Treasure

Characters: Law, Penguin, Shachi. Rating: K. Warnings: None

Law sat in the recreation room, looking out of a window despondently. None of the crew had approached him, knowing that there was only one person that could draw him out of his funk, and that one person currently wasn't ready. Long fingers flexed and fidgeted, determined to find something to occupy themselves with. Shachi had already dragged them out of his hair several times, the only crew member in arm's length, although he'd said nothing.

He was the guard, Law assumed. Penguin had made it perfectly clear that no-one was allowed to disturb him ("and that includes you, Captain") while he worked, and the ginger had immediately taken up Captain-watch. It could be worse, Law mused. Shachi could be talking, filling the silence with inane chatter in a vain attempt to cheer him up. He'd half-expected it – Shachi was one of the noisiest members of the crew – and was grateful to be wrong.

Still, what was taking Penguin so long? It had been well over an hour since the older man had secluded himself away in the bunk room he shared with Shachi. Law knew pitifully little of the craft in question, but surely an hour was plenty of time to finish it?

Firm fingers wrapped around his and coaxed them out from his hair again. Law didn't remember putting them there.

"Law."

He turned to face the speaker so fast he almost fell of his chair. Penguin approached him steadily, calm and confident in his strides. Law paid the observation no heed, his focus solely on the item Penguin was carrying gently in his hands, as if it were made of glass.

"I'm sorry, the fabric didn't match exactly-" Law tuned out Penguin's babble as he moved to meet him in the middle of the room, taking the precious object from his hands and turning it around to check it from all angles.

It wasn't the same as before, a fact that pained Law, but the repair work was neat and all but invisible. The new fabric was fresher, fluffier than the old, which was beginning to show its age despite Penguin's careful maintenance, but as Law checked the inside, the most important thing was still there, untouched.

He ran a nostalgic finger over the black stitches once, before affixing his beloved hat back on his head, where it belonged. Opening his mouth to thank Penguin, he found that his throat had all choked up and swallowed his words unspoken. Instead, he rested a hand heavily on Penguin's shoulder as he walked past, heading for the sanctity of his room.

He had to pass Penguin and Shachi's room to do so, and paused when he saw the open door. That in itself was nothing unusual, but what caught Law's eye was the piles of fabric on the lower bunk, all bearing a striking similarity to the hat on his head. What did Penguin plan on doing with all that? He highly doubted buying that much had been a mistake.

A puzzle for another time, he decided, sensing the man in question approaching, and continued to his own room. Sitting on the bed, he took the hat off to look at it again, disbelieving that Penguin had truly managed to repair what he'd thought had been serious damage. The rim was no longer plain, but spotted like the body of the hat itself, but while the change had jarred Law at first glance, as he looked at it again and remembered the pile of unused fabric, he smiled.

Nothing stayed the same forever. Everything grew, and changed as the world influenced it. This change, small but notable, to the thing he cherished the most was its own growth.

He ran a finger over the inscription again, remembering the smile that had accompanied the presentation of the hat to him, so many years ago. Lami's face had faded with time, but her enthusiasm could never be dampened, even in memory. This hat was a little piece of her, with her words and love forever imbued into it. Now he realised, as his finger moved away from the letters of its own accord, that it was more than just Lami.

A small singe mark, barely visible even when he looked for it, marked the time Cora-san had dropped his cigarette on Law's head in the middle of one of his spectacular falls. The damage had been minimal, but Law remembered the rage he'd flown into clearly, alongside Cora-san's clumsy attempts to pat out the ashes before he gave up and drowned it in water, leaving Law with a soaked hat for days after.

The hat's heart was Lami, but Cora-san had made his own little niche, and now Penguin had unknowingly done the same as he poured effort and time into restoring it as best he could, leaving a little piece of himself in it as a result.

Law laid down, holding his hat over his chest gently yet firmly, and wondered who would be the next one to give a little bit of themselves to his treasure.

Companion piece to chapter 5, Hat.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari