#the trafalgars

Despite every awful thing Doflamingo did to him, he was right about one thing: You have to have a give-and-take view on everything. No one does anything selflessly and even the sweetest act was done by someone wanting to relish in how much that receiver of the good deed must appreciate them. If you don’t think this way, you can’t make it in this cruel, twisted world. Not that Law had plans on “making it”, whatever that meant.

It was human nature. Law couldn’t even be mad over it, since it was just wired into everybody. Even him, even his parents… even her.

When Law was thirteen, he had met Nerina. On that Swallow Island beachside, she and her mother had washed up just hours prior, according to his diy detective work. He and Penguin were walking back from their part time jobs before seeing that red haired little girl marked all over with gills and scars and her pink-skinned mother, who’d swam as far away from Mokuhina as she possibly could, with her daughter in tow. They’d survived something chillingly alike to Flevance, however instead of Amber Lead, it was enslavement (both diseases) over their abundance of diverse races and peoples, resulting in the destruction of the island.

When finding them, it was like Law had been possessed. He’d become some sort of hero for lack of a better word, as much as he hated to think of it that way, and he commanded Penguin to take Nerina while he took her mom Wailana. They’d rushed them back to Wolf’s place, any other thoughts abandoned.

Luckily, both of them made it, with Nerina soon after in good condition, and her mother a bit more roughed up but only needing a few months to fully recover. He’d saved their lives. Of course he did, it’s doctor’s instinct. He’d known nothing about them prior, so it couldn’t be anything like all that “fate” or “destiny” stuff Nerina so lovingly dotes on… But who knows?

Law was freshly fourteen when he and Nerina, eight months his junior, got together. He was so awkward back then, god… Clammy hands always terrified of taking hers… His eyes darting to her after every joke someone else made, seeing what’d make her laugh so he could one up the jokester with his own way funnier joke and get her to burst out into cry-laughing… Trying to get out new pet names for her while stuttering relentlessly… She’d take the reins typically, gently poking fun at his anxiousness, despite not having any romantic experience either, finding humor in the dorky situations they’d find themselves in. And honestly? Things weren’t much different now, come to think of it… He knew his way of love was selfish. Deeply so. He did all those things because he wanted her to always stay with him, to never leave him behind… But who knows?

She was his angel… All his, with little to nothing to be done to prove it… Even so, years into their relationship, he’d done all those flowery things he’d thought he’d only want to do for her if he wanted her to forever be enclosed in his fist, always his. On the Polar Tang, he’d get flowers for her from Bepo’s garden (with his permission) starting every week, until it became every other day, which transformed into every single day. Their shared bedroom was covered in flowers, always smelling lovely no matter how intimate or passionate they’d get. 

In addition, although Nerina hardly desired doing anything outlandishly uncoordinated or crazy, he’d follow her on shopping outings and never complain one bit, no matter how grating the retail music could get. If he did give her a hard time, she’d fold instantly, that sweet girl, and go home without anything she was satisfied with. That was the last thing he wanted.

He’d kiss her at least every three hours, at least somewhere on her face. “I love you”s became so common Law now couldn’t believe how drastically different his life with her was compared to now, stepping through the crunchy snow of Punk Hazard.

He was walking straight toward his grave. She had no idea what this mission truly entailed, that he’d go to Dressrosa to avenge Corazon, practically a suicide mission… Before he left, on his final days with the crew, Law proposed to Nerina, giving a heart-stompingly sentimental speech to pair with it. Just the two of them, docked on Swallow Island for the weekend and in the midst of a particularly gorgeous section of the forest, littered with ladybugs and caterpillars and fallen leaves and tiny animals and cool air. Together like always. And always. And always…

Yet all those things he did for her, in the moment, felt just as confusing to him as his own parents doing those things for each other, and maybe he did understand a little bit of it now. Love was something that threw Law’s brewing, thirteen year old plan off course, which is why it took so long to carry through. He couldn’t unclench his fist and let her go.

This cold air was different. It was torture, awful and harsh. It wasn’t the temperature either, it was the lack of her.

In a perfect world where Flevance was thriving, his parents and sister were alive, and Mokuhina never was enslaved, they’d be married, wouldn’t they? And it wouldn’t be because Law was afraid. How fickle… Snowflakes got into his eyes, surely being the reason he was tearing up while walking alone. He was no husband, nothing like his dad, at least in this timeline… He was such a coward over maybe her leaving him or moving on after he died in Dressrosa that he put a ring on her. An engagement ring, but still a promise to always be together, something he knew his own wishes to honor Corazon’s memory would never let him do.

He’d take these hopes and dreams to the grave. Even so, in his dying moments fighting Doflamingo, he’d be thinking of Nerina, like always. And he’d have it no other way. He’d just wish, as his vision blacked and every other thought ceased, that she’d love him just the same as he loved her, that his face was being held by her plushlike palms as he welcomed death, with the lingering hope that she knew he was so sorry.

+ original art i made for this real quick fic!! ^^