He Would Rather Be Bored Than Frustrated - Tumblr Posts

I think there's a lot of evidence in canon to suggest that Mihawk doesn't want to be lonely. But he doesn't know how to be around other people without expecting too much of them and always ultimately ending up disappointed when they fall short.

Sometimes when he looks at Shanks, all he can see is failed potential and broken promises he made with no one but himself.

Even now he tries not to linger longer than he has too;

Shanks' future no longer has any room for him and so Mihawk remains stagnant stuck 10 years in the past, alone. He doesn't know how to be anything else.

That is until a couple of pesky cotton candy haired children barge into his castle and into his life and drag him head first into the future too