Sister

Characters: Law, Baby 5, Penguin, Shachi, Bepo. Rating: K. Warnings: None

Law watched Baby 5 walk away on the arm of her husband as he tried to sort through what he was feeling. He'd never been especially close to the girl, a fact that was entirely the fault his angsty pre-teen self, yet here he was at her wedding. He'd watched the exchange of vows, noticing that she'd had no-one to give her away, although from the beaming smile on her face he could tell she didn't mind. It wasn't as if there had been anyone around that could have done it. She was alone in this new world, although she looked happier than he'd ever seen before and he'd wondered, before their conversation, if his presence was healthy at all.

Her delight at seeing him, mixed with the awkwardness that came of being enemies for most of their life but there nonetheless, refused to let him regret his decision to attend. In the end, Baby 5 had escaped Doflamingo's strings of her own volition, and was forging a new life for herself where she was treated as a human, not a slave. Law himself had hardly been the kindest to her, and at the time had been far too busy with thoughts of vengeance to acknowledge it, but as he saw her now, laughing merrily at something another guest had said in the secure hold of her husband, he was reminded of Lami.

There were no similarities between the two. Lami had been unafraid to ask for what she wanted, and gentle to a fault, while Baby 5 would ask for nothing, but had all the makings of a hardened killer. Looking past the overly-feminine attire she'd always worn, she was a hardened killer. But they were both younger females who had looked up to him, pestering for his attention in their own ways.

His mind overlapped the two, replacing Baby 5 with a young woman who looked like a perfect mix of his mother and the child Lami had been with her hair in long brown pigtails, because Lami would never wear her hair any other way. Don Sai was replaced with some faceless man, because his imagination had no reference to draw on, but Law wasn't focused on the groom. He saw Lami laughing, beautiful on her special day, and found his fist clenched in his pocket. He would have been the one to give her away, he was sure. Lami would demand it and his father would raise his hands in submission, giving his little angel anything she wanted to make the day perfect. There was a flash of guilt that he hadn't been able to do that for Baby 5, but he quashed it viciously. Baby 5 was not Lami. For all that part of him longed to fake his own family again, calling Cora-san his father, Baby 5 his sister, and some yet-to-be-met woman his mother, he would not.

He had made his presence known; it was time to leave. He undid the top few buttons on the shirt and pulled his hat out from a deceptively deep pocket to once again settle on his head as he slipped from the celebration, towards where his crew waited aboard the Polar Tang.

"Let's go," he said to Bepo as he passed the mink, heading for his quarters to change into something less formal. He could feel the curious stares on his back, but no-one disturbed him as the engines roared to life and the submarine glided away from the coast.

"Did it help?" Penguin asked him some hours later, Shachi as always by his side and Bepo trying hard to look inconspicuous in the corner. Hiding anything from those three was difficult, and Law was not in the mood to try. Not when they knew his past.

"It helped," he allowed, the unspoken her hanging heavily in the air. His companions felt it, but said nothing, dispersing to their stations across the ship to leave him in peace.

And that concludes this mini trilogy. Back to pure Heart Pirate drabbles tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!
Tsari