Oen Puece Goda belongs to. Bottom author's notes at.
"Dunno. The music store, open tomorrow?"
"Maybe. I'll see you tomorrow, right? Don't be alone tonight, you'll cry your heart out."
"Fuck you, Ace. See ya tomorrow." Zoro ended the conversation and breathed out a heavy sigh. He was leaning on his black Toyota Vios – parked just outside the garage of Robin's home – and quickly jumped to help Robin at the sight of her pulling piece of baggage from the garage door. "You should've told me," he said, as Robin chuckled, and let him carry the heavy baggage. He shoved the baggage into the trunk.
"Wow, you are so strong, so dreamy," she mocked a compliment, with her arms crossed.
"Shut up," he replied. "Is this the last one?"
She nodded. "Yeah, that's the last one."
Nothing but silence followed after, Zoro stood by his car so handsomely in his moss-green fitted basic t-shirt and a pair of straight cut black pants, Robin had her feet planted after the garage door so gorgeously in her black denim jacket in which its sleeves were rolled up to her elbow and a pair of skinny jeans tucked inside her ankle boots. They only gazed at each other from such a distance, for probably a minute, or two minutes, or ten, or fifteen minutes, who knows, because who would remember to count time when you're looking at someone you really think is the most beautiful being on Earth, someone who made your heart skip and cheeks fluster, someone you would think off before you go to bed every night?
It was such a surreal moment, not the bad kind, but the dreamlike kind. It was the kind of moment in which Olvia would never want to interrupt.
But it was broken anyway, with an accidental sigh. Zoro, upon noticing his girlfriend's mother at the garage door, looked away shyly. Robin gave her mother a smile.
"I'm jealous of you two," Olvia commented, with a slightly teasing tone.
"Then marry Kuzan already!" Robin teased back. Zoro gave out an accidental snort as he watched the woman's face turned pink.
"Ms Olvia, are you ready?" Said Zoro.
"Yeah, hold on. I need to go get my purse first, and lock the doors." Like all other embarrassing mothers, despite how graceful she is – she actually reminded Zoro of Audrey Hepburn, graceful but strong and humorous, and very pleasant for presence – she gave Robin a wink, a hint of 'I'll leave you two lovers alone for a while to be lovey dovey', before she walked back into the house.
"Your mom's gonna miss me since I won't be around so often anymore," Zoro joked, as Robin carried herself closer to him.
"I guess, but she'll have Kuzan, anyway."
They stood so close to each other now, so close that their few-inches height difference could be easily told, so close that she could smell his lemon shampoo that she bought for him a week ago, so close that he could tell the shades of colours that made up her eyes.
"I'm jealous of her. I'll have no one," Zoro said with a smirk, his hands come in contact with her waist, a reassuring gesture. "Take care of yourself, 'kay?"
That day, was the day Robin had to leave her hometown for to pursue her studies in one of the best universities in the Grand Line. Having Zoro as a boyfriend for three years already in high school, it was probably the one toughest decision Robin had ever made. She heard about long distance relationships and how they always fail, but Zoro was such a keeper. She was always confident in the awkward, arrogant but kind, egoistic but thoughtful, green-haired boy in front of her. "I'll be fine."
He pulled her into an embrace, a warm one and they fell silent again, so silent they could only hear the sound of each other's heartbeat.
"Zoro?"
"Mmhh?"
"Can you promise me something?"
"Mmhh?"
"Promise to text me 'goodnight', every night, and 'good morning', every morning. Can you?"
"Sure, Robin."
There was silence, again.
"We'll be fine, right?"
"Nothing will change." Zoro leaned in for a kiss, and hugged her once again, before he remembered something. "Oh, anyway. I want you to have this." He opened the door of the backseat of his car, and pulled out a guitar bag. It was for her.
She knew exactly what it was, and she wasn't wrong when she unzipped the bag to reveal what's inside – the much treasured white guitar that they bought together on the very first day they had met. She just never thought that he would give it to her, eventually. The guitar was his prized possession.
"And you made a cheesy sticker," she laughed, upon noticing the heart-shaped green sticker attached at the back of the guitar's body.
"My manly pride went down for you, so you better appreciate it, oi."
"Thank you. I love it. I love you."
"I love you too. Now don't go breaking my heart and sing for other ugly college dudes who look smarter than I do."
"Idiot. I won't do that."
Unfortunately, promises are better said, than kept. The first few months were great, but Robin was getting busier with her studies, and she started to involve herself in creative writing too, participating in readers-writers festivals, being the bookworm she was. Zoro had started to hang out with his friends – yes, ever since he befriended Robin, he had started making friends with a small amount of people – and got himself busy with kendo, something he turned out to be really good at. Their phone conversations were often cut short, sometimes they had nothing to say to each other and sometimes, they were just too tried to drag anything longer. Nobody said anything, though, and neither wouldn't want to make a big deal out of it, so they just forgive each other off, and that everything will be okay.
And then the good morning and goodnight wishes stopped. They wouldn't make a big deal out of it, too. It was just for a day.
Two days.
Three days.
A week.
"Good morning, sweetheart, you alright?"
Two weeks.
"You have reached the voice mailbox for the number…"
A month.
"I can't do this anymore."
Two months.
"What did I do wrong?"
"You did nothing wrong. Things just… fell apart. I'm sorry."
"Miss Perona and Mr Perona's friend, your orders are ready. Thank you and I hope you both have a nice day ahead!"
Zoro spent about an hour trying to look for a decent music store in the city. The frustration of finding one is getting on his patience, since every building he passed by looked exactly the same, every traffic light, every junction and he swore he had passed by 7-Eleven nearly eleven times, already. "For Enel's sake, how many 7-Es are there in this city, seriously?"
Two, actually.
Zoro finally found in between a row of fancy cafes and probably a pharmacy. It was recognizable as it had display guitars and drum set on the display window. Starbucks was just next to it – he made a mental note to remember to get one of those fancy coffees for himself.
He parked his car in front of the shop, and twisted the key in the ignition. The old white guitar sat on the passenger seat next to him so obediently, and he wondered what to do with it first. He left Robin's place so quickly upon obtaining that old treasure, that he haven't even decided what to do with it except to change the strings. To be honest, he wasn't even sure if it would sound the same, even if it's fixed.
Robin even said that she wasn't sure if it would be as before. She couldn't even remember the last time she played it.
But he was determined to fix it, anyway.
"I'm sorry, Flam. I'm really sorry. You must be really tired."
Being a good friend, Flam smile. "Don't apologize. I'm your friend. You don't go asking waitresses to take your order and apologize for taking away their time to take your order." That's Cutty Flam's logic for you.
Robin smiled, grateful of how Flam would stick by Robin despite her insufficient reasoning. Cutty Flam was truly a great friend. Where had he been during her high school days?
"As long as you have Cola," he added.
Boys.
Robin gave him a light slap, and hurried to the kitchen. She returned to the living room later with a big bottle of Cola and two plastic cups, and set the beverage on the coffee table. Making herself a cup of coffee would be a little to tiresome, and it's already one a.m. in the morning. The production crew had a little post-mortem after their final show ended, and by twelve, everyone was set to go home and finally rest. The props would be removed the next day by the props team, and the rest would be preparing for their barbeque celebration party at the Powerhouse. Robin and Flam were already given the task to buy the drinks for tomorrow along with a few other crew members. Thankfully, it's not so much of a heavy task.
"Someone slept over last night?" Flam asked, hinting towards the nicely folded comforter and pillow, stacked on a single-seated sofa.
"I slept on the sofa two nights ago." Technically, she didn't lie. She evaded the question, rather. "I had no time to put it away."
Flam nodded, but enjoyed the Cola nonetheless. Robin seated herself next to him on the couch, sighing heavily as if thinking of the world's economic downfall or anything as equivalently serious.
"You're not going to ask why did I ask you to stay over?" She said, after a moment of silence and two three sips of the carbonated caramel drink.
"If you wanna talk about it, you'll talk about it. If you're not sure you wanna talk about it, I'll wait until you really wanna talk about it."
"I'm glad this musical piece is over, Flam. It's the most challenging one I've ever had."
"Personally, emotionally challenging?"
"Personally, emotionally challenging. I really didn't see that one coming."
"So, Robin, have you resolved your issues yet?"
It made her pause to wonder. "Do we have issues?"
"I take that you two have issues, and it's been messing up with Perona's head too. Poor girl."
"There's no issue. We're just friends." Yes, friends. She could convince herself that Zoro and she now are friends. So far, they only had a handshake and a nudge as skin-to-skin contacts. No cuddles, no kisses, no hugs, no accidental intimate moments, not even hints of I-love-you's, maybe slightly, but reference to the past along with those hints had been emphasised. She could live with that.
"Robin, do you still love him?"
Her hands jumped slightly at the question. It was too straightforward for her, despite being the easiest question he should ask regarding this Zoro thing. It was a yes-or-no question. It shouldn't be that hard for her to answer. It's like do you want more Cola? Yes. Do you want ice with your Cola? No. It should be answered like that.
"Robin…"
"Yes, I still love him." There was not a single hint of frustration, nor hesitance in her voice. She was rather confident, instead of being dramatic and turning into an emotional wreck – Flam mentally gambled himself on the possibility of Robin crying over her Cola while admitting that. Her eyes were fixed into the nothingness, and she lips curved into a warm smile. It was as if she was comfortable with the fact that she loved someone who is no longer hers. "I think he's still the best gem I've ever found, Flam. I think. But even though so, I wouldn't go back to him, Flam."
Flam was being a good listener, he nodded and poured another serving of Cola for himself.
"We cannot force someone to love us back, Flam, and he didn't love me back, anyway. But it's alright. You don't have to own someone to love someone. Knowing that he's happy is good enough for me. Though I hope, I wouldn't have to see him again, anymore."
"You don't have to own someone to love someone, huh?"
"Flam, earlier today a friend dropped by. Law, from college. He was in town and I wanted to give away some stuff, so I asked him to drop by. It was a little awkward, seeing him for the first time after years. He was my college crush. I think the feeling is rather mutual. But we never did happen. So being silly me, I asked him that before he left today. And you know what, he said he was wondering the same thing. And he said it's alright, though. Just having me as a coffee companion, he's satisfied enough. Just seeing me happy, made him happy. I think you get the point, right?"
"That's super corny, but super cute."
"Flam?"
"Idiot, I'm not crying, you are!"
She laughed, and leaned on Flam's shoulder, and remained that way for the next ten minutes or so, before they started rambling and recalling hilarious backstage accidents and events during the one week of 'Ask Your Heart'.
Second last chapter. Wow.
Thank you for the reads, follows, favourites and reviews. And yeah, I know right, everyone loves Franky/Cutty Flam for being suuuuper brotherly, especially in the manga/anime! Franky is my second favourite male character in One Piece, and being that, I'm happy that he has a pretty big part in this fanfic. [Overdramatic speech of appreciation of how super Franky is if he is a in our universe and additional admiration of how Cutty Flam is too adorable and energetically enthusiastic in his pre-PuffingTom years by the author censored due to the absurd length of such essay on such a simple statement and may lead to unhealthy obsession towards a fictional character, time wastage on fanarts on social networking art-sharing platforms such as Tumblr, Pixiv and DeviantArt and may trigger serious cases of fangirling, insomnia, hallucination and mass hysteria].
The last chapter will be up in a few days, maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so stick around!