Can I Steal Your Heart? - A LawLu fanfic

(Luffy) Chapter 60 - Solutions

"What's wrong, Luffy?" Robin asked, interrupting his careful training.

"If I stretch my fingers normally, they get all thin and my ring tries to come off." He demonstrated, stretching his fingers high until the ring became visibly loose. "But I can't let it, so I'm trying to figure out how to stretch the rest of my fingers without my ring finger, but it takes too much concentration right now to be any help in a fight!"

After a thoughtful look, Robin took off her necklace and removed the pendant, holding out the chain. "Put it on here for a bit. See if you can fight wearing it that way, and if you can we can pick out a chain or cord for it when we stop next."

"Ooh, great idea!" Luffy reached for it, then stopped. "Oh. I wouldn't be able to do my Balloon with a necklace on. Or Bounce-man."

Robin was quiet for a minute as she reassembled her necklace. "Perhaps Franky or Usopp can create a way to wear it that would stretch like your skin does?"

"My SKIN! Robin, you're a genius!"

Luffy ran off, barely registering Robin's confused, "I am...?" He needed a different crew member now, one that hadn't originally been on his crew. One with a particular skill.

"Uni! Hey, Pen-guy, where's Uni?" He asked loudly as he jumped onto the Tang.

"Probably either on the bridge or in the armory?" Penguin answered, mild confusion on his face.

Luffy huffed. If Uni was on the bridge, that meant a possibility of running into Law, and he wanted to keep this a secret from his fiance until it was completed. "When you see him, tell him I gotta talk to him as soon as possible! But you can't tell Torao! It's a secret, okay?!"

"Whoa, slow down, Mugiwara. You know I can't just keep any old secret from Cap-, Law."

"I know, that's why I'm not telling you the details!"

Penguin sighed deeply. "Then I need to ask a few questions before I can agree. One: will the contents of this secret hurt Law in any way?"

Luffy rolled his eyes. "Of course not! I think it'll even make him happy, I just want it to be a surprise, is all!"

"Will anyone be hurt or endangered by it?"

At that, Luffy cocked his head sideways, remembering what Law had said. "Maybe kinda sorta me, but not badly or for long?"

Penguin's face changed from wariness to a knowing grin. "Oh. I see. You're wanting that skill set of Uni's, huh? Should be harmless enough. I'll do my best to keep it mum, but I will say that Captain is very adept at picking up when the people around him have a secret, and even better at getting said secret out of us."

"Just try, okay, Pen-guy? For me?"

Penguin shook his head, laughingly. "Aye, Captain. Although, if I may be so bold...?"

"Hmm?"

"Make sure not to get it anywhere that's going to make Law jealous. We don't need him to kill Uni for touching your ass or something."

"Shishishi. I think what I have planned should be fine."

"Then I'll send Uni over with his supplies later. If you don't have your design ready, you should get that."

Luffy grinned. "Okay, thanks!"

—--

After dinner, Luffy watched Uni set up at the desk in Usopp's 'factory'. Not only had Usopp helped with the design Luffy wanted and volunteered his space for a bit, but he was now 'standing guard' near the door to make sure Law didn't come in.

"Alright," Uni began, "so because of the nature of your devil-fruit and such, I'm going to do this line," he pointed to the lower line of the narrow design, "and then have you stretch it a little. I may need to alter the process slightly to accommodate for the stretchiness of your skin."

"Let's do it!"

Uni carefully lowered the needle into his skin, holding down the top knuckle of his ring finger.

"OW! OWOWOW!" Luffy tried to pull his hand away, the pain of the needle more than he'd expected.

"Keep still, unless you want me to mess this up!" Uni scolded.

"But it huuuurts!"

Usopp laughed from his spot by the door. "You knew it would, Luf! C'mon, you're not gonna chicken out now, are you? I mean, Torao's had like, what, twenty of these? All bigger than what you're getting."

"And he barely flinched, even for his first one," Uni added smugly.

Luffy glared across the room at the sniper, but managed to still and grit his teeth against any future outbursts. He wouldn't let them think Law was tougher than him! They were equals, damn it. He could handle anything Law could! Well, maybe. He wasn't sure he'd have been able to cut into himself to try to get a disease out, especially not at thirteen, but still! He could take it, and he would!

"Okay, that line's done. Keep your wrist against the table and stretch your fingers up as high as you can, please," Uni ordered, eyes locked intently on the single line he'd done. Luffy did, also watching as the black line became a chunky gray block. "Not bad. Now can you make them wider?"

That took a bit more concentration, but Luffy did, his hand filling most of the fairly small room now. Uni seemed unimpressed, but at least Usopp laughed a little at it.

"Ok. I may have to use a little more ink than usual, but otherwise we should be fine. Back down to normal, please."

Bracing himself again for the pain of the needle, Luffy let Uni finish the tattoo. Even as small as the design was, it took the better part of an hour before Uni began packing up and giving the care instructions, which included keeping it moisturized and covered for a week.

"After that, let me check it and see where it's at. As fast as you healed a couple years back, a week will probably be all you'll need, but some tattoos can take up to a couple of months to heal thoroughly."

"A couple years back?"

"Yeah. After Marineford? I was one of the medical technicians helping Captain with your surgery. And man, I tell you what, if you hadn't been able to heal like that, you might not have survived, no matter how skilled Captain Law is."

"... it was really that bad?" Usopp asked quietly.

Luffy had almost forgotten that he was still in the room — or that he'd downplayed the injury that had caused his scar to try to prevent this reaction. "It's fine, Usopp. I'm still here, right? So with my luck and Torao's skill, it wasn't bad enough to take me down!"

Uni, thankfully, took the cue and dropped the subject. Usopp did, too, although Luffy wasn't sure that was going to last. The look on Usopp's face said there'd be more questions later, but they stayed silent as Uni finished slathering the new tattoo with some sort of cream and wrapping it carefully in a white bandage.

"Do you have a cover story you'll tell Captain Law for the bandages?" Uni asked as he sealed it.

Luffy grinned and shook his head. "I'm just gonna tell him he has to wait to find out what happened until the bandages come off.

"He's gonna hate that." But Uni's eyes twinkled with matching mischief. "You really think you can keep him away from it for an entire week? I've never seen anyone keep a secret from him for that long."

"Plus, Luffy, you're terrible at keeping secrets!"

"Well, I'm gonna do this one! He doesn't get to see it until it's healed!"

Uni and Usopp shared a doubting look, then both turned to him with a glance that clearly said 'Good luck with that.'

A/N: This is late and short and maybe not my best, but life's been ridiculous lately and my brain (and subsequently the remnants of my 'buffer') is all over the place. So today's chapter wins the "I tried" award, lol. Buuuuuuuuuut.... next chapter is going to be fun? XD