To MasterCool: Probably Nami. On another topic, thank you for sticking around! :)


Zoro was acting childish and he knew it. Ever since the night in the library two days ago, every time he saw Robin he felt anger rising up inside him. She, of course, had no idea he saw her crying in her sleep and continued to act like she normally did, on the surface at least. Now that he saw her tears, whenever he looked at her he couldn't help but see the sadness that crept into her eyes if she was left alone for long enough.

She was being unreasonable, why couldn't she just talk to them if she was sad or stressed or whatever? If she was in pain, she should just say something, not keep it all bottled up until she could cry it off in her sleep! Didn't she know how worried she was making him?!

Of course she didn't, he was being a hypocrite. He had no right to criticize her for keeping secrets when he hadn't even tried confronting her about it. Not that he really could anyway. He could imagine the conversation: 'So I was watching you while you slept and sniffed your hair and tired to kiss you but then you started crying and say some asshole's name. By the way we're here for you and you should really learn to open up to us more'. Perfect.

He was so lost in thought he didn't realize someone was walking towards him until he bumped into that someone. "Oh, Zoro. Good evening"

Realized who the person he just bumped into was, he straightened up immediately, feeling his eyes heating up. "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Are you alright?"

"I am fine, thank you. What about you?"

"I'm good, thanks." Noticing the half open book she had in her hand, he realized in slight amusement how come she didn't notice him either. "Were you walking while reading?"

Robin let out an embarrassed chuckle. "You caught me. I'm actually on my to the library, I'm about to finish this book and it has a sequel. Would you like to come?" Zoro watched in slight awe at the way the raven haired woman's face lit up as she talked about the book. Was it really that good, or was it just her nerdy side taking over? whatever it was, it was adorable. "Sure, why not?" He answered, realizing he forgot to answer her question.

As they started walking, they fell into an either comfortable or awkward silence, depending on who's perspective. Making sure that she would walking to his right so he could watch her from the corner of his eye, Zoro felt incredibly awkward. He wanted to talk to her, to get her to open up to him, but he couldn't exactly tell her how he knew what he knew. Should he leave her alone and wait for her to come to him, or should he find some sort of cover story and confront her?

Robin on the other hand felt grateful for the silence. Not that she didn't like talking to Zoro, she quite enjoyed it in fact, but just having his surprisingly comfortable presence next to her was more than enough. Besides, he looked quite pensive about something and she didn't want to bother him more than she already did. She just asked him out of the blue if he wanted to come with her to the library, the man who didn't seem to have time for anything other than training. He probably only went with her to be polite, and Robin had a feeling it had something to do with the guilt he still might be feeling towards her. It hadn't escaped her attention that she was the only one he bothered to be polite with, and she couldn't deny that she was somewhat upset by that. Did he still feel uncomfortable around her, despite them growing closer in the past week?

They reached the library, and Robin, without wasting a second, went straight to the shelf where the next volume was supposed to be. Taking it to the coach with her, she gestured Zoro to come and sit next to her. Sitting down, he stole a glance in her direction before turning it to his hands in his lap. Robin could tell he was nervous about something. "Zoro, is everything alright?"

"Yes, umm… Listen, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"You're not in a relationship now right?"

"No. Why do you ask?" She asked, curious as to where his line of questions would go.

"Well, have… Have you ever been in love?" The question caught her off guard, and it showed. Clearly surprised, she blinked at him a few times. "Excuse me?"

"You know, have you ever fell in love with someone?" Taking a moment to think, she went through all the different relationships she had over the years before answering. "I have been in quite a few relationships, yes, but I've never been in love with any of the men I've been with."

"Then why have you been with them in the first place?" He had to admit he was afraid to hear the answer. Robin wasn't the type of person who would be with someone just for their body or money or something right? She couldn't be, she was far too kind to play with someone's emotions like that, right? "It was beneficial, I suppose. I needed protection, and they just so happen to provide it. Why to sudden interest though?"

"I was just wondering how being in love felt, is all." That wasn't a lie, he really did want to know how being in love felt, he needed to know, so he'd be able to classify his feeling for her, not that he'd tell her that. "Why ask me then? I'm sure Sanji would be able to provide you with all the information you'd ever want to know about love."

"If I ever ask the shitty cook about love I'll never stop hearing about it."

