It had been a week since Nico Robin joined the crew after the Strawhats left Alabasta. Slowly, but surely all of the crew members were warming up to her. Robin was very powerful in terms of battle skills, so she was a welcome addition to the crew.
Luffy and his team were sailing for quite a while already. Robin was reading a book inside the ship room. Suddenly, Luffy walked up to her book and said, "Looks kinda interesting."
Everybody except Robin were really shocked and stared with great schokk and surprise at Luffy while he was staring at the book pages.
Suddenly Zolo shouted, "an island!". Luffy's attention shifted away from the book and he ran out on the deck to see the island. The crew sighed as if something extraordinary happened. Robin took this into consideration.
Later that day, Robin decided to talk with Nami about this since she seemed the most intelligent on the ship her being the navigator and stuff.
"Nami-swan. Why does Sanji call you that?"
"Ugh, don't remind me. I guess he's comparing me to a swan?"
"Anyways, I had another question. Why was everybody so surpised today when Luffy wanted to read my book?"
"Because...well...how should I put it...he never reads books. I don't think he's stupid but he's never been a connoisseur of the more refined fields and spheres of knowledge. He has common sense but it's usually hidden under his carefree nature. He'd rather run all day around the ship screaming than trying to do something intellectual. Now that I told you this information, you owe me money."
Robin was slightly put off by Nami's greed.
"Fine." She said in an ignorant voice and gave Nami the money.
Later that day, in the evening after dinner Robin approached Luffy.
"Captain Luffy, I want to have a conversation."
"Sure!"
"Let's go to the deck."
They went there and stood near the wooden handrail, having a nice view at the twilight sea at the time where it's already kinda dark and your eyes perceive surroundings a bit fuzzy. Luffy asked a question.
"By the way, what should I call you? Nico or Robin?"
"Call me whatever you think suits me best, captain. Nico is my surname, and Robin is my personal name."
"Ok, I'll call you Robin."
"I could even let you call me Robin-swan~ like Sanji does". Robin tried to make a joke but Luffy didn't get it.
"Eh? Well, If you insist-"
"Just Robin is fine, actually."
"Got it!" Luffy replied.
"So the reason I called you here is because I wanted to know more about you and maybe you have some questions for me. You are the captain. I mean, I've only recently joined, so maybe we could exchange important information."
If this were anybody else, Luffy would have brushed off such an interrogation with a weird reply like "I WANT MEAT!" and go mind his own business. But he could intuitively tell that such behaviour would feel inappropriate with a woman like Robin. So even if it daunted him and slightly irritated, he decided to try and give somewhat detailed answers.
"Eh...unless there's some dangerous problem concerned, I don't ask my crewmates about their past. Because we make our own story!"
"I see." Robin spaced out, somewhat disappointed, since she was already mentally prepared to tell Luffy about her life story.
Luffy saw that she was a little upset but he had no clue what to say so he just said after spacing out for half a minute,
"But if you have something to say, I'm all ears!"
Robin felt that the suitable moment for an honest confession had already slipped away for now.
"Thank you, Luffy. Actually I noticed that today you took interest in one of my books about the Goa kingdom. I take it you can read?"
Luffy remembered what book she was talking about and his eyes lit up in a faint spark of interest.
"Well, sort of. There was this woman Makino, she was sort of like a sister to me when I was a kid and she taught me the basics of literacy. I can slowly read out some words that are easily spelt but most words are too difficult for me. When I...REALLY need to read something I usually search for the simple words and get a general idea of what the text says. But usually I prefer seeing something with my own eyes instead of reading about it. By the way, I was born and raised in the Goa kingdom, so that book made me remember some things."
Robin breathed out and she turned around, leaning on the handrail with her hands with her back facing the sea as Luffy sat nearby right on the boards.
"I see. Captain Luffy, I have an offer."
"Hmm?" Luffy curved his brow in a questioning way.
"How about I teach you how to properly read and right? As a new member of the crew, I want to prove myself useful. Trust me, I am a very well rounded woman when it comes to knowledge. And when it comes to knowledge, there's a lot of other things...I could teach you." Robin ambiguously put a flirty accent on the last phrase but Luffy didn't notice it.
"So you can basically make me smart?" Luffy asked.
An animated sweatdrop briefly materialized on Robin's forehead. - (He didn't catch the extra implication.) -
"Well, only in certain areas and only if you are ready to put in the effort yourself." Robin honestly replied.
Luffy put his hand on his chin while still sitting and started concenrating and thinking about something as Robin stared at him. He sat like that for 5 minutes and stood up. Actually he wasn't actually thinking anything important, just trying to analyze the question.
"Robin."
"Yes, Captain?"
"If I do this, will it help me become the Pirate King? Just tell me what you think yourself."
Robi was slightly caught off guard by this question. What was she supposed to answer? But she realized she should an honest answer according to her own opinion.
"Well, being smart is what kept me alive all my childhood. As for your goal...Personally, I would say yes."
"I decided then. I agree! I guess becoming smarter is better because then I have more chances to become the Pirate King! So become my teacher then! I will call you Robin-sensei."
Robin slightly chuckled. "Robin-sensei? Sounds nice. We'll start tomorrow then. But be prepared that this is going to be a big challenge for your attention span."
"Don't go easy on me, Robin!" Luffy said with determination as he smahed his fist against his other hand in a determined pose. "I keep to my words. I can take on any education even if I have to fight for it...Ugh...all this talking makes me hungry..."
"I can accompany you to the kitchen, my student."
"Let's go!" Luffy rushed off.
Robin barely noticeably giggled and folllowed him as the sky was getting more and more dark.