When Law woke up, he was confused. When had he gone to sleep? Looking around their room on the ship, he wondered if they'd already left the island. Damn, he never got to eat one of the little fuckers. He'd have to make a point to go back some day and try it.

Sitting up took more effort than he expected and his first attempt failed. Okay, so maybe there was a bit of nerve damage, he mused as he tried again, falling against the headboard with an exhausted sigh after nearly three minutes of struggle. He created a room and took stock of his health, finding it wasn't nerve damage, but muscle strain. That made more sense and he eased a bit of it before moving away from the headboard.

Oh, that hurt, but he was up and it seemed he'd stay that way so he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

Before he could get up, the door burst open and Penguin was tackling him back down. "SENCHO!" The boy all but wailed and Law was startled to hear him start crying.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong?" He asked in alarm.

"My captain is stupid, that's what's wrong!" He exclaimed angrily as he sat back and glared at him through tear-filled eyes. "You can't get up yet! You nearly died!"

"Don't be dramatic." Law chided. "It hurt like hell, but it wasn't fatal."

"A broken leg isn't fatal either, but it can still kill you!" He shouted as he shook Law. "Don't you ever do that to me again! I can't lose you, Sencho!"

"You're clearly suffering from some sort of complex." Law said calmly. "Please calm down and think clearly."

"That's not nice, Law-chan." Corazon said as he entered with a tray of food. He was watching his feet carefully, obviously trying very hard not to spill it. "We've been very worried about you, you've been out for nearly a day and a half."

Law looked at him curiously. "So which island are we heading to now?"

Kid suddenly leapt up onto the bed, Killer behind him. "We haven't left Crab yet, doofus."

"Why not?" He asked in confusion.

"This may come as a surprise to you," Killer began calmly. "But our ship is not well stocked on medical supplies. Even if it was, you and Penguin are the only ones that know anything beyond battlefield first aid. And finally, this is a wound that even you couldn't treat, what makes you think we would risk taking you away from the professionals?"

Well, when he put it that way... "Still. A day and a half? What have you been doing all this time?"

"Eat while we talk." Corazon said as he set the tray on Law's lap, having waited until Kid and Penguin had pulled him up against the headboard again. When Law started to eat, he said, "Tou-san has been looking into pushing the fire crabs from Pest label to Threat considering the severity of your reaction. And Penguin wasn't exaggerating, you would have asphyxiated if they hadn't gotten you to the hospital in time. How much do you remember after the injection?"

"What injection?" He asked through his mouthful of chicken fried rice.

Corazon's eyes widened slightly. "Law-chan, you don't remember any of that?"

Law gave him an irritated look. "If I did, would I be asking?"

Kid snorted. "You seemed pretty aware when you were badmouthing the nurse's bedside manner."

"I'm sure it was terrible." He brushed off. They always were.

"And the doctors' examination methods. And their treatment options. And their hospital in general."

Law frowned. "Did I really? Were the conditions that bad?"

"You seemed to think so."

Law looked at Penguin. "Was I right to complain or do I need to apologize?"

Penguin hesitated. "Their hospital is far below our standards, but I don't think it warranted complaint."

He went back to his food. "Then I will apologize."

Corazon ruffled his hair affectionately. "I'll go tell Tou-san you're awake, he's up on deck. You boys look after him."

"Hai!" They agreed easily and the man took off.

The boys all turned to glare at Law. "Seriously, if you ever pull some shit like that again, I'm gonna kill you myself." Kid growled.

"I'm shaking." He said blandly before saying, "It really was an accident. Although to be honest, I was planning on ordering Glansor and letting it pinch me then."

They gave him exasperated looks and Killer asked wearily, "Why are you so eager to get hurt?"

"I'm not. But I need to feel it first hand in order to properly heal it." He replied. "This instance, however, was a mistake. I'm not strong enough to manage this particular venom."

"But why?" Penguin asked painfully. "Why do you always practice on yourself? Sencho, there were six other patients that had been stung! This is the induced stroke all over again!"

"That was also a mistake." He replied calmly. "Clearly afflictions that effect the brain are better left to second-hand treatment, but there was low-risk to this case. I am confident that if this hadn't been an older crab I would've been able to withstand it without short-term memory loss."

Penguin rubbed his face. "You aren't getting it."

"Is this some sort of guilt complex for surviving when others died?" Kid asked with a frown.

Law gaped at him in shock. "NO!"

"Then what the fuck are you hurting yourself on purpose for?!" He demanded angrily.

Sighing, Law set down his fork and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If you must know, using myself for first-hand experience during treatments gives me a greater awareness of my body and with each treatment my tolerance for pain increases. You need to remember that I was working towards trying to take down a man that can use strings as a freaking saw. I was working under the impression that my end would be bloody, messy, and agonizing. And I wanted to be sure I survived long enough to make it mean something."

They all fell silent, considering that.

"I still don't like it." Kid muttered. "You don't need to fight him this time."

He laughed sharply. "You're joking, right? He'd hunt me down to the ends of the earth. Even now he's likely got eyes all over the North Blue, searching for me. It won't be long till he gets another spy in the Marines and he'll know where we're going. He wants me to give him eternal life using my Devil Fruit or he'll kill me so he can give the fruit to someone that will." He shook his head. "I can't let that happen. We don't need another Kaido."

"I won't let him have you." Kid growled. "I won't let anyone have you. So you better stay alive Trafalgar, cuz I'm not the only one that will go after him if you die, and if you get Killer killed, I'll find you in the afterlife and kick your scrawny ass."

"Don't you dare." Law growled furiously. "Don't you dare let him kill any of you!"

Kid sneered at him. "You don't get to order us around on this. So stay alive or we're all goin' down with you!"

"Don't say that!" Law shouted as he tackled him, fist drawn back to punch him but Penguin caught his wrist and refused to let go. When he tried to use the other, Killer grabbed it and they dragged him off the redhead before he could use his feet instead. He struggled against them, ignoring his screaming muscles, glaring at the boy with fury and terror at the thought of losing any of them to Doffy. It didn't matter that he'd already be dead in that scenario, these boys and Corazon and Sengoku were all he had left.

Kid tackled him to the bed and pinned him there by holding himself up on his chest as he glared right back. "Then live Trafalgar! It's that simple."

He wanted to shout back that it wasn't that simple and Law realized, "Maybe it is survivor's guilt. That's weird."

Just like that, the tension broke and they laughed.

"What on earth happened in here?" Corazon asked in confusion from the doorway and they realized that in the scuffle, they sent the tray and the food all over the floor.

"My food!" Law exclaimed in horror and he shoved Kid off as he hurried to start picking it up but Penguin and Killer yanked him back.

"I'll get it, Sencho." Penguin said calmly and went instead.

"We had a conversation." Kid said easily to Corazon as the man entered with Sengoku a step behind. "It escalated."

"I'll bet." Sengoku said as he began looking Law over. He grasped Law's left arm and tugged it up to see his hand was still mottled by bruises. "This is looking better. It's a good thing they stopped you from hitting him."

Law was mortified. "Y-you saw that?"

"I didn't want to interrupt your 'conversation'." He replied as he ran a hand through Law's hair, sweeping it back and out of his face. "I'm glad it was a fruitful one. I hope I won't walk in on another one like it?"

Law silently shook his head, looking away and wondering how much he heard.

"Good. Once you've finished eating, we'll head up to the hospital so you can speak with the doctor yourself. Roci said you don't remember anything you did or said, so we'll hopefully figure that out as well."

Penguin handed the tray back to Law and he silently resumed eating, cheeks still red.

Corazon put a hand on his forehead. "Is the fever coming back? Your face is red."

"M'fine." He muttered through his mouthful avoiding all of their eyes. Assholes, why were they watching him eat? He got irritated and demanded, "Do you have to watch me eat?"

"Yes." Kid and Penguin said while Killer and the adults looked away sheepishly.

"Just making sure you're really okay, buddy." Corazon chuckled. "You were gone for a while." He blinked. "Oh, you're red again."

Law glared at him in embarrassment and the man finally seemed to get it because he brightened, hugging him tightly.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed, Law-chan! The doctor's said that based on the bruising on your hand the crab was at least ten years old! That's enough venom to drive grown men insane!"

Law felt irritation well up inside of him. "Why are you all so over-dramatic?" Honestly, you'd think he was literally ripped to pieces by a vicious crab.

The others all sighed. Some things wouldn't change from just one conversation. "Just eat your food and indulge our theatrics." Killer huffed.

Law scoffed, but obeyed, eager to go speak to whoever treated him and learn their methods of healing.

AN: I thought I was done with Crab Island. Oops, guess not. I just thought that they'd have a few things to say about the entire thing and I surprised myself with my own realization that this has to be survivor's guilt. But why does it feel he's hiding behind labels?

My Microsoft Word program can't connect to the internet so all the things I write are illegal, I guess? At least that's why I assume I'm getting errors when I try to upload chapters, so I've started using Copy and Paste. Only problem is, I was reading over the last few chapters and it totally erased the italics. So, sorry but after this chapter, I'll be replacing italics with caps lock. :)

Thanks for the favs and follows, guys! I'm hoping I can keep this up!