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Chapter Text

22 years ago - Early January - Somewhere in the Grandline

It has been two years since Gol D. Roger had been executed and Mihawk had made quite the name for himself. After the execution, he had started hunting down marines to use as training dummies and he was now known as the Marine Hunter because of this hobby . It was a name that struck fear into the hearts of anyone he came across, even the most seasoned marines turned tail if they heard even a whisper of his arrival.

And Mihawk thought that was a good thing. It’s what the marines deserved after all for everything they had done and took from him as a child. It also kept the more aggressive pirates at bay. Not that he was afraid of them, but he didn’t enjoy being bothered by arrogant fools.

Now here he was, sailing alone in his little boat under the stars.

Mihawk had caught a ride on a merchant ship with an old friend to get to Loguetown and after the execution, they went their separate ways. Mihawk had gone back to the harbour to try to find another ship to ride on, but he found that everybody had already left in the mayhem to find Roger’s treasure.

So Mihawk went to the local mortuary and stole a coffin from them. He then brought it to the shipyard and built himself a boat out of it. Sailing in it was certainly a learning curve, but it had made him look even more terrifying to his enemies.

Since the boat had done such a great job of scaring stupid people away and had lasted him until Water 7, he commissioned a boat that improved on the original design with some of the money he took from the marines he’d killed. He even had it painted red to look like blood.

The new design was larger and had candles at the points of the coffin. It even had a room for sleeping, a narrow rectangular room that was only slightly bigger than him. But he didn’t mind sleeping like a vampire, it was better than the recliner he had bolted down on his last ship. This boat also had a seastone bottom like the marine ships to keep those pesky sea beasts away.

All in all, Mihawk enjoyed traveling the sea by himself in his little coffin boat and focused on getting stronger. It was quite peaceful when everyone thought you were insane.

After all, who in their right mind would fight someone who sails in a coffin through storms that wrecked galleons and wields a sword bigger than themselves?

Although, it did get quite lonely sometimes. 

Mihawk missed his friend, they had been together since escaping God Valley. But they had different goals in life, so it was inevitable that they would separate. Only hearing about each other through the papers since neither of them stayed in one place long enough to have an address.

There were also his other friends Shanks and Buggy.

Although he hasn’t heard or seen anything in the paper about the latter in a while. The clown was probably laying low somewhere until the manhunt for Roger’s child cooled down and people have forgotten that he was on Roger’s crew. Buggy was smart like that, at least when he didn’t let his insecurities get the best of him that is.

Shanks was not smart like Buggy however, he had started his journey just a year after the execution with the massacres in the s\South Blue still in full swing.

Mihawk had run into him a few times, the boisterous fool had even tried to get him to join his crew everytime they crossed paths and Mihawk always declined. It’s not that he didn’t like Shanks or his crew, it's just that they were very… rowdy and he could only be around them in small doses. 

It also seemed that Shanks was trying to fill the Buggy shaped hole in his heart. Whether that hole was platonic or romantic, Mihawk didn’t know, but he certainly wasn’t going to be his shoulder to cry either way. He had his own dreams to fulfill.

Not to mention the fact that Shanks must have done something really stupid for Buggy not to be with him. He was lacking emotional intelligence after all.

Or maybe Buggy had smartened up and dropped the dead weight of an indecisive man.

Whatever the issue was, it wasn’t Mihawk’s problem.

So whenever he ran into Shanks, he would win a fight against him, stay for dinner, reject Shanks’ offer of joining his crew, and then leave the drunken fool behind. It’s not like he noticed anyway, the man was always too far gone by the time he left, blabbering about not understanding why the clown left him.

That was his life, just wandering and fighting. 

And he enjoyed it, he really did.

Mihawk liked being able to go anywhere he wanted without being tied to a crew.

He liked the freedom it gave him.

Although, it did get lonely sometimes.

Sometimes he wished he had a place to go to, just so he could have a break from the constant travel. Maybe do a little gardening and sewing. If it was a big enough place, he could even make his own wine.

But for now, it was just him.

~~*~~

Mid January - Somewhere in the Grandline

About two weeks later, Mihawk got caught up in a very bad storm.

He had tried to get to a port when he saw the clouds rolling in, but he was still a couple hours away from town when the storm hit. Now he was being thrown about like a rag doll in the waves. 

But Mihawk was a very resourceful and determined man, he was not dying here.

Thankfully his boat was fast due to its size, so Mihawk had an easier time of maneuvering it over waves and steering clear of the rogue ones. He was doing this by standing behind the sail and pulling on two ropes that were tied to each side of the sail. According to his log pose and his map, he was heading in the right direction. 

And as the boat crested another wave, he saw lights in the distance.

How delightful, I’m almost there, Mihawk thought, I do hope the inn isn’t full.

As he made his way towards it, a flash of pink caught his eye.

While being very careful, Mihawk spared a glance to the right and saw what seemed to be a purple wig floating in the waves. Then he saw pale skin come into view along with dark clothes.

Nope, that’s a body, Mihawk realised, I wonder if it has anything on it.

While Mihawk did have some morals, stealing from dead people was not one of them. Obviously if it was jewelry or a sentimental item, he’d leave it on the person, but he would take it if it was money or something useful.

Mihawk quickly weighed his options, but it didn’t matter what he did in the end because the body was drifting towards him on a piece of wood. The person’s head harshly bumping into the side of the boat.

Mihawk quickly tied the ropes down so the boat was still heading to town and hauled the body onto his boat.

Upon closer inspection, he found that the person was still alive, looking incredibly weakened with their purple hair plastered to their face and their tongue sticking out. The person’s skin was also a sickly gray colour, although that might just be a them thing considering they also had little horns and stitches on their forehead. They didn’t look much taller than Mihawk and they had a lean, muscular build.

Must be a devil fruit user, Mihawk pondered, If that is the case, it’s a miracle he is still alive. Maybe I won’t rob him.

The person was dressed in a punk styled outfit. It consisted of black pants, gloves, and boots with an open leather jacket. The person was also wearing a studded choker and eyeliner that was clearly not waterproof.

Before Mihawk knew what he was doing, he tied the man to the mast and continued to steer the boat towards the town in the distance.

When they got to the dock, Mihawk jumped off and made sure he securely tied the boat to the dock before grabbing the strange person tied to the mast. He then grabbed his bag filled with all his important items, his sword, and lugged the stranger to the nearest inn. 

It was a worn out looking building that was right next to the harbour. It looked like the kind of place people went to get murdered, but it would do for the night.

Perfect, Mihawk thought, If they die in their sleep, it won’t be a problem.

Thankfully, there was a room left. So Mihawk carried the stranger up the stairs and dragged them through the door. Only to find that the room had one bed in it. 

“Well this is annoying.” Mihawk huffed as he set the stranger down to sit against the wall and started to survey the room, “What to do, what to do…”

The room didn’t have much in it. There was a bed, an old chair, a nightstand, and a dresser. Other than the mirror that hung above the dresser, the only other decorations were some thin white curtains that did little for privacy on the window.

Mihawk walked over to said window and saw that it looked out into the harbour. He couldn’t see anything unless there was lightning flashing due to lashing rain.

“At least I’ll be able to watch the boat.” Mihawk mumbled.

He then turned around to spot a closet on the wall between the bathroom and the bed. Mihawk went over and opened it to find nothing but coat hangers. He was about to close it when a flash of gold caught his eye.

Looking at the bottom of the closet, Mihawk saw that there was a folded hammock sitting there and he picked it up to inspect it. The hammock looked almost brand new and when he looked around the room again, Mihawk noticed that there were two hooks across from each other on the wall.

Huh, guess I’ll sleep in the hammock then, Mihawk decided, And Stitchhhead can have the bed.

Stitchhead was what Mihawk had decided to call the stranger he picked up until he knew what their name actually was. Said person then let out a groan and slid from sitting to face planting onto the floor.

Mihawk sighed at the sight and got to work. He quickly stripped Stitchhead down to their boxers and then tucked them into bed under the covers. Then he took their wet clothes and used the coat hangers he found to hang them to dry in the bathroom.

After that was all sorted, Mihawk used the chair to set the hammock up in front of the window with an extra blanket and pillow from the bed. Then he opened his bag to pull out a set of seastone handcuffs.

You can never be too careful, Mihawk thought as he chained Sticthhead to the bed, Hopefully that will keep them secure long enough for us to talk in the morning.

When he was done, Mihawk set his bag and sword within reach before hoisting himself into the hammock.

Hopefully the storm will be over in the morning, Mihawk thought as he got comfortable and tried not to think too much about why he helped the strange person laying on the bed behind him.

Mihawk then slowly fell asleep to the sound of the storm still raging outside, exhausted by his journey through it.

~~*~~

Gecko Moria slowly woke up to the sound of seagulls and a massive headache.

Opening his eyes, he saw that he was alone in a bare bones hotel room, naked except for his boxers, and chained to the bed with seastone.

No wonder I feel so weak, Moria thought, What the fuck happened to me?

Then he heard a toilet flushing and a door opening. A man came out from around the corner carrying a stack of black clothes that he then set on top of the dresser.

Wait, those are my fucking clothes! Moria realised, I’ve been kidnapped by some kind of pervert!

The pervert looked to be a little shorter than him and had black hair that was slicked back with long sideburns. He was dressed in a gothic look with black slacks and boots along with a purple coat that Moria could see had embroidered flowers on the front via the mirror.

He also had beautiful gold eyes.

At least I got kidnapped by someone good looking, Moria thought before mentally slapping himself, Wait, what am I thinking?! He took my clothes and chained me to the bed! I’ve got to kill him before he bewitches me further!

Moria quickly sat up, but immediately regretted it because it just made his headache worse. The sound of him flopping back down onto the bed made the other man realise Moria was up.

“Oh, you're awake.” The man drawled in a bored sounding tone, “I was beginning to wonder if you would wake up at all.”

Moria immediately snapped to attention at the man talking to him.

“Yeah, I bet you were.” Moria growled, “I bet you’re one of those people that drug others and then take advantage of them! You filthy kidnapper!”

The other man cocked his head to the side like a bird and gave him a confused look. If it was a different situation, Moria would have thought it was cute.

He also looked familiar, but Moria couldn’t remember why.

Probably because he was too busy looking at the man’s bare chest and his cool necklace.

Fuck, focus dipshit! Moria told himself.

“No, I kill those kinds of people.” The man bluntly told him, “I found you in the ocean. Also, you’re not a child, so it would be an abduction not kidnapping.”

Moria was taken aback, even more confused.

What kind of fuckass answer is that?! Moria thought, Even if he isn’t the type of weirdo I thought he was, he is still fucking weird.

Slowly, Moria sat up and leaned against the headboard.

“What do you mean you found me in the ocean?” Moria yelled, “I was on my ship and then-”

Suddenly, a memory came back to him. 

Moria had been standing on the deck when the storm rolled in and was trying to help tie the sail in place before the wind ripped it out of his hands. Then he heard yelling from behind him and turned around only to get hit in the face with the boom. Moria then tumbled off the side of the ship along with an empty barrel and was swept away by the waves.

“And you fell off the ship didn’t you?” The man filled in for him, “That explains why you were out there.”

“Yes.” Moria huffed, pouting and trying to cross his arms, but the cuffs stopped him from doing so, “Why did you save me to only handcuff me to the bed?”

“Well I don’t know who you are or what you’ve done, so I couldn’t very well leave you out there and have a clear conscience.” The man told him, “And that is also why I cuffed you, you can never be too careful.”

What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Moria thought, absolutely baffled at this whole situation, And why does he look so familiar?!

Then it clicked.

“Wait, aren’t you the marine killer?!” Moria shouted, “Dracula Myhawk or whatever?”

“It is the marine hunter and Dracule Mihawk.” The man, Mihawk, told him while rolling his eyes, “Now are you a marine or not?”

“No, I’m a pirate captain.” Moria stated, “My name is Gecko Moria and my crew is the Gecko Pirates.”

Mihawk seemed to recognise the name because he nodded and then walked away.

“Hey! Where are you going!” Moria yelled, “I’m still cuffed to the bed!”

“I know, shadow man.” Mihawk huffed, “I’m getting the keys.”

He came back and unlocked the cuffs before stuffing them into a bag along with the keys.

“Now get dressed so we can get breakfast.” Mihawk told him, “After that you’re on your own.”

Then Mihawk walked out of the room and grabbed a big ass sword Moria somehow missed leaning against the wall as he did so.

He’s getting me breakfast? Moria thought, dumbfounded, A pretty man that is a mass murderer and saved me from drowning is now getting me breakfast. I must have a concussion because this can not be real.

Once the door was shut, Moria jumped out of bed and put his clothes back on. The leather coat and gloves were a little tight from being waterlogged, but at least they didn’t shrink completely.

“Thank god I paid extra for waterproof ones.” Moria huffed, “Hopefully they stretch back out.”

When he was finished, Moria opened the door to find Mihawk just outside it, rocking on his heels and reading a map.

Moria looked at him oddly before he cleared his throat to get his attention. Mihawk looked up and quickly tucked the map into his bag.

“Oh good, the coat still fits.” Mihawk commented, “I was worried it had shrunk.”

“No, it’s made out of the expensive type of leather that doesn’t shrink when wet.” Moria explained, rubbing the back of his neck, “It just needs to relax again in order to fit again.”

“I see.” Mihawk quietly said, “Let’s go eat.”

Moria followed Mihawk down to the inn’s bar and they ordered their meals. Then they sat down by a window and ate in silence as they watched people pass by.

When they were done, Mihawk paid and walked out to his boat.

Moria watched him go, before he ran after him.

Moria didn’t know why he was still following Mihawk, the man had said he was on his own after breakfast. He supposed it was because he had nothing else to do or maybe due to how bizarre the man was to Moria.

He was like a puzzle or a riddle that he couldn’t figure out and it was pissing Moria off.

“Hey! Wait!” Moria yelled as trailed behind.

“What?” Mihawk asked as undid the ropes connecting his boat to the dock.

He had already checked earlier in the morning to see if it had made it through the storm unscathed. It had cleared the inspection, even the storage compartment didn’t have any water in it.

“You’re really just going to leave me here?!” Moria asked.

“Yes, I have things to do.” Mihawk calmly replied, “I need to train.”

“Train? Train for what?” Moria questioned him.

“To be the world’s greatest swordsman.” Mihawk stated as he hopped into his boat, “Now if you excuse me, I need to go find some more training dummies.”

Then he pushed off from the dock and started to sail away, leaving a baffled Moria behind.

Then Moria realised something.

He made it through that storm in that little boat?! Moria thought, That man is insane!

Well duh, his subconscious said, He carries a seven foot sword, of course he is insane.

Before he could think about it further, a voice called out to him, making him startle. Looking to the right, he saw that his crew was docked on the other side of the harbour.

“There you are, captain!” His crew cried, “We thought you were dead!”

“Of course I’m alive! A little storm like that could never kill me!” Moria shouted back at them, laughing afterwards, “But how the hell did you find me?” 

“We have your vivre card!” A crewmate replied, “So we just followed it.”

Shit, I forgot about that, Moria thought, embarrassed that he chased Mihawk down for nothing, Whatever, it’s not like I’ll ever see that weirdo again.

Unfortunately for Moria, he would be dreaming about the odd man with the pretty gold eyes for months before he saw him in person again.

~~*~~

Meanwhile, Mihawk was having a bit of a crisis.

It wasn’t that out of the ordinary for Mihawk to just help someone like he helped Moria. He considered himself a true neutral of the world, not going out of his way to help someone, but also not walking past someone in need.

But there was something about Moria that made him feel vulnerable for some reason. Maybe it was because Moria didn’t immediately run for the hills in fright or beg for his life when he found out who Mihawk was. The man just studied him as if Mihawk was a mystery that he needed to solve.

It was unusual and that scared Mihawk.

Whatever, if he tries something, I’ll just kill him, Mihawk decided as he steared himself towards a marine base, I hope this marine base has a lot of extra troops.

Thankfully, they did.

Chapter Text

Early March - Gecko Pirates’ Ship - Somewhere in the Grandline

Moria hadn’t told any of his crewmates about what had happened; partially due to embarrassment and partially due to the absurdity of it all. Who would believe that Draucle “Marine Hunter” Mihawk had saved him from drowning, made sure he didn’t get hypothermia, got him food, and then fucked off in his little boat without asking for anything in return?

Absolutely nobody, that’s who.

So for almost two months, Moria had been trying to forget about the strange man that saved him.

He was failing.

Some days he’d be looking out at the ocean and catch himself hoping for a coffin to appear on the horizon. On others he was reading the newspaper, searching for any news about marines being slaughtered. Moria wasn’t even safe at night when he was asleep because he had started dreaming of flowers and pretty gold eyes.

Moria didn’t know why this was happening other than maybe because he now owed the man his life and that scared him. He had never liked being backed into a corner like that.

The fact that he thought Dracule Mihawk was hot could also be a contributing factor, but he refused to admit that to anyone.

His crew was starting to get concerned with how much he was spacing out and then slapping himself. Especially his first mates Mortimer and Shells Marie.

Shells Marie is a tall, muscular woman with her light brown hair piled on her head in a mohawk. Her dark makeup stood out against her pale, scar covered skin and her piercing eyes were a caramel colour. Her favoured weapons are guns alongside her devil fruit, the Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Wolf. She is Moria’s second in command.

Mortimer is a lanky fellow with dark blue hair and a warm skin tone. His eyes were silver in colour and had earned him the nickname star-eyes from crewmates. He is the crew’s navigator, a strong swimmer, and Moria’s third in command.

The two of them were Moria’s closest friends and they had been trying to get him to talk about what happened, but it was no use. Moria would just say it was fine and brush past them.

Currently, Mortimer was stress baking and fretting over Moria’s behaviour as Marie watched him from the kitchen table.

“What if something bad happened to him?” Mortimer asked as he frantically stirred a bowl of cake mix, “The ocean would make him sleepy and who knows what that man could have done to him?!”

“Relax Morty, if anything like that had happened, I would have noticed.” Marie sighed, kicking her feet up on the table, “And go slower, you’re wasting the food.”

Mortimer sighed and put the bowl down.

She is right, he thought, If anything nefarious had happened she of all people would be the one to notice.

“Well what do you suppose is making him all flighty?” Mortimer huffed, turning back around to look at her with his hands on his hips. 

“Well, he is not my type, but even I can admit the marine hunter is quite the looker.” Marie said nonchalantly, “Maybe he likes the guy.”

“But- But they only met once!” Mortimer stuttered, “And he must have been passed out for most of it!”

“Oh please, you’re acting like a religious mother.” Marie said, rolling her eyes, “The man did save his life and fed him. So even if Moria doesn’t like the man, he still owes Dracule his life.”

That calmed Mortimer down a little.

“Oh, that’s true.” He whispered, “Maybe the captain is just pissy he owes him and he’s dreading the day he comes to cash in the favour.”

“Exactly.” Marie nodded, “Why are you freaking out about it?”

“Because it’s Dracule fucking Mihawk!” Mortimer shouted, “What if he makes the captain do something horrible or kills us after the favour is cashed.”

“The man’s only concerns are killing marines and keeping to himself.” Marie calmly stated, “I think we’ll be fine. Now get back to baking.”

Mortimer huffed and rolled his eyes, but did as he was told.

Sometimes I think I’m the only sane one here, he thought, Nobody has any common sense around here!

This was only half right. It was true that Mortimer was often the voice of reason in the crew given that he was the navigator and was the chef when it was just the three of them.

But a man who harboured pirates in the back of a flower shop after a public execution and then decided to join them on their crazed adventures just so he could live his dreams of being a botanist can’t be called sane.

Mortimer was about to go on, but Moria had burst through the kitchen door before he could.

“What’s all the yelling for?!” Moria shouted, “It’s past midnight!”

“Why are you up then?” Marie asked, smirking, “It wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain swordsman would it?”

Moria’s face became a dark shade of red.

“Wha- No! Absolutely not!” Moria hissed, “I don’t have feelings for Mihawk!”

“Well I never said who, but it’s interesting that you called him Mihawk and not Dracule.” Marie snickered, “You really do have a crush on him!”

“No. I. Don’t!” Moria gritted out, “I don’t like anything about him! Not his sword! Not his eyes! And definitely not his indifference to danger!”

“Oh god, you really do have a crush on him!” Mortimer cried.

“Shut up the both of you!” Moria yelled.

But it didn’t matter what he said, Marie was still teasing him and Mortimer had started fussing again.

“Oh Moria, if you can list things about him, you’re in deep.” Marie laughed, “Who would have thought that all it took to make you insane is a pretty, but equally insane man.”

“Marie! This is serious!” Mortimer pleaded, “I mean the man sails in a coffin for goodness sake!”

As the other two continued to bicker, Moria felt like he was burning alive from the inside out.

Do I like that weirdo? Moria thought, No, even if he is handsome and would be a powerful ally, I hardly know him.

So get to know him better then, A little voice said, Then you can decide if his pretty eyes really do resemble gold.

That made him freeze.

“Fuck my life.” Moria groaned with his head in his hands, “I do like him.”

Upon seeing this, Marie burst out laughing and Mortimer resigned himself to his fate.

“This is going to be fun.” Marie stated, patting Moria on the back.

“We’re gonna die.” Mortimer whined.

Tomorrow they’d tell the crew to keep an eye out for the Marine Hunter and to alert the captain.

~~*~~

Thankfully, about a week later, they spotted the coffin shaped boat on the water.

Unfortunately, it was tied to the Red Haired Pirates’ ship.

What the fuck is he doing with them? Moria thought, Don’t tell me he is allied with those idiots!

Then started to head towards the other ship, but before they could get any closer than a few meters however, a shot rang out making everyone jump.

Moria squinted his eyes to get a better look and what he saw was quite bizarre.

“Is that a fucking monkey with a gun?!” Moria exclaimed.

Then the one and only Benn Beckman came into view.

“Alright, who gave Monster the gun?” Benn asked the crew while taking the gun away, “Come on, be a man and fess up.”

“That would be me!” Shanks said in a sing-song voice, already drunk at noon.

“And could you pray tell why you did that?” A bored tone asked.

That must be Mihawk, I could recognise that voice anywhere, Moria thought, Wait, what?!

He would have thought more about it, but Shanks had kept talking.

“Well, we don’t have a sharpshooter yet so I thought I’d train him.” Shanks explained as if it was obvious.

“You idiot!” The rest of the crew shouted at Shanks as Mihawk and Benn just looked at him like disappointed parents.

“Okay, I think that’s enough rum for you.” Benn told him, “Time for some water and a nap.”

He then took Shanks’ drink and threw the younger man over his shoulder.

“I’m not a baby, I can take care of myself.” Shanks whined, “And it’s my birthday! So I can do whatever I want!”

“Yeah, but with the way you're going, this will be your last birthday.” Hongo yelled.

Shanks just huffed and crossed his arms.

“Buggy would let me.” Shanks pouted, “He might’ve even joined me.”

“Well Buggy isn’t here now is he?” Mihawk pointed out before anyone could stop him.

They all knew what happened when Buggy, Shanks’ ex boyfriend or sworn brother (he was very unclear about it), was mentioned around Shanks. 

Especially when he was drunk.

The man would start crying about the clown who left him and how he didn’t know why Buggy had left him. About how his life wasn’t complete without him and that he’d do anything to have him back.

At first, the crew would listen to him and try to comfort him or help him move on, but nothing worked. At one point somebody had pointed out that they could try to find the clown, but Shanks had insisted that Buggy would come back on his own. 

He always did after all.

Or he used to at least.

So the crew had just resorted to removing anything clown related so Shanks wouldn’t have a meltdown. They even went so far as to cut out pieces of the newspaper that even seemed clown or circus adjacent. Thankfully it had mostly been just the comics on the back.

Mihawk, however, was not a person known to sugarcoat things and he had been dealing with Shanks’ bullshit for a while.

And, to be frank, he was sick of it.

If I was Buggy, I’d leave him too, Mihawk thought as he watched Benn carry the wailing manchild to his bedroom, No, I’d kill him actually.

Everybody was about to go back to partying when someone noticed that the Gecko Pirates were just awkwardly staring at them from their ship pulled up next to them. 

They had seen the whole soap-opera esque scene.

“Uh, hello.” Moria awkwardly said, “I’m Captain Gecko Moria of the Gecko Pirates and we are here to see Mih- Dracule Mihawk.”

“Why?” Limejuice asked as he stepped forward.

“He saved me from drowning and we shared a hotel room as well as breakfast.” Moria explained, “I’ve come to see if there is any way I can repay that debt.”

“What?!” The crew asked, confused.

Never in their life had they expected that response. Usually, when people came to see Mihawk, they were either there to fight him or try to get him to join their crew.

Now they knew Mihawk wasn’t a heartless bastard, despite his bluntness, and that he would help people occasionally. But that was usually civilians who were defenceless to the cruelty of marines or pirates.

But he usually immediately left afterwards. He never shared a bed with anyone or a meal.

Does he like this man? The crew thought, Or was it a one time thing? No, Mihawk would never do that, so he must like this man.

As the crew was freaking out, Mihawk was standing to the side feeling incredibly embarrassed about this whole situation.

He himself still didn’t know why he went so far for Moria, he had been trying his best to forget about it in fact, but he knew he had to address it before the crew lost their minds.

“We didn’t sleep together in any way; I gave him the bed and slept in a hammock.” Mihawk stated, “I was also planning to rob him at first.”

“What?! You were going to rob me?!” Moria shouted.

“Only if you were dead and I wouldn’t have stolen anything sentimental.” Mihawk said monotonously, “I kill people, but I’m not a monster and I had to get a hotel for myself anyways due to the storm, so I just brought you along.”

“Oh, fair enough.” Moria nodded, “But I’d still like to repay you so I don’t owe you anything.”

“You’re not going to ask me to join your crew, are you?” Mihawk questioned him.

“No, why would I do that?” Moria asked, confused, “You seem perfectly fine on your own.”

That surprised Mihawk and the Red Haired Pirates crew.

Maybe he is different, Mihawk thought before grabbing the gangplank and 

“What are you doing?!” Limejuice shouted, “You can’t just let them on here! We don’t even know them!”

“It’s my birthday too, so I can do what I want.” Mihawk told them before turning back to Moria, “Come on board everyone.”

The Gecko Pirates looked to their captain for permission.

“Go ahead and enjoy the free alcohol.” Moria said, “Just don’t give yourselves alcohol poisoning and be on your best behaviour.”

The crew cheered and boarded the other boat. 

“Should we let the captain know?” Limejuice whispered to Hongo.

