Phoenix One Piece x Reader

25 - Sway

When I woke, it was to Mihawk gently switching out the wet towl on my head. When he went to place it on me he froze as we made eye contact with each other. I gave a small, weak smile. 

"How do you feel?" The swordsman asked me as he helped me to sit up. "Tired," I winced at the slight pain in my throat. My voice came out very hoarse. "I can imagine, you've been out for two weeks." I hummed and slowly looked away from him.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he sighed and covered his eyes with his hat. "You weren't ready and because I thought too highly of you, you almost died. I'm sorry," I put my hand on top of his. "I wanted to try it. We share fault." He gave a small nod as I noticed a ghost of a smile on him.

"Well, to make it up to you, I will help you get to the same strength you were at before." I look at him with confusion, then I look down at my fragile looking body. "From the looks of it, that will take some time," I noted softly while staring at my now thinner hands, my right arm had stiches climbing up my arm from my hand. "I'm a patient man." A tear almost escaped my eye as I looked back up at him. 

From that day on, for the next two months, Mihawk nursed me back to health. My body gained its life and now all that was missing was my strength. Without strength, I can't even fly since that alone takes a lot of strength. It's why bird people are naturally stronger than humans. 

Mihawk was by my side the entire time, helping and encouraging my health. When it came time to start gaining the muscle that I once had, he made sure to not over do it. 

He also helped me when I had nightmares of the incident. Every night for a while, I would wake up in a cold sweat because the same dark cage kept appearing in my mind. Somehow, the incident seemed worse in my dreams than how I remember it. I'm glad Mihawk was always there to help calm me down.

I had also learned that the Humandrills had a new fear of me. They didn't like how I did some sort of weird move that they could not replicate. I felt bad for them, I damaged their homes and probably hurt a few of them. I don't blame them for fearing me.

"Something that can help you gain endurance and strength... is dancing. You have probably heard it before, but dancing is a great way to train your body to fight. It trains your coordination, agility, strength of limbs, flexibility, sense of rhythm and quickness of reactions." I listened with curiosity, anxiously waiting to see where this was leading. 

"You and I will be doing numerous dances until your body can handle more intense training." My eyes widened with surprise, as my cheeks felt heated. "If you are okay with that, that is." He added. I gave a smile and nodded.

The next day, we started our dance training era with a Waltz. Since I already knew the dance, it was easy to follow his movements. The only thing was that I would get tired very quickly. To make sure I was alright, he would give constant, short, breaks for water and simple breathers. 

We did the Waltz for a month and by the end of the month, we could do a nice dance together. Then we switched to a slightly harder dance the next month. Once we mastered it, we moved on to a harder dance.

We continued to up our game each time we mastered a dance. Going from a Foxtrot to a Cha-Cha to a Tango to a Paso Doble to a Quickstep to an Argentine Tango to a Samba to a Salsa to a Salsa Caleña. (REFERANCE VIDEOS AT THE END) We danced to a song from an old gramophone he had for each dance. 

The whole dance idea made me very happy. Since dancing is a huge part of my kind, it felt like I was being reminded of where I came from. It also let me feel free, no matter how challenging and tough the dance is on my body. The only thing about the whole dance thing is, it made me curious.