Note: This fic is based on the Color Soulmates AU on flaggermousse's tumblr. Though I did change the rules a bit… ok more like a lot. Contains lots of angst, fluff, and Trafalgar Law being a tsundere love idiot.
When Law is 5, his mother reads a story to him and his sister, as his father watches them with fondness. It's about how everyone in the world has their own soulmate, someone dear who will complete their lives. When their soulmate is born, their world becomes filled with colors. When their soulmate dies, their world returns to black and white. He questions the scientific basis of this phenomenon. His father becomes flustered, while his mother simply laughs.
When Law is 7, his world comes to life. He stares out into the sky, realizing what blue finally means, distracted from his father telling him about cardiac stents. When he excitedly tells his parents what he sees, his father says something about him robbing cradles in the future, and his mother punches his father on the head.
When Law is 10, he thinks back. He remembers the red blood on the streets. He remembers the bright colors of the fire in the hospital. He looks at the white patches against his tan skin.
He wishes his soulmate would die.
When Law is 24, he meets Strawhat Luffy in the auction house. What a crazy bastard. The thought just makes him grin wider.
In the ensuing fight, he toys with the Marines, attaching heads and limbs to various other objects. He doesn't really care what ends up where. His eyes keep drifting to the ever-shifting Strawhat. First, his arm is the size of a giant, then he shrinks into a small child. Just how does he do it? Unlike Eustass's powers, which are clearly magnetic or metalloid in nature, the implications of the gomu gomu fruit are not obvious at first glance, which makes it all the more fascinating. As Strawhat turns away from him, preparing to run from the marines, he wonders how many years younger that pirate is.
He wonders if the answer is seven. Impossible, he smirks, heading in the opposite direction.
The next time he meets Strawhat, the young pirate is lying on his operating table, and Law can't believe that he's still alive. He remarks to his assistants that this will be a fun surgery, yet he wonders why he's feeling so nervous all of a sudden. Perhaps it's the adrenaline of escaping the greatest battle in history that's getting to him. That's what he tells himself, anyway.
As he assesses the extent of the enormous burn on the battered body, Strawhat goes into cardiac arrest, and his world sinks into monochrome. His gloved hand freezes, hovering above that gaping wound.
"Captain?" Bepo asks.
The logical side, the practiced physician, rushes into action, calling for a syringe of this and to prepare for that and to get the paddles. The motions are distracting, but they do nothing to drown out the screaming in his head.
After the surgery, his color vision has returned. He sits by Strawhat's side; head bowed, hands crushing his hat. Great, fucking great, he's finally found his soulmate.
He wants to kiss him.
He wants to scream at him for his stupidity.
He wants to wipe the unconscious tears off that blood-streaked face.
He want to cry.
Law is 26 when he confronts Vice-Admiral Smoker, laughing at the thought of the Strawhats being in Punk Hazard. Only to have his words thrown in his face when said Strawhats burst through the door...then promptly retreat into the lab. He supposes he should be embarassed in front of the marines, angry at the pirates for trespassing and for ruining his moment. He doesn't register anything else except: he's here.
And suddenly he really is there. Luffy is waving in his direction. He looks good. What a relief. It takes all his self control not to throw himself onto the young boy- Man? It's hard to tell, he looks so young, with those yellow earmuffs, and that red-striped coat that makes his thin body look like a candy cane. Law wants to rip that coat apart to see whether the scar has festered and become infected, because who knows what Luffy's been doing to himself these past few years, but he's smiling and laughing like Law's never seen before.
"Mugiwara-ya..."
Law finds himself leaning against the mast of the Thousand Sunny, watching a full-blown party on the deck. Hadn't they just had one at Punk Hazard? For the thousandth time, he wonders how badly this alliance will blow up in his face. Suddenly, someone flops to his left, and he finds himself sitting next to Roronoa Zoro.
"Thanks for taking care of our Captain back in Marineford," Zoro-ya says, gulping down a bottle of beer.
"I didn't do it for thanks. It was just a whim."
"Heh. Is that so."
