Healing
The aftermath of Dressrosa was painful. Law's arm was the most insistent, despite all the treatment it received, and the various bullet wounds ached because he was too proud to accept the little princess' healing powers beyond what was needed to restore his arm. His heart hurt the most.
It was over. Doflamingo was defeated – not dead, and Law wasn't sure what he thought about that, nor was he sure what Cora-san would have thought – and Law was finally free, but the doubt had spilled into the gaps left by vengeance until it became a physical ache in his heart itself. Heartache was a fascinating thing; Law knew that if he used his abilities, his heart would seem perfectly fine. There was no damage at all, beyond Vergo's abuse a lifetime ago, and yet he felt it with a startling clarity that his meeting with Sengoku did nothing to help.
The encounter was nothing but confusion, ideas forced upon him that he'd been too blind to see. No, that was wrong. Ideas he'd known were there but refused to see because it was easier to just think that Cora-san wanted Doflamingo dead than accept that Cora-san had wanted Doflamingo healed. Not just Doflamingo, either, but the ungrateful brat he'd thrown everything away for to cure. Cora-san had had the biggest heart of anyone Law had ever known, and it was time he stopped disgracing his memory by pretending otherwise.
It hurt, stripping away the lies he'd built up around himself as he ran to the ships with an Admiral on their tail, and if he stumbled once or twice no-one needed to know it was for any reason other than his physical wounds. He barely paid attention to the pathetic attempts of the pirates grovelling to be accepted as Mugiwara-ya's 'sons'. It didn't concern him anyway; he had no intention of bowing to anyone, no matter what he owed them. Mugiwara-ya's refusal cut through his musing.
Free.
Law wanted to be free too. He wanted his demons to fade away until he could live outside of their shadows, enjoying life as Cora-san had wanted him to. Freedom had been no longer having to hide from Doflamingo. Freedom had been a distant dream he'd fight and then die for, except he wasn't dead and Doflamingo no longer cast a shadow over him.
Freedom was something he finally, finally, had, and he didn't know what to do with it. It was too big, too vast for him to comprehend, but there was Mugiwara-ya smiling and establishing his own freedom as if it wasn't something so hard to understand after all.
Law wasn't a follower, would never be a follower, but as a doctor he knew the importance of positive influences and, well, his alliance with Mugiwara-ya wasn't over yet. He wouldn't stoop to a sake cup, but he would observe and learn whatever Mugiwara-ya would show him about this thing called freedom for as long as their alliance lasted.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari