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moonbaby26 · 4 months

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Title: The Crane

(Chapter 11 of Doflamingo’s Marine Series)

*Crossposted to AO3 Here*

Chapter Pairings: Doflamingo x Reader, Doflamingo x Tsuru (platonic, mostly)

Chapter Warnings: language, heavy petting, emotional manipulation, mommy issues, implied praise kink, trauma response, blood, violence (flashback)

Chapter Synopsis: Still on Doflamingo’s ship as it nears Dressrosa, you and the Donquixote captain remain holed up in his cabin together. But after a much anticipated phone call, you finally learn a bit more about his and Vice Admiral Tsuru’s shared past.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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You didn’t speak. His wet fingers were moving through your hair, massaging into your scalp as you watched the soap further clouding the water around you both.

You knew Doflamingo’s purposeful movements weren’t those of contrition, nor were they mercy.

These lingering touches that now crept across your body were more like the tendrils of indoctrination.

Trust me. His hands said.

Need me. Exuded from that warmth of his hard abdomen now pressed against your back, and his bent legs still spread around you, walling you in on either side within the large tub.

You closed your eyes, the bathwater running over your face while he poured it from a metal pitcher, down above your head to rinse it.

Even if the warlord’s current actions should have felt pleasurable and excessively intimate, you were entirely somewhere else within your own mind then. Still replaying that prior violence you couldn’t reason with or accept.

To you, there’d been no honor on either side of that brief fight. But as skewed as things had already become between the two of you, you’d somehow felt as guilty over your own actions as you had been threatened by his.

Because you couldn’t forget that moment of his helplessness, the brief fear in his body after you had attacked him without warning.

Nor could you forget the bewildered rage in his mismatched eyes immediately after when he’d struck you back twice as hard. Not an ounce of regret or hesitation in his fist for you then.

“You’re shaking again…” Doflamingo’s low voice came as you felt those large hands move back to your shoulders once he had set the pitcher back in the bathwater.

You watched that vessel as it floated briefly empty, before it tilted enough to take on water and sink. The metal grazing your ankle under the water as the pitcher found the tub bottom.

“I’m just in pain.” You somewhat lied. The trembling was more an outlet of severe emotions. Stress leaving the body when you wouldn’t let yourself cry again in front of him.

And at that, those same long fingers massaged across your collar bone before sliding up and around your throat.

You waited for his hand to close there too as it normally would. But he only chuckled, actually caressing your jaw instead as he stretched his legs out further.

Those lean calves with the fine blond hairs running down them came out of the water then as Doflamingo lifted both of his ankles to rest them on the far edge of the tub.

He was all too comfortable. A continued insult really, when even now he must not see you as truly dangerous to him. He couldn’t, to be so content with his wet legs spread on either side of you. A devil fruit user willingly lounging in water to be made more vulnerable.

“And you’re just as pretty with all these bruises you know.” He spoke that twisted compliment abruptly rather than any apology of contributing to them.

You felt him toying with your hair again next, just before his hand slid down your front, gently cupping the breast he’d bitten so harshly earlier.

He couldn’t keep his hands off of you. Not now or then. And you breathed out, with just the sheer audacity of him.

“I don’t see how they’ll ever heal either. You don’t give me a break.” You responded, albeit with the back of your head leaned into him all the more as his fingers started lightly massaging your exposed chest.

“Mmm?” He made that noise and you could hear the bit of a grin forming again in his next words. “But you liked how I handled you in Scylla well enough. Don’t forget all that just because you thought you’d already be running back to Momonga by now. You were going to use me and run again…”

Of course he’d thrown focus right back on you with that. As if he was never responsible for anything with his extreme reactions and manipulations.

“I didn’t use you.” You managed. But you knew he’d never take real blame regardless. “And yes, I did like it there. I liked when you were in a good mood. So are you just going to sell that villa now?” You still tried to divert into something less important yourself as you weren’t in the mood for another argument.

“Should I?” He answered so immediately though, surprising you a little when he accepted that shift in topic that easily. His hand was still roaming between your breasts before he closed his legs enough for his thighs to hug either side of you again beneath the water. “I was thinking you may like it as a wedding gift actually. You barely got to see the island after all…I’m sure you’ll want me to take you there again won’t you?”

And at that you did twist, enough to try to look up at him. You knew this was bait. Of course you knew this, but how could you not react?

He was really smiling too. It actually carrying up into his uncovered eyes as well. The right eye at least looking mischievous in the way it narrowed. The left was clouded as always as he loosened the grip of his legs around you. He let you shift so that you could face one another again in the bathtub.

“Well?” He still goaded a little more in response to your stare. “Would that be acceptable to your tastes, woman? A private vacation home for Dressrosa’s soon to be queen? After all, why would we want anyone else living in and sullying our very first nest?”

And you wanted to just blurt out that he was full of shit, especially then. Or to at least say that you couldn’t be bribed half this easily. Which was true. Real money and all the extravagance that came with it did little for you in the end.

But the way he’d said the last part specifically. It did bring back those mental images of being twisted up with him in that bedroom in Scylla. Day and night as he’d mounted you like a beast in heat and kissed you up and down over and over again before falling asleep in each other’s grip for the very first time.

The city where you’d played pretend with him as well. Holding hands and eating and dancing. Watching fireworks light up the dark, side by side like you’d never truly hurt each other again.

“Then when can we go back?” You finally replied. Maybe daring to think for even a moment that your boldness would call his bluff.

Because of course you rather be in Scylla if there was a choice. Even after all that had happened now, it was still the island from your childhood dreams. And more of a neutral ground for you both to be sure.

Yet Doflamingo didn’t falter, that wicked grin only growing as his right eye locked onto yours.

“Fuck, woman. We could turn this boat back around right now and elope if you’d like. But…I know you are a little worse for wear right now. I want to get you protected back in Dressrosa first. Now that I’ve put your name out there, you may have more new ill wishers than you realize.”

And that was something you hadn’t even considered yet at all. Pirates always had enemies. And the bigger the pirate, the worse they would be. But they couldn’t know whether you were something Doflamingo would negotiate for either. Actually, you didn’t even know the answer to that yourself.

But he was still talking as your attention went back to him.

“We can plan something more public while you recover. I’m not against that church in Scylla as our venue in the end though. Because can you imagine our guest list? Every pirate and marine that’s even worth a damn? And then shove them all together? Not sure even I want that kind of mess on my doorstep in Dressrosa. If we take the party to another island though, the cleanup becomes someone else’s problem.”

“You’ve…actually thought about this already.” And as guarded as you still should have been, some tiny part of you did feel thoroughly floored at the idea of returning to that famous church in such a context.

A beaten down brat, just a daughter of a literal whore out of a starving town in the North Blue could never have even fantasized to that level. Just seeing that church in person had seemed impossible to you for the longest time.

But to be married there?

Even if fake and loveless, even with chains and caveats stretching to infinity, there was something both awful and amazing in that concept.

“I think you’ve thought of it too.” He taunted, surely noticing that conflicted expression on your face. His white teeth practically beaming down at you with the wideness of his smile. “Though I do need to still get you a ring. Big News Morgans is trying to hurry us along, hinting it as a secret engagement already. But the very moment I do call you my fiancee publicly, I’m going to make sure that everyone knows it.”

And he’d bent his back and neck forward enough to lean into you again. This time face to face as you allowed it, even welcomed him as you sensed that sudden softness.

It was another deep kiss as he parted his lips to let you in. Your eyes were still slightly open, enough to watch his close as he made a pleasured sound.

It was back to affection now. These mind games he played that you just couldn’t overcome.

His hands were on your arms, helping to hold you up as you moved more onto your knees. One kiss transitioning into another and another. Your sore face was still aching all the while as his tongue gently swept across your mouth.

“It’s going to be fine…” Doflamingo breathed abruptly between that exchange. “…because you’ll endure anything I throw your way…won’t you, darling?”

And there seemed to finally be the summary of his approach with you right now. Instead of working on his own self control to not repeat this kind of damage again, he was going to simply trust you to survive it.

He was making this your current responsibility…not his.

———————————

You didn’t bother to put any clothes back on. You only had so many clean uniforms in your luggage. And you feared Doflamingo just ruining more of them as your still damp body now lay on his mattress.

Like magic, all the blood stained sheets and bedding had been changed by his servants while the two of you had been in the bath with the door closed. And there was then a tray of hot food and another couple bottles of wine with clean glasses waiting.

The food was some rice dish with poultry and lots of peppers that you now declined, stretched out and resting again instead while Doflamingo ate.

