This was written as a gift to my friend who goes by Plume8now on ao3. She has LawLu stories too, if you're interested!
The title is from the song Guillotine by Jon Bellion
The week of ruin, as Law will dub it for years to come, starts with a lazy morning.
It's nice, actually; he's lying in the shade of Nami's mikan grove with his sword resting against his shoulder, and there's an icy drink next to him, the lip of the glass covered in moisture as the drink is slowly warmed by the late morning sun. His crew is safe and happy, and there is no danger in sight.
If you don't count for the Straw Hats, that is.
A few days ago, Law's crew had met up with Luffy's on what was reported to Law as a coincidence, but was too convenient to actually be one. Bepo had been avoiding eye contact when he'd delivered the news, and Law knows that his crew must have plotted this with the Straw Hats.
Not that he minds, really. The sun is high in the sky, the waves rock the Sunny in a smooth, calming sway, and a cool breeze ruffles Law's sweat dampened hair. It's coming from a huge fan Franky had built on the deck less than five minutes after Luffy complained about the high temperatures, and it's working wonders to make the blistering heat more bearable.
Law hears the sound of something breaking, but he doesn't even open his eyes. He hears Nami's voice, next; shrill and laced — no, dripping — with killing intent. She's screeching her captain's name, and three seconds later something way too warm, wet, and rubbery slams into Law's side. A hand slaps over Law's mouth before he has the time to even curse.
"I know you're not asleep, Torao. I'm hiding, so shush!"
Law rolls his eyes and pushes Luffy's hand off his mouth. He's about to tell Luffy to fuck off and leave him to his devices, but then he spots splotches of something sticky and vaguely green on Luffy's sweaty skin, and curiosity gets the best of him. "What did you do this time?"
Luffy scratches the back of his neck and grins. "Well, see, Usopp had this cool jar of glowy jam on his desk, and Shachi told me it'd probably taste pretty good, so... I kinda broke it when I tried to taste it, and it sorta fell on Nami's new map." He pauses, big eyes darting to the deck where his navigator is still demanding blood. He chuckles nervously. "She got mad."
Somehow, Law's not surprised. He shoves Luffy a bit farther away, wipes non-existent mystery jam from his shirt and pants, and levels a stern look at his lover. "You shouldn't listen to what they tell you, Luffy-ya. They're going to trick you into doing something bad one of these days, and I'll be the one to suffer. I just know it."
"Probably," Luffy agrees. He frowns. "I said I was sorry… I didn't even get to taste it, and I wanted to! It's some kind of mystery jam, so it must taste good!"
Luffy licks a splotch of the goo off his arm, and Law finds himself once again thanking the seas that Luffy's immune to poison. He glances down to the lower deck where Shachi and Penguin are getting yelled at by Nami. He'd tell them to stop goading Luffy into doing stupid things if it wasn't so amusing to witness. Besides, Luffy'd probably do it on his own anyway. Shachi and Penguin are just speeding up the process.
Luffy makes a disappointed note about the taste, and Law is just so very, very done with his boyfriend licking his own arm. He creates a small room and in the blink of an eye, all the goo is gone from Luffy's skin and clothes. "You're not a cat, Luffy-ya. Stop licking yourself."
Luffy shrugs casually. "It wasn't good anyway. Definitely not Sanji's jam."
Sometimes Law remembers that he's dating this person, and then he proceeds to question his sanity. This is one of those times.
Luffy smiles and pokes Law's arm. When he speaks, his voice is loud and chipper as always, as if Law'd swept away his intention to hide along with the evidence. "Why are you here if you're not even sleeping? Nami's gonna yell at you if you touch her trees, you know. And she's already pissed."
Law doesn't give a reply; it's not a crime to enjoy the shade and the way light filters through the thick canopy. Luffy pouts and says something else, but Law tunes him out. Luffy stops talking and rests his head on Law's shoulder, clearly intending to wait for the edge of Nami's ire to dull with time. After a while, Law's convinced that Luffy's fallen asleep with how evenly he's breathing, and Law pulls him closer, presses a kiss on the crown of his head.
Then, the silence is broken with a sudden demand.
"Swap hearts with me."
Law looks down, surprised but also not because this is Luffy he's talking to. Luffy's looking up at him, eyes serious and demanding in a way that tells Law that been thinking about this for a while now. Luffy's hand finds his, and Law realises that Luffy was just lulling him in a false sense of security with his calmness. Brat.
"Just for a moment," Luffy continues. "I don't want it to be permanent or anything, I like my heart and all, but I wanna try. I wanna feel Torao's heart inside me."
"So when Nami kills you, it'll be my heart in your chest, then? Are you trying to get me killed with you?"
Luffy snickers. "She's not gonna kill me, stupid. And we'll switch back before she finds us, anyway."
Law shakes his head, because fuck no. They've taken down Emperors and high-ranking marines alike, been through more battles than either of them have scars to show for them, and still the most challenging part of their alliance remains dating his ally.
He tells Luffy as much, and Luffy's laugh is bright and jovial as it rings in the air. Then, without warning or warrant Luffy pushes himself up and into Law's lap so that he's straddling Law's hips. He puts a hand over the spot of skin Law's heart lies under, smiles, and says. "It'd feel funny, I bet. Your heart inside me, and my heart inside you." He looks up, round brown eyes like coffee and liquid love, and Law finds himself considering it before Luffy even has time to further implore him.
Luffy says, "Let's try it." And it's like the slow waves, the calm atmosphere and the warm air have all put a spell on Law; a spell that's only emphasised and refined by Luffy's smile as it wreaks havoc on all of Law's common sense and steals the ground from under his inhibitions.
Law tries, but can't think of a good reason to refuse Luffy's request. Swapping hearts alone shouldn't be too difficult, not with Law's mastery over his devil fruit and his unparalleled concentration skills. As long as he doesn't lose focus — which he won't — they'll be fine, and Luffy will stop pestering him about it (read: be happy). The long buried romantic side in Law is thrilled about the idea, too, and honestly, they've done a lot riskier things for a lot less.
What's the worst that can happen?
With that in mind, he pulls Kikoku from its sheath, which is awkward as hell because he really does not want to cut Nami's mikan trees on accident. Luffy's grin widens and his eyes flick up to Law incredulously, as if he can't believe Law's actually going along with this.
Law smirks, kisses Luffy on the lips, and forms the shape of a room on his palm.
Creating a room is always a rush. In an instant he knows everything, controls everything inside this small sphere that glows blue even in the radiance of daylight. It's exhilarating, and yet so very relaxing. Being fully in control works wonders for Law's blood pressure.
He focuses, closes his eyes, and finds Luffy's heart beating steadily in his chest. He compares it to his own heart, moves his wrist just so, Kikoku's steel catching a glint of sunlight. He'll just pull out their hearts at the same time, no big deal. Law exhales slowly, and motions to stab the air with Kikoku.
He's so immersed in his task that he doesn't hear Nami storming up the stairs, doesn't register her shouts getting louder and louder, doesn't notice Luffy warning him —
The next thing Law knows, Nami bumps his and Luffy's heads together, and he loses focus.
The world goes black for a second, and Law feels sick. There's a high-pitched ringing noise in his ears, and when it fades out Law hears Nami's voice.
"— Idiots! I don't even want to know what you're doing with Torao's powers here, and I don't care. Luffy, you better come clean up your mess right now or so help me, I'll — Are you even listening to me? Luffy!"
Nami smacks the back of Law's head, and why is she hitting him when she's yelling at Luffy? Law has nothing to do with this, but he's too busy to focus on that. Something weird is going on, because Law's either dissociating like crazy or he somehow got them both high as kites instead of swapping their hearts, because...
Because he could swear that he's looking at his own chest right now. He's also fairly certain he was the one being straddled, not the one doing the straddling.
Dumbfounded, Law blinks, fearing the worst. He looks up, and sees his own face looking back, grinning wider than it ever has before.
"Torao! I told you to swap our hearts, not our minds, stupid!"
That's… That's his own voice, but Luffy's words.
Oh, for the love of fuck.
It takes a bit — a lot — of explaining, most of which is just Luffy laughing his ass off and making some very disturbing expressions with Law's face, but eventually Nami stops punching Law and starts punching his body instead.
It's all very confusing, and the only thing about any of this Law's absolutely sure about is that it's going to give him a goddamn migraine.
The best guess Law can make is that he swapped not only their hearts, but also their minds when he lost focus. It was an easy mistake to make, in hindsight, seeing as swapping hearts is how he most commonly shambles minds as well, but a mistake nonetheless. Hindsight's twenty-twenty.
Luffy pokes his arm, and Law halfway expects for it to hurt now that the finger poking him isn't rubber and doesn't bend with the motion. When it doesn't, it takes Law a moment before he remembers that he is the one made of rubber, now. That's going to be fun.
"Torao," Luffy calls. He blinks with Law's eyes, grins with Law's mouth, picks Law's nose with Law's finger, and honestly all of this is sending Law on a trip and a half — he's not used to looking up when he talks to Luffy, let alone talking to his own body when he talks to his lover.
He's heard it said that the New World would be even stranger than Paradise, and Law believed that with all his heart. He just hadn't expected for his own powers to be the cause of the strangest thing he's yet to encounter.
Luffy pokes him again. Law scowls, snaps, "What do you want?"
"Hey, my voice! It sounds weird when you speak," Luffy tells him, and he has no room to talk when he's smiling with Law's face like that. Law has a reputation to uphold.
Law grits his teeth. A part of him finds the fact that his teeth are rubber very weird, because they kind of mould into each other instead of grinding together like he expected them to. "What is it?" he asks.
"Aa, this is fun and all, but you should turn us back now," Luffy says. He gestures to their wrong bodies, grins, and laughs. "I wanna get back in my own body, Torao. Nami's punches actually hurt now."
Law narrows his eyes and shrugs, spreads his hands in the air. "I can't. Our powers stayed in our bodies, so I have your fruit and you have mine, now."
"Oh. So I can do your cool room thingy now? Wait." Luffy's eyes widen, "I can teleport now?!"
"In theory, yes. But it took me years to master my fruit, Luffy-ya. It's not that easy," Law points out, but it doesn't really matter — Luffy's already bending his fingers the way Law would when forming a room.
"Blue glowy thing, room, whatever!" he shouts. Nothing happens, which Law expected, but Luffy's far from discouraged. As he keeps trying, his tongue sticks out from between his lips, and Law's never been more disturbed in his life.
Next to them, Nami sighs. She rubs her temples and says, "Why on earth did you idiots decide to swap bodies?"
"We weren't. We were going to..." Law doesn't finish his sentence, doesn't want to be ridiculed for doing something as mushy as swapping hearts with the love of his life. It's not like it's a big deal or anything; they just swapped hearts, things went to shit, and now Law and Luffy might be trapped like this for the rest of their lives.
He's going to have a fucking panic attack at this rate.
