"Psst, Usopp, I dare you to go poke Torao."
"What's the point of that?"
"A test of courage."
"Pfft, that is no problem for Usopp the brave!"
"Glad to see that you're overcoming your fears Usopp-kun. Hopefully you won't annoy Trafalguy-kun so much that he'll chop you up into pieces."
"Yeah, thanks Robin."
The dare had seemed easy enough. They were passing a summer island so everyone was in appropriate clothing for the tropical weather (if you want to know, all the men were shirtless.) Most of the crew were enjoying the warm weather. Most of them.
There were two people who weren't handling it well : Chopper (that made sense considering he came from a winter island so he wasn't well suited to the climate) and surprisingly Law as well. The man had seemed impervious to almost anything. The only time they had seen him being defeated by anything was when he had severe handicaps/injuries. That is until now. The Straw-hat crew learnt something new: Law could not handle hot weather well.
He spent most of the day sheltering himself from the sun by either keeping to the shady areas on deck or just retreating inside the ship altogether. In the height of the heat he even resorted to napping to escape the unpleasant feeling of uncomfortable. One of the crew had taken pity on him and they'd set up a small table with an umbrella shading it so he could read outside comfortably out of the suns rays.
And somehow he managed to stay asleep. The crew had gotten used to him being an insomniac so seeing him actually sleeping comfortably was a surprise. Usually he had his face buried in his crossed arms on the table. Occasionally his hat would slip off and you could see a mess of scruffy hair sticking out from his arms.
Usopp had thought it would be an easy task to go poke him without any trouble but then Robin had indirectly reminded him that though he was sleeping soundly now, that didn't mean he had stopped being easy to wake up. So now he stood next to Law fighting his nerves. Could he muster up the will to poke him and risk incurring his wrath or would he chicken out? He decided to go for it. Luffy would defend him should anything go wrong.
He gave him the smallest poke that was humanely possible and came back to Luffy. "Is that enough for you future pirate king?"
"Ehhhh? I didn't see it, I was too busy with my meat." Luffy pouted.
So he went and did it again. This time he exaggerated it so there was no way Luffy could avoid seeing it. He scuttled away when he heard some disgruntled mumbles coming off Law.
"Did he not wake up?"
"No, he might be tho-"
"Great, let's see how many pokes it takes to wake him up!"
"Hey hey-"
"Go poke him ten more times!"
"What!?"
"Last time I promise." Luffy winked. "There shouldn't be any trouble anyway, Torao's a good guy."
That didn't really reassure Usopp but he went and did it anyway. His pokes were tentative but he gradually got more daring and when Law's hat slipped off, he felt cheeky enough to start messing with his hair. He stopped immediately when he heard something. He leaned in to listen.
"Go the frick away Doflamingo or I'll stuff dry ice up your over sized dick and throw you into the sea."
Usopp walked away, feeling slightly unnerved and a little surprised that he used such vulgar language. What a difference it was from his usual polite speech.
"What's wrong Usopp?"
"When I started messing with his hair he said to me." Usopp did his best Law impression. "Go the frick away Doflamingo or I'll stuff dry ice up your over sized dick and throw you into the sea."
That got Luffy laughing. "Are you being serious Usopp!?"
"It's true though!"
"Alright, let me come over with you and do it again. Let's see if he actually does that."
This time though he wasn't saying anything and Usopp was starting to wonder if he had misheard him. He moved his hand to mess with his hair and shrieked when Law reached out to grab his wrist.
"Didn't I tell you to get your friggin yaoi hands away from me Doflamingo."
Usopp was shitting his pants. He tried pulling his hand away but Law was refusing to let go and now Usopp was feeling like a stag beetle caught in a trap. He could feel the annoyed mood radiating off Law now and it wasn't helping when Luffy started laughing again at his predicament.
"Mind helping me out here?"
Luffy tried his best to contain himself and attempted to hold his giggles back when he tried prise Usopp's wrist from Law's grip. It was then when Law felt like something was wrong and he looked up to see who was messing around with his hands. He had a scowl plastered on his face when he looked up which only further served to scare Usopp even more.
Law very quickly realised that the person who had been annoying him for the past few minutes wasn't Doflamingo like his half asleep state had thought but Usopp. He remembered all the things he had been mumbling and promptly let go of his wrist, mentally scolding himself for appearing so childish.
The second Law let go Usopp made a quick getaway. He didn't hang around long enough to see the completely embarrassed face that Law was pulling and he ignored Luffy's renewed laughter in his attempt to get away from the scene. Usopp was never gonna do any dares that had anything to do with Law again, not even for Luffy. As far as he was concerned Luffy could go do his own weird antics with Law, Usopp was no longer going to associate himself with that sort of stuff.
