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It was a waste of time. Law huffed out a sigh, adjusting his hat on his head. Bepo looked nearly ready to fall over, but he had insisted on accompanying the captain to the island, although its warm climate was somewhat unsuitable for a polar bear Mink such as himself.
“Captain,” he panted, “are you sure you want to go back to the ship? We haven’t even made it into the interior of this island.”
“I’m sure. I don’t think we’ll have much luck finding more than what little we did.” As he was about to return back the way they’d come, something caught Law’s eye. He turned to gaze at a tall, elegant orchid with satiny petals glowing a bright lavender-blue against the green of the foliage around it. Ahead, Bepo jumped over a fallen log with a loud thump, holding the mostly empty sack over one shoulder, but Law’s attention was elsewhere.
“This might be it,” he murmured to himself, reaching out to touch the orchid’s petals. He was no expert, but he’d never seen such an orchid before in his years sailing from island to island as the captain of the Heart Pirates. The doctor looked around. There were many other such flowers scattered through the jungle, so it wasn’t as if he would be depriving this island of its only example of that species. Making up his mind, Law reached for the trowel he’d stowed in his belt for safekeeping, and bent down to carefully dig up the orchid.
“What’s that?” Bepo asked from where he stood some distance away, turning to look at Law, who had successfully freed the plant from the earth and was wrapping its roots in a handkerchief he pulled from his back pocket.
“Just a plant that caught my eye,” the doctor said casually.
Bepo nodded his furry head and waited for Law to catch up so that they could make their way back to the Polar Tang. The Mink led the way, commenting on this or that vividly-colored mushroom or strange tree. Law listened with half an ear as his navigator cleared a path back to where they’d left the skiff that the crew used to get ashore when there wasn’t a dock available.
The orchid rested against his shoulder as he held the root end carefully in one hand, its petals occasionally brushing his face. It wasn’t just another plant to him, but Law would have died before he revealed that to anyone, even faithful Bepo. Until he was ready, that is.
***
“Oi,” Shachi called your name as he neared your small lab on the Polar Tang, his booted steps echoing above the rhythmic, low hum of the sub’s air ventilators. “We have what you wanted!”
Penguin’s voice rang out immediately after. “We got a lot of cool-looking stuff!”
The two burst through the open doorway carrying large bags filled with every kind of plant matter, as well as a few random fungi for good measure. They set the bags down on your lab table and gave you wide smiles. “Here’s everything we could get before Law said we had to be back,” Shachi told you.
“Thanks, guys,” you said, standing up a little gingerly from your desk to open a tall cabinet next to it. “You’ve done me a huge favor.” You rummaged around a bit and finally emerged from the cabinet with two bottles of expensive rum, which you handed to the pair. “I really appreciate your help, so enjoy.”
Penguin eyed the label on his bottle and gave a low whistle. “Whoa! Blue Moon Special No. 7! This is some quality stuff.” He tipped his eponymous hat at you. “Thanks! Come find us next time you need collecting done!”
“Yeah, thanks,” Shachi added cheerfully. They hustled out of the room, no doubt to show off their new acquisitions to the rest of the crew. You smiled fondly as the irrepressible pair disappeared down the hall to the mess, since it was near lunchtime.
The Polar Tang had stopped at a deserted island where Law had gone to search for medicinally useful plants, as was his custom when there wasn’t an apothecary nearby. You would have gone too, except Law had forbidden you from doing so, citing your bad ankle. “It still doesn’t look good, and I don’t want you wandering around in a dense jungle on it.”
You’d argued that you were fine and that your sprained ankle hardly hurt at all now. Law would not budge, however, so you finally asked Penguin and Shachi to collect some unusual specimens for you to study. You’d sweetened the deal with the promise of good booze, and now you had what you wanted. But the collection would have to wait until after you’d eaten, you decided, as your stomach rumbled loudly.
You hadn’t planned to become a pirate. But after the ransacking of your home island by another pirate crew, and your hasty escape to a nearby archipelago where the Heart Pirates happened to be docked, you’d wound up joining them as the ship’s botanist. It became obvious, once you got to know Law, why he’d been interested in having someone like you around. He was a brilliant doctor, always pushing himself to stay abreast of improved treatments. His reputation as a lawless pirate captain did not do his inquiring mind justice, in your opinion, though you knew he also well deserved said reputation. And he was one of the few men you’d ever met who could keep up with your smarts. Not that you had a crush on your captain or anything! But you had to admit, Law’s brain was one of the sexiest things about him -- and there were several.
As you started down the hall to the mess, favoring your bad ankle only slightly, Law himself emerged from his infirmary a few doors down with a copy of Sora, Warrior of the Sea. He called your name. “I see that I was right to keep you on board,” he noted with an air of satisfaction, nodding at your (barely discernible, you thought) limping gait.
“I suppose so, Captain,” you sighed, eyeing the comic book in his hand.
In addition to being the notorious “Surgeon of Death” with a sizable bounty on his head, the man was a huge nerd. He had read every issue of Sora multiple times. Upon seeing his coin collection, you couldn’t decide if it was impressive or tragic. He wore the same spotted pants and hat wherever he went, and acted like bread was radioactive. Despite all that, Law was a good captain, if entirely too disposed to take on too much by himself when he had a loyal crew ready to fight by his side at a moment’s notice – yourself included.
The captain fell into step beside you as you passed by the infirmary door. “Is that the latest issue?” you asked, smiling.
“It is,” he replied. “You can read it after I’m done, although I heard Penguin and Sachi found you a lot of new things today. Maybe you’ll be too busy.” His lips twitched as if he was holding back a smile.
“I’m never too busy for the Warrior of the Sea,” you protested. Law uttered a sound approximating a laugh, low in his throat, as the two of you entered the mess where the controlled chaos of lunch was already under way. Someone whose name you never seemed to catch ran up to Law, holding the Heart Pirates’ Log Pose.
“Captain, we should be able to get under way whenever you want,” he said, voice muffled behind his weird, smiling white mask.
Law nodded. “All right, take us down to 30 meters and start heading out. You can pass the Log Pose off to Bepo when he’s done with lunch,” the captain added, tilting his head in the direction of the navigator, who sat at a table busily scarfing down an impressive amount of raw fish.
“Roger that,” Masked Guy said, hurrying off to the bridge. You nudged Law with your shoulder, and he turned his head swiftly to look at you, as if he’d forgotten you were there.
“Thanks for letting me send the others after those samples. I know we had time to kill while the Log Pose reset, but it was nice of you.”
“Sure,” Law said with a negligent half-shrug, as if he couldn’t care less.
The two of you collected your lunch plates from the cooks and sat down opposite each other at the end of a table where some of the crew were already gathered. They were all admiring the expensive rum you’d given to Shachi and Penguin.
Law shook his head at the sight. “They’ll be into that the second we stop off at another island for supplies, mark my words.”
“You don’t sound too upset about it,” you remarked, spooning up some soup.
“I know those two. They’re responsible enough, but the minute they’re off the ship, they’ll go all out. They always do,” Law said, a bit absently, as he opened and began to read his comic while chewing on a rice ball.
You and Law fell into a mostly comfortable silence as you ate. As the only other crew member with a scientific bent, you shared a certain camaraderie with the captain. That often meant that long minutes would pass while one or both of you ruminated about some bit of research or whether or not Sora was finally going to defeat Germa 66 this time. You were lost in thought about making microscope slides and doing chemical testing on the new plants when Law said your name.
You looked up, blinking. “Oh, sorry. What did you say?”
“I was going to say that I’m also interested in what Penguin and Shachi brought back for you, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to help try to identify some of those plants,” he told you, resting his chin on one hand as he closed the comic book he’d been reading.
“Of course, Captain,” you said, picking up your teacup to take a long drink from it. You missed how Law’s gaze followed the way you licked your bottom lip after lowering the cup. “We can get started right away if you’re done with lunch.”
“I am.” Both of you got up, handed off your empty plates to the crew member who was on dish-washing duty, and headed off to your lab.
It was a much smaller room than Law’s infirmary or operating theater, but you’d contrived to make good use of the limited space. Ceiling-high shelves lined the room, the plants on them used for all purposes on the Polar Tang, from medicinal to culinary to (dangerously) experimental. The lab table had storage cabinets beneath for your tools and equipment. Your somewhat untidy desk was wedged into a far corner. Aside from putting some of the more delicate-looking plants into water, you’d mostly left the bags the others had brought back untouched.
Law helped you unpack them, then stood back and watched as you carefully laid the contents out in rows, rearranging them as you mentally noted their varying taxonomy and tried to distinguish between some of their more subtle features. “You’re like a child in a toy store,” he said after a while, faint amusement lining his voice.
You turned your head and lifted an eyebrow. “Says the man who practically fell into a trance when he stepped into that medical bookshop a while back,” you responded, smiling a little. “This is one I think I know.”
You picked up an innocuous-looking flower, yellow with deep orange striations. “It seems to be related to St. Oda’s Wort, judging from its petals’ shape and the vascular pattern of its leaves. Here.“
You held out the flower, which Law cautiously took from you, his hand slightly brushing yours. “What am I to do with it?”
“Has no one ever given you a flower before? Smell it, of course,” you chided him. He did, and you laughed openly as his golden eyes widened with horror before a look of intense revulsion took over his expression.
“What is that?” he demanded, coughing and shoving the flower back at you. “It’s terrible!”
You were still laughing. “It’s called Fishman’s Cabbage and yes, I knew what it was right away. I expect Penguin did, too, and that’s why he put it in there as a joke. I don’t think he expected me to get you with it, though,” you said, chuckling. “I hope I haven’t made you regret coming in here.”
“Not really, though I might make Penguin regret it later,” Law said dryly. “What else is there? But don’t ask me to smell anything else. I don’t trust you now,” he added, glaring at the offending flower, which you’d laid aside to dispose of later.
You gave him a tiny, evil smile, then schooled your expression before pointing out the plants you thought you could identify, or at least classify into a known genus. Law contributed a comment or question here and there, but otherwise he deferred to you. It was a rare thing for the doctor to do. He could be a bit of a control freak and was used to being the smartest person in the room most of the time, but you knew his interest in your botanical studies was part of who he was – always in search of knowledge he could use later, for better or worse.
“Now this one, I actually don’t know,” you said, holding up an oblong, knobby fruit with a hard, leathery rind. “It doesn’t seem to be related to anything else I’ve encountered.”
Law nodded. “May I?” he said, reaching out, and you handed it off to him. He examined the tough-skinned fruit closely, eyes narrowed.
You pointed at the stem end. “See how it almost looks like a grenade whose pin you'd pull, where the stem seems to be loose there?”
Law nodded, peering at where you’d indicated. “The others must have cut it from where it was growing, but it looks as if it’s meant to easily detach off the stem.”
“Agreed. It’s probably still unripe, so that’s why it hadn’t come off already.” You gently removed the fruit from Law’s grasp, and this time the brush of your fingers against his caught more of your attention. You cleared your throat again. “I’m going to put that one somewhere safe in case it gets ‘set off,’ since we don’t know what it does or what’s inside it.” This was the Grand Line, after all, and one could never be too careful with either fauna or flora, as the crew had discovered multiple times.
“Good idea.” Law watched as you found a sturdy container and carefully set the oblong fruit inside, stem end up, before setting it on a shelf nearby. “What’s next?”
“Well, there’s this – HEY!” you shrieked. The head-sized clump of tangled vines you’d been reaching for had suddenly begun squirming. Law grabbed your arm and hauled you away from it, your hip banging into the shelf behind you. A tray of seedlings on top slid precariously close to the edge before he reached up and pushed it back.
“What the hell?” Law muttered, staring suspiciously at the moving vines.
The two of you watched as the plant writhed around, then began to grow. You’d had all too much experience in the past with certain aggressive wild vines of the Grand Line which sought to feast on birds, animals, or sometimes people.
“This is probably not optimal,” you said, shrinking back unconsciously against Law as the vines began to lengthen and advance menacingly towards the two of you, like a shark hunting for seals.
“Probably.” Law shook his head. “I’m not going to wait to find out what it wants. It has to go. Sorry,” he added, sounding genuinely regretful. He held out a hand and twisted his fingers in a way you’d already become familiar with. “Room. Shambles.”
His Devil Fruit powers never ceased to unsettle you. There was the weird blue light, a moment of pressure, then the cluster of vines vanished, followed instantly by a sudden CLACK which made you jump a little. A damp magnet replaced the vines, adhering to the metal table in a small puddle of sea water.
You gazed up at Law with wide eyes. “Where did you send it? Outside the Tang?”
“Yes.” He gently moved you aside, which is when you realized you’d practically glued your body to your captain’s, and approached the table to pick up the magnet. “I stuck this on the outer hull in case I ever needed to get something out of the ship right away and didn’t have anything handy to exchange it with,” Law explained. He didn’t turn around to face you while he spoke. The back of his neck appeared to have gone a bit red.
You tried to forget how aware you’d been of the hard lines of Law’s body against yours. “Not to tell you how to do your job, Captain, but you may want to check that those vines aren’t overrunning the outside of the ship right now, assuming they can survive underwater,” you said with a sigh. “I doubt it, but we should probably be sure.”
Law finally turned around, his face carefully neutral. “You’re right. I’ll make sure we’re clear of it. At least we didn’t have to find out the hard way whether it wanted to devour us whole or suck the fluids from our bodies like a mosquito,” he said with the barest trace of humor. You felt yourself relax once you were certain that he wasn’t annoyed with you for basically pressing yourself against him.
“Thanks for taking care of it.” You shook your head regretfully. “I’ve encountered a couple of species like that before, but always outdoors where I could get away from them. Odd that it didn’t attack Penguin and Shachi when they found it -- they would have said something if it had.”
“It was also sitting in the lab for at least an hour before it became active,” Law added, frowning a little. "Why is that?"
“Some predatory plants respond to the breath of their prey, so maybe even that relatively small sample was able to pick up on our exhalations. You and I were pretty close to it before, and this is an enclosed vessel with twenty people inside, after all,” you pointed out. “The others may have just sliced it off and put it in the sack before it had a chance to react out in the open air.”
“Right,” Law said. “I’m going to tell Bepo to bring us up so we can have a look at the hull to make sure the vine is actually gone. I’ve got some other things to do as well, but I’ll be back later to see what you’ve come up with. In the meantime, don’t let anything from those bags attack you while I’m not around.” You could have sworn he was laughing at you, but Law’s expression revealed nothing.
“See you later then, Captain,” you answered, before smirking at him mischievously “Tell Sora I said hello.”
Law snorted. “I’ll try to remember to loan you the new issue when I’ve finished reading it,” he said, leaving the lab with the comic in his hand.
***
After making sure the attacking vine had vanished into the sea (it had), that the Polar Tang was on course for the next island (it was), and that the maintenance check of deck 3’s ventilation system was going as planned (it wasn’t, but that was soon remedied, the mechanics assured him), Law went to his cabin. Despite your teasing, he didn’t sit down to finish reading his new comic right away. Instead, he set it on the nightstand and went into the bath compartment attached to his room, and slid open the door to the shower.
He had carefully scanned all the natural history books he could lay hands on for information about the care and keeping of orchids, which turned out to be incredibly fussy and hard to maintain. Just his luck, he thought, eyeing the plant's radiant flowers in the dimness of the bathroom, where he’d decided to stash it since the shower stayed a bit humid when he wasn’t using it.
The orchid didn’t seem to be doing too badly, but it had only been a few hours since he’d dug it up from the island’s moist soil, some of which he’d managed to acquire with a well-timed Shambles in order to put the plant in a suitable container. He hadn’t thought as far ahead as he should have, though. What if it took him longer than expected to find an opportunity? Would the orchid die before then?
He sighed heavily, slid the door shut, and left the bath, crossing the room to sit on his bed. He wondered what Cora-san would have said about all this. Probably would’ve encouraged (i.e. heckled) him to just go for it before Law was even halfway close to being ready, he thought. The familiar melancholy ache in his chest arose as it always did whenever he thought about Corazon. Now here Law was – an infamous pirate with a powerful Devil Fruit, a member of the so-called Worst Generation, captain of the fastest ship on the Grand Line and wanted for dozens of crimes, stressing out over a flower.
He just hoped the thing wouldn’t croak before he got his chance.
***
You were occupied with making notes when Law returned to the lab. “You’ll be happy to know that those vines are gone. I expect the sea water killed them pretty quickly,” he told you.
“Oh, good. That’s useful to know in case we ever run into those again,” you replied, flipping back to the relevant page and scribbling a note to that effect.
Law hovered behind you, sneaking a look at the papers arrayed haphazardly on your desk. “Your handwriting is awful,” he commented.
“No one reads these but me, so it doesn’t matter. Yours is just as bad, though. Typical for a doctor,” you added, smirking down at your page. You felt Law shift behind you and felt a momentary worry that you’d somehow insulted him until he spoke.
“Your ‘grenade’ has changed color,” You turned in your chair to see him pointing to where the fruit still sat in its container on the shelf. It had gone from a mahogany red to a deep gold.
“Yes, I noticed that about twenty minutes ago. It might be a reaction to the relatively cooler temperature here on the ship. That island was pretty warm, from what you and Bepo said.” You sighed. “I still wish I’d been able to go myself.”
