Title: Panacea
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: NC-17 overall
Characters/Pairing:Law/Sanji
Chapter: 13/?
Word Count: 2404
Summary: There's something in his demeanor, the way he hides his true feelings whenever they start to unconsciously slip out, that speaks volumes. And Sanji would hardly consider himself somebody that wants to fixpeople but, well, he likes a challenge, and Law presents a rather giant one.
Spoilers:Up to chapter 730 or so

Chapter Thirteen

"You're seriously wearing that?"

"What's wrong with it?" Law looks down as if he can't figure out why there's anything wrong with it, and Sanji rolls his eyes and straightens his tie out. "Oh," Law glances up again, grinning rather knowingly. "You're jealous."

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are," Law moves closer, reaching to touch Sanji's waist gently, and Sanji instinctively raises his hands to lay them on Law's chest. His bare chest, because apparently the asshole doesn't realize he looks like a tool with his hood pulled up over his hat and wearing a long, heavy coat with nothing underneath. "I know it's…more revealing than my normal outfits but the climate on Dressrosa is quite warm and humid."

"Still no excuse to wander around like that," Sanji sniffs and shrugs his suit jacket on, suddenly feeling rather over-dressed.

He doesn't flinch anymore when Law grabs him from behind, one arm clamped around his waist and the other pulling on his tie, although it's still a little startling. "Need I remind you that, whatever I'm wearing or not wearing, you're the only one who gets to touch me," he purrs, teeth grazing Sanji's neck in a move that's entirely possessive, and Sanji shudders and lets himself sink back against Law's body. "You like it, don't you?"

"Fucker," Sanji replies, but he can't really deny it since, well, Law's kind of nice to look at.

Even if it means everybody else can stare at him half-naked too and….yeah, okay, he's kind of jealous. Law lets him go then and spins around, walking to look out the porthole. The back of his coat is different to what Sanji's seen him wear before, the Jolly Roger there not his normal one although the central smiley face is the same, and the word…

"Corazón," he murmurs, and Law nods. "Heart. That's…"

"The one I'm avenging," Law says firmly. "I don't want to wear my own because this time, I'm not here for my crew. I'm just here for myself," he smiles wryly. "As selfish as that might be."

"It's not selfish, not if it's important to you," Sanji assures him, and Law ducks his head but doesn't reply.

"LAAAAAAANNNDDDDD!" Luffy shouts from somewhere above them, and Sanji feels a sudden fear clench at his heart.

"Well, we're here," he says as glibly as he can, and Law nods dismissively and shoulders Kikoku, pausing when he passes Sanji.

"Stay safe, and protect the others. Keep in contact when you can," Law instructs him and Sanji sighs, still a little peeved that he's supposed to just guard the ship, but he knows it's necessary. "And…"

"Don't kill yourself," Sanji tells him bluntly, leaning in to kiss him and sighing with relief when Law immediately grabs him with his free arm, holding their bodies together. "Law…"

"Don't," Law shakes his head. "I know what you're going to say. Don't," he turns smartly on his heel and heads out onto the main deck, and Sanji touches his fingers to his lips and wonders what the day is going to bring.

000

"It's too late for that now."

"Law, hey, don't…" Sanji stares at the unresponsive Den-Den Mushi, resisting the urge to throw it aside and wiping blood out of his eyes with sleeve.

Well, he thinks it's blood. There's no other reason for his eyes to be wet.

He's pretty sure Law's pissed at him, and the thought that he's about to be facing Doflamingo when Sanji can't do anything to help is wracking him with guilt, but…

But he's never going to be able to ignore a woman in need, no matter what, and for as stupid as it had been he's probably saved all of their lives finding this out now. They should have known it wouldn't be this easy, that Doflamingo wouldn't just roll over and let them win, but as usual everything's gone to shit and all he can do now is head back to the ship and hope everybody else makes it there sooner or later.

He can hear rushed footsteps behind him and turns to the girl, Violet, who looks fiercely determined and a little conflicted. "Come on, Violet-chan. We need to get you out of here," he holds out his hand and she slides hers into it, letting him lead her through the winding alleys while he taking out anybody that opposes them with some well-placed kicks.

He needs to let out some anger, anyway.

They finally reach a clear area, Sanji leaning against the wall and loosening his tie because shit, those guys had done a number on him, and she leans beside him, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I apologize," she says in a low voice. "Both for the fact that I cannot come with you…"

"But Doflamingo knows you betrayed him! They'll kill you!" he protests, but she pats his cheek and shakes her head.

"Maybe. Yet I am the princess of this kingdom, and I will not abandon it," she vows, and he can only respect that. "But I also want to apologize for intruding on your mind and…"

Oh. Oh. He knows he's still enamored enough with women that he can concentrate solely on them with very little effort, but there's been….other things on his mind lately and if she'd seen…

"I don't know him personally, but Doflamingo's family talks about him a lot. All I've heard is bad, but the little I saw…"

"He's amazing, Violet-chan," Sanji says tiredly.

"You love him," she sounds sure, and yeah, if she'd seen… he blushes a little and she laughs softly.

"Don't worry, I stopped looking as soon as I realized what I was getting into," she promises. "But…" she stops again, looking around. "I think we'd best get you to your ship. There's great danger."

And Sanji can feel it, a little, although there's so much danger around right now that it's hard to tell exactly where it's coming from. Still, if Violet says the others are in danger, and he's supposed to be on the ship, he'd better fucking be on the ship because if anything happens to them…

"Go. I'll be fine," she urges, and so he does, springing through the air and hoping he gets to them in time.

000

"I don't have time to yell at you right now but I really fucking want to," is what Law says once Sanji manages to pick himself up from off the deck, clothing shredded and bleeding freely, and he staggers a little, half-collapsing into Law's arms although the doctor hardly seems better off.

"Doflamingo's coming again!" Chopper shrieks and Sanji tries to give some sort of order, something, but Nami-san, bless her, is on top of things and the ship rockets away, landing around the point.

"We've got five minutes at the most," Law grunts, his fingers slipping through Sanji's hair in an almost comforting manner but Sanji can feel the anger radiating off of him. "And you are incredibly lucky to have faced that man and survived."

"You saved me," Sanji doubles over in pain, both he and Law kind of crumpling to the deck, and he doesn't care how weak he looks when he scrambles into the taller man's lap and curls his fingers in Law's heavy coat.

"Yes, because despite the fact that you're an idiot and if Doflamingo had finished that attack you'd be in pieces, I love you, and I'd never let anything happen to you," he murmurs. "I…" he pauses then, resting his forehead against Sanji's and staring at him intently. "I'm going to go fight him. You're going to get away from here. I'll try to lead him into town and find Straw-hat and the others, but you need to go."

And Sanji wants to argue, he really does, but part of him knows Law's right and most of him is just too worn out and hurt to think of a rebuttal.

"Go to Zou. Meet up with my crew," Law orders, and Sanji feels powerless to do anything but nod in agreement. "I'll see you again, and…" he pauses, holding his hand over his chest and grimacing when he pops a heart out. "Keep that. I trust you with it."

Sanji looks at the beating heart in his hand, too overwhelmed to even be weirded out by it, but Law's doing the only thing he can right now to prove he's not just trying to get himself killed and Sanji appreciates it more than he can say.

"There's a comet flying toward us!"

"Fuck. Room!"

Sanji can tell that Law's tired, his Room taking longer to manifest than normal, and he flinches when the meteor bounces off it, gritting his teeth.

"Go. Get out of here," Law stands up, pulling Sanji with him and into a desperate kiss, and Sanji clutches at him and sobs a little in pain. "Don't let anybody take Caesar from you," he says as a last warning before grabbing the woman that had attacked the ship and warping, and Sanji doesn't even get to see where he lands before the ship once again launches them away from immediate danger.

000

"Sanji-kun?"

Sanji leans over the rail, trying to gauge if they have enough of a lead on Big Mom's ship and thinking that, since they're faster and lighter, chances are they'll lose them in the open ocean.

He hates running from a fight, but they're in no position to take on a Yonkou's subordinates directly so keeping Caesar with them and, as Nami had said, protecting what Law had risked his life to give up is far more important.

"Are you okay?" Nami rests a hand lightly on his back and he shakes his head, fingers digging into the wood of the railing. "He's alive."

"I know," Sanji's voice sounds strained and hoarse, because he swears his own heart had stopped when he'd heard those gunshots and only Luffy's assurance that he could still sense Law had gotten it beating again. He doesn't think Law can die if his heart isn't in his body, but he doesn't know that for sure and…

He shakes his head and looks down at the heart he can't seem to let go of, feeling it beating a little sluggishly.

"They'll save him," Nami promises. "You know Luffy won't give up until they've got him back."

"Yeah," Sanji doesn't really look at her, though, and she touches his arm gently.

"What's wrong?"

"I feel guilty," he admits. "I…ran off when I should have been protecting the ship, protecting you, and…"

"No," she shakes her head, something fierce in her eyes. "I mean, yes, it was reckless, but what you found out and the fact that you got this…this girl to finally rebel against Doflamingo are good things. Even if you'd been here the whole time, it wouldn't have made a difference if he'd shown up. And you…Sanji-kun,, you held him off. That's nothing to be ashamed of," she's being uncharacteristically complimentary, but it's probably because she pities him.

"Yeah, maybe, but I was still fucking useless. I felt like a fly caught in a spider's web," he shivers at the thought, at how his body had been entirely unresponsive, and Nami grimaces. "If Law hadn't of shown up…"

"But he did," Nami says. "He did, and it's going to be okay."

"Sanji, you need to rest," Chopper comes over and clings to his leg, and Sanji reaches down to pat the little reindeer on his head. "You got hurt really bad, and…"

"I know," Sanji promises, sliding down against the rail and still not letting go of the heart. "I don't think I can right now, Chopper."

"Then at least take it easy," Chopper pats his knee.

"The weather looks clear as far as the eye can see and Zou's not that far away," Nami puts in. "You don't have to worry…Captain," she adds, and he actually grins a little at that.

"Nah, I'd be a shitty captain if that was actually my job," he leans his head against the ship and realizes that, for the moment, since there's no way to contact Luffy, it kind of is and while he's pretty sure he can handle it, it's not a position he wants to be in forever.

"As long as that's still beating, he's still alive, right?" Nami kneels down beside him, leaning against his shoulder, and normally he'd be over the moon about the contact but he can't be bothered to react right now.

"I think so. I mean, if it's really his…" the thought has crossed his mind that Law's given him some random Marine's heart or something but…fuck, it sounds horrible that he doesn't trust him fully yet.

"Can't you tell?" Chopper asks softly, and Sanji gives him a pointed look. "I mean…I know my senses are better than a human's would be, but…"

Sanji pauses and looks at the heart, snorting softly. "Nah, I didn't spend that much time listening to how his heart sounds," he kind of wishes he had now, though, so he could be completely sure.

"It's hard to imagine him being…you know…" Nami leans her head on his shoulder, eyes half-closed, and it's obvious everybody aboard is exhausted. "He's a cuddler, though?"

"Um," Sanji doesn't know how much is revealing too much, but talking about this is preferable to imagining what Doflamingo could be doing to Law right now. "I mean, I guess? It's not that he doesn't like it, he just…really has to be comfortable with somebody before he lets them get too close," he figures that's not giving away too much, and it's basically what Law had told him, anyway.

"You seem happy," Chopper puts in, crawling into Sanji's lap, and Sanji nods.

"I think we could be. As long as…" he bites his lip and sets the heart down briefly to light a cigarette, filling his lungs with the familiar scent. Nami's a warm weight at his side and Chopper's half asleep in his lap, he can hear Brook puttering about somewhere with Momonosuke and Caesar, for the moment, is behaving, scared by the threat of Big Mom's ship catching up with them.

He leans his head back against the rail and looks back toward Dressrosa, barely visible on the horizon, feeling Law's heart throb in his hand. "Don't die, you bastard," he whispers. "Don't you dare die."

Notes:

1. I apologize if this chapter reads a little choppy, but I didn't want to re-hash canon too much aside from changing it slightly to fit the purpose of this fic. Although since we did get the phone call and Law saving Sanji in canon I…didn't actually have to change too much about the sequence of events!

2. So this was the original ending of the story, and can still be considered the ending (as far as canon-compliancy goes). I've got an epilogue coming up for anybody that wants a happier ending, though, and that's almost written so hopefully I can post it up soon-ish!

3. Thanks again for the lovely support and comments :)