Eyes of a Hawk: Zoro x Reader

Chapter 8: Old Man

It’s been three months since Zoro had lost an eye. Nine months in total since he’s moved in. His eye had healed incredibly quick and the cut had scarred over leaving a gnarly scar over his left eye. You felt the need to point out on numerous occasions that the scar he bared reminded you of Silvers Rayleigh of whom wore the same exact scar on his opposite eye. And with that, Zoro had earned the nickname of Old Man and he didn’t mind much of it at all. It was better than some names he had once been referred to not so long ago. Plus it was a nickname from you, more of a reason to like it.

Besides being an ‘old man’, Zoro had been excelling in his training. Mihawk wasn’t a man to be all so easily amazed, well Zoro had accomplished just that. Zoro was an excellent student learning new techniques at such a quick rate. One notable fact was that losing his eye must’ve been a wake up call, distractions weren’t really a problem anymore, mainly because you were the distraction. And so you remained in sword form during any and all training sessions in which you took part. Zoro was what you’d liked to call a predator in combat. His steel gazed honed in on the enemy like they were his prey, his attacks were backed up with the strength of a thousand men, he’d strike with silence and kill you the second you become distracted. Zoro was the perfect embodiment of a tiger who remained king of the jungle to this very day which was true remarking that Zoro had defeated every enemy this island had to offer besides Mihawk himself.

You’ve never found a man so phenomenal in all your years.

Today’s training session was all over the place… Literally. Zoro was bouncing off the walls, doing somersaults, and thrown through windows. This fight was outside and it moved inside. Mihawk and Zoro were destroying the place and all you had to do was sit back and relax in your sword form as Mihawk protected himself. All of Zoro’s attacks didn’t do you any harm in this form and it quite frankly felt like a carnival ride being whipped around and such.

“Hey howdy hey!” Everyone heard and shot their heads in the direction of the call. There stood a man with red hair and three scars that ran over his left eye, another man with pale blue hair smoking a cigar to his right.

Shanks! You cheered transforming back into your human form and ran arms outstretched for the man with one arm. Quite immature of yourself to run at him like a child, but he’s one of your most favorite people in the world and it’s been years since the last time you both had the chance to see each other let alone talk. Shanks clearly didn’t mind as you knocked into him and he gladly returned the hug the best he could with one arm.

“Nice to see you again too,” Shanks spoke into the hug.

“I knew Shanks meant a lot to her but wow,” Zoro sheathed his swords and leaned back into the wall taking in the sight.

“Again… For it seems to slip your mind,” Mihawk groaned. “Red Hair is another fatherly figure in her life besides myself,” Mihawk was clearly distressed at Shanks’ presence. His mood will surely affect everyone within the mansion.

“I never forgot about that,” Zoro glared at Mihawk. “I’ve been here for almost a year-”

“Nine months,” Mihawk correct.

A vein bulged in Zoro’s forehead. “Close enough…” Zoro lets out a deep breath to retain his cool. “Nine months, I pay attention to (Y/n) enough to know that… Out of my nine months though… I’ve never seen (Y/n) act so young.”

“Is that really a bad thing?” Mihawk noted. “It’s quite hard getting (Y/n) out of her shell.”

“Well before now she’d always be a snobbish pain in the ass like you.”

“Say that again and you’ll be sleeping with the monkeys…” Mihawk threatened his apprentice.

“I’ll beat them up like I did last time,” Zoro snickered.