Can I Steal Your Heart? - A LawLu fanfic

(Luffy) Chapter 58 - Letters

"Torao~! I need your smartness!"

Law, comfortable in one of the chairs at his table, put his book down with an affectionate smirk as Luffy invaded his room without even bothering to knock. "What specifically do you need, babe?"

"Well, remember how I told you I wanted to invite Hancock to the wedding, but I wasn't sure?" Luffy began, flourishing a piece of paper. "Well, I still really want her to come if she can because she helped me out a lot and is usually very nice, but I also don't want her to be mad that I'm marrying you and not her, so I talked to Robin about what I should do and Robin thinks I should include a 'nice letter' in her invitation apologizing for leading her on or not being as nice as I could've been about it or something. But I don't know how to say all of that without making her mad!"

"So you want my help writing a letter to someone who probably is going to want to kill me the next time she sees me, is what I'm hearing...."

Luffy pounced on Law, the paper in his hand rustling as it got partially crumpled. "I won't let her kill you, silly. I gotta marry you!"

Law gave a tiny laugh that sent the barest hint of shivers down Luffy's spine. He loved Law's laugh so much. "Alright, of course I'll help you. What do you have so far?" Law pushed him gently off and gestured to the other chair at the table.

Luffy sat and carefully uncrumpled the letter attempt to read it. "'Dear Hancock. Sorry I told you I wouldn't marry. I meant I wouldn't marry you because you're my friend. I love Torao though, so I'm gonna marry him. Let's stay friends, okay? Your friend, Mon -' Hey!" Law had grabbed the letter from his hand and ripped it up quickly before Luffy could finish reading.

"That, babe, would very much get me killed."

"What? Why? I was just being honest!"

"Honest, yes. But not tactful, and this situation will require tact." Law brought out a fresh piece of paper and gestured for Luffy to sit, so he did. "First off, the greeting. I know 'dear so-and-so' is customary, but given her feelings for you and the news you're imparting, 'dear' might be a word to avoid this time. Maybe just her name, nothing before it? Or if you'd rather, you could do something like 'My dear friend Hancock', but that might be a little patronizing."

Not knowing what patronizing meant, Luffy nodded and carefully wrote just 'Hancock,' at the top of the new page. "Now what?"

"Now, we address the 'I won't marry' thing you told her, but nicely. Maybe something like, 'I know I told you I wouldn't marry, and at the time, I thought that was true.' That would still be a true statement, right?" When Luffy nodded again, Law continued. "Do you see how it's a little ... kinder than your original phrasing, without being a lie? That's tact."

Luffy wrote down the sentence, carefully and slowly. He'd never been great at writing. He knew how to do it, obviously, and could spell most things pretty well, but it made his hands cramp up. Especially when he was trying to make it so someone else could read it.

"Next, you can do the reason your declaration changed, if you want: 'I didn't expect to fall in love with anyone, but I did.' Or you can acknowledge how she might be feeling; something like 'I don't mean to hurt you, and I do appreciate the feelings you showed for me.'"

"Is 'appreciate' one 'P' or two?"

"Two." Law spelled it for him, slowly. "Then you can tell her you still want to be friends, but give her an 'out'. Not everyone can handle staying friends with someone who's rejected them. 'I'd like to still be your friend' or 'I hope we can still be friends' is going to feel more like it's giving her the choice than just 'Let's stay friends'."

"This 'tact' stuff is wordy," Luffy complained, trying to write neatly. "And what if I wanna be friends and she doesn't? I don't wanna fight her after she helped me so much!"