Reactions to a Sacrifice

Spoilers: You should be familiar with the events of Thriller Bark.

Disclaimers: Standard ones apply: I don't own One Piece, etc.

Chapter 3: Robin

Zoro stumbled out of the clinic and sank down in his usual position on the deck. He wanted to train, but the encounter with Chopper had left him with absolutely no desire to move for a couple of hours. Perhaps a nap would be best after all...he was asleep within seconds.

"Zoro-san."

Zoro opened one bleary eye to see Robin standing in front of him, two mugs of warm sake in her hands. He frowned, one eyebrow forming a puzzled arch. It wasn't common for them to talk – neither were the kind to initiate conversation, and he could count on one hand the number of times she'd addressed him as "Zoro-san" rather than "Swordsman-san".

"Yeah?"

"Mind if I join you?" she asked, offering him a mug.

"You managed to get around Curly Cook and Chopper?"

"Cook-san lets me take anything I want. I'm pretty handy in the kitchen, you know."

Zoro grinned and accepted the sake with a word of thanks, as Robin made herself comfortable on the deck next to him. Zoro took a sip and frowned at the mug. "Tastes weird."

Robin suppressed a smile. He was such a forthright man. "Chopper gave me a herb to put in the sake to aid your body's digestion of the alcohol," she explained.

"Huh, he had something like that? Should've given it to me earlier, would've saved us all a load of trouble."

They gazed up at the sky, sipping in contemplative silence, which Robin finally broke. "How are your injuries?"

"They're healing," he said shortly. He'd had enough of inquiries after his health.

"Even the new ones from Cook-san?"

Zoro turned his head to glance at her. "How much did you see?"

"The whole thing. Although I already knew about what happened with the shichibukai."

Damn this woman - and her Devil's Fruit ability! Of the crew, she was the one who unsettled him the most. Part of the reason was that she was the only one whose abilities he hadn't been able to formulate a good defence against. Not that he went around contemplating how to kill his crewmates. And she was definitely one of his nakama now, no matter how much he'd distrusted her at first. But it was his habit as a professional swordsman to judge everyone he met critically, noting their fighting strengths and weaknesses. So far all he'd been able to come up with against her was that he could throw her into the sea and have her drown - hardly a tactic that suited his idea of swordsman's honour. He vaguely wondered whether it was possible to have a sword made out of seastone.

"Well, that damn cook hardly got a scratch on me," he growled, taking another swig.

"He's worried about you."

Zoro was about to say something sarcastic, but realised it was wasted on Robin. The woman knew too damned much about him already. "Yeah, I know," he said grudgingly.

Then it occurred to him.

If she'd heard everything, she should've heard him swear that he'd kill the next person who came to him asking about what had happened. The woman had balls, he admitted to himself. Franky's balls, his mind added, unbidden, and he nearly choked on his sake.

"Are you all right, Zoro-san? Perhaps Doctor-san is right, you shouldn't be drinking alcohol yet."

"No, I'm fine," Zoro gasped, trying desperately not to replay the incident in his head, and failing miserably. Finally he pushed it resolutely from his mind, and said, "Well, did you want to talk about it? You didn't come here just to drink sake with me."

"I didn't think you would want to talk about it."

"No, I don't."

"But I thought a man who could do that much deserved his sake."

"Thanks. But you know, anyone in the crew would have done the same thing. Hell, you once decided to sacrifice yourself for our sakes."

"No, you can't compare that to this. My motivations at the time were impure. I wanted to die. But you...your will to live, your sense of purpose, are remarkable, and yet you were willing to throw it all away."

Zoro's voice was gruff as he hesitantly replied, "What makes you think my motives were any less selfish?"

Robin looked at the normally taciturn swordsman in surprise, but Zoro's expression was hidden by the mug as he downed the rest of his sake in one gulp. So she said the only thing she could think of: "Thank you."

"Don't."

"Don't?"

"Don't thank me. You would've done the same, if you'd been given the chance. Sanji too. Everyone. It was really...nothing special."

There was more she could have said. She could have asked how it was that a loner like him – like her – had come to be so emotionally invested in this crew and captain that he would rather give up his life and dreams than see them die. But she had felt the same spell work its magic on her ever since she had come on board the Going Merry. She had felt the spell grow as they ate together, adventured together, fought together, laughed together. It was Luffy's spell, she knew. She had seen enough pirate crews to know the captain's personality was the ship's personality. Zoro was right, any of them would have done the same for Luffy if they'd been in his position. What was special wasn't his offering his head to Bartholomew Kuma, but his having survived the ordeal. That was what no one else could have done.

She looked at her companion, who was studying the bottom of his empty mug, and held out a hand to take it from him. "Very well, I won't say thank you. But I will say this – I feel honoured to be counted as one of your nakama, Zoro-san."

"Likewise," said Zoro, and he meant it.

Robin smiled one of her rare full smiles and rose gracefully to her feet.

"In any case, you'll keep it a secret, won't you?" He knew he didn't really need to ask, though. She was by far the most discreet person on the ship.

Robin nodded. "I seem to be keeping quite a few secrets for you recently, don't I?" she said, her smile relapsing into her usual enigmatic one.

"Secrets?" A blush tinged Zoro's cheeks as he recalled exactly which secret of his she'd been preserving.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about that time, either. Although..."

"Although?"

"Just how long do you think you can keep all these secrets from Nami-san?"

The blush deepened still further, and Zoro began, "What the hell...", but she was already heading towards the cabin, leaving the memory of that enigmatic smile imprinted in his mind.

Zoro got to his feet. Now that he'd had a drink, he felt revived. And there was only one solution to blushing he knew of. Perhaps it was a good time to train after all...

Author's note: This was a pretty difficult chapter to write, and I rewrote it several times. It may be a bit on the boring side, but I don't see Robin and Zoro having anything other than a quiet conversation about what happened, if that. Robin's a calm and mature person and I think she would accept that Zoro's choice was his to make and wouldn't give him any grief about it. Since she, too, once tried to sacrifice herself for the crew before, I thought it would be interesting to have her comment on the differences between their situations and motivations.

As for the last bit in this chapter...yep, I'm a Zoro/Nami fan, and I like to think Robin is one too! Sorry about that, to readers who don't like the pairing - I know there are some of you out there. Those of you who have read my one-shot Worth more than 50 beli will know that I used the same trope about the Water 7 baby-carrying incident secret there too. Sorry, I'll try to be more original next time :-)

Reviews of any kind are very much appreciated.