Trigger

Characters: Law, Shachi, Penguin, Bepo. Rating: T. Warnings: Panic attack, death mention

Shachi was unusually subdued, Law noticed when he woke up that morning. His shoulders were tense and his face was looking towards his feet rather than straight ahead. Adding in the absence of his usual cocky grin and Law got the impression that something was wrong. Penguin wasn't much better, he also observed, although the oldest of them still held his head high.

"Did something happen?" he eventually asked, hours later when neither showed any sign of improving their moods. He'd been unable to identify anything different about their situation to yesterday – the Polar Tang was exactly as she had been and from the way they were also staying glued to each other's side, they hadn't had a falling out. Bepo was similarly at a loss.

He didn't receive an answer. The two older boys blanked him out completely, to his frustration, although he didn't ask again. He had secrets of his own, and until he spilt them all to his nakama – they might have been together several months now, but he still couldn't believe he'd gained his own crew – he had no right to expect them to tell him their life stories, either.

They were making port that day. Their supplies were running low, and the island had just the seedy sort of underworld Law expected Doflamingo to have strings in, making it a perfect to spend some time. Penguin and Shachi's current moods weren't the best for information gathering, but Law refused to let something like that hinder him.

The gunshot changed everything.

Law would never like the sound of a gunshot, but he quelled the bile in his throat. Doflamingo used a gun as well as his strings. If he was ever to avenge Cora-san, he had to be able to ignore the unpleasant memories. It took a deep breath or several, but he got himself back under control and unclenched his fists from around the Tang's railings. Pained gasping continued, and he feared he'd disassociated, tricking his mind into thinking he was fine when he wasn't.

"Shachi?"

Bepo's worried voice cut through his thoughts clearly, and Law whirled around to see the ginger on his knees, one hand clutching at the fabric above his heart frantically while the other was gripping onto the railing with white knuckles. It was Shachi whose breath was coming in irregular gasps, not Law, his body wracked with tremors.

Penguin was at his side, kneeling in front of him and gently cupping his face in his hands as he murmured words to him. Law was too far away to hear what he was saying, and found his feet unwilling to carry him closer to the pair. Whatever was happening, and Law's own experience as well as his years of studies diagnosed a panic attack, he didn't know enough to interfere. Not when Penguin was talking quietly and calmly as if it wasn't the first time.

He caught Bepo's arm as the young mink tried to approach the pair, shaking his head.

"Captain?" Bepo asked, confused, and Law grit his teeth briefly.

"Penguin's got it under control," he said, hoping that he was reading the situation correctly as Shachi's gasps began to form words, broken and unintelligible at Law's distance but clearly full of meaning to Penguin as he responded to each and every one.

The first sign of improvement was when Shachi's hand released the fabric over his heart and fell limply into his lap. Penguin brought one hand from where it had been resting on his cheek to cover it gently, lightly squeezing it. Law's feet let him move closer, two steps bringing him in hearing range.

"Breathe," Penguin was saying. "That's it, like that." There were tear streaks down Shachi's face, and Law admired Penguin's patience, knowing that he himself was hopeless the moment tears entered the equation.

Eventually, the ginger's breathing stopped stuttering and returned to a normal pattern. The final sign was when the fingers clenching the Tang's railings finally loosened, jerking like puppets suddenly reconnected to their strings, and relocated themselves in the front of Penguin's clothes. Penguin wrapped his arms around him with a smile that stayed only until Shachi's face was buried in his shoulder.

Bepo was there, wrapping them both into as much of a bear hug as he could manage, and Law finally crossed the remaining distance to sit in front of the pair of them. There were tears in Penguin's eyes, and Law couldn't hold back any longer.

"Was it the gun?" he asked. He could understand that a gunshot could cause negative reactions – he himself was fighting his instinct to flee whenever he heard one – but he wanted to know for sure. Marines had shot at them before, and Shachi hadn't flinched, so something didn't add up.

"Yes," Penguin said slowly, looking Law straight in the eye as if daring him to comment. He didn't, and silence stretched over the deck. Shachi began to pull away from Penguin, but the older boy tightened his grip and refused to let go. "Eight years," he continued, his voice cutting off. Shachi stopped trying to escape. "Today, eight years ago, was the day Swallow Island was attacked by pirates."

Law didn't need to hear any more, pieces slotting together with ease. Their willingness to leave the island they'd grown up on, Shachi's reaction to the gunshot (and the way he could see Penguin was holding himself together because Shachi couldn't), even Shachi's comment that time he'd forced them to make their first kills.

He didn't interrupt Penguin, though, even as the older boy described a massacre that paled in comparison to the horrors of Flevance, but was still cruel enough to leave permanent mental scars on the survivors. It didn't take much imagination for Law to comprehend their experience; trapped under a warm body as the life seeped from it, watching their mothers' eyes lose their shine to death as they used their own bodies to shield their sons.

Law knew what it was like to lose everything. He knew what it was like to shake your parents' corpses, begging them to wake up. He knew what it was like to hide under a dead body to survive. He knew what it was like to hear someone die to save him. And while the events had been slightly different, so did they.

"We'll disembark tomorrow," he decided once Penguin's story was finished, ignoring the tears streaming down his face. Shachi's shoulders were tense and Law suspected that he, too, was crying again. Neither of them were fit to face the underbelly of society in their current states. "Rest today."

Another request, because apparently some of you like torturing Shachi as much as I do. Shachi having a panic attack on the anniversary of his parents' death leading to Law learning about their past.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari