thank you's to my long-awaited pirate crewmates: Leynadoodles, Alexel, sgabrik, ansegiel, SuzyQBeats, Eruanna6898, Ladyktbaby, Hibari Anya, read a rainbow, emo-gene, Kancolle Haruna Chan, Lucinda M. H. Cheshir, and Misaki!
misaki: hi. your review made me emo in the best way. thank you so much.
notes: as always, i am plugging my ao3 account (razbliuto) because i'm able to upload art to chapters there so if you want to jump ship from ffn to ao3… holla at me.
—
methyl nitrate pineapples
hypothesis #39
the straw hat boy
—
The most reprehensible sound in the world was the zip of his jeans when she was done with him.
It wasn't as if Law let her go because she did… that. It wasn't like that. Not even a little.
(Well—)
Not a fucking bit.
She had made up her mind, and did to him what the Strangways Sophie equivalent was of the final night before the end of the world: her mouth and his dick and when she raised her head with that smile, it was as if she knew that she was capable of anything. He wasn't a believer of the occult in any sense, but breathing hard and his face burning and his hands twisted in his sheets, Law thought: Witch.
It wasn't supposed to have gone like this. He should've been leading and giving, first of all.
(That sounded like he had a sick machismo need for control, but—fuck it, yeah, a little.)
Law offered it on Noctiluca Atoll. It was a spur-of-the-moment proposal, because she'd been in his lap, blushing and overeager, and it seemed like she wanted… him. So he did what every good captain would do: he suggested sex, wherein he would've made her come an acceptable amount of times, and then they would've shook hands, tension resolved, friends again. Sophie had the audacity to refuse him then—because it wasn't enough for her, because she wanted something more, something real—and now she had the audacity to push him onto his back.
And all Law had done was watch, thunderstruck, fascinated by what she would do next.
He didn't want to like her in the irksome and profane ways that he did. He refused it, first politely, then adamantly. Thank you, fuck off. No time for this. No emotional bandwidth. Priorities. Revenge. Cora-san.
As he was telling himself this was a bad idea, that he was going to get fucked in more ways than one, he held her face in his hands. And as he did so, he recognized he was holding something impossibly precious. It disgusted Law—that it had to be these hands, it had to be him? He warned her. He couldn't give her a future, but here the multitasking fiend was, seducing him into taking his pants off while informing him she was leaving to make the Fleet Admiral of the Marines cry.
Law kissed her, and Sophie was nervous and yearning and so hopeful, and most of all she was brave. She wasted that bravery on scumbags. Outside the porthole, waves broke against the side of the Polar Tang; even the ocean wept for her.
As they watched her little boat sail off beyond the waters of Sabaody Archipelago, a stillness settled over the crew. It was a strange, almost lonely feeling, watching one of your own undertake a solitary adventure and knowing there was nothing you could do to help them. This would not be the last time the Heart Pirates would go through it.
Penguin broke the silence by remarking, "Anyone else think she's just doing this to get out of laundry duty?"
"That's exactly what I was gonna say," Shachi joked.
They laughed, and it made them feel a bit better, despite everyone knowing Sophie was fanatic about laundry.
"She'll be smart about it," Hai Xing said to Law. "The Marines used to be her family. Three days will pass in a heartbeat."
"I'm not worried. Before we know it, she'll be mopping the floors at five in the morning again and threatening to burn our muddy shoes." Internally, Law was worried. And aggravated. And felt a kind of desire that was unequivocally disrespectful towards Sophie and quite possibly women in general. If he, you know, cared about that sort of thing. He felt a headache coming on. Her mouth might've altered his brain chemistry, and he was furious about it.
"It's just, we remember what happened after Idyll Island—"
"I am," the Surgeon of Death said in his most calm, rational voice, "fine."
The night after she left for Marineford, Law wandered the archipelago. He watched the hazy lights from the ferris wheel glimmer, brooding over the destruction of his carefully-made plans, his best-laid schemes. In one fell swoop, she made tomorrow seem not just attractive for being one step closer to Doflamingo's brutal and inhumane demise, but also because he might get clumsily groped by a frizzy-haired chemist again, pushed onto his back, glimpse affection so tender on her face that it knocked all the wind out of him…
Law let out a sharp breath, exasperated with himself. He squared his shoulders and strengthened his resolve. When she came back, he would have to tell her that this wasn't viable. Priorities. Revenge. Cora-san. She'd have to find some other dick to—no, no, that wasn't okay either. Damn it. He thought of Sophie, searching for approval between someone else's legs, and felt a violent urge to shamble something into pieces.
That, most definitely, was not a good sign.
"Cora-san," Law muttered into his hands, "this is the problem when you can't kill something properly."
Especially if that something was a mouthy woman with a hardy resilience towards parathion.
—
Sabaody came and went.
Joker's—no, Doflamingo's human auction. Straw Hat and Captain Kidd. Jean Bart. Kizaru. Pacifistas.
At least it was a nice day for a bloodbath.
—
The three days that Sophie said she'd be gone had passed.
The Polar Tang escaped Kizaru's slaughter by the skin of their teeth. They traversed the waters between Sabaody and Marineford, searching for a little boat, sending up signal flares in case Sophie was lost in the dark vastness of the sea.
"She's… the chore girl, but also a scientist? And she swears in… fruits?" Jean Bart inquired in his staid, gravelly voice, and it sounded like he was asking what the hell was wrong with this pirate crew he just ended up in.
"It makes sense once you meet her," Bepo assured.
"We're gonna need a bigger suit for you, big man," Hai Xing said, eyeing the new crewmate.
"We're gonna need a bigger cabin," Anko corrected.
Bepo, Manta, and Uni, the three members of the Hearts' Big Boys Club, held out their hands for a high-five. Jean Bart, who was two to three times larger than them, did not seem to know what to do. He patted their heads.
"You'll be sleeping in the engine room for a while," Penguin said. "Don't worry, it's pretty comfortable and I'm down there all the time anyway. And Shachi's stuffed animals can keep you company."
"They're my friends and they have names, asshole!"
Out on the bow of the deck, Law was reading the papers. The first was about the Straw Hat Pirates, who had been decimated by Bartholomew Kuma. He lingered on the name of Monkey D. Luffy, then turned the page. Promising rookie crews fizzled out all the time. The second article was more about Fire Fist's execution. How he was dragged to Marineford two days ago by the pirate Blackbeard, and transported to Impel Down.
Two days ago. Blackbeard, the Cherry Pie Man Sophie said she met on Toa Sang Bay and Kunlun. Fire Fist Ace, who she came across on St. Poplar and Idyll Island. An impending war between Whitebeard and the World Government.
She still wasn't back yet.
"Sophie's on her way." Bepo came up beside him, resting his paws on the railing. The great black sea was lit up in crimson as Anko sent up the last flare. "She's just… caught up in something. Like finding us souvenirs! It's definitely souvenirs. She'll be back at first light, Kamasu's betting."
As the moon vanished behind dark clouds, Law couldn't shake the bad feeling that Kamasu would be losing money.
A week later, the bad feeling became cataclysmic.
Marineford was burning. They watched the show from the front seat; seven ships above water and one below, belonging to the captains the world was calling the Eleven Supernovas. Sans Straw Hat, because he was currently getting his ass handed to him by three Admirals. Ace died. Whitebeard followed his son soon after. Blackbeard stole the Gura Gura Fruit, and the undersea quakes nearly flipped the submarine on its side. Goddamn theatrics.
The Hearts gathered around a Den Den Mushi, which crackled with the broadcast.
"After Straw Hat Luffy!" came the distorted shouting of Akainu."Abandon the fallen! Do not stop until you kill him!"
Straw Hat was not only a fellow Supernova (not only a fellow D), but he also sent a World Noble flying with a wicked punch. It is true when they say an entire era can change in a few brief seconds. Law thought of the deranged kid shouting after a mermaid in an exploding collar. He thought of Hai Xing and Jean Bart. Then he ordered Anko to ascend.
"Cap, are you serious? We're saving that idiot?"
"Straw Hat came all this way and failed. It'd be a shame if he died here along with Fire Fist, don't you think? Let's give him another chance to beat the living shit out of a World Noble." Whether or not Luffy would be alive enough to save was an entirely different beast of a question. But Law was a fan of mavericks who took every opportunity to flip off the World Government, especially those who once belonged to it. Could anyone with working brain cells blame him?
