#I found this treasure in the leopard seal tag

[codedredalert]

wolves of the sea -- [One Piece, daemon AU]

gen, oneshot | young Heart Pirates, Law & Shachi |  1956 words 

The shape of Shachi's soul settles as a killer whale and he's not okay with what that means. Law goes to talk him through it.

Ao3 + explanation note on daemons. One Piece daemon AU series tumblr tag. 

Warnings: daemon AU, young heart pirates, they aren’t pirates yet, the Law backstory novels have no power here, self-acceptance is hard, emotional hurt/comfort, some swearing

Law woke to Bepo weeping on his chest. A quick glance round told Law that they were in their secret base on Swallow Island, and no one else was there.

"Bepo," said Law with some struggle as his lungs were pressed down by Bepo's weight. "You're heavy."

"Boss!" cried Bepo joyfully. He hugged Law tightly and Law made an undignified 'herkk' noise as it became even harder for him to breathe.

Law's snow leopard daemon, Diana, jumped up on the bed. She flicked a pillow at Bepo's head for attention.

"Give him space," she ordered. Bepo withdrew, still sobbing.

"You nearly died!" wailed Bepo. The distress was obvious in the polar bear mink’s voice even as he let go of Law. "You were underwater for so long because we had to fight off those slavers first. We all dived in to save you as soon as we could, but—"

The rest of his subordinates were nowhere to be seen. Law's heartbeat sped up as his mind went straight to the worst possibilities— they were captured by the slavers, they were separated and lost at sea, they were injured—

"What happened to Shachi and Penguin?" demanded Law.

"They—" started Bepo, and right on cue, the door opened. A shivering Penguin stepped in and closed the door after his little penguin daemon.

"I'm—" Penguin gave a violent shudder from the temperature difference. "—gah. I’m back.”

Seeing Penguin, relatively calm, put Law at ease somewhat. That was two out of three accounted for, and Penguin was closest to Shachi, he wouldn't be this calm if anything bad had happened to the redhead. Still, seeing Penguin alone was unsettling because the two of them were nearly inseparable.

"Where's Shachi?" asked Law.

Penguin sighed, pushing his short hair back under his hat.

"He’s out on the pier." Penguin started gathering things— blankets, towels, food.

Law frowned. It was the dead of winter, and from the light coming in the windows, sunset would come soon. Shachi would be in salt-water soaked coveralls out on the wind-exposed pier in below-zero weather. Shachi grew up in the North Blue, he knew the cold was deadly, he wouldn't do something so stupid without a reason.

"... Why?" asked Law.

Penguin shifted uncomfortably. He tried to disguise the movement by packing the things he gathered and shaking the bag.

“He asked me not to say," confessed Penguin. Law's eyes narrowed in the slightest of glares.

"If he's risking death by cold exposure, he must have a good reason." Law pushed down the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Diana hopped off the bed. She stretched and Penguin's daemon scuttled between his legs to hide.

Penguin packed the bag faster but Law was already standing.

"He isn’t able to come back," deduced Law. Diana was crouched, as if hunting Penguin's daemon. "But he isn't injured or you would insist I go no matter what Shachi says. So, his daemon must have settled."

Bepo nodded and put his chin on the edge of the bed.

"His daemon settled and she's waterbound,” confirmed Bepo.

"Bepo!" hissed Penguin. Bepo turned and bared his teeth at Penguin.

"Shachi can't hide it from Boss! It isn't right, Boss will worry! And everyone will find out eventually."

Penguin glowered but couldn't refute Bepo's point. Law nodded, more to himself than anything. If the daemon had a waterbound form, the distance-limited bond between a person and their daemon would keep Shachi close to the water.

"Yeah, okay. Fine." Penguin threw a pack of biscuits into the bag with more force than strictly necessary. "Shachi's daemon is waterbound. I was just coming back for supplies to pass to him." Penguin raised an insulated flask of hot chocolate demonstratively.

Law nodded again. He held a hand out for Penguin to give him the flask.

"I'll take it to him," said Law in a voice that left no room for argument.

===/\===

Bepo and Penguin had set Shachi up in a little tent. It rose from the end of the pier, a lonely triangle of off-white canvass, buffeted by the ocean winds. Law found Shachi sitting in the tent with one flap raised so he could look out over the water.

When Law stepped into view with thermos in hand, Shachi looked up at him and then deliberately looked away. In the distance, there was a loud spout of breath and spray, a massive black shape briefly coming to the surface of the dreary grey water.

"Boss," said Shachi softly. "You shouldn’t have."

Law kicked the flap of the tent open wider.

"Take it," he said, handing the thermos to Shachi. He did, and Law ducked into the tent to settle into a cross-legged seat beside Shachi. Their knees touched, just barely. Diana squeezed into the corner of the tent and laid her head in the joint of Law’s hip. Law took the backpack off and started unpacking, handing Shachi items to place wherever he wished.

"'M gonna kick Penguin’s ass," sighed Shachi, once the bag was emptied and folded in Law’s lap. "Told him not to tell you."

"He didn’t. I figured it out."

Shachi made a frustrated noise and flopped onto his back, staring up at the canvas of the tent meeting in a single point. He inhaled deeply and sighed.

"Aren't you gonna ask," Shachi said more than asked, sounding more tired than in all the time Law had known him. "What Serilde settled as."

"Do you want me to?"

"No." Shachi's voice hitched and Law pretended not to notice. "But we gotta get this over with eventually, right?"

Law looked out over the grey waters, but the dark shape didn't surface again.

“What is she?” he asked.

