Spoilers up for Law's past. Just in case you forgot, Rosinante == Corazon. Corazon is a title, Rosinante is his birth name.

Cover image is by Nevamyne Bloodvixen on zerochan, #1797133.

"Please, please!" an obnoxious voice pierced through Doflamingo's mind. He was sitting in a chair, slouched back as he looked at the man who had crossed him. The man had his back faced towards him and his arms around something. Someone. A crying someone. "Please spare my child. He's innocent!"

Beside him, he could feel Rosinante stiffen at those words. Ah, yes, now thinking about it, wasn't this a familiar scene?

The child sounded a bit like Rosinante when Doflamingo shot their father, with his loud, uncontrollable sobs and his choked hiccups from crying so much. The noise grated at Doflamingo, but he could forgive him for that because Rosinante was like that when he was young too, always crying. The father, however, he was just -

Pathetic.

A smirk stretched across Doflamingo's face as he stood, waving Lao G, who was position between him and the father-son pair, to the side. It would be easy to let his subordinate kill the father or even kill him using his strings, but this required a special touch, didn't it?

Doflamingo brushed the ends of his feathered coat to the side and withdrew a gun. An image of what happened fourteen years ago overlapped with the scene in front of him for a moment as he extended his arm and pointed his gun at the father's skull.

The child's cry escalated. A little hand could be seen grasping tightly onto the father's arm.

Rosinante seemed to have finally unfreeze. Doflamingo could feel his brother reaching for him, and for a second, among the loud cry of the child, he thought that he heard his brother utter softly, in a shaken voice, "Doffy."

But his brother lost his voice.

Doflamingo slanted his head towards his brother ever slightly, taking in his whiter-than-usual-pallor and trembling hands. "Pathetic, isn't he?" he said to Rosinante, and without waiting for an answer - not that he couldanswer - he pulled the trigger.

His brother jerked as though it was he who was shot, and the child's wail that followed almost appeared to have come from him as the body hit the ground.

Rosinante looked at the blood pooling beneath the still body and the child splattered in blood and bits of brain matter, before shakingly lifting his gaze to Doflamingo, eyes wide.

Doflamingo smiled, satisfied, and slipped away his gun. "That would teach them a lesson, don't you think, Roci?"

Rosinante seemed to have to physically pull himself away from the shock, before pressing his lips into a thin line. Like that mattered when he couldn't even speak. Then, he spun and stormed away, almost slipping on the ground before he caught himself.

Doflamingo watched him go for a moment, before turning to Lao G. "Take care of this, then head back to the ship."

Lao G nodded his acceptance of the order and Doflamingo turned to follow his brother.

His chest ached.

Xxx

"Roci," Doflamingo called out as his brother came into sight. It was not hard to catch up to him, since his brother was even clumsier when in a hurry. It was a wonder he didn't seriously injure himself with all the flailing and falling he did in and out of fights, but then again, that was what Doflamingo was there for. To look out for his foolish, younger brother.

There was a falter in Rosinante's steps, indicating that he heard him, but his brother, besides - interestingly enough - snapping his fingers, just kept going on.

Ignoring Doflamingo.

Annoyance slipped into Doflamingo's veins, like it naturally belonged there.

His brother should have known better than to ignore him.

Doflamingo exhaled and extended his hand, calling the power of his Devil Fruit. A few near-invisible strings shot towards Rosinante. He didn't want to hurt his brother - no one was allowed to do that - but he did need to teach him a lesson. If inhibiting his movement here at the pier and lifting him up in the air, helpless like a newborn kitten, would teach him that sorely needed lesson, that was what Doflamingo would do.

Doflamingo flicked his fingers upwards, bemused for a moment when Rosinante spun around and almost tripped over his own feet instead of being lifted up, before realizing that his brother somehow dodged his strings. The strings that were supposed to control Rosinante's movement were actually latched onto the floorboards of the landing stage.

