Zoro woke up late the very next day. Everyone was exhausted from the night before no thanks to the baboons. One person gravely injured, another scared out of her mind, and last Zoro who’s just pissed off in general. Coming to this island has so far been nothing but trouble; the only upside though was you finally agreeing to allow your father to train Zoro in the arts of swordsmanship in which Zoro was down to heart grateful for. It’s only been a few short days since you both had met, and you’ve already made a lasting impression on him.

Once Zoro had gotten dress and had finally woken up, the swordsman began heading out of his bedroom within the mansion with a deep yawn that erupted from the depths of his stomach and a tear to his eye. Zoro had stopped within his tracks the second he had left the bedroom. The man of green cocked his head to one side, stepping before the wall of stone and ran a hand over the spray painted arrow of yellow occupying the wall that directed Zoro down the hall.

“It’s for you dummy!” Perona puffed out her lips and had her hands rested upon her hips. Zoro looked up and found the pink haired girl floating over head. “(Y/n) asked me to help her put arrows around the mansion to keep you from getting lost,” Perona explained quite briefly, yellow paint had stained her white attire.

“Oh…” Zoro looked down the corridor finding more arrows and a few of different colors. “That’s nice of her.”

Perona puffed out her lip upset to have gained no acknowledgement for helping out with the previous job. It made her wonder why she was even sticking around this place at all. “Hawk Girl also told me to tell you that she moved her bedroom since the baboons destroyed hers,” Perona gladly informed Zoro, hugging onto her plush kumasine about ready to bounce out of the hallway. “Yellow arrows are her bedroom, orange for bathroom, red for the exit and dining room that’s where you’ll find Mihawk the most according to him.”

“Thanks,” Zoro waved his hand meaning goodbye, following the yellow arrows the best to his ability to your new bedroom only one turn of the hallway away from his own. It was a lot closer to his than the first time around he had noted as he had found your door was half opened just like yesterday. Zoro pushed on the door and invited himself in with anger that had filled within him more and more second by second as he heard your pained cries.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Zoro rose his voice resting himself within the doorway to your new bedroom. You looked up from your chest with one eye closed, a curved needle in the other while you bit your lip.

“I won’t get better if I don’t stitch my injuries together,” your hands were visibly shaking from where Zoro stood. Now Zoro could get dense every now and then, but even he knew when to ask for help if he needed it.

Zoro sighed stepping forward. “You could’ve asked for help,” Zoro states, taking a seat on your bedside, snatching the curved needle and thread from your hands. You were shocked by how forceful yet thoughtful Zoro was to just steal the needle from your hands and mend your wounds.

“Nobody in this place has any knowledge of medicine besides my father… And I don’t want to bring this injury up to him,” you regret to admit, fearing the worst Mihawk cold do to Zoro because the baboons had learned one of his unique moves that they in turn used on you. Nothing would end well so to speak.

“If I could take care of the gaping slash across my chest after my fight with you and Mihawk without any doctors, I’m sure I can help you,” Zoro reassured.

“Good point,” you had to comment. “Thanks…” You sighed, resting down upon the bed, clutching onto the bed sheets every now and then since you weren’t accustomed to pain unlike Zoro. You’ve been dealing pain to others for years and years, even taken lives, instead of receiving pain like most should.

Zoro found you flinching a bit of a handful, it was causing more problems rather than solving them. “I didn’t expect you to bounce back from the attack all so soon,” Zoro comments out of nowhere.

“Neither did I,” you replied. “It still hurts like a bitch, it won’t heal until it’s stitched, and things need to get done around here and that won’t happen until I heal.”

Zoro’s eyes left your chest to shot daggers directly into you watery (e/c) orbs clouding over with pain. “Quit biting off more than you can chew (Y/n),” Zoro snapped rather calmly. “Just leave the work around the mansion to me and Mihawk until you’re better. Cause I don’t mind being your substitute for while because you’ve given me what I’ve asked for, and now it’s time for me to repay the debt.”

“Being trained by Mihawk really means that much to you?” You lifted your head and asked.

“Well, I want to become the best swordsman in the world,” Zoro smirked. “What better way to be the best is to be trained by the best.”

“I… Can’t disagree,” you snickered. “That makes perfect sense… Wonder how I never thought of it sooner?”

“Done,” Zoro states.

“What?” You furrowed your brow.

“I’m done stitching you up,” Zoro cleaned his hands off with a nearby bowl of water in you had set out for the exact purpose of cleaning up after the small operation. You had sat up within the bed with some difficulty, finding that Zoro really had stitched up your gaping chest. You could even tell what he had stitched and what you had, being his looked professionally done and your’s was nothing but amature.

“How… How did you get it done so quick?” You muttered.

“I’ve stitched up quite a few of my wounds in the past, plus talking to you was a distraction. So it was all easy,” Zoro gladly explained loving just how amazed you had became.

“Anyways…” You sighed. “Thank you for helping.”