“Next time, after your ankle is healed,” Law promised.
He leaned against the tiny bit of empty wall space near your desk which wasn’t taken up with shelving, his arms crossed, gazing down at you with an expression somewhere between intense interest and slight suspicion. Sometimes Law seemed to be as fascinated with you as you were with your lab’s residents. You usually kept this knowledge filed at the back of your brain, sure it didn't mean anything, but it was hard not to be aware of the weight of his stare in the moment.
You began writing in your notes again. “I’ll be done here in a minute, then I’ll tell you what I’ve managed to find out.”
“Take your time,” Law said, shifting a little against the wall. There was a moment’s silence, broken only by the scratch of your pen.
PING
“What was that? Did you drop something?” you asked, not looking up from your notes right away. When you did, you saw that Law was glancing around, having moved away from the wall.
“No, it wasn’t me,” he said. You got up and came to stand beside him, scanning your lab for anything out of place as an uneasy feeling settled in your chest. Then you saw it.
“Here.” You moved forward and leaned down to pick up something from behind the lab table. Both of you could see that it was the withered, brown stem from the “grenade.” Your gaze immediately went to the fruit in question, and you circled the lab table cautiously to get a better look at where it remained on the shelf. Law followed, and the two of you gazed curiously at the golden fruit, which seemed to have expanded somewhat in size.
“Is it actually growing?” he asked, brow furrowed.
“Technically it can’t really grow since it’s a fruit, but it looks as if it’s swelling up. Hmm. I wonder if it has something to do with water retention? I keep things fairly humid in here for the plants’ sake, but not enough to account for that much of a difference.”
Law leaned forward to look more closely at the fruit. “It seems to be…moving,” he said in a doubtful voice. “Or am I seeing things?”
You came closer as well, shoulder to shoulder with Law as the two of you peered at the now-stemless fruit. And indeed, something looked as if it was moving inside it, just visible where the stem had left a hole in its rind. You shook your head, slightly amazed, although your unease only increased.
“No, I don’t think you’re seeing things. It’s – oh shit!” You jerked back as the fruit began to pulse. Unfortunately, before either of you could get away, the end of the fruit burst open with a loud, wet POP, showering you both with a yellowish mucus and dozens of small, round seeds. The amount of unpleasant matter splattered across you, Law, and the rest of the lab seemed wildly disproportionate to the size of the now completely gutted “grenade.”
“Ugh.” Law wiped fruit snot from his face. “I should have Shambled that off the ship, too, once it began moving like that.” He'd been too distracted by being close to you again, but he wasn't about to admit that.
You took off your slimy lab coat and let it flop onto the floor, making a face as goo dripped from your hair. “No, I’m the botanist here, and I should’ve been more careful,” you said apologetically, turning your gaze to the captain. “Is that stuff burning or itching? I don’t feel anything, but you know as well as I do that people can react differently to a lot of things.”
“Other than being completely disgusted for the second time today, I appear to be fine,” Law observed in a flat voice. “But I suggest we both wash ourselves off as soon as possible in case there’s some kind of delayed effect. I’ll prepare an anti-allergen dose for each of us as well, just to be safe.”
“Right. I’m going to clean this up before I – “ you began, but he cut you off mid-sentence.
“No, you’re going to shower, then you can clean the lab. It won’t do for either of us to get sick, or worse, from this,” Law said firmly, in what Penguin sometimes called his “Captain Doctor” voice. “And you will let me know right away if you feel any unusual symptoms.”
“Understood,” you said, sighing. “And you’ll let me know the same thing? For my notes, of course.”
“Of course,” Law answered, grimacing as he shook more fruit slime from his hand.
***
By the time he’d washed off the disgusting mucus, set the orchid carefully back in the shower compartment, and gotten dressed again, Law’s mind was busy ticking away on what he knew about allergic reactions and how to prevent them. He made his way to the infirmary, noticing as he passed that the door to your lab was open, but you were nowhere to be seen. Probably you were still cleaning yourself up. A sudden mental image of what you might look like in the shower, water cascading over your nude body, intruded into his thoughts. He swallowed hard and forced the vision out of his mind. He had work to do.
In the infirmary, he gathered up a few supplies, mixed up an antihistamine compound that was as broad-based as he could manage given that he wasn't sure what the strange, exploding fruit even was, and measured out two doses. He swallowed one dose with water he scooped into his mouth from the sink faucet, and drank a few more mouthfuls for good measure. It felt a little warm in the infirmary. Perhaps the mechanics should assess the ventilation in here as well? When was the last time they had done so?
He went to your lab and left the dose he’d prepared for you to take when you emerged from your shower, then got one of the crew to check the infirmary's ventilation unit. Everything appeared to be normal, however. When Law asked the man if it felt warm in there to him, especially as he was wearing one of the crew’s standard boiler suits, he only received a confused look and a “No, Captain.” The mechanic left, and Law put his overheated state down to the gross shock of the fruit-bomb and, if he was being honest with himself, spending so much time today with you.
Law had never regretted recruiting a botanist, of all people, to the Heart Pirates. After all, you were smart, steady, and took your place among the crew seriously. It turned out that you were also dependable as an extra pair of hands in the infirmary when necessary, and could be surprisingly savage in a fight if you wanted to be. But now your presence had become important to Law in an entirely unexpected way, and as much as he wanted more from you, he was still not inclined to move things along too quickly. Cora-san would have teased him for stalling, but he wasn’t here now and frankly, that was part of why Law was the way he was.
Unfortunately, fate and biology had other plans for him. Some time after making sure there was nothing wrong with the ventilation in his cabin as well, Law started to feel overheated for real. He fanned himself with a back issue of the North Blue Medical Association Journal as he logged the day’s assessment of your sprained ankle and another crew member’s recurring sinus infection. His hat began to feel uncomfortable, and he took it off and left it on the edge of his desk as he continued to write.
Finally he dropped his pen and heaved an annoyed sigh. Why was he so warm? Was he getting sick? He very unscientifically felt his forehead with the back of his hand, then reached into a drawer and found a thermometer. A few minutes later, he saw that his body temperature wasn’t elevated enough to account for how he felt. Even so, sweat beaded at his hairline and dampened his collar, and he unbuttoned his shirt partway as he leaned back in his chair, fanning himself more vigorously with the medical journal.
His mind went to you, but although he started off wondering if he should check to see if you were also feeling any strange effects that could be blamed on the grenade fruit, his thoughts quickly took a salacious turn. Law’s head fell back against the chair, and his eyes slid shut as he imagined you astride him, your arms around his neck, your body pressed close to his once more, and your lips almost...wait. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a minute before tipping his head and looking down at the aching erection that was now tenting the black pants he’d put on after his shower. His mouth was bone-dry and his fingers had begun to twitch spasmodically, as if he was trying to grasp something that wasn’t within reach.
Yet.
Oh shit.
***
You got into a stall in the crew’s bathroom and scrubbed all of the goo out of your hair and from your skin, glad to be rid of the slimy remains of your latest botanical curiosity. Then with a groan, you leaned your head against the wall, letting the water run over your head. You felt bad for exposing the captain to a potential allergen or even a poison. And while you enjoyed having him around in the lab to bounce ideas off of, sometimes Law was more of a distraction to you than anything else.
It’s not as if he’s unattractive, you thought, pushing away from the wall and turning off the shower. He’s powerful, intelligent, good-looking...dangerous, even. We’re nakama, and he seems to like me. Who wouldn’t feel a little flustered, given all that?
You dried off, dressing in some clean clothes and steeling yourself to tackle the mess that was still in the botany lab. Everyone else had been forbidden from entering until you could rid it of the fruit’s remnants, in order to make sure any adverse effects were limited to you and the captain. In the lab, you found a twist of paper on your desk, and a note in Law’s untidy handwriting: Here’s the dose. Take it immediately with water. You obeyed his instructions, making a face as you downed the bitter medication and washed it down with a glass of water from the sink.
You donned another lab coat and a pair of waterproof gloves, and started cleaning up. It amazed you how everywhere you turned, there was another splatter of mucus, another scattering of seeds. For such a relatively small fruit, the thing had made a gigantic mess. As you worked, your thoughts kept returning to the captain – was he feeling any discomfort from the slime, and would he even tell you if he was? You yourself felt fine, although the memory of Law pressed up against you earlier kept digging into your brain.
Some time later, after you’d made your lab as clean as it ever was, you realized that something was indeed wrong with you. The room felt oppressively warm, but you knew the Tang was currently far enough under the surface to not experience any rise in interior temperature even if a summer island was nearby. Your mouth felt dry no matter how much water you drank. And to top it all off, an insistent ache had begun in your core, steadily growing more difficult to ignore.
“Damn it!” you muttered, squirming in your chair as you let your forehead rest atop the open notebook on your desk. All of that was bad enough, but to your chagrin, you could not stop thinking about Law, and the more you thought about him, the worse off you were. How would it feel to touch him, where you could finally see the extent of all of those tattoos? How would it feel to have him touch you...“Damn it!”
You were going to deal with this now, and hopefully not a soul would know what had happened. You needed another shower – a cold one, and some “alone time” after that to sort yourself out. Based on what you could recall about the effects of aphrodisiac plants, it probably wouldn’t last more than a few hours, although the idea made you groan again. Dinnertime was approaching, and you could use the excuse of being tired and just go to bed ahead of everyone else. If you had to finger yourself silly while moaning Law’s name into a pillow in order to get past this, so be it.
You slapped a hand on the desk and stood up to leave the lab, so preoccupied with your inability to stop picturing Law stretched out naked on your bed that you completely forgot that he, too, had been showered with the innards of the accursed fruit. Thus it was that when the lab door very deliberately opened and clicked shut, your gaze snapped up with both shock and an intense thrill as the ache in your core roared into a throbbing need that refused to be ignored once you saw Law standing there.
His hat was off, and his damp, dark hair looked as if he’d been running his hands nervously through it. His shirt was buttoned only halfway up, and beneath it you could see the inked skin of his chest heaving as he stared at you, breathless and somewhat sweaty. It was an unbearably good look for him. He was not wearing his usual spotted jeans, but a pair of black pants which didn’t do enough to hide the unmistakable bulge at his groin. That he had made his way to your lab from who knows where on the ship in such an obvious, potentially embarrassing state of arousal only made your heart pound faster.
At the sight of him, you couldn’t stop your tongue from passing slowly over your lips. Law’s eyes followed the movement with all the hunger of a predator eyeing up its prey. You were certain your face was as flushed as his, and that your chest was heaving just as much, so he could tell that you weren’t unaffected either. Some vestige of pride refused to let you just throw yourself at him, and you suspected that was why he stopped just inside the lab door as well.
“I suppose,” he began in a hoarse, slightly unsteady voice, “you’ve figured out by now what that exploding fruit has apparently done to us both.”
You swallowed. “I have.” It took an effort to say what you said next. “Do you have any way to treat this? Is there an antidote?” Inside, some part of you was screaming no, no, no, just take me, you sexy dork!
He was already shaking his head before you finished your sentence. “No, although I found a description in a book on rare poisons which sounds as if it might be what caused this.” Seeing your expression, he hastened to add, “I don’t think this is lethal or even very harmful, depending on how you look at it.”
“Is that so?” Your voice sounded thin, and your feet had begun to move on their own, away from your desk and towards the door where Law stood. “What do you suggest we do, then?”
