Frozen

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

As Law sat under the water cascading down on him from the shower above, many of his nakama crowded in the room alongside him, he felt like a failure. It wasn't because he'd needed to be saved by his crew – he'd saved them all several times himself so the role reversal was fair game – but because of the cost it had accrued. Luckily, being from North Blue most of them knew how best to defrost a living thing, so Law had no comments on the decisions they were making as they slowly coaxed feeling back into their feet. However, a certain ginger was absent and from the sombre atmosphere, Law wasn't the only one that thought he'd seen the last of Shachi.

He hadn't asked Shachi to sacrifice himself for him. After the events on Minion Island, and Cora-san's last moments, Law didn't want anyone sacrificing themselves for him. His life wasn't worth that much, certainly not the life of a ginger who had once helped pull him away from the precipice of depression he'd teetered on. Law didn't even want to think what it had done to Penguin.

Frantic footsteps pulled his thoughts away from the mourning preparations, and when Penguin and Bepo had burst into the room, carrying an ice sculpture that was unmistakably Shachi, hope began to bloom in his heart. He quelled it, not prepared for the soul crushing revelation that Shachi was already beyond saving even though Penguin seemed to have convinced himself that everything was fine. He hadn't defrosted enough to move freely, but he managed to shift so his head was awkwardly resting on top of Shachi's icy shoulder.

Predictably there was no response, and Law pushed back the tears that threatened as his mind told him that he was using a frozen corpse as a pillow. The map that Penguin claimed Kuzan had left behind… was it worth this? On the one hand, his nakama was dying, or already dead. On the other, it was a valuable clue to defeating Doflamingo, which was the entire reason he'd created the Heart Pirates in the first place. Could Law really weigh those two facts against each other and be expected to find one more important that the other?

When Penguin almost bowled him over to suddenly reach for Shachi and burst into tears, Law feared the worst had come to pass, until he saw the large smile on his face, despite the tears. His own body finally regaining sensation, largely thanks to Bepo's unerring massages, Law reached out himself, pressing two fingers against Shachi's jugular and feeling a slow but steady thump thump thump signifying his life was in no danger. Not from injuries, at least, and despite still feeling slightly chilled himself, Law pressed himself up against Shachi as best he could, trying to provide him with as much warmth as possible.

By the time the ice had gone, and Shachi appeared to be regaining some sort of sentience, although agonisingly slowly, Law had plastered himself against the ginger's side, Penguin on the other and Bepo and Jean Bart providing the support.

"I'm not dead?" were the ginger's first words, lips returning to their usual pale pink as his eyes blinked slowly behind his shades. Penguin confirmed it for him with a tight hug and Law couldn't help but tighten his hold. Shachi was shivering, a side effect of his brief stint as an ice statue, and Law couldn't allow him to contract hypothermia, not after everything he'd done.

"You can let go now," Shachi commented several minutes later, even though his own fingers had buried themselves in Law's dripping wet hoodie and were stubbornly refusing to let go. His shivering had reduced and his body temperature had warmed up, but there were still residual trembles. Law knew Shachi well enough to know he'd expected to die when he took on Kuzan single-handedly. What was it like, facing someone down knowing that you were trading your life so that someone else could live?

He didn't dare ask. Nor did he release his grip on the ginger.

"You'll do something stupid if I let you out of my sight," he eventually said, and Shachi let out a quiet bark of laughter although he didn't dispute it.

From the way Shachi slowly let himself relax and almost fall asleep in Law's tight embrace, even though the water had long since passed from lukewarm to frigid, Law assumed he was doing something right.

"You're an idiot," Law repeated quietly. "Never do anything like that again."

He didn't think the muffled noise he got in response was an affirmative, somehow. More of an 'I will if I have to'. Law swore to himself never to get into a situation where Shachi thought he had to jump in like he had against Kuzan. He'd lost his family, and he'd lost Cora-san. He wouldn't lose his crew. Not even one of them.

Even if it meant leaving them behind when he finally confronted Doflamingo, too far away to do as they had done this time and jump in when their concern got the better of them.

Law's reaction to chapter 100, because we all know he's had someone die to save him once already and he didn't react too well to that, to put it mildly.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari