- Training I -
Exhausted.
Exhausted, I can feel my legs. While Zoro takes me to the boat on his back, on his naked back, after our 'little' activity.
With my arms around his neck, my hands intertwined, my legs at the sides of his waist, my breasts pressed against his hard back and my chin on his left shoulder, while I breathe gently against his 3 gold earrings, at first wanting to tickle him, a reaction I could get a while ago, I realized when I noticed how the upper tip of his ear moves involuntarily and better yet, his cheeks are flushed.
Although of course, my cheeks are also flushed and for various reasons, from the contact with his bare back, his pink cheeks, the smell of his hair and his sweat, his breathing colliding with my hands, his hands on my legs near my buttocks holding me and from the fact that I am here alone with him as the dawn manifests itself on our front.
Directions I whisper to him when he starts to turn off the road, as we must get there before any of our shipmates wake up. Nobody wants to answer questions this early. Seeing that he doesn't differentiate right from left, I must emphasize my words by pointing with my fingers, the only reason I'm not hugging his neck. Tsk.
If anyone saw me in this situation, with Zoro carrying me on his back, no one would guess my age, we just look like a young couple enjoying the moment. A moment I'd rather it never ended. These kind of thoughts make me blush, but what will Zoro think of all this, will he think the same? Why doesn't he say anything?
4 days have passed since I drowned in my memories, remembering my moments and encounters where Zoro is the protagonist, looking for how I have fallen in love with this man with no sense of direction. Deciding on my goal to make him fall in love using all my resources.
The next 3 days I was given a small advance, we played board games or cards every time I saw him doing nothing, sometimes I invited him to a tea and cake snack after his afternoon training, he always refused cakes until he told me that he didn't like sweet things too much and that he only eats 1 every 2 weeks because of the sugar.
Yesterday I started with another advance and not on my own, this time it was Zoro himself who offered me this opportunity for my pure benefit and on a silver platter reasons to spend more time with him alone, how could I not accept? Actually, that's what we just did. A good decision, to enter her life slowly without he realizing it, that he got used to my presence is the only way to achieve my goal. Although it's very exhausting, but it's worth it, every second shared.
Seeing the boat I can't help but feel a little sad for our time together now almost exhausted, taking advantage of the fact that now it is not necessary to give him any more directions in order to find the boat, I hug his neck and rest my face on his neck closing my eyes to enjoy our contact. Zoro has tightened up and a smile I can't avoid, imagining the possibilities.
I can hear Zoro sneaking onto the ship, avoiding any noise that might draw attention to today's night watchmen, who Zoro says they do not watch the ship, they 'watch' each other.
"Kitchen or room?" he asks on a low level, forcing me to open my eyes, if I choose the last option our time together will end right there. The kitchen could take at least a few more minutes.
"The kitchen, the bottle wasn't enough and I'm thirsty," I reply and return to my previous position to guide him to the kitchen, as even on the boat he gets lost.
Without further ado, following my directions he leads us to the kitchen, stops in front of the kitchen door and I understand that he can't open the door because his hands are busy holding me, I can't bloom an arm without crossing arms, so we're in trouble.
"Get down, I think you'll be able to use your legs now, otherwise we'll be standing in front of this door all day."
"No, I still can't, I'm still tired," I say in a tired tone of voice that confirms my words, while I hold it tighter trying not to strain my legs or the lie may be discovered.
"So... I don't have a choice you requested it" is his only warning, so I feel like his left hand is moving upwards, grabbing both buttocks so that I can be held with one hand. I couldn't help but to have a little scream in surprise as he began to laugh at my reaction.
"Wow," he says as he stops laughing, opening the door with his free hand.
"Wh-What's going on?" I said with a little stutter as I couldn't hide my reaction and because he laughed at it, because of my red face, I can't help it, not if he does such an unexpected action, I can expect anything else, but not to touch my ass.
"Nothing" answers by ending the topic so as not to explain anything, as always, when I realized we were already heading towards the table and his hands were back to their previous positions. He stands in front of a chair and turns it with his foot, turns his back to it and waits for me to get out of it.
"Get down, Robin, or there won't be a next time, you'll come crawling back," he says after a while, tired of waiting for me to make an effort to get off his back, I sigh, our precious moment has come to an end. But his words confirm to me that in the future he could agree to charge me again.
"Mmmm, well" I say, the good thing is that this is our first time and from now on there will be many more opportunities to be together. I separate from his back and with my hands holding his shoulders I bring my feet to the floor.
I sit in the chair he had set aside for me. He goes to the kitchen and grabs a pitcher that fills it with cold water and 2 glasses. He sits on my front, fills both glasses and brings me one of them. He pours 3 glasses in a row and then lets out a big sigh.
"Ufff, nothing better than starting the day off with a good jog in the morning," he says, leaving his glass alone, lying down on his chair, closing his eye and crossing his arms, ready for sleep. Feeling the natural warmth of the boat's wood, I take off my jacket to leave the tight top on view.
I imitate what he'd done before, but I can only take two glasses in a row. His phrase caught my attention so I can't help but turn on my curiosity switch.
"Do you do it often? At dawn?" He opens his eye again and comes back, takes two more glasses, nods and puts on the t-shirt he's wearing in his waistband. I've never seen him go down to an island in his sports clothes to go for some physical activity, but if he does it in the early morning he couldn't have seen it either.
"Aha, if almost always, if we plan to stay more than 3 days on an island, I always go looking for a park or a beach, and then in the early morning go running, it's my third time on this island" he says looking me in the eye analyzing all the actions of my static body. We've been on this island for six days, that means every two days. And we all thought he was going to the first bar to drink himself to death.
"Has anyone discovered you?" I ask more curiously, wondering if he's escaped during my watches. Now that I have the attention of his eye, I can use it to my advantage. I put my hands to my hair, undoing the ribbon that holds my hair, taking advantage of the situation to pronounce my breasts and maybe provoke Zoro to earn another look, less innocent.
"No, apparently no one's watching properly. I have even 'escaped' on your nights on duty," he says in a disappointed tone, tilting his head slowly as he watches me. "But I told Luffy that I do these jogging in the morning in case I don't get back in time or something happens". I drink 1 glass of water, after nodding for his answers, I put the ribbon around my wrist and comb my hair with my fingers.
"Anyway, from today you will accompany me for 30 sessions every 4 days when we are on an island" interrupts me before asking another question or apologizing for my poor vigilance. But every 4 days means that I won't be able to accompany him in all his early morning routines and that I'll have to wait to get to another island. Then the Log Pose will be uploaded within 2 days
"We will need to acclimatize your body and for that you will need to sleep properly to restore your energy so you better go back to your room to rest, I will do the same, our training will continue in the afternoon and Nami will also soon be coming down from the Raven's Nest to yours room" he talks again without giving me a chance to talk until I have forgotten what he wanted to say.
"I'll be there in a little while, Zoro-sensei," I say with a laugh, I hear his tongue clicking and a little blush on his face. What tenderness, I drink 1 more glass of water and he finishes the rest of the jug in 3 seconds, drinking it as if it were sake. Take both glasses and the jug to the laundry, wash them, dry them and I couldn't help but notice that he puts them in the same places they used to occupy, I suppose to avoid bothering Sanji who would surely be angry about touching the kitchen utensils without the presence of this and more if we talk about Zoro..
"Come on," he says after thundering both sides of his neck and heading for the door. I sat there to see what he does when he sees me without moving, maybe he'll do what I want. He stops with the handle in his hand, turns around and confronts me with questions about my disobedience.
I look back at him, unresponsive and without any extra movement. My curiosity remains awake, waiting for the consequences.
"You want me to take you to bed, don't you?" Without that look he sends me I might think it's an innocent question, but with that smile, my mind can't do anything but send the blood on my cheeks and avert my eyes. I hear a short chuckle of laughter and then he sighs, comes up to me, takes me, puts me on his shoulder, as if I were dead, but I admit that I look like one because I did not move. As soon as I leave the door I start laughing like a child, to release the tension that I have inadvertently accumulated because of the shame and the situation.
"Ssshhhhh" reproaches me, holds my legs with one arm above my knee. We got to the room and without my directions, he came in no matter what, I blinked and I'm already in bed, but I was also quick, around his neck and carrying him with me, with he in the top of my breasts, I smiled at him.
"Now can you agree to sleep with me?" I ask him as I try to put him to sleep on his side but he is very heavy so he makes himself comfortable and I go down in my position to meet him face to face, very close. "Per- *coff* I already have my bandana, you haven't convinced Nami and she will also come in a few moments" he says smiling after faking her cough, avoiding saying what he thought, but I have captured him very well, I also smile at him but different, I approach him in order to kiss his now playful cheek.
But he evades me, somehow he gets free from my arms and gets out of bed, without waiting, he takes off my sports shoes and socks, which make me blush, unfortunately the room is lit by the sunrise, enough light to notice my blushing face, he looks at me and smiles again, he turns and goes to the door to leave the room without saying anything, nor to punish me with his words for trying to kiss him.
"Thank you for bringing me to bed, Zoro" I say jokingly in a loud tone so that he can hear it when he is near the door, trying one last movement. He comes out as if he didn't hear me, I cover myself with my blanket that is still in disarray in my bed, because I didn't have time to fix them on my way out. With a flushed face and a smile, that expression that only appears when I am alone with Zoro and that for now does not want to disappear, I close my eyes to sleep these few hours before breakfast. Made easy because I admit that walking, jogging and running in intervals for 2:30 hours is very tiring, but if I spent time with Zoro it was all worth the physical effort.
~~FlashBack~~
After lunch, Nami takes advantage of the moment of silence, to finally tell us that the Log Pose is loaded in 8 days and as we have been on this island for 5 days, there are only 3 days left to set sail for another island. In search of everyone's dreams, treasures, strong opponents, poneglyphs, herbs, adventures, a specific place and such like. Everyone wants to take advantage of the opportunity to continue enjoying the island except Zoro who offered to be the Guardian of the boat. Nobody objects to anything, I take advantage of it to excuse myself and to accompany him because I want to go serious with Zoro and I will not waste any opportunity that allows me to advance, I feel the look of Nami, but I decide to ignore it, Sanji makes one of his typical scandals by the fact that one of his delicate ladies stays in the boat with the barbaric mutant moss and that this one would take advantage and would do thousands of indecent things. The typical thing. I'd like that to happen too, but it's too soon. Yellow and green begin to fight, spreading insults, but are quickly calmed by the orange.
...
It's been a while and I can see that everyone has already left the boat, except for 2 presences, ours, a pleasant silence defines the atmosphere. Almost, because Zoro training is the only audible noise in the whole area. If I'm not mistaken, Zoro will finish training in 30 minutes. I'll wait while I read.
...
Just 5 minutes after reaching the goal that my calculations answered, I prepare myself, bring a game to spend the afternoon, a cold drink, Sake to get your attention and can not refuse to let my company.
...
7 minutes pass and Zoro leaves the weights, begins to dry up and goes to the kitchen, to get some water I imagine, he leaves the kitchen a little later. Then notice me, or notice the sake because it looks in my direction. I put my book down, pretending to be unaware and calling him to an approach, he doesn't dare to approach on his own. He listens to me and approaches me, he doesn't ask any questions because his gaze asks for himself and he knows that I can decipher something so basic.
I ask that he accompany me in the afternoon with the drinks and does not deny for the Sake. He sits on the lounger on the other side of the table, grabs the sake and drinks. "Just what I needed," he says at the end of his first drink. I laugh about it, we start playing and talking about unimportant things talking about nothing. I can see how his skills with the game have increased. Well, when we played the first time I explained it to him in detail how to play and he said he understood, but he lost quickly. It lasts longer now, but he keeps losing. We continue with another round that I also win. His frustration at not winning is noticeable, so he decides to take a break to talk and calm down before continuing on to another round.
"I've been waiting for you to ask me a question since the accident," he says seriously with her arms crossed, looking straight through my eyes, perhaps knowing my intentions.
"What do you mean?" I say calm, but inside I'm in a tornado like the one that wrecked the boat from that accident, did he realize what I've been doing, how I feel about him? He sighs defeated by my question. Agggh, I need explanations before I comment on anything.
"Mmm, apparently you seem to know, but you're a little self-conscious. So I'll help you, and I'll ask you the question " I feel the blood rise to my face and it's late when I feel how my hand has betrayed me and put a lock of my hair behind my ear in an act of nervousness. Which he's obviously noticed.
Then he has noticed it after my reactions in the bathroom, the sudden interest in spending time with him and the approach are very obvious. I'd like to apologize, but I'm nervous and clueless. Oda Help Me!
"Do you let me train you?" Disappointment. All the blood on my face came down and never came back. Damn it, I misunderstood everything. Thanks Oda! But why did I ask for your stupid help? Now I regret it, it would have saved me a lot of work and time, going straight into action and passion.
"You want to train me?" was the only thing I could throw out of my throat. If I had Nami's temperament, I would have hit him for making me dream so high and without putting on a parachute because I just fell. Crashing into the hard ground was because of my stupid imagination as a teenager in love that I couldn't control these last few days, although nothing is lost and this is a perfect opportunity to spend more time with him, for my ultimate goal.
"Right, or are you going to repeat the events of that day? I will train you so that you can fight hand-to-hand against sharp weapons without using your Akuma no Mi skills and get away from other people's grabs" says a little upset at first by my answer/surprise question, How can I refuse? with this I can gain a lot of time alone with him, training together, both sweaty in a hot environment, just to think about it so that my stomach feels light and my chest is about to run away.