He remained nude as well, sitting cross legged on the bed beside you with paperwork in one hand that he was reading. A spoon in his other as he ate from a bowl that was hanging seemingly precariously in mid air.

More strings were supporting the bowl of course, a unique substitute for a table as you’d actually started to fall back asleep.

You’d been through so much in just the last twenty four hours. And the quiet was mostly all you wanted before a transponder snail had started ringing abruptly.

As your eyes opened again to that noise, you saw Doflamingo looking around. There were multiple snails on shelves throughout his large captain’s quarters.

But this ring did sound more muffled as he emptied his hands, then sliding off the bed, and walking to try and track it.

You didn’t care at all though. At least not until you saw him crouch near your bags.

You’d spent nearly the entire day on this pirate ship by now. The sun had set again and this was the first time your snail had ever rang.

He cast you an annoyed look back over his shoulder. “Well…which of your boyfriends do you think this is?”

And you tried not to show any emotion in response as Doflamingo unzipped the bag roughly. The silence from your fellow marines to this point had been more proof to you that you were truly on your own now.

Just as Sengoku had made Momonga stand down, that directive must have gone out to everyone. Even when you still couldn’t understand why.

But you said nothing to the pirate. He was going to do what he wanted. You just watched as he pulled that snail up and out, bringing the receiver to his ear with a scowl.

“You’ve reached the Donquixote pirates. We’re a bit busy right now.” He mocked, already turning to walk back towards the bed with your phone still in hand.

Yet then his eyes widened and you saw him stop immediately.

He took a breath and the corners of his mouth shifted back up in what seemed like an almost nervous smile. He looked down to the ground, listening. For several seconds even to whatever the unknown party was saying to him before he made eye contact with you again.

And his tone had completely changed then. Smooth, but cautious. Careful as he started to walk to you again. “How harsh…really. She’s fine, Tsuru-san. She’s right here.”

Your heart had absolutely jumped into your throat at that name of course. You were then sitting up instantly as Doflamingo slid himself back onto the bed beside you. The snail now between the two of you as he clicked it onto speaker without you even having to fight him for it.

“Vice Admiral!?” You blurted, just relief and hope and so much dread mixing all at once as some last remaining wall within you started to further crack.

And she too made a sound of audible relief even within her clear anger. “Thank heaven. How badly are you hurt?”

You did see Doflamingo’s body bristle slightly at the question, but he was fully disregarded by you both in this moment.

Your voice remained rapid, but stressed. You had waited so long to hear her again. Even now in your utter shame for everything she must already know.

But work always came first. And it was so much easier to debrief on the initial cause of your injuries rather than what had worsened them today.

“I’m so sorry, Tsuru-san!” You were trembling again. You felt that wetness in your eyes beginning already. “I screwed up. I got pinned down protecting that girl. I didn’t ration my armament well enough. And-”

Tsuru said your name fully then. Kind, but so effective in silencing you in that heavy tone you’d so rarely heard from her. “No. You did exactly as you had to do. You saved that girl’s life. But that’s not what I’m asking you about. Has he hurt you?”

And this time Doflamingo refused to be ignored, leaning in to loom over that snail as his voice rose to snap back. “If anything, she would have bled out without me! Throwing her life away for that Nefertari brat! Would you have rather had that happen, Tsuru!? Should I have just left her for whoever really did it to take revenge at their leisure later!?”

The room was quiet after, his emerging petulance so evident. But you were right here in front of him. You saw his chest muscles tighten, and his hand clench into the bedsheet as well.

This was more than anger. The look in his good eye was actually becoming something closer to desperation then. But Tsuru read that tone in his words even better than you. She’d known him far longer.

“It really scared you that badly then…did it, boy? You thought someone was going to take something from you?” Tsuru questioned flatly.

And Doflamingo’s tense mouth hesitated, surprise edging into his eyes next.

“You possessive, childish, selfish little brat.” She continued, bitterly even before he could retort. Not letting up in her accusations. “You panicked. You made a drastic move, and now you think you’ve won? But you have no idea how to care for another person! You’re only plunging head first into another disaster.”

His teeth grit and his hand moved from the bedsheet to hold to you instead at that. His arm actually went around your waist as he drug you back into his lap all in one strong movement.

You tried not to make a sound that she would have heard with the pain that caused. But he spoke right over you anyway.

