Chapter 1 (Robin's point of view)

After the event in Enies Lobby, the crew and I became closer. Nami, mostly, felt the need to share her love for shopping with me. I, however, wasn't as fond of shopping for clothes as much as I was of being in a library or a bookstore. Still, to spend time doing something my nakama liked to do, I didn't say anything. In fact, I thought of trying to introduce Nami to some historical books I thought were especially interesting but, knowing Nami, she would probably politely pretend to be interested but never read it. Sanji's compliments seemed to double, and Chopper shared more of his books with me. After Brook joined us, he occasionally sat with me while he drank his tea and cracked a few of his jokes which, even though he's told them quite a number of times, still amused me. Franky and Usopp, even if they did so rarely, explained their new inventions to me. Luffy, however, was the same as always. Asking me to use my devil fruit power to entertain him or grab him food from the kitchen. As for Zoro, well, you could say I felt much more accepted by him.

"Oh oh! Robin! Look, let's go into this store," Nami pointed to yet another clothing shop. I nodded and followed her. The rest of the crew was all over this island, where we had stopped to restock on food. Sanji and Franky were food shopping. Chopper, Zoro and Usopp were assigned to stay guard on the Sunny, and the rest of the crew was screwing around.

Nami flipped through the displayed clothes, complimenting some and bad mouthing others. After picking out what she liked, she'd dash into a changing room and come out to ask my opinion. I always replied saying it look nice on her.

"Rooobin!" Nami wailed. "Speak your mind, you can't seriously like every single thing I wear!"

True. I considered Nami's feelings too much. But I preferred it that way. I simply gave her a slight laugh as a response. It seemed to slightly annoy her, but she let it go. I admired Nami for how honest she was about her feelings, and she would have the guts to deal with any kind of situation that bothered her. If Sanji said something perverted, she'd hit him. I'd simply laugh it off. If Zoro wouldn't wake up while they worked, she'd scold him. I'd let it be and do the work myself. In a way, I wondered if that was a weakness of mine. Do I ignore things like that too easily?

Nami bought the clothes and we went out. We were holding loads of bags. Nami groaned and wished Sanji was around for him to hold them for us. We walked for a while, and suddenly she turned to me.

"Let's go somewhere you'd like to go, Robin," Nami said. That took me by surprise. I said it was okay and that we can go back to the Sunny since we were overloaded by bags, but she insisted. We headed to a bookstore we had passed earlier, and once we were there, I dropped all the bags I was holding and immediately started scanning the books on the shelves. Nami laughed, commenting on how "geeky" I was. I stopped when I saw one that told about islands in the new world. That was our crew's goal, to get to the next half of the grand line. I shut it closed after a while and decided to buy a book for Chopper. I picked out a book about herbs and natural treatments. As I was about to purchase them, I caught sight of a cookbook out of the corner of my eye.

"Hmm," I mumbled. Sanji would be overjoyed if I bought that for him. Even though he doesn't need one, the thought was what counted. And I believed he could benefit from it. Once we were out and on our way to the Sunny, Nami suddenly tumbled over.

"Nami?!" I yelled, trying to get her to gain her balance back. "What's the matter?"

"Ah…sorry," she said, smiling weekly. "I'm…dizzy."

Using my Hana Hana no mi power, I held the rest of the bags and helped her walk. Once we got back to the ship, I called out to the members left to guard the ship. Usopp peered down.

"Oi! What happened?!" he shouted, helping us onto the ship. We called Chopper over to take a look at Nami. The only other time one of our crewmates had gotten sick, was when Nami apparently got bitten by a bug, but this time we had Chopper to fix things. It was a relief. I explained what happened, and we moved Nami to her bed. He examined her and then nodded, identifying the cause.

"It's nothing serious," he said. I let out a sigh of relief. "But she's gonna need a lot of rest, and when Sanji returns, we'll ask him to make something warm for her to eat.

"And Robin," he said, handing me a bottle of medicine. "Nami's stubborn. This one has a very strong taste. Please make sure she takes it."

I nodded and thanked him. The rest of the day, I spent my time sitting down on my bed beside Nami's. I was reading the book I'd gotten from the book store. It had lots of information about the small islands that were in the new world, many of which had different climates. I got to one that apparently wasn't visited by many sailors, and was avoided. I was about to read what it said about it when Sanji burst into the bedroom.

"WHERE'S MY NAMII-SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" he wailed, rushing to Nami's side.

"Sanji!" I whispered, putting a finger to my lips. "Shhh."

Sanji's expression showed sadness and disappointment. I smiled at him and asked him if he could make her something warm to eat as Chopper instructed.

"Haaai!" he said, lower this time, and walked out. Nami woke up, and stirred to face me.

"Nami," I said, giving her a smile. "You must take this medicine. Here."

She looked at me and groaned. After finally sitting up and plugging her nose, she swallowed a spoonful of the medicine.

"UGHHGHGHHH! It tastes horrible!" she yelled, getting up. "CHOPPER!"

"Nami! Don't take it out on Chopper-san. You know very well most medicines aren't pleasant."

She ignored me and stormed off. "OI! CHOPPER!" I heard her yell. I laughed, glad her energy was back. After a while, Chopper came, in his human form, holding Nami. He had tears in his eyes.

"She…" he said, sniffling, "She scolded me. But then she got dizzy again. Make sure she doesn't get up again like that until she's rested another two or three days, please."

Poor Chopper. After setting Nami down on her bed, Chopper turned back to his smaller form, and rubbed his eyes. I picked him up and put him on my lap.

"Nami can be so mean," he said.

I stroked his back and smiled. Sanji walked in with a tray of food for Nami, and immediately his face turned puppy-like.

"Robin-chwaan!" he whined. "Will you stroke my back?"

Chopper hopped off my lap and hurried Sanji over to Nami's side. He set the tray beside her and led Sanji out of the room.

…..

When the day turned to night, the rest of the crew finally came back. Luffy immediately went to Nami and scolded her.

"Oi Nami!" he yelled. "Stop getting sick!"

"I CAN'T CONTROL IT!" she shrieked and summoned up enough energy to kick her captain. Sanji walked in next and shouted at his captain for making Nami angry. He said dinner was ready and to gather in the kitchen. I asked Nami if she wanted to come, but she said she wasn't hungry and would rather get some sleep.

Before leaving the room, I remembered bringing the books I bought for Chopper and Sanji with me. I walked in the kitchen and everyone else had already started eating.

"Good evening, Robin-chwan!" Sanji cheerfully greeted, leading me to a seat.
"Good evening!" I said, smiling. Everyone was hogging down the food, especially Luffy. I sat there eating my share of the food, blankly staring at the wall. I closed my eyes and a memory of Saul laughing flashed in my mind. I smiled. After everyone was done eating, I followed Chopper to his room and gave him the book. His face lit up and a grin spread across his face.

"You've…made me so…happy!" he said, starting to cry. "Thank you, Robin!"

After talking to him about the book I bought for a while, I headed to give Sanji his book. He was doing the dishes.

"Robin-chan!" He seemed surprised to see me. "What can I do for you? A cup of coffee, perhaps?"

"Oh no, nothing at all," I said, handing him the book. "I thought this might interest you."

He took it from me and smiled widely.

"ROBIN-CHAN! DOES THIS MEAN YOU LOVE ME?" he said, his hands clasped together hopefully.

I laughed and said I hope he liked it. I finally made it back to my room, where Nami was sleeping. After an hour or two, I had to wake her up to make her take the medicine. She was extremely unwilling to at first, but then gave in, cursed a few times, then went back to sleep. I wasn't much of a sleeper at all, so after everyone had gone to bed, I walked out of our room and onto the deck. The memory of Saul returned to me. It was happy, but it made me sad. I remembered how he told me to laugh every time I felt sad. And it was quite a weird way to laugh, too.

I slowly smiled, giving in to the temptation to imitate his laugh.

"De rish shi shi shi shi shi!" My imitation was pretty bad, but it was the first time I'd done it since I was a child. "De rish shi shi shi shi shi!"

I felt a bit ridiculous, but happy. I did it a few more times until I ended up really laughing. I heard someone move near me. Immediately my stomach turned. Whoever it was probably heard me making these weird sounds, I thought.

With a feeling of dread, I turned to face the person. It was Zoro. He was the one who usually kept watch at night. One of his eyebrows was raised. Was that amusement in his eyes?

I waited.

"The weather's nice at night," I stated, turning back to the serious Robin he knew I was. Slowly I headed to my room, feeling utterly embarrassed, but I wasn't a blusher at all so it didn't show. Something I was thankful for. Knowing myself and Zoro, this issue wouldn't be mentioned again.

I opened the book I'd been reading earlier and flipped to the page I was on last. Suddenly wanting a cup of coffee to drink while I read, I headed to the kitchen. I turned on the coffee machine and rested my back against the counter. I held the book in one hand and stroked my bangs with the other. An island where its snow burned instead of froze. Although that sounded mindboggling, I didn't expect any less from the islands in the new world. That's an enough reason to avoid going there. I flipped through and read about more islands. I got to Punk Hazard. An island half frozen, half burned. Hmm…the coffee was ready. I took the mug and walked out. Zoro was still on watch. I stood in front of the kitchen door for a while.

What do my crewmates think about?

Luffy. Gee...food? Fooling around? Playing with Usopp and Chopper? Protecting us? Having an adventure? Becoming pirate king?

Chopper. Books? New treatments? Being complimented? Having the responsibility of healing us? Finding the medicine that cures all diseases?

Usopp. Inventions? Becoming braver? Shooting?

Franky. Taking care of the Sunny? Making things? Cola? His hair?

Brook. Tea? Laboon? Music? More skull jokes?

Nami. Money? Maps? Making sure we get to places? Predicting the weather? Clothes?

Sanji. Ladies? Ladies…ladies…I frowned. Robin. Be realistic. That can't possibly be all that he thinks about. Cooking? Recipes? Ladies? It popped up again.

Zoro. Becoming the world's greatest swordsman? Sake? Sleep? Training?

Those were all the obvious things. I sometimes wished I knew more about them. Perhaps their past. Or about their hometowns. Since I didn't have a hometown, I was especially interested in theirs. I took a sip of my coffee. It was too strong.