Delta woke up the next morning, grinned, and whipped himself out of the hammock and onto the wooden deck. He stomped a couple of times, flipped into a handstand, and kicked himself forward, out the door, onto the deck. Robin was already out there, relaxed on the upper level over by the steering wheel, a loose East Blue map in her hand. But she was looking at him, or rather, the commotion which had just disturbed her otherwise silent day. Of course, there were always the waves, but, well, there were always the waves. They disappear, like the hum of an air conditioning unit.

"Good morning, Robin!" Delta whooped, thrusting his hands in the air.

"Good morning, Captain," she called, smiling. "How are you today?" She was puzzled. It was clear from her tone.

"I'm excited!" Delta began to jog up the stairs, towards Robin.

"Yes, I see that, Captain."

"Well, aren't you?" Delta, now right beside her, thrust his hands out in her direction. She did the mostly fake smile of confusion at him, but right now, Delta was okay with that. "Ok, I see that you're not. That's okay, don't worry. I'm not mad, just disappointed. I think you're just not seeing all the plans we have in store the way I do."

"That is possible, Captain." She didn't have any plans in store. She wondered if maybe he was talking about his march on the marine base? That couldn't be good.

"Well that's also okay, Robin! I am here to fix that. It'll be great. It'll be great."

Below deck, the pair heard a quiet bumbling. They both imagined that Terry was awake, probably due to Delta's earlier animation. They were both right, much to the chagrin of Terry, who was beginning to be known for enjoying his beauty sleep. A couple small creaks, some squeaks, footsteps, the little crack of that one stair that was surely gonna break anytime now if Terry didn't quit stepping on it like he always did, and then Delta and Robin watched the deck door down to the galley open. Lo and behold, Terry followed. He was frowning. There were grey bags under his eyes.

"Delta!" he shouted. "I am up to here," he motioned the point to which he was up, "with your goddamn bullcrap! Who do you think we are, yelling this early in the morning? Hooligans?"

"Pirates, maybe," Robin commented.

Terry pointed at her. "Don't you dare encourage him. Delta, I don't think you understand the gravity of what you are putting me through. There is no alcohol on this ship! I drink all the time! I use it to sleep! It has been very difficult for me! Do you see that?"

"Okay, Terry, okay," Delta said. "I won't do it again. Now come up here! I'm about to tell Robin about our cool plans!"

"What are you talking about?" Terry asked, currently sated.

"Come on, come on! Faster!" When Terry was up, Delta continued. "I'm talking about our grand storming of that military base!" So Robin was right. She thought again that this couldn't be good.

"Oh," Terry said, and then, "Oh what the fucking hell, Delta!"

"Language, Terry. Language."

"Roe-bane, hey, you cannot be cool with this, right?"

Robin said, "I think we should let the captain finish his thought."

"See?" Delta said. "Robin is willing to listen. Maybe you should learn some patience, young grasshopper." Terry stuck his tongue out. Delta did too. It was all good fun. "So now that the games are over," Delta continued, "Let's get on with the show. See, I forgot my original plan almost immediately, but I've promised military base shenanigans, so I feel I must deliver. Therefore, I plan to sneak in, take all the prisoners with any sort of bounty on their heads, and then ransom them back to the base. But it gets even better; while I'm doing that, you guys are gonna sneak into the office of whoever runs that place, beat him up, and then give orders to his underlings by disguising yourselves as that guy. Your orders will be, of course, to follow my every command, and you'll have them give me a bunch of money. Then we get out of there! It'll be awesome!"

There was a beat of silence. "We could also just steal their money directly?" Robin said.

Another beat. "Hmmm… but where would be the fun in that? Plus, isn't stealing kind of bad?"

"I think it would be a good time, Captain. Don't you, Terry-san?"

Terry looked up from the floorboards he'd been staring down at. "What? Oh, yeahhh. Yeah, definitely. No, seriously, I bet that'll all be great."

"I think he's being sarcastic," Delta said.

"You're seeing things, Captain," Robin said.

"I don't know, Robin, Terry's not usually into all this. It seems very out of character for him."

"I think you're reading too much into this."

Delta nodded. "Okay, I can accept that."

-o0O0o-

They sailed for the rest of the day without much to speak about. Terry did some fishing (he was getting much better at it) and caught a couple larger ones with Delta's strength for help. Whenever they were doing that, Delta always wanted to just scoop the big guy out with his gum gum arm, but he really wanted to keep that stuff hidden from these two, at least for now. What with the younger Monkey D. Luffy strolling around out there, it was best for most people to stay uninformed about there being two gum gum fruit eaters. Robin spent most of the day reading.

They reached land by nightfall, but the base wasn't anywhere in sight, so they dropped anchor and settled in for the night. Terry made dinner and it was all good fun. They all went to bed in utter peace.

But then the next morning came, or rather, sunrise, if that can even be called morning, and the three ship goers were all simultaneously alerted to a nearby presence on the waters as the sound of a blaring alarm drummed across the waves.

Robin was the first one to get a look at the looming blue ship with a flower petal eye on the mast. Since she was alone, she allowed herself to shiver. It was a battleship, plain and simple, and it was right on top of them. How could she escape? They were too far from shore to jump, and even if they weren't, she'd certainly be spotted. Therefore, it was obvious that she had to stay below deck. She silently cursed, and her lip quivered. This was a bad situation, and it was all Delta's fault! They were right off the coast of an actual marine base! What was he thinking? No, no, no, what was she thinking? She followed him here, did she not? On this stupid, rotting vessel with these two stupid, incompetant, godforsaken pirates! She'd never forgive herself if she was caught. She'd never forgive Delta, that utter fool, if she was caught.

She had to stay below deck. They had no reason to come on board, not that she knew. Maybe because the ship wasn't licensed to be there? But who cared? If anyone, certainly not someone in charge of a battleship! But that asked the question of why there would be a battleship on this island in the first place, not that Robin had any particular answer in mind.

'Okay, I'm calm,' she thought to herself. She took two deep breaths. This was no time to panic. All was quiet, and the battleship wasn't getting any closer. She'd be alright. She was okay in a fight, at least good enough to get away, or talk her way out. She was good at that. She was practicedI. Everything was alright.

She heard stomping up on the deck, and her heart was pounding again. Her devil fruit eye looked down, and she created a matching ear beside it. Delta had gotten up, and he looked frustrated, and not a little nervous. Well that wasn't good. This was certainly the first time that she'd seen Delta look nervous, or even slightly uncomfortable. He was supposed to be the strongest guy around. That damn man! She felt used, and cheap. She would be okay. They couldn't know she was on board, could they? She hadn't gotten any real information on the military's knowledge of her whereabouts recently. Maybe they knew Delta had taken her? But why would they care about Delta? He wasn't wanted, and this was a battleship.

Oh no, Delta was squatting. He jumped, and he was gone.

There was a knock on Robin's door. She barely stopped from squeaking. Her nerves were on high alert. She was silent. Some more knocking.

"Robin, you awake in there?" It was Terry's voice. Robin eased up.

"Yes, Terry-san. Come in."

The door opened. "Well, good morning, if you can even call it that. What time is it?"

"The sun is just rising."

"Oh god. Anyway, did you hear that huge noise a second ago? Scared the bejeezus out of me."

"That's why I'm awake, Terry-san."

"Yeah, me too! Heh. What do you think it was? I haven't been on deck yet. I'm actually a little nervous, but I heard Delta up there for a moment. You think he's dealing with it?"

"I hope so." She paused. "There is a marine battleship not a quarter mile from us at this moment."

Terry's eyes widened. "What! Why? We're not wanted, are we? What would my ma' say? Uh, no offense." His eyes widened some more. He pointed at her. "You don't think they're comin for you, do ya? How would they know you were here?"

"I don't know what the military knows, but I do know that we're currently next to a military base, which does not help matters."

Terry shook his head wildly. "No, it does not. But uh, don't worry, Nico Robin, I'll protect you." He grinned a little at the absurdity of his statement.

Robin smiled back. "Thank you, Terry-san. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

So the pair sat in silence for a couple minutes and no loud noises or any other warning signs showed up. Robin had seen that the battleship hadn't moved an inch, either, but Delta was nowhere to be seen. It was a bit frustrating for her how fast that man moved when he wanted to.

"Hey, you want some breakfast?" Terry asked. "I realized I can get to the kitchen without going up on the deck, and I don't think either of us are going back to sleep anytime soon."

Robin said a polite affirmative, and Terry gave her a thumbs up. He made his way to the kitchen, and Robin was once again alone in her room. Then her negative thoughts started bubbling again, and she made the executive decision to sit with Terry while he cooked. He made them eggs, and some toast. "Too early to be fancy," he told Robin when she saw what he had planned for them. She didn't tell him that stress historically decreased her appetite.

They'd been sitting there in the kitchen for another twenty or so minutes when a loud thump rattled the deck.

"Luffy's back?" Robin muttered, mostly to herself.

"I sure hope so," Terry responded.

Robin felt that Terry made a fair point, so she created another eye on the mast to make sure that it really was Delta. It was, and he didn't look any worse for wear. So she waited, and watched him stomp to the door down into their galley. Some creaking steps later, and Delta was right in front of them, staring down at their breakfast.

