A/N: Feel free to point out any mistakes - editing was a bit rushed. I'm just trying not to drown in the feels from Oda-sensei's latest chapter. Oh those ch767 feels.

Frozen Hearts

Deep inside his submarine, hidden between the shelves in his private room, there is a frozen heart entrapped inside a glass cube. If Law was any other pirate, it would have been stashed away inside a trunk, amidst gold and jewels, because it means that much to him – it is his precious treasure.

Law may have easily handed over 100 hearts of pirates in order to gain his title as Shichibukai, but this is one heart he refuses to give up.

He still remembers that snowy, frozen day when he was ten-years-old, balled up behind a stony cliff, wailing his eyes out as he watched the Donquixote Pirates leave Minion Island. He remembers the walk back to Cora-san, trying to bite down the tears in his eyes as he recalled the echos of Doflamingo's gun going off, and the thud of Cora-san's body as it falls with gravity, hitting the truck Law was hiding in. He remembers rushing up to where Cora-san laid the moment Law saw him again, tiny numb fingers brushing aside the fresh snow piling on the man's still body.

Even if Law had not been the son of a doctor, he can tell the older man is dead with just a glance. Yet that doesn't stop him from slamming his fisted hands on Cora-san's chest, begging the man to live, you bastard! You promised you'd meet up with me when we were free from Doflamingo!

And as he strikes Cora-san's chest over and over again, Law's Ope Ope fruit finally does its magic. Much, much too late for anything, and not the skill he is looking for. From Cora-san's chest, out pops the marine's heart.

It is a quiet little thing, so cold and silent.

Law drops it in the snow without meaning to.

He stares unmoving at the little heart as the snow piles on top of it, freezing the heart in ice. For a long while he is uncertain what to do. And then Law's mind reboots once more, and churns and churns, recalling scientific papers and studies from what seemed like ages ago. He recalls talks of freezing organs to preserve them, thawing it out much later in the future, when it is necessary.

It's hard if not impossible for a normal doctor to do, but he's an operations man now with the skills of the Ope Ope fruit. Law can make any operation possible.

So Law lets the snow continue to encase the cube of heart. Later, he scoops up the precious little thing with gentle, cradling hands, gives Cora-san's body a mournful bow – wishing he was bigger and stronger, able to run away with Cora-san's body as well – and then he dashes off to find someplace safe. He'll store away Cora-san's heart until he's certain of his own skills. Until he has practiced enough on other unfortunate souls. Until he has a proper body to transplant the heart into. Until he can revive Cora-san once more.

But all that was before he knew about his shambles, before he knew there actually was another technique solely for the purpose of letting someone live in a body that is not their own. Still, the principle is the same – he's still swapping one's heart to be placed in another's body ... just in a more literal sense this time. He can only hope this will work the same way.

And even if it doesn't, Law can't forget that childish plan, forged years and years ago when he was only ten, with a raw bleeding heart full of hate and loss all due to Doflamingo. It was the only thing that kept him living from then onwards, and he isn't going to let go of that plan without at least attempting it out.

So Law'd formed his Heart Pirates, fought his way through the Grand Line, all the way to Dressrosa to confront with that damn Joker. Because Law has a plan, and he needs Doflamingo's body for it. He needs a body that Cora-san's heart won't reject, and who better than the body of a brother, born from the same parents, who shares such similar DNA?

In Dressrosa, he tells Straw Hat to leave Doflamingo to him, because he's been patiently waiting over ten years to enact his plan, and he really won't let anything mess it up. Doflamingo can't die or be captured before Law is done with him.

He'd been staring at that solitary heart hidden in the corner of his room for much, much too long now, never forgetting the precious uncle-figure the man was to him. Law doesn't think he can wait any longer. He misses Cora-san deeply (and he really hopes Cora-san misses him as well).