She giggled. "Then what about any of the others?"

"Luffy and Chopper wouldn't know what love is if it slapped them in the face. Usopp is only into women with four legs, so that's ain't happening. Nami would charge the crap out of me for that, and also for keeping quiet about it. Brook hasn't had any female company for the last fifty years or so, and Franky would just talk about men's dreams and being hard-boiled or whatever. So by process of elimination, you're the obvious choice. Besides…" He stopped. Should he really say that? "Besides what?"

Now she was curious. Not only did Zoro come to her with an extremely out of character question and was all of a sudden curious about her love life, he also seemed to have a specific reason for coming to her of all people.

"Beside, you just seem like you have, um, experience. Because you're really mature and stuff."

"Do I seem experienced to you, Zoro?" There was definitely flirtatious tone to her voice, and the comment was clearly meant to be suggestive. Damn her! Seducing him like that. Still there was one question he just had to know the answer to. "Actually, yes. Are you, um, you know?…"

"A virgin? No, I am not. Why the sudden interest?" Did he really just ask her whether she was a virgin or not? He had guts, she'd hand him that, but she couldn't for the life of her understand the way his mind worked or his motive for asking these questions.

Lucky fucking fuckers. If he ever found out who was her first, he was going to bit the everloving crap out of him. Not only was the son of a bitch the first person to have her, he also wasn't good enough for her to fall in love with him. Collecting himself, he gathered his courage for his next question. "Nothing, really. I was just wondering, were you in love with Saul?"

Zoro could pinpoint the exact moment when Robin froze. She stared at him, just stared, for a long period of time, an unreadable look in her eyes, before answering in a somewhat shaky voice. "Where did you hear that name? And what makes you think I was in love with him?"

That certainly wasn't the reaction he was expecting. Not that he expected her to blush and stutter or anything, but he at least expected her to react, not freeze like that. "I came in here one night and found you asleep on the coach, when I tried to wake you up you started crying and said something like 'Saul, please don't leave'."

That wasn't exactly a lie, he did come there one night and found her asleep on the coach, but waking her up was the last thing he wanted to do to her that moment. "I see. You don't have to worry about it, I'm fine."

"No, you're not! You can't expect me to find you crying in your sleep and believe that you're 'fine' and that it was nothing! You were crying for fuck's sake! Damn it woman! You can't worry me like that and not even try to give me an excuse!" They both fell silent and just stared and each other. Damn it! he did mean to yell at her like that, or let her know just how worried he really was. Much more gently, he said; "Now tell me, who was Saul and why were you crying because of him."

Hesitating for a moment, she answered with a still slightly shaking voice. "Saul… Was a dear friend of mine when I was little, my only friend really, and I watched him die for my sake. I sometime have occurring nightmares of this day, that's all. You really don't have to-Zoro?!"

Without really thinking, he pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her protectively. "Why didn't you tell us? We would have never let you go through something like that alone if we knew. I understand not wanting to talk to me, but I'm sure Nami would be more than happy to lend you an ear and a shoulder to cry on. We're here for you, but you have to open up to us, so please, let us know if you're in pain." Pulling her closer, he leaned her forehead against his shoulder, feeling her relax into the embrace.

"Don't think for a moment that I don't want to talk to you, you are a wonderful man Zoro. Thank you." One of her hands wrapped around him, pulling them closer and the other one reached between them to grasp the front of his robes. Her voice was muffled against his shoulder, but he heard her loud and clear. She called him wonderful. She said he was a wonderful man and thanked him. Not only that but she was hugging him back. He was glad her ear was against his shoulder, otherwise she would have heard his heart rate quickening.

They stayed like that for a while before Zoro tried to pull away, only for Robin to tighten her grip on his robes. "Can we please stay like this? Just for a little longer?"

"S-sure, if you want." This was bad for his heart, but she needed him to be there for her and who knows, if she was able to open up to him like that now, maybe this won't be a one time thing.

Noticing her breathing has become much more even, he realized she fell asleep. Shit. What was he supposed to do? Wake her up? Not an option. She looked so relaxed like that, curled up against him. That was probably the most at peace he ever saw her, and who was he to take that away from her.

Left with no other choice, he picked up the sleeping woman in his arms and exited the library. As he walked, he couldn't help but think of how good she looked like that, in his arms with a peaceful look on her face, a small smile tugging an the edge of her ever so tempting lips.

Reaching her room with surprising ease, he used his forearm to open the door, closing it with his foot afterwards. Her room was simple but welcoming, which was to be expected considering she lived there for less than two weeks. Walking towards her bed and trying to lay her on it, he found himself facing a problem. her arm was still wrapped around his shoulders while her hand still held onto his robes with a death clutch. He gently tried to wriggle out of her hold, but she just tightened it, pulling herself even closer to him.

Dread filled Zoro when he realized what he had to do. Placing her on the bed, he laid down next to her. His whole body felt on fire and he was pretty sure it looked like it too.

This was going to be a long night.


The first thing Robin felt when she woke up was the warm presence of another body next to hers. Slowly opening her eyes, she found herself face to face with a certain green haired swordsman, her arm around his shoulder and her hand clutching his robes.

Panicking she quickly let go of him and sat up, looking around her she released the breath she didn't realize she was holding. So they were in her room, sleeping on top of the covers, and fully clothed. Relief washed over her, along with something that disturbingly resembled disappointment.

Panicking again, she fought the sudden urge to bang her head against the wall. Disappointment? Why in the world would she feel disappointed? If anything, she thought as last night's events came back to her, she should be feeling grateful.

He almost gave her a heart attack when he mentioned Saul and started yelling at her when she tried to brush it off. But then he hugged her and tried to comfort her, even going as far as staying in that position per her request. Why did she do that again? The answer she came to scared her.

She felt safe with him.

This was ridiculous. Not only did she feel safe being around him, but she also felt disappointment when she realized nothing had happened between them. This wasn't like her, her sex drive wasn't particularly high, if she had any at all. Not that she hasn't felt physical attraction, in fact, she seemed to have some sort of weakness when it came to handsome men, a criteria Zoro definitely fitted into, she admitted somewhat reluctantly, but having sex was never really a priority, mostly duo to the fact that sex was only a tool for her. She only slept with someone because it was beneficial and her partners didn't seem to actually care about her reasoning. Of course, she wasn't particularly fond of any of the men she's been with, and none of them ever bothered to treat her too kindly either, they wanted her for her body and nothing more.

Actually, that wasn't entirely the case. The feeling of a cold, metallic hook caressing her skin came to her mind, and she couldn't help but shiver in disgust. In contrast, she suddenly felt a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Zoro looking at her with a concerned expression on his face. "You okay?"

She smiled sincerely at him. "I'm fine, but thank you for your concern."

"Any time."

Getting off her bed she made her way to her closet, pulling out some of the new clothes Nami has bought for her. Looking at the sitting figure on her bed, an idea came to her mind. Slowly, with her back facing him, she reached out to the zipper of her jacket and started pulling in down slowly, slipping the leathery material off her shoulders to her elbows.

Zoro was no longer sitting on the bed but rather standing next to it, an expression of absolute terror on his face. "W-what are you doing?!"

Looking back at him, she gave him a sultry smile before fixing her jacket and zipping it up, still leaving a large portion of her cleavage visible. "You seemed to be rather comfortable in your position on my bed, I thought you might want to stay and watch me dress."

Was she flirting with him? She did it last night too and both of them wondered, what the hell was going through her head?!

"D-don't be stupid! Just ask me to wait outside next time!" Leaving her room and slamming the door behind him, he leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. She was trying to kill him! That damn woman was most definitely trying to kill him. What was wrong with her?! Didn't she know how badly he wanted her?! Why would she strip with him in the room?! Did she want him to see her naked, was she perhaps trying to hint him something? It was bad enough that he had to spent an entire night in her bed next to her undoubtably soft body, not being able to get an eye shut.

Not that he tired anything, he wouldn't dare. He was there because she needed him, not because of his own selfish urges. He would die before taking advantage of the situation, so he kept his hands -and lips!- to himself and settled for just looking, his eye hungrily drinking in her delicious curves.

The door to her room opened and she walked out, wearing an extremely revealing black dress with high heeled black boots. She offered him a smile, walking towards him.

"Shall we go then?" she asked, referring to breakfast. He nodded.

"And Zoro?" She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, "Thank you"

She started walking towards the dining hall, leaving behind a dumbfounded, red faced Zoro behind her, his fingertip touching his cheek.

So her lips really were that soft.