Distract

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

Mugiwara no Luffy had declared war on the World Government. There was no way for the newspapers to cover that up, even with the destruction of Enies Lobby being blamed on them to try and distract from the burning flag.

Penguin and Shachi read the article upside down from the other side of the room as Law scrutinised the paper, and their faces took on identical frowns, hidden from view from the rest of their nakama by their hats and the shadows. There were two problems they could see, one called the World Government, and the other called the Will of D.

To Law, defeating Doflamingo was the goal. He needed his vengeance on the pirate, the powerful Shichibukai, for injustices of his early teens. Neither Penguin nor Shachi could judge him for that, not when they'd been following him loyally, gathering information and helping him work towards the inevitable confrontation for the past eleven years. Not when they too were driven by forces of vengeance, even if they didn't know as much about their targets.

However, Doflamingo wasn't the only one to have wronged Law in his childhood. That was something the rest of the crew had no idea about – indeed, they barely knew about the story behind Doflamingo and Cora-san. Law didn't advertise his past, the horrors he'd gone through even before he joined the Donquixote Pirates. The massacre of Flevance, ordered by the World Government itself, was another sore spot with their captain, and seeing that article, Penguin and Shachi feared that he'd lose sight of himself.

Vengeance was all very well and good to their biased minds, but one at a time. Trying to split himself between multiple revenges would do Law no good, and Doflamingo was the clear focus. The World Government had been a background noise, there but unimportant and easily ignored. They'd even dared to venture the thought that Law realised it was too much to attempt; the World Government was the most powerful organisation in the world and not so easily undermined.

But now, that wasn't the case. A crew, smaller than their own if the newspaper was to be believed, had stood up to the flag, setting it on fire and declaring war for the world to see. Normally such rebellions failed to reach publicity, the perpetrators crushed before they could do any damage. The logical conclusion was that a similar fate would befall the Straw Hat crew, except for the other thing.

Monkey D. Luffy.

"D will bring around another storm." It was one of Law's most-recited phrases. The two of them weren't fond of the clan of D., their captain the obvious exception, but it was fact that when someone bearing that initial attempted something, they didn't give up until they got it.

A member of the clan of D., versus the World Government. There was no way Law would let that slide by unnoticed, and sure enough he had become fixated on the article in the same way he obsessed over any and all information about Doflamingo. That wasn't a good sign. Law couldn't start focusing on both scenarios, or he'd overload himself. Doflamingo or the World Government, and they'd spent the last eleven years working to take Doflamingo down so they weren't letting all that time go to waste.

Breaking Law's single-minded concentration required a special touch. Simply hiding the newspapers would do no good, as Law would simply Scan and then Shambles them back into his hands. No, a more creative intervention was required.

It was time to distract him, in the most outrageous method possible. But even that wouldn't suffice. Law would recall his obsession in time and then they'd be back to square one. They needed to dissuade him from pursuing vengeance against the World Government, but Law was one of those people who would gain encouragement from being told not to do something. Saying "leave the World Government alone for now, they're not worth it" would spur Law into action.

Sharing a look, a plan was silently and swiftly formed as their captain started tracing the D. on the other captain's poster.

Step 1: a distraction. Make it as outrageous as possible so there was no way Law could ignore it. Accusing their captain of having a crush on the younger, quite possibly insane, man worked wonders.

Step 2: the dissuasion. Remind Law that he wasn't alone, that while his blood family were dead, he had another family now – one that would stick with him through thick or thin. Simply stating the facts would make their intentions too obvious; subtlety was required. Casually calling him their brother several times in their forced conversation would have a psychological effect on their captain. As planned, Law immediately zeroed in on the claims, desperately trying to cling to the self-imposed boundary between captain and crew in his protests.

With steps 1 and 2 successfully implemented, the final step was almost insultingly easy. Step 3: remove the article and posters. If he couldn't simply return to his obsessing after Penguin and Shachi's distraction and subtle hints, he would be forced to dwell on the hints a while longer.

The well-constructed, if short-notice, plan went perfectly. Law was sufficiently embarrassed, distracted, and forced to stop and think about what he was doing. No-one, maybe not even Law himself, cottoned on to the intention between the seemingly-random teasing, but when dealing with Law's stubbornness, that was best.

In the safety of their own room, they read the article properly for themselves. It was, of course, full of Marine propaganda and lies, but there were enough things not adding up in the official recount for a different, less Marine-friendly, story to be gleaned.

"Another bloody D.," Penguin complained, glaring at the photograph of a young man with a vibrant smile that completely contrasted with the 300 million bounty loudly proclaimed below. "We're going to need to keep Law away from him." Shachi had no arguments.

(They despaired, later when they ended up not just seeing, but briefly fighting alongside, the young D., which then changed into the most insane rescue mission ever. The Will of D. was not so easily thwarted).

With a similar childhood tragedy to Robin, Luffy declaring war on the World Government probably had an effect on Law, too. I explored it more in one of my other fics, Costras del Corazon, but Doflamingo is, of course, not the only one to ruin Law's life.

Also just showing what Penguin and Shachi were thinking in their rather out of the blue teasing last chapter :D

Thanks for reading!
Tsari