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The second time Law steps into Makino’s Bar on Dawn Island he’s treated to an oddly domestic scene. There’s pirates littering the room, remnants of the Red Hair Pirates as Law understands it, and at the bar itself two of the most wanted men in the world try to make a little girl eat her fruit salad as the owner observes them with fond eyes.
It would be almost sweet, Firefist lightly holding on to a fiery haired toddler’s hand so she doesn’t topple over in his lap as his Revolutionary brother holds a little spoon out to her, if there wasn’t a collective bounty of over 1 billion berry just on these two alone. Lamy, who’s three years old and seems to take more after Law than Luffy when it comes to food, ignores the Revolutionary in favour of yanking on the token attached to Firefist’s hat hard enough that it comes down to cover his eyes.
The owner, Makino, chuckles lightly as Firefist tries to fix his hat with Lamy still clinging to the string while simultaneously trying to give his brother, who looks incredibly amused, a dirty look.
Next to Law Luffy laughs loudly, and suddenly all the attention is on them.
Luffy takes his hand then and drags him clear across the room towards Lamy, with her arms outstretched towards them as soon as she noticed them, and the owner, who’s smiling ever so gently, and the two brothers. Behind him, Law hears the two crews they brought with them enter but he can’t really focus on that as Firefist and the Revolutionary fix him with a stare. It’s just the fraction of a second, before they turn to their brother with big smiles, but Law’s been a pirate long enough to know hostility when he sees it.
Suddenly he understands why the Strawhats have been making bets behind his back the past couple of days.
When they make it to the bar Luffy takes off his strawhat and places it on Lamy’s head in a practiced motion before he picks her out of his brother’s lap and gives her a big hug. They’re both laughing and Law is, as always, caught off guard by how much he loves them. It’s almost enough to make him forget the uncomfortable situation he’s in.
The two men rise, and Luffy hands Lamy to Law so they can all hug. As Lamy throws her arms around his neck and tells him about how much she missed him the hat pokes his forehead a little. It’s a feeling he’s intimately familiar with and he realizes, suddenly, unexpectedly, just how much he’s missed having his little family all together. He kisses her cheek and tries to ignore the owner smiling softly at him.
Luffy jumps over the counter to hug her now and Law can feel the full weight of the brothers stares on him. It would be almost comical how quick their expressions change the moment Luffy turns back to them, but Law can’t find the humour in the situation.
He sets Lamy down so she can greet the rest of the crews and Law watches her waddle over to Bepo before he takes a seat at the bar and nods at the woman behind it.
He’d been hesitant to leave his daughter here but he knows they couldn’t have brought her all the way to the battle of Raftel, so he appreciates Luffy’s almost mother looking after her. The woman just gives Law a drink and a smile before Luffy joins next to him. Then his brothers sit down also and then there’s an awful second of silence before the brother’s whisper-yell in unison.
“A child?!”
Luffy laughs outright and the owner hides a chuckle behind her hand but from the looks of the two brothers Law is almost worried for his life. After Flevance and Dressrosa and Raftel he didn’t expect the thing that ultimately kills him to be his in-laws. Doflamingo must be laughing at him from hell.
“She’s the best, right?” Luffy asks, full of pride and Law would smile, just a little, were he not focused on showing no weaknesses right now.
“A child?!” Firefist repeats incredulously just as his revolutionary brother says placatingly “She’s great, Luffy.” Law can hear the but coming but Luffy seems to be convinced that was about the height of his brothers questioning, as he turns to the owner and asks, “Where’s Shanks?”
She looks like she’s holding back her laughter, but answers, “He’s just bringing more food from the storage. We expected you a bit later,” completely ignoring Firefist as he repeats “A child?!” a third time, his tone shrill.
His revolutionary brother seems to be the calmer of the two. He gives Law a dirty look before turning to his little brother and asking, in a calm voice, “Don’t you think it’s a bit early for a child?”
Luffy turns back to his brothers, tilts his head, and answers, clearly confused at the line of questioning, “No?” Law almost feels sorry for them.
Firefist, who’s finally recovered, asks, “Isn’t it a bit too dangerous for her on a pirate ship?”
Knowing Firefist’s childhood stories, Law thinks that’s a bit hypocritical of him to bring up, but he has a point. Law himself had been reluctant to take Lamy in, precisely for that reason. But it’s not like he could’ve just left her on her own somewhere. Law knows quite well what abandoned children can get up to.
