AN: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda

I AM SOOOO SORRY! Uni work just got on top of me...too much...so, here's the chapter I promised you! I don't know if it's any good, but I got a spark of inspiration while writing an essay and I decided to try writing it...I feel it may have made things move a little fast...but...it does make Robin a totally awesome person sooo...hope I can be forgiven! ? Any OOC-ness I can only blame on sleep deprivation :P

Chapter 2

They'd been sitting in the lounge area of the local library for almost two hours now, and Zoro had run out of things to tell her. He'd start telling her about his friends, but she didn't seem to mind the current silence as she sipped on her coffee. It had been a week since he'd met her, and here they were. She'd told him all about her childhood, travelling from foster parents to foster parents after the brutal murder of her mother when she was only eight. He'd returned the favour by immediately telling her about his childhood, which had of course brought him, once again, to tell her all about his dream. She hadn't seemed bored; in fact she'd seem fascinated. Zoro calmly watched her sip her coffee as she smiled out of the window at the failing rain.

"No one really looks at you when it's raining, do they?"

"Heh, nope – that's why I like when it rains on Championship days. I still have to go out the back door, but everyone's in too much of a hurry to get to wherever they're going to notice me once I'm out. I actually find it kinda peaceful these days." Zoro replied almost absently, his eye still watching Robin.

"Hmm," Robin turned back to Zoro and smiled, "I'm glad you like the rain too, Zoro-san."

Zoro turned his face away, aware of a slight warmth to his cheeks, grunting in agreement. If she liked to go around unnoticed, why does she wear such revealing clothes? She's practically falling out of her jacket, and why is she still not wearing anything under it? Every guy in here is staring at her! Zoro glared as another man walked past, his eyes staring greedily. He'd been the fourth in the last hour to go past like that, and Zoro had the growing urge to throw his jacket over her before slicing every guy in the library to pieces. They were just here for coffee, nothing more, Zoro reminded himself; this was getting to know each other, not a date. He looked back over at Robin and realised she was staring out the window again.

"People-watcher, huh?"

"I find the everyday behaviours of others very interesting, Zoro-san. I like to watch others going through their fixed routines or amusing mishaps. Some people are rather clumsy, like yourself." She smiled again, glancing at him out the corner of her eye, "I had to come find you earlier, Zoro-san."

"I-I would have found my way here eventually! It's not my fault this place is so hard to find!" Zoro replied, his embarrassment showing in his clear annoyance.

His face flushed again at the sound of her giggle. He looked away again, just in time to glare at another passerby. He grabbed his jacket from where it was lying across the back of his armchair and threw it to her, the jacket landing perfectly so that it covered her chest. She looked at him in surprise before giggling again behind her hand as his face grew ever redder. Zoro just wanted to hide. She kept laughing at him, but for some reason he was still sitting across from her in the town's main library, enjoying her company. He looked at his phone and sighed. He had four missed calls, all labelled 'Love-Cook'. Zoro hadn't told him that he was meeting Robin, but now he almost wished he had. Zoro, as much as he was enjoying her now silent company, wished he knew where to take the conversation now.

"When is your next competition, Zoro-san?" Robin asked, zipping her jacket up and handing Zoro his back.

"Em, it's about five weeks away. Why?" Zoro asked as he started to stand up, following Robin's example.

"Oh," Robin reached down for her handbag, facing away from Zoro, "I've been asked if I would like to study the ruins of a town destroyed by war. It's not ancient, but I've been told the ruins and the history behind it is very interesting, as well as the castle. It's the castle's current owner that has asked if I would like to come investigate – he only knows some of the town's history, and is interested as to how much more I can tell him."

"Huh...where is it?" Something stirred in the back of Zoro's mind, making him feel as if there was something vaguely familiar about what she had just told him, "and, eh, how long will you be away?"

"It's on a small island in the middle of the sea," she replied, standing back up and turning to face him, "I don't really know when I'll be back, but I believe you would be very interested in going, Zoro-san."

"And why's that?" He asked, the hilt of his ever present shinai making contact with the stomach of a drooling passerby, making Robin giggle and Zoro smirk at his achievement at making her laugh, and not at him.

"Would you like to come with me, Zoro-san? You could fight off the castle's owner if he also decides to drool." She joked teasingly, making Zoro unsure whether to be embarrassed or proud, while causing him to forget his own question.