The Den Den Mushi crackled again, this time with dark, rowdy laughter. "You were askin' how I did it, Sengoku! Why don't I show you and the rest of the world!? This here lady is Strangways Sophie!"
The entire crew gaped at the snail, Law included.
Hai Xing said what they were all thinking: "We're saving two idiots."
The Polar Tang rose out of the sea, trumpet fanfares and all. (Thanks, Manta.)
After announcing he was a doctor with the appropriate dramatics, Law yelled at the Whitebeard Pirates to get a crispy-looking Straw Hat Luffy onboard. Then he went off to find her. She was about three seconds away from getting firebombed out of existence.
With a wave of his hand, he cast all the bullets and mortar shells and death aside.
Law was kind of—no, he was real fucking furious. He had half a mind to yell right there, at this liar who had promised him she would be alright. Then Sophie spun around, and he had never seen anything as lovely as her savage bloody face lighting up with joy in the middle of a war.
She threw her arms around his neck, covered in dust and half-sobbing. Well, perhaps he could forgive her. Just this once. He could feel her bony ribs, and a fierce anger welled up inside him. But plans to murder everyone who had touched a hair on her head would have to come second to absconding from the premises. Law tucked her face into his chest and swept her away.
They almost made it. On the deck of the Polar Tang, Bepo holding the door and yelling at them to get in, Straw Hat and Jinbe were dubiously alive, Red Hair Shanks had arrived to save the day (except this was really doing the barest minimum of saving, come on), and the sky glimmered with Kizaru's full power.
Maybe he'd gotten cocky. Maybe the idea she would ever leave his arms again was so absurd that it took Law a moment to realize Sophie had pulled away from him. She was looking at Kizaru. Something had changed in her. She was a meteor, glowing from the inside. Her Armament was untouchable.
Don't fucking try it, Law was snarling, reaching out. You're not doing this again—
But like an ocean wave, she surged free from his Room and vanished into the million beams of light.
He crashed inside the Polar Tang's passageway, the deck door slamming shut, Bepo's paws around him. I'm sorry, the bear was wailing, I'm sorry, Sophie. Anko shot the submarine downwards as far and fast as it could go. Straw Hat, Shachi was yelling, come on, Cap, we got Straw Hat in the—where'd she go? Right. Straw Hat was dying. Right. He had work to do.
The aftermath of the Marineford War passed by in a bloody blur. Tubes and blood transfusions and oxygen masks hooked up with careful precision. His hands, working. Working incessantly. Non-stop. If he worked, if he focused purely on saving lives that were here, that he could still save, he didn't have to think about anything else.
They escaped to open water, where Boa Hancock and Emporio Ivankov found them. One of the escaped prisoners, a tall figure in bedecked in orange and white, asked after Sophie—Oh. I'm sorry. I thought she made it back. We fought together in the jailbreak, so I… I'm sorry.
Jailbreak. No kidding.
While the Supernova Eleven were charging through marines on Sabaody and harassing World Nobles, Sophie had gotten herself locked up in Impel Down. It was so ridiculous and yet shockingly predictable for her. And she wasn't even around for him to press against the nearest wall and say, right in her face with condescending amounts of snark, I told you so. She had bedeviled him. Twice.
When Jinbe woke up, he told Law about Level Six. Fire Fist. Her. His head was bowed, his blue forehead scrunched up as if he was ashamed this was all he could do: bring back stories.
And Law felt… well, he supposed it was some kind of anger. If anger was numb and froze the inside of your chest, and made you feel like you were falling immobile underwater, everything distorted and cold. He didn't know what this was. He could do grief; he understood grief. The crystal-clarity of grief, and death, and the well of acidic, luminous fury it brought. This was different. Something terrible was caught in his throat, only he couldn't name it, couldn't speak it. It made him dizzy, as if he was sick and dying and drowning all at once.
He thanked Jinbe, and told him to go back to bed.
He didn't remember sleeping. Only brief flashes of darkness. Penguin pulling a blanket around him as he dozed by Straw Hat's side, his small bandaged chest rising and falling erratically. Later, after Luffy's condition stabilized, he bumped into Anko sitting outside in the warm night air of Amazon Lily. When Anko looked up, his eyes were bleak and his cheeks were wet, and he whispered, "I thought you had her. I didn't mean to. I… I thought you had her."
Law sat next to him, looking up at the nine snakes carved into the dark, towering mountain. He felt so young again, begging people to stop protecting him. And then he said, "I couldn't hold on," and touched Anko's shoulder. "You saved the rest of us. You and her both." He added, "Bepo, you saved me."
A large fluffy shadow, who was hiding behind a corner, warbled, "Captain…"
Bepo came over and unceremoniously squished Law and Anko.
Law supposed he would've found it suffocating, if he hadn't already been suffocating for days. He said, very calmly, "After Straw Hat wakes up, I'll sail to Marineford and burn what's left of it. I've made three dozen contingency plans. Could do with four, though."
"Good," Anko said. "Hai Xing will like that."
"What if Sophie's not dead?" Bepo said to himself. "What if she's… lost?"
Law's eyes flickered, an emotion cutting through the numbness. He glanced at his helmsman. "You two taking care of each other?"
"Sure. He's been helping me with my crosswords," Anko said without skipping a beat. "Still won't let me touch his chef knives, though. That ain't doublespeak. He's weird." He glanced to the side for a moment. "Speaking of weird, you and Sophie were… lab partners, right?"
"…Not the way you mean."
"Maybe she'll come back," Bepo was muttering.
"What's the way I mean?" Anko returned.
Euphemisms. Doublespeak. Law closed his eyes, feeling his throat constrict again, as if drowning. "It doesn't matter."
"We didn't see her die," Bepo added hopefully.
"She went into Kizaru's light, Bepo," Law said quietly, and Bepo flinched. His nails were digging into his palm so hard he was breaking the skin, but he couldn't feel it in the slightest. "This world kills everyone too good for it. She went into the light. Nobody comes back from that."
—
The news was rarely, if ever, delivered to the Calm Belt, so learning about whatever happened at the end of the war would have to wait. Not even disembarking on the coast of Amazon Lily brought any cheer to the crew. They were taciturn and irritable, throwing themselves into chores and work and training. (They still tried to catch glimpses of the Kuja. It was unanimously agreed upon that Sophie would understand. She would've been ogling a buff, scantily-clad woman right next to them, in-between lecturing the guys about objectification.)
Law listened to the heart monitor beep, sitting by Straw Hat's side. His vitals were all stable, though still weak. It looked like he was going to pull through. With his lean, childish face, he looked young—certainly younger than Sophie. Too young for a war, ostensibly, but Law had been through much worse at much younger. Losing family was hell. But having your suffering broadcasted on the world stage, for everyone to see? He didn't envy the kid.
Law rested his head back, feeling the water rise up around him. He said to the ceiling, "When you wake up, I'll tell you what we both lost in the war."
Luffy breathed shallowly, his eyes closed.
A few days later, it was around midmorning when the Den Den Mushi in the control room started ringing. Anko leaned against Hai Xing's shoulder, eyeing it. It was tempting to let it ring and go back to the shrimp who was currently occupying half of his seat, squeezed next to him, hip on hip.
Hai Xing looked at the ringing snail intensely. "Maybe it's Sophie."
"Thinking that way is only gonna get you down, man," Anko said quietly.
Hai Xing corrected himself. "Maybe it's someone ordering pizza." A beat. "Or maybe it's her."
There was twenty minutes left before the cook went back to the galley to begin his mise en place for lunch. Anko knew the exact time because lately it was the bane of his existence. "I'm busy bein' miserable." He pointed at himself. "Look at my face. Sadness makes me ugly. I forgot how to be hot."
"Answer," Hai Xing recommended, a thin eyebrow arched and his feet tangled around Anko's beneath the control panel of lights and levers. "That could be your former attractiveness calling. It wants to let you know it's looking much better on me."
"A lot of me looks better on you, don't it," Anko muttered, and reached over to snag the receiver. "Heyo."
The snail's eyes widened. It's bottom lip trembled.
"This ain't a pizza delivery. Speak up, bitch."
"…Anko?" came her tiny voice at the other end, and they both fell out the chair.
"Shit," Anko gasped, pulling himself up. "Sophie?"
Law heard it when he was half-dozing by Luffy's bed. For a second, he just stared at the speaking tubes on the ceiling, from where Hai Xing was shouting, it's Sophie, Sophie's alive! And then he jolted to his feet. Law Roomed himself to the control room in time to hear Anko yelling at crackling static.
"We're all waiting for you! Do you fucking know how worried we are? We're on Amazon Lily. Are you nearby? Are you on a ship? Soph, do you hear me?" Anko plugged one ear, glaring at everyone trying to yell over each other. "Guys, I'm talkin' to her, shut up—Cap!"
Law picked up the receiver. "Where is she?"
"I don't know, the connection's shit—"
The snail opened its mouth again, and what came out of it was an ugly, distorted crackle and a barely discernable, "L…aw?"
The world, much like Trafalgar Law, could not kill one pesky girl properly.
Bepo was smiling, as if he'd known it all along.
"Amazon Lily," Law said, the transmission straining across oceans. "We're on Amazon Lily. Can you hear me?" And when the line went dead, he heard himself say, "Are you coming back?" while the steel chrysalis broke around him, sharp and stinging like the first touch of rain in a gasping desert. He clutched his throat, understanding now. Oh. He'd been drowning on all the words he hadn't said. He had never stopped thinking about that night with blue stars on the tide.
If she came home, he would let her kiss him a million times without a single grumble about priorities.
If she came home, he would stop pretending he wanted her to get over her silly feelings.
If you just come home.
—
"May the sirocco fly with you. It's sort of a prayer for safe travels. I learned it from sky islanders."
"I feel very cultured, Nellie-san."
"As ya should."
A burned hand adjusted a canvas backpack strap slung over shoulders. There were as many Dials stuffed inside as the bag could hold. Sophie stood on the cliff edge of the flying island with her boomstick in hand, a clean white blouse tucked into jeans, a pair of old boots on her feet.
She looked over at Nellie. "Guess this is it. For now."
Nellie chewed on her lip. "Listen. That time we met, my entire life was uprooted. Swamp people are superstitious by nature, and I can't shake the feeling that you might've been a harbinger. An omen."
"Of bad luck. I'm sorry, I get that a lot—"
"No. A harbinger of great change. Transformation. For better or worse."
"…Is that a good thing?"
Nellie looked out at the horizon of endless clouds, struggling for words. Finally, she said, "I've learned to breathe for the first time, up here." And because there was nothing more to say that hadn't already been said, she waved at the sky. "Time to fly, canary."
Sophie hugged her again, a big, squeezing hug.
And then she jumped off the cliff.
Nellie cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered, "Say hello to that creepy doctor for me!" Her waving figure grew smaller and smaller until she and the country of lightning rods and red-sloped roofs vanished entirely in the clouds, a secret to the world once again.
—
Sophie flew straight into the nine-headed snake mountain, but that wasn't entirely her fault.
For whatever reason, the jungle had started shaking. Trees collapsed in the distance, birds took flight, there was a sound like someone yelling—and she was so distracted that she crashed legs over butt into the rocky mountainside. A cloud of dust rose from a snake head, now missing an eye.
That mountain had come out of nowhere! And she still hadn't figured out U-turns!
The rumblings and echoing noises that sounded like either a human screaming or a gang of birds attempting soprano opera lasted awhile. But it faded as Sophie was flying in a wobbly line over the banyan and maidenhair trees.
There was a noticeable bluish-grey tinge to her face. Her mouth squirmed. Her hairy, unplucked eyebrows dipped south, furrowing together. She was nervous as all huckleberries about seeing her crew again. Would they notice if she sneaked in, sidled in the galley for breakfast, and with a nonchalant, "What is popping, my good hombres?" pretended like she'd never left? Hm… it was risky, but she could try it…
Ah. But with Law's uncanny observational abilities, her trickeries would never slip past him!
Sophie pressed her lips together and made a low, anxious, "Mmmmm." She felt nauseous thinking about her stoic, merciless, and man-with-profoundly-good-looking-shoulders captain. Ideally, he'd swoop her up in his arms and declare passionately how much he'd missed her, and that she'd become only more beautiful in her absence.
Realistically, he'd make her dogeza until her legs went numb and she cried.
The more she thought about it, the more fretful she became. If she was in Law's place, she would also be offended by a crewmate who fucked off not once, but twice! And right in front of him, both times! He'd lock her in his organ storage room until she sobbed that she'd never be stupid enough to leave the Polar Tang again. Or he'd just decapitate her and throw her into the ocean. That also seemed likely.
Or. Even worse.
He'd.
Look at her.
With.
Disappointment.
"Nooooo!" Sophie wailed. She preferred decapitation. She stroked Arsenic's walnut stock, like patting a horse. "Maybe we can c-camp out in the forest for a night? Just to, you know, mentally prepare?"
Sen heated up under her hands. Sophie made a frustrated noise.
"You just want Kikoku to see how pretty you got," she retorted. "Have some dignity."
The rifle sputtered and burped out whatever the solar-powered energy equivalent was to smoke and diesel. Stars and sunlight, maybe? Then it flipped sideways, shooting them downwards into the trees. Curious snakes poked their heads out, blinking at the pile of dirt that appeared at the center of the crash site.
Sophie sat upright and shook her rifle. "If this keeps happening, I'm gonna start thinking these chats aren't taking place in my vivid and questionably unhinged imagination."
She picked herself up with a sigh. The crash cleared her head. She had committed to going back home. Gotta see this through. Fine. I have to face them sooner or later. Sophie mustered her courage. I've already hit rock bottom! There's literally no one worse than my crew who I could be apologizing to!
Flipping Arsenic around to fly again, she stepped past a tree and emerged into a sunny clearing that was already occupied by two figures.
A blue fishman in a dirty kimono, and a boy who was wiping snot from his face and covered in red-stained bandages, shirtless, red shorts. Sunlight dappled across his mess of black hair and the scar beneath his left eye. His knuckles were bloody, as if he had punched down all the felled trees around them. No, it couldn't be, he was far too injured for that, and also he was—
Sophie stared at Straw Hat Luffy and Jinbe.
Jinbe stared back at Sophie, his tusked mouth falling open. "How did—what—"
She pointed. "You're alive!"
"You're alive!" Very understandable. She'd gotten quite used to running into Jinbe after being dramatically almost-killed. He probably thought a very loud, annoying blonde girl was haunting him at this point.
"Huh?" Luffy sniffled. "Who're you?"
Her chest constricted. Magma fire burst between every blink. Luffy's dark, red-rimmed eyes locked onto her. They narrowed in confusion, then recognition.
"I'm… I'm just l-looking for my crew," Sophie squeaked.
"I know you," Luffy said slowly.
"A-and they're not here! Well, don't let me interrupt!"
"Yes, the Heart Pirates!" Jinbe said loudly. "They're a bit north of here! Keep following the path!"
"Blackbeard said you helped him. In Impel Down."
She froze, biting her lip, sweat pouring down her face.
"Luffy-kun, leave her be, she had nothing to do with it," Jinbe was saying, and if Sophie was thinking more coherently, she would've wondered why he was talking to the kid in that tone. Like this injured, half-dead boy was a bomb about to go off. But all she could think was: Now, that's not really true, is it?
Luffy was unblinking, unnaturally still. "He said thank you. Thank you for leading him to Ace. Oi. Asshole. Look at me. Did you help him?"
Sophie felt like she was watching herself outside of her own body, yelling, Say something, dummy! Except everything was also happening in slow motion, and she was pretty sure her brain was broken, and she wasn't moving or speaking, just staring like an impotent flabby pineapple. She couldn't even blame Luffy for the Conqueror's Haki that slammed into her. The earth cracked. Trees swayed. She winced as a large invisible hand wrapped around her skull and squeezed.
After another second, it passed. She breathed hard, her eyes flickering open and focusing on the kid in front of her. She'd gotten herself on the bad side of a guy with a Devil Fruit, Conqueror's, and the D name. This was becoming a running theme in her life.
Jinbe clasped Luffy's shoulder. "Remember what we talked about. You'll be alright. You still have your crew."
He flung Jinbe's arm away, never breaking eye contact from Sophie. Something had happened between those two before she arrived. Were the distant yells she heard earlier from him? …Great, did that mean she just ruined something else?
"I asked you," Luffy said, "a question."
She balled her hands into fists, and whispered, "No. Not on purpose."
Luffy exhaled through his nose.
"Please, if—if we could talk for a minute." Sophie set down her rifle and backpack, where Perihelion rattled between the dials. She lifted her hands in a gesture of nonviolence. "I'll explain everyth—"
He suckerpunched her so hard she crashed through a tree.
Lying on her back with all the wind knocked outta her, all Sophie could do was gape, cheek smarting. Above her crouched a wild-eyed boy, his hands fisted in her shirt. Luffy dragged her upwards so they were nose-to-nose, and he snarled, "I don't believe you," before slamming her back into the dirt.
She bit back a scream. Armament came when she summoned it, but it was reluctant like a sun-scared cat. As if it too didn't want to hurt Luffy.
"Cut it out! You're injured and this is v-v-very rude!" She tried to slap him off her, but carefully, in a nice, comforting way. He hit her over the head. "Ow! Look at yourself! Do you not realize you're bleeding, monkey boy!?"
"You talk too much," Luffy spat.
Sophie stopped trying to wriggle away. Her head snapped straight, eyes narrowed to cold blue slits. "You can hit me again. But only once more, alright?"
"No," Luffy said flatly. "I wanna kill you."
That was two East Blue brothers who fell in homicide at first sight with her. She was kinda over it.
He threw another punch right as Sophie tried to shove him off, and then they were tumbling over the ground, shouting and kicking up leaves. She didn't want to fight him. She wasn't gonna beat up a kid who just lost his big brother. Sophie shoved her hand in Luffy's face with a semi-roll of her eyes, growling, "I've b-been in a lot of r-ridiculous situations, but getting killed by a rubber monkey who wears a straw hat is pushing it."
He reddened, his cheeks puffing up as he inhaled. "YOU KILL MY BROTHER, THEN CALL MY HAT STUPID!?"
"What!? I n-never said th-that!"
"PIECE OF SHIT!" He bit her on the arm.
"AHHHH WHAT THE HECK—"
"CALM DOWN, BOTH OF YOU!"
They were lifted clear off the ground, Luffy's teeth pulling away with an elastic pop! Glaring, Jinbe held one brat in each hand and shook them like misbehaving pups. "That. Is. Enough."
"It's okay," Sophie panted, bleeding from one nostril. "Let him. He n-needs this."
"No!" The lightning scar slashing through Jinbe's eye flared, his heavy brows like thunderheads. "Don't let yourself be a target for a man's anger! Do not lower yourself like that."
Jinbe was so wise without being pretentious that it made her groan a little.
"Gerroff me!" Luffy shouted.
"And you! Are you going to believe everything Blackbeard said!? Is he not your enemy!?"
Luffy flinched, his eyes darting from Sophie and Jinbe—and back to her.
"Sorry," he muttered, and slammed his foot into a blue stomach. Jinbe grunted and his grip loosened. Luffy threw himself forward and snagged Sophie by the back of her shirt, hurling them both into the mossy underbrush. She braced for impact.
The last time she'd seen this kid, he screamed himself unconscious with his brother's blood all over him. There was something about Straw Hat Luffy. Something that said he was used to things going his way, so long as he punched hard enough, resisted long enough. If heaven was real he'd climb up there, rip apart the clouds with his bare fists, and drag Ace down himself.
Rolling to his feet, Luffy was hunched over, a vicious snarling shadow, the whites of his eyes gleaming within all the blood on his face. He had a bounty of three hundred million at seventeen. He'd destroyed Enies Lobby. He had gained the respect of Whitebeard himself. She couldn't even remember that huge sunny smile on his bounty poster. This was the real Straw Hat Luffy: a bloodthirsty, uncompromising monster.
…Right?
Sophie bolted.
She felt the whiplash before it connected. Sophie ducked right as Luffy kicked through a banyan tree, missing her by inches.
"What about Sabo?" she yelled, diving behind another tree.
"Don't say that name, Thick Brows!"
Oh, the nerve of this boy! "He's alive! Didn't Ace mention it before he—"
"Stop TALKING!" His fist snapped back and smashed into the tree beside her head; Sophie didn't think he had intended to miss. The roar sent leaves whirling overhead. Straw Hat Luffy could bleed willpower straight into the damn air.
She dived through a thicket of bushes, shrieking, "I thought you'd be happy, you loofah!"
The thicket exploded, and Luffy stood there with his bloody fists raised by his chin like a southpaw boxer. She saw Sabo in him, the obstinate drive to keep fighting no matter what, and also Ace, the infinite, unbendable ferocity. It'd be magical in any other scenario. "Shut up."
Sophie held her hands up, scrambling backwards on the ground. "I met both your brothers. It's a boring story, but I've been through a lot with—and I owe Ace and Sabo a lot. I'm n-not Blackbeard's pawn. And I'm not your enemy."
Luffy advanced on her.
"If I'd known what would happen, I w-would've never come near you and your family!"
He loomed over her as if his rage made him twenty feet tall.
Sophie stood up in his shadow. She didn't run. "I told Ace where to find Blackbeard, and Ace lost. That's what happened, that's what he meant by help. I didn't think he'd lose. He's First Fist Ace. I didn't think he'd—I'm sorry."
"I don't wanna hear it."
"I'm sorry!" she stubbornly insisted, her voice rising in pitch. "You don't have to forgive me, but I'm a million, billion times sorry! I'm sorry with a cherry on top and extra hot chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles! I'll still be sorry when I'm dead! I'll still be sorry when I'm in the ground and my teeth have all fallen out and maggots are in my eyeballs and—"
"Take it back!" Luffy bellowed, all of seventeen with nothing but unpolished, thrashing emotion. "I don't want any of your crap!"
"Feast your eyes upon my I'm Sorry dance! I'm sorry sorry sorry sor—"
When he launched himself at her, her ribs stung too much (he'd socked her good) for Sophie to dodge. They scuffled, flailing—and her vision was all jungle canopy and a feral boy leaning above her. She was breathless, and not just because he had slugged her in the gut.
Luffy's face was all scrunched up like he was crying, only there were no tears. He had such kind eyes. Even when he looked at her like he hated every single molecule of her being, it was only hate because he loved his brother so much.
As he reared back his fist, Sophie had half a mind to lift her own hand and touch his cheek.
A dark blade stabbed through the ground, and Luffy jerked back.
The sword landed right in front of her knees, separating him and a stunned Sophie. (As if staking a claim—)
Boots circled Straw Hat. Shadows backlit by the high sun peered down at him, pointing flintlocks and swords. Jinbe came up running behind them, huffing and puffing about hotheaded rookies.
Past the nodachi's fuzzy white hilt was a fuzzy white hat, dark hair, an obscenely yellow hoodie.
She met her captain's gaze. Grey and sleep-deprived and giving her a little up-down flick of his eyes to make sure she had all her limbs attached. That was all. Sophie watched him crouch down to sigh at Luffy's new collection of injuries. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, at her.
"That's my janitor you're beating the shit out of," Law informed, and thumped what he was holding onto Luffy's head—a straw hat with a red band around it. "Usually, you'd ask for permission first, yeah?"
Kikoku glinted at her, as if winking.
—
She was hooked to an IV drip. A cloth ice pack sat on her head, which was held tight with a bandage that wrapped around her head and girdled her face. Sophie sat meekly on the bed, looking at her crewmates. The sickbay's bright lights highlighted how very not here they were for her bullshit.
Penguin's shadowed eyes were even more shadowy than usual. Shachi's sunglasses had never looked so intimidating on him before, impassively reflecting her own wide-eyed apprehension.
Even Bepo was aloof, avoiding looking at her no matter how much she stared at him, begging for a sliver of acknowledgement. The normally chipper Valross was unsmiling. Manta didn't drawl even one 'how you doin', little lady'. Kamasu and Uni wore the same flat expression. Anko was looking at her like that tussle on a Machinastein beach had never happened, like she was a stranger. She knew if she glanced at Hai Xing, her heart would break.