“It won’t end that way! Because she’s not weak! She’ll heal, and then I can teach her to be even stronger. She’s already learned all she can from you. And I told you this was what I was going to do! I told you goddamn years ago!”

So rarely had you gotten to hear both sides of their arguments. But this was not the confident and antagonistic Doflamingo you would have expected. Even as combative as his words sounded, his body language still didn’t match it.

The nervous rate of his breathing, the way he was holding you so tightly now. As if you might slip away somehow. Away from him and back to her all over again.

“Even you can’t be this deluded.” Tsuru spoke. Calm by comparison, but her own anger sounding so much deeper. “You can’t lock her away. She’ll never thrive. She’s not meant for a cage. No matter how pretty you might pretend it can be. Dressrosa would be a prison. And a marriage to you nothing more than an additional tightening of the noose.”

You felt a twitch in his hands. And you heard the growl before he spat back. His words addressed to her, but his cheek almost against yours as he’d draped himself around you fully then, still seated together with your back against him. “I fell for a marine, Tsuru…so she can stay one if that’s what she really wants. She can sail again. As long as she still comes home to me!”

And you heard her scoff instantly. A woman who had no time at all for his nonsense. A woman who had heard it all before in a hundred ways. “Lies. I do wish we could ever believe you. I wish you were anyone else but what you really are. What you choose to be, boy.”

But Doflamingo did quiet suddenly then. As if she may as well have reached out and slapped him through the glaring eyes of that transponder snail.

“Tsuru-san…” He breathed. His fingers had slid to interlock with yours against the bedsheet. Hands now together without your consent as he squeezed. You could feel sweat forming on his palm. “I’m exactly what you all made me to be. I didn’t choose a fucking thing of this misery.”

And then they were both quiet. All you knew then was that you didn’t want to be between them in this moment as you waited for something violent to happen next.

You waited for him to explode, and Tsuru so many seas away, to only be able to hear it when he would. You could feel the tension still rising in his body.

But that all ended the very moment a new tone emerged from her. One you did know as Doflamingo raised his own head from your shoulder at the sound of it.

A mother’s exasperation.

“Doflamingo…you did choose. You chose your path and Rosinante chose his. You both had the same starting point.”

He actually chuckled at that after another moment, but it was still a different kind of laugh. Weak and only reflexive now. She had done something just that easily with her voice alone as you felt him subtly relaxing. Like water cast over that fire. “And you never told her did you? About me? About him? You white coats and all your goddamn secrets…”

“No.” She affirmed. “All that is a conversation whose weight deserved to happen in person. Yet you couldn’t bloody wait until I could get home!”

And he was smiling, no longer angry then as she snapped at him instead. Like they were trading that energy back and forth. But his voice was thick, taunting again now. “I’ll tell her some of it at least. About you when we first met. How you used to hold me, and wash the blood from my hair. Those long nights in that medical tent. Back when you used to actually love me.”

“He was ten and in triage at our field hospital.” Tsuru clarified immediately, surely anticipating your absolute brain break from his words. And she scolded him just as fast too, her own built up anger going nowhere soon. “Quit making everything sound disgusting!”

But he just doubled down, speaking to you instead. “We used to sleep together too. She wasn’t entirely such a mean old woman then.”

“Literal sleep. Gods, if you were in my reach, boy!”

“Her devil fruit washes do start to feel good after a while you know.” Doflamingo sounded so much more like himself now.

“Joke all you want to try and divert from what’s coming for you. She’ll get wise to every trick of yours soon enough, just as I have.” She told him.

And she called your name again then, seemingly refusing to waste any further energy on him.

“I’m still here, ma’am. And I’m alright.” You assured as you did answer her. But trying to convince yourself of that as much as anyone. “I’ll keep my head up.” Of course you wanted to spill your guts to her. You wanted to confess it all. But not like this. Not in front of him.

“We’re still in Lyra. But it’s finally winding down. And you shouldn’t have to be dealing with any of this alone. The absolute first moment we can sail for Dressrosa, we will.” She promised you.

And Doflamingo huffed, his large hand squeezing yours again where your fingers were still interlocked. “You’re welcome on my island, Vice Admiral. Because you have tact of course. Your crew as well. I’m sure the captain here will want to see all her ‘sisters’ before the wedding anyway.” But his teeth bared a little again as he warned regardless. “Yet if any of your lessers…her little boyfriends for instance, try to make a move, you know I won’t be near as accommodating.”

“You’re not stronger than the current admirals, just so we’re clear. More malicious and cunning than them certainly. But not in brute strength.” She answered with no hesitation, throwing that warning right back to him.

“Strength is knowing their weaknesses, dear Tsuru.” He purred in that way of his, lips still pulled back cruelly as he nuzzled you none the less.

And at last you felt like you were really dreaming. As if you had fallen asleep before this transponder snail ever rang.

You must be in some psychotic break of a dream. Because you couldn’t actually be sitting here, nude with a warlord’s soft cock against your ass as he held your hand and nuzzled your neck. All while he also threatened your colleagues, almost flirting with your commanding officer, and referencing what he really thought would be your soon to be wedding with him in the same breath.

“She wants to get married in Scylla. You might as well go ahead and tell Sengoku to start preparing. That island’s going to need a hell of a lot of security then.” He also bragged, grinning all the while. “I’ll let you know as soon as we set a date.”

“You’re such a prideful fool.” Tsuru sighed at him and you could fully picture the way she’d pinch the bridge of her nose and hang her head in stress. Like when arguing futilely with Garp. She knew when she was absolutely wasting her words.

“Terms of endearment only you could get away with.” He retorted. “Well…and maybe your disciple here. You’d be proud of her. She hasn’t lost that fire yet.”

“I’m always proud of her.” Tsuru said, completely sincere.

Quick enough too in her praise to make you bite your bottom lip slightly as you didn’t think there could be a way you still deserved such a compliment from her level. Not after all this that you’d drug the marines into now.

“And me?” Doflamingo asked though, and that need in him was evident just as instantly.

You supposed some semblance of a rapport could form even between enemies when the chase went on long enough. But this well exceeded that.

He wanted validation, he wanted her focus. It reminded you so much of a child who would act out purposefully. Because even a return of negative attention was better than receiving none at all.

And she knew the game. You could hear it so plainly in her dry response. “I’d be impressed only if you did let her come and go freely. And if you postponed this marriage nonsense all together.”

“Feh.” He grinned again. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

“I will be on my way to Dressrosa soon.” She reiterated in further warning.

“And we’ll be looking forward to it. It’s been too long.” He just teased right back, but it almost sounded warm from him then.

She sighed once more. “I have to hang up now, (Y/N). I have no choice as we have enemies nearby. This area is still a hot zone and we need to keep moving. If I can’t call you back, then call Sengoku at least. I want daily checkins from you with HQ. Do you understand?”

To make sure you weren’t dead? To make sure you weren’t being tortured? What could they really do for you right now anyway? But you answered dutifully regardless. “Yes, ma’am.”

Doflamingo made another disapproving sound, yet butting in before the line could disconnect.

“Well, take care then, Vice Admiral.” And he snickered, mouth curving so mockingly. “Love you as always.”

And you absolutely froze, briefly stunned before you turned your face to look back up at him.

He had his left eye closed, like it was bothering him again. But it made him look more like he was actually winking, his smile then falling on you instead.

“He doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Remember that. He’ll use it against you like any other tool.” Tsuru retorted, as if she really had battled this so many times already. “Be strong. We’ll talk soon.”

And then came the click. The snail closing its eyes once more as you returned to this imprisonment on your own.

Doflamingo purred again though once certain the call was done, that odd mix of a growl and a hum in his still tight chest as his hands moved back over your breasts from behind.

“You’re lucky to have had so many years with her.” He said then, the quiet of his voice actually matching the almost tender way he was now massaging your chest.

You did feel the bit of sweat still on his palms though as he cupped you and his fingers dimpled into that soft flesh.

He really had been nervous. But he was using your body to come back down from that anxiety now.

And the calm silence that followed only reinforced that. You leaned the back of your head against him again, resting as he began stroking up and down your torso idly.

For so long in fact, that you’d started to close your eyes once more. Being petted soothingly really while your breathing grew deeper and more rhythmic.

“You never ate anything.” His deep voice dispersed that brief haze of sleep suddenly though as you felt him nip the top of your ear. “I don’t want my woman wasting away.”

Admitting a pirate could ever be right was still extremely difficult for you. But you only wanted rest, even as he finally let go of you and you were forced to sit up on your own again on the bed.

“It’s paella. A recipe straight from Dressrosa.” He told you, while a bowl of that chicken and rice dish from earlier came floating over with the movement of his fingers. He suspended it over the bed for you just as he’d done for himself earlier. “The peppers are normally only a garnish. But I like it hot, so my cooks always put more. Pick them out if it burns too much.”

And he’d given you a spoon after. Followed by a glass of wine he himself poured.

He hadn’t finished his own serving before Tsuru’s call though. Going back to his bowl too now as the two of you shared dinner in bed together just like this.

And he wasn’t kidding about the peppers. You had to pause and down some of the wine more than once when that heat had built up too much on your tongue. But it’d definitely woke you back up then, letting your mind go to thinking about that surreal phone call before you were the one to finally speak again.

“You said you’d tell me the story. How you and Tsuru really met.” The vice admiral had insisted he’d been only a child then. And you couldn’t shake that image now either. Doflamingo actually being small or weak at any point in his life.

And both of those warlord’s eyes were open again. He was watching you. “How she and I met? That’s quite a tale to start right now. Are you certain?” But the dark smirk as he asked this in return said more than enough as well. He clearly wanted you to know.

He’d just finished his own food as he dropped his spoon into the bowl and got up to move it away. Whatever contracts he’d been reading earlier were also set aside with your transponder snail onto the nightstand. He grabbed one of the wine bottles before returning to the mattress with it as he propped his back into the pillows.

Of course you were both still fully nude. And Doflamingo kept his legs open enough to purposefully show you everything. Soft cock hanging, impressive even at rest as he took a large swig straight from that bottle.

“Fine, love. I’ll tell you. But I want you back over here as soon as you’ve emptied that bowl. We’ll change your bandage again, and then I’ve got something else you can fill your stomach with.” He gave his cock one lazy stroke, letting it flop back down over his sack as he spread his thighs even more with a lewd smile.

You must not have looked too thrilled in this moment as he laughed after, another guzzle taken from his wine bottle before he went on. “So…let’s see. The night I met Tsuru. That would have been…goddamn. Twenty three years ago. How time flies.” He closed his left eye again. His smile tightening, closer to a sneer so quickly as he tapped one long finger against that heavily scarred eyelid. “The very same night they took this away from me.”

———————————

It was back in the North Blue. The most pain Doflamingo had ever known to that point in his life. So much so that he must have kept blacking out while Homing had carried him on. But he remembered Rosinante’s crying from below all the same.

“Papa there’s so much blood, please Papa…is Doffy still breathing?” The other boy would absolutely not stop whining.

But neither would Doflamingo. Incomprehensible words escaping him even through sobs as his father had held him against his chest while they hurried through those woods in the night.

He couldn’t open his left eye at all any longer. The pain coming from that side of his face had made him feel as if those villagers had ripped the flesh to the bone. He knew he must be disfigured. He may even be dying. But he absolutely refused to do that yet even as his blood thoroughly soaked through Homing’s shirt while he’d cried against it.

“They said there was a field hospital,” The man was panting, carrying his badly wounded oldest son while the youngest still held his pants leg desperately, almost being drug along from below. “Only a bit farther, boys. Please, it’s all we can do.”

——————————

And when they had finally gotten there, it’d been a blur of uniforms and rifles. Doflamingo remembered the guns slung over so many shoulders. It was not a hospital at all as he had known the meaning of the word.

It was a slum. A muddy city of tents and angry faces. But Homing was begging, not an ounce of godly pride left in that worm as he’d tried to hand over his already brutalized child to these filthy strangers.

For the last time in his life Doflamingo had actually clung to his father regardless though. Not trusting anything or anyone in this new nightmare as he’d started to screech again. It was just too much. These were just more humans. Ones with guns. The others had only had sticks and pitchforks and arrows, and look at what they had already done to him.

These soldiers would learn what he was and shoot him dead here in the mud. Just as he would have done to them if they’d crossed his path when he’d still had any power.

The power he’d lost when Homing had stolen it from him and sentenced them all to death in this surface world.

So Doflamingo was screaming and of course Rosinante was still crying in response. And soldiers were just yelling at them all to leave. Saying that this was a war zone and a restricted space.

It was hell, in every meaning of the word in that chaos.

But from nowhere, a voice had suddenly been louder than even all the others. And there had been that intangible force behind it.

“ENOUGH!”

The voice of a leader. Doflamingo knew that, even instinctively as he’d felt hands pulling him from Homing and all the others fell silent.

He was then against a new chest, still trembling as he felt an arm go around his back.

“We’ll treat the boy.” The female leader now continued as she held Doflamingo against her. “But civilians cannot stay here. This is an active military zone. Captains, escort this man and his other son back out of here.”

“Yes, Vice Admiral!” They agreed so immediately.

“Wait at the next town to the south. It may be several weeks before we can move our encampment. We will deliver your son back to you there when we move again.” She said with such practicality to Homing. As if this was just what she was made for, calm and infallible.

“Captains, get his name and all his information while you escort him.” She added as Doflamingo felt her also cradling his head. The blood didn’t even faze her.

“Yes, ma’am!” They even saluted her before she’d turned to walk away as she carried him.

Vaguely he could still hear Homing and Rosinante’s blubbering. Saying thank you, goodbye, or both.

But Doflamingo didn’t care. He could feel his rescuer’s warmth, her strength in that moment. And when she spoke to him, he finally gave in. He was practically limp against her, no longer fighting.

“We’ll get you a numbing medicine and clean that out before it gets infected. Obviously you’re going to need sutures.” She was telling him as she carried him to the nearest medical tent. No false platitudes or comforts offered. These were the concrete things that they were going to do next to fix this.

———————————

Of course he’d learned her name soon enough. Vice Admiral Tsuru from marine HQ. The marines were the humans that served the world government as a military power. He knew their top ranks answered direct to the Five Elders themselves.

So in these seas of vermin, that meant she had been rewarded to still be placed on a higher pedestal than the rest. And he could easily see why. Every time she was in the medical tents, the others were subservient to her. She completely commanded the space.

Sometimes she’d have a rifle slung over her own shoulder when she did arrive. But hers was more intricate than the others. Somehow he knew that too. They got standard supplies, she had her own.

But there was still much more to her than that. In time, it was obvious that she was also a mother. The other staff knew what to do, but not always how to do it with him.

“You haven’t even gotten the blood out of his hair?” She’d noticed at one point.

“No ma’am, he wouldn’t let us-“ the male nurse had tried to explain as she easily interrupted.

“He’s a child. You don’t let him decide.” Tsuru had said, but her expression not actually stern in those moments.

Doflamingo had still protested of course. Likely more from fear than anything then. Human hands had only beaten him, skewered him, and burned him before he had known Tsuru.

But that is when that mothering side most came out of her. Something he’d thought he’d forever lost before then as she stood behind him and washed his hair for him one night. Just some soap, a bucket of water, and a cup as she had gently worked out the dried blood from his scalp with her bare fingers.

“How is your eye gauze today? Do you want me to change that dressing while I’m here?” She asked calmly too as she helped him clean up.

“It hurts. But yes. You can change it.” He found himself answering her more and more easily too as the days had passed, even as he still refused to speak to any of the others.

It got to the point that not only did he tolerate her, but he actually waited for her. He was beginning to understand her schedule. There was a battlefront nearby and this encampment was protecting the rear. She was in charge here, but for hours at a time she’d disappear. She was out there fighting he knew, and when she’d come back, more wounded would sometimes come with her.

She personally checked on all of them. And when that was done, she would come check on him as well. On the days she looked more tired, he knew perhaps there had been a setback. She took it personally whenever any of her underlings were harmed.

“But wouldn’t that be their own fault? Why help them when they fail you?” He’d asked her one day as she rested in the chair by his cot.

And she’d actually looked a little amused. Maybe because he was finally being inquisitive and interested in anything at all again as a boy should be.

“That’s not how leadership works.” She’d told him so easily too, never knowing how very much every word back then would influence him for years to come. “It’s my job to know the strengths and weaknesses of everyone in my command. If they have failed, then I let them get into something that was over their head. You don’t punish them for that. In my crew, they’re my family. We live and die together. So I’ll have their back and they’ll have mine.”

Their little chats would sometimes go on well into the nights too. She rarely seemed to sleep. She was protecting him, protecting the whole encampment.

And there were cold nights in those tents where he’d even allowed himself to be picked up again because he couldn’t stop shivering.

She hadn’t said a word, not humiliating him as she’d pick him up from his cot, wrap him in an extra couple of blankets and hold him in her lap. Letting him bury his face against her as she sat in one of those chairs again with her arms around him.

