Why

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

As best as Law could tell, Penguin and Shachi were honest with him. They wore their hearts on their sleeves (Shachi more obviously than Penguin, but Law had learnt to look over the years) and over time he grew to understand what was going on in their minds for much of the time – as best Law could read anyone, anyway. He knew when they were happy, and when they were scared. He knew when they wanted help and when the best help was to leave them alone for a while.

He didn't know why they had chosen to follow him off of Swallow Island that day (or drag him onto a boat with them, to be accurate). No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find a motivation that made sense. They were orphans, but their clothes were clean and well looked after, not to mention the boys themselves being in excellent health. They'd had more than just a roof over their head, and while Law had never asked (and the pair had never told), he suspected that they'd had a guardian who had raised them with love since they were orphaned.

Compared to how Law knew he had been back then – arrogant, ill, abandoned and teetering on the edge of depression – there was no logical reason for the pair to abandon their comfortable lives to brave the wrath of the seas (and paint targets on their backs for Doflamingo). He had been nothing special, certainly nothing to warrant the lifetime of devotion they gave him.

"You're interesting to be around," Penguin had said, sopping wet and destined for a cold from where Law had hurtled them over the side of the boat in an attempt to ditch them and losing the bandages to reveal the injuries Law had inflicted on them the previous day. They hadn't been severe – Law too weak to do too much damage although he certainly hadn't held back – but they were the reminders that they'd met as enemies.

Law still hadn't worked out what he'd meant by that.

"Why?" he'd asked them once – more than once, more times than he could count. "Why did you follow me?"

They'd never given him an answer, shrugging their shoulders with a grin that could equally mean work it out yourself or hell if we know.

"Does it matter?" Bepo asked him, paws twisting together slightly in preparation for a correction that Law never gave. Law had never asked him why he'd followed him. That much was obvious, or so he thought. He had saved Bepo, so the young mink had attached himself firmly to the only friendly face he knew. "Isn't it more important why we stayed?"

Law had no idea why they hadn't abandoned him either. He hadn't been a kind captain – he hadn't even been a kind human being. Bepo might have put up with him for safety reasons, but the other boys had had no such incentives.

"You're overthinking it," Penguin told him eventually, a grin on his face as he watched Shachi wrestle with a brand new fishing rod. "Is it that hard to get your head around the fact that we just wanted to?"

That answer didn't make sense, didn't give him a reason, and either that was on purpose, or Penguin was trying to tell him there hadn't been a reason. Knowing the older man, either option was as likely as the other, and Law decided to stop pushing.

Bepo was right, as much as Law liked to know the hows and whys of things. It didn't actually matter why they'd got in that boat with him. What mattered was that they were still with him, alternating between supporting him and playing around as their fancy took them, and Law wouldn't trade it for the world. Not even when Shachi lost his grip on the rod and the hook caught on Law's precious hat.

While he didn't know why they'd followed him in the first place, he knew with certainty that they wouldn't have things any other way, either.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari