~
Luffy was a mage. As hard as it was to believe, Luffy was a mage, but he was still learning. It was learning that he was out on the forest road in midday to gather some natural substances that the book told him he would find in the forest. Luffy was hoping he would also find some wild animal to hunt too, he was running out of meat back in his cabin.
The young mage rubbed the head of his familiar, Sunny, that looked like a golden retriever. "You think we are close?"
Sunny barked in joy and Luffy took that as a yes. The two were treading an unknown path, the forest had many such routes and it was advised, by Luffy's brothers, to not go in the forest when the sun would start to go down and at night because there a dangerous demon in there, there had been a few murders and mutilations reported in the recent days and that made most folk avoid the forest altogether.
Sunny stopped all of a sudden and Luffy crashed into him because he was looking anywhere but forward. "What's up boy..." His speech trailed when he looked ahead and saw a pitch black cat, no doubt a familiar, staring at the pair as if making a decision. "Where your mage?" Luffy asked and watched as the cat ran in a particular direction, stopping and turning back to see if the two were following. "Guess plant hunting is going to have to be another day."
Luffy ran after the cat with Sunny in tow and the more he ran, the worse the heaviness in the air got. The road was going uphill, Luffy felt a strange magic coming from the top of the road, and he didn't like it. Sunny didn't like it either, because he bit the back of Luffy's shirt and tried pulling him back.
"I can't stop, maybe the familiar's mage is getting attacked by that demon." Luffy told his own familiar who barked in protest. "Sunny we gotta help!" Luffy casted a protection spell to calm his familiar, he didn't blame Sunny, the sky up there was turning dark too and not the natural night dark, it was powerful magic and sinister.
The black cat was back in front of the two, constantly looking uphill, urging both to hurry. Luffy ran after the cat and was just a step away from seeing who or what was causing such a disturbance in the nature when he heard an inhuman, blood curdling screech and roar of fear and warning.
The young mage shielded his ears and watched as the cat ran ahead. Luffy followed the cat and finally saw the mage the familiar was leading him to. It didn't look like a mage at all. It looked more like a demon with its black skin, overgrown horns and teeth, and golden and red eyes, radiating black aura and waves of toxic magic. It was cornered against a tree.
There was another screech and it was then that Luffy's fixated eyes moved to the other party. It was a bunch of non-magical humans, with spears and arrows, pointing the sharp ends towards the other figure. Luffy then, had to make a decision and for that, he first had to understand the situation.
On the one hand, he had humans and on the other, there was a... living being that looked like a demon and whose magic felt demonic too, but it had a familiar... so maybe it wasn't a demon... Sunny seemed to think so too because right when the humans were going to throw a particularly sharp spear at the cornered figure, Sunny had run and bitten the human's arm.
The decision was made. Luffy charged too, pushing his sleeves back, he preferred to use his fists against regular humans. Knocking the humans unconscious was enough and after dumping them all near town, near civilization where they would be found before the forest demon found them, Luffy turned to the mage.
When the defensive magic had died down and the aura subsided, Luffy noticed a bunch of arrows and spears piercing the flesh of the other person. With the blackness surrounding it now gone, it really did look like a person instead of a demon.
"Come on, we can go to my cabin." Luffy said crouching to help the other get up. Luffy was snarled at. "Don't be an idiot, let me help you."
The cat familiar was also meowing and purring lightly, like it was having a conversation with the mage/person/demon. It went on for about five minutes, and the other person relented, letting himself be helped up and into the cabin of the younger mage.
~
Law looked at the wooden ceiling, unblinking. He tried to remember where he was and how he got there at all. Kikoku was sleeping on his chest, purring in her sleep. Law ran a hand through her fur, grateful that he still had hands. Then suddenly, Law's brain threw his memories behind his eyes and the man jolted, his familiar jumping away, hissing dramatically at the action.
"You're awake!" Law looked at the young face and remember it as of the person that helped him. "Ah!" The young mage pointed at Law's arms and the older looked in the direction to find himself bleeding through the bandages that were there. "I'll call Chopper!"
"Wait!" Law didn't mean to shout and shut all the doors magically while doing so. Law heard barking from the other side of the closed door, no doubt the familiar of the young mage panicking. "I-I'm sorry- I cannot control this very well-"
"It's ok Sunny!" The young mage then looked at Law and grinned. "I'm Luffy!"
"I..." Law took a breath. "I'm Trafalgar Law."
"Right, Torao." Luffy nodded. "You don't want me to call Chopper?"
Law furrowed his eyebrows. "Who's... Chopper?"
"My friend who fixed you up."
"Oh... no, I can heal this." Law said and began whispering healing spells under his breath then undid his bandages.
"Woooaahhhh! It's completely healed!!" Luffy jumped on the bed and brought his face much too close to the now healed skin on Law's arms. "You're a healer mage? That's so cool!"
The older's face turned red at the closeness and the praise, not used to both. He moved away a little but Luffy sat down properly on the blankets, unaware.
"Thank you for helping me." Law said.
"No biggie!" Luffy waved it off. "But why were those people attacking you?"
"I'm sure you can see I don't look like a normal mage." Law pointed to his ears and fangs and horns and eyes and nails.
"Yeah but anybody can tell you're not a demon either, you've got a familiar too, demons don't."
"Those humans didn't understand the difference."
"Hmmm, they must have mistaken you for the demon that's in the forest these days. My brothers told me to not take the forest route when it's nearing night, you shouldn't either, the demon might get you."
"There is no demon." Law found himself confessing. "It was me."
"What?" Luffy frowned.
"I... something happened and I cannot control my magic so I sought refuge in the forest... there is no demon."
"But the mutilations and murders... you did that?"
Law looked at the younger, wondering why Luffy was being so trusting so easily, unlike those other humans. "I have been casting spells on dead animals so they would look like human children so nobody would come in the forest."
"No, those were actual human children." Luffy insisted, he had seen those bodies.
"Did anyone claim them?" Law asked, tiredness taking over him.
"...no." Luffy realized that all the graves were indeed unnamed, nobody had come forth about those children.
"Those normies were the vigilante types, thinking they could take on a demon. I didn't want to harm them." Law stopped abruptly, looking at the younger, fear back in his eyes. "I didn't harm them, did I?"
"Only probably their eardrums, you were screaming really bad."
"Oi Luffy! We're back!" Luffy turned in the direction and jumped off the bed, following the voice.
"It's my brothers!" The younger informed and went ahead while Law tried to get out of bed, so he wouldn't feel so vulnerable. Kikoku jumped on his shoulder and rubber her cheek against Law's.
"No trouble while we were gone?" Law heard and peeked from the corner of the door and saw Luffy talking to his brother, the black haired one.
"Nope! I made a friend though! Nishishi." Law smiled a little at that and accidentally revealed himself but it was really Sunny who pushed Law.
"Holy- Lu what the- that's a demon!" The blond brother yelled, conjuring a shield of fire in his hand.
"He's not!" Luffy jumped protectively in front of Law.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Horns, nails, pointy ears? Luffy that's all demon!" The black haired brother added, his fist lighting on fire. Law bared his teeth at the brothers, skins getting blacker and eyes flashing redder.
"Torao's ill! He's being consumed by his own magic! He's harmless!" Luffy defended again. "This is Ace and Sabo by the way." Luffy introduced but Law was fixed on the earlier comment.
"How did you know that?" Law's voice came just above a whisper. He hadn't told this young mage anything, how did he know!
"I can tell these things." Luffy turned around and frowned, arms crossed. "You were poisoned by a demon's blood, right?"
Law just stared at the young man before him wondering how he was hitting every nail perfectly. Law knew he hadn't blurted anything out when he was unconscious, he had a spell in place for that, so how...
"Anyway! That's not the point! Torao is not dangerous." Luffy told his brothers. "I trust Torao."
"But you trust everybody!" Ace whined.
"Yes! And, well, no offense to you Torao, but you look an awful lot like that demon everyone was telling they thought they saw, the one that lives in the forest." Sabo added, hand on his chin.
"Oh that was not a demon but it was Torao." Luffy nodded. "And he wasn't murdering people."
Just then Kikoku jumped away from Law and clawed on Luffy's legs, getting his attention again. The three amidst their back and forth had been careless and Law had felt so at... home, that he didn't notice the demon blood starting to act again.
"Get out." Law said, eyes wide, hand on his chest, nails digging in his own flesh.
"Torao!" Luffy moved to the older but stopped when the golden and red eyes glared at him.
"Get away from me!"
"Go out!" Luffy told both his brothers and they looked at him like he was crazy. "I'll be fine!"
"Torao you better not hurt our baby brother!" Ace said and took the familiars with him.
Law was losing control, the demon blood was invading his lungs and heart again. First came the blood vomit, then came the steam from the skin and smell of burning flesh. Luffy touched Law a little to try to calm him but withdrew his hand immediately, burnt from the touch. Luffy saw the fear in Law's eyes again but this time it was directed at the younger. Luffy wondered what happened with Torao to make him so afraid.
"Torao... I can help, but you have to trust me." Luffy said and scooted forward as Law moved back.
"You'll only get hurt- go away!"
"Stop being selfish! Let me help you!" Luffy was taking none of it, he didn't care if Law's magic go out of control and hurt him, he didn't care about his own safety when he put both his hands on Law's cheeks and closing his eyes touched his forehead with the older's. "Trust me."
Through his thick, black tears, Law saw Luffy's hands glow golden and slowly, very slowly, the pain went away. The black on his skin receded an entire inch and the nails shortened and the horns chipped away a little. Law was numb by the end of whatever Luffy had done.
"See, all better. For now." Luffy grinned when Law slumped in the younger's hold, tired but feeling better than he had in years. "I can repeat this but it's temporary so we gotta find you a permanent cure."
"What... did you go?" Law asked, breathing easy.
"I closed my eyes inside of your darkness and found your glow." Luffy grinned and Law felt sleep pull him under, the last words he heard being, "but it only worked because you trusted me."
~