He pushed away from the door against which he’d been leaning, long, inked fingers flexing like a cat’s paws as he stared you down. “We have two choices.” Law took a step towards you, and you took one closer to him. The air in the botany lab felt magnetic, pulling you and Law together as surely as if he’d used some previously unknown Devil Fruit power on the two of you. “One of which would be getting away from each other and everyone else until this passes, which it should in a few hours, if we’re lucky.“ He paused, staring at you with desperation – and desire – written all over his face.
“Or...we help each other through this, I guess, i-if that’s what you want, Captain.“ You could feel yourself trembling as you stared into his eyes, the irises thin golden rings around his dilated pupils. The heat of lust in your body was almost painful now.
Law was the one who broke down first. Two swift strides brought him right in front of you.
“Fuck, yes. I want you so badly,” he muttered, and the admission, along with the way he said your name, as if he was tasting it, made you weak at the knees. “Tell me you want me, too.”
You couldn’t even speak, too breathless to utter a word, but you managed a nod. Yes, please. Something dark shifted in Law’s gaze, and then neither of you had any self-control left.
You weren’t sure who moved first, you or Law, but in a half second you were wrapped around each other. He shoved you back against the edge of the lab table, which screeched horrifically as it scooted across the floor from the impact. Law’s lips crashed against yours in a kiss that was all fiery need, and you moaned into it. Your tongue swept over his bottom lip, teasing his mouth open as somehow, the two of you staggered across the lab and toward your desk in the back.
Law broke the kiss with a gasp. “I’m going to fuck you – ” he growled, turning you around and pushing you down so that your chest pressed against the pile of notes on top of the desk, “ – right here and right now.“ His voice cut off with a strangled groan as you shoved your ass back against his pelvis, grinding against him.
“Law.” The sound of you saying his name in that begging tone had him quickly rucking up the back of your lab coat with one hand, then dragging your pants and underwear down out of the way. His other hand curled around to hold your head in place as he bent and you devoured each other’s mouths once more. You reached back and popped the button on Law’s pants, and the brush of your hand against his aching hardness made him shudder against you.
He tore his lips from yours and, before you could even gasp for breath, shoved his clothes out of the way and pushed himself into your slick heat, driving your thighs hard against the edge of the desk. The ache didn’t even register as you arched your back and cried out, while Law’s own cry seeped into your skin where he’d pressed his face into your shoulder. His body felt hot against your back, a tattooed hand gripping your hip to hold you in place while he speared you with his cock.
“Law! Oh god, Law, fuck me!” you cried out, and he did. His thrusts were fast, hard, almost violent, but you keened in delight as he filled you over and over, your blood roaring in your ears. Your body was wracked with pleasure so intense, you were half sure you were going to die from it.
He panted deliriously into the open air as he fucked you both senseless.The desk rattled and bounced under you, papers sliding off and small objects hitting the floor, but you could only focus on Law’s body and your own. He was soon losing his rhythm, his low, ragged breaths filling your ears. The thought that you were doing that to him (along with the weird fruit) made a sudden, intense shock of ecstasy wash over you and you came, biting into your arm to muffle your scream.
Law lost control, and after a flurry of frenzied thrusts, he slammed his hard length into you one last time with a growling moan. His breath felt hot as flames against your skin. Some tiny part of your mind knew you two might have been overheard, but mostly you were too dazed to think, your body singing with the aftershocks of your orgasm. You couldn’t remember having ever come that hard before, and distantly wondered if it was the effect of the slimy fruit or if it was the way Law had taken you, rough and wild and perfect.
As the two of you lay there on your desk, trembling and panting, you became aware that Law was still hard inside you. Your aching pussy was rapidly sparking back into a simmering arousal that made you clench involuntarily around him when he tried to push himself up with his arms. “Oh, fuck me,” he groaned, slowly sliding out of your drenched core before pulling you to your feet along with him.
“We just did that,” you said between breaths as you turned on wobbly legs to face him. Law wrapped an arm around you, and the press of your still mostly-clothed bodies was even better than it had been before in the lab that afternoon.
“I don’t think we’re done yet,” Law observed, struggling to breathe normally again, “but this isn’t the place for more. Hold still.”
He lifted a hand and took a moment to focus his sex-drunk mind enough to use his Devil Fruit. “Room. Shambles,” Law said. The air around you shifted, and the two of you vanished from the lab, replaced by a hideous wooden carving of a duck which clattered to the floor in the silence that followed.
***
Ikkaku strode down the hallway and stopped at the infirmary, where the door stood ajar. No one was inside, although Law usually kept some semblance of “office hours” during the week in case any of the crew needed to discuss personal medical matters with him. At the same time, she saw Bepo making his way from the opposite direction. Ikkaku turned towards him, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder at the empty room.
“Hey, where’s Captain? The mechanics want to go over some adjustments to the engine.”
“Um.” Bepo was very carefully not looking at his female crewmate, and if his fur hadn’t been hiding it, she could have sworn he was blushing. “He is, ahem, unavailable for the time being. I mean, I’m pretty sure he is, yes.”
“Unavailable.” Ikkaku tilted her head. “As in sick? Busy? I just need to tell him – “
“Later.” Bepo said firmly, putting his paws on the woman’s shoulders in an attempt to keep her from going near the botany lab. “Just...trust me. He’ll let us know when he’s available again.”
Ikkaku sighed, figuring this was one of their sometimes moody captain’s less sociable days. It was strange though, since she’d seen Law talking with you in the mess at lunchtime and thought you’d both gone to the botany lab after that. Speaking of which...“Then where’s our plant expert? I need to pay her back from when we were out shopping last week.”
“Um,” Bepo said again, looking even more uncomfortable. “You might want to find her later, too.”
She stared at the Mink. “What? Why are they both – oh!” Ikkaku’s dark eyes opened wide. “Don’t tell me they’ve finally – “
“Maybe! Maybe not! All I know is that they probably don’t want to be bothered right now!” Bepo said desperately whilst trying to corral Ikkaku back down the hall, away from the lab he’d been walking past just as some embarrassingly obvious noises became audible from inside. But his crewmate wasn’t listening, instead cackling with triumphant glee.
