The library smelt of paper and candle wax.
The smell brought her back to her childhood, of days where the world had been brighter and where she'd only been another girl in the world. In between the flicking of papers and reading of words, she'd remember. Sometimes, she yearned and sometimes she wondered, how it would have been like, how it would have been. But then again—
The door opened, and a familiar face peeked into the room. The person smiled and the room brightened in a way that no candle could compare; a smile full of trust and love and loyalty and so many other things that she never thought could be directed at her. But there were certain shadows in his eyes.
She hated little, but she despised those shadows and the people who put them there.
Her captain tilted his head before laughing sheepishly. "Robin, stay awake with me on watch? Please?"
Robin smiled back, full of love and devotion and happiness; she knew, whenever she saw him, heard him, smiled at him, that there would be no other man in the world that she would follow unless it was him. "Of course, Sencho."
Her captain's smile turned into a grin—full of white teeth and gums—and she laughed, her world warm after two years of snow and ice. "Yay! Come on Robin, let's go!"
"Yes, Sencho."
And in between smiling while listening to her captain laugh and pretending to read while her captain talked, she didn't wonder and she certainly did not yearn. She was happy to be alive, happy to be free and happy (and alwaysalwaysalways thankful) to follow her captain. She thought that this crew was worth much, much more than her childhood.
She thought that maybe it was cruel, thinking the way she did; thinking that if all the losses and pain of her life had lead to this, sailing under a Jolly Roger with a straw hat, that it was all worth it. That if all the lost lives and all the isolated years had amounted to this, that she'd go through it all again.
But then, when her captain laughed sleepily at her while looking at her from her lap, shadows gone and eyes brimming with hope for a adventerous future and love and drive for freedom, she couldn't bring herself to care much. Robin doubted that they knew how far she would go for them (to the very end), what she wouldn't do (nothing) or how much she loved them (was it possible to love so much for so many people?).
(And then, she thought of a flag burning in the sky, of a declaration she'd screamed for the world to hear even when it was a sin, of seven people that had smiled at her, rescued her, saved her, love her; she thought of sunny afternoons and unending laughter, of shouting matches and fights, of millions of little things that made her world a brighter place.)
With a smile, she remembered that maybe they did.
.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.
Author Note:
I tried writing chapters sooner, I really did, but they would've been immensely biased. And they didn't have anything to do with helping Luffy with his grief, so there.
I read a lot of SanUso lately, so I was really tempted to write something about Usopp, but it would always have hints of SanUso in there and I'm trying to keep this whole thing here as open as possible for everyone, so I had to scratch that. Then I read a lot about Ace and Luffy and then...I wrote about Robin. I don't even know anymore.
Robin seems like the kind of person who would just say 'screw it' to her past pains and all when she found the right person (AKA Luffy). I know I'm like that, and I know I'd be indulgent towards the people I love, and somehow, Robin seems like that to me. Lol, I really don't know.
Anyway, immense thanks to everybody who reviewed up until now, as always! Any ideas are welcome because I'm really running out of them.
Thank you for reading and please review!