Torao PT 2

POV: Monkey D. Luffy

Two Years Later

Luffy was extremely happy. A couple weeks ago he and his crew had coincidentally run into Torao on a half ice half fire island. Amidst flurrying snow, a bundled up Torao had asked to form a pirate alliance. Luffy had grinned and said "yes" right away. In the two years he and his crew had been training he'd never once seen or talked to Torao. But he would occasionally think of the harsh but caring doctor when his hand brushed over his scar or when he saw spots on the island animals.

Luffy liked thinking of his crew and wondering how they were doing while watching the stars with Ace after training. And sometimes he would think of Torao too, and wonder what he and his polar bear first mate were up to. As time passed, he found himself thinking of the dark-haired tattooed man less often, and when he did it was always of the time he'd seen Torao smile.

Then he'd met Torao again on the snowy side of Punk Hazard. The minute his eyes landed on the familiar figure with its fuzzy white hat and familiar dots Luffy's heart squeezed tight and felt like exploding. He wanted to jump Torao and wrap himself around him in a crushing hug, but didn't because the other captain didn't like it.

After the chaos on Punk Hazard Torao sailed with them to Dressrossa where they met up with Ace, Marco, the Whitebeard crew, and Sabo with a few fellow Revolutionaries. The Heart Pirate crew was at Zhou while their captain operated alone on Punk Hazard. Dressrossa was also where they learned about Torao's past and why it was so important to take down Mingo. They split their crews and wear disguises to infiltrate Dressrossa. Luffy and Ace with others enter the colosseum. They all know the devil fruit is a fake since Ace is alive, but they couldn't let on to anyone else they knew that or it will blow Ace's cover before they are ready.

It was just before they split up that Sabo pulls Luffy aside to talk.

"Luffy, I'm going to keep an eye on Law. I don't think he intends to survive this." Sabo tells him seriously.

"Torao won't just throw his life away." Luffy replies confidently.

"No, he won't, but he will if he thinks he has too. Law is desperate to take Mingo down and when we talked about what to do after Dressrossa, Luffy, the way he phrased things and avoided mentioning future plans besides meeting his crew at Zhou…I don't think Law believes he'll see them again." Sabo explains face highly worried.

"Its okay! We're all here together and we'll kick Mingo's ass!" Luffy promises with a wide grin.

Sabo smiles softly in reply his spirits lifted by Luffy's assuredness, but he still worries.

***********************************************

They defeated Mingo! It took only half a day in total to flush out Doflamingo's family and beat them down. The tyranny roots had been deep, but they'd ripped them up and Luffy had made tons of new funny friends in the process. Well they said they'd become his underlings or something since Luffy refused to go into an alliance with them. He is already in an alliance with Torao and none of them were as cool or funny as the Heart Pirate crew.

Ace and Sabo leave with Marco and the Whitebeards, marines trailing after them in abundance while Torao sails with Luffy and his crew to Zhou. Reports of Ace's miraculous survival from Marineford fill the newspapers for weeks, overshadowing the fucked up king of Dressrossa incident like a coverup.

Another thing that makes headlines is a marine report and photo of the barely seeable "v" on Luffy's chest. A hefty reward is put up for anyone who can bring in Monkey D. Luffy's soulmate and wild accusations fly on who it could be. A very sizable rumor starts up that it is Ivankov the man who brought Luffy to the battlefield of Marineford to save his brother.

Everyone's bounties go way up after Dressrossa and Torao loses his warlord title and has a ridiculously high bounty placed on him. Robin comments that it must be because the World Government had figured out that Torao had a hand in Ace's survival. Torao a bit absentmindedly agrees. Sabo says the appearance of the Terrible Trio on Dressossa with Law had no doubt incriminated him as the doctor that brought Ace back from the brink of death.

Luckily though none of Torao's crew member's bounties had gone up. Torao really cares about his crew which Luffy likes. He thinks the Heart Pirates aren't that strong, but they are super funny. During their voyage to Zhou Luffy takes to following Torao around and clinging to him. Torao always shoves him off or "Rooms" him away. Luffy loves it when he's zipped to another part of the ship. He laughs gleefully every time.

Torao aggravated by his obvious delight starts chopping him into pieces and throwing him around the ship while a squealing Chopper and Usopp try to collect his floating body parts. Luffy laughs the whole time he's dismembered. Floating headless or having body parts attached in different places is freaking awesome and he continues chasing after Torao all the time begging him to play.

Torao always rolls his eyes, sighs, or curses in annoyance, but he gives in and Luffy ends up a laughing ball of mayhem terrorizing the Strawhat crew members. Its during one of these dismembered playtimes that he sees Torao smiling at his antics and Luffy feels his heart go warm. After that he tries getting Torao to smile more, doing all kinds of whacky things and dragging him around everywhere.

Resistance is pointless against Luffy, but he does know when to back off and give Torao his space. When he sees him reading a book and having tea with Robin, Luffy goes to play with someone else instead. When Torao sits on the ship railing staring out at the ocean during sunset, Luffy goes to his favorite spot on the figurehead and watches him watch the colorful waves. When Luffy tries sneaking food at night from the kitchen he sees Torao walking the deck eyes tired but his body tense, he doesn't bother him.

He thought of dragging him to the men's quarters once for sleep, but when he stretches an arm out to tug him along Torao reacts violently, after regaining his composure he asks that Luffy not disturb him like that when he's on deck at night. Luffy wants to push the issue but Torao's soft spoken words stop him.

"Please Luffy-ya, go to bed and don't worry about me." Torao begs gently.

Luffy obediently goes to bed, but his heart hurts, he rubs the scar over it. When his crew mates were upset or hurting, he would hurt too and try to help fix the problem. But with Torao the hurt feels different, but he doesn't know why or how.

Luffy continues to spend his time getting Torao more involved with his crew mates and his chest nearly bursts with heat every time Torao gives a small smile or chuckle. When they reach Zhou Luffy becomes distracted by the minks and awesome ninja, but he's extremely happy to see Torao reunited with his crew again.

During their stay on Zhou Sanji is blackmailed/kidnapped by one of Big Mom's henchmen. Zoro is furious that his soulmate has been taken away for a wedding, but the samurai can't go to Big Mom's before Wano. Torao agrees to take them to Wano with the rest of the Heart Pirates and part of Luffy's crew decides to join him. Zoro seethes in anger but decides it is best he go to Wano instead of Big Mom's to fetch Sanji. Instead he leaves it up to his captain to retrieve their chef and tells Luffy, "Punch the fuckers that took him away in the face for me."

Following that their crews split up again with confident goodbyes. Luffy feels a bit bitter leaving Torao and isn't sure why he feels that way. He should feel more upset Zoro, Robin, Franky, and Usopp are leaving. Right? He ponders this feeling as the Polar Tang disappears below the waves and the Thousand Sunny sails towards Big Mom's territory.

**************************************************

Torao left. Torao left without saying goodbye to Luffy. A few hours into the celebration on Wano after they have successfully defeated Kaido and his army, a slightly shell-shocked Sabo comes and sits by Luffy a small white letter in his hand. Luffy is about to ask him what it's for but is dragged into a dance by Wano locals. By the time he makes it back to Sabo's side his brother's face is shadowed and his happy smile a bit strained. Luffy latches onto him and stares at the letter.

Sabo wordlessly hands it over. It has Luffy's name on it in neat scrawl. It looks like Torao's handwriting.

"Law said to give this to you. He's left Wano." Sabo says quietly, his voice upset.

"What!?" Luffy cries shocked.

He grabs the letter from Sabo and almost tears it in his haste. He unfolds the note to find a short message.

Luffy-ya,

I'm ending our pirate alliance and leaving with my crew. Thank you for everything future Pirate King.

Trafalgar Law

Luffy stares down at the note his heart beating fast, pounding in his chest and deafening his ears. Torao is gone. He didn't say goodbye. He's ending their alliance. He's leaving Luffy behind.

Luffy lurches upwards and starts running towards the shoreline desperately, he instantly switches to gear second, but its to late. When he gets to where the Polar Tang was docked, there is nothing. Luffy gasps, steam trailing off his body as the pink tint fades from his skin. He glares out at the dark ocean waves and yells in frustration. Luffy buries his fist still clutching the letter into the ground, smashing it into a crater.

Luffy's heart throbs in pain and he growls like a wild animal denied food. Torao just left him, without saying anything to him. Screw his fucking note, Torao should have said goodbye to his face! Why did Torao leave like that? Why did he one-sidedly end their alliance? Does Torao no longer have faith in him? No, that can't be it, he'd called Luffy the future Pirate King, Torao wouldn't have written that if he didn't believe it.

So why did Torao leave? Luffy squats in the sand clutching both sides of his head trying to figure out why Torao would just leave like that, leave him. Luffy doesn't notice the first rays of dawn grace the sky, to absorbed in his own thoughts. He's found crouched like that a few hours later by his brother's. Both Ace and Sabo wear solemn looks.

Sabo had spilled everything to Ace who had not been happy with Law's actions. Sabo just as upset as him had however come to Law's defense. When Ace asked why he was on Law's side Sabo had gone tight lipped and quiet and replied it wasn't his business to say and told Ace not to pry.

Both brother's squat on either side of the miserable pondering Luffy. There are a few tear tracks on the younger brother's face but his brother's say nothing. Sabo stares hard at Luffy debating before giving in and talking.

"Luffy… what is Law to you?" Sabo asks intently.

Luffy looks over at his brother.

"Law's my friend." He replies voice a bit hoarse but sure.

"Is that all?" Sabo prods.

Ace knits his eyebrows on the other side of Luffy not sure where Sabo is going with his questions.

"What do you mean?" Luffy asks as confused as Ace.

"Law, do you feel the same way about him as you feel about Zoro?" Sabo asks sending Ace a look to be quite over Luffy's shoulder when his mouth starts to open.

"No." Luffy replies immediately.

"What about Nami, Robin, Chopper, Brook, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, or Jimbei? Do you feel the same way towards Law as you do them?"

"Nuh-uh." Luffy says shaking his head no.

Sabo nods his head in affirmation.

"What about Law's crew members or the minks? Do you feel the same way about Law as them?" Sabo continues questioning.

"No." Luffy admits his expression turning to a confused frown.

"Then what about me and Ace? Are your feelings for me and Ace the same as the ones for Law?" Sabo asks eyes starting to twinkle.

Luffy is silent for a second staring at his brother, but his answer continues to be the same, "No, it's a different feeling."

"Then do you hate Law, Luffy?" Sabo asks with a small smile.

"No!" Luffy declares jolting up into standing and glaring down at his brother, "I like Law, I'd never hate him!"

On the other side of Luffy understanding dawns on Ace's face followed quickly by shock.

"So Luffy, you like Law, but you don't like him the same way you like your nakama. You don't like him like you like your mink friends and the rest of the Heart Pirate crew members who are also your friends. (Sabo pauses for dramatic effect) And you don't like him like you like your brothers." Sabo draws out checking to see if realization has come to his baby brother yet.

"That's right, I don't like him like my crew or the minks or Torao's crew. And I don't like him like I like you and Ace." Luffy agrees.

"But you do like Law. You just don't like him as a friend, nakama, or a family member." Sabo points out.

"Torao is my friend." Luffy says stubbornly crossing his arms.

"But is that all he is?" Sabo pushes.

Luffy doesn't get it. Law is his friend, but Sabo is right he doesn't feel the same way about Torao as he does for anyone else. His chest only feels warm towards Torao, not anybody else. If he doesn't feel the same about Torao as he does for his other friends then that makes Torao special, like a nakama. But he doesn't feel the same way towards him as he does his own crew which means he's different from nakama, maybe closer to a brother? But he also doesn't feel the same way towards Torao as he does for his brother's so Torao isn't a brother. If he's not a friend, nakama, or a brother then what is Torao to him?

Luffy suddenly remembers the crumpled dirty letter still clutched in his hand and lifts it to his face, straightening out its wrinkles.

Luffy-ya

That's what Torao calls him. It had been sending a tingle down Luffy's spine when Torao spoke his name for a while now. He first remembers it happening after Dressrossa when Torao was sailing on his ship. He likes the way Torao calls his name more than anyone else. Sometimes he'd badger him just so Torao would get annoyed and say it to scold him. 'But is that all he is', that's what Sabo had asked, and the answer is no.

Luffy thrusts his fist with the letter out towards the ocean a huge grin on his face.

He knows what Torao is to him now.

"See you soon Torao." He tells the dark waves.