Instead, with a determinedly steady bottom lip, Sophie settled on the ten million muscles, sideburns, and flame tattoos who had finished squeezing himself into the sick bay. "You are a large man," she pointed out in a manner that was not deflecting at all.
"Jean Bart," introduced what she assumed was a new crewmate. His voice was deeper than an ocean trench. "I'm, um… the new resident scientist." Then he whispered to the guys, "This is mean-spirited, lads. I don't like it."
"What science do you study?" Sophie inquired, because she had manners.
Jean Bart pondered this. "…Rocks. They're… crunchy."
"I'm gone for barely a month and you've already replaced me with a totally valid and not at all suspicious geophysicist?" She looked at the Hearts in betrayal. They remained tight-lipped, saying nothing back.
"I didn't agree to any of this," Jean Bart confided to her. "From what I've heard of you, young miss, you seem very impressive. I like Tenryuubito Slayers. Oh," he added, because Penguin elbowed him.
That didn't stop a tiny smile from twitching across Sophie's mouth.
The door opened and Law slouched inside the sickbay, having finished with Luffy and Jinbe in the operation room. Her spine went rigid. She watched him angle around the men. Without looking at her, he turned a chair around and sat backwards on it, at the end of her bed.
Law crossed his forearms over the back of his chair. They were eye-level.
"You're late," he said.
Sophie nodded. "I'm sorry."
He made no indication that he heard her apology. Law's expression was closed off, mean like a saw-toothed blade. "Jinbe-ya told us about Impel Down. You. Trying to break Fire Fist free and getting caught. What the hell were you thinking?"
Her cheeks went splotchy and red. She kept picking fluff off of the blanket she was sitting on. "I… I th-thought I could… if it h-hadn't been for that meddling Aokiji—"
"Let me summarize," Law said, so calm it sent shivers up her spine, and began counting on his fingers. "You were in a war between Whitebeard and the World Government. Some asshole says you're the cause of it. You got sent to Impel Down. You fight Aokiji. You bump into Fire Fist Ace." He scratched his scruffy chin, deliberately in thought. "Did I fucking miss something?"
"No," Sophie whispered.
"And throughout this mess, you couldn't find one opportunity to call and tell me what kind of shit you've been up to?"
She stared at the small, anxious pile of fluff. "I—I—it was—everything was happening so fast…"
"You find a Mushi. Dial the number. Scream for help. Nothing you haven't done before."
She was supposed to be a repentant woman, but Sophie couldn't very well just take that. His chilly disdain reminded her of how he spoke to her when they first met and he scared the socks off her at every turn. Not anymore. "I am very sorry, but I was a little preoccupied with being in jail or not dying," she enunciated in her pettiest voice, because what you give is what you get. "I know I said I'd be gone for three days. I know it must've annoyed you to wait, but—"
Law's jaw clenched and he said tightly, "I'm not so pathetic as to be annoyed by that."
Sophie was quiet for a long moment. She sniffled a little. Then again. "I'm sorry for the mess I caused."
"Wrong thing to apologize for. Nobody here thinks you caused it." Law's eyes never left hers. "And if you did, it wouldn't scare off pirates."
A cautious hope flowered in her chest, like plum blossoms unfurling in the snow. She knew these guys. They were her guys, and she'd be furious too, if her friend had gone through something so insane on their own. And here I was, so sure they didn't want anything to do with me anymore. Shameful.
"You're mad at me," Sophie managed, "which is deserved, but can we p-please skip everyone yelling at me and go to the part where I a-ask you to take me back?" She sniffed angrily, rubbing her eye. "I just w-want to come back. Is that okay?"
The Hearts shuffled their feet. They looked awfully uncomfortable for some reason. Sweat beaded down their brows, even though the sickbay wasn't particularly warm. Bepo was adamantly inspecting the floor.
Law's response had about as much feeling as a brick wall. "You left us. You jumped off the ship." When she looked confused, he added, "Kizaru."
"I—I had to. I thought everyone was going to die."
"You left with two Yonkou crews."
"It wasn't, like, calculated!" Sophie spluttered, indignant.
"You considered running away."
"No, only a little—!" She broke off when Law tensed, and realized her mistake. "Just a little. B-barely. I was scared."
He blinked. Once. Twice. "You really considered it?"
She thought about everything she couldn't say, like, Have you seen what they're writing about me, or, Please don't hate me, I've had enough of people hating me, or, I carried a dead man on my back and if I close my eyes I can still see him there. It was too heavy. She felt all things, too much, at once. Guilt, shame, despair, fear, but hope, still hope. Still the hunger to be fruitful. She didn't know if that meant she was a monster or simply a person.
"We voted on a punishment for you," Law said coldly. "Are you prepared to face the consequences of your actions?"
Sophie touched her forehead to the bed, bowing her head to her crew. Her hands were pressed beside her, so there was nothing to catch the tears. She didn't want a new beginning. She wanted to live this life until it killed her. "If that means I can come home."
The sickbay was quiet.
And then Penguin exploded, "Damn it, Captain, hurry up!"
A chorus of shouting from the Hearts rose in volume. They were getting so hysterical they were yanking their hats off and pulling at their hair.
"This is unusually sadistic, Captain!" Bepo wailed, bursting in tears.
"Why are you crying!?" Kamasu yelled, while also digging his fist into his eye.
"These are manly tears! I'm a maaaaan!"
"Your punishment." Law held out his hands, and in a flash of blue, there was— "A bowl of Hai Xing's soup dumplings. Who's in agreement?"
"AYE!" came the roaring, unanimous chorus, and Sophie covered her mouth.
"The aye's have it," Law observed.
Shachi hopped on the bed and flung out his hands. "Leap into my arms, Sophie-chan!"
Anko muscled him aside, laughing through the snot dripping down his nose. "Did you bring any souvenirs? Also, dude, your hair—"
"She's hooked on an IV, be careful—" Penguin cut off with a yelp, because Manta shoved them all aside, bawling, "Don't ever make us this worried again, little lady!"
The bed was not fit to hold so many grown men. It gave a threatening creak, and they had to yell at Bepo to get off, because the bear was attempting to sneakily climb on to join them. Sophie was giddy, ruffling Anko's hair and accepting Shachi's pouncing hug. But her smile faded as Law came over to adjust the IV drip.
"That was so mean," she snapped, and yanked away her bowl of soup dumplings from him.
Law leaned down and grasped her face in his hands. She stopped sniffling, too surprised to do anything but stare. He held her firmly, squishing her cheeks so her mouth puckered like a fish. "Will you forgive me, if I forgive you?"
Sophie couldn't find the words, so she just nodded. His hands brushed aside her short flyaway curls, and let go. She didn't notice the exchange of glances going around the crew, because Hai Xing came over to pat her head.
"I'm pleased you aren't currently suffering the inevitable end that comes for us all."
"I went through hell and back just to eat your food again," Sophie replied, and planted a big fat smooch right on Hai Xing's gorgeous forehead.
—
After an appropriate amount of tearful reuniting, Law ushered everyone out of the sickbay. Everyone except for Sophie.
The IV was for fluids and pain meds. No sprained bones or internal bleeding, just a mild concussion. She'd lost some weight in an unlovely, pinched sort of way. Starving in Impel Down, no doubt. Getting the snot kicked out of her by Straw Hat hadn't done her any favors, either.
Law could feel her eyes on him as he turned from the door. If he focused his Observation, he could feel her gaze traveling up the spine of his back, feel the slight disturbance in the air as her breathing hitched when she realized they were now alone, hear her fluttery heart palpitations.
Law closed his Haki, because his bastard traitor heart was starting to sync in pace with hers. Being around the chemist who had metaphorically blown his brains out might make him develop tachycardia. Shit. If this was going to become a regular occurrence, it was going to be vile.
He sat by her bed, professional as always despite the hoodie with the sleeves rolled up and rumpled jeans. She had several new scars. The middle finger of her left hand was busted up with a jagged, forking scar that looked like lightning.
"Pretty cool, huh?" she said with an awkward grin.
He'd bet it'd taste better than coffee. Better keep that to himself. "Stop getting injured so damn much. Consider that an order."
Sophie shrugged with that same little grin, saying nothing.