Law feels like the swordsman is mocking him, and his eyes narrow. That really was his intention at the time. What happened after...was fate. Ugh, what a lame word.
"So how bad was it?"
"What?"
"His injuries. Luffy never half-asses a fight."
"Some of the worst I've seen. Honestly, even now I can't believe he's still alive. At one point, he went into cardiac arrest."
"The hell does that mean?"
Law sighs. He wishes he were having this conversation with the doctor of the crew. "It means his heart stopped beating."
"So...technically he was dead?"
Law is surprised the greenheaded idiot could make that connection. "For a short while, yes."
"I see…" There's an expression on his face: heavy, furious, regretful, yet holding a bit of relief. Then he turns his head abruptly to lock gazes with Law. "Are you his soulmate?"
Law is glad he doesn't have a drink. He would have spewed it into the man's face. He tries to collect himself.
"So that's how it is," Zoro-ya smirks, turning back to his drink.
"I never said it was."
"You didn't deny it. That's good enough for me."
"Then I-"
"Too late."
Law wants chop him up into little pieces.
"It was pretty obvious. I just wanted to make sure, is all."
"...What do you mean it's obvious?"
Zoro-ya glances at him with his eye. "You have this...smirk. Well, more like a shit-eating grin. I saw it on Sabaody, then I saw the cocky way you dealt with Smoker and Caesar. But you don't smirk like that around us. Especially not Luffy."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"It means he gets to you." Zoro-ya says, snorting. "Don't worry, he gets to us too. For all that he acts like an idiot, it's hard to hold pretenses against him. Or secrets. He has a way of dragging them out into the open."
"And you think I'm that weak-minded, to let him do so."
"I wouldn't say weak. But I've seen you. You can't bluff around him. You can't control him. You don't lie to him. You get pissed off, and you can't control your emotions. It's like I'm watching a fucking teenage girl."
"I would suggest you shut your mouth before I do something I regret, Zoro-ya." Law is itching for his sword, ignoring the red tinge on his face.
"Chill man, I'm not gonna hurt one of Luffy's friends."
"...I told the damn idiot we were in an alliance!"
"Same thing to him. Don't worry, I wasn't trying to interrogate you. I was just trying to give you advice."
"What advice?"
"Give it up. He gets to you. It's inevitable. He gets to us, too. That's why we stick with him. He has an annoying habit of getting under your skin, and before you know it, you're his for life. It'll save you some sleepless nights if you figure that out already." Zoro overturns his bottle and stands up unsteadily, shouting, "Oi, cook! More beer!"
Law sorts through the turmoil in his head as a fight between the swordsman and chef rage in the background. He wants to deny everything the man said.
Instead, he snorts. Zoro-ya's advice is well-meaning but worthless. It's already too late.
The time has come to depart. Doflamingo's been taken down, Big Mam and Kaidou have been dethroned, and Law is fighting the urge to clutch his neck, to check that it's still attached.
"Looks like we're parting ways here, Torao." Luffy is grinning, standing on the deck of Law's submarine. Honestly, he's surprised Luffy isn't making a bigger deal about it. He expected some crying, whining, tugging at his coat, or proclamations that they were friends for life.
Not that he's disappointed. Pah. He tells the ache in his heart to shut up.
He's brought out of his thoughts by Luffy, who's suddenly hugging him. It's not a collision of limbs like he's used to, squeezing his ribs to death. No, it's a gentle embrace, and suddenly he feels vulnerable.
"See you, Law." He hears that quiet voice. He can't breathe.
And suddenly the moment is over. Luffy's back on the railing, shouting, "But I'm the one who's going to find One Piece!"
"Not if I have anything to do about it, Mugiwara-ya." Law sets a smirk on on his face, but it must not be very convincing, by the knowing grin on Luffy's face. Luffy launches a rubbery limb across to the Thousand Sunny and flies off. Law waits until Luffy's safely with his nakama, shouting loudly about their next destination to the sound of raucous agreement, before he lets the words escape his lips.
"See you, Luffy."