One Piece -- Flowers
Flowers
by tyreling/Nekocin
Fandom: One Piece
Rating: PG
Focus: Trafalgar D. Water Law, Nico Robin, Nami, Strawhats
Summary: Nami directs the Strawhat's course to a nearby island to buy presents for mother's day.
aka Law is looking for a present.
Inspired by a fanart of Law giving flowers to Cora-san.
Happy Mother's day!
I couldn't fit everyone in the fic. siiigh. Cuz wow, writing more than 8 people in a fic is a lot. lol.
Unexpectedly, Law received some money from Nami-ya. He'd stared at the beli in his hand quizically when she pushed some in his and then muttered, "I have money of my own."
Nami had smiled. "See it as a rare free service coming from me. Just go buy something with it. If you're not going to buy anything, that's great too! Give it back when you can't find anything."
Perturbed, Law looked down at the bills and sighed, stuffing them inside his pockets.
"Aren't you going to buy anything, Nami?" Tony tugged innocently at Nami's pants leg, his eyes wide.
Nami gave him a rare half-smile and rested a hand on his hat, "I don't have to." And looked at the orange trees blooming on the deck. White tiny flowers had popped up from the green leaves of the orange trees. So it's flowering season at this moment.
"Oh I see." Tony carefully put the bills into his money pouch. "I don't know what to buy for Doctorine. I hope she likes it though."
Robin crouched beside him, "Do you want to join me then?"
"Okay! Thanks Robin!" Tony balled his hooves and quickly made his way to the ladder to descent from the ship.
"Listen, Usopp." Nami jabbed a nail on Usopp's nose. "Make sure that idiot captain spends money on getting a gift for mother's day and not on meat, okay? And Take Zoro with you just in case. Who knows how that idiot will get himself lost just by standing nearby."
"Aye aye!" Usopp saluted while Zoro shouted an offended, "Shut up, you witch! I can handle myself just fine."
Sanji's flying kick to the head nearly snapped Zoro's neck out of his body. "DON'T YOU CALL NAMI-SAN SUCH UNCOUTH NAMES, YOU SHITTY BASTARD!"
A brawl began between both of them and they dragged in Usopp as well with Luffy cheering them on from the sidelines.
Law gave them all an irritated look and turned around to follow Nico-ya and Tony-ya down the ladder. From the corner of his eye Robo-ya and Bone-ya were already making their way to stop the fight.
"What's a good gift for the Doctorine? She isn't exactly my mother, but she cared for me and taught me medicine." Tony-ya tilted his head up to look questioningly at Nico-ya. "Should I send her a copy of the herbs I've discovered?"
"Anything is fine as long as your thoughts reaches hers." Nico-ya then paused to wait for Law to make it down from the ladder.
Once his boots were on the land, he waved Nico-ya and Tony-ya to head off without him. "I'm fine. You can go on ahead without me."
"Are you sure?" Nico-ya gave him a curious but mysterious smile. "I don't mind giving you some pointers for a gift."
Law turned his back to them and resisted the urge to pull down his hat and hide his eyes. Suddenly he felt like a little boy again under Nico-ya's gaze. He had observed the Strawhats the whole first week while he stayed on their ship. Out of everyone of the crew, Nico-ya was actually the one who acted like a mother figure. The signs were subtle at first, but they became prominent whenever she was around Tony-ya and Mugiwara-ya. There's just that proud parent look she occassionally slipped on her over her blank and expressionless face.
To be subjected with that same gaze, Law swallowed back a brute refusal that was very much like a teenaged rebellious son would do and only gave her a sullen "I'm fine."
"All right, then we meet up again at the Sunny before sunset." Nico-ya said. "Come, Chopper. What do you want to buy for the Doctorine?"
Law wandered the market aimlessly. He only stopped at a street food cart to buy something to nibble on as he stalked the streets, looking left and right before jumping into the dark streets to gather information on the black market's going ons since Doflamingo had renounced his title. Mostly panicked sources about Doflamingo's SMILE production and the fear of losing their secret identities. Panic more. The world should panic more.
He wiped the residue of oil and scraps from his hands on a disinfectant paper towel and slipped back out of the shady streets, back into the bustling market streets. Sweaty bodies pushed past him as he tried to make his way around a fruit stand and a bakery. Law hunched further into himself, his hands deep in his pockets and glanced at the wares that the townsfolk were putting on sale.
"A lovely silk scarf for your mother, sir? She'll feel like a queen in this!" Law heard one of the vendors call out. A nearby passerby was immediately swayed and asked for other colors and an accompanying gift set.
Law flicked a gaze to said gift set-a jewelry case decorated with intricate, colorful birds-and then looked at the offered display next to the stand.
Flowers. A small stand with flower bouquets on display. A lady was tending the stand, already busy wrapping a ribbon around a smaller bouquet to her customers.
"How can I help you?" the lady asked when she spotted him standing in front of her stall.
"A-ah, no." Law shook his head and held a hand up to stop her from advancing towards him. "I was just… looking around."
The lady smiled. "Sure, if you need anything, I'm right behind the stall."
He nodded curtly and quickly walked around the corner to escape. A few minutes later, he took another turn and found his legs had taken him back to the same flower stall.
"Flowers are a lovely present for your mother." the lady smiled knowingly.
My mother is dead, Law wanted to spit out, but for some reason he held back and just stared at the colorful display of flowers in front of him. It's been almost fifteen years since his mother had died at the hands of the World government. His memories of his own mother were fuzzy now, after all those years he had started out plotting revenge against Doflamingo. He couldn't even remember the color of his mother's eyes. Maybe they were gold, like his own. Her face was also fuzzy in his mind too. Did she have a round face? A long face? All he could pull out of the dredges of his childhood was death; carcasses heaped up one another, blood everywhere. And Cora-san.
Even if he did buy something for his mother, it's not like she's going to receive it if he sends it along with the rest of the Strawhats gifts. But there's a practice he had once seen Jean Bart do; at certain times, Jean Bart would throw something into the ocean, "For my comrades," Jean Bart had explained, "Since they didn't make it out of Sabaody."
Making up his mind, Law turned to the flower lady. "What do you suggest for the passing?"
Her eyes softened into pity. She walked around the stall and started pointing out to flowers appropriate for the dead while giving him a quick crash course of the meanings of each bulb of flower.
Nami-ya gave him one long appraising look when Law came back holding two long stalks of flowers. She had a basket hanging on her arm, filled with orange blossoms she had snipped from the orange trees, and was staring at the sunset with a far away look until Law's booths thumping loud on the wooden deck to alert his presence.
"Lilies…" Nami-ya identified the flowers immediately.
Law stiffened and gave her a challenging look. "What?" Understanding had dawned upon her eyes.
Nami-ya smiled and shook her head. "Nothing." She then picked up the flowers in her basket and started scattering the blossoms out into the water.
The act of scattering flowers in the sea seemed to be a common idea for some people, Law realized.
Nico-ya had joined them soon enough, a small smile on her face and spread out irises into the water. She didn't say anything about Law's smaller bouquet, instead she just nodded to him and turned around to help Tony-ya wrap his gift in ribbons.
Law looked down at the stalks he was holding and threw them one by one into the water. The flowers fluttered as they touched the water and then within a few minutes the sea waves carried the blossoms into the stream.
One for mother.
And the other one for Cora-san.
"Happy mother's day." He heard Nami-ya say and he turned his back to her, pulling down the tip of his hat to hide his eyes.
The end
Head canon:
- Nami, Robin and Usopp love their mother a lot and spread flowers into the sea.
- Luffy doesn't know his mother but he remembers Dadan and Makino being there for him.
- Chopper sees Doctorin as his teacher but sometimes as a mother too.
- Sanji doesn't remember much about his mother but he thinks she's probably beautiful.
- Zoro also doesn't remember his mother but he supposes she must have been strong to put him in the world.
- Brook doesn't remember his mother either but he wrote a lone single concerning the warmth she used to give him when he was still a little boy.
- Franky has sent off liquor to Kokoro.
- Law... he remembers very little of his own mother but he loves her a lot too. But whenever he thinks of mother, he sees Cora-san synonymous to that part as well. Those 6 months he had spent in Cora-san's presence def struck something deep in him.
ANYWAY, THANK YOU FOR READING!