As if sensing this, Luffy puts a hand on his shoulder, and seeing his own tattooed fingers but not feeling them is enough to distract Law for now. From a scientific standpoint, this is fascinating.
That actually gives him a great idea.
"We were conducting an experiment. It backfired," he says, curtly.
Zero point two seconds later, he hears his own voice yell, "We were gonna swap hearts, because I wanted to feel Torao inside me!"
Had he still had his own body and control of his own devil fruit, Law would have shambled himself directly into the sea just about now. "That's not what — Fuck, never mind! I lost focus because you attacked us, Nami-ya, so if this is anyone's fault, it's yours."
He hears Sanji make some threat about boiling him alive for speaking like that to Nami, but hardly even registers it. "If I'm being honest, I don't know how to fix this. The only way to swap us back is if the wielder of my fruit does it, and mastering the Ope Ope no mi took me years. Luffy-ya would likely take three times as long."
"Oi! I'd do it twice as fast!"
"Make it four."
"So… We're just doomed to watch Law's body grin and dance and take off his clothes without reason, and we're supposed to call that our captain, too?" Usopp asks, and he sounds equal parts amused and terrified. "I'm out."
"Yeah, me too. Captain is even scarier when he does those expressions with Straw Hat's face. I don't need that kind of nightmare fuel," Penguin agrees.
"You took off my clothes?" Law mutters, levelling a glare at Luffy that makes both Usopp and Penguin take three steps back, even when it wasn't pointed at them. "It's been half an hour, at most. When did you even have the time for that?"
Luffy snickers. Law doesn't think his mouth has ever made that sound before. "It's fine, Torao." He grins, puts a hand on the brim of his straw hat. "You guys need to lighten up. Torao will think of a way to undo this, he just needs a bit of time to figure it out. Right, Law?" Luffy chirps. He sounds like he really believes that, too.
"I'm glad you're being optimistic about this, Luffy," Robin says, then. "But the reality is that without your bodies and your respective powers, you're going to be useless in a fight. Any enemy that catches wind of this, hmm, accident, will know that the two of you are in a vulnerable position, and they will try to take you out. Time is of the essence."
"I can fight! I'll just use Torao's moves and he'll use mine," Luffy declares with Law's voice, and Law's so glad he confiscated his sword before Luffy could try it out as well.
Everyone around them looks at both Luffy and Law like one might look at a child who claims to be able to take down a professional fighter. Like they're helpless. Law hates this.
"Punch me, then," Zoro says suddenly. He's lying on the grass, one eye open and sharper than steel. "Prove that you can be useful in a fight, Captain."
Luffy grins and cracks his — Law's — knuckles, and as he moves to punch Law can already tell that he's completely forgetting he's not rubber anymore. Luffy throws his arm back, but only grunts in pain when it doesn't stretch and instead all but pulls his arm from its socket. He topples off balance and falls face first to the ground.
Zoro huffs. "Thought so. Torao? You wanna give it a try?"
"I can still use my sword just fine." Law unsheathes Kikoku. It's not like he's lost his swordsmanship when they swapped bodies, so he should be fine, right? That's his working hypothesis, at least. And yet, when Law flicks his wrist and twists his arm in a swipe that he's done hundreds of times in his own body, everything is wrong.
The sword is taller than his borrowed body, for one, and when he extends his arm, it goes too far and Kikoku's hilt almost impales Ikkaku. Law mutters a curse under his breath and tries it again, but his now rubber fingers slip on the sword's hilt and Kikoku falls on the ground, harmless. Just like Law.
Zoro laughs first, and then Luffy joins in. The others are more courteous about their amusement, thankfully. "You're useless in a fight too, Torao, just like me!" Luffy says, twisting the knife.
Frustrated, Law tries to send his fist flying the way he's seen Luffy do in countless battles. It starts out fine; his arm stretches and careens toward Luffy, who's still laughing his ass off, holding his stomach. Luffy doesn't step aside, though, and there's an expectant glint in his eye that warns Law of danger far too late. His attack goes awry as his fist swerves off course, hits the ground, and then recoils back into Law's face. For the second time in the span of a minute, Law is sent flat on his ass on the ground.
Well, he kind of hit his mark. It's just that Luffy's not in the body he punched.
"We're doomed," Usopp says flatly, and a chorus of agreement echoes back from their crews. Law's about to say something probably not very polite about their lack of faith, but Luffy beats him to it.
"It's okay," Luffy says with that air of confidence only he can create, and Law watches him cross tattooed arms, watches him adopt a look he's used to seeing only on the face he's now wearing. Luffy smiles. "This will work out, me an' Torao will think of something. Cheer up, guys! This is an adventure too!"
"Yes," Law agrees. "We'll figure it out. In the meantime, I'll count on your strength if we are forced to fight."
Scattered laughter and shouts of agreement ring out from the rows of both Heart and Straw Hat pirates. Some of the crew members start walking back to whatever task they'd been doing before Nami's shouting and the general racket had roused their attention.
Luffy's eyes meet with Law's. Law knows how to read his own expressions, and he knows how to read Luffy's too, by now, so Luffy might as well be an open book. His brows are knitted together just slightly, and his eyes, while bright as ever, look distant in a way that tells Law Luffy's as unnerved as he is. The prospect of being stuck in Law's body, with powers he doesn't know how to utilize isn't the greatest.
On a whim, Law reaches for his own arm, and pulls his own body closer. "You look kind of hot," he says, and that gets Luffy to giggle.
Luffy swings a hand over his shoulders, pulls Law close. It's weird feeling his own goatee tickling his chin as they kiss. It's even weirder to be kissing himself.
Law cuts the kiss short, making a face. "We have got to think of a way out of this."
"We will, I've decided. Oh, that reminds me!" Luffy pushes Law away. He hops up and down, claps his hands together, and shouts, "Usopp, Usopp, before we switch back I can show you Torao's other tattoos! Come look at this one, it's on his a — "
Law cuts off his own, high pitched and disturbingly excited voice with a gomu gomu no pistol to the face. It's far from perfect and doesn't hit half as hard as even Luffy's worst punches, but it does the job.
Luffy shuts up, holding his — Law's — nose, and he whines about it hurting.
"Hm, guess that's how it's done," Law mutters to himself, smirking. "Now who's useless in a fight?"
Luffy laughs.
Later that day finds them hauled up in the Sunny's library. It's after dinner, now, and Law's buried in books that contain knowledge of devil fruits, gathered from both the Sunny and the Tang's libraries. Luffy sits beside him, his legs crossed and his face twisted in a focused frown. He's working on forming a room, and it isn't going too well. Despite Law's best efforts to guide him, it's hard to describe what his fruit feels like; what mental tugs to follow and which to ignore, how to think and feel and exist as not to dispel the room. So far, the most Luffy can do is form a small glowing orb in his hand, and that too is flickering and unsteady.
It's not Luffy's fault, of course, but Law can't help but get aggravated by their lack of process. His grip on the books has gotten tighter and more white-knuckled with each passing hour, and by now he's clenching his teeth and biting the inside of his cheek without noticing.
He's frustrated, is all. Being in Luffy's body is frustrating; his body stretches and twists in ways it definitely shouldn't. It's hard to control any of it, and Law's smacked himself in the face more times than he can count.
That's only the tip of the iceberg, though. Looking at Luffy and seeing his own face with Luffy's smile, with white blotches contrasting against darker skin is frustrating. Those blemishes should be his to wear, and seeing them paired with Luffy's words and mannerisms feels at the same time like a robbery and a blessing. For the first time in over a decade, Law can look down to his hands and see evenly tanned brown skin, and yet when he looks at Luffy and expects to see the same thing, he sees Amber Lead in the corner of Luffy's smile.
It sucks.
Another thing Law hates is looking at his hands and not seeing tattoos but instead scars on top of scars on top of scars. Luffy hardly ever scars, so these are marks of serious injury, reminders left behind by people who have hurt his lover. Luffy has a lot of scars, and yet Law has never paid them as much attention as he does now when the scarred skin is his to wear.
He's torn from his thoughts by Luffy's hand gripping his shoulder, gentle but sudden. "Don't do that," he says. Law hadn't noticed he was scratching the skin on Luffy's starburst scar before Luffy pointed it out. "Chopper told me not to do that, even when it itches or when I'm mad."
"It does itch," Law agrees. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm the one who operated on you, I could have fixed it."
Luffy shrugs, hums noncommittally. "Chopper couldn't figure it out, and it's really not a big deal. You get used to it."
The words 'you shouldn't have to' get stuck in his throat, and Law looks away. "I see."
Luffy smiles, and then he takes his hat off his head and puts it on Law's. It doesn't really count, Law tells himself, as the head Luffy's setting his treasure on is technically his own. Even still feeling the weight of it and seeing the light filtering through the straw makes Law feel oddly at peace. He focuses on the books again.
They'll figure it out.
They don't figure it out.
Night after night falls, and Luffy's body gets tired even as Law's mind doesn't, used to insomnia as he is. While he yawns and keeps reading, fully alert, Luffy tosses and turns in the bed they share. He's having the opposite problem — he wants to sleep but Law's body doesn't.
He's always hungry. At breakfast, Law would normally have a few rice balls, drink an unhealthy amount of coffee and then make his exit. Now he's famished even after three plates of eggs and fish and whatever else he finds on the table. Luffy complains about being full after only two servings, and even then Law has to basically wrangle a roll of bread from his crummy hands. He's not eating that shit even if he won't be the one tasting it.
Their crews make things ten times worse. On the dawn of the second day, Law comes close to murdering Shachi and Penguin when he finds them goading Luffy into wearing a bikini, and Luffy's own crew is just as bad. Nami trails after Luffy like a shark, carrying a surveillance den den mushi in her hand. Every time Luffy does something stupid or ridiculous in Law's body — the chopsticks dance Usopp had spurred at dinner was a busy time for the den den, for one — she's right there, taking pictures.
She's smart, knows that Luffy won't care about embarrassment, so blackmailing him is no use, but Law will be in her debt for years to come.
Not that that's anything new. His stay on the Sunny on the way to Dressrosa cost him a pretty penny and then some.
It's late at night on the sixth day, when Luffy tries and fails to swap them back for the umpteenth time, that Law finds himself with a bottle of sake. It's the strong, good stuff that he hopes will get him nice and plastered. Maybe, if he gets truly blackout drunk, he'll only wake up when this is already all over.
He stumbles into the captain's quarters of the Sunny, where he finds Luffy laying down on the bed. Luffy's trailing his fingers over the tattoos on Law's skin, giggling every once in a while when his fingers follow the ink to his sides where he knows Law's body is ticklish. He smiles when Law walks in, takes in the bottle and the glazed look in Law's eye, the flush on his cheeks. "Torao!" he greets cheerfully. "You're drunk!"
"Mmh, I know," Law slurs. He falls on his back on the bed, not bothering to take off his shoes. Luffy trails his fingers against the skin of his own body, the one Law's borrowing, and he looks at Law curiously.
"I like your tattoos. They mean a lot to you, right?"
"Mm."
"You miss them?"
"'Suppose."
Luffy grins, and there's a glint of mischief in his eye. He reaches out of Law's line of sight, and when his hand returns it's holding a black marker. "I could give them back to you, if you want? Then we'd both have tattoos! C'mon, I'll draw them for you!"
Law's drunk enough to say yes.
When he wakes up, he doesn't remember anything about the night before. He only remembers Luffy's touch on his skin, his own — Luffy's? — hands on his shoulders, lips on his own. It all comes rushing back to him when he gets to the galley, his shirt open and showcasing his chest to the others, who are eating breakfast already.
Everything stops when he walks in.
"Oh my, oh my god," Shachi sputters through bouts of laughter while Usopp struggles to breathe next to him, having basically inhaled his tea when he first saw Law. "Oh fuck, Captain, you, your —"
Law doesn't realise what's so funny before Nami snaps a picture of his chest. He hadn't checked the mirror before leaving the captain's quarters, which was evidently a mistake. He remembers the marker against his skin, now, Luffy's giggle in his ears, his own slurred agreement that yes, the tattoos Luffy crafted on his skin are exactly like the ones he had inked in his skin once.
They're definitely not the same. Law's pretty sure Luffy fucked up the heart on purpose to make it look like a certain part of a cis guy's genitalia. Law wants to both die and commit murder.
"Captain, please stop making that expression, it's scary!"
Law skips breakfast in favour of scrubbing his skin in the showers instead. The thing about rubber, however, is that it retains ink far too well.
"I'm going to fucking kill you," he tells Luffy later, when they're sitting on the railing trying to catch something for dinner. "You drew a dick on my chest and it won't come off because your body's fucked in fifty different ways. And now you've stuffed my own feet in flip flops. Flip flops."
"They're my shoes, so of course I'm wearing them. Your feet are big and stinky," Luffy counters matter-of-factly, like that's a perfectly reasonable explanation. "I'm airing them out."
Law resists the urge to push him off the railing.
"You gotta admit that it's funny, Torao," Luffy says, and even after almost a week it's still so wild hearing his own voice call him Torao. "We match now, sort of. I think the ones I did on you are cooler, though."
"The ones you did?" Law repeats incredulously. "They look like a drunk three-year-old scribbled them."
Luffy shrugs, grins. "I think they've got character. Hey, should I get a tattoo when I'm back in my body?"
"You hate needles," Law points out, flatly.
"So?"
"Tattoos are made with a needle."
"Oh." Luffy pauses, and Law's eyes drift back to the calm horizon. "I've decided, then! I won't get tattoos," Luffy declares after a couple of seconds, and Law finds himself smiling. Some things never change.
They've been in each other's bodies for a week now, during which Nami has to ask Franky to build her something with more space for pictures because her den den mushi collapsed from over exertion after the marker incident.
Luffy gets better at creating rooms, and Law gets more and more used to controlling Luffy's flailing rubber limbs. They're improving, but progress is a lot more slow than it is steady.
Luffy can now form a room that's big enough to encompass his own torso, and Law's proud but also a realist — getting Luffy to a point where he can control the Ope Ope no Mi well enough to swap them back to their own bodies will take months, if not years.
Law doesn't know what he'll do if that's truly the reality they'll have to face.
It's sort of nice, too, in a way. He doesn't have to deal with insomnia or chronic pain, and he feels energetic in a way he hasn't felt in years, if ever. Still, he's not in his own body, and every detriment that he avoids is something Luffy has to deal with in his stead. Luffy hasn't lost his sunny attitude in the slightest, and he's never voiced half a complaint that was serious, but Law still feels guilty.
It's his body; he should be the one dealing with its bullshit.
The ninth day dawns with a silver lining. Robin remembers an old Revolutionary Army friend of hers, someone who knows someone who lives on an island fairly close to them, and they might be able to help. Without knowing any more details, both pirate ships change course. They can't afford not to, really.
They dock on the island at dusk, and both crews gather on the Sunny's lawn. Luffy and Law sit beside one another near the main mast, and Bepo takes the stage.
"Listen. It's important that neither of you get spotted or rouse any suspicion while we go meet with Robin's contact," Bepo tells them sternly. "This island has a heavy marine presence, and anything weird can clue them in on you not being your strongest, Boss. We don't need an attack right now."
Next to him, Usopp nods. He's wearing a colander on his head and he's drawn lines on his cheeks as if to serve as makeshift helmet and war paint, and he's wielding a long stick as he and Bepo explain the battle plan to Law and Luffy. Usopp's flair for dramatics is unerring and unstoppable, it seems.
"We'll be going straight through the city to where Robin's contact lives, and that means we'll pass by a bunch of marines! So you need to act like you should!" Usopp looks at them both, and then points the stick at Luffy. "Luffy, you need to act like Torao. Be grumpy, think about boring stuff, and talk to no one. No running around!" The stick is pointed at Law, next. "Torao, you need to act like Luffy! Jump around, talk loudly, and smile!" Usopp grins. "C'mon, give it a try!"
Law hates this plan already. He groans, blows air through his teeth, and then looks up with a look as vacant as he can make it. His grin borders on a grimace. "My name's Luffy, and I'm gonna be Pirate King. I'm a certified idiot!"
Usopp claps, and Law welcomes his usual scowl back on his face.
"Torao?" Luffy asks.
"Yeah?"
"What's certified mean?"
Ah. He didn't dumb it down enough, it seems. Luffy grins, and he takes Law's hand. That's one aspect of all this they don't need to hide, at least.
They make it through the city without much trouble, only to find Robin's old contact to be no more useful than an extra help of spices to an Alabastan dish. They don't know how to get Luffy and Law back to normal, and they clearly mean well and intend to keep their secret, but it's like they've just taken what little hope Law had held onto, and crushed it to dust in their hand.
Discouraged, Luffy and Law walk back to their ships. Their heads are hidden under heavy, hooded cloaks, and Luffy's hat is hanging by a thread by Law's neck. Robin, Usopp, Zoro walk in front of them, while Shachi, Penguin and Ikkaku follow closely behind.
Really, it all might have gone without a hitch had it not been for the bar fight. Just as Law passes by a bar, someone is thrown through the window and onto the street, and he slams directly into Law. He's rubber now, so it doesn't hurt, but the stranger catches a peek under Law's disguise.
"Hey, that's Straw Hat Luffy! Guys!"
Law takes a deep breath to calm himself, smiles widely, and says. "Ah, sorry about that! We'd best be going, old man!"
He tries to walk away, but the drunkard grabs hold of his cloak and tears it off him. His friends exit the bar and enter the street, and they spot Luffy now as well.
Or, well. They think they spot Trafalgar Law, captain of the Heart pirates. Luffy makes a bored face as they greet him, acting like they're a bunch of Bartolomeo copies. They benefited a lot from Doflamingo's downfall, and claim to want to repay the favour by offering them a drink.
Law denies them bluntly, like he imagines Luffy would. Beside him, Luffy huffs over exaggeratedly. "I am very serious and bored by everything, bwaa! I am Torao!"
Thankfully their 'fans' are blackout drunk, and don't see through Luffy's horrible acting. Luffy drives his point home with an enthusiastic and overly emotionless declaration about hating bread, and then they're on their way.
Or, they try to be. As they start walking away from the men, one of them grabs Luffy's arm, squints, and shouts. "These are fakes! His tattoos are on the wrong side!"
"No, I am the real Torao Law!" Luffy claims, yanks his arm away from the man, and fakes a scowl. "Go away before I cut you!"
"Yeah, now that you mention it, that one doesn't even have the sword," a second man says, and his expression darkens. "We don't take kindly to impostors, you know." He says, and then pulls out a revolver, aims it at Luffy.
Law's watching someone hold a gun to his own head, but he's not looking up the barrel. It's a literal out of body experience.
Luffy snickers. "You guys are so wrong," he says, and he's not even trying to pretend to be Law, not anymore. Law clenches his hands into fists.
The man scoffs. He opens his mouth to say something, but his words are cut down before they're formed. Zoro's sword is a centimetre away from the man's jugular before he even has the time to take the safety off.
"I guarantee you that I'm the real one," the swordsman says, and as innocuous as the words are, they sound like a threat.
The man blanches, and he drops the gun.
Law lets out a breath that's 98% pure stress, and then all hell breaks loose. A marine happened to walk past them just as Zoro drew his sword, and it takes her only a few heart beats to call for back up.
Law hears Zoro curse and Luffy shout something like 'it wasn't me this time!', and then they're running. Exiting the stage, chased by marines.
It doesn't really surprise Law that things ended up like this. As he runs, ducking and weaving to avoid market stands and passer bys, he realises that it was only a matter of time, really.
If it wasn't this, it would have been only a matter of time before they'd start actively wading the waters for them anyway. A week has passed without neither the Hearts or the Straw Hats making the paper with news of blowing up or breaking or destroying something, and that's got to be enough to alarm the marines.
They make it to their ship without trouble, but the marines follow. The fleet that follows them is big enough to be a challenge, but not strong enough that Luffy and Law would have given it as much as a second glance when they were in their own bodies, wielding their own powers. Now, Nami and Bepo give them a lecture about messing everything up — because yes, this is somehow their fault — and then quarantine them into the captain's quarters of the Polar Tang after deeming it the safest room.
Being told to sit still is something neither of them want to hear, but Law understands that in their current states they'd most likely do more harm than good.
Luffy doesn't understand that. Not at all. He paces around the room like a caged animal, bunching his hands into fists as he petulantly — and loudly, Law might add — complains about how unfair it is that the others get to have fun when he's locked inside.
"Luffy-ya, sit your ass down or I'll cut it off you," Law says after the six hundredth lap Luffy makes around the small room.
Luffy huffs, throws his arms in the air. "It's boring here! Those marines are strong, they'd be fun to fight! I didn't want to run away, I wanted to fight."
"We would be a liability more than we would be an asset to this fight, Luffy-ya. We can sit this one out." Law pats the bed next to him. "Sit down, for fuck's sake. Your pacing is annoying."
"I don't wanna sit! I haven't fought in ages, and I'm gonna fight!" Luffy huffs, bends his fingers into the shape of a room. "Shambles!"
Law doesn't expect for this to work, and he's sure Luffy didn't either. And yet, it does.
Law gapes at the spot Luffy occupied not even a second ago, and he's on his feet before he even fully registers what just happened. Luffy just shambled himself away. Luffy, who has only the barest amount of control over one of the hardest fruits there ever was to master, just shambled himself to god knows where. Fuck.
Law has to follow.
He gets to the Polar Tang's deck. It's still wet from having been submerged before the fight, and Law almost slips and falls as he skids to a halt by the railing. Smoke billows and fire builds where the walkway connecting their ships has been blown to bits, and he has no way to get to the Sunny.
Or, well. He has one way, he just really doesn't want to try it.
Not that he has the luxury of a choice, though. Law grabs onto the railing, pulls himself back, and he's seen Luffy do this a bunch of times, has had Luffy do it to him just as many times.
It's simple physics, he can do it too. Law lets go, and he soars through air.
It's kind of fun. He's really nailing this, Law thinks as he flies — except for the part where he almost falls into the sea. A dozen disembodied arms sprout from a wall at the last second and yank him to the Sunny's deck. As the other hands disappear in a flurry of petals, one stays behind and points to the aft deck, where Law can hear his own voice shouting.
Luffy's fighting. Law runs after him.
Marines try to cut him off and in half, two of them coming from both sides. Law hits one of them with a semi-successful rubber pistol to the chest, and the next one who tries to attack him gets rammed by the recoil of that punch. Law hadn't intended for the recoil to work like that, but the body he's borrowing must've had a bit of Luffy's insane luck leftover.
He rushes to where the fight seems most heated just in time to see Luffy punch someone in the face, knocking them unconscious. Luffy isn't using a devil fruit, neither his own nor Law's. There's no haki, no gimmicks, no tricks — just four knuckles to the face paired with brutal force and stubborn determination. The marine twice even Law's height falls to the ground, bleeding and unconscious.
Is it weird if Law's attracted to his lover, while said lover is in his own body?
It's maybe a bit weird.
That train of thought is derailed and blown to bits when Law spots a marine wearing a captain's coat appear out of nowhere behind Luffy. Luffy gets a good punch or two in, but then the marine captain is grabbing him by his hair and slamming him to the deck before Luffy can even notice being grabbed.
The marine captain kicks Luffy once, twice, and Law watches his own body fall overboard.
Law doesn't think. He rushes to the side of the ship, doesn't even notice that his skin starts glowing red and steaming as his speed amplifies. The marine captain tries to intercept him, but it's almost like everything around Law happens in slow motion. His opponent's attacks are easy to dodge, for the most part, and the ones he doesn't dodge Law doesn't even feel.
The captain falls to his knees, and then collapses. He doesn't get up anymore.
Law falls to his knees too. Bepo rushes over to scold him for leaving his safe room, and Law chuckles absently, waves off Bepo's concern. Apparently the marine got something more than a scratch past his defences, based on how intent Bepo is that he goes to the infirmary. Law keeps watching the waves.
He's not worried. In fact, he feels oddly serene. He knows the fight is over, and he knows Luffy will be okay because he sees their crewmembers jumping into the waves to save him.
It's kind of exhilarating, really; they made it out of a fight with New World marines, even in their new-wrong bodies. Law used Luffy's rocket move, and his punches and attacks. Luffy shambled himself with moderate success, by the seas.
They mastered their own devil fruits. They can master each other's, too.
Maybe they can still contend for Raftel, Law thinks, and finds himself believing the thought for the first time since Nami bonked their heads together a week ago. They'll take a few more years to practice and hone their new fruits, and then they'll re-emerge stronger than ever.
The steam and red sheen dissipate from Law's skin, and he sighs, lets out an airy laugh. It might just work out.
Then, his heart skips a beat, and there's a tug in his chest, strong and insistent and crying out as if to mourn its counterpart.
Law knows Luffy has passed out in the water, but he doesn't have the time to process the thought. His vision gets blurry at the edges, and there's a loud ringing noise in his ears.
Then, Law passes out, and no longer sees or hears anything.
Darkness.
Emptiness.
Nothing. He feels nothing.
And then it ends.
He wakes up so fast it feels like blinking. He doesn't know where he is or why he's there. His head feels like it's being split apart by a flaming sword.
It takes Law a moment to remember that he wasn't wet before he passed out. Now, though, he's falling, surrounded by water.
No. He's not falling. Law notices a mass of white fur hooked under his arm, sees the trail of bubbles that leaves his mouth drifting down with how fast they're heading to the surface.
Bepo looks down at him just before they break surface, and Law passes out a second time.
When he wakes up again, he's got enough presence of mind to realise why he'd been dry one second and wet and drowning the next. He's back.
He's back in his own body, once again wearing his own skin, making his own expressions on his own face. He has a hard time believing it's true until he sees Luffy lying on a cot next to his — oh, he's in the Sunny's infirmary, he hadn't noticed — breathing steadily as he sleeps.
Luffy's been bandaged from the injuries Law accrued in his mad dash to rescue him, and he's looking a lot more like himself. That might have something to do with the fact that he's back in his own, short, insufferably resilient body. Maybe.
Huh. Law didn't imagine it'd go down like this, but he's definitely not complaining.
Luffy starts waking up just then, and Chopper enters the room as well. Law hides a smile as Luffy gets lectured by Chopper, who doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that for once Luffy wasn't the one at fault for getting injured. He gets the lecture anyway.
Apparently, Law doesn't know how to use second gear — hell, he hadn't realised he even used it — and Luffy's body isn't pleased about that. That, and the captain managed to nick him with a sea stone spear before Law had brought him down. Law's not much better. His knuckles are bruised, bleeding and bandaged, and he almost drowned.
Chopper's not pleased with either of them, but once he gets past his mandatory doctor rant, he smiles and jumps to Luffy's arms. Luffy hugs him back, and Law pretends not to hear it when Chopper tells Luffy that he's happy they're back in their own bodies, because he was about to think it couldn't be done. Luffy laughs off his concerns, says,
"We promised we'd figure it out, right?"
Chopper escorts them on deck, and he warns Luffy not to move around too much too fast. Naturally, the first thing Luffy does after Chopper looks away is jump on Law. His legs wrap around Law's shoulders and his arms grab onto his head tightly. Had Law not known Luffy as well as he does, he would have fallen over.
