𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 - 𝙡𝙖𝙬 𝙭 𝙡𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙮 ✔️

𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲

prologue
" why did i save you? "

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

THE BEEPING OF MACHINES AND MONITORS depicting heart-beats and brain waves usually were eerie and uncomfortable to many people, but to Law, they felt like home, like a place where he belonged.

Yet the usual, comforting sound of a constant heart-beat wasn't able to calm him at this moment.

While he disinfected his hands, he took a good look at them.

They were calm and steady, as they always were, the tattooed fingers hovering in the air without a single twitch.
Thankfully, his outer appearance and his body still obeyed him and weren't too concerned by the question assaulting his brain over and over.

"Why? What the hell were you thinking?"

When he saw a little change on the monitors, he turned his head towards them, but it wasn't even worth a look, because the stats were quickly back to their former form.

Letting his gaze wander, he eventually looked at the boy on the bed right next to him. With his body covered in bandages, his face mostly hidden by a mask giving him oxygen and his comatose state, he looked more dead than alive.

Again, the question spread in his mind.

"Why?"

And once again, he ignored it while he checked the liquids inside the IV bags next to the bed, the painkillers and sleeping medicine that kept Monkey D. Luffy in the darkness of his coma.

He avoided to look for answers for the questions in his head, mainly because he didn't have any.

Why had he saved the strawhat?

If he had answered that question with a simple "I help people who are in trouble.", everyone hearing it would've laughed.

He was a pirate, he didn't do anything for free and didn't waste medical equipment and precious time to save the life of someone who wasn't beneficial to him.
But between these thoughts, he somehow found parts of an answer that would satisfy most of the questions in his head.

The strawhat had defeated many strong pirates and Marine soldiers, it was said that this boy was able to perform miracles. If someone like that was indebted to him, it would be worth a lot.

Law's brain was for once satisfied with that explanation, even though there was a small part inside of him telling him that it wasn't the entire truth.

A single twitch of Luffy's fingers ripped him out of his thoughts and he stared at the strawhat's hand, wondering if he had imagined it.
But there it was again, a twitch and then, a shiver that ran through both his hands.

Law's eyes went up to his face and to his shock, Luffy's brows furrowed, while his eyes were moving behind his closed lids.

Once again, Law checked the bags hanging around, but all of them were functional. The brain-waves still showed that he was deep asleep, but the medicine should've made sure that it was a deep, dreamless sleep.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance and worry, Law looked closer at Luffy's face.

His eyes tensed and a tear ran down the side of his face, while a little twitch went through his body and the sound of his heart got a little faster.
He mumbled something against the mask on his face, over and over again.
Something short, probably his dead brother's name.

For a moment, Law only looked at him and observed the little instincts of his body to analyse them.
Then, he went to one of the shelves, pulled out a package and turned back around to add some of it in one of the IV bags.

When he was sure that it was the only thing he could do at the moment, he sat down on the chair next to the bed, looking at the strawhat's trembling hand and waiting for the medicine to work.

"Seriously..." he eventually mumbled, slowly raising his own hand to the bed and gently grabbing the soft, bandaged fingers.

"What the hell was I thinking, saving someone like you?"

He ran his thumb over the back of Luffy's hand, in a slow rhythm that matched the beat of his heart.

The small voice got a little louder when it asked him if this was necessary to gain the strawhat as an ally, but he ignored it, only concentrating on the way he caressed his hand.

After a little while, Luffy's heart-beat went back to normal and the twitching and shivering of his body stopped. His face relaxed and his breathing got more placid.

"Nightmares after losing someone are the worst." Law said with a low voice, his finger still caressing Luffy's hand.

The worry inside of his stomach faded a little when he was sure that the strawhat had been pushed deeper into the darkness of his sleep, which would make sure that his body could rest until he woke up.

Until then, he would be alone in the depths of the coma's darkness and Law wished to be able to pull him out of it, because he knew how hard, how painful it was to be alone with all that pain.

But he couldn't.

All he could do was sit there, hold Luffy's hand and listen to his heart-beat, making sure his body and soul survived another night.