Chapter three - Solace

Law returned home from the clinic a few nights after they'd buried Misery. Marco had been withdrawn. Law tried to talk to him, but the Phoenix just needed to grieve in his own way. One death brought all the others to the surface. Law knew his way was not everyone's. He wasn't about to get a jacket emblazoned with the rescue dog's name, but he had literally worn his losses before, still wore them, he thought, looking down at the emblem on his shirt.

Marco was more reserved in this case. Law could be too. In fact, he was known for it. This time around, however, he was more than grateful he'd had the chance to thank Misery, to say goodbye. He was appreciative he'd been given warning that soon he wasn't going to see her again. How often was anyone given that opportunity? Maybe a lot more often than Law had actually experienced.

His partner sat on the garden bench, the evening light colouring the tips of his mop of hair. The view from the seat took in the ocean at a distance, the sun setting over it. Shanks had brought a few exotic trees back with him from his travels, and their spindly forms – gradually dimming against the sky – housed birds calling in the dusk.

Marco looked up as the doctor walked further into the yard, and he indicated the seat next to him. Law wandered over and sat, shucking off his backpack. He wiped an arm across his forehead, catching a whiff of body odour. Their house was on the steepest hill in the village. Marco seemed a bit more relaxed than he had been lately and Law found his own cautious guard evaporating.

"I saw her tonight."

The brunet turned to him. The light cupped a corner of Marco's face. The Phoenix's arched eyebrows and hooded lids gave off an aura of disinterest. Law had been accused of the same at times. Sometimes either one of them was as detached as they seemed. Not now though.

"Who?"

"Misery."

Law nodded, now looking ahead. Marco stole a glance at him before returning his gaze to where they'd dug the grave.

.

"Probably an illusion, but you know, I just came out here to think, to get ready for my shift, and there she was, curled up like she did when she slept on your goddamn grotty shirt. The shirt was there too. Even in the afterlife."

Marco ran his fingers across his chest tattoo, the Whitebeard symbol.

"It was on the spot, right where we buried her. Probably just my mind playing tricks, but I could see her, clear as day. I shook my head and looked away, and when I looked back she was gone."

"She was there," Law said, and when he moved closer to Marco, the older man let him, smelly underarms and all, and when Law took his hand, he returned the gesture, their shoulders brushing. "Was she peaceful?"

Marco nodded.

"She just wanted to say goodbye."

Marco ran a finger along Law's nails as was his habit. Law liked it. A lot.

.

"I thought you couldn't wear this shit at work."

"I'm the boss."

"I wouldn't want it flaking into my wounds."

"Don't get injured then." Law paused for a moment, but then spoke to the yard.

"You're right. Shachi dropped in and did it after work. I've got the next few days off."

Marco turned the lapis lazuli in his pocket where his other hand rested. He didn't even need to lift Law's hand to know the colour.

"Sorry, Law. It hurt. Her leaving us. More than I thought it would."

"Mmm. I know."

"It wasn't against you."

Law tipped his head in acknowledgement.

.

"What can we plant?"

"On Misery?"

"Yeah."

"One Eyed Willie."

"There's a plant called that?"

Law snorted. "Mmm, Hemerocallis, Daylily."

Though the soil they'd had to dig up at a deeper level for Misery was clay, the top soil was fertile. The daylilies took to a slightly tougher terrain.

"Black-eyed Susans."

"You know a plant name?" Law turned his face to Marco. The older man's expression turned to mock annoyance.

"I know all the plant names. I've been around for centuries. I just don't know their names in your language."

"Oh, we speak different languages now?"

Marco pressed harder on the lacquer on Law's nails. He felt the Heart Captain relax even more beside him, lips curved, even while he grimaced slightly at the extra pressure. In response, Law ran his thumb a few times over the bones joining the Phoenix's thumb to his wrist, over his trapezium and scaphoid.

Marco's eyes slid to the side and took in the neat trimmed goatee and sharp sideburns of his partner, so compact compared to the straggly whiskers he couldn't be arsed taking too much care of. He did, for Law's sake, but both positive and negative worth had never hinged on his appearance as much as it had for Law, so his grooming habits were rooted in functionality and not survival.

Law dressed – took care of himself – for himself, but it hadn't always been the way under Doflamingo's watch.

.

"Black eyed peas," Law said, leaning back into the bench. He removed his hand from Marco's, and rested it in his lap. "Then we get to eat, she'd like that."

"I think she was as fond of vegetables as Luffy is."

"She ate anything," Law contradicted. "She was an omnivore."

Marco tipped his head back. True, she'd probably clamber over their deathbed for an empty tin of tuna. So long as it was stinky. Or had traces of food.

"Something orange?"

"Something blue?"

Law picked up his backpack and stood. "C'mon. You got time to go for a walk before your shift?"

Marco nodded. "Will you come down later?" Looking up, he saw that Law was tired from his day, but a walk would reinvigorate them, and he'd said he had a few days off.

"Yeah." Law would make his way to the pub later.

.

On their way to the park, the wind still moved the grasses about them, but it was absent of a particular snuffling and rustling.

Neither man made an effort for physical closeness but their pace easily matched the other and that of Misery. At the corner, a small dog that usually bayed until they passed, grew quiet when it realised the loudest most inquisitive member of the group was missing. The smelliest member.

Its owner stood nearby ready to shout out at both that black-haired miscreant and his dog who always pissed against his fence, but he quieted as his pet had when the tall pair strolled by without incident.

Law lifted a hand in lazy greeting, and received a terse jerk of the head in reply. The pirate, or was it doctor? let a faint smile cross his face. An acknowledgement of judgement. The neighbour felt a swell of justification when the dog let out a series of ferocious yelps at the sound of leather hitting pavement. There they went. Disrupting the peace again.

They followed the familiar path and, though the activity of their dog constantly needing their attention or avoiding it was missing, the habitual action brought peace.

.

"Why didn't she ever want one of my t-shirts, Law?" They were half-way through their walk and it would be dark by the time they returned.

Law stopped and looked at his partner, and almost laughed at the little-boy-lost look on the man who had seen decades upon decades. He never stopped surprising him.

"Because you were always there for her, Marco. You never left her behind."

And though they both knew Law's reasons for being gone were more than valid, Law also recognised that Marco had committed to looking after their dog when he could have walked away, because the two people who'd brought her into their life were no longer together. He watched Law walk away instead, allowing the possibility it might be permanent, by not tying Law to Misery, even though he was her favourite. Law, always the prodigal son if only there had been a family to return to. Doflamingo didn't count.

Except that he hadn't gone whoring around nor burnt a hole in their savings.

A t-shirt was a poor substitute for a person, but it was better than nothing. She hadn't needed any articles of Marco's because she had the man himself.

"I think she might have loved that shirt more than she loved me, in the end." Law's fillings flashed as he laughed at their dog, and adjusted Marco's jacket. Marco noted that Shachi had painted both hands. "I was gone so long she couldn't tell the reality from the representation."

Only Law could say that. Only he could define their separation as lengthy. In reality, the time they spent away from one another was what was needed to ensure they stayed together.

"Just as well," Marco bumped his shoulder against Law's to indicate they should start walking again. He remained close. "Because I'd rather she take the representation to the grave than the real thing."

oOOo

Trinity unfurled Marco's abomination, the design he'd commissioned, and Law couldn't have been happier looking at the faces of their three gormless dogs.

"No colours this time?" she asked, taking note of Law's unvarnished nails as he viewed the tea-towel with approval.

Law looked down to see what she was referring to, and saw that she had tassels hanging from her squarely filed nails. And she called his preferences crass. One of her nails was embedded with a small flashing light.

"I'm no good at multi-tasking, Trinity. I could only get my toenails done this time." He placed the cloths back on the table, raised a leg, and curled it against his body in a yoga tree pose. A slight twist of Robin's lips changed her face from amused to wicked. How he managed that balance while still holding the nodachi, she wasn't sure. He examined his foot, and turned it outwards.

"It's all right. I've seen your feet before."

"Have you seen the hairs on his big toes?" Robin interjected and Law, leg lowered, looked across curiously at Trinity to see her reaction.

"Hmph. I don't need to." She started sorting through the selection.

"So cute," Robin murmured.

"She's a freak." Law jerked his thumb back at Robin, a false sneer on his face and in his voice.

Trinity rolled her eyes at the pot calling the kettle black.

"I feel slighted, Captain Trafalgar," Robin laughed.

.

"Okay, one blue scarf, one abomination, three exquisite designs, and the usual tacky flotsam and jetsam." Trinity counted the tea-towels Law had picked up.

"I keep you in business."

Trinity pursed her lips, a slight smile. It was true.

"And this." Robin added a cloth to the pile, and her money along with Law's. An umber cloth streaked through with black as if smoked over a fire. Law turned to her.

"Misery features on Marco's gift, and you can't bring her back into your house without something to invite her home. I know you. You're going to display it somewhere."

He nodded. "It'd be a waste if I didn't."

Law picked up the cloth Robin placed in front of him, unfolded and smelled it.

These pirates really were something else, Trinity, thought. They better be buying that. But then again, Law and his friends were some of her best customers.

It smelled new, and of cotton, and of the packing it had been encased in.

.

"It won't take long . . ." Robin said, shaking it out and reaching up to drape it around Law's neck. It was a light, summer thread. He'd do the same for Marco later with the blue scarf he'd chosen. ". . . for it to gain your scent."

It really didn't suit what he was wearing. Marco liked scarves.

"I know it's not quite your style." She looked up at him, and tweaked his earrings in a way only the Phoenix and some of the dishcloth ladies could, "but it will give her something to come home to."

Law accepted it with a brush of his thumb over Robin's cheek, though he removed the scarf from his neck, for now, and put it with the rest of the purchases.

He wasn't sure that Misery had ever left – the daylilies over her resting spot flowered tenaciously each passing year. Mephistopheles was laid to rest nearby. One of that genus bore her name too.

It was a nice spot to tie a line from one tree to another though, the trees that Shanks and Benn had travelled the oceans with and brought back with them in mind. To attach the cloth there was a possibility – the goodwill from Robin's gesture and Misery's heart would be something easy on the eye on stressful days, the umber melding with the sun and the scorched marks complementing the small bats that flapped about on summer nights.

He scouted around to see if there was a similar style cloth, but different colour, to represent the second dog who'd hardly spent any time with them. Maybe white to counter both her name and represent her short experience on earth. There was nothing demonic about any of their pets. Their owners were another matter, however

.

"Is that all, Mr. Trafalgar?"

He sure was getting the formal treatment today.

"Ms. Trinitatem."

"You can just call me Holy."

"Holly?"

Trinity stopped herself from laughing. "You heard me."

.

Law counted out the beli and passed it across and, as he did so, the older woman gripped his hand. Law froze.

"Next time," she said, and gestured for him to present the other as well, "Let me do these for you." She splayed his fingers.

She grasped each hand equally, though he saw her sizing up - probably measuring - all she could do for the very un-pretty hand. Probably some enhancement or wrap that would have even Cora turning in his grave.

Robin couldn't stop giggling at the look of horror Law was trying to contain. But ever the gentleman in certain situations, he didn't protest. He did have a collector's addiction to feed, after all.

"It would be a pleasure, Trinity, to be inducted into the Holy Order of Commemorative Tea-towels and Artificial Nails," Law coughed. "Next time."

Robin had seen him pale before, but not in times of peace.

"I won't forget."

Law swallowed. He was sure she wouldn't.

Thank you for reading.

Parts of this, especially the reasons for Law and Marco's past separation, is touched upon in Birds of a Feather, and fully explored in the long version of Teaspoon Collectors on AO3. Please read the warnings. Not a T rating.

Law's past with Doflamingo is explored in all of Repossession. The A/N in the first chapter will give you the lowdown, but the fiction is NOT T-rated, so again, please read the warnings.

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.