Hey guys, thanks for being patient while I was away, but I'm back now with a new chapter. This one's pretty slow I think, but hopefully that won't be a bad thing. Hope you like it.

Robin glanced out of the classroom window just in time to see a bubbly Luffy enter Sabo's car, the blonde man smiling cheerfully. It was a nice sight. No matter how hard Robin tried to analyse the interactions between the two, that was the conclusion she always reached.

It had been about a month since Ace had given her the 'mission', to keep an eye on Sabo at school and try to figure out if he had any ulterior motives for spending time with Luffy. And honestly, Robin had seen nothing to suggest he did. Nonetheless Robin remained vigilant, for both Ace's sake and Luffy's.

Robin looked up at the clock at the front of the classroom. School had ended ten minutes ago, but she was staying late today to help Mr Shanks out with the parent's evening tonight for the year below.

Just then the door opened and in came Mr Shanks, followed by an irritable looking Mr Mihawk. Robin inferred that Mr Shanks must have made some joke at the sterner teacher's expense. The red haired teacher grinned at Robin. "Hey, you're prompt, as usual. First one here."

Robin smiled back. "I guess so. Who else is helping out tonight?"

"A few others. Sanji, Hancock, Chopper and Usopp I think." Mr Shanks glanced at Mr Mihawk, who was sorting some exercise books on one of the desks at the back of the room. "Am I missing anyone?"

Mr Mihawk ignored him, leafing through one of the books. He winced. "I'm definitely not looking forwards to meeting Bartolomeo's parents. I mean, it's bad enough he's failing Math, but half of his book is filled with drawings of Monkey D. Luffy. I swear his obsession with him isn't normal…"

Mr Shanks chuckled, remembering meeting Bartolomeo on the first day. "Be honest though, I'm glad that there are people like him in the year below Luffy and the guys." The red haired teacher turned to Robin. "It means school won't be too boring next year when you guys are gone."

Mr Mihawk rolled his eyes. "Fine then, let's make a deal. Next year, you'll teach all the troublemakers, whilst I take the model students." Mr Mihawk smiled, coming to a certain exercise book. "Like Rebecca for example. Look at her book. Not only is all the Maths correct, but it's set out absolutely beautifully. A lot like yours Robin actually."

Robin smiled, a little embarrassed by the compliment. "Thank you sir."

Mr Mihawk, however, continued to lavish praise on his star student. "I remember meeting your mother last year actually. That's what a parent-teacher meeting should be like, just talking about how brilliant the student is."

Just then the classroom opened and in came Mr Smoker followed by Chopper and Usopp. The white haired teacher looked at Mr Shanks. "Everything's being set up in the hall so you need to get your stuff there now. You too Mihawk."

Before either teacher could respond, Mr Smoker turned and walked out the classroom. Mr Shanks blinked, turning to Mr Mihawk. "You know, I criticise you, but that guy's the definition of anti-social."

Usopp and Chopper went to Robin's side. The shorter teen beamed up at her. 'Hey Robin! I didn't know you were helping out tonight!"

Robin smiled. "I didn't know you two were either."

"Well," Mr Mihawk said, scooping up the pile of exercise books. "Guess we'd better get going. We have about an hour until the parents and students start getting here."

#######

Usopp rolled his eyes as he watched Sanji whisper something in Hancock's ear, causing the dark haired girl to giggle before kissing Sanji on the cheek. "Are they going to be like this all night…?"

"Oy, Stop that!" Mr Smoker barked from across the room, causing the two teens to reluctantly separate. Mr Shanks laughed.

"Guess that's your answer. Now let's see…" The red haired teacher looked around the room, which was full of teachers and a handful of student helpers. Parent's evening was about ten minutes away now, so you would expect everyone to be present at this point. However there seemed to be one absentee. "Hey, Mihawk, where's that assistant of yours? Isn't he meant to be attending?"

Mr Mihawk blinked, taking a longer searching look around the room, trying to spot Sabo. He narrowed his eyes. "He is. Where is he?"

Robin frowned, watching the two teachers out of the corner of her eye. Sabo wasn't here? Was he with Luffy? No… Luffy had said that he was just going to drop him off home. That wouldn't take the hour it had been since the end of school. So where was he?

Just then the door of the hall opened and in came a lightly panting Sabo. He quickly made his way through the room to Mr Mihawk. "Sorry I'm late. I had some… business to attend to."

Robin examined the blonde man, searching for some clue as to what that business was. Unfortunately, it didn't look as if his appearance held any clues as to where he had been. This was the real reason why Robin had volunteered to help out with parent's evening. She wanted to keep as close an eye on Sabo as possible.

"Robin…"

Said girl turned around to see Chopper looking concernedly at her. He must have noticed her deep in thought and thought she was worrying about something. Robin smiled kindly at the short teen. "It's fine. Shall we go get something to eat before the parents start arriving?"

Chopper smiled back, reassured. "Yeah!"

The two made there way to the refreshments table at the back of the room, Robin glancing back once at Sabo, who was being 'briefed' by Mr Mihawk it seemed. Once they reached the table they were shortly joined by an annoyed looking Usopp. The long nosed teen glared at Mr Smoker across the room. "Jeez, he's a real jerk isn't he? He's spent this whole time ordering me around and hasn't thanked me once. I'm glad I'm not taught by him…"

Robin giggled. "Oh, he's not that bad once you get to know him…"

"Going by Luffy's stories, I doubt that…"

Robin was about to reply when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It was Violet. The chemistry teacher was looking around the room nervously. Robin knew she had plenty to hide, but she couldn't help but wonder what was troubling her so much currently.

Suddenly, Violet got up, practically running across the room before leaving. Robin narrowed her eyes. Well that was suspicious. She turned to Usopp and Chopper, who hadn't noticed Violet go. "Uhm… would you two excuse me for a second? There's something I want to check."

Usopp and Chopper exchanged a confused glance as Robin disappeared out of the room.

######

Zoro smirked, finally reaching an answer. He glanced up at Luffy, who was lying on the floor, looking concentratedly at his exercise book. "I got 18. You?"

Luffy continued to stare at his work for a few more seconds before suddenly exhaling. "I don't get it."

"It's easy, you just put the numbers into the formula Mr Aokiji showed us. Ain't that right Ace?"

Ace, who was having a great deal of fun watching Luffy and Zoro struggle over their Math homework, got up from the sofa and glanced over Zoro's shoulder. After a couple of seconds, he smiled cheekily. "I got 30."

Zoro furrowed his brow, looking back at his working. After scanning furiously for the error for a few seconds, he sighed and leaned back. "Damn, I quit… Reckon we can copy someone's tomorrow? Kid'll probably have done it. He always asks Law to help him with Math."'

Luffy grinned, happily slamming shut his book. "Yosh! Let's go eat!"

"You already did," Ace muttered, reaching for a magazine now that the 'show' was over.

Zoro looked outside from the living room window. It was mid-autumn now, so it was pretty dark outside. "It's probably too late to go out now. I guess I should go home."

The green haired teen stood up and was about to leave when he realised both Ace and Luffy were staring at him like he had three heads. He blinked. "What?"

Ace rolled his eyes, getting up. 'You can't go home on your own. You'll get lost. Just give me five minutes, I'll give you a lift."

Luffy's eyes lit up. "Ooh, can I come Ace?"

"You can, but we're not stopping off anywhere for food."

"Oh… never mind then."

Zoro glared at his best friend, disappointed that that was his reason for wanting to come. "Hey!"

"That shouldn't have surprised you by now," Ace muttered, leaving the room.

#######

Violet sighed. No matter which way she looked at he current situation, she was in trouble. So far she'd been able to go about carrying out Doflamingo's orders fairly easily, although Vergo's arrest a month ago had been a shock. She still didn't understand how Trafalgar Law had found where she'd lived, but she was grateful (as well as surprised) that Vergo had led Law away from her to give her a chance to escape. Still, she hadn't expected Vergo to actually get beaten, and he probably didn't either, hence why he carried out the 'selfless' act in the first place. Plus, it was his job to keep her safe after all.

The end result was that Violet was now living alone in a different part of town, assured through a further meeting with Pica that Doflamingo was still keeping a close eye on her. The last month had passed without further incident, however Violet was feeling a little more threatened by Law now given what he'd done to Vergo and so was a lot more worried about running into him outside school hours.

But anyway, that wasn't what was worrying Violet. Things had been going smoothly more or less since the day of Vergo's arrest, but there was one person who could end that. One person who she had to avoid for both her and that person's sake. And that one person was going to be present tonight.

Rebecca's father, Kyros.