"You're very kind, thank you" his eternal concern for his nakamas making presence again, a gesture that confirms his great commitment to his crew-
"Well?" he interrupts my thoughts, I haven't noticed that he's still waiting for my answer, with his gaze he keeps looking at me and analyzing every little movement.
"Yes, I want you to train me, I wouldn't want to be in a similar situation, I hated it every second and I will be eternally grateful to you for saving me. Besides the fact that we are in the New World and sooner or later I will need to train to be at the height that this sea deserves" the last thing I need is to repeat that, to feel that I am being used for its lustful purposes, I don't want to feel vulnerable and unable to do anything to avoid it again. Feeling useless. He smiles immediately.
"Well, let's go up to the crow's nest, I want to study your strength so I can plan a proper training, then we can continue playing" he gets up and goes to the place mentioned, I follow him, how not to do it with that bare, muscular back.
As I go up I can see how he's going to put some boxing pads directly on both hands. He comes up to me and raises his hands to shoulder level.
"Strike 5 times with one hand, hard," he says, shaking his right hand, challenging me with a half smile. I will show him what I am capable of, 5 strokes and he shakes his left hand and I can conclude that he wants me to use the other hand, 5 strokes again, no surprise, I am in the range he assumes or disappointed by my strength.
"Kick, barefoot," he says, putting his hands at waist level. I have to take off my sandals to go barefoot, while he watches my movements. 5 right kicks, 5 left kicks. At the end I see that he is pensive for a moment, analyzing my beatings I suppose.
"Mmm, ends with a front kick," he says and puts his gloves in front of his exposed abs, as he has not put on his haramaki or coat again after finishing his training. "Front kick?" I ask, not knowing how to do it, maybe it's just normal kicks.
"Watch" he says and goes back a couple of steps, prepares his leg, raises his knee to the level of his hip and stretches his leg completely forward, which sends a strong wind to me, that if it touches me it would pierce my stomach, letting me see all my intestines "It will let me know the strength of your hip and buttocks".
He comes back up and puts the glove in front of his abs again, waiting to welcome my kick, I imitate and kick the glove, his abdominals, I take it off immediately when I feel his skin in the palm of my foot, taking all the impact, I worry instantly about hurting him unintentionally, but when I was focused on the glove, I can see how he had taken it out of the way and he approached me on purpose to receive it by himself.
"Don't worry, I expected more. We will begin tomorrow morning very early, better get ready because I will not accept excuses" he says seriously to expel the worry of my thoughts, with that exciting seriousness, I agreed in approval, accepting my destiny to share time with Zoro from tomorrow very early and that I have a lot of work to do because I did not reach his expectation.
"Well, let's go back" he says and takes off his gloves and takes them back to the old place, these days I have been able to realize that it is very tidy, I put on my sandals again and he waits for me near the hatch, so that I can go down first, we go down and continue playing, until he gets bored and says that he will go to bathe, wishing he would retract his words and formulate them again, this time to bathe with me.
I know that my thoughts are in vain, but thinking doesn't hurt anyone, except myself who is deluding myself without thinking, I think of offering myself to accompany him, taking advantage of the fact that nobody would come for these hours, but the fact that he considers me a pervert, stops me and I must erase that image that presents an obstacle, I must calm his thoughts. So I let him go, alone, shirtless to the bathroom to end our time today.
...
"Robin!" I hear someone say. Nami. I open my eyes, curious about the reasons for waking up at dawn, but I am surprised by another presence, I look around me and if, we are in the women's cabin, he is in the forbidden place, it is still dark, I was thankful that this time I have not slept without underwear, since our meetings in the bathroom, I often do it for the memories of the moment.
"Zoro, what are you doing here? Nami will skin you alive and give your leftovers to the fish if she finds you in this place" I whisper so as not to alert Nami, I turn to her bed, but she is not there, I look for him around the room and she does not appear.
"Ha! Nami is indisposed, she's 'helping' to watch the boat, she's been doing it for some time now" in the way she says 'helping' I understand the kind of help she gives to the watchman today. That Nami never told me, although I imagined it, naughty girl, now I'm the only one or I'll be single for life. I notice how he's dressed peculiarly and he notices my inquisitive look.
"It's about 3:30 in the morning and we'll go jogging on the island. You have 5 minutes," he says, leaving me with the privacy that he doesn't seem to mind not invading, now that he's my teacher I suppose he'll take several liberties with his only student.
3:30 It is very early in the morning this will be more complicated than I thought, no one warned me to jog in the morning and 5 minutes is a very short time if I want to look attractive to him, I will sacrifice the order of my bed. I grab my clothes and go to the bathroom, get dressed and wet my face to wake up. I'm going to the kitchen to get a bottle of water, because something tells me that we won't be coming back very soon.
