Chapter Text
The sun peaks brightly through his window curtains, rousing Law from his deep sleep. He stretches his limbs like a cat, toes curling as his calf muscles flex and releases a sigh when the tension he gathered the night before begins to ebb away.
Law feels the excited-tingling nerves thrumming underneath his skin before he even opens his eyes. Today is the day that he’ll finally take Luffy out on their first date and just thinking of the two of them going out has him smiling crazily, so much so that he has to stifle the manic expression by rolling over and wrapping himself inside his blanket like a burrito to calm down.
He stays like that for a while but Law—like most people nowadays—can’t survive on air alone and sticks his hand out of the blanket to paw around the bed for his phone. Opening the messaging app, Law laughs gleefully into his pillow when he sees that Luffy’s already texted him first.
Law frowns, his barely awake brain starting to fill with worry as he re-reads Luffy's text four more times. An uneasy pit forming in the bottom of his stomach as the words don’t change subsequently causing the little monster that likes to whisper unhelpful things at him—see: when Law thought Luffy was dating his own brother—rears its ugly head once more and tells Law that maybe Luffy would be too tired to go out on their date today.
Luckily, a new voice that sounds suspiciously like Bepo overrides the monster and tells Law to just ask Luffy why he didn’t sleep like he would any other day, instead of letting his brain jump to conclusions.
Again.
Holding his breath, Law types out a reply.
It’s a stupid question because Law’s a hundred percent sure that he double—triple—checked their schedules for their date today. Making sure that the both of them were available and at the very least Luffy didn’t work the night before. There’s always the possibility that someone called in, mixed with the fact that Luffy is so friendly enough to pick up extra shifts. When you add in the insecurities swirling in Law’s mind, it makes for a ‘Not as sure as he was the night prior’; Surgeon.
Ping!
Law lets his phone slip through his fingers and bounce haphazardly on the bed, burrowing his face deeper into his pillow, letting out a groan of embarrassment. Law hates the way he can feel the entirety of his face burn at his sudden slip of stupidity. Because of course, that’s why, and Law’s dumb for thinking otherwise. If Luffy didn’t want to go on a date with him he would’ve told Law by now, or he most likely wouldn’t have agreed to go on one in the first place.
Law knows that Luffy’s not like that—an inconsiderate flakey jerk—knows that his crush is too good and warm a person to string Law along for a whole week—or at all, if he’s honest. So he buries his feelings of wanting the world to swallow him whole, mentally thanking the Bepo-sounding voice and picks up his phone to text Luffy back:
Reading that Luffy is just excited for their date as Law does nothing to lessen his blush but once again has him stifling a smile—this time a soft and goopy one. He lets the words seep into his brain and chase the negative thoughts away. This date was going to be perfect.
Staring at the hearts on his screen, Law uses them to push himself out of bed, and get ready for their date, now feeling more excited than he did when he first woke up. He rushes for his bathroom, and gets the shower going. He doesn’t have to pick up Luffy until later tonight, but there’s nothing wrong with being too ready.
…
When Law’s less than a street away from Luffy’s apartment, he shoots him a text to tell him so, double checking to make sure that Luffy isn’t wearing anything uncomfortable for their date.
Which tracks, Law thinks back to when he first saw Luffy in the cafeteria wearing the pair of comfy looking pirate-patterned shoes. Law also thinks about how he noticed Luffy's fitting scrubs, and the way that the other always seem to constantly tug at the fabric, as if the clothes irritated his body.
Honestly, Law doesn’t know how Luffy does it when the boy seems to vibrate out of his skin if the collar of his shirt sits on his neck too long. Luffy seems like the type who would wear shorts and sandals to work if he could—and maybe Law should’ve mentioned no sandals, because that would definitely not be great for what he has planned.
As he parks his car in the front of Luffy’s apartment, Law sends the boy another text, before exiting the car and walking up the stairs:
Law can’t help the laugh that escapes at Luffy’s reply and knocks on the door. The sound of running footsteps and Luffy’s muffled yell of, “Wait, I gotta change shoes!” does more than it should to ease the rest of whatever doubts were still lingering in Law’s brain.
The apartment door opens and Law’s greeted not by Luffy, but Ace. The freckled man wheels himself away from the door and gestures for Law to come inside.
“So, you finally found the balls to ask out Luffy, huh?” asks Ace, shooting Law a shit-eating grin. Law tries to not let his blush show, and employs the “Bepo-strategy”—looking away.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he denies, not wanting to be roped into a teasing session by Luffy’s not boyfriend-brother before his date.
Ace snorts at his evasiveness, the teasing grin not once leaving his face, “Yeah, sure you don’t,” he says while rolling his eyes.
After that the two of them sit in companionable silence, the only sounds coming from what Law guesses is Luffy’s bedroom—muffled swear words, and the thudding of shoes hitting walls—echoing around them.
Law takes this time to look around the apartment, noticing the pictures hung with seemingly no pattern, almost unevenly on the wall. One with a young Luffy and Ace standing next to a blond-haired boy and big red-haired woman—Law immediately places them as Sabo and Dadan—catches his eye.
There’s another one capturing Luffy and his friends—the ones Luffy was sitting with the first time Law saw him—dressed in graduation caps and gowns on the center of the fridge door. Law also notices that the picture is held up with alphabet magnetics that spell out all Luffy’s friends’ names and finds the added personalization adorable.
There’s another that jumps out at him hanging just above the TV, this one is of Ace surrounded by a bunch of firefighters in a hospital room. Strangely, Marco's in this one too, and it makes Law wonder if Luffy was acquainted with the older man before he started working at the hospital or if it was all just a happy coincidence.
Law continues to look around taking all these different moments of Luffy’s interesting life somehow captured in singular moments. He’s able to place some of them from the stories Luffy’s told him, but most are events he never knew of—Luffy used to box??—He doesn’t feel like he’s missing something, instead Law is overcome once again with the insatiable need to know everything about this boy and vice versa.
…
When eight minutes go by with still no sign of Luffy, Law starts to feel a little bad that the one thing that he hadn’t made clear about this date just so happened to be what kind of shoes Luffy should be wearing, but he also wanted the second part of his plan to go as smoothly as possible and that meant not having to stop because Luffy’s sandals decided to chafe his feet or twist his ankle.
After what felt like forever Luffy finally emerges from his room. The black-haired boy's eyes immediately clock where Law’s standing and stops to stare at him.
Law wasn’t wearing anything special considering where they were going, just regular ripped black jeans, a low v-neck shirt and a bomber jacket with shoes to match. The outfit was so plain in fact, that Law started to squirm under Luffy’s intense stare that seemed to center at his chest.
Law had purposely worn the low v-neck for this reason—knowing that Luffy’s never seen the tattoos on his chest but seemed to love the ones on his hands—but now that he’s actually facing Luffy, frozen under his dazed gaze does Law actually start to feel a little self-conscious about his outfit. Maybe the chest-peek was a little too much for a first date.
In a fit of modesty, Law moves to zip up his jacket but Luffy appears in front of him faster than he can blink, tugging the fabric out his hands.
“Don’t,” he says in a tone that leaves no room for arguing while fiddling with the jacket’s zipper, “Torao looks nice.”
Law can’t stop his blush from forming this time, but diverts Luffy’s attention by teasingly tsk-ing, “What if I didn’t look nice?” He counters, unconsciously leaning closer into Luffy’s space drawn in by the other’s warmth and also hoping to fluster the black-haired boy for a change.
Luffy looks up at him—they’re so close that if Law leaned in a bit more they’d be touching noses—a warm genuine smile gracing his lips.
“Torao always looks nice.” Luffy says this without blushing, without fumbling. The words falling from his lips naturally like how someone would talk about the weather, like it’s fact. Law feels his heart stutter violently in his chest, finding that he’s never wanted to kiss Luffy more than he has at this moment.
“Pfft—”
Though of course kissing Luffy in front of his older brother who is sitting not even three feet to Law’s right and before even leaving the apartment would be way more embarrassing and takes priority. Luffy and Law jump apart, flustered as Ace continues to guffaw at them.
Ace’s laugh—Law notes—is nothing like his younger brother’s. It’s a big, loud, hearty but honking laugh that reminds Law more of a dying deranged goose he once saw on the Discovery Channel than an actual person’s.
Eventually Ace semi-calms down, probably because Luffy walks over and hits the man upside the head over and over again for laughing so long, and continues to do so despite Ace’s wheezing apologies. Eventually, Luffy stops, pouts and grumbles that his brother “Ruined Torao and I’s moment,” before quickly grabbing Law’s hand, yanking him out of the apartment sooner than he could really process the mumbled words.
Having to have the last laugh, Ace calls out, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t—” and is ultimately cut off by Luffy slamming the door in his face, but the sound of more mocking honking laughter reaches through the wood anyway.
After taking a moment to calm down, Luffy looks up at Law and asks, “So where is Torao taking me?”
“Right now? Dinner.” He says with a wince, “Sorry, I planned our date for so late in the evening.”
Luffy blinks at him once—twice, before interlocking their fingers and starts walking downstairs to where Law parked his car. Luffy swings their hands back and forth between the small space of their bodies, and hums.
“It’s okay, I’m used to seeing Day-Toraos,” he muses, but once they make it to the bottom of the stairs he spins around, momentarily dropping their linked hand, “I want to see Afternoon-Toraos too,” he grins.
Amused, Law walks Luffy over to his car and opens the door for him, trying not to do something stupid—like accidentally smash Luffy’s leg in between the door—when Luffy sends a grateful look his way.
“What about Night-Toraos?” Law teases.
Luffy smiles softly at him, “I wanna see all of the Toraos.” He states, blunt honesty again making Law’s heart pound.
“Oh.”
The simple straightforward answer has Law having to snap himself out of a giddy stupor, and quickly makes his way into the driver’s side of the car. Once Law’s inside he grabs Luffy’s hand from where it was resting against the console and intertwines their fingers again, internally blaming the sudden warmth running through him at Luffy’s too high body heat.
“I want to get to know all of the Luffys too.”
…
“Meat!?” comes Luffy’s boisterous screech and Law watches indulgently as the younger boy jumps excitedly in his seat—almost choking himself as the seatbelt locks—he barely waits for Law to park the car and leave his own seat before taking off for the door.
Throughout the many conversations that Law and Luffy have had in the past couple of weeks, Law has safely determined that Luffy’s favorite food was in fact: meat. Not a specific kind of meat like: beef, pork, or chicken. The semantics didn’t matter, as long as it was meat, Luffy loved it. So it was only natural that for dinner Law take Luffy to eat Korean Barbeque.
Law watches as Luffy starts drooling almost as soon as they walk through the front doors. He really shouldn’t find it as cute as he does when Luffy starts sniffing the air loudly like a dog, and his head starts to swivel rapidly around like a radar antenna. Law swears he sees Luffy’s neck do a three-sixty when a server passes them with a plate of raw pork ribs.
He thinks it’s safe to say he picked well.
As if to confirm this, Law feels Luffy’s arm wrap around his neck, pulling him tightly into a hug. “Torao got me meat,” he says with a giggle, swaying their bodies side to side, overjoyed, as they wait to be seated.
Law wraps his awkward, shaky hands carefully around Luffy’s waist, pulling the smaller boy closer to him, “I figured this would be the best place to take you.” He admits.
Luffy lets out a happy sigh, fiddling with the hair at the base of Law’s neck with a hum, “Torao’s the best.”
Law’s afraid that his voice might do something juvenile—like crack—if he tries to speak at this moment, so he just settles for resting his chin on Luffy’s head and pretends not to see when all of the strangers look confused yet softly at them.
…
Law tries not to think about how much food he’s seen Luffy put away in the short amount of time they’ve been at this restaurant. It’s not the bill that he’s worried about so much as Luffy’s stomach, though the boy seems fine—Law watches as Luffy reaches for his twentieth short rib in the last three minutes—so maybe Law shouldn’t worry so much.
It’s actually cute the way Luffy can’t seem to get enough of the greasy stuff. Law felt full just after finishing one serving of rice and a couple slices of beef, and couldn’t begin to imagine where Luffy hid all that food he put away in his lean frame.
Still, Law was content to watch as Luffy continued to stuff his face, finding it even more endearing when he made a satisfying humming noise every time he switched what kind of meat he was eating and what kind of sauce he was eating it with, a muffled “So yummy,” escaping him occasionally.
But while Luffy is charming in his own way, he is also a bit of a messy eater—which is not a deal breaker for Law, if anything after getting past the initial shock at Luffy’s voraciousness, this is just another thing he was going to add to his growing list of ‘Charming Habits Luffy Has' list, placing it right beside ‘Random Sea Facts.’
Law quietly snickers as he leans across the table, “You’re so messy,” he says, affectionately whipping some sort of sauce from the corner of Luffy’s mouth then licking his thumb absentmindedly before sitting back in his seat. It’s only when he notices Luffy stop eating to stare at him that he registers what he just did.
Awkwardly, Law opens and shuts his mouth like one of those automatic trash cans, brain cogs churning overtime trying to find an excuse for that, when Luffy takes the rib in his hand and presses it to his face, intentionally dragging it down so that the sauce smears even more onto his cheek.
“Oops,” Luffy says coquettishly, looking at Law expectantly with twinkling, coy eyes.
And when it comes to Luffy, Law has always been a weak weak man.
…
Their dinner ends and the sun starts to set, Law admits that he has one more destination that he would like to take Luffy even though it would be rather far to drive and understands if he would like to go home instead. Luffy—who is all too onboard—agrees, not wanting their date to end just yet.
Law drives them some miles away from the restaurant, not stopping until the city lights become small specks in the side-view mirrors and the roads are caged by trees that shroud them in complete darkness with only the faint light from the moon peaking through branches and the car’s headlights to illuminate their way. Law parks them at the edge of an empty field that’s bordered with more trees. He grabs a flashlight from his door-side pocket and gets out of the car—Luffy this time letting him open the door for him—and holds out his hand for the boy to grab, which he does—Luffy automatically threading their fingers together.
The darkness of the night has a way of making everything feel more intimate. The crunching of the grass pushed by the soft breeze mixed with their footsteps and the occasional giggle from Luffy when they accidentally brush arms are somehow quiet in comparison to Law’s heart loudly thrumming with affection for the boy next to him.
“I thought I’d return the favor,” Law says suddenly, “My favorite spot is like yours in a way.”
Luffy hums curiously, “A park?”
“Yes, or actually it’s still a little bit deeper inside the park.” Law confesses.
Bumping his shoulder purposely against Law’s, Luffy asks, “Torao’s not going to murder me, is he?” An abrupt snort escapes Law at the question and when he tries to cut the gross sound off, he ends up choking on air.
Looking at Luffy like he’s crazy, Law utters bemused, “No, I’m not going to kill you Luffy,” wondering where in the world that thought came from.
Luffy shrugs a shoulder, committed to looking straight ahead, as if not to give himself away, with a grin, “Never hurts to ask~” he teases.
They walk for a little while longer, Law expertly guiding them through the forest-like trees at the outskirts of the park. Lifting up branches and telling Luffy to stick close to him when they start to go up-hill, so that Luffy doesn’t fall. Eventually the two of them make it to a clearing at the top.
The view from the hill—which is actually a cliff—is completely devoid of trees and overlooks more than just the park. From it you could not only see the vague outline of Law’s car but also the faint glittering lights of the city miles away, but the most eye-catching was the stars. The stars had been hard to see earlier despite the lack of light because of the trees—branches and leaves too thick and tall to view them properly.
“My sister and I would always come up here when we were younger. The man who fostered us—Cora-san—had a fascination with stars and shared this spot with us.” He confides suddenly.
Law lets Luffy gawk at the bright balls in the sky a moment longer before speaking again, “Cora-san isn’t around anymore, but I don’t think he’d mind if I shared this special place with a person special to me.”
“Torao thinks I’m special?” Luffy whispers fervently.
Law tugs slightly at their joined fingers, making the other boy look at him, “Ever since I met you.” He admits truthfully, hoping that the look in his eyes expresses more than his words ever could.
Law watches as Luffy not only meets his gaze but matches it, looking at him head-on despite the blush creeping up his cheeks.
Luffy for once is the first to break eye contact and moves to lay down in the grass at the edge of the cliff, feet dangling off the side. He tugs Law down to sit next to him and they enjoy the silence for a moment, just basking in the warmth of being near each other and gazing up at the starry sky.
“Tell me about him?” Luffy mumbles, turning his head so that he’s looking up at Law, “About Cora-san.”
So Law does.
Law tells Luffy all about how his parents died in a car crash when he and his sister were at school one day. They were only eight and six at the time.
Tells Luffy how angry of a kid he was. How much he wanted the world to burn and the people around along with it. How apathetic to live he became in his grief despite thankfully still having his sister with him.
He and his sister didn’t have any other family who wanted to take them in so they eventually had to go into foster care. Law talks about how they repeatedly ended up with a lot of shitty—lowbrow, abusive, and just generally money-grubbing—people before they landed with Cora-san, who was a retired police officer.
He tells him about how much Law despised Cora-san at first—writing the man off as nothing but a self-serving asshole just in it for the money the government would give him—and how much he made that man’s life hell by acting out over and over again. And regardless, Cora-san always took care of them, handling Law’s outbursts with a calm grace that would make you think he had done this before. Cora-san made sure that they had more than what they needed. That they were provided, but more importantly, cared for.
Law’s breath catches in his throat when he tells Luffy about how Cora-san is the reason that pushed him to be a doctor in the first place. How when Cora-san started to have to go to the hospital more because of an old injury acting up.
Talks about how much he cried not only when Cora-san passed away but when the lawyer read him and his sister Cora-san's will that listed them as his beneficiaries and left them everything, so they wouldn’t have to worry about life and it’s bullshit ever again.
“He sounds like a great guy.” Luffy responds softly.
Law swallows down the emotions welling up in his throat at the thought of the man who became like a second Dad to him. Law’d give anything, do anything, say anything to have him back, just for a moment. Instead he settles for:
“The best.”
Law feels the air escape his lungs when he’s suddenly pushed on his back, barely having enough time to register as Luffy rolls over, so that he’s resting his head now on Law’s chest.
“Thanks for telling me.” He voices, wrapping an arm around Law’s torso, snugging into him.
“Thank you for listening,” Law chuckles bitterly, then apologizes when he sees Luffy’s bemused face, adding, “Sorry to end our date on such a somber note.”
Luffy’s forehead scrunches in further confusion before he breaks out in his signature raspy giggle. The reaction is nothing like Law expected so naturally he asks what’s so funny.
“Shishishi, Torao and I switched places,” he grins, looking smug, “On our first date, it was me who was sharing with Torao.”
Law feels himself flush in incredulity, “First date?” he manages to squeak out.
Luffy’s giggles soften, and he looks up at Law with his big black eyes, “Yeah, at the rice ball stand,” he says in a way that makes Law feel like he’s the one missing something—which evidently he is.
“You counted that as our first date?” he presses.
“Torao said it was a date, so it’s a date,” Luffy states, undoubtingly shrugging his shoulders once again as if what he said was fact.
And Law….Law needed time to process that.
Law thinks about how increasingly clingy Luffy had been after their “date.” He thinks about the increased hand holding and personal questions, the continued lunches with just the two of them, and the coffee orders—that sometimes had two or three extra hearts scribbled on them.
How Luffy’s touches seemed to be more than friendly at times, and down-right sexual at others—Law remembers one particular lunch break where Luffy played with his hands the entire time, fleeting touches ghosting over tattooed knuckles and open twitching palms that felt him more excited than he’d like to admit.
Law had somehow convinced himself that this was just how Luffy was, and embraced the closeness despite himself still feeling awkward, but overall ecstatic that they seemed to be moving somewhere and working up to this first date—but according to Luffy they already were there—Law thinks that if he weren’t already laying down that he would need to because—
“Torao thinks too much,” says Luffy, successfully minimizing Law’s racing thoughts with his mere presence like he always does—ironic.
“Am I?” He challenges, feeling perfectly justified in his spiraling.
Law watches with rapid attention when Luffy adjusts against him, pulling away from Law’s chest to tower over him, caging the older man in with his lean arms.
Luffy nods with more certainty than anyone should be allowed to feel, “I like Torao,” he declares, “and Torao likes me.”
Disregarding the obvious declaration of Luffy’s statement of Law’s own feelings, Law’s brain seems to short circuit at the boy’s confession of his own. A little more than overwhelmed, the best thing that he could get out is a meek: “You do?” Which Luffy seems to think is funny because he’s laughing at him again—Law doesn’t know whether to be offended or not.
“Shishishi, Torao is so dumb,” he snickers, looking down at Law with glittering amused eyes.
So offended it is.
“Hey—”
Before Law could defend himself and his very reasonable conclusions about their relationship, he’s left breathless as Luffy dips down to press their lips together. At first it’s just an innocent brush of skin, their mouths moving together in a slow sensual rhythm getting used to each other in this way.
Law’s hand subconsciously goes up to card through Luffy’s hair, lightly tugging at the black strands making the boy above him sigh and momentarily part his mouth. Law takes the opening and latches onto Luffy’s lower lip, nibbling and sucking on the supple, chapped flesh before soothing it with his tongue. He feels Luffy jolt then shudder above him, a primal part of Law’s brain toggles on at the reaction making him flip Luffy over until he was the one with his back pressed against the grass, inadvertently breaking them apart.
Law takes the moment of separation to really look at Luffy: the boy’s cheeks were flushed a pretty pink complimenting the swollen red damage Law did to his bottom lip. He absentmindedly—or now that Law thinks about it, maybe intentionally—licks at the abused flesh then tilts his head back invitingly. His fingers clench and pull impatiently at Law, tugging his jacket sleeve and the hem of his shirt to try to drag him back down.
Law would like to think he had more restraint than to immediately succumb to what’s laid out before him like an animal. More restraint to stop himself from leaning down and trailing kisses up Luffy’s offered neck. More restraint to stop himself from licking into his crush’s mouth sloppily with all the finesse of an over-eager teenager. Law’s sure that there’s something he should’ve asked Luffy before he let the boy tempt him into this, but as Luffy gasped and arched into him, Law couldn’t recall what the question he had was in the first place.
Law reveled in the way Luffy seemed to come more alive—if that was possible—underneath him as they kissed. The panting and contented sighs Luffy let out when the sound of their spit slick lips connected over and over again, making Law’s head spin.
Or when Luffy’s hands seemed to rake across Law’s body in a clumsy attempt to be any and everywhere before ultimately settling on just pulling him closer—the familiar body heat now cranking up even hotter.
Luffy’s heady and intoxicating moans that slipped through whimpering vocal cords when Law ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth before trapping Luffy’s tongue between his and sucking—mimicking a blow job as he fucked his mouth around Luffy’s tongue.
And Law’s personal favorite: the adorable giggling when their teeth occasionally clink painfully together in their lustful desperation.
When they finally pull apart Luffy is still giggling, the raspy laugh made even rougher from the impassioned kissing and Law wants to bottle the sound so only he could hear it forever. Instead, he presses Luffy harder against the grass and Law gives the bubbly boy, one—two—three—more pecks for good measure before pulling away because apparently that’s allowed.
As they calm down, Law leans back near Luffy’s face—smiling softly when the other closes his eyes, expecting another kiss—and rests their foreheads together.
“Go out with me. Like boyfriends,” he clarifies so that he doesn’t wake up one day and realize that Luffy and him are somehow married—not that he’d argue about that.
“Silly, Torao,” Luffy pats the back of Law’s neck almost patronizingly, “Torao and I already are boyfriends.” He giggles, then tugs Law back down for another kiss.
Law will worry about Luffy’s confusion with basic vocabulary words later, but for now he just melts into the kiss, his heart rejoicing that the boy he’s come to like a little more than he should, too returns his feelings.
He’ll never let him go.