“Better than seeing you bleed to death trying,” Zoro snickered and you joined in with a shy snicker on your end.

“Yeah, guess so,” you pulled your arms through the straps of your tank top, slipping them over your shoulders after having to conceal your breasts somehow from Zoro after the minor operation. Then you went ahead to pulling back your hair to rest at your backside instead of poking out in every which direction. Zoro turned his attention back to you after drying off his hands, noticing something he hadn’t seen before. While you worked upon your hair, he saw one large scar that sat upon both of yours wrists. His steel eyes dwindled, finding the same scars on your ankles as well.

“Where’d those come from?” Zoro asked pointing at your wrists. He was being more casual about this approach rather than yesterday when he had practically demanded an answer from you about the shape of your sword form.

Somehow, you grinned to Zoro’s question. “From fights,” you shrugged. “What about your ankles?” You asked in return pointing at his stitched ankles.

I didn’t even point out her ankles… Zoro thought. “I tried to cut my feet off because I was trapped… End of story.”

“Ouch,” you comment.

“Yeah… Whatever,” Zoro trailed off. “Just get some rest, I’ll talk to Mihawk and see what work he wants to get done.”

“Okay,” you curled into bed. “Thank you for helping me Zoro.”

“No problem…”

Zoro exited your room quite briskly, he had one thing on the mind and that’s about it. So the swordsman in the making made way for the room he knew he’d find Mihawk, more it was the room he found Mihawk the most. Besides that, Zoro followed the red arrows as Perona had told him earlier and he did find the man he was looking for.

Mihawk was sitting within his usual seat, overlooking the island from the window he sat beside. One leg was thrown over the other while he read a letter he had newly received. “Mihawk-” Zoro began.

“Thank you Roronoa,” Mihawk glanced up from the letter sitting within his palms. “(Y/n) had already informed me of the baboon incident last night.”

“Oh,” Zoro nodded, he was glad the man of the house had summed that factor up.

“So, thank you once again for saving my daughter,” this was the nicest Zoro had ever seen Mihawk. I mean his interactions with Mihawk were always very brief, but this was something Zoro couldn’t let slip his mind so easily.

“It’s… Really nothing,” Zoro spoke finding this conversation a bit awkward for some reason he could not pinpoint. “Being on my crew, saving people I barely know comes with the job.”

“I’ve figured,” Mihawk noted. “I keep track of the things your crew has done like the Baratie of where we first fought, defeating Warlords Crocodile & Gekko Moriah, even your captain’s attempt to save his brother at the War of Marineford.”

“I had no idea,” Zoro found it intriguing that Mihawk of all people actually cared or had a settle interest in his crew.

“More I just keep track of everything for Red Hair’s sake,” Mihawk glanced up from his letter once again. “Why don’t you take a seat?” The Warlord offered.

“Sure,” Zoro complied, taking a seat in the empty chair besides Mihawk’s. “What business did you have to take care of with Shanks? I thought you and Shanks were rivals?” Zoro had pulled from his memory due to Mihawk’s absence during the baboon attack from the night before.

Mihawk snickered. “He’s a thorn in my side I’ll give him that,” Mihawk laughing? Zoro felt like he had walked into an alternate dimension. “But over the last few days, I had met up with the thorn because he was worried about how (Y/n) might be doing. Most of all, he had informed me of the events that had happened after I had left the War of the Best, how your Captain is safe in the hands of the Surgeon of Death and Warlord Boa Hancock,” Zoro didn’t let any piece of information slip. Each piece was vital to him in their own way.

“At least Luffy’s alright,” Zoro eased up to an extent. “So I’m guessing (Y/n) is pretty close with Shanks isn’t she?”

“Indeed,” Mihawk nods his head. “He’s her godfather much like he’s Straw Hat’s fatherly figure. There was a time I couldn’t be there for (Y/n) and Red Hair had raised her for a handful of years,” with the mention of your childhood, it had got Zoro’s gears rolling to the max. He had remembered why he had came here in the first place.

“Mihawk, I have a question.”

“And what might that be?” Mihawk didn’t mind this small talk all that much. Afterall, you’re out of commision for a while. Even he could handle so much silence.

“(Y/n), I couldn’t help but notice the scars on her wrists and ankles-”

“Let me guess,” Mihawk sat down his letter for good and braided his fingers together. “You want to know their origins?”

“Exactly,” Zoro was surprised to learn Mihawk was practically reading his mind. “I hate coming to you about it, but (Y/n) is just lying about them.”

“She does that,” Mihawk nodded his head. “She’s no longer affected by the event, more it’s a memory that she can’t let down cause it had determined many factors within her life.”

“Let me guess… It’s the event that determined the shape of her sword?”

“Precisely,” Mihawk hummed. “I have no problem informing you, but more it’ll take a while to explain.”

“Eh,” Zoro shrugged. “I have two years.”

Guess it comes down to you guys if you want a brief explanation from Mihawk or a full blown flashback in the next chapter.