just wasn't willing to reveal that sort if information.
"You don't have to say much, anything you say I'll keep between us ok?"
Law let out a defeated sigh. "Cora-san was a marine and the man who saved my life." He hesitated wondering if that was enough to satisfy the cat burglar.
Nami was surprised by two things: the fact that this man (assuming it was a man) was a marine like Belle-mere had been and that Law had attached a -san to his name. Law NEVER used -san, preferring to use -ya to address people. When Law turned and asked her who Belle-mere was, if felt easier to say, knowing they had something in common.
"Belle-mere was a marine too. Well a retired one. We weren't blood related but she was like a mother to me." Nami moved to sit on the bed to mentally prepare herself for what she was going to say. She wasn't sure why she felt so at ease with Law around, enough to open up to him and she felt prepared to say more. Law sat beside her and waited for her to continue.
"We didn't always agree with each other but I never realised how much I really loved her till she was killed by a fish man pirate called Arlong." She spat out his name in disgust. "He and his me demanded a huge sum of money from everyone in my village and killed those who couldn't pay up. Belle-mere only had enough for Nojiko and I. She died for us on the spot. The worst thing was that if we hadn't had an argument earlier about having Nojiko's hand-me-downs, she wouldn't have felt compelled to cook that expensive dinner and would have had enough to pay for all of us to live."
Nami bowed her head slightly to hide under her hair. Tears threatened to pour out of her eyes and she suddenly felt a little self-conscious that maybe Law would look down at her for looking weak unlike her usual fiery self.
"I'm not crying ok?" Nami peered at Law but he didn't appear to have heard her. Law sighed; he couldn't back down now, not after Nami had revealed her past in more detail than he had.
"I said Cora-san was a marine but I didn't know that when I first met him when I was 10 and I joined up with the Donquioxte family when they were still pirates." He smirked slightly. "I know how ironic, joining up with the man who would become my enemy."
"At the time, I just knew him as Corazon, a top executive of the Donquioxte pirates and Doflamingo's younger brother."
Nami turned to look Law in the eyes. "Why were you with Doflamingo at such a young age?"
Law's smirk slipped away and he broke eye contact. "I don't think you'd want to hear the reason why."
Law surprised her next with a question, "What do you think of me?"
"Huh?"
"What do you think of me?"
Nami was caught off guard. Why was he asking this?
"Answer me."
"Well, er, you're super clever, eh I might even admit you're hot-"
Law grabbed her shoulders then and forced her to look into his intense golden eyes.
"Cut the slack Nami-ya you think I'm creepy don't you?"
"Wha-"
"You think I'm creepy, sadistic and maybe a monster don't you?" He gave an involuntary shudder when he described himself as a monster.
Nami was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable. His eyes were boring into her and she felt like a beetle pinned under the talon of a hawk. She was frozen in place. How did he work that out? Ok maybe it was going a bit too far to call him a monster but she felt a little sick at the truth of his words; she did think he was creepy and sadistic. His constant calculating mindset and his cool appearance with his tattoos made him look creepy at least, worthy of his equally creepy epithet. And even now when she knew it wasn't his fault for keeping the children against their will and experimenting on them (that was all Caesars doing), she secretly blamed him for not doing anything to help the children. He did seem sadistic, what with the heart switching (and appearing to even enjoy it) and beheading of the two people who came to retrieve Caesar.
"No! That's not tru-" her attempts to deny it were cut short by a little shriek as Law let go of her shoulders and gave her a little push away from him. She fell on her back and stared at the ceiling.
"It's fine Nami-ya, I'm used to it. I don't know about now but I was certainly creepy and sadistic when I joined Doflamingo's pirates. Maybe it would be more accurate to say omnicidal and nihilistic."
"I won't spare you the gory details, long story short, everyone I knew was dead either from Amber lead disease or from the men who came to eradicate it and my hometown, Flevance, was razed to the ground."
"I survived purely on luck and instinct but I still had a time limit. I joined Doflamingo's crew so I could destroy as much of the world as I could before my three years were up and I dropped dead from Amber lead disease. I'd advise you not to look up Amber lead or Flevance, all you'll find is a load of bullshit made up by the government to cover it up"
Nami could only see Law's back but she was still overwhelmed by the intense anger that was present in his aura and she felt as if the Jolly Roger on his back was leering at her. His violent change of mood made her want to run and hide behind Zoro and his swords. She gulped a little before asking in a small voice "Do you still want to destroy the world now?"
She hadn't thought of him as a destructive person so she wasn't surprised when he chuckled and replied "Of course not, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Who knows what I'd be doing now if it wasn't for Cora-san"
"If it wasn't for Cora-san, I'd probably still be with Doflamingo...or not, who knows if he would have used me for..." He trailed off not wanting to explore the possibility of Doflamingo using him for the perennial youth operation. Nami got the ominous message whatever it was and tried to move the subject.
"So what was Cora-San like?"
A small smile spread across Law's face. "It's funny how our first meeting went. He threw me out of the window..." Nami stifled a giggle at that, "... And I stabbed him in the back later." He turned around with a childish grin on his face "And you should have seen him! He was such a klutz, always falling over and accidentally setting himself on fire."
Nami smiled back at Law. The grin plastered on his face was just about the closest thing she'd ever seen to him being happy, just from talking about his Cora-san. It was very much like Luffy's grin or Sanji when he was talking about All blue. She blushed a little. It was a shame he didn't have that expression more often, he looked pretty damn cute with it
The he seemed to remember something, his grin disappeared and he turned away again.
"Our relationship wasn't that close to be honest to begin with though. I was actually closer to Doflamingo when I was in his crew." He licked his lips as if Doflamingo's very name was a bad taste. "I only really bonded with Cora-san when he took me, well more like kidnapped me from Doflamingo's crew. He went all around North blue, trying to find a doctor who would cure me. Everyone one of them rejected me, called me a monster when they recognised the white patches on my skin and everyone of them that did that had their hospital burned down by Cora-san."
Nami felt a little guilty about the insult she'd hurled at him when they had met at Punk hazard. It was getting closer to the worst part and Law didn't trust himself to keep composed so stayed facing away, shoulders slumped.
"A few months later, Doflamingo contacted us to let us know he had the Ope-Ope fruit. He wanted Cora-san to come back and eat the fruit to cure me. What he didn't know was that his brother had already eaten a devil fruit. I don't know the exact details but there was some sort of trade with the Ope Ope fruit involving the marines, Doflamingo and a group known as the Diez pirates. Instead of returning to his brother, Cora-san went and stole the fruit right from the Diez pirates!"
"I can remember Cora-san force-feeding it to me and me protesting 'Wait Cora-san I'm not mentally prepared to be a fruit user yet!' Hah, have you ever heard anyone protest about eating a devil fruit because they weren't mentally prepared yet? What a joke." Law tried to sound light hearted but his voice was starting to waver ever so slightly. He started to clench his pants tightly enough to make his knuckles go white
Why was he even revealing so much about his past? Nami had asked who Cora-san was, not his whole life story.
"Cora-san had been shot several times and I didn't know how to use my devil fruit powers to help him. Doflamingo trapped us in the birdcage and Cora-san sacrificed himself to help me get away. He lied to me, promised me his brother wouldn't hurt him and what did he do? Doflamingo just shot him even more and left him in the snow to die."
He ended his story there, unable to continue even if he had anything else to say. His shoulders were hunched and tears were rolling down his cheeks uncontrollably. Nami couldn't see the tears but she could see his shuddering and as quiet as they were, Nami could still hear his sobs. Law closed his eyes tightly as he started remembering the events of the day. The memories just forced themselves to the forefront of his mind and he couldn't concentrate on anything but that. He managed to vaguely sense Nami sit up in bed. He turned slightly and before he could say anything she reached forward and hugged him, tight. All he could do hug her back and they cried on each other's shoulders, comforting each other through mere presence.
Chopper was so intent on his medicine making in the infirmary that he didn't hear the shuffling noises in the background. He intended to restock the medical supplies that had been depleted from all the hectic action of the past through days (it had literally only been a few days since the crew had reunited and entered the new world and they were already having big adventures) but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was watching him. Was that someone breathing over his shoulder? Chopper shook his head. It couldn't be. Eventually he just pretended to himself it was the wind blowing in from the window.
He sat back with a sigh. He'd finally finished restocking, spending the past couple of hours or so making poultices. He was a little tired but he didn't mind, it was all for the crew. Then he remembered that maybe he should check up on Law. He turned and jumped when he saw Law was already awake and behind him. At some point Law must have woken up and pulled up a chair behind Chopper to watch him work.
"H-h-how long have you been sat there for?" Chopper stuttered
Law simply shrugged and replied with "A while."
Chopper did some check-ups on Law to see how his fever was going.
"Hmm, your fever seems to be going down, I guess I'll let you go tomorrow ok?" Chopper said.
