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“Hawkeyes!”
The greatest swordsman in the world merely sighed at the sound of an accented voice not dissimilar to his own. He took a sip of his wine. Usually, he did not go to bars to drink, but he was returning home from a Warlords meeting and wasn’t too keen on drinking at sea. Sure, he could handle his liquor, but he wasn’t worried about that. He was more concerned with the rough waves smashing his bottles against the side of his vessel of choice.
So he was in a bar.
“Fancy seeing you here, my friend!”
Mihawk looked down at the far more petite figure that hopped onto the booth seat across his, sighing once more when he made himself comfortable.
Mihawk had met Puss a great many years before on some random island in the South Blue. He had been cultivating his skill when he became acquainted with the cat, they had quite a few things in common, after all. They were both Spanish swordsmen with a taste for feathered hats and fine leather boots.
“Puss,” he greeted back, eyeing the cat before him. Mihawk wouldn’t exactly know how to describe their relationship to someone, he would never call the cat his friend, but he wasn’t just an acquaintance, either. He was more of…a drinking buddy? But even then, the cat didn’t seem too fond of alcohol, usually preferring milk as his drink of choice (or cream, if he was really looking for a nice time). An associate, then?
“Oh, new coat! It looks very nice, maybe I should get my own, eh? What do you think?”
“A coat before pants? My, what a choice,” Mihawk hummed against the rim of his glass before taking another drink.
Puss just laughed at that, “Pants would only slow me down! Besides, then they would start calling me Puss in Pants!” The cat joked, waving a paw at him.
There was something about the way he said it, however, that made Mihawk raise an eyebrow. He remembered Puss being far more unbearable the last time they had met, responding to every snide comment Mihawk made with some variation of ‘Puss in Boots never feels fear’ or, ‘Puss in Boots is not bothered by such silly things!’. It had gotten incredibly annoying, and the way he always said his own name and bragged was grating upon his nerves.
There was something different about him now, however. He did not announce his name, even when he made the slight at himself, something Mihawk had not expected of him.
“Something happened?” Mihawk finally murmured after thinking for a few moments. Puss’s smile fell a bit before he sighed, slumping against the seat.
“Sí, something did happen. I had a… long overdue epiphany, my friend,” Puss chuckled. Rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed to have gained some humbleness, at the very least.
Mihawk did not say anything, instead making a motion with his head, signaling for him to go on. Usually, Mihawk would not actively seek someone to tell him what was on their mind (because, usually, he just did not care), but Puss was an associate and looked to be a far calmer individual.
“I met Death, Hawkeyes, the real, in the flesh Death. He was as real as I am to you, right now,” Puss was surprisingly quiet as he spoke, brow furrowed and eyes cast upward at the roof with some sort of melancholy.
“I am down to my last life, and he helped me understand I had been wasting them, like the fool I was,” The cat seemed impossibly older as he further explained. The maturity that he had been missing the last time they met had caught up to him, with this encounter with ‘Death’, he supposed.
“I see,” Mihawk nodded. Puss groaned, head thumping against the table, “This last month has been… far too much,” he admitted.
Mihawk smirked at that, finding himself smiling into his glass as he took another drink, “You seem to be doing better, at least,”.
This had Puss raising his head with a smile, “Oh, I am indeed! I no longer work alone!” This had Puss bragging, the cat pressing his thumb to his chest as he wore a cocky grin.
“The legend now has a sidekick?” A tease, from Mihawk. Puss only laughed, leaning back so his back would hit the booth.
“Ah, the legend is dead, my friend! I far prefer living the life I have now without being a legend! I’ve told you about Kitty, yes?”
He nearly rolled his eyes at that, of course, Puss had. The cat had not stopped talking about her when they were about to be wed. He nodded.
“Well, we’re back together! And, we have a…” Puss seemed to be troubled for words, “A dog. But, he’s not our dog , he’s a dog, but he’s- he’s..ah, he’s our friend that goes with us everywhere and is with us always, but not in an annoying way,”.
Mihawk thought for a second, “You’re back together? I was not aware there was a separation in the first place,”.
Puss cleared his throat awkwardly, eyes wandering off to the side as he pursed his lips, “Well, you see, I didn’t actually…show up,” the cat sucked the back of his teeth as he admitted.
“You left her at the alter?” Mihawk’s brows raised in surprise.
“No no no!” Puss was quick to defend himself, waving his hands before himself, “She didn’t show up either! It was a mutual thing!” He paused, “That I didn’t know about, so yes, I had believed that, but we’re back together now! All fixed!”
“And that happened how, exactly?”
Puss exhaled a puff of air, putting his paw to his head, “I’m going to need some milk for this,”.
Mihawk was glad that he had already been drinking because the tale Puss wove was absolutely bizarre. Yes, he had seen some things on the Grand Line, but nothing to the extent Puss spoke about. And Mihawk knew he wasn’t lying. Their hats sat on the table beside each other, the difference in size laughable.
“And then, we tore the map apart, destroying the wish! We barely made it off the star with our lives as it crumbled beneath us! Horner was sucked inside of it before it exploded, and is most definitely dead,” Puss finally finished.
“...I must admit. If I had known that was what you had been doing, I would have gotten something stronger to drink,” Mihawk rubbed the bridge of his nose as he shook his head with a smirk.
“Hah! You are telling me! I barely knew what to do with myself the next day! We ended up finding an inn and sleeping until the next morning when we got there!” The tabby laughed, and Mihawk joined him, although a bit quieter.
“I’m glad to see you are alright though,” Mihawk put out after.
“Ah, you are getting soft, my friend!” Puss pointed at him and shook his hand a few times before lowering it again.
His mouth tilted up with a smile once more, “Perhaps,”.
Puss snapped his fingers as he realized something, “Do you have a piece of paper?”
“I do,” Mihawk reached into one of the pockets in his pants and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen before handing them over to the cat.
“I finally got one of those Den Den things, so I figure you should have my contact!” Puss explained when he finished writing down a series of numbers and passed the pad and pen back to Mihawk. Mihawk looked down at the paper, mentally running over the numbers in case he misplaced the pad before slipping it back into his pocket.
“I’ll make sure to give you a call later to make sure it works,” He assured with a nod of his head.
“Gracias!” Puss reached over, grabbed his hat, and placed it back on his head, “I should probably head out now, don’t want Perrito getting worried! I was definitely not supposed to stay out this long!”
Mihawk merely shook his head, putting his own hat back on and sliding out of his side of the booth, “I should be doing the same, then, I did not intend to stay here longer than originally necessary,”.
Mihawk left beli on the tabletop to pay for both himself and Puss as they walked out.
“See you again, one day!” Puss waved as he began to walk further into town, likely to the local inn.
“One day,” Mihawk agreed with a simple nod before he, too, turned and walked away, but towards the docks.
“Puss! There you are! We were worried!” Perrito scampered up to him, tail wagging furiously behind him.
“Ah, there was no need for that! I am fine!” He pushed off the concern and scratched the dog’s head.
“And what had you so tied up?” Kitty cocked her head to the side.
Puss grinned, “I was catching up with an old friend!”