“All right, help me find Shachi and Penguin. They owe me money now,” Ikkaku told him, and Bepo was only too happy to follow her to the ladder that led down to the next deck.
***
It was as if every secret daydream Law had ever had about you was coming to life.
As soon as you appeared in his cabin, he’d taken you again, up against the back of his door, the two of you gasping into each other’s mouths as he held you up easily while fucking your brains out a second time. It was glorious. You were glorious. His senses were full of your flushed skin and warm lips, your soft breasts pressed against him and your slick heat wrapped around his cock. Every moan and cry you uttered only made him want to hear you like that forever. When he came, Law’s knees buckled and he sank to the floor with you in his lap, both of you shaking from the intensity.
Somehow, you both managed to make your way to his bed, where all of your remaining clothes rapidly came off. Law began a feverish exploration of your body with his hands and lips, hanging on every sigh and gasp you made. He made you come twice before he couldn’t stand it any longer and moved up to slide inside you again. You writhed and keened beneath him as he thrust over and over, the rising pleasure knocking the breath out of him with each movement of his hips. When he reached down to rub your clit with the pad of his thumb, he only managed a couple of rough circles before you exploded beneath him. The scream you let out into the still air of his cabin, along with the scrape of your nails down his arms, made Law come so hard he was sure he’d pass out.
It went on like that for hours. No matter how much he came, he never seemed to run dry, a fact that some cold, scientific part of his brain took note of before the overwhelming lust roared back to life. You fucked again and again until he lost count. At some point amidst all that, you pushed him back onto the bed and went down on him, taking his cock into your wet, warm mouth, and Law was half-convinced he’d actually died and come back to life that time. All of it felt so good, beyond what he’d ever anticipated you would be like. He was fairly certain it was mostly the fruit’s effects coloring his perceptions and enhancing the sensations, but he also knew that a good deal of it was the fulfillment of months of wanting, waiting until he was brave enough to tell you how he felt. He’d have still been waiting if it hadn’t been for that ridiculous, disgusting fruit.
Dinnertime came and went. The crew clomped up and down the corridors, going off to their quarters or readying the ship for the night shift. No one knocked at the door or called for either of you, and at some point, Law realized that everyone on board the Tang probably knew what you had been up to, given how loud both of you had occasionally become. Shachi and Penguin wouldn’t let him hear the end of it once they got hold of him when you weren’t around. Poor Bepo was probably mortified. Law would have been as well, more over his loss of self-control than the fact that he was being fucked into oblivion by the one he'd desired for so long, except that the effects of the “grenade” didn’t leave him any time to think about it. He was too occupied with having you in every way he could.
It was well past midnight when at last the two of you finally rolled apart, panting and sweat-drenched. Law’s erection had at last gone away, and you seemed to wilt all at once like a dying flower, which reminded him of the orchid in the bathroom. Well, there went his plan to approach you slowly, to court you and get himself used to the idea of being in love – which, he admitted with an inward groan, he definitely was. You were smart and brave and loyal, and as if that wasn't enough, gorgeous and passionate as well. How could he even have thought of resisting?
A leering face appeared in his mind’s eye, along with pink feathers and blond hair. Familiar, icy rage boiled up inside him, always smoldering below the surface of his awareness, before Law got hold of himself and considered the situation. He could be as delicate as the orchid he’d dug up and pretend that he didn’t want you for more than a single drugged night of debauchery, that it was just physical desire and nothing else. He could avoid the hard decisions he knew he’d have to make, the painful, inevitable conversation the two of you would need to have when he finally got the chance to put an end to Doflamingo for good. Perhaps both of you would be better off that way. It was admittedly tempting just to pretend as if all of his intense reaction to you was due to the exploding snot fruit and nothing more.
Or he could do what Cora-san would have told him he should do when given the opportunity to have what he wanted. Are you a pirate or aren't you? Law wondered what the man would have thought of you. He imagined Corazon would have liked you a great deal, and probably made sure Law knew it, too. Finally, with a sigh, he rolled out of bed and got to his feet.
“Stay here for a moment,” he murmured as you sat up on one elbow.
He went into the shower compartment and emerged with the flowerpot, turning on the desk light on his way back to the bed. The illumination captured your expression as you watched him walk around stark naked, and for a moment he had the urge to just drop the orchid and lunge at you again. Instead, he came back to the bed and sat down, holding out the pot for you to take.
“What...is this?” you asked, clearing your throat and looking at him with obvious confusion.
Law felt warmth seep into his chest despite his better judgment telling him that this might be a colossal mistake. “Has no one ever given you a flower before?” he asked softly, and had the satisfaction of seeing you melt at his words, before you took the pot from him, set it aside, and leaned over to give him a kiss that was even better than all the ones you’d already given him that day.
***
As expected, your and Law’s entry into the mess the next morning was met with knowing grins by almost everyone in the crew. It would have also involved whooping and cheering had Law not sent a glare around the room that was so chilling, people instantly fell silent. The two of you collected your breakfast and sat down as usual to eat. A few minutes later, Ikkaku plopped down on your right and handed you a wad of berris to repay you for the money she’d borrowed while shopping.
“I collected on a bet,” she said with a wink, which made you blush to the roots of your hair. Law gave the other woman an expressionless yet somehow threatening look from beneath his hat brim, but Ikkaku was unfazed. She patted your shoulder and stood up, then leaned down again to murmur, “You might want to wear the boiler suit today. High neck and all.” You felt your face burn hotter, but before you could reply, she nodded at the captain and went off, grinning.
“You don’t have to,” Law said casually, resuming his breakfast.
“I…uh, what?” You looked at him. He was steadily spooning up porridge, but also not looking at you. “You mean the boiler suit?”