Shachi took a shaking breath.

"Killer whale," he confessed, and then waited in dread for Law's judgment to fall. Law considered this, considered the shape of his subordinate's soul and the circumstances which must have decided that this is who Shachi is.

"Thanks," concluded Law.

There was a long pause, then Shachi bolted upright, hat falling off and hazel eyes wide. He struggled for a moment, various thoughts and words fighting to be said first before he settled for blurting out a simple "What?"

“It was to save me and Diana right?" Law shrugged. Bepo's tears of relief and 'you nearly died, you were underwater for so long' still rang in his mind. "Thanks.”

“Oh," said Shachi, looking baffled. "Oh. Uh, yeah. I guess. Don’ mention it…" he trailed off into a mumble. There was another pause between them. Shachi picked up his fallen hat and wrung it, crumpling and turning and opening it up again. The material made a 'thwap' sound when he snapped it out straight, like the tent.

"Y'know they're sadists?" Shachi asked lowly. "They maim sharks and terrorise whales for fun. And they eat leopard seals. And penguins. And— haha— ain't that just you and Peng?"

"What's your point?" asked Law.

Shachi exhaled through closed teeth and abandoned his hat to scratch his head with both hands. His red hair stuck up every which way.

"Boss. I just gotta mean streak to me, a'ight?" He refused to look remotely in Law's direction. "Always did. Can we just— not pretend that I don't?"

"When we met, you were beating up Bepo and when I stopped you, you tried to assault me with a knife while I was seemingly unarmed," Law pointed out flatly. "Is that the only problem?"

"No! I— I can't ever live on land again."

"If that's the shape your soul settled as, it's what's right for you."

"Easy for you to say, I can't hug her anymore!" Shachi ran his hands through his hair again, increasingly agitated.

"You can," refuted Law, keeping his voice low and steady. "And in warmer waters, you can spend hours in the water without any risk."

"AARGH!" Shachi whirled round and took two fistfuls of Law's coat, hauled him closer. There were wet tear-streaks down Shachi's face and he was shaking, teeth bared. "JUST SHUT UP! Shut up! Stop being so damn reasonable! I just. Just let me have this, okay? It sucks she's waterbound. It sucks I'm the kind of person who's got a nasty daemon shape. It sucks that you and Peng and Bepo are being so damned nice about it so if I take it out on you guys I'm only gonna feel like more of an asshole and a loser but I wanna punch you in the face right now anyway! I just—"

Law grabbed Shachi's shoulder with one hand, the back of Shachi's head with another, and pulled him into a hug. Shachi made a surprised noise next to Law's ear.

"If you punch me, I'll punch you back," warned Law.

"You. I don’t—" Shachi struggled a bit, the twist of his body awkward and his arms now trapped between their bodies. His hold on Law's coat weakened, then he let go all at once, head falling to Law's shoulder, hands coming up to weakly rest on Law's back. Law patted Shachi's shoulder and tried not to think of now-dead orphans and a crying younger sister.

"You'll be fine," said Law, voice matter-of-fact. He thought of Diana apologising for settling as a snow leopard in that treasure chest on Minion Island. Now, he couldn't imagine her as anything else. "Change and loss and growing up are hard. But you'll make it through."

"Shut up, Boss," said Shachi into Law's shoulder, the words muffled. "You're gonna make me cry."

"If you want."

Shachi laughed a defeated laugh. He let go of Law and flopped down on the ground, covering his face with his hands.

"Damn. Aren't you younger than me? Why you gotta be all wise and shit on top of the smarts and the cool fighting skills? I can't keep up."

"That's why I'm the boss," quipped Law and Shachi gave a tired, obligatory chuckle.

"Yeah." He took a deep breath which shuddered a little at the end, breathed out again. "So, what now, Boss?"

"Get a boat," said Law instantly, even though the thought gave him pause. He had planned on telling them eventually, to hold his open hand out to his three subordinates again and ask if they would come with him on a near-hopeless journey of revenge. He'd been putting it off because he needed more time anyway, to study and earn enough for travel supplies. (If he was honest, he was also putting it off because he was scared of them saying no, and scared of them saying yes, an impossible conundrum.)

"I have a plan to steal a fishing boat, forge the papers and sell it off to upgrade to a proper ship— maybe a small sloop," continued Law smoothly as Diana stepped back into the tent, and gave Law a gentle headbutt to the chest. He shifted and made space for her to lie down again. "Nothing too heavy, because I don't want injuries. You could also..."

Law trailed off, unsure of how to phrase the delicate balance of keeping this a suggestion for Shachi to do on his own, or to lightly offer for Shachi to come along.

"Steal a boat… so, like, you want us to straight up go be pirates?" asked Shachi.

Something in Law's chest pulled at how easily Shachi said "us"— something like fear and the memory of Cora-san weeping on his behalf.

"… Yeah," answered Law. "I was planning for just myself, though."

"Aw, hell no. Where would I get a boat on my own? It's a great idea, you're stuck with me now," insisted Shachi with a hesitant grin, wiping away his tears. He bumped a fist against Law's knee. "Let's go be pirates, Boss."

 .

( More from this series on Ao3 | daemon AU series on tumblr )

#heart pirates #trafalgar law #shachi #bepo #Penguin #one piece #op #one piece fanfiction #op fanfiction #one piece fanfic #op fanfic #my writing #op daemon au #i reject the law novel backstory and substitute it with my own #the boys are so precious gahhhhhh #theyre just chilren with issues clinging to each other #and helping each other grow up as healthy as they know how #they try their best im crying