Irreplaceable

Part 21: Spring

Perona huffed storming off. Mihawk sighed.

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Zoro quickly got bored of waiting for his cake and demanded for more play time. The sun had warmed everything up so it made sense to go play outside. Zoro ran and picked a ball. He kicked it and ran after it. Sometimes the ball happened to go towards Mihawk so he would kick it softly back to Zoro. Zoro wasn't any good at passing the ball, but he liked to kick and throw it a lot.

Perona came outside carrying a tray of juice. Zoro dashed to her and she gave him his sippy cup. Mihawk came too and sat down on the swing. Zoro tried climbing up but he was still a bit too short so Perona helped him. He drank from his cup and grinned happily sitting next to Mihawk. Perona picked her phone and took a picture. She sat next to them and took a selfie with all of them in it. She then shared the pictures to Mihawk.

- "I think it would be nice to go to the park." Perona stated.
- "You have something special planned up?"
- "No, just us three. I don't really think Zoro cares for big parties yet."
- "Probably." He chucled lightly. "Talking of big parties, did you know Hancocks coming to town next week?"

Perona chuckled. Hancock sure was a show whenever she decided to visit.

- "Yes, she told me. It's the whole family apparently."

Zoro sat up and gave his cup back to Perona. He went to play some more.

- "The cake should have cooled by now. It's probably best if we go after eating it."
- "I dunno, there's Zoros nap-time and after that it might be too dark to go."
- "We'll see then."

They both got up and called to Zoro. He would get to help them decorate the cake.

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Zoro looked in awe at the cake they had made for him. It looked messy with nonpareils and other decorations strewn all over the chocolate icing with two candles on top. They sang happy birthday to him and after clapping, Perona blew the candles for him. Mihawk cut up the cake and Zoro squealed delighted. Between layers of whip cream and jelly he could see the sponge having stripes like that of a tiger. Mihawk had added chocolate in part of the dough to have it go into stripes.

Zoro quickly forgot about his spoon as he devoured his piece of cake. Mihawk took pictures and chuckled delighted as the boy made a mess of himself.

- "We'll have to clean him up before his gift."
- "I don't know what I was expecting." Perona sighed defeated. She didn't expect Zoro to ditch the spoon he always fought so hard for.
- "I can do it if you don't want to."

Perona looked at Mihawk. She never really thought about it, but Mihawk was so active in taking care of Zoro. It made her happy. Having him near made her happy.

- "Even if you're so stubborn I really do like you a lot." She looked at him lovingly.
- "I offered to wash Zoro and you're saying such a thing." Mihawk was incredulous, but it felt so good when she looked at him like that. He couldn't help but look back at her with the same amount of love.
- "I mean it. You're important to us." She looked away from him slightly blushing.
- "You really must hate giving Zoro a bath." He chuckled.

When Zoro was ready Mihawk took him to be cleaned up. Perona stayed behind to clean up the table. Mihawk slightly turned to look at her. And as he did so did she and their eyes met. They both quickly looked away. Mihawk felt a warm blush rising on his cheeks.

----

Zoro was playing around with a new tiger blush, a friend to the one Ace had gotten him. He was so happy and ran around giggling.

- "Sometimes it's best to go with the old favorites." Perona chuckled.

Mihawk couldn't agree more. They sat on the sofa and watched Zoro play.

- "It's almost a year now." Perona said quietly.
- "Hmm." Mihawk hummed slightly.

Perona turned to look at him. He noticed the look of wonder on her face, so he nonchalantly asked:

- "Is there something on me?"
- "Oh, no, not at all." She shook her head, but then pursed her lips as she kept on looking at him. "Are you religious?"

The question came so out of the blue he just stared at her with his mouth open.

- "Your necklace." She pointed towards his neck. "You just sometimes fiddle with it and it's a cross so I just thought..."

Mihawk realized that he had unconsciously started to fiddle with the cross on his neck. He hadn't even known he did it often enough for her to notice.

- "I mean you don't really feel like a religious person to me. Does it hold some personal value?"

Mihawk was starting to panic. What should he say? Lie to her that it meant nothing. Lie that he was religious in the way she meant. Or tell the truth and risk everything.

- "It's my christening cross. It just brings me comfort even if I'm not very religious. I was when I was younger, but not anymore. Too many bad things happened." He settled on the partial truth. She didn't need to know everything.

- "Like the scar on your side?" Her eyes went there quickly.

Another uncomfortable question, but he could not answer that one. The memory had been so painful. Luckily Zoro jumped on the sofa and settled between them. He took hold of both their arms.

- "Watch TV." He hummed and closed his eyes content.
- "Alright."

Perona picked the controller and opened Netflix to look for a movie they could watch.

Halfway through it Zoro fell asleep. The day had passed so quickly. Mihawk reached his arm and put it over Peronas shoulder. He pulled her closer careful not to have Zoro wake up. She looked at him surprised. Such sudden show of affection was unusual.

- "What are you doing?" She inched closer.

Mihawk looked at her and his gaze was so loving and warm, his eyes nearly sparkled. Perona looked away flustered. She carefully picked Zoro up on her lap and moved even closer to Mihawk. He wrapped both his arms around them and pressed his cheek against her head closing his eyes.

He loved them so much and felt like his heart might explode from not being able to tell them. Saying that he loved them, felt like an invisible barrier. Once crossed he would not be able to let go and eventually he would have to. So instead of saying it, he had settled onto a hug.
But Perona understood, or at least he felt like she did even if she didn't say anything. She caressed his back gently while she pressed against him. Once settled, she sighed long and content, like she was at the world's most comfortable place.

At a place where she belonged