A.N: This one shot was inspired by the song "Alyssa Lies" that I heard for the first time yesterday. If you know the song you know the plot and the ending of this story.
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or the song.
Robin Lies
It was Monday morning and ten year old Nami came to school with a smile on her face, knowing that today was the day when they'd get a new student in to their class. The new student was a girl, and there weren't many girls in Nami's class, not to mention she didn't really like them much. Hancock tough she was better than anyone else, Margaret agreed with the black haired girl and Camie hanged around the older bullies. Sure she came along with some of the boys in her class, but that wasn't the same thing as having a good friend who was a girl.
Nami's smile grew wider as she saw a girl about her age that she didn't recognize in the swings; that had to be the new girl. At that moment she decided that this new girl with black hair and brown dress was going to be her best friend. Nami walked over to her, saying: "Hi"
The smaller girl looked up with her wide, blue eyes. She didn't say anything at first, but just stared. Finally she seemed to find her voice: "Uh... hi."
Nami fought back her frown as she wondered why the girl had waited for so long to answer. Was it her orange hair that caught her by surprise? It wasn't that unusual... was it her green and yellow old dress that used to belong to her sister? It wasn't her fault that her family was poor...
"My name's Nami, what's yours?" she asked, deciding to let it drop for now. The girl eyed her a while before lowering her head, saying: "Robin."
"You're in third grade, right?" Nami asked. When Robin nodded she said: "Thought so, I'm there too. What's your favorite subject?"
"...I don't know" Robin answered after a little while.
"You don't? Mine's math" Nami told, sitting in the swing next to Robin. She started to tell the quieter girl about their classmates and teacher, and while Robin rarely said anything, she was still listening, which was proven by how she sometimes asked Nami what she meant or told that she was being rude, mainly when she insulted their classmate called Luffy. When the bell rang the girls got in to their class and their teacher, Kuzan, told Robin to introduce herself to the class.
"My name is Nico Robin, I'm eight years old" she said quietly with her head held down.
"Eight?" questioned a green haired boy, who Nami had known for a few years. The lazy boy's name was Roronoa Zoro, the boy who didn't do well in any class but PE.
"She skipped the second grade" their teacher said, lazily sitting down behind his desk "You may go to your seat now."
Robin walked to her seat that was between Nami and a long nosed boy, Usopp. The kids turned their attention to the chalk board as the lesson started.
Two and half weeks later:
"Robin! Over here over here over he-!" yelled Luffy, the loud boy with a straw hat from third grade, but stopped when Nami whacked him on the head.
"Shut up already; she heard you" she said, turning to smile to their black haired friend who walked over to them.
"Hi Nami, Luffy. Where are Usopp and Zoro?" Robin asked. In the past two weeks she had stopped being so shy and was now talking even if people didn't ask anything, which didn't happen two weeks ago.
"They should be here soon" Nami told, noticing few fresh bruises on Robin's arms "What happened to you?"
"I uh... fell down the stairs" Robin told, looking down.
"Again?" Luffy asked, giggling "Robin, you're so clumsy!"
Nami frowned; this was the fourth time in these two and half weeks she had said that. She had also tripped on to doorstep, fallen out of her chair etc. She was really clumsy; Nami feared that one day she'd fall over on the road and would get hit by a car or something.
"Maybe you should start keeping a helmet on your head" Nami commented, making Robin laugh slightly.
"Hi guys, what are you do- huh?" Usopp started, stopping as he saw Robin "Did you trip on something again Robin?"
"She fell down the stairs" Luffy said with a giggle, getting hit by Nami.
"Again?" Zoro, who had just arrived with Usopp, asked "Any broken bones?"
"No" Robin said softly "Shouldn't we go to the class?"
"Yeah, let's go!" Luffy yelled, dragging Usopp behind him. Robin smiled and followed them, but Nami and Zoro stood still, the later one glaring at Robin's back.
"What?" Nami asked, noticing Zoro's glare.
"Robin's hiding something" the green haired boy said it like it was a fact, like he was daring for Nami to disagree.
"No she's not; she's just clumsy" Nami disagreed, ignoring Zoro's frown "Now let's go"
After school:
"Crap, it's still raining" Usopp complained as they got to the front door.
"Surely you guys have umbrellas?" Nami asked as she opened her own.
Zoro nodded, but Usopp and Luffy shook their heads.
"Nope, we've got raincoats" Usopp told, high fiving with Luffy.
"What about you, Robin?" Zoro asked, making Nami turn around to face the younger girl who didn't even have boots.
"I'll manage; I live close enough" she said. Nami nodded, accepting the answer and the five of them left for their homes.
Friday afternoon after school:
Nami was walking down the road to the address her teacher had given her, Robin's address. She hadn't been in school for two days; Nami was quite sure she had caught a cold when she went home while it was raining without an umbrella. She was going to go give Robin her homework and cheer her up; she knew that being alone at home when you were sick wasn't nice.
The house came in to sight and Nami saw Robin hanging up laundry outside. She frowned; why was she outside when she was sick?
"Robin!" she called out, gasping as Robin fell off of the chair she had been standing on. Maybe Robin fell every time someone startled her?
"You okay Robin?" Nami asked, running over to her friend. Robin looked at her with wide eyes, asking: "Nami? What are you doing here?"
"I came to bring you your homework" Nami told "Why are you outside? Teacher said you had a cold."
"I'm doing a bit better now, so I thought I'd get some fresh air" Robin told, but Nami wasn't convinced "By hanging laundry?"
"Well uh... they were clean, so..." Robin muttered looking down "...uh, do you want to see my room?"
"Sure" Nami said. She'd let Robin go for now, but she was going to tell her later, she'd make sure of it. They went upstairs to a small room with only closet, desk and a bed in it plus a few books. Nami frowned, saying: "I really am the only one of the five of us without my own room."
Robin laughed a little, but her laughter ended in to a cough.
"You're still sick Robin" Nami said, putting the paper with the homework on Robin's small table "You need to get more rest."
"I'm fine, real-" Robin said, but paused suddenly.
"Robin?" Nami questioned, but soon she too heard the steps coming towards the room.
"Quick, get under the bed!" Robin said in a low whisper.
"Why?"
"Hurry!" the urgency in Robin's voice was enough to make Nami obey as she crawled under Robin's bed, just in time before the door opened.
"Robin!" Nami heard a woman's voice yell "Why haven't you hanged the laundry yet?!"
"I'm sorry aunt Roji, I was just taking a little break" Robin told, but her aunt didn't seem happy.
"Little break? Little break!? How hard can it be to hang out some laundry?!" Roji yelled, but Robin only said: "I'm sorry, aunt Roji."
"You really should be, you ungrateful girl. We're keeping you here and feeding you for free since your worthless mother left for her so called work, never coming back." from under the bed Nami could see Robin clenching her fists when her mother was mentioned.
"Don't speak about mother like tha-"she started, but was stopped by a hard slap on the face, so hard that she collapsed on to the floor. Nami wanted to rush over to her, but she couldn't. She was paralyzed by fear.
"You ungrateful girl!" Roji yelled, kicking Robin.
"I'm sorry, aunt Roji" she said, losing her earlier bravery.
"I've had a hard day, Robin" Roji said "I'm going to sleep now. The laundry better be up and the downstairs clean when I wake up. Do you understand?"
"Yes, aunt Roji" Robin said, waiting for Roji to leave before getting up "Nami? You can come out now." she whispered, surprised to see the older girl crying as she crawled out "Nami what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"You're hurt Robin!" she hissed, not daring to yell.
"This is nothing Nami" Robin assured with a small, clearly forced smile "You should go home now."
Nami wanted to protest, she should have protested, but instead she nodded, leaving the house with tears in her eyes as she realized that Robin wasn't clumsy, her aunt was hurting her.
At Nami's house:
Nami opened the door to see her father, or rather stepfather, sitting at the table.
"Gen?" she said, making the man look up from his paper to see his daughter's tear filled eyes "What is it Nami?"
Nami took a deep breath, trying to hold back her tears as she said: "Robin lies"
Genzo raised an eyebrow. He knew who Robin was; Nami talked a lot about her friends. He put the paper down, thinking that the girls had probably just had a little fight as he said: "Lies how? You can tell me"
And she did. Nami told how Robin had lied to her, to the whole class, even the teachers. How she made up lies about her bruises, how she made everyone believe that she was clumsy, which she was not. Genzo listened with wide eyes, gritting his teeth as Nami told him what she'd seen just a while ago.
"What should I do Gen?" Nami asked "Robin's hurt..."
"It'll be alright; I'll figure something out" Genzo assured, standing up "Why don't you go do your homework now?"
Nami nodded, wiping her tears. Genzo would come up with something; Robin would be okay.
That night:
Nami went to bed, looking up at her ceiling. She was really hoping that Genzo would come up with something; that Robin would be alright.
Monday morning at school:
This time Genzo walked Nami and her older sister, Nojiko, to school. He had told Nami that he'd talk to her friend so that they could help her and Nami had nodded, so now they were both at school. Nami hadn't slept well in the weekend, and she could tell that Genzo hadn't either. They were both worried.
Nami saw Usopp at the swings, but when he saw her he turned his head away, walking to the opposite direction. She frowned; what was going on?
Next they came across Zoro, who looked like he had been crying. Zoro never cried, absolutely never. Then they saw Luffy, who was biting his lip as he sat against the wall outside, his eyes hidden by his hat.
"Luffy?" Nami said "Luffy, what's wrong?"
Luffy didn't answer; he just pulled his hat lower. Nami could see he was crying.
"Gen, why are everyone so sad?" Nami asked. When he didn't answer Nami turned to Luffy: "Hey Luffy, where's Robin?"
Luffy didn't answer just cried harder, confirming Genzo's suspicions.
"Nami" he said "Your friend Robin... she'll no longer lie to you."
"Huh?"
"She's dead" Zoro said from behind them "Robin's dead"
"What?" Nami said, tears coming to her eyes "Why?"
"The world can be a cruel place Nami" Genzo said as he held his crying daughter. It was over; Nami's best friend had died because of child abuse.
A.N: At first I wondered if I'd give this one shot a happy ending after all, but decided against it because then it wouldn't have been like in the song. What do you guys think?