Sorry for this.
After the bruising receded to a tolerable ache Robin was allowed to roam outside the cabin. Following her acceptance her shackles had been removed, much to her relief and suspicion, but she was still cautioned against moving around too much. Now, a week later, she could finally walk around in the fresh air and sunlight; it would have been relaxing if not for her predicament. Years of running from the marines had made her too hyper-alert to ever completely relax and every new face sent a jolt of adrenaline into her bloodstream.
And then there was Garp.
The old man seemed fully set on the idea that Robin would be his granddaughter and had taken to finding her in every hiding place she had found to give loud accounts of his years on the seas. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the old man's fixation on food, fighting, skirting Marine policy, and just how loud he was.
And so began Robin and Garp's elaborate game of hide and seek.
It only took a few days for Robin to realize that Garp seemed to expect the more secluded parts of the ship and seemed to know them well. That led to Robin hiding herself in plain sight.
Which led to her current situation of sitting on a barrel on deck, dressed in Bogard's 'borrowed' suit and reading a thick tome she had liberated from one of the cabins.
The vice-admiral had already walked by twice in the last hour, with huffs of frustration and barely a greeting.
Bogard himself had also been by but besides a slight frown he didn't say anything. She thought he seemed somewhat impressed and amused. Probably just glad he's not the one being bothered, she thought.
The soldiers mostly kept to themselves; apparently they all had the policy of never questioning Garp's antics. Plausible deniability, or something. They seemed quite adept, whatever the case.
Alas, after a week Garp seemed to catch on and was back to constantly pestering his adoptive granddaughter. By then, however, she had managed to round up just about every book on the ship. This was when she put her foot down.
Halfway through Garp's latest boisterously loud tale she loudly snapped her hardcover shut and, once she had his attention, fixed him with an especially icy glare.
"I am trying to read. If you must talk, please lower your voice."
That only kept him away for two days of sulking, unfortunately.
Dawn Island was slowly approaching on the horizon when Garp ushered Robin into her cabin and told her to change into her 'disguise,' which was an extra recruit uniform. With plenty of visible distaste she complied and then went to wait for landing.
Garp, of course, went looking for her.
"So," he started with no preamble, "are you excited to meet your new brothers?"
She continued to stare ahead.
"New island. Thoughts on that?"
Silence. Painful silence.
"Vague curiosity over the future in general?"
She let out a long breath. "If they are anything like you, I can't imagine why they might need someone to babysit them." She said dryly. Although that was a lie, if they were anything like Garp they should have plenty of eyes on them.
"Oh no, no. Not babysit, just… Keep an eye on them? I know you can do that, right?" He winked and nudged her conspiratorially, some attempt at humor that she shot down with a glare, then sobered up. "But seriously, they're prone to jumping into situations that are a bit much for them, so I think they need someone to look out for them. The road to a powerful marine is full of danger, after all."
She grimaced. "So I'll be looking after training Marines? Don't blame me if I corrupt them."
Garp just laughed.
They soon made landing, disembarked, and Garp strode off into town decisively, not even glancing at Bogard or Robin to see if they would follow. After a few minutes he explained that he wanted to check in with a friend before going to meet the boys.
They finally walked up the short steps to an old house in need of a new coat of paint and Garp pounded on the door. Robin winced as the noise carried down the street; it could probably be heard blocks away.
After a few minutes of waiting and more 'knocking' Garp huffed out a breath and turned on his heel, once again marching off. Robin frowned but followed.
Next time they stopped was in front of a well-maintained pub, the sign over the entrance naming it 'Party's Bar', which seemed to be closed, to Garp's frustration.
Garp spun around to the nearest passerby. "Hey! Do you know where Makino and the Mayor are?"
The man started a bit at the loud address but answered promptly. "Uh- If they're not here they probably went to visit Luffy. Although…" The man glanced at the pinned 'closed' sign in the pub's window and lowered his voice, stepping closer to the old marine. "To tell you the truth, we think there might be something wrong with Makino."
Garp raised his brows at that and asked the man to elaborate.
He folded his arms and continued. "It's just… A little over a week ago she just closed the bar up completely for a few days. She wouldn't say why, but she's been looking very pale and tired ever since. She opened it again recently, but just for a few hours a day and we know she's going up to the mountain every day." The man shook his head and looked at Garp pleadingly. "If you see her, tell her to take it easy, ok? If she's sick she should just rest and ask for help."
Garp looked more and more troubled throughout the talk and now appeared downright grim. He nodded decisively. "I'll do that. Thank you." He strode off towards the mountain without another glance.
Robin started at the abrupt departure and sped to match his pace. All traces of the old man's humor were gone and it left her feeling uneasy.
Bogard stepped up beside Garp. "Something happened."
Garp grunted. "We've had choppy transponder connection ever since that storm. If they tried to call we might not have received it."
"Maybe it wasn't an emergency?" Bogard tried, but sounded unsure.
Garp was silent for a moment. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Robin remained silent through the quiet exchange and afterwards, during the uphill walk through thick forest. She could hear echoes of beasts in the distance but, besides keeping a sharper eye on her surroundings, remained unconcerned.
It was nearly an hour walk before they broke from the trail and came upon a clearing with a large house in the middle of it. A large group of people had gathered outside and turned to their group as soon as the movement registers. Most of the men shouted 'GARP?!' in horror and ran into the house, slamming the door behind them. Of the remaining four, two men looked terrified but stood their ground, one woman looked pissed, and the remaining old man looked disapproving.
Robin could feel the heavy atmosphere as the silence encompassed them. They waited until Garp approached before saying anything.
"Garp… Your timing is perfect, as usual." Robin thought she heard faint sarcasm from the old man, probably the mayor they were looking for earlier, but the large red-haired woman snorted loudly at the statement and drew the attention away.