Law seemed indifferent to the assessment and changed the subject. "You seem like a very talented pharmacist Tony-ya."
That immediately put Chopper in a good mood, both because Law was praising him and because he wasn't being called a tanuki for once. He did his happy dance and hurled his usual insults at him, "That doesn't make me happy at all you bastard!" He turned around and scurried to a bookshelf, picked up a decent sized hardback and ran back to the bed where Law was sat. Chopper shyly looked up and asked "W-w-will you look through this medical journal with me?"
Law was caught a bit off guard by the offer but accepted with a small smile. He moved to lean against the headboard and Chopper practically leaped into his lap. The book, named 'A history of un curable diseases' was quite a thick book, about 500 pages or so, which the two spent the better part of an hour flicking through, discussing various disease and possible ways to cure them. The sheer number of diseases listed reminded Law that not everyone in life was as lucky as he was to survive a terminal illness.
"So Law,could I ask you a question?"
"Ask all the questions you want." Law waved a dismissive hand, seeming not to mind.
"W-well you know how the Ope-Ope fruit we can cure any disease? Well what was your first major operation with it?"
Law looked out of the window thoughtfully, wondering how much information he was willing to partake before answering. "My first operation was on myself when I was 12"
"Wow sugoi!" Chopper exclaimed, stars practically dancing in his eyes
Law snickered at the outburst; Chopper couldn't possibly know how dire the situation was back then but he wasn't going to ruin the mood with his depressing past.
"It was just a little poisoning that I needed to get rid of before it killed me in a few months."
Law appeared not to care but Chopper could feel he was edging towards dark territory and decided to leave the subject
The book listed the diseases in the order they were (unfortunately) discovered so it wasn't until they were 3/4 of the way through the book that they reached the page Law had been dreading. He didn't want to look at an article about the disease that had turned his early life upside down, an article that was probably full of lies. He'd seen it when they'd been flicking through the contents page so he purposefully tried to skip past the page number with it but had been stopped when Chopper had noticed he'd skipped two pages.
When Chopper started reading the page with it on, he felt Law pick up the book and move it closer to his face to read it. He looked up at Law as he hid his facial expression behind it. His fingers started gripping the book so hard it threatened to tear the cover apart and Chopper began to feel intimidated by the dark and menacing aura overflowing off Law. After a few minutes of not saying anything or moving, Chopper attempted to lower the book from Law's face and shrieked at the furious expression etched on his face.
"Law?"
He was unprepared for the harsh laugh that came off him then. He put the book down on his lap still darkly chuckling, devoid of any humour that a laugh should have. Chopper was unnerved by the sudden mood change. The anger seemed so out of character for Law and Chopper couldn't think of any time when he had seen someone as mad as Law was at this moment.
"Law, what's wrong?" Chopper nervously asked.
Law fixed a stony glare at Chopper before realising who he was glaring at and closed his eyes with a sigh.
"Do you always trust everything the medical journals tell you?"
"Yes" Chopper asked without hesitation, unprepared for the humourless laughing he was answered with.
"How naive you are." Chopper winced at the comment.
"Well I can't say I blame you, it's not like you expect lies to be mixed in with the information you are reading."
"Wha? How could that be?"
"The government don't always tell the truth, just think about Nico Robin, I can bet you the reason they gave for her first bounty is a lie."
"Who told you tha-"
"Have a look at this article and tell me how much of that you believe."
Chopper scrutinised the article, wary of the credibility of the information but despite his attempts to find a mistake somewhere in the article, he couldn't see anything that could have prompted Law's violent change in mood.
"I don't know Law, it seems plausible to me? Why would you know if there was something wrong anyway?" Chopper queried.
"Because this was the same disease I once had."
Chopper was stunned.
"This person has the main points right, what makes me angry though is this mistake here and the fact that they completely gloss over what-" Law stopped suddenly and looked away disgusted.
"Yeah of course they wouldn't say anything about what happened, it's a medical journal not a history book."
"What happened Law?" Chopper got the feeling that there was a story to be told with this Amber lead disease.
"Nothing you need to know Tanuki-ya it's all in the past, you're too young, you don't need to know." Law waved a dismissive hand. Chopper growled at Law's underestimation of him.
"I'm 17! And also stop calling me a tanuki, I'm a reindeer!"
"Yeah? Well I'm 26, you're almost a decade younger than me, you don't need to know about something that's finished and buried away."
Law shut up then when Chopper gave him a slap. A reindeer slap.
