Can I Steal Your Heart? - A LawLu fanfic

(Law) Chapter 45 - Instinct

Despite the rough wake-up of a hangover/nightmare combo, Law was pretty content right now, walking around his ship with Luffy's hand in his, showing him the different areas. He'd felt a little foolish at first, sitting in Luffy's lap and letting the smaller man feed him, but what he'd told Luffy was true. He did appreciate a moment of softness, especially after a nightmare. Even if he wouldn't allow that moment to come from very many people.

But he trusted Luffy, obviously. Maybe more than he should trust him, considering how many plans the other captain had trashed. He trusted him enough to lower his guard, to tell him things he'd never told anyone else. He wasn't being his cautious self, and some part of him was reasonably concerned that that was going to bite him in the butt. He hadn't been this open in a long time. Maybe ever.

And he'd always had good reason for his meticulous caution. He fully believed Luffy wouldn't intentionally hurt him. But all it took was one wrong bit of information to get to the wrong person. So this ease, this contentment, was dangerous.

Yet, despite the warning of the paranoid part of his brain, Law was reveling in it. He'd gotten more used to the feel of Luffy's hand in his, but it still made his heart bubble strangely. He needed to get out of the strange headspace. So he did what usually worked when he needed to get out of his head. He asked a question.

"So how much conscious control does your power require?"

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked, tilting his head in that adorable confused way he did.

"I mean, in battle you're obviously able to control when and how you stretch. But when you're with me, your skin and muscle elasticity seem to be only slightly above a normal person's, unless you specifically want otherwise. Is it a conscious thing? Like if someone got the drop on you and tried to stretch your face, would it stretch easily or would you have to focus to stretch it?"

"Oh." Luffy did that familiar, adorable head tilt again, as if he was trying to make sense of something. "There's some control element to it? Usually if my guard or focus is down I'm more stretchy. Usopp says I've gone completely flat while I'm sleeping before. But when I'm drunk, for some reason my body defaults to more human." He shot a devious look at Law. "Same for if I'm horny, in case that's what you're wondering."

Well, that's good to know. At least he wouldn't have to figure out how to make love to a boneless goop of rubber. He'd have figured it out if he needed to, as long as that rubber was Luffy in the right mood, but human-shaped would be much easier. "That's gotta be tough, for it to be so situational."

"Nah, it's more... instinctual. I usually know when I can stretch and how far and when I shouldn't as much. Yours seems much harder. It requires complete manual control, right?" Law nodded his confirmation. "So you always have to know exactly what you want to do and when and where... That's too much thinking. And then you also have to pay attention to lots of little details, especially when you're switching and teleporting and stuff."

"Well, that's true. But I prefer it like that. My instincts aren't as good as yours are, so I have to think it through. More so with the stamina drain."

"Yeah, I think the stamina drain comes from all that thinking," Luffy laughed. "What can you use, where is it, where should it be for best use... Makes my head hurt. Maybe if you acted on instinct instead, battles wouldn't wear you out so much!"

Law smirked. "How about I let you and yours do the instinct stuff and I'll keep doing the thinking. It's worked okay for us so far...."

"True. And we've already proven I can protect you while carrying you around a city when you're too weak to move properly!"

Law grimaced. "Don't remind me. That was rather humiliating."

"Shishishishi. I thought it was fun, actually. You were all 'No, we're enemies now, set me down. I'm gonna kill you if you free me.' and I was all, 'NOPE. We're friends and we're gonna fight Mingo together as soon as I get the key to these cuffs!'"