@todesgeduld // Continued From [here]

　@todesgeduld // continued from [here]

　　❝ exactly. i'm being silly, duh. ❞

　a success; rosinante got a smile and law didn't even try to redirect his embarrassment by snapping back about how he should 'act his age' or 'stop treating him like a kid'. but, really, whoever said there was a certain age where you had to stop acting goofy?

rosinante straightened up from his position on the flooring, curling out of an attempted somersault that he was sure to feel in his back by tomorrow morning. oh well.

　　 ❝ from this angle, you just looked a little extra stern. are you focused, or do you have something on your mind? ❞

　lawwy? rosinante snatched the nickname before it floated away with the sea breeze, interest piqued how law—so stern & moody—could have earned himself one that was so… endearing, and said with such casualty.

he should restrain himself. keyword: should. the majority of his own nicknames were not said with embarrassment in mind—merely holdovers from their shared past, the same way law refused to part with rosinante’s codename he hadn’t used in thirteen years—but… this was certainly not something law would want him to know, and the confusion of the day’s events left rosinante feeling mischievous. sorry, kiddo; don’t think i’ll be able to help myself with this one.

he probably would have snickered right then—tilted forward, pressing for details on what exactly law did to earn such a name—if the thought wasn’t halted by the linguistic equivalent of cold water dumped down his back once a second name hit his ears. no, ‘hit his ears’ is too soft a phrase; socked him in the chest, more like. 

　　oh. oh. he gets it now. law. law, what the fuck?

suddenly, the secrecy made sense. the evasiveness, the lack of specifics—armed with nothing but vague instructions and an insistence on law’s part that he’d ‘understand when he gets there’. it made sense, yet didn’t make sense at all. why? did law not trust him to be able to handle the knowledge? did law not trust him that much?

no, no, that wasn’t it. the doctor had to be trying to protect his feelings; saving him the mental anguish of spending his entire weeklong sail thinking about the fact he was going to meet a man his adopted father almost murdered in broad daylight. not just a man but, as fate would have it, strawhat luffy’s brotherーthe boy who was almost murdered by rosinante's own not even that long ago.

law wasn't being secretive for the sake of being a controlling little shitーhe quite literally had no options other than to just not tell him and let rosinante come to that understanding on his own. because nothing law could have said would have prepared him having to deal with all of this.

❝ rosinante.❞ oh, absolutely not. with every new face, there was a debate whether or not he should vocalize his surname for his own safety. there was no debate here. he abso-fucking-lutely was not going to give this man his last name. ❝not that it matters—you can just forget it, if you want. law never calls me a thing other than cora, so either is... fine. ❞

AS  EXCITED  as  ace  seemed  to  be,  his  smile  quickly  washed  away.  replaced  with  confusion,  and  worry  as  soon  as  the  man  stumbled  on  his  own  feet.  just  by  getting  off  the  boat.  law  didn't  mention  him  much  either,  it  was  just  him  and  the  tall  blonde  man  with  make  up  spread  aross  his  visage.  

he  was  not  a  caretaker.  this  was  the  crew's  job  to  keep  the  fire  fist  in  check.  but  as  long  as  ace  knew,  this  island  was  a  hiding  spot.  a  place  where  a  dead  man's  walking.  town  filled  with  the  ghosts  of  his  past  and  many  regrets,  guilt  that  tried  to  eat  the  ravenette  alive  if  not  the  medication  coursing  through  his  body  to  calm  temper  matching  his  wildfire.

❝  hey,  uh.  y'kay  ?  ❞  his  head  tilted  to  the  side,  a  questioning  look  graced  the  man  but  he  quickly  seemed  to  regain  his  composture.  no  need  for  the  pirate  to  step  in  carrying  aid.  ❝  yeah  i  know  lawwy.  's  been  my  doc  the  entire  time.  and  much  more.  ❞ 

the  answer  was  vague,  since  he  had  no  idea  who  is  he  even  dealing  with.  ace  was  willing  to  put  his  trust  into  the  surgeon.  he  wouldn't  let  any  threat  to  enter  the  borders  of  this  island  while  the  fire  fist  was  still  around,  recovering.  ❝  the  name's  portgas  d.  ace.  but  who  are  ya'  exactly  ?  ❞

　　　❝ if you're hungover, that's your own problem. ❞

　rosinante had no sympathies, halfway through his plate already, having given up waiting for his colleague after he had already run late ten minutes passed their appointed meeting time.

he wouldn't go as far to say he was a morning person, but he was stricter with his morning routine than most on the base. nearly every morning, he got up at least an hour early to stretch properlyーan essential part of preventing (or at least mitigating) future injuries for a man as clumsy as himself.

@code01746 Rosinante

Smoker groans. It had been another long night, and he was tired. He had promised Rosinante they could get coffee and breakfast together before running laps. Smoker sighs as he enters the mess hall, looking for the blonde male. Finally finding him, he approaches, "You lucky I like you. It's too early to be up and alive..." So yeah, Hina may have gotten him drunk, but she was a pretty lady. How could he say no?

　　❝ yeah. i knew everyone, in a way. at least in the old days, not so much now. my adopted father used to be in a pretty high position with the marines, so i got shipped a lot of places and worked with a lot of people. ❞

　it genuinely had been so long since rosinante had spoken to anybody about his former life with the marines he often didn't know where to start. but not here; bellemere was a focal point, a rare connection he had with this girl and her story. somehow, he knew everything he wanted to say, but had no idea what to say at all. would this be stressful? comforting? cathartic for him, but painful to her? was he pushing too much to even want to bring this up?

but he couldn't help himself. when the subject came to law, oh, he could talk for hours.

　 ❝ my kid found me, actually. we didn't... start off in the right place, though. i doubt it was as sweet a story as it was with your mom & your sister; i kept trying to get rid of him for two years, i wasn't planning on getting attachedーfor his own good, he shouldn't have been around meーbut it just... happened. it was hard, and i... almost died a couple times, but i don't regret a day of it. i'm sure your mother didn't either. ❞

Talking about her mother always brought a sickening swirl of emotions. Happy, sad, anger, bitterness. It was odd, wasn't it? That she and Law each had a marine in their past. She had never attempted to talk about it with him --- neither of them were particularly the types to open up about that sort of thing, on the other hand. Nami only did, when people asked --- and it just so happened, Rosinante was one of the few brave enough to do so.

Her hands placed politely on her lap --- occasionally, she reached to stir the tangerine tea, although she didn't feel much like drinking it. She was much too captivated, by the thought of speaking to someone who had memories of her mother. They were so hard to come by, now, especially since she was so far away from Genzo and Nojiko. Even when she had shared a village with them --- Nami was permitted to only rely on her own memories. Some of which, were the memories of others --- stories passed around the village, which she had caught wind of, by happenstance.

"Did you know her? --- My mother, I mean..." Nami questioned, eyes lighting up. Despite how large the institution of marines were, she couldn't help but hope that Rosinante knew her. That he had stories to tell, about his time with her. There was only so much Nami could squeeze from the Cocoyashi villagers.

"A kid came along for you, too... hm, don't tell me you found yours in a war-torn, destroyed village, too." A sardonic tone and a soft smirk. She handled it in the only way she knew how: a wry sense of humor. A little good will went a long way, too, but there were several reasons she chose not to open up about her past. It was a quick way to make anyone uncomfortable.

never made a carrd from scratch before (or at all) but they look so neat, and i feel like suffering so i guess that's the plan for tonight.

reading the manga to compare scenes was a mistake because i'm now burdened with the knowledge law is supposed to be in tears when he says this to doflamingo.