Coffee, Cuddles and Other Corruptions!
There is a strange comfort in the bitter taste of coffee, Trafalgar D Water Law could never explain what it was that made him crave coffee so much, but he knew the drink was an essential part of his day.
Elaborating the essentiality of coffee to his husband was hard, after all, there was a strange comfort in the company of his restless husband too. The world never understood how an extrovert of worst fabric and an introvert of most rigid thread had built a quilt called life together. Monkey D. Luffy and coffee were his needs!
Yes, he could do without his morning cup of warm coffee and not have a strong pair of arms hugging him, but why would he?
The first drop of the warm brown drink, on his lips, sent tingles of energy down his veins and knocked out the morning daze. And the first hug of the morning, made Law feel anchored to this fleeting reality.
Luffy clung to his back like a koala in the morning, while the taller man made their coffee. Sleepy Luffy peppered the shells of his ears with kisses and rubbed his cheeks on Law's broad shoulders. "Traffy in a blue sweater makes me want to stay under the bedsheets, and cuddle all the time. Let's go back to sleep!"
Without stretching or pulling out his arms, Law unwrapped his needy koala and handed him a yellow mug, and rolled out the first words of the day, "Do you want sugar Lu?" His voice was still raspy and parched, but they were soothing to the shorter man nonetheless, Luffy grabbed the mug with a large grin and took in whiffs of his drink.
"Yeah." His husband's grin changed and puckered his lips! With squinted eyes, Luffy inhaled the smell of his fresh coffee, he loved the smell but — the thought of drinking black coffee was abhorring still. "I will never drink it without sugar! You don't have to ask me daily, Traffy!" Luffy looked at his drink, and pointed his finger at the mug, asking for sugar.
The yellow mug belonged to a set of six pouting duck-faced ceramic creations. It was a joke gift from their mutual friends for their seventh anniversary — but the couple had oddly grown fond of them. Now the mugs were their favourite vessel to drink morning coffee from.
Law shook his head with a soft smile and put two spoonsful of sugar in his husband's mug and stirred it for him, while Luffy offered him a spoilt smile,"Yes, I know, but asking is not a crime no?"
"It is not! But coffee without sugar is definitely a crime, Traffy."
Law replied with a muffled laugh,"You mean you are married to a criminal? I have ruined your reputation!"
Luffy gasped mockingly and hid his face behind his fugly mug and pretended to peep at his husband,"Traffy off you go to sugar jail. Where bars are made of sugar, the bed is made of jaggery, even the water is sweet like honey!"
Law made a revolting face, the very thought of so much sugar and sweet made him want to throw up! "Sugar is not good for health! Lu! Don't ever ask me to go to sugar jail!" Law was not arguing, just stating facts!
"But sugar is good for my soul love, just like cuddles! Sweet coffee and cuddles are what I need, copious amount of cuddles more than sweet coffee. shishishsi.
Law poured his own bitter drink into a matching yellow mug and looked at his husband, who was covered in three layers of wool and slacks and socks, and truly looked cuddly, at the moment, "I have corrupted you too much." Law wanted to gobble up his husband, but he was low on energy and needed coffee to function as a proper human.
"Have you now? Shall we check how much you have corrupted me, lets head back to be— Oh, did you mix the eggshells in the vermicompost? I left them for you by the door last night?" Taking his sweet mug, Luffy opened the door to their small garden and was greeted by the morning breeze. "Good morning babies! Did you mix the eggshells Traffy?" Luffy greeted his garden.
The garden was blooming with the season's last asters and celosias, and the herbs were curling up as the first presence of winter were felt. The couple had built and maintained the little green patch for the last fourteen years, and every new season they repotted the plants, re-fertilised the soil and planted new blooms, harvested herbs and mushrooms. In the condense concrete jungle of the downtown of the city, it was a miracle that they were able to maintain a garden that actually thrived and earned the attention of neighbourhood kids who sneaked inisde to play on their grass.
Law followed after his small husband and replied with multiple nods, "I did, I did! And I arranged them in pots and cleaned the bedding of weeds too!"
Luffy pulled out the bamboo garden chairs and pushed one towards his husband and flopped down at his, "You are always efficient, my love! Then I will pick up some calendula seeds from the nursery on the way to work?"
"And some thyme and holy basil too."
"Will do." Luffy nodded as he fixed the cushion on the chair for his husband. "Thyme and holy basil. Thyme and holy basil. Thyme and holy basil." The short man patted the cushion, indicating his husband to sit as he chanted his to-do list.
Law gladly sat down on his fluffed up sit, "Write it down, Lu, last time I asked for lemon balm, and you got me lemon grass."
"Shishishishi, at least, it had the word lemon in it, eh?" Luffy clinked their coffee mugs.
Law softly kicked his husband's toes to stop his shameless grinning. It had been more than fourteen years, and he still couldn't handle his, shit eating grin,"Of course, my love. Of course. Drink your coffee!"
"Traffy's coffee is the best" Luffy's voice buzzed like a satisfied honeybee whose belly was full of nectar, "Maybe after we retire, we can start a small café— Oh damnnnn!"
"Now what? Café is too restricting for you?" Law sipped his coffee and watched his husband's expression change from blissful to thoughtful under the first sharp rays of sun. Luffy's eyes were dark, but when sunlight fell on them— they were the deepest shades of mahogany. They looked like two deep ponds made of coffee!
"Halloween is next week, no?"
"Is it?"
"We celebrated your birthday two weeks back! Remember? It is still October!"
Law groaned at the information, "I don't want another party, Lu! My people entertaining fluids have depleted." He had enjoyed his birthday party, but there was a limit to how much his soul could handle interacting with multiple humans.
"I know! I know Traffy, I was thinking of decorating the garden, la! Shishishishi! I was just wondering how will I decorate the garden this year, we don't have many flowers this year. Should I bring in some sweet-williams and phlox too, they will look great with the fairy lights and pumpkins? And relax, I am not crazy enough to hold two parties in same month! You would not recover from that level of human exposure!" Luffy giggled, his bright eyes made Law sigh in relief.
"Thank you." Law relaxed his shoulder and gulped a mouthful of his bitter drink."We have a box full of decor from last year, right? I remember Ace and Sabo helped me pack them." Luffy's expression changed to irritated at the mentioning of his brothers.
Luffy nodded.
"Then why are you puffing your cheeks?"
"Boxes are on the shelves."
"Which shelves? I thought it was not an issue for you to reach anywhere?" Law knew his husband was still salty about his height! Being forever the shortest one in his family didn't sit well with Luffy. And his brothers still loved pranking him by putting things high up so that he had to ask for their help. Hence, Luffy tried to prove all that time that he was a capable man even without height.
"Attic! Fucking attic! On topmost shelves of the attic, Traffy!
Law had a deep desire to help his husband by raising him like a toddler who wanted to touch everything in their sight. Law could pick Luffy up so that he could reach the particular shelf, but, knowing his husband's pride and Law's love for their domestic life— decided against it.
When they had built the attic three years back, they forgot the need for a broad door, then their friend Franky built them tall shelves to help them store numerous things Law and Luffy collected from their travels — sadly, the selves built by Franky could not be reached by Luffy! And the door was so small that no portable ladder could be put inside.
"Ah, I will get them, don't worry." Law consoled his husband. "Should I get them now?
Luffy shook his head, "No, Traffy! Stay with me! It's just on some damn shelves, we can get them it on Saturday morning."
Hearing these words made Law smile, and he dragged his bamboo chair near his husband's and offered his shoulder. "You know, we are in our forties, we are too old to care about height." Law kissed his husband's soft round cheek.
"Yes, yes, of course height doesn't matter! Says the person who is tall as an electric pole!" Luffy pouted and lightly punched his husband's arms with his empty palm.
"There— There."
Law dropped his almost empty coffee mug on the ground, repositioned himself to engulf Luffy in his long arms, and bent his head down to reach Luffy's soft lips — and place a tender kiss. Luffy frowned at the bitter taste against his lips, but he let his husband continue the soft warm and slightly bitter kiss. It was not a demanding kiss, but a kiss of comfort, they held each– fingers intertwined, and their noses rubbed against each other and their bodies basked under the morning sun's glory. When they were done wiping away the traces of coffee from each other's lips, Luffy rested his head on Law's shoulders and broke into a giggle!
"What? — Lu What?"
"Nothing, to have the luxury of cuddling you in my arms, drinking delicious warm coffee from a mug in my palm, and both of us being surrounded by a lovely garden— this is happiness, no? I think we are doing alright." Luffy nuzzled his nose in Law's cheeks. "May— we can plant some tomatoes too with thyme and holy basil, and make our own margarita pizza?"
"But Lu—" Law rubbed gentle circles with his thumb on Luffy's palm and brought them to his lips.
"Hmm? No tomatoes? Cherry tomatoes?"
"My happiness has always been hearing you laugh no matter where we are in life."
Trafalgar D Water Law cupped his husband's face, and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead while the dams in Luffy's dark eyes broke down and decided to water their tiny garden!
THE END
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece!
Flowers mentioned in the fic are, seasonal to Indian climate, not west; so their seasons may vary depending on geography and climate, some of you might think that I put wrong information. It is not so.
And this fic is a gift to my new friends from LawLu/LuLaw fandoms who love domestic fluff! And will eat up the build up to that one kiss. I know you are all deranged people, and I see you and I write for you!
This FIC is inspired from a tweet that went viral day before yesterday, it gained a lot of rage replies which I found odd! Because I found the tweet so sweet, and it made jealous that I didn't have such a cosy story to tweet about. And after rereading the tweet, I felt this had Law and Luffy vibes to it!
Here is what was tweeted by, daisey🌼🌱garden coffee lady, find her on Twitter lilplantmami
"my husband and i wake up every morning and bring our coffee out to our garden and sit and talk for hours. every morning. it never gets old & we never run out of things to talk to. love him so much."
I could eat her tweet! It is so beautiful!
And this is the delayed Trafalgar Law birthday fic, the actual intended fic has grown out of hand is currently being beta-ed to my besties. So that will be your year's end LawLu fic!
So What basically happened is: What was meant to be an average length one shot lawlu/lulaw fic for Law's birthday, has now grown out of hand to 25k word count at the moment work in progress— a fantasy love story divided between two timelines about Corazon and Law, and Law and Luffy!
Unintentionally, I shipped CoraLaw
I am genius!