Chapter Text
To say Law was tired was an understatement. He was in his last year of school to become a veterinarian and his classes were at the most intense they had been so far. It seemed like for everyone else things got easier in their final year, but not for Law. Though he was used to nothing in life ever coming easy for him. Like right now for instance: He was supposed to be back at his house studying but he apparently left his notebook in his clinical classroom, a lot of his peers took notes on laptops but he always thought he absorbed the information better by physically writing it down. Law had a key card to the room, as did a lot of the students in this class as they ended up doing labs late, sometimes having to leave and come back, so retrieving the item was not an issue. Still, he would have much rather been at home drinking coffee sitting in his comfortable chair reviewing the material. He sighed, resigning himself to his current reality.
Anyway that was why Law was now standing in front of his clinical classroom at 1am looking incredibly confused at the door. The reason for his confusion was the light coming from under the door itself. Law stared at the light for a moment as his tired overworked mind processed the fact that someone else was in the lab room at 1am. Maybe it was a mistake and they left the light on, he silently hoped, though he was pretty sure he could hear muffled voices from inside. Law took a deep breath hoping that whoever it was would just ignore Law and he wouldn't be forced into any late-night social interaction.
Opening the door and stepping in he took in the scene before him and that thought completely went away. The first thing he noticed was blood, smears of it across the floor. He followed the trail of blood to a table, on said table was a dog and from what Law gathered it wasn't in the best shape. Law's eyes then snapped to the three people standing in the room. Law recognized one of them as Chopper, he was a young much smaller brown-haired kid who had graduated high school early and was in some of the classes Law TA’ed for. He was studying to be a vet as well and that explained, to Law at least, how they got into the room. The other two standing next to him he did not recognize. The tallest one, Law noticed was extremely in shape, had short green hair and a scar down his eye. That man was currently helping to hold the dog down along with a slightly smaller man. This one had dark hair with a straw hat on, very round innocent eyes and a small scar underneath. All four of them (including the dog) turned to him as he opened the door.
Law honestly was frozen to the spot, he didn't know what he was expecting when he opened the door, but it wasn't this. He debated for a moment if his notes were worth it and he wondered if he should just step back out the door and pretend he never saw anything, in fact that sounded like a pretty good option. He took a step back.
“WAIT!” The black-haired kid yelled. “Are you a vet?”
Law paused looking at the trio silently for a moment. “Not yet.” Law answered uncertainty.
“Thats Trafalgar Law.” Chopper supplied unhelpfully. “He is one of the best in the class! Or at least that's what mom says.” Law briefly wondered who his mother was.
“Great, then you can help!” The man declared happily.
“Ummmm I can what now?” Law asked uncertainty.
“Luffy, we don’t even know this guy.” The green haired man added. “He could be a snitch.”
The one now known as Luffy looked intensely at Law, his brown eyes seemingly looking into his soul. “Are you gonna tell on us?”
Law debated his response for a moment. “Depends on what I am looking at.”
Luffy just laughed. “Shishishi see he is fine.” The other didn't look too convinced. “I found some guys picking on the poor thing!” He pet the dog reassuringly. “So I stepped in and saved him.” He seemed very proud of that fact. “But it looks like he got hurt and I didn't know what to do so I called Chopper because he is so smart!”
“Shut up, that doesn't make me happy.” He heard the kid mumble.
“But Chopper said he hasn't gotten that far into actually performing stitches or ummm proc- pros ummm doing the other stuff.” He smiled widely at Law. “But then you came in Torao! I just know that you can help!”
Law sighed looking at the frightened animal on the operating table, ignoring the weird nickname he was just called. He knew that he really shouldn't help, this would still be operating without a license. While the dog couldn’t really rat him out he could still get into a lot of trouble.
“Why didn't you just take him to a real vet?” Law asked though he was inching closer to the operating table. He couldn't lie, despite the risks it was kind of exciting to perform his first sort of surgery. Besides, he chose to be a vet because of how much more he liked animals than people. He looked at the poor whimpering animal on the table and felt some of his resolve fading away.
“Ummm well we are kind of broke.” Luffy said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
Sighing again Law truly gave in, coming to stand beside the table. “Chopper.” He said addressing the youngest. “Can you tell me what you have done so far?”
He didn't miss the giant grin that spread across that Luffy kid's face, it made his stomach feel weird and Law did not like it.
“Well, we just kind of got here, I have been putting pressure on the wound, poor little guy got cut but it doesn't look too deep. I think he just needs stitches.”
Law leaned over looking at the cloth. “Ok.” He took a deep breath and organized his thoughts. “First, we are going to need to clean the area and make sure it's disinfected before we can administer the stitches. Do you know where that stuff is?”
The young wannabe vet looked up at him eyes wide and smiling before nodding quickly and rushing off. Law reached under the table and grabbed some gloves. He started putting them on when Luffy reached out interrupting him.
“Your tattoos are so cool!” He was literally grabbing his hand. He then noticed the one sticking out from under his sleeve. “Woah is there even more!” He tried to pull up his sleeve but Law quickly pulled away.
“Yes, and if you don’t mind, I am in the middle of something.” He snapped glaring at the man for invading his personal space.
“Shishishi Sorry.” He didn’t really seem sorry or deterred as he was smiling looking directly at Law. As Chopper got back with the supplies, he started to work on cleaning the area, still feeling his eyes on him.
