Young In Love - LawLu AU

Chapter 03

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It would be a little over a week today. Law did not want to stay on Swallow Island any longer. He had planned for a week but there was some complication acquiring materials he needed so they had to prolong their stay by two days but he had everything now and he was ready to put this place behind him. He left the relatively warm comfort of his sub and walked to the harbor with Kikoku on his shoulder. Some of the guys were carrying crates of non-perishable food items, loading them into the submarine and checking stuff off the list Law had made for supplies to be restocked. Law had went earlier in his stay to personally select the medical supplies needed for the journey and after it as well – he was the only one knowledgeable in that area so he had to do it himself.

During the last two days, Bepo and Shachi had been keeping surveillance throughout the south of the island and found some suspicious activity that could affect them and notified Law immediately. They mentioned something about a building at the back of the southern pleasure house being secretly loaded with what looked like explosives, poorly disguised at that too. Law expected trouble and he wanted to leave even sooner for it, but the blast never came and he was relieved in the knowledge that the Hearts would be leaving the island soon and there had been no trouble.

"Captain, can you go over the list one final time? Most of the stuff has been loaded in and checked off so you can leave that. I need to go assist Shachi with the sub's oxygen canisters and batteries." Penguin informed Law, coming to a stop behind him from where the crates were stacked on the harbor and Bepo was looking over them.

"Hand me the list." Penguin gave it to him and Law walked to Bepo, matching items on the list and instructing where they need to be put when the guys came to take it away. Bepo was trying to soak all the cold air he could before they left the island. He was a polar bear, he needed the cold. Law smiled sadly looking at his friend's content face as the freezing air hit him. He knew it was cruelty to put Bepo in a submarine of all things, where it could get so hot and suffocating. Law was no stranger to suffocation and such environments, he understood the agony his friend went through every time they submerged. Bepo never wanted to leave though and Law had tried many times to make the other see the point but Bepo was loyal and wanted to stay.

Law stuffed the list in his pocket, told Uni, who was passing by, that all the stuff was there and it just needed to be carried back to the sub. He readjusted his sword and was about to tell Bepo to come with him on a last walk through the island but everything was drowned out by the loud sound that came from the direction of the whore house – Law realized – followed by thick black smoke, distinguished against the white of the snow.

Shopkeepers ducked behind their stalls, a few people ran here and there in panic and obvious confusion but everybody had stopped what they were doing and were collectively looking in the direction of where the explosion happened.

"Somebody finally went and did it huh. Serves those pigs right." Law heard a man say and wondered what the statement meant but it became clear with someone else's follow-up dialogue.

"Yeah, I swear. They've been hoarding our food and money in that for far too long. Now it's all burned up I bet, they can't use it too." All the residents, it seemed, cheered for what happened. In a way it was something to be cheered for.

The building that was bombed out of existence was not that far away from the harbor but far enough that the only effects that reached there was warm air.

~

Luffy was miserable and hopeless and kept beating himself up about being so naïve as to trust the words of the men who had had their way with him, after drugging him into submission no less. They could very well had been pretending all the time, knowing he was conscious and listening in their every word and nestling hope.