21. Lies
Rating: T (implied M, non-explicit)
An indirect sequel to Cook, due to popular demand
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The lies had been their greatest foe, for a time. He lied to her, she lied to him, and love remained stillborn.
His lies were based on fear, an irrational fear of a childish kind. Much like the schoolboy who lies about why he acts the way he does towards a certain girl, he feared his classmates pointing and laughing at him for feeling stupid feelings. Fear of a certain blonde cook, and what he would say, fear that the girl would profess that she loved some other, or worse, that the girl herself would make fun of him. He had held a very irrational fear of the girl, excuse me, of the woman making fun of him. The woman had a peculiar talent for making the big, strong man feel small with a simple smile and a gentle, mocking laugh.
And so he had lied. "No, I'm not looking at you. Go away, woman! You're annoying me! I still don't trust you." Keeping her at arm's length. Some of the lies he had internalized, making into his own mantra. "I don't love her. I can't possibly love her. She is a fiend and a tormentor, and if I let her, she will destroy me." Down this dark path he walked for some time.
Her lies were also based on fear, though a somewhat more rational one. All her life, one lesson had been ingrained into her the hard way, again and again: you can't trust anyone. Even though she had found nakama who had fought for her, almost died for her, and brought the wrath of the World Government down on themselves for her, the lesson was hard to shake off. Even after she had spent two years training herself for their sakes, the lesson still remained. She trusted them enough to live with and to fight with, trusted them to aid her in pursuit of her dream, but that tiny grain of doubt endured, the one that refused to let her open her heart utterly to that man. Those deepest levels of her heart were still protected by walls of adamant, not wanting to allow anyone to make her completely vulnerable.
And so she had lied. "I'm just reading, kenshi-san. I wasn't paying attention to you at all. I don't mind that you still don't trust me." She continued to obey the lesson, the hardest teacher she had had in her life. She too internalized some of the lies, attempting to warp her own thoughts for her own good. "I don't love him. I can't possibly love him. He is the last test of my resolve. If I fail, and let him in, I will be destroyed." She allowed these phantoms to continue to haunt her.
Wine made the lies go away, bringing the two of them together on one romantic night. The lies fell away over a bottle, a book, and a flickering candle, and the two of them found one another. They spent that entire night in discovering one another, for a long time with words, and later with touch, long-repressed feelings and desires expressing themselves volcanically. The veil of lies was gone, and nothing at all separated them.
But they still had use for lies.
~0~
"Everyone!" Nami called, "it's an island!"
"Ah, I've been hoping for an island!" Brook exclaimed. "Will I finally be able to have my violin re-stringed here?"
"Probably," Nami said, looking intently at the map she had bought at the last island. "For an island this far in the New World, it's pretty civilized." She looked at the map again for a time. "They've got a waterfront marketplace and shipyard, restaurants, hotels, a music shop, libraries, and an arboretum." Ears pricked across the Thousand Sunny: there was something for everyone here.
"Libraries!" Chopper shouted, jumping for joy. "Robin, do you wanna join me?"
"Sure, Chopper-san," Robin said with a smile. "That sounds like an enjoyable afternoon."
The Straw Hats all piled out for an afternoon of fun. Usopp was last to go, moving towards the gangplank. He had a mind to go to the arboretum, feeling quite at home exploring exotic plant species at this point, when suddenly Zoro stepped in front of him to get down the gangplank first. "Uhh, Zoro?" Usopp asked questioningly.
"What?" Zoro asked.
"Weren't you going to stay behind like usual?"
"No…" Zoro said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"But you usually like to just take a nap and guard the ship," Usopp said. "And won't you get lost out there?"
Zoro's eye narrowed, presumably in anger at Usopp's gaffe. Usopp knew he had overstepped his boundaries, and immediately retreated. "Uh, of course I'll stay here! Yeah, go out and have some fun, buddy, you've earned it!"
Zoro nodded, and left Usopp behind to guard the ship.
At the main branch of the island's library, Chopper found himself a slice of heaven. "The latest South Blue Journal of Medicine!" he shouted ecstatically. He morphed to Heavy Point and practically tore the paperback journal from the shelf, then shrunk again and started eagerly drinking in the medical findings. Robin saw that he was completely absorbed, but she didn't want to spend the afternoon reading medical journals.
"I'm going to go to the History section, Chopper," she said. "Shall we meet out front in a couple of hours?"
"No, I don't want any candy," Chopper said as he pored over the journal. He clearly wasn't paying any attention at all. Robin took that as a good sign, and departed the library entirely, instead heading over to a nearby hotel. Outside she found that man, standing there impatiently. He must really want this, she thought, if he actually managed to find his way here himself.
"What took you?" he said, casting a roguish glance at her.
"I had to make sure that Chopper-san was well-engaged at the library," she said. "Are you certain about this?"
"Definitely," Zoro said, hooking a hand around her bare waist. "But you're paying for the room."
"And why is that?" Robin said playfully.
"Don't you think Nami would launch a full-scale investigation if I came back with any expenses?" Zoro asked. "At least she trusts you."
"You're right," Robin said, and they headed through the front door of the hotel.
That evening, after dinner, the others had mostly returned, Luffy with the telltale bloated stomach of an afternoon well spent. "Ahh, what a great day!" Nami said expressively, bearing a number of loaded shopping bags with her.
"Speak for yourself," Usopp said.
"What went wrong?" Nami asked, "didn't you go to the arboretum?"
"No," Usopp said pointedly. "Zoro left instead and made me stay here."
"Zoro?" Nami asked, "Where did he go?"
"Probably got lost," Sanji muttered.
"Hopefully not," Nami said. "The log's set, we can leave whenever everyone gets back, but I'd hate to have to go looking for him again."
"Robin and Chopper are still out there," Franky said, "hopefully they'll run into him as they come back."
"And speak of the marimo," Sanji said. They turned, to see Zoro stomping up the gangplank, followed soon after by Robin.
"And where were you?" Nami barked.
"Nowhere," Zoro said evasively.
"Where were you?" Nami insisted.
"I got lost! All right?" Zoro said, frustrated.
"And did you save him from his wanderings, Robin-chwan?" Sanji swooned.
"Yes," she said, "I found him wandering as I returned from the library."
Zoro retreated to his normal haunt in the crow's nest, and Robin went off to the girls' room. "Did you catch that?" Nami asked, perplexed.
"Yeah," Usopp said, "he admitted he got lost."
Sanji put two and two together in his head, combining Robin leading Zoro back with Zoro admitting he had gotten lost, then recollecting a successful scheme of his involving a bottle of wine, and remained silent. Usopp, Nami, and Franky looked at him inquisitively, wondering what was going on behind those curly eyebrows. The silence was then broken by Chopper, returning at that moment, laughing merrily.
"You guys aren't going to believe this," he laughed. "Zoro got lost inside a hotel!"
Yes, they still had use for lies.
"A hotel?" Franky asked.
Lies kept their love a secret.
"Yeah," Chopper laughed. "I saw Robin leading him out of a hotel, can you believe it?
Nami's eyebrows arched as the realization hit her.
Franky asked a follow up question. "Chopper, did Robin and Zoro look… er… satisfied?"
"Very satisfied," Chopper said. "Why do you ask?"
"Holy shit," Sanji said.
For now.
Note: Implications, implications. I had two different ideas for this chapter, a story about how lies kept them apart, and one about them lying to their nakama to hide their relationship, couldn't decide between them, and fused them together. The next one might tread more deeply into M territory, though that's somewhat uncharted on my part, unless there is significant opposition to that?