a/n - Hi everyone! Sorry to be a pain, but if you read this story and have any feedback or anything at all to say, please do leave a review :) I've been really nervous about posting this because it's been so long since I've written anything and I'm really not sure if this is any good, so reviews are really helpful in motivating me to continue! Thanks :)
"I'm surprised I haven't run into you more here, Sanji-san," said Robin as the pair walked up the steps into the aquarium bar after they'd fed the fish on the second floor deck. "I come here quite often."
"Ah, well, it's rare I get to come down and watch them after I've fed 'em, y'know? As much as I like to." Watching the fish in the aquarium reminded him of the All Blue. It really soothed him. "I never knew you spent a lot of time down here, Robin-chan," he added. Had he known, he'd have spent a hell of a lot more time there, himself, that was for certain. "What brings you?"
Robin stared up at the tank that engulfed the entire room, always in awe of it no matter how many times she saw it. Franky really was a phenomenal architect and builder. "Something about watching the fish… the water… the plants swaying… it's just so…"
"Soothing," they both said, in unison.
They both laughed, and she looked over at him, still smiling. The longer she held her tenure as a Mugiwara, and the more she got to know Sanji, she felt increasingly sure that they were more alike than she ever anticipated they would be. There was much more to him than she gave him credit for when they first met, and she harbored regrets about taking so long to recognize that. "'Great minds,' right?"
"So the saying goes," he began, grinning. "But, Robin-chwan, how could I ever hope to have a mind as great as yours~?" he added with a wistful sigh.
She playfully nudged his elbow with hers. "I think you do pretty well for yourself, Sanji-san."
Sanji could hardly believe his ears. A compliment to his intellect from Robin was absolutely unthinkable. He met her eyes, checking for any hint of sarcasm, but it seemed like she was being entirely sincere. "I gotta say, coming from you, there's no higher praise," he beamed.
The two of them walked closer to the glass, letting the scene wash over them for a few moments. There was no silence quite as comfortable as the ones she would share with Sanji. "Want to know a secret?" she added finally, throwing him a sideways glance.
"From you? Nothing would make me happier, Robin-chwan~" He'd said things like that to her before, of course, but there was no denying that the prospect of her confiding in him in such a way was a very welcome one. So, he certainly meant it in a much more serious manner than his delivery implied.
"I like to name them," she confessed, smiling at the denizens of the tank. "Maybe embellish a few details here and there about their potentially storied lives."
"That so?" his smile widened. In a way he couldn't quite explain, he found this new information to be… darling. "So, when are you gonna introduce me?"
She laughed, pleasantly surprised by his warm reception to information she thought would have surely perturbed anyone else. "That's Gertrude," she began, pointing to a sturgeon. "And that's Ben," she then pointed to a smaller sturgeon following not far behind. "He follows her around the tank all day long, I don't think I've ever seen him without her. He's completely smitten, but Gertrude… she's quite shy and aloof, sometimes sends him mixed signals. They're a complicated pair."
"Not giving up, is he?" Sanji said, smiling as he watched the pair. "Sounds like my kind of fish." He leaned in a bit closer to the tank, hoping to make her laugh. "You got this, Benny. She'll come around."
It worked. His particular sense of humor had always been her favorite. "A bit of encouragement certainly can't hurt, I'm sure he's tried everything." Her eyes wandered to one of the far corners of the tank, suddenly remembering something. "Let's see if we can find Agatha." She made her way over to the corner she was eyeing, kneeling on the seat of the bench in front of the tank. Sanji followed, and they peered into the tank, shoulder to shoulder. "She's usually right around here… ah! There! Behind those rocks." She leaned into him a bit as she pointed to a lobster slowly emerging from its home. "Her husband, Felix, died a suspiciously mysterious death not long ago and left her a fortune," she said in hushed tones, as if she might disturb Agatha through the glass.
"Mysterious, eh?" Sanji began, trying not to let their closeness distract him. "Oi, this wouldn't have anything to do with the lobster bisque I made the other week, would it?" he added, mock-thoughtful.
"Potentially. They're still investigating, so, time will tell." They were both able to contain their laughter right up until their eyes met.
Robin turned her attention back to the tank, but Sanji did not. She was pointing out more fish and crustaceans to him, and as much as he wanted to pay attention to something she so clearly enjoyed, he found he could not. His eyes traveled down from hers to her neck and collarbone, her high ponytail exposing the thin strap of her deep blue tea-dress as it slid off her shoulder.
"I can stop anytime," she said finally, smiling at him. "There's a lot of fish in here." She didn't take his lack of attention personally. To be honest, she hadn't expected him to humor her at all, so she was already quite content. She just figured there was something on his mind, and she knew the feeling all too well, so who was she to judge him for losing a bit of focus?
He offered her a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, Robin-chwan. I just… something… I got reminded of something."
"It's perfectly fine, Sanji-san," she assured him. Whatever it was, she wouldn't press the matter. It was a kindness he often offered to her, and she was more than happy to extend it to him this time around.
She gave the back of his hand a reassuring tap with her slender fingers before getting up and heading to the center of the room once more. He followed, standing beside her, and the two of them shared another comfortable silence that was all too familiar to them both.
Sanji kept glancing at her, noticing things, like how her eyes matched the ethereal blue glow of the tank that filled the room. He suddenly felt a very intense need for a cigarette, and he would soon figure out why.