“Alright since this isn't a real clinic we don't have any sedatives to give the dog. You two need to make sure you hold him steady.” He made eye contact with the green haired guy then Luffy making sure they understood.
Looking back down, Law stroked the dog's head and offered a few soft words of encouragement before starting to perform the stitches. The dog started to thrash a bit and Law couldn't blame it, it could not have been a pleasant feeling being repeatedly stabbed with a needle. Law smirked a bit realizing the irony as he had gotten all these tattoos.
The dog looked like it was about to panic but then Luffy leaned down and cradled its head in his hands and started talking to him. He was telling the dog how good he was and how they would feed him a lot of food when it was over. Law couldn’t help but to pause for a moment at the sweet gesture before focusing back on his work.
After some more practiced strokes the dog was sewn up and Law once again was disinfecting the area and cleaning up the blood. He stepped away sighing putting the gloves to the side.
“Wow Trafalgar, that was really cool! You are gonna be such a good vet one day! We should totally study together!” The little kid looked up at him so happily and hopefully it reminded Law of a small, cute animal.
“Umm yeah sure.” He then went over to his desk to get what he originally came for. Grabbing his notebook he was about to leave when he noticed that there was more blood now on the floor in front of the table. “Where did that come from?” He honestly didn't even know why he asked, he blamed it on his sleep deprived and overworked mind.
“Oh that?” Luffy said, looking down at the blood. “I got stabbed too!” He proudly lifted up his shirt pointing where a now stained red t-shirt had been tied to him with some bandages.
Law’s jaw dropped in horror. “What the actual hell is wrong with you?!” He reached over grabbing onto the horribly constructed bandage. The wound was pretty deep and it was not closing. “You need to go to a hospital.” Law said sternly, he was feeling a bit queasy from seeing a wound like that on a person again. Even after all these years he still had an issue with seeing open wounds on people.
“I tried to tell him!” Chopper complained.
“Oh come on, it's fine.” Luffy tried brushing him off.
“It's not fine you idiot! If the bleeding hasn't stopped yet that means it isn't going to without assistance! At this rate you are going to bleed out in your sleep!”
“Pshhh I have had worse and been fine.” The green haired man added trying to help.
“I genuinely hope that's not true.” Law snapped still begrudgingly examining the wound.
“Well then why don't you stitch me up Torao?” He was smiling so widely at him.
Law looked at him like he had grown a second head. “I am not a doctor Strawhat-ya, I am not even a vet yet. So needless to say performing a medical procedure on you would be not something I am capable of.” He released the wound like it burned him and started to walk away before pausing. “Also stop calling me Torao, that's not my name.”
“Oh come on Torao you have to fix me up!” The other complained ignoring his complaint about the nickname.
“Not happening.” Law replied.
“But I saw you do it on the dog and you did a really good job! It's basically the same thing right?” The guy tried again.
Law had now taken another step towards the door. “It's really not.”
“Oh come on Toraoooooo if you don't I guess I will just… ummm die in my sleep or something!” This made Law pause and turn around. Sensing his hesitance Luffy kept going. “Yup that's right I will ummm keep bleeding like you said so you better come save me! Do you want my death on your conscious?”
Law stood there hesitantly, doing something like this was dumb. He wasn't licensed, he was definitely not a doctor. Stitching up a wound on human skin would also not be great for his mental health, he much preferred working with animals for a reason. Law could tell though that this man meant what he said. He would not go to a hospital and he would go home and go to bed gambling on waking up tomorrow.
Sensing his inner turmoil the kid made his way closer to Law giving him the most pleading and pouting expression he had ever seen on a human or animal. “Please Torao won't you help me?”
“Don't worry Law, I won't tell!” Chopper added encouragingly.
“I umm guess I can try.” Luffy cheered happily, Law didn't understand why he was so determined for Law to stick a needle in him and stitch him up. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed a new pair of gloves and sat hesitantly in front of Luffy.
He saw the green haired guy grinning widely at his friend but he didn’t say anything.
Luffy pulled away the bandage and Law flinched at the amount of blood, both dried and fresh. He took another deep breath and did the stitches the best he could. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking slightly as he closed up the wound. When he got to the end he had realized his breathing had picked up. Once he did the last stitch, he stood up very quickly. The room all of a sudden felt really small and it was getting a bit hard to breathe. “You're done, Chopper can finish up for you.” He then made his way very quickly to the door grabbing his notebook and holding it so tightly he thought he might rip it in half.
“Thanks Torao!” He heard Luffy call cheerfully after him, but he did not falter in his pace nor answer. He continued going forward until he reached the outdoors. He started taking some deep breaths of fresh air to steady himself. The crip night air was definitely helping to get his brain under control and pull him out of his memories. Law didn't like dealing with human wounds, he couldn't stand all the blood, it reminded him too much of that day, not to mention his childhood.
Trying to brush off his memories he shakily reached into his pocket grabbing out an all too familiar box. Opening it up he shook it a bit clumsily taking out a cigarette and lighting it. Cora would be mad if he found out, but Law was pretty sure he would be asleep still when he got back anyway. He took some deep breaths allowing the smoke to enter his lungs and seep into his blood stream, the nicotine calming his nerves. With his vice clutched firmly between his fingers he slowly made the journey home, trying instead to think about the helpless animal he had just helped instead of blood and death. His mind definitely did not wander to those warm brown eyes and mesmerizing smile, nope not at all.