Rating: K

Spoilers: If you are unaware that Robin has a past, this may a surprise

Timeframe: Kid Robin, way before she takes her test

A young Nico Robin nervously approached Professor Clover, book in hand. Clover glanced over at her, took off his glasses, and gave her the kindliest smile he could conjure. The girl had been visiting the great library for months now, but was only now just starting to come out of her shell.

"Is there something I can help you with Robin?" he asked. Robin looked down at her shoes, seemingly embarrassed, before asking her question.

"Professor, why are these houses square?" she asked quietly.

Clover blinked in confusion before Robin propped her book onto his desk and pointed to the illustration in question. It was a picture of some quaint little village, whose houses were indeed all of the rectangular verity.

The professor gave a quiet chuckle, and Robin looked down at ground again. Not wanting to in any way quash the girl's desire to learn, Clover quickly pulled up a chair and gestured for her to sit down.

"My dear Robin, what an excellent question! But before I answer yours, I must ask one in return!" he exclaimed, "Why do we have round houses?" he asked, adding a dramatic wiggling of the eyebrows for effect. Robin opened her mouth to answer, before promptly shutting it again with a frown.

"I…I don't know, Professor," she finally admitted.

"Would it surprise you, then, to hear that most places at this time of history have rectangular houses, and that the people of Ohara are indeed the exception?" Clover had to stifle a laugh as the girl gaped at him.

"But why?" Robin sputtered.

"Why we have round houses, or why other places have rectangular ones?" he asked mischievously.

"Both!" she said excitedly. All traces of her shyness disappeared, leaving an eager mind in its place.

"Well, there are many theories as to the origin of our round houses, and round houses in other cultures. Do you know what culture's are Robin?"

"They're different people's ideas, aren't they?"

"Kind of. As different civilizations have come from all over the world (you know what a civilization is, right? Good.) They develop different traditions and ways of life. This leads to different rules of society, and different ways of life. All this mixed together makes a culture. For example, how we live here is much different than, say, Alabasta because it has a different culture." Clover stopped and stroked his beard, contemplating how to continue. Explaining ideas as big as this was difficult in a child so young, no matter how bright she may be. He took a quick peek at the book she was reading, and was struck with inspiration.

"Your book, Brag Men, for example. Most people don't think it's real because it's too different, when really those explorers just experienced very different cultures."

"You mean this is real?" Robin asked in wonder.

"Of course! I know for sure because I've actually been to those places," Clover winked at Robin as she stared at him again, the amazement clearly written all over her face.

"Now back to your question. There are some civilizations that made round houses because they were afraid of demons attacking them, and their religion told them that demons could strike from corners. I don't think that is the case for Ohara." He paused dramatically.

"Why?" Robin asked.

"Because of the very tree you're sitting in, my dear! The Tree of Knowledge is over a thousand years old, and has been storing books for at least that long. If you look carefully, the round houses of Ohara almost look like tree trunks, don't you think?" Clover exclaimed as he gestured to the library that surrounded him.

Robin complimented this for a while before slowly nodding her head in agreement. The professor grinned and ruffled her hair.

"I'll tell you a secret Robin. That's just my best guess; even I don't know for sure why we have round houses, or why other places don't. But if we study hard enough and long enough, there is no secret that can't be solved. We are blessed enough to be surrounded by knowledge, just waiting to be learned." Robin just nodded again as she at the library around her with wide eyes.

"Is that what you do Professor?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, I try to untangle the web of history through the texts that have survived. We archeologists believe that the mysteries of the past hold the keys to the future."

"My mom's an archeologist," Robin whispered.

"Yes she is," Clover said sagely, "right now she's out on the ocean doing very important work."

"Then I want to be one, too!" she exclaimed, looking up to him with a sudden desperation, "I want to learn, and figure things out and…and go out to the sea!"

"I understand, Robin. But know this, being an archeologist is very difficult and takes a lot of time," Robin seemed to droop at his words, but Clover reached down and lift her head back up, "I didn't say it was impossible, my dear, just very, very hard. I believe that you are a smart enough girl that if you stay dedicated you can do whatever you want."

"Really?" she asked, voice full of uncertainty.

"Yes, I really do," he replied before pulling her into an impromptu hug. After a moment's hesitation, Robin hugged back, grabbing on as if Clover were a life preserver.

Neither of them cried, although Clover's vision did cloud uncomfortably for a moment. After a while she let go, and gave him a shaky smile, which he returned whole heartedly. After discussing the concept of culture some more, he took her hand and showed her some different books that might interest her. She picked a few, and then returned to her home, and he went back to his desk to finish his work.

Unsurprisingly, some of the other archeologists were already there, giving him knowing looks.

"What?" he asked, attempting to pretend he had no idea why they were all gathered.

"Archeologist, huh? A little young, don'cha think?" Busshiri drawled.

"I am not going to deny anyone's search for knowledge, whether they are one or one hundred. I see nothing wrong with teaching her; it's not as if I expect the girl to take her exams tomorrow. If anything we should be glad the youth are taking such a vested interest in the past." Clover's coworkers continued to stare at him, knowing that his interest in Robin was deeper than he let on.

"Don't you all have work to do, or something!" he snapped. The other archeologists rolled their eyes at their eccentric leader before continuing their research.

None of them, not even Clover, fully understood Robin's genius. None of them expected Robin to come back the next day, mostly finished with her books, asking intelligent and thoughtful questions.

None of them expected her to come back the day after that either and they were all surprised when she asked if she could permanently check out a dictionary so she could look up any words she didn't know.

None of them expected her to become the youngest scholar in history, or to score a perfect score on her exam. None of them thought she could fully master a dead language by the age of eight, without any help.

But she did. Clover didn't know it, but the day he answered her one little question he lit a nearly unquenchable dream to not only learn, but to understand.

However, that was the future. Right now she was just a little girl who wanted to know the difference between round and square houses.

AN: In Robin's back story, most of the houses are indeed circular. It's probably just Oda making each place unique, but I thought it was cool that he put such detail into stuff like that. I always wanted an SBS question about it, never got one, but it does make for some fun speculation. I saw a documentary where there was a group of people that had round houses so that demons couldn't hide in the corners, and another where demons couldn't turn sharp corners so their houses were full of them. Funny how that works, huh?

Also, I left Robin's age in this intentionally vague. There's a couple of panels in the manga dedicated to Clover telling her the library's cool, and she looks pretty young, and I figured that she would have discovered what an archeologist was shortly after. It's kind of hard to write kid Robin, because she's a frikkin' genius, but she's also a child. Still adorable, though.

Let me know what you think.