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Slowly, you surfaced back to consciousness.
It felt like your mind was clawing its way through mud as you fought back against the lingering grogginess. The first thing you registered was the inability to move your hands – only feeling the rough fiber of rope rubbing against the skin of your wrists as you wriggled your hands and fingers. Your heart rate spiked inside of your chest, cutting through the remnants of your haziness.
You slowly cracked your eyes open as you tried to get your bearings.
Seated in a chair with your arms behind your back, you found yourself bound at the wrists with rope and similarly around your ankles. That was the extent of your confines, though – no gag, no blindfold, no other restraints.
Licking your parched lips, you looked around the room to try to figure out where the hell you were. But the room was practically empty, no other furnishings besides you in your chair. There were no windows, only a single door across from you. The only source of light was a lone, dim light bulb dangling from the ceiling which barely lit the room.
You took in a deep breath, and tried to rifle through your brain on why you could have been taken and how you were going to get yourself out of this.
Crocodile – the man you loved and also worked for – had such an unending list of enemies, it'd be impossible to try to narrow it down without any sort of hint.
As you attempted to tug against your restraints, the sound of various footsteps approaching made you pause and your hairs stand on end.
The door opened to reveal a group of four men as they filed in and you dug your nails into your palms to keep yourself grounded from the rising fear in your chest. The tallest of the men broke from the pack first and swaggered over to you, hands in his pockets. As he got right up in front of you, you were able to make out his face in the low light and your lips became a thin, straight line as you recognized this man.
He was a lackey for some wannabe conman Crocodile had done a deal with recently – a deal that had gone sideways in the end but that hadn't been your problem nor Crocodile's.
"That asshole you call your husband ripped us off," the man circled you like a shark, every word dripping with malice. "So, we're going to keep you here until he pays our boss back every bit he owes us, plus interest." He stopped in front of you to stare you down but you held his gaze.
Did Crocodile actually rip them off? Maybe. Maybe not. At this point, you were already tied to a chair in some dingy basement so it didn't really matter.
But if these men really thought that Sir Crocodile would be paying a ransom any time soon, they had another thing coming.
"You really don't know who you're dealing with then," you told him, almost sounding bored. The man sneered at you, and while a small chill went down your spine, you refused to back down. You felt a blend of anger and disgust towards these men for kidnapping you like this, for insulting your husband. Channeling Crocodile's vain demeanor, you lolled your head to the side and sighed, "I almost feel bad for you."
In the blink of an eye, the man snatched a hand out to uncomfortably grip your face, pushing your head back, and you fought back a gasp. From his pocket, he quickly whipped out a knife and brought it to your face which caused the rest of the men in the room to scramble forward.
"I-I don't think we're supposed-"
"We can't touch her-"
"Shut it." The agitated man hissed, cutting off the men who tried to speak up. It was clear this lackey, this loose cannon, was the one in charge of this small group. The others backed down and fidgeted as they watched him continue to manhandle you.
While you still kept your expression as cold and impassive as you could, it was like alarm bells were going off inside your head. Your heart thundered inside of your chest, a cool sweat broke across the back of your neck and it felt like acid was burning at the base of your throat.
Still, you would not let them see you break.
Your eyes narrowed, glaring at the man, and he snarled, your continued defiance sending him over the edge.
"She loves that bastard so much, why don't we have them match?"
As his words registered a moment too late, your eyes became like saucers and your lips parted.
Then the blade made contact with your skin and you felt the slice of the cool metal as it dragged along your face. Starting at one ear, crossing over your nose, and ending at your other ear.
Once satisfied with his work, he stepped back to give you a smug grin before he called out to the others behind him, "What do we think, boys?"
An uproar of outraged and worried shouting broke out across the room but it all sounded muffled to you, like you were underwater. One of the underlings ripped the man away from you and your head fell forward, chin tucked to your chest.
You didn't even feel the pain – shock had taken over all of your senses. You barely even felt the rush of blood down your face.
You stared blankly at your lap, small droplets of blood now staining your clothes. Your mind was a swirling void of disconnected thoughts. Tears prickled at the corners of your eyes but you gritted your teeth, refusing to crumble. Not yet. Not until they left.
Suddenly, the door slammed against the wall, now hanging half off it's hinges, and the leisurely click of dress shoes – expensive dress shoes – reverberated around the room. As the men in the room fell silent, frozen in shock like statues, an amused scoff came from the newcomer.
"You really thought you could take what's mine and get away with it?"
The sound of your husband's disdainful, haughty voice was what finally made a light sob rip up your throat as relief washed over you. You lifted your head slightly, peering up through your lashes, just to know that it was really him, he was really here.
In the faint light, you saw two of the men go down in an instant, bodies slashed by curves of sand. Crocodile sauntered further into the tiny room, his brutally, powerful presence dominating the space. Just as swiftly as the first two, he took down the underling still holding onto the one in charge, another slice of sand flashing across the room.
Your attacker took in his fallen comrades before he let out a bellowed yell and charged at Crocodile with the knife still in his hand. With the utmost ease, Crocodile grabbed him by the throat and gradually dehydrated him, his hand crushing his windpipe further and further as he did so. Once the man was nothing but a husk, he flippantly flung him to the ground without another thought.
In only a few steps, Crocodile was by your side and his hook made quick work of your restraints, giving your limbs instant relief. Cradling one of your wrists to your chest, you rubbed at the chafed skin, tucking your chin downwards yet again.
"Let's get you out of here," Crocodile was assessing the room before he looked back down at you.
You didn't respond, though.
Words were impossible right now as sharp, stinging pain was beginning to slowly ebb across your face and a shaky breath escaped you.
Crocodile’s deep voice turned soft as he said your name while he knelt in front of you – a softness you only heard on rare occasion. “Look at me." An agonizing blend of emotions churned within your stomach and you hunched yourself forward even further.
"Sweetheart, look at me.” You could hear the faint edge of worry laced in his usually stoic tone, and you started to raise your head, only by a bit. His large hand came to cup the side of your face, but you felt his fingers jolt once they made contact with your blood stained skin.
Then he gripped under your jaw to hurriedly tilt your head back, making your breath hitch, and it was like all time had slowed down between the two of you.
Through your own watery gaze, you watched those always piercing, always lethal, eyes of his slowly widen. His expression became distant, like he was a thousand miles away. But that expression was then gone as quickly it had arrived.
Instead, his sharp features contorted into raw, silent fury.
"They hurt you. They hurt my wife." His whispered words were like ice, unforgiving and cutting.
Normally, your husband's temper was louder, brasher. On display for the world to see and to cower from.
But this was different – you had never seen him like this before. One could think he was almost calm, but there was an undercurrent of cruelty to every ripple of movement from him.
Off in the distance, you could hear the clamoring of more men approaching.
Crocodile reached back to remove his heavy fur coat from his shoulders before draping it around yours. Your hands held onto his coat around you while you silently watched him, light tears lining your lashes.
"Stay here," he instructed you, voice low, his eyes vacant as he stood back up to his full, towering height.
Turning towards the ruined doorway, Crocodile moved with a deadly fluidity that reminded you of a merciless predator. His hand flexed repeatedly and sand poured off of him in unrelenting streams, leaving trails of it behind as he made his way out of the room.
The first shout from the newly arriving group rang out but it was quickly cut off with the hiss of sand and an anguished cry of pain. Though you couldn't see it, you heard the carnage unfold as another agonized wail sounded off and then another, the next coming even faster than the last.
Clutching his coat closer, you closed your eyes and took comfort in the warmth and scent of your husband while scream after scream echoed from the hallway.
---
Some Time Later
Bracing your hands against the bathroom counter, another breathy moan escaped past your lips. In front of you, mounted on the wall, was an ornate mirror and through half-lidded eyes, you watched in the reflection as Crocodile repeatedly drove his cock into you from behind. He had you fully pinned between his burning skin and the cool stone of the counter, his left arm snaked around your waist.
With every thrust, his impressive length bullied your inner walls, sending sparks of ecstasy through your veins. Just as you felt your arms begin to give out, Crocodile pulled you back and flushed up against his broad chest.
At this angle, the way his hips slapped against your ass caused your body to rock forward, making your tits bounce. In your husband's secure hold and at his complete mercy, you dropped your head back against his pec, letting an endless string of moans and mewls spew from you. You felt those sharp eyes of his gazing at you through the mirror and a shiver danced down your spine, desire burning hot in your lower stomach.
Cupping under your jaw from behind, Crocodile held your face in his large hand. His grip was tight but your eyes only lightly rolled back from being in his firm grasp.
Then you felt his thumb stroke your cheek – right along the line of your new scar.
It had taken some time, but your face had healed, and now you had a scarred over line that went along your face, from ear to ear. Just like his own.
It was something you'd have for the rest of your life, but, as you adjusted to it, you had decided to wear it with pride. And with the way Crocodile's eyes zeroed in on it sometimes, like right now, you couldn't help but wonder if he secretly liked it. You honestly wouldn't be surprised with your husband's vanity if a part of him savored you bearing his resemblance.
Especially since the source of said scar was dead as a doornail – and the entire crew he ran with. In that fit of icy, silent rage unlike anything you'd seen from him before, Crocodile had made sure that not a single soul had survived.
