Yeah?

　　❝ yeah? ❞

　　seesawing between coherence & delirium, it was an enormous task for rosinante to keep his emotions from running riot. to not pounce and squeeze the daylights out of law in relief; to not fall apart and start weeping at his bedside in joy; to not start shouting, to not start cheering, to not unleash every emotion he'd been holding back the past six months in one, cathartic storm.

law's words had given rosinante a second wind; adrenaline shocked him from the edges of exhaustion, a ball kept airborne by a last minute spike mere centimeters from the ground. a slowing heart rate began stabilizing. drooping eyelids sprung open. blood pumped in his ears. he breathed.

this is the moment the both of them had been working towards for so long and it lived up to every expectation of how euphoric it felt. a dying child, safe at lastーan experience worth more than all the treasure in the seas & all the gold in the skies. he was thrilled to hear those words.

　but rosinante had to keep that excitement in check for now. law had only just awoke, and not by choice if the length of time his companion had to sit there prodding his shoulders was any indication. the older man wagered he would have slept through dinner if he hadn't stepped in. the poor thing was likely as exhausted & aching as rosinante was; burdening him with that many emotions on top of that seemed too cruel.

the young donquixote also knew from experience this boost in energy wouldn't last. adrenaline could only carry you so far for so long; he learned that the hard way, fighting to force law to swallow the op op fruit one moment and experiencing a total collapse of his strength that left him facedown in the snow the next. getting too animated now would only hasten the crash he was struggling so hard to keep at bay.

　not that he was fretting over it. after all, they had all the time in the world to celebrate now. preferably after they both had a hot meal, a bath, and a good nap.

　❝ of course you don't, ❞ in place of a hug, he captured a hand and squeezed reassuringly. ❝ you got rid of it all, remember? ❞ eyes tracked across the room to a bucket on a lone shelf, contents concealed and secured tightly with a tarp & some rope.

for now, it was in the corner of the room with the least foot traffic until rosinante could figure how exactly he was supposed to dispose of a biohazard like lead in a way that wouldn't unintentionally infect another poor creature. another thing to worry about after a good nap, he decided.

❝ i knew i made the right choice giving you the fruit. i knew you could do it, kid. you did this. you. ❞

        Safe, Cora told him. They were safe. They had made it. The danger - at least that in the form of the Donquixote family, and at least for the moment - was past. Behind them. They had done it - everything Corazon had told him they would. Stolen the fruit; escaped the pirates, the family, and the marines alike. Made it to shelter, though Law could remember little of the frantic jaunt to get here. Of the hours that followed, he recalled more with every moment. The struggle to stay awake and the frustration of trying to feel the fruit's abilities into existence. The determination in Cora-san's voice, large hands that felt heavier than usual on Law's shoulder's as he'd pleaded with him to stay awake, to keep trying, to not give up despite tiny knees that threatened to buckle beneath him. Not now, Law, he’d pleaded. Not when they were this close. When they’d made it this far. 

        Just a little bit longer, insisted his would-be savior. And somehow, the boy had managed, forcing himself to focus on the familiar tones of Cora’s voice in his ears. On the promise that it would all be worth it, as he’d insisted it would all along, if he could only endure one more island. One more hospital. One more heartbreak as they were rejected time and time again, chased from island to island in a series of one more nights upon a threadbare pile of blankets. All in the promise of more days to come.

                           -- You will get older, Law. I’m going to make sure of it. 

        He’d heard the hope in that voice even as tiny hands trembled around the paper they’d been scrawled upon. At some point, he’d come to rely on it, conjuring the memory each time spirits threatened to crumble with the passing of another unsuccessful day. One more, he’d thought, until the first blurred into what felt like the thousandth. 

        But they had done it. After everything they’d been through - six months and more hospitals than Law ever wanted to remember again, they’d found the cure Cora had always sworn they would. Or at least…

        Amber eyes blinked slowly, then widened as the full implication of their situation began to creep in. Corazon’s question hung forgotten in the air between them, small hand lifting to settle upon the area beneath his ribcage. Had they done it? They’d made it to this inn, to be certain, and the horrible taste of the devil fruit was too fresh upon Law’s tongue to be anything less than reality. The exhaustion in his bones too heavy to be imagined. And even daydreams once fueled by comic books had never conjured something as outlandish as the whirring blue dome he was sure he’d enveloped himself in the night before: the liver, devoid of all the lead he’d carved away from it, shoved back into place before the world went dark around him. 

        It hit him, then, finally. The words had been there and his memory had provided the images, his body the physical reminder of the events of the last two days, but only now did he truly begin to understand. He was tired. So damn tired. But beyond that, there was… nothing. No fever. No pain (at least not any beyond that he felt of his external wounds). He felt something he could only distantly remember, from a time he’d still had parents and a sister and a hometown. He felt… okay, he realized. 

        ❝I think…❞ Eyes that had gone unseeing blinked once more. Then he turned to the man who’d dragged him away from Spider Miles all those weeks ago - who had forced him to endure hardship after hardship and had the unspeakable audacity of giving a damn about him in the first place. Who had promised he’d have a future - a promise the boy began to suspect he’d delivered on but didn’t dare to acknowledge. Hope was a tiny, fragile thing, and he couldn’t bring himself to shatter it by looking to see if white patches still adorned his skin. (Would they still, even if the operation had been successful? He didn’t know - nobody had ever survived the white lead disease, after all.) His voice was smaller and more fragile still. ❝I think it worked,❞ he admitted, the words little more than a whisper - as if he and illusion both may shatter if he said them any louder. ❝I don’t feel it anymore.❞

Two beating hearts

Danger floofs

　　❝ rosinante. ❞

　he let his guard slip a little further; if the younger man was offering a name, he may as well be polite and introduce himself properly. it was only fair.

rosinante took the card with an etiquette that was polite & practiced: eye contact, a nod of acknowledgement, and gripping the corners with both hands. he was careful to slide in into a small pocket sewn into the inside of his shabby coat rather than allowing it to get crushed or wrinkled in his jean pocket.

it was a quite the contrast: a man looking so ratty & disheveled showing such respect for piece of paper. but he supposed, even after all this time, those few short years he spent as a noble as a childーclasses on etiquette, manners & allーhad somehow altered his brain chemistry. a piece of paper deserved more care than himself, it seemed. what an interesting priority system his brain had.

　❝ thank you. though, i'll say i'm not suited for any kind of active combat. i don't really do that. not anymore. ❞ he could have sworn his old chest wounds started to itch as the words left him and the memory filtered in. he resisted the urge to start pawing at himself, afraid that any bizarre movements would put his companion on edge again. ❝ infiltration & espionage i have more luck with but... not by much. ❞ hey, doflamingo hasn't found him yet. that has to count for something.

CURIOUS to say the least, having a protective detail with the marines. Even for a short period. Provided a bit more convincing to the revolutionary that he truly has long been defected from their relative's life of crime ( but still taken with a grain of salt ) .

The Revolutionary Army is spread out to ensure their army wouldn't be so easily wiped out if Marines catch wind of their whereabouts. Only moving when danger is lurking right around the corner. He remembers the base of their operations seldom moving around. Sometimes movement causes more RIPPLES in the water that others can NOTICE. Their locations are kept heavily behind counter-surveillance techniques && disruptors to encrypt their communications. The only contact to them made by outsiders were through special cards with numbers to assist anyone in need. && hopes that it was in good faith rather than capture.

Brows furrow once the topic momentarily shifts to information his group had suspicions about. What can't be told to him was the knowledge of missions being made to send members there, but a strange lapse in memory of exactly WHO was sent that way ( if any, Sabo still feels like the names are just out of his reach ). It's enough to garner a troubled, almost FRUSTRATED look on Sabo, giving away that he might know more than he lets on in the moment.

" I suppose," Sabo concedes. From the inner lining of his pocket, he pulls out a card with a number. He hands it out to the other. " If you're tired of running though, I'm sure there's something we can work out. It's not going to be for free, " given who the other is, he might need to INTERVENE as well in that, if the other decides to make contact, " but you can say I was the one who gave you this card. My name is Sabo. " About time he gave a name, didn't he ?

once again thinking about how cora is probably a goth with a closet interest in horrorcore & grindhouse because the idea of people with very sunny dispositions being interested in horror is funny to me.

Law & Corazon🫶