It's the twelfth day when Law thinks he's killed Lami.
He runs to Wolf faster than he's ever done through the snow, chest heaving as he sobs. It takes Wolf a few minutes to figure out what's happened. He's right to assume it involved Lami.
Eventually, Wolf gets the boy to calm down and goes in to check on Lami's body—because Law is terrified to see what's become of his sister. He confirms that she is still alive, but when he comes out, Law is on his hands and knees, head on the wooden flooring. The boy gritting his teeth through his sobs.
Wolf scratches his head before gathering the boy up in his arms and depositing him in the bed next to Lami. Law backpedals for a few seconds, staring at her in horror as if he's killed her just now with his own hands before lunging forward and pulling her body into his lap, holding her close.
Please, please, please. He repeats over and over with her name like a mantra and Wolf stands there quietly. He's not quite sure what to do. He thinks he knows what devil fruit she may have taken, but he doesn't have to heart to bring it up when she had reacted so poorly to it being mentioned before. Not yet. And even then, he doesn't know enough about it himself. He just had to hope that this would be enough for now.
It's two hours later that Wolf finds out exactly what happened. Law and Lami had gone into town to get supplies, nothing different save for the fact that they'd left in Law's body and not Lami's—he could carry more things was the argument. But once they'd left some distance, Lami started to sound strained and tired until she faded. The panic that had settled in his bones covered up the terribly weak presence of his sister in his heart space.
It's another two hours later that Wolf checks in on the Trafalgar siblings and finds that Law hasn't moved from his place. He's stopped sobbing and in fact has fallen asleep holding Lami's body close to his. What he notices immediately is that Lami is awake. She's in the middle of taking Law's hat off and setting it down on their bedside table. She smiles a small, weary thing as Law starts to stir and gives his hand a squeeze.
When Wolf steps into her peripheral, she jumps with a small start, eyes wide. He puts his hands up and sits down on the ground beside her. Whatever was going on, Wolf was obviously not supposed to have seen. He doesn't want the kid to be scared of him, he doesn't mean to scare her. He won't pry into what had happened to them, but sometimes he wonders…wonders what she was told. What was done. They were too young to have faced such terrible things.
Her eyes dart nervously between him and Law who eventually stirs. The older man doesn't get a chance to ask anything. It is Law who is all over his sister. Turning her this way and that way so that he can see her better. Check her face, her pulse, everything. His frantic attention eventually distracts her from her distress with Wolf and she lets out a laugh that's a bit too quiet.
He hugs her close and she returns the gesture albeit with a bit more fatigue.
Wolf is torn between bringing it up for their safety or ignoring it another day for her trauma.
Law finds out that her sudden 'collapse' was because they had traveled too far from her body. It was fine if she ferried Law in her body, but they couldn't go too far from her own. She thought that she had been getting better so that it wouldn't have been a problem. In the future it wouldn't be, but she was most certainly proven wrong today.
He almost scolds her but stops himself. The feeling is still there though and he can tell that Lami can still feel some sort of connection between them when she deflates. He wants to demand that she tell him the extent of her abilities, but he doesn't push her. Instead, he holds her close and begs her to not scare him so much.
When he asks her how they can both move, she dances around the answer again and he doesn't press her any further until he tries to separate to get them food. She holds his hand tightly and refuses to let him go. It takes a few more minutes before she finally blurts out a bit too loudly that they can't let go. If he wants to stay in his body, they have to be touching in some way.
"The birds are easy, but Law is too big…" She says so quietly that he almost misses it. It proves his theory about the pets and he feels his heart sink. Law had been sent out on with the other children in their raids, but Lami had been in poorer health at that time. He supposed he never really knew what happened when they were apart. He should have known better.
She squeezes his hand to pull him out of his thoughts. With some reluctance she explains that he can stay in his body so long as they are close enough. That the birds and cats were all like him. They could stay in their bodies if they were still in the same room. But Law for whatever reason could only stay if they held hands. Maybe it was because they were both human and had different capacities than birds and cats.
Lami sleeps in his lap while he writes in his journal. She must have been the one to save him, because he was sure he had died that night. Something she had done had effectively tethered him to her and through her he could access his own body. It was probably that same ability that prevented his body from decaying...maybe she was being trained in order to one day to do this to people. He hates himself for not noticing these things before. He was so blinded by hate, he just wanted to see everyone burn while he waited for his death sentence. And now he was just glad that Lami lived through it all.
He kisses her forehead and wakes her up from her nap. He puts his journal away and signs, 'Bath?' to her as she blearily looks up. She all but beams at him and nods her head with so much energy he's sure something in her neck pops.
It's a strange dance in trying to undress while they keep in contact. At some point he instructs her to stand on his feet, which then turns into a balancing act that only leads into a fit of laughter. Eventually though, they do slip into a warm bath. He washes her hair and doesn't say anything even as she starts to hum. It's strange that she knows how to do it, maybe it is something she picked up from the birds. He doesn't ask, he lets her do as she pleases and eventually joins in.
For the first time in years, they were normal. This is normal. And he can pretend everything is alright.
They start practicing. He mentions it one day and is ready to retract his request when he notices her hesitation, but she nods her head and squeezes his hand. It would be better for them both. They couldn't feasibly live like this all the time. They'd gotten over the embarrassment of using the bathroom together. Lami was lucky because she didn't have to hear anything. Bathtime was no big deal, they'd shared baths for years and Law was a pro at washing her hair now.
But they both know better.
The world was not so gentle of a place to live in.
So they start practicing. They smartly do it right before bed time, because the moment Law lets go of her hand he's in Lami's heart space again and his body is limp. He can tell she's frowning, but he assures her that they will get the hang of it together.
It of course wears Lami out and so it also gives Law a chance to take charge through her fatigue. By the fifteenth day they can separate for ten minutes within the spanse of their bedroom and Law can walk around for an hour while Lami is incapacitated.
He notices the light again. And with Lami unconscious, his curiosity gets the best of him. He reaches out to touch the light and notices that it actually comes closer as he reaches for it. When it touches his hand, he's temporarily blinded as a warm light washes over his vision and when he blinks it clear there's a small tabby cat meowing soundlessly at Lami's tiny toes.
Law is dumbstruck for all of two seconds before he pets the cat behind its ears. He can't hear it, but he can feel the rumble of purring beneath her hand. It rubs against her knuckles, stretches between her legs and eventually leaves their room, walking straight through the door.
Floored. He's floored. Literally and figuratively.
It doesn't take long for Law to piece things together. Wolf had mentioned a stray that had disappeared around here that he took care of. He had mentioned the war that had torn their village apart. He knew that some of those snowflakes outside weren't snowflakes. He was fortunate that it was just a cat. What had Lami seen? What horrors? He saw how many of those lights were outside. Death was not kind during wartimes.
For the rest of his hour, he cries because she's suffered alone while he bathed in his rage for so long. They were too young for all this. He makes a promise to himself to never let her suffer again. Part of him knows it's naive to pledge to something like that, but sentiment is there.
When he returns to his body he is relieved to find his devil fruit abilities stayed. He spends the rest of the night practicing til he's just as weary as Lami.
AN - Sorry! I have been super busy preparing for a talk at a conference and then had to recover from the 39 hour drive to and from said conference. I am VERY tired, but I had a few of these chapters written ahead of time! (I forgot to schedule them, I'm so sorry)
