Darling Typhoon [One Piece Law x Luffy]

12. Purely Platonic

Law's villa didn't feel like his anymore, and neither did his bedroom. Suddenly, he found himself filled with stifling ennui. It may have explained why currently, Law was lined up outside a tour bus to go sightseeing in Lower Alafia.

Of course, he knew that he had told Luffy he wouldn't be going. He had also told himself. But for some reason, when he got back to his villa, he felt like something had been missing. He took a long shower, put on some trousers and one of his thinner button-up shirts, and minutes later, he had wandered down from the 13th garden to the Lower terrace of the main reception.

He had until the end of the year to adjust to this interest rate, and brave his battle against...a name he didn't really want to think about. For now, the next 12 days would be filled with one word: distraction.

Or maybe—

It was better to call it one person.

"TORAOOOO!!!"

Law didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

A hand clamped over his shoulder in a sudden gust, and Law had the wind knocked out of him. Luffy had jumped up and swung his arm around Law's neck, a gangly mess of long, slim limbs half slanted against his, and the younger man stood up on his tippy toes.

The weight of his throw brought Law's shoulders down, and he hunched as Luffy smashed the side of their bodies together as he gesticulated with his other hand.

"That tour was awesome!" he breathed. "Do you know this place's got an observation tower? There's this huge telescope there! Oh, and they have a huuuuge bird cage. I asked them why they don't just let the birds out, and Tommy told me if I paid the right amount, they would! Isn't that good? I think? Well, whatever that means!"

Then he frowned. "Didn't you say you weren't coming?"

Luffy seemed to finally realize Law was being suffocated so he eased up on his near-chokehold.

"Hey, why does your face look so pale?"

Law's eyes snapped sideways, meeting Luffy's big, bright, earnest ones. "...Can you stop strangling me?"

Luffy's eyes clouded with confusion, before he realized how acutely close he was to Law, and how the man was hunched over, his arms splayed away from Luffy's body, hanging awkwardly in the air as if he didn't know whether to place them around his shoulders, or push him away.

Luffy felt his ears redden.

"Sorry, man!" He released Law slowly, as if he was trying to remember how to control his limbs, or disentangle them. One out of the two.

"I was just so excited to see you!"

I don't know anyone else here, seemed to linger on Luffy's lips, but he didn't say them. Making new friends wasn't really hard for him. But so far, no one had really caught his attention as much as Torao. Everyone else was either a married adult glued to their lover's side, or an old man with as much interest as a pile of dirt.

Luffy liked the way Torao would scowl and be cold with him, but as long as Luffy didn't push too much, he'd give in and play along with him just fine. Unlike his brothers, who were as proactive in playing along as they were in outright refusing and contesting him, Law seemed to go along from a quiet distance, and then rein things in when he didn't like the direction they were going.

Like last night.

As the day went by, bits and pieces of Luffy's hurling escapade returned to him in vague batches.

By bits and pieces, Luffy meant exactly one—when he had been touring the back of the resort property with Thomas, he showed him a steep cliff, over which a waterfall gushed in violent, white foam.