Title: Best Friends
Author: snowwinter486
Pairing: Croc/Kaku, Mihawk/Kaku
Genre: romance, angst, crack, humor,fighting, cursing, ect.
Summary: AU. Crocodile protects his 'stranger' by becoming his best friend. That sort of helps.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Was this too OOC for Kaku? I might make an alternate to this story.

-x-
Crocodile, despite everything else, loved a stranger. Sort of.

The kind stranger that works at a construction site at night, a zoo in the mornings and afternoons, and every once in awhile, a small bakery.

Crocodile, being a very successful business man, wanted to protect this 'stranger' that he had been watching since he was six.

Not saying that he's some creepy pedophile running after a male that's at least 20 years younger than him.

Okay, so he is.

But, hey! He can't help it.

When you watch a kid grow up like that, you just have to help.

And after a while, you just get too attached.

He turned to his next-door neighbor, who was the so-called male, "Do you want some sushi? I bought too much," he said.

That was, of course, a lie.

He eats like a king, and keeps an apartment complex since they're cheep and since he could be a little closer to 'him'.

Besides, he knows that the smaller male can eat sometimes, and he wants to help anyway possible. More often than not, it's every other day.

"Oh, thank you very much!" the boy would say brightly before taking it and gulped before looking at the male, "I don't think I can repay-"

"Don't worry about it, I'm just not hungry," Crocodile would reply and walk back into his small estate.

The male blinked and grinned at the male as a reply.

Which was more than enough for someone like Crocodile.

Then, one fateful game came.

"Wait... M-Mihawk-san," the voice was trying to stay strong, but it wasn't really working.

Crocodile, coming home from a tiring day at work, almost froze at the spot when he heard that voice.

"Don't worry," the deep, rumbling voice that the scarred male knew all too well, "I'll take good care of you... Kaku."

That name, the name that he dared roll off his tongue snapped all and everything holding the male back, jumping three steps at a time, he glared at the scene in front of him.

Mihawk, his hat off on the ground, his hands pinning Kaku's arms to the side of his head, a smirk that quickly disappeared as Crocodile appeared.

And then, Kaku, his cap almost completely pulled off, eyes hazed as a bright red blush appeared on his face, but was nothing compared to the swollen lips as he looked up.

"Mihawk, let. Him. Go," the male said, glaring dangerously at the male as he brought out his golden hook.

Golden eyes looked at the scarred male, as he moved his leg in between the smaller one's.

"Gah!" Kaku yelped and Mihawk smirked.

Completely ignoring the previous male, he continued with his activity.

"Wait! Mi-Croc-Ah!" Kaku yelped as Mihawk assaulted his neck.

Crocodile, being the angry man he was, kicked Mihawk off, before throwing Kaku in his own apartment room, before locking Mihawk out.

It was just him and Kaku.

The awkward atmosphere was suffocating as Crocodile tried to glare a hole in the table that he was sitting at with Kaku.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"M-Mihawk," the male whispered.

"No shit," Crocodile growled out and the capped male looked away, a dusty pink on his cheeks.

The older male licked his lips as his eyes stared intently at Kaku's light pink tongue tracing across his lips.

"He's my mentor-"

"Of what? Sex?"

A bright flush appeared on his face as Kaku's head snapped up as he shook his head frantically, eyes wide and desperate, "N-No! Sex is..." the word made

the male blush harder, "For your loved ones..."

"So you love him?"

"No I love-"

The male stopped dead.

Snugging his cap farther down his face, he sighed.

"I'm sorry."

"Kaku," Crocodile stood up, walking towards the door.

"Wait, Crocodile-sa-"

"Just... Don't," the male said.

"Please! Listen-"

"No. You listen," a golden hook reached for the turtleneck black jacket before the male was thrown against the wall, and Crocodile pressed directly against him, "If you wanted someone like that," he said, "Come to me. Got it?"

"Eh?" Kaku was utterly confused as the male dropped him.

"Later."

The door closed and Kaku curled up into a small ball.

"I wonder if I should be happy or something," he whispered quietly.