"Wish I could have seen you grow up." Robin leaning against Sano. "Would be...interesting. If I was the girl next door."
Sano could see a twinkle in her eyes, he could only chuckle at first thought.
"Oh?"
"At least that way we wouldn't have been alone, and I could have kicked your ass when you picked up booze."
He couldn't help but laugh at the idea, "Yeah I could see how that would work out. However don't you think we'd different people though?"
Robin tilts her head, "True, life experiences do shape us into who we are. But," she grins, "I think we still retain base traits so we'd still be at least be similar."
"Besides," Robin's voice dropping into seductive mode, "How could you turn away a beautiful woman like me away? You may not be able to see it as a child, but you'd understand eventually."
"Is that how it would be?" Sano trying to stifle a mischievous grin.
"Of course." Robin now exuding confidence.
"And if I didn't?" His grin breaking through.
"Oh, I'd just make you see it, and you wouldn't be able to resist."
"I see." His face becoming serious, "But lets face it, what about other women that'd fall for this sexy body?"
A hard glint in Robin's eyes, "Heh, I'm not a woman to be scorned, they'd learn the hard way."
And that's all it took for Sano to burst out laughing.
"Something amuses you?" Pasting on a playful smirk.
"Yeah you." Sano tapped the end of her nose with a finger.
But his mirth died down as he seemed to have a longing expression in his eyes.
"Makes me wish that were the case, I woulda saved my innocence for something like that."
Robin's heart fluttering at his claim, but saddened at the same time.
"I guess that's to be expected, as you said how can someone resist your sexy body."
"But that's all it ever was, I was used and I'd use them. It was no different from me eating or sleeping. Simple as letting a dog off it's chain. Especially as a hormonal teen, the idea was novel at first, but it got old quickly and I became indifferent."
"I guess honestly there was probably a part of me that wondered if the physical contact would bring me back to life, but it was all lust and delusions."
"Never fell in love?"
Sano shakes his head, "Not even a relationship, I simply didn't have anything to give, my heart had stopped when my family died."
"I'll tell you this story because I think it ties in with the rest and one of the things that shaped me to who I am now. And I think you deserve to know about it. But if you want me to stop you'd only need to say so."
Robin nods not sure where the conversation was leading.
"Truthfully...the closest thing I had to a relationship with a woman was actually with my first. She was a pretty little thing I give her that much. It was actually her I asked to buy me booze, thinking my odds were higher if I asked a female."
Robin's expression had gone dark.
"Yeah I know, she was probably a bad influence on me instead of being responsible."
"For some reason only known to her, she suddenly asked if I'd ever been with a woman before. I simply answered no. I could only guess that maybe she thought I was cute or saw me as broken goods and was going to take advantage of that fact. I believed it to be the broken goods theory."
"She said that she was going to teach me how to please a woman, it was her ultimate goal. But before she would we had to make a promise."
Robin's eyebrows rising at such a bold and never heard of idea.
"We promised that if either one of us started to develop feelings then we'd go our separate ways and never see each other again."
"Needless to say, I did learn about women from her, especially when it was something my body was reacting to on it's own, and I certainly didn't have anyone to talk to about it. At least I have her to thank for that."
"I eventually ended up giving her a spare key to my house, as long as she never brought anyone over and didn't do anything to compromise the integrity of the house. She stayed a lot, sometimes coming in late at night smelling like another man."
Expression completely neutral Sano continues, "Later down the road I noticed she'd stay out more often, usually coming back smelling like another man, but still crawling into my bed and asking me to fulfill her needs. 'Til one day she was standing at the front door handing me the key, I figured she'd moved onto something better so I only shrugged at it. But the look she gave me said differently.
She admitted that she was going out sleeping with other men trying to forget me, but she kept coming back and continuing her destructive cycle. Now she was going to fulfill the promise we made over a year ago because she developed feelings. The last thing she said before she left was that she originally saw me as a challenge, but realized that she wasn't the woman who could make me alive again."