Zoro stood in his room, Chopper rubbing against his legs. He was staring down at his half-packed suitcase wondering how he'd been talked into agreeing to go to some remote island in the middle of the sea. Not only was he about to miss the next championship he was expected at, he was going to be spending his time wandering around rubble with a woman he'd only met twice. She was a particularly interesting woman, but she was technically a complete stranger. Even if he knew everything about her childhood and her life until now, she was still a stranger. Actually, there wasn't much he didn't know about her. Maybe he couldn't quite call her a stranger, but technically she could still be a murderer. She would be strangely beautiful murderer with an adorably yet annoying giggle, but a murderer none the less. He couldn't exactly ask her if she was, that would be rude – even he knew that. Anyway, he was surely more dangerous than her, and she'd willingly invited him and his three real katanas onto a private plane. Maybe she was suicidal?

"Marimo! What's this about you going on holiday with Robin-chwan?!"

"Great, Love-Cook, you're home." Zoro replied sarcastically.

"Robin-chwan just told me you're going with her when she goes to her next job! How dare you go off with Robin-chwan! You don't deserve to bask in her mature, elegant beauty!" Sanji half-yelled, half-swooned.

"She invited me, and I'm not even sure why I agreed." Zoro replied, slightly irritated at his flatmate's insults, "hopefully we'll be back in time for Luffy's championships in seven weeks. I want to be here when he wins."

"Well, go and tell her that you don't want to go!" Sanji shouted.

"Eh? Who said I didn't want to go, Love-Cook!?" Zoro shouted back, stepping towards Sanji, "and anyway, why wouldn't I just phone her?!"

"Phone her!? Why would a Marimo like you have her number?!" Sanji yelled, his face only inches from Zoro's.

"She gave me it two weeks ago when I met her so that we could meet for coffee." Zoro replied smugly, turning back to where his open suitcase was lying on his bed, "that's where I was last Saturday when you were trying to phone me – I was having coffee with Robin, and she's certainly very confident with her body."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ROBIN-CHWAN?!" Sanji yelled, his face scarlet with rage.

"Nothing you wouldn't want to do, Love-Cook," Zoro continued to taunt.

"MARIMO! HOW DARE YOU DO NAUGHTY THINGS WITH ROBIN-CHWAN WITHOUT ME!?"

"Without you?" Zoro asked, trying keep his face from breaking into a cheesy grin at the sight of Sanji trapped between being a raging idiot and a weeping puddle, "relax, Love-Cook, I only had coffee with her and beat up a guy that was staring at her chest. It would be great if she actually wore something under that damn jacket."

"Huh? She wasn't wearing anything under it when she met up with you?" Zoro looked at Sanji, confused by his question, "she was wearing a bikini top under it when she came to work last Saturday – why would she take it off to meet up with you? And how the hell did you find out she wasn't wearing anything under her jacket, Marimo!?"

"What? She had a bikini top on?! It looks like she's just wearing a zip-up jacket!" Zoro exclaimed in surprise before his ears became warm.

"You idiot, Marimo! Of course she was wearing something underneath! What kind of perverted thoughts were going through your head?!"

Zoro stepped onto the plane, refusing to look at Robin. He still couldn't believe how stupid he had been the last two times they had met. Sanji hadn't even let him drink his sake last night as punishment. Zoro was even pretty sure that Sanji had told Nami too, so he was definitely going to get it next time he met up with everyone. One of these times he'd teach that thieving brat some manners! He heard a giggle behind him as he put his luggage away, and grunted a 'what?' at Robin.

"You've been very quiet, Zoro-san. Is this perhaps to do with Sanji-san finding out that you were coming with me?" Zoro turned in surprise, unsure of how much she knew about the previous day's conversation.

"Em, what's he told you?" He asked keeping a straight face.

"Sanji-san has not told me anything – is there something I should know?" She replied, still smiling.

"Em...I'm going to ask you something, and you don't have to answer, but Love-Cook and I had a bit of an argument yesterday," Zoro started, painfully aware that it sounded like he was about to ask which of them she liked better, "we were, em, arguing about whether or not you actually wear anything under your jacket?"

