Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.
Tired as he was – of life, of grieving, of dying – it's perhaps no surprise that thirteen-year-old Trafalgar Law's attempts to cure himself did not quite go to plan. He'd barely worked out how to use the fruit, death was coming knocking far too quickly, and no-one had established what exactly made White Lead Poisoning tick in the first place. His breath was no longer laboured, his movements were no longer sluggish and his skin was no longer patched with white, so the exhausted child had considered the operation a success. He'd even double-checked later, after he learnt Scan, and found nothing. For all intents and purposes, it seemed the poisoning had gone.
There were a few signs he dismissed as long-lasting effects. His immune system wasn't as strong as most; if there was a sniffle in the area he would catch it without fail. His growth, too, was jerky. His height eventually found its way to the six foot mark, so the stunt wasn't immediately apparent, but he never did fill out the way other teenage boys did after their growth spurt. Aged 26 he still felt like a gangly beanpole and no amount of training or eating could convince his body to bulk out, even if he had the strength of a man twice his size (or maybe Kikoku didn't weigh as much as it seemed it should).
The first sign manifested shortly after he formed his own crew, currently a group of four.
The day had been like any other. They'd been sailing together for two weeks, having stolen a prototype submarine shortly after leaving Swallow Island, and Bepo had directed their attention towards an island, both for restocking and resting purposes. Cooped up in the ship, no-one had had any complaints; Shachi even launched himself off the deck onto land before they'd even docked. Law had not joined him, although he shared the sentiment.
It was a quiet island. No Marines in sight, and a welcome lack of ships flying a black flag promised for an uneventful trip. The island delivered. The crew had scattered to the winds as soon as they'd hit the town, and Law had checked the apothecary and book store for supplies relevant to his interests before locating the inn he'd declared to be their rendezvous before his crew had fled. Bepo was already there, and attracting the attention of many for obvious reasons. Once the whole crew was reassembled (Bepo having been sent to retrieve Penguin after Law deemed the wait too long) they descended on the restaurant for food.
Bread. Law thought nothing of the slice innocently served with the meal. Cora-san had hated the stuff, so it hadn't been a part of his diet since Flevance (Law assumed its lack of presence with the Donquixote Family was also due to Cora-san), and keeping bread on-board was more hassle than it was worth. Perishables were a nightmare to store. Still, Law had nothing against the food itself, and was content to nibble on it once the rest of the food was consumed.
That was when everything went wrong. The nausea wasn't instantaneous, which Law was thankful for because as a pirate captain he was averse to showing weakness anywhere outside his ship, and they managed to get back to the Polar Tang before he hurled. His crew couldn't seem to decide whether they were concerned for Law, or furious at the restaurant for giving him food poisoning: the natural assumption. Law had no intention of doing anything to the restaurant staff until the wave passed, and instead dragged himself down to the infirmary to deal with the nuisance.
At least, that was the plan, but his vision swam and blinked out of existence sporadically as he tried to move, and it was mere seconds before he found himself in the warm, furry arms of his navigator as he was carried the rest of the way.
"You really don't look too good, captain," Penguin commented as they arrived, Shachi already there and hunting through their supplies. "Your skin's gone all blotchy." Absently, Law lifted an arm to inspect it, and froze. While not as stark as when he was younger, there was no way he could mistake the white splotches on his skin for anything other than White Lead Poisoning. His crew picked up on the silent distress immediately and crowded around him with remedies in hand. It took several minutes of silent panic before Law regained the presence of mind to Scan himself. The results were not pretty.
While all his Scans before had shown no sign of the disease, it now picked up anomalies that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was nowhere near the scale it had been before he'd used the Ope Ope no Mi, but it was still there and that was all that mattered to Law's suddenly panicked mind. Heedless of the crew watching him with unconcealed concern, he began to dismantle his own body, tearing it apart with a desperation he hadn't felt in months, trying to tear out these new signs of his childhood hell.
