Chapter 29

That was not one of Whitebeard's kids who had just been teleported on to the Moby Dick. So why was there a random squirt boarding his ship? Marco looked just as confused, but none of them were too worried. It was Rouge who walked out of the burst of light. There was someone slung over her shoulder, reading a book against her back, who was the unknown.

But it looked more like a kidnapping than someone trying to invade his ship?

Dammit Rouge.

"Permission to board?" Rouge asked cheerfully.

"With who yoi?" Marco blinked.

"Trafalgar Law," Law said, tilting his head back to look up at them. "Rouge-ya insisted I come here when I was reading."

Whitebeard grinned. "You have my permission. Guarararara!"

"Thank you," Law sighed.

"Hey, you're the kid who was gonna help Ace escaped if he needed it," Thatch said cheerfully.

"The Trafalgar witch?" Teach tilted his head.

"Law!" Ace raced out on to the deck, beaming.

Rouge put Law down on his feet, but before Ace could tackle him Law held up a finger, his eyes not leaving the book.

"Wait," Law ordered.

Ace stopped. He looked excited, bouncing on the balls of his heels, but he was actually waiting. Everyone else (minus Rouge) looked just as amazed as Whitebeard felt. Whitebeard had never seen that boy obey a word when he was that excited, so what sort of magic did Law just cast to calm Ace down? And where could Whitebeard get some of that?

Law finished reading whatever he was browsing through, but Ace still didn't move. Law took his time to bookmark the page he was at, close it, then handed the book to Rouge. Law then returned his attention to Ace and crossed his arms, his face bemused.

"Now you can."

"LAW!" Ace beamed, tackling him into an embrace.

.::.

Law was surprised to find that he wasn't given any bread on his plate of food that Thatch brought him in the main hall. Thatch had a cart of food with him, and of course most of it belonged to Ace who began wolfing it down. Law was sat at a table near the front of the hall with Ace, Marco, Rouge, Haruta and now Thatch.

"Don't get used to me bringing you food, firecracker," Thatch teased. "I just wanted to see our guest."

"I'm not even sure what I'm going here to be honest," Law admitted, jerking his thumb at Rouge. "She appeared out of nowhere and 'borrowed' me. I was in the library reading. My crew will be freaking out right now."

"Eh, they saw me." Rouge shrugged. "Besides, you haven't seen Ace in a while, and everyone has been so curious about him having no heart."

"So you brought me here to entertain you," Law mused.

Rouge laughed sheepishly. "I was a bit bored..." Rouge brightened up. "But actually Ace and I found something really cool to give to you."

"We weren't waiting until his birthday?" Ace blinked.

"I got too excited," Rouge admitted, grinning.

"I have to admit, I've been desperate to give it to him too!" Ace laughed. "I'm glad you caved in first."

"Should I be worried?" Law asked.

"You might cry." Rouge grinned wolfishly.

Law raised a brow. "I will admit, now I'm intrigued. Where is it?"

"In private," Rouge insisted. "It's a private affair, Law."

Law raised an eyebrow but nodded when he saw the look Ace gave him. He had agreed with Rouge too then. Law sipped at his coffee and smirked.

"So I see you got the Whitebeard mark on your back, Ace. I take it you'll always be running about shirtless now?" Law asked.

Ace laughed sheepishly. "Do you like it?"

Law nodded. "It suits you. Not the stripping your clothes off part-"

Ace flushed. "Law-"

"But the mark itself," Law continued, smirking.

"I hate you..." Ace groaned. "I couldn't get it on my arm because of the hibiscus tattoo I got for mum, then I had added snowflakes on it for you, Penguin, Bepo and Shachi, then leaves from the tree house Sabo, Luffy and I used to live in-"

Law softened. He could see all that on Ace's left arm. Law sighed and pushed up his coat sleeve, revealing his left wrist. Ace beamed.

There was a small flame, a hibiscus, a top hat, a straw hat, a fish (Bepo had wanted a fish), a whale, a penguin, and a heart tattooed around some of his wrist, all in black.

"Thank you, Law," Ace said softly. "It looks almost like a charm bracelet."

"I'm adding more as I go along," Law said. "I've got enough space for about two more on this wrist before I move on to my right side. Ikkaku wants a dagger, but the others haven't decided what they want yet."

"It turned like really nice," Rouge said, taking his wrist gently into her hand, brushing her hand over the hibiscus. "Me too?"

"You've been my mentor for years, Rouge-ya," Law reminded her.

Rouge smiled, a warm, loving smile. "Thanks, kiddo."

Law glanced over at the Whitebeard Pirates and groaned. They all looked awed, staring at the three of them with big eyes.

"You three are so cute!" Thatch cooed, then winced. "Except when you glower at me like that, Doctor Law! That's scary!"

"Speaking of your doctorate," Marco mused. "Is there any chance you might be able to heal that problem over there yoi?"

Law followed his finger towards Whitebeard, who paused mid drink from a barrel of alcohol to stare back at them. Rouge winced, as Thatch cackled.

"You weren't supposed to give him any alcohol today, Thatch," Marco sighed.

"I didn't. I think he just took it," Thatch laughed.

Whitebeard at his barrel down on his table and scowled. "That boy is one hundred years too early to be healing me."

"Besides, if I do heal him, what's to stop him from just ruining my hard work?" Law huffed.

"Guarararara, nothing!"

"Pops!" Ace groaned.

"Although I do have to admit I am curious about his organs," Law mused.

"Oh no," Ace groaned.

"If you can get him to submit to treatment then I'll take a look and see what I can do," Law said to Marco, who grinned sharply.

"Oh I'll get him too yoi."

"But I get to cut him apart," Law added.

Whitebeard looked concerned at that.

"With your devil fruit yoi?" Marco raised a brow.

"With my devil fruit," Law confirmed.

Whitebeard was out of the main hall like a flash, Marco flying straight after him. Law smirked at drank down the rest of his coffee.

Rouge cackled. "Rahahahaha! I bring you onto Eddy's ship for less than a day and you're already causing chaos. I missed you, Law."

Law chuckled. "You did say you were bored."

"That was ruthless," Haruta breathed out, then grinned. "Are you sure you don't want to join our family, Trafalgar?"

Law grimaced. "Too many people."

Thatch cackled. "That's the exact same face Rouge makes!"

.::.

Rouge closed the door to her bedroom. She had been surprised Eddy had kept it for her, even after all these years, but it still had a lot of her old things in it. Her favourite books, her clothes, blankets, pillows, all sorts Rouge had dumped in here over the years, even some of her old treasures and photographs. The thought made her smile. Ace and Law were already sat at the end of her bed, Ace looked a bit nervous, but Rouge flashed him a reassuring smile and headed for her wardrobe.

"I was going to wait for your birthday, but honestly I can't," Rouge admitted. "Ace and I were shocked when we saw this, and we think it is the real deal."

Law raised a brow. "You look nervous, Ace-ya."

"I kinda am. I'll be really upset if it isn't real..." Ace frowned.

"Eh, you're with what was the world's best pirate thief," Rouge said. "I'm usually good at finding out what is real and ain't."

She pulled out the small box from the back of the wardrobe, just a small one that would fit in her palm and sat down on the bed beside Law. She went to hand Law the small box, but despite it's size, it felt like a heavy weight in her hands.

Shit, maybe she should have asked the other Heart Pirates about this first. Maybe now wasn't the best time.

Law's hands reached out and held hers, and Rouge was surprised at how warm and soft they were.

"I trust you, Rouge-ya."

Rouge startled at that, then bit her lip as tears burned her eyes. She released the box to Law and cursed, wiping at her eyes. "You're making me soft in my old age," Rouge whined. "You damn kids, I swear you've all made me emotional over the years."

Ace laughed. "We love you too, Mum."

"I love you all more," Rouge huffed.

.::.

Ace held his breath. He hadn't meant to, but he was too busy staring at Law's hands where the small box sat in them. Law placed the box on his lap and Ace startled when Law's hand patted his shoulder.

"It helps to breathe, Ace," Law chided gently. "Jeez, calm down, the pair of you. I'm sure whatever you got me can't be that emotional, can it?"

Ace breathed in deeply. "Sorry... This is about you yet we're making it all weird..."

Law scowled and jabbed his forehead, making Ace yelp. Dang it, he kinda forgot Law had haki too. Stupid of him really to forget, mum taught it to him years ago.

"I don't want to hear that. You two obviously put a lot of thought into this gift, and given your reaction I can only believe it is something deep and meaningful," Law scolded.

He reached down and opened up the box and gasped. Ace almost held his breath again, but forced himself to breathe through it and watch Law's reaction. Law, whom Ace knew could easily hide behind a smirk and thank them for the gift, choose not to. Instead Law closed his eyes and allowed a tear fall down his cheek, before he wiped it away and pulled on a pair of gloves. That was all Law had allowed. Law carefully picked up the coin in the velvet box and examined the coin.

"It's real," Law said softly.

The gift was a coin with the Flevance snowdrop printed on its facing.

.::.

"This is a fancy shop, Teach," Ace mused, looking around.

It was full of old looking scrolls and text books. Ace could see other items tucked into glass cabinets too and had to fight the urge to pinch something. Mum probably already had stolen stuff already. It didn't look like it of course, she looked like she was just browsing, but Ace knew his mum better than that.

"I was hoping it would have some interesting historical books," Teach said, glancing over the bookshelves.

"Doing some more reading?" Ace chuckled. "I'm amazed you have the patience for it. I can't get myself to sit still long enough to finish a book, never mind-" Ace cut himself off, seeing the coin case.

There wasn't many in it, but they looked pretty nice. Maybe he could buy one for Law? Law like collecting coins.

"You've got a good eye there, boy," the shopkeeper said. "These are rare coins indeed. My greatest one right now is the Flevance coin."

Ace froze. Mum went straight to his side, staring at the coin with hard eyes.

Flevance. Law's home. Law's destroyed home.

This was from there?

"You'll be too young to remember it," the man continued on. "But Flevance was once a beautiful white city. It was so stunning. Like a fairytale." The man's face soured. "Then they all went and caught that terrible disease and Flevance and it's people had to be destroyed to protect everyone else-"

Ace scowled. "I know about it!" he snapped. "How much for it?"

"Wait, Ace," Teach said, laying a hand on his shoulder, surprisingly gentle. "We better make sure it's real first. Don't want you buying something that's had cheap copies made of it, little brother."

"It's real," Mum said, startling them both, her eyes hadn't left the coin.

Teach chuckled. "You can tell from just a glance? Dang, that's amazing, Rouge."

"I'm selling it for twenty million beli."

They all choked at that. "What the hell?" Ace complained.

"That's insane, old man!" Teach yelled.

"It's rare, almost one of a kind these days," the shopkeeper insisted.

"And you're not just saying that because you saw the Whitebeard tattoos on them?" Mum asked coldly.

"N-No-" the man stammered.

"I only have about ten thousand altogether." Ace frowned. "I'll try borrow some from Marco-"

"Hang on," Teach said, pulling out the full amount from his wallet.

Rouge frowned. "Teach, you don't have to do that-"

"Are you sure, Teach? That's a lot of money-" Ace protested.

"It's fine, Ace. I was prepared to buy something rare today, so glad I had enough money for this," Teach said. "Besides, I know how this works, you'll come back later and there will be more bids on this Flevance coin. You'd end up having to pay more."

The shopkeeper looked displeased, but accepted the beli.

"Thank you, Teach." Ace smiled warmly. "I'll pay you back as soon as possible."

"No worries. Tell your friend to enjoy it."

"How did you know it's for our friend?" Rouge raised a brow.

"Zehahahaha, neither of you are coin collectors!" Teach laughed. "And if we wait too long Rouge will lose her patience, right? Don't want collectable items disappearing all of a sudden."

Rouge grimaced. "Maybe...?"

"Zehahahaha, you can buy me some drinks later, Ace. I'll call it even."

Ace laughed. "You deserve an army of them after that. Thanks again, Teach. You have no idea how much this means to me."

.::.

Ace startled from his thoughts when Law leaned against him, resting his head on his shoulder. Ace smiled and settled down against Law.

"Thank you, both of you," Law said softly, eyes still locked onto the coin. "This is a great gift."

Mum wrapped her arm around both of them, and smiled warmly. "You best thank Ace. He's the one who found it."

"I wouldn't have if I hadn't followed Teach," Ace laughed. "It was pretty good timing on my part."

Law hummed, but Ace hadn't been expecting a reply. He was probably going to be deep in his thoughts for a while. His gloved thumb was gently brushing over the snowdrop flower on the face of the coin.

"I hope you're okay if I stay here for a while, Rouge-ya," Law mumbled quietly.

"Stay for as long as you want."