Luffy was shown screaming in anguish over his brother's corpse, and Law couldn't look away.

It captivated him, utterly and truly, this scene with which he was so familiar. The same scene with different actors which he witnessed over and over again in the throes of a nightmare. The bond was different but the feelings were the same, and when the transmission cut Law ordered his crew to set sail for Marineford without thinking*.

"Mister Straw Hat may one day become an enemy of mine, but even enemy relationships are still relationships! It'll be too lame if he ends up dying here! I'm going to make sure he escapes! Entrust him to me for the time being!"

Law took a deep breath, purpose flooding his entire being at the rush of euphoria that came with knowing what he could provide for others.

"I'M A DOCTOR!"

Yes, he was a doctor, this was what he had chosen, what his mind had chosen even if his body was a slave to a different path. He had taken this future with his own two hands and held tightly, he wanted to be remembered for the patients he saved and the medical miracles he performed. For all his hatred for his parents, all his disdain and self-pity, Law found a medical career most fitting to his heart. Whatever remained of it, whatever he was still managing to hide beneath a frigid exterior, was saturated with love for others. It was a selective love, he had lost the ability to give of it freely, but when he cared for someone he poured out everything he had left.

They didn't have much time, and he rushed the clown carrying Luffy and what appeared to be Jinbe.

"Captain!" Shachi screamed from beneath him, "A marine ship is cutting around from the coast."

Law had no time to react before their ship jolted violently in the sea of ice as Blackbeard unleashed a devastating earthquake upon the icy plane. As if in reply, a blast of light struck the ice in a tremendous explosion of sound and shards.

"Just leave him behiiiiiind~ Straw Hat Luffy, you knooow~!"

Kizaru's noxious melodic timbre sent shivers throughout Law's body, and his exclamation was genuine when he saw the man moving closer. He didn't want to get into a battle with an admiral, not now, not ever.

It wasn't part of the plan.

Then again, neither was Luffy.

And neither was Kidd.

The clown tossed the injured pirate and shichibukai towards him, and he quickly secured them in a room and shambled them into the submarine. If they had a deck built in, he would have had Jean Bart catch them instead of swapping them out for a pair of much needed supply crates**.

"WE'RE DIVING!"

Law didn't have to duck down to hear his crew mates screaming about how badly the two were injured, how Luffy was near death. Kizaru was closing in on them, and Law's hand was growing slick on the hatch as he watched the marines and pirates continue to brawl despite the battle having ended. Even dead, Whitebeard's words were still echoing in everyone's minds. A blinding light sparked in the desolation, and Law flinched back from the oncoming attack. Then some marine started screaming, yelling at everyone to stop, and Law just couldn't be bothered with such dramatics. It was bad enough Portages D. Ace and Whiteboard were dead, they didn't need to add anymore casualties to the pirate's cause***.

He swung the hatch shut as the boy was still screaming, noting that Akainu was getting ready to deliver the hysterical marine a fatal blow. Taking advantage of the distraction, they dove back through the hole in the ice they had forcefully created. Their ship was built for speed, and so when Law heard Penguin relaying over the communicators of Aokiji's Ice Age he wasn't worried in the slightest. Instead he was focused on Luffy, leaving Jinbe to the care of his crew. It was only fitting that he operate on his rival, and only his devil fruit would be able to deal with such a monstrous wound. Teleporting to the operating theater where the boy was being prepped for surgery, Law leaned Kikoku on the wall and took a deep breath.

This was his neutral ground, the place he felt the most comfortable. He snapped on a pair of blue surgical gloves and donned a white gauze mask. He would be doing this operation on his own, because he needed space when using his room. Luffy was draped in a white sheet, a square cut to showcase the massive hole in his chest. Law clicked his tongue and activated his room, eyes boring into the other's bloody wound. It was clear from the angle that it had pierced the boy through the front, and wasn't deep enough to have injured his spine. Blood welled in the cavernous hole like a chalice, a steady pulse of liquid on the surface indicating the leakage of his heart.

It was impossible that this boy was still alive.

It must be his devil fruit, perhaps being made of rubber is somehow congealing the blood. Or maybe the blood vessels themselves are elastic enough to...He forced all his attention back into reality, and quickly went to work.

Hours upon hours went by, in which the boy had flatlined three times and suffered two blood clots in his right arm. Sweat was beading on Law's forehead, gooseflesh standing out prominently on his forearms. There was little he could do about the visceral scarring he would have in his chest cavity, but if he was truly made of rubber there might be no need. As he secured the final suture, snapping the thread with his teeth with a sound of finality, Law felt as if he had stepped into the New World and directly into his grave. Here he had come, dragging his crew to save a boy on impulse, an impulse so raw and personal he felt like he would drown in the memories, and he had done it all based on futile sentimentality.

He wasn't after the One Piece like Kidd, wasn't after glory or fortune or whatever it was that lay at the end of this sisyphean trek. All he wanted was revenge, closure, a peace of mind only death would bring. Law wouldn't get it saving this reckless boy whose brain cells couldn't even fill a thumbtack. His brother hadn't been Cora-san, his grief hadn't been Law's, and yet he was warping history on the operating table, filling a hole in his heart he hadn't known was there. There was static in his veins when he looked at the heart monitor and found it stable, carbon dioxide in his lungs when he removed his mask and snapped off his gloves. There was blood staining the front of his shirt, the fabric stiff and coarse against his skin. Something dark and insidious was curling in his stomach, digging its claws into his flesh to root itself there.

Law's eyes were brimming with determination when he left the operating theater, his hands shaking but his resolve firm.

He had no doubt that his course was true.

The fever-bright enthusiasm that had gripped his crew was infectious, and Kidd's grin was straining at the seams. His ship was already coated by Rayleigh, all the swords sharpened and guns reloaded with plenty of ammunition to spare, and Whitebeard had confirmed the existence of One Piece with his dying breaths.

Even if he was fully invested, it was thrilling to know his suspicions were confirmed. He had gotten closer to his goal, he could feel it, and there was nothing that could dampen his mood.

Not even the sight of Law appearing not a half-mile away.

Their ship was built like a marine's ice breaker, and they had no problem surging forward into the sturdy mass of ice encircling the island. They had intended to join the fray, aligning themselves with Whitebeard wasn't a reputation breaker. No good pirate disliked the Whitebeard Pirates, they symbolized what everyone wanted but was content with idolizing from afar.

Family was a painful thing, after all.

Law's submarine broke the surface of the ice in a single surfacing thrust, the long machine easing out the water through the hole and balancing there like a half-submerged teeter-totter. When Law himself opened the hatch and expressed the desire to heal Straw Hat, Kidd hadn't felt anything but shock. He had truly not expected the man to arrive on scene at all, last time he had checked the man was still sleeping soundly in a secured hotel room far from the dock. But that was yesterday, and here he was, shambling Straw Hat and the fishman shichibukai into his submarine and slipping away as abruptly as he had arrived.

If the hole wasn't still present, Kidd would have thought he imagined the whole ordeal. Of course, when Aokiji unleashed Ice Age he quickly reversed the ship with his devil fruit, giving himself no time to come to terms with what had transpired.

The last he had seen of him, Law was sleeping off a massive hangover, nestled safely beneath the weight of his coat. While not as impressive, he had other coats he could wear, and Law needed the comfort the heavy coat would bring. It's weight was part of why Kidd favored it over the others, the thick fur squeezing his shoulders and back like a reassuring hug. It eased his anxiety almost as well as the clonazapam, and though he had gladly lent it to Law he was beginning to regret it.

He couldn't bear to stay and witness the man's reaction to what he had shamefully allowed to transpire. No words could fix what he did, and his heart wouldn't be able to take Law's frightened gaze directed at him. Even if Law had seemed enthusiastically eager to suck his dick, it didn't mean it wasn't rape. Not only was Law incredibly intoxicated, but Kidd hadn't wanted it in the first place.

So didn't that mean that he had been raped?

He tried not to think about it that way, he didn't want to think about it at all. Ever since they went walking through that shopping district, Kidd's anxiety was growing stronger. His mother's death was squirming in his brain, his force of will the only thing keeping him from tumbling into another panic attack.

He had never gone so long without a spiral of anxiety and depression nipping at his heels, and it was unsettling. His self-doubts were always a second shadow, but Law had cleared his conscious and inserted himself in its place. He had not-so-slowly been consumed by Trafalgar Law, and he hadn't even put up a fight. Was this was what love was? Something insidious and volatile that melted into his bones like sap and hardened there? Love was swallowing him whole, and he hadn't a clue if he wanted to escape or nestle safely in its belly. Law had saved him from his terrors, but could the same be said for Law?

What had he possibly done to help Law when he has simply taken advantage of him?

When he had taken one last look at the body cocooned in his coat, it had felt like a goodbye. Finally he had gotten it through his thick skull that he and Law were to go separate paths. Whether they would meet as enemies in the New World was a indistinct possibility, and Kidd still didn't understand what Law's goals were.

He told himself this, but in his heart he knew where Law's path would end.

Luffy convulsed violently on the operating table, the heart monitor screaming in volume with his vocal cords.

"ACE! WHERE'S ACE?!"

Even semi-unconcious he was still able to thrash free from Law's precautionary restraints.

"ACE!"

Law let out a long suffering sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose from his position in the threshold. He was exhausted from the six-hour surgery, and his eyes burned and blurred in protest. The boy's not even awake and he's still causing so much of a racket...Outwardly, Law was annoyed by the raucous, and inside he was no different. Every ounce of pity had been drained upon his decision to uptake the ridiculous quest to save the boy, and now he was running on fumes. The peace he had garnered from a hot shower and fresh pair of clothes had been obliterated upon his return, and he was resentful for it.

Luffy bucked once more on the steel slab, fingers scrambling for purchase as he managed to right himself. He looked like a demon hellbent on revenge, his hair matted with sweat and blood and his eyes rolled in their sockets, the whites infested with swollen red veins.

Luffy lunged forward and Law activated his room in turn, and the rubber boy easily fractured into neat slices. The boy's torso collided with him from the momentum, and a single hand gripped his collar with enough strength to hoist the boy's face to Law's neck.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HIM TOO?!"

Foam ejected onto Law's skin like spittle, the boy's salivary glands overloaded in his rage as if he were experiencing an epileptic seizure. Perhaps it was, because his body fell slack a moment later, Law instinctively holding up the boy's torso before he ruptured his stitches. Law's eyes were unfocused as his mind was sucked away, his knees buckling as he faded into the past.

Law buried his fingers in the snow, the biting cold burning the sensitive digits into the red death surrounding the blonde. The tears pouring down his face tasted saccharine from running through the gash along the bridge of his nose, broken in his desperate escape from the locked chest, and his chin split from his scramble over the tall rim. They would heal soon enough, but the wounds to Cora-san's abdomen wouldn't.

And not because Cora-san was human.

But because he was dead.

The white patches had already faded from his skin, but he still hurt like he was dressed in bruises. Everything was painful, from the inability to breath through his nose to the way his fingers grew hot as they dug deeper into the crimson snow. It fell so quickly on this island, draping Cora-san in some type of natural veil as if God was respecting his life.

But there was no way that God existed, if he did then a life as terrible as his would not exist****.

He'd run as fast as he could through the snow after he escaped from the chest at the docks, and still he had been too late, too inexperienced to save the one person he had left to love. He had stood beside Cora-san as he took his last wheezing breath, and that had been hours ago.

Even though the body beneath his hands had grown cold and lifeless, even though his eyes were now frozen shut, Law couldn't bring himself to leave. Perhaps he was still in shock, even though he knew well that he had finally lost everything. He continued to brush off the powdered snow and peel off the red cakes of ice that had plastered to alabaster skin.

Doflamingo and his family had left the island, and now Law was all alone on the bleak robin-shaped island of frost and death.

His white patches were gone, but he still couldn't understand how his powers worked. He had to drop the pale dome that had initially preserved Cora-san's body, but it had quickly become too much for him. It was as if he was being drained of his physical strength by using some sort of mental powers to use his Devil Fruit. That was how they worked, right? He didn't know, how could he?

