First an endlessly huge, humongous thank you to Rexica for beta reading this and the next chapter even though she has so many other (more important) things on her plate this week. 'tis the season to be jolly and hopelessly overworked^^'

Second, Ghost, with my currently planned schedule chapter J will be out on february 6th.

Last time our two lovebirds talked and Robin made a … proposition (?). Now you'll find out how Zoro reacts and why him being into BDSM is totally canon ;p

There she sat in front of him, Nico fucking Robin, the perfect fucking picture of innocence, pleadingly staring at him with her big blue eyes. Holy mother of fuck, he had not been expecting that so soon. Or at all, really, since his revelation. But would you look at that; the traumatized devil child was actually a playful little kitten. Ah, you fucking asshole, don't get ahead of yourself. She might think all was well with her insight that, no shit, he wasn't like them, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't forget it midscene.

He grinned at her despite his worries, poured her a cup of sake and waited for her to do the same for him. With all the tatami might as well do it the traditional way. He lifted his cup at her before he drank, surprised that it was actually really good stuff.

"I'll have you," he said as he put the cup down again, ready for a refill.

She smiled again at him, gods was she cute when she did that, and put her cup down, not quite empty.

"So," she asked insecure while pouring his sake, "what happens now?"

She was nervous, fingers immediately going back to fidgeting with the rope as soon as they left the bottle.

He leaned back, resisting the urge to empty the next cup just yet. "Now we talk."

Incredulous suited her quite well, he had to say, not a look one saw often on her features. "We talk?" She didn't even try to hide her surprise.

He huffed at her, "Well what the hell did you expect, woman, that I would tie you up right here, let you dangle from the ceiling and have my way with you?"

She blushed and didn't have to vocalize, those adorably rosy cheeks spoke loud and clear: that was exactly what she had been expecting. Maybe she had even hoped for it. She hid herself behind her steaming mug of coffee, shuffling uncomfortably on her knees. He knew exactly why she was doing that, and his smirk and rising eyebrow told her as much. Ha, she couldn't get much redder.

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment as she recovered before she leveled him with a cool gaze, "And here we thought you were simply lost all that time while on land, turns out you of all people have been talking?"

His time to blush. He didn't get lost, things just didn't stay where they were! Grand Line, New World, all fucked up geography!

"Talk about what, then?" she asked, serious again.

"Limits, expectations."

She hummed in response, clearly thinking and maybe a little bit uncomfortable. "Are you doing this with every Hookup? Talking about limits and expectations?"

"You ain't a hookup and you know it, woman, but more or less, yeah. You can't consent if you don't know what you're getting yourself into."

She hummed again, smiling this time, before sipping from her coffee. "So this is about preferences? Vis-a-vis dos and don'ts? Considering all the… kinks I've read about down there I'd imagine it a rather tedious endeavour to find a compatible partner. Bearing in mind the relatively taboo nature of such proclivities, how have you ever found someone with the short docking times?"

Oh just fucking great, she'd gone full scientist on him again… social studies, he assumed, since she'd forgotten to dumb it down for him halfway through. It wasn't that he hadn't tried to learn her language, but he could only remember so many fancy words. At least she hadn't brought his… directional problems up again. Although, maybe she had...

"The bandana isn't black because it goes well with my hair, you know," he answered tersely and her eyes lit up. "A code then?"

He could humour her if she looked at him like that, couldn't he? "Yeah more or less. I guess people who stay in one place wouldn't use it but it's handy for travelers and those searching for someone new?"

"What does yours say?", she asked, all curiosity and wonder, begging him to answer instead of brushing her off. No clue what gave her that idea, they had agreed on honesty, hadn't they?

So he fixed her with his stare, relishing in the attention she gave him and not at all troubled by the rough edge to his voice when he answered:

"That I'll hurt you if you let me."

Her breath caught, the pupils of her wide eyes grew to a point where he almost had trouble seeing the striking blue of her irises. Her cheeks flushed as she bit her lower lip, shifting her legs under her. Fuck was he hard for her. Hard as she was wet, he assumed, had to be fucking dripping. Maybe he should've ordered that bowl of ramen after all, the red welts would look fucking delicious on her pale skin.

