Daisies and Blossom (Because I can't think of a suitable title)
It was just the two of them. Nami, with Sanji trailing faithfully behind, was off restocking the ship's vitamin C supplies, Usopp was single-handedly defeating Kubilai Khan# and his 150,000 strong Mongol army and Zoro had got "geographically displaced" on the walk between the ship and the beach. As for Luffy, he was sitting in the boughs of a tree, his mind grappling with the great intellectual question of how to pick one's nose with one's big toe.
So there they were, with this immense glade of white blossom as their playground. Whilst the other crew member's minds were pondering upon the frivolities of the island, here they were, lying in the grass and watching a dozen fluffy white towers of cloud ambling across the sky.
"Robin…"
She looked up from the book that lay in front of her and gazed at him with keen curiosity. Chopper felt himself turning slightly pink as he turned over in his mind the words that he was about to deliver:
"We understand each other don't we?"
Like a ripple breaking the surface of a pool, a glimmer of a smile appeared on her face. It was diverted slightly as tiny fleck of blossom floating through the air prostrated itself on to the grass before her. Her brightly intelligent eyes never missed a thing.
Chopper fiddled with the daisy ring that lay in his little hooves. This was it! Today was the day he had decided that he would marry Robin. Proposing was the problem…
He tried a new tact:
"Robin, I really, really like you…"
But she didn't appear to be listening. She was gently poking the stray blossom, its pure white colour contrasting beautifully against her red top. She began to sing a little, quietly yet sweetly. Chopper sighed almost inaudibly: it reminded him of all the times that he had heard her sing. Whenever she'd thought that no one was there a mysterious song, maybe from one of her beloved lost civilisations, had come pealing out.
That's it, thought Chopper. I should just let my feelings sing out like that too.
"Robin!" he squealed, turning from pink to tomato-red, "I really, really like you, no one ever treated me so kindly since Dr Hiruluk and I know everybody on Luffy's ship is kind to me, but not like you are and ever since I first saw you I've thought you were really, really pretty, so please marry me!" He held out the little daisy ring to her, then remembered seeing Sanji often on one knee before Nami and did the same.
"Chopper, who are you talking to?" came her reply from over his shoulder. Chopper yelped and jumped a foot in the air. Robin was leant over him, smiling in mild amusement.
"No one, nobody!" stammered Chopper, fidgeting like an earthworm without its earth, "There was a…"
He looked over at where his listener had been sitting. She was gone.
"There was a…?" questioned Robin, sitting in her empty space next to the book and setting down the water bottle that she had gone to retrieve. That was when she found the daisy ring that he had dropped in shock. She put it on her ring finger-it was a perfect fit-and beamed at Chopper.
"Chopper? Did you make this?" she asked.
"No, why the hell would I do a thing like that!" yelled Chopper and tried to cool down his embarrassment by grabbing at the water bottle, causing himself to cough as the water went down the wrong way.
"It's very beautiful," said Robin and went back to reading her book.
Just a short distance away from where they were sitting, her song rang out from a nearby tree. He looked round and saw her there amongst the blossom. Just before she left, he swore he heard her whisper, "Go for it!"
He inwardly cursed himself. If only he had proposed to the Robin and not a robin…
#Don't ask me why Usopp was fighting Kubilai Khan, there's not always a logical reason with Usopp. And anyway, I'd been looking through my Japanese history notes prior to writing this.
Author's Update 4/6/06: Thank you so much those of you who have submitted such kind reviews! But I'm bit confused about why most of you thought I wanted to make Robin and Chopper an actual couple-I thought it was really obvious when watching the anime that Chopper only has a child-like crush on Robin…