Bond

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

Curled up against a napping Bepo, Law watched Penguin and Shachi bickering with no venom in their voices and couldn't help but feel a bit left out. In the months since he'd gained his three followers, now the nakama he never thought he'd have, they had largely gelled together, but the odd moment highlighted a divide right down the middle of the crew.

While all four of them got on well, there was no doubt that Law and Bepo had become a pair, while Penguin and Shachi were so obviously joined at the hip Law swore they were telepathically connected at times (their silent conversations carried out within a single glance were both unnerving and enviable). It didn't help that he and Bepo were used to travelling and fighting to survive, while the other two blanched at the darker side of piracy. They were more than happy to get into brawls – more so than Law and Bepo – but they still hesitated at the final blow. It frustrated Law, but after the horrendous mess he'd made of trying to push them too far too soon he forced himself to be patient with them (often dealing the final blow himself if they hesitated too long).

Their innate understanding of each other definitely had a past. A shared opinion on survival did not bring two people that close together so quickly (see his relationship with Bepo – they still needed words to communicate more often than not, and although the Mink was surprisingly perceptive Law found it harder to read the Mink).

"How long have you two known each other?" he asked suddenly, fed up of trying to puzzle them out. Their bickering died away to nothing before they turned to face him, perfectly in unison with identical looks of confusion on their faces. It did nothing to convince Law they weren't somehow a hive mind.

Penguin shrugged a split second before Shachi, breaking the illusion.

"Forever, I guess," he said. Law bit back a retort about how they were barely older than he was so of course they hadn't been alive forever, let alone known each other that long, and instead turned his gaze onto Shachi, who shrugged again.

Beneath him, Bepo stirred and opened his eyes, clearly interested. Law hadn't realised he wasn't actually asleep.

"Define forever," he ground out after several seconds of silence, the older boys clearly not planning on elaborating without prompting.

Shachi sat down heavily on the deck with a huff, crossing his legs and reminding Law of rows of children sat on the floor, listening to the Sisters explain things avidly. Penguin was slower to sit, arranging his legs so that one knee was raised, his elbow resting on it and hand hanging limply.

"Penguin's been there as long as I can remember," Shachi began, turning his head slightly towards his friend. Law assumed his eyes had also flicked that way, but with the shades in the way he couldn't say for certain.

"Our mothers grew up together," Penguin picked up the story, his voice breaking almost imperceptivity on the word mothers. Law understood the feeling all too well and didn't comment. "They were inseparable, even when they grew up and got married. Right until-"

"So we got designated playmates the moment Mama knew she was pregnant with me," Shachi cut across, almost but not quite hiding the way Penguin's voice had choked up. His voice remained steady, but a fourteen, almost fifteen, year old boy calling his mother by the childish mama felt out of place, especially when Law knew Shachi had long since grown out of every other childish mannerism (immature was another matter entirely and he didn't think he'd ever grow out of that).

"We never really got a say in whether or not we were going to be friends," Penguin chuckled. Law thought he saw something glisten in the shade of his hat, but let it slide without comment, realising that he'd dragged up memories the two usually didn't like to dwell on. "He got thrown at me just before my first birthday and we've been together ever since."

"Must be nice," Bepo mumbled. Law agreed, suddenly struck by how much he missed his classmates from Flevance. Lami was always there in the back of his mind, her smile pushing him forwards when he stumbled, but he rarely spared a thought for the ones that had once been, well, friends, as much as children who got creeped out by his obsession with dissecting frogs could be his friends.

Perhaps it was because he'd dredged up memories that Penguin and Shachi had pushed through with a smile that was more a mask than genuine, but Law found himself talking a little bit about his own 'friends' – the girl that squealed louder than anyone else when he brought yet another frog into their classroom, and the boy that declared it was 'cool' but always declined Law's invitation to take part in the dissection. The other girl he often spoke to even if she hated the frogs, the one that always asked after Lami and liked to join her for ice cream, and the boy that had confided in Law that he had a crush on his sister (a mistake on his behalf, but now Law wished there were still people like that, just so he could continue to play the protective big brother card and chase them away from Lami).

Bepo joined in with what little he remembered of his own brother; his thirst for knowledge and lust for adventure that drove him to set sail with a small group of his own friends – the very same group Bepo had tried to follow and got lost on the way.

It was the first time Law had been able to think of Flevance without wanting to kill something, surrounded by nakama that knew what it was like to lose someone and fight on through. It still hurt – would never not hurt – but he smiled through the tears, because his nakama did too.

The divide shrunk, just a little.

So someone asked for the story of how Penguin and Shachi met, but that was a little hard to do because in my mind they knew each other from the day Shachi was born which is before their memories would begin. It morphed into this little bonding moment instead, because they've all lost someone and Law can't stay standoffish forever (his classmates are slightly easier to talk about than his family, I suspect). Not with these three.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari