A.N: Merry Christmas everybody! (Even though I´m not sure that in which countries people celebrate Christmas 24th and which ones 25th) So I wrote a Christmas one shot and managed to finish it in time. It´s about my favorite couple, so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OCs and the little story about Christmas´ history!
Christmas?
It was December 24th and Robin was quietly reading in the room temporarily hers in the Revolution army´s HQ. Normally she would be training with Dragon this time of the day, but he had said that they should leave training today. So now she was reading a book that told about the history of a place called Gray Terminal. She didn´t know why one of the doctors, Sabo if she remembered right, had insisted that she should read the book, but she was clad that she did.
"I should remember to thank him" Robin thought. She marked the page she had read to and put the book down.
"I guess I´ll go see what´s Nora up to" Robin thought as she left her room. Nora was a fifteen years old small red headed girl who had been working for the army almost ten years. How she joined was still a mystery to Robin and she didn´t want to pry, seeing that the younger girl didn´t like to talk about it. When Robin was about to walk past the lobby she stopped because of all the noises she heard from there.
"Damn it Nora put it higher!" she heard Clark, a man in his early twenties, curse.
"I´m trying!" she heard Nora protest. She walked to the slightly open doorway and saw Nora and Clark trying to put some red decorative in to a big tree. Why did they have a tree inside anyway? She could see Claus, Clark´s brother, trying to untangle some electric candles on the floor a little way away from them. Clarissa, their sister, was knitting something in the corner, probably fearing that the tree might fall on her.
"Then try harde- whoah!" Clark screamed as his foot slipped from the tall chair he was standing on. The tree started to fall with him as he gripped one of its branches.
"Idiot!" Claus yelled, dropping the candles. Just when Clark and the tree were about to hit the floor Robin caught them with her powers and hoisted them up to their earlier positions.
"Phew, that was close" Clark said "Thanks Robin!"
Robin opened the door, smiling at them.
"I knew something like that would happen" Clarissa mumbled, not lifting her gaze from the book. Clark glared at her while Nora made faces at her, making Claus roll his eyes as he returned to the electric candles.
"What are you doing?" Robin asked as she stepped in to the room.
"Decorating the lobby for the Christmas party tomorrow!" Nora cheered. Robin blinked. Christmas party? What for?
"Why?" she asked.
"Because it´s Christmas Eve, duh" was said from behind her. She turned around and saw a young man, Sabo, coming in carrying a tray that held five mugs of hot chocolate. He stopped, raising an eyebrow when he saw Nora and Clarissa laughing and Claus sniggering on the floor. Clark however seemed pissed.
"What?" he asked, following Clarissa´s gaze above his head. His face went red, catching Robin´s interest and she too looked up. But she didn´t understand what was so embarrassing.
"They´re under mistletoe, they´re under mistletoe!" Nora sang, pointing at the mistletoe above their heads. Robin did of course know what mistletoe was, but she didn't understand what so big deal about it was.
"You guys planned this!" Sabo yelled his face red as a tomato. Robin, still not understanding what he was yelling about, decided to ask directly: "Is something wrong, Sabo-san?"
"Yeah Sabo, is something wrong?" Clarissa mocked.
"Just do it, you need to respect the traditions" Claus said with a smirk, still working on the electric candles. Sabo´s face, if even possible, went even redder as he looked at Robin with nervous and somewhat scared face.
Now truly concerned Robin put her hand on his shoulder, asking: "Is everything alright, Sabo-san?"
Sabo, without thinking, quickly slapped her hand away and stormed out of the room. Others, minus Robin and Clark, started to laugh. The raven haired archeologist frowned and asked: "Did I do something wrong?"
"No no" Clark said "It´s Sabo who did something wrong"
Robin was still confused. She looked up and asked: "What meaning does that mistletoe have?"
The others blinked, trying to figure out if she was serious.
"You mean you really don´t know?" Clarissa asked.
"No, I believe I don´t" Robin admitted "And to be honest I don´t really understand the meaning of that tree and all those decorations either"
A deep silence followed Robin´s words. Could it really be…?
"Robin-san, you do know what Christmas is, don´t you?" Claus managed to ask.
"Of course she do-!"
"To be honest I have no idea" the raven haired beauty said, silencing everyone.
"Maybe this will help" Dragon said from five meters behind Robin, tossing her a book that she caught with ease.
