Talk

Fox recovered first.

"Mother, could you leave us please? I'd rather have this discussion in private." Pearl left, quietly closing the door and locking it behind her.

"Zoro?" The swordsman stared at her, emotions cycling through shock, denial, fear and something that might possibly have been awe if it had stuck around for long enough.

"Are you?" he croaked. Fox paused, gazing into herself and automatically cataloguing her body and its functions. There: a tiny, fluttering spark of new life, one she had completely overlooked due to Zoro's much larger presence on her personal radar.

"Yes; I'd put the exact time at the middle of the week before Thriller Bark. What with healing you and recovering from the merge I totally overlooked it."

"So it's my fault?!" Zoro was frightened and trying to pick a fight, Fox could tell, but that didn't stop his angry, accusatory tone from hurting.

"Children are never anyone's fault," she gritted out. "Children are a gift and a blessing and should be loved, protected and cherished. I would love to raise this child with you but I recognise that your dream is important and I'm not going to be in any fit state to fight alongside you for well over a year." It hurt to say it, hell it hurt to even think it, but she could raise her baby without Zoro's help. She had the friends, the funds and the connections to do so.

"Like hell I'd let anyone raise my child but me!" the swordsman exploded, lunging at her and holding her tight. "We'll manage," he pleaded. "You're way stronger than me: I can see it even though you try not to show it and being pregnant won't slow you down that much. I'll train harder and Luffy will be delighted by the idea of having a kid on board; he's dumb like that. Please, don't go!" The last bit was little more than a whispered entreaty borne on a wave of misery and panic.

Fox hugged him back, holding as tight as she dared while tears dribbled out of screwed-up eyes. "Love you," she breathed. "Love you so, so much."

The swordsman's hand drifted down to hover over her belly. "You're going to have a baby," he murmured, the awe having returned so strongly it made her dizzy. "My baby. I'm going to be a father." He swayed a little and Fox swiftly lowered him to the floor so he didn't faint.

"Better?" she asked once the dizziness had abated. Then she giggled, a silly thought having struck her.

"What's so funny?" Zoro grumbled. Fox lifted his chin so he could meet her eyes.

"Mihawk's going to be a grandpa!" she singsonged gleefully. As she had expected, her lover's eyes bulged.

"I… what… gah!" he clutched his head. "You are evil," he muttered. Fox giggled again, giddy with relief.

"But you love me anyway!"

"Well, duh," Zoro growled. "You're mine."

"And you are mine. You and our little moth," Fox agreed.

"Moth?"

"It isn't even a baby yet, just a tiny, fluttering spark of potential," Fox said softly. "It's… I can do all kinds of insane, impossible things with my Devil Fruit Ability, you know, but this… this is more amazing than any of them. We've made something new."

Zoro pulled her into his lap, wrapped his arms around her and smiled, the expression making him look young and carefree. "No matter what happens, we'll make it through," he vowed. "For our baby." His eyes burned with resolve, making the silly grin look wild and dangerous.

"For our little moth," Fox agreed, leaning her head against his. She finally had a burning, all-consuming ambition of her very own.

Having got his head around the utterly terrifying reality that, like it or lump it, he was going to be a father, Zoro immediately went into overprotective overdrive. Fox decided to tolerate it for a little, but warned him that she was no more made of glass today than she had been last month at Enies Lobby. That had not stopped him from getting her mother to come back and asking her dozens of questions about what was going to happen, what Fox should be eating and whether there was anything that should specifically be avoided. As her mother answered all the questions with ever-increasing levels of approval radiating off her, Fox started thinking about what ways she could protect herself without leaping into the thick of things anymore. Her Colour of Concealment meant she could still be perfectly lethal at ambushes, just as her Colour of the Ruling Queen would enable her to escape dense and hostile crowding. Her Colour of Armament was a last-ditch defence: if anyone got close enough to land a hit she had stepped outside her assassin competence zone and into melee combat.

Sitting in the little private sitting room as her mother and lover conspired against her, Fox was abruptly grateful that she could use Haki to the degree she could. Nobody would be hurting her baby, not even if they through some freak chance managed to put her in Kairoseki cuffs again. She'd tolerated the imprisonment and the damage Krieg had imposed on her because she hadn't felt like laying waste to the very nice town they'd caught her in, then had wanted to keep as low a profile as possible. Acting weak and helpless was a highly effective tactic against arrogant fools and had her father not trashed the fleet she would likely have got away a few days later. She still wasn't sure if he'd known she was there when he did that.

She hadn't escaped after Gin let her out because he was a decent person under the violent killer instinct and ruthless efficiency, which had endeared him to her in spite of the situation. Having inherited a certain amount of impulsive whimsy from her father she had gone along with things, pretending to be far weaker than she was and had ultimately been rewarded in getting to meet Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of misfits. Getting to know said misfits had been more fun than she'd had since first meeting Ace, which was most of why she'd stuck around and not objected more when Luffy insisted she join the crew. Her faith in the rubberman had proved justified when he accepted her profession without batting an eyelid on Enies Lobby.

However, even if Luffy agreed Fox really wasn't sure she wanted to be sailing in the New World with a young crew of first-timers while pregnant. The New World was harsh, challenging and exhilarating to sail in but right now Fox just wanted to be safe. Zoro holding her made her feel safe; however right now she missed Shanks. The Red Force was the safest place she could think of for her child to be born, well out of the reach of the World Government and safe from other pirates and troublemakers. Shanks was practically family and his laid-back attitude made it easier for her to accept the kind of coddling that she was not going to be able to avoid once her belly started swelling. Of course the main problem with the Red Force was there was not a single woman in the crew, but Fox seriously doubted her mother's extended family of mermaids would accept her being in the New World as an acceptable excuse not to visit. Especially not Spitfire, who had never met an obstacle she couldn't bludgeon into submission.

Letting her lover pull her into his lap as he sat down next to her, his amazement and delight seeping down the bond they shared, Fox hoped everything would turn out for the best. She had to ensure Ace was rescued, even if she didn't join in, before she and Zoro could really decide what to do next.

Doubts, difficulty and adapting to tricky situations. It's generally possible to survive, but survival isn't enough.