Warning! Warning! Short chapter ahead! Short chapter ahead!
Haha, yah... sorry... really short chapter :P, but don't worry, the next one will be the longest one by far ;)
Anyway, so I just realized that the Strawhats don't have separate rooms and that there's just a men's dorm and a women's dorm... gotta go back and change that now ;-; oh well
Welp, here's another chapter, I might update tomorrow to make up for the extreme shortness, we'll see.
What It Means To Protect
"Why did you risk yourself like that?" This would be the fifth time that Robin has asked this question, but he would answer the same way every time.
"You are nakama."
"Zoro… you could have died."
"But I didn't, did I." He was back up in the crow's nest, and she with him. This was no reassurance that he had recovered from whatever had happened, but at least it was comforting to see that he had settled back into his routine of training and napping.
However, the amount of effort he had to put into lifting has noticeably risen after the incident, and he would seem to get worn out appreciably faster, needing to take much more frequent breaks in between. This rose a sense of unmistakable guilt within her, as well as something else she couldn't quite put her fingers around. She wanted to comfort him, do something for him, the sensation even going as far as making her want to wrap her arms around him. What is this?
He was sitting again, a towel draped around his neck, eyes closed, breathing slightly heavy but even, and he looked… peaceful. Robin was mesmerized by this new look, and she sat watching him from across the room, just the way she did two years ago.
Enies Lobby. That seems like such a long time ago, a lifetime ago, in fact. How has it been that long already? She has been through so much with this group, and discovered pieces of the real history along the way. As a Strawhat, she supposed that…
Her thought process was interrupted by a low groan, followed by muffled sounds that she quickly distinguished as coughing. Snapped out of her head, her eyes darted to the swordsman, and found him with his hand over his mouth, his powerful body wracked by sudden bursts of pain and fatigue.
"Zor-" She started to get up and go to him when he cut her off.
"Hey," his tone was surprisingly gentle when he spoke to her. "Hey." Lowering his hand, he took a few deep breaths before continuing, his voice hardening back into steel. "I'm fine." His head was hanging, almost as if he didn't have the energy required to lift it, and his body shook ever so slightly, so much so that if one doesn't look closely, they wouldn't see it.
"No. You're not." Robin doesn't usually disagree with anyone unless she found it absolutely necessary. Especially with Zoro, the two are considered the more… not sane, but mature, ones of the Strawhats, resulting in similar enough thought processes and mutual agreement as well as respect. In fact, she can only recall one instance in which they had a disagreement, that being when she had to stop him from rashly jumping out of the coating of the Sunny thousands of meters underwater. If she hadn't… well, to say it bluntly, he would have died an agonizing death crushed by the water pressure. "What happened. What's wrong?" She's not a woman of many words, but she believed that she had conveyed her meaning clearly enough
He stayed quiet, turning his head away. So he's not going to tell her, well, she supposed she'll just have to take it slow.
"Why not."
"I can't. You don't get it, you don't understand the danger I'm putting everyone in by simply being aboard this ship."
"Then help me to."
"I can't."
"Why not."
"I-"
"Zoro, it's stupid to bear a burden alone, especially one that concerns this crew. You're the one that's not understanding, you idiot. There are some things that we just can't do alone." At this, she got up from her perch and migrated across the room to his, settling down beside him a comfortable distance away. "Believe me, I understand this more than anyone else, I understand the feeling of 'I'm putting them in danger', or have you forgotten?" He shook his head, though a minuscule movement, it signified that he hadn't forgotten the time they had made the world their enemy. "Zoro." He still wouldn't look at her.
Robin proceeded to sprout a hand out of Zoro's shoulder and force him to face her, to her surprise, he didn't fight back all that much.
"I'm going to ask one more time. What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Zoro. This isn't what it means to protect."
Mwahaha more evilness, but hey, at least there's some little hints of Zorobin fluff, so forgive me? *puppy dog eyes*
I'm hungry so I'm gonna go eat food now, bye!
btwleaveareviewpleasethankyou:3
