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Law cursed, ducking under a fallen beam which had probably been structural at one point, given the way the ceiling was sagging. The cells Kaidou had mentioned should be in this part of the building, based on Franky and Penguin’s best estimations, but he’d yet to see anything even vaguely resembling- he stopped, and turned around to squint at a tapestry hanging innocuously on the wall, slightly slanted where it was now supporting a bit of ceiling. The shogun’s palace didn’t have tapestries like that anywhere else, and it was certainly big enough to hide a door behind.
Sure enough, behind the tapestry was a plain sliding door. Honestly, he wouldn’t have given them damn thing a second glance if it hadn’t been hidden, but Kaidou obviously would want to take precautions against the only man who’d been able to hurt him since, well, whenever the fuck he became nigh-invincible. The door slid open to reveal a wooden door, which was locked, so Law created a Room just big enough to swap himself with an equivalent mass of air on the other side. There were stairs leading down, the tight spiralling kind that killed line of sight, and he allowed himself a small smile before hurrying on.
It took several minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs. It was unnervingly quiet, no sound but his feet on the stairs and his shallow breaths and the rustle of his clothing as he moved. Luffy had been awake when Kaidou’s men took him. Weakened by the seastone bullet in his shoulder, but still awake. If nothing else, he should be hearing his boyfriend whining about being hungry.
The door at the bottom of the stairs was thick, and locked, and Law ripped it off its hinges with Tact. There was a yelp from inside, far quieter than he would’ve expected from Luffy in any state, and Law felt his eyes widen as he realized what he was looking at. It was an anechoic chamber, designed to mute any outside noise and absorb any noise generated inside. Even the floor was textured. He’d only ever seen diagrams in a book, but the design was unmistakable. He wasn’t sure why there was a room like this hidden at least three floors under the shogun’s palace, but that wasn’t the main concern.
The main concern was the massive amount of blood smeared on the walls and floor. His eyes caught on a mark almost directly across from the door, a bloody print of narrow shoulders across a section of vertical muffling. “Luffy.” he breathed, frantically scanning the room. It took him all of three racing heartbeats to find the familiar form, curled up in a corner, blood smeared and splattered and sprayed all over the surrounding surfaces.
“Luffy!” he lurched into the room, stumbled slightly on the uneven flooring, and a few hurried steps later collapsed to his knees at the younger captain’s side. “Please be alive.” he muttered, placing one hand on Luffy’s neck and ripping off the blindfold tied around the rubberman’s eyes. For a long, heart-wrenching moment, there was nothing. Then he felt it, weak and too fast, but present. A pulse.
First things first, he needed to get the bullet out. Luffy could recover at an absolutely inhuman speed, but he’d be useless against Kaidou without his devil fruit abilities. Kikoku was far from sterile, far from the ideal tool, but it was all he had. The bag Chopper had given him only held bandages, gauze, medical adhesives, and meat. The little reindeer had insisted that would be enough to get Luffy through the fight, and though Law was skeptical, Chopper was the doctor Luffy had chosen for his crew.
He reformed the Room, keeping it small this time, and relief welled in his chest when he found the bullet in one piece. It was lodged in Luffy’s scapula, and a few steady motions with Kikoku had the infernal thing launching out of the bubble at barrel velocity. Luffy began to look better as soon as the seastone was removed, and as Law began to wrap the smaller captain’s injuries in gauze and bandages the teen actually stirred.
“Torao?” he mumbled, lifting a hand and managing to catch the sleeve of Law’s coat.
“I’m here.” Law said, pulling Luffy’s hand off his sleeve to give it a gentle squeeze. It was clammy, and too cool, but Luffy squeezed back with like force and that was good, that did oh so much to dismiss the panic that had been slowly rising since Luffy was captured. “You’ve been cut up pretty bad, but the bleeding seems to have mostly stopped.”
“Do you have meat?”
Law couldn’t help it, he laughed. Of all the absurd thing he’d heard Luffy say, asking for food before medical attention was among the weirdest. “Yeah, Chopper packed some.” he reached for the bag, only to blink and find Luffy already kneeling over it, pulling out the meat-on-bone and peeling the wrapping off with his teeth. He practically inhaled the damn thing, bone and all, and then- Law’s eyes widened, and he was pretty sure he made a little sound of absolute awe. Luffy’s blood was replenishing itself at an incredible rate, he was metabolising the protein from the meat faster than should be possible and his body was, somehow, using that energy to repair what was damaged and replenish what was lost.
“Torao’s the best.” Luffy grinned, getting to his feet as Law used Tact to pile everything back in his bag.
“Just holding up my end of our deal.” Law allowed himself a small smile. Luffy offered a hand, and Law took it as the Room flickered and vanished. The uneven flooring still threw him off, and Luffy kept a hand on his elbow as he found his balance
“Thanks for saving me.” Luffy grinned, leaning in to press a sticky kiss to Law’s cheek. “I owe you one.”
Law wiped at the spot where Luffy’s lips had touched, and his hand came away slightly bloody. “Help me beat up Kaidou and we’ll call it even.”
Luffy pouted, and grabbed his hand as they left the too-quiet room. “You don’t want cuddles?”
Despite himself, a small smile spread across Law’s face. “I was under the impression I would be getting those regardless.” he teased, tilting the straw hat back so he could press a kiss to the less bloody part of Luffy’s forehead.
“Well, duh.” Luffy beamed, the whole staircase ringing with his shishishi laughter as they headed back towards the battlefield. With Luffy back in action, they actually stood a chance at winning this fight. Luffy being back in the fray also increased this building’s chances of collapsing into rubble, but after what happened to Dressrosa and Whole Cake Island, Law was starting to think that was just an inevitable consequence of Luffy giving it his all.
Whatever, he’d just have to make sure his boyfriend didn’t collapse the structure on anyone they cared about.