Robin couldn't help but smirk to himself.
Luffy, as he usually did, had once again managed to encourage Usopp even though the sniper had been so very afraid just moments before. A few words here, a gomu gomu pistol there, and no one on Thousand Sunny felt threatened anymore. The archaeologist found it interesting to watch as her captain walked around and praised everybody for the new skills they had gotten during the two years they hadn't seen each other.
Catching Zoro's gaze over the others' heads Robin raised a questioning eyebrow at the pensive look in the swordsman's eyes. Shaking his head slightly the man just turned his chin towards Luffy, as if to say, "Just Luffy being Luffy."
Robin was intrigued though because the unofficial first mate always understood their captain the best. And if there was something unusual that the younger man had noticed, the black haired woman wanted to know.
Walking up to the green haired marimo (as Sanji called him, a bit affectionately these days Robin thought) she leaned against the railing besides the swordsman and turned to watch their nakama with him. Scoffing quietly, as he knew what Robin had sought him out for, Zoro closed his remaining eye and explained, "His different."
"Luffy-san?" asked Robin. "I would think so. After all, two years have passed, during which he lost his brother and his nakama."
"Not that," huffed Zoro, but didn't bother to explain further.
Looking at her nakama, Robin tried to see what the man had so easily noticed.
Usopp and Chopper had discarded their panic and were now rolling on the floor, laughing, as Brook amused them with some little joyful tune. Nami and Franky were discussing something quietly about the ship and its coating, as they descended further towards the ocean floor. Sanji had for the moment recovered from his blood-loss and was looking through the food Luffy had brought with a calculating face, obviously adding the found items to his mental list of their food stocks.
And in the midst of all of them sat Luffy, cross-legged and smiling widely. As he looked from one crewmember to another Robin found that he seemed to be…
"Proud?" asked the archaeologist and turned to face the swordsman.
"Have you noticed how he seems to go from one of us to the other and just praise the work we have accomplished while we were away?" asked Zoro back with a small loyal smile.
Robin hadn't actually, but as she thought about the last few hours she discovered that the green-haired man was not wrong.
"Why?" asked Robin simply.
"Because he is proud. He is happy to see us, sad that it has been so long and impossibly proud of what we have become. We are the nakama of the Pirate King now. Always have been too, but now we are ready."
"Ready to continue our voyage," added the older woman thoughtfully, but Zoro shook his head slightly.
"Not only that. Now we are ready to win."
With those words the first mate snuck off to their cook and begun goading him for a fight. Robin simply figured that the man had had enough of talking for the day and needed to blow off some steam. But as Luffy stepped into the place Zoro had just vacated, she couldn't help wandering, and not for the first time either, if the captain and his first mate really could read each other's minds.
"I am proud," added Luffy quietly from under the edge of his hat their crew had been named after, "because what has happened won't happen again. I have trained and become much much stronger, but so have all of you. When I look at us now, I see One Piece in front of us. We are ready to go to New World and I am proud to have all of you with me."
Then before Robin could even answer he laughed his joyful laugh at her and was gone to play with Chopper and Usopp the next instant. Blinking her eyes to hold back her tears, the archaeologist thought about how happy she was to be back with them all after so long, how happy she was to hear that laugh again and see that old strawhat and grinning jolly roger.
"We are proud of you too," she whispered to herself and caught once more Zoro's eye from over where he was arguing with Sanji. Nodding to him slightly, she left her position at the railing and went to help Brook entertain their younger crewmates, adding her morbid observations where she thought they were needed. When another huge fish tried to eat them and Franky disposed of it with a strong and well-measured beam, Luffy once again ran over to him and begun praising his awesome new skills.
Once again Robin smirked to herself, as Usopp ran around completely scared at one of her remarks. Luffy had changed but so had all of them and after all that time they all still fit. Closing her eyes for a second she thought about how good it was to be home and sent a silent prayer of thanks to one Portgas D. Ace for ensuring that his brother came back to them safe.