Zoro couldn't believe what he'd just asked, and he certainly wasn't surprised that she then laughed at him. He watched carefully as her hand went to her zip as he tried not to blush. She slowly pulled the zip down and Zoro spun around instantly, trying not to become Love-Cook at what he'd just seen.

Zoro stepped off the plane and instantly knew where he was. He'd spent two years of his life here, and he certainly wasn't going to forget those years anytime soon. His hand went to the hilt of one of his katanas as Mihawk walked across the tarmac to greet them, clearly ignoring Zoro's defensive stance. Zoro watched as Mihawk approached Robin, taking off his hat and bowing his head in a polite greeting.

"Good afternoon, Miss Nico. I am glad that you could join us."

"Hello, Mihawk-san. I am happy to be here," she replied before gesturing towards Zoro, "I believe you have met my companion, Roronoa Zoro."

"I have indeed." He replied, nodding to Zoro, "I've had Perona set up a room for you. It's the room Zoro stayed in during his last visit. I'll have Perona show the two of you the way though, doubt Zoro could find his way to the room – he couldn't even find his way to it after two years. I would get up in the morning to find him asleep in a corridor in a completely different part of the castle." Mihawk finished as Robin giggled.

"Oi! It's not my fault Perona kept switching the rooms around!" Zoro exclaimed.

"I looked into that accusation last time, and we both know the results."

Zoro followed the two women along the corridor of one of the wings, muttering away to himself. Mihawk and the women had been making comments at his expense since they'd reached the damn castle, and now here he was following the two women as Perona told Robin all about his two year stay on the island. It seemed to take an eternity for them to reach the door that they were looking for. Mihawk had said something about the room he'd stayed in during his last visit but Zoro couldn't really remember anything about it. It had been a bedroom, and he was there to train, not to sleep in a giant comfy bed.

"Here. Dinner will be in an hour, so if you want to change you might want to do it now. I don't like when people keep me waiting after I've spent hours cooking." Perona explained in an annoyed tone as she opened the door to reveal a spacious room with a comfy-looking double bed.

"So, where am I sleeping?" Zoro asked Perona, to which Perona giving him a very questioning look.

"Zoro, this isn't like the hostels we've stayed at where we have to have separate rooms – we can actually share a room here, Zoro dear." Robin smiled, gently taking his arm to lead him into the room.

Zoro followed her in, trying to hide his confusion as he decided to go along with whatever strange plan she had. He shut the door and turned to find her unpacking. He threw his suitcase onto the bed next to hers and started unpacking it. He blushed as she pulled a bikini top out, causing him to remember the sight of her unzipped jacket and lack of bikini top. Were they really going to share a room? They'd only just met, and Zoro was pretty sure Robin had just tried to give Perona the impression they'd been together for a while. Had she told Mihawk they were together? Or just Perona? Why would she do that? Zoro looked away as Robin removed her wrap, to reveal beautiful, long, pale legs and immediately unzipped her jacket. Why was she undressing like that?

"You don't need to be shy, Zoro-san. We'll be sharing this room for a couple of weeks, and we do need to get ready for dinner – or do you plan to turn up in a white t-shirt and your haramaki?" She teased.

"What did you tell them about us?" Zoro asked, glancing over his shoulder before turning around.

"Us? Oh, sorry, Zoro-san. I told Mihawk-san that I was bringing a male companion, and he must have assumed you were my husband. He probably realised his error when we arrived and he recognised you." She replied, smiling her fake smile.

"I was more questioning what you said to me in front of Perona," he grumbled looking away, "but you did fail to tell me you have a husband."

"Sorry, Zoro-san, if you would rather I went and told her the truth then I will – I just felt that it may have been necessary considering the two of you spent two years together," she replied darkly, "as to me having a husband, I do not. If I had one, I would certainly have corrected Mihawk-san's mistake, and I certainly would not have knowingly gotten between you and Perona."

"...between me and Perona? What are you talking about? I can't stand that girl! She's irritating and a total pain in the ass! I like her even less than Nami, and I tolerate Nami at best!" Zoro snapped back.

"That could be considered a sign of affection, Zoro-san, and we both know Nami is your friend, whether you admit it or not." She replied coldly.

"What did I do?" Zoro asked plainly, wanting to know why she was suddenly in such a foul mood with him.

"What?" she turned to him clearly confused.

"What did I do to upset you? You were in such a good mood, and now you're clearly angry at me for something. Normally I wouldn't bother and just ignore someone when they're clearly annoyed at me, but we just got here...and I was kinda looking forward to spending a some more time with you...I'm even missing my next championship to be here, at least tell me what I did," he replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry, Zoro-san," she started, giving him a sad smile, "you haven't done anything. I just thought you were upset with me for being so forward in front of Perona. It had made me think you were interested in her."

"And what would you say if I was?" He teased jokingly.

"Well, Zoro-san, I guess I'd just have to make you more interested in me," Robin replied, wrapping her arms around Zoro, causing him to become flustered.

"ZORO!"

"Ah! Perona's angry! Has it been an hour already?!" Zoro asked, pulling away from Robin and pulling his t-shirt over his head, briefly hiding his crimson face.

"Do you need a hand Zoro-san?" Robin asked, reaching for the t-shirt that he'd seemingly gotten stuck in, unknowingly flashing his perfectly chiselled but scarred torso.

"I'm fine," he replied, finally pulling it off his head and grabbing his shirt before heading to the door, glancing back at the double bed.

"You weren't at the last championship." Zoro stated as they sat around the long dining table.

"I only go if I've been summoned," Mihawk started, "anyway, why would you wish me there? I certainly do not wish to embarrass you again – I find it embarrassing."

"What did you say?!"

"Zoro dear, we are at the table." Robin politely reminded him, Zoro feeling strangely smug at her using 'dear' – if only Love-Cook was here! No, he was glad he wasn't; Love-Cook would ruin everything.

"I was very surprised, Miss Nico, when you finally accepted my invitation. I was even more surprised when I heard rumours that you were taking a break from archaeology, why was that?" Mihawk asked, cutting elegantly into his duck.

"I was helping a friend set up his bar, Mihawk-san. His cook failed to arrive, so he asked for my help. Zoro was actually to one to find my friend a new cook, and as I was now able to leave knowing my friend was going to manage fine, I decided to start where I left off on my list of places to visit." Robin answered, smiling at their host, "Sadly, we may not be able to stay too long – my companion should really be back for his next championship."

"You keep saying 'companion', is there a reason for that, Robin?" Perona asked suspiciously.

"She's a little shy about saying 'boyfriend' because I'm a little younger than her," Zoro replied smirking as Robin smiled at him, causing Perona to start huffing, "as to going back for the championships, if Mihawk won't be there then there's no point in going, is there?"

"As I said, it is embarrassing for both of us when I defeat you so easily. However, I will give you a chance," Zoro sat forward in his seat, ready to listen to whatever Mihawk told him, "if you can win the 'New World Championship' in six months, I will face you at that same championship the following year."

Zoro walked along the corridor from the bathroom towards the bedroom, his mind happily preoccupied. He opened the bedroom door to the sight of a happy Robin lying in the double bed reading her book. He smiled as he walked over to the bed and climbed in, letting Robin curl up into his side as he got settled for the night. It had definitely been a change. He'd wanted a change to his routine, one that would bring him to his final fight with Mihawk. What he'd gotten was an intelligent and beautiful girlfriend, even if she was more woman than girl, and a chance to achieve his dream. At that moment, as far as he was concerned, he was the luckiest man alive, simply because fate had brought him to Robin, the wonderful woman curled up against him with a book.

Robin got him the chance he wanted! Ta-dah! XD She was indeed the change in routine that he needed ;P Ok, hope you liked this! This will definitely be the last chapter for this – it was genuinely supposed to be a one-shot, and I surprised myself by managing to come up with a second chapter, please let me know what you thought of it! :D And I am REALLY sorry it was late!

Just to say, there won't be a one-shot or chapter this Sunday/Monday – I'm literally snowed under with deadlines, and I still need to reply to messages but I haven't even had a chance to sit down to write the responses they deserve :( I'll have to find time for that as well as deadlines...anyway, Thursday's final chapter of 'With Someone Else' will go up tomorrow, and to make up for the lack of one-shot/chapter this weekend, I'll give you two chapters the following week!

Sunday 9th November (or Monday 10th) – Chapter 3 of 'The Life of the First Mate'

Monday 10th November (or Tuesday 11th) – Chapter 4 of 'The Life of the First Mate'

Is this ok for everyone? I am trying not to disappear completely :(

- Sketcher