Demons, Swords, And Other Things That Nearly Killed Me

All You Had to Do Was Try

Snow.

It was a beautiful thing, really. It can form in light flurries and fall to the ground elegantly, melting or sticking and clumping together. Covering the roofs of houses in thick blankets and layering on the ground in white sheets.

It was always quiet whenever it snowed. Peaceful, pretty... and just... right.

Gunshots ring out through the air. A body hits the ground. There are no screams that follow. More silence.

The once pure white snow is now stained red. Splotches fall to the ground. A beat of silence passes. Then another, and another, before the screaming finally begins. The cries of pain and suffering. Bitter cold winds nip at flushed skin, numbing from the once ethereal scenery, now turned into a living nightmare.

Blood was on Crooner's hands as he desperately tried to wake up the man whose body lost its warmth. It was never supposed to end this way. Not when Crooner could've had something to do with it. Yet it happened anyway. Regardless of if he cared or not. He did care. So ardently.

No, no– no, this wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't right. There wasn't supposed to be a body on the ground. That violently red blood was never meant to soil the delicate snow. Crooner thought that he could save him. He couldn't have possibly lost like this– this man wasn't supposed to die. Not when Crooner was there. Not again.

Please, god. Not again.

A child sobbed loudly next to the fallen soldier, or rather, fallen Marine, wailing loudly. His dirty hat was covering his tears from view. Crooner didn't care how the screams hurt his ears. His eyes stung far too much for him to care about anything but Donquixote Rosinante.

Corazon, as many knew him.

Crooner had known him as so much more than just that.

Corazon was not merely a friend to Crooner. He had been in the throes of love and passion with the man, even more so than anybody else he had ever known. The guilt for his love of Corazon outweighing the love of another in his life killed him a million times over some nights. Pick and choose was what he had to do– but Crooner was a very indecisive man. And a pirate, to boot. Pirates are very selfish now, aren't they?

Was it too selfish to want Corazon to live?

How Crooner wished that the undercover Marine didn't die for the sake of others, but instead lived for them. Living to protect instead of dying for it. Life may have been torturous– but an existence without a ray of light and hope such as him might as well be hell. Crooner had done everything in his power to keep his lover safe from his evil brother.

Donquixote Doflamingo was evil incarnate. If the devil was real, then that's who he was. God's hatred took its form in that man, and his rage seemed to be channeled through him, too. In the most vile and toxic ways. Crooner should've shot him dead when he had the chance...

...If he had been any stronger, it would've worked.

At least, that's what Crooner liked to believe.

What he knew as the truth was that Doflamingo was the most obsessive of them all. Jealousy was second nature, with anger being his main emotion, and ever since Crooner saw the obvious signs of an infatuated love directed towards him, he knew that things would never be the same. Not when Doflamingo wanted all of Crooner for himself. For complete ownership and dominance, like the cruel ex-Celestial Dragon he was.