Author's Note

Hello and welcome to my very first fanfic, I'm glad you decided to give it a try! Now this may be my first, but it is by no means new. I've had the first little drabble lying around my hard drive since a time where Robin and Zoro had still been part of the main storyline; For those of you who are up to date with the manga, you know that's been ages.

I usually like to know what I'm in for when I start reading so here is a little heads up:

What you'll read is going little episodes in the everyday life of the two and their relationship. Sometimes it's about interactions with the crew or other characters but mostly the two of them. It will be chronological and one storyline, but there might pass some time between the short chapters, others continue right where the last one ended, those will be more frequent later on in the story. First half takes place sometime between Punk Hazard and Dressrosa, I stretch that time further and with more stops in between than it is in the manga. You will know when we progress to more than that.

Have fun and please leave a review, all opinions are welcome as long as they're reasonable.

Disclaimer: I quite obviously don't own anything you know from the original.

1

She wished she could be as happy as the rest of her friends about how little the group had changed over the past two years. But as she sat there on the Sunny's grassy deck she couldn't help but worry. The group hadn't changed, no, but the individuals had. For most of them these changes weren't overly dramatic and if they were, then only in appearances, like their shipwright. The one who made her worry was their swordsman. All the guys were strong, the difference lay in the nature of that strength. Luffy undoubtedly was the strongest with his rubber-powers, but if he didn't put any effort in it he was just dangly rubber. From what she understood about Franky's body it was a rather fine-tuned construction that had to be switched to "battle mode", no need to worry about accidents. The swordsman, on the other hand, got his strength purely from muscles and while before he had been a boy of lean muscle, he now was more muscle than man. No problem here either if it wasn't for his short fuse when it came to Sanji or Nami. Sure, the cook could hold his own in their constant fights, but if their swordsman lost control with Nami he would crush her before even realizing. And as said before, their group had not changed and with that neither had the fights between those three.

She worried over nothing, of course. She knew that the fights between him and the cook were rather sparring sessions than actual fights and that meditation was an essential part in the swordsman's training. Who else should Nami use to vent her anger on? No one else on that ship would stand tall in front of her, even if he would eventually back down. Of course he knew that and didn't take her fits very serious.

In the beginning Robin had actually thought they had a thing for each other. The constant bickering between the two and his reaction towards the cooks flirtations, it was like one of those love-triangles in the sappy books - she refrained to read those of course. But now she knew it was just how the crew worked. So of course there lay no danger in the swordsman's strength, at least not for the crew, but she liked to keep herself alert. She liked to be prepared, even for the oddest of cases.

Now you may be curious as to how she knew that there was nothing going on between the bulky man who just vanished through the hatch into the crow's-nest and the still fuming redhead. Well, one could say that it had its perks being the quiet one watching from the sidelines. She knew everything about this crew and its members. Maybe even more than her comrades knew about themselves. She knew exactly, that the cook had no serious interest in Nami, just as he had no serious interest in the various prostitutes from the various harbours. He simply treated every woman with all the chivalry his wobbly body could muster as soon as it set eyes on a pretty female. When she'd first found out about him visiting these particular women she had expected to be disgusted by him, for she knew how it felt being sold and treated like a thing instead of a human with her own free will. But to her surprise she didn't and to surprise her even more, he had opted to talk to her about it. She never asked him how he knew, but he told her he would always know if his actions caused her or any woman any sort of discomfort. He had asked her for forgiveness and not to look down on him, but that he thought most of those women deserved to be treated like a lady every once in a while and that other than the fair maidens in the cities they would know not to expect any more from him other than whatever they had agreed upon beforehand. After all, he wouldn't want to break any hearts. He had been unusually serious that night. No wobbly extremities and no heart eyes. Although it had only taken her a reassuring smile, meaning it wouldn't change anything between them, to bring him back to his old lovestruck self. It was a fond memory and in her lonely and dark nights, when her past caught up to her, she silently wished she would have met just one man like Sanji back in the days when the Devil-Child was handed around from one Pirate to the next.

Zoro was quite different. He seemed to have no interest in the other sex whatsoever, or his own for that matter. It made her really curious, not that she would show it, but she tended to have a special eye on him whenever they left the ship. For the most part he wouldn't even realize that the women complimenting on his swords or his body or asking about that terrible incident that lost him his left eye were hitting on him. Instead, he would just bore them to death talking about his three blades even though there was one particular sword they would have been actually interested in. Robin blushed lightly at that thought and held her copy of "em the tale of the beginning: culture in the ancient world /em" just a tad bit higher. She really needed to stop reading those romance novels. Still, though the innuendo was cheap, it was true. She always wondered if he did it intentionally because he was uncomfortable with the situation or if he was just stupid, which she knew for a fact he wasn't.