A scowl made its way across his face as he detached those strings. How did his clumsy brother dodge his strings?

The question left his mind the second his eyes focused on Rosinante.

His brother's lips were moving.

For a second, illogical hope lodged into his mind. Did his brother recover his voice?

But no sound was coming from his lips, even as Rosinante made sharp, angry gestures that were impossible to decipher.

His brother still couldn't speak.

Suddenly, it was Doflamingo who was angry. Angry that his weakling of a brother lost his voice from a little trauma. Angry that even though Rosinante - enough though both of them- had gone through and survived hell together, in the end, it might have been Doflamingo who caused his brother to lose his voice.

Doflamingo stepped towards his brother, and his voice was like steel when he spoke. "Rosinante, you knowwhat kind of Family we are." You've grew up with me. Youknow what type of person I am. "You will not get upset over one death." You will not get upset over our useless father's death. You will notlose your voice over that pathetic man.

Doflamingo grabbed his brother's wrist, pulling him to face him. His brother futilely tried pulling away, but he didn't notice that. All he noticed was his brother's lips, still vexingly moving and moving with no sound escaping from them.

His chest throbbed again and it was stupid. Weak.

It hardened his heart against his brother.

"Don't tell me you're still upset over our father's death," he said, his voice cold and full of contempt. Yes, that was how Doflamingo was supposed to be. He was not weak.Never again. He harshly tugged at Rosinante so he could just look at him already. How darehis little brother avert his eyes from him, when Rosinante was the one who came crawling back to him fourteen years later after he first disappeared? When Doflamingo was the one who took care of him when they were young, and still continued to do so. His tone towards Rosinante was (unusually) deliberately cruel, derisive, as he said, "It was a long time ago."

Doflamingo finally caught a glimpse of his brother's face, and it made his stomach drop and his mouth dry (weak, weak, weak). The liquid that glistened in his little brother's eyes was like the ocean surface under sunlight.

This was the first time he had seen Rosinante cry ever since he returned to him. If he initially thought Rosinante seemed odd because he no longer cried over every little thing like he used to, then this glimpse of the former Rosinante was even odder.

Those tears don't belong there, not in his little brother's eyes.

Rosinante's lips were moving again, shorter duration this time, and Doflamingo was so stunned by the sight of his brother's tears that he let Rosinante's wrist slip from his grasp when his brother pulled.

The sound of the ocean waves crashing filled his ears.

That idiot,Doflamingo thought, fingers moving to summon his power as though in slow-motion, he pulled too hard.

He watched Rosinante tip backwards, surprise flickering across his face as the motion registered to him.

Reach him!Doflamingo willed his strings. They began descending towards Rosinante.

His brother's back was to the sea and just as Doflamingo's strings almost reached him, he crashed through the surface. His strings followed, but dissolved upon impact with the seawater, and his brother fell, going to a place where Doflamingo couldn't reach him.

"Roci!" Doflamingo threw himself to the floor of the landing stage, as close to the sea as he dared, heart hammering against his chest. When his brother didn't surface, Doflamingo cursed and hesitated for a beat before shoving his hand under the water, trying to reach his brother's sinking form. His strength immediately began to sap away from him. "Damn it, you clumsy fool. Swim! I know you can swim!"

Roci seemed to have heard him for a second. His head tilted back underwater in Doflamingo's direction, half-lidded eyes peering at him, through him, before they closed completely.

"Roci!"

"Young Master!" Hands pulled him back from the ocean onto the safety of the platform, and Doflamingo was snarling like a wild animal, like he was the same filthy child back in the street fourteen years ago, before he registered it was Lao G.

"Lao G, go rescue Roci!" He practically pushed Lao G into the ocean. If Doflamingo was in his right mind, he would have sneered at how his words sounded more like a plea than a command.

Lao G sensed his urgency, there was no way he couldn't have, and immediately jumped into the ocean.

It felt like forever before Lao G returned with Rosinante.

The second Lao G took his brother out of the water, Doflamingo was pulling his brother towards him, his blood pulsing impossibly loud in his ears. "Roci!"

His brother's body was cold, so cold and unresponsive. Doflamingo took a few precious moments to lay his brother flat against the floorboard, and then pushed at Rosinante's chest, more frantic than he had ever been before. For a few frightening second, nothing happened, and his heart constricted painfully in his chest. He was about to pushed again when he heard it: a small, pained cough. Then, Rosinante was spewing out the seawater that he swallowed.

"Roci, Roci," Doflamingo said, pulling his brother towards him. Strength began to sap from him again as Rosinante's clothes, drenched in seawater, made contact with him, but he merely pulled his brother closer. He had to, had to, feel it.

Against his chest, his brother's heartbeat weakly fluttered.

Relief rushed through Doflamingo.

"I'm bringing him back to the ship," he announced, sliding an arm under his brother's knees and another against his back so he could lift him up. He needed a checkup, just to be sure.

A hand extended in front of him, stopping him. Preventing him from tending to his brother. Anger flared in Doflamingo's chest as he traced the offending appendage back to Lao G.

"Young Master, perhaps I should do it?" he suggested, tone still full of his perpetual respect for him, but also something else. "G! There's the G!"

Doflamingo's mind screeched to a stop and tried to re-orientate itself.

He was not ten anymore and Rosinante not eight. What was he doing, becoming so flustered, so frantic over this? What a sight Doflamingo must be. His brother was back for not even two months, and here he was, all composure lost at the first sight that he was in trouble.

He needed to distant himself.

Doflamingo nodded in agreement to Lao G's offer, and if his arms were stiff as he extended them to pass Rosinante to his subordinate, no one needed to know. Just before Lao G took Rosinante into his arms, his brother's eyes fluttered open. He blinked bemusedly for a few seconds, mind most likely disoriented from almost drowning, before his hands shot out, latching onto Doflamingo.

Specifically his wet right sleeve.

Ah, he saw Doflamingo losing his cool and reaching for him in the ocean then. His brother's eyes were wide, desperate and frightened, as he glanced down at Doflamingo's clothes, which were soaked after coming in contact with his brother's drenched ones.

Even without Rosinante saying, Doflamingo knew what his foolish, kind-hearted brother was thinking.

"Fufufufu, you don't think I jumped into the ocean after you, do you?" At those words, his brother's look of panic gradually faded. Doflamingo wondered if that was how he looked when Rosinante fell into the ocean and didn't come back up, like he almost lost something beyond precious. Then he wondered how truthful his words were. If Lao G hadn't arrived as timely as he had, would Doflamingo had jumped after his brother?

Even without thinking about it, he already knew the answer.

"Lao G will bring you to the infirmary and make sure you are alright," Doflamingo said, because he knew.

His answer would always be no.

"You should have been able to swim back up before," he continued, his statement plain and simple if not for the accusing tone that he couldn't quite keep away from his voice.

Something flashed across his brother's face, but it was gone before he could read it. Did his brother hear the accusation in his voice, or was it in reference to the fourteen years that he lived without Doflamingo by his side?

Doflamingo had no interest in knowing. What exactly happened to his brother during those years and what trauma he had gone through alone, he would never ask. His brother, his family, was here now.

Rosinante raised a hand and carefully gestured to his head.

"You hit your head when you fell?" Doflamingo asked, placing Rosinante down on the landing stage. He was probing his brother's skull for any bumps or dents before he even fully registered his action.

Rosinante nodded, wincing at the movement and looking slightly embarrassed. Doflamingo casually withdrew his hand after a moment, and reminded himself once again not to be so overprotective.

He stood instead, towering over his brother's form against the floorboard, and looked down on him.

"Go get it checked," Doflamingo ordered, referring to Rosinante's injured head. Rosinante looked at him for a moment, pursing his lips, but ultimately obeyed. His brother struggled to a stand with his gangling long limbs, before stumbling down the landing stage towards their ship.

"Let Lao G bring you, Roci," Doflamingo said when he couldn't stand watching his idiotic brother's bumbling movements anymore. He tilted his head in Lao G's direction, and spotted his nod of acceptance to the task. An amused smirk tugged at Doflamingo's lips. "With your luck, you'll trip into the sea again."

Rosinante turned around to weakly glare at him, but Doflamingo merely looked back at him, silently daring him to contradict. He knew his brother couldn't. Even when they were younger, Rosinante was unbelievably clumsy and prone to tripping. After a few seconds of their stare down, Rosinante let out a silent sigh as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

Doflamingo watched in satisfaction as Rosinante gestured Lao G to follow him and together, they headed back to the ship. Once Doflamingo saw that his brother and Lao G entered the vessel, he turned to the opposite direction.

He needed a smoke.

In hindsight, Doflamingo should have wondered how his brother could rub the back of his head without a hint of pain, when he implied that he hit his head so hard as he fell that he was unable to swim.

Xxx

It was always the heat that got to him, suffocating and palpable enough that Doflamingo knewthe scorching, all-consuming flame was near, but not so close as to actually burn him.

Not yet.

Twack.An arrow struck the wall beside him, close, so close. Had it been a centimeter closer, he might have been dead.

His brother was crying in the background, his father pathetically begging for their lives. Those ants were standing a few feet away, watching them, chanting for their deaths, their humiliation, their suffering.

Doflamingo hung from the window, arms tied and stretched above him, aching, burning,from supporting his weight for so long. He was blindfolded, as though the only thing he could do was bare his neck to his captors and hope for mercy.

His brother was wailing, crying even louder. It fueled the anger growing in his chest, the helpless frustration at his inability to do anything. He shouted and yelled and screamed, but all to no avail.

This was not Mariejois.

This was hell on earth.

Xxx

Doflamingo burst up from his reclining chair, pulse hammering against his throat. He could still see it behind his eyelids. The flames flickering, stretching, reaching to claim him. His brother's cry echoing in the backgrounds. And the chants -

It took him a second to register the noise he was hearing was a knock on the door, and not the phantom crack of a thrown rock breaking bone.

Doflamingo scrubbed his hand over his face, inhaling deeply, and slowly leaned back into the chair he fell asleep in, reminding himself that he was here, in the company of his own family, and that those antsgot what they deserved.

The knocking on the door continued, hesitant but also insistent, and Doflamingo wanted to send whoever was there away because he was in no mood for human interaction now, but he recognized the pattern of the knock.

"Come in," he finally said a beat after he composed himself.

The door cracked open and light from the hallway poured, chasing away the darkness. Rosinante stood right at the threshold, his frame bracketed by it. He had forgone his black feathered coat indoor and was only wearing his button down and white pants. He seemed smaller without it, somehow.

"How's your head?" Doflamingo spoke and Rosinante pulled out a sheet of paper with words written on it, like he had anticipated his question.

"I'm better now,"it read.

Silence hung between them, like always now that Rosinante couldn't speak. Doflamingo half-expected Rosinante to turn around and leave after he had informed him that he was alright, but instead he continued standing by the doorway, peering at Doflamingo with strange intensity. Like he was cataloguing every twitch of his face, every drop of sweat on his brow, every minute trembling of his limbs. Emotions flickered across Rosinante's face in rapid succession, all fighting for dominance, before one eventually settled after a long while.

Before Doflamingo could read his expression, Rosinante turned to the wall, flipping over the paper he had in hand as he did so, and scribbled on it against the hard surface. There was a beat in which Rosinante was done writing but seemed hesitant to show him the content, before he finally held up his paper so Doflamingo could read it.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

Doflamingo stared at his younger brother. Despite the phrasing, Doflamingo had no doubt about it. His brother, despite all his foolishness, was also freakishly perceptive at times. He knew. He knew about Doflamingo's dream and consciously made an offer to stay with him for the night.

Him!

Doflamingo wanted to laugh and throw his brother's ridiculous kindness back to his face, because he was Doflamingo fucking Donquixote. He didn't need anyone to soothe him to sleep, he didn't need anyone to chase away his nightmares. Doflamingo created nightmares, he didn't have them!

Except what Doflamingo did to Rosinante that afternoon was still in his mind, specially its effect. His brother's trembling hands, his pale face and wet eyes, and him tripping into the ocean in attempt to get away from Doflamingo. It was a wonder Rosinante sought him out at all, instead of hiding away. After all, Doflamingo never asked his brother to give him an update on his status, yet as always, he somehow managed to read his mind.

"Come here," Doflamingo said.

There was the beat of hesitation again, and Doflamingo almost wanted to roll his eyes and feel annoyed because Rosinante suggested this, didn't he, but then his brother stepped out of the threshold and into his room and Doflamingo couldn't feel annoyed anymore as the door closed behind him.

"You want to sleep now?" Doflamingo asked, standing even as his brother nodded. Rosinante did look tired, with his drooping eyes and paler-than-usual face.

Doflamingo gestured to the bed and that was all the invitation Rosinante need before climbing in, immediately making himself comfortable. Whatever hesitation he had before was gone.

Doflamingo let out a snort of amusement before slipping into bed from the other side. "Oi, don't take all the blankets," he said, smacking Rosinante on the head. He made no mention of how close to the middle Rosinante chose to situate himself, despite the fact that Doflamingo had a king size bed now. It was no longer one of those scraggy beds that was a struggle to fit one person, much less than two. It was closer to the bed they had back when they were World Nobles in Mariejois.

Rosinante responded to his reprimand by snuggling even closer to Doflamingo's side of the bed, until he was intruding into his space.

"You idiot," Doflamingo said, a thread of fondness in his voice. He wrapped an arm around Rosinante and felt his brother shuffle closer to him, until his head was leaning against Doflamingo's chest. Doflamingo ignored his brother's action and bodily moved both of them back to the center of the bed.

Rosinante let out a huff at the movement.

"Go to sleep, Roci," Doflamingo said, having enough of his brother's shit. His brother nodded sleepily against his chest, then stretched his arm out until his upper arm was lying on top of Doflamingo's waist and his hand was against his back.

"Goodnight,"he traced against his back.

"Goodnight," Doflamingo said aloud, resting his chin on top of his brother's mob of soft hair. Rosinante's eyes closed and his breathing began to even out. This close, Doflamingo could feel Rosinante's warmth emitting from him. It reminded him all the more of their shared past and even though Doflamingo was so sure that he wouldn't be able to sleep after waking from the nightmare because he was never able to in the past, he soon found himself lulled to sleep by the warmth at his side and the sound of Rosinante's breathing.

Xxx

Rosinante's conscience plagued him during the day, but Doflamingo's always plagued him at night. Even Rosinante's presence couldn't change that-!

"Shh," someone whispered in his dream, voice soft and soothing among all the fire and cries for his death. "Sleep, Doffy. Sleep." A pause. "I'm here."

A hand smoothed through his hair, like a mother's touch.

His mother.

The fire and chants slipped away and he fell back into a dreamless sleep.

Xxx

Doflamingo woke up to Rosinante's hand resting on top of his head. Sometime during the night, his younger brother also shifted upward until his body was curled around either side of his shoulders with Doflamingo's face pressed against Rosinante's stomach.

It should be an embarrassing situation, and yet… Doflamingo lifted a hand to Rosinante's waist and pulled his brother to him until there was no space left between them, and inhaled deeply.

Rosinante's scent - sweet and earthy, almost sickeningly familiar - rushed at him, and whatever remnant of the nightmare faded to nothingness.

Rosinante stirred, and Doflamingo closed his eyes, his hold around his brother not slackening the slightest.