He reached into his pocket, slowly pulling out the pack and bringing a cigarette to his lips. Once lit, he took a very long, slow drag, keeping his eyes fixed on the tank.
"You keep thinking about it, too, don't you?" This was a gamble that, if lost, could go very wrong. He was projecting confidence, but he actually didn't know if this was true at all (or even close to being true). He just had a gut feeling: the same feeling that told him he was meant to be a chef, the same feeling that told him to trust Luffy and join the Mugiwaras, the same feeling that lead the two of them here, to this very room together.
Robin, shocked, immediately turned to look at him. His eyes were completely obscured by his hair, both hands were in his pockets, and he wouldn't look at her. She couldn't get much of a read on him at all, other than that he seemed deadly serious.
How… she thought,
does he know?
"Sanji-san, I… I don't think I know what you mean…" she lied.
He softly smiled. "I think…" he said, taking a drag from his cigarette, "you do." Finally, he brought his eyes to hers.
The seriousness she noted earlier was still there in his eyes as she looked in them, taking her aback somewhat. If she'd truly been found out, was there any use in keeping up the facade? Well, her walls could stay up, at the height and strength she'd grown accustomed to and comfortable with. She wouldn't have to worry about what lied beyond them. That was useful.
Or was it?
"You'll have to forgive me," she began, looking away, almost ashamed, surrendering herself to the safety and protection of those walls. "I'm really not quite–"
Just then, in a flash so fast she hardly had time to register what was happening, she felt her right hand being pulled upward, coming to rest on his chest. His heart. The reverberations were so fast, so intense…
It sounded just like hers.
They were both looking down at her hand, cradled by his. There were a million and one things Sanji could have said to try to get her to understand, to try to get her to acknowledge the connection he knew in his gut was there, but as he ran them all down in his head, none of them seemed quite right.
So, he thought, why not just… show her?
Slowly, in unison, their eyes raised and met each other. And, just as slowly, Robin reached out with her other hand for his, bringing it to her own chest. Her own heart.
They stood there for a time, neither of them could have quantified how long. They stood there as the soft blue light washed over them, listening and feeling, eyes fixed on one another.
It was after this indeterminate amount of time that Sanji felt his body start to move. One foot slowly in front of the other, inching closer to her while the hand he had over her heart started to move upward. The closer his body got to hers, the higher up his hand migrated, fingers over her neck, brushing past her ear, finally stopping at the back of her head, just as he'd gotten close enough to almost touch his forehead with hers.
"I just… can't stop thinking about the way you looked at me when you touched me…" he said quietly, averting his eyes from hers for the first time since he decided to reach out and make that gut-felt connection a reality, "the way your hand felt… all goddamn week I just…"
The "Love-cook" and all of his grandiose declarations of love and adoration had been pushed aside in favor of a Sanji who was almost overwhelmed by feelings of sincere affection.
Robin had been eerily silent throughout all this. On one hand, Sanji was starting to feel like he was getting somewhere with this gamble of his, but her silence still left him with some doubts. So, as his voice trailed off, he paused there, hoping she would just… give him something, anything, to work with.
Robin could feel the her walls starting to crumble.
Strangely, there was something, (maybe it was the serenity of the tank, putting her under a spell of tranquility and boldness that she never would have experienced otherwise, maybe it was the feeling of Sanji's fingertips as they traced her neck, or maybe it was all the wine she'd had earlier on an empty stomach…) some feeling, something that lulled her, told her to go against everything that logic and sensibility would have had her do, told her that maybe, just maybe, she might want to know what lied beyond those walls.
Slowly, Robin's hand traveled upward from his chest, over his neck, past his chin, and gently plucked the cigarette from his lips, effortlessly flicking it away with a single finger, never breaking her gaze from his. All the while, she'd been steadily closing the modicum of distance that had been left between them, until her lips were over his, softly brushing against them, and finally –
"I'm tellin' ya, Franky, this is foolproof."
Voices. Voices approaching the aquarium bar.
"Usopp, it ain't gonna work."
And, just like that, the spell was broken. Quickly, she tore herself away, distancing herself, a practice she was all too familiar with. Her eyes were on the tank, but she wasn't actually looking at it, or any of its inhabitants. Her stare was vacant.
Sanji shoved his hands back in his pockets, facing the tank, but only able to look at the floor.
"Nonsense! You're so good at this kinda thing! Just th–" Usopp stopped abruptly as he noticed the pair. "Ah, just what I needed! A second opinion!"
Usopp had never heard of the phrase 'read the room.'
"All I'm asking for is a metal suit of armor, a really cool, strong one that can deflect everything. It can be my new superhero persona. Imagine how helpful I'll be to the crew when I'm impervious to death! Everyone wins!"
"And I'm saying that if I make the type of thing he's asking for, his puny bones would not be able to support it and he'd be SU-PER~ dead."
Usopp let out an exasperated sigh. "Back me up here, Sanji."
Shitty Usopp, Sanji thought. Shitty Franky. Shit, shit, shit, SHIT.
Sanji said nothing. His eyes never left the floor.
"Sanji? Robin? C'mon, I'll be so cool. I can be like… Metal Guy. Metal King… something metal… we'll workshop the name."
Robin finally turned to face the pair, forcing a polite smile. "I'm sorry, Usopp-kun," she began, making her way to leave. "I think you'll surely die," she was still smiling as she left. "Goodnight, you two."
Franky laughed as Usopp still tried to make his case, despite this little setback. Sanji was still deadly silent as he listened to her footsteps ascend.