Observation

After a month of having Roronoa Zoro as his student Mihawk knew there was little of the young man he had not yet seen. The green-haired swordsman was very straightforward and not exceptionally intelligent, but he worked hard, never backed down from a challenge and had truly excellent instincts. He also had a feel and a talent for swordsmanship that Mihawk had not seen in decades, learning best when pushed to his limits. The World's Greatest Swordsman therefore kept him pressed against those limits and ensured the ambitious young man was never short of challenges. Sadly his bullheadedness meant Roronoa was frequently injured and stubbornly refused to rest until those injuries were healed, instead continuing his training until he keeled over.

Mihawk wondered sometimes why his daughter had attached herself to someone who managed to be both so hasty and so slow. Probably so she could lead him around by the nose without Roronoa even being aware of it; it seemed a common theme in women. More entertaining was his student's propensity for getting lost, even within the castle itself: Roronoa could be at one end of a straight corridor and turn down the stairs rather than walk through the door in front of him. It sometimes got to the point that Mihawk suspected it might be a curse of some kind, as the boy was more likely to get lost when he was actually trying to get somewhere than when he was just wandering about without paying attention. Nobody's sense of direction could really be that bad without outside help.

Zoro ran, not as fast as he could but fast enough to make his muscles stretch and burn. He had three more circuits of the island to do before he would be allowed to practice with his swords again and if he didn't make good time Mihawk would probably make him do another lap. The World's Greatest Swordsman was an unrelenting taskmaster, but Zoro had no complaints. He was learning much faster than he ever had before and the pain and irritation was worth it. Some of the things Mihawk made him do seemed pretty strange, but the teen was confident there was a reason behind it all.

Training himself into the ground every day was also a good way to put out of his mind the empty feeling in his chest where he missed Fox. Yes, he could mentally reach out to her whenever he wanted but it wasn't the same as her being with him and being able to touch her with his own hands. Not that he didn't enjoy it when he reached out to her in the evenings after a long day training and joined in as much as he could when she and Ace were having fun, but despite sharing the experience to the point of waking up breathless and sticky it wasn't the same as being there in person. Not that Zoro would abandon his training! He just missed Fox being there with him.

Of course, she was soon going to be here; Swift Hunter was back on this side of the Red Line after Fox ran an errand for her mother that involved Admiral Aokiji –Zoro had decided Pearl was a worse witch than Nami had ever dreamed of being and prayed the two never met– and was gradually making its way closer to Kuraigana as it meandered from island to island. Zoro however wasn't sure Mihawk would let him actually see his pregnant lover –she was the Shichibukai's daughter after all– so was resolutely not thinking about it, despite just knowing Fox and Ace were approaching from that direction. He followed the shore around the island as he ran, Fox and Ace' position like an Eternal Pose in his head that had an additional sensor which gave him a rough idea of distance. Until now he'd only known they were far away, but with them visiting a few familiar locations and seeing Fox' maps through her eyes a few times Zoro now had a decent idea of how what he felt translated into how far away she was. He also had a good idea of where Kuraigana itself was: the middle of the first half of the Grand Line, off the main routes. You could only get here by following an Eternal Pose or by being confident enough a navigator to not rely on Poses at all.

Zoro knew that last titbit of knowledge was not his own; it actually came from Ace. Ace was a capable navigator, nowhere near Nami's level at predicting weather but fully capable of getting himself to where he wanted to go in good time. Fox was better than Ace, mostly due to having seen much more of the Grand Line than he had and drawing her own maps. She knew the Grand Line, had been taught its ways and quirks from early childhood and could probably have taken you anywhere from Reverse Mountain to Raftel without ever stopping at an island, except for supplies of course.

Fox had actually been to Raftel, the last island in the New World. He wasn't sure if she'd actually landed on it, but Zoro had seen in her memory the two identical Eternal Poses that sat at the back of a shelf in her workshop, gathering dust. He also knew about her ambition, one she had almost fulfilled, that she had taken on to test herself and keep herself going in the face of pain, depression and misery: at the age of sixteen, Fox had promised herself that she would create an Eternal Pose for every island on the Grand Line that had a magnetic field that could be recorded. She had also promised herself that she would make a map of all the islands in both halves of the Grand Line and the Calm Belt, whether or not they were on the main routes, including the general locations of the floating islands. It wasn't what drove her –she wasn't passionate about navigation like Nami was– but as a short-term goal it had kept her alive and moving forwards for the better part of five years. Then she had met Luffy and gotten distracted, setting aside her personal challenge in the interests of something greater.

