Chapter Text
Setting : They're in some random cottage together on an unstated island.
Law shrugged on his cloak. He lifted his arm to let Robin closer. She conceded with his silent request by sitting beside him. As soon as she settled, he shifted so he was lying stretched over their cot with his head on her thigh.
The moments after that passed in sluggish comfort. It was drawn out breath by breath. Robin hummed, while Law observed the dancing shadows of the room with disinterest. The delicate light of the hearth only extended so far. It masked most of their surroundings in smudges of dark shadow. But even if he could see, it wasn't as if there was anything interesting enough to keep his overactive mind occupied. This cabin was decidedly duller than anything he'd ever been in before. It was even duller than the small cottage in Dressrosa that they stayed in when they were injured. For all of that island's faults, it at least kept him on his toes.
Robin busied herself by twisting circles in his hair. Law's eyes drooped from the sensation. He crushed the heel of his hand against them to dispel any trace of drowsiness he felt, but it was a useless attempt. Nothing more than a wave tearing against a cliff. He needed something stronger.
Law's gaze drew up to meet her own because he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she'd hold his attention better than what surrounded them. Which wasn't saying much, considering the emptiness, but it was the thought that counted—and what a thought it was.
After so long, Law was still astounded by how easily she could narrow his focus to a single point: the twitch of her lips, the brush of her hand, the wry quirk of her eyebrow whenever she was amused and hesitant to show it. This time, it was the subtle heat on her cheeks that caught him. It was, arguably, the most appealing stain on white that he'd ever seen. The blush promptly spread all the way to her ears when she realized that he was looking at her.
She didn't hide from him. On the contrary, she angled her head down to get a better look. Robin smiled in that secretive way of hers. It never failed to trap him in place. He felt small under her scrutiny, but he couldn't bring himself to turn away. He was enraptured. Utterly smitten with the way her eyes thinned with her grin, like she was in the presence of stars that shined too brightly. That bruised spot in Law's chest expanded. It tightened over his ribs like a band of pure steel.
His heart skipped forward—hard.
Like she wanted to feel it for herself, her hand splayed over his chest, right where the bleeding thing beat, as if begging to be released from its cage. Law covered it with his own, then brought her fingertips to his mouth. His kiss was searing. Made more so by the fact that his gaze never wavered from her own. Law tightened his grip around her fingers. He squeezed them to an almost unbearable degree. As if pressure alone might keep her by his side, might tether her to him, so he could engrave this exact moment to memory. He wanted to preserve everything he felt now until the day he died; wanted clear glass dropped over it to keep it safe from the world and its horrors.
But there was no glass for him to cover their time together with. The world carried on. It didn't matter how much he willed it to stop or how much he needed to breathe. He could internally beg all he pleased, but it would still be for naught. Everything had an end. Law knew that. He knew it like the tattoos that littered his body. So, he gathered all that he had in his hands right now, all that was within his reach, and dragged it towards him with an urgency that bordered on desperation.
No minute was wasted. No second considered scant enough to lose. Every glancing thought he'd ever had, he turned into reality.
Law didn't think when he sat up to catch her mouth with his own. He pushed her beneath him, and they fell with a noiseless thump onto the cot below. Law untangled the strange web of fledgling and deep-seated emotions in his gut. Every knot that he straightened released a flood of unbearable warmth. He kept those, too. For the future when he'd need to look back on his life to find the will to fight against the frigidness of reality. He'd need it in order to achieve his dream.
Law paused to look at her, one arm braced over her head.
Below him, Robin's eyes shone with kindness and a genuine sincerity that made his chest ache. He shut his eyes in physical pain. It was as if he had a fist clenched around his heart. He couldn't fathom how others lived like this. But when he felt Robin's hands cover his cheeks and her thumbs coax him back into the moment with her, a wash of realization poured over him like a kettle full of boiling water.
"I love you," she whispered. Nothing more than a murmur lost in a fever-dream.
Law tried to respond. He really did. But the words kept bending in his throat. What came out were uneven lines of fraught words. Helpless. Hopeless. Stunted responses that didn't even begin to match the swollen emotion that welled inside of him.
This isn't like me, he thought, snapping his mouth shut. Law breathed in a futile attempt to gather his wits. Ever so slowly, he grabbed her hand and placed it back over his chest.
Law trapped her there. He wanted her to feel that boundless drone, and how she made it quicken with a mere look.
"It's yours," he said by way of an answer, "If you'll have it."
Robin shivered from the sheer amount of tenderness in his voice, but then she smiled that damnable smile at him again, and he was too far gone to appreciate the effect he had on her. That final thread that separated him from her disappeared to form something new, something strong and without name. A link of intense gold that was resilient enough to be tugged and twisted over itself without breaking. Words didn't matter now. A conversation of this magnitude would always feel as if it lacked substance anyway.
Together, they spent the night learning how to speak without them.
Every breathless gasp, each press of hips and slide of skin against skin, affirmed their passion, which, after being bottled for so long, was finally given a ground to blossom.