Day 3: Childhood
Robin lay out sunbathing on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. In one hand she held an icy beverage, and in the other two she held a particularly interesting book on celestial phenomena.
As if right on cue, a looming shadow suddenly covered her sun. She smirked and put down her book.
"May I help you Franky?" She said, sweetly.
The large man beamed. She truly enjoyed his smile, it was nearly radiant enough to make up for the fact he was taking away from her tanning time.
Franky held up a book. "This wouldn't happen to be yours would it?"
Robin lifted her sunglasses and accepted the book from him. It was much larger in her hands than it had looked in his. Its unlabeled leather cover smelled distinctly of pine, incense, and ash, and its pages lightly burnt on the edges. Her heart skipped a beat; it was a scent she was all too familiar with.
She opened it to the second page and breathed. Scrawled in pencil in the bottom corner was her name.
"How did you acquire this?" She whispered, tracing the page's edge with her finger.
"To be honest I don't really remember," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. Robin thought she could see a bit of blush appearing in his cheeks. "I was looking through some of my old engineering books and stumbled across a familiar name."
Franky leaned closer. "You recognize it?"
Robin nodded, dabbing some moisture from her eye. "Scholar Roche gave it to me for my seventh birthday. I thought I left it in the Tree of Knowledge. I wonder how it survived…"
"Who knows," Franky replied. "All I know is that it was super useful when I was… well… rebuilding myself."
She flipped through the book looking over its pages. Memories of the time she had spent learning its many equations flooding her thoughts.
"Robin, you're going to give yourself a headache staring like that," a soft baritone voice chuckled.
Robin looked up from her book to see a sandy-haired man standing in front of a formula covered chalkboard. He adjusted his spectacles and looked beyond her. "Master Clover, don't you think she might be a bit young for thermodynamics?"
Robin looked up behind her to see the wiry old man smiling down at her.
"Robin is our best and brightest," Master Clover said. "You just have to be a little patient with her. It is a lot to take in, after all. Right, Robin?"
Robin smiled and nodded, quickly returning to her studies.
"Right Robin?" A deeper voice asked.
However, she was lost in her studies.
"Oi, you still with us?"
Robin became suddenly aware that she was back on the Thousand Sunny. She blinked up at Franky, who looked concerned then relieved.
"You have a nice journey?" He asked, wiping a tear off her cheek.
Robin, laughed taking care of her other cheek.
"Yes," she said. "I did. Thank you."
"Would you like to talk about it in private?" Franky whispered, offering a hand.
Robin hesitated for a moment. It wasn't that she wanted to keep her past a secret from Franky. It was just more of a instinctual reaction to being asked. She looked up into his eyes and hoped for strength.
The man's gaze was soft and reassuring. She reached out to grip his hand. "If you don't mind wasting a little time."
He grinned, lifting her to her feet. "As if you could waste my time?"
"Fair enough," she replied.
Franky wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they began to make my way towards his workshop.
"So, you remember anything from your studies? I can't imagine that it was your favorite subject," Franky said.
Robin smirked.
"I remember some… mostly about the dynamic of pressure and volume."
She gave him a wink, and he chuckled.
"Super..."