"I can never figure out why should would fall for me, even I knew how cold I was, the only affection I gave was when I eventually cuddled with her in bed. But then I thought about it and realized that besides my indifferent position I never chased her, I never got mad at her, I didn't ever hurt her, I didn't even think of her as a piece of ass even when that was the whole idea. I simply treated her like anyone else which was both what attracted and pushed her away. I never once opened up to her or anyone else for that matter."
"Sex became a physical means to an end, and that's it. But I've been tired of living that way for a long time." He sighs.
Robin felt anger towards the woman in the story, for allowing Sano to slip further away from humanity. Feeling jealousy that she'd taken away his innocence, and then hatred for her sleeping with other men when he was available to her at any time. He may not have been as fine as a specimen compared to now, but he still had to have had a delicious body and smile.
Sano leans down his head, his breath causing Robin's ear to tingle and turn red.
"I'll tell you a secret though."
Robin gulps, "What is it?"
His voice had become a low rumble, "I never kissed a woman till you stole my lips earlier today."
Her body froze, face flushing turning as red as a tomato.
"N-n-no way." She gasps.
"It's true." He chuckles into her ear.
It was a hidden silver lining, Robin couldn't believe it. Even with his teenage years being promiscuous and however many other women he'd been with, he'd never kissed someone.
After staring at Robin holding onto the chestnut haired man, Sanji had walked in the galley, finally understanding why the intercoms were turned on with the sight of Nami silently crying on the couch. Normally he would have rushed over to comfort the woman, but his mind was busy trying to sort it's self out and dealing with his own mix of emotions.
The only thing he could think of to help his thought process was to cook something, which made his decision to go to the galley instead of attempting to go back to sleep.
With practiced ease be began creating a soup that would comfort the nearby woman and hopefully himself.
Disembodied voices finally began to float through the galley again.
Nami couldn't agree more with Robin as she told him it wasn't his fault for the death of his sisters, it was an accident after all. Something that just happened for no apparent reason and this one had a tragic ending. That was what probably set him apart from everyone else. Most of the Straw-Hat crew were on the receiving end of someone's selfish desires, or arrogant belief they were correct. They had a face to hate, a name to despise, a way to get revenge if willing to. Whereas Sano had nothing but death, and he in turn became angry at himself, it was as he said, self destructive.
Nami was surprised at the coy bantering that passed between the man and woman. But it did make her wonder what it would be like to be in the 'girl next door' scenario as a certain male's grin popped up in her head.
Sanji started chopping as loud as he possibly could as if trying to drown out what was going on up top, teeth gritting in frustration. Zoro had been observing the man as he came in, for once he wasn't a reason for the cook's dilemma, and wondering how many less fights there will be between them in the very near future.
Zoro began to smirk as Sano continued to spill his past as if he were a broken dam and couldn't stop the flow.
'Now that's an interesting way to experience women for the first time.' His smirk becoming wider as he thought about it and put himself in that same position.
Nami's jaw dropped at the bold behavior, she couldn't ever think of hearing such a thing.
'Are women THAT much different in his world compared to here?'
She began to shake her head, 'How could you do that? Sleep with other men like it was nothing. But to use it as a means to forget an emotional link that was forming? Isn't that more painful?'
Sanji could only see red, he had forced himself to stop chopping otherwise he'd ruin the knife with how hard he was using the blade.
Nami suddenly gasped, the cook turning to look at her.
"Something wrong?"
"H-he's never kissed a woman before." Shell shocked at the news.
The cigarette between Sanji's lip fell to the floor, "How is that even remotely possible with his evil domination over women?"
"Heh, he's probably lying." Zoro grins over at the cook, earning an angry glare from orange haired woman. She knew Zoro was throwing a proverbial rotten egg at Sanji, especially with the fact that everyone knew about the earlier kiss while Sanji was still left in the dark. Nami was right, Zoro was merely egging the man on because that's just what he did. He knew Sano had no reason to lie.