The dawn is still dark, it's very early and it's cold. I decide to wear a jacket, Zoro wears a green shirt and waits for me near the mast while he stretches. Raise his eyebrows slightly when he notices me as I approach, at least I got his attention, this will be good.
...
From time to time Zoro slows down his trot speed until he walks normally and then increases suddenly and the process is repeated. I'm following him from behind, trying to figure out his patterns. 10 minutes after we started jogging and Zoro was already sweating so he took off his shirt and adjusted it in his waist band which also holds his katanas, being half-naked on this cold night.
...
I estimate that we have been jogging for about 1 hour, now with his patterns decoded I follow him beside him and the heat I start to feel is too much. I take off my jacket without stopping and Zoro notices it, he offers me his hand and, confused, I offer him my jacket and he puts it on his sash as he did 50 minutes ago with his shirt, all without stopping the jogging either. Now that he notices I'm warming up, he starts running not too fast to force me, I guess.
...
The sky begins to light up slightly. We've been running for 15 minutes without stopping for a second, but I can see how we start to slow down little by little, we walk and for the first time stop for any action that requires leg movement, we sit on a bench in a semi-empty park, as other sports enthusiasts like Zoro have also been jogging for 30 minutes when the sky began to light up and expel at night.
Zoro is sitting on the same bench as me, but with his arms outstretched on the back of the bench showing his broad, muscular pectorals that everyone in the park can see, and the women who come jogging for peace cannot divert their attention from Zoro's naked torso, his expressions change quickly when they see me smiling. His arms don't go behind me, which is why I think he sat far away so as not to bother me, but he doesn't know that I would love him to do it because it would help me to make those women who observe my teacher even more jealous.
Zoro looks as if he hasn't made any effort, his breathing is a little relaxed and not as violent as mine, his sweat is the only clue he gave me about the effort he made. I can't take another step and now that I've sat down I've lost the possibility of walking again without resting for a while, I'm sweating a lot and nobody brought towels.
I point to Zoro a tap and I lay the bottle on him and excuse myself that my legs are tired, he understands and goes for it, he tries to get it because it deviates instantly. I correct him with my powers. I see how he fills the bottle and then drinks directly from the tap. He soaps his hair and face, dries his face with his hand and shakes his hair, throwing unnecessary drops of water out of his hair, he comes back when he remembers me.
I drink half of it, turn towards Zoro and ask him to hold the bottle, with my hands on our front trying to decipher how his cognition goes after the physical exercise and he magically understands and spills water in my hands, giving me the current cognition clue, I soak my face, to cool off from the heat and free myself from the sweat, I remove the hair band and also soak it slightly to be able to fix it moderately well, I put the band back in my hair and Zoro finds the ideal moment to stretch out my jacket. I put it on because now that we stopped I noticed again the cold that accompanied the night and that still did not disappear.
"Get on, we must get to the boat before everyone wakes up," he says after kneeling on my front with her back to me, happy for such a thoughtful act, I climb on her back, anxious to get close. I feel like he's carrying his hands too high up my legs near my ass to support me and he's getting up to lead us to our destination, the boat as he said. The blood rises back up to my face after having calmed down from all my jogging effort for almost 2 and a half hours, from the youthful thoughts that come with it.
I hug his neck, think about putting my chin on his right shoulder to enter his sight because everyone knows that the other side is blind. But something tells me otherwise and I obey without reason, if I don't find something because I just have to change sides, so that he can see me and maybe magically fall in love.
My still uncontrolled breathing moves his earrings and I notice that they tickle him, so I decide to stay and play here. After a while, I can notice his cheeks flushed by the constant tickling, that he gets lost and doesn't know how to follow my directions correctly, it doesn't bother me, because it's something he can't control by himself and I'll have all the patience in the world. I undo my hug to put my hands in front of his face so that I can see them and follow the direction my fingers would indicate. A disadvantage of his sense of direction. I can literally feel his breath in my hands.
~~End FlashBack~~
I notice a pleasant scent and when I open my eyes I realize that I am embracing my jacket and that the scent comes from this, it is the smell of my prince green, I suppose from being in contact with Zoro's bare back, I will not wash it easily.
I'm still wearing my sports clothes, so I decide to go take a shower. When I get up I also realize that Nami is already in her bed, sleeping with a tired face, she has also exercised. So I acted silently so as not to wake her up because I imagine she needs to rest.
I leave the room and look out onto the deck, finding Zoro sleeping in her usual place, with her clothes changed. I continue on my way, because breakfast is getting closer and closer and I don't want to miss it because this early morning effort is making me hungry.
End Chapter 4