"Captain!" someone cried, or maybe multiple someones. He wasn't really paying attention to them, far more concerned with getting the poison out, out, out. "Captain!" Arms locked around him; more than two – four? Other hands grasped his splintered body and he felt them fighting his power, trying to piece him back together. No! It was too soon, he wasn't done!
"Captain! Captain, stop!" He didn't stop. If he had to fight his entire crew, he would. They didn't understand what was wrong, they didn't understand he had to do this.
The only warning he got was a clink of metal before everything shut off and he collapsed back on the bed, still in pieces.
"Sorry, Captain," Shachi's miserable voice rasped. Law turned his head to see it was the ginger's hands on the cuff around his wrist. His hat and shades hid his eyes, but not the tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Get it off," he ordered, his mind still too full of it's back no no no I need to get rid of it to register his crew mate's shaking hands and trembling voice. "I need to-"
He was interrupted by the sensation of his body slotting back together, his crew working in silence. A large paw knocked his hat off his head before resting where it had been.
"Captain," Bepo's forlorn voice broke through. "What's wrong, Captain?"
"What's so bad you're tearing yourself apart, with no regard for medical procedure or even basic anatomy?" he heard Penguin scold. "Ope Ope no Mi or not you can't just break the rules like that." Dimly, Law wondered when the bully had become enough of an expert in medicine to be able to lecture him.
"Here." A glass of water was pressed to his lips as his head was raised. Shachi looked back at him sternly, but the effect was somewhat ruined by his damp cheeks and pale skin. "Drink," he ordered. "Then calm. Then talk." Restrained by the kairoseki as he was – where the hell had his crew got their hands on that, and why – he had little choice but to comply.
The water was cold, and cut through his fogged mind cleaner than a scalpel. He blinked once, twice, noticing his drowsiness extended beyond the sea stone's effects, and sighed.
"Sorry," he managed after a minute, trying to sit up. The efforts of his crew and the kairoseki thwarted him and he was forced to be content slumped against Bepo. All three were watching him, Shachi's hand back on the cuff. They were all pale, and there were more wet cheeks than dry. He'd scared them. They were scared for him. The realisation knotted in his chest; he wasn't alone.
"How serious is it?" Penguin asked. His eyes were covered as per usual, but Law could see him chewing his lip and fidgeting his hands. Law forced himself to think through the Scan he'd performed logically, trying to ignore the terror that washed over him when he recalled how White Lead Poisoning had been there.
The bread. The bread had triggered it.
That meant…
"It seems like I've developed an allergy to bread," Law admitted, wearily closing his eyes and fighting back the panic that still wanted to envelop him if given half a chance. "Most likely gluten; I'll have to run tests."
"Without tearing yourself apart in a frenzy," Shachi muttered. Law forced himself to acknowledge the point, before taking a deep breath and opening his eyes.
What good was a captain that couldn't trust his crew?
"I… used to be sick," he admitted. "Very sick. If I hadn't got my fruit when I did, it would have killed me." Someone let out a horrified gasp, he wasn't sure who, but otherwise there was silence. "My skin…" He weakly lifted one arm as best he could to show the blemishes. Penguin caught it and supported it for him. "I thought it was gone." He closed his eyes then opened them again as images flashed in his mind. Everyone that had died because of it. He didn't want to face that while his crew were watching. "But it seems like it's back."
"Captain won't die," Bepo rumbled at his back, his voice gentle but firm. The Mink truly believed it, and Law smiled weakly.
"Yeah," he agreed. "Even if I didn't get rid of it completely, I can do what I did before again." His crew sighed and exchanged a look. He missed the meaning of their silent conversation, but they descended on him as one, tugging his clothes off to replace them with the infirmary gown, bundling him into bed properly and wrapping the covers firmly around him. It hadn't escaped his notice that the gown they'd used had long sleeves, completely covering his blemished skin.
"Not now, you're not," Shachi told him, his stern face holding more weight now that he didn't resemble a ghost.
"You are going to stay right there while we treat this allergy," Penguin declared, to a unanimous sea of nodding heads.
