#cuddling & snugglingl

[adashoflavendermelancholy]

Baby Halloween

Crocodile knew that this time of year would come again. It was Halloween soon. He would have to buy three costumes plus an adult one for himself for when Luffy noticed he wasn’t dressed up. Then a lot of candy that he would have to hide from the boys. If that wasn’t the only problem, Shanks showed up and started talking about the haunted house event he was doing. Of course, the boys wanted to go help.

“Sorry Luffy, it’s only for kids 10 and up. You’re still young.” Shanks said, patting the sulking boy’s head.

Crocodile knew that was going to be an issue later. “Why invite us then? Unless you think you can handle Ace and Sabo alone.” He asked. Ace and Sabo were already smirking at the idea. He loved his chaos children, when they were causing chaos for others.

“Hahaha, no. I actually was hoping you would let Mihawk baby-er watch Luffy for it. Mihawk has a son his age.” Shanks said, barely covering his mistake. Not that Luffy cared right now. Not when he was too young to have any fun.

“Mihawk? Are you sure he can handle-“

“I figured you would worry. So I brought you his number with his consent.” Shanks said, holding out a slip of paper. “Now then, boys! Let’s see how strong you got!” He said, leading the boys to the training room.

Crocodile looked at the number and called. After talking with Mihawk about watching Luffy and how difficult it could be. Crocodile was surprised to hear the man was still willing to watch him.

“I plan on having the boys decorate the house for Halloween, make them snacks, and let them watch the children’s horror movie.” Mihawk said, sounding unbothered by any of Crocodiles’ concerns. Still, this was his best chance to getting all three boys to behave. Rather than telling them all no. That wasn’t a fight he wanted to get into.

Crocodile drove to Mihawks home. A large building that already looked ready for Halloween. His boys were impressed by it already. “Hello,” Crocodile said, when Mihawk opened the door.

“Good afternoon.” Mihawk said, moving to let them in. The older boys looked at the look of the place. It was a very spooky season already. What more could Luffy and the other boy do?

Luffy spotted the green-haired boy playing with swords before anyone else did. Running over to him, “HELLO! I’M LUFFY!” He yelled.

The boy looked at him. “Hello.”

“Wanna be pirates with me?” Luffy asked, Crocodile sighed. Just how many people was Luffy going to ask that too? It was getting out of hand. Crocodile opened his mouth to say something when the little boy responded.

“I don’t wanna be a pirate.” He sounded annoyed.

Luffy tilted his head, “What do you wanna be?”

“The greatest swordsman in the world. Better than dad!” the boy announced. Crocodile liked his attitude.

Luffy gasped, “THATS SO COOL! I HAVE TO HAVE YOU ON MY CREW. I’M GONNA BE THE PIRATE KING AND HAVE TO HAVE THE BEST ON MY CREW!” the boy hardly took a breath while yelling that. Crocodile glanced at the other adult here. If there was a problem with this, it would be with him. Mihawk looked unbothered by all this. More like he was just waiting to see what happened.

The boy thought about it for a while, then nodded. “Fine, but if you hold me back, I’ll kill you.” Everyone tensed at the words, but Luffy laughed.

“OKAY! LET’S GO PLAY!” Luffy said, grabbing the boy’s hand. Zoro followed along, looking a little confused.

“Seems they will get along just fine. You may pick him up when you are done. Please, give me notice if you will be after seven as that’s when we have dinner. I do not mind feeding Luffy, but would like the notice beforehand.” Mihawk said, letting the three others out. Crocodile felt like he had whiplash from all this. Luffy’s energy wasn’t well matched here. Well, a few hours would be fine.

Luffy and Zoro ran around for a while before Mihawk brought out the decorations. There was everything from fake skeletons that looked so real it was better than the movies. To plastic tinsel with fake spiders on them. Luffy and Zoro ran around the house, putting up different things and talking about if they fit there.

When they were done, tuckered out running around. Mihawk decided to feed the boy earlier than expected. He sent a text to notify Crocodile of the change in plans. Along with a picture of the boys cuddled up, watching a movie about monsters scaring human children.

Crocodile felt bad that Mihawk was going to feed his son. He knew that the boy was a black hole. With a promise to reimburse him once he picked up Luffy, he got back to the other two boys.

By the time that crocodile arrived to pick up Luffy, it was 6:10pm. He knocked on the door. When it opened, it did look more festive in the house. But only at Luffy and Zoro’s level. He could tell where the boys spent most of their time. On the black leather couch was Luffy. He was fast asleep, holding on to his new best friend in the world. It was something that warmed Crocodile’s heart.

“I think they became best friends today.” Crocodile muttered, seeing that Zoro was the same. Holding onto each other after running around and decorating the place. It was almost too cute to look at.

Mihawk huffed, “We should save each other’s numbers, then. I’m sure we can come up with a day for them to spend more time together soon.”

Even though he sounded less than impressed, there was a small part of the Crocodile that suspected that he enjoyed this. Then again, what parent wouldn’t love their children finding a friend after struggling so long? Crocodile felt the same way about Luffy. It took a while, but there was now a good friend to be around him.