Goodbye

Luffy was utterly amazed and delighted by Going Merry's rescue of him and his nakama from Enies Lobby, for all he couldn't see Usopp anywhere despite it being his ship now. He was utterly exhausted though, though Fox' hugging him in delight had healed him enough to move just a little. He had been given his hat back by Robin and was sitting on Chopper's shoulders enjoying the sway of the Merry as a Gallery-La ship approached from the direction of Water Seven.

Then Merry's prow came loose, the whole foredeck canting forwards into the sea.

"Hey, what's going on all of a sudden?!" Luffy demanded to know.

"This is not 'all of a sudden', this is expected!" Sanji said with a scowl. "They did say Merry cannot go any further. You haven't forgotten about that, have you?"

Luffy immediately turned to Iceberg on the Gallery-La ship and begged him to do something for Merry; she had just saved them! But the bandaged man just looked down at him with an odd expression and said:

"Then let her sleep already! We've done all we possibly can." The mayor of Water Seven smiled. "I'm seeing a miracle right now, a miracle from a ship that reached its limit long ago. I've been a shipwright for many, many years yet I've never seen such an amazing pirate ship. It lived a very admirable life."

Luffy bowed his head for a moment before glancing back at Fox, who was leaning against the mast with the kind of silly smile on her face he had only ever seen before on mothers fussing over their babies. In spite of that however there were tears were trickling down from behind her glasses. Luffy closed his eyes; Merry was done and it was time to let her rest.

Fox set aside her glasses and bandannas for Merry's funeral, though she kept Ace' hat clutched to her chest as her hair drifted freely in the wind. She stood between Nami and Zoro on the longboat from the Gallery-La ship while Luffy was in a little rowboat with a burning brand to set to rest the little ship that had carried them all so far. Fox knew this was going to hurt; she would probably be completely useless tomorrow. But Merry deserved a good send-off and Fox had poured enough of herself into the willing caravel for it to be almost sentient, so the white-haired woman could not let herself miss this last goodbye.

"Thank-you for carrying us all this time, Merry," Luffy said as the flames licked up the side of the ship and reached the rigging. Fox swayed like a drunk as fire consumed the going Merry and it started to sink lower in the water; she felt like an over-tightened musical instrument, one with strings so tight it was only a matter of time until they–

I'm sorry.

–snapped.

None of the Straw-Hats noticed the quiet thud as Fox passed out in the bottom of the longboat, their attention caught by Merry's last goodbye. Only afterwards, when the dying ship had vanished completely under water, did Zoro notice what had happened and cause a minor commotion when she didn't respond at all to him. It took Chopper a long time to get through to the swordsman that Fox was just overstressed and would be fine in a day or two.

Zoro had shocked the rest of the crew –and pretty much everyone else– by crawling into bed with an unconscious Fox as soon as they returned from Enies Lobby and refusing to let go of her until she woke up again; Fox shocked them all over again by dragging the swordsman into the bathroom with her upon waking and locking them both in together. Nami had tried to tell Fox that you weren't supposed to behave like that but the white-haired woman had told the navigator to mind her own business. Sanji just shook his head at her poor taste in men and made her more food; Fox had known she liked him for a reason. Luffy, being dead to the world still, had said nothing, but Robin seemed amused and Chopper just accepted it.

After waking up Fox made herself scarce for a little while, tracking down Swift Hunter for a change of clothes and finishing off the letters that had been put on hold due to events unravelling. She then returned to the temporary housing the Gallery-La people had built them and lurked quietly, not wanting to be sociable right now. She had to sort through the people she had killed and make a suitable memorial to them, be it a something grand or just a token, to put them to rest. Sanji and Nami sensed her reticence and let her be, other than the chef making a point of putting more food in front of her whenever she emptied a plate of snacks. Zoro was also quiet, having lost Yubashiri to a Devil Fruit User who had rusted the blade away almost completely.

