#as i always say; law and cora might be ooc (to me- cuz im not /that/ good but i am decent)

[thedemises]

note!... reader has eaten the resu-resu no mi—meaning resurrection—the fruit can revive other people but there are two ways that the user can do to be able to revive that person. one, the user has to give away a few years off of their lifespan and, depending on the number of years, that'll be the amount of years that the revived person will live for god-knows-how-long until they decay and disappear. and the second option is that, the user has to collect some of the selected person's DNA in order to resurrect them. not sure if that's how it'll work in my opinion but let's just pretend that it makes sense 👍 ( 1,866 words!! woah!!! :O it isnt as much as the other one but still a lot! also reader is referred to as “[name]” once )

━━ .  A HEAVY WEIGHED HEART。corazón & law oneshot!!

he wouldn't believe it.

he couldn't, really. it's been too long, to count how many years it's been.

if some soul were to, he wouldn't accept it—that's impossible on his part. resurrection isn't possible at all and cannot happen. that's what he believed—everybody does.

and right here, right now, is where he stands; easily towering over you with his enormous form as his hands—worn off by years of marine training and stressing peeling, dry and cracked from endlessly stuffing them inside the pockets of his tight jeans—tremble and twitch in disbelief and shock.

donquixote rosinante, whom have been dead for the passing thirteen years from the cause of being shot two to three times by his own blood brother, was now alive and breathing like a living being than dead, had he not been revived by you.

he first examines his abnormally large hands, flipping them from one side to the other before having one of them touch his cheek—squishing it a little and then going up to his gold locks, interlocking them in between his slim fingers (and not caring if it messes up the hat he wore).

eventually, tears start to well up in the corners of his eyes and his lower lip tremble whilst his teeth clench together as he tried to keep his emotions in from pouring out aggressively—which he, of course, fails ultimately. happiness and relief registered on his face, he shuts his eyes closed for a second and rubs off the excess years with the sleeve of his shirt before opening them again and began to bawl his eyes out—running towards you with open arms while calling out your name loudly as he cries.

you didn't get a moment to process or open your own arms as you were scooped up and crushed into an almost threatening bone-crushing hug, arms squeezed at your sides with your legs dangling in the air from being picked up off the ground. hearing his loud sobbing and cries of your name as wet tears begin to soak your shoulder, you're not sure if you could comfort him because you can't since your lungs were on the brink of bursting and your arms weren't available to be moved—thanks to corazón hugging the soul out of you unintentionally, his extended arms wrapping around you; including your arms.

your name is continuously called by him alongside saying such as, “i missed you!!!”, “did you revive me?? thank you so much, [name]!!!”, or “do you know where law is??!”. he would've made you deaf in one ear with how loud he's being if it weren't muffled by your shoulder—still, his depressed-sounding voice quite audible nonetheless.

by the time he lessened his grasp (yet remained hugging you in his arms), your chest heaved deeply and took heavy amounts of air from not having the ability the breathe for seconds. corazón had an apologetic expression on his face before he smiled when you turned to him, very much happy to see you again.

you decide to take a few minutes to examine his whole figure, and you can tell clearly that he looked the exact same before the day he was killed—wearing the same heart-patterned shirt, the familiar dark red hood from which those two heart-like shapes hang, that dark feathered mantle hanging from his broad shoulders, his make-up left completely untouched, and the lit cigarette hanging from his painted red lips (thankfully nowhere near your hair or clothes)—except the two-to-three punctured holes were left in his shirt with dried blood seeped into its fabric. from you could see, the gunshot wounds were completely healed except the notable scars left behind.

other than that, he appeared fine—though it's noticeable to see the dried tear tracks traveling from his eyes to the end of his jaw.

“i'm so happy to see you again,” corazón said, voice hoarse from all the sobbing and brawling. he sniffles and hugs you again—this time it was more gentle and not so crushing as it was earlier. the large man rests his chin on your shoulder with closed eyes, he still couldn't believe that this is actually real.

“i do, too.” you pat his back with a hand before he settles you back down to the floor, being careful as he does. that was when you discovered someone else in the area, not just you and corazón alone. exactly just as you anticipated.

turning around in a random direction (ignoring the taller guy's confused and questioning gaze), you cupped one side of your mouth and called out to the figure behind the trees. “hey, law! no use in being part of the shadows, huh?”

corazón's eyes widen at the familiar name, past memories flood into his mind as his breath shakens in a sudden moment.

the unidentified person in question doesn't respond and is quiet—except they quietly step out, and there reveals a raven-haired man with a goatee, wearing a dark-spotted fur hat on his head and holds a sheathed sword over his shoulder. instead of the usual observant expression on his face, you can describe the shock and slight disbelief he shows in his wide eyes—even as he tried to put on a calm demeanour. to this, your own face softens as your lips widen and upturned.

meanwhile, corazón was frozen on his spot, seemingly in pure thunderstuck at the appearance of trafalgar d. water law—now grown up from a frail thirteen year old to an adult in his mid twenty's. nonetheless, the younger donquixote was glad that law was alive and well.

“c-�� law tried to speak, but his words die in his throat as he is still in bewilderment on what he just witness earlier. corazón opens his mouth, on an attempt to speak, but his lips close shut like a fish.

“cora-san…?” out came a hoarse whisper from the dark-haired man, drenched in disbelief as his heart ached in his chest. law blinked and stared, terrified that if he moved this would all have been a dream, some twisted apparition due to being so close to his goal. As much as he wanted to run towards corazón, throw his arms around him and feel like the happy child reunited with a father he had once been...

yet, he didn’t dare to move—didn’t dare ruin this precious moment, even if it was fake; a cruel conjuring of his mind, and he still wanted to savor it with every fiber of his being.

“law,”

hearing the voice he heard in both his dreams of happier times and his nightmares of spirling loss, grief, and guilt—law couldn't take much no more. placing a step backwards and balling his hand into a firm fist, the surgeon of death braced himself for the vivid memory of cora-san to blow away like the smoke that danced from the older man's lit cigarette.

on one side, the sun's light shined down upon to reflect the blond's mildly wavy hair, akin to pure gold found in buried treasure. the smile on his own savior's face almost rivaled the brightness of the big star in the blue sky—whisps of white clouds in the distance sat high in the sky as it passed by slowly, almost like a backdrop that made cora-san look as if he had wings.

you decide to walk back a few steps—in case if law were to charge and crash into corazón's lean arms—not daring to say a thing about this whole exchange and let the two individuals have their first conversation without interruption in thirteen years.

law breaks the prologued silence before corazón could. “... you're alive, now.” he starts, in a voice barely above a whisper.

of course, he is. the bigger man glances at your direction, catching glimpse of the current look on your face— if it weren't for you, it would've never happened. —he stared before directing his eyes back to the former kid he took care of.

the blond nods, albeit slowly and hesitant about how the other would act afterwards. a shallow sigh escapes through his nose—he does nothing but lift up an arm to scratch the back of his head and offer (an attempt of) a smile, trying to put together a reason that would be good enough for law.

law forces his eyelids to shut his vision away—taking in everything, counting to ten, feeling his jaw sore from how hardly pressed he’s clenched his teeth to avoid insults spilling out. he firmly stood there, stiff, unmoving, confused, hurt, relieved, angry, and happy. law does know if he should direct that to cora-san or you.

it was a moment of silence in the atmosphere and it extended the longer no one said a thing; that wasn’t until the scent of cigarette smoke got stronger through the surgeon's nostrils and the feeling of arms enclosed around his body. he let out a choked sound—something between a sob and an agitated grunt—his now opened eyes that showed his yellow-colored irises start to shake a little. then, his tense body relaxes against cora-san’s chest and lifts his arms up to wrap them around those familiar shoulders, letting the emotions years in the making create a cascade down his cheeks. in silence, cora-san rested his chin on top of his furry hat, rubbing his back up and down and letting his unofficially adopted son feel everything all at once.

“i am back now, law, that’s all that matters to us. i won’t leave you again.” the blond reassures and felt law grasp at his feathered coat, holding tight in his palms. “c-... cora-san...” law utters through his choked sobs, trembling and shaking all the way.

“...” corazón didn't need any more words to speak as he embraces the surgeon of death in his arms, closing his eyes doing so.

you watch the scene and almost feel tears well up in your own eyes—wiping them away quickly before they fall—with a sad smile that dons your face. and you don't make a move to step away any further to leave the two reunited men alone.

corazón takes a peak at you, and then law, and again looks at you to give you the widest smile he could ever send someone—still hugging law nonetheless—though he shows a hand that is in the pose of a peace sign, which you smile happily.

law remained and didn't want to ever pull away from cora-san's embrace of comfort, as he felt for the first time in years of guilt... that he could live again without the burden cora-san never intended to settle on his shoulders.

and, he has never wanted to thank someone so much as he did now before.

© thedemises 2024. all rights reserved. ━━  remembered “i'll never smile again” by tommy dorsey and now i'm sad. :(