Watching
Lisska lay curled up in a ball in Shanks' bed, arms wrapped tightly around a pillow and fast asleep. The red-haired captain perched on the edge of the mattress sighed, shaking his head silently at the adorable picture the young woman made. He'd first met the little eyas when she was all of ten months old and her father still had a bounty on his head. Poor Mihawk had been at his wits end, trying to care for a baby, hide said baby's existence from the Marines and take out the never-ending stream of swordsmen after his title. Lisska's mother had done her best to help, but for all she was a genuine savant with Haki Pearl was not a fighter and had not had any experience of life beyond Fishman Island. She was a highly capable navigator and a good mother but that didn't stop her from getting ill, which was what had led to a much younger Shanks coming across a young mermaid with a fever and a very tired swordsman perched on a raft with a fussy baby in the middle of a fog bank not quite two years after Roger's death.
To this day Shanks had never seen such a lost look on the face of his rival and friend as the one on the four-years-older man's face at that long-ago meeting as he tried to soothe the unhappy blonde baby in his arms while three feet away a seven-foot mermaid with dark blue hair and a Trevally tail was muttering incoherently and twitching occasionally. The swordsman had looked up as Shanks' ship drifted out of the fog and the redhead had just had to do something for the poor guy. He couldn't leave a fellow pirate hanging like that, especially not when he had a baby and a mermaid with him.
It had taken many assurances and oaths to persuade Mihawk to hand over his daughter to a relative stranger, but Shanks had the advantage of being fully healthy and having several full nights' sleep over the swordsman and had won the argument. Ten minutes later Dracule Mihawk had been dead to the world in a hammock and Shanks was holding an adorable little blonde who watched him with big, gold eyes just like her father's. He's fallen in love instantly: who could not love such an adorable little lady? Her fascination with his hair was just cute and her happy smiles so utterly unlike her father that it was funny. She was like a baby hawk, all fuzz and claws and golden eyes; an adorable little eyas.
When Mihawk eventually woke up Shanks had to give the baby back, but he managed to coax the swordsman into sparring with him and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In the end the scowling swordsman stayed until his mermaid companion –who he insisted was not his lover– was properly coherent again, at which point the small family made themselves scarce.
After that Shanks had run into them often, sparring with Mihawk, taking Lisska off their hands for a while so they could rest, sleep or so Mihawk could deal with whoever was following them around at that time. The baby had been a few months past her first birthday when Mihawk was offered the chance to be a Shichibukai and accepted with cool aplomb and no small amount of relief; Shanks suspected Mihawk would have gone mad if he'd had to deal with Marines and bounty hunters on top of his daughter's terrible twos. She was incredibly bright and precocious and had an astounding memory. Watching her learn to walk had been terrifying as she had tried to run right off the bat and frequently fell overboard. The first time he'd seen her fall into the water Shanks had panicked, only for Pearl to emerge from under the waves with Lisska in her arms and no worse for her dunking. Mihawk had seemed unmoved by the near-miss, which was later explained as the baby being able to breathe underwater like her mother.
Lisska was four when Mihawk caught her mimicking him using a real sword she'd found somewhere and decided it was time for her to have a proper education and a more stable environment; he then shipped both mermaid and child back to Fishman Island. Shanks tried to visit but Fishman was Whitebeard's turf so he had to be tactful about it. Then she'd gone missing and he hadn't seen her again until she was sixteen.
Meeting sixteen-year-old Lisska had been interesting: she'd somehow got on board his ship during the night and made herself at home in his bed, never mind that he'd been in it at the time. As Shanks had been drinking he was not remotely sober and didn't think to wonder where the pretty lady had come from even when morning came around. So it was then that when Mihawk boarded the Red Force the next morning looking for his teenage daughter, having followed her, he found her in bed with a slightly hung-over and rather handsy Shanks being cuddled.
Mihawk hadn't been interested in sparring with Shanks after the redhead lost his left arm, but the swordsman made an exception that morning. Well, it was closer to a murder attempt than a spar but the redhead had gotten to his sword in time and had a pretty good time in spite of his hangover. When the misunderstanding had been cleared up Mihawk scolded Lisska for getting into bed with older men –again, which made Shanks laugh like crazy– and tried to order her to stop. Her answer to the demand was slightly incoherent, but boiled down to a refusal. Well, she agreed not to do it with anyone she didn't know and trust, but she refused to stop bugging Shanks unless Red-Hair wanted her to stop.
Despite having babysat Lisska as a toddler Shanks was a sucker for pretty women and this was just not something he could pass up, never mind that the little eyas had grown up to look like a female version of her father. He'd spotted at once that Lisska's clinginess was purely platonic and decided to see how far he had to push Mihawk to get the man to fight him again. So he'd asked what Lisska would do if Shanks asked her to leave him alone. The teenager had instantly and shamelessly admitted that she'd see if Benn Beckman was amenable to company, making her father scowl furiously. Shanks had laughed like a madman and told her she could join him anytime, which had won him a hug and a kiss from Lisska and almost provoked Mihawk into taking his head off before he could explain his reasoning. The swordsman had calmed down when the redhead explained that Lisska was probably acting clingy because she didn't feel safe otherwise, so the behaviour should fade over time as she settled down again.
Shanks smiled down at Lisska, petting her hair absently. Her clinginess hadn't faded at all in five years, though she'd gained enough confidence to be able to sleep in her chosen spot whether or not the bed's proper owner was there. Of course if he tried to sleep elsewhere she'd chase him down and join him –probably in her sleep– but otherwise she would stay put. He'd listened to her explanation of events that had led to her landing on deck –pregnancy included– and shunted her off to bed after having the cook prepare a good meal for her. He had every intention of following Whitebeard to Marineford to ensure things didn't get too out of hand and hoped the little eyas would be prepared to stay where he could see her. He'd been surprised to learn that the baby she was expecting wasn't Fire Fist's, but that she had a different lover wouldn't keep her from pulling out all the stops getting her friend back. Shanks had only seen Eyas and Fire Fist together once and from a considerable distance, but it had been blatantly obvious they were two of a kind no matter how deeply in denial they both were.
Shaking his head, the one-armed pirate captain left his cabin and closed the door behind him. He had plenty to do without bothering himself with Lisska's love-life.
An eyas is a fledgeling hawk or other bird of prey; it's a falconry term. Shanks sees Lisska as someone to be protected and cherished regardless of how grown-up capable she is, but he's more tactful about it than the rest of the men in her life.