The crew is back in alabasta to visit Vivi. It is a hot day. The crew walks through the crowded streets of alabasta trying to get to the castle in which Vivi lives. Luffy is very excited just like the rest of the crew. "I can't wait until we see Vivi. I hope she is just as excited as we are", luffy shouts out. Robin has kind of a frown. She doesn't know how Vivi will react when she sees that robin is a part of the crew. Nami comes up to Robin and says:"Don't worry. Vivi will understand." Robin cheers up a little bit. Usopp looks around confused:"Where did Zoro go?" Sanji lights his cigarette while mumbling:" that shitty moss head, can't even follow us." Everybody looks around and shouts:"Zoro where are you?" Nami turns around and sees him a walking the other direction. "There he is", she shouts. Luffy stretches out his arm and reaches through the crowd, grabs Zoro by his shoulder and brings him back. "You guys got lost again, I was looking for you", zoro says. Nami hits him on the head."You are the one who got lost", she yells at him with a scary looking face. Robin giggles. With a bump on his head Zoro closes in on robin. "Hello mister swordsman". Zoro is not looking at robin and mumbles:" I, uhm, found this book. I thought u may like it." He hands her a book. The title says' the history of swordsman'. Robin looks at it with a smile on her face and says:" thank you that is very nice of you." Zoro scratches his head and smiles back. "Hey look we finally have reached the castle plaza! Yahoo!", luffy shouts. The crew heads towards the entrance. The guards look at them with a surprised face: " Hey you guys are…the strawhat crew…Princess Vivi's friends. Please come in." Walking through the big entrance they see Igaram. "MAh Mah Maaah. It's great to see you guys. Vivi will be out of her mind happy!" He looks at every member of the crew when he sees Robin besides Zoro his eyes widen."I read in the paper that Nico Robin is now a part of your crew. I couldn't believe it at first but it seems it's true since she uhum mah mah mah maaah standing right next to you." Robin looks at him with a guilty face:" I wanted to apologize for everything that happened. I was just trying to survive and find the pone glyphs." Igaram smiles at her in a forgiving way. He was about to say something to Robin when they hear a loud squeak. "Everybody it is so great to see you!" Sanji screams:"Vivi-chwaaan we missed you soo much."Vivi gives Sanji a hug who shortly faints with a smile on his face and blood streaming out of his nose. The rest of the crew also gets a hug. When she gets to Zoro she stops for a second and looks at him and thinks to herself:" he is as handsome as always." Vivi shyly leans forward to give Zoro a hug who responds with a short look at robin and hugs Vivi back. Vivi thinks to herself:" he has gotten so much stronger. This feels great." Realizing she has been hugging Zoro for a while she turns to Robin who has a frown on. Zoro brings his arm around robin and says:" Robin is now one of our nakama. She is deeply sorry for it. So why not celebrate where is the sake!" Zoro shouts throwing his hands in the air. Everybody cheers. Vivi still has the image of zoros arm around robin in her head and gives robin a quick smile saying:" their nakama are my nakama." And gives her a hug. "Thank you. I appreciate it." Everybody assembles in the dining hall to celebrate their get together. Even the king Nefertari Cobra is there to celebrate with them. Everybody is eating and having a good time. Luffy is snatching everybody's food. Chopper has chopsticks in his mouth and nose dancing on the table. Franky is right next to him doing his Franky dance. Brook is on the piano playing binks sake. Sanji is in love with all the cute waitresses. Nami is hitting luffy on the head for stealing all of the food. Usopp is falling out laughing and telling about his great adventures as captain. "Why do you look so sad Vivi aren't you happy that you're friends are here", King Cobra asks. Vivi forces out a smile and says:"Oh, does it look like I'm sad. I'm actually having a great time." As she realizes her dad went back to eating she looks back at Robin who is not sitting at the table but reading a book and Zoro who is sitting right next to her. "Are you sure you don't want to join us", Zoro asks. "No that is ok. You guys have all a lot of catching up to do. I'm just going to read this book you gave me", robin smiles at him. "Why is he so close to her? Why can't he be this close to me? I want him for me. I have got to get rid of her somehow", Vivi thinks,"Oh I got it. "That's it." Vivi gets up from her chair after excusing herself to the others, who are not really paying attention to her but more to luffy who is trying to steal their food, and walks over to Robin and Zoro. She says:" Excuse me but I can I have a word with you Nico Robin." Robin replies:"Yes, of course." Zoro sees that he is unwanted at this point of time and says:" Oh I guess I'm running out of sake so I'm getting some more." He smiles at Robin one more time and walks back to the table. "Nico Robin, I would have never expected you to be a part of the crew one day. I was really surprised when I read that in the newspaper." "Yes that is understandable. And I understand if you are upset about that. So I will wait for whatever time it takes until you can forgive me", robin says. "I have already forgiven you Robin, is it ok if I call you that?" "Yes, sure" "well anyways as a proof of my forgiveness, I remembered it was when luffy and the others came here a couple years ago. They fell into a hole with lots of pone glyphs in it. I know you are looking for them but they are in the desert it's just north from Yuba. I just thought it would be good to tell you." Robin is now very excited. Her eyes shine bright and she says:" Really? I see. That is great. I have got to go there! I wonder if the other want to come." She looks at them and sees them enjoying themselves. Laughing and having fun. Vivi says:" if you would want to go there then you would have to leave soon because they said there will be a bad sandstorm in a couple of days". Robin frowns:" Oh, I see. Well I wouldn't want to miss a chance like this." "Well, anyways I'm going back to the table. I will see you later." Vivi stands up and takes the free spot beside Zoro. Who immediately starts chatting with her. Robin thinks about what Vivi said. It replays in her head over and over again. "I have to go I can't miss a chance like this", she thinks to herself. She looks at Zoro. She wants to ask if he can come with her. She would love to be alone with just him and talk with just him but it doesn't seem to her that he would want to go right now. As she stands up and puts the book down, she is about to tell everybody that she Is going to look for the pone glyphs but don't want to interrupt their fun time so she just walks out of the door and nobody even realizes it.
XxX
After a couple more glasses of sake, Vivi asks Zoro:" Hey can you come with me for a second. I got something really heavy and I couldn't lift it up. You are strong enough to do that, right?" she smiles at him and gets up of the table and follows her, while looking at the empty bench with the book laying on it. "Maybe she went to the restroom", he thinks to himself while scratching his head and following Vivi. At her room she shows him a wardrobe that she wanted to be moved to the other side of the room. Zoro picks it up with ease and carries it over. Vivi sits on her bed and says:" Thank you so much. Come take a seat. We haven't talked in so long." Zoro looks shy at her and sits down. "So what is new? On what new adventures did you guys go," Vivi asks. "Well umm a lot of them. As you can see we have a lot of new nakama like brook and Franky…and Robin of course. It shooks vivis body as she sees how happy Zoro looks just by mentioning Robins name. "Robin is really a great person", he continues," she is so smart and, that may sound weird coming from me but she is really pretty. I just don't know how to act when she is near me." He is getting lost in his thoughts. "So you really like her," Vivi says with a sad face. Zoro smiles and nods his head. "I don't have a chance…I'm realizing that now." "Zoro,"vivi gets up of the bed," I did something horrible." Zoro snaps out of his thoughts and replies:"What do you mean?" "I told Robin about the poneglyphs, north of Yuba and she is heading there now." Zoro jumps up:"What! You can't be serious it is night and she went there all alone? When did she leave?" "I don't know I think an hour ago," Vivi says. Zoro runs out of her room. He runs through the hallway of the big castle trying to find his swords. He arrives again at vivis room who holds his swords and gives them to them. Zoro just grabs them. He is furious right now. He looks at her and says:" Don't tell the others. Let them enjoy their time. Robin wouldn't want them to stop having fun. I will handle this."He heads towards the exit without telling anybody and runs to get robin back. Vivi falls back on her bed, crying. Realizing what a horrible and selfish thing she did. All she can do is lay on the bed crying. The tears come running she doesn't know if it's because of the heartbreak or because she knows she send robin out in the desert. Franky comes around the corner and says:"What is the SUPER princess doing here crying while outside is a party?" Vivi wipes the tears of her face and says I'm just so happy everybody is here. She smiles and heads toward Franky. "Well than where is the SUPER restroom?" Vivi laughs and shows him the direction. Heading back to the others who don't know a thing that is going on she sits back down and pretends as nothing is happening. Nami shouts:" hey has anybody seen robin and Zoro?" Vivi jumps up:" oh um I think Zoro wanted to train some more and robin said she was tired and went to bed." Everybody believes her and goes back to chatting and having fun.
Meanwhile Zoro is flying on pelles back. "Thank you for taking me," Zoro says. "No problem but seriously how can you get lost like that. You were walking the opposite direction of Yuba," Pelle says. Zoro ignores him and keeps his eyes on the sand covered sea underneath him. "Hey Stop. I see something!" pelle flies down when there, in fact is Robin fighting through the sand. Zoro jumps of pelle:" thank you, you can go back now!" Pelle turns around flying back towards the castle. Zoro runs to Robin. He throws him arms around her hugging her saying:" What the hell are you doing! I was worrying about you." Robin relieved to see him:" Vivi told me there are poneglyphs out here and I couldn't miss the chance to see them." Zoro holds Robins face in his hands. His soft touch made Robin realizes the deep feelings she has for him. His worried eyes make her feel safe. "You didn't have to worry everything is all right. I took good care of myself." She smiles at him. Zoro wipes sand of her face. Robin is blushing. Zoro says:" I know you are strong but I don't like the thought of you being alone in this desert. Also uhm…,"Zoro is blushing too", I don't know what to do when you are not with me." Robin feels a tinkle in her stomach. Her heart is beating faster. She pulls Zoro closer to her and hugs him. He pulls up her chin, leans down to give her a kiss. Zoro's heart is pounding as their lips touch. Everything around them is forgotten, it's only them. Though this moment didn't last long when they here luffys voice. "Hey you guys. What the hell are you doing out here, "he waves and smiles. "You shitty moss head what do you think you are doing with Robin chan,"sanji screams. Chopper is holding him:"Calm down Sanji. It's ok!" Franky doing his dance saying:"What do we have here? Some SUPER love story!" Nami just smiles at robin. "Yohohoho, I can't believe my eyes, though I don't have any eyes. Skull joke!" "Uhm…are you guys not mad?", robin says kind of embarrassed. "Why should we be mad? We always knew something is going on between you guys," Nami says. "Now let's go back and eat some more meat!" luffy screams. They all laugh. Vivi comes through the crowd she goes to Robin and says:"I'm sorry I shouldn't have sent you out here. I'm really really sorry. There won't be a sandstorm so you can go tomorrow. I will have pelle fly you there!" Robin smiles at her and replies:" thank you. I guess now we are even." They both laugh. On their way back Zoro and Robin walked back hand in hand, never forgetting what happened this night.