Thistled Heart

Pairing: ZoLaw

Rating: T

Summary: Law attempts to get Zoro to see the doctor. Part One.

"You really should get that checked out," Law commented casually as he leaned against the kitchen counter, skimming over the newspaper and sipping his morning coffee.

"There's nothing to check out," Zoro replied dryly before grabbing a carton of orange juice from the fridge and taking a seat at the table that was next to Law.

As per usual, Law merely rolled his eyes at Zoro's choice of downing the juice straight from the container, and kept his nagging comments to himself. Instead, Law preferred to address the more pressing issues.

"That's not exactly true now," Law said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Your shoulder is still bothering you."

"'S not that bad." Zoro busied himself with unwrapping one of the store-bought muffins that had been left on the table and started eating.

"Is that so?" Law asked as he turned towards Zoro and ever-so-carefully placed his hands on his shoulders. Zoro remained at ease, and other than the motions necessary for eating, he didn't make any additional movements, letting Law know that he was comfortable.

"Does this hurt?" Law's tone was innocent enough, however Zoro could not see the look of deviousness that Law was wearing. Maintaining the same feather-light touch he currently had on Zoro, Law began to run his hands back and forth along Zoro's shoulders, slowly working his way from the base of his neck to the joint.

"No," Zoro responded, relaxing into Law's touch.

"Good." Law hummed softly. "Now, how about this?"

Law only had to apply the slightest bit of pressure before he could tell that Zoro was grimacing in pain. As Law expected, Zoro didn't give any other verbal indication that his shoulder hurt, nor did he tell Law to stop. Law suspected that Zoro would sooner let him give a thorough deep tissue massage, rather than breaking down and admitting that he was in fact, suffering. Zoro's pained facial expression was more than enough for Law, and he saw no reason to make matters worse.

"That's what I thought," Law said with a satisfied expression as he released Zoro's shoulders. "It's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

Zoro let out an exasperated sigh before turning in his seat to face Law. "You said it didn't look too bad."

"That was three weeks ago, when I told you to go to the doctor in the first place," Law reminded him.

"But you're my doctor," Zoro grinned cheekily, "why can't I just see you?"

Law just rolled his eyes again. They had been over this at least a thousand times, and yet Zoro never seemed to get it through his thick skull.

"Because I'm not that kind of doctor," Law tried to reason for the umpteenth time. "You need to see someone that specializes in pain management, not a cardiologist," he emphasized, "someone who can prescribe you the proper medications, refer you to the proper rehab services, and possibly even find out if your shoulder pain is being caused by something more troublesome. Furthermore, there are laws about having intimate relationships with clientele."

"Tch, since when have you ever given a damn about the rules?" Zoro stood up and threw his empty orange juice carton and muffin wrapper away. "Besides, you can do all of that and more. Why do I have to see someone else?"

Zoro's stubbornness only agitated Law more. Law briefly considered forgetting about the entire situation and letting Zoro do what he wanted to do, which of course, was absolutely nothing. After all, Zoro had an abnormally high pain tolerance, his damn arm could be broken and he'd still workout like everything was perfectly fine. Law wasn't normally the type to badger people with his medical expertise. If his normal patients wanted to be tenaciously noncompliant and let their respective conditions worsen, Law was more willing document with the term 'studious neglect'.

However, Law just couldn't seem to let the issue slide with Zoro. He didn't understand why exactly, but he couldn't stomach the thought of seeing Zoro become his own worst enemy in terms of the proper health care. He knew that Zoro had several ambitious, physically-demanding goals in life, and from previous experience, he knew that Zoro would never achieve them if Zoro kept on refusing medical attention.

"You're going," Law finally said.

"I'm not," Zoro replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he did so.

Law had half a mind to smack Zoro squarely in his shoulder, just to prove his point, but he didn't. Despite Zoro's unreasonable attitude, Law had no desire to exacerbate Zoro's condition. He really didn't want to have to threaten Zoro either, but he was running out of options.

"Fine." Law shrugged nonchalantly. "Do nothing! Let your problem worsen. Let the pain become so excruciatingly unbearable that not even you can tolerate it! In fact, why don't you give up your dreams now?" Law took ahold of the countertop; he knew that if he didn't hold onto something he might lose his already slipping control.

"If you keep abusing your body without giving it time to recover from the strain, you'll fail miserably, and you'll have absolutely no one to blame but yourself!"

Zoro didn't respond for the longest time. He silently walked over to the door of his and Law's shared apartment. Law thought that Zoro would simply leave without saying anything, like he normally would when they got into arguments like this.

However, that wasn't the case this time.

"You know," Zoro said just before he was about to leave, "I didn't mean to fight with you on this. I haven't had a good experience with doctors in the past, so when the one doc I would trust with my life doesn't want to see me, and would even imply that I'm a lost cause, I'm at a loss for what to do next."

Before Law had a chance to respond, Zoro had already slammed the door behind him and was gone. The thought of following him left Law's mind as quickly as it had come. Even if he had gone after Zoro, he wouldn't have known what to say. Law had no idea how Zoro got the idea of being a lost cause, but Law suspected that mentioning the mere possibility of failure had something to do with it.

This was exactly why Law didn't want to get directly involved with Zoro's care. Not that he would ever admit it out loud, but he was afraid of permanently hurting someone he cared for. Although he was the best of the best in his profession, there were still so many things that could go wrong, and he didn't want to be responsible for ruining Zoro's dreams.

But, Zoro had said that he trusted Law, he actually trusted him with his care. Apparently, Zoro believed that if anyone could treat his sore shoulder and make everything right, it was Law. And Law had adamantly refused him.

It was then Law realized that he had already hurt Zoro more than faulty medical advice or his surgical knife ever could.

To be continued.