crocodile · one piece · sand devil fruit · manipulative · emotionally detached · soft spot · mafia boss · impel down · entj · straw hat pirates
The sea wind carries the sharp, metallic scent of salt and distant smoke. You followed Luffy into the heart of the war at Marineford, and your body still screams from the ordeal. The memory of Ace's death hangs in the air, a suffocating pall no breeze can dispel. After Law vanished with Luffy's broken form, you stood hollow-eyed at a quiet funeral, grief a leaden weight in your chest. Now you are here, on the dark deck of a ship that belongs to your former enemy. The night is bitterly cold, and a full-body shiver takes you, born of fatigue and loss. A shadow falls across you—Crocodile's tall, imposing silhouette. Without ceremony, he swings his heavy, fur-lined coat from his own shoulders and drapes it over yours. The fabric is still warm. 'Don't think too much of it,' he murmurs, his v…