Remnants That Haunt (MihawkXShanks)

3

All night the house was quiet, even until the morning hours. This was a few days after Perona and Zoro made a visit, everything seemed relatively normal, as normal as the house could ever feel without Shanks. Mihawk, expecting yet again another guest, went to check the fridge for food. The guest this time would be the boy Shanks practically considers his own son, Luffy.

The little boy of age nine, went from person to person for being watched. Sometimes it would be a cramped house with Dadan, his grandfather Garp, the other times it was reluctantly Shanks as Garp never quite approved of him.

       Mihawk, almost in the kitchen, even in the doorway of it, spotted something off. He spotted a shine in the corner of his eye near the front door. Curious, he went to inspect it and not quite finding it at first. On the coat rack was the item in question.

      Hanging from one of the pegs, loosely tied on by strands of red hair, was a wedding band, that of Shanks'.

Mihawk, at the sight of this, kept calm knowing Shanks could be a bit strange, always assume everything about the situation, not just the worst or the best.

Behind the ring was a folded note, which was slightly opened to balance on the coat rack.

Didn't want to lose it. Keep it until I come back.

Love you.

The contents of his letter, that was all of it, nothing more and nothing less. He said he'd come back and that was enough to drive away the dark creeping shadows that tried to devour Mihawk. The light slowly started to reveal itself in shimmer of sparks.

In such a happy streak, without even realizing it, he opened the curtains that blocked out the sun's shine, now filling the house with life as before Mihawk was practically dead on the inside.

  

    A few hours later, the door rung and behind was a smiling Luffy and an emotionless Ben. Ben was a really close friend of Shanks, their relationship with each other was odd though who's to say both involved weren't.

      "Scary Hawk!" Luffy shouted with a running hug to the leg. The boy was notorious for his nicknames, not caring whether they were offensive or not, spoke his own mind whenever he pleased. Unsurprisingly this got the boy in trouble a lot.

       "Your not as gloomy, last I saw you." Ben noted Mihawk's eyes no longer dulled but, almost shined in their natural gold.

      "I would like to speak to you about that, preferably in private."

       Ben, at the other's words, motioned for Luffy to shoo into the house. Luffy didn't hesitate to, as he made it his goal to try and find secret passage ways. There were none, unless the door in Mihawk's closet counted as it opened up into another closet.

       "Today, he left this." Mihawk dropped Shank's ring in Ben's hand without much explaining.

       "What is this about?" He questioned though, too smart to come to a certain conclusion.

       "He left a message, to keep it until he returns."

      "I see." Ben responded with a puff of smoke from his cigarette. "Definitely something he would do." Though sometimes lifeless, Ben smiled knowing the annoying red head was okay.