“No, he’ll just say the more the merrier.” Hongo sighed, “Benn will probably be annoyed, but he won’t do anything about it. I mean could you say no to Mihawk?”

Limejuice thought about it for a moment and decided that no, he could not. The man was simply too pretty and the worst part was that the fucker didn’t even know it.

“I’ll go lock the pantry.” Limejuice sighed.

Moria was the last to board and Mihawk quickly dragged him to the main mast crow’s nest ladder.

“We can talk up here.” Mihawk told him, already climbing the ladder, “It’s private.”

“You sure it has nothing to do with your name?” Moria asked, trying to make a joke.

But Mihawk just paused and looked down at him confused.

“What do you mean?” Mihawk asked.

“Ah, well your name has ‘hawk’ in it and your eyes are kind of hawk-like too. So…” Moria rambled, “Never mind, it’s nothing.”

Oh, he was making a joke, Mihawk realized.

He wasn’t used to that. Most people were too afraid to look at him, let alone crack a joke. It was kind of nice. It made him feel almost normal.

“Well, I do like being up high.” Mihawk told him, beginning to climb again, “So maybe it does have something to do with my name.”

“Whatever you say hawk-eyes.” Moria sighed, climbing up after him.

Hm, hawk-eyes, I like that, Mihawk decided, Dracule “Hawk-eyes” Mihawk, It’s catchy.

Mihawk got to the crow’s nest and sat to the side to allow room for Moria to sit. 

Moria shut and locked the floor door, before he looked up to see Mihawk staring at him across from him with his arms around his legs.

“Uh, why are you looking at me like that?” Moria asked, a little unnerved.

“Eye contact is considered polite behaviour when conversing with someone, is it not?” Mihawk asked while cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah, but you are allowed to blink.” Moria told him.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Mihawk nodded.

Wow this guy is stranger than I thought, Moria realised, But oddly interesting.

“O-Kay, so how can I repay you?” Moira asked.

“You can help me slaughter a couple of human traffickers a few hours away from here.” Mihawk bluntly replied.

Moria choked on his own spit upon hearing that, but he quickly composed himself.

“Yeah, my crew and I can do that.” Moria agreed, “We’ll need to wait for them to sober up first, but-”

“No, I just want you.” Mihawk cut him off, “It will just be me and you or nothing at all.”

Moria choked again.

“What?! Why?” Moria choked out.

“I saved your life, not theirs.” Mihawk stated as if it was obvious, “So the only way to make it fair is for you to be the only one.”

Shanks had also told Mihawk that if anyone saw him as an individual, they probably wanted to get to know him personally.

And Moria was the only person he met so far that seemed dateable.

~~*~~

Shanks woke up with a groan, his head pounding and his body feeling like jelly.

“What the fuck happened to me?” Shanks mumbled.

Last thing he remembered doing was wishing a happy birthday to Mihawk and then opening a keg.

Then it was all blank and now here he is in his room at midnight.

“Maybe Benn knows what happened.” Shanks groaned as he stumbled out of bed and out of his bedroom, “I hope I didn’t try and sing Bink’s Sake backwards again or at least didn’t projectile vomit again at the end if I did.”

But as soon as he shut his door, Shanks was slammed into the wall by a woman he didn’t recognise.

“You’re related to Figarland Shamrock, aren’t you?” The woman calmly asked.

Ah, fuck, Shanks thought before a gun was shoved in his face.

Chapter Text

Early March - Red Haired Pirates’ Ship - Somewhere in the Grandline

This was not how Shanks thought his birthday was going to go.

Shanks had thought that he would party with his friends and get a little drunk. Maybe even tease Mihawk a little about joining his crew or that man he had saved awhile ago.

Unfortunately, he ended up getting black out drunk and woke up at midnight with a raging headache.

Whatever he did somehow led him to where he was now: being held up against the wall by a strange woman he didn’t know and being asked about his shitty twin brother.

Oh, and he also had a gun pointed at his face.

That was nice.

How did I get here? Shanks thought, And how the hell do I get out of this?

“So, are you going to answer me?” The strange woman asked, “Or do I have to put a bullet in you first?”

“Well, if you shoot me, you’re not going to get any answers." Shanks replied without thinking, “And why do you think I’d know anything about Figarland Shamrock? I don’t even know who that is.”

“I mean I don’t have to shoot you in a vital spot, but I suppose it would be too loud.” The woman remarked, “And don’t lie to me, you look just like Shams. You’re like an unwashed version of him.”

“Hey! I bathe every other day!” Shanks yelled, “And are you like a spy or something?! What did that moon bastard send you or something?!”

{This is a lie. While Shanks does in fact bathe, he only does so when someone else makes him. Usually it is Benn’s job to throw a bucket of soapy water on him after a week or two. That or Mihawk bullies him into showering by telling him that Buggy wouldn’t like a greasy man.}

Anyways, the woman made a disgusted face when Shanks made the spy comment.

“Ew, no. I hate Garling just as much as you do.” The woman hissed, “I’m not a spy you dumbass. I’m Shells Marie, Gecko Moria’s first mate.”

Shanks tried to think of who this lady was talking about and why she would be here, but he was drawing blanks. So he just decided to ask her point blank.

“Okay, let’s say you’re telling me the truth.” Shanks started, “Why are you on my boat if it’s not to assassinate me or drag me back to hell?”

Now it was Marie’s turn to look confused.

“You… You really don’t remember?” Marie asked, “Wow, you really were black out drunk. Don’t know why I’m surprised though, you did sleep for almost ten hours after you cried about some clown.”

Almost immediately, Shanks was both embarrassed and furious.

“Hey! Buggy isn’t some clown!” Shanks yelled, “He is my clown and he is amazing! He- He is incredibly smart and great with chemistry! And he’s an acrobat!”

Shanks continued to rant about how great this Buggy person was while Marie just looked at him with slight disgust.

Wow, he is really down bad for this clown guy, Marie thought, It would be almost sweet if he didn’t look like he was on the verge of tears.

After a moment Marie just rolled her eyes as she put her gun away and covered Shanks’ mouth with her hand, shutting him up. She then picked him up by the waist and dragged him into his room. Marie sat the squirming man on his bed before locking the door behind her.

“Okay, since you don’t remember shit, I’ll do a recap.” Marie sighed, then she started speaking slowly, “Your buddy Mihawk saved my captain and we came across you guys. My captain, Gecko Moria, wanted to talk with Mihawk and he invited us on board while Benn dragged your wailing ass to bed.”

After hearing this, some of Shanks’ memories did in fact come back to him. He faintly remembered giving Monster the gun and then… Yes, the Gecko Pirates did pull up beside them and Shanks started crying after… Mihawk made that comment.

“Oh right, I remember that now.” Shanks sheepishly said, rubbing his forehead, “Wait, Gecko Moria is the guy Mihawk fished out of the water? Really?!”

“Yup.” Marie said, popping the “y”, “And he’s my captain.”

“Okay, but what does that have anything to do with my shitty twin?” Shanks asked, still confused about everything, “Do you have a vendetta against him or something?”

“Nope, just thought it was funny.” Marie replied as she shrugged, “And if I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead buddy.”

Shanks looked at her in disbelief.

“You thought threatening me with a gun was funny?!” Shanks hissed.

“Yup.” Marie laughed, “Did I scare you?”

“Wha- Yes you scared me?!” Shanks shouted, “Are you insane?! What is wrong with you?”

“Would you like me to go in alphabetical or chronological order?” Marie bluntly asked with a wide grin.

Shanks didn’t know what to say in response to that.

“Chronological order please.” Shanks replied after a moment.

“Great, I’ll try to keep it breif.” Marie gleefully said as she clapped her hands and grabbed Shanks’ desk chair.

Marie got comfortable and cleared her throat before she started speaking:

“My mother was a woman from the South Blue, an island called Kutsukku. When she was old enough she left to travel the Grandline. But when she arrived in the Sabaody Archipelago, she caught the attention of a high ranking Celestial Dragon. He made her one of his “wives” and I was born two years later.”

Shanks felt his skin crawl at the implications, but after a moment of processing, he prompted Marie to continue.

And so she did:

“So basically I was born a slave with only a few slight benefits. Like not immediately being sold or killed off as soon as they found out my mother was pregnant with me. I was mostly taken care of by maids and helped in the kitchen when I was younger. Although I wasn’t a very obedient child as you can probably tell, they just made sure not to scar my face and bring down the property value.”

Marie made a gesture to the scars littering her body. Shanks felt something vile twist in his stomach. It wasn’t disgust at the scars themselves, but rather what they represented.

However, the thing about not scaring Marie’s face didn’t make sense because she did have scars crisscrossing over her face.

I suppose that came later, Shanks thought sadly, Did Garling do that? Or was it my brother?

“After a while of that, they figured out that torturing me wouldn’t make me behave. So they started torturing my mother instead.” Marie stated as if it was nothing, but then her voice dropped almost to a whisper, “I was better behaved after that. Although, as I got older, I started to realise that it wasn’t worth it because my mother never loved me. I guess I should’ve figured that out sooner considering she named me after the place that caused her so much pain. I don’t blame her to be honest, I’d hate me too.”

Shanks felt his heart crack at hearing her say that, but he understood what she meant. What he didn’t understand though was why she was telling him all this.

“I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve any of that.” Shanks told her, “But why tell me this? What does it have to do with my brother or me?”

Marie gave him a crooked smile in return before continuing her story:

“Well, eventually my mother died. I was so sure they were going to kill me too because my father wasn’t having any luck in selling me off due to my attitude and scars. But then Garling stepped in. Apparently he wanted to climb the social ladder and decided the best way to do that was to get into my father’s good graces by offering an amount far higher than what I was worth.”

That made Shanks enraged.

“He bought you?!” Shanks yelled, “What he wanted you to be a maid? Or… Oh god, please don’t tell me he-”

Marie quickly garbed Shanks’ face and squeezed it so he’d shut up.

“Shush! You’re going to wake everyone up!” Marie hissed, “And it wasn’t anything like that! He wanted me to marry Shamrock!”

Shanks’ eyes went wide at that and he went completely still. Marie slowly let go of him and watched him like he was a deer ready to bolt.

“I first met Shams when we were children; thought he was an asshole and I pushed him into a fountain. After the contract was signed, when I was fifteen I went to live with them and was forced into etiquette classes.” Marie explained, “We were going to be married when Shams turned eighteen, but I always thought that was an excuse Garling made while he tried to find someone of a higher status.”

Shanks’ didn’t miss the way Marie looked softer when talking about Shamrock. It was a harsh switch from when she was talking about her own mother or Garling. He also didn’t miss the nickname she gave him.

When Shanks had been in Mary Geoise, he had been walking down a hallway with Shamrock and it was really tense. So Shanks had tried to lighten the mood by calling his brother Shams. He’d figured his brother would just reprimand him for being immature again or ignore him, but his brother had grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into a wall.

Shanks would never forget the expression of furious hatred Shamrock had looked at him with. His brother even went so far as to threaten to kill Shanks if he ever called him that again; Garling’s wishes be damned.

But now Shanks wasn’t so sure it had been hatred.

Maybe it was grief.

“What happened next?” Shanks asked.

“Well, I still don’t quite understand it all to be honest, but we became friends. Or as close to friends as people can be in Mary Geoise.” Marie replied, “It really isn’t a place made for love and he didn’t completely understand my want for freedom, but I think we both realised how lonely we both were. I mean we had both spent our whole lives being berated by our parents to be constantly perfect or being told to just die if we weren’t going to be useful. I guess I was just the first person to not put up with his shitty attitude and daddy issues.”

Shanks snorted at that. He couldn’t imagine his oh so perfect brother being anything but the perfect son. It was something Garling had consistently pointed out to Shanks that he wasn’t.

“I’m sorry for laughing, but I never would have thought someone as prim and proper like Shamrock would ever have daddy issues.” Shanks told her, “Or have any human decency really.”

“Oh please, you’re not any better, you have daddy issues too.” Marie said with a grin, “But I also don’t blame you for thinking that, he did say that I’d be taking his humanity with me when I left.”

Shanks had been ready to protest at the idea of him having daddy issues, but that was pushed aside by the surprise that Shamrock knew Marie had planned to leave and didn’t try to stop her.

“Really?! He knew you were leaving?” Shanks asked surprised, “He didn’t try to stop you?”

“At first he did, but he was actually the one that helped me escape.” Marie explained, “He came up with the plan to fake my death by pretending I fell off a cliff into the sea and then he brought me down to the port at night so that I could hide away on a ship. I was just going to fight my way out originally, I did still use a knife to scar my face and make it so I was unrecogniseable though."

He actually helped Marie escape?! Shanks thought, He didn’t even help me, his own brother, escape that hell hole! Just told me to take a swan dive off the- Oh… He was telling me to do what Marie did.

Another memory of Mary Geoise came back to Shanks. He had overheard some of the maids talking about a feral woman throwing herself off a cliff. He had tried to ask them about it, but they had scrambled away in fear before he could even ask.

They must have been talking about Marie, Shanks realised, She does look kind of feral and her eyes do remind me of a wolf.

And it seemed like Marie was leaning into it with the ripped up punk clothes she was wearing.

“After that, I kind of wandered around until I heard about Gol D Roger's execution.” Marie continued, “I don’t know why, but I went to go see it. I ran into Moria there and then we met Morty when he gave us shelter from some marines that we had stolen money from. Then we set out to sea on a stolen ship. However, there was a slight hiccup in our plans and we had to make a detour.”

“Why? Were they after you?” Shanks asked.

“Oh, no. I just found out that I was pregnant.” Marie stated, “Didn’t notice until the third trimester because I was never taught anything about pregnancy or how it happens. So we made a detour to my mother’s home island of Kutsukku in the South Blue.”

Shanks breath hitched and he choked on his own spit.

“I’m an uncle?!” Shanks sputtered, “Wait, is the baby here with you? Or did they not… make it?”

“Oh he made it alright, Kid weighed about thirteen pounds and split me open like a damn watermelon.” Marie laughed, “And no, he isn’t here with me. I left him with the midwife that helped me give birth.”

“What?! Why?” Shanks questioned, “You abandoned him just like that? And in the South Blue of all places?! The place where they are still searching for Gol D Roger’s supposed child?!”

“Hey, don’t push your daddy issues onto me.” Marie sternly told him, “I left him because I knew I would never be a good mother to him. I’m still a child myself and I’m still figuring out how this world works. So I didn’t abandon my child because I didn’t love him. I did it because I’m self aware enough to know I’m too fucked up to take care of a baby properly. I didn’t want to continue the cycle my father started.”

Shanks felt a feeling of shame creeping over him after hearing that.

“I’m sorry.” Shanks whispered, “But still, why the South Blue of all places?”

Marie let out a deep sigh and dragged a hand down her face.

“I don’t really know that myself.” Marie softly said, “I guess I just went there because it was somewhere I could actually name. It also isn’t affiliated with the government so I figured it was safe enough. The midwife, Eustass Blair, was an old woman who couldn’t have children of her own and she lived in a quiet part of town. I wish I was the mother Kid deserved, but… I loved him enough to know I wasn’t and give him to someone who could be.”

Shanks decided he wasn’t going to comment on the tears and just handed her a tissue.

“What did you name him?” Shanks asked.

“I already told you his name, it’s Kid.” Marie replied, “And he has Blair’s last name, so I guess his full name is Eustass Kid.”

“You named him Kid?!” Shanks asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, so? It’s what I had been calling him before he was born so I figured he was used to it already.” Marie told him, “If he was a girl, I would’ve still named him Kid.”

It was then that Shanks burst out laughing. The ridiculousness of this entire situation had finally caught up to him and he just had to let it out. Thankfully, Marie joined in too.

When the laughter died down, Shanks spoke up.

“So what was the purpose of telling me all this?” Shanks asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing.” Marie stated as she stood up, “I just want you to be on the look out for the little shit in the future. My hope for him is that he has a normal childhood, but with the genes he has, he’ll be wrecking a lot of shit. I just want you to promise not to hurt him if he comes to fight you.”

“I promise not to hurt him.” Shanks chuckled, shaking her hand to seal the promise.

“Good, I’ll hold you to that.” Marie nodded before asking, “Wanna see a picture of him?”

“Absolutely!” Shanks enthusiastically replied.

Marine pulled a piece of paper out of a zip pocket over her heart and handed it to Shanks.

It was a picture of a chubby baby giving the meanest mug face he had ever seen. The baby had a tuft of red hair and his little hands were curled into fists like he was already ready to fight the world.

Yeah, this kid is definitely going to fuck shit up in the future, Shanks thought as he smiled, And he definitely has Shams’ glare.

{Shanks would hold up this promise, he would in fact never hurt his nephew himself, but he did have his first mate Benn Beckman cut off his nephew’s arm later in life.}

~~*~~

Meanwhile, Benn Beckman was enjoying the peace. Between dealing with Shanks’ many issues and wrangling the crew members, it wasn’t often that he got time to just relax. So with everyone asleep after a day of partying, he took a moment to sit on the deck and have a smoke.

Benn watched the stars as they passed overhead and tried not to think of the disaster that would be the next morning. It was never fun when the entire crew was hungover, but it would be horrible with two crews.

“I suppose it’s lucky that I’ve already outgrown that phase.” Benn lamented, “Hopefully they do too.”

“Highly unlikely.” A monotone voice said from behind him, startling Benn.

Benn flailed in his lounge chair while trying not to choke on his cigarette and turned around to see Mihawk standing behind him in the darkness. He could tell it was him due to the bright gold eyes standing out against the darkness.

“Christ! You scared me!” Benn yelled, grabbing his own chest, “What the hell are you doing just standing there?!”

“Apologies, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just came to ask you for dating advice.” Mihawk bluntly told him.

Benn just looked at the younger man confused.

“What? Why? Who?!” Benn asked.

This wasn’t the first time someone had asked Benn for dating advice as he was the oldest person on the crew, but never in his life would he have guessed it would be Mihawk asking. The man always seemed like he was annoyed by everyone around him. Benn had seen people tried to flirt with Mihawk before and it usually went over his head or he threatened to kill them if they entered his space again.

“Well Shanks already gave me some, but then I realized I probably shouldn't take dating advice from a man with the emotional intelligence of a rock.” Mihawk told him, “As for why I am asking you specifically: you are older, so you must know something. And it is Moria I’m going on a date with.”

Benn tried to connect the dots on how Mihawk went from saving Gecko Moria from drowning to going on a date with him, but nothing about it made sense.

Maybe he has a thing for the horns or his outfit, Benn thought.

He was then snapped out of his thoughts by Mihawk walking over and sitting down in the chair beside him.

“You’re going out with Moria? Why?” Benn questioned him.

“Well, when most people meet me, they either immediately want me to join their crew or they cower in fear.” Mihawk explained, “Moria however saw me as an individual and didn’t run. Shanks said that when someone does that, they probably wanted to get to know him personally. Should I not have taken his advice?”

Wow, Shanks actually gave someone some good advice for once, Benn thought, Usually he just tells people to drink for courage and use corny pick up lines.

Benn quickly took a drag of his smoke before replying.

“No, that is some good advice to follow.” Benn told him, “And what are you two going to be doing on this date?”

He is going to help me slaughter a couple of human traffickers a few hours away from here.” Mihawk stated as if it was a normal answer.

Benn just choked on his smoke again.

“Wha-What?! He agreed to that?” Benn asked while hitting his chest and coughing.

“At first he thought I meant doing it with his crew as well, but I quickly clarified that I meant only him and me.” Mihawk replied, “Moria quickly agreed to do it, he almost seemed excited in fact.”

For fucks sake, Benn thought, These two are either a match made in heaven or hell.

Benn then spent an hour telling Mihawk about how to be a gentleman during his massacre date and dreading the fact that he would be babysitting two crews in the meantime.

Chapter Text

Early March - Uncharted Island - Somewhere in the Grandline

The next morning, Moria woke up to see Mihawk standing over his bed, the sight making him startle fully awake.

“Holy fuck! Why the hell are you in my room?!” Moria yelled, rushing to sit up, “This is the second time you’ve done this!”

Mihawk just blinked and cocked his head to the side, giving him what Moria was beginning to assume was his confused expression.

“This is not the second time.” Mihawk told him in a dull tone, “Last time was a hotel room we both shared.”

“No, I mean- Whatever.” Moria sighed, too hung over to fight about it, “Just knock next time, don’t stand there like a sleep paralysis demon.”

“Oh, I see, my apologies. These are for you.” Mihawk quickly said, before shoving a bouquet of pinkish-purple geraniums into his hands and walking towards the door, “Now get dressed, we have a long journey ahead of us.”

Mihawk then shut the door and he heard him walk away.

Moria looked down at the flowers in his hands, confused about where Mihawk could’ve possibly gotten them from since they were in the middle of nowhere on the ocean. Then he became aware of Mortimer screaming in the distance about a thief. 

Ah, Mihawk must have stolen them from Morty’s greenhouse, Moria thought, huffing out a laugh, Whatever, Marie can sort him out while I’m gone. 

That is if she could take time away from gossiping about her ex with Shanks. He was glad she had someone who knew this Shams person, Moria and Mortimer had never met the man, so sometimes it was hard for her to talk about him to them. Although, he did wonder what the connection between Shanks and Shams was.

They must be related somehow, Moria thought as he got dressed into his usual attire and put the flowers in a vase filled with water, Kid does have red hair, maybe Shanks is his uncle or something? Meh, it’s none of my business.

Moria grabbed his sword and started walking up to the deck. Which was in total disarray with Mortimer interrogating the crew about who broke into his greenhouse. The usually calm man only became this manic when either his flowers or friends were hurt. 

So Moria just speed walked over to where Mihawk was standing by the railing. He was not staying around for the fallout.

“Seriously, somebody took almost all of my geraniums!” Mortimer yelled, “I only have two left! I was doing a whole study about their colouration!”

“We swear we didn’t take any!” The rest of the crew yelled back.

“Well then who did?” Mortimer asked.

When Moria got to Mihawk, he turned the other man around so he wasn’t staring at the pending eruption that was Mortimer.

“Okay, let's go before he figures out you took his flowers.” Moria whispered.

“Why is he freaking out?” Mihawk asked, “Mauve is a common colour for geraniums, he can easily get more.”

“He studies botany and he’s very protective of his work, those flowers are basically his babies.” Moria explained, “He was also apparently experimenting on their colourations or something.”

“Hm, I see.” Mihawk said, looking a little pensive, “I suppose I’ll apologise by getting him some more on our way back. Now let’s go.”

Mihawk then grabbed Moria’s hand and dragged him over to the ladder leading down to his little coffin boat. Mihawk went down first before helping him down as well and then setting him in the only seat on the boat.

Why the hell is this guy treating me like some damsel in distress? Moria thought as he watched the smaller man untie the ropes holding his boat to the two ships, Whatever, at least I won’t have to steer, I’m shit at navigating in the daytime anyway.

Moria settled in for the journey to whatever godforsaken island they were headed to and was about to take a nap when Mihawk started talking.

“So, what do you like to do for fun?” Mihawk asked, “Have any hobbies? Things you enjoy?”

Oh, this was going to be one of those trips.

~~*~~

[Redacted] Island - Somewhere in the Grandline

Moria was absolutely baffled at the situation he had found himself in. 

Not baffled as to how he got here, he knew exactly how he got here.

No, he was baffled as to what he did to enact the chain of events that led to him deserving to be in this position because fate seemed to have a really sick sense of humor.

Seriously, what god or goddess or whatever did he upset to deserve this?

Here he was just trying to repay Mihawk for saving his life and the lunatic wants him to kill a bunch of human traffickers.

Now it wasn’t that he felt bad about killing these people, they can go to hell for all he cares, but he would have liked to be warned that it was a fucking marine base!

Sure, maybe he should have expected this given the fact that the man he is with is named Dracule “Marine Hunter” Mihawk, but he didn’t think he would just drag him along on some murder cruise as repayment for saving his life.

~~*~~

The two men were currently in the courtyard of the military base cutting up soldiers and bullets alike as they were thrown at them.

“This is a fucking marine base!” Moria hissed, as he cut a couple of cadets in half with his sword, “You said we were going after human traffickers!”

“We are. I call people by the titles they’ve earned and these people have definitely earned being called human traffickers.” Mihawk replied as he cut a captain down the middle from head to crotch, “This base has the highest record of people under their care going missing in the area.”

The island they were on was incredibly tiny, just big enough for a small base to be built with the walls touching the water. It serviced the island surrounding it with its two war ships.

Or at least it was supposed to. Mihawk had been scoping them out for a while and found that they had been taking people, mostly women, under the cover of night and selling them off to some pirates that came through.

Mihawk was just going to kill them all himself, but then Moria came along asking to “repay” him and well… it would be nice to have someone to do it with sometimes. He used to do it with the friend he had travelled with to see Roger’s execution, but ever since he had dated that marine, they had stopped.

Mihawk understood, truly he did, his friend had plans in place and so did he, but he also missed the company. It made wiping out these tiny squadrons less boring and he liked making a game out of it by seeing how many they could each get. 

The base Moria and he were at only had a little over one hundred soldiers stationed, so they were making quick work of it.

The blood of the marines was starting to turn the once dusty tan coloured earth into a red mud with chunks of human entrails mixed in. Mihawk could feel the weight of the gruesome mess starting to stick to his boots in mud like clumps and was pretty sure he had just stepped on an eyeball or two. 

It could have even been a finger maybe.

Thankfully, the marines were starting to thin out due to them being killed or running away. Well, the ones running away didn’t really make it far because they either got hit by the crossfire or thrown back into the ring by another coward.

Soon enough, they were in the building and finishing off the rest of the rats.

~~*~~

Moria sat down on a chair to catch his breath as he watched Mihawk cut up the remaining marines, their blood splattering the walls as he hacked away at them. How he was able to move so gracefully with that big ass sword was a mystery. 

“I think we got everyone.” Moria heaved while wiping off some of the viscera covering him, “How the fuck do you constantly do this? My arms are sore from cutting through all those bones and I think my sword is chipped.”

“Get a stronger sword then.” Mihawk bluntly told him as he yanked his sword out of a marine’s ribcage, “And we didn’t get everyone, there is still one left.”

“What do you mean? I’m pretty sure everyone is dead.” Moria replied, trying desperately to keep his eyes on the other man’s face.

Moria didn’t know what it was about Mihawk standing in front of him being covered in blood and viscera that was so appealing, but it sure was doing something to him. 

Maybe Mortimer was right for calling him a bit of a freak when he had drunkenly admitted he wouldn’t mind being sucked dry in more ways than one by a vampire.

I mean, his name is Dracule, Moria thought, It’s probably the closest I’ll get to actual Dracula and who cares if I’m a freak, it would be totally worth it… Wait, what the hell am I thinking?! Focus dumbass!

“Hello? Moria? Are you okay?” Mihawk asked as he waved a hand in front of his face.

“Hm? Oh, yes, just a little tired.” Moria awkwardly replied, “And what is it that you said before I spaced out?”

“That the man in charge barricaded himself in his office.” Mihawk told him, “And I’ll let you off this time due to it being your first, but do try to keep your wits about you.”

Moria couldn’t tell if he was giving him actual advice or just insulting him, so he decided to just focus on the first part.

“How do you know there’s a guy hiding?” Moria asked, “Or is that just a common thing in your adventures?”

“Yes and by using observation haki.” Mihawk nonchalantly stated, “He’s in an office two stories up and three doors down from the stairs. He also just peed himself.”

“You can see all that with your observation haki? Shit, maybe I should learn.” Moria muttered, not really intending for Mihawk to hear, but he did.

“I could teach you if you want.” Mihawk offered.

“Really? You’d do that?” Moria asked, “Or are you just trying to get another favour out of me?”

“No, I just find you to be an interesting person to interact with.” Mihawk said as he started walking down the hall, “Now let’s go before our quarry escapes or kills himself.”

Moria was a little stunned to hear that someone like Mihawk actually enjoyed spending time with him. People usually told him he was crude, creepy, and insufferable. Which is why his crew is filled with other “insufferable” people along with the ever destructive Marie and the anxious mess that was Mortimer.

Maybe I’m not cursed by some god after all, Moria thought as he got up to follow Mihawk up the stairs, Or maybe I just have absolutely no survival skills.

Moria was starting to think it was the second considering the fact that he barely knew Mihawk and what he did know of him was that he murders a lot of people for “training” purposes. But then again these people are shitty and Mihawk is hot…

Yeah, he definitely has no survival skills.

~~*~~

The office door was locked when they arrived. 

Moria tried to force the door open, but there seemed to be some kind of dresser or cabinet blocking it as well. They weren’t surprised by this at all considering the man inside was a coward.

Mihawk was just hoping the man didn’t die of a heart attack before they got to him. It would be incredibly disappointing for them to do all that work and not get the ring leader. So, he simply knocked on the door.

“Hello? Are you in there?” Mihawk asked while trying to sound as friendly as possible, “We are not here to harm you, we just want to ask some questions.”

There was a shuffling noise and then they heard someone walking towards the door. 

“G-Go- Go away!” A whiny voice cried, “Just go away! Ta-Take anything you wa-want! Jus-Just leave me be!”

Mihawk just rolled his eyes and sighed.

So it’s going to be one of those situations, Mihawk thought, Whatever, we just need the keys from him.

Mihawk put his sword onto his back and leaned closer to the door.

“I promise we won’t hurt you.” Mihawk told the man, “We just need some keys from you. So if you come out and give them to us, we’ll let you sail away unharmed with whatever you want.”

Mihawk could see Moria making a face out of the corner of his eye, so he tried to tell him it was all a ruse by winking.

It seemed to work, Moria did look a little flushed though, was the heat getting to him? Mihawk would have to ask later.

“Ho-How can I trust you?! You’re filthy pirates!” The whiny voice shouted, trying desperately to sound intimidating, “Don’t you know who I am?! I’m Captain Nole Frumpet of this base!”

“Yes, but all your underlings are dead, so I don’t see how you have any other option of escape besides killing yourself.” Mihawk stated, “At least we’re giving you a chance to get some treasure before we take it all and burn this place down.”

“Y-You wouldn't!" Nole yelled, starting to cry again, “Th-The marines will come after you if you do!”

“They’re already after us, dumbass, so just open the door already before our patience runs out.” Moria threatened, giving Mihawk a smirk that was returned.

It was quiet on the other side for a moment before they heard Nole scrambling to get his things together and then the furniture was being moved away from the door.

“Wow, normally they cry and beg some more.” Mihawk told the man standing next to him, “Well done Moria, I usually end up having to break the door down.”

“Oh, thanks, it was nothing.” Moria replied, giving him a toothy grin.

Suddenly the door swung open and a man that looked better off in a bank than a marine base stumbled out. His name suited him well as the man named Nole looked like a mole and his clothes were quite frumpy looking. His three piece suit looked like it was made out of his grandmother’s curtains.

He was also struggling to carry a bag more than half his size out of the room. It was bursting with money and when he looked behind the man, Mihawk could see a vault left open that was filled with even more treasure.

When Nole looked up to see who his captors were, his eyes went wide at the sight of Mihawk standing there and he quickly tried to run back to his office for safety, but Moria had already grabbed him by his neck.

“Hck- Y-You’re the Marine Hunter!”Nole cried, pointing an accusatory finger at Mihawk, “Hgn Y-You lied to me!”

“Well duh, we’re pirates.” Moria replied.

“Yes, now where are those keys?” Mihawk asked the now whimpering man.

Nole reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a ring of keys that he then threw to Mihawk. Who, of course, gracefully caught them. 

“Good, now let’s go release those captives you have downstairs.” Mihawk drawled, leaving both Moria and Nole surprised as they watched him walk off.

Luckily Moria recovered quickly and didn’t lose grip on Nole's neck.

“H-How did he know of our prized stock?” Nole whispered.

“It’s called observation haki you loser.” Moria told him as he dragged the sputtering fool along.

And if Mihawk was secretly smiling as he watched Moria switch Nole around so he was slowly dragging the crying man down the stairs by the leg, making sure he hit his head on every single one? 

Well that was between Mihawk and the god he had lost faith in.

~~*~~

When they got to the dungeons, Moria was surprised that Nole hadn’t passed out from a concussion and that most of the cells were empty.

Way in the back, there were two cells that were at the end of the hallway and next to an iron door that had people in them. 

The one on the left had two young girls that looked to be in the age range of ten to fourteen and the one on the right had three women that looked to be in their twenties. They were all wearing short dresses and looked to be relatively unharmed, but Moria knew there could be injuries hiding. 

They were also all wearing chains.

Moria was immediately disgusted by the implications and by the way he saw his eye twitch, so was Mihawk.

Is this what life could have been for Marie? Moria internally shuddered at the thought of his friend going through what these girls must have.

One of the women in the right cell stood up and walked over to get a better look at them through the bars. She looked to be the oldest out of the bunch and seemed to have taken on a protective role for the other four girls as the two women in her sell had been behind her.

“Who are you and what are you doing with that pig?” She spat.

“We’ve killed the marines and found out you were all down here.” Mihawk simply stated before holding up the ring of keys, “So we’ve come to free you.”

“And why would you do that?” The woman asked sceptically.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Mihawk replied, before he opened the cell door and gave her the keys, “Free yourselves and go do whatever you want, although I recommended not looking outside at the courtyard. Now if you excuse us, my friend and I need to go take some showers as the blood is starting to get itchy.”

Now that Mihawk had mentioned it, Moria did indeed notice how itchy the blood was starting to get. It certainly didn’t help that neither of them were wearing shirts. 

“Wait! You can’t just let them go!” Nole cried, “They’re the prized stock.”

“Has this man done anything to you?” Mihawk asked.

“No, as he said we are his ‘prized stock’.” The woman said in a mocking tone as she unlocked the other girl’s chains, “We were left untouched so we could be sold for more. He did touch the married women that came through here though. There’s a torture chamber behind that door.”

Mihawk and Moria both looked towards the solid iron door they had noticed earlier sitting between the two cells.

“Hm, I see.” Mihawk hummed, “Well then we’ll leave his fate to you then.”

“What?!” Nole cried, “You’re going to let them kill me?!”

“Yes.” Mihawk replied without hesitation.

Moria then grabbed two pairs of cuffs he saw lying on the floor. He chained Nole’s hand together using one and then used the second pair to chain the man to a cell’s bars. He even went as far as to take a dirty rag and gagged him with it.

The two men then turned to leave before they were stopped by the oldest woman.

“Thank you for saving us.” The woman told them, “My name is Ria, these two here with me are Misha and Paloma. The two girls are sisters, Frigg and Ingrid.”

The two women gave small waves and the girls just hid behind them.

“Nice to meet you.” Mihawk told them, giving a slight nod, “I’m Dracule Mihawk.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you.” Moria said, following Mihawk’s manners, “I’m Gecko Moria.”

Then Moria and Mihawk left to go take showers upstairs.

“You as well.” Ria called after them before turning towards the girls, “Misha, why don’t you take Frigg and Ingrid upstairs. Paloma and I will handle the pig.”

“Are you sure?” Misha asked, worried that Nole might overpower the two.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Ria told her, “The soldiers were the ones that came after us in the dead of night and caught us by surprise while we were sleeping. This man has never worked for anything in his life; we’ll be fine.”

Misha nodded before she grabbed Frigg and Ingrid to get them showered as well. They may not have been physically harmed by the men and women of this marine base, but these dungeons sure were filthy.

Ria and Paloma waited for the girls to be out of ear shot before they unchained Nole from the bar and dragged him to the torture chamber. There they hefted the screaming man into the chair and locked him into it. 

Including the stirrups.

~~*~~

Mihawk was in one of the dead marines' rooms, drying off from his shower and hanging up his clothes to dry when he remembered about the list Benn had given him. He had taken it out of his pocket and set it aside before he washed his clothes.

The note was sitting on the desk in the room he had claimed and was not spared from the earlier bloodbath. So parts of it had turned brown, but Mihawk could still read it thankfully.

Moria was in the room next door taking a nap after his shower, so he took some time to look at the list of instructions. Mihawk thought things were going quite well so far. He’d have to tell Benn that his advice does indeed work on men too. 

The list reads as follows, with some notes from himself:

Don’t know if this will work for men, but:

Step 1: Give them flowers or some other kind of gift. I need to get more mauve coloured geraniums for Mortimer.

Step 2: Help them when on stairs, when climbing, sitting down, etc. He looked a bit miffed when I did this, so maybe I should only do it when he’s struggling? 

Step 3: Ask about their interests, their friends, and their hobbies or what they like to do in their spare time. Moria loves classical literature. Seems to love Dracula and Frankenstein the most. Especially Dracula.

Step 4: When they are talking; try to make eye contact, smile, or nod to let them know you are listening. Kind of hard to do considering I was steering the boat, but he was too busy explaining vampires to me.

Step 5: Make sure they are having fun on the date. He has been smiling a lot, but I’ll ask him once we eat.

Step 6: Get them food.

Step 7: Let them initiate intimacy or ask before doing something.

Step 8: If it goes well, let them know that you would be up for a second date, but let them contact you first.

Unknowingly, Mihawk was smiling as he looked down at the "success" of his date with Moria and only noticed when his cheeks began to hurt.

Mihawk has had romantic interactions with people before, but he quickly realised that people only wanted him for his looks or tried to seduce him to join their crews. He had even almost ended up like the women they had just saved a couple times.

Especially when he was a kid wandering around on his own. He was very lucky that he had met his friend and they had started traveling together. Safety in numbers after all.

Moria however didn’t want anything from him and it was refreshing to say the least. He didn’t seem to mind that Mihawk didn’t have many things to say or that he was strange sometimes.

Mihawk would have daydreamed further if a knock on the door didn’t startle him, making him fail and almost drop the paper. He quickly opened a random drawer and shoved the note inside before opening the door.

Completely forgetting that he only had a towel around his waist.

“Oh, uh… Sorry, I- I was just wondering if you were done?” Moria stuttered out, trying not to look below Mihawk’s waist.

Which was very hard to do considering Mihawk was half a foot shorter than him.

Meanwhile Mihawk was having the opposite problem where Moria was only wearing some black pants he had found and his chest was right in his face. He didn’t understand what was happening to him, Moria and he both don’t wear shirts, but he can’t deny he thought he looked quite attractive after today. 

“Oh, yes.” Mihawk calmly answered while he was burning up inside, “I just need to find some temporary clothes.” 

“Okay, I’ll wait here.” Moria told him, closing the door himself.

Mihawk blinked and then robotically started looking for clothes. Thankfully, he found some dark red pants that fit him and a frilly white button up. Then he put his socks and boots back on before going outside to meet his companion.

When he walked out, he saw Moira give him a look of surprise that made him stop.

“What? Does it look bad?” Mihawk asked as he looked down at his outfit, “I thought it was alright.”

“It’s more than alright.” Moria quickly reassured him, “It’s perfect in fact, suits you.”

“Oh, thank you.” Mihawk said before asking, “Would you like to go get some food?”

“Sure.” Moria replied.

So together they walked down to the base’s mess hall to see what they could find.

~~*~~

When they arrived at the mess hall, they found Misha sitting there with the two younger girls. They were dressed in proper clothing, eating some fruit and steak they had found. 

“Hello, Mr. Dracule and Mr. Gecko.” Misha greeted them, looking much happier and livelier than she did when they last saw her, “Would you like to join us? There’s a whole farm in the freezer!”

Sure enough, there was an abundance of various precooked foods stored away. It seems the marines at this base were using some of the money they got from their seedy business to get fine dining. So Mihawk and Moria grabbed some to start heating it up on the stove tops.

Once their food was done, they sat down at the end of the table the girls were sitting at. Everyone quietly ate their food until Ria and Paloma walked in fresh from the shower. The youngest girls were happy to see them and rushed over to them.

“Ria! Paloma! You’re okay!” Frigg and Ingrid cried as they hugged, “Did that man hurt you?”

“No, we hurt him.” Paloma told them.

“Yes, he won’t be hurting anyone ever again.” Ria reassured them.

“What did you do to him?” Misha asked.

Ria and Paloma quickly covered Firgg and Ingrid’s ears so they couldn’t hear before telling the others what happened.

“We suffocated him with his own dick.” Paloma bluntly stated.

Moria and Mihawk both choked in surprise while Misha just tiled her head.

“What?” Misha asked, confused as to how they did that because Nole didn’t seem like a very flexible man.

“We cut his dick off, cauterised the wound, and then shoved it down his throat.” Ria explained, “After he died, we stabbed him a couple times for good measure.”

It was quiet for a moment before Misha and Moria startled laughing. Hell, even Mihawk was laughing in his own way.

“Good for you guys, very metal.” Moria said.

“I’ll have to remember that in the future.” Mihawk commented.

“Why is everyone laughing?” Frigg asked, as Ria removed her hands from covering the girl’s ears.

“Yeah, and why did you cover our ears?” Ingrid questioned.

“You’re eleven and thirteen respectively, you do not need to know.” Ria told them, “Now go back to your food.”

The girls pouted a little, but did as they were told. Ria and Paloma got their own food before rejoining the group. At one point Moria even started using his devil fruit abilities to tell Frigg and Ingrid a story about two bats. Meanwhile Ria, Paloma, and Misha gave each other knowing looks when they saw the fond smile Mihawk had as he watched Moria entertain the children.

Soon everyone was full and the girls went off to ransack the place while Moria and Mihawk stayed in a lounge room just off the mess hall. They were both tired and sore after the long morning they had. Moria more so than Mihawk who was used to doing this sort of thing alone.

The two men were sitting by the fireplace next to each other in armchairs, just letting themselves sink into the cushioning and just enjoying the silence.

Moria glanced over to see Mihawk with his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest. He tried not to focus on any particular trait of Mihawk as to not seem weird, but he did seem drawn to the other man’s hands and face.

Moria hadn’t realised it before, but despite being a swordsman, Mihawk’s hands looked really soft and like they would fit better on a pianist than a wandering sailor. He also had moles dotted around his skin, with one hiding right behind his ear that Moria could see from the angle he was at.

Moria thought they were pretty, almost like-

“I can feel you staring.” Mihawk said, interrupting his internal monologue, “Did you forget I know observation haki already?”

“No.” Moria pouted, “I was just looking at your beauty marks. Never noticed them before, they kind of remind me of constellations.”

Mihawk opened his eyes and turned his head, giving Moria a small smile before letting it drop, not even commenting on what Moria had said. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence once more and just stared at each other as the fire cast a warm glow on them.

Slowly, Moria reached out his left hand to Mihawk’s face, waiting for the other man to do something. Mihawk looked at his hand and then gently placed his head in it so Moria was cupping his cheek.

Moria softly rubbed the other man’s face with his thumb, the skin soft and smooth underneath.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Moria asked, noticing Mihawk had another beauty mark in his eyebrow.

“Yes.” Mihawk replied.

“You asked me earlier about what I enjoyed and that got me thinking.” Moria said, “What do you enjoy?”

“Hm, other than swords? Well I like sewing and gardening.” Mihawk told him, “One day I want to have an island to myself and grow my own food.”

“That would be nice.” Moria agreed, “Having a place to go to when it all gets to be too much. But wouldn't it be lonely?”

“No, it wouldn’t be that much different than my life now.” Mihawk said, “Except maybe happier. I’d have more choice over who I interact with, only my most trusted friends would be given the address.”

“Am I included in that group?” Moria asked teasingly, not expecting a genuine answer, but he was surprised once again.

“Yes.” Mihawk answered almost immediately, “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but yes.”

“O-Oh, uh- Um, I mean cool.” Moria stuttered out, “I trust you too.”

Mihawk let out a small chuckle and put his hand over Moria’s on his face.

“Hey, don’t hide your smile.” Moria joked, trying to regain some confidence.

Mihawk was about to say something back, but the doors burst open before he could. The girls had come to say their goodbyes.

“Bye Batman and Hawkeye, we’re leaving now!” Frigg yelled, running up to hug Moria.

“Oh, you guys are leaving already?” Moria asked.

“Yeah, the ship is ready and we’ve packed up everything we need.” Misha replied.

“And a whole lot of money!” Ingrid added.

“Well good luck on your journey then.” Mihawk told them, “We’ll be leaving shortly as well, just need to do a quick clean up of the courtyard.”

“Thanks, we left some of the cash for you too by the way.” Paloma said, “We left it by the main entrance.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that.” Mihawk told her.

“Yeah, you guys need it more.” Moria agreed.

“Please, we have more than enough for the five of us.” Ria stated, “Thank you again for helping us.”

“You’re welcome.” Mihawk and Moria both replied.

~~*~~

After they watched the girls leave, Mihawk and Moria went to go clean up the courtyard.

There were a lot of bodies, well pieces of bodies, in the courtyard. So they made a gigantic funeral pyre out of furniture they got from inside the base and lit it on fire. 

They stood there for a couple moments, watching the flames grow as tall as the four story building surrounding it, before going back inside to change into their actual clothes.

Mihawk had also remembered to grab his note from the drawer before leaving, tucking it safely back into his pocket. 

Then they grabbed their bags of cash and headed to the nearest port to get some replacement geraniums for Mortimer and oddly enough, Mihawk had also bought two encrypted den den mushis.

The ride back was much more livelier, with Moria being much less grumpy and Mihawk talking about himself more rather than just Moria.

The sun was just setting by the time they got back to the Gecko Pirates and Red Haired Pirates. Thankfully neither ships were destroyed by drunken stupidity or Mortimer’s flower rage.

Speaking of flowers, Moria and Mihawk hefted the pot of new geraniums into Mortimer’s greenhouse along with an apology note from Mihawk.

“Damn, you’d think they’d be lighter, but I suppose the dirt does add up.” Moria huffed, “My arms feel like they’re going to fall off after today.”

“They will not.” Mihawk reassured him, “You just need to practise more.”

“What I need is a nap.” Moria joked.

“Hm, yes, I suppose that will work as well.” Mihawk hummed.

The two of them then snuck back out of the greenhouse and Moria walked Mihawk back to the Red Haired Pirates’ ship.

“Why did you give me flowers anyway?” Moria asked.

“Well Benn said that is what you do when you go on a date.” Mihawk bluntly stated, “And I picked out the geraniums specifically because they mean unexpected joy and they match your hair.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Moria said before he processed that last part, “Wait, this was a date?!”

“Yes? Did you not enjoy it?” Mihawk asked, looking worried.

“No, I did.” Moria replied, “But-”

“Oh good, here take this.” Mihawk interrupted him and handed him one of the encrypted den den mushis, “I was told that you should call me if you want a second date.”

Mihawk then wished him goodnight and walked to his guest quarters on Shanks’ ship.

Stunned and confused, Moria wandered back to his room in a daze only to find his friends standing there fighting with each other.

“How do you know these are your flowers?” Marie asked 

“You! Why’d you take my flowers?!” Mortimer asked Moria as he pointed an accusing finger at him, “You know how I feel about my greenhouse!”

“I think I’m in love.” Moria bluntly stated as he flopped into his armchair.

“What?!” Marie and Mortimner yelled, one more happy than the other.

“He’s the one that stole the flowers.” Moria went on, “He got them for me because I brought him unexpected joy. He also got you some more, they’re in your green house.”

“Damn it!” Mortimer cried, slamming his fist against Moria’s desk, “I was about to go kill him, but that’s so sweet.”

“So, I assume you’re going on a second date then?” Marie asked with a smirk.

“Definitly.” Moria sighed, looking at the den den mushi in his hand.

At least he’ll be the one planning the date this time. If he knew today had been their first date, Moria would have worn his fancier leather!

Chapter Text

Mid March - Gecko Pirates Ship - Somewhere in the Grandline

The day after Mihawk and Moria’s marine massacre, the Gecko Pirates and the Red Haired Pirates went their separate ways, with Mihawk having already been long gone by the time they woke up.

For the entire week after Moria’s date that he didn’t know was a date with Mihawk, he had been spending at least an hour before bed pacing the floors of his bedroom and stopping every once in a while to stare at the den den mushi Mihawk had given him.

Should I call him? Or would that seem too desperate? Moria thought, And why am I acting like some kind of lovesick school girl? I’m 28 for fuck’s sake!

He really didn’t know why he was freaking out so much.

Maybe it was because Mihawk seemed so put together and sure of himself. Set on the course for the title of the world’s greatest swordsman with no sign of stopping.

It had taken a long time for Moria to become like that, confident and not afraid. He had spent years being constantly pushed around and belittled due to his appearance.

Then he went from orphan to street thug and everyone pretty much stayed away from him because they all feared him. Even more so after he got his devil fruit.

But it was lonely.

So he tried to fit in with society and had a couple relationships before he became a pirate. Then Gol D Roger died and that sparked something in him. Moria had impulsively decided then and there that he was going to the next Pirate King. 

He seemed even more sure of that when he had run into Marie and Mortimer that same day. It was a stroke of luck to meet people that seemed just as weird as him.

After that it was smooth sailing up until he fell overboard and Mihawk had come to his rescue. Now he doesn’t know what to think.

What does he gain from being with me? What about me seems dateable? Moria thought, He says he doesn’t want anything from me and I do trust him despite only interacting with him three times, but a relationship? What does he see in me?

Suddenly, a memory popped into his mind.

[“You’re not going to ask me to join your crew, are you?” Mihawk questioned him.

“No, why would I do that?” Moria asked, confused, “You seem perfectly fine on your own.”

That surprised Mihawk and the Red Haired Pirates crew.]

Oh, that was why.

Moria had treated him like a person and not an asset.

Is that what he meant by unexpected joy? Moria thought, If so, his childhood must have been really fucked up for him to view basic decency as extraordinary.

The newspapers were always buzzing about Mihawk and how mysterious he was. They were constantly making up stories about his past and the reason for why he was going around massacring marine squads.

Originally Moria had thought it was all horseshit. But after destroying a marine base with him, Moria was starting to think some of those stories had some truth to them.

Mihawk couldn’t have been an ex-slave though or something similar to that. His skin was too smooth and soft for that. Except for his hands, but that was probably due to his swordsmanship. 

Not that Moria was thinking about their moment in front of that fireplace or anything. He was also definitely not thinking of Mihawk fresh from the shower and answering the door wearing nothing but a towel. Nor was he thinking of how hot he looked covered in blood.

Yeah, he was definitely not thinking about Mihawk.

Definitely not.

He had been having some pleasant, but simultaneously, disruptive dreams though.

Ones that Marie and Mortimer have been constantly teasing him about. Moria would always tell them to mind their business or fuck off, but that just seemed to spur them on.

Outside of that, Marie had mostly been asking about how the massacre went, bloodthirsty as always, and Mortimer seemed to be braver about him possibly having a relationship with Mihawk. Probably had something to do with the flowers Mihawk got him as an apology. 

Mortimer had been raving all week about how the geraniums he had been given were some of the healthiest he had ever seen. He had also been nagging Moria to keep the ones in his room healthy or else. The “or else” being Mortimer threatening to snap his spine like a toothpick of those flowers died.

Ah, good old Morty, a gentle giant until someone threatens his flowers.

Or in this case, if Moria allows those flowers to die and Mihawk gets upset about it, Mortimer might lose a possible friend to converse about flowers with.

Selfish bastard, Moria thought jokingly, Next thing I know, Marie will be asking me if she can go on a massacre with Mihawk too. They’re acting like my two children and Mihawk is the guy who they are trying to parent trap into being a step-father.

Moria huffed out a laugh at the idea of him being a parent. Yeah right, who would have a kid with him? He doesn’t know shit about kids and it’s not like he could ask anyone for advice. The only parent he even knew was Marie and she gave up her kid.

Why the hell am I thinking about kids now?! Moria thought, God, Mihawk is fucking me up and making me think of children when he isn’t even here right now!

Moria looked over to where the white den den mushi was sitting in the little habitat Mortimer had made for it next to the black vase holding the geraniums. Both of which were sitting on the dresser next to his bed. 

Moria let out a deep sigh and ran a hand over his face, another memory coming to him.

[“And I picked out the geraniums specifically because they mean unexpected joy and they match your hair.”]

“Okay, you can do this! You’re a pirate captain for fuck’s sake!” Moria told himself, “Mihawk made it very clear that he enjoyed spending time with me and all I have to do is call. It’s encrypted so only he will hear me if I screw up.”

Moria picked up the snail before laying down on his bed and started dialling the number Mihawk had given him. Then he patiently waited for him to pick up on the other side.

~~*~~

Many leagues away, Mihawk was settling in for a midday glass of stolen vintage wine when he heard his own den den mushi ringing from within the hold of his tiny boat.

Setting his glass down, Mihawk got up to answer it. He had built a little habitat for the white snail and had the door half open for the snail to get some fresh air along with a little sun.

Opening the door some more so he could see the whole terrarium, Mihawk reached in and answered the call.

“Hello?” Mihawk asked, “Who is it?”

“Who do you think?” Moria replied, “Or are you handing out your number to everyone you meet?”

“Oh hello, Moria.” Mihawk said, “And of course I don’t give my number to everyone I meet, that would defeat the purpose of getting an encrypted snail. I didn’t even tell Shanks or his crew because I don’t want him calling me drunk.”

“Relax Mihawk, it was a joke.” Moria laughed as he reassured him, “How are you doing? Kill anyone yet?”

“Oh, I see, and I have been doing just fine.” Mihawk told him, “I have decided to give myself a small break after our wonderful massacre. You did enjoy yourself, right?”

“Yeah, I did, that’s why I’m calling.” Moria laughed, “Do you want to go on a second date?”

Mihawk was surprised by that, he wasn’t expecting to hear from Moria so soon. Benn had told him that it might take a while before he heard back about a possible second date.

“Hello? Mihawk? Are you there?” Moria asked, sounding worried, “Shit, did you not want a second date?”

“No! I do!” Mihawk quickly replied, “Apologies, I just wasn’t expecting an answer so soon. I was told it would take a while.”

“Oh, good.” Moria awkwardly said, “I’ve been thinking about you all week and my friends have been pestering me to call you.”

“Really? Mortimer isn’t mad at me?” Mihawk asked, fearing that he had accidentally harmed Moria’s relationship with his friend due to his stunted social skills.

“He was at first, but apparently the ones you got him are healthier than the original ones.” Moria stated, “He also thought it was very sweet of you to get me flowers.”

“That’s good, I was worried that I might have messed things up.” Mihawk quietly said.

“Ah, don’t worry about that.” Moria told him, “If we didn’t kill each other in the first week together, I’m sure our friendship will last.”

“I suppose.” Mihawk mused, “Although, I travelled with a friend for a while and we tried to kill each other a couple times.”

“Wait, you actually travelled with someone?” Moria asked, “As in you and another human being?”

“Yes, we met as children and traveled together for a while, safety in numbers and all that.” Mihawk explained, “There were moments where we went our separate ways in order to complete our personal goals, but we always found each other again. Then we went to go see Gol D. Roger’s execution. After that, we decided to officially part ways in order to further our plans.”

There was also the time where Mihawk’s friend had chosen to pretend to fall in love with a marine in order to gather information. During which Mihawk couldn’t contact his friend due to him being the “Marine Hunter” and all.

Mihawk had thought it was stupid. They had a terrible fight about it with Mihawk questioning if his friend cared about him or was just pretending to care about him as well. 

Mihawk had also expressed that while he wasn’t against using people for one’s own gain, he thought it was cruel to use love as a weapon. To use someone like that; to pretend you care when you actually don’t give a shit whether the other person lives or dies.

His friend didn’t listen to him though, just called him a stupid sap and went through with his plan anyways.

Unsurprisingly, the plan had failed miserably, but it had also lasted longer than Mihawk had thought. Almost three years later and his friend was crawling back, apologising for how they left things. He even went as far as to say that Mihawk was right about it being a stupid plan because he had actually ended up loving the guy, but the marine had found out about his friend’s original plans and they broke up.

Mihawk had wanted to say that he warned him, but it didn’t seem right. So he just took the apology and they continued on their journey.

Suddenly, Mihawk realised that he had drifted again and Moria was trying to ask him something.

“Hey, Mihawk? Did you get lost in thought again?” Moria asked.

“Yes, sorry, I was just thinking about my friend.” Mihawk replied, “I haven’t seen him in a while and I suppose I just miss him.”

“Hm, you guys must be good friends then if you have known each other since you were children.” Moria hummed, “Not many people can say they have that, friends that are like family.”

“No, they can’t.” Mihawk agreed, “And I wouldn’t say we are family, he always had a particular hatred for that word, but he helped me a lot growing up when I needed to interact with people considering he was two years older than me. We basically raised each other.”

“What about your parents? Where were-” Moria asked before cutting himself off, realising that it might hurt Mihawk to answer, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be asking that.”

Mihawk was quiet for a moment, silently picking at a loose thread on his pants, before letting out a deep sigh.

“It- It’s alright, but I don’t know much about my parents.” Mihawk whispered, “I only remember that my father was blonde and my mother smoked; that’s my first memory in fact. Then it’s all darkness until God’s Valley. The only reason I know what my name and age are is because they were engraved on the back of a knife disguised as a cross.”

“A knife disguised as a cross? That’s fucking cool!” Moria exclaimed, “Wait… God’s Valley? You were in that shit?! How old were you? And how the hell did you survive?!”

“I honestly don’t know.” Mihawk told him, “I was only six at the time, but I remember that I was in a trunk or something, then my friend opened it and helped me out. My memories go dark for a while and then I remember someone had come running towards us while my friend tried to drag me over to some sort of building. Then there was a popping sound and we woke up on another island.”

“Wow, that sounds harrowing.” Moria commented after a long pause, “I wonder what happened.”

“Me too sometimes.” Mihawk replied, “But we can’t change the past now can we?”

“No, we can’t.” Moria agreed before asking, “So, what happened after that if you don’t mind me asking? Do you still have that cross knife?”

“Well, we were taken in by some nuns.” Mihawk explained, “They took care of us, tried to get me to speak a lot before realising I was non-verbal. Then the island was raided eight years later by marines. I used the cross knife to kill a couple marines before giving it up to save my friend.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I think I understand why you kill marines more now.” Moria whispered, “But why would the marines want a knife disguised as a cross?”

“The outer layer was made out of solid gold.” Mihawk told him, “Bastard probably pawned it off somewhere.”

The both of them were quiet for a moment; taking some time to think about their childhoods. Then Moria spoke up.

“I’m glad you had someone looking out for you. Being on your own is hell, trust me.” Moria murmured, “And hope of getting your cross knife may not be lost. Maybe fate will bring it back to you someday.”

“Fate? You don’t seem like the type of person to believe in fate.” Mihawk stated, “Or anything really. No offense, but you honestly sound like the nuns.”

That made Moria burst into laughter.

“Well, I don’t put all my faith into it, but it helps to believe in something when things get rough.” Moria explained, “And I don’t expect to just be handed everything, gotta work hard to get somewhere after all. But wouldn’t you say that us meeting in that storm is a sign of fate?”

Mihawk thought about it and he supposed it was some sort of miracle that he had noticed Moria floating in the waves.

“Hm, I suppose.” Mihawk reluctantly agreed, “But I only noticed you because of your hair.”

“Well then I guess it’s fate that my hair is such a weird colour.” Moria laughed.

“I don’t think it’s weird.” Mihawk told him, “I think it’s a beautiful colour.”

“Oh, thanks.” Moria whispered after a pause, “Most people say that I’m monstrous or devilish looking. Not that I mind of course.”

“I can see that.” Mihawk replied, “Good thing I always had a thing for demons.”

“Oh really?” Moria asked, intrigued at the thought of Mihawk thinking demons are hot, “You think demons are attractive?”

“Yes, the only reason I kept a bible with me through my teens was just for the pictures of demons in it.” Mihawk told him, “Most would think the nuns are probably rolling in their graves, but they did the same and just went to confessional later.”

“Wow, I always thought nuns were all doom and gloom.” Moria muttered.

“Some of them are.” Mihawk stated before asking, “Now what about your childhood? Do you have any interesting stories?”

“Mh, no, not really.” Moria replied, “I bounced between some orphanages and then became a street rat after they decided I was too much work.”

“Oh, my apologies.” Mihawk said.

“It’s alright.” Moria told him, “Who cares about the past anyways? What matters is what I have now right?”

“Ture.” Mihawk agreed, “Speaking of the present, where do you want to have a second date?”

“Well, how close are you to the Sabaody Archipelago?” Moria asked, “We’re stopping there before heading to the West Blue.”

“Let me check my log pose and map.” Mihawk replied, pulling out his map and looking at his log pose, “I think I am about seven days away. This map I have isn’t properly measured.”

“Hah! Neither is ours!” Moria laughed, “Someone really needs to actually map the entire world someday.”

“That would be helpful.” Mihawk mused, “But I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. Someone passionate about navigation would need to do it and it would take years to do so.”

“Yeah, you're right.” Moria sighed, “Anyways, we’re about eleven days out from the archipelago, so I guess I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, but where will we meet?” Mihawk asked.

“Hm, how about the amusement park area?” Moria suggested, “Seems perfect for a second date, right?”

“Well I’ve never been to an amusement park before and it would be nice to take a break from killing I suppose.” Mihawk agreed, “So I’ll meet you there.”

“Great, see you then!” Moria cheered.

“Yes, see you then.” Mihawk said, smiling and completely lovesick.

Then there was a clank as they both hung up. It was then that Mihawk realised that his face hurt from how big his smile was.

I haven’t smiled like this since… well ever actually, Mihawk thought, I wonder if this is how Shanks felt around Buggy. If so, I may owe him an apology.

Mihawk then put his snail back in its terrarium and shut the door of his ship's hold. He then stood up and dusted himself off before he picked up his glass of wine from earlier.

Sitting down on the only seat, Mihawk sipped on his wine not minding that it was luke warm and tried to calm himself down.

He still had eleven days to wait until he saw Moria again, so Mihawk needed to stay vigilant in case anything happened in the meantime. 

He didn’t want to disappoint Moria after all.

~~*~~

Meanwhile, back on the Gecko Pirate’s ship, Moria was smiling like a fool. 

“Holy shit… I got a second date!” Moria exclaimed before quickly putting his snail into its habitat and then running out of his bedroom to navigation. 

When he got there, he burst through the door and scared Mortimer’s soul out of him.

“What the hell, Moria?! You fucking scared me!” Mortimer yelled.

“Sorry, but I just planned a second date with Mihawk!” Moria excitedly explained, “Now steer the ship towards the Sabaody Archipelago, we’re going to meet him at the amusement park!”

“But we’re supposed to look for someone to coat our ship so we can enter the new world!” Mortimer cried, “That’s the whole point of going there in the first place!”

“Oh yeah.” Moria said, “Oh well, we can do that after or you can just go with Marie. Anyways, I need to go plan my outfit.”

Moria then ran off, leaving Mortimer to deal with the details and responsibilities as always.

“Love sick idiot.” Mortimer muttered.

Despite his put off demeanor, he was actually happy that his friend found someone that wasn’t a complete lunatic.

Chapter Text

Late March - Amusement Park Grove - Sabaody Archipelago

Just as they had discussed, Mihawk arrived first to the Sabaody Archipelago and had docked his boat inside a scheduled “cave” he had found. It was really just a bunch of tightly knotted tree roots, but it made for a nice temporary shelter.

Due to his map being off scale, Mihawk had actually arrived a day early. So he did the only reasonable thing: give his den den mushi a supply of lettuce and then sleep for two days straight.

You see, his trip to Sabaody was incredibly exhausting. Mihawk had gotten caught up in a storm for three days because it was headed in the same direction as him and then he had to slink past some large warships that belonged to the marines.

After that vicious storm, he did not want to deal with them at all and just weaved his tiny boat past them. It was also quite strange to find that many warships of that size in one place.

Mihawk wasn’t a person that got easily nervous, but there was something definitely off about those ships. Even for a place like Sabaody, the amount of ships docked there was excessive.

So during the three days he was awake, Mihawk did some investigating.

From what he gathered, while sitting in a bar listening to drunk marines, Admiral Akainu was heading a fleet of ships that would be sailing to the West Blue in two days after their ships were prepped.

Hm, probably after some big pirate. Didn’t the Big Mom Pirates just absorb another island by marriage? Maybe that’s where they’re headed, Mihawk thought, Whitebeard solves more problems than he causes them and Kaido hasn't been seen in a while, probably drunk somewhere. Although, there are some rumors that he had a kid with his angel, whatever that means.

Whatever the problem was, the marines seemed to either not be drunk enough to spill the secret or just didn’t know. So the whole thing was a waste of time in Mihawk’s opinion.

Except for one marine that was drunkenly complaining about Akainu. He was at least somewhat entertaining.

Upon first glance, Mihawk would have never guessed that it was Akainu’s second in command he was sitting beside at the bar. 

Sitting next to him was a man named Henry Kelly. He was incredibly average looking, blending in with all the other marines in the bar. About eight feet tall and not too buff or too slim with shoulder length hair that was light brown. 

The only thing that was even mildly interesting about him was how dead his eyes looked.

I believe this is what Benn calls “being dead inside”, Mihawk thought, I can not blame him though, having someone like Akainu as a boss would drive me into a murderous rage.

Which, based on what he heard, was a fair assumption of the admiral. If the rumors are true, it’s honestly a miracle he hasn’t been killed in an “accident” or gone missing in battle.

I would like to hope this mission may be his last, Mihawk sighed, But I only just started to believe in miracles again and I am not ready to place any bets just yet.

“An- And then he started telling me about the hook up he- he had with his ‘love’.” Henry slurred, “So- So now I- I’m drinking to forget!”

The bland man then gave a little salute with his glass and chugged it before promptly falling off his stool. The other marines he was with came rushing to his aid and dragged him out of the bar.

Who would ever sleep with the hellhound of the marines? Mihawk pondered as he sipped on his wine, They must either have no self respect or be incredibly stupid.

Mihawk then set down his glass and paid his tab. 

Stepping out into the chilly night air, he wrapped the cloak he had used for a disguise around himself tighter.

I do hope that Moria arrives soon, Mihawk thought, I never noticed how dull the world was before I met him.

Then he walked back to his ship to sleep, dreaming of seeing Moria’s peculiar appearance among a sea of look-alikes in blue and white.

~~*~~

Three days later, the Gecko Pirates finally arrived at Sabaody.

“Wow! This place is fucking huge!” Marie exclaimed.

“Weren’t you here before?” Mortimer asked.

“Yeah, but that was only a short stop and then I hopped on the next ship to Loguetown when I saw that Roger would be executed.” Marie explained, “I didn’t have any time to look around or go to the amusement park!”

Marie then tried to climb onto the bat figure head of the ship to get a better look and then suddenly slipped. Mortimer had to quickly grab her by the ankle before she fell overboard.

“Would you sit still, you idiot!” Mortimer yelled, pulling Marie back onto the deck, “You’re going to get run over by the ship if you fall in now!”

“Oh let her live, Morty.” Moria laughed from behind them, “Just hold onto her until we make port.”

“Why am I always the babysitter?!” Mortimer huffed as he finally got Marie back on deck.

“Cause you’re a nagging ninny!” Marie teased while putting her hair back in place, “You’re basically the mom of the crew!”

“I am not!” Mortimer yelled, “Moria and I are the same age! And I’m not old enough to be your parent!”

Marie just howled in laughter at the angry expression Mortimer was making.

“Oh yeah? Says the guy that keeps us on schedule, makes sure we eat, and keeps us from doing stupid shit.” Moria teased, joining in on their squabble, “Face it Morty, you’re the mom of the crew. A single one at that!”

Mortimer just pouted as his friends laughed at him, then he thought of something.

“Well, if that’s the case, I want grandkids Moria.” Mortimer stated with a smug smirk as he watched Moria choke on air.

“Wha- What do you mean?!” Moria asked.

“Well if I’m such an overbearing mother, then I guess I’ll be the type to want grandkids.” Mortimer teased further, “Mihawk and you will give me some won’t you?”

Moria’s face went red and he started to try stuttering out a reply, but Marie beat him to it.

“Ha! Moria as a dad? He’d lose the kid!” Marie laughed, “You should know how bad he is at directions Morty, you are the navigator after all.”

“Hey! I wouldn’t lose them!” Moria yelled, “And I’d be a great father thank you very much!”

“Oh? So you have been thinking about kids?” Mortimer asked teasingly, “Maybe even thinking of having them with a certain pretty swordsman?”

Moria balked at that and huffed as he crossed his arms, trying desperately to be seen as cool in front of them. Unfortunately, that ship sailed away long ago.

“Will you shut up already?!” Moria muttered, “I liked it much better when you were afraid of him! Go back to that!”

But Marie and Mortimer just continued to laugh at him as they made their way towards the port.

~~*~~

Mihawk had just woken up from a late morning nap and was now climbing up the giant mangrove roots to the grassy field overlooking the ocean.

“I hope I did not miss Moria’s ship coming into port.” Mihawk muttered to himself as he brushed some dirt off his shirt, “If I am able to meet him while he is arriving, it will save us the hassle of trying to find each other.”

The grove the amusement park was located in was incredibly crowded. Even today, a monday, the crowds were quite big.

Thankfully, once he made it to the top, Mihawk saw the Gecko Pirate’s boat on the horizon and what looked to be… Marie? Dangling from the figurehead.

“Hm, I wonder how that happened.” Mihawk said, “They sure are a wild bunch.”

He remembered back on Shanks and his birthday where the two crews had partied together. The Red Haired Pirates were already a rowdy bunch, but the Gecko Pirates, while slightly more controlled, were just as loud.

Before he knew it, Mihawk was smiling as he watched Moria and his friends playfully bicker with each other. He even let out a laugh as he watched Moria pout about something.

I wonder what they are fighting about now, Mihawk pondered as he ran down to where the ship was docking, Probably something foolish.

When he arrived at the docks, Moria was helping tie the ship into place. It seemed he had the same idea as Mihawk to dress in dark pants and loose shirt, with his being a white to unintentionally complement Mihawk’s dark red one.

Mihawk was almost disappointed to not see Moria shirtless, but the man did look quite attractive in his current outfit. He was wearing a simple white button up that had a couple buttons undone and black pants. He looked almost like the men on the covers of trashy romance novels.

Ones that Mihawk will forever deny reading.

“Oh hey there Mihawk!” Marie yelled before running up to him, “So,when are you giving the captain a kid? I want to be an aunt!”

Behind her Moria choked and gave her a startled look as he sat there frozen in horror.

“Pardon?” Mihawk asked, perplexed about why they were asking him about children.

Before he could ask what she meant, Mortimer appeared in front of him, slinging an arm around Marie’s shoulders.

“Yeah Mihawk, when am I getting grandkids?” Mortimer teased, “You don’t have to have a lot, just one or two will do.”

“I- I’m sorry? I don’t think either of us have the proper organs for that.” Mihawk stated, even more confused now, “Well actually, I suppose there is adoption.”

Mortimer and Marie looked surprised for a moment before giving each other a sly smirk. They were unable to prod him further though because Moria broke out of his daze and picked Mihawk up.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Moria yelled, throwing Mihawk over his shoulder and walking away, “As punishment, you two are taking the first shift of watching the ship!”

“Aw, come on!” Marie pouted, “We were just teasing!”

“Also, you haven’t even introduced us yet!” Mortimer added.

Mihawk felt Moria huff underneath him and then he was shifted into a princess carry position in Moria’s arms.

“Fine! Mihawk, this is my second in command Marie and Mortimer the navigator.” Moria told him, “Don’t listen to anything they say, they’re both crack heads.”

“Hey!” Mortimer shouted while Marie just nodded her head as if she agreed.

Then Moria ran off with him still in his arms and Mihawk just waved goodbye to them. 

Once they were far enough away from the docks, Moria set Mihawk down and straightened out his shirt.

“Sorry about that.” Moria apologised, “They get out of hand sometimes. I’ll give you a proper introduction later.”

“No need to apologise, they seem nice.” Mihawk said, “Very joyful. Does asking me about children mean that they like me?”

“I- Yeah.” Moria sighed, completely giving up to his friend's nonsense as usual, “Before we arrived, we were joking about Morty being a mother hen and then he started demanding grandchildren.”

“Ah, I see. Well, I never really thought of having children, but I suppose it might be nice to have a kid or two that I can teach swordsmanship.” Mihawk replied, not noticing the flabbergasted look on Moria’s face, “It would have to wait until I found a more permanent residence though, not that I don’t think you and your friends aren’t responsible, I just don’t like the thought of kids on a ship. I mean just look at what it did to Shanks.”

“Really? You’d want that with me?” Moria asked, “My friends said I’d lose the kid. Which they are right about considering how much I get lost when I’m on my own. I’d be a shitty dad and get us both lost!”

“Nonsense, you are great with kids! Frigg and Ingrid loved your stories!” Mihawk firmly told him, “And you don’t have to worry about being lost if you just hold someone’s hand. Now shall we go have some fun?”

Mihawk then took a stunned Moria’s hand and dragged him towards the amusement park entrance.

~~*~~

As they were standing in line waiting for a pirate ship ride and far away from his chaotic crew, Moria was finally able to get a good look at Mihawk.

And it was such a good look.

Mihawk’s dark red shirt was loose and tight in all the right places. A deep v-neck in the front showed off his strong chest, but still left things to one's imagination. Meanwhile the sleeves were flowy and only tightened around his wrist with frilled ends. The bottom of the shirt was tucked into his sinfully tight pants with a gold belt.

Moria had to quickly remind himself that he was also wearing tight pants and needed to calm down because he was in a family friendly venue.

Unfortunately, Mihawk was quicker than he was and caught him staring.

“Are you alright, Moria?” Mihawk asked, “You are looking a little flushed.”

“Oh- Yeah, I’m good.” Moria quickly replied, “I guess- Well- I’m just not used to wearing a shirt, so the heat is getting to me a little.”

“Hm, have you tried wearing cotton or linen?” Mihawk questioned, “I personally prefer silk, but that might be a bit expensive unless you can steal some like I did.”

Moria was in fact wearing a cotton shirt, but he wasn’t about to explain the real reason he was overheating. So he just tried to change the subject.

“Really? This shirt looks like it was made for you.” Moria told him.

“No, I stole it and then I sewed it to fit.” Mihawk explained, “I used the excess fabric to make a pillow case.”

Moria let out a snort at that, imagining Mihawk sitting by a fire and carefully stitching a pillow for himself.

“Simple luxuries, eh?” Moria laughed, “No wonder your hair and skin look so good.”

Mihawk gave him a small smile and just nodded in reply.

Moria was about to tell him a couple more compliments, but it was their turn to board the ride.

~~*~~

Mihawk didn’t know what he was expecting when he got on a fake pirate ship that swung back and forth like a giant swing, but it was such a huge adrenaline rush. Almost as much of a rush he got from an excellent fight.

They were sitting on the seat at the end of the boat, so when it went up to its full height, they were looking straight down at the ground and the people on the other end.

Mihawk was holding onto the bar in front of him, knuckles going white from how tight he was holding onto it, and he was using his legs to brace himself. 

But even that wasn’t enough to keep him in his seat. Every time the ride went down, Mihawk went up due to his lighter weight.

Thankfully, Moria had noticed this and had wrapped an arm around him and held onto the bar beside him so he was more secure.

Both of them had huge grins on their faces, laughing manically the whole time, and had to lean against the barrier when they got off.

“I have not felt this shaky after a boat ride in forever.” Mihawk wistfully remarked.

“So I take it, you enjoyed it?” Moria asked rhetorically.

But, as always, Mihawk took it seriously.

“It was wonderful.” Mihawk replied, “Let’s go on it again!”

“Alright, alright.” Moria laughed, “But how about we go on some other rides too, okay?”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Mihawk hurriedly said before grabbing his hand and dragging Moria off to the next closest ride.

The two of them went on every ride they could, having gone on the pirate ship multiple times, enjoying every moment.

This must be what flying must feel like, MIhawk thought as they were on a high speed coaster, Feels like freedom.

And any time it got even a little jarring, Moria was there to hold onto. A steady hand that kept him grounded when it felt like they were falling.

By the time the sun was setting, the two of them were exhausted and decided to get a large basket of fries to take on the ferris wheel with them.

“So, where are you headed after this?” Mihawk asked as he dipped a couple fries in the sweet sauce.

“We have to get our ship coated first and stock up a bit, but we’re headed to the West Blue.” Moria replied as he hogged the ketchup.

“Why are you guys heading there?” Mihawk questioned him.

“Well, if we’re going to find the One Piece, we’ll either need to learn how to read poneglyphs or find someone that already knows how.” Moria confidently told him, “So obviously the next stop is Ohara.”

“You really want to be the next Pirate King? Seems like a lot of work.” Mihawk commented.

“I mean, I’ll try my best to find the treasure, but who knows what will happen on the way.” Moria told him, “The world is full of surprises! But it would be cool to be the next Pirate King, have you ever thought of going after the One Piece yourself?”

“Oh, heavens no.” Mihawk snorted, “I want to become the world’s greatest swordsman and have a quiet life afterwards. Being the Pirate King would complicate that.”

“Hm, I guess.” Moria hummed, “Still would be cool though.”

“I suppose.” Mihawk agreed, “Although, I could just let someone else do all the work and marry them to be the Pirate Co-King.”

Next to him, without Mihawk noticing, Moria grinned brightly at him.

“Are you suggesting we get married when I become the Pirate King?” Moria teased, “I wouldn’t mind that. I’d be the envy of the world for having someone as smart, powerful, and good looking as you for a spouse. People would probably start wars for you!”

Hearing Moria say all that made Mihawk suddenly jump in his seat and realise that he had said the second part about marriage out loud instead of in his head.

“Um- I had not meant to say that part aloud, but it would be nice to marry you too.” Mihawk told him sincerely, “But I wouldn’t use you like that, I genuinely like you.”

Moria softened at that and picked up the basket of fries to put on the other side of him so he could pull Mihawk to his side.

“I genuinely like you too, Mihawk.” Moria said before squeezing his hip and teasingly saying, “But just so you know, you can use me any time.”

Mihawk went red at that and quickly reached over to grab some fries to shove into Moria’s mouth. 

Which just caused the other man to laugh as Mihawk playfully huffed and rolled his eyes at his companion’s ridiculousness. But Moria could see that Mihawk had a small smile on his face.

The two of them spent the rest of the ride with their heads leaned against each other and enjoyed the gentle rocking of the ferris wheel.

Chapter Text

Late March - Amusement Park Grove - Sabaody Archipelago

After a couple more rides and snacks; Mortimer, Marie, and some of the Gecko Pirates who switched out with the other half joined in on the fun. 

The group had a lot of laughs, especially when the following happened:

Mortimer had passed out on a ride called the Salt Shaker, leaving Moria, who was sitting beside him, to be hit by his flailing arms.

The crew’s chef, Rook, ended up being the one to vomit on a rollercoaster with a lot of loops after he had lectured some of the crewmembers with weak stomachs. Unfortunately, he was sitting in the second last row and the vomit landed on a family sitting behind him.

Marie had punched one of the actors in a haunted house out of reflex and the group had to quickly hide his unconscious body behind some curtains before running away from that area of the park.

Mihawk had to be grabbed by Moria and held down again because the ride they had gone on, The Gravitron, used gravity to hold you down as it spun you around. Mihawk was a bit too light for this, so when he started slowly moving upwards, Moria grabbed his belt to keep him in place.