She had come back. No one ever comes back—but she did. And the longer he looked at her, the wider her grin became. Law tore his eyes away. He made a Room and scanned through her body, taking stock of her wounds and trying not to clench his jaw too hard. "Lift up your shirt."
Her mouth with the bruised lip quirked. "Is that also an order?"
He glared, stony.
"Okay, okay—"
She wasn't wearing a bra. Which, in retrospect, had been obvious.
Law absorbed the view. Nothing he hadn't seen or felt up before. He was a professional. Right.
He peeled away a large bandage taped to the side of her stomach. A nasty laceration twisted with delicate stitches that should've been removed by now. Law found his forceps and snipped and pulled the suture thread away. He could've used his Room, but the process was painless and he wanted to appreciate another doctor's artful work. "Was this infected?"
Sophie frowned down at herself. He wondered if it was normal to think that double-chins were the height of glamor. "I think so? Or this one over here. Or the one on my back. I can't remember. I had a bad fever after Marineford. The Red Hair Pirates' doctor fixed me up."
"It's healing well, so that's something." Greenish bruises and more scabbed-over scars covered her ribcage, up between her breasts. Law motioned for her to sit up so he could take a look at her back.
His fingers brushed a sore spot on her shoulder. Sophie flinched with a tiny, "Ow."
"Sorry," Law said, checking her expression for signs of continuing pain.
She shook her head bracingly. "It's fine, I can take it."
His chest clenched. "You're not supposed to take it. Not around me. I'm your doctor. You have to let me know what you're feeling so I can give you the right amount of pain medication. Am I understood?"
After a beat, she smiled down at her knees. "Right. I will. I'm okay for now. Thanks."
The stinging sensation in his chest—what the hell was that? panic? fear?—faded into a calm, quieter sort of grumpiness. "Jinbe told me the gist of it." He eyed the big, dark bruise on her lower back. "You were tortured in Impel Down."
"I deserved it. For all the people I've killed while in G-13." She sounded rehearsed, like she'd thought out all the nooks and crannies of it already. "It was cleansing, in a weird way. The nightmares are pretty bad, but I think I'll be fine. I'm at peace with it, in any case."
Sophie and her fucked-up sense of justice. It irritated him that she thought of herself like that. It irritated him even more because he respected her for it, for her sense of honor. He knew he'd feel the same in her place. "You can lower your shirt."
She did, brushing out the fabric. He looked at his next challenge. This was not very conducive to his goal of not suffering cardiac arrest. But he also wasn't some fumbling, insecure teenage boy, so he tapped her jean-covered knees.
Sophie caught on. "This is going to be weird," she warned, but nodded.
"I'm a professional," Law reminded, and Roomed her jeans off her. Nothing but skin and panties. Thank fuck for panties. A very professional thought.
She hugged her bare knees with a squawking laugh. "Ah, you m-mean certified by that certificate Bepo drew for you? In crayon?"
"That's the one," he muttered, gently pulling one leg out from its curled-up position. No big wounds anywhere. Pretty toes, as always. Sophie flushed as he kneaded his thumb against the heel of her foot. The parathion needle-scar was a faint blemish, like a pale mole, and he couldn't help but admire it. This was about as professional as sliding into bed with her and—well, fuck, now he was thinking about it. That. He cleared his throat. "Do you regret it? What we did?"
She choked. "You can't ask me that while I'm not wearing pants. It's against the rules."
"We're both pirates and that's not an answer." He watched her carefully. "Do you?"
Sophie was half-hiding behind her arms. "I liked t-touching you," she said, a bit defiant, and then flushed harder. "Sorry."
His heart was thumping again, far worse than earlier. "What are you sorry for?"
Her face twitched, fingers tapping. "In case… you regret it."
"I," Law said immediately, but the words I liked you touching me shriveled up in his throat. "I—thought it was… ah, nice." He coughed. Nice. Out of all the words in the dictionary, he settled on nice. He had inimitable knowledge regarding medicine and the human body, and yet. Nice.
Lobster-red, Sophie tugged at a short curl. "Um. Thanks."
Law urgently tried to think of something cool and intelligent to say. "Yeah," he replied.
She fidgeted, and because she was the smartest one in the room, changed the subject. "How's Straw Hat?"
"He'll survive. Probably. How are you?"
Sophie smiled faintly at the candid reply. "In the same boat."
He knew that tone. That look on her face. In an instant, Law knew what had almost got her. Why she had almost not come back. He knew it before Sophie inhaled and her face got all scrunched-up and she said brokenly, "It's n-nothing, just something in-in m-my eye—"
He knew it because he'd been there. Before he even registered moving, Law was on the bed and pulling her into his arms. (The clinical side of his brain measured the fat and muscle she'd lost. The rest of his brain went into a seething rage.)
He never particularly liked giving hugs—not exactly because he had an aversion towards emotional bonding fuckery, which hugs often precipitated, but mostly because he was shit at giving them. Clumsy and uncomfortable and he never knew what to do with his hands. Better if someone else hugged him first (the someone usually being Bepo). But he didn't have the time to feel like shit, because Sophie was clinging to him. And she was shaking.
"I'm n-not sad anymore, I'm not sad, it's just a lot, just h-h-heavy—"
"It's okay to be sad," Law said quietly into her hair, stroking her back, her head. "I've gotten used to people being inconsolable over Fire Fist's death, for whatever reason." She jabbed him with an annoyed sob. "Right, yeah, I know. He was good. I remember." Funny how right now he knew exactly what to do with his hands. They'd been made to hold her, in this moment. "Take as long as you need to get that thing out of your eye. I got you."
—
Sophie was content to drift off all warm and sheltered in Law's arms, but the day wasn't over yet. He didn't look like he'd be comfortable to lay on, all lean muscle and bones, but he was just solid enough to be cozy. She'd been deprived of this since Noctiluca Atoll. Sophie thought churlishly about how bothersome it was to get up from a spot she felt so safe in, but she did.
She poked him in the armpit and said, "Thanks, I feel better."
He let go. His hands lingered on the small of her back, over the nasty bruise she got somewhere between tripping away from Tashigi and falling flat on her ass in front of Hawkeyes. Law looked out the porthole windows. They could both feel it, even Sophie's baby-bird, wishful-thinking Observation. That's how strong it was.
"Someone's coming," she said, and went off to get dressed. Properly dressed.
Like everything else in the Polar Tang, slipping back into her boiler suit was both familiar and strange. She'll get used to it again, soon.
The visitor was a bespectacled old man with long white hair and super jacked body, on full display as he walked out of the ocean shirtless. His name was Silvers Rayleigh, former first mate to Gold Roger. Or so the Hearts yelled. They had met in Sabaody's auction house. He had swum across the Calm Belt and knocked out a Sea King with a haymaker, and he was here for Luffy.
But Sophie knew him as the hungover alley cat lounging in the Sabaody Archipelago pier.
The Dark King smiled at her in recognition as he wrung out his shirt. The look in his eye was one she couldn't name. "Had a long journey, miss?"
Sophie sniffed the air. Underneath the ocean brine was the waft of gin and bourbon, a heavy smell that was bleached into his bones by now. Marco was right: Silvers Rayleigh was kind of a drunken floozy, which diminished the impressiveness of his résumé.
"It was quite eventful, yes." She walked past him. She'd leave it to Jinbe and Law to be stunned by Rayleigh, who had come to do something no doubt very cool with Luffy, like be his badass mentor or whatever. But if Sophie stayed around him too long, she'd be tempted to ask why Rayleigh hadn't been in Marineford to rescue the son of his former captain. Why that old pirate had let so many young ones die in the war.
But she had already gotten on the bad side of the entire world, so… maybe not.
Luffy grimaced. "Thick Brows."
Sophie showed her teeth. "Loofah."
"Behave," Law snapped, coming up behind them. He had taken Jinbe's place as the adult prepared to break them up at the first sign of brat-on-brat violence.
"Got a minute?" Sophie asked, and expected Luffy to ignore her.
But he surprised her by following her to the edge of the cliffed coast. It fell sharply into the crashing waves below, the rocks there sharp and waiting. As if he couldn't see the danger, Luffy swung his legs off the edge of the precipice. His wounds were re-treated by Law, and he was wrapped up stiff-clean like an Alabastian mummy.
