Can I Steal Your Heart? - A LawLu fanfic

(Law) Chapter 23 - Escape

A/N: I promise, more romance-y stuff is coming soon! (I think y'all will really like Ch. 25!)

If he was honest, he was a little nervous about trusting his former enemy. Especially since the basis for that tentative trust was little more than Koby having given Luffy's general description. Koby could be setting them up to be killed, after all. It wasn't uncommon to hear of pirates being killed 'while trying to escape'. It was a dirty trick, but a good way to avoid a trial or a public execution where things could go wrong. Especially when the execution might be of someone close to Mugiwara, who'd already made a fuss at one execution.

But his instinct was telling him that wasn't the case this time, and he'd learned to trust his instinct. He could barely activate his haki, but he hadn't been able to pick up any deception from the young pinkette. Still, it could be wishful thinking.

He turned to his crewmates, who'd been quiet since the Captain had come in. Sometimes an outside view could be more reliable than gut instincts. "Thoughts?"

"It's tricky, at best," Shachi said quietly. "He's a Marine. Can we really trust him, just because he says he's friends with Mugiwara?"

Ikkaku nodded. "True. But Captain..., he, he wasn't lying." She was the only one besides him and Bepo on their crew that had some grasp of her observational haki. She hadn't perfected it yet, not by a long shot, but she also wasn't as exhausted as he was. "There was no malice, no deception. Concern and some distrust were most of what I sensed. And genuine... happiness, when he talked about Luffy."

Law nodded his understanding of her assessment and turned to Clione.

"Even if he can be trusted, the plan is foolhardy. You could barely walk before we boarded, Captain, and now you've been chained in an odd position for ten-ish hours with sea-prism chains. Even if, as he said, we found the key, I don't know how well we could make it off the ship without your abilities, and you're in no shape to use them."

"I agree. Do any of you have alternatives?" All three of them were silent for a long few seconds. Law sighed. "Unfortunately, right now I don't either. He gave me something earlier. Shachi, think you could get it? Right pocket." Ikkaku would probably have an easier time, since she didn't have the bar to keep her hands apart, but Shachi was closer.

Shachi nodded, and managed to scoot closer, reaching into the jacket pocket. It stretched, fortunately, just far enough to accommodate his hand and part of the bar. After a minute of fumbling, he managed to pull out a piece of paper, folded around eight keys. He tossed it carefully to Ikkaku, who opened it up to reveal not one, but three papers.

"Some of these keys are numbered," she said, examining them in the dim light the cell offered, "but only up to 4."

"The others aren't?" Law confirmed, gears turning in his head. She shook her head. "My guess is that the unnumbered ones are to our shackles. Give it a try." He nodded towards Clione's hands, the closest chains to Ikkaku besides her own. Her own would require double-jointedness to undo, which he knew she didn't have.

Clione shifted obediently to turn his hands towards her. She tried one key, then another. It wasn't until the third key that his right hand got free. He took that key from her with a victorious laugh and undid the lock on his other hand. Then he took the other keys and undid Ikkaku's shackles, then Shachi's, and finally, Law's own.

"Well," Law rubbed his wrists, trying to get the last bit of feeling back in his hands. "Seems like he can be trusted, after all, at least to an extent. Do we know what time it is?" 'How long do I have to recover?' was the question he was really asking. There were no windows or bars in their cell, so the only way to unlock the door would be to 'shambles' the key outside and into the lock. Koby-ya had had no way of knowing how tapped out Law was, and had made the plan with Law's powers in mind, Law guessed.