Eventually, everyone started to get tired and achy from being thrown around for half the day.

By the time they got back to the Gecko Pirate’s ship, it was already dusk.

Moria and Mihawk stopped to talk on the docks while the rest of the crew got on the ship.

Once everyone was out of earshot, Moria turned to Mihawk with his hands in his pockets and gently swaying side to side.

“So, is this where we part or are you coming in?” Moria asked with a smirk.

“Would you like me to?” Mihawk replied.

“Well the crew does want to get to know you more.” Moria told him, “But personally? Yes.”

“I would love to get to know your friends more.” Mihawk said with a little smile, “But you might have to carry me. It feels like I have been thrown around in the ocean and I do not think I can make it up the boarding plank.”

It was only a half joke, Mihawk’s legs were kind of wobbly, but Moria didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, you want to be carried like a princess? That’s cute.” Moria teased before shrugging, “But sure, I’ll carry you.”

With that, Moria scooped up Mihawk and walked up the steep incline to the ship.

Both of them trying not to laugh at their ridiculousness.

~~*~~

Most of the crew had already eaten dinner at the amusement park and were headed to bed early due to either their headaches, bellyaches, or having the need to sleep before they take on the night shift.

Which Chef Rook was very grateful for due to the aforementioned puking incident. 

Everyone else was on duty. Either making repairs, doing personal chores, or going over the supply lists for tomorrow. 

Mortimer was going over the crew’s budget in his room when Marie suddenly burst through his door.

“Morty! He’s got’em!” Marie yelled right in Mortimer’s ear, startling the poor guy as well as giving him tinnitus.

“First of all, what have I told you about yelling in my ear?!” Mortimer cried, “Secondly, who got who? Don’t tell me Razor from the brig thinks he saw mice again, last time it was just a bunch of hair balls.”

“Sorry and no.” Marie told him, looking completely unapologetic, “I just saw Moria carrying Mihawk on board. I think you’re about to get your wish of grandbabies in nine months!”

Mortimer looked at her in confusion for a moment before realising, in all the chaos surrounding the birth of her son, neither him nor Moria ever explained past the basics of how babies are made.

Letting out a deep sigh, Mortimer put his things away and then sat a now confused Marie in the chair he was just sitting in. Then he closed the door and turned back to her.

“Okay, so you know how I explained how babies were made?” Mortimer asked.

“Yes?” Marie replied, cocking her head to the side as she did so.

“Well, not just anyone can have a baby like you did.” Mortimer told her, “Most men can’t get pregnant, so men who are together can’t have a baby unless one of them was accidentally born in the wrong body, intersex, or they adopt.”

“Oh right, like Veck! I miss him.” Marie said with a slight pout.

Veck used to be a member of their crew, but he left to go find the “miracle worker” Emporio Ivankov. So the crew sent him off with a farewell party and wished him the best.

“Yes, like Veck.” Mortimer nodded, “Moria and Mihawk aren’t like him though, so they’d have to adopt a kid.”

“I see, too bad.” Marie sighed, “They would have made a cute baby, one with purple hair and big gold eyes.”

“What was that about gold eyes?” Moria asked, making them both jump as he opened the door.

“Oh, we were just talking about what Mihawk and your babies would like.” Marie told him, “If you could impregnate him at least.”

Moria went beat red while Mortimer let out a screech of indignation because he did not want to be roped into Marie’s wild imagination.

Then the door slowly opened to reveal Mihawk standing there.

“That would be nice to have a kid that looks like us, but blood is not important.” Mihawk calmly stated, “We also agreed earlier that we would adopt once I found a secluded island to call home.”

“What?!” Mortimer and Marie yelled, one way more excited than the other.

“Yeah, we did.” Moria told them, snapping out of his mild embarrassment, “So it’s not anytime soon I’m afraid. Anyways, what were you guys talking about besides that?”

Now it was Marie’s turn to freeze.

“Oh, uh… Morty was just telling me about his latest project in the greenhouse.” Marie quickly said, kicking the back of Mortimer’s leg in the process.

Right, we were kind of talking about Kid, Mortimer thought, Shit, what have I been working on lately that would interest Mihawk?

“Yes! We were just talking about the geraniums you gave me!” Mortimer told Mihawk, “They are doing wonderfully in the greenhouse, right on track to be spliced into a new colour. Hopefully.”

“Hm, fascinating.” Mihawk told him before turning to Marie, “What are your hobbies?”

Marie kind of blue screened for a moment since she didn’t really have much going on in her life other than her guns and journaling. She just hasn’t gotten quite used to being free despite it being close to three years since she left Mary Geoise. 

Being able to do things she wants to do without doing it out of spite to piss someone in power off is a hard thing to learn after years of restrictions.

I don’t think being annoying counts as a hobby, Marie pondered, There was that one thing though…

“I make bombs.” Marie blurted out.

“What?!” Moria and Mortimer shouted.

“What type of bombs?” Mihawk asked.

Mihawk was not concerned at all about active bombs lying around after one too many run-ins with Buggy. He had acquired some knowledge about bombs from the clown wanting to prank Shanks or other crewmates, even helping to set up a few himself. 

It was honestly a miracle that Mihawk had never met any of the Roger Pirates during those altercations and he only felt a little bad to leave Buggy with the fallout. But it’s not like Buggy ever got a harsh punishment, most of the time he didn’t even get one at all.

Too bad Buggy never believed Mihawk when he told him the clown was obviously the favourite child. It would have greatly boosted his confidence.

“What do you mean?” Marie questioned him, “There is only one kind with gunpowder.”

“No, there is also paint, confetti, slime-” Mihawk said, listing all the types of bombs Buggy had made before being cut off.

“Shush! Don’t give her any ideas!” Mortimer hissed.

“No, no, let him continue.” Moria shushed Mortimer, “Bombs would be very handy.”

“Yeah, tell me more!” Marie urged.

So Mihawk began telling them about his friend and the types of bombs he made. Moria and Marie were quite intrigued and had written down the instructions while making plans on what or who to use them on. 

Meanwhile, Mortimer was fretting through the whole thing before Mihawk got to petal bombs, a bomb that you put flower petals in. Buggy had come up with the idea that they could be used in weddings or other celebrations, but he scrapped the idea when Shanks teased him about it and called it cute.

That led to Mihawk and Mortimer having an in depth conversation about the care taking of gardens. Along with a few jokes thrown in by Marie and Moria.

Eventually, Mihawk had to leave to go back to his own boat, but he could say that he thoroughly enjoyed his time with them and looked forward to seeing them more.

Moria walked him back to where his boat was and they made plans to run errands together in the morning.

~~*~~

The next day, the Gecko Pirates were given their usual list of instructions:

1. Do not buy anything extra until you have gotten everything on your list.
2. This is a government island, keep a low profile using disguises and fake names.
3. Do not engage violence unless it is absolutely necessary.
4. If you are with Marie and there are nobles around, especially celestial dragons, keep an eye on her.

Moria’s crew weren’t stupid, but it was good to have a reminder every once in a while. Especially in a place like Sabaody and after a night of fun.

So the groups set off with their lists while a group stayed behind on the ship.

Moria and Mihawk were together on their own, running their personal errands together. Moria having decided to not wear any makeup be fully clothed as a disguise and Mihawk just wore a dark red cloak over his clothes. 

Mihawk wasn’t too worried about being recognised, he had found in the first days that he was here that the marines didn’t post his wanted poster anywhere. They were probably worried that the nobles would see and freak out or nobody would want to enlist in the marines here.

Anyways, the two went out into the heart of Sabaody to complete their errands. One of which happened to be finding someone to coat the Gecko Pirate’s ship so they could sail to the West Blue.

Unfortunately, most of the ship coaters had been hired to coat the marine armada that Mihawk had arrived with and they had all collectively decided to take a small break after coating that many ships. The ones that didn’t coat the marine ships were all booked up by other pirates or noble families. 

Things were starting to look pretty bleak for Moria and his crew’s journey, but then they stumbled upon a bar.

It was called: Shakky’s Rip Off Bar

Moria and Mihawk, who were a bit tired of running around and being turned away, had originally stepped into the bar for a break. Sitting down at a two person window, the of them ordered some food and drinks before melting into their chairs.

“Ugh, you’d think with a place like Sabaody, they’d have more ship coaters.” Moria groaned.

“Indeed.” Mihawk muttered, "Especially with the prices some of them charge, they make a fortune.”

As they were sulking, the waitress came back to their table with their drinks.

“Here are your drinks boys.” She said as she sat the cups down on the table, “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Yeah, do you know where we can find a ship coater?” Moria sarcastically asked.

“Sorry about him.” Mihawk quickly said, “It’s been a long day.”

“Oh, it’s okay.” She laughed, waving him off, “You’re in luck, I actually do know where you can find a ship coater.”

“Really?!” Moria yelled, almost toppling the table over in his haste to sit up.

“Yes, Mz. Shakky’s husband is a ship coater.” The waitress told them, “Tell her Lila sent you, she’s right over there.”

The waitress, Lila, then pointed over to a tall woman standing behind the bar’s counter.

The woman, Shakky, was a very pretty woman. Tall and slender, wearing a pink shirt with a black spider on it along with dark pants held up by a pink heart belt. Her black hair was in a round chin length bob that had pointy bits by her cheeks.

Her hair kind of looks like Mihawk’s sideburns, Moria thought, If I had a Berry for every time I ran into someone with pointy hair, I’d have two I guess.

Meanwhile Mihawk was having a strange sense of déjà vu, like he had met this woman before, but he couldn’t place it. 

I do not remember meeting her or anyone that looks like her. Maybe I saw her in passing or knew her or someone like her from before the God Valley incident, Mihawk pondered, I do not remember anything from before I was in that chest after all.

The two men then realised they had been staring at Shakky for a little too long and turned back to Lila.

“Thank you, miss.” Mihawk thanked her, “We will definitely talk to her after our drinks.”

“You’re welcome!” Lila said, giving them a bright smile, “Would you like anything to eat as well?”

“Yeah, can I get a cheeseburger with fries?” Moria asked.

Lile nodded and wrote it down on her pad.

“Anything for you sir?” Lila asked Mihawk.

When Mihawk didn’t answer right away, Lila and Moria both looked at him to see that he was staring down at his drink, completely zoned out. So Moria gently nudged his leg under the table and that got Mihawk to snap out of it.

“I’ll have a chicken salad please.” Mihawk quietly replied.

“Coming right up!” Lila told them before heading to the kitchen.

Once she was out of ear shot, Moria 

“Are you okay?” Moria asked, concerned.

“Yes, I am fine.” Mihawk replied, “Just a bit tired from yesterday I suppose.”

Moria didn’t quite believe him, but he nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, but it was fun.” Moria said with a smile, “Although, I could have gone without the near heart attacks you gave me. The next time we go, I’m putting some weights on you.”

“Oh? I thought you liked coming to my rescue?” Mihawk asked with a smirk, “Do you not like being my knight in shining leather?”

Moria choked on his drink and immediately got flustered.

“Wha- I mean, yeah, but I also know you can take care of yourself.” Moria told him.

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Mihawk thanked him, patting Moria’s hand, “Both for the rescue and the freedom.”

“My pleasure.” Moria said, holding Mihawk’s hand and rubbing the back of it.

Soon enough, Lila brought them the food they ordered and they dug in, enjoying the comfortable silence. Once they were done, they paid for their meals and drinks, before going over to the bar where Shakky was working to clean the counter.

“Excuse me, Mz. Shakky?” Moria asked, “We’ve been looking for someone available to coat our ship and Lila said you could help us?”

“Ah, yes. Lila told me about you.” Shakky replied, “What can I do for-”

When she had looked up at them, Shakky had frozen, cutting herself off. She looked shocked for a moment and a little sad, but she quickly composed herself.

“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting to see such a young captain.” Shakky said.

“I’m twenty-eight.” Moria told her, “But thanks.”

“Doesn’t matter how old you are chronologically; you don’t look like a weathered sea captain yet.” Shakky stated, “That must mean you are young and inexperienced.”

“She is not wrong.” Mihawk said, shrugging, “Anyways, is your husband available?”

Shakky looked at them like she was studying them for a moment before she nodded and pointed to the back door.

“Let’s go out back and see.” Shakky told them, “I need a smoke break anyway.”

Shakky walked them out back to where an old man with long grey hair was busy fixing some kind of motor. He wasn’t some scrawny man either; he was quite muscular and tall. With glasses and a scar over his eye.

“Ray, these boys are looking to hire you.” Shakky said as she lit a cigarette.

The old man, Ray, paused his work and turned around to face them. He looked them up and down like he was evaluating how worthy they were to hire him.

“What are your names?” Ray asked.

“Uh, I’m Morris.” Moria said, remembering they were using fake names, then he pointed to Mihawk beside him, “And this is my partner, Hunter.”

“Hello.” Mihawk greeted Ray.

“Well, nice to meet you boys, but aren’t you a little young to be going to the New World?” Ray questioned.

“Ha! I said the same thing!” Shakky laughed.

Moria just sighed and tried not to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, we’re young, I get it.” Moria groaned, “But we’re just going to Ohara. I need to learn how to read poneglyphs.”

Ray and Shakky looked a little surprised for a moment, but they quickly composed themselves.

“Ah, I see. You’re going after Gol D. Roger’s treasure.” Ray stated before sighing, “Well, at least you’re being practical about it. You wouldn’t believe how many crews I’ve met thinking they can just sail around and find it by pure luck.”

“Hm, we know someone like that.” Mihawk said, thinking of Shanks, “He’s a complete idiot.”

Ray and Shakky let out a chuckle, also thinking of the same redhead.

“You kids seem alright.” Ray commented, “I’ll coat your ship for you.”

“Really?!” Moria exclaimed, “Thanks!”

“Yes, thank you.” Mihawk calmly said.

The four of them then exchanged handshakes and were about to talk about pricing when a rumble of thunder was heard.

“Looks like a storm is about to roll in.” Rayleigh remarked, looking up at the dark clouds rolling in, “Sorry boys, I might have to delay the coating until the storm is over.”

“That’s alright.” Moria told him, “We still have to run errands and stock up anyway.”

“I see, be careful then.” Rayleigh warned them, “When the sea gets rocky in Sabaody, floods are soon to follow.”

“Floods?” Mihawk asked, looking a little worried.

“Oh, yes.” Rayleigh said, “The mangroves usually protect against flooding and erosion, but when the whole island is made of mangroves, well… Anyone in one of the lower parts or caves gets washed away. Usually pirates, criminals, and teens doing things that would severely disappoint their parents.”

Mihawk went paler than he normally looked and urgently tugged on Moria’s shirt sleeve.”

“Morris, my boat is in one of those caves.” Mihawk whispered.

“Oh no.” Moria said, getting worried himself now, “Um, excuse us. We need to recover something before the storm.”

“No worries.” Ray told them, “Just tell me where you’re docked at and I’ll come after the storm passes.”

“Thanks, we docked at the amusement park.” Moria quickly said before grabbing Mihawk’s hand and starting to run back towards their ship.

“Goodbye.” Mihawk yelled, waving to them as Moria dragged him away.

Ray and Shakky waved back, watching them disappear over the hill.

“So, how much should we charge them?” Rayleigh joked, “Should we rip them off or what?”

When he didn’t get a response from his wife, he turned to see that she was crying a little.

“Shakky? Are you okay?” Rayleigh asked, 

“Sorry, I’m fine.” Shakky sniffled, “That Hunter boy just looked a lot like how I imagined our son would look if he got the chance to grow up.”

“Yeah, I know.” Rayleigh told her, holding her close, “But I’m sure he’s watching over us and we’ll see him again someday.”

Shakky just nodded into Rayleigh’s shoulder, still thinking of their little red eyed boy, Mihawk.

Chapter Text

Late March - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - Sabaody Archipelago

After Moria got them lost, despite the trees having numbers very clearly marked on them, and much manoeuvring due to the waves starting to become uncooperative because of the incoming storm, they were able to get Mihawk’s boat safely out of the little cave it was docked in.

Now all they had to do was figure out how to hoist it onto the Midnight Destroyer’s deck. 

“Perhaps it would help if we removed my items from the hold.” Mihawk suggested, “It would make it lighter, not by much, but it could help.”

“Mhm, good point. Then we could use a pulley system.” Moria replied, “But we’d have to move your stuff anyway so it’s safe.”

“Where are we going to move it to?” Mihawk asked, “Your room? Or are we not sleeping together?”

Moria froze and turned around to look at him.

“You want to sleep with me?” Moria questioned.

“Of course, isn’t that what people do when they are partners? Sleep in the same bed together?” Mihawk replied.

“Oh, uh, yeah! I- I just didn’t want to assume.” Moria quickly told him as he had been thinking of something else when Mihawk had said “sleeping together”.

Mihawk gave him a small smile and patted him on the arm.

“And that’s why I like you.” Mihawk stated, “Now let’s get my stuff sorted and the pulley system working before that storm rolls in.”

With much teasing from the crew about them “moving in together”, they managed to get all of Mihawk’s things into their temporarily shared bedroom. Putting the den den mushi with the other in the habitat by Moria’s bed and leaving the rest for later.

When they got back out on the main deck, the Gecko Pirates already had most of the pulley system together. Lumis, a half angler fishman, and Saoirse, a selkie, were in the water tying Mihawk’s boat to the crane.

“I think that’s it.” Lumis shouted up at them, “We got all the ropes tied!”

“Great, we’ll start hoisting!” Moria yelled back.

Lumis and Saoirse swam over to the dock, climbing onto it. 

Or rather, Lumis climbed onto it and then lifted Saoirse up since she was in seal form. The woman then changed into her human form once she was on dry land.

Once they were back on the ship; Moria, Mihawk, and the Gecko Pirates started pulling on the ropes connected to the pulley system.

As they predicted, it was surprisingly heavy for such a small boat, but they managed. Eventually, they had it on the Midnight Destroyer’s deck and they were tying it down with some thick ropes along with some bolts.

“There, that should hold.” Saoirse commented while typing on the ropes and seeing that they were budging.

“Thank you all for helping.” Mihawk told the crew in a sincere tone, “I appreciate it.”

The crew froze and then huddled around Mihawk.

“Aw, thanks!” The crew cried, “Moria never says that he appreciates us!”

“Oi! Stop lying!” Moria yelled, popping up from behind Mihawk, “I tell you I do all the time!”

“No! You only do it on holidays!” Someone in the back yelled, “You just don’t want to look bad in front of a pretty boy!”

Upon hearing that comment, Mihawk froze and went a little red, allowing Moria to step in front of him.

“Shut up! That still counts!” Moria retorted, his face going red too, “Now go do your chores, you flock of seagulls!”

Then, similarly to when they first docked at Sabaody the day before, Moria scooped Mihawk up into a princess carry and ran away.

The crew watched the two go back to the captain’s quarters with knowing smirks and burst into laughter when they heard Moria swear in the distance.

They all knew Moria appreciated them, they had just wanted to tease them a little. And, based on how the two men reacted, the crew all came to one conclusion.

Teasing their captain was always totally fucking worth it.

~~*~~

In said captain’s quarters, Moria was gently setting Mihawk down on the bed before flopping down next to him.

“Your crew is very lovely.” Mihawk commented as he sat against the headboard and threaded his fingers through Moria’s hair.

Said man just groaned and moved his head so it was lying on Mihawk’s stomach. Wrapping his arms around his waist to keep him there, mumbling something.

“Pardon? I didn’t quite catch that.” Mihawk said with a smirk.

Mihawk could feel Moria pout against his stomach before the man looked up at him.

“I said: Can’t believe those fuckers would embarass me like that.” Moria huffed.

“I highly doubt that.” Mihawk told him, “They seem like the type of people to try and embarrass you at every chance they get.”

“Who’s side are you on?!” Moria whined, flopping back onto the bed.

“Well, I will be sleeping in your bed, so I suppose I am on your side.” Mihawk stated.

Then he climbed over Moria and went over to his bags.

“Now are you going to help me or are you just going to sit there like some sort of handsome decoration?” Mihawk asked rhetorically as he sat on the floor and opened his bag to begin unpacking.

Moria didn’t answer him, just stared at him for a moment before getting up with a huff and walked over to sit behind Mihawk, pulling the smaller man to sit on his lap.

Mihawk was a little surprised, but quickly settled and leaned into his chest. Receiving a quick kiss to his cheek.

As expected, Moria did not end up helping at all, but at least his lap made for a comfy seat.

~~*~~

Soon enough, the storm rolled in and it began to pour. The wind and waves rocked the ship steadily. Along with that, the rhythmic sound of the rain and thunder outside created a soothing background noise for the two men as they settled in for a cozy night. With Moria working on something at his desk and Mihawk on the bed, reading one of the books he nabbed from the bookshelf.

The two men were enjoying the peace and quiet.

Until Marie suddenly burst through the door making them both jump.

“It is true! You guys really did move in together!” Marie yelled with a manic grin on her face, “Mortimer owes me so much money!”

“It’s only temporary.” Mihawk told her, going back to reading his book, “The storm outside had the chance of destroying my boat.”

Marie rolled her eyes and leaned against the door frame.

“Mhm, sure. That’s what everyone says.” Marie said with a smirk, “Next thing they know, they’re joining the crew. Face it buddy, you’re staying.”

“Who’s staying?” Mortimer asked from behind her.

“Mihawk is!” Marie cheerfully replied.

Mortimer made a squawking noise and poked his head into the room, seeing Mihawk on the bed.

“Oh god, you did move in.” Mortimer gasped, looking slightly queasy, “Excuse me, I need to go find my sound proof headphones.”

Moria laughed while Mihawk and Marie looked confused as they all watched Mortimer run away.

“Why would he need sound proof headphones?” Marie asked.

“Maybe he’s afraid of the storm.” Mihawk offered before turning to a wheezing Moria, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m- I’m okay.” Moria choked out in between laughs, “Just- Just never change you two.”

Mihawk and Marie shared a confused look, not really understanding what he meant, but shrugged it off. They had more important things to think about. 

Like dinner.

~~*~~

Dinner was an… interesting affair.

Far better than having dinner with Shanks’ crew. Not that they were awful to be around, but at least this crew had a cook. The Red Haired Pirates hadn’t been able to find one yet so they mostly ate unseasoned meat with potatoes.

The Gecko Pirates however, had Rook. A man who knew the ins and outs of fine dining like his life depended on it. Tonight’s dinner was peameal bacon with some roasted vegetables and butter tarts for dessert.

It was incredibly delicious.

Another thing that Mihawk liked about the Gecko Pirates is how they behaved during dinner.

They were rowdy and looked like they had all just come back from a midnight rave, but they used their manners and were quite pleasant to talk to. Unlike Shanks’ crew who would have been treating dinner like a free for all or would have been drunkenly singing right about now. 

Or puking in some cases.

Shanks’ had puked on him one too many times, so Mihawk had started wearing his least favourite pants when visiting the Red Haired Pirates.

Chef Rook had taken a tumble and accidentally set himself on fire, but that seemed like a normal occurrence as the Gecko Pirates were ready to help. Saving the food and putting out the flames in record time.

There was also a heated debate about which of the current marine admirals were the strongest. 

Most of the group thought it was Admiral Dragon as he became an admiral without a devil fruit. Just an insane amount of haki and determination to treat citizens equally. The argument against him being the strongest was a mix of people thinking he only got the job because his father was the marine hero Garp or that he was given the job so that the losers in charge could control him more.

The people making this argument of course thought it was Admiral Akainu who was the strongest, what with his devil fruit magma powers. Although, they all agreed that his personality was complete horseshit.

A quiet few chimed in saying it was Kizaru that was the strongest since he could disappear and reappear in an instant in a flash of light.

Personally, Mihawk didn’t really care about the admirals, but it did make him think of the dead eyed marine he had run into a few days earlier.

All I can say is that if I had to kill one of them, it would be Akainu, Mihawk thought, I pity whoever that dead eyed marine said he slept with. I could barely understand him with all that drunken slurring.

So aside from all that, Mihawk left dinner feeling lighter than before instead of being disgusted by a group of manchildren.

Currently, Moria and Mihawk were walking back to their temporarily shared bedroom. 

“So… Did you enjoy dinner?” Moria asked, gently nudging Mihawk’s side as he did so.

“Yes, your friends are fun.” Mihawk replied, “And the food was delicious.”

“Great! I’m glad!” Moria told him, all his nervousness melting away.

The two finally arrived at the captain’s quarters and Moria quickly realised that they would now need to get ready for bed.

Which meant they had to change clothes.

As in being briefly naked in the same room together.

Why am I acting like a fucking sheltered virgin?! I’ve already seen him half naked in a towel! Moria thought, And I’ve slept with other people! I mean sure I didn’t do a lot of sleeping with them, but still! Is it just me or is it suddenly hot as hell?! Why am I sweating like a devil’s armpit?!

Mihawk was blissfully unaware of Moria’s internal meltdown as he got himself ready for bed. Sitting on the bed to take off his boots and socks before grabbing his tooth brush. Once he was done brushing his teeth and walked back out. 

That was when he noticed Moria standing frozen in the middle of the room and staring into the void.

“Moria? Are you okay?” Mihawk asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

The taller man snapped out of his daze and looked at Mihawk with a nervous look on his face.

“Oh… Sorry, I- I guess I’m just tired.” Moria told him, “Do you want to get changed in the bathroom or do you want me to step outside for a moment?”

Mihawk gave him a confused look and did the head tilt thing that Moria was starting to believe was cute.

“What do you mean? I am already wearing clothes that are suitable enough for bed.” Mihawk stated.

Moria looked down at Mihawk’s silky red shirt and tight pants before looking back up at his face.

“You don’t have pajamas? Or any clothes that you sleep in?” Moria questioned.

“No? I have not had any sleep clothes since the time I was living with nuns.” Mihawk replied, “I usually sleep in my travel clothes or in the nude if it is overwhelmingly hot and I feel safe enough to do so.”

Moria immediately choked on his spit and started coughing upon hearing that he sometimes slept in the nude.

“Okay, no.” Moria said, guiding Mihawk to sit on the bed, “I’m finding you something to wear.”

Moria opened a drawer in the built-in dresser next to his bed and tried to find something Mihawk could wear. Eventually he found a thin white cotton shirt that was soft to the touch. It was bid on Moria, so it would be more like a nightgown on Mihawk.

“Here, you can wear this.” Moria told him, passing him the shirt, “It’s nice and comfy. Do you want some pants too?”

Mihawk took the shirt and shook his head.

“No, this is sufficient." Mihawk said, giving him a soft smile, “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Moria replied, getting a pair of pants for himself and then walking over to the bathroom, “You change here, I’ll be in here.”

By the time he walked back out of the bathroom, Mihawk was already passed out in the bed, wearing Moria’s shirt.

Huh, I like seeing him look all adorable in my shirt and bed, Moria thought with a stupid smile on his face, If I didn’t know any better, I would never guess him to be someone that kills marines for a hobby.

Moria turned off the light and slid into bed, pulling Mihawk close so they’d fit in the bed more comfortably. Almost instinctively, Mihawk turned to curl into his chest and wrapped his arms around Moria’s back so they were chest to chest.

Moria smiled and slowly fell asleep; wonderfully content with everything at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mihawk, who was only half asleep, felt a sense of safety that he has not felt in a long time.

Chapter Text

Late March - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - Sabaody Archipelago

Fortunately, the storm broke early the next morning and Ray could start coating the ship.

Unfortunately, this meant somebody had to go wake up Moria.

Nobody wanted to do this because:

1. Moria was not a morning person. If he had it his way, he wouldn’t wake up before noon.
2. Due to having Mihawk in his room, they assumed that he would be naked.

So while Mortimer was suggesting that they all draw straws, the rest of the crew just walked out of the room while he was talking. Thus leaving him to be the one to do it.

“Damn traitors.” Mortimer muttered as he stomped down the hall to Moria’s room, “Why do they always make me do this?!”

When he got to the door, Mortimer took a moment to compose himself before knocking on the door.

No answer.

So he tried again.

Still no answer.

“Fine, I guess I’m going in.” Mortimer huffed, “But I swear, if I see somebody’s naked ass or anything, I’m suing for mental damages.”

Slowly, he opened the door to find Moria and Mihawk still in bed together, completely covered by their blanket.

Oh thank Mother Nature, they’re covered, Mortimer thought, I just hope I don’t get punched.

Moria did have a habit of swatting at whoever was trying to wake him up.

Mortimer quietly crept over to get a better look at them.

If Mortimer didn’t know any better, he wouldn’t even know that Mihawk was there with the way Moria was curled around him. They were sleeping face to face with Mihawk pressed between the wall and Moria’s chest.

Aw, they’re kind of cute, Mortimer cooed in his head, Almost like they’re not murderous pirates.

Then he started poking Moria in the back.

“Moria. Moria. Moria.” Mortimer said repeatedly in a monotone voice as he poked him, "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

Moria groaned, but didn’t wake up or turn over.

Mihawk however, jerked upright and almost punched him in the eye.

“AH, sorry, sorry, sorry.” Mortimer yelled, jumping back and covering his eyes so he didn’t see anything he didn’t want to, “I just came to wake up Moria because Mr Ray is here to start coating the ship!”

“Oh, I see.” Mihawk sighed, not looking very happy to be woken up, “I’ll wake him up then.”

“Really?! Thank you!” Mortimer cheered, “Whatever you’re going to do is probably way more effective and pleasurable th-”

Mortimer cut himself off from speaking as he watched in horror as Mihawk just pushed Moria off the bed and onto the ground.

The tall man slammed into the floor and woke up with a groan.

“Who the fuck did that?!” Moria snarled as he got up off the ground.

“Mortimer did.” Mihawk mumbled as he rolled over to go back to sleep, “Ray is here to coat the ship by the way.”

Moria immediately went from angry to happy.

“The storm is over?! Fuck yes!” Moria exclaimed, “Why didn’t you just say that, Morty? Come on, let's go see Ray!”

Moria was about to drag Mortimer out of the room, but he quickly realised he was only wearing a loose pair of sleep pants due the early morning chill.

“Oops, guess I’ll change first.” Moria said, looking down at himself and releasing Mortimer, “Morty, go tell him I’m on my way.”

“O- Okay.” Mortimer stuttered from the whiplash of fear and relief, “I’ll go do that.”

Mortimer then quickly rushed out of the room to go talk to Ray on deck. Mentally writing a note about never waking up Mihawk again.

Great, just what we need, Mortimer thought, Two people who hate being woken up in the morning!

Mortimer just couldn’t decide if it was a match made in heaven or hell just yet.

~~*~~

Moria walked out of the bathroom in his usual black leather outfit and was about to just walk out the door when he saw the most adorable sight.

Mihawk was lying in the fetal position on the bed, curled up like a cat in the sun. The early morning light gave his pale skin a soft glow and made his dark curls shine.

Wait, curls? Moria thought, already walking over to the bed, Does he just slick it back?

Moria tried not to laugh at the thought of Mihawk having a hair routine, but the idea of a man as feared as him caring about how his hair looks was incredibly funny.

So he just kissed Mihawk’s forehead and covered him back up with the blanket before walking up to the deck.

There, he found Ray and Shakky waiting for him.

“Ah, there you are.” Ray said when he saw Moria, “I hope we didn’t interrupt any morning activities.”

Moria was confused for a moment before realising how having Mihawk in his room looked.

“Oh, we were… We were just sleeping.” Moria stuttered out.

“Sure Moria, sure.” Marie smirked, “But if that’s true, then why was Morty going to bed with earplugs and noise cancelling headphones?”

Someone on the crew had unfortunately informed Marie about why Mortimer was freaking out about Moria and Mihawk sleeping together last night.

And Marie never missed a chance to make fun of her self proclaimed brothers.

“Please, you know Morty is paranoid and thinks of the worst.” Moria huffed and rolled his eyes, “So shut up, Marie.”

The two idiots began to playfully bicker with each other while Mortimer stood behind them looking absolutely horrified.

“Would the both of you shut up?!” Mortimer yelled, “You’re both so stupid!”

“Hey! We’re not stupid!” Moria and Marie shouted back at him.

“Yes you are!” Mortimer exclaimed, exasperated at their foolishness, We’re supposed be using fucking code names!”

Moria and Marie froze before turning to their guests.

“Plaese pretend you didn’t hear anything about that.” Moria told them.

“Yeah or we’re gonna have to kill ya.” Marie added.

“Marie! Don’t say that!” Mortimer chidded, “We want THEM to not murder us!”

They were about to argue further when they were interrupted by Ray and Shakky laughing.

“Oh don’t worry about us, we knew you were the Gecko Pirates the whole time.” Ray told them, “We’re not going to do anything.”

“Yeah, we make more than enough off of other people.” Shakky chimed in, “Besides, you seem like nice people.”

All the Gecko Pirates turned to look at them with various confused expressions.

“How- How did you find out?” Moria asked.

“Well, for starters, you didn’t take down your jolly roger or roll up your sails.” Ray said, pointing up the flag on their main mast.

The one that had a bat symbol… And said: “Gecko Pirates”.

Then he gestured to their sails that had the same symbol and said the same thing. Just bigger and more noticeable.

“Alright, which one of you forgot to tie the sails and flag?” Moria asked, turning around to face his crew with his hands on his hips, “Who forgot?”

Unsurprisingly, no one fessed up. So Moria just sighed and turned back to their guests.

“Relax, it wasn’t just the flag that gave you guys away.” Shakky told them, “We also recognise you due to your unique appearances and your lackluster disguises. I mean, your disguise was literally just wearing a shirt, Captain Moria.”

“Ugh, you sound like Mi- Hunter.” Moria grumbled.

He had been about to say Mihawk, but he caught himself.

Mihawk had a higher bounty than all of them put together.

A bounty that was not seen around Sabaody due to the large marine base and the marines not wanting recruitment numbers to go down. Hell, most of Mihawk’s wanted posters didn’t even have his name on them for some reason. 

Moria had only recognised him when they met because he had seen Mihawk’s first wanted poster when it had come out.

After that, they all just started calling him the “Marine Hunter” on them.

As for the people standing in front of him, well, Moria didn’t know them. So he didn’t know if they had ever been out of Sabaody or had seen Mihawk’s first wanted poster and he wasn’t about to risk Mihawk’s safety.

Thankfully, these people didn’t seem to know or catch his slip up.

“Anyways, are you ready to get your ship coated?” Ray asked.

“Yeah, best to get it down before another storm rolls in.” Moria sighed.

“Yes, although I was quite comfortable, I do not want to be holding you back.” Mihawk added, scaring everyone.

Especially Moria who jumped three feet in the air and turned around to see Mihawk wearing his usual black pants and boots along with the sleep shirt.

“Mi- Hunter, when did you get here?!” Moria exclaimed, trying not to think too hard about how good Mihawk looked sleepy and in his borrowed shirt, “I thought you were still sleeping?! Oh, we didn’t wake you up did we? Sorry.”

“It is alright.” Mihawk reassured him, “I have already overslept my usual waking hour. Besides, the bed was cold without you.”

The crew around them let out little “ooo’s” and “aw’s”. Some of them thought it was wholesome while others had dirtier things in mind.

“Ha! I bet it was!” Marie laughed.

“Marie!” Moria shouted, embarrassed, “I swear, all we did was sleep!”

Moria and Marie started bickering again like they did earlier with Mortimer eventually joining in.

Ray just laughed at the sight of the trio fighting and mumbled something about “idiot captains” before getting to work.

Meanwhile, Shakky watched as Mihawk rolled his eyes and headed towards the kitchen as the crew left the deck to do their chores.

Then she followed him.

~~*~~

Mihawk was now sitting down at the table in the dining hall to begin his breakfast. It was just him in there as Rook, the Gecko Pirate’s chef, was now cleaning the kitchen after having fussed over him.

He was enjoying the silence when Shakky came into the room.

“You don’t mind if I sit here with you, do you?” Shakky asked, “It’s starting to get hot outside.”

“Not at all.” Mihawk replied.

Shakky sat down right across from him despite the entire table being empty and looked at him like she was trying to find something.

“So Hunter, how long have you been a part of the crew?” Shakky asked.

“Never, I just fished Moria out of the ocean during a storm and then we became partners somehow.” Mihawk stated.

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Shakky told him, “You two sure are cute together.”

Mihawk couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or if she was trying to get something from him. It was honestly both probably. The woman did run a place called “Shakky’s Rip Off Bar” and telling a person something true so they start to trust you is one one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to manipulation tactics.

He just didn’t know what her motive would be and was a bit curious of what it could be, but he didn’t want to jeopardise the ship being coated if it turned out she wasn’t a spy.

Shakky could just be looking for gossip after all.

So Mihawk decided that he would be polite, but get out of there as soon as he was done with his breakfast.

“Yes, I suppose we are.” Mihawk agreed before getting up, “Excuse me, but I need to go train.”

Shakky watched him walk out of the room with an almost disappointed look, but he did think much about it.

Mihawk’s need to train was actually the truth and it was such a nice day out.

And maybe he could convince Moria to take a shower with him afterwards.

{Mihawk had in fact been able to get Moria in the shower with him. By the time they were done, Mihawk was jelly legged again like he had been after the amusement park and needed Moria to carry him to bed. Moria had never been more happy to have an on suite bathroom.}

~~*~~

Shakky hadn’t meant to scare Hunter off, it’s just that he looked so much like she’d imagined her son looking like if he had gotten the chance to grow up. 

Now, she wasn’t delusional enough to think that this Hunter fellow was her son, but if you made his eyes red instead of gold… He looked so similar.

Vegapunk had started trying to clone people right around the God Valley incident after all, so who’s to say that those celestial bastards didn’t give him the child of the most beautiful woman (at the time) and the Dark King to test on?

Shakky knew it was a far fetched theory.

A lot could have happened in the year that they were held captive. It was a miracle she hadn’t gone insane inside that sterile room they kept her in to keep her “pristine” for the hunt. They had taunted her every day about it.

And they had also taunted her about her son, saying they only took him to keep her in line, that he would be fine as long as she behaved like women are “supposed to”.

Silent and obedient.

And who knows if they were even telling her the truth.

Rayleigh and her liked to think that they were, if only to keep the hope of finding their son alive, but they couldn’t find anything about him after God Valley.

They couldn’t even find anything about Rocks’ kids in the aftermath, so it’s really no surprise they didn’t find anything about their son.

Dracule Mihawk was simply lost to the world and his parents, never to be seen again.

But then the Gecko Pirates and Hunter arrived, reigniting Shakky’s hope.

Rayleigh hadn’t said anything against her theory of Hunter somehow being connected to their son’s disappearance, but he also hadn’t said anything about supporting it.

Shakky understood where he was coming from, she really did. The wound they had endured was only slightly healed from the Roger Pirates finding a baby in one of the chests they had snagged, along with finding a passed out Dragon on the deck or the Oro Jackson.

She really didn’t want to reopen that wound, but sometimes you need to take a leap of faith.

Which was something she was willing to do if it meant they finally got some proper closure.

~~*~~

Shakky wasn’t able to find Hunter again that day, so she came back the next day with some baked goods to hopefully use as an incentive for the young man to stay and talk.

It was a long shot considering she didn’t know his eating preferences, but even if it didn’t work on him, maybe the crew knew something.

“These are delicious! Thanks Ms. Shakky!” Marie exclaimed, taking a couple of cookies from the box.

It was just Marie and Shakky in the dining hall today. Mihawk had already left by the time she got there and the rest of the Gecko Pirates had already raided the baked goods.

“You’re welcome, Marie.” Shakky said, smiling at her, “So, how long have you been on the crew?”

“Oh I’ve been here since the start.” Marie told her, “I went to go see the Pirate King’s execution and then I tried to steal from some marines, but Moria was also trying to steal from the same marines. So we got caught and found Morty who let us hide in the back of his flower shop.”

Shakky tried not to show any sadness at the mention of Roger dying, but it was hard. He had been a good friend and incredibly important to Rayleigh. The end was inevitable though, he was very sick near the end, she just wished it hadn’t been so cruel. 

Thankfully, Marie was too focused on the baked goods to notice.

“How did you and Mr. Ray meet?” Marie asked, “How long have you guys been together?”

“We met on the sea a long time ago, about twenty-four years ago.” Shakky replied, “We didn’t get married until about two years ago.”

“Really? Why wait that long?” Marie questioned.

“Well we had other priorities and wanted to fully retire from the sea before settling down.” Shakky told her, “We wanted to be sure we’d be able to weather any storm together before signing anything legal.”

Not a total lie. They had wanted to make sure they’d be able to be strong together. Their son, as much as they loved him, had been an accident. Then they lost him and Roger wanted to go after the One Piece.

Needless to say that after all of that, they were very sure that they would be able to handle anything after that.

“I think we always knew we’d end up together, he did help me save myself from a terrible fate with an awful banana haired man.” Shakky said, thinking of what had happened in God Valley.

Marie immediately froze at the mention of an awful banana haired man, there was only one man she knew that had hair like that. Marie couldn’t imagine being married to the scumbag, Garling as a future father in law was bad enough.

At first she didn’t want to say anything, but then she realised that maybe Shakky would understand more than the others. 

Moria and Mortimer knew the whole story and were furious on her behalf. They had promised to look out for her and make sure nobody found out if she didn’t want them to.

The crew knew about her past, but didn’t know about all of it with the exception of their doctor who knew everything after giving her a physical exam and promised to keep everything a secret.

Shanks had understood the most since he had lived with Garling for a year, but he didn’t understand some of it.

She didn’t blame any of them of course, it was hard to fully understand something when you haven’t lived it yourself.

But out of everyone Marie has met, maybe Shakky would get it.

“You… Know Garling?” Marie cautiously asked.

Shakky felt herself tense and her eyes went wide.

“How did you know who I was talking about?” Shakky questioned her back.

Marie quickly got up to close the doors to the dining room and lock them before sitting back down.

“I- I was, um, born in Mary Geoise. My mother was a wife of a high ranking Celestial Dragon.” Maire said with a shuddering sigh, “Garling wanted to climb the social ladder, so he paid more than what my father thought I was worth to gain his favour and I was supposed to marry his son, Shamrock. But then I escaped.”

Shakky looked at her in shock and was unable to find anything to say.

“Shamrock was a little bitch at first, but we bonded over how shitty Garling is and he was alright after that.” Maire told her, “He was the one to help me escape actually. I wish he had come with me, but Garling would have never left us alone. I’m replaceable, he’s not.”

Well, after meeting Shanks, Marie supposed Shamrock was replaceable. But he had promised to keep her secret, so she’d keep his.

“Oh Marie, you’re not replaceable.” Shakky reassured her, “No one is.”

“I- I know that now.” Marie sighed, “But I know Garling has probably forced Shams to move on by now.”

“Well Garling is a bastard, so don’t waste your time thinking about him.” Shakky stated, “Think about the future. Who knows, maybe fate will lead you two back to each other like it did with Rayleigh and I in God Valley.”

Oh, she hadn’t meant to say that.

“You were involved in the God Valley incident?!” Marie exclaimed.

Shakky sighed and decided to just continue now that it was out.

“Yes, a year before it happened, my son and I were taken to be prizes for the hunt. We were kept in Mary Geoise until it was time for the tournament to begin.” Shakky explained, “They kept us separated and the last time I saw my son was when they were transporting us to Marie Geoise. If I wasn’t drugged to hell and back, I would’ve tried to make a run for it then and there, but I passed out again. Then I made it out, but he didn’t.”

“I’m sorry.” Marie whispered, thinking of her own baby.

As Marie learned more about the world, she became more sure that leaving her son with Eustass Blair was the best decision she could have made.

No matter how much it had hurt to leave him.

“It’s alright.” Shakky said, patting Marie’s hand.

Marie was going to say something more, but someone started banging on the dining hall door.

“Oi, why is the door locked?!” One of the Gecko Pirates yelled, “I need to check the vents! Some dumbass decided it would be fun to drop my wrench in one!”

“Ah, I better go.” Marie laughed, getting up to unlock the door, “It was nice talking to you, Ms. Shakky.”

“To you as well, Marie.” Shakky said.

Well, she hadn’t been able to talk to Hunter, but at least she had been able to find a friend.

~~*~~

On the third and final day, Shakky was finally able to corner Hunter on the deck.

She found him watching Moria help Rayleigh with the final steps of the coating process.

“I see you enjoy watching Moria work, Hunter?” Shakky questioned as she stepped up beside him.

“Yes, he is quite fetching when he is working and shirtless.” Mihawk replied, never taking his eyes off of Moria, “We’ll need to take another shower.”

“Oh? You shower together do you?” Shakky smiled, “Ah, young love, I remember those days. Now if we make love in the shower, our backs hurt, so enjoy that while you can.”

She was trying to make a joke, but apparently Hunter didn’t do jokes or at least didn’t understand them.

“We didn’t have sex.” Mihawk bluntly stated, “I was just hurting from my sword practice and he is surprisingly good at massages.”

Shakky almost choked on her cigarette, but quickly composed herself.

“Well, that’s sweet.” Shakky laughed, “And at least you didn’t have to shower twice then.”

“No, I suppose not.” Mihawk mumbled, then he asked monotonously, “Did you used to be a nun by any chance?”

This time Shakky actually did choke on her cigarette and had to take a moment to recover from her coughing fit.

“Oh- Oh god no!” Shakky exclaimed, “I was far from ever being a nun! I went in the opposite direction my whole life!”

“Hm, you’d be surprised.” Mihawk hummed, “The nuns that raised me had quite the magazine collection hidden in the archive.”

“Really? Wow.” Shakky said, “Must have gone to confession a lot then.”

“Yes, they went once a week.” Mihawk told her, “Well, except for Sister Fawn, she went every day.”

“Damn.” Shakky gasped, “I hope I meet them someday, I’ll be able to blackmail the hell out of them. Pun fully intended by the way.”

“The nuns that raised me are dead.” Mihawk told her, “Marines killed them for some unknown reason.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Shakky said, “Is that why you-”

She didn't get to finish her sentence because the scaffolding that Moria and Rayleigh were on broke, sending them into the water below. 

So Mihawk immediately jumped overboard to save Moria from drowning.

“Wait! Ray can… Oh for fuck’s sake.” Shakky sighed, “This is impossible. Maybe it is really just a coincidence that they look alike.”

Shakky didn’t get another chance to speak to Hunter after that.

The coating was finished by the end of that night and the Gecko Pirates had already paid them for the service, with the crew setting off early the next morning.

~~*~~

During the night before the Gecko Pirates were set to leave, Mihawk was lying awake in bed and staring at the wall, contemplating the past couple of days.

Especially some things regarding Rayleigh and Shakky.

Turning over, Mihawk poked Moria’s forehead.

“Moria, are you awake?” Mihawk asked.

“Mmh, kind of.” Moria hummed against his head, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing really.” Mihawk whispered, “I was just wondering about something.”

“Wonder’n about what?” Moria asked.

“If the Oharan Library had any records of God Valley.” Mihawk quietly told him, “If it does, they might have something that has clues of where or who I originated from.”

“Ah, so you want to come with us to Ohara then?” Moria questioned.

“Yes, if that is alright.” Mihawk replied.

“Oh, it’s more than alright.” Moria playfully told him before saying in a more serious tone, “But, and no offence, why do you want to know about your past all of a sudden? You don’t seem like someone that clings to the past.”

Mihawk turned to lay on his back and look up at the ceiling, letting out a deep sigh as he did so.

“You are correct, I am not the type of person to cling to the past.” Mihawk stated, “However, I did often wonder about who my parents might be as a child and that ship coater you hired, well… Shakky and him seemed very familiar to me. I never quite had such a sense of déjà vu as I did when meeting them.”

“So, you think they might be your parents?” Moria asked.

“No, but maybe they look like them and Ohara has some information that could pull those memories out from some dark corner of my mind.” Mihawk mumbled before getting embarrassed about it, “Never mind, that sounds incredibly stupid. Just a foolish child’s dream.”

Mihawk then tried to turn onto his side, facing the wall again, but Moria grabbed his shoulder to stop him and turned him back over to face him. 

Then Moria gently moved Mihawk’s face so that he was looking at him.

“Hey, it’s not stupid, not at all.” Moria firmly told him, “I think about where I came from too. It’s actually really normal to think about your past when you don’t know anything about it.” 

“You think so?” Mihawk mumbled.

“Yeah, I do.” Moria reassured him, “And if you want those answers, I’ll help you find them.”

Mihawk gave him a small smile and tucked himself into the bigger man’s chest.

“Thank you.” Mihawk told him in a sincere tone.

“You’re welcome.” Moria replied, holding him close, “Now let’s get some sleep.”

The two then drifted off into dreamsland.

~~*~~

The next morning, the Gecko Pirates were told that Mihawk would be joining them. The crew cheered and welcomed him on board.

Meanwhile, off in a corner, Marie turned to Mortimer with a shit eating grin.

“Ha! Temporary my ass!” Marie laughed, “Morty, pay me!”

Mortimer sighed and resigned himself to his fate, handing her the money.

~~*~~

The day after the Gecko Pirates left was so peaceful, Rayleigh and Shakky were missing the joyful chaos they caused.

It was almost closing time at the bar and Rayleigh was taking stock in the back while Shakky was wiping down the counter.

“Maybe we can close up early.” Shakky muttered as wrung out the dish towel, “Nobody else is here.”

As soon as she finished her sentence, three frustrated looking men came stomping into the bar and sat down near where Shakky was working. They ordered three beers politely enough and Shakky left them to their devices once she had given them their drinks.

But she did quietly listen in on their conversation as she washed dishes; she could always use new blackmail material after all.

“I can’t believe there is not a single wanted poster of him here!” One of the men shouted, “There isn’t even anything in the newspapers about him! Unbelievable!”

“It’s not that unbelievable.” A second man said, “This is a major marine base, of course they wouldn’t want anything about the Marine Hunter circling around here. Nobody would want to join the marines if they knew there was a psycho ready to cut them in half.”

“Or nobody sane would want to join that is.” The third, and final, man laughed, “The marines would just be recruiting canon fodder at that point.”

“But still, not even a whisper?!” The first man huffed, “You’d think there would be a lot of gossip about a man with such a high bounty, but no! Absolutely nothing!”

“Maybe he’s a ghost.” The second man offered, “Or some other supernatural entity.”

“What? Are you suggesting we trap him in a salt circle or something?” The third man asked, “That’s stupid.”

“Well we’ve already tried everything else, can’t hurt to try.” The second man shrugged, “Besides, your stupid plan of a glue trap worked on the last guy.”

“That’s true, his last name is Dracule.” The first man sighed, looking at the wanted poster he had dug out of his coat pocket, “Maybe he really is a vampire.”

Shakky almost dropped the cup she was holding when she heard the name Darcule, but she quickly regained her composure and continued like nothing happened. The men were none the wiser.

“Dracule, you say? That sure is a unique name.” Shakky remarked, “What does he look like?”

The three men turned to look at her with suspicious eyes.

“Why would you wanna know?” The first man asked, tucking the wanted poster to his chest so she couldn’t see.

“Well if he’s passed through here, I might’ve seen him.” Shakky replied cooly, “Many people come in through here to get drunk while they have their ships coated.”

The three men huddled together to whisper to each other, probably debating if it was worth telling her about their high bounty quarry or not.

They talked for so long that Shakky almost thought they wouldn’t tell her before the first man huffed and placed the wanted poster on the counter.

“Fine, take a look.” The first man snarled, “You don’t look like the sea faring type anyway.”

“Thank you.” Shakky said with a smile as she took the poster.

But, upon looking at it, she almost wished she hadn’t taken it.

Dracule “Marine Hunter” Mihawk

$120,000,000

Wanted For:

Destruction of Marine Property, Destruction of Private Property, Unwarranted Massacre of Marines, Grand Larceny, Desecretion of a Corpse, Grave Robbing, and Dine & Dash

This man is highly dangerous and full of bloodlust.

Do not engage even if you have an armada backing you.

Shakky felt like crying at the sight.

For eighteen years she had thought their son was dead or worse.

Killed in God Valley or taken back to Mary Geoise.

But their son was alive and he had just set sail for the new world.

Chapter Text

Early April - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - Under the Sea Heading to the New World

Ever since they had set sail from Sabaody, the Gecko Pirates have been keeping a close eye on their “temporary” crewmate. It’s not that they didn’t trust him or anything, they were just curious about him and his habits. He was The Marine Hunter after all, they all wanted to see the man behind the killing machine and maybe try to find what their captain saw behind that.

And boy was it unsettling.

Now don’t get them wrong, they guy was really nice if a bit quiet and socially awkward. He was very helpful too, Mihawk did odd jobs and chores around the ship. As well as teach any of their sword users how to better their stance or form. But there was just something… slightly off about him that they just couldn’t quite place.

Some days the man would just be staring into the distance of the deep sea, standing stock still by the edge of the rail and bubble walls. He also didn’t make any noise when he walked, accidentally scaring people when he walked past or they turned around to find him quietly reading in a room they thought they were alone in.

It also looked like his eyes glowed in the dark.

Maybe it was just the deep sea playing tricks on them. People did sometimes go mad down here after all with the weird sounds coming in from all sides of them, the claustrophobia of being thousands of leagues underwater, and the being in total darkness at all times.

It certainly didn’t help that they couldn’t stop at Fishman Island for a bit of respite due to Lumis being only half-fishman. This was because half-fishmen were usually born out of violation rather than love like Lumis was. So better to just skip the island altogether rather than Lumis having to explain himself everywhere he goes or hide away on the ship for the entire duration of their stay.

Anyways, all of the crew's mildly unsettling encounters with Mihawk had led them all to hole up in Saoirse’s record room so they could talk and Saoirse could write their stories down. Moria and Mihawk were already asleep, so they got comfortable, sure that nothing and no one would bother them.

“Soooo, who’s gonna go first?” Saoirse asked, getting comfortable at her desk.

When no one spoke, Saoirse huffed.

“Oh come on guys! Someone’s gotta go first!” Saoirse told them.

“Why don’t you go first then?” Louis XX suggested.

“No! That doesn’t make for a good narrative!” Saoirse exclaimed.

Everyone started to fight before Rook stepped in.

“Okay you brats, stop fighting.” Rook sighed, “I’ll go first.”

“Finally!” Saoirse cheered, getting her book and pen, “Okay, go!”

Rook sighed and started to tell them of his encounter with Mihawk.

~~*~~

It was a couple days after they set sail underwater and Rook was headed down to the kitchen to do his early morning prep work for breakfast. 

It was sometime around five in the morning and he was trying to be silent, but Rook was a clumsy middle aged man who was stumbling blindly in the dark.

Other than the sound of him accidentally running into things, occasional noises from the ocean, and the sound of the ship creaking, all was quiet. 

Until he got closer to the kitchen.

When he got closer to the door, Rook heard a chopping noise coming from inside. There was no light showing through the cracks. He lent closer to press his ear against the door and it definitely sounded like someone was chopping something in there.

“I know you’re there, Rook.” A monotone voice said from the other side.

Rook yelped and fell as he jumped away from the door.

A couple seconds later, the door opened to reveal Mihawk stepping out into the soft lamp light of the hallway.

“What are you doing on the floor?” Mihawk asked.

“What am I doing?! What are you doing?!” Rook asked bewildered, “This is also my kitchen! I’m supposed to be here!”

“I asked first.” Mihawk simply stated.

Rook gave him an incredulous look before giving in.

“Okay fine, I’m here to prepare breakfast.” Rook told him as he got up from the ground, “Now what are you doing here young man?”

“Well, I do not want to be a lazy guest so I was going to make breakfast.” Mihawk stated matter of factly, “Or at the very least help.”

“In the dark?” Rook questioned.

“Yes, it is comforting and relaxing.” Mihawk replied, “Besides, I can see perfectly in the dark.”

Well that’s not normal, Rook thought, But didn’t Moria say that he had observation haki? Maybe that’s what he’s talking about.

Rook decided that he wasn’t going to question it and just take the free help as he walked past Mihawk into the kitchen, turning on the lanterns once he was inside.

“Well thank you, I don’t get much help here.” Rook sighed, “Much less competent help. Mortimer helps when he can, but he is usually busy keeping everybody else in check and making sure we don’t run aground somewhere.”

“You are welcome.” Mihawk said, “I read your meal plan and got started on the vegetables.”

Rook looked over to where he was pointing to and saw a pile of perfectly cut potatoes, tomatoes, and celery.

“Wow, I guess it should be expected of a swordsman to know how to use a kitchen knife as well, but this is fantastic!” Rook exclaimed.

“Thank you, the nuns taught me well.” Mihawk said.

“Ah, that explains it.” Rook laughed, “Well I’ll happily forgive the intrusion of my kitchen for such nice work. Come on, let’s get back to work.”

Rook gave Mihawk some carrots to chop and the two fell into a comfortable silence as they worked.

The weirdness of the strange situation was forgotten until the gathering of the Gecko Pirates a week later.

~~*~~

The rest of the crew looked at Rook baffled after hearing his story.

“So he was just chopping vegetables in complete darkness?” Dart asked, “Is he a serial killer or something?”

“Well he technically is.” Mortimer replied, shrugging, “But he just kills marines, so we're good.”

“You’re strangely calm about this, I thought you of all people would be panicked about him coming along.” Zora said, tilting her head to study him, “Haven’t you noticed anything strange?”

“Ah, well… I did find him in the greenhouse one day.” Mortimer said, scratching his head.

“Oh? Do tell.” Saoirse told him while the rest of the Gecko Pirates leaned in.

Mortimer sighed and began to tell his story.

~~*~~

With them being underwater and all, Mortimer had to find an alternative way to give his plants light in place of the sun. It was a difficult thing to do considering that the ship didn’t have any electricity, but Lumis and Erik made a mini generator to power some lights in the greenhouse for him.

They had assured Mortimer the generator would work until they resurfaced as long as he remembered to refill it with fuel every five hours. But he was still stressed about it, causing him to over compensate.

Oh god! What if I forget and they all die?! Mortimer thought, Not only would all my hard work go to waste, but I’d feel so bad about it! They’d start calling me “The Plant Murder”! I’d never be let in a flower shop or near a farm again! Or-

Mortimer’s spiraling kept him awake at night and while he would usually do some baking to relax, he didn’t want them to run out of supplies. Like he did when they found out Marie was pregnant and Mortimer made thirty-thousand-cupcakes in a week.

It was fine since they could just stop at an island, but since they were currently underwater and not able to go to Fishman island, that wasn’t an option.

So Mortimer religiously checked that damn generator every hour of every day. Which was just fine because it’s not like he was able to fucking sleep anyways since them being in the constant darkness of the deep sea had already fucked up his internal clock.

Shocker had offered to cover some shifts for him, but Mortimer knew they were already busy with mending the sails. So he told them to just keep working on that.

So everything was just fine. 

Until it wasn’t.

Mortimer had been setting his alarm to wake him up every hour so he could go check his plants. It had been working pretty well until Mortimer slept through the alarm one day.

By twelve hours.

So when he did eventually wake up, Mortimer ran in a panic to his greenhouse, fearing that he would find his plants dead.

So imagine his surprise when he opened the door to find the lights on and Mihawk pruning some of the plants.

“Oh, hello.” Mihawk casually greeted him, “We were wondering when you would wake up.”

“You- You’ve been taking care of them?” Mortimer asked.

“Yes, and… Uh, Shocker as well.” Mihawk replied, taking a moment to remember Shocker’s name.

Mortimer looked around the room and sure enough, everything was in the right place. None of the plants were dead and they looked healthier than ever.

“A few of them were dry, but none of them suffered too much with the light out.” Mihawk told him.

“The light was out?!” Mortimer exclaimed.

“Yes, but not for long.” Mihawk calmly said, “But, I found something interesting.”

Mihawk then walked over and turned the generator off.

“What are you doing?!” Mortimer yelled.

He moved to turn the generator back on, but he was stopped by Mihawk who turned him to look at the succulents and ferns he had in a corner.

As the darkness began to seep in, the plants began to glow.

“Holy shit, they’re bioluminescent!” Mortimer exclaimed, walking over to poke the plants, “I never noticed this before!”

Mortimer turned around to face Mihawk and felt like his soul left his body.

Fucking fuck! His eyes glow! Mortimer thought, Why the fuck are they glowing?!

“Are you alright, Mortimer?” Mihawk asked.

“Oh, uh… Yeah! Totally!” Mortimer quickly replied, “Um, you wanna work together on this?”

“Yes, that would be nice.” Mihawk said, “I miss seeing plant life down here.”

“Hahaha! Yeah, me too!” Mortimer awkwardly laughed as he turned the generator back on, desperately trying to calm himself down.

Is he a demon or something?! Mortimer pondered, I mean, who else has glowing eyes?! Vampires? Werewolves?! No, I’ve seen him eat normal food and he isn’t hairy at all. Or are those just stereotypes?! Oh god-

Mihawk didn’t seem to notice that Mortimer was spiraling as the two worked to take care of the plants.

~~*~~

The crew stared at Mortimer in shock, but it was more about how he was so calm about the situation rather than what he told them.

“His eyes glowed in the dark?!” The Gecko Pirates yelled.

“Yeah! Bright, luminous gold.” Mortimer confirmed.

“That’s kind of cool!” Ash exclaimed.

“Wait, didn't Rook say that his eyes glowed too?” Marie asked.

“Yes, I did.” Rook replied, “And he said he could see perfectly in the dark.”

“He told us the same thing!” Lumis said, “Shocker, Erik, Louis XX, and I saw him staring into the void on deck.”

“Really?!” Marie and Crash asked.

“Yeah.” Shocker replied, “It was really weird.”

“Well tell us!” The other Gecko Pirates urged.

So Lumis, Shocker, Erik and Louis XX started telling the crew about their encounter.

~~*~~

Lumis, Shocker, Erik, and Louis XX were all scheduled to work on the main deck of the Midnight Destroyer when they came across Mihawk.

They were walking down to the main deck when they saw him standing by the ship’s railing, staring off into the darkness of the ocean past the bubble barrier.

The four of them stopped and observed  him.

“What’s he looking at?” Louis XX asked in a quiet voice.

“I don’t know.” Erik whispered back.

“Well why don’t we just ask him instead of being weirdos.” Shocker suggested.

“Good idea! Go ask him, Shocker.” Lumis said, pushing them forward.

“What?! Why me?!” Shocker exclaimed.

“It was your suggestion.” Erik told them.

“Yes, now go! Shoo!” Louis XX said, making a shooing motion with his hand.

Shocker rolled their eyes and walked over to Mihawk.

“Hey there, Mihawk! What are you doing on this fine day?” Shocker asked as they stood next to Mihawk.

“Just enjoying the view.” Mihawk replied, “It is very beautiful down here. It is like nothing I have ever seen before.”

Shocker tried to find what Mihawk thought was beautiful, but the ship’s lights didn’t really reach that far out. All they could see were some rocks they were passing a couple meters away from them. There was a bit of vegetation and ship wrecks around them so maybe that’s what Mihawk was talking about.

“You mean the plants and wrecks?” Shocker offered.

“No, I mean that pod of whales in the distance.” Mihawk stated, pointing into the gloom of the deep sea.

Behind them the others slowly inched closer.

Lumis, Shocker, Erik and Louis XX tried to see what Mihawk was seeing, but there was absolutely nothing.

Moria had told them that Mihawk had observation haki, maybe he was using it now.

“Are you using observation haki by any chance, are you?” Erik asked, “Because I can’t see shit out here.”

“I am not.” Mihawk replied, “I suppose this is just one of those moments where I can see farther than everyone.”

“You can do that?” Louis XX questioned.

“Yes, about one hundred feet or so depending on the conditions.” Mihawk told him.

The four Gecko Pirates immediately all choked on their spit at that casual omission.

“Holy shit! I can’t even see that far in the dark!” Lumis gasped, “I only see about thirty feet!”

“Hm, interesting.” Mihawk hummed, “I suppose Shanks calling me ‘Hawk-eyes’ has some weight to it then.”

“It is an amazing attribute.” Erik commented, “You should’ve been a gunman!”

“No, far too loud for me.” Mihawk said, “Too much work as well. It is far easier to cut five men in half than it is to shoot them.”

“Ah yes, the elegance of the sword.” Louis XX sighed, “It is much more civilised than using guns.”

“Oi! What’s wrong with guns?!” Dart yelled from the ship’s higher deck.

“Like Mihawk said, they're loud and too much work!” Louis XX yelled back.

Everyone turned around to watch Dart walk down to join them on the main deck, the hyena mink scoffing at Louis XX.

“Oh please, what would you know about work? Your only job is to steer the ship!” Dart exclaimed, grabbing Louis XX by the collar, “Other than that, you’re just pretty!”

“Oh, so you do think I’m pretty! Thank you!” Louis XX said, antagonising Dart further.

“Shut up!” Dart yelled, shaking the poor man.

“Would you two quit it!” Lumis sighed, “Let him go Dart, we were just about to put him to work.”

“And, he does work as a model for me when I need to repair clothes.” Shocker pointed out, “So Louis XX does do more than just steer the ship.”

“Why thank you, Shocker!” Louis XX dramatically said while leaning on their shoulder, “You truly are an angel sent from above.”

“Yeah, if angels get electrocuted by a dickhead named Enel.” Shocker huffed.

“You are from a sky island?” Mihawk asked, pointing to Shocker’s tiny wings.

Mihawk already knew that Shocker had been electrocuted because he saw the lichtenberg scars on their skin.

“Yup, but it wasn’t anything grand.” Shocker replied, looking upset, “It was what you blue sea folk would call a ‘back water’ town. And I had this one neighbor named Enel who was a total dickhead, always causing problems around town. One day I couldn’t take his bullshit anymore and punched him. We didn’t see him for a little while, but he came back with a devil fruit and he zapped me in the back.”

“Then we scooped him up!” Lumis said, throwing his arm around Shocker’s shoulders too. 

“Best thing to happen right after getting Rook!” Erik cheered, “Before that we were just using clothes pins to fix our clothes. It looked cool until they came undone and pricked you in the ass though.”

“Thanks guys.” Shocker said.

“Well, you must be very strong to survive that.” Mihawk commented, “Although, I have to ask, was your name always Shocker?”

“Yes, unfortunately." Shocker sighed, “I was the first born, unplanned, and my parents were going through a bit of a phase. I have a sister named Surprise, a brother named Oops, and another brother named Geo.”

With names like that, it was clear to everyone there that Geo was either the favourite child or the only planned one.

“Creative.” Mihawk said, blinking slowly, “Well, it has been nice chatting to you all, I will go now.”

The Gecko Pirates then watched as he walked away, forgetting about what they had found out about the strange man until the crew’s nighttime meeting.

~~*~~

The Gecko Pirates just started at the four who just told their story.

“Okay, first of all, don’t be rude to Louis XX, Dart, and stop antagonising him, Louis XX.” Mortimer scolded, “Secondly, what the fuck?!”

“So his eyes glow AND he can see ridiculously far without observation haki?!” Crash gasped, “Just what kind of man did Moria pull?”

“A strange one.” Zora said, “So not only is he immune to venom and poison, he can also see in the dark and far away. Hm, interesting.”

The rest of the crew paused and stared at her like she grew another head.

“What do you mean Mihawk is immune to poison AND venom?!” They shouted.

“Oh yeah! He accidentally drank some in the infirmary the other day.” Maggots told them.

“We were doing inventory in the infirmary and Mihawk walked in. He started helping us and got his glass of wine mixed up with some kind of snake venom and poison mixture we were going to put into bullets.” Zora explained, “We honestly thought we were going to have to explain to Moria why his boyfriend was dead, but he told us it was fine because he was immune.”

“Apprently Mihawk has known he’s been immune since he was a kid.” Maggots added, “It is quite strange. I’ve only ever heard of this type of immunity when I researched Amazon Lily a few years back.”

“Really? Do you think he’s trans?” Mortimer asked.

“Why would he need to be trans?” Dart questioned him back.

“Becasue only women are born on Amazon Lily.” Maggots explained, “They either get pregnant from a magic waterfall they have or they can venture out to get pregnant the old fashioned way. Although, in more recent years, most of them prefer to use the waterfall. Either way, they only give birth to girls. There is a slight possibility of having a boy if you are only half amazonian and have never set foot on the island. So perhaps Mihawk’s grandmother was from Amazon Lily and decided to stay with a man.”

“That’s interesting.” Saoirse commented, “And aren’t they more durable than average? I remember my pod stayed near Amazon Lily sometimes for safety and some of those girls are wickedly strong. I mean I saw a huge tree fall on one and she was fine.”

“Yes, they are quite durable.” Maggots confirmed, “Which is a good trait to have when your society’s hierarchy is built on strength. Whoever is the strongest becomes empress after all.”

“Durability you say? Hm, I wonder…” Dart mumbled to himself.

“What was that?” Mortimer asked.

Dart contemplated replying for a moment before sighing.

“Well the disaster twins and Marie were making bombs the other day on the main deck.” Dart explained, “And a couple of them went off.”

“WHAT?!” Mortimer yelled.

Meanwhile, Ash, Crash, and Marie started sweating in their corner of the room.

~~*~~

Ash, Crash, and Marie were making a mess on the deck with some bomb making supplies. Specifically with paint and glitter they had stashed away from where Mortimer could find it and confiscate it.

They also had some gunpowder bombs that they swore were not active. They were just using them as examples.

Boy were they wrong.

“What the hell are you three doing?!” Dart shouted as he came down from the crows nest.

The three exchanged looks before looking at him.

“Arts and crafts.” They told him.

Dart just rolled his eyes. He was too used to their chaos to be convinced that they were doing anything innocent.

“Okay, no. What are you actually doing?” Dart asked.

“We are making bombs!” Crash excitedly replied.

“Crash! You need to add context. We are making GLITTER and PAINT bombs.” Ash clarified.

“Do you want to join?” Marie asked.

“No I don’t want to join and you three better clean up before Mortimer finds out.” Dart huffed, “Or I’ll tell him myself.”

“Aw, come on!” Crash whined, “Don’t tell Morty.”

“You can’t tell us what to do! You’re not our mom!” Ash exclaimed, “And even if you were, we wouldn’t listen to you anyways!”

“Yeah, you’re not Mortimer either!” Marie added.

Dart raised his brow and then turned around.

“Hey Mortimer!” Dart yelled, “I got something to-”

The hyena mink was then cut off by the trio jumping onto his back.

“Oi! Get off me you brats!” Dart yelled, trying to reach behind himself to get them off his back.

“Never!” The trio shouted.

The four of them struggled as they fought, not noticing that one of the gunpowder bombs was kicked and activated.

“What in the world is going on?” Mihawk asked as he walked out onto the main deck.

He then felt something roll into his boot. Looking down, it was some sort of ball thing. Mihawk bent down and picked it up.

Big mistake.

As soon as he picked it up, it went off, sending him flying into the banister.

The four Gecko Pirates stopped struggling, looked up to see Mihawk lying on the ground, and then rushed over in a panic.

“Oh no! Dart killed Mihawk!” Crash cried.

“How shameful!” Ash dramatically gasped.

“Moria is going to be so sad!” Marie said.

“What?! No I didn’t! You guys are the ones that brought the bombs on board!” Dart yelled.

Unknowing to them, Mihawk was completely fine, his clothes were just a bit singed. Slowly, he sat up and scared the shit out of them.

“Oh my god! You’re alright?!” Crash exclaimed.

“Yes, I am fine.” Mihawk reassured him as he got up from the ground, “Even if that bomb was stronger, I would not have been harmed.”

“Really?!” Ash asked.

“Yes, I am very durable as my friend once said.” Mihawk told him, “Anyways, I am going to change.”

With that, Mihawk turned around and walked back into the bowels of the ship, leaving the four Gecko Pirates completely flabbergasted at how well he was treating being blown up.

Then Dart went back to yelling at the disaster trio.

~~*~~

Mortimer turned to look at the trio with rage.

“What were you thinking?! You could have blown up the ship and then we would have all drowned!” Mortimer yelled.

“Not all of us would die, Lumis would survive!” Ash defended.

“Yeah! So only most of us would drown!” Crash added.

“Besides, the bomb wasn’t that powerful.” Marie told him.

“That doesn’t make it any better!” Mortimer yelled, hitting the three idiots on the head before turning to Dart, “And you! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I did.” Dart nonchalantly told him, “I put it in your stupid little suggestion box.”

“We have a suggestion box?” Shocker asked.

“Yes, I put a notice on the bulletin board in the dining hall.” Mortimer replied, “Didn’t you read it?”

“There’s nothing to read, I took it down.” Rook said.

“What?! Why?!” Mortimer exclaimed, his anger directed at Rook now.

“It’s stupid.” Rook huffed.

“No it’s not!” Mortimer yelled, “It helps create a working community and-”

“Okay, everyone settle down!” Saoirse shouted, “It’s time for me to present my theories!”

The Gecko Pirates grumbled and sighed, but they settled down as Saoirse got out her whiteboard to start writing.

“Thank you. Now, after hearing everything you have said today, I have come up with a couple theories about Mihawk.” Saoirse told them, “First, we have the theory that Mihawk is a vampire. He has glowing eyes, durability, and can see in the dark. That does not work however as we have seen him eat and walk in the sun. Vampires also usually have red eyes, not gold, and he was raised by nuns. So this theory is vetoed.”

So Saoirse crossed out the vampire theory.

“Next, we have the theory that he is a werewolf. Similar to the vampire theory; he has glowing eyes, he can see in the dark, and has durability, but he is as clean shaven as a newborn and doesn’t really eat a lot of meat. So that theory is going out to the bin as well.” Saoirse said as she crossed out that theory too and moved onto the next one, “This next theory is that he is a part of the fae. This one is very flimsy as it only exists because he likes plants and is very pretty. As someone who is a selkie and therefore part of the fae realm, I can say that he is definitely not one.”

So she crossed out that theory too.

“Now for the most probable theory: He is a descendant of a woman from Amazon Lily.” Saoirse told them, “It would explain the durability, his looks, as well as his resistance to poison and venom. This theory doesn’t really work however as the rarity for a man to be born to an Amazonian woman is literally zero-point-zero-one percent. Since he c”

“So basically, you’re saying all of our theories are wrong?” Zora asked.

“Correct.” Saoirse confirmed, “But, I do have some of my own theories to share if you don’t mind.”

The Gecko Pirates sighed and agreed.

“Well my first theory was that he is a demon of some sort, but again he was raised by nuns.” Saoirse said, “So that went out the window pretty quickly.”

“Ha! You think demons exist? That’s ridiculous!” Rook laughed.

“Oh shut up, Rook. You think kitchen gnomes are stealing the sugar!” Saoirse exclaimed.

“Well how else do you explain the sugar going missing?” Rook asked.

“I don’t know, but I know it’s not gnomes.” Saoirse said as she side-eyed Mortimer who wouldn’t look at her before continuing, “Anyways, my more solid theory is that he comes from Mary Geoise.”

“What?!” The crew shouted, “You mean like an escaped slave?!”

“No, I mean like the child of a Celestial Dragon. You know, like Marie.” Saoirse explained, “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. He hates the government, has an unusual aura about him, his durability, and he wields one of the twelve supreme grade swords! Who’s to say that he didn’t leave or try to leave? Maybe they fucked him up as a punishment and that’s why he doesn’t remember anything! I’m sure there is a devil fruit that screws up people’s memories!”

“There is a devil fruit like that.” Maggots confirmed, “It’s called the Memo Memo no Mi. It takes out peoples memories like reels of film so the user can manipulate or even get rid of someone’s memories.”

Marie thought of her father and how he liked to run experiments on the house slaves. As she did so, a distant memory came to her.

When she was about five, she had been wandering around the house and found a lady sitting in a room. She was wrapped in seastone chains and was just staring at a wall as she fiddled with a strange string that she now realised looked like what Maggots was talking about.

She had tried to talk to the woman at the time, but her father caught her and she was locked in her own room for a week without food or water.

Holy shit, maybe Saoirse is onto something! Marie thought, It would certainly explain a lot!

“That theory does have some merit to it, but what about Shanks?” Dart asked, “Mihawk and him seem to go way back.”

“True, so maybe this theory does have some merit.” Erik said, “He could have had his memories wiped as a kid and then was dropped off.”

“Yeah, but why?” Saoirse asked.

“Oh why does any of this matter?!” Lumis sighed, “Mihawk is a nice man! He’s just a bit awkward and unusual, but who isn’t in this crew?! I’m half-fishman, the twins were kicked off their island for wanting laws changed for pro human rights ones, Shocker fell from the sky after being electrocuted, Erik smuggled himself off of Tequila Wolf, Dart is a mink, Zora wants to fight everything, Maggots is named Maggots, Louis XX is a prince that was kicked out for being too handsome, Rook is a disgraced chef that believes in kitchen gnomes, Marie is half Celestial Dragon, Mortimer is obsessed with plants, Moria is some sort of giant, and you’re a selkie, Saoirse!”

The crew all nodded in agreement. They were all strange people and that is what had brought them together: The idea that while they were all weird and a little broken, they fit together to make something beautiful.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Saoirse sighed, “I guess I just wanted to figure him out like a puzzle. You know how it is.”

“We know and we get it.” Maggots reassured her, “Just don’t tell Mihawk or Moria that you were snooping. That goes for everyone else in this room too by the way.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“So, can we go now?” Crash asked, “My ass is starting to hurt!”

“Okay, fine.” Saoirse agreed, “Meeting adjourned.”

As the Gecko Pirates started to file out, Marie snapped out of her daze and quickly walked to her bedroom. Hoping that no one noticed she had tuned out for a couple minutes.

~~*~~

As the Gecko Pirates were wrapping up their meeting, Mihawk was lying in bed next to Moria.

“Moria?” Mihawk whispered, turning to look at the other man.

“Yes, my vampire bat?” Moria mumbled, half asleep and unaware of what he was saying.

“I like your crew and I think they like me too.” Mihawk told him.

“Perfect.” Moria said, cupping the back of Mihawk’s head to softly kiss him, “Now go to sleep, it’s fucking late.”

Mihawk huffed out a laugh and snuggled back into his arms.

Chapter Text

Early April - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - New World

Since they couldn’t stop at Fishman Island and had to take the long way, the Gecko Pirates popped out on the other side of the redline in a little over a week. Everyone was overjoyed to have sunshine and warmth again. Even Mihawk and Moria were glad to have the sun back.

“I think this calls for a barbecue!” Moria declared, “Do we have enough supplies for one, Rook?”

“Of course! I always come prepared!” Rook laughed, before turning to some of the crew, “Oi! Trouble trio! Come help me!”

Marie, Ash, and Crashed looked up from where they were rough housing and looked at him skeptically as they didn’t hear what Moria had said.

“What’s in it for us?” Marie asked.

“Didn’t you hear? We’re having a barbecue!” Rook barked, “Now get your asses over here and help me! I can’t cook if my back is thrown out from carrying all this shit!”

Immediately, the trio’s faces lit up at the mention of food.

“Well why didn’t you say so, old man? Of course we’ll help!” Ash cheered, running after Rook with Marie and Crash following behind him.

As the so-called “disaster” trio “helped” Rook get the stuff he needed for their barbecue, a lot of swearing and bangs were heard.

“Those three are either gonna tear the ship apart or accidentally kill Rook one of these days.” Dart grumbled, shaking his head as he started unfurling the sails.

