It’s been three months since Zoro had lost an eye. Nine months in total since he’s moved in. His eye had healed incredibly quick and the cut had scarred over leaving a gnarly scar over his left eye. You felt the need to point out on numerous occasions that the scar he bared reminded you of Silvers Rayleigh of whom wore the same exact scar on his opposite eye. And with that, Zoro had earned the nickname of Old Man and he didn’t mind much of it at all. It was better than some names he had once been referred to not so long ago. Plus it was a nickname from you, more of a reason to like it.

Besides being an ‘old man’, Zoro had been excelling in his training. Mihawk wasn’t a man to be all so easily amazed, well Zoro had accomplished just that. Zoro was an excellent student learning new techniques at such a quick rate. One notable fact was that losing his eye must’ve been a wake up call, distractions weren’t really a problem anymore, mainly because you were the distraction. And so you remained in sword form during any and all training sessions in which you took part. Zoro was what you’d liked to call a predator in combat. His steel gazed honed in on the enemy like they were his prey, his attacks were backed up with the strength of a thousand men, he’d strike with silence and kill you the second you become distracted. Zoro was the perfect embodiment of a tiger who remained king of the jungle to this very day which was true remarking that Zoro had defeated every enemy this island had to offer besides Mihawk himself.

You’ve never found a man so phenomenal in all your years.

Today’s training session was all over the place… Literally. Zoro was bouncing off the walls, doing somersaults, and thrown through windows. This fight was outside and it moved inside. Mihawk and Zoro were destroying the place and all you had to do was sit back and relax in your sword form as Mihawk protected himself. All of Zoro’s attacks didn’t do you any harm in this form and it quite frankly felt like a carnival ride being whipped around and such.

“Hey howdy hey!” Everyone heard and shot their heads in the direction of the call. There stood a man with red hair and three scars that ran over his left eye, another man with pale blue hair smoking a cigar to his right.

Shanks! You cheered transforming back into your human form and ran arms outstretched for the man with one arm. Quite immature of yourself to run at him like a child, but he’s one of your most favorite people in the world and it’s been years since the last time you both had the chance to see each other let alone talk. Shanks clearly didn’t mind as you knocked into him and he gladly returned the hug the best he could with one arm.

“Nice to see you again too,” Shanks spoke into the hug.

“I knew Shanks meant a lot to her but wow,” Zoro sheathed his swords and leaned back into the wall taking in the sight.

“Again… For it seems to slip your mind,” Mihawk groaned. “Red Hair is another fatherly figure in her life besides myself,” Mihawk was clearly distressed at Shanks’ presence. His mood will surely affect everyone within the mansion.

“I never forgot about that,” Zoro glared at Mihawk. “I’ve been here for almost a year-”

“Nine months,” Mihawk correct.

A vein bulged in Zoro’s forehead. “Close enough…” Zoro lets out a deep breath to retain his cool. “Nine months, I pay attention to (Y/n) enough to know that… Out of my nine months though… I’ve never seen (Y/n) act so young.”

“Is that really a bad thing?” Mihawk noted. “It’s quite hard getting (Y/n) out of her shell.”

“Well before now she’d always be a snobbish pain in the ass like you.”

“Say that again and you’ll be sleeping with the monkeys…” Mihawk threatened his apprentice.

“I’ll beat them up like I did last time,” Zoro snickered.

You pulled back of the hug, looking up at Shanks’ orbs of green. “What brought you here?” You questioned. “Not like you being here is a bad thing!” You corrected yourself with a squirmish clammer.

“I got your note,” Shanks pulled the yellowed parchment from behind his back out of thin air like magic.

“You asked him to come here?” Mihawk growled.

“N-no I didn’t!” You saw the anger in your father’s eyes and you wanted to run for the hills. “Besides I sent that note months ago...”

“Cool it Hawkeyes… I came here all on my own,” Shanks pocketed his letter.

“Still… What’s with the sudden appearance?” Zoro asked.

“What, I can’t drop in and say hi to my favorite girl?” You giggled hearing Shanks’ flirtatious ways of making an awkward moment real again. “Speaking of favorite-” Shanks turned to his first mate Benn of whom held a large sac of burlap. “This entire loot is yours… Came across a steal at the last port and remembered your letter… Say Hawkeyes what am I hearing about you being too occupied to pay attention to your daughter?” Everyone turned to glance at Mihawk of whom looked embarrassed beyond belief which definitely was a foreign sight.

“(Y/n) just needs to realize that I can’t give her my full attention every second of the day,” Mihawk tuts and leaves the room quite quickly.

“Salty,” Perona tuts. “Even for a man like him.”

“He is sort’ve right though,” Shanks admits rubbing the back of his neck. “Mihawk is your dad yes, but you can’t be the center of attention all the time (Y/n).”

“The only reason why I said that in the note is because he literally spends half of the day reading and the other half training Mr. Mosshead over there,” you pout pointing at Zoro secretly.