"Perfect, my ass! You should have been here a week ago!" She gritted out from around her cigarette.
"Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Our Den Den Mushi's were down after the last storm. Did something happen?"
At the question the four shared looks full of dread until the red-haired woman's eyes landed on Robin. "Who's that?" She demanded suspiciously.
Robin tensed as Garp dragged her forward with a hand to her back and a laugh. "Glad you asked, Dadan! This is Robin, she's my new grandchild and she's going to be staying with you and the boys from now on!" At the woman's horrified look he added. "Don't worry, she can take care of herself and I've asked her to keep an eye on the boys."
If possible, the silence afterwards gets even more awkward.
"Garp…" Dadan gritted out, a hand rubbing at her suspiciously watery eyes. "You have the worst timing in the world."
Garp looked between them all, puzzled, and the old man with the cane seemed to take pity on him and spoke. "Garp, Sabo is dead."
Dead silence.
Robin could feel an old emotion rising up but pushed it back and schools her face.
Bogard was frozen, shadowed face making it hard to determine his expression but the frown lines around his mouth were deeper than usual.
Garp just gaped at the old man in shock. "What?" He breathed. "How- WHO DID THIS?!" Garp raged and a dangerous air filled the clearing.
The other men seemed to be trying to placate the old marine but the woman, Dadan, had less pity and overrode their voices with a clear statement.
"It was a Celestial Dragon."
Silence.
Robin felt sick to her stomach. She knew of the Tenryuubito, of course, and their connection to the marines. There would be no justice for Garp. No justice for-.
Robin walked away, turning sharply before her broken mask can be seen. She muttered condolences and a quick, 'I'll give you some privacy,' before she walked towards the forest edge to sit on a tree root and calm herself.
Don'tthinkdon'tthinkdon'tthinkdon'tthinkaboutthemdon'tthinkdon'tthinkDON'TTHINKDON'TTHINK
"Nico?"
Robin nearly jumped at Bogard's lightly concerned voice, much closer than she's confortable with.
"Are you alright?"
She settled on a calm smile and laughed lightly without meeting his eyes. "Am I the one you should be asking? Your commander just lost a grandson." She just wanted him away.
Bogard turned back to the small group who appeared to be in conversation, though Garp had a visible slump to his shoulders. "Yes…but your behavior surprised us all. We didn't think you had become so… interested, so quickly."
Her blood boiled at the statement and she threw caution to the wind to openly scowl at him. "A little boy was murdered, I didn't realize that required some sort of emotional certificate."
He stared at her in surprise for a moment, lightly mouthing 'emotional certificate,' before shaking his head and readopting a neutral expression. "No, I suppose it doesn't."
"ROBIN! BOGARD! GET OVER HERE!" Garp yelled, not even bothering to turn around.
Robin stubbornly waited for Bogard to take the lead before they walked back to the others.
Garp rubbed at his face tiredly as they stepped up beside him. "Where are Ace and Luffy now?"
The mayor gestured with his cane at a faint trail off to the side. "Luffy's been sitting by the shore every day now. Makino's with him. Ace…"
"Ace has been venting his anger on the beasts in the forest. We're gonna be opening a butchery at the rate he's going." Dadan finished.
Garp frowned. "I don't think you should be leaving him alone."
Dadan bristled. "Oh, he won't go looking for revenge. I think it's been made abundantly clear how utterly powerless he is. Maybe you would have known that if you-!" As her rant grew in volume her two subordinates drug her away to calm down.
Garp just shook his head and turned to the Mayor. "I'm going to go look for Ace. Maybe we'll talk a bit, but if you hear fighting don't be alarmed."
The Mayor gave him a disapproving scowl. "Really, Garp? Don't you know any other way of spending time with your grandchildren?"
Garp responded with a soft chuckle, all exuberance gone, then turned to Robin. "Would you go to the shore and tell Makino and Luffy that I'm back? They don't have to return, I'll be by after I find Ace."
The Mayor stiffened a bit and interjected, "I'm not sure you want to be introducing new people to the boys right now, Garp. They might think you're trying to replace Sabo." He lifted a placating hand as Garp started to protest. "I know it's not your intention, and it might not even cross Luffy's mind, but Ace is probably the one hurting the most right now and he most certainly will believe that."
Garp's shoulders slumped further and he gave a faint nod. "You're right. But Robin still needs to stay here; I suppose we'll just have to keep her adoption a secret."
"Kidnapping." Robin deadpanned.
"Rescue." Garp compromised with a smile.
Robin huffed and rolled her eyes at the old man's faint grin.
"All right, I'm off then. Go on and find Makino, won't you Robin?"
Robin frowned, "Shouldn't Bogard do it? This Makino doesn't even know me."
"Bogard's going to stay here and explain your situation to Dadan and the Mayor, now get going. Unless you want to do that." Garp waved her off as he walked towards the tree line.
Throwing him one last cursory glare, Robin stalked off, deliberately avoiding the curious stares of the others.
By the time Robin began to hear the sound of crashing waves she had calmed down somewhat, cringing at her increasing lack of control but confident that this next meeting couldn't be any worse.
At first there was going to be a lot more yelling at Garp, but… poor guy, he just heard his grandson was killed and he can't do anything. At least if they were bandits or pirates he could have killed them. (I wonder how much of Luffy's auction house punch was just for Hachi…?)
I feel like Robin is slowly spiraling into OOCness, gotta watch that. Next chapter's will be blamed on Luffy's big brown eyes.
You wouldn't believe how difficult this was to write; I even had an outline! This chapter was actually supposed to go up through the meeting with Luffy, but… I got impatient and guilty of people mentioning Sabo in the reviews… And, again, not sure when the next chapter will be up, sorry.