Let this moment last a little longer.

"Doffy?" a voice slipped into the room, sounding so young and addled with sleep. The hand Rosinante had on Doflamingo's head started moving again, almost subconsciously.

Like a mother's touch.

Doflamingo froze.

Rosinante must have felt Doflamingo freezing, since the next thing he knew, Rosinante was letting out a confused noise from the back of his throat, low and plaintive. Doflamingo hushed him without a second thought and smoothed his hand over Rosinante's back.

Rosinante quiet down and Doflamingo could pinpoint the exact moment when he fully awoke from the way his brother's body stiffened for a split-second, either from the position he found them in or at the sudden realization that he just spoke when he was pretending to be mute.

Rosinante started moving, trying to surreptitiously slip out of Doflamingo's hold the same way he slipped out of his life fourteen years ago, but Doflamingo merely tightened his grip until it musthave been painful.

Rosinante let out a small gasp, and Doflamingo finally stopped pretending to be asleep, lifting his face away from his brother to look him in the eye. His brother stopped writhing, stopped breathing, and Doflamingo wondered what his brother saw in his eyes because Doflamingo was beyond furiousright now.

(The stab of betrayal hurt more than any injury, any insult or humiliation he had ever experienced. It burned and spread like poison.)

"Going somewhere, Roci?" Doflamingo asked, his voice rough from sleep, his tone sweet.

It created an interesting effect: Rosinante's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, lips parting slightly. He began squirming against Doflamingo's hold to reach for pen and paper.

A liar who lied.

Doflamingo considered tightening his hold for a moment, but then let go.

As his brother conversed with him using pen and paper - his traitorous brother who lied about his muteness when he had no reason to -, Doflamingo wondered just what else he had lied about as well.

Xxx

They were on the ship fighting against some no-name pirates that were stupid enough to think they could ever compete with the Donquixote Family. It had been a month since Doflamingo discovered his brother's lie regarding his inability to speak. After that, Doflamingo began paying attention to Rosinante's movements, and what Doflamingo used to chalk up as Rosinante's eccentricity now seemed more like evidence of his guilt. His preference for keeping to himself, his habit of sleepwalking to odd places of the ship, and even the incident when Rosinante couldn't swim because he supposedly hit his head, Doflamingo couldn't help but suspect.

How far did this farce of his extend? Doflamingo wondered, but even as that thought crossed his mind, he knew that the answer didn't matter. There was really only one thing he cared about.

Did his little brother really betray him?

At that thought, Doflamingo's movement faltered for a split-second and the small-fry that he was fighting quickly jabbed his sword at him. A fool that didn't know his place in life. Doflamingo shifted to avoid the weapon, but only succeeded in doing so at the cost of it piercing his pink feathered coat instead.

Doflamingo's eyebrow twitched. That was his favorite coat.

As he made a move to retaliate, he caught the sight of Rosinsnate in the corner of his eyes. Rocinante, who was looking at him with wide eyes and parted mouth, because from his angle, it must have looked awfully like Doflamingo had been stabbed. Shock and distress passed through his little brother's features in quick succession, and he wondered, are those also lies?

The fights around them were dwindling.

Doflamingo killed the small-fry with a String Bullet to the heart, and then flung himself off the ship.

"Doffy!"

Rosinante's shout, full of anguish and fear, echoed in Doflamingo's ears. He cared enough to unwittingly break his cover, in the very least.

The question was, Doflamingo mused, staring at the sky above as he tipped towards the sea, would -

Pink and black filled his vision.

Behind his tinted shades, Doflamingo's eyes widened.

If Lao G hadn't arrived as timely as he had, would Doflamingo had jumped after his brother?

Even without thinking about it, he already knew the answer.

His answer would always be no.

Doflamingo and Rosinante crashed into the ocean, his little brother's hand just missing him.

They both sunk.

Hope you enjoyed reading! I'll post the second part of this as soon as I'm done.