She also knew that despite her flaunting all her goods, whenever a discount was in the air, that Nami never ever let any man come too close to her. She would be flirting and casually touching, but as soon as it was him who did the touching she would start the smacking or fleeing, or crying out for Luffy and the others, whichever suited the situation best. The only exceptions were the part of the crew that entered the grand line with her and Chopper (if you could count him). They could casually touch her, carry her, and hug her without having her flinching away. Robin could only assume that it had to do with her past amongst the Arlong-Pirates; they probably had gone through similar things. She envied her a bit.

It had been almost as long since she herself had gotten away from her version of Arlong, Crocodile, and she knew that the straw-hat crew was her family. They loved her just as fiercely as they loathed anybody who would try to hurt her or any other member; and yet she would still feel the slight discomfort whenever anybody came near her. Guilt tugged on her stomach. They had done so many things for her, risked their lives, even going as far as declaring war on the government for her and yet … It seemed Nami was just not as damaged as she was. She was happy for that because she too, loved every one of them.

She smiled in thanks at Sanji as he brought her Coffee and she continued to smile. She was happy here and in time she too wouldn't flinch. She was on a good way actually. She wouldn't awake whenever she fell asleep in the crow's-nest and Zoro would cover her in that old blanked. Now that should be elaborated, because otherwise this could sound just strange enough to see something that wasn't there.

Sometimes when the memories became too strong for her to even read, she would climb up to his sanctuary. She couldn't say what made her do that in the first place. They had never really interacted, much less talked, seeing how neither of them was really talkative. It had just seemed right at the moment. It had been shortly after Water 7 and she knew that at first he was on edge about her presence, but he had never asked her to leave. Later he had told her he had thought it was because she just needed to "not be alone after all that happening" and that he didn't mind her being there, she was very quiet after all. To her his heavy breathing and the rhythmical clinging of his barbells were soothing and after just pretending to read she would actually be able to do it. Sometimes those sounds would even lull her to sleep and then at some point he would cover her in said blanket. But there were times she wouldn't fall asleep. Sometimes he then would sit down next to her after his workout and ask about her book.

He couldn't understand how she could be so enthralled by mere words and most of the time he wasn't really interested in the topic, but it would start a conversation. The first time it had happened it must have been surprising for both of them, a real conversation and a long one at that and yet they opted to repeat it. It was actually funny to think that the quietest persons on the ship could spend hours talking about nothing. She enjoyed those talks very much and even though his vocabulary was a tad bit limited and his view on the world simple – or rather uncomplicated, she had come to realize that this man was not just mosscovered brawn as a certain chef liked to call him. So no, it wasn't stupidity that kept him from acting on women's advances in the pubs. Maybe their swordsman really had no interest in things like that. Just like their captain. Yes, the answer lay probably there; he was so fixated on achieving his dream, that everything else was just unwanted distraction. Quite boring to be honest. What wasn't boring were the hushed voices of the ships navigator and the ever lying sharp shooter. They had to be up to something so she spawned an eye and an ear on the other side of the lawn deck to see what it was all about. It was just in time to see Nami put her New World Log Pose inside a carved wooden box held by Usopp. Interesting.

"Now, that should keep him out", said the sniper upon closing the box and coating it completely in green goo, which hardened the moment it had covered all of it. Interesting indeed.

"And you are sure it is foolproof? You know Luffy, he will try to find a way," the navigator pressed.

To demonstrate he started grabbing the coat, only to have it go gooey again "You see? You can't rip it and you can't shatter it on the floor, it will just bounce back, just like him. There is no way he can destroy it!", he stated proudly.

"I can cut it," stated Zoro from behind the two, standing there as if he had been a part of the conversation all along. It scared them half to death. And after recovering, Namis fist connected with the green haired head as she screeched about doubling his debt if he even tried.

She laughed silently and dispersed her additional eye and ear. So Nami and Usopp were trying to keep Luffy from picking the most dangerous Island, interesting.

Note

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I'm afraid this is one of the longest chapters you'll find here, the next one will be about Zoro's experience on said Island and is maybe half as long.

Again, please leave a review and let me know what I did right and how I might improve!