He knew her, and more importantly, as far as he knew, she was dead. If he saw her, Doflamingo would kill not just her, but Kyros and Rebecca too. And Violet was not going to let that happen. What that meant was that she had to somehow avoid Rebecca's father tonight. That left her with only one solution; she was going to have to leave and face whatever consequences there would be tomorrow. She couldn't risk being seen. Violet turned around and opened the back door, re-entering the school, unaware that someone had been watching her the whole time.

Robin, who had been watching her from a classroom window, frowned, wondering just what Violet had been doing. She hadn't done anything, she'd just stood outside for a few minutes, staring off into the distance. Robin didn't really know what to make of that.

The raven haired teen sighed, deciding to head back to the parents' evening. Between watching Sabo for Ace and watching Violet for Law, her life was pretty damn busy. Upon re-entering the hall, Robin was surprised to see that parents' evening had begun in the time since she was left. The room was full of parents and their children, most of whom were standing around casting impatient glances at the teacher they wanted to talk to who was currently preoccupied with another parent who had been doing the same thing five minutes earlier.

"Robin!"

Said girl turned around to see a smiling Rebecca approaching her, Kyros close behind. "Rebecca!"

Rebecca was about to say something when Kyros coughed awkwardly. She turned around and beamed at her father before turning back to Robin. "Dad, this is Robin. She's a really good friend of mine."

Kyros nodded and rigidly held a hand out to her. "Pleasure to meet you Miss. Thank you for being friends with Rebecca."

Robin giggled, Kyros' somewhat awkward personality reminding her a little of Zoro. "You don't have to thank me, it's my pleasure. Rebecca's been a very good friend to me as well. Although now that I think about it, I do have one favour to ask of you sir."

"Anything."

Robin reached into her pocket, hoping she had some paper. As it turned out she did, and a pen. "My boyfriend's a huge fan of yours. Could I please have your autograph? He'd really love it."

Kyros smirked, taking the paper and signing it. "Is that so? He plays himself?"

"Yes, he plays for the school. He's really good, although my other friend's the best player in the whole school."

Rebecca smiled. "Oh, Luffy? Yeah dad, you should see him play. I've only watched him a couple of times but he's amazing. The other team can't score when he's playing."

Kyros handed the autograph back to Robin. "A keeper, huh? How serious is he about soccer?"

Robin smiled proudly. "He's very serious, I think he's going to become a professional player soon. He has a trial at a big team this weekend actually."

"Really, which one?"

"Dressrosa."

Kyros froze. His smirk instantly disappeared and his eyes widened, his mouth suddenly running dry. Rebecca and Robin exchanged a shocked glance before the pink haired girl reached out to touch her father's arm. "Dad?"

This seemed to snap Kyros out of his trance. He turned to face Robin, a grim expression on his face. "Dressrosa, huh? You should be careful about them. That team isn't what it seems…"

Robin blinked, alarmed by Kyros' warning. She was about to say something, when Kyros tugged on Rebecca's arm. "Look, your Math teacher is free now. Let's go talk to him. Nice meeting you Robin."

"You too," Robin politely replied, still a little shaken up. With that, the two left the raven haired teen behind to ponder what had just happened. Kyros' expression when she said the name 'Dressrosa' wasn't a good one at all. He looked positively terrified. But… why?

"You OK?"

Robin turned around to see a smirking Sabo standing behind her. "Y.. yes I am, thank you."

"Really? Cuz you look like you've seen a ghost."

"No, it's just… You know Luffy has a trial at that team this weekend, right?"

Sabo nodded. "Yeah. We're all going with him, right?"

"Yes. Well, I just told Rebecca's father about it, and as soon as I mentioned the name Dressrosa… he froze. There's something about them that terrified him."

Surprisingly, Sabo nodded understandingly. "Makes sense, I suppose."

Robin furrowed her brow, confused. "It does?"

Sabo blinked before chuckling, running his hand through his hair. "That's right, you're not a big soccer fan are you? You see, Kyros used to be the best player in the whole country. He was unstoppable. Every year he'd be the top scorer. There had never been a player like him. Everyone thought he was going to break all the goalscoring records, but…"

"But what?"

Sabo sighed. "His career was ended prematurely at the age of just 27. He was in his prime. His leg was broken, snapped clean in half in a game against-"

"Dressrosa," Robin finished, seeing where this was going. Sabo nodded.

