Robin didn't want to know what her "Nakama" were saying about her. An inbred part of Robin that was sure that they were plotting to hand her over to the marines or otherwise betray her. Although she didn't want to face it, she knew that her current situation was all too good to be true. She couldn't allow herself to become an idealist, even if would have wanted that for her. She wished that these were the Nakama that Saul had spoken about, but the reality had shown her that trusting the goodness of others never lead to good results. In the safety of her mind, she didn't even allow that the Straw Hats were good people; in the face of any danger, they'd betray her in a heartbeat.

Observing the goings on around her was an usual practice for Robin, as she had learned through years of experience that to keep herself safe he had to stay aware. Her powers and actual enjoyment of understanding kept this from being an entirely terrible process, though she couldn't describe how tired she was of facing the dark thoughts of others. No matter how kind any group seemed, she inevitably found they had designs against her, leaving her wondering if it was the everyone else or herself that was so worthless.

However, the Straw Hats proved themselves to be a different case, in that she never stopped being entertained by them. Most of the conversations she eavesdropped upon followed the same pattern as those she was present for. The interactions were comically written in stone. Miss Navigator peppered her dealings with her temper, and Mr. Swordsman and Mr. Cook perpetually fought in an interesting brotherly relationship, the Long-Nose boy told his stories, and the little doctor made adorable attempts at hiding his emotions. It was only rarely that she caught serious discussions between the crew.

She once overheard a fascinating conversation between Zoro and Usopp. Robin was sitting across the deck from where the interaction took place, but growing an ear was simple enough to allow her to overhear the talk between the two.

Their talk was instigated when Zoro was woken up from a midday nap to see the sniper endeavoring to lift one of the massive weights the swordsman used. Usopp was straining against the mass when Zoro asked him what was wrong. Usopp had replied that he was recovering from a lose-all-your-incredibly-thick-muscles-disease and was just testing them out on these light weights.

Zoro had looked squarely at the younger man and told him that if he wanted to use some of the lighter ones he could try the cabinet in the men's courters. Usopp surprised Robin by not telling any tall tales and simply sighing and saying that he would like to get stronger sometime.

Zoro outputted no empty clichés such as "true strength lies within" or "everyone has different strengths." He gave him a steady look that Usopp didn't shy away from and said that Usopp should do "whatever he liked."

Although not many words were spoken between the two of them, it still felt to Robin that enough had been communicated. The whole crew was interesting to watch, in fact, whether they meant to be or not.

One night, Nami had woken up screaming from a nightmare. Robin had been awake already, but pretended to be asleep. She'd felt oddly like she should've comforted the distraught girl, but she didn't know what to say.

Once the girl had calmed, she left the room to get fresh air. Robin grew eyes and watched her progress to the galley.

It had only been an hour until daybreak at the time, and Sanji was already awake preparing breakfast. When Nami had come into the galley, clearly not herself, the cook shockingly hadn't gone into raptures and started flirting. He'd lovingly made Nami a cup of tea and sat next to her quietly while she recovered her composure. There had been no flirting or perverted thoughts, only silent support. Nami had calmed down quickly and gave Sanji a bright smile.

That had sent Sanji into ecstasy, and he'd woken up several of the others with his loud proclamations of love.

Robin had been surprised at the boy's kindness. She had at first mistaken him for a womanizer, but she'd been wrong. He was a romantic who truly believed that women were the superior sex and they were sacred to him. While Robin wasn't sure she saw the logic behind that, she wasn't one to dissuade others from their mindsets.

Nami too she'd misjudged. She often seemed to be hardhearted and greedy, but she obviously cared for the rest of her crew. Robin was able to piece together bits of the navigator's past, and it was clear that the girl had been knocked around by fate, but she had found her place among this crew. Robin tried not to envy Nami for her happiness; she knew that she could never truly be one of them.

Still, she learned more and more about them each day. All the crew members were parental at times to the little doctor. It was impossible not to like him, even for Robin. There was something about him that simply begged to be protected. And he had his own protective instinct; he was the doctor after all. Robin loved to listen to his fussing over his friends.

But mostly the crew had light-hearted discussions and scuffles. Every word that passed between them was comfortable and familiar, almost as if they were all a family.

She determined that it was Luffy who created this element. No deviousness could possibly exist within him, and he generated a desire in others to try to impress him. Robin knew that despite his seeming incompetence at times, he truly embodied a great leader. There was a charisma and power hidden in his happy attitude and silly actions that drew people to him and gained their trust.

In all her observations, two things had occurred to Robin. First, she had along the way abandoned her standing that they were not good people. Because they were. She still knew that they would abandon her if they realized how much of a burden she was, but it would be a choice of necessity, not glee. They cared for one another and had a strong sense of empathy that she knew she could rely on. She'd only been travelling with them for a few weeks with no incident, but she could easily say that they were not malicious or cruel in any way.

Secondly, Robin realized she had forgotten her objective of finding out what they thought of her and what they planned on doing to her. She was engrossed in the dynamics of the crew, so the day that she did overhear a conversation regarding her, she settled back to hear it with apprehension.

She had left the dinner table early one night because the flying food was threatening a very nice tome of Chopper's that she was enjoying. Although it was medical, it was of interest of her because it chronicled the horrible affects of famine on several counties in the Blues, and Robin was finding it fascinating.

She had retired to her room to continue her book and grew an ear in the corner of the kitchen almost as an afterthought.

They began to talk about her when Sanji said how beautifully distracted Miss Robin had been at dinner tonight. Robin straightened her back uneasily and put her book down. For all she knew, this conversation would mean she would have to leave the crew at the next island.

in response to Sanji's soliloquy, Zoro grumbled, "Damn shifty woman."

"Don't talk that way about any woman, especially Miss Robin!" Ah, Sanji, the one she knew she could rely on always.

"She has been acting strange." This was from Usopp.

"What do you mean by that? If by strange, you mean beautiful, charming, and intelligent, then yes, Miss Robin has been acting strange." Sanji again.

"All I meant is that she doesn't talk very much and reads all the time, but I sometimes feel like she's… observing me," Usopp's voice returned. He was smarter than she gave him credit for.

"Oi, oi, oi, what are you implying, shitty long-nose?"

"Don't take everything pervertedly, love-cook," Zoro interjected.

Before a fight could break out between them, Nami spoke up. Although she wasn't there, Robin could imagine how Nami moved her body to distract Sanji. "What did you mean, Usopp?"

"I don't know really. She just makes me nervous sometimes."

"Why?" Luffy asked suddenly.

She pictured how uncomfortable Usopp looked and wanted to see, but decided that and eye in the room might draw too much attention. "She… um… laughs at my stories weirdly?"

Luffy didn't laugh or even smile by the tone of his voice as he said, "What about her makes you nervous?"

"I don't know. Forget I said anything."

Robin wasn't sure how to take this. None of them were badmouthing her (with the exception of Zoro, but he'd do that to her face) nor were they planning on throwing her off their ship. Usopp seemed to be voicing some doubts about her character, but even that was not particularly hostile. Did they really have no reservations about her at all?

"I think that Robin is really nice. Did you know she bought me cotton candy on that last island we landed on? And she likes books and lets me read hers sometimes. She's really smart and cool." This was Chopper, bless his little heart. He sounded like a child despite his fair amounts of intelligence and medical expertise.

"Yeah, Robin's great! She's really smart and funny. The other day she was reading and I told her that books were boring and that she should play more. But the next day she had a poppy book for me to read and she told me to read it, so I did. And then a kangaroot jumped out! It was a mystery book! So I told her that only most books were boring."

Robin chuckled. Leave it to Luffy to make the simple mechanics of a pop-up book a mystery.

Luffy continued, "And all of you know she's a nakama, right? So we don't have to worry about her or be nervous." There was an unspoken challenge in Luffy's voice and it drew affirmations of varying enthusiasm from the crew, from Sanji's declarations that he would trust her with his life to Zoro's reluctant grunt.

After that the dinner dragged on long enough and the usual fights over who'd clean the dishes broke out, along with Usopp trying to talk his way out of watch.

Robin dissolved her ear and tried to turn her concentration back to her book, but it was proving to be difficult. She had much to think about.

AN/ Y'all, I have such a hard time writing Luffy. I don't even know.

The first time I proofread this, I found that I had typed this unconsciously: Sanji was already awake preparing breakfast like a good bitch. It's because of my parody, I swear. IMMA girl, please don't get all feminist and flame me!