"I met Sabo recently," Sophie said, standing next to him. "He's been working with the Revolutionary Army for, what, a decade now? He's amnesic. Know what that means? Memory loss. Doesn't remember you."
"Bullshit."
"I met him too, Straw Hat-ya." Law was resting against a grassy outcropping of rock. "Yellow hair. Wears a top hat. Fights with a metal pipe." Sophie told him about the brothers being—well, brothers, and Law, like her, was disgusted by how much she knew about this ridiculous family. He also looked at her a weird way when she talked about the D name. Understandable. That letter made her want to put her head through a glass windowpane, too.
She held out a small, square piece of paper to where Luffy's shoulder was. "Sabo gave me his vivre card. Take it. Go find him."
"This is real?" Luffy said almost angrily, with a hostile curl of his mouth.
Sophie nodded, never looking away from him.
He reached out. His hand paused inches from the vivre card… and then lowered. "If Sabo is alive, that means neither of us could save Ace."
Oh. Sophie hadn't considered that particular detail of survivor's guilt.
"I can't see him yet." Luffy's hands laced themselves over his lap. The breeze plucked at his hair, sent wisps of coal-black shivering. "We wouldn't be able to look each other in the eye."
She curled her fingers over the vivre card, where it pointed somewhere out to the sea. Sophie looked down at the steep drop for a moment, then gingerly crouched down and eased her legs out next to Luffy. She didn't have Sen, but it was okay; Law was just behind her. He wouldn't let anything bad happen.
"You didn't kill Ace. You didn't do this. I get it now." Luffy pressed down on his hat, so the brim shadowed his eyes. "Sorry about earlier."
"That's okay, your anger is understandable," Sophie said, and meant it. She kicked her feet a little. "Blackbeard hurt me too. But… in a different way."
"How?"
It was an honest question. And then she was very aware of Law standing behind her. Her vision started jumping between here and there, his breath that smelled like rum, his dark, gap-toothed laugh. My sweet Fortuna, my own Lady Luck. "It's, um, hard to explain."
"Oh. Okay." Luffy accepted her not-answer without further comment. What a weird kid.
Sophie took Perihelion off the back of her belt, the curved dagger heavy in her palms. She breathed in deeply, and said, "Here. Take it."
"Quit giving stuff to me."
"It's Ace's!"
To her shock, Luffy scowled. "I know. What am I gonna use it for?"
She looked at him blankly. "The sentimentality?"
"What?"
"As a reminder."
"Of Ace? Why would I need a knife to remind myself he's my brother? Are you stupid?"
"Oh my god," Sophie said. Behind her, Law was stoically looking away, which meant he was definitely holding back a smirk. She shook her head. "There's m-meaning behind it. It belonged to him. So now it should belong to you."
"It's just a knife," Luffy said.
She made a frustrated noise. "I d-don't get you. Is that hat just a hat?"
"No, it's precious."
"What's the difference between your hat and Ace's knife?"
"Sharpness," Luffy said.
Sophie stared at him. "You're an idiot," she realized.
"Yeah, maybe. So what? You're dumb, too."
"You—" Sophie took a deep, measured breath. "This means something. That's how legacies work. That's how—everything about you works, Straw Hat. Everyone I meet keeps telling me you're a part of something too great to understand, and that means inheritance, that means this knife."
"Nobody tells me what to do. I live as I will." There was something odd about the way Straw Hat Luffy looked at her; it was like his eyes could see everything. "If I take it, will it bring Ace back?"
"…No."
"Then I don't care what you do with it."
Sophie didn't say anything to that, and she stuck Peri back on her belt.
Law watched the two of them set against the cerulean waters of Amazon Lily. He watched Sophie start talking about the newspapers she read about Ace over breakfast. How she didn't know him, but it felt like she did, a little bit. In the way you sort of know people you only see in photos or the papers. You build up your own stories of them in your head. Most of the time, it's all shit. But in Fire Fist's case…
They were close enough to touch, if she wanted to, in sympathy. She didn't, and looked out at the horizon. "He wouldn't shut up about you in Impel Down. You were all he thought about. I only found brothers recently, but I want to love them as much as Ace loved you."
Luffy wore a guarded, heavy-eyed pirate glare, but beneath that, there was a glimpse of a boy who looked—terrified. Terrified at the possibility of breaking into pieces again, terrified at his own helplessness of her usage of past tense. Then he gritted his teeth and said, "I don't like you, Thick Brows."
That's normal, Law thought. He didn't mind. If the world didn't want her, then he'd have her to himself. Was that repulsive? Then it was repulsive.
Sophie nodded, her head bowed.
"But," Luffy added, "I don't hate you or nothin'."
The corner of her mouth tugged up, at least from the angle where Law could see. Perhaps Straw Hat was more… astute than he initially thought. He filed that note away, a small curve to his own lips. Sophie touched her bruised cheek, where an imprint of a rubbery knuckle was fading, and retorted, "I don't like your face."
"I don't like your face," Luffy returned, tongue poking out.
"Hmph! As expected from a delinquent raised in the mountains, there's no hope for you—"
"You wanna go!? If you call my hat ugly again, I'll kill you!"
"Oh my god, I literally never said that—"
They started tussling again, and Luffy tried to jab his finger up her nose while she grabbed his stretchy cheeks and yanked—before a grey glare and tattooed hands separated them. And so it went: this was the future Pirate King who she was bullying, and a future Warlord who was dragging her away by the stomach and cursing them both out, and there would be a future alliance between their two crews that would shake the world like never before.
But, for now, they were three rookie pirates all yelling at each other at the edge of the sea.
—
The Polar Tang was about to set off when Boa Hancock arrived with her serpentine sisters and a cart full of fresh food. The most beautiful woman in the world had pair of mean eyes, and they looked especially flinty in proper daylight instead of the dank torchlight in Impel Down.
Hancock was a scarlet kingsnake in her red, thigh-baring outfit as she fussed about Luffy. Anko raised anchor as the guys gawked at the Pirate Empress's beauty from the safety of the control room. Jinbe waved goodbye to Sophie and Hai Xing, and reminded Hai Xing to come to Fishman Island to try Ryugyu cuisine.
"The Dark King and the Pirate Empress?" Sophie muttered to Law. "Does that loofah have the entire world on his side?"
"He is a D after all," Law said, enigmatically shadowed by his hat. "They never fail to bring up a storm."
She scowled. "You're being weird again."
"…I'm never weird."
She opened her mouth to either retort or laugh, but then caught Boa Hancock's regal gaze. Sophie had the sudden urge to go on all fours and offer her back as a humble footstool so Hancock could rest her perfect feet. She didn't do that, and instead lifted her hand in greeting. "Thanks for helping me out—"
"Runt," Hancock recognized. She swayed forward, hands on her hips. How could she look so hypnotically graceful in high heels? It was surely one of the wonders of the world. "You made a passing joke in Impel Down. It wasn't a good one."
Sophie held her chin on her palm, smiling. "That sounds like me."
"If I had let you die, the world would be down one fool," Hancock snapped, and then promptly looked bored with this conversation. "Even a lie about harming a World Noble is reason enough for an execution. I'd rather not be thanked by a witless buffoon."
"That was a lie," Sophie acknowledged, resting her elbows on the deck railing. "I didn't turn a World Noble into gold. Haven't found the right ingredients to test my formula yet. I killed him, the Dragon."
Boa Hancock stared at her. And her two sisters. And the little old Kuja with the flower in her hair who was with them. Rayleigh paused being all old-man-sexy on his rock. Jinbe crossed his arms, nodding. Luffy picked his nose as he stuffed his gob with meat.
"You lie again," Hancock said, and her glare was suddenly fierce. The tattooed snake around her eye curled in hissing defense. "How is that possible?"
Sophie held up her thumb and index finger, guesstimating the size. "A bullet at point-blank range."
Hai Xing nudged her. "We're setting sail."
"I'm not lying," Sophie added, her eyes glimmering with humor, free as a sparrow taking flight. "But you don't have to believe me."
From the control room deck, Anko called, "We're diving! Get in, you lazy bums!"
Law was holding the deck door open. A true invitation home.
