Resemble

Characters: Law. Rating: K. Warnings: None.

Puberty hit Law late. He wasn't overly surprised by the fact, considering the damage his body had taken as a child thanks to the White Lead Poisoning, although still having his pre-pubescent high voice long after Penguin and Shachi's had settled into their deeper vocals grew to be annoying on the occasions they chose to tease him about it (not often, but it happened).

He'd had plenty of time to watch the other two get taller – Shachi never quite catching Penguin – and complain about needing to shave as their faces got prickly with stubble before it was his turn. Despite that, he hadn't stopped to think about what it meant. Getting taller by a foot overnight (as Shachi claimed; Law was sure it took at least two days) was a nuisance, with growing pains making themselves known loudly and none of his clothes fitting properly anymore. His final height was unexpected – as his growth had been stunted by the disease, he'd never expected to be tall – although it had the bonus of Kikoku no longer being too long for him to wield, but aside from the minor practical inconveniences it was easy enough to ignore.

The face he caught sight of in the mirror one morning, however, was not.

Over time, memories faded. Law knew that, tried not to think about the fact that his family's faces were hazy in his mind (and that Cora-san's was fading rapidly), but when he woke up one morning to hazily stumble into the bathroom, he saw his father looking back at him. It was unmistakably his father, glasses missing but identifiable regardless, and Law jumped, startled into sudden wakefulness by the shock.

Blinking and rubbing his eyes furious, he looked again to realise he was staring into a mirror. Stubble had sprouted on his face overnight, another greeting from puberty, the faint pattern resembling the shallow stubble his father had never had time to shave completely before his next shift at the hospital.

Law faced a decision: to let the facial hair grow, or to get rid of it. On the one hand, letting it grow would require maintenance – he had no intentions of letting it go wild – but on the other, shaving it daily would mean waking up every morning to the shadow of his father's face.

There wasn't really a choice.

Penguin and Shachi seemed amused by his decision to not shave away the stubble. They might respect and follow him as their captain, but there was that part of them that always treated him like a younger child – sometimes annoying, other times turning out to be just what Law needed – and they clearly saw it as a way for him to appear more mature than his years. He ignored them, knowing that they'd get used to it in time. Bepo, as always, followed the flow meekly, not even commenting on his new look.

It took time for his beard and sideburns to grow long enough that they no longer resembled his father's (Law did, however, eliminate the budding moustache). For as long as the goatee remained thin enough to resemble his father's, Law hid away from mirrors, trying not to jump whenever he caught sight of his reflection. Penguin and Shachi, displaying that uncanny ability to read him when he wasn't sure he wanted to be read, never made him face a mirror despite their teasing. Then again, he realised, he'd never asked them how closely they'd grown up to resemble their own dead parents. Maybe, they understood.

It didn't stop them teasing him, but by that point Law had long learnt that nothing was going to stop that when they were in the mood for poking fun. He could put up with the light-hearted mischief, and eventually the day came where he let himself properly face a mirror again.

This time, he saw himself. There was the family resemblance to his father, of course, but it was no longer so obvious it hurt. The full goatee and the slightly shaggy sideburns were a step further than Law had ever seen his father, thereby serving their purpose.

The fact that it made him look a little bit older didn't hurt, either.

Law looks a lot like his father. A lot. The only real difference seems to be the length of his hair and his facial hair, once you take away the glasses, and as those are both cosmetic things Law has control over, I suspect they're intentionally different so as not to look like his father.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari