Brook happened to pass Law one night on deck and if it wasn't for the harsh breathing noises he heard, he would have carried on with his business.
Law had slipped from the sitting position he usually slept in to a flatter more comfortable sprawl over the floor though it hardly looked cozy judging from whatever frightful nightmare was plaguing him.
Brook looked on sadly for a few seconds as Law shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, his hands clutching his chest tightly. It was only as he knelt down beside him when he noticed the chains around Law.
Brook's devil fruit was a peculiar one; it gave him the privilege of not only being able to interact with the living world once again but also being able to see things only visible to the dead.
One of these things was psychological chains such as these. The first person he saw them wrapped around was his captain, Luffy, and as time went on, he deduced that these appeared whenever the person in question was having a nightmare of some sort.
The type of chains, the size and how tightly they constricted the person depended on their past experiences: the more traumatic the memories were, the more severe the effect of the chains. Whether the chains directly induced nightmares or merely increased the severity of them he had yet to confirm.
He hadn't noticed the chains around Law immediately because these ones were almost transparent, only the faintest shade of grey and so very, very tight. They were entangled around his lanky limbs and torso like a boa constrictor and in addition to those, there was a small one with barbs snaked around his heart.
They tightened and Law yelped, his eyes shooting wide open before squeezing shut.
'Trafalgar-san?"
Law wasn't out of the nightmare yet and Brook tried his best to do something for him, to try to comfort him or wake him up but it was proving futile. In time he'd learnt what were the best things to do to soothe his fellow crewmates when they were in this predicament but with Law he had no clue.
"Oh Trafalgar-san, what do I do?"
The whimpering and shivering was getting worse and Brook was beginning to panic (Law would wake up at some point but still, Brook didn't like leaving people if he could do something to help.)
There was a whisper and Brook leant down slightly to try and hear what he was saying. "C-c-cora-san…"
Then it was as if someone had taken the volume of the surroundings and slid it right down to zero. Brook couldn't hear anything, not the sounds of the sea, not Zoro snoring. Nothing.
He felt a tap on the shoulder and he looked up to see a peculiar man dressed some heart themed clothing. Brook stood up and stepped away. Perhaps whoever this spirit was would know how to soothe him, he'd seen similar phenomenon happen before and he'd learnt to just let them get on with it.
The man slipped off the black feather coat from his shoulders and sat down beside the mast. He gently lifted Law onto his lap, resting Law's head against his chest where his heart would be. One of his hands lifted to give him comforting strokes in his hair and on his back while the spectre began to sing a lullaby, the one and only thing that Brook could actually hear.
Just close your eyes
The sun is going down
You'll be alright
Nobody can hurt you now
Brook watched silently as the chains began to slowly disintegrate and crumble away. Law began to relax and the strain in his face disappeared till he was able to sleep peacefully, breathing slow and even and face completely calm.
He was limp as the song came to a finish and Brook raised his hands to clap only to find they made no sound. The ghost noticed and with a click of his fingers, Brook found he could make sound again.
He gave him a proper applause. "Fabulous! Simply magnificent." Brook stepped forward but then stopped, unsure if he was welcome in his company. On the contrary, the ghost was rather welcoming, nodding to him as an invitation.
The man was simply huge, taller than even Brook and easily a great deal larger than Law and yet the way he cradled Law was so very gentle.
"So you can see me huh?" The spirit smirked.
"Ah yes, that's because of my devil fruit. See…" Brook proceeded to explain and when he finished, there was a random awkward silence before he asked, "Um, may I ask, what is your relationship to Law-san here?"
The corners of the man's mouth perked up slightly just like his lipstick. "The answer to that question might take a while. Would you mind listening to our story, Soul King Brook?"
"You know my name?"
The man chuckled. "Of course! How could I not know the names of the people Law has allied with?"
"So you are?"
"Most know me by Donquixote Rocinante. My brother Doffy called me Roci. In the family my title was Corazon but Law here-"
"Cora-san…"
Law's sleepy murmur interrupted him and Corazon guffawed. "And yes, Law here knows me as Cora-san." Corazon's hand ruffled his hair and Law's mouth perked up in a small smile, a lot more innocent than his usual smirks. "Oh you silly boy, you poor, silly bastard…"
000
Law and Brook had random nights here and there throughout the time the Straw hats and the Heart pirates had together where they met up either in Brook's piano room or a private one on Law's sub.
Inevitably, Luffy barged into one of these in the middle of one of his midnight snack raids and when he found out about Law being a sort of musician, he demanded that Law hold a performance.
"Come on Torao~"
Law's glare surely would have burnt a hole through Luffy if he was a normal person but he stayed unfazed. "No chance Straw hat-ya."
"WHY?" Luffy's head cocked to the side, a gesture of curiosity and practically demanding a justification.
One of Law's eyebrows twitched slightly as a sign that he was getting irritated. "You have a musician right there."
"Yeah but I wanna hear you sing!"
"Sing? What are you talking about, I don't sing-"
Luffy giggled; even he could see through Law's lie. "You can't lie Torao, you were doing that a few minutes ago."
Brook chuckled softly to himself as Luffy gradually backed Law into a corner (purely theoretical though it was almost literal) and forced him into a situation where he couldn't refuse.
Then as dramatically as he came in, Luffy left, sandals slapping on the wooden floors as he made a dash to the kitchen.
Law was not looking very amused.
000
That was how Law found himself on the Sunny's deck the next day with an audience consisting of the Straw hats, Law's crewmates and a couple of other guests they had.
Apparently Law had a little band within his crew and it was with them that he did his little mini performance.
At the end when everyone thought that was it, he cleared his throat and said, "I just have one more song to sing. I'll be doing this one by myself though since my nakama haven't heard this one before. It's just a little lullaby that-" He gulped slightly. "that someone I cherished used to sing."
Law took a deep breath as he strummed his first notes from his guitar before proceeding to sing the lullaby that he had heard Corazon sing those few nights ago.
I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go
When all those shadows almost killed your light,
I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone."
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight~
Law's voice was rather reminiscent of Corazon's and just as enamouring if the way the audience was entranced was anything to go by.
Don't you dare look out your window,
Darling everything's on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold on to this lullaby
Even when the music's gone, gone
Just behind Law, Brook could just about see Corazon looking on proudly and beside him were a couple and a young girl (presumably Law's family). It was rather touching to see them there.
In their conversation together, Corazon had said that they were always watching over Law, doing their best to give him support as he persevered with life. He'd also said that the song he had sung to Law was one he used when he was alive to try and calm him. His mother used to sing it and so he tried to as well though he admitted he probably sounded nowhere near as heavenly as she used to.
Brook couldn't help but keep thinking of his conversation with Corazon and he smiled slightly whenever he could see the little quirks of Law that Corazon had talked about.
Just close your eyes
You'll be alright
Come morning light
You and I'll be safe and sound, sound~
A tear was threatening to leak out of the corner of Law's eye. Brook watched as his sister tugged on her dad's coat, asking him to pick her up and they moved over till she was able to reach towards his face and wipe it away.
There was a barely noticeable flinch as Law felt it but of course he couldn't see them and so he just continued.
His sister giggled slightly. As the song came to an end, the family waved as they flickered and disappeared.
Corazon waved a little before he disappeared too though not quite as dignified as the others, disappearing in an explosion of fire like he was spontaneously combusting.
Brook chuckled lightly to himself as Law was swamped by people leaping on top of him . "Corazon was certainly right." He said to himself remembering his words:
Law is no longer alone.
AN: Ahaha, yeah I should technically be concentrating on writing for OP Big Bang but I was listening to a CoraLaw playlist earlier and I heard Julia Sheer's cover of 'Safe and sound' by Taylor Swift and I just couldn't stop thinking of ideas so I wrote this little thing which combines several ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while but not written because I couldn't figure out how to write them. I hope you liked it. : )