When Fox stripped to her underwear and crawled into bed with Zoro again on the second night after the battle the rest of the crew gave up protesting as a lost cause and did their best to adjust; Nami seemed to be having the most difficulty. It was not a surprise really then when, on the third morning after the battle, the navigator was the one to break down and start asking questions.

"How old are you, Fox?" the redhead inquired over breakfast. Fox glanced up from her meal:

"Twenty-one."

There was a collective double-take.

"You're two years older than me," Zoro noted mildly. "You don't look it."

Fox shrugged. "I've been more or less on my own on the Grand Line since I was fifteen; my age isn't really all that relevant to me anymore."

"So, why Zoro?" Nami persisted. Fox frowned.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing!" the navigator backtracked, waving her hands. "I just want to know what you see."

Fox glanced sideways at the green-haired swordsman, who was now acting like he had gone deaf and had no idea what was being discussed.

"You mean other than the gorgeous looks and killer physique, right?" she said wickedly.

Said swordsman quickly hid his face behind a fresh plate of food as everyone else at the table choked.

"Y-yeah, other than that," Nami agreed weakly, staring at Zoro like she'd never seen him before; Sanji buried his face in his hands and whined about the injustice of the marino catching himself a besotted mermaid.

Fox tapped her fork thoughtfully against her lips. "He's completely trustworthy, a truly talented swordsman, very level-headed, a born killer, utterly dedicated to his goals while refusing to compromise his morals, kind, perceptive and has a fun sense of humour. Does that cover enough ground for you?"

Zoro was still acting like he was stone deaf and the rest of the table was staring at them both.

"Him being a born killer is a good thing?" Robin inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we match," Fox pointed out with a wry smile, "and it keeps me from worrying about him as I know he's not just going to roll over and let someone kill him."

"Marimo has a sense of humour?" Sanji muttered. "Where does he keep it?"

"Dumbass cook," Zoro muttered darkly, leaning over to kiss Fox on the cheek before getting up from the table and leaving the room.

"Why does his being a swordsman matter to you?" Robin asked, picking up the interrogation again.

Fox smirked. "I've learnt over the years that I am a total sucker for brilliant swordsmen and Ds. Practically nobody else ever makes the cut; a product of my upbringing I suppose."

There was a pause, until Sanji asked:

"Who raised you?"

Fox eyed him over her drink. "Both my parents for the first four years of my life. After that my mother and her friends, though my father visited me regularly, as did those of his acquaintances he trusted enough to introduce me to." She paused. "I met more pirates through my mother than through my father; she runs a very good teahouse."

"Is that where you learnt those songs?" Nami asked.

Fox' lips twitched. "Ah, the songs. My father was very strict about not exposing me to, hm, anything inappropriate for a little girl, but found it a rather limiting repertoire for entertaining an energetic child while at sea so he acquired a lot of rather original material over the years. I know a lot of love songs, drinking songs, sea shanties and such but very few nursery rhymes as neither of my parents were really the nursery rhyme sort of person." She grinned. "Of course living as I did I couldn't avoid hearing a bit of inappropriate stuff, but I didn't understand most of it until I was old enough to get the jokes."

Robin smiled, possibly at the mental picture the white-haired woman's words had painted.

"How strong are you?" Chopper asked. Fox glanced around the table.

"Strong enough to kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat," she said frankly; "A number of powerful captains have asked me to join their crews in the past. I can take care of myself well enough."

There was a silence as the rest of the Straw-Hats let her statement settle a bit. "So why did you join Luffy?" Robin asked.

Fox smiled sweetly. "Like I told Ace, Luffy is going places and I want to be there. Besides, the captain's a D and I have a soft spot for Ds. The way they twist reality around themselves completely fascinates me."

"Twist reality?" Nami repeated, confused. "D? Is this about the weird initial Luffy has that Ace had too?"

Fox chuckled. "You'll learn. Where the Will of D is concerned you've either got to go big or go home." With that she got up and wandered outside, leaving the other four conscious Straw-Hats to their thoughts.

A little more is shared.