"Would you hurt me now?" her voice barely a whisper. Holy fuck, Yes!

"No."

Her face fell, disappointment and hurt taking over. Damn woman was better not making it about her appearance again. They had talked about that, he had even told her Perona's age, hoping it would cease her worrying.

"Look, Robin, for honesty's sake, I'd really fucking love to right now, but… Seriously, woman, think. It's all you ever do normally, what's changed?"

She looked guilty now, confused. Probably didn't even recognize herself. If he'd go back to the Sunny now telling the rest that he was being the responsible one while Robin was acting on impulses, they'd call him crazy.

Fuck, he was ill equipped to handle this situation, he was used to his partners already knowing the ropes …ugh …fuck, the damn skeleton's lame sense of humour was rubbing off...

Usually actual negotiation would be over and done with in 10 minutes. No, even if Robin were equally experienced, this wouldn't be over quick, this wasn't just about a scene to relieve the stress from weeks of sailing amongst idiots. Fuck this was potentially long term. Hopefully. He had never even thought about something like that…

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You need to be informed."

She nodded, still looking a bit lost since his denial.

This fucking conversation was all fucked up, wasn't it usually her telling him and the crew that they didn't care enough about doing research before jumping head over heels into potential danger? No matter how futile she probably knew it to be; talking sense into them? "You need to know what it is you want and how far you want to go. You need to know what you definitely don't want and what you're willing to compromise on, and all of that you'll have to tell me. I can't respect your limits if I don't know where they are."

She blushed again.

He took a huge gulp of sake right from the bottle. If he had to keep talking this much, Robin wouldn't even listen because she was busy filling that laughable cup for him. She stared at him again, some strange mixture between awe and trust, irritatingly similar to how Chopper would look at him. Damn he really didn't want to think about the kid right now. How could this woman be so fucking innocent? She really looked like he had just explained that no, babies weren't brought by a fucking stork. 'Course she was innocent, nobody had ever given her the chance to explore. Should she really be starting with him, though? He was fairly confident in his abilities, but with her past… she wasn't ready for this, and by the looks of it, she didn't care about it. About her mental health. So no, he couldn't possibly… not yet. And the fact that he had found his bunk reinforced with steel a week after Usopp and Franky had that talk with him showed that maybe he himself wasn't quite ready for her either.

"Look," he said again when she kept silent, "I don't expect you to do this now. Take as much time as you need. If you have questions, look it up or ask. Let's just…" fuck, this is all backwards, "For now, what do you expect from this? What do you want from me?"

She didn't know. He could see it clear in her expressive eyes. Had they always been like that? Telling him everything her stony facade wouldn't? Her mind went 100 miles a minute, thinking -finally thinking!- everything over. Everything she had read, everything she felt or had felt, everything he had said, and hopefully not too much of what the crone had said. He knew what she'd say before she even opened her mouth.

"Don't be sorry," he said getting up, bottle of sake in his left hand he stretched his right out for her, "Told you to take your time, I meant it."

She stared at him, unmoving, just long enough for him to start feeling self-conscious, before she hastily stuffed her research material and the rope with the card into her bag to finally take his hand. For a moment, he just stared dumbly as she laced her fingers between his before he made for the door. That actually felt quite fucking nice.

So you might have noticed, that the last few chapters contained lots of talking and yes, I said there would be even more talking done in the future. That's not because I'm afraid to write the steamy stuff (I already have), but because it's important.

BDSM is all about consent and like Zoro said, you can't give consent if you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. I'm not trying to educate you guys, it's just that I've always been bothered that talking and negotiations are in many stories, fanfiction or otherwise, omitted, even though it's a major part of any BDSM relationship. No matter if it's for just one scene or a possibly long term relationship.

In fact I think this should be part of any relationship, it would make many things easier.

As always, please leave a review and tell me how you liked it. Agree, disagree? Let me know!