Zoro knew he was a big part of Fox' true ambition and refused to let her down, just as he refused to let Luffy down. He was going to be the world's strongest swordsman! No matter how much hard work it took!

Fox was nervous and trying not to show it. She'd only seen her father twice since their fight over a year ago –well really it had just been her shouting at him– and both occasions had been stiff and uncomfortable. He hadn't seemed to know what to say to her and she had still been hurting too badly to make much of an effort to bridge the gap. Now however she would be seeing him again for the first time in nearly ten months and all she really wanted to do was have him tell her that he loved her. Losing Laila had hurt terribly, but thinking of the woman no longer made her heart hurt and Zoro and Ace completed and balanced her in ways she hadn't even realised she needed. However, the little girl inside was still worried about what her father would say when he realised she had two lovers on top of being pregnant.

There was also the problem of her father being unbelievably observant, so there was a good chance he'd recognise Ace. He didn't care for the World Government enough to actually inform the authorities, but he would ask a lot of pointed questions she really didn't want to answer about the true extent of her talents as well as pick Ace apart to find out what made him tick. Mihawk loathed weakness –likely why he'd slaughtered her former conquests; none of them had exactly been strong– and wasn't shy about expressing his low opinion of people who failed to keep their promises or follow through with their intentions. She knew her father loved her, but she was still afraid of letting him down and he hadn't exactly hidden his opinion of her taste in lovers: even Kuzan had commented on it that time on Long Island.

Arms wrapped around her and Fox leant back into Ace' grip with a sigh, tipping her head back to look him in the eye.

"Thanks, Kajin."

"You looked like you needed a hug," he told her with an easy smile. "Are you still fretting about Mihawk?"

"He's my father, Kajin; I'm so worried about disappointing him and yet I don't regret anything that I think he'll disapprove of," Fox sighed, turning to snuggle closer into her lover's chest. "Not falling for Zoro, not getting pregnant, not saving you and tying you to me; none of it. For the first time in years I can look at myself and like where I am without needing to actually be doing anything particular."

"You've no ambitions?"

Fox smiled into Ace' chest. "Silly Kajin; of course I have ambitions. But I don't feel the need to be getting on with them just to fill the emptiness within. What will be, will be: I can wait."

"You know, when I set out to be a pirate I vowed that the whole world would know my name and I would stand outside my father's shadow," Ace mused. "I think I achieved that, but then Sengoku went and ruined it for me. I'll have to start again."

"You going to make sure you stand outside Whitebeard's shadow this time?" Fox teased.

Ace poked her in the ribs, making her squeak and wriggle. "Why would I want to do that, Limpet-chan? Pops was a great man and I'd be proud to add to his legend by showing those Marine bastards and the rest of the world that his kids can be just as scary as he was." His fingers danced across her back, making her squirm. "I'm gonna make sure Pops is remembered as the beginning of something great, not just one man who can be forgotten now he's dead."

"Not until you can handle yourself, Hothead," Fox countered, poking him in the stomach. "I want you to have mastered your Devil Fruit and have as good a handle on your haki as you can achieve in what time I can spare to teach you before you go gallivanting off to wreak havoc. Follow your Pops' example and don't die until you've reached a fine old age after a lifetime of pounding your adversaries into the ground, please."

Ace leant down to nip her ear. "I promise," he breathed, steam trickling from the corners of his mouth in a way reminiscent of pictures of dragons. "Now: are we there yet?"

Fox sighed. She had to fall for the ones who were never going to really grow up, didn't she?

This was a tricky one to write: it's difficult to plot without Oda's work to fall back on, yet remain true to the characters involved. I did a lot of looking back on previous stuff and difficult thinking.

Oh, and in answer to Maggie-tan's question: Fox glomped Kaku before realising he was a person rather than an actual giraffe. As Bepo wears clothes he is clearly a person -even if he is a bear- so not to be randomly hugged. Fox also really likes giraffes: she thinks they're graceful and charming.