Before Sophie went in, though, she heard Hancock call, "Next time you set foot on Amazon Lily, come see the city." When she glanced over her shoulder in surprise, the Pirate Empress had already turned her back. Her long white coat swished behind her, closing her off to anything Sophie might've asked.
"Torao!" Luffy was standing on the edge of the coast. His expression was stretched in a way she'd never seen before, except she had, on that bounty poster she nearly forgot about. He wasn't smiling, not exactly, but he was earnest like the sun. "Thanks for everyth—"
Law shut the door.
As they went below deck, Sophie almost ran into the wall laughing at the look on her captain's face. Hai Xing remarked, "Did he just call you Torao?"
"I better never hear that word again," Law said.
—
There was a rightness that settled over the Polar Tang, now that Sophie was back. As if the submarine herself had realigned, gears clicking and sliding more easily into place, the engines running just a little bit smoother.
Many years ago, it had just been him, a polar bear mink, and two loud boys who wouldn't stop following him around North Blue. Then came a drunkard who had nowhere else to go, a boisterous sailor who'd been laughed out of town for wanting to sail the Grand Line, and an ice fisherman who's first words to him were, "Valross. That's the name of the guy who's gonna kick your ass." Then came a slave who hid in the pantry of his kitchen, holding a half-dead man with blue tattoos all over him, begging Law to save his life. The Polar Tang grew warmer and brighter with every new pair of boots that crossed the threshold.
Then came her.
Even the galley lights were different, gentler somehow. The table shook with laughter, plates and cups and spoons clinking. Sophie gasped when they told her about the Sabaody Incident. The Hearts couldn't have been prouder that she made it to Impel Down. Manta (drunken public indecency), Kamasu (drunken disorderly conduct), and Valross (murder) had all served time before. Also Anko, and his rap sheet was by far the most entertaining.
Now she was back, and it felt right again. The business of living must go on.
After dinner, Sophie decided that her most pressing concern was resuming her cleaning duties. She desperately wanted to feel useful. She took out her trusty mop and bucket, and marched down to the engine room. In a misguided attempt to drag her back to bed, Penguin and Shachi assured her they had kept the Polar Tang in tip-top shape. Sophie's smiled vanished. She wrung her hands, sniffling anxiously. "You… you kept the sub clean… w-without me?"
The mechanics looked at Sophie as her eyes began welling up with tears.
Penguin kicked over a jar of engine grease. When Kamasu passed by with a tankard of rum, Shachi slapped it out of his hands so it splattered all over the floor.
"Oi, what the fuck!"
"We need a janitor!" they hollered. "STAT!"
"Why is the grease everywhere!?" Kamasu yelled, as Valross took a stab at skiing over the oily floor.
Sophie charged in with her mop and bucket. Kamasu shook his head at the younger mechanics, but only sighed grumpily when they pressed their hands together in apology. They were making so much noise that the rest of the crew joined them down in the engine room, one after another. Blinking engine lights washed over them as they wiped metal until it gleamed, or threw blankets at each other, or replaced lost tankards of rum with a fresh pint. Sophie set down her mop when she was done cleaning, settled against Bepo, and passed out with a great snore.
Law looked around, and said at his newest crewmate, "Sorry it's a bit more crowded than usual. Normally, it's just the mechanics down here."
"Oh, I don't mind." Jean Bart was arranging several worn stuffed animals beside a snoring Shachi. The pirates were sleeping on top of each other in a big dogpile. Jean Bart was a bit squished to the side with a blanket that was actually ten blankets stitched together; he was smiling. "You attract a certain kind of people, don't you, Trafalgar Law?"
He shrugged. "Sleep well."
"Where you going?" Penguin mumbled.
"Someone has to be at the helm."
"Mmmright." Penguin rolled over and threw his arm across Shachi's stomach. "I'll steer next time."
"Next time," Law agreed.
When dawn arrived, the Polar Tang was cruising over the sea with Law in the control room. A dozen Eternal Poses to various islands in Paradise spun their needles, pointing outward to everywhere. His eyes were half-closed, not quite drifting shut thanks to a lifetime of paranoia, letting the wind in the sail push the ship forward.
He felt a little spark in his mind. Less candle, more electrical burn.
A blocky figure draped in a dark, fluffy blanket stood on the deck below, hair short and yellow. The shadows across cheek and mouth could've been paint, or tattoos, and in a different angle, with more height, perhaps—
Law rubbed his eyes and opened them again. He Roomed himself to the deck, his footsteps purposefully loud.
"You shouldn't be up so early. And you shouldn't be—" He glanced at her hand, which was holding a white… quill, not a cigarette. "What are you doing out here?"
"Good morning, you peeping pineapple," Sophie greeted, holding back a yawn. She was balancing her duct-taped, beat-up journal on top of the rails. "Woke up, couldn't fall back asleep, so I'm writing. Or trying to. It's going pretty badly. Bet you thought I was smoking, huh."
"I was wrong," Law acknowledged.
"Bet you feel reaaal embarrassed, boyo."
"So you weren't going to smoke those cigarettes in your pocket?"
"How did you—" Sophie squeaked, and then narrowed her eyes when Law gave her a knowing look. "Hey."
He smiled at her. A real, small smile. Then it vanished, and he looked back out at the ocean, frowning. He didn't turn his head when Sophie closed her book, or when she adjusted her blanket while glancing at him.
"Want me to suck you off again?"
Law made a noise that sounded like distressed laryngitis. He shot her a warning glare.
"It's called a blow job for a reason." She touched her chest with a prim nod. "And I am an excellent arsonist."
"Sophie."
She blinked innocently. "I thought of that joke while in prison. You don't like it?"
Of course he didn't like it. In a better world, he'd be shoving her onto the nearest flat surface and demonstrating just how much he didn't like it.
"…Are you still angry with me?"
Law let out a frustrated breath. "I can't flip a switch and forget about what happened. I thought you died. I thought you died protecting us." His fists squeezed the metal railing. "I thought you died alone."
Her smile was soft. "Did you cry?"
"Fuck you."
"Is that an offer?" Sophie waggled her eyebrows, and then turned a deep, awkward shade of maroon when Law stared at her.
She was flirting with him. And flirting badly. He shouldn't be finding it delightful. This cruel, conniving fucking witch.
"A-anyway! I'll tell you everything that happened to me. Won't leave out a single detail. But you'll have to wait. I'm not done writing it down. There's a lot to it. And some parts will be… frustrating. You can't heal every injury."
"How did Blackbeard hurt you?" He knew how before he finished the sentence. With her strong stare and her ugly burns and the way her chapped little mouth moved when she slammed words into people like a mallet, he knew exactly how a pirate like Blackbeard would hurt her. He should've been there. Should've stopped it. Law knew another word for this anger, but that word was stuck in his throat. He wanted to kill something.
"You can't carry it for me," Sophie continued, those ocean eyes brightening in the dawn, "but if I tell you about it, will you listen?"
He swallowed down the murder urges and said bluntly, "If you let me, I'll take care of you. We all will. It's what family does."
She nodded as if she knew that, but still wasn't quite sure what to do with it. "I've become difficult," she admitted.
Then we're the same. "That's not true. You've always been difficult."
Sophie stuck her tongue out, and Law shot her a smirk. She was right in that things were different now, and she had changed, but that was okay because survival depended on changing. At least he could still make her laugh. He wondered if Cora-san would forgive him for this. He wasn't forgetting about the plan. He was just—adding to the plan. Supplementing it. That was all.
It's going to end painfully regardless. There's no avoiding it now…
"I'm sorry it took me so long to return. Thanks for waiting, Captain."
He moved his hand across the railing. She startled a little when their hands touched.
Law looked at her like she was the end of the world, and he was done running. "Sometimes you got to take a few detours before you find your way home."
Their pinkies brushed, then reached out, and laced together.
to be continued
notes. whew! that was a long time coming. there'll be quite a bit of heart pirates domesticity in the coming chapters, so… let's relax a little :3 also. honest question because i'm at a loss. how high do you guys think sophie's bounty should be? i have a number in my mind, but i'm not sure if it's too high or too low—but keep in mind it won't be her last bounty before the story's over! we're gonna cover the beginning of law's 100 hearts plan in the coming final arc. but… for now… happy holidays, everyone :)