"Law stop being so goddamn dismissive of this thing! Whatever happened is obviously something important and if this article is wrong you might as well tell me the truth and educate me!" Chopper panted at his little outburst.
"I was trying to stay away from this but since you insist, I will give you the brutal truth. Sit your goddamn butt down and I'll start."
Shit, Chopper had pissed him off. He sat down and waited for the explanation.
"Amber lead disease is a type of poisoning that comes from handling a mineral, Amber lead. It's harmless until you take it out of the ground and symptoms include white patches appearing on your skin and in later stages, intense pain that leaves you unable to move. The poison also builds up in each generation, shortening lifespans until eventually children die before they become adults. The Amber lead disease was only present in the country known as Flevance. The people lived their lives of luxury surrounded by Amber lead, not knowing it was slowly killing them. The government didn't tell them, they were only interested in the income from trading it."
"I was ten when the disease appeared in everyone at the same time. As soon as everyone else saw what was happening, the world government pulled the world nobles out of the country and the surrounding countries barricaded the borders so we were kept corralled in like vermin. They refused to help us. Even my parents who were the best doctors in the country could do nothing to cure the disease. Later they promised that they would allow the children boats to get out of the country to get treatment. Everything for the children at least seemed ok."
"And then the government sent the men in. I was upstairs at my parents hospital looking after my sister Lamie when I heard some gunshots. I left my sister to investigate and found my parents shot dead, treated like they were something to eradicate, like pests."
Chopper was starting to understand what kind of story he had landed himself in and he did not like it one bit. He tried to edge towards the door but Law kept a firm grip of his hoofs.
"You're not getting out of this Tanuki-ya, you asked for the truth so you're getting it."
Law took a breath before continuing.
"I ran to the harbour where the children were boarding the ship. I wasn't because I wanted to stay with Lamie who was at that stage incapacitated and that was good luck on my part. Everyone at the harbour was dead too. My school friends, the nun who was looking after us, dead. I came back to the hospital and found it burning down."
Law closed his eyes and then immediately opened them again as images assaulted him again. He was threatened with a panic attack, he felt like he was starting to choke as he remembered the smoke coming from the hospital and he was starting to sweat now. He wasn't sure if he really was hearing screaming. He wasn't going to let himself lose his composure here now though so he tried to force himself to calm.
He could only just barely just manage to whisper " My sister was still in there. Burning alive and I could do nothing to reach her. I've never felt more useless in my whole life than at that moment." He clenched the bed sheets, not looking directly at Chopper. "If only I had the Ope Ope fruit back then, the whole tragedy could have been avoided."
"I only had three more years to live and even when I got the Ope Ope fruit two years later, someone else died so I could have it." He bit his lip.
Chopper was glad the story seemed to finally be over, he was regretting slightly that he had goaded Law into spilling the beans on his past when he clearly didn't want to.
"Well you're cured now right? Otherwise you wouldn't be here." Chopper pipped.
"That's what I thought, but it appears I was wrong." Law said ominously
"It keeps coming back to haunt me, I'm only alive because I can use the Ope-Ope fruit to cut the Amber lead out, I don't know why it won't go away."
Chopper suddenly remembered something that Law had said earlier: I...just finished cutting myself up.
"W-was that what you were doing before?" Chopper asked, horrified.
Law could only nod. "I haven't had the Amber lead affect me seriously in a while, I think Doflamingo's lead bullets probably stimulated the Amber lead to start again and that's why I got a fever."
Chopper felt guilty now for being so cranky before when Law had only been trying to sort out his problems. His ears perked up then at a sound.
"Wait is that screaming I can hear?"
"So I wasn't the only one hearing screaming then?"
Law let out a sigh of relief. So he wasn't going completely mad, he was feeling better now, his mind significantly calmer and the threat of a panic attack was gone.
They listened quietly to the sounds outside:
"AAAAAHH ITS A HUGE SEA KING!"
"OMG IT LOOKS DELICIOUS!"
Sounds of a brawl ensued and the pair could hear the monster trio shouting out their attacks. There was a loud splash that made the ship rock a bit before it was quiet. They heard frantic steps coming towards the infirmary and the door burst open with Luffy panting slightly.
"Hey Torao, you should come see the huge sea king Sanji's gonna cook us for dinner!" Luffy ran off excitedly then.
"I guess we should go then." Chopper sighed and hopped off the bed.
Law smiled a little and followed him, taking his shirt off the chair where it had been hanging and put that on on his way out along with his hat.