OCxCanon Week 2024!

The dimly lit lamplight cascaded over steady hands in the makeshift surgical bay. Inked fingers worked quickly to remove several bullets and reattach his right arm to its appropriate position. With the cityscape in shambles, the heat of the battle long-since behind them, the Straw Hats and Trafalgar Law lay left in a moment of stasis while he contemplated the outcome to this particular combat. 

Law had battled. 

Law had won.

And Law had survived.

The memory of treating the straw-hat captain’s injuries had long since passed, but the sting of his own still lingered in the sutures. Law was the only attending surgeon in the battle, and elected to treat his own injuries rather than disturb the little reindeer. At one particularly hard sting of the needle in his sutures, a hiss expelled itself from his lips. 

“Damn it,” the surgeon of death cursed beneath his breath, “Thought I got all the numbing agents in there. Missed a damn spot.” A squeamish shudder threatened to fizz up from his toes to his head as he continued to work at his flesh: uncapping the numbing balm and adding a pea-sized dollop to his index finger. “Honestly, Law. What kind of doctor are you?”

“One of the best I’ve ever met.” 

Law halted his motions, glancing up to the doorway and gasping at the silhouette of the woman he had come to adore from afar. Kiki. The Straw Hat logia-fruit user simply smiled as she entered the office and closed the door behind her with a soft click. She had changed since the battle, yet still wore her signature greens, pinks, and browns on her body. With his hands still paused over the wound, Kiki softly approached him. 

“Need some help with that, Doc?” she gestured to his abdomen with her chin as her soft smile began spreading over her lips. 

Law took a moment's pause and begged his body to shake his head and send her off. He needed time to himself: time to process, time to grieve, time to move on and not think about those budding feelings swirling like curdled milk in his gut rising into his throat. The more he begged himself to send her away, the more his body betrayed him by nodding and holding out the numbing balm towards her. 

The logia user smiled and took the numbing balm from his open palm, immediately removing the small droplet from his index finger onto her own. She carefully examined the markings, adding the balm before recapping the tube and placing it aside. Clicking her fingers softly, Law moved reactionary to give her the thread and needle he was holding, and Kiki set to work. Leaning down, she continued his former work to the best of her abilities. 

“You've done enough to care for us after all that,” Kiki nodded at him while concentrating on suturing the bullet holes closed, “You should let someone else take care of you for once.” Her nose scrunched, lips firmed in a thin line, and her eyes narrowed in while completely focussed on each obtained injury in the battle they had won together. 

“You did.” 

Kiki halted her stitching as Law’s hand fell atop hers. The warmth in his inked fingers smeared down onto her hands as she felt a small shudder rise in his joints. Softness Law had not recalled using in his inflection found residency in that curdling rise of emotions. On all of their adventures, while the Straw Hats temporarily disbanded and Kiki agreed to train his crew on how to fight logia users, Law had found his mind shifting to her. Always, to her. Only ever, to her. 

While Law believed he had a job to do, a revenge to enact, and a legacy to fulfill: he refused to allow himself the luxury of feeling that simmering affection for more than simple allies. He knew in his heart there was more to this friendship than something as common as comrades, and seeing her on the battlefield in Dressrosa ripped that wound open more than any external injury. 

Hands desperately seeking one another out, his arm lost to him, the cascading shadow of the man who had just brutally stepped on and beat her: Law and Kiki, side by side on the battlefield of Dressrosa. He had thought he was going to die, and in that moment, he drew his hand to hers while she did the same to him. Finally entwining fingers, Law took one last glance at the woman he loved before he witnessed that shadow begin for grow closer. Should it not have been for Luffy, his life was forfeit.

“Law?” The soft voice gasped his name as if it was forbidden to speak on. Her blood smeared face full of freshly sought combat morphed into bruises, cuts, and scrapes cleansed and healed by him. Her hand moved above his on her own, softly cupping it as her smile somberly sprawled over her lips. 

“You took me in when my crew was disbanded,” she whispered to him as she thumbed over his inked knuckles, “On the island, you witnessed me at my strongest. There… you… you saw…” her words trailed off as she looked down at his hands. She felt overwhelmed by the closeness her death was coming beside him. 

Kiki would be lying to herself if she didn't harbour feelings for the surgeon of death. Of all the years they spent together, she had never felt so strongly as she did now. This man took her captain in, treated him, and lay beside him at his weakest. This man sought her out as she trained to hone in the natural elements of her logia fruit. This man went along with the ploy where Kiki had disguised herself as a princess, called her all of the correct titles, and behaved as her loyal protector on bended knee while looking up at her with those eyes she had come to love. 

She loved him. 

Kiki of Pucci loved the man she told herself she could never love. Yet, in that moment on the ground together beneath the feet of the non-benevolent king of Dressrosa, she felt that love weep out of her bruised right eye as their hands entwined together. Kiki was in love with Trafalgar Law. 

“You need someone to take care of you,” she spoke once more, squeezing his knuckles in a bid to remove his hand from atop hers, “You saw me at my weakest, my strongest, and then saw to my recovery in the aftermath without your damn arm. I would do anything to make sure you're okay,” Kiki resumed patching him up, whispering softly as she worked at stitching up his skin, “You mean a lot to me.”

The overflow of hushed confession cracked like a dam wall as Law sought out her eyes with his own. He couldn’t halt the words even if he tried to. There was no stopping the rush of emotion the longer his eyes lingered on her bruised skin and expression of concentration on his wounds. 

“I’d burn the world for you, if you’d ask me to,” he whispered, toppling over the words as they released themselves from his lips, “I’d give you everything you could ever want. Just you being here, now, with your hands carefully repairing my body after the fight, is agony to me. You mean… everything to me, Kiki.” 

Surgical scissors clipped at the stitches as Kiki tied the knot around itself to hold his skin closed. Silence, thick and full, fell between them as she pried open the antiseptic ointment and began dousing his scars with the sticky fluids. As the pad of her index finger found his skin, she whispered with a soft grin.

“That’s really not necessary, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Her giggle drew up a smile to Law’s face, yet the thick knot in his chest overpowered the joy in her presence. His confession took a lot out of him, especially after feeling these emotions rise and cascade as an outpour from his heart. Taking her words as rejection, his body deflated only barely before Kiki’s hands found his whiskered chin.

Raising his eyes to meet her own in her steady grip, Kiki’s soft expression and partial tremble in her lip told Law all he needed to know. As if on queue, she joined her other hand on his cheek and thumbed over the hair growing around the perimeter of his face. 

“How long have you felt like that?” Kiki asked him while stroking his cheek and moving up his steadied chin. Law’s lips parted as his eyes closed, simply enjoying the lingering warmth of her hands on his skin. 

“I didn’t let myself feel anything for a long time,” Law admitted as his eyelashes fluttered, bringing his attention back up to her emerald-hued eyes, “But I’d be lying if I said the time you spent with me on the Tang meant nothing. I think it was when I knew you’d be going back to the Straw Hats.” Kiki’s lip quivered as a soft, nonverbal sob moved from her lips. 

“I knew as soon as I got back to my quarters on the Thousand Sunny,” Kiki admitted softly as the hand on his chin moved up to his cheek parallel to her other hand, “Knowing I’d never see you again, or when we did it’d be in less than joyful circumstances. Then Punk Hazard, and now here, in Dressrosa: the place you told me about.” She moved in closer, almost toppling into his lap as he sat at the desk. 

Law’s hands moved to her hips to steady her, pulling her in close as blood returned to his reattached limb. Feeling the tingling in his fingers, the kiss he could almost taste being within his reach, his breath quickened as he felt all of those dwelling emotions rise while picturing lying beside her beneath Doflamingo’s feet. 

“I thought I was going to lose you,” he darted his tawny gaze between the two orbs reflecting the trees of his homeland found in her eyes, “I thought we would never-.” Kiki closed the gap, successfully cutting off the words she stole from his lips with her own. 

The torrent of cascading emotions relieved themselves into the arms of one another. Her hands immediately drew up to his hat-covered hair, pushing it off as Law pulled her into his lap. The sting of his fresh wounds was nothing in comparison to the passion he found with her bruised lips on his. Their joint sustained injuries by the man they bested and triumphed over was long since forgotten as Law pressed every scorching and raw emotion into her body he possibly could at this soft and stolen moment. 

Kiki whimpered against his lips as his arms circled her waist. The movement in the chair toppled over equipment from the desk as she crawled onto his lap without a care in the world. This was the man she loved, and was finally feeling the reciprocated adoration she had craved in the length of time passing between them. The love she felt overthrew itself from her waterline, softly spilling the salty residue of longing finally drawing to a close against his lips. 

Pulling away to draw breath, Kiki placed her forehead against his while they panted harder than any combat could’ve forced them to. Her hands knotted themselves in his hair the same way Law’s hands scrunched the fabric of her shirt from behind: both holding one another as if they could disappear at any moment. 

“I win,” Kiki laughed softly while releasing her grip on his dark locks, “I’ve loved you longer.” Law shook his head as he slowly unbound her shirt from his hard grip. Elevating his hand to her cheek, he stroked her skin while careful with her fresh bruise he had treated moments prior. 

“I think you’ll find I win,” Law snickered as he drew her into another soft and fleeting kiss, “Because I confessed first,” he relaxed back into his chair, pressing his shoulders to the rest and glancing down at his chest to see her hard work on his tattooed skin. Nodding at her work, he returned his eyes to hers with a smile reserved just for her. 

“I love you, Kiki,” he confessed, “And now that I’ve finished my mission, and that feathered bastard is in Impel Down, I want to spend as much time as I can with you while we both work out how to do this.”

Kiki’s laugh only succeeded in rising one of Law’s own in response to his confession. She leaned down, slowly tracing the pattern of his tattoo with her fingers while carefully avoiding the sutures she had just tied into him. Her hands finally made it up to his neck, bobbing over his Adam’s apple and chin before flicking over his kiss-bruised lips. 

“When do we start navigating these uncharted waters, Captain?” Kiki smiled down at him. Without dwelling too much on the tease of her hands, Law drew his atop hers and smirked his unblinking retort back up to her. 

AT LAST!!! [insert elmo fire emoji]

The last prompt for @theocxcanonweek is finally done!!!

Game: Our Life: Beginnings & Always Characters: China Schuyler x Baxter Ward

✨ Bonus Drawing Video! ✨

So, the 'jewels and chains' aspect of this prompt is a bit more figurative - as these are both people who have to do a lot of growth and healing from their pasts and, in doing so, find out the true value of themselves to the people who so dearly love them.

I honestly, genuinely, really love the idea of the struggle that is this relationship. I love the idea that, sometimes, things aren't perfect and sometimes it really is just a fight to hold on and keep pushing through the same old problems again and again. Because people don't just magically get better, y'know? Bad habits and hurt feelings don't all just go away once you've decided to start living better. If it were that easy, then the world would be more happy than it is.

No, real relationships take time and patience and work. That's why it's called a commitment. And that commitment is always going to be tested, and a true sign of love is staying even when things get hard. It's saying "If I'm worthy of being loved, then so are you."

I think it's a lesson Baxter is going to have to learn and relearn for quite some time, honestly. Especially with Ai, who has always put her needs last and is now forced to confront them and voice them whenever Baxter, once again, pulls too far away from her. Baxter will have to learn that, for all that Ai is his biggest support - she is also a lot more fragile then she lets on. That no matter how much she loves him or forgives him, she's still hurt, and her healing is still happening.

I just think that the first couple years with these two would be a fairly hard road to travel. A rocky trek rather than a stroll in the park, you could say. They're going to get a few scuffs, there will be rough moments ahead and they may fall sometimes or even stray. However, they've always got each other's back. They'll never move on without the other's hand in theirs - and they'll always come back for each other when they trip along the way.