*POST-TIME SKIP SPOILERS*
Smile
Grove 17 is quiet save for the soft murmur of rising resin bubbles and the softer squish of the mossy ground under her shoes.
The Thousand Sunny is even quieter, bobbing on the ocean's whispered shush shush. There's not a scratch to be found on the ship, and every surface glistens with Rayleigh's expert coating, the sunny figurehead smiling its gentle expectance.
"Sunny," Robin says, returning the ship's smile with a tender curve of her own as a pleasant warmth squeezes her chest. She's waited for this day for two years and now she's here, just steps away from home. "We made you wait... two long years. I'm glad you're safe."
Safe, and not as vacant as she thought, she discovers as a familiar spirited voice hollers a catcall, "OWWww! Look at that beautiful woman over there!
"You're - " A burly man bounds across the Sunny's lawn, sunlight flashing on dark sunglasses and vibrant metal, and springs onto the gunwale facing her perch on the Yarukiman Mangrove root, " - our Suuuper Archaeologist," he bends a knee and strikes a pose, slamming his bulky forearms together with a heavy clank to flourish his trademark star, "Robin, aren't you?!"
She stares a moment, absorbing the details. Though his muscular body borders on hulking and he's more robot than human now, his torso lined with surgical scars, his legs reinforced with metal, his arms - well, but Robin can recognize that posture anywhere, that shameless display, that wide toothy grin under protruding metal nose, that rowdy lilting voice - she misses the pompadour, but there's no doubt in her mind that the man waiting for her reply is her Cyborg Franky.
Her small smile unfurls like a bloom, dimpling her cheeks with a grin. "You haven't changed a bit, Franky," she says with a bright titter of mirth.
"Oh, I've changed, alright!" Franky exclaims, holding his showy stance. "Just look at this body. I'm the stuff dreams are made of! Behold the greatest transformation of all time. I'm beyond human comprehension!"
Robin laughs outright, again taking in the monstrous red shoulders, blocky blue forearms and massive robotic hands - contrasting with the comparatively normal floral print shirt that hangs open on his burly torso.
"Well, you are certainly right about that," she rejoins, beaming as Franky flexes his strange body for her, "I don't know what you are."
"You mean I'm a pervert? OWww, that's sweet!"
Robin chuckles.
It's good to be home.
-x-
Furanky's Tumblr Frobin Week: Day 1
Originally posted: April 8th, 2013
Prompt: Smile
Words: 405