“H-Hey!” Zoro barked. “I already have that Shitty Love Cook calling me that and I don’t need you calling me that too!”

“Cool it all of you,” Shanks chuckled. “(Y/n) is just too used to the attention being an only child and practically living alone with him. So everyone is to blame here,” Shanks nudged Benn and he happily handed you the sack of gifts. You peeked into the bag and to your delight it was a sack of books and music records.

“Thank you!” You hugged Shanks and Benn together, squishing them together by their sides. “Hey Zoro!”

“Yeah,” Zoro turned to you, still fuming about the name calling.

“Is that offer to be my dance partner still open?” You asked with difficulty pausing every other word and turning away to avoid meeting his gaze.

“I offered to dance almost a year ago,” Zoro found it surprising that you let alone himself could remember something so minor from that far back.

“I’ll take that as a no-”

“Nah I’ll dance with you,” you perked up immediately upon hearing Zoro’s words. You seriously expected him to say something to turn you down especially since he doesn’t come off as the dancing type to begin with. Looks like you assumed wrong.

“Nice…” Your voice trailed off as you turned away even more. “I’ll be in my room looking over some of the new records, be back soon,” you ran off down the nearest hallway and everyone within the room had caught a whiff of your shyness in the purest form possible.

“That girl is all over the place,” Zoro spoke his mind.

“She’s really broken out of that shell of hers though,” Shanks chuckled. “I remember a time when (Y/n) would hide behind my legs whenever somebody would talk to her,” now that was a memory from WAY back. More than ten years ago to be exact.

“You sound like an old man,” Zoro snickered transferring his nickname to someone more deserving.

“Forget me, you must be Luffy’s first mate,” Shanks stroked his chin.

“That’s me,” Zoro couldn’t care less.

“I knew Hawkeyes had a Disciple… But I had no clue that person was you.”

“I don’t see why that’s so important,” again… Zoro wasn’t really interested in the matter. Until he thought back to Shanks’ relationship with you, an entire barrage of questions had flooded Zoro’s normally empty mindspace.

“Just wanted to start some small talk,” Shanks finally got the hint that Zoro wasn’t much of a talker and headed towards what Zoro had recognized as the kitchen (because you had to make more arrows that led him to the kitchen) Zoro followed Shanks to the kitchen in silence where the man of red stood before a wall of wine and sake Mihawk had collected from islands all over the world, carefully examining the wall for a prize. “You have a question for me… Don’t you?” Shanks grinned softly, taking a bottle of aged wine from the cascading wall. If a man starts following you with a thick silence to follow, you know he had a question or action to pull through upon.

“I do,” Zoro groaned and thought about lying to cover up his real question realizing this was all probably a really bad idea to ask. “I guess I’ll be straight up… I heard from Mihawk that you’re a flirt… Well I like (Y/n).”

“Coming to me for lady advice?” Shanks smirked.

“Looks to be so,” the same vein from before began to pop from Zoro’s forehead.

“I would tell you everything I know,” Shank sat down his wine bottle upon a nearby counter with a shy chuckle resting a hand upon Zoro’s shoulder. “But you don’t need any help in my eyes.”

“Thanks for the advice…” Zoro rolled his eye and began to walk off.

“I meant it Zoro,” Shanks sang.

“Then tell me why you can’t help!” Zoro growled stomping back into the room.

“Don’t you realize that you practically have (Y/n) wrapped around your finger? I can see it in the way she looks at you, talks to you, how (Y/n) submits to her feelings and lets her body do the talking whenever you simply talk to her… She’s a girl in love,” Zoro just realized that he even pointed out your weird behavior just moments before and he never conveyed it the way Shanks had claimed before now.

“There’s reasons why I’m not considered one of the smartest on my own crew.”

“At least you understand,” Shanks pats Zoro on the back. “Either be straight up or throw settle hints towards the gal. Play your cards right and you might even get her in bed.”

“Thanks…” Zoro didn’t want that last piece of information just to let his mind go adrift and think that Shanks might not even be wrong. “Don’t you feel weird setting me up with your daughter?” Zoro thought up.

“It is true, I do view (Y/n) as a daughter in my eyes,” Shanks hummed. “But you’re a good man Zoro,” Shanks dug through his pocket and slipped a sheet of paper into Zoro’s hand. “I don’t think you realize just how head over heels she is for you~” Shanks went ahead and left with his prized bottle of wine at hands with echoing footsteps down the hallway.

Zoro looked down at his hands to the crumpled piece of parchment, it was your letter addressed to Shanks from months back. Zoro cocked a brow and proceeded to open the letter, the first paragraph was you talking about how bored you were and the growing space you felt between yourself and your father. The rest was about how much you admired Zoro.

“And break the bond between me and Mihawk as a weapon… I’m tired of being used and living a life behind the walls of this mansion, I want to travel with someone I know enjoys my company. Shanks, is it wrong that I’d love to be Zoro’s sword and travel the world with him?” Zoro found himself smiling, pocketing the letter.