And he’d never say thank you or admit it was the deepest sleep he’d ever had since descending to this world. But he had felt a true sense of safety then, cocooned against her on those nights.

Of course time had still passed far too quickly. His eye was healing, even if he’d never have full sight in it again. And they were starting to pack up supplies, revealing that they would soon be moving again as battle lines shifted.

Tsuru had come to bring him extra rations again that night. He was sure she went without food herself at times just to give him double, her noticing how malnourished he’d been at first arrival here.

So it was like that again, only him eating while she rested in the chair when he finally proposed what had been weighing on him for days.

“When you move again, I want to go with you.” He said it as forcefully as he could in the near empty tent.

And her eyes had reopened, looking at him seriously. “You’re too young.” She responded somewhat simply at first. But she was not discounting his potential. It was not an insult. “And you still have a family waiting for you. That’s a rare thing in this part of the world.”

“That man is not my family!” He’d erupted immediately though. Even as a child, that venom could come out in his voice rather quickly. “My life is like this now only because of him. I would have died already if it wasn’t because I just refused to! I want to be strong again!”

And her eyes had narrowed a little as his voice rose at her. “There’s more to strength than just wearing a navy uniform. You’re only ten years old, Doflamingo. Go home and be strong for your family. When this war is over, this area will stabilize again. There will be more food and opportunities. If you’re really so strong willed, you’ll prosper despite the poverty you’ve known to this point. I know that you will.”

But his immaturity had still gotten the best of him. Because he became even more emotional despite her calm rebuttal, the tears finally starting before he could hope to stop it. “I don’t want to go back! I don’t want to live like that anymore!”

And he could see he’d likely ruined any hope he’d had of actually swaying her too. Just being that sobbing, angry little boy in front of her once more.

“You are a survivor, boy. Being here still talking now is proof of that. But I’m not looking for child soldiers. Not to mention it being illegal. Fourteen or fifteen maybe as a chore boy…but at ten? You only get one chance at a childhood. Allow yourself that.”

And as if to reiterate all this, she had stood and picked him up all over again so easily. She’d held him once more as he cried against her shoulder. Even the eye gauze getting so wet then in his frustration.

He couldn’t hate Tsuru though. Somehow he couldn’t as she’d held him like his mother used to. The last safety he’d ever known, until Homing’s ignorance to the real ways of the world had taken that weak woman from him too.

“I want…to go with you.” He’d still whimpered as she’d rubbed his back and his arms stayed wrapped around her neck.

And Tsuru had sighed. “Everything has a cost, boy. We all have our chains. Mine are that I have to follow orders. I have to lose friends, and sometimes even family though I don’t want to. I have to watch people suffer when I’m not given the tools to fully help them. Being a marine can still be a choice when you’re old enough to make it. But it’s not the only path.”

That was the very last night he’d fallen asleep with her in that chair too. Him crying off and on as she’d stroked his hair and given him those lasts embers of unconditional affection that’d be all he’d have to hold onto for literal decades to come.

The next day she had gotten orders from HQ to move the encampment. And she’d had to stay there, seeing to all of that as she’d assigned other marines to escort him back to the town to the south.

Back straight to Homing and Rosinante and their damned suffocating world of weakness. The one that only Trebol had finally broken him away from in Tsuru’s absence.

But Doflamingo had still wanted to see her again. He’d wanted to show her his new strength and to have her be proud of him in his own way. As different as things could have been, he still so desperately wanted that woman’s attention and her approval in the end.

Yet if he couldn’t have that, he’d settle for being her enemy and imagining the regret in her eyes every time she’d seen his bounty posters and their ever increasing values through the years. Every time she’d wished he’d be the good son instead of the monster the world had made of him.

But even after everything, after years of blood and death and sacrifices. Somehow she had never stopped caring, and neither had he.

That was why she lived even when all his other rivals had fallen. That was why he still felt like that nervous little boy whenever she raised her voice to him. And why his heart beat so fiercely even at the smallest hint of her praise.

That was why he loved her.

The proof that he still could, in his own way at least. And he could say it as many times as he wanted because neither of you would ever believe him. He was free.

Free to feel whatever he wanted. For both the crane that had mothered him. And her daughter, the swan he had now trapped to become his own queen.

———————————

T⨂ BE

CONTINUED

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Thanks for reading!

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