“Yes.” Law did finally look up, assessing you coolly as you became conscious of the fact that you’d thrown on a V-neck shirt to wear under your lab coat without really thinking about it. There had to be at least five visible hickeys from the night before. He raised a thin eyebrow. “I don’t see anything wrong with your usual attire.”
The captain himself had a prominent bruise on the left side of his neck, but was still wearing the clothes he usually wore around the ship. He held your gaze for a long moment, as if asking for something – understanding? Forgiveness? – and finally you managed a small smile.
“Sure.” What’s done was done. If Law wasn’t going to be self-conscious about what had happened, neither were you.
You continued to eat in silence. You’d both nearly passed out from exhaustion soon after Law had given you the flower, and when you’d awakened early that morning he had still been asleep. You’d thrown on your clothes to take the orchid down to the lab. You’d also made sure every single trace of the grenade fruit had gone into the incinerator, since there was no way you were putting it into the compost lest it somehow spread its influence among the crew. Then you'd gone back to where Law was still dead to the world, and laid back down beside him, where he grumbled and put an arm over you, pulling you closer in his sleep.
You wondered wistfully if you'd ever get the chance to be that close to Law again. You'd never seriously considered him as a lover -- he was your captain, after all, and although you got along well and you definitely had (fine!) a crush on him, you'd imagined that was as far as it would ever go. It was hard not to think otherwise now, even though you knew the odd fruit had been the primary factor the previous night. Why else had he given you an orchid he'd apparently been saving for you?
You remained lost in thought as you finished your breakfast, even though the subject of your current mental wanderings was sitting right in front of you. Law had been accosted by various crew members who needed to discuss the day to day business of running a huge submarine full of pirates under an unpredictable sea, so you quietly got up and took your dishes back to be washed. Then you went to the lab and busied yourself, trying not to recall the dirty, delicious things Law had growled in your ear as he'd fucked you stupid the night before.
You didn’t have to look to know it was Law who came into the lab two hours later, opening and shutting the door behind him. The memory of the last time he’d done that made you nearly drop the slide you were holding. You straightened up from your microscope and tried to seem unaffected when you turned to face him.
Law made his way over to stand next to you, leaning against the table with his arms folded. “How’s your ankle?” he said abruptly.
You held out your leg and moved your foot around in a circle. “Strangely, it seems to be fine. It doesn’t even ache anymore.”
“Good.” Law kept his gaze on the floor. “And how is the rest of you feeling?”
You shrugged. “Tired, a bit sore, but otherwise all right.” Then you gathered up your courage to ask him tentatively, “How are you?”
“Physically, I’m fine,” Law answered, then paused. You waited, holding your breath. When he finally looked up at you, it was with an expression you’d never seen him wear before. His eyes bored into you, and he unfolded his arms to reach for one of your hands, which you let him take, riveted by the look on his face – something close to a silent plea. Your heart began to beat faster.
“I didn’t want that to happen,” he began, and all at once, something inside you went still and dull.
“I suppose not,” you said with a half-laugh, withdrawing your hand from Law’s. “I won’t bring it up again, don’t wor–”
“That’s not what I meant,” Law interrupted. He sighed in frustration. “I’m not sorry that it happened. I just didn’t want it to happen that way, out of the blue, with both of us under the influence of some bizarre sex fruit.”
You stared open-mouthed at him. “You...wanted me? Even before yesterday?” you asked in disbelief.
“Yes.” Law swallowed, suddenly very interested in an array of brightly colored mushrooms laying on the table, waiting to be investigated. “I did. I do. For a long time now, actually.” He huffed out a sound that was meant to resemble a laugh. “I was waiting for the right time to ask if you were possibly interested in me as well.”
He stopped, awkward and seeming as if he’d bolt at any minute. You felt a smile tug at your lips. Trafalgar Law, a man who didn’t balk at removing the living organs of his enemies, who had just stared down an entire roomful of his nakama after loudly fucking you all night long within earshot of everyone, and who had once sewn Bepo’s right ear back together whilst at the same time slashing enemy after enemy with Kikoku in his other hand, was embarrassed. He didn’t need to be, however.
“Did you know what species of orchid that is?” you asked, turning toward the pot which still sat on the lab table. Law shook his head, and your smile grew wider. “It’s called Asherah’s Candle, and it's quite a common one, actually.”
Law nodded, and although his expression didn’t change, something about him seemed to deflate. “Oh.”
“They’re native to my home island, and they also happen to be my favorite.”
He blinked at you. “Oh. Good,” he said, trying not to appear too relieved.
You stepped closer and put a gentle hand on his chest, right over where his Jolly Roger was inked. “How could I not be interested, Law, when you seem to have such good instincts, on top of everything else I like about you?”
You leaned up and kissed the corner of his mouth, feeling his tense body relax against your touch. Then he took you in his arms and kissed you properly. It was even more gratifying than it had been the night before, when you were literally drugged out of your minds.
“I went through some of my more obscure books,” you said, once Law had had his fill of kissing you for the time being. “You were right – that fruit is used as a poison by some tribes in the New World to distract their enemies, so they can get an advantage in battle.”
“That makes sense. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t in any shape to do much fighting while that was going on,” Law said, deadpan.
“You could still use your Devil Fruit, if I recall correctly,” you pointed out. “I didn’t imagine it, did I?”
He smirked. “Not unless I imagined all of it it too, but it looks like – “ he tugged the collar of your lab coat aside to inspect the numerous bruises on your neck, “ – there’s actual evidence.” Law was fighting back a yawn. “If I can manage, I’m going to turn in early tonight. You probably should, too.”
“Yes, but,” you said, pretending to sulk, “I was hoping to read your new copy of Sora.”
Law blinked, then a faint smile curled his lips. “Come to my room later, and I’ll read it to you in bed,” he murmured, raising a hand to cup the side of your face.
“That sounds like a plan,” you told him softly, letting yourself melt into his touch.