Wordless

Mihawk was seated in his usual place in the main hall with his daughter and her friend just to his left when Roronoa walked through the door and went straight over to where Lisska was sitting as though drawn on a string. Lisska herself rose to her feet as the young swordsman approached her and closed her arms around the younger man as he walked right into her and buried his face in the crook of her neck, his own arms folding around her waist; Roronoa clung onto her as though afraid she might vanish. Fire-Fist, who had introduced himself as 'going by Edward D. Spadille now: I got properly adopted' did not move from where he had been leaning against the side of Lisska's chair, instead dropping his eyes to the floor and letting green fire dance between his fingers in an absent-minded fashion. After a few long moments of just standing there and holding onto Lisska Roronoa stepped back and let go, his arms sliding away to grip her hands firmly in his as he raised his chin to look her in the eye. He did not, however, speak. Instead Fire-Fist –Or Spadille, since he could not refer to the younger man as 'Edward' without bringing Whitebeard to mind– let the fire fade from his fingers and walked around the back of the chair to put a hand on each of the couple's shoulders.

As the taller young man's hands came into contact with bare skin all three stilled completely for an instant before letting go of each-other and stepping back in a movement so effortlessly synchronised it made Mihawk frown; he knew very little about what his daughter was capable of but could tell that this, whatever it was, was important. The three then moved as one back to the chair, but this time Spadille sat down first and Roronoa and Lisska sat next to each-other on his lap, all acting as though this was normal when Mihawk was almost certain the two men had never met before.

"Now that all the relevant parties are present," Mihawk said dryly, "Would you care to explain the situation, Lisska?"

His daughter looked thoughtful and Spadille raised an eyebrow while Roronoa merely slumped backwards against the larger man's chest and shut his eyes.

"I bound myself to Zoro because I didn't want him to die," Lisska said simply. "I bound myself to Ace because my captain ordered it, not that I regret obeying that particular order. I might well have done it anyway; Hothead's always been important to me." Above her head the man who had been declared dead smiled fondly, moving a hand to rest on her thigh. "As a result we're mentally connected to each-other, all three of us. When we're asleep we wander through each-other's dreams and memories at random and while we're awake we can communicate mind-to-mind."

"Is that all you can do?" Mihawk sincerely doubted it.

"No," Spadille drawled. "We can also watch the world through each-other's eyes and even take each-other over provided we don't mind the side effects."

"Loss of self," Lisska provided without prompting. "Too much overlap and we would lose track of who we are and what our limits are. We're settled now though, so that shouldn't become a problem unless we actively try to hurt one-another."

"Which would be dumb," Spadille followed on.

"Because it would just echo back and we'd all suffer," Roronoa added. "We're stuck like this until we die so we may as well get used to it and make it work."

Mihawk abruptly realised that his pregnant daughter was not just Roronoa's lover now and that the brash, headstrong swordsman didn't actually care. That pragmatic acceptance was so at odds with the young man's usual fiercely combative attitude that Mihawk had to stare.

"All three of you are involved together?" he asked, having to hear it said.

Spadille coughed. "More like Asura and I are involved with Kitsune here, but yeah, we're all an item," he said with a grin. "Not my doing, I swear: I tried to stay out of it but Kitsune wouldn't take no for an answer."

"You could have turned her down," Roronoa pointed out, not opening his eyes.

"Could you have?"

Roronoa went slightly pink. Mihawk didn't want to know what was being shared in the silences between the words, but guessed that the younger man had been in constant contact with the other two in the past months despite the physical distance separating them.

"Don't tease Asura, Kajin;" Lisska said chidingly, "or at least don't do it out loud. I'm sure my father doesn't want to know what we get up to behind closed doors."

Mihawk assuredly did not. The trio's use of nicknames and their easy familiarity told him quite enough.

Perona wasn't sure why the white-haired woman Hawk-Eyes had introduced to her as his daughter gave her the screaming heebie-jeebies but couldn't get within arms' reach of the other woman without shaking in terror. Thankfully she didn't have to be that near at the dinner table. Her nagging fear however gradually faded as she watched Zoro and the two newcomers eat, her fascination overtaking her nerves. How did they do that?

Zoro was sat to Spadille's left and Lisska was in Spadille's lap, something Mihawk had seemed irritated by but hadn't tried to stop. A large number of plates loaded with all kind of food were spread in front of the trio, each of whom had chopsticks gripped in their dominant hand while the other hand grabbed cups for drinking out of, moved plates or picked up joints of meat to eat directly. However the chopsticks lifting food to Lisska's mouth frequently belonged to one of the men, just as Lisska's chopsticks were often putting morsels into the mouths of the men, who were also feeding each-other. They never looked at each-other either; the intricate dance seemed to be directed by some kind of hive mind that ensured that Spadille's hand reaching for the meat was just high enough to avoid Zoro's chopsticks as he put some kimchi in Lisska's mouth, who in turn was pouring more sake for Zoro and lifting a takoyaki ball up over her shoulder into Spadille's mouth. Then Lisska put the next ball of takoyaki in her own mouth, Zoro downed the sake he'd been poured and Spadille unloaded three joints of meat onto the swordsman's plate before tipping the remaining five onto his own, and biting into one, his chopsticks snaking out seemingly of their own accord and snagging some of the steamed fish, holding it sideways for Zoro who ate it even as he put his cup down and chewed as he offered a chunk of meat in fruit sauce back up to Spadille with his chopsticks and held Lisska's cup of fruit juice to her lips with his other hand.

Realising she'd stopped eating her own food to stare, Perona quickly returned her attention to her food, sneaking glances over at the three-headed, six-armed conglomerate that was laying waste to the lavish feast Lisska had cooked. She also glanced up to the head of the table to see how Hawk-Eyes was taking the display. He was frowning, but that was normal. Less normal was the way he was rubbing his temple with one hand as though fending off a headache. Then enlightenment struck and Perona had to take a large mouthful of her meal to prevent herself from squealing in delight: Boring, straightforward Zoro was actually in a threesome with Lisska and Spadille! It was so cute! No wonder he'd been desperate to leave until he got that message from his Captain in the newspaper! Oh, and Lisska was pregnant too and Zoro had said it was his baby! The three of them were just adorable together! No wonder Hawk-Eyes had a headache; he was cold and mean and boring and his daughter was engaged in a steamy romance with two different pirates at the same time! But Zoro was here learning to be a better swordsman because his captain wanted him to, which was terribly honourable and obedient when he had two people he would much rather have been spending time with out there, never mind that the woman was pregnant. Oh, and she was Hawk-Eyes daughter too! She wouldn't have dared go near the Shichibukai if she'd been him but Zoro had bowed his head and begged to be taught.

Perona decided then and there that she would make sure Zoro didn't do anything stupid that would prevent him from rejoining his lovers when the two years were up; she owed it to herself to ensure such a cute trio stayed together!

Mihawk gets his facts cleared up and Perona decides the trio are 'cute'. The horror. We also get to witness the surreality that is Fox, Zoro and Ace eating together.