Note:

Hello everyone, look at that, I managed to upload on time, who would have guessed.

Last time Robin had realised her attraction towards Zoro after she had seen more than she should have in the infirmary and let me tell you, it f***ed with her mind, things are being difficult between her and our favourite swordsman (mine at least). In this chapter you'll get to know his feelings on the whole situation, also some bonding with Chopper, I hope you enjoy!

As always thanks to Alyah727for betaing and also a huge thank you to all of you who followed and favorited this story and especially to unstablemolecule for the very first review to this piece!

Please leave a review to let me know what you think, have fun!

B

He closed the door to the infirmary firmly behind him, as Chopper should have done two weeks prior, and took off his pants for his hopefully final exam. "Don't give me that look Zoro, you know this would heal way better if you followed my advice of not training," the little reindeer reprimanded him in an uncharacteristically stern voice.

He grunted in response, what else was there for him to do? It's not like he could meditate. Not without his thoughts doing whatever the fuck they wanted, which most of the time meant to tell his body to react however the fuck it wanted. Damn woman and her innocent rosy cheeks. What right did she have to look that innocent? It wasn't something their kind could afford, especially not if you were a girl alone under monsters by the age of eight. He shouldn't think like that, it wasn't like she had chosen her past. In fact, he hated that fate had been this hard on her. Hated it with the same passion he hated Nami's past; no one should have to live through things like that.

"Don't look at me like that, it's your own fault, stupid." Chopper interrupted his dark thoughts, "if you'd have kept from training with your stupid weights this would be healed by now, but you had to rip your stitches one hour after I let you go, one hour!" The little reindeer shouted. The fuck's going on? Had Chopper been talking this entire time? He had his back turned towards him, organizing some instruments on his desk, his little form trembled, voice unsteady. Fuck. "Chopper, what is-", his question died on his tongue as his little Nakama finally turned around, thick tears streaming down his face, bottom lip quivering. "Don't act like you care now stupid. You almost died in that field! You didn't care then! When you knew you were poisoned why would you launch such an attack?"

Oh fuck. He knew that his and Luffy's fights were always stressful for the boy who had to stitch them back together again and again, but to see him lose it like that? That was new. He just sat there, dumb shit that he was, without a clue on how to calm his friend down. He reached for him but the sudden fury emitting from the small doctor had his hand drop right back on the bed. At a total loss he opted to just let him talk, it seemed to do the trick whenever Nami was upset so it couldn't be too bad of a decision. "You're such an idiot, you should have stopped the bleeding, you know how to do that, you're the one helping me in here all the time, why can't you use that information for yourself?" The boy ranted, jumping to him on the bed mid sentence. "Instead you, idiot, decided to start meditating. Are you insane? The man told you he had applied an anticoagulant to his poison, you stupid, stupid Zoro!" He continued, emphasizing his stupidity by poking his little hoove against his chest. "Do you have any idea how terrified we were when you just keeled over? I've never even heard Robin curse before!" And with that the reindeer's fury vanished; back was the boy who had been scared shitless that his friend might have died. Chopper sank back, crying his eyes out on his lap. He hadn't thought about that back then and he hadn't thought about it since he'd been back on the Sunny. Yes, he was an idiot, he had not meant to put his Nakama through that, so he reached again for the boy. This time crushing him against his chest instead of giving up halfway. He apologised for being reckless, even though he wasn't sure the apology reached the boy over his wailing sobs.

This was a mess and with Robin, should probably talk about this situation. He wasn't good at talking. Sure in the crow's nest they sometimes talked for hours, but he was well aware that she was merely humouring him, using simple words he could understand. It was a far cry from the discussions she would have with Chopper or Brook, or Nami or Sanji for that matter. The shit cook's insults didn't stem from nothing after all. In comparison he was indeed stupid, and in comparison with Robin he was probably dense as a rock. His awareness of his own shortcomings didn't keep him from enjoying their nightly talks. He was pretty sure if Robin minded she simply would not talk at all, just smile her damn smile and continue reading, or pretend to read as she often did.

Fuck this, why was he even worrying about this shit? It wasn't like he had flashed her or anything, what was her goddamn problem?! She couldn't even look at him anymore, wasn't acting like a grown ass woman either, more like one of the girls at port. And not the easy to ignore lusty bitch type, but the blushing maiden type he had no fucking idea how to deal with. For some reason he always felt bad around them. He had exactly 3 ways of dealing with things: 1. Ignore it, 2. Fight it, 3. Tell it to fuck the hell off. None of those things he could do with those girls, and none of those things he could do with Robin. Robin was Nakama, he could not risk hurting her in any way, she was family after all. To be protected at all costs.

"She must feel terrible!", Chopper whimpered against his chest, cutting his thoughts short.

"Who?"

The little reindeer desperately wiped at his eyes and nose with his hooves, shaking his head before explaining: "Robin, of course, had she given you any sign that she had been watching, you would not have been so ...so hecking reckless and just waited for us to find you! You wouldn't have been half dead when we found you! She feels guilty!"

He almost smiled about the fact that 'hecking' was the worst word the boy could think of, but reality crushed his amusement in the bud. Fucking idiot, that's what he was. Of course she wasn't flustered, or shy or whatever the fuck his brain had fantasised. She felt guilty for not protecting him from his own stupidity, that's why she was acting so strange. Innocent his ass. Maybe she was ashamed because even though she always tried to think of every possible outcome, she had not accounted for his reckless behaviour. She should have seen that coming, really, she prided herself in knowing all of them better than they themselves did.

Fuck. It wasn't like he had anything to offer her. Not trying to sell himself short either, he knew well enough that his physique did draw attention of the opposite gender. Their landtime made that painfully obvious, as well as his social inability to handle that attraction, but Robin was something else entirely. For fuck's sake why was he even thinking about things like that? She was Nakama. Why couldn't the damn woman just have told him the moment she had burst into the infirmary two weeks ago, while he had been struggling to stand upright with one hand against the wall for support and one hand trying to keep his pants from slipping off completely? Just open her damn mouth and tell him sorry for not telling him she had watched instead of running like a little girl. Just tell him instead of planting thoughts in his brain that he wasn't supposed to have! Fuck. Maybe they didn't have to talk, just sit it out, wait for the next landing, and get all that bullshit out of his system with one of the girls offering themselves. Would be for the best. No need to make a fool out of himself, babbling about moods and possible misunderstandings. Just a simple "don't feel guilty, I'm alive", a wave, and then off to the next best tavern to choose some woman with good enough built to withstand his strength. Yeah, that sounded like a plan.

I hope you enjoyed this. Just so you know, my beta cracked up at that last part, saying something along the lines of "what kind of monster is he looking for?". What do you think? Maybe Alvida before the devil fruit? Big Mom? Honestly there are more than enough ladies for him to choose in this world, find out how it went in two weeks!