"Yeah. Just like that his career was over. Really sad when you think about it. You know, ironically, the guy who broke his leg took Kyros' place in the national team. Some people questioned whether he did it on purpose afterwards, although I'd like to think that wasn't the case…"

"Who was it?" Robin asked, now curious about the story.

"He's a guy called Diamante. Still plays for Dressrosa. We may meet him this weekend, you never know."

Robin's eyes widened. "Diamante? He's the guy from the restaurant last summer! The one who gave Luffy the trial."

Sabo blinked, surprised. "You've already met Diamante? Wow, Luffy never told me that…"

Robin frowned. "But still… even if that is what happened, I think what Rebecca's father said suggests something else…"

"What did he say?"

"He said that the Dressrosa team isn't what it seems. What do you think he meant by that?"

Sabo thought for a second before shrugging. "Dunno, it seems kind of cryptic to me. But still Robin, you're probably overthinking this. Chances are Kyros is still maybe a little bitter about Diamante ruining his career. Things like this happen in soccer though, it's part of the game unfortunately. Anyway, I should probably get back to Hawk-eyes, I told him was gonna go get some water, but that was like ten minutes ago, so…"

Robin smiled slightly at Sabo's nickname for Mr Mihawk before nodding. "OK. Thank you for explaining that to me Sabo."

Sabo smirked before heading back to Mr Mihawk's table, Robin able to see that the serious teacher wasn't too happy with his assistant's slacking off from where she was standing.

######

Sabo sighed, glancing at his list. He still had five more parents to see. His parents' evening had certainly taken a turn for the worse.

After returning to Mihawk, the stern teacher had informed him that Violet had inexplicably disappeared, so he was given the responsibility of meeting the parents of Violet's students. A difficult task considering he didn't teach any of them, nor the subject of Chemistry itself. All he had to go off was their test marks. He could tell that most of the parents leaving him weren't leaving satisfied since Sabo had no way to answer their questions about what their child needed to do to improve their marks etc.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed on the desk. Sabo inwardly groaned. "Not now…" he muttered to himself. Nonetheless, the blond man answered the call. "Hello…"

There was silence for a second, before a voice gruffly replied. "What's wrong with you?"

"N.. Nothing, sorry. It's just been a long night. Can I call you back later? I'm at a parents' evening."

"I know. I'm outside."

Sabo's eyes widened. "Wait, what? Why are you here? You can't be here!"

"Why not? Luffy's at home currently, correct?"

"I.. I know, but what if one of his friends sees you or something?"

"They won't recognise me, will they?"

"But still… Listen, I can't leave right now, I have parents to see."

Another pause. "When will you be free?"

Sabo looked around the room, which was quickly emptying. "Half an hour maybe. Why, are you going to wait-"

That was as far as he got before the man on the other end of the line hung up. Sabo stared at his phone for a second before sighing again. His life sure was complicated.

######

Ace eyed the stream of cars leaving the school. "Since everyone's going, I guess parents' evening is finishing. So where's Robin?"

Zoro, whose idea it was to pick up Robin, shrugged. "Dunno. Knowing her she'll stay right until the end to help out as much as she can. Maybe I should go in…"

"Don't bother. We'll just wait. Can't risk you getting lost somewhere at this time…"

Just then the front door of the school opened, revealing a familiar face. Zoro nudged Ace, who was still watching the growing traffic leaving the school. "Hey, it's Sabo."

Ace was about to open his door when he noticed the somewhat annoyed expression on Sabo's face. "Say… does he look OK to you?"

Zoro peered at the blonde man through the window. "He looks kind of pissed."

The two watched as Sabo approached a dark, expensive looking, car on the other side of the car park. Without a word or any form of greeting, Sabo opened the door to the passenger seat and got in, the car starting immediately. Ace narrowed his eyes. "That isn't Sabo's car. Plus, he went into the passenger seat. So who's the driver?"

Zoro, who didn't know anything of Ace's suspicions about Sabo, shrugged. "Dunno. Does it matter?"

Ace ignored his response, instead waiting for the car Sabo was in the join the back of the queue heading out of the school. When another couple of cars had drove up behind the car, Ace started his own vehicle. "We're gonna follow him."

Zoro frowned. "What, seriously? But why?"

"Just trust me," Ace replied, his serious expression telling Zoro not to ask any more questions. The green haired teen sighed.

"Guess Robin will have to get a lift from Usopp or someone…"

Yeah, probably not my best, but hope you still enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!