The formatting when I copy and paste this in is s nightmare, for future reference if the formatting goes wonky when I post, you can find the same chapter on ao3 under the same title.

XxXxX

He woke up too late.

Too late to meet up with Law at any rate, which was really the only thing that mattered. Apparently he had been injured badly enough that he had been uncunconscious for the better part of a month, occasionally fading into awarness in brief snaches that he didn't truely remember. These moments worried him, the possiblity that he might have said something damming sending tendrils of ice down his spine. But an enthusastic Sengoku had informed him that this was the first time he had been coherent, so that consern at least was laid the rest. Still though, the fact that Law wouldn't have waited more than a week at the neighboring island as they had agreed was the only thing he could focus on as Sengoku was telling him something about a child finding him...

"What? A child? On minion!" he exclaimed, nearly launching himself out of the hospital bed Law would not be pleased. Slightly startled, Sengoku recovered himself and responded.

"Yes, apparently a young boy witnessed Doflamingo shoot you, he helped one of Tsuru's officers find you"

"And where is he now?" Rociante cut in, if it had been Law...

"Thats just it actually, apparently after leading her to you, he claimed that he had to relieve himself and then vanished. Once you were stabilized Tsuru had a seaarch party sweep the island for him, but there was no trace of him." Of coarse not, Law would avoid a marine search party with everything he had.

"What about Doffy? Could he hav-"

"No, he was alreaady off the island by that point, the the boy would have had the leave the island by some other means..." he trailed off, giving his adoptive son a suspicious look.

"I dont suppose you know anything about him? Did you see him before you were injured?"

".. I dont remember." Sorry Sengoku-san, but making sure Law's safe comes first..

"You don't-"

"It's a blur, I'm not even completely sure how I wound up on Minion, I think it had something to do with preventing Doffy from getting the Op-Op no mi, but I can't remember any of the details." Speaking quickly, he spun together a story holding as much of the truth as possible without endangering himself or his boy, piecing together as many older details he had on the family as possible, probably best to make it look like the memory loss is just about recent stuff, maybe just the last six months or so... he mused, focused on how best to protect the the two of them, probably shouldn't leave Vergo out though..

"Oh, I do remember one thing though!"

"What what is it?!" was the older man's hopeful responce.

"Vergo, the first Corazon! He was there! ...I think he might have given me a good knock to the head actually..."

"Vergo! But, I- I gave him that assignment, you mean if I hadn't you might not have been hurt like this?!" He cried, sticken.

Heart sinking at his words causing the man such clear distress, Rociante hastened to placate the other.

"You couldn't have known... besides this puts the ball in our court." A grin slowly stretched across his face, accentuating his tattoos.

"So, he was there on your assignment huh? I have an idea." He murmured slyly.

The elder of the two quickly perked up at that, hopeful at the chance to make something out of his blunder, and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, for starters I'm going to need you to sing me his praises." He informed his father figure with a sly smirk at the dumbfounded expression he received in responce, quickly continuing before the other had the chance to speak.

"After all, poor amnesiac me will be only to happy to meet the man his father figure speaks so well of!" He continued, practically purring at the idea of how he would use the man who had beaten him and Law so mercilessly.

"After all," he continued in a more serious tone, "if we were to simply arrest him then Doffy could replace him and we wouldn't know who, this way we can control what information Doffy gets fed."

"I'll have to see if I can't confide in him of my distress over your memory loss without overplaying my hand." he mused, the two men sharing a conspiratorial smirk, the father son resembalance between them unmistakable for once.

After that things fell into place quickly, gossip spread as it always will amongst military ranks, and Rocinante was soon recieving all manner of get well soon gifts, as soon as he was able to leave his bed the blond pled his case to return to Minion,

"It might help bring something back, besides, I think I left my favorite sweater in the boat I took there, I want to see if I can't find it, and maybe that kid..."

"The one that found you? I suppose we never did find any trace of him..."

"Perhaps he lives on the next island over, Swallow was rather close wasn't it? Maybe he had a fishing boat or something, I just... I want to check is all." He trailed off, giving a small shrug. He really did want that sweater back, if only to have something besides the bloodied clothes he'd been recovered in to remember his time with Law by, and while he knew that odds were slimmier than slim that Law would still be in the area, he had to look, just in case.

In the end there was no trace of his things or his boy on Minion, Swallow however was another story, his heart had nearly stoped in his chest when he found the wreckage of the small boat he had traveled to Minion in along with Law washed up on Swallows shore, some distance from the civilisation, only truly feeling able to breath again after his frenzied seach turned up the remains of a camp not far off, only then turning his search towards the town. After a short while his efforts of a few discreet questions and a liberal amount of eves dropping were rewarded with a few vague recollections of a child with a spotted hat, only made memorable for having apparetly made off with a pair of the islands resident trouble makers.

Thank god, you're alright, you're not alone, did you make some friends Law?

I want see you again,

I guess that even if I'm back among Marine ranks, at the end of the day Law,

I'm yours to keep.