A Warlord and his Princess   von ChibiManaX
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                     Kapitel 1: A Princess and her Chores
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It took Mihawk, Zoro and Perona almost half a year to warm up around each other.
Well – at least as warm as it could get around these three. 
Mihawk loved the peace he had when he spent his time alone on the whole island.
Now he just enjoys the silence when the others are either sleeping, training or
doing whatever they did at daytime to stay away from him. Most of the time he
was not training Zoro, preparing meals or working in the garden he spent reading
the newspaper and drinking some of his favourite red wine.
Zoro on his side started to wake up early to have most of the day for training
to become stronger. The day often started with running some laps around the
island to get better stamina. Then he would have some sword fighting and hand to
hand combat sessions with Mihawk or the humandrills and after that he always did
some work out for his muscular strength. He could feel becoming stronger by each
week and he felt proud of what he already achieved.
And then there was Perona. In the beginning she hated everything that required
her to physically work in and around the castle. After all – she was basically
a princess (even though Mihawk and Zoro did not seem to accept the fact). She
was not royal by blood but her former captain and somehow father figure treated
her like one. Every day she slept in and only woke up when Mihawk and Zoro were
already outside and training. Then she did her morning routine in the bathroom
and went downstairs to grab something to eat, decided to explore the castle or
watch the two men during their training. 
That was until one evening when they sat together for dinner and the owner of
the house raised a topic much to her disapproval: “You know, ghost girl, if
you want to stay and live here, you also need to contribute to our daily
living.” Perona on her seat put down her fork and looked straight at him:
“WHAT?!” Mihawk stuck his left index finger into his left ear as she shouted
at him. “Why do I need to? And do not call me ghost girl. I have a name!” He
lowered his hand again. He simply looked at her and continued with a calm voice:
“You are living under my roof, eating my food and do nothing all day. Even
Roronoa is helping out.”
“I am your guest!”
“You are basically an intruder.”
“Rude!”
Zoro watched the two with a brow raised sceptically. He could only agree with
his mentor in that matter.
“I want you to help me out with the garden and the kitchen.”
“Sure. You think because I am the woman here, I should do the typical woman
things? Do you also want me to clean your clothes for you?”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
Perona crossed her arms before her, blew up her cheeks and mumbled some
non-audible insults. “I am a princess. I do not need to work.”
“Then maybe it is time for you to get down from your high horse and learn how
to act like a normal person. Not some silly brat.” 
That triggered her and she exploded furiously. “WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!”, she
started floating above the table and into Mihawks direction. When she was
directly on front of him, she raised her right index finger onto his chest and
tipped it with every word she said as to make her point clear: “I am not a
silly brat you arrogant grumpy man!” The swordmaster was not really impressed
by that action and continued with a low voice: “The why are you acting like
one?” Perona floated a bit higher to not touch the table with her feet and put
her hands on her hips. Face filled with anger to be insulted like that: “Am
not! Idiot. I won’t tolerate you talking to me like that.” And with that she
stormed out of the dining room. While exiting she could hear Mihawk saying
“Tomorrow at 8 in the garden.” With a last loud blow she shut the door to
the dining room behind her. 
When she left the room, it was silent. Mihawk finished his dinner and Zoro
emptied his glass of wine. “I guess this means that she is not willing to help
out”, commented Zoro, “Guess it will be only the two of us doing all the
work.” “It seems like Moria spoiled her pretty much”, Mihawk answered,
“But she will come around. Don’t underestimate her.” Zoro raised his
eyebrow again: “Why do you believe that?” But Mihawk decided to end the
conversation at this point. It already cost him enough nerves to talk to Perona
so he simply reached for his glass of wine and emptied it: “It’s your turn
to wash the dishes.” With that Mihawk stood up and left the room.
On the other side of the castle Perona was sitting on a chair in front of her
mirror and combed her hair with fast movements. “He called me brat.” Another
brush. “That damned idiot” Another brush. “How could he?” Another brush
and another and another. Then in her rage she threw her hairbrush with a quick
motion onto the next wall and halted for a moment. The worst thing about the
whole situation? Mihawk was right and she hated it. Perona really behaved like a
small child and she knew it at the moment their conversation took the wrong
turn. She was never known to have a good or calm temper. She really could
explode within seconds if something happened, that she did not like or was
unable to process. Perona tried to calm her breathing and then her anger
subsided and made place for something else. Sadness. She had felt it on some
evenings when she was all alone in her room without her bear or someone of her
crew to talk to her. A silent tear found its way down her cheek and another one
followed. Nobody was ever so harsh to her in words. Of course she struggled with
violent assaults from her opponents and sometimes she also took some pretty bad
physical hits when she was unprepared for battle. But never has anybody hurt her
emotionally. Moria always kept her safe and ensured she had everything she
needed. Treated her like the princess she soon felt to be like and she never
needed to give something in return other than her loyalty. On Thriller Bark she
had her pets or the zombies do all the work and never needed to make much effort
to have a meal or take a bath. But Moria was no longer there – probably dead.
Thriller Bark was destroyed. Kuraigana was her new home. And she really liked
it. Yes - the residents could be kinder and definitely a lot cuter but she
didn’t mind them. Zoro was fun to watch and Mihawk gave her the safety of his
home. Perona wanted to stay here for the time, the warlord would allow her to
stay. She stood up and slowly went to the wall where her hairbrush was lying.
She bent down, picked it up and went back to sit on her chair. She looked at
herself in the mirror. Eyes slightly puffy and red from the tears. “So
uncute”, she mumbled. But then she made a decision: Tomorrow she was going to
show them what she was made of. Nobody will call her a brat again. With that she
went to bed, cuddling with one of her self-made stuffed toys and fell asleep
pretty fast.
The next morning she woke up early. It was not really bright outside and it was
hard for Perona to get up before her normal wake up time, but she needed to
prove it to herself and mostly to Mihawk and Zoro that she could help if she
wanted to. So she quickly went in front of her closet to check, what she should
wear. “Ok the garden. What do I need there.” Perona rummaged through her
clothes. “Something comfy but also something cute.” She decided to wear a
simple short black skirt and a black t-shirt showing her bellybutton. Some
tights and higher boots to match her outfit. Afterwards she got ready in the
bathroom and gave herself one last look in the mirror. “Perfect.” She smiled
widely. She had a look at the clock and saw, that it was already 8. “Shoot”,
Perona cursed. She opened her door and flew out of her room, down the stairs and
almost bumped into Mihawk who was standing at the bottom of the stairs with his
arms crossed and looking in her direction. “Woops”, she was able to come to
a stop before crashing into him. She floated shortly before him and then let her
feet touch the ground. Standing in front of him. “Good morning”, she greeted
him and smiled shyly. Perona was wondering, why Mihawk was dressed in his battle
clothing including his hat and his sword Yoru on his back. “You decided to
show up, ghost girl”, he commented emotionless and started to walk into the
direction of the garden. Perona was standing still for a moment as he already
went away. She tried not to flip out about the rude greeting and inhaled and
exhaled deeply. Then she followed him but could not suppress a “I still have a
name” addressed to him. “Why are you dressed in your battle outfit when you
wanted my help in the garden?”, Perona asked when she caught up with him.
“You are working in the garden. I will be training with Zoro the whole day.”
“Oh”, she tried to hide a little bit her sadness in her voice but was not
sure if she succeeded. Perhaps Mihawk also did not notice it because who knows
if he even is aware of such an emotion. Perona thought she was spending her
gardening session with him today. Yes – he really was quiet but then at least
she had some kind of company. Someone to talk to and who she knew he was forced
to listen, even if he did not answer her.
The garden itself was not something she would have called beautiful or well
taken care of. Most times they bought their supplies from the neighbouring
islands and were not in need to grow something on their own. No wonder that wild
plants and flowers were growing in this area. “I want to cultivate the garden
again so we have our own vegetables and don’t need to go on supply runs so
often”, Mihawk explained when they arrived in the garden area, “On my last
trip I bought some seeds for zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes. We start with
these.” He went with her to the small gardening house and showed her the
gardening equipment, seeds and explained how to plant them in the correct way.
“The way you arrange the plants is to your liking, as long as the plants are
able to grow.” Perona let her eyes wander around the wild area where she
needed to work. “And I should do this all on my own? This will take ages to
finish”, she exclaimed. “It’s not like you have something better to do in
the house”, Mihawk simply stated and looked at her. “Why are you so
rude?”, she asked angered. “Why are you only seeing the bad side of this?
You are able to contribute to our daily life and you get to chose freely how to
design the garden.” Ok he got a point. She could imagine this place being in a
good shape with all kinds of useful and maybe also other cute plants. Back at
Thriller Bark she had her wonder garden. It was not close to useful but it was
cute. All of her pets were there and it was a nice place to spend. But this
here? This required a lot of physical work - something she was not used to. “I
will check on you in the afternoon”, Mihawk turned around and started to walk
away, “I will be training with Zoro on the mountains on the other side of
island.” Perona shortly looked after him and then redirected her view onto the
garden in her responsibility. She sighed deeply, taking her sweet time to think
of how to start with this mess. “Seems like it would be the best to remove all
the weed first.” With that she grabbed a spade and started digging to remove
all the plants with their roots. The plants were collected in a medium sized
basket. When it was hallway filled, she carried it to a place outside of the
garden to empty it. Somewhere here she planned to create a small compost. But
this needed to be her second priority. When Perona walked back she checked her
progress, she sighed again. “I will never finish this alone.” Then she felt
like someone was watching her. She raised her head and looked around to see who
it could be. In the beginning nobody was to be seen. “Oke. No need to get
spooked. You are just alone on this part of the island and there is nobody
here.” She collected herself, took her spade in her hands and proceeded with
her work until the next basket was halfway filled. When Perona went to the
compost she heard some rustling behind her. Quickly she turned around and saw
two humandrills behind her. “Oh shit”, she froze in her movements and let
the basket fall out of her hands. What were they doing here? The humandrills
usually never came close to the castle, because Mihawk was here and they were
afraid of him. Then it dawned on her. Mihawk was not even close to her. That
stupid swordsman was on the other side of the island tormenting Zoro who knows
how. She was by herself. Perona watched the two humandrills who were also
standing still and they started staring at each other. 
“What do you want?”, she dared to ask, “I do not want to fight with
you.” The two baboons looked at each other questioning until one of them
walked straight into her direction. Perona was alarmed and went some steps back.
“I really do not want to harm…” Then she stopped as she saw how the first
baboon took the spade in front of her and tried to articulate with her.
Blabbering something not-understandable for her while pointing on the utensil in
his right paw. Perona stared at them, wondering what he tried to tell her. She
started smiling when the humandrill stuck the spade into the ground and mirrored
her movements from before. “Do you want to help me?” The baboons started
cheering and hammered with their paws on their chests. “Ok!”, Perona
exclaimed excited. “You can start by doing, what I did before”, she ordered
the first baboon with the spade. Afterwards she looked at the second baboon
still standing a bit further away: “You come with me. We will prepare the
ranking assistance for the vegetables together.” With that said the second
humandrill walked eagerly into her direction and together they placed some poles
along the already prepared ground and mounted steel wire between them.
In the afternoon around 5 Mihawk decided to end the training session for today.
Zoro was already wounded pretty badly from their training while Mihawk himself
was not really affected or even so much as panting. “We should head back”,
Mihawk put his sword on his back and looked into the direction of the castle,
“It will get dark soon and we will need about half an hour to go back.” Zoro
sat on the ground trying to catch his breath: “And check on Perona. Hopefully
she did not blow up the garden.” The warlord did not comment on this remark.
He somehow had the feeling that there was more to that woman than appears on
first sight. He could not believe that Moria assigned her as one of her fleet
commanders if she was just that annoying brat she used to act like since she set
foot on this island. Without any further action Mihawk started walking back and
Zoro silently followed him.
When they arrived back at the castle and went to the garden, the warlord did not
expect to see what was before them. He expected Perona to maybe have done some
progress in removing the weed or maybe planted the first seeds. But not only
that. She was responsible for tilling even a bigger surface than he expected to
see and almost finished planting all the seeds. In the back of the garden Perona
was floating around and not only two but for humandrills were working below her.
The baboons were finishing the wiring around the poles and Perona ordered them
around to make the wiring higher or lower, checking the knots and commenting if
they are doing a good job. Out of instinct Mihawk put his right hand on the
handle of Yoru on his back. As he did, the humandrills froze in their doing and
felt the change of the atmosphere around them. The baboons looked in the
direction of the warlord and seemed to be in fear again. That was the point
where Perona also noticed the new arrivals. Mihawk with his hand on his sword
and Zoro staring unbelieving at the garden. She smiled widely and floated to
them until she was right before the two men. “Relax, Hawkeye”, she scolded
him as she was flying a bit around the two men in joy, “They are here to help.
Seems like it is good for a change if you do not have to constantly live in
fear.” With that she lowered down on the ground and stood next to Mihawk -
looking expectantly between her achievement and the warlord. Mihawk loosened the
grip on his sword and let his gaze wander around the garden again. “It is
good, isn’t it?”, Perona asked full of excitement, “Though I made a deal
with them, that we will share the food as a return for their assist.” Mihawk
slightly nodded and a small smirk came upon his lips. Then he turned around and
decided to go back into the castle. While leaving he commented her with a short:
“Good job, Perona. Tomorrow evening you will be helping me in the kitchen.”
Then he left. Perona stood still and looked after him. “He said my name”,
she whispered. This was the first time the warlord addressed her with her first
name. Normally he would only refer to her as “Ghost girl” or “woman”
combined with a not so nice character trait of her. After processing it she
jumped as high as she could and raised her arms into the air cheering.
“YAY!!” It was just a small praise from Mihawk but it felt like a really big
step in her stay here.

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