He looked up at Terry, and his mouth was half open in a frown. "Breakfast?" he whined. "Without me?"

"Oh, get out of here. Where were you?" Terry asked.

"Me?" Delta pointed at himself. "I was on that battleship over there." He paused. "You did know there was a battleship over there, right? It made that huge sound earlier."

"Yeah, we knew," Terry said. "Robin used her creepy eyes to check out the scene. We were all incognito about it. Weren't we, Robin? Give me some knuckles." He offered her some knuckles. She stared at him, and didn't take the knuckles. "Ohhh-kay. No knuckles today," Terry said, and he slid his knuckle-infused arm away from her. "Still, it was pretty badass of us. We were ready for danger."

"Why is that marine battleship here, Captain?" Robin asked, stoically.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Well, kind of a long story. Okay, not a long story, but kinda weird. There's a Vice Admiral on that ship, and he's, well, kinda, my friend? And he happened to be on this island, and felt my presence (I know, creepy), and he wanted to play a joke on me. Of course, I immediately knew it was him, so I counter snuck up on him, and, well, it was a good time. I punched a marine, I took his clothes. It was great. You should've been there. Well, maybe not Robin. Hehm, maybe not Robin… oh god." He eyed the young woman with something approaching nausea. "Robin, are you okay? I didn't even think about what this must've been like for you! Or of course I would've explained it to you right away! Before I even got on the ship!"

If anything, Robin's face was stranger than Delta's, at least proportionally. She had this calm and manic look in her eye as she watched Delta sink lower and lower to the ground, freaking out and apologizing for her bad time.

For the life of her, she could not figure out what was happening. He was a pirate, and he was using her, and he was good friends with a Vice Admiral, and he had kids, and he was blatantly apologizing, and he was one of the strongest things she'd ever seen, and, and…

It was too much. Much too much for Nico Robin, who was used to rapists and thieves and the all-powerful world government on her tail. She stood up, turned around and left the room. Delta and Terry heard her door thud shut.

"Nico Roe-bane is mad!" Terry laughed. "What the hell!"

"Do you think she's upset with me?" Delta asked.

"How should I know! But I do know that Nico Roe-bane is mad! I have never seen her mad!"

"I should apologize."

That sobered Terry up. "What? No you should not."

"Why? She's mad!"

"You were just apologizing over and over! That was probably what made her mad!"

"What? That's silly."

Terry bit into his eggs. "That's women for ya."

"Okay. Then I'll let her be."

"No no no! You don't get it at all! You need to go to her and talk to her!"

"But you said I shouldn't apologize!"

"And you shouldn't! You need to talk to her!"

"But Robin doesn't talk!"

"That's where you're wrong. She's a woman. Women talk. If you recall, this is what you did when we got Robin to lay on the deck with us. She can surprise you."

"Fine. But if this fails, I'm blaming it on you."

"That is okay with me. I cook here."

And that's how Delta came face to face with the dreaded door to Robin's room. He knocked once, and then a couple more for good measure. "Robin? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine. Can I come in?"

He took two whole breaths in waiting. "Yes, of course."

Delta gently opened the door. Robin was there, sitting on the loose chair they'd found and left in this cabin. She was pointed at him, looking at him.

"Hi," Delta said.

"Hello."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well, I'm sorry. Wait! No, I'm not sorry."

"You're not sorry?"

"No! Of course I am! I'm very sorry!"

"Alright."

"It seems like you don't believe me, but it's true! I just, well, I wanted to apologize when I got here, but Terry told me not to do that anymore, so then when I did, I got all nervous and here we are."

"That makes sense."

Delta blew a frustrated puff of air from his nose. "Robin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Robin! As captain of this vessel, I order you to tell me what is wrong! No more messing around!"

Robin stared at him. "I-" she stopped.

"Go on."

"I don't want to."

"Well, as your captain, I order you to."

She looked down. "I- I was uncomfortable about the battleship." Delta nodded, and took a step forward. Robin looked back up at him. "I was angry with you, Captain, for bringing us here. I'm- I'm not angry anymore."

"What are you then?"

"I'm nothing."

"You're not nothing. That's silly."

"Then I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable with the situation."

"You're not mad at me?"

"No, Captain. I'm not mad at you." Delta smiled, and Robin realized that for all the smiling this man did, it was usually out of silliness. This smile was less clear, but in a way, more genuine.

"That's good. I was so worried that you were never gonna forgive and that would've been terrible! You're part of my crew!" He continued, "But now, we've got to ask, what are we gonna do about that battleship? Garp woke us up way too early in the morning, and Terry needs his beauty rest."