"Doesn't this count as mutiny?" Law wondered with a small smirk on his face. "Especially with this cuff." Shachi's hand had gone but the cuff was still there. Their faces fell for just a second, and Law thought that maybe he'd managed to guilt them into taking the kairoseki off.
"It's not mutiny if it's for Captain's own good," Bepo declared, and at the resulting rally of nods Law knew he had lost. There was a brief pause, as if the crew were making sure they really weren't going to be done in for mutiny later, before they leapt into action again.
Law missed most of it, however, as he finally crashed into unconsciousness.
The next time he was aware of his surroundings, it was to a prick in his arm. He shifted it in protest, and hands stilled him with a touch.
"Easy, Captain," he heard before drifting off again.
Following that, his next moment of semi-awareness was to hushed voices talking too quietly for him to make out. His surroundings were pleasantly warm and sleep coaxed him back almost before he'd begun to surface.
Other such instances peppered his rest several times before he finally gained enough consciousness to comprehend what was going on.
Low hums generated from the machinery surrounding him told him that he was still in the infirmary. The scent of antiseptics confirmed it, alongside the familiar texture of the sheets beneath him. Familiar, but not his bed. He was still in a light gown, although the sleeves were shorter now. The needle sitting in his arm told him why. A drip, he assumed, which meant it had been sufficiently long enough since he'd last been conscious that his crew had seen fit to give him nutrition by other means. The kairoseki was gone.
His eyes peeled open reluctantly, and he looked around. A bobble hat betrayed Penguin's presence at the desk. He was slumped over as if asleep, but when Law shifted he immediately bolted upright.
"Captain!" He was at Law's side in seconds. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better." And he was. He'd expected to feel the heaviness of the White Lead Poisoning, but there was nothing. "Why are we moving?" The low hum hadn't just been the machinery surrounding him, but the Polar Tang's engines themselves. The room was warmer than usual, so they were submerged.
"Another pirate crew showed up and caused enough fuss that the village called the Marines," Penguin explained. "Shachi decided we should leave before they arrived."
Law nodded in understanding.
"That was yesterday," Penguin continued. "We've been staying submerged as much as possible so we don't draw attention to ourselves while Bepo finds us another island." Law nodded again, relieved to know that his crew could make decisions without him if the need arose. It was another weight off his chest.
"Am I allowed to treat myself yet?" he asked. "Or will you cuff me if I try?" He made sure to keep a more friendly smirk on his face, and a lighter tone. In hindsight, his crew had made the right decision when they'd restrained him, even if he was going to need to find those cuffs and confiscate them later, alongside a lecture to his crew on proper uses of the things. He did not plan on being cuffed every time they thought it was for his own good. Penguin fidgeted at the mention, but was unrepentant.
"You can Scan," he told him. "But no treatment. The allergy's effects haven't been totally kicked yet, and after that we need to finish sorting out the mess you made of your own insides. In that order." Law hid a wince, remembering his frenzied actions. "But if you'd look at your arm," Penguin continued, unexpectedly, "you'd see that you probably don't have anything to worry about."
Puzzled, Law lifted his arm – the one without the drip – to see what Penguin was talking about.
It looked normal. If Law looked closely, he could see paler blemishes, but it was nothing compared to when he'd last looked. He frowned, confused.
"You're the expert," Penguin shrugged. "But to us it looks like your old illness only flares up for as long as you're sick. It's been fading since we put you on the antibiotics."
That was interesting. Law performed the Scan, just to check what was going on beneath the surface, and found that it was receding. Odd, and more than a little puzzling.
"Satisfied?" Penguin asked him after a moment, offering him a mug of water. Law was willing to bet there was a sleep aid dissolved in it, but accepted it anyway. He was certain 'drugging your captain without telling him' ranked alongside 'restraining your Devil Fruit user captain with kairoseki', but didn't comment as he drank it obediently, Penguin helping him sit up enough not to choke.
He was unsurprised when drowsiness began to set in, and willingly settled back down in the bed. Penguin looked sheepish for a moment, before he realised that Law had been well aware what he'd been given before he'd taken it and set the now-empty mug aside for the moment.