“Compared to how we grew up?” Luffy asks, and then deadpans, “Not really.”
Firefist looks at his revolutionary brother for a second and answers, “Fair point” and then they turn their eyes to Law, who was just looking at Lamy getting raised up high in the air by the strawhat’s swordsman as the cook next to him seems to catch her up on everything she’s missed, and in unison they say, “But why with him?”
It’s not unexpected, but it catches Law off guard anyway. The owner behind the bar gives them a disappointed look and sharply says, “Boys.” They both look ashamed for a second but then Luffy chimes in with “Because I love him,” and they both seem to hate that answer so much they forget to look remorseful for their adopted mother.
“He’s literally known as the surgeon of death,” Firefist says sternly and Luffy looks confused, like he can’t understand what that has to do with anything. “It’s so cool, right?” He asks, then, overly excited and Law can’t help himself from adding “The way I remember it, I saved your life, Firefist.”
Firefist avoids his eyes as Luffy turns to him and says, with a stern tone of voice, “His name’s not Firefist, it’s Ace!” and then steals Law’s drink for good measure. Makino, behind her bar, laughs a little but hands Law another glass almost instantly, as though she was expecting this to happen sooner or later.
It seems to be enough to break the tension as Firefist goes right back to criticizing him.
“He’s way too old for you!” He whisper-yells, in his attempt to keep Lamy unaware of this conversation. Law would appreciate Firefist’s concern for his daughter, were the man not so busy telling him he’s not good enough to be her father.
He’s on the verge of answering I’m right here on instinct but then the revolutionary next to him coughs, poignantly, into his fist and Firefist very slowly turns to look at his brother, betrayed.
“What?” he asks, in a tone of voice that puts even Law on edge and his brother next to him reveals a shit eating grin, as though he’s been waiting for this opportunity. “Aren’t you being a bit hypocritical there, Ace?” He asks, all smiles and suddenly every eye at the bar is on him.
Red Hair chooses this exact moment to enter from a door right next to the bar, dragging his giant sack of food behind him, and surveys the scene.
“What’s all this about, then?” he butts in and Firefist can barely whisper “Don’t,” before his brother spills the beans. “Well we were just talking about how Ace’s boyfriend is quite a bit older than him.”
“Boyfriend?”, the owner asks, clearly very interested in where this is going and Law’s just happy to not be in the spotlight for a second.
“How do you even know about this?” Firefist asks his brother, defeated, as Red Hair repeats, a lot louder than the owner, “Boyfriend?!”
Luffy just laughs loudly at his brothers’ suffering.
“The revolutionary army has intel on every pirate with a bounty,” the blonde answers, clearly happy with causing his brother trouble. Firefist shrieks, “On their love life?” at the same time Red Hair repeats, incredulous, “Boyfriend?” and Law can feel even more gazes turn towards them.
It’s ridiculous, seeing these wanted criminals fight like grade schoolers, but it’s a nice distraction from getting told just why he’s not worthy of Luffy. Law almost enjoys himself, seeing Firefist so uncomfortable, but then he says, too loudly, “This is about Luffy! Marco has nothing to do with it!” and Law can practically feel his chances of a peaceful afternoon disappear.
Red Hair screeches, “The Phoenix!?” as Makino behind her bar just looks a little lost. The Red Hair pirate remnant all look up at that and Ace seems to notice his mistake instantly as he buries his head in his arms on the bar. Luffy yells, “The pineapple man?” and laughs and laughs as his revolutionary brother just gloats.
“You’re fucking the Phoenix?” Shanks screams incredulously just as his wife asks, “Which Phoenix?”
Ace groans at that and then groans even louder as Beckman, from a table over, yells “He’s whitebeards second in command. Shanks has been trying to recruit him for as long as I’ve known him.”
“It all makes sense now! You’re the reason he wouldn’t join me!” Red Hair shrieks, accusatorily, and Ace does raise his head at that. “You can’t pin that on me. Marco just doesn’t like you,” he says, entirely too deadpan, and the bar erupts into a mix of wild laughter and incredulous screaming.
“This is how you raised them, Makino?” Shanks accuses his wife, who ignores him in favour of asking “Is this Phoenix nice?” Firefist, who seems to have even more of a soft spot for Makino than Luffy does, says, heartfelt, “Very.” His brother next to him snorts.
Law is convinced Firefist would have hit him, had Makino not been watching them both with a keen eye. She smiles and gives Ace’s hand, which was still on the counter, a gentle pat. Law is almost touched.
Red Hair is still yelling in the background as his old crew bullies him thoroughly when Ace speaks up again, his grin just as shit eating as his brother’s had been earlier. “Sabo has a girlfriend!”
Law doesn’t know why he’s surprised to see the men Luffy grew up with acting like grade schoolers, but he is. He’s suddenly awfully proud of Lamy for being more mature than both of them put together.
Someone in the crowd wolf whistles as the revolutionary’s face turns bright red. Red Hair yells “You lot are way too young for all this dating business!” but gets ignored by his own wife, who turns to the blonde with a keen look in her eye.
“Do you love her?” She asks, heartfelt, and the revolutionary, who’s face is a brighter colour of red than Law had thought humanly possible, nods as his brothers laugh at him.
Lamy seem to be finished with her hello’s right then, or maybe all the yelling at the bar just caught her attention, but she chooses this moment to run back to Law and stretch her arms up towards him, asking him to put her on his lap without words. Law indulges her and she balances on his thighs in an attempt to put the strawhat on his head.
Law is so caught up in steadying her, making sure she doesn’t fall off his lap that he doesn’t even notice the sudden silence at the bar. Firefist and the Revolutionary have stopped yelling at each other and are now giving Law another one of their strange looks. The owner ceases her questioning about their respective spouses in favour of giving the entire scene a serene smile. Even Red Hair and his former crew calm down suddenly.
The gesture isn’t lost on them it seems. They know how much meaning this simple gesture holds for his little family. For a second he’s acutely aware that this used to be Red Hairs’ hat.
And then Luffy turns towards him.
Law knows this whole family thing doesn’t suit him. He’s the surgeon of death, and here he sits, with a toddler on his lap and a worn strawhat on his head. He holds Lamy’s little hands up with fingers which spell out death. He knows he looks ridiculous, but Luffy seems to see something more. Luffy smiles and looks at Law like he’s his entire world. Lamy, still balancing on his thighs, giggles a little and Law loves them both so much he feels like he’s drowning.
And then the moment is broken by a retching sound from Shachi, who’s at the bar to get drinks for the table.
All eyes turn to him. “What? They’re literally always like this. It’s the worst,” he justifies, seemingly uncomfortable with the attention, before he takes his drinks back to his waiting crewmates, who all seem to be laughing at him.
Luffy’s still looking at Law with that soft look in his eyes, though. He ruffles Lamy’s hair and she climbs over him in order to get to Firefist. She seems to be intent on stealing his hat, now that she’s given the strawhat to Law, but Law can’t focus on that thought as Luffy leans over that last bit and softly kisses his cheek.
It’s too much, for a second, too much intimacy, too much weakness, in front of these people Law barely knows and Luffy knows him too well, because he pulls away almost instantly, and turns back towards his brothers, ignoring their incredulous looks and asks, cheerfully, “So who’s Sabo’s girlfriend?” just as Lamy finally succeeds at tugging Firefist’s hat off his head, as he’s too stunned to really notice her.
The bar erupts into laughter at that and everything is back to normal in an instant.
Law surveys the scene in front of him. Lamy sits triumphantly on Firefist’s lap, with his hat falling over her eyes as Firefist sulks but still holds her hands. His revolutionary brother next to him seems to be happy to have escaped Makino’s questioning for now and takes a sip of his drink. Luffy reaches over to adjust the cowboy hat on Lamy’s head, to no avail, and the owner behind the bar slaps his hands away, softly, so she can secure it properly.
It’s such a familial scene that Law almost forgets he’s definitely getting aggressively shovel-talked to the second Luffy’s out of earshot later.
He wonders, briefly, what his younger self would have felt upon seeing it, but then Luffy reaches for his hand underneath the counter, still so desperate for physical contact but a lot more respectful of Law’s boundaries now, and Lamy, with her too big hat, asks, “Am I the pirate princess now?” and Law gets too caught up explaining pirate titles to his daughter to continue the thought.