Epilogue

"What are you doing out here? You should be in bed for a long time."

He looked up when Law came across the porch and talked to him.

"Not yet," he muttered, looking out at the sea again.

"You don't need to worry anymore. The Straw Hat has fulfilled the contract and so..."

"Come here, Law," he interrupted him and dragged him down the stairs.

The other sat down next to him.

"You're cold," Law muttered, reaching for his hands, "and it's so warm. Why are you cold?"

For a second, he looked at their two hands, Law's tattooed sun-tanned hand in his pale, scarred one.

"I'm only cold when I'm tired," he confessed softly.

"Then you should go to bed," Law repeated. "It's in the middle of the night and the last days were..."

"I want to make sure we wake up next to each other tomorrow, so I want to wait until today is over."

He pointed to the alarm clock he had taken out of his room and placed between his feet.

Law remained silent, pulling Rosinante's hand to his lap and following the many small, fine scars with his thumb.

"Alright," he said, leaning against Rosinante, "we'll wait until midnight. But then we go to bed; I'm pretty tired."

For quite a while they looked to the sea in silence.

"I was supposed to call Mrs. Paipai," Rosinante remarked, "she's certainly very worried about us."

"I'm going to call her tomorrow morning," Law replied, before remaining silent.

Eventually they started talking and finally the ice broke. Law talked about everything he had previously kept quiet or altered and Rosinante told him about the days of his fear and his search.

With every word that was spoken, they smiled more and finally relaxed, began to talk and laugh again when the burden of the past days finally fell off them.

Rosinante was currently narrating how he had been arrested and interrogated when the alarm clock at his feet rang and they both briefly froze.

"Midnight," Law muttered.

"No, a minute before midnight," Rosinante replied, turning off the alarm clock and looking at the other seriously, before smiling, "I wanted to make sure..."

"Don't say it."

Law kissed him and he held the other tight, pulled him into his arms, and so they almost didn't notice midnight coming and passing.

"You see? It's all right," Law said, smiling at him. "It's over."

Rosinante nodded and reached for Law's hand again.

"Then it's time to plan our future."

Law hesitated for a moment.

"Okay. You plan to leave Natsu?"

He nodded.

"At least for a while."

"What are you going to do?"

"I would like us to meet Sengoku. I want you to meet him officially."

Law snorted quietly.

"I've met him before, but well, I think I owe him an apology."

"Don't worry, I don't think he's angry with you."

The other shrugged.

"And then what? Will we go to your brother?"

"Yes, we will, or at least I will. I'm not going to force you to see him." He looked at Law. "But first I want to meet your crew members and thank them for taking care of you all this time."

The other took a deep breath and then nodded.

"Yes, I think it's time for me to face my past." He shook his head slightly. "But I'm scared. I haven't seen them for three years, I don't even know how bad their injuries are. Maybe they hate me now and rightly so."

"That can be," Rosinante agreed, "but whatever happens, I will be with you."

He bent down to the other.

"I love you, little one."

Smiling, Law stroked his cheek.

"I love you too."

"Something else?"

"No, that would be all. Thank you, Momo, and have a good night."

Behind her back, the door fell close. It had been a long, exhausting day and she was looking forward to her bed.

Warily she turned around and looked at the place in the middle of the room, which was now so cleanly polished that it glistened in the moonlight, but a few hours ago Ihan had been lying there.

At last the contract that had tied her, just as this man had been tied up, had been broken. She was finally free and he was finally dead. She shook her head. There was nothing to regret, not like she was someone who would feel regret.

A breath of fresh wind interrupted her melancholy thoughts.

"What an expected visit," she remarked with a smile, without turning around, "I knew you were coming."

"Whatever."

Now she turned around.

"Oh yes. You know, people believe that my success is due to my ability – and they are not entirely wrong – but in truth, it is not my devil power that is my superiority, but my gift. I can read people and know what they desire. I knew you were coming. After saying all those things about your dear captain, you had no other choice but come."

He slammed his trade item on the table and looked at her coldly.

"I don't care," he growled, "I'm not here for that."

She looked at the good on the table and then looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not eternal life," he declared in his deep voice, "but the next best thing. For that I want..."

"I know what you want, you loyal little warrior." She walked towards him. "Well, for all I care. Let's make a contract, my dear."

He kept a straight face and just glared at her wordlessly.

"I think it would be smart if we could do well with each other."

"I don't care what you think."

"Oh, you and I, we're going to have a lot of fun together."

"I don't plan on making any other contract with you."

"I know," she remarked, offering her hand, "they never do."

He shook it and they sealed their deal.

Then he turned around.

"But let me tell you, my dear, they all come back, sooner or later."

He briefly looked at her over his shoulder.

"Well, then see you later."

Hey everybody,

so this is it, we reached the end. Thank you all for sticking with Cora and Law till the end and thank you so much for reading my fic. I hope you enjoyed it!

Greetings and hopefully see you soon ;-)
Sharry

(P.S.: I am aware that some of you are waiting for the next adventure of Zoro and Mihawk and I promise I'm working on that (currently chapter 31, duh this thing is getting longer and longer than I anticipated), but as I finally have my exam next month (and those two idiots giving me a freaking hard time currently, really Cora and Law are so sweet compared to them) I will take some more time to finish, so please be patient with me. Hopefully I will be able to sweeten your wait with some other short projects of mine, I actually just found a fic I appearently have not posted yet, so maybe...well, let's just say I hope we see each other rather sooner than later and take care until then^^)