"Traditions and history of Christmas" Robin read the title.
"That should explain you something" Dragon said and continued walking.
"Thank you, Dragon-san" Robin said just before he disappeared behind a corner.
"Maybe you should really read that; it might explain some things to you" Claus suggested.
"Sabo-san´s behavior as well?" Robin asked, looking at the book´s table of contents. Clarissa chuckled, asking: "You seriously don´t know about that either?"
When Robin shook her head Clarissa said: "Well in any case, you should avoid getting yourself under mistletoes"
Before Robin could ask anything Claus said: "You´ll understand if you read the book"
"Well I suppose I´ll just do that then" Robin said, her earlier intentions long forgotten. Nora seemed to be busy anyway.
XXXXX
Sabo was lying on the cold roof, gazing at the sky. He just couldn´t get Robin and that mistletoe out of his head. He had been too embarrassed to kiss her, especially in front of Nora and the triplets, but now he regretted he hadn´t done it. Why hadn´t she kissed him? Had she been expecting him to kiss her?
"No, that can´t be it" Sabo thought "Knowing her she would have kissed me and used it against me for weeks, maybe even months!"
Then what was the reason? Had the idea of kissing him been that disturbing?
"Why am I even thinking about this!" Sabo suddenly thought, shaking his head "It´s not like I have a crush on her or anything…"
At least that was what he was trying to make himself believe. At first he had gotten interested in her as soon as Dragon told him she worked for Luffy, and that was even before meeting her. Then three days later he accidentally met her in the infirmary because she had sprained her ankle when she had been training with Dragon. She had been sitting with her back to the direction he came from, but he recognized her immediately from her wanted poster. Back then he had no time to say anything though since the doctor already came in to look at her ankle. They started speaking; he liked her voice. It was calm, not too quiet but definitely not too loud either. He just stood there, listening to their conversation, not wanting to interrupt. Just when she stood up to leave and turned around he realized he had been, and still was, staring at her. Their eyes met and all he could think back then was that she had beautiful eyes. She had walked past him with a nod, leaving him to stand there like a statue.
That had been an awkward fist meeting.
After that they had next met in Dragon´s office, mess hall, training grounds and most of all, the library. Because of that they were friends now, or at least in Sabo´s opinion they were.
"Yeah, we´re friends and jut that. But one kiss wouldn´t have been so big deal now would it?" Sabo thought, but quickly shook his head. No, he wasn´t interested in Robin in that kind of way and same the other way around. That was good. Or maybe Robin didn´t kiss him because she thought that the whole "kiss under mistletoe" was a ridiculous tradition. Yeah, that sounded believable and didn´t hurt his ego.
XXXXX
Robin was sitting in her room again, reading the book Dragon borrowed her. According to the book people celebrated Christmas because of a legend about a man that lived about thousand years ago. The legend went like this:
There was a man from poor family in a small village who was always kind to everyone and always helping everyone. No one ever saw him angry. Ever. To the villagers he was like an angel and everyone were happy until one day a man, priest to be exact, from the town came to visit. He heard about the gentle man but, because of being from a ruthless town, didn´t believe a word and decided to prove he was right. He "accidentally" stepped on the man´s foot once, but the man only said it was his own fault for being in the wrong place in the wrong time. The priest shook this off by thinking that the man had a good day and stepping on other person´s foot isn´t a big deal anyway. He did more similar things, but the gentle man always answered the similar way. That´s when the priest decided to do something worse. He "accidentally" pushed the man´s friend down from a cliff. She didn´t die, but got severe injuries. But the gentle man still didn´t blame him, just said it was his own fault for not looking after his friend. And on top of all that, the gentle man got the woman convinced it wasn´t the priest´s fault. The priest was forgiven, but he could see the hatred in the woman´s eyes. The priest found the fact that the man still hadn´t seemed angry really disturbing, but believed that it was because the damage hadn´t come to the man himself. So the priest´s next step was violent; he hired a bandit to chop the man´s arm off when he was walking back home with his friend. But, once again, the man said it was his own fault for being in the wrong place the wrong time. This convinced the priest that the man was a devil, only waiting for a chance to destroy the world. The priest left, only to return with an army from the town. He made them arrest the gentle man, ignoring the protests of the villagers. They tied him in to a tree on a hill, saying that he should stay there for a month and he´d be freed and if he didn´t he´d be executed. Naturally he did what he was told. He was there for four days without food and then it happened. The villagers, friends of the gentle man, attacked the priest at a frozen lake near the hill. The priest fell through the ice to the lake, and only then did they realize that the priest couldn´t swim. The gentle man, without hesitation, broke orders and ran down the hill to save the drowning priest. In the process the gentle man got a big, deadly wound to his side. The villagers tried to help him, but there was nothing they could have done. In his final moments the gentle man turned to the priest and said his last words: "It wasn´t your fault." Those words alone made the priest understand that he had been wrong. He left the village, never to return again, but both the villagers and the priest started to respect the death day of the gentle man and called it the day of peace. That day was 24th of December.
"Yet no one knows why it´s called Christmas" Robin thought, shaking her head. The story was familiar though; a man who never did anything wrong was thought as the devil. Robin blinked as a single tear escaped her eye. She shook her head, moving to read the traditions. There was nothing that really interested her but she read them anyways, thinking that they might be useful later. She smiled when she found what she was looking for: the tradition that included mistletoe. The text made one thing clear, but also brought her another question: why hadn´t Sabo kissed her when he clearly knew about the tradition? Had he expected her to kiss him? Or was the idea about kissing her that disgusting that he couldn´t do it? …no, that couldn´t be it. She wasn´t stupid; she had seen Sabo eyeing her way more than once in a rather improper way when he thought nobody would notice. She didn´t mind thought; she had gotten used to that kind of behavior over the years. But then why…?
"He just probably isn´t the kind of person who kisses random people because of things like this" she thought. And it did sound like Sabo; he could be serious when he wanted to and had strict principles on some things. Being pretty sure that that was the reason, Robin sighed in relief. If she had known these things earlier she would have kissed him.
…what? He was an attractive young man; why wouldn´t she have? And not just that; he was also smart, funny, somewhat mysterious and easy to mess with.
"It´s not like I have a crush on him; he´s just an interesting person" Robin tried to convince herself.
"Interesting and attractive… no!" Robin muttered, shaking her head. She definitely needed a cup of hot coffee to clear her head.
XXXXX
As Robin walked past the lobby she heard the voices of the triplets and Sabo. She didn´t like to eavesdrop, but- ah to hell with that, she loved to eavesdrop!
"What´s taking Nora so long? She should have arrived with those hot chocolates already" Clark complained.
"I hope she doesn´t run away with them like someone did" Claus said, looking at Sabo.
"Shut up" Sabo muttered.
"Go look what´s taking her so long" Clarissa said.
"Yeah yeah" Sabo said, walking to the door. Just when he was about to touch the door knob the door opened and Nora came in.
"There you are" Sabo said and turned around, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the faces of the triplets.
"Oh shit" he said, looking up. Nora had also noticed where they were standing and was now muttering something unrecognizable under her breath.
"Traditions Sabo, traditions" Clark said amusedly.
"Shut up" Sabo muttered, giving Nora a peck on the cheek.
"You actually did it" the others stated.
"What´s the big deal? I needed to calm her down often when she was younger and had nightmares" Sabo stated, making Nora´s face go red.
"We agreed to never talk about that!" she yelled.
"I bet he would have much rather kissed Robin-san" Clark muttered under his breath, but all five, Robin included, heard it.
"I would not!" Sabo yelled his face red.
"So she´s not your type?" Clark asked.
"I didn´t say that!"
"So she is your type!"
"I didn´t say that either!" Sabo yelled. He took a mug of hot chocolate from Nora and went to sit on a sofa.
"Then why didn´t you kiss her?" Clarissa asked "It´s pretty clear that you like her"
"I do not!"
"Sure you don´t" Nora and the triplets said sarcastically.
"Not that we´re blaming you man, she´s hot" Clark said "If I had gotten under mistletoe with her I would have kissed her"
"…"
"What? You can´t deny that she´s hot, can you Sabo?"
Sabo sighed, realizing that this wasn´t going anywhere.
"Yeah yeah, whatever" he said.
"So why didn´t you kiss her?" Clarissa asked, returning to the subject.
"Do we have to talk about this again?"
"C´mon man, tell us!" Clark insisted.
"What would you guys say if I said I didn´t do it because I´ve seen how much you drool over her, Clark?"
"I´d say you´d be lying" Clark said bluntly.
"True, I´d be" Sabo admitted, making Robin and the others sweat drop.
"As for why I didn´t kiss her…" Sabo started, getting everyone´s full attention again "I´ll rather keep that information to myself"
"Could it be that he was waiting for her to kiss him first?" Nora suggested.
"There´s no way that-"Clark started, but stopped when he saw Sabo´s red face.
"Bull´s eye" Claus stated.
"So what?" Sabo mumbled "Besides, it´s Robin we´re talking about; she´s not the kind of person who goes kissing people because of traditions."
Or that was what he hoped; there was always a chance she hadn´t kissed him just because she didn´t like him at all.
"Especially because of traditions she doesn´t even know about…" Clark mumbled and it didn´t go unnoticed by Sabo.
"What?"
"Believe it or not; the Miss Knows It All didn´t even know what Christmas is" Clarissa said.
"You gotta be kidding me" Sabo said, but the other four shook their heads.
"Well then it´s good I didn´t kiss her" Sabo said, earning odd looks "She would have snapped my neck!"
The others, even Robin, laughed at this. She wouldn´t have snapped his neck, but she knew she would have done something else painful. Deciding that she had heard enough she continued her way to the kitchen to get coffee.
XXXXX
It was the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Robin couldn´t sleep so she went to kitchen to get some hot chocolate, wishing it would help her sleep.
"Can´t sleep either huh?" Robin was so surprised she almost dropped her full mug of hot chocolate. She relaxed when she realized that it was only Sabo, standing in the corner with a mug of hot chocolate for himself.
"Yes, this day didn´t really wore me out enough to sleep" she admitted, sitting down at the table "And you, Sabo-san?"
When Sabo didn't answer, only blushed, Robin asked: "Nightmares?"
"…yeah" Sabo admitted, surprised that Robin didn´t laugh.
"I know the feeling" she said.
"How often?" Sabo asked, also coming to the table.
"Not that often after I joined the Straw Hat crew, but they have increased again" Robin told. She wasn´t sure why she was telling this to someone, especially someone who she didn´t know almost anything about. She just wanted to get it out; to talk to someone.
"You know you can trust us, right?" Sabo asked.
"Of course" Robin answered. It came so automatically that Sabo didn´t really believe her.
"But I probably shouldn´t say anything about it; if I upset her then she won´t trust me at all… how the hell does Luffy handle her!" Sabo thought, his eyes locked to the raven haired woman.
"Something wrong, Sabo-san?" Robin asked, letting a small smile come to her lips.
"No, not at all" Sabo said, blushing again, making Robin laugh. Sabo narrowed his eyes, but soon his face turned to surprised one.
"What?" Robin asked, alerted. Sabo pointed behind her, at the window. She turned around to see the same thing as Sabo did.
It was snowing.
Sabo smiled, going over to the window.
"This is great; it´s been three years since it last snowed here!" he said, excited like a little kid. Robin couldn´t help but laugh. Sabo frowned, making Robin laugh more as she walked to him.
"It is indeed beautiful" she said. Truth to be told she didn´t really like snow, but it wasn´t that bad if she herself was inside. Robin smiled, taking a quick glance above them. It was now or never.
"Sabo-san?"
"Yeah?" as soon as Sabo turned to look at her she cupped his face with both of her hands and kissed his lips. The kiss was short, barely lasting a second. After it Robin smiled and let go of Sabo´s red, confused face.
"I´ll see you tomorrow" she said and started to walk towards the door. Just before she disappeared behind the corner she said: "And don´t worry; I won´t snap your neck"
With that she disappeared behind a corner. Sabo blinked once, twice before the words sunk in.
"She was listening us back at the lobby!" he thought in disbelief. He touched his lips unconsciously, looking up.
Above him was mistletoe.
"But she didn´t know what it meant, right?" he asked from himself.
"Oh well" he thought "At least no one saw; otherwise I´d be hearing about this for the rest of my life"
A.N: To be honest this isn´t my best, but not my worst either. So, like I said earlier that little story about Christmas´ history was made up by me for this story alone. I got a little carried away though and it became longer than I had planned… I´ll probably write an AU story about it later. And about Sabo and Robin´s first meeting… I know that if I ever write about it, it won´t be like it was in this one. I´m going to make a SaRo one shot for New Year too, just like last year. Well anyway, is there anyone who has read all or at least most of my SaRos? If there is I´d like to see them to be put in to an order which is the best. Merry Christmas and don´t forget to review!