Disclaimer: I do not own ONE PIECE.
W/N: This chapter is really hard to write! I hope you like it! Sometimes I think this fic is so shitty I feel like deleting everything :'(
Still, thank you very much for your support! They seriously keep me going! If there is anything you don't like, or you think I should improve, feel free to tell me!
Warning: Vulgar languages, OOC, bad grammar, maybe a little illogical, TRIGGER TRIGGER TRIGGER (depression, anxiety, panic attack, trauma, phobia etc), medical parts might be inaccurate!
"Luffy, this.." Law looked at Luffy and Luffy could see the change in his usually stoic expression but he could not figure out whether it was rage or fear. "Why do you have this?" Law questioned again, his voice trembled. "I checked. This is not from any clothing brand. No one other than me in this world should have it!"
"Law.. I-" Luffy tried to explain but he was interrupted.
"Are you one of those people?!"
"People?" Luffy was confused. He had no idea what Law was talking about.
"You're trying to trick me aren't you?!" Law yelled, not satisfied by Luffy's reply and threw the scarf to Luffy's face.
"Trick? No! You've misunderstood. I-"
"No! You must be! You and him! You both work together don't you?!"
"Law, I don't understand what you're talking about.."
"I can't believe I almost fell for it."
"Law, listen to me." Luffy held Law's arm, trying to calm him down.
"Don't touch me!" Law snapped his arm back from Luffy, and the younger one fell to the floor. Law made his way to the door and Luffy quickly got up, grabbing the scarf, trying to stop him from leaving because he needed to make Law listen to him. He was glad when Law stopped at the door but what came out from Law gave him a huge shock.
"I am terminating the contract. You'll get the compensation." Without looking at Luffy, he uttered the words and left.
Luffy froze in his position but a moment later he was back to the reality and chased after Law again. "Law, wait!" Luffy yelled Law's name out loud while running and skipping through the staircases but the other did not respond. When he arrived at the parking lot Law's car was already out to the main road. He tried chasing but Law drove too fast.
Luffy took out his cellphone and tried calling Law but it went to the voice mail system. Law's phone was switched off.
Luffy looked at the scarf in his hand and sighed. "Why, why tonight?"
As soon as he got into his apartment, he locked the door and headed to his room without switching any of the lights on. He locked his room from inside and throw himself into his bed. Whatever happened earlier gave him a huge shock. He realized he let his guards down too much. He thought he could start a new life but he might be wrong.
"Why.. you can't trick me again.."
"My mom said if I befriend Law I'll be a bad kid."
"Don't come over here."
"Go away!"
"Let's throw him with stones!"
"Tear his book!"
"Law, I'm so disappointed in you. I am taking your mom and Lamie away."
"Law, come to uncle."
"Law, you're a good boy right? Do as I say."
"Guys please.. Please stop. Mom, dad please don't leave. Lamie.. No I don't want to go to uncle. Please.."
"STOPP!"
Law got up from his sleep, sweating. He was panting heavily and his body was trembling. He did not realize when did he fall asleep and it had been years since he had the nightmare. He realized he had not changed his attire so he went for a quick shower and put on some comfortable clothes, wishing that could help him sleep better. To his horror, the nightmare occurred again.
"No.." He rubbed his forehead and slowly moved to the bedside table. He opened the top drawer and took out a small bottle. It had been a while since he had to take it but he put it in there just in case. He took out some of the content and shove it into his mouth. Then he took the mineral water on the bedside table and gulped the whole content down. He lay on his back waiting for it to take effect and a moment later, he was down with the drowsiness.
Law woke up the next day feeling terrible. It had been a while since he had to deal with the drowsy feeling. He slowly got up from his bed to get ready for work. He entered the bathroom, turned on the shower, medium temperature and stood under it. The warm water felt so good on his skin and somehow he felt rejuvenated. After he was done with his shower, he switched on his phone. He had switched it off the night before while he was moving down the stairs, leaving Luffy's apartment. The last thing he wanted was to have Luffy calling him trying to explain things. He did not want to hear anything.
As soon as the phone was switched on, he could see 33 unread messages and 18 missed calls. All from Luffy. He deleted all of the messages without even reading them. He did not want to deal with Luffy right now.
Luffy got on an early bus to Law's apartment area that day, he wanted to see Law so bad and he wanted to try explaining everything again. Luffy sent him messages the night before but he was afraid Law would not read them. Luffy decided to just wait in front of Law's door until he came out. Not too long after he arrived, he heard the sound of the door being opened and he saw Law at the door. Law saw Luffy but he did not say anything. He ignored his presence and immediately headed to the elevator.
"Law please listen to me." Luffy tried to explain as he followed Law to the elevator. "You gave the scarf to me 10 years ago and I am not trying to trick you or anything." Seeing Law not responding, Luffy grabbed Law's arm trying to make him stop but Law just glared at him.
It was the kind of glare Luffy had never seen before. Even when Law and him were still not on good terms.
Luffy slowly let go of Law's arm and watched him enter the elevator. Somehow he knew that chasing Law to the car park would not change anything so he decided to wait. He would wait until Law came back from work.
As soon as Law got into his car, he rested his head on the steering wheel. He did not expect Luffy to be there that morning. Something told him he should listen to Luffy but a part of him refused to. He decided to forget it and drove to the hospital.
As usual, Law grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafe before he headed to his office. He had a surgery scheduled that day and he was looking forward to it. He thought the surgery would help him. Ever since he became a surgeon, he never had nightmares or trouble sleeping at night anymore because he genuinely enjoyed the job. He had not performed surgery for a while and he thought that was the reason he got the nightmare. Every time he was done with a surgery, which always ended up successful, he would feel extremely satisfied. And that day, the surgery he did was successful again.
As usual, everyone in the operating room told him he did a good job but none of the words actually mattered to him. He was only looking forward to the satisfaction that always came after he completed a surgery. Strangely the feeling he was waiting for did not come. He was not satisfied. He began wondering if he would be able to sleep later at night.
"No. Why am I not enjoying this?"
That night, Law went home late with mixed feelings. The only thing that he thought could give him the joy did not help. He would go back to the state he was before and have the same nightmares every night. He did not want to depend on the pills anymore. He did not want to go through the shitty life again.
He saw Luffy again on his way into his apartment but he did not respond to anything Luffy said. He headed straight for the door and slammed it to Luffy's face.
As soon as he got into his house, he leaned on the door and let out the breath he had been holding.
He was torn.
He was torn between trusting Luffy and protecting himself.
He trusted too much in the past and he was almost destroyed.
He slowly walked to his room and took a quick shower, hoping it could make him relax so he could get a good sleep. He did not want to depend on the pills too much.
"You're so stupid. Your parents must be so disappointed."
"If you tell anyone I'll kill her."
"You can't hang out with us. You're bad."
"You're disgusting."
Once again, Law was awakened from his sleep. His heart beat rapidly and he was drenched in sweat.
He thought the pain was over. He did not want to go back to what he was.
He was tired.
He was scared.
In that moment, he lost control. He reached for the top drawer again and took out the bottle. In his unstable state of mind, he took a handful of the content from the bottle, shove them into his mouth and washed them down with a bottle of water.
The next day, Luffy woke up from his sleep early. He did not even go back to his apartment and he waited in front of Law's door the whole night.
He waited for Law to come out but Law did not. He figured Law probably had taken the day off so he decided to knock the door. He knocked the door 3 times but Law did not answer so he knocked again. Luffy knew Law was probably ignoring him and he thought if he kept knocking Law would get annoyed and came out eventually but it had been 10 minutes and he started to worry. He could never stop worrying when it came to Law and somehow he got a bad feeling.
He tried calling Law's name out loud but no one was answering. Luckily Law did not ask for the spare keys the night he left Luffy's apartment. He would use the key even if it would earn him more of Law's wrath. He took out the keys and tried unlocking the door. Good thing Law had not changed the key yet.
He entered the house and immediately headed to Law's room. "Law?" He knocked Law's bedroom door a few time but no one was answering. He tried opening the door but it was locked from the inside. Luffy tried calling Law's phone to confirm and he could hear Law's phone ringing from inside the room but no one was picking up.
"Law, Answer me! Law!" He knocked harder but there were no answers so he decided to break the door open. With all his might, Luffy kicked the door a few times until it broke open. He immediately entered the room and saw Law on his bed, white substance around his mouth. He tried waking Law up but he did not respond. He checked Law's pulse and it was very weak. At that moment, he saw an almost empty bottle lying next to Law. He quickly dialed 911.
It had been few days and Law was still unconscious. The doctor said Law was lucky with the amount of pills he took he survived and did not get any serious, permanent internal damage. He only had to be warded for a while to be monitored and he would need to undergo a psych evaluation.
In the past few days, Luffy had been spending his time at the hospital, looking after Law, wiping his face, his body, changing the flowers, and sometimes he just sat next to Law on the bed, looking at Law, talking to him although Law might not hear them. What happened really broke his heart.
"When are you going to wake up?" Luffy asked, one day, as he held Law's hand with one hand and the other caressing his face. He kissed the back of the palm, and the fingers, one by one before slowly leaning down, pressing his forehead on Law's.
"Wake up soon, please."
He closed his eyes, trying to suppress his emotion. He had no clue about whatever it was that made Law did what he did and he was disappointed that he could not help him. He slowly lifted his forehead from Law's and pressed his lips softly on Law's. It lasted for a while. Then, he look at Law's face one more time before he kissed his forehead and brushed his hair softly.
"I won't hurt you. I love you."
That evening, he went to see Law again. He went back to his apartment to get some stuff and as soon as he reached the door to Law's room, he was surprised by the sight in front of him. Law had awaken and he was sitting upright, despite looking weak and pale. Luffy instantly felt happy.
"Law, you're awake!"
As soon as Law saw Luffy, his eyes widened. He started yelling at Luffy. "Did you send me here? Why did you send me here? You should just let me die!"
Luffy tried to calm him down, worried about his health but Law would not listen.
"NO! GET OUT!" Law threw his pillows at Luffy and there were successfully avoided by the younger boy who was trying to approach him.
"Law, please.."
"Shut up! I don't want to see you here!"
Suddenly a glass flew towards Luffy. He dodged it but the glass hit the wall near him and shattered to pieces, cutting part of his forehead, cheeks and arm. A moment later, blood started to flow from the wounds. Law saw the blood and he panicked. Guilt started to overwhelm him. He wanted to chase Luffy away but he did not want to hurt him.
"Luffy.." Law called out to Luffy. He slowly got up from his bed trying to get Luffy but before he could put his feet on the floor, Luffy yelled at him.
"Don't move!"
And Law flinched. He never heard Luffy yelled that loud. He wondered if Luffy hated him. The room was in silence for a moment.
"There are glasses on the floor. You'll get hurt."
At that moment, the guilt within Law grew bigger.
He hurt Luffy and Luffy was not even mad.
Not too long after, a nurse came. Someone heard the noise and told her but Luffy said everything was fine. The nurse called a doctor to check Law's condition and then Luffy went out with the nurse to get his wounds treated.
Law was confused. He was scared, he was mad. But the moment he realized he hurt Luffy, guilt overwhelmed him.
"Law?"
Law was sitting with his head on his knees when he heard Luffy's voice. He quickly lifted his head up to check whether he was dreaming and he was relieved to see Luffy in his room again. On his forehead and cheeks were band aids and his hand was bandaged.
Luffy slowly walked towards Law and sat down next to Law, on his bed.
"I am sorry." Law's voice was trembling. He paused for a while before he continued. "I am so confused and scared. I don't know if I should trust you but I didn't want to hurt you."
Luffy looked at Law. He could see the guilt on his face and his tone. "It's okay Law. I am not mad."
They were both in silence for a few minutes and Luffy asked Law if he should leave but to his surprise, Law asked him to stay.
"Luffy, did I really give you the scarf?" Law asked, without facing Luffy. His head still resting on his knees.
"Yes." Luffy was surprised by Law's question but he did not show it. He was grateful that Law was finally going to listen to him.
"How did it happen?"
" I got the scarf 10 years ago from you. We met in Drum Island and we were both separated from the group. I was cold and you lent it to me." Luffy waited for a while, trying to see Law's reaction before he continued." You got the scar on your waist from saving me. The rescuers sent you to the hospital while I was unconscious and when I tried to look for you at the hospital the blizzard came. I was stuck and when I finally got to the hospital you were no longer there."
Law remained silent and Luffy knew the reason.
"Law, I know you don't remember but it's okay." Luffy smiled softly at Law, before he added. "I have been searching for you for 10 years and I am glad I finally met you.
"Why were you looking for me?" Law lifted his head to look at Luffy, waiting for his answer.
"I want to thank you and return your scarf. You could have died when you saved me but you did it anyway and I really thought I should repay you."
"So that's why you're being nice to me."
Luffy did not answer and Law placed his head on his knees again. "I don't know what to believe anymore."
"I'll help you remember the past. I'll make you remember me."
"I am not sure if I want to remember."
"Why?"
Law did not answer.
"Law, I won't hurt you. I swear on it with my life. I know something is disturbing you and if you want to, you can tell me." Luffy tried to convince Law again but Law remained silent. Luffy figured all the commotion earlier had probably made Law tired.
"Why don't you go back to sleep?"
"I am afraid."
"Of what?"
"Bad dreams. I need the pills."
"You don't need the pills."
"But I'll just get up in the middle of sl-"
Before Law could finish his words, Luffy hugged him.
"What are you doing?"
"When I was little I used to have nightmares. Makino will always hug me until I fell asleep." Luffy explained and he could feel Law stiffened in his embrace. "Law, trust me. I won't do anything to hurt you. Just sleep."