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“I like him,” Lami says, ice cream in her hand as she sits beside him smiling, staring over the cliff side at the scene below them. She hasn’t aged a day, still the same cheery seven year old she was when she died, but it’s not like Law is surprised considering this is merely a dream. Law himself is still his real age, so his frame is much taller than that of his little sister. He morbidly wonders, that if Lami had not been burned alive in the ruins of the hospital, how tall would she have gotten? Lami would have been twenty four by now, with Law himself having just turned twenty seven a few weeks prior.
Law doesn’t say anything, his eyes firmly fixed on the scene below them. And if his eyes seemed to track a certain blur of yellow, then it was purely coincidental.
“He’s good for you,” she continues, and Law snorts. Mugiwara-ya was most certainly not good for him, between the stress that came with the boy constantly not following any of his plans and the danger that followed every time the other captain got an idea.
(Though, if Law slept better when the idiot was tangled around him, if the nightmares constantly haunting him left him alone while the other captain’s head rested on his chest, then that was just another coincidence.)
“You’ve never met the boy, Lami,” Law points out, and she laughs.
“I don’t need to know him to know, oniisama,” she says, and Law wonders if she had always been so perceptive, or if it’s just because she’s a figure of his imagination. Nothing but nightmares and haunted memories rarely do well for accurately remembering someone you haven’t seen in nearly two decades.
Footsteps and a large shadow fall over them then, indicating they had company. Neither have to turn their head to tell who it was, as the man’s cheerful greeting and massive frame was enough of an indicator. The blond man ruffles Lami’s hair affectionately before sitting down on the other side of Law.
“Cora-san,” Law greets, the words cheerfully echoed by Lami.
The man, nearly ten feet in height, towers over both of them, likely even combined. Even Law, who was technically older then the man, (and wasn’t that a weird thought, the blond had been like a father to him after all) was still almost like a child in comparison.
Cora-san grins, his face still painted in that ridiculous smile. “Is that the boy, Law?” He asks, gesturing down at where the two crews were engaged in a particularly wild party with civilians, samurai and minks alike. Law remembers that night well, it was the night after things had settled down in Wano, after Kaido’s defeat. That was months ago now, but deep down Law would always remember it because the day after was the first morning (of many to come), that he had woken up with rubber limbs tangled tightly around him.
Law doesn’t respond, but Lami does, with an enthusiastic nod and a gesture to where the straw hatted boy stood, one arm enthusiastically shoveling meat into his mouth, and the other one wrapped several times (several uncomfortable times) around the Law of that time. Law himself, the one below them, wore a frown and was vehemently protesting about the Straw Hat captain’s tight grip on him, although everyone there knew that if he really wanted to he could have been across the room by then, and his eyes lacked any sign of aggression towards the boy. One could even say the expression seemed almost fond.
Cora-san grins, and echoing Lami’s former comment proclaims, “I like him.”
Law isn’t surprised, he figures Cora-San would have gotten along well with the boy, perhaps except for the fact that the later was a pirate. Maybe even then, for the straw hat boy was certainly not your typical pirate.
“Does he make you happy?” The man then asks, expression serious for a change, and Law knows to answer honestly.
“He’s a pain, he can’t follow a plan for his life, and danger seems to cling to him, but oddly enough, yes.”
The answer seems to be good enough for the both of them, Cora-San grinning widely and Lami smiling at him cheerfully, leaving them satisfied that he was in good hands.
(They couldn’t be there for him anymore, after all, but even if they weren’t there, weren’t actually real, it was a nice thought that they would be happy that there was someone else they could trust to be there for him.)
Law wakes up then, to the warmth of another body and rubber limbs wrapped tightly around him, and thinks that yes, despite everything, the other truly did make him happy.