Hallo and welcome back!

Can you believe this story is already a year old? It feels like I just started seriously writing it… Thank you all so much for your continued support, it really means a lot to me! I mean, not only has it been a year, this fic is with this chapter a solid 100 pages long! If I hadn't gotten so much feedback from you I would probably have dropped it long ago, so thank you, I'm really kinda proud of this thing here.

Special thanks go to Ghost and Manga_Vikki, you've been with me for more than half this fic so far, you can't even imagine how precious your comments are to me, to know that you're still reading…

We all owe thanks to Alyah727/AKZJ, too, because she encouraged me to post my little drabble that somehow evolved to this story and who started out as this story's beta. And now Rexica for doing that job and inspiring me to come up with more and more fun ideas to write.

Anyway, enough of all the sentimentalities, on with the chapter!

Last time, Robin helped Zoro through domdrop and now we follow Zoro's musings during an actual morning after!

He woke up exactly three hours after he had fallen asleep with Robin in his arms, knew because he always woke up after three hours if there were no emergencies. He didn't need much sleep during the night; he didn't nap all day for nothing, after all. While mornings weren't exactly his favourite time of the day - or any part of the day when he'd just woken up - he used to wake rather quickly. His instincts never really rested They'd snap to full attention instantly even if his body tended to slug behind a few minutes, until he had a good stretch and a more or less noisy yawn. That had changed since he was with Robin. Whenever he woke up with her negligible weight against him, his instincts wouldn't fan out towards his crew or to possible dangers. No, when he woke with her at his side, all of him would be completely focused on her. Her quiet breaths, the content sighs when he tightened his grip around her waist, the scent of her. Not the heady musk of sex, but her own unique scent. Was it stupid to have expected her to smell of roses, just because of her devil fruit? Probably. She did smell like flowers, but not like roses. He was glad, really, he couldn't stand the smell of them. And earthy, maybe because of the unhealthy amount of coffee she drank?

He liked those tranquil mornings with her. Usually, she'd start stirring shortly after him, but if their last playtime was any indication, she'd sleep til noon again. He should get her down into her own bed before the rest woke up. So far, the only other strawhat awake was Sanji who was already busy in the kitchen. He wouldn't notice.

Damn was he glad that Franky had beefed up the Sunny's surveillance system and that most of them had learned to use Haki. That way it wasn't necessary for two of them to be awake at all times. Things would be so much more complicated if they had to hide during the night.

Fuck. Sudden realisation hit him like a fucking brick. Fucking fuck, Haki! It was no secret that Robin sometimes read in the crow's nest, up and away from the ruckus of the crew, not even that sometimes she fell asleep even if he was up there with her making a ruckus with his weights. But holy fucking fuck, everyone using observation Haki could know what they were up to in the later hours of the night! He used it to monitor Robin's feelings, and if he could do that, then…. He was fucked.

The shit cook's observation Haki had been superior to his own when they had met back up. Of course he had trained it since then, wouldn't do to be second to the damn dartbrow. And then he'd practiced even more for the explicit purpose of keeping Robin safe, but…. Yep, utterly fucked. There was no fucking way curly brow didn't know about this … affair? Maybe not the exact nature of the relationship, but like hell he didn't know they were fucking. Why hadn't he mentioned it? Made him uneasy, his hairs stand on end. Did he wait for the right time? Since when had he known? Had he already made elaborate plans to skin him with a spoon or something? Gods fucking damn, he was so fucking dead.

Should he try talking to the cook about it? Yeah, and then? Then, it would be out in the open, and the idiot would have to act. Or maybe he really didn't know, because he valued their privacy enough not to snoop about as soon as he woke up… yeah, fat chance, He knew that he scanned the ship for irregularities before getting started on breakfast. How the fuck could he forget about that?

Didn't matter now… he needed a plan of action. How could he find out if the cook knew without asking? Had he been different the last few weeks? No, not really, they had fought a lot during his little crisis, but he himself had instigated those fights… His meals were delicious as always, even if he would rather die than admit it out loud, hadn't been poisoned.

Maybe he could test him somehow. Preferably without the risk of immediately getting flambeed. Was that even possible? The moment he'd suspect something was going on between him and Robin, the cook would murder him. Gods, this was complicated… there was a fucking reason he wasn't responsible for formulating plans on the ship. He should just fucking go into the kitchen and tell curly brow to go fuck himself if he had an issue with their relationship… He would definitely do that if he knew for certain that the cook knew… but he fucking didn't.

He gripped at his hair in frustration. If only Robin would finally come to terms with the fact that she was in fucking love with him, then they could tell the rest and be done with it. He would survive the death threats and the other reactions they would most definitely voice as soon as they were allowed to talk about it. There definitely would be death threats, and a threat to increase his debt. Didn't matter that Nami had been the first to know, or the fact that she was happy for the both of them. She would announce her animosity to the whole crew the moment she was allowed, he was sure of it.

Yeah… he couldn't announce shit yet, so he couldn't deal with all of them at once and couldn't count on Luffy's protection once darts brow made his move. Damn, should he have told Luffy? Probably, he was the captain, this was very much his business… he wouldn't mind though… would probably not even know what it meant… or ask when the baby would be due. Oh gods, please no. He definitely wouldn't have that talk with Luffy without Robin at his side to expertly avert the captain's ridiculous questions.

Didn't help his predicament though… what about the cook? He should probably start with observing him… see if there was anything out of the ordinary. So far, he had been fucking normal. In fact, nothing in his behaviour had changed, there was no reason whatsoever to suspect he knew, apart of course from the fact that he fucking should. He wasn't big on logic, but even he knew that Curly brow should know something was going on between him and Robin.

Maybe he needed bait.

He huffed. Bait he could do; Robin still needed punishment for dropping his swords, after all.

Whelp, let's hope he doesn't hurt himself in confusion! As always, tell me what you think.

See you this Wednesday for Robin's punishment! (wanna guess?)