Crocodile snapped his hips forward again, harsher this time, and it pulled choked gasp from you. You weren't sure how much longer you were going to last, not with the way his cock was relentlessly drilling into you. That burning desire from before now simmered throughout your whole body and airy moans built up in your throat, Crocodile's grip on your face getting tighter with each one that slipped past your lips.
His eyes never left your face in the mirror as you teetered over the edge of your orgasm, that coiled feeling in your lower stomach so incredibly taut.
"Keep looking at me, sweetheart," Crocodile lustfully growled, causing your eyebrows to crease further together as another desperate moan came from you. While your mind was becoming absolute mush, you focused on locking eyes with him and a satisfied groan rumbled it's way through Crocodile. "Good, that's it."
Your pussy clenched around his cock at his praise, earning you a hiss of pleasure from your husband. Shifting his hips, Crocodile changed his angle all while keeping his brutal pace but now he was hitting your sweet spot, making your vision white out.
With a few more wanton cries, your orgasm finally coursed through you wildly and you wrapped your arms around Crocodile's sturdy arm at your waist to anchor yourself to him. Your sobs of ecstasy echoed around the bathroom while you continued to rock your hips back in time with his thrusts, riding out every bit of your orgasm. Crocodile was stroking your face again, his breathing turning harsh and heavy while his eyes devoured you in the mirror.
Just as you came down from your sexual high, Crocodile let go of your face to hold you by your hip, keeping you in place while his cock plunged into you erratically. You could barely catch your breath, only choked moans barely making their way out of you while he had his way with you.
With a deep groan that radiated through his chest, Crocodile snapped his hips forward one last time and spilled into you. Small gasps escaped you as felt his cock kick inside of you and his arms now crushed you against his torso. Soon, you felt his body relax against yours and you bit your lip to hold back a light whine.
The two of you stayed like that while you both caught your breath, your sweat slicked bodies melting against one another. Your eyes slid closed and you relished in the moment with him, feeling his chest move with every breath he took.
After a few moments of this, you reopened your eyes to find Crocodile looking at your scar through the mirror. His expression told you nothing of what he was thinking and it made you think back to that day. Ever since then, you had had a question for him that you still had yet to ask him.
"You look like you have something on your mind," he rasped out, an eyebrow quirked in question.
Still holding onto his arm, one of your hands gave his forearm a light squeeze before you answered him.
“When you first saw me – first saw what they did...” you trailed off, gathering your thoughts. “You had this look on your face, only for a moment. But it was like you were elsewhere.” Flicking your eyes back up to his, your question was a gentle whisper. “Where did you go?”
Crocodile held your gaze in the mirror for a beat before he sighed, looking away.
“The past.”
His tone, weary but still pointed, made it clear that you weren’t getting anything else from him about it. But you understood; his past had always been an untouchable subject between the two of you, no matter how long you had been by his side.
You were his wife, his secretary, his – sometimes literally – partner-in-crime, but for someone like Crocodile, there would always be a wall that could never fully be brought down.
You gave him a small okay and began to idly rub your thumb along his forearm, dropping the topic.
Letting out another deep breath through his nose, Crocodile dropped his forehead onto your shoulder. Your eyes softened as you watched him for a moment before reaching your hand back to thread your fingers through his, now slightly mussed up, slicked back hair. You heard a small rumble come from your husband as his strong arms pulled your body closer to his.
Affection, like this, from Crocodile was a rarity, and it was always on his terms – starting and ending exactly when he deemed so. You bit back a smile as the thought of him being like a large, disgruntled cat floated through your mind.
His nose rubbed against your back as he buried his face against you, his hand digging into the meat of your hip.
"It'll never happen again."
His words – quiet but solemn, a whisper against your skin – pulled you from your thoughts as you felt his arms constrict around you further.
You didn't need him to clarify what he meant. Ever since you'd returned, you had constantly felt Crocodile's shadow everywhere you went. His presence a silent and looming, but protective veil over you.
He hadn't uttered a word about it – no showy demands or controlling orders. But as you went about your day to day life, your husband was just always there. Smoking a cigar nearby while you filed paperwork, trailing closely behind you as browsed through different stores, watching from your shared bed as you went about your nightly routine.
You knew there was a good chance you'd eventually tire of it, especially if he started to bar you from going anywhere or doing certain things, but for now, you were letting yourself enjoy his comfort and security.
Crocodile lifted his head and met your eyes in the mirror one more time. Now, there was a fire in his eyes, a fire that said he'd let this whole world burn for you – something he'd already proven on that day.
With his face next to yours, the start of your scar and the end of his became one long, scarred line.
A small smirk graced your lips, one that Crocodile returned easily, before you gave his forearm another squeeze.
"I know."