Sleeplesswork - Tumblr Posts

　it was never his proudest moment, whenever rosinane lost his cool like this. once he calmed down, usually several hours later when they were either back on their little dinghy or after setting up camp for the night, the guilt would follow pretty immediate. not because he assaulted a doctor; not at all ー fuck the doctors. but his outbursts did tend to set off a domino effect and create problems for others ー like the other patients, for example.

hospitals never seemed to have enough staff to keep up with the amount of patients as-is, and rosinante knocking one of their lead pediatricians out cold didn't help matters. here he was, furious he couldn't get these doctors to provide care for his little traveling companion, and delaying other sick people from getting the care they needed. what was the proper word for that? ironic? hypocritical? he wasn't sure.

but, speaking of his little traveling companion...

months ago, if rosinante lost sight of law, he would have panicked. but that was at the beginning of their journey together; back when law still had the stamina to walk the same length of miles in a day that rosinante did (or could at least for himself to); back when he still had the endurance to run, jump, climb, and all the other things children of his age could do.

they were past that now. dangerously, dangerously past that.

　❝ law! there you are... ❞

rosinante would rather pull his teeth out than call that a 'positive' thing, but law's worsening respiratory system at least ensured he couldn't run neither fast nor far. sure enough, the older man found him a short distance from the treeline to the left of the hospital's main gate, having followed the tiny trail of footprints in the snow.

　❝ hey... c'mon, you're gonna soak through your clothes, sitting on the ground like that... ❞

ੈ✩ ｡˚  ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧  𝐡𝐮𝐞𝐬  𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐭,  taking  in  the  snowy  terrain  around  them.  this  had  to  be  the  fifth  winter  island  in  a  row,  and  now  they  were  all  starting  to  blend  together.  law  wanted  to  blame  that  on  the  similar  terrains  or  the  lack  of  time  they  spend  in  one  location,  but  he  isn't  stupid  —  the  disease  is  getting  worse,  he  has  a  month,  and  even  that's  pushing  it.  with  a  sigh,  law  lets  his  head  fall  atop  his  pulled  -  up  legs,  pressing  his  cheek  into  his  knees  until  it  hurts.  crying  is  useless  no  matter  how  much  he'd  like  to,  and  so  are  all  these  hospital  trips.  they'd  been  kicked  out  of  yet  another  one,  and  while  corazón  was  busy  throwing  a  fit,  the  boy  had  run  off  —  but  based  on  footsteps,  it  seemed  the  blonde  had  finally  found  him . . .

@code01746 gets a little law starter.

while it was true the odd duo had been getting along better ( at least law wasn't cursing death to corazón ), the boy was no doflamingo. he wasn't about to pop out champagne and call off the day's work to celebrate the birth of the blonde; partly because that was stupid and also because why the hell would he ? corazón had kidnapped him ! not only that, but the idiot would sit quietly during each party thrown for him, playing mute whilst his drunk family happily blabbered at him. it was the only time of the year it seemed like everyone actually liked the strange man, which was enough to cause the boy to snort — course, no one really enjoyed his presence. maybe baby five, despite how mean he was to her and doffy, but for how long would that last . . . really, wasn't it only a matter of time before the pirate captain came and hunted them down ? they'd been gone for five months, and the man was still a no-show . . .

scowling, the boy covered his mouth, golden hues glaring at the man who suddenly decided to light up a cigarette in the small room they shared. ❛❛ that smells like shit . . . ❜❜ the preteen grumbled, waving his hand around his face in an exaggerated fashion before a genuine cough wracks through him . . . yeah, fuck cora, this idiot isn't even getting a happy birthday wish from law !!

no HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORA !!!!! i seriously need to write with your bird man more ~ everything I’ve seen you write of him is beautiful so i hope this ask is alright ! law is salty, but in exactly a year he'll hate himself for not even saying a simple happy birthday . . .

Corazon (Incredibly Late) Birthday Shenanigans

　❝ i said i'd open the window in a second, but i could toss you out of it if that's what you prefer? ❞

　rosinante rolled his eyes, putting a bit of playful exasperation into his voice for good measure. from his position at the end of the bed, he lurched his free hand forward, fingers chomping down on law's shoulder as if he were about to make good on his promise ー before reeling back and chuckling. then he did as he promised, crossing to the other end of the room. ❝ you're lucky i even got us a room with a window this time, y'know? ❞

during their travels, rosinante didn't always have the money to shell out for lodgings along the way (and, really, they only had access to them for the first few days the pair were in a new town ー before word spread that there was a boy with a "deathly contagious" disease, and suddenly everyone was refusing them service) but the older man tried to get a place at least for a few days every two weeks or so.

and as much as rosinante joked that this particular trip was a 'birthday present to himself', both knew he was planning on doing it anyway.

it was necessary to do this as often as they could afford to; rosinante only got so much sleep while camping in the wilderness because, being the only adult, he was wholly responsible for both of their safety & needed to keep watch. on law's side, despite the fact he never admitted it aloud, rosinante knew that a cushy place to rest his joints ー as well as four, insulated walls to protect him from the colder nights ー would do his body a lot of good, so these little luxuries were important to keep up with.

plus, there was only so much cologne, cold river water, and a damp rag with no soap could do for hygiene, and both were due for a bath.

　❝ speaking of stuff that stinks ー i didn't fill up that bath for you to just sit & look at it, brat. go wash up already. ❞

　　　❝ yeah, yeah - i know, kid. ❞

　deciding a possible elbow to the stomach was worth the risk - and with the way he overreacted, maybe it was even a little deserved - rosinante crouched behind law. even at a kneel, he still managed to clock in at more than twice law's height. gods, this kid was small; alarmingly, the man isn't sure if he's seen law grow a single inch in the nearly three years they've known each other.

　❝ you hate me, i'm annoying - i get it. but you're gonna hate me a lot more when i gotta be the one to treat any ice burns you get on your ass from sitting out here like this. ❞

as much as he wanted to pluck law from the ground and firmly tell him what's what - he was taking him back to the inn and that was final - the more & more these incidents happened, the more he realized that brute force wasn't the way to deal with this kid. that would only escalate things right now. the trust he built up with him - to protect him, to feed him, to shelter him, to be someone he could confide anything to - was two degrees shy of collapsing again, and he needed to think things through.

under normal circumstances, a single insult in a sea of compliments could be enough to sow doubt in a person if their mental state was fragile enough - but what about the reverse? rosinante's kindness towards was a single drop of rain in a river, irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. law was still being overwhelmed with negativity. law was still drowning.

but it took rosinante far too many of these catastrophic afternoons to understand that, what he saw as tough love & well-meaning kindness - that wasn't kindness to law. like that drop in the river, there was no way for him to distinguish those actions as any different from the people who called him names out of malice, or forcing him to keep moving out of fear, or treating him as anything other than the child he was. he had to be patient. he had to be careful, and violating his bodily autonomy this quickly after traumatizing him (yet again) with another hospital visit gone wrong was not the move.

the older man shuffled off his coat, the garment swallowing law in layers of plush black feathers as he draped it over him. he bunched the coat tails around him like some sort of nesting bird, gentle taps on law's backside to encourage him at least sit on the coat rather than continue to let his pants soak through with snow.

　❝ how about this: as long as i don't hear anybody coming, we can sit here long as you want, okay? please just keep yourself warm at least. you're at an energy deficit as-is, and you giving yourself a cold right about now wouldn't be a good idea. ❞

ੈ✩ ｡˚  ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it’s hard to fend off sniffling tears when his eyes seemed to be an e n d l e s s well of them. the initial idea had been to walk back to the boat, he didn’t want to see or be near this stupid hospital, but law couldn’t even get far enough for the distress his presence had brought to be out of earshot. small golden hues were rimmed with red by the time the older man calmed down enough to come and find him. every new rejection from another doctor felt like a jab to the heart, like picking at an old and infected wound over and over — only making the injury worse. it would heal lumpy and jagged, a jarring sight to anyone who sees, at least the boy will die before it has the chance to scar, it will still be gaping when his life is finally over.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎the man’s voice leads law to squeeze his eyes shut, keeping his face hidden against his knees. he doesn’t want to front corazón, doesn’t want to see the way the blonde’s expression twists when he notices the child’s feeble cries. it’s stupid how upset he let himself get. he doesn’t care about getting wet — or the unpleasantly painful numb feeling the freezing snow causes, it’s no worse than the pain each wheezing breath causes.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ❛❛ i hate you ❜❜ the boy huffs, still shielding his face. he'd love to sound more convincing, for his words to be sharp enough to cut the man before him, but it never seems to work. while, they had started to get along somewhat better ( at least law hadn’t been hurling insults every other sentence ) every new medical encounter pushed whatever sense of camaraderie out the window. he just wanted to be left alone, no matter what they did now law was going to die, why couldn’t corazón just give up while he was ahead ?