"We're back!" Luffy exclaims, overjoyed. "I punched that guy so hard we got back into our own bodies!"
"I think it had more to do with you almost drowning and passing out. It must have negated the swap," Law explains, but his words fall directly on deaf ears. Luffy stands firm with his strong punch cure.
Luffy's crew gets on deck, followed closely by Law's. Chopper must have told them about the captains being up and back to normal.
Luffy hops down from Law's shoulders and rushes to Usopp and Zoro, hugging them both with his own arms and then greeting the rest of his crew as well. Law hears him start telling them about how he punched the devil fruit and then a mystery thing happened, and he rolls his eyes.
Then he's suddenly buried in white fur.
"Captain! You're back!"
His crewmembers are almost brutal in their displays of affection, and by the time Law's greeted and hugged them all he suspects he has a cracked rib from how forceful some of them were. His crew strikes a pose and wishes him welcome to his body and to his rightful spot as captain, and Law grins. Luffy appears by his side again, his hair mussed and his eyes bright, and Law takes his hand in his.
"You used my fruit," he states. "You teleported."
"Yeah! It's a cool power!" Luffy's grin gets impossibly wider. "And Chopper says you used mine too; you punched and used gear two and stuff! Mine's a good fruit too, isn't it?"
"Yes. An ability fit for a king," Law agrees. He leans down — god, he missed having to lean down to kiss Luffy — to brush his lips against Luffy's forehead when he thinks no one's looking. He smirks. "If I had known the solution to all of this was drowning you, I would have made good on my threats days ago."
Luffy laughs, and now it's finally right; it's Luffy's laugh with Luffy's voice, Luffy's smile curling Luffy's mouth and making the corners of Luffy's eyes crinkle with joy. It's right. It's how it's supposed to be. Law smiles, too.
He pulls Luffy close, an arm around his love's waist. He pushes Luffy's straw hat on his head and watches as much as he feels his own fingers — tattooed and blotched with white, and unquestionably not made of rubber — slide against the coarse straw.
He'd started to think of Luffy's body as his own and of his own body as Luffy's, and it's startling how jarring it is to realise that no, this is his body. These are his hands, his tattoos, his jeans, and his goatee. This feels right.
This is right.
Luffy's hand finds Law's, and Law squeezes back. Then, someone gently elbows him to the side.
Nami appears. "The one time you both are supposed to stay out of the fray, and you both wind up in the infirmary?" she teases, but there's no bite to the words.
"Falling overboard and passing out from almost drowning wasn't the ideal solution to this problem, sure, but it worked," Law agrees. He looks from Nami to Luffy, smirking. "Congratulations. You saved the day by almost dying."
Nami laughs and bumps her fist against Luffy's. Luffy puts his hand on his hat and tilts his head back to shout, "Guys, we're back! Let's party!"
The agreement they get in response is overwhelming.
They celebrate their captains' return to their own respective bodies, and the party stretches long into the night. Law sticks close to Luffy, if only so that he's able to check and see for himself every two minutes that yes, Luffy's still in his own body, and therefore so is Law.
It might be a sign he's had a bit too much sake when he doesn't think to look down to check that, but who cares.
The party ends with piles of drunken pirates falling asleep here and there, and with a fully sober Luffy dragging Law up to where it all started — to Nami's mikan grove. He pulls Law down, and Law trips over nothing and winds up halfway sprawled on top of Luffy. Luffy interlocks his fingers with Law's and pulls his lover up so that he's leaning his back against Luffy's chest.
"Fun party," Luffy says, and Law hums his agreement. A bit too fun even, maybe. He's going to be feeling like shit when morning comes, but it's not morning yet.
"I'm glad you're back to your own body and I'm back to mine," he murmurs. "I mean, it was fun being tall and having your power and all, and I had tattoos without having to deal with the needle, but I like being me."
"Yeah. I missed this. I missed you," Law mutters, doesn't realise he says it out loud before Luffy tells him he feels the same way. He presses a clumsy kiss to the corner of Luffy's mouth, but there's no heat in it, only fondness. Luffy laughs, and his eyes slide closed from the width of his grin.
"I'm gonna miss your powers. Teleporting was super cool," Luffy says a bit wistfully. He snickers. "But being back to normal is better than that. Rubber's a good power too. I'm happy like this."
"Yeah," Law agrees. "Me too. 'M glad you're in your own body. I never want to see you in mine again. Seeing you smile with my face was… Well, I'm pretty sure I'm even more traumatized now."
"Seeing you be all grumpy with my face was weird too!" Luffy says, laughing. Hearing Luffy's laugh come from his own mouth is now Law's favourite sound. "When Torao threatened people in my body and was you were all, yanno, Torao, it was super weird! Let's never do that again, okay?"
"Deal," Law immediately agrees. He turns his head slightly, and his ear is pressed right over the spot where Luffy's heart is. He hears Luffy's heart beating steadily, and Law smiles. His eyelids weigh a ton, and Luffy's scarred chest feels blissfully warm against his own tattooed back.
"Hey, Torao?"
"Mm?"
Luffy's eyes crinkle at the corners, and moonlight filters through the weave of his hat, painting his face in specks of silver. Law loves him. "Wanna swap hearts?"
Law also hates him. He angles himself so that he can elbow Luffy in the stomach, hard.
Luffy calls him stupid with his own voice, and it's the best thing Law's heard in over a week.
Thank you for reading this! Comments are appreciated ~~