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It was the flush that stopped him.
Law had been somewhat in the habit of ignoring his reflection; there’d been a time when it was just the opposite, when he’d stared, leering, at his deteriorating form letting the acid build up and up in the back of his mouth. It’d been one of several ways that he’d motivated himself, reminded himself how much the world had taken from him.
But as his body had continued wasting away, as he’d grown closer to Cora-san, listening to this grown man trying to find things to be optimistic about… staring into the mirror and finding new patches on his skin, watching another pair of ribs slowly reveal itself to the naked eye, stopped being any definition of productive. He didn’t need to wryly remind Cora-san that he was dying. Neither of them were that stupid, however much Cora wanted to pretend otherwise.
But now… he caught himself in the corner of his eye, in the floor-length mirror the hotel room had come furnished with. He did a double-take.
His cheeks had color in them.
It was the kind of thing he hadn’t even thought about losing. Everyone in Flevance had been ashen by the end of it.
None of them had this - this glow about them. This warmth of life.
Reflexively, almost, he put a hand to his cheek. He didn’t think it was any warmer than it’d been before he’d cured himself. But it was, maybe, softer. Rounder.
He’d gained weight. That, he’d known about. That was the kind of objective thing he could measure himself. But when Cora had gazed warmly at him, remarking that he was starting to look better, that was the kind of thing he didn’t have units to measure.
But, well. It was hard to argue with his own eyes. He looked alive again.
Law absently felt along his ribs, tracing up and down his side. Hesitantly, he lifted his shirt.
He wasn’t muscular like Penguin and Shachi, not exactly. And he wasn’t plump like Bepo. In either case, it made sense - his new crewmates excelled at different things, and Law doubted he’d ever be able to rocket through the water like any of them could, especially with his new Devil Fruit powers in mind.
But he wasn’t a waif anymore. He could suck his belly in and see his ribs, but they weren’t easily counted.
Law swallowed. For a second, he wanted to sprint out of this room and find the crew’s, and ask - what? What would he even ask them?
Was he hot, he asked himself, mockingly. Would they hit that?
It sounded pathetic to his ears. He was thirteen, not… well, he wasn’t a girl. And it wasn’t their opinions he cared about, anyway.
But this was… maybe… as good a sign as he was going to get. And they had a room to themselves, were staying in the port for the night, half-hoping someone would steal the Heart crew’s unguarded, dumb little dinghy in the hopes they’d have an excuse to splurge on an actual ship.
This was his chance.
Thusly resolved, he felt more stirring in him. He felt this split between nausea and excitement, arousal and horror. He was going to do it.
He jumped a foot in the air when Cora-san opened the door, but that flub was covered by Cora himself smacking his forehead on the doorframe.
“Agh! Shit,” Cora hissed, and Law snorted, dropping his shirt once more. Cora sort of caught himself on the same doorframe he’d just walked into, preventing himself from falling on his back, but overbalanced - he was sort of hanging there, caught in this awkward, hilarious equilibrium with his long, twiggy legs extended out in front of him.
Law felt warm, standing there and snickering at him. He cast a sidelong glance into the mirror again and instinctively covered his cheeks - damn, he could actually see when he blushed now! Ugh.
But it was comforting in its own way, wasn’t it? No matter how stupid he made himself look by confessing his feelings, he’d never look stupider than Cora-san made himself look on the regular.
Cora was clumsily crabwalking his way back upright, finally standing as Law crossed the room. A trickle of blood was hugging the side of Cora’s prominent nose; Law sighed.
“C’mere and sit down,” he grunted, fighting to keep the warmth from his voice - and from his face. He spared a glance for the mirror again and flinched. Still blushing, like a moron.
“It’s okay! I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding. And you could be concussed,” Law muttered, slipping into the bathroom for the first-aid kit. “And before you tell me not to worry… shut up, I’ll take whatever practice I can get.”
“Not for your bedside manner, though,” Cora chuckled, but did as he was told; he sat in the desk chair that’d come with the room and leaned downward for Law to have a look at the injury. The positioning of it all made Law’s heart pound, but only as much as being around Cora like this ever did - he looked almost as if he were preparing for a kiss.
Law swallowed. Well, he had settled on tonight being the night - but no, he really did want to at least have a look at Cora’s head. That’d have to wait. He ran through his usual concussion checklist while he bandaged Cora’s forehead, accustomed to the whole rigamarole since growing closer with Cora - the man hit his head so frequently, Law had long since memorized it all.
“Done?” Cora spoke up, also accustomed to this process - and he started to retreat back to his typical posture.
“Wait,” Law blurted. And his mind stalled - oh, he. He’d made the decision, but he hadn’t entirely thought it all through. Dammit, was tonight really the night? He hadn’t had the time to mentally prepare himself, to plan.
“Hm?”
Cora was staring him right in the face. It was awful. Law kind of hated being in the path of those deep, red eyes, frozen by every separate detail of that strong, masculine face.
Like… he hated it, in the way that he really, really loved it.
He can see you blush, idiot, he reminded himself. This shit’s not gonna be a secret for long. And why be embarrassed, when he knew he looked as good as Cora’d ever seen him?
“Bet that hurts,” he said curtly. He cursed inwardly as Cora, taken aback, still straightened a bit, bringing his face that much farther away.
“It’s not so bad. Nothin’ I’m not used to!”
Confidence. Confidence, confidence. Don’t act like a kid.
“I can make it feel better,” Law offered. He tried to deepen his voice, embrace that bit of husk he could sort of half pull off now. He wasn’t just improving, Law reminded himself - he was developing.
There was this bright, intrigued expression on Cora’s face. Dammit, he probably thought Law had discovered some new function of the Op-Op. “Yeah?”
Confidence. Law drew in a deep breath, challenging himself to meet Cora’s gaze without flinching.
He leaned forward. He planted his palms on either of Cora’s thighs, leaned his weight on them. And he smoothed them upward, inward.
“I can make you feel better,” he said.
Cora blinked. And he jumped.
It was more reserved than it might have been, because Cora was always so conscious of him. But he sort of scuttled backward, climbing the chair with one huge, lanky leg and kicking past Law’s ear with the other. He got a generous view of Cora’s package and felt heat pulse in his core.
“WHOA, Law, that’s -” Cora blurted, and he was red all the way up to his ears. “Th-that’s not funny, Law, you - I almost had a heart attack!”
“I’m not joking.”
“Hah, uh, cheers for the commitment, but -”
“I’m not,” Law insisted. “Cora, look at me.”
Cora breathed outward, his brows tented in a perfect picture of distress. “Law… I am.”
“You said I look better.”
“I didn’t mean attractive,” Cora objected, then scrambled to add, “I-I mean - it’s not that you’re not, either! It’s, you’re - you’re a child!”
“And why can’t children have sex,” Law countered, feeling his heart pounding in his ears. He was standing at his full height, knowing inwardly it wasn’t half enough to impress Cora-san into relenting but pushing forward with whatever momentum he could muster. “Because they don’t have life experience like adults do, right? Who is it that’s told me I’ve been through more hardship than most adults?!”
Cora was sinking in his seat, a ridiculous, helpless sort of expression on his face. He’d spread his legs to accommodate Law there again, and Law snuck another glance at his crotch. It wasn’t a bulge, he thought, but… it wasn’t not a bulge.
Basically, there was a dick there. Big surprise.
“I’m twice your age,” Cora all but whined. Law swallowed, bolstering his strength.
“Did you save my life so I could hold myself back from what I want,” Law pressed. “Or did you save it so I could live the rest of it happy?”
Cora’s lip trembled. Law frowned - he wasn’t… going to cry, was he?
“It couldn’t be anyone your own age…?” Cora sighed, closing his eyes. He deflated, releasing all this tension at once. Law stepped back once, considering the new situation. Was this a good sign, or a bad one? “No, no - what… why now? What’s changed, here?”
Law blinked.
He hesitated, collecting his thoughts. And he glanced sidelong into the floor-length mirror.
“I guess,” Law said in a small voice, inexplicably embarrassed to let slip the whole of his thought process, “It just… finally hit me. That I have a full life to live… Or something.” Another glance, another moment to remind himself that he looked better. “A-and… I realized I don’t look dead anymore.”
“You don’t,” Cora said, gently. There was a sweetness about him, suddenly, that made Law’s cheeks burn. Each breath felt too shallow. Everything felt… shallow, slight.
He couldn’t stand to look at Cora, suddenly. This bashfulness was irritating in the extreme, with all that confidence he’d tried to summon up earlier. He settled for staring at Cora’s chin. He thought he might have been smiling, or fighting a smile.
“You look nice,” Cora added.
Law was going to burn alive.
He met Cora’s eye. He was smiling the sort of smile Law couldn’t stand, from him or from anyone. This pride, this warmth, was overwhelming and sickening and infantilizing, but -
He lifted his shirt, suffocating suddenly. He bore his chest and tore it off, and he stood, breathing, for a second.
“Do I,” he began to ask on instinct, then shut himself up by force. Stupid, stupid. Don’t ask for validation in the middle of all this.
But Cora seemed to read his mind - he reached for Law, brushed his fingers over his cheek. Law could feel his smile on him, with or without the aid of his eyes; indeed, he was looking pointedly away. “You do,” Cora promised. “You look wonderful. You look better.”
For the first time in a long time, standing there between Cora’s knees, with him sitting up in front of him - Law felt overwhelmed by the size difference. That surge of ridiculous confidence felt so naive now, to think that Cora saw him as anything even approaching an adult…
No, he wasn’t going to cave now, dammit. Law forced himself forward, reached out a palm - he grazed it over the front of Cora’s pants, gasping inwardly at his own nerve. Cora gasped too, his knee sort of jerking upward before he settled again, cupping Law’s cheek properly now.
He didn’t know well enough to say it was hard. He didn’t think it was.
“Let’s not - you don’t have to do that,” Cora said quickly.
“I said I’d make it feel better.” Law swallowed. “You can’t make me back down.”
“I’m…” Cora murmured, then faltered. He paused for a long, long moment, and then - he was melting down, kneeling, his knees parted around Law’s feet. He placed himself as close to Law’s own eye-level as he could, smiling so, so gently that Law kind of wanted to punch him in the face. “I’m not trying to, okay? But - if we’re doing this, I want to make it feel good for you. No, amazing, I want it to be amazing for you.”
“That,” Law stammered, then cleared his throat; “that defeats the premise. I’m your doctor, or… something.”
“I can be a doctor, too,” Cora grinned. “Mister Sexdoctor.”
“You literally just called yourself Mister!”
“Mister Sexdoctor says,” Cora insisted, pressing closer - Law could feel his breath on his face, and couldn’t help but stare. He felt trapped, but - like - good trapped. “Boys like you will like this a lot better if they let Cora-san take over.”
Law pressed his lips together. He searched for something to say, and blurted out, “It’s weirder when you babytalk at me, Cora.”
“Eh?”
“Are you… some kind of pervert,” Law snorted, unable to finish the sentence without this tension in him breaking wide open. The laughter felt amazing, almost orgasmic after all the stress having built up and up in him. Cora beamed right back at him, and a kind of tension Law hadn’t noticed melted out of his shoulders, too.
“I think I might be,” Cora confessed. He mustered a hapless smirk, tilting his head. “I, well… there’s this guy I like. This kid.”
Law’s heart leapt so high, he thought it must have been a good move to wait until he’d mostly recovered to confess; he might honestly have fainted if he’d heard this when he was at his worst. As things were, it was a struggle to respond - especially with the laughter lingering in his throat.
“... okay,” he managed, “Well - fine. Mister Sexdoctor. Do… whatever you’re gonna do.”
It wasn’t anyone’s idea of a seductive response, but the beaming grin Cora responded with was as strong as ever. Law instinctively took a step back when Cora pressed forward, then reminded himself exactly how counterintuitive that was; after a moment’s doubtful look, Cora approached again, with his mouth as well as his hand.
His lips brushed Law’s cheek at the same time as his huge, huge hand brushed his waist. Law wanted to be frustrated about it - of course Cora would start with something as basic, as neutered as a kiss on the cheek - but even that had him jerking with oversensitivity. Picturing himself kissing Cora - even having sex with Cora - hadn’t encapsulated the feeling of Cora’s breath tickling his cheek, even down to his neck, nor the rasp of all those scuffs and scratches and calluses on Cora’s palms from catching himself while falling, nor the scent of cigarettes overwhelming all else. As much as Law had tried to prepare himself mentally, the reality of the moment was tactile in so many ways he’d never imagined.
Experience was the best teacher. Law knew that, Cora knew that. Humiliating as it was, the best he could do for them both was to lean in.
He turned into Cora’s kiss just as Cora backed away a little bit. His disappointment must have shown on his face, because Cora’s smile turned indulgent.
“I left a mark,” Cora giggled, poking Law on the cheek. Oh, not the infantilization now.
“Leave a different kinda mark,” Law countered, and Cora just giggled again. “Hey.”
“In a minute,” Cora promised, and Law’s head spun when he dipped back in. He unconsciously inhaled as Cora pressed their lips together, tasting hot, sour breath long before he could taste anything else of Cora’s.
He’d thought that kissing lipsticky lips would feel some kind of way, some kind of different than just feeling his own lips press together, and… well, they did, but not in a way Law could articulate. They felt like lips, but the sensation was so fundamentally different, so evolved, so elevated…
He shuddered. He couldn’t help it. He didn’t know if lipstick was supposed to taste like anything in particular, but the things he tasted as he parted his lips, clumsily pressing in, were only unfamiliar in that they were Cora’s. He tasted like skin, and like breath. He tasted like teeth, except he tasted like big, big, big. His lips were smooth and soft, Law noted inwardly, not yet certain why that seemed worthy of notice.
His whole body jerked before he could even identify why. There were big, rough, but gentle thumbs on his bare nipples. He felt for a split second like his being was composed only of the parts in contact with Cora-san. His head couldn’t spin anymore, because Cora’s hands had never held his mind in gentle palms like Cora held the rest of him.
He could cut people open so much easier now. Maybe he ought to give that a try.
Cora pulled him even a little bit closer. Law felt this spike in him when Cora smoothed one hand to cup his bottom, but he didn’t exert pressure - only cradled Law against his chest as he lifted and laid him back onto the foot of the bed. He felt for a second like he should have been humiliated to be held like this, like a baby, but so much space in his mind was occupied by overwhelm and arousal, he couldn’t actually muster the emotion.
Cora planted his elbows on either side of him, cradling his face with a long-since-familiar grin. The makeup on his lips was somewhat less molested than Law’d expected, but the centermost part was rubbed away with a rosy haze surrounding the area. “Hi.”
As Law had noticed when they’d kissed, Cora’s lips weren’t chapped. Why did that feel important? Why did that keep catching in his mind…
At any rate, the positioning of it all spoke volumes. Law swallowed. “You’re gonna… you’re gonna suck my dick?”
“Yeah. If you want.”
His ears burned. There was so much electricity in his gut it almost hurt. For a split second, he was tempted to back down.
“I can’t get my pants off with you there,” he grumbled, and Cora chortled.
“I got it!” He started at Law’s belt, those huge, huge fingers feeling so appropriately clumsy despite the care he used. “I did this a few times when you were sick, remember?”
And on the occasions he’d been awake enough to process the feeling, Law had felt like he was going to violently explode, yes. “And what? Didja wanna be doing this, instead?”
He hated that sympathetic look, but the words out of his mouth were a surprise; “Honestly? Yeah. I hated seeing you that way.”
… It was… not exactly the wording Law had been looking for. But it was still worth celebrating, he thought.
Law instinctively covered his cheeks as Cora finished undressing him, greeting the sight with a warm hum. “Sometimes I forget what you’ve got down here. I mean - not that I’m thinking about what you’ve… I mean, you know?”
He was so stupid. Law snorted instead of answering, uncovering his face, and saw that Cora was smiling back. What, had it been a deliberate statement, intended to help him relax?
Cora touched his thigh, gently pressed it open - not that it took much effort for him. He traced his hand further upward, and Law yelped much earlier than he’d thought he would.
“Sensitive?” Cora murmured, more as a hypothetical than as a question; he rubbed that spot on Law’s inner thigh again, featherlight, and Law’s whole body jumped. What the hell?! Just touching that single spot made sensation spike in his shoulders, his nipples, and absolutely his cunt.
“What the fuck,” Law inhaled, and Cora hummed warmly. He lifted his hands and rested them on either side of Law’s narrow hips, bracketing the whole of his lower stomach - all the way down to his vulva.
“We’ve all got our weird little buttons.”
Law had half a mind to ask where Cora’s happened to be - a body that much bigger than his, it was hardly fair to make him find them - but Cora lowered his head, kissing between his hands, just beneath Law’s belly button. Law’s breath sort of aborted itself; he didn’t know whether to inhale or exhale, because the touch made him feel so full he was certain the air wouldn’t fit.
Yet before he had the time to resolve that internal crisis, Cora kissed him again further down. And again, and again, and with as huge as he was that was all it took to place him just at the beginning of Law’s slit, peering up at him with those simmering, wine-colored eyes. Law shuddered despite himself, even that hot pressure and the gusts of Cora’s hot breath through his nose making him feel like he was going to shake himself right off the bed.
“Alright?” Cora spoke against him, and Law gasped again. His nipples alone were so hard they felt electric.
Haltingly, Law nodded. Sensing that Cora wasn’t content with that alone, he mumbled, “G-go on,” hating that quiver in his voice.
Cora kept on looking at him for a second, and Law worried that he wasn’t convinced. But he opened his mouth, and despite having kissed him not long before the sight of it immediately juxtaposed against his own tiny pussy was, in a word, shocking.
Cora just held his mouth open against him - open-mouth kissing the whole area of his vulva - for a second, and the wet heat alone made Law gasp. Cora drew his tongue up and up and up, so so slow, and Law felt it everywhere. It wasn’t merely as if Cora was lapping at Law’s slit; he felt almost as if he’d fallen feet-first into Cora’s maw.
And the next lap was even more, even greater. Cora pressed into Law’s slit and Law cried out, humping upward without meaning to. Cora hung back for a second, wiping his mouth and grinning, and Law struggled to catch his breath, focusing on the long smear of Cora’s lipstick now.
“Tell me when.”
“When,” Law almost snapped. Having Cora’s mouth on him was so overwhelming it was almost hell - but having him hang back only infuriated him. That skeptical look on his face was that much worse. “Seriously.”
“Okay,” Cora relented, placing one hand on Law’s lower stomach. Even that much made him groan - it was so big and so hot and Law could feel his arousal creeping up the back of his neck, threatening to choke him. Cora exerted gentle pressure there as he lowered himself back down, and Law realized the intention was to keep him from humping upward again.
Law exhaled hard. Should he have been frustrated that Cora didn’t trust him to keep from humping on his own? But…
It felt good. Being held down. Even as gently as it was.
And then Cora’s mouth was on him, and it was that much better. Law hiccuped as Cora lapped at him, so easily capable of bridging the space between his hole and his cock with that huge tongue of his. His voice escaped him in fits and starts, never capable of controlling those vocalizations for more than a second at a time.
Cora focused on the frontmost part - his clit - lip-nibbling there, just delicately picking at it with that big clumsy mouth, and Law was tempted to tell him to go back. He knew in concept that clit stim was better for most, but with Cora’s sheer size the sensation of being lapped at with that tongue had so overwhelmed him. Now, with him trying to get at that tiny nub with such big apparatus, Law wasn’t feeling quite so well-tended.
However, he then felt something probe at him. Cora had to negotiate his size and Law’s for a second, but he felt something inside him.
Holy shit. One of Cora’s fingers was more than Law’d ever, ever managed to get inside him. Forget his own hands, it might’ve been bigger than that hairbrush handle he’d resorted to once.
In seconds, he was out of breath, his cries not quieting no matter how he tried. His head buzzed and so did his ears. Even his eyes grew wet.
He’d never orgasmed before. But as he wrestled his hiccuping breath back into control, he thought that must have been it. Every muscle in his body felt achey-sore like he’d run a marathon, but sweetly relaxed like he was finally lying back in bed after all that strenuous effort.
“Okay, Law?” Cora asked him, his voice so low and warm that Law could’ve cum again. He breathed in as deep as he could, realizing his cunt was empty again.
He forced himself up onto his elbows so he could meet Cora’s eye. That big, sweet face was staring at him with this warm mixture of concern and affection, a smile pulling at his lips despite visible effort to the contrary.
Law loved him. He loved him, he loved him a lot.
He forced his breath into order. “Are you gonna fuck me?”
Cora’s eyebrows shot upward. He laughed in disbelief. “Don’t you even wanna catch your breath, first?”
“‘M fine.”
“Don’t insist on my account, okay? I’m having a great time just like this. I could eat you out all night, I really could,” Cora said softly, smiling the whole way. Annoyance rose like bile in Law’s throat.
“Stop it,” he bit. “I’ve come this far. Don’t look down on me now.”
That warm smile broke into a frown. “Looking down? The hell?”
Law was briefly abashed by that reaction, but he pushed on. “That’s what this is, right? Hitting pause when I do anything. You don’t think I can take it, you’re treating me like a kid.”
Cora just stared pensively at him for a second. He tittered, then straightened. “You don’t think very nicely of me, huh?”
The fuck? “You saved my life?”
“Eh, sure. But you’re attributing all these cruel thoughts to me, you know? When I’m just trying to check in with you,” Cora tilted his head, and, at last, Law saw that beloved smile just beginning to return. “It’s not disdain to want you to feel good. I’m asking you, because I love you.”
Meeting Cora’s eye was too much, suddenly. Law felt his ears burn as he looked down, feeling small in a whole new way.
“Do you want me to fuck you?” Cora asked him, gentle as anything, and Law’s shoulders burned, too.
If it would get him out of this conversation, absolutely. Law haltingly whispered, “yes”.
Cora smiled at him. He could feel it. And his shadow grew in the peripheral of Law’s vision, his shadow and his warmth, until he brushed his soft lips over Law’s cheek once again.
“Hold on tight,” Cora warned him, slipping his hand under Law’s back, and lifted him. Law felt that wonderful head rush, that war in himself. Cora could’ve just told him to move.
But Cora turned him in his hands, held him with his back to Cora’s stomach, and turned to the floor-length mirror. Law was startled to see himself so suddenly, looking tiny as a doll in Cora’s big, long, warm arms.
But there was Cora-san, cradling him so sweetly, kissing him just on the crown of his head. He turned his head, meeting Law’s eye in the mirror and smiling at him.
“Hi!” he said, in this tiny, tiny voice, and Law couldn’t help but smile back.
He opened his mouth, intending another barb about Cora treating him like a kid - how else was he meant to interpret his behavior now?! - but abruptly, his eyes landed on Cora’s mouth. Why did his soft lips seem so profound to him…
The answer came to him slowly, as he basked in Cora’s affection, in the languid stroke of his big, big thumb over Law’s stomach. It was because of all those cold nights in the North Blue, watching Cora gnaw at relentlessly chapped lips. He’d had bags under his eyes so profound that Law’d supposed they were permanent, and his eyes and his skin alike had been so dull.
The Cora he saw drinking him in now didn’t just glow with affection. He glowed with life.
The revelation made Law’s eyes sting for a moment. That… was just coincidence, right? That they both, suddenly, looked so lifelike.
He swallowed, banishing those near-tears. The hand Cora had steadying his bottom fumbled around a bit, and his thumb stroked Law’s slit.
“Well,” Cora murmured, “You do feel ready.”
He did indeed.
With his permission, Cora lowered him to undress. Law was almost tempted to turn away as a courtesy, but that thought vanished as soon as Cora shrugged off his shirt, exposing his dozens of scars, his pale skin.
He was still slender, Law realized, but he wasn’t bony anymore. Even beneath his clothes, his appearance had improved. He bit both his lips, fighting the urge to comment on it - he may very well still have been imagining things.
And the temptation was much more effectively banished when Cora wiggled out of his underwear, baring that big, big cock for him. The sound of his heart pounding in his ears drowned out any coherent thought at all.
Cora leaned back for a second once he was naked, smiling bashfully at Law. “Um. Any thoughts?”
Law’s eyes were glued to Cora’s erection. He tried to think of something that wasn’t just insanely needy.
“It’s pink,” he said.
Stupid.
Cora looked at him.
“So’re you,” he pointed out.
Goddammit.
Cora scooped him up again before long, lowered him into position, standing and staring into the mirror. Law stared too, his cunt hot like lava seeing that massive cock directly compared with his torso.
“Are you sure?” Cora asked him, under his breath.
Law felt that hot impulse to object again. He looked up at Cora’s face in the mirror. He’d never seen a man look so hungry.
Law nodded, and for the first time, he thought he saw the relief in Cora when he received that approval.
Oh, Law thought.
His breath shuddered on its way into his lungs as Cora lined himself up, and despite everything, Law could only stand to stare at Cora’s expression in the mirror. He savored every last twitch he saw there, even as he felt Cora’s velvet-soft, damp head touch itself to his slit.
“I love you,” he blurted, before he could no longer speak.
He’d watched Cora smile like that any number of times - but he’d never looked quite so good doing it. He’d always been deeply attracted to him, but it’d never quite hit him how tightly linked their well-being was to one another.
Cliche as it was, Law thought - when Cora sheathed himself inside him, it really did feel like he was finally complete. Like he was joining with his other half.
No, he wasn’t so powerfully sentimental that he could keep that train of thought going as Cora slowly built speed. He was being ravaged like he was Cora-san’s personal fleshlight, every last one of his limbs shaking with every thrust - he didn’t have that kind of space in his head.
But he did feel like he’d finally escaped his own head. Like he could, at last, appreciate Cora as much as he hoped Cora appreciated him.
Cora fell asleep long before he did, and for once, Law didn’t have a single complaint. He lay there next to him, counting every improvement he noticed, and newly appreciating everything that’d stayed the same.