Initial

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

Shachi had expected some level of hostility from the brat – Law, the bear-cub called him – even after they'd sailed away, and he hadn't been disappointed. The waters were cold, too cold to take a swim, but he was starting to get used to being randomly flipped into the sea as the kid tried and failed to dissuade him and Penguin from their decision to follow him. He didn't think the kid was trying to kill him, although in all honesty that wasn't a bad way to go about it, but it was certainly unpleasant. And cold.

Very cold.

Shachi had taken to pressing against Penguin, trying to share what warmth he could as he shivered, stuck in sopping wet clothes because they hadn't thought to bring spares with them. Even Bepo had started to curl up with them in concern, sending baleful looks at Law and even starting to stand up for them ("they're too cold, Law!") at times. The creature's heart was as soft as his fur.

Law took longer to come around to the idea that he didn't need to throw them overboard, not that Shachi expected any real change of heart. When he wasn't throwing them out of the boat, he seemed to be largely ignoring their existence, spending his time curled up in the stern of the boat and staring into space for hours on end. It would have been hard for him to have been much clearer about the fact he wasn't fond of their presence.

Shachi began to fear that Law was planning on abandoning them somewhere – some other island, maybe. Throwing them in the sea was doing nothing besides soaking them, then again-

He sneezed, startling himself in the process, and shuddered, trying to press closer to Bepo and his warm fur.

Then again, it was wearing them down. Shachi was reasonably resistant to the cold, but repeated dunkings followed by abandonment on the deck in sopping wet clothes was wearing his immune system thin. Beside him, Penguin coughed.

"Idiots," Law said, breaking his silence suddenly. Shachi tensed as the smaller boy shakily made his way across the boat towards them, bracing himself against another cold dunking. He couldn't take much more of that, if he was honest.

He wasn't dunked. Instead, Law reached for the dripping wet bandages and slowly peeled them away. Shachi couldn't stop flinching away. All of his injuries had been at the hands of this small, volatile child, and further interest from the culprit didn't bode well at all. Gentle fingertips traced around the wounds softly, and those golden eyes looked almost kind.

"You need to change these," he said, peeling the worst offenders off of Shachi's body. "And dry off, or you'll get a cold." He seemed almost worried, which Shachi found rich, as it was entirely his fault in the first place. He said as much, only for Law to fix him with a glare. "I'm a doctor."

At his age? Shachi managed not to laugh only because he knew laughing would be a one way ticket to the sea. There was no way that was true, but if Law wanted to play at being a doctor, Shachi would happily take that over another dunking, and he suspected Penguin would, too.

There was barely anything they could use to dry off and wrap up in, the boat they'd liberated outfitted for a day's travel, not a week's, but Law found something that sufficed, somehow. Shachi didn't investigate too thoroughly as he curled back up against Penguin and Bepo.

The mystery of the kid's sudden charity could wait.

At some point, Penguin/Shachi/Bepo found out Law is a doctor, but that doesn't mean they believed him to start with.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari