Love

Characters: Jean Bart, Law, Shachi, Penguin. Rating: K+. Warnings: None.

When Jean Bart found his way to the infirmary, after getting changed out of his slave outfit and into something that made him feel alive again, his first thought was Gods what have I got myself in for. He hadn't had much opportunity to learn anything about the current Supernova generation – the tenryubito had no interest in such a thing and slaves didn't get a chance to find out anything – so all he'd known about his new captain's abilities was what he'd witnessed during the brief fight, which the other two captains had honestly dominated in terms of visible badassery.

Walking into the infirmary – captain's orders, Law wanted to give him a health check because apparently he was also the ship's doctor – the last thing he'd expected to see was the ginger's (Shachi, was it?) severed head floating around with the most ridiculous grin on his face.

"Oh, Jean Bart's here, captain," it said, turning around to face Law, who was currently playing some sort of bizarre jigsaw puzzle with his nakama's bodies. It looked like the scene of a horror story, with a confusing lack of blood. Jean Bart had seen him pull a similar trick on the marines, and surmised it was part of his devil fruit ability, but why would he be using it on his nakama? What sort of captain dismembered his own crew? While it was still infinitely preferable to remaining a slave, he couldn't help but wish Mugiwara or Kid had picked him up instead. Mugiwara was interesting and Kid looked like a typical bloodthirsty captain. Jean Bart could handle that.

"Oh, come in, Jean Bart," Law said, looking up from the dismembered body parts to gesture casually to a nearby bed. "Take a seat; this won't take long to finish up." Apprehensive, Jean Bart obeyed, and nearly jumped in the air when a disembodied hand tapped him on the shoulder.

"Relax," the other crew member in the room, or so it seemed – the lack of a cohesive figure made it hard to work out how many were there, but he thought it was just the two – said. This was the one with the strange hat, Penguin or something. "Captain knows what he's doing." The fact that his head was sat on a different bed, while his arm was close enough to touch him did nothing to reassure Jean Bart that he was going to survive the health check.

"And you're done, Penguin, Shachi," Law told them, waving his hands around as if conducting an orchestra. Body parts began to converge in one place, slowly reassembling themselves into figures recognisable as those from the auction house. "Next time I tell you not to try and take on a cyborg Shichibukai without a weapon, perhaps you'll listen." Now they were reassembled into human beings, Jean Bart could see the bandaging both sported, alongside additional bruises.

Neither gave an affirmative answer, and Law sighed – the long-suffering sigh of a captain whose crew lived to give him headaches, and one Jean Bart had once been intimately acquainted with – before turning to Jean Bart and raising his hands.

"Are you planning on turning me into a human jigsaw too?" the larger man couldn't help but ask. He owed his captain, so he wouldn't protest, but he thought he'd like a warning before he was diced up.

"Not if you don't want me to," was the peculiar answer. "Scan." Nothing seemed to happen, but Law hummed after a few moments and turned to a cabinet. "All things considered, your health is good," he told Jean Bart, who gaped. He hadn't even touched him yet already he was making assessments? "Malnutrition is an issue, but that's easily rectified. Come find me if anything bothers you."

Jean Bart knew a dismissal when he heard one, but remained glued in place, glancing over at the other two still lurking in the corner, and startling when the blue sheen in the room disappeared, retreating back towards Law as if he was the source. From Sabaody's experiences, he was. Law looked up at him, then followed his gaze to Penguin and Shachi before sighing.

"Those idiots like it," he explained. "Hell knows why."

"The whole crew does, captain," Penguin corrected, and Law simply rested a hand over his face in exasperation.

"Hell knows why," he repeated, and Jean Bart silently agreed, looking to the other Heart Pirates for an explanation on why they'd request their captain dismember them and play with the separate parts for fun. Shachi inclined his head, an invitation to walk outside that Jean Bart accepted, determined to get answers from the insane crew he'd apparently joined.

"You'll feel it too," the ginger told him, flanking him on one side while Penguin appeared on the other. "When you're in the thrall of captain's powers… it's like nothing can hurt you. It's safe."

"He's a bit aloof at times," Penguin continued, drawing Jean Bart's attention. "But when he's got you in his power, that's when you can really feel he loves you."

Jean Bart still thought they were crazy, even if it made sense in a twisted fashion.

Later, when he located his captain to ask about a pain in his knee to find him disassembling another crewmember and holding his heart in his hand as if it were the One Piece itself as he performed strange checks, he thought maybe they were onto something.

When it was his turn to need to go under his captain's Amputation, he realised just how right they were.

I don't think I'm done with this particular headcanon yet. It's one of my oldest Heart Pirate ones, and I'm glad I finally managed to write something for it.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari