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Law stepped forward in line, his heart beat in his throat, knees gone weak.
This was a dream; it wasn’t real; he wasn’t real.
His mind sputtered in an onslaught of cognitive nausea; a thrum of anxiety.
“Next.” The bodyguard called him forward.
He didn’t really hear because he was too focused on the man seated at the table. The blond mop of hair, the genuine grin, the sparkling blue eyes, the long fingers waving to the person departing from his graces.
Blood rushed in Law’s ears as that warm gaze fell upon him.
“Sir? You can move forward.” The guard tapped his arm.
“Oh, yeah.” Law said, taking a two steps forward to seal the gap between him and the blond before him, the book slid from his fingers, pushed towards its author.
“Hey, thanks for being here.” The man said with the identical bright grin that he’d given the last person - an authentic happiness that squeezed Law’s heart. The way those eyes peered from beneath blond fringe seized his breath. “Did you enjoy the book?”
“Hm?”
The author chuckled, mistaking Law’s nervousness for being an adoring fan. He was, in a way.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Uh, yeah.” God, this was not going the way he thought it would, his tongue choosing to stammer uselessly.
“Well, I’m glad.” He signed his name with beautiful, large strokes. “Oh, shit, forgot I’m supposed to make it out to you.” He laughed, eyes crinkling. “Sorry. What’s your name?”
“Law.”
The author chuckled, shaking his head slightly, as he wrote it out. “Very funny. Alright, Law. Well, I’m glad the character resonated with you.” He snapped the book cover closed and held it out, stuttering to a halt when he met amber eyes.
A pause, a moment in suspended recognition.
Law slipped his hand over the smooth skin, the tattoos - in memoriam - wrapped around the author’s wrist.
“I missed you, Cora.” He heard himself say.
“Hey, no touching.” The bodyguard stepped forward.
“What did you just say?” A million emotions rolled in waves; anger clouded over, then narrowed with doubt before Cora’s face dropped, a shock buzzing between disbelief and joy, scanning Law’s face for a sign.
The half-smile, emotion laid bare, must have been more than convincing. A look that conveyed a thousand soft words whispered in nightmarish nights, sharing warmth in the worst of frozen tundras, a light flickering in the horrid darkness.
“You save me, I save you.” A mantra, echoed with love.
“I said, no touching.” The bodyguard stepped forward, readying his body to yank Law aside before Cora raised a hand.
“Stop -” He slowly stood, in a trance, dropping the book to take Law’s hand in both of his. “It’s…you.”
“It’s me, Corazón.” Eyes misted over, tears welling.
“Oh, god, Law.” A hushed, strained sound ripped from Cora’s lungs. He drew Law around the table, instantly towering over him in a comforting blanket, wrapping long arms around him and squeezing tight.
Law heard murmurings in the crowd, deafened from the warm embrace swallowing him whole.
“Mr. Donquixote.” A low, hushed voice.
Cora pulled away with hesitation, like Law would disappear if he let him go; Law felt exactly the same fear. An expression of regret flashed on his face as he held Law’s hand tightly.
“I - I have to do this, but stay - stay here. Please, fuck, please, I’ll try and finish quickly.” Cora pressed a kiss to his forehead, lingering, searing.
Cora pulled someone to his side, but Law didn’t dare take his eyes off of the ghost manifest. “Take care of him, give him anything he wants.” Cora told them - an assistant maybe, Law didn’t care.
“Oh - kay -” The young woman, red hair flowing past her shoulders, looked questioningly at Cora before turning to Law and ushering him behind the step-and-repeat.
Cora’s hand squeezed his before they were torn apart. Panic panged for a moment, before he steadied himself. Regretfully, he couldn’t see Cora anymore from this position, and a part of him ached to be close, to feel that touch encased around him, the dream-like warmth and safety. Maybe he had dreamt it…
“Want to tell me who you are, kid?” The manager/assistant/whatever gritted through her teeth. Annoyance snapped him back to the woman before him.
“Kid?” Law scoffed. “I’m clearly older than you.”
She stood, scowling, tapping her nails against the clipboard curled into her chest.
“I’m Law.” He held up the book. “From this.”
“Yeah, right. Like I’m going to believe that you’re the long lost love who died twelve years ago.” Her eyes narrowed, brow furrowed with heavy skepticism. “Just so you know, he’s very well protected from people like you.” She jabbed a finger into his chest, ironically in the very spot where Cora’s symbol was stamped into his chest, black ink over his heart. “You do anything and the guard with the green hair,” She pointed behind her left shoulder at the scowling bodyguard near the back entrance. “Will break your fingers without hesitation.”
“What? Do you want to see some identification or something?” Law needled.
“Why bother? It's probably fake. Creep.” She spun around and spoke hastily into her walkie-talkie, leaving him in the center of the bookstore to sit and wait.
_
Cora hurried, keeping it brief with each fan as he explained his time was cut short by a family emergency. He made sure to make people feel special, just a little more speedily. A few guests eyed Law with jealously as they passed him, a similar intensity to the vigilantly suspicious glares from roaming bodyguards doing parameter checks. Nami - he learned her name - was practically fuming at him when she got him a water bottle, as though it personally offended her to share space with him. She tried to charge him five dollars for it.
Law appreciated that people were looking out for Cora; though, bitter that it was geared at him.
They didn’t know shit, no matter if they read the book or not. They didn’t know the sunken reality, harsh and terrifying, of spindly hands that played their puppet strings like that of a fiddle. They didn’t know what it meant to lose everything in Eden, to only have the serpent swallow them in his unhinged jaws anyway. They didn’t know what it was to choke on the air of genocide, to have their heart blackened by the settlement of smoke and mirrors.
They didn’t know the heavy curse Cora and he carried, alone now, the sole survivors of a haunting existence.
They didn’t know how good it was to see Cora openly speaking and laughing with others, face bright and happy. But Law knew, better than anyone, intimate with the silence of captivity and the drums of liberation.
Cora parted from the last group of fans and immediately tried to make his way to Law when he was stopped by his team, bidding for his attention, quick-paced chattering of demands, questions, and agenda setting.
“Rosi, we don’t have time -” Nami tried to stop Cora from reaching Law, but he swiveled around her blockade with more grace than he had ever seen from his benefactor.
Wordlessly, Cora pulled him up to stand from the couch and brought him an all encompassing embrace. Law folded easily into the man’s chest, breathing it all in.
“You're here.” Cora said, hushed and low. Fingers gripped and clawed into his back, holding him as close as humanely possible, and Law melted into his arms, awashed with relief, his whole body unclenched.
“Rosi, sorry, but we have to move.” The green-haired guard grumbled from behind them, clearly not wanting to interrupt but sent on said errand nevertheless.
“Uh, yeah, okay.” Cora answered before nuzzling lips against Law’s ear.
Law stopped himself from audibly hitching his breath.
“You’re coming with, yeah?” A whisper, a plea.
“I go where you go.” Law whispered back, the familiar chant earned him a tight squeeze.
“Fuck, it really is you.” Cora marginally pulled back to see Law’s face, tipping his chin up so their eyes met. He was clearly holding back tears, his lips tight and strained, like he was suppressing the need to cut himself open to hold Law closer.
“It’s really me.” Law smiled.
_
“Nami, please.” Cora begged through the crack in the hotel room door.
“Okay, but Zoro’s standing guard out here, then -”
“What the hell, witch. Why me?” The green-head bobbed past where Law could see from behind Cora.
“I’d be happy to help, Nami-swan.” A simpering voice purred.
“You both are to stay here and not move.” Nami barked. “Check on him every twenty minutes no matter what. Sanji, I’m counting on you.”
The simpering returned. “Of course, my dear, anything for you.”
“This isn't neces-” Cora groaned.
“Rosi, we don’t know who this fucker is. Do not make me drag him out here.”
“You’re already having Robin do a background check, can you, please -”
“No.” Nami replied firmly. “I’ll put your order in for room service. And if I find out you left the room or dispatched these two morons -”
“Hey!” A deep growl.
“You won’t have to worry about anyone else hunting you down because I’ll kill you myself.” She threatened. Her fierce protectiveness made Law smile.
Cora sighed and nodded in capitulation, closing the door before the soft thunk of his forehead meeting the wood. He pushed off and lazily turned around to face Law with a big grin.
“We can expect to be interrupted. Isn’t that nice?”
Law laughed softly. “Feels like old times doesn’t it? Hiding away from him, jumping from city to city, hotel to hotel.”
“I miss when you could put a fake name down at a hotel.” Cora sat next to him on the couch with a sigh.
“Yeah? Back in the good ol’ days when you would pay with dirty cash, old man?”
Cora laughed, a beautiful sound that crashed into Law’s chest, stealing the air from his lungs.
“You’re, uh, you look,” Cora blushed. “You look good.”
“Yeah?” Law beamed as his stomach fluttered. “You look good, too.”
Cora’s blush deepened, a similar heat rising to Law’s cheeks.
“My beautiful Law.” He cupped Law’s cheek, thumbing over the soft patch of dark facial hair. His expression shifted into something more forlorn.
Law was pulled towards him on the couch. Their breath mingled, heat building between them, bodies so close it made him dizzy.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Sometimes, I barely believe that I made it out alive.” Law said simply, trying to answer a thousand questions with a few measly words.
“But he -”
“After he shot you…and thought you were dead, he found me, smuggled me down to Mexico and then, to Spain. I’m so sorry for wasting your sacrifice, I -” Law choked on his own words.
Cora shook his head and reached out to touch Law however he could, hands dropped from cheeks to his shoulders as he knocked his forehead against Law’s.
“No, not a waste.” Cora whispered. “I’m so sorry, I should have -” I should have shot him, I should have been the one to kill him, I should have been more brave, I shouldn’t have hesitated. Each word of regret carved into bone.
It was Law’s turn to shake his head. There was nothing to forgive, not when he owed the man so much already.
“How long?” Cora asked.
“I escaped just before his arrest.” Law knew his attempts at offering a reassuring smile failed.
“I tried to keep hope, but they said…” Tears softly fell from blue eyes.
“I know.”
They said there were no survivors. And there weren’t…other than Law. But by that point he was successfully only known as his role of Corazón - a replacement in the shadow of big shoes, whispers of a ghost, anonymity held close so that the brotherly betrayal would remain a secret. The Family could appear unwavering and unbreakable.
But break, they did.
“I never stopped looking for you.” Cora held his hand, tracing his thumb over tattooed fingers.
“Me too. I have your book to thank for finding my way back to you.” A memoir of horrors depicted how Cora braved it all to provide the information that eventually brought Doffy down; it also revealed that Cora had, indeed, survived.
“I often hoped that if you were alive out there, it would bring you home.” Cora’s hands returned to Law’s cheeks, smoothing away tears that he had been silently spilling.
“Cora -” A mourning of all the time they had lost, desperate need for all that they held now.
A rapt knocking reeled them apart before the beeping of the door signaled its impending patronage.
Nami stepped through to hold the door open as the blond bodyguard pushed the cart of food through the frame while the scowling, intimidating one - Zoro? - stood behind them, his arms crossed, one eye watching Law.
“Here’s your dinner.” Nami was curt and firm, eyeing the two of them with something like exasperation. “Sanji and Zoro will be out here if you need anything.” She reminded, turning on her heel and snapping the two guards to their posts as the door was pulled closed behind her. “Check every twenty minutes. Every. Twenty. Minutes.” They heard her through the wall.
“Like a fucking prison.” Cora chuckled before turning back to him.
Law, on instinct, wasted no time in crashing his lips against the Cora’s. The man let out a surprised ‘mmph’ before being soothed by Law’s fingers as they wrapped and squeezed around the nape of his neck, curling into blond locks.
He never wanted to let Cora go. He wanted to remain here, attached to him, sharing breath and body heat, for the rest of his life, if he could. Need thrummed through his core shamelessly.
Cora had saved Law every day - since the moment they met to the moment he was shot in the chest, and everyday after that. Law’s heart beat because of Cora. Every sacrifice he made, he made for them, in an attempt to buy their freedom - somehow, someway.
Through the phases of his life, Law vacillated between wanting to become Cora, wanting to be saved by him, wanting to be held by him, and wanting to be fucked by him. Regardless of the desire, the fact remained: he loved Rosiante Donquixote, with his whole fucking heart.
After recovering from his bout of shock, Cora made space for Law to slide onto his lap, straddling his legs on either side. Their position on the couch was compromised by Cora’s size, awkward and clumsy, but Law didn’t care as long as they were touching. This was bliss.
“Fuck.” Cora panted against his lips as they pulled apart to catch breath. “I didn’t - I - you -” He stuttered. “You want to?”
“Yeah, obviously.” Law laughed with light puffs of air.
“We only have twenty minutes.” Cora nervously bit his bottom lip as Law slid off of him.
“I haven’t seen you in twelve years.” Law said, eyes heavy-lidded as he threw his t-shirt over his head. Blue eyes widened. “I’m getting fucked whether they’re here or not. And if they don’t want a show,” He unzipped and slipped off his loose jeans, stepping out from where they pooled at his ankles, revealing a black thong with a red heart stitched exquisitely in lace. Cora looked stunned, eyes tracing over Law’s near naked body, the tattoos, the panties, overwhelmed with what to take in. Law blushed under such greedy attention. “Then, they should fuck off.”
Cora’s large hands reached and traced over Law’s body in reverence, thumbing over the lines of tattoos, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to the sternum before resting his forehead there.
“Law.” Cora groaned.
“I’m right here.” Law threaded fingers through blond hair, hugging Cora to him. He swallowed the emotion bubbling in his gut. “I’ll be right here until you say otherwise.”
Blue eyes shot up to meet his. “Never.” Cora said firmly. “You’re never to leave my side again.”
“Dramatic.” He tried to make light, while the spoken promise made something unlock for the first time in years.
Cora was the only person he felt safe exposing himself to, laying vulnerable and open; and this, this was new, this was the deepest trust Law could think of. And he needed it, so badly it hurt.
“These are…” Cora’s lips began kissing the black lines on tan skin, tongue trailing over inked flesh. “Mine?” Eyes, full of wonder, flicked up to Law’s amber ones.
“They’re for you.” Law confirmed. Body like a sacrificial offering, made for Cora. “It’s all for you.”
Cora’s face was unreadable as he stood abruptly, lifting Law into his arms, forcing his legs to squeeze around the midsection, clumsily swaying on the walk between the couch and the bedroom, kicking the French doors half closed as he dropped Law onto the bed and smothered him into the mattress.
“Oh, god, you oaf.” Law laughed as the air was punched from his lungs with Cora’s weight; he curled around him, needing more contact - as much contact as possible - and was pleased to feel a similar desperation in the hard-on helplessly rutting against him.
The warmth pulled away and ripped an involuntary gasp of complaint, everything was cold without Cora’s fire. But the heat in that blue gaze stopped him in his tracks.
“This is what you want?” Cora checked, thorough and certain. When Law nodded and tugged at his button-down, Cora smiled and shucked it over his head effortlessly. However, when he tried to shimmy out of his pants, he tripped and fell off the bed in the process.
Law’s laughter filled his lungs and stretched the muscles in between ribs, a few errant tears fell from his eyes as he clutched his belly. When blond hair popped up, along with a pouting frown, the bout of laughter started all over again.
Fuck, he loved this man.
The feigned frown broke and Cora beamed mischievously while igniting a possessive growl. He came to kneel at the end of the bed before dragging Law to its edge and flipping him over. Law let Cora manhandle him face-down and savored the lingering bites and kisses blanketing his ass and thighs. The thong snapped a few times before being pulled over to the side, resting on the right cheek.
“Wait.” Cora paused.
Law sat up on his forearms, garnering the angle to watch him. Another laugh had to be stifled at Cora’s expression: brain working hard behind wide eyes before that longing hunger settled in.
“You came prepared.” Soft, hushed voice as fingers traced between the valley of asscheeks, over the flared base of an efficient anal plug.
Law exclaimed - really, yelped - as Cora wasted no time in squeezing the meat of his ass and diving his tongue to circle around the base while thick fingers toyed with it by pulling and pressing in his stretched hole. Depraved sounds were wrenched from Law with each ministration, flushing and unfurling under the desperate attention.
This is all he had ever wanted. Just them.
“Please, Cora.” He moaned and whined and gripped and held, an obsession coursed through every vein in his body, etched in his bones, vibrated in each cell.
Living without Cora had never made sense; the hope of seeing him again was the only thing keeping Law here. After decades of suffering under Doffy’s iron fist, after every certainty that Cora was dead, there was only a small part of him that kept the flicker of faith, forcing him to hold out hope.
And here Law was, on his belly, drool dripping around the large plug that he had prepared himself with; a very alive Cora playing with the thong’s strap against flesh, grinding his face between supple cheeks. This was worth every drop of endless suffering. To be wrapped in Cora’s safe arms, to be cared for and loved - it was more than worth it.
Cora pulled the plug out slowly, the foreboding emptiness, a haunting, hitting Law like an icy slap. He needed -
“Cora.” He panted, a soft whine.
Large hands petted down his back, soothing him, a soft kiss planted on his right asscheek acknowledging the pain of being separated, even if for a moment.
Lips kissed the stretched hole, the wetness of a tongue began teasing the rim before it flicked and fucked into the depths. Law rolled his eyes back when Cora spat inside his entrance and pressed three fingers in a delicious stretch until finding the bundle of nerves that had him helplessly writhing.
That dexterous tongue licked up the backside of Law’s exposed cock, nosing into his balls, before rejoining the fingers, spreading him open in ways nothing else ever could.
“Cora, please, please, please -” Each word grew quieter until inaudible, replaced by soft whimpers.
Hands turned Law over onto his back and rubbed up his legs, encouraging them to circle around Cora’s waist as he slotted between tattooed thighs. The massive cock rutted between asscheeks, eliciting sinful sounds at the contact.
“I don’t have a con-” Cora started to pull away, but Law locked him in, hooking his ankles and forcing the man to still.
“Raw. Need to feel every vein in your thick cock.” Law admitted with a soft blush. “Need you to come inside me.”
“Shit, Law.” Cora, breathless and soft, smiled. “Whatever you want.”
Lining himself up, the bare cock - veins and all - circled around Law’s rim before being thrusted down to the hilt. Soft cries were muffled by an onslaught of devouring kisses, ravenous and needy. Cora seemed unwilling to let Law breathe as he pulled out and snapped back in, ripping the air from lungs to make space for his cock.
“Yes, yes, yes -” Law silently mouthed, nails cutting into ivory skin as Cora rammed into him with abandon.
“Law, fucking - so tight -” Cora grunted, sweat beading on soft skin with each thrust, dripping down from his temples.
He looked so beautiful, Law couldn’t help but watch an etching of pleasure flutter across his expression, wanting to memorize each moment, to lick every dewy drop and consume each morsel of this.
Then, Cora stilled.
“Hang on, I hear -”
“Hey, Rosi?”
Shit, Law had nearly forgotten about them.
“Mr. Donquixote?”
“Oh, fuck.” Law whispered just as the green head of hair popped around the french doors, the one eye widening as it fell upon them and their compromising entanglement.
“Oh, sh -” Zoro’s jaw dropped.
Law probably should have felt embarrassed, but was instead flooded with a sense of smug entitlement. Cora was his, and he was Cora’s, and now there would be no mistaking his place in the man’s life. The team could gruffly interrogate him, run background checks on him, and do whatever they wanted, but it wouldn’t change his role. He was essential to Cora, in his own right. The fabric of their stories interwoven, like their bodies.
“Moss, where the fuck are th - holy shit.” Sanji halted in surprise.
“Get out of here!” Cora ordered, accidentally pressing deeper inside Law who gasped and tilted his head back in ecstasy.
“Yup.” Zoro said, cheeks flushed, before shutting the doors with a snap.
Cora’s blue eyes met amber with a playful glimmer as they burst out in laughter, shaking against one another. He pressed down, squeezing another moan from Law’s lips before swallowing it with a kiss and resuming his powerful thrusts, knocking the headboard into the wall with a relentless pace. They were closer now, more entwined and meshed, melted into one. The sounds of skin slapping skin ensued as Cora slammed his whole body weight into Law’s hole with each drive, carving space and laying claim.
“Oh, god, Cora, yes!” Law cried out as his prostate was targeted with a divine precision, paving the path for the onslaught of ecstasy.
“My love, my everything.” Cora growled.
“Yours, please, please -” Law begged and choked and sobbed. “Please, Cora.” His nails carved streaks down his lover’s back, marking and claiming him in return. “I love you, god, I love you -”
Stars erupted behind eyelids as his body convulsed in rapturous orgasm. He arched his back like a body possessed with pleasure, shaking and trembling with each pulse of bliss. His belly - and Cora’s - were tacky with spent, but Cora seemed unfazed, continuing to drive into the tight heat with abandon, a feral, wild look in his eye as he experienced his own possession.
With a rough thrust, followed by two shallow ones, Law felt his insides splatter with warm cum, adding to the delicious overstimulation that wrecked his body.
Cora fell boneless, sinking deeper inside him.
“Law.” Cora whimpered, mouthing down his neck, sucking soft marks into tan skin. “Fuck, Law. Can’t believe I get to hold you again.” Tears wetted Law’s shoulder as heaving breaths shook against the palms rubbing Cora’s back as he wept.
“You save me, I save you.” Law’s bottom lip trembled as he spoke the prayer - their prayer - with renewed tears of his own.
Hands held the beat of Cora’s heart, the breath in his lungs, the softness of his flesh, the sculpt of his muscles - their very souls entangled.
Under the blanketed safety of one another, they had been granted another chance at this life. A hope renewed.