“Oh stop, they’re just having fun.” Louis XX chided, “You could learn a thing or two from them.”

“What? Let them teach me how to blow the ship up? No thanks.” Dart huffed.

“Well then maybe I can teach you?” Louis XX offered, “I wouldn’t mind!”

He was trying to be flirty, but it just flew over Dart’s head as it always did.

“Hah! You couldn’t teach a rat to find a way out of a wet paper bag!” Dart laughed.

“And you couldn’t pull off high waisted pants if you tried!” Louis XX shouted.

“Oh, I can pull high waisted pants off just fine, I just wouldn’t be the one wearing them.” Dart teased.

Louis XX was about to say something mean, but he paused at hearing Dart say something that wasn’t mean or an order.

“Wait… Was that a joke?!” Louis XX gasped, jumping on Dart’s back and nearly making them both fall overboard, “You do have emotions other than grumpy and demanding! Hey Mortimer! Did you hear what he said?”

Mortimer, who was looking at his clipboard, sighed and nodded. 

“Yes, Louis. I heard.” Mortimer said in monotone as he passed by, “Now stop slacking and get back to work. I’ll need you to start steering us towards Ohara once I figure out where we are.”

Louis XX pouted as Dart threw him off his back and walked away too.

Why oh why did I have to fall for the two most high strung people on this ship? Louis XX thought as he made his way to the steering wheel of the ship, Is it so bad that I want what Zora and Maggots have? Or what Moria has with Mihawk?

Louis XX sighed dramatically and flopped himself onto the steering wheel, just dangling there as he stared at the ocean.

Then out of the corner of his eye, he caught Moria and Mihawk standing by the railing. Well, more like Moria was caging Mihawk against it with his arms while they looked absolutely lovesick at each other.

“Jeez, what’s wrong with you?” Shocker asked, poking him in the shoulder, “You’re looking at the wheel like it personally attacked you.”

“Love sucks!” Louis XX whined, “Seriously, how do I get Mortimer and Dart to look at me like that?!”

Shocker looked to where Louis XX was pointing and rolled their eyes when they saw it was just Moria and Mihawk.

“Maybe dress up like a vampire?” Shocker offered, “Or maybe be less… mean?”

“Mh, no. You know I’m a cottagecore prince amongst punks and goths.” Louis XX huffed, “And I’m not mean, I’m just opinionated. There’s a difference."

“Well, you could be nicer.” Shocker pressed, “Maybe do something nice for them.”

“Like what? We’re miles away from flowers and any shop that has to do with guns.” Louis XX sighed.

“Oh, they like other stuff than guns and plants.” Shocker told him, “How about we do some brainstorming together later, will that make you feel better?”

Louis XX thought about it for a moment and the offer did seem very promising. Shocker was Mortimer’s assistant after all and they had to keep track of everyone’s spending.

“Perhaps if we have macarons too.” Louis XX pouted, trying to look cute.

Rook was very set on following a schedule, but he could be swayed. Especially when a celebration was occurring like today with the barbecue. So maybe good, old responsible Shocker could get Rook to fold.

Thankfully, it worked.

“Fine, just start steering us to the calm belt leading to the West Blue.” Shocker told him, handing him a folded sheet, “Try not to fall asleep.”

Louis XX looked at the map and suddenly realised something.

“Wait, how are we going to cross the calm belt?” Louis XX asked.

“What do you mean?” Shocker questioned him back.

“There’s no wind and all we have are the sails.” Louis XX explained.

“Oh shit!” Shocker exclaimed.

Louis XX then watched Shocker run off, probably to tell their captain about the mild issue. While they were off doing that, he started steering them towards the West Blue.

And, if he was unable to find love by then, he was really hoping a sea king would come to eat him.

~~*~~

Mihawk was looking out at the sea when he felt something press against his back. Turning around, he saw that it was Moria pressing him against the ship’s railing.

“Hello my vampire bat.” Moria said, kissing Mihawk’s forehead, “Have you enjoyed our trip so far?”

“Mhm, I have enjoyed it, my dear.” Mihawk told him, leaning into the other man’s chest, “Although, and I never thought I would say this, but I have missed the sun.”

“Me too.” Moria chuckled, “But I’m sure we’ll get sick of it again by this time next week.”

“Yes, but I bet you will enjoy seeing me shirtless again.” Mihawk said with a smirk, “Or nothing at all. You are quite the space heater in bed.”

Moria’s face went red and he looked away.

“Don’t tease me like that when we can’t go anywhere quiet!” Moria halfheartedly scolded, “I don’t want to mentally scar anyone!”

“Why not?” Mihawk asked, “You can just use that shadow technique you used on me the other night to keep me quiet.”

Mihawk looked to the side to see that Moria had the ship’s railing in a death grip. His hold was so strong, it was making the wood creak.

It was true, after they heard the crew were gathering on the other side of the ship, they had gotten… frisky with each other. It was a miracle no one heard them. But that was where Moria’s shadow vine technique came in handy.

Who knew devil fruit powers could be so useful in bed?

While Mihawk was reminiscing, Moria got his composure back.

“If that’s how you want to play it, how about I throw you over my shoulder and take you back to our room caveman style?” Moria asked, trying to sound suave, “You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

“Oh yes, that would be splendid." Mihawk replied, pulling Moria close by his shirt strings.

They were about to both lean in for a kiss, but Shocker interrupted them.

“Uh, hey. Sorry, but we kind of have a problem.” Shocker awkwardly told them.

Moria let go of the railing and turned around to face his fidgeting crewmate.

“What kind of problem?” Moria asked with a huff.

“Well, um… Louis XX has brought it to our attention that we have no idea how we’re gonna cross the calm belt into the West Blue.” Shocker told him.

Moria stood still for a moment, processing what he had just been told, before letting out a long groan.

“Ah, fuck me!” Moria exclaimed, dragging a hand over his face.

“Later dear, right now we have an issue to solve.” Mihawk said, patting him on the back.

Not only did Moria’s face go red at the insinuation, but Shocker’s face did too once they realised.

“Okayyyyy… I’m- I’m gonna go back to Mortimer.” Shocker said as they slowly backed away, “You guys enjoy yourselves.”

Yeah, Moria was definitely making sure Mihawk couldn’t walk later.

~~*~~

Early April - Shakky’s Rip Off Bar - Sabaody Archipelago

Shanks was joyfully walking, almost skipping, to Shakky’s bar. He was already slightly tipsy even though he had promised Benn that he’d stay sober. They were in Sabaody after all, who knows what could happen here with the marines and celestials so close.

Anyways, he had come to pay a visit to Rayleigh and Shakky before heading to the West Blue. 

But he seems to have caught them at a bad time because the bar was closed and they were fighting.

Shakky was angrily scrubbing a hole into the bar counter as Rayleigh sat at it with his head in his hands.

“I’m telling you, it’s him!” Shakky shouted, throwing the cloth she was using into the sink, “So what if his eyes are a different colour?! They could have done anything to him while we were both captured.”

“Exactly, even if he is our kid, who knows what they did to him. He could be a spy for all we know!” Rayleigh shot back as he was equally as frustrated, “I mean, just look at his sword! That’s one of the twelve Supreme Grade swords for fuck sakes! He could’ve been raised to be a God Knight for all we know!”

Shanks awkwardly stood there in the doorway as the two fought before he just decided to grab stuff from behind the counter himself.

It was only when he grabbed a bottle of whisky and a bottle of tequila, pouring both drinks into one large cup that they paid attention to him.

“Oh, Shanks. We didn’t know you were here.” Shakky quietly said, “How are you?”

Shanks waved his hand in a so-so movement and started chugging his monstrosity of a drink.

Ah, just like my childhood, Shanks thought, Good times, good times.

Then filled the cup again.

“Don’t mind me.” Shanks told them, “I was just passing through and thought I’d stop by to say hello. What are you guys fighting about?”

Shakky and Rayleigh gave each other a look like they were silently fighting. Shakky seemed to be the one to win the argument as Rayleigh let out a tired sigh and gave him a sheet of paper.

“You know how we told you our son was captured and presumed dead?” Rayleigh asked. 

“Yeah, why?” Shanks replied, taking the paper, but not turning it over, “Is it the anniversary of his death?”

“No, he may be alive.” Shakky bluntly told him.

Shanks immediately choked and spit out his drink.

“WHAT?!” Shanks yelled, “How the hell do you know?!”

They didn’t answer, just motioned for him to turn the page he was holding over.

So he did.

“Hey! This is my buddy Mihawk!” Shanks exclaimed, “But I don’t get it. What does he have to do with your- oh…”

“You know him?!” Shakky and Rayleigh asked in surprise.

“Yeah, Buggy and I have been running into him for years.” Shanks told them, “I’ve told you some stories, we called him Hawkeyes.”

Shakky and Rayleigh both backtracked through their memories, slowly realising how close they unknowingly were to their son this whole time.

The son that they had thought was dead.

“If- If he was so close to us… Why didn’t he ever come see us?” Rayleigh quietly asked.

“Well, his friend and him were on the run. That’s why we called him Hawkeyes in the first place.” Shanks explained, “He also doesn’t remember anything from before he was five. He remembers being in a chest on God Valley that his friend got him out of and then the next thing he knew, they were on an island being raised by nuns.”

After saying that last part, Shanks realised how stupid he was.

How the hell did I never realise how similar their stories are?! Shanks thought, Their kid goes missing a year before the incident and then Mihawk is there in a chest? Not to mention how similar he looks to them. Well, Shakky at least. All he got from Rayleigh is his sword skills. 

“He really doesn’t remember us? Anything? God, what did they do to him up there?!” Shakky cried.

Rayleigh stood up and walked behind the counter to hold her as she sobbed.

“Does he have a small, gold dagger with him?” Rayleigh asked, “One on a chain? That looks like a cross with his name and birthday engraved on it?”

“He used to.” Shanks replied, shrugging, “But he gave it up to save his friend from some marines when they came to kill the nuns.”

Rayleigh’s eyes widened for a moment before going back to his original pinched expression.

“Where did he get his sword from?” Rayleigh questioned him.

“Said he stole it from some rich bastard’s grave.” Shanks said, giving him a small smile, “His words not mine. He also said that it was a sword befitting the world’s greatest swordsman.”

“Well that explains the grave robbing charge on his wanted poster.” Rayleigh huffed, “And I can see why he kills marines.”

“He always did like watching you train with Roger.” Shakky remarked, letting out a wet chuckle, “And who is this friend of his? It can’t be Moria because they seem like more than friends.”

“Oh yeah, Mihawk fished Moria out of a storm and they started dating.” Shanks laughed, “But his friend’s name is Crocodile.”

After hearing that name, Shakky and Rayleigh looked like they had both been shot.

“That- That little bastard!” Shakky screamed, “We asked him if he knew anything and he looked at us right in the eye, telling us he knew nothing!”

Ah, that’s not good, Shanks thought as he went back to drinking his whiskey amd tequila mixture, Good thing we have alcohol then.

It was going to be a long night.

One fuelled by homicidal rage of the parental kind by the looks of it.

Chapter Text

Early April - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - West Blue

After much bickering, blaming, and calling each other idiots, the Gecko Pirates were finally able to formulate a plan. 

Which was for them to travel at night when they went through the calm belt to the West Blue. They were already quite close as they had been sailing along the red line underwater and had popped up just out of sight of the G-5 marine base. 

So they enjoyed their barbecue and set their plan into motion once the sun set.

Now, you may be asking yourself: Why would they choose to travel at night? How would that solve the lack of wind for their sails?

Well Moria was going to use his devil fruit to create a giant shadow bat that could pull the ship through the calm belt, but he couldn’t do it during the day. Or not efficiently at least.

The journey to Ohara would already take close to sixteen days, so they could use all the time saving they could.

Thankfully, they didn’t run into many sea kings. Not after Mihawk killed the first one that tried to capsize their ship. But hey, at least they got lots of food for the journey out of their near death experience. 

Once they were past the calm belt, they travelled east along the edge of the Llisia Kingdom so they could then travel down to Ohara. 

Besides a couple of storms they got caught in, nothing interesting happened.

Until they saw an armada of marine ships that is.

~~*~~

On their thirteenth day of sailing in the new world, a marine armada was spotted.

It was during Lumis and Zora’s nightwatch shift when they saw the lights of marine ships in the distance and quickly, but quietly, woke everybody up after putting out all of the Midnight Destroyer’s lights.

The crew then gathered on the deck with the moonlight as their only light source.

“What the fuck is going on?” Moria grumbled as he walked onto the deck in just his pajama pants and boots, “It’s past midnight for crying out loud!”

Behind him, a sleepy Mihawk trailed behind him, rubbing his eyes and holding onto the waist of Moria’s pants. He was just wearing his boots with a shirt that was obviously Moria’s and went down to his knees. 

Everyone tried very hard not to look at the hickies and bite marks on Mihawk’s chest. 

But it was hard not to as they were large and stood out against his pale skin.

At least Mihawk was too tired to notice or he didn’t make a fuss about the staring.

“There’s marine ships heading our way.” Lumis told Moria, “I can’t make out how many, but it’s definitely more than ten, must be the ships that took all the ship coaters in Sabaody. If we keep our lights extinguished, we should be able to skirt around them.”

“Shit, why the fuck are they all the way out here?” Moria questioned, “There’s hardly any islands on this side of the red line and most of them are in between the calm belts.”

“And those islands are mostly controlled by Big Mom with her many accidents.” Dart huffed.

“Don’t call her children accidents, Dart!” Saoirse scolded, slapping the minx’s arm, “It’s rude.”

“Sorry.” Dart said, sounding sincere, “I meant Big Mom’s many investment plans and pawns.”

That earned him another slap on the arm from Saoirse.

“Okay, stop hitting him and stop being rude.” Mortimer chided before turning back to everyone else, “But I agree, it is strange to see that many ships out here. The only thing in that direction is the country of Kano and… Ohara.”

Mortimer went silent after he trailed off at the end of his sentence and everyone gave him a concerned look.

“What is it Mortimer? Do you know something?” Maggots asked.

“No. I don’t know anything, but…” Mortimer looked like he was trying to work something out before he started speaking again, “But we all know that the government never liked people that could read poneglyphs. So maybe they…”

“Finally exterminated them?” Zora finished, “It certainly wouldn’t be the first time the world government got rid of people they don’t like or they perceive as threats. Just look at what is currently happening in the South Blue. They’re killing hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents over a baby they’re not even sure exists.”

Marie nervously shifted at hearing that last part, thinking of her son and hoping that he was safe. That old feeling of guilt creeped up on her, but she immediately squished it back down by reminding herself that a newborn would have never survived on a pirate ship.

“They also sent Admiral Akainu, so it must be an incredibly violent mission.” Mihawk chimed in, finally awake enough for conversation.

Everyone turned to give him a surprised look.

“How do you know Akainu is with them?” Shocker asked.

“Well, when I arrived at Sabaody ahead of you, I went to a bar and there were a lot of marines there.” Mihawk explained, “One particular marine was complaining about Akainu. So if these are the marines from Sabaody, they are on a mission of death and destruction. I apologise for not mentioning it beforehand, I just thought they had to go deal with one of the emperors causing a ruckus.”

The whole crew let out a string of curses.

“Fuck! Why can’t they just mind their own business!” Moria groaned, running a hand through his hair, “I hope it was just one of the emperors!”

“Yeah, otherwise this trip would be for nothing!” Dart huffed.

“It’s also such a waste of life, nobody deserves a buster call.” Rook sighed, shaking his head, “I remember hearing about God Valley from one of its survivors, that was brutal.”

“Not to mention all the knowledge that would be lost if Ohara is destroyed.” Saoirse said, already mourning the loss, “All those years of work and knowledge, obliterated in seconds.”

“That’s probably what they want.” Erik pointed out, “The world government wants people to stay illinformed and stupid. Makes it easier to control the populace when they follow you like lambs to the slaughter.”

“Or like frogs in boiling water.” Ash added, Crash nodding in agreement with his brother.

“This is truly terrible.” Louis XX, “I would say I can’t believe that they would murder children, but we all know better than that.”

It was silent as everyone nodded along in agreement.

This time, Marie’s nervous fidgeting at the mention of children dying was noticed. Mortimer had seen her move out of the corner of his eye and shot her a concerned look.

Marie just shook her head and mouthed “later”.

“Okay, here’s what we're going to do.” Moria said, having already formulated a plan, “We are going to remain optimistic and just keep out of their line of sight. Do not turn on any lights unless you are in a room with no windows. Got it?”

“Got it.” The crew answered. 

“Good, I’ll take the next shift then.” Moria stated, “Mortimer and Marie, you two stay with me. Everyone else can go to bed.”

The crew sleepily shuffled away to the stairs leading below deck, hoping to be able to fall asleep after the scare.

“Do you want me to stay too?” Mihawk quietly asked.

“No, you go to bed and rest.” Moria told him, cradling Mihawk’s face in his hands, “You’ve been having a lot of nightmares lately, I want you to rest.”

“Are you sure?” Mihawk questioned.

“Yes, now go.” Moria gently urged, kissing Mihawk’s forehead.

Mihawk let out a sigh and gave him a small, tired smile before he went back to bed.

“He’s been having nightmares?” Mortimer asked, concerned for his newfound plant enthusiast buddy.

“Yeah, the closer we get to Ohara, the more he has them.” Moria explained, “He’s been dreaming about some pretty nasty things.”

Mortimer and Marie just nodded their heads in understanding.

“Now what’s eating you?” Mortimer asked, turning to Marie, “You look paler than normal.”

Marie was standing by the ship’s railing with her arms wrapped around her, staring at the marine ships in the distance.

“It- It’s nothing.” Marie sighed, “All that talk about kids and babies dying just got me thinking about Kid.”

Mortimer and Moria shared a concerned look with each other. They were worried that Marie might be slipping back into the depressive state she had been in when she left her son with Mz. Eustass Blair.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” Moria tried to reassure her, “Blair is a smart woman.”

“Yeah, she won’t let anything happen to him.” Mortimer added, “She’s tough and won’t let any marine push her around.”

“I- I know.” Marie agreed, “I just worry sometimes still.”

“And that’s okay.” Mortimer told her, “Normal even.”

Marie didn’t say anything; just gave an unsure hum in response.

Moria and Mortimer shot each other another look, before going to steer the ship away from the marines.

{Mortimer and Moria were correct in saying that Eustass Blair was intelligent, but her intelligence couldn’t save her from the inherited illness she was just diagnosed with. Which would cause her to slowly wither away in the coming years.}

~~*~~

They were able to safely pass by the marine armada in the night and stay on course to Ohara.

Or what was left of it at least.

They had arrived just as the sun was rising, causing the Gecko Pirates to be unable to tell the difference between the smoke of Ohara’s smoldering remains and the new morning sky.

The entire surface of the island was ablaze with fire and lava. The great tree that had once stood in the middle of the island had collapsed onto its side.

There was no sign of survivors.

“THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!” Moria roared, slamming his fist onto the railing of the ship as he stared angrily at the destruction.

The rest of the Gecko Pirates also stared at the raging fires with various expressions of anger, devastation, and fear.

Mihawk on the other hand expressed nothing. On the outside, he stared unblinking at the island with a blank expression. On the inside however, he was panicking.

This is just like how I remember God Valley, Mihawk thought, But somehow worse. I don’t remember lava, that must be the work of Akainu. I wonder how many bodies are trapped under all that fire.

They would learn this later when they got the newspaper, but their ship was actually floating over the mass grave that was the ship carrying all of Ohara’s civilians when Akainu sank it just the day before.

Chapter Text

Early April - Gecko Pirate’s Ship - West Blue

The next day, they held a small memorial service for the smoldering remains of Ohara and its people.

Shocker was the one who led it as they were the only one on the crew that knew how to hold a proper funeral.

Not that it was much of a funeral. 

After that, the Gecko Pirates were left with an invisible dark cloud hanging over their heads and questions of “what if”.

What if they had left earlier?

What if they had been able to find a ship coater faster?

What if they had just gone through Fishman Island?

Could they have helped? If they were here earlier, could they have stopped it? Saved some people?

What if? What if? WHAT IF?!

But it didn’t matter anymore, now did it?

Ohara was gone and all of the knowledge it held was burned to ash.

Never to be recovered.

The Midnight Destroyer felt like a ghost ship with how depressed everyone was as they sailed away towards Toroa Island.

There had been discussions of sticking around and waiting for the fires to die down so they could try to bury anyone that was left, but they ended up deciding that it was best to move on in case the marines came back.

~~*~~

[Mihawk didn’t know where he was.

Everything was all bright, white lights and clinically clean walls. The harsh smell of disinfectant seeping into everything.

Mihawk realised that he was laying down on something. A table?

He tried to move and look around, but he couldn’t move.

They had his head, neck, and limbs in cuffs welded to the table, forcing him to look up into the lights above him.

Trying to break them was no use as he was too weak. Too… small?

Suddenly, he realised that he was child sized and had no shirt on.

He was far too young to be able to defend himself and that made him panic.

Mihawk tried to wreath himself from the shackles, but it was no use.

Then the men in masks appeared above him, looking at him as if he was some sort of strange creature they had just discovered.

“He is quite the unique specimen isn’t he, doctor?” One of the men said.

“Hm, indeed he is.” The doctor nodded, “Truely one of a kind.”

Oh, those men were wearing scrubs, not masks, but why was Mihawk here? Why was he in the hospital?

Why wasn’t he home? With his mommy?

His daddy was supposed to return home from sea soon and Mihawk wanted to show him that he learned some really cool sword moves. He’d been practicing all week!

Wait, what day was it? Was it even still-

A sharp metallic clicking sound broke Mihawk out of his thoughts.

“All right, let us begin the experiment zero-one-twelve on subject nine-twenty.” The doctor coldly stated as if Mihawk wasn’t even there.

“Yes sir.” The assistant said in an equally cold tone.

Mihawk refocused on the two men above him and started panicking again as the assistant slowly lowered a huge needle towards his left eye.

He tried to break free once again, but it was no use.

The needle got lower, and lower, and then-]

~~*~~

Mihawk suddenly woke up with a gasp and in a cold sweat.

Shaking, he brought his left hand up to feel around his left eye.

Nothing.

Mihawk heaved out a deep sigh of relief and brought his legs up to his chest, sitting leaned up against the wall.

He tried to calm himself down, but these awful dreams he has been having were starting to be too much.

Mihawk has had nightmares of his past before, but never like this.

The ones he has been having lately all feel too real. He figured that these dreams may be old memories popping up from some part of himself that was repressed or amnesic.

He didn’t like feeling scared, it’s why he trained so hard to be the best swordsman in the world after all.

Mihawk never wanted to be that defenseless child running from fires and having to rely on his friend who was only slightly older than him.

This is getting ridiculous, Mihawk thought, And why is it all coming back now? Did I somehow instinctively know what was going to happen? No, that is not logical at all. But-

A hand tugged on the back of his shirt and Mihawk whipped around, ready to strike, but he calmed down once he saw that it was just Moria.

“Was it God Valley or the attack on the church?” Moria asked, referring to the dreams Mihawk previously had.

“Neither, it was the doctors again.” Mihawk whispered.

Moria let out a tired hum and sat up against the headboard before he pulled the smaller man into his lap. Mihawk warped his arms around Moria’s chest and leaned his head on his chest.

Moria gently wiped the tears Mihawk didn’t know he was crying and started to rub circles into his back.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Moria asked.

That was something he had asked every time Mihawk’s nightmares had woken him up. He always felt bad about waking him, so he always told Moria no.

But it was starting to get to be too much for him to handle on his own.

“Yes, I would like to talk about it.” Mihawk quietly replied.

Moria pretended to be surprised, but Mihawk saw and moved so he was looking at him.

“I- I do not know why I am dreaming of such things now.” Mihawk stated, “I fear that they may be repressed memories and that makes me scared.”

Moria knew that it took a lot for Mihawk to admit that he was scared, but due to how he’s been the past couple of nights and what he has been dreaming about, Moria wasn’t surprised that he was scared.

From how Mihawk described his dreams, it sounded like he was tortured at some point in his childhood. It must have happened before the God Valley incident if they were to try and line Mihawk’s dreams up chronologically.

The only question was: Who did it and why?

Mihawk had been hoping the answers to his questions would be answered in the Oharan library, but… that wasn’t much help now, was it?

“It’s okay, Mihawk.” Moria told him, “We will find another way to answer your questions.”

“How? Ohara was the only place that could possibly have any information about God Valley.” Mihawk huffed, “Besides, it does not matter anymore. It was just a stupid child’s dream; a ship going nowhere fast.”

Mihawk felt Moria move his face so he was looking at him.

“You can give up if you want, but then I’ll just find the answers for you because I know it’s important to you.” Moria told him, “And history books aren’t the only place we can get information about God Valley. There were rumoured to be around five hundred survivors.”

Well now Mihawk felt stupid.

Why did I give up so easily? Was it because I just saw a similar island in flames? MIhawk thought, But I am such an idiot. Of course Crocodile and I are not the only survivors.

Moria must have realised what he was thinking because he tilted his head and smiled at him.

“You didn’t think about that, did you?” Moria asked.

“Shut up, I have not slept properly in days.” Mihawk replied, tucking his head back into Moria’s neck, “And I am not well after seeing… Ohara on fire.”

Moria’s smile turned from playful to sad as he hugged Mihawk closer.

“I know.” Moria sighed, “Makes me wonder what the papers are going to say about it.”

“If there is any report on it.” Mihawk glumly added.

“Yeah, but that’s tomorrow.” Moria firmly told him, “Tonight, you are sleeping for more than three hours.”

Before Mihawk could protest, Moria flipped them so that Mihawk was lying down on his back with Moria curled around him.

“Now get some sleep.” Moria whispered while nuzzling into his hair.

Mihawk gave a small hum in response and tried not to think about all his problems. He fell asleep into a peaceful slumber; glad that he had someone he could genuinely depend on rather than having to solve all his problems on his own.

~~*~~

Moria and Mihawk did indeed get enough sleep; waking up well past noon.

Once they got up and dressed, they made their way up to the main deck.

Where they were quite surprised to find the rest of the crew in an excited chatter.

“What’s going on?” Moria asked, “Why are you all so happy?”

“There’s a survivor!” Mortimer shouted, thrusting the newspaper he was holding into his captain’s hands.

Sure enough, there was a picture of a young girl on the front.

The title read:

Devil Child Nico Robin - Age 8 - Wanted Dead for ฿79,000,000

“My god, there is a survivor.” Mihawk murmured next to Moria, staring at the photo in wonder.

And the government had put the child’s head on the chopping block.