Chapter Text
“Come on, quickly,” Crocodile hissed as he helped Luffy put on his raincoat, looking on as Ace and Sabo put on their rain boots by themselves. Someone pounded forcefully at the door, and Luffy whimpered.
“Mama, I’m scared,” he whispered.
“I know, baby, I know,” he said, zipping his coat up to his chin. Behind Luffy, Sabo was grabbing his pipe - scrap that Crocodile had originally hated having in the house but was now grateful for it - and handing Ace his own.
The door rattled harshly again, and Crocodile cursed. He stood and grabbed the three letters he had written, handing one to each of the boys.
“You stay with each other,” he ordered, and they nodded. “Don’t let Luffy out of your sight, you hear me?” Again, Ace and Sabo nodded. “Go to the port and find the traders. Tell them you want passage to Dressrosa, as fast as possible. Dress Rosa, okay? When you get there, go to the palace, and tell them you want to speak to Donquixote Doflamingo. You tell them you have a message from Crocodile for him. When you see him, you give him those letters, okay?”
All three boys nodded. Crocodile turned to Sabo. “Repeat it to me. What are you going to do?”
“Go to port and find the trader,” he said. “Ask to go to Dressrosa. Talk to Doflamingo, give him the letters.”
Crocodile nodded. “Good.”
“Ma, what’s going on?” Ace asked, speaking up for the first time. One of his hands was holding Luffy’s, but the other was white-knuckled and trembling around the letter. Crocodile pulled him into a hug, pressing a kiss to his hair, and then did the same to Sabo and Luffy.
“Some bad people found me,” he explained. “And they might want to hurt you if they see you here.”
“But why don’t you come with us?” Luffy whined. “We can all run away together! Please, Mama, I’m scared. Don’t leave us alone.”
Crocodile’s heart squeezed, painfully, and it took a monumental amount of willpower to keep from breaking down in front of his kids. “I know,” Crocodile said hoarsely, tears tightening his throat. “I’m sorry. But it’s safer this way. I promise I’ll find you as soon as I can.”
Something collided with the door, and there was a loud crack as the wood began to give way. Crocodile cursed and jumped back up to his feet, running to the back door with all three boys in tow. It was across the house from the door that was being broken down, but not out of sight. They would all be spotted the moment it gave if they didn’t hurry. He pulled the door open and flinched back at the pouring rain, dreading sending his boys out into it. It was only a five-minute walk to the port through the forest, but he hated the idea nonetheless.
He pulled all three into his arms, squeezing just shy of bruising, and then let them go. “I love you,” he whispered, meeting each of their eyes. “I love you so, so much. Please, for the love of all the seas, stay safe. I’ll find you as soon as I can, okay?”
He waited for each of them to nod, and then gently nudged them out into the rain. Wailing, Luffy wrenched his arm out of Ace’s grip and leapt into Crocodile’s arms. “I love you, Mama,” he sobbed. He pressed his face into the curve of Crocodile’s neck, tears soon making the skin slippery.
“I love you too, Luffy,” Crocodile whispered back, pressing kiss after kiss into his hair, tears finally overpowering his defenses and sliding down his cheeks. “I’ll see you soon, okay? But right now, you have to go. These people are dangerous.”
Luffy nodded into his neck and released his grip, allowing Crocodile to set him back down on the ground. He took Ace’s hand again, and both of them turned towards the forest. Sabo, for a moment, paused, looking Crocodile right in the eyes. “I love you, Mama,” he said, loud enough to be heard over the rain. Then he too turned towards the forest, and the three of them set off toward it. Crocodile could only watch them, tears indistinguishable from rain as they poured down his cheeks. He heard the splintering of the wooden doorframe behind him, but couldn’t be bothered to look.
“I love you, Mama,” Ace called softly over his shoulder, just before they vanished into the tree line. Finally, in what had been coming for a good while, Crocodile’s legs gave out, and he fell to his knees, sobbing, even though he didn’t take his eyes off the trees. Ace- it had been years since Ace had called him Mama, having declared it childish less than a year after Luffy was born. It was even rarer that he admitted his love for anyone in words.
There was shouting behind him, and Crocodile was tackled into the dirt a second later, leaving streaks of mud across his clothes and face. The rain plastered his hair to his face and neck and dripped into his eyes, but he didn’t look away from the forest, even though he couldn’t see his boys anymore. There was the sound of boots pounding all over the wooden floors of the house, and Crocodile didn’t hear that or a word any of them were barking at him. Someone sat on his legs, brutally wrenching his arms behind his back with a violence that made him scream as his shoulder was jerked out of its socket. Over his cry of pain, he heard someone shout, “Check the forest! He must’ve been talking with someone!”
“NO!” Crocodile roared, bucking up and flinging the man from his back. He had managed to get a cuff on Crocodile’s wrist, but the rain made his Devil Fruit useless anyway, and even without it, he was able to throw himself into the man that gave the order, toppling them both back down to the ground. He pulled the pistol from the man’s hip and pointed it at his head, sitting on his chest, pinning his arms to his sides with his legs.
The wind howled around them, and a flash of lightning illuminated everything for less than a second.
His attack worked to keep the others at bay for a few seconds, before one of them used their brain and shot him. It hit him right in the shoulder that hadn’t been dislocated, and Crocodile dropped the gun with a splat into the dirt beside the man’s head. He trapped the scream building in his lungs behind his teeth, and twisted to land on his back when the man beneath him shoved him off. Another man grabbed his arm and flipped him over, causing shocks of pain to erupt from both wounded shoulders. His arms were jerked back into position, and the cuff was fixed to his other wrist. For good measure, ropes were wrapped around his arms and torso, pinning them to his sides while the seastone cuff kept him from using his Devil Fruit powers.
Some more men stormed into the forest, a few of them slipping in the mud, but Crocodile was confident that they wouldn’t find his boys, especially with the few seconds he bought them. After all, they played - trained, they trained - there on a daily basis, and the giant tigers hadn’t made a meal of them yet.
Still, he sent a quick prayer to the gods he had never believed in to keep them safe.
It seemed that the gods had it out for him, though, as when he was pulled to his feet, a gunshot was heard over the pouring rain, coming from within the forest.
“No!” Crocodile gasped, jerking forwards, toward the forest, but the men had a good grip on him and he couldn’t get more than a few inches away.
He waited with bated breath, barely daring to hope, but lost all strength when two more gunshots echoed toward them.
Three gunshots.
He fell limp, and two men had to grab him under the arms to keep him upright. They started dragging him back towards their ship, and Crocodile could do nothing but let his heels drag in the mud and create small ditches in the wet dirt for the rain to collect and run through.
By the time they threw him in the brig, his shirt had practically taken on a new color due to all the blood leaking from his shoulder. He was lightheaded and weak, black spots dancing in his vision, and he almost didn’t feel it when they threw him into the hard, metal cell. His head, however, cracked against the floor, and he finally, blissfully, lost consciousness.