The room was completely dark and silent. Law tried to move but he was strapped to something… It was his operating table…

He tried to shout but no sound came out of his mouth. Seconds later, something started to take shape. It was a man, but it was blurry so at first he couldn't figure out who it was.

But then he realized. It was Doflamingo.

Law tried, in vain, to call out to the man dressed in pink who walked around his table, stopping at his feet. Doflamingo looked at him, yet, at the same time he didn't. It didn't look like the Doflamingo he knew. It looked like an older, darker and crueler version of him. This was not the man he knew, this was not the man he came to love, he thought.

Who was he?

Doflamingo stared at Law for seconds, minutes, hours… for an eternity. He just stood there as Law struggled to get free. When Law finally gave up, the blond smirked and laughed loudly vanishing into the void leaving Law alone in the dark once more.

As soon as Doflamingo disappeared, a bright white, blinding light shined on Law, freeing him from his own table.

When he opened his eyes, Law saw the sun above him and the sky around him. He was falling. He turned to face what expect him down below.

Nothing. A blue nothing, just like the one that was all around him, portraying the exact same clouds as the other. No, that was wrong. Law realized as he saw the shape of a tanned, grey-eyed man growing larger on the blue surface. It was him, his reflection. It showed him a man marked by loneliness and regret.

But that wasn't him, not anymore! He had Doflamingo now! He wasn't alone anymore.

The other man continued to grow larger as Law desperately looked around to see if there was anything he could switch places with, using his ability but there was not.

Splash.

It was water. The blue that showed his reflection was water. It was the sea. A bottomless ocean of darkness and despair. Law tried to move, to go up but nothing happened, he couldn't move. He was a hammer and he would never stop being a hammer, he was destined to go down.

It was getting darker and darker as he went deeper and deeper into the pits of darkness that brought back even darker memories of the past… Of the years they spent apart…

He couldn't hold his breath anymore.

That was it. He was going to die. Alone. Forgotten.

In his last moments of consciousness, Law gazed at the dim remnants of light up in the surface. There was something there… No, someone. Who was it? At first he didn't recognize him. Those features covered in hatred and disgust weren't his. They couldn't be. They had to be someone else's! But there was no mistaking it when he spoke.

'Liar. Traitor. Just die already!'

Doflamingo's words kept echoing through the dark water until Law could no longer see, hear, or feel anything.

...

Law's eyes suddenly opened, staring at the dark-wooden ceiling of Doflamingo's room. He sat up, scanning the room, looking for something… At his side slept with a peaceful smile on his face, a shirtless broad-shouldered blond man. He hadn't left him, he thought. He was still there by his side with his warmth and safety.

A tear streamed down Law's face, leaving a small black spot on the pink blankets. He was so happy and at the same time so sad! How could he have left this man alone for years!? This wonderful and beautiful being, who did anything and everything to make him happy! Doflamingo deserved so much better than him, he thought. Yet, he still chose Law. Despite everything he'd put him through, Doflamingo still chose him!

There was a wide smile on Law's face as he moved slowly into the covers again.

"What's wrong?" The now awoken, sleeping giant asked, his eyes still half-shut.

"Nothing. It was just a dream, go back to sleep." Doflamingo pulled him into his arms and mumbled something Law didn't understand, falling back asleep.

As he felt himself get carried away to the land of dreams, Law remembered the first time he felt Doflamingo's bare chest felt against his. It was so hot he thought he'd explode. It still felt like that now, except now he was sure he wasn't going anywhere…

It wasn't an ephemeral heat; it was an everlasting warmness.