Chapter One - Revolutionary

Law sat back in the garden recliner in Robin's backyard, a book over his face. He wasn't in danger of burning easily in the late morning sun, but had no intention of making himself susceptible to melanoma. Robin sat on the edge of the recliner, holding one of Law's feet.

He'd spent the night at Robin's in anticipation of the tea-towel convention they'd be visiting today. She'd spent the night trying to share his enthusiasm as he sat, tattooed arms spread on the table, poring over catalogues. His inked hands pointed out designs featuring disproportionate tulip-ensconced windmills, and disembodied body parts, that had less to do with Dali, and more to do with morticians.

She assumed all the creators were outliers. Commemorative tea-towels hadn't quite taken the art world by storm yet, but they did remind her a little of Ryuunosuke, the very badly drawn dragon that had struggled and succeeded in taking them all to the top of Zou. Minus Law. Robin frowned. Doflamingo had him then.

That was last night though, and now, soon, they'd head off to gossip and gander with the convention organisers, the Dishcloth Dames, once she'd made Law pretty.

.

"These are so cute." She pulled at the few black gnarly hairs curled on Law's left big toe.

"Freak," Law mumbled, moving his foot.

Robin laughed, righted Law's foot and wiped the brush over the nail of his big toe.

"When did you last clip these?"

"What's it to you? You're the one who wanted to dress me up."

"You're the one who's letting me. You've got old man's feet, by the way."

Law arched his bridge and Robin slapped it, held it down.

"The sexy surgeon's pedes don't please? You said they were cute?"

She studied languages. She had no difficulty with Law's fancy Latin terms.

"Mmm. I wouldn't go that far. But I guess you got those tattoos to distract from your tootsies."

The ink on the bridges of his feet matched that on the back of his hands. She felt the arc of the bone against her palm as she admired the design, though it was one of the more simple ones to adorn Law, and historically, definitely not his favourite.

"And yet, there you are, making them all presentable and shit."

.

"Does Marco like them?"

"He's got his kinks."

"And . . . ?"

"They remain in the bedroom," Law smirked. At times he thought the Phoenix liked every part of his body, though they'd never had a deep conversation about those particular extremities.

"Ah, you're no fun."

"I've been told."

Law felt her move to the next digit.

"What colour are you painting them?"

"Tch."

As if it could be anything but black.

"Well, you sent Chopper out for the colour once," Law said to her silence.

Bubble gum. Robin snickered, remembering. Law peered at her from under his book, her shoulders rose and fell with laughter. He liked that violet t-shirt.

.

Law seemed so disinterested, and therefore, Robin guessed very trusting, when she or anyone else painted his nails. He usually paid little attention to the colour, or even the action. It was something that pleased those who found it amusing to decorate him. Just so long as they let him read whatever he was researching, he indulged them. A small compromise for a larger gain.

No way in hell could someone he didn't trust do this, though it had been done. Robin knew that trust was hard won. Law told himself that he let them all think he was vain this way so he could go for their jugulars some other time. Plus, he liked giving the Dishcloth Dames even more to gossip about.

.

Thinking of Chopper, Law laughed. A rationed, clipped, exhalation. The tanuki reminded him of his navigator.

"Bepo. Lord, Bepo got it into his head once to paint me. Maybe he wanted to practice so he could surprise some lucky Mink in the future, and who better to be his chump than his ferocious captain?"

Robin turned to him for a second, curious, before proceeding to the next toe. Her extra hands manipulated Law's foot for the best access. Law's own hand kept the book in place. She liked that silver band he sometimes wore on his wrist – a solid link – a flash of sky reflected in the metal.

"His fine motor skills aren't the best. You've seen his maps. Shachi and Penguin thought I'd amputated my own toes without the benefit of a Room." Robin heard a rumble lift Law's chest and then dissolve. He smiled easily. The book didn't cover all of his face. "He even dabbed a paw print on my heel."

"He chose red?" She loved that flash of teeth.

"Mmm. So. I guess it's black?"

.

Robin finished the last toenail and told him not to move his feet about for a while. She then drew up the recliner next to his, lay on it, leant on her side and looked across. Law could be asleep for all she knew.

"Oi, talk to me endling. Of course it's black."

Law's lips twitched. Only Robin could get away with that.

"So needy, terminarch. How am I meant to do that without moving?"

They may as well have just called each other Flevance and Ohara. They did at times, but neither could be feeling too off-colour when they did, or the devil fruits would come out to play. The town names as personal nomenclatures were entirely off-limits to anyone else.

"Take that book off your face at least. I know you can't read it like that."

"Your makeup bag's not nearby, is it?"

"Just the toes today, Dr. Death."

Good. He was only happy for modification to go so far. He sighed, tched, but lifted a hand and picked the book up by its spine, and rested it - still spreadeagled - on his chest. He blinked into the sun, then tipped his head her way. Not the most comfortable of positions.

.

"Can I sit up?"

The grey of Law's irises were sometimes shot through with gold. She wondered what his parents had looked like. "Give it a few."

He turned his face skyward again, his arm over his shut lids.

"How about Luffy?" she asked. Luffy was before island living, before Law's casual feet days. If they'd ever played around with nail polish, she'd never seen the results.

Law groaned.

"He approached my nails as if they were made of seastone, his hand was that shaky." The softness in tone betrayed the annoyance in his words. "For some reason he thought a pearly pink would suit? Maybe it reminded him of marbled steak or something? Of course, he had absolutely no patience."

Law scratched at his sideburns with his spare hand.

"He slapped it on, forgot to cap the varnish, jumped on me, bringing the sheet with him, or whatever we were lying on, wherever we were. It smeared over everything; our clothes, or more accurately, my clothes. You know, Luffy somehow always escapes his own chaos – and then he declared the whole thing stupid and boring, as if I'd dreamt up the activity and forced it on him." A hiss of incredulity struck the back of his teeth.

He felt his earrings with his thumb and forefinger. "Somehow the polish even managed to get on these. Nami-ya probably talked him into the whole thing for a bet."

"And you let him?"

Law didn't need to look at Robin to know her expression; amused and bemused.

"You choose your battles."

"Mmm." Her captain could be quite domineering. She wondered if they were the same earrings. It wouldn't surprise her. She'd kept the same jewellery over the years, but added to her collection with each pirates' haul. The ones that Luffy didn't somehow swap for food.

.

She sat up and twisted her neck. They needed to get going soon.

"Phoenix?"

"Still trying to unearth his kinks?"

"Now that you bring it up."

Law's grin, the one Robin and only a few others ever saw, made her lips curve.

"I paint for him at times. I mean, my own nails. He's got a lapis grounding stone, and his flames are blue when he's in Zoan form. I try to match those shades – a balance between the two. Other times, I paint for myself."

"Does he notice?" Marco had a grounding stone? But then again, they all had their talismans.

"Sometimes."

"You don't tell him?"

"Not always. Other things are more pressing."

"Does he know you're a freak?"

"I thought that was you."

Law paused for a second. He tipped his face Robin's way again, his hand still protecting his eyes. How come she got to sit up?

.

"The dogs have never liked it. And you know, all that waste. It's not really hygienic in the clinic, either."

"You operate with your toes?"

Law laughed. "When I do my hands . . . It's not hygienic."

Robin cast a glance at her back yard – the trees that offered privacy from the neighbours, the small pond. She enjoyed life in the New World now Luffy was pirate king.

"The dogs don't like it, but Bepo can handle it?"

"Well, he's a freak, too. Minks wear makeup, right?"

Robin nodded. "You say that as if it's a bad thing."

"Makeup?"

"Being a freak."

"To the contrary, some of my best friends are freaks. You can't all be Chopper."

oOOo

When Misery had been well, she'd walk from the room, sending a long-suffering glance Law's way if he pulled out nail varnish or remover. When she was ill, he didn't dare uncap anything. Like him, her original owners had been far from kind, and her lifespan was cut short as a result. When she fell ill, Law hadn't used his power on her.

The vet had said that she wasn't in pain, but she was wasting away. If she'd been in pain, Law would have applied his devil fruit. He tried not to mess with nature too much.

In her last days, Marco and Law would carry her outside to join them as they sat in the garden to smoke, drink, eat or just to enjoy the day. Law had her nearby while he took care of the herbs he used for the clinic. She took in the fresh air in the way she did when either one of them walked her. She loved those walks. All the smells and fun of rustling and rummaging through the undergrowth. When she was healthy, the minute either one of them arrived home she'd whine and eye the leash.

In the way she always checked they were there when she'd been more mobile, the men made sure that, in her weakened state, they were within her range of smell, if not vision. She tottered here and there on the lawn, squatted to do her business, and then stood, lost in some never-never land, until one of them guided her back to the blanket. That often involved picking up her one-eyed, barrelled-chested, being. She'd always been sturdy, but she lost weight Law recalled, wiping his spare hand across his shirt, hitting the book, as he lay on the recliner, remembering her fur under his hand. Rather than turning to lick his face, she'd remain still.

Misery wasn't young when they got her, though no-one was really sure of her age. She had a few years with them, and Law liked to think they were good ones for her. After, they took in Mephistopheles, who was taken out too quickly by a canine disease, and now Mercury, who was healthy. She'd outlasted the other two dogs so far – all their black, disfigured pups. Law scanned her fairly often.

Misery had seen Marco and Law through the toughest times. She'd really given them her all, and never looked back once she'd grown to trust them. It had taken a bit of time to gain that trust, and Law had been so wounded when Misery came to their home, that he'd put all his effort into connecting with her. He couldn't handle seeing an animal hurting more than he was himself; being scared of him at a time when the world seemed to have no hospitable space for him. Making a safe place for her created one for himself in many ways.

She could be cantankerous, and favoured Law over Marco – who wouldn't? – Law smiled to himself, but she was loyal and cared for either one of them when it seemed that they didn't care enough for themselves.

oOOo

"You can sit up now, Law, and just what are you thinking about, smirking away?"

"Misery."

"She makes you smirk?"

"She was a funny old bird."

Robin looked across at the undisguised affection Law showed for the memory of the dog he and Marco had cared for all those years previously. He lifted the book from his chest, closed it, and rested it on the side of the recliner. Pushing down on his elbows, he shifted his body further up the seat, sitting upright.

"How did you get your reputation?"

"The sadist of the seas?" Law leant down to pull up his messenger bag from the side of the chair. He tucked his book inside.

Robin nodded.

Law shrugged. It had served him well at times.

AN: Repossession chapters this references: 30 & 31 (NOT a T rating. Read the warnings.). This is a follow on (prequel to) Teaspoon Collectors (M rating), (AO3 version, E rating, full version).

The Robin & Law friendship is for anyone who likes reading it, but especially for Sarge1130.

So, I had a little more for this story for this world kicking around somewhere ;-)

In this AU, Luffy is now the Pirate King and Zoro is his faithful partner. Law and Luffy were a couple for two years. All characters live in a kind of One Piece AU on a series of islands a ferry ride away from one another. I hope these stories can stand alone without knowledge of the prior fic. I think they can. Sorry for the confusion if they cannot.

In this AU, Law is in his thirties, and Marco and he have been partners for a number of years.

Thanks for reading.

Note: Dec 8, 2018: The Vivre Cards have come out with Marco's height, and he's got 12cm on Law. When I started writing these two, a post on Oro Jackson had Marco at about 184 cm, which I prefer. I initially wrote Marco taller, and readjusted everything. Now, it seems I need to go the other way! BUT, I'll just leave author notes instead. It's always an AU anyway.