The infirmary door opened and Law flicked his gaze over to see who had entered. Noticing, Shachi practically threw himself across the room.
"You're awake!" he grinned, openly relieved.
Law recalled the realisation that his crew actually cared.
"Not for much longer," he yawned, his eyes sliding half-closed. He allowed himself a smile as he listened to Shachi scold Penguin for 'putting Captain back to sleep before anyone else could see him'.
"He needs the sleep." Penguin stubbornly held his ground. "He isn't fully recovered yet."
Shachi's retort blurred into nothing.
The next time Law stirred, the background hum was quieter and the infirmary cooler. They were docked, then. This time there was no-one in the room with him, so he performed his own Scan to check his condition before deeming himself arguably well enough to move. His insides were still in a shambles, but they were operational, and he couldn't deny that the silence was disconcerting. Where were his crew?
He eased himself out of bed, removing the needle in his arm as he did so, and looked around for something to wear. He was not wandering around in an infirmary gown.
His crew, wherever they had gone, seemed to have anticipated this; in the corner he saw clothes that were very definitely his. He'd talk to them about going into his room without permission some other time. He had to find them first.
The clothes were ones he'd bought in anticipation of his next growth spurt, leaving them looser than his preference, but they fit well enough to wander around his ship. Now dressed, he left the infirmary to investigate the silence.
The crew weren't inside the submarine. He checked the mess hall first, alongside the kitchen, then the recreation room and even the library. No-one. Now thoroughly spooked, although he would never admit it, he headed to the deck. At least one of them had to be there on watch, right?
As it turned out, when he opened the heavy door, all three had decided to commune on the deck for some unknown reason. Bepo spotted him first.
"Captain!" he called, standing up and ambling over to him, wrapping him in a warm bear hug. "You're awake!"
"I'm awake," he agreed with a fond smile as the rest of the crew surrounded them. Hands touched him, ranging from checking his vitals to just a simple brush against his arm, and he couldn't help but close his eyes for a moment, accepting the comfort his crew offered.
"While it's good to see you out of bed," Penguin piped up, "have you put yourself back together yet?"
Law didn't deign to answer, and found himself being dragged back towards the infirmary by his crew. As tempting as it was to Shambles away, he knew that they wanted him to fix himself and he supposed he had enough energy to do that. Forcibly, although not unwillingly, settled back down on the bed by his crew, he gathered his focus together before summoning his Room.
This time he was more careful about how he cut himself up, aiming to put himself back together properly this time, not damage his body further. His crew's attempts at piecing him together hadn't been too bad; his body had still been able to function, if not at full capacity. But he felt the difference as he slowly reversed all the changes. It took a long time, the work was delicate and required maximum concentration, but eventually he was done, wearily leaning back against the pillow.
Hands shifted him until he was lying back on the bed, the covers once again pulled over him.
"Now you just need to regain your strength," Penguin told him. "Shachi's bringing food." Sure enough, minutes later a hot soup was pushed into his hands and his crew helped him drink it. "We'll work out the exact nature of the allergy once you're back at full strength," the teen continued. "I already took a blood sample while you were out." Law nodded with a small smile and let his crew fuss over him while he recovered from using his fruit so much.
While his childhood nightmare might never leave him for good, he wasn't alone. His crew loved him, a realisation that lifted the darkness the poisoning threatened.
He still had some kairoseki cuffs to confiscate.
Yes, headcanons galore. To me, Law hating bread makes more sense as an allergy than just a preference, otherwise I don't see why, even being drawn into Luffy's pace, he'd admit it. It would be much easier just to eat the fillings and let Luffy steal the bread in his usual method rather than risk opening up to a bunch of pirates he doesn't trust at that point even more than he was already being forced to, which is why I think he had no choice (even if the manner in which he made it clear is definitely Luffy-pace).
As for the kairoseki part of it, that's just shameful headcanon with nothing to go on in canon but I like it. Someone has to look after Law, seeing as he does a very poor job of self-preservation.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari