Crocodile Tears is basically Croc's unknown backstory but what does Bane think about him? Crack everywhere, just F.Y.I. Who said I'm a sane person?
The large greenhouse always looked imposing, especially when it was viewed alongside its two sister locations. It was by far the most spacious out of the three but that was because of Ivy's deal with Waylon which allowed the scaled man to live inside with his crew. Let's just say it kind of paid off being married to the woman who owned the entire Botanical Garden Park. It was certainly a place even Bane kind of felt jealous of.
The luchador-themed man scoffed silently to himself. Married indeed and Croc did love her but he didn't marry her for selfish reasons. He remembered a while back, several council members decided to try and force the separation of the Rogues to different asylums across the country. The rule was no splitting couples. Well, the few who were going to be moved first happened to be Ivy, Firefly, and even Black Mask. Ivy and Harley loved each other and Croc knew it was unfair to split the only sense of sanity Harley had left after she ditched the Joker so sacrificing most of his happiness for her, he became Ivy's husband so she could stay in Gotham. Harley couldn't marry Ivy in fear of what the Joker would do so Ivy took the next available option to which Waylon agreed. Roman married his own assistant and suspected girlfriend, Kelly Li, while Garfield was rescued by Freeze as the latter had grown quite attached to the quirky blonde.
It was a noble thing Croc did for Harley and Ivy to be happy together and the reward for his heroism in this case was a new place for him to stay and or keep his soldiers instead of in the sewers or in Alligator Grove, Croc's personal underground jungle which he maintains animals that have been commandeered from captivity. Selina, Oswald, and Drury often help bring entrapped wild animals in human custody they find from time to time.
Entering the main corridor of the greenhouse with his soldiers following behind him, Bane approached one of Croc's guards scanning over specs for possibly another heist. A few other guards sat and toiled with the computers at the desk before he cleared his throat. All five peered up at him except the one that was reading the map.
"Can we help you, Bane?" The guard briefly stated, pointing slightly to the map before writing something down.
Bane smiled, "I only wish to see an old friend. Is that not allowed?"
The guard gave a smirk, placing his pencil down and leaning against the desk edge with his legs crossed casually. "Oh no, it is. But you and your crew have been very distracting as of late, disrupting some of ours. Boss just wants you to know that we have a deadline upcoming and distractions are not well perceived at this time so try to keep them minimal, won't you?"
"We'll see."
The head guard nodded and the one sitting closest behind the desk's control pad activated the doors, gesturing for Bane and his team to enter when ready. Bane gave him a firm nod and smile before accommodating their approval. "He's in his personal barracks next to the crocodile pond."
Most of Croc's militia consisted of the homeless of Gotham, especially the homeless veterans who never recovered their lost lives in their own society. Unlike most people in Gotham, Waylon actually understood their pain and offered them his own home despite what others thought he was never capable of doing. Honorably or dishonorably discharged men and women lied within his citadel and he had those with weapon experience train other homeless victims who wished to join his ranks. There were nonfighting homeless and abused people under Croc's care but they were instead given the task to protect and keep the greenhouse as well as Alligator Grove in excellent condition. Every other militia member was either an ex-police officer discharged or crooks who shared Croc's compassion for equal opportunity crime.
Compared to his forces, Waylon's army was actually a lot larger with members and in a good sense, stronger in terms of ingenuity. Many of them really changed from selfish to caring though greedy as a whole community which is a big improvement against the rehabilitation methods of the government despite it being more criminal based than society oriented.
As he walked into the first large room of the greenhouse, trees of willow, fruit, hemlock, oak, and the beautiful banyan trees Ivy had grown were scattered throughout the vast area. Treehouses linked like a nervous system in a body lit up their canopies with liana vines dangling to almost brush the water and ground. Hammocks were also present, strewn between branches and other trees per some people's requests. Military men navigated the wooden planked bridges swaying slightly from the movement with their guns placed behind them, never in front among their community. Some just talked casually and set up more lights around each treehouse to make it feel like gracious homes lied within the tree's protection.
Homeless children played with baby crocs and rescued cats while their caretakers among the community watched carefully, sharing conversations and food with the armed men and women who protected them, their own kind mostly.
As Bane paused briefly as two children ran by him, one holding a croc and chasing the other as if the hatchling was going to bite, he gave a sound smile. He then turned to his own troops who glanced happily at their environment, "If you wish, you can interact with fellow soldiers and people alike. And Fernandez?"
"Yes sir?" The soldier stepped forward.
"I know you have a relationship with one of Croc's militia members and I suggest you keep fraternization to a low at this time. Croc won't appreciate one of his men being seduced by one of mine."
Fernandez gave a small chuckled and bowed before dispersing with the other crew members. As they met up with Croc's guards and citizens, he raised an eyebrow how natural their reactions were. Rolling his eyes, he passed through the expansion of forestry, waving at kids and others who stopped to say hi from the treehouses and the sidewalk directed around the pond.
He then entered the second half of the greenhouse with its desk and vault of weaponry guarded. This time, none of the soldiers asked and opened the doors automatically to the area beyond. Like the first section of the greenhouse, a huge banyan tree with thinner trunks attached spanned the left side of the greenhouse like a tent where a grand treehouse with two levels resides among and under the canopy. Ivy and Baby Doll often resided in it as well as Croc's three most trusted henchmen. Bane sometimes stayed there too when he was a bit too lazy to go across town home after working with Waylon on partnerships or after they were both recruited in the Suicide Squad for a mission and returned stressed and exhausted. It was a great place to crash though his two pet crocodiles, Eulalie and Camille, loved him a bit too much.
A yellow bus with its wheels entangled in vines and moss lied just to the side beneath the treehouse. Although Croc had a bedroom in the sewer and in the treehouse, the bus was his favorite private quarters. From what Bane could see, the visible right side of the bus that was fixed to lift up like a door was shut which indicated Croc was inside asleep. It was 10:30 at night! Every Rogue was awake and planning!
Glancing around the rest of the greenhouse, Vic, Croc's second in command, was in a hammock between two fruit trees on his tablet projecting a show of some sort, maybe BoJack Horseman. Other soldiers but no citizens were in the second area and they were on their phones or in a much more interesting case, kissing and snuggling among their peers. Butch, Croc's first lieutenant, wasn't around surprisingly as he kept most of the soldiers motivated and moving.
The second lieutenant, Freddie, was sitting in the water of the large pond in the center of the gardens with a bucket of meat. He waved at Bane...all while a crocodile lied its head on top of his own. Another rested its chin on his leg and a juvenile croc lay in his lap. He was surrounded by them but they surprisingly paid no mind to him, only towards the bucket. Apparently, the crocs had no problem with Freddie. It somewhat unnerved him how much they accepted Freddie but being with a boss who was essentially a crocodile hybrid had its perks he guessed.
Going back towards the bus, Bane turned the hatch that locked it and lifted up the bus wall, letting go since he knew it could stay up on its own once opened. He gave a soft smile as he saw Waylon lying on the makeshift bed on his front with his head turned to the far wall which part of his bookshelf filled with French stories and American sci-fi and fantasy was lined just below the window. A bit past his head the remainder of the bookshelf lied with eight shelves on both the right and left side next to the frame for the lifted door and former emergency exit respectively.
Near Croc's tail where the former windshield was had a good sized flatscreen TV integrated into the section and two video game consoles in what he assumed was formerly the dashboard. The games laid just a level below that. All the seats sans part of the third to last row were gone and the remaining were built into the head and outline of the bed frame. Rather suitable grey sheets with faint giraffe-like markings covered him and a black comforter was pushed aside at one point.
"Waylon, time to wake up."
The crocodilian man snored a bit smoother than most people but it may have been due to the reptilian nasal structure. It sounded more like a solemn growl. The rise and fall of his backside made some of the blanket fall lower, revealing more of his spine where three razor sharp rows of spikes lined it. With the moon reflecting the sun's light just perfectly at an angle, Bane saw how the scales and tough dark greenish black bone rippled beautifully. He always wondered how they would gleam under an unpolluted sunny day compared to the damaged light from the ever-so-present fumes lingering over Gotham. Then again, the moonlight seemed altered to so the skin didn't look as pretty as it should have and no doubt was.
"Querido Waylon, qué haré contigo?"
Frowning, he instantly shook the sleeping man, careful not to cut his hands on the smaller spikes. "Waylon, seriously wake up! Por favor!"
Croc groaned, turning lazily onto his back as he placed his hands under the pillow. This emphasized his bare chest a bit which made Bane side glance the muscular format before snarling in frustration at the stubbornness of his partner in crime. When Waylon didn't want to do something, he really made it hard to compromise.
"Somebody better be dead or something 'cause god damn," yawned Croc.
Bane laughed kind of from the way he said that before replying, "You do know it's past ten thirty at night, right? Most of us have been up since five o'clock."
Turning on his side to face Bane with one forearm under the pillow and the other resting lazily by his snout, Croc breathed steadily, "Winter's here, my sleep schedule has been increased to a hibernation status which makes me incredibly drowsy after six hours of being awake. Nothing I can do about it."
"Yes, well, I need to talk to you and-"
Bane lost his train of thought as he studied how Croc was postured. Lying on his side, Waylon's hips were angled rather well and with the width of the tail highlighting them already, he kind of had a feminine appearance.
"Talk to me and...?" Croc smirked with only one eye open.
Shaking his head, Bane responded, "And I'm wondering if you would consider helping me later on with a project of mine. I wish to hit the catacombs for a hidden gold deposit and use it to blackmail an old adversary of ours."
"Please tell me it's not Bruce, we deal with him enough as it is. If we hit his stockpile, he's going to ram his stupid battle-grade car up our asses. That and I owe him a new motorcycle so I don't want him to remember that either," Waylon hissed.
"What do you mean you owe him a motorcycle?"
Croc gaped, sinking his face a bit more into his pillow. "Well...I managed to swipe Damien's cycle out from under him and it hit a building and took so much damage that it exploded so Bruce isn't happy with me about that."
"Dios mío, listo bastardo!"
"N'est-ce pas? Si intelligent que même Jon l'apprécierait."
Bane sighed, "Come on, get up."
Croc gave a playful but defiant growl, turning back onto his chest and placing the pillow on top of his head. "No, too tired."
Narrowing his eyes, Bane clapped the side of his hips in frustration before climbing on top of Croc, straddling his backside though carefully avoiding puncturing his inner thighs and crotch. His head almost grazed the ceiling and it was painfully obvious the poor bus wasn't designed to take more than one man of their size as it creaked loudly. He crossed his arms and watched Croc become flabbergasted when he peered to see what Bane was doing.
The masked man frowned, "I'm not getting off of you until you wake up."
Waylon's tail curled angrily, a base somewhat rising to nudge Bane's waist. "Va te faire foutre, Bane!"
Pressing down enough to make his presence really known despite the slight discomfort of the spikes, Bane started to readjust himself and smiled, "Doesn't feel too bad, I guess I could stay here all day and maybe I'll get-"
"Okay! Alright, I'm up! I'm up!" Croc squirmed, pushing Bane off his backside onto a portion of the bed not occupied and slowly rose to sit up. He placed his hands on his face, rubbing the skin under his eyes but jolted back a little when he accidentally poked the socket with tip of his claw.
Bane sat sideways as he chuckled at Croc who in return just glared at the luchador. "That's what you get for sleeping in."
Waylon stood up and stretched, the bus springing back from the extra weight only made him raise a brow.
"Boss Croc! Evening!" Freddie laughed, petting the crocodiles as he lied among them and on top of some while they rested on the grass.
"Evenin', boys! I apologize for the late start but you know what winter does to me. Throws me off like a cowboy riding a bronco. Where's Butch?"
Freddie and Vic made eye contact as the latter shrugged. When Vic searched the premises from his hammock, he suddenly pointed towards the entrance to the first greenhouse section. The sight made Croc smirk almost scarily.
Sitting back next to Bane and ignoring the bus' unpleasant squeal, he laughed, "What did I say about distractions, Bane?"
"What about them?"
"Uh well, your second-in-command is distracting my lieutenant."
From confusion to a very dull frown, Bane peered out over the edge behind Croc to see Fernandez with one arm purposefully poised beside Butch's head with the other hand on his hip and blocking the other man between him and the wall. He was obviously flirting with Butch, purring with his Spanish accent and making the similar sized man blush. In a moment of surprise, Fernandez roughly kissed him and placed both hands on the robust waist.
Glancing at Bane as the man's face dropped with betrayal, Waylon snorted, "Don't tell me you didn't know already."
"I did know but I didn't know it was Butch," Bane huffed.
"Oh Fernandez isn't the only one of your soldiers fraternizing with mine. I've noticed a lot of activity between mine and yours. Sometimes, my own soldiers date each other or just do one night stands to relieve stress but whenever your pack comes around, my men and women are always giddy which becomes distracting because Christmas is approaching and I want to get some things done but it's kind of hard when the people I need are being seduced constantly."
Freddie continued to pet the crocodiles and failed to notice a form approaching him. When he peered up at the shadow suddenly cast over him, he froze when a Puerto Rican man knelt beside the grumbling forms of the animals and stroked their heads. He gave Freddie a slick smile and the lieutenant's face melted into a flustered state, his glasses having to be pushed back onto his face when they started to slide from his nose.
Vic didn't have any luck either, watching Robot Chicken when he heard a laugh behind him. Looking up, a bulky man with a goatee posed against the tree staring humorously at the cartoon playing on the tablet. Bane's soldier clicked his tongue and winked, making Vic sink down in his hammock not knowing how to take that. He sat up and scooted himself over before lying sideways to let the mysterious man sit beside him. The man took the offer and curled up beside him and Vic didn't necessarily complain as the warmth of the presence made him feel comfortable.
"See?" Croc gestured as his soldiers were cursed to meet curious partners. "Also, do you have any women in your army or are they all men?"
Bane gave a brief shake of the hand, "Unfortunately no, there are no women among my crew though I would like to expand my ranks because women are more keen and headstrong than men are, scoping out situations better in a calculative sense."
"Well damn, you're men are turning all mine homosexual. And I say this because without your men to keep them company now, mine are getting way too interpersonal on and between objectives and nothing has been getting done. Thank you for a decrease in production of criminal intent. Now how am I going to get them to do anything?"
"Well, Christmas is approaching..."
"That's the least of my concerns-"
"...And I think you're over exaggerating..."
"-And how can strife over sexual desire and the welfare of my soldiers be exaggeration?"
"...And I may have told my men to give yours a break because you've been overworking for the last two months and I lied to your guards to their faces about it."
Croc was going to say something else but all that came was a twisted, deep frown as he turned his entire attention towards Bane. In retrospect, Bane made a sweet face of innocence to hide his treachery.
With a breath of attempted clarity, Croc replied, "So is this revenge for that mission in Paris during the interlude where Waller had us explore the outskirts and you and I had a brush off because you can't blame me for that."
"Well, what gets me is that you're always one to finish what you start yet what happened and was cut off remains unanswered," Bane laughed.
Killer Croc cracks his knuckles with a smirk audibly just by tightening his fists and almost everyone in the greenhouse heard it. He kept eye contact with Bane when he muttered, "Everybody out...now."
The soldiers from both sides gave each other various looks before Freddie was the first to take off, dragging his new interest along with him. Vic didn't hesitate either and when the last man left, they shut the large doors and presumably locked them. The greenhouse section became dead quiet aside from the movements of the drifting crocodiles who were responding accordingly to Croc's mixed signals. Some even walked on land behind Bane and hissed menacingly at him.
Waylon peered up at the ceiling for a second before pointing at the masked man and slamming his fists together shortly after. "Et si on réglait ça une fois pour toutes?"
"Ven Croc, déjanos abrazar," Bane laughed, taking a stance.
"Mon plaisir, chienne."
Who threw the first punch was undetermined as they both charged and both of them managed to hit one another square in the jaw roughly around the exact same time. Both of them stumbled back by the force of the blows.
Bane cracked his neck effortlessly with a grin. Fighting Waylon was always a thrill because they were surprisingly very evenly matched. He won a lot of their fights as Croc sometimes would become more animalistic over the course of time and he found ways to exploit the brutality while avoiding getting hit but otherwise, Croc was a tough bastard. Bane had to give him that.
Croc managed to tail lash Bane after he turned around to dodge the sudden grab on Bane's part. The idea was to fight him, not play hug-to-death. He swiftly lifted up a huge rock and sent it flying towards his opponent with a roundhouse kick like a soccer ball.
Bane caught it though he had to shake his hand slightly from the impact. "Playing hard to get, amigo? I never took you as a coward either."
"Coward? Ha, you want me? Bring it!" Waylon's scales rose a little with a rattle, his pupils narrowing to nearly invisible slits.
Bane returned his wayward grin, charging once more. This time instead of hitting each other, the masked man trapped his rival in his arms and accidentally swung him to the floor with him straddling Croc's form completely. He pinned the arms of the beastly male down, one stretching outward from the side and the other stuck above the crocodilian head.
Waylon panted from the sudden movement, sniffing Bane slightly to understand his surroundings stuck under the wrestler. He stuttered, "So, now what?"
Bane ignored him, rubbing the skin almost under the spiked cuffs Waylon wore on his wrists delicately. "The skin on your palms are softer than you backside? Is your underbelly just as easy to penetrate if I were to gut you?"
"Don't kill me, man, what the hell did I do to you...oh."
The South American chuckled, "Funnier than the Joker but much more tolerable. Who would've known I'd be stuck with you. My men think you yourself are a distraction for me and I never understood why until Paris."
A small smile played on Croc's lips, his overgrown sharp teeth making a cute but deadly expression. What possessed him to lean forward was beyond him but he captured Bane's barely exposed mouth, purring sweetly despite having to keep a certain angle because of his snout.
"What would Ivy say when she finds that you cheated on her?"
Waylon placed his head under Bane's chin. "Ironically, she wants me to date you. While she's preoccupied with Harley, she thinks you'll be a good companion and satisfy areas she cannot."
He gave a raptor-like rumble before kicking Bane off him and doing a back roll upright. He posed on all fours like a horse before turning around and swiping his tail sassily which stirred up leaves and other earthly material almost tauntingly as he strode back to his bus. It was a common practice that emphasized his personality and how he was often brash about others but in a way, he kind of deserved it since the world made him what he was today and this gesture of his was him holding his head high against those who dared to mock him. He, of course, didn't mean any true ill-will against Bane; he just liked using the movement.
He glanced back to see Bane bewildered lying front first on the ground but also intrigued. He smiled and held both his tail and head elevated like a show pony before jumping back onto his bed and sitting regally like a tiger, his tail twisting to hang partially off the edge.
"Unfortunately, I don't think I can afford such a distraction right now but you're welcome to try."
Bane huffed with a smirk and got back up, walking casually towards Croc who peered at him calmly. "Well I'm already here so I doubt you're going to kick me out now."
The venom-enhanced man tackled the crocodilian male from the side as he hopped onto the bus as well. He readjusted for him to lie down with Croc resting his head on his chest. He gently stroked Waylon's neck and back as the latter closed his eyes pleasurably.
Croc's tail occasionally patted the bed in contentment and the two lied there entangled. Eventually, Croc whispered, "You owe me."
"For what?" Bane laughed.
"For making me love you."
The Hispanic male raised a brow, "That's not a good enough reason but I guess technically I barged in here to seduce your army so that I might owe you for."
"Mhmm," Croc sneered.
The two didn't leave each other's side for the night, much to Ivy and Harley's surprise when they came to visit.
AN: My favorite pairing from the Batman series so I had to eventually write about them. Also, Vic, Butch, and Freddie are back because I like them and I gave them mystery partners except for Butch so make of that what you will.