He had also gone to medical school at the tender age of six, and was offically more intelligent than his father by the time he was nine. He was an abnormal genius, even by genius standards, and with his lineage he was even more of a outlier to humanity. His medical knowledge hadn't been enough to save Cora-san when he could have finally been of use to him, finally been able to pay off his debt*****. As if to add insult to injury, not even his Devil Fruit, which had been able to deal his incurable illness, had been enough to save Cora-san.

Nothing he ever did was enough.

"Why..." Law's voice was broken and worn with bloody screams and aching lungs, carried away by the whistling wind. He lifted his hands and stared at the red cracks in his palms, his fingers swollen with deep hues of blue.

"Why are you so worthless?"

It was hard to close his hands, but he did so anyway, fluid bursting from his blushed knuckles like ripe fruit. The liquid was pink and watery, running down his hands and dripping languidly onto the snow, forming small dots of ice. His fruit seemed to react to the painless self-inflicted injury, the pale bubble appearing around him once more, his hands slowly mending themselves. The edema seemed to vanish like magic, the color returning to his fingers as his strength slipped away. Black spotted his vision for moment, and he felt his bowels grow thin with nausea.

Even though exhaustion was flooding his system reminiscent of a sugar crash, indignation and fury bubbled through the thickening drowsiness.

"IF YOU'RE SO AMAZING WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HIM TOO!?"

He dug his nails into the thin fabric of his pants, into the bruised flesh of his knees. As the skin parted beneath his nail beds he could feel the flesh humming with the urge to heal. All his Devil Fruit seemed to do was exaggerate his abnormalities, bringing to light the fact that he could heal with considerable speed on his own. It was his blood that was the problem, his blood that couldn't be mended by the most advanced genetic manipulation techniques in thew world. He was the product of billions of Belli worth of genetic engineering and yet he was pathetic enough to succumb to a disease that wiped out his entire village. His entire country had fallen into chaos and he alone squirmed out from beneath its corpse alive.

The thought of hiding amidst corpses brought up bile in his throat, but he'd already thrown up everything in his shriveled stomach.

He clenched his eyes shut, gritting his teeth until his jaw audibly creaked.

No, don't think about that...

When he opened his eyes he was met with the same depressing scene, his caregiver still lying prone and silent. The snow was falling harder, the translucent bubble never staying up for long. He knew he was being immature, clinging to the last shred of hope that Cora-san would spring to life again, but he couldn't help it. Cora-san was the only parental figure who ever showed him kindness, the only man who didn't try and use him for his manufactured purpose.

He treated him like a human.

Fresh tears boiled down his cheeks, stiffening there into frost and despair. There was nothing he could do for Cora-san, even if the other man had given everything to save his life. He was a lost cause, born to be a slave until his death, but Cora-san had seen past the harmful vitiligo.

But despite the man's best efforts, despite all the love Law felt for him, he couldn't help but feel a shred of hatred for him.

He should be the one who lay decomposing on the permafrost.

He should be dead.

If he was dead, he wouldn't have to suffer his past anymore.

It would be better if he was dead, surely.

Because in death no one could touch him.

Law hissed in pain at the burn that spread like ice across his cheek, and glared at Shachi whose hand was still raised. The other man shrugged, hoisting the disembodied boy onto the cot stationed on the other side of the room. It was a bed that made for patients who couldn't be moved much after surgery, but Law sometimes used it to take naps after a procedure. It was firm and the sheets were too scratchy for his sensitive skin, but sleep reached him there.

With Luffy taken care of and the submarine setting course for Amazon Lily, there was nothing left for him to do but rest his weary bones. He had no reason to be tired, not with how long he slept the morning before, but perhaps that was the very reason that all he could think about was the release sleep would bring. If he returned to him room he knew that Kidd's coat would be there on his bed, spread out in a welcoming gesture. He could sink into it, press his nose into the thick fur and inhale the musk of the man's scent, the traces of machine oil and sweat that would make his toes curl. No one would know, no one but his closest friends, and it wasn't like they could be kept in the dark if he tried.

Kidd's huge coat wasn't easy to sneak on the ship, after all.

He left Shachi to tend to Luffy and made a subtle scramble to his room.

With the dock latched securely behind him, all pretenses could be dropped, and he flung himself onto his bed and buried his face into the heavy coat. It smelled exactly as he remembered it smelling that morning, felt just as lovely against his bare skin as it had done throughout the night, and for once he felt no shame as he kicked off his pants and threw his shirt onto the spotless wood floor. He was tempted to remove his panties, tempted to slip his finger between his legs as he inhaled Kidd's scent like a drug, but thought better of it. He had spent every waking moment resisting such urges every single day, it wasn't hard to do so now.

With Kidd's coat at hand there was no need for him to slip under his bedsheets, and he didn't even need to tuck up his legs to cover his feet. The length and breadth of the garment was enough to remind him of their size difference, and he rolled to the side until he was bundled up tightly in Kidd's smell and heat. He tucked his chin to his chest and curled slowly into the fetal position, covered from head to toe in blissful heat. Shame was the furtherest thing from his mind, and it felt heavenly to indulge himself for once.

Just this once, he could pretend he had given in to his desires.

Although, with his actions the previous night it was hardly pretending.

Law's mind was hazy and his thoughts erratic, but he knew what he wanted and it was enough. There was a needy scent in the air, one that caused his salivary glands to erupt with moisture and droll to cascade down the side of his mouth. He couldn't help it, it was his favorite scent, the one meal he craved like no other. He buried his face into the seat of the crotch presented before him, eyes rolling back as he inhaled deeply, his lips stretched back in manic glee. This was heaven, surely, how else could such a treat be presented before him with such little effort?

He made swift work of the occluding garment with brute strength, rending the material in half with his bare hands. The boxers he could slide down easily, and when he did the scent just grew stronger, the slick between his legs sliding further down his thigh. His underwear was throughly soaked now, salivating with the thought of this massive cock cramming inside. And what a cram it would be, these eight inches of thick stiffness that weighed heavy in his hands. He couldn't meet his thumb and index finger around its girth, and he clenched instinctively in anticipation.

This man was not his Master, but he would do for now. His Master had no problem with sharing him, and Law reveled in the opportunity at hand. He nosed deeper into the man's fiery thatch, pressing his lips tenderly along the side of a prominent vein. He wanted to do nothing more than to nuzzle his face against the thick cock and saturate himself in the warm musky smell.

So he does just that.

When Law awoke, the shame had returned, and the slick staining his underwear was seeping into the precious fur.

Cheeks flushed, he took it to the laundromat.

*This deviates from the manga in which they do so beforehand, and the transmission cut long before Ace's death and was restarted just beforehand. From this point on a new arc has begun in which it will begin to deviate more and more from the manga. Don't worry, I will stay as true to canon as possible, and deviate as much as I already have.

** Keep in mind that Law's submarine is drastically different in form form the manga and anime counterpart, there is no deck to stand on and they do not have a mast. It' is a very long submarine, to be honest it looks a lot like a breadstick from Olive Garden's. :D Just look up Trafalgar Class submarine, which is what it is based on.

***From this point on please keep a tab open with the manga to note the differences from here on out. Law didn't wait for Shanks to come and save the day, which means Luffy's hat has yet to be returned to him, and he didn't get to see the war officially end. Don't worry, Luffy will get his hat back someway or another, it's like a boomerang. Law also didn't have his little chat with Ivankov.

****Just want to make it clear that Law is an atheist throughout this story and that will not change. Kidd is ambivalent on the topic of a deity, but holds onto the hope that there is an afterlife so he can see his mother again. Law believes in neither souls nor an afterlife, as I do, but this irrelevant to his character. My views on life did not influence how I portrayed Law, as I just see him as the type of person who was forced into this mindset in contrast to my development of these convictions after being a practicing Christian for all of my life. I chose this after weighing all the facts, but Law was forced into it after being thrown under the bus so many times that he lost hope. I just wanted to make this clear. Oh, I'm also completely accepting and ambivalent towards any religion, and don't force my beliefs down anyone's throat. In fact, I don't mention them at all. I just wanted to let you all know so that you know that Law's perspective, in at least some sense, in backed by personal experience and research. I want this to be a fact-based, educated, and politically correct fan fiction while dabbling in obvious fantasy.

*****Sound familiar? There's a reason for that...I wonder how he tried to repay Cora-san for his kindness...