Waiting

Ace hung limply from the chains half-suspending him from the wall, blood trickling down the side of his face and chest. A while after his manic laughing fit the wardens had come to see what was going on and had not been pleased to find him half unchained, nor to hear that he had almost been eaten by a burrowing hagfish. Ace' public execution was scheduled for less than a week away and having him die in prison would make the government look bad. The pirate had therefore been moved to a more central cell. He'd also been beaten up when he fought back; he'd liked his previous cell after the redecorating Fox' messenger had put it through and had wanted to stay there. Sadly, the prison wardens had not been amenable to the idea.

He had toyed with the idea of calling for help, but eventually decided against it. Fox could get in here easy, but getting out was the important part and it was better to call for backup once there was a viable escape route to be taken. Otherwise he'd just drag her into his mess, which wasn't done.

Ace knew Fox was scary-strong –he'd seen her spar against Marco and win– but everyone had limits. It had nothing to do with pride, at least he hoped it didn't as Fox would beat him over the head for that later if it did; she always knew. According to Fox pride was a luxury, one that had to be set aside when people you cared about were on the line. Everything had its place, but you had to make sure you had your priorities straight.

What is more precious to you? She'd asked him once after a fight, your pride or your life? Or, more importantly, your pride or the lives of your family? Because you have to know before you make a choice you'll regret. He'd hated her for a full month afterwards and sulked, but had eventually apologised when Marco pointed out he was being ungrateful. She'd saved his neck and the necks of three of his comrades; a little humility wasn't all that big a price to pay. Ace had grumbled, but the next time she visited he'd thanked her for saving his fool neck and promised to always put his own life and the lives of his family before his pride. Some of the crew had poked fun and teased him about being wrapped around her fingers but Fox had shut them up by asking if they were jealous that she cared and let Ace carry her off to a quiet corner for a more in-depth chat.

However, the main problem with being stuck in a cell at the bottom of Impel Down was that he was bored. Being bored meant there was nothing to do but reminisce over the past or fret about the future. Fretting about the future got old very quickly, especially when he considered his big sister and her likely reaction to learning about the execution, not to mention what Pops would do, so Ace had immersed himself in memories and tried to make the time pass more quickly.

Ace had known Fox for nearly two years before he met her father; as first meetings go it had been about as far from ideal as it could get for both men. Bad for Ace because he'd been helping Fox wash her thigh-length hair when Marco banged on the bathhouse door and told them Mihawk had come looking for his daughter and they couldn't stall him for very long. Bad for Mihawk because Fox had not had any qualms about running out of the bathhouse half-naked, soapy and soaking wet to punch the man in the face, hard. In front of Pops and most of the Division Commanders. She'd actually used Haki to make the injury stick, then turned around and stalked back below deck to finish getting clean. Thus Mihawk had first seen Ace while the nineteen-year-old was chasing after his daughter with a towel and Ace had first seen Mihawk cratered in a wall and cradling the side of his face as one of Pops' nurses tried to get a better look at the shiner and see whether Fox had cracked her father's skull.

Once back in the bathhouse Fox had burst into tears, which Ace had no idea how to deal with so he'd just pulled her into his lap and cuddled her. Petting was a general cure-all for the very physical woman. It had taken most of an hour to calm her down to the point of coherency but by that point Ace had managed to help her finish washing her hair, get her out of the bathhouse and into clothes and work out what the problem was.

The problem turned out to be that Fox' father had just murdered her girlfriend, which was why she'd showed up on the Moby Dick looking for Ace in the middle of the night. Not just a 'friend' girlfriend, but her lover. That conjured up a very erotic mental image Ace had promptly banished to the deepest, darkest corner of his mind but would probably haunt his dreams for months to come. He hadn't known Fox swung that way. As she mumbled on it became clear that Mihawk had also been the cause of the premature deaths of most of her other conquests, including one guy she hadn't actually bothered with long enough to get physically intimate with. That boded badly for Ace.

"An' he didn't even ask me first!" Fox sniffed, fingers absently playing with Ace hair.

"You'd rather he'd have asked?" Ace asked a little faintly, unsure about her priorities.

Fox scowled, abruply enhancing the family resemblance between father and daughter. "They were mine. I picked them, I got attached to them and I broke it off with them when it became clear it wasn't going to work. But I still cared. If anyone had the right to kill them over the breakups it was me but he didn't even ask! Arrogant, thoughtless, idiot man; this is why mother never tried to patch things up with him, I bet."

Ace made note of the fact the Fox was as possessive of her associates as a dragon was of gold. "Have you told him that?"

Fox paused. "I should, shouldn't I?" She let go of him and rose to her feet, wiping her eyes with a sleeve. "I'll go and do that now."

"That might not-" Ace started, but gave up as she marched out of the cabin door. Fox was remarkably single-minded when she was upset, which was both better and worse than the scattered, temperamental nature that most other women shared when pissed off. Better because it could be predicted to a point; worse because you could see it coming and there was nothing you could do but hope you'd survive.

Marco had not known what to think when Fox shot out of the bathhouse and flew up the stairs but he knew it couldn't be anything good. While her sense of proper clothing and appropriate behaviour was a bit skewed compared to most people, Fox knew soap bubbles were not proper dress and should have at least paused to grab a towel. Ace had sensibly grabbed two, wrapped one around his waist and hurried after her with the other so Marco also followed the wet, bubbly footprints, dropped jaws and bloody noses on the way to the deck.

The two men arrived just in time to see Fox launch her father into a wall with a haki-enhanced punch to the face and leave a visible mark. As Mihawk carefully raised a hand to his rapidly swelling face Fox just stood there, panting hard and dripping bubbles in the centre of a ring of dead silence as Pops and the other Division Commanders stared, expressions ranging between fascination and shock; Pops was actually frowning. Ace seized the moment and wrapped the towel he'd brought up around Fox, which apparently brought her back to earth as she accepted it, turned around and marched below deck again. Ace had shot Marco a quick, begging look then chased after her as one of Pops' nurses hurried over to check on the World's Greatest Swordsman.

The next hour was… tense. Mihawk accepted an ice pack for his eye and agreed to move the conversation indoors with Pops, Marco made sure everyone who'd seen Fox punch her father knew that it was an event to never, ever be mentioned ever to anyone who hadn't seen it themselves on pain of pain. They'd clearly intruded on a private discussion so it would stay private until they got the go-ahead otherwise. However seeing a naked woman punch Dracule Mihawk in the face was not something you could just un-see, so there were a lot of thoughtful faces on deck as the minutes dragged on.

Then Fox reappeared, fully dressed with tearstains on her face and a look of fierce determination. Marco divined that she now intended to finish the argument that she had run on deck to start and caught her attention.

"Your father's with Pops, yoi," he told her lightly, walking over to open the cabin door. "Feeling better?"

Fox snorted. "Not really. I want to get this over with." Marco nodded, letting her in and closing the door behind himself and the newly-arrived Ace.

"Why are you here?" Fox asked bluntly as soon as Mihawk turned to look at her.

"Lisska," Mihawk said coolly.

"Couldn't you just leave me alone?" Fox went on, "but no, you're my father so you have to hunt down everyone I've ever gotten involved with and kill them. Never mind that my bleedin' Devil Fruit Ability means I form stronger bonds with people than usual so I felt you kill them! Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up in a cold sweat and just know that someone you care about it dead?! Never mind that it was my own damn father who did the killing!" she paused, breathing heavily. "Just the one night stands I could have dealt with and I understood perfectly why you felt the need to try and take Sako's head off; I was fifteen at the time after all. But why the hell did you feel the urge to chase down the others?! I'm a grown-up! I'm allowed to make my own damn mistakes just like you and mother did! And let me point out that I'm yet to be quite that careless!"

"Lisska."

"Shut up! You killed Laila! You didn't even wait until we broke up; you hunted her down when I wasn't there and murdered her, you bastard!" Fox screamed, haki exploding from her and shaking the furniture. "Why the hell should I listen to you when all you seem interested in doing is killing the people I care about? Who's going to be next? Marco? Shanks? Jinbe? I'm this close to going for broke and seeing if patricide is all it's cracked up to be!"

Silence rang as Fox panted, fists clenched.

"I did not intend to kill Laila," Mihawk said quietly.

Fox snorted. "So you stabbed her through the heart by accident? Pull the other one."

"I was not expecting a farmer to be so proficient with an urumi," Mihawk admitted.

Fox laughed bitterly. "That's it? This is the New World; people who can't use weapons die. Besides, after all of the swordsman you've killed for dating me I'd have thought you would have spotted a pattern."

"Sako was not a swordsman."

"I never dated Sako," Fox snapped.

"The widower on Kyuka wasn't a swordsman either."

"No, he was a D," Fox growled. "I actually liked him; he treated me like a grown woman. Now his daughter's an orphan and it is my entire fault for letting my hormones get the better of me. I feel so loved."

"Lisska-"

"Fourteen people I tried to get close to! Fourteen! You killed eleven of them and the only reason Sako isn't dead as well is I was there to put his neck back together afterwards! I bet if Carlos hadn't drowned in a storm you'd have killed him too!" Fox threw her hands in the air. "I'm warning you Dracule Mihawk, kill anybody else carrying my mark and I'll stop making excuses for you and show you exactly what I was trained to be! World's Greatest Swordsman or not you still have to sleep!"

"I apologise," Mihawk said stiffly.

"Good. Now go away," Fox replied flatly, eyes fixed on the floor. "Killing you might break me but I'm still considering it."

The swordsman put on his hat, nodded politely at Whitebeard and left.

"Fox?" Marco asked carefully. Fox didn't move. Ace stepped closer and cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Limpet?" the Flame Logia said gently, using the nickname he'd given her about three months into their friendship. Fox curled into his touch and buried her face in his hair.

"Why does he have to be so dense?" she mumbled despairingly. Ace did not reply, wrapping an arm around her waist and playing with the short bangs at the nape of her neck to calm her down.

"Could you kill him?" Marco asked. Fox lifted her head to glare at the phoenix Zoan.

"I'm an assassin, Marco. I could kill you and Ace right now before your Pops could stop me and if I timed it right I could probably off him too. Killing my father wouldn't be all that hard technically; it's what it would cost me that would make it difficult." She closed her eyes again. "I don't want to do it but it's getting to the point where killing him would hurt less than suffering through him killing those few friends I have left." She huffed. "Maybe I should just bite the bullet and date Shanks. It's not like he'd say no to anything that involves tweaking my father's tail, never mind that he babysat me as a toddler."

Marco and Ace gaped and Whitebeard burst out laughing.

The infamous fight. Mihawk isn't the type to shout; he's too controlled. Fox more than makes up for it though.