AN: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Hey! Today you're getting Chapter Two, so hope you enjoy it! ^_^


Chapter Two – A Glimpse of the Past

Robin frowned at the glass jar of cheap instant coffee gripped tightly in her hand. She silently watched the taller, leaner man walking confidently down her garden path. His narrower hips still taunted her mind as she walked around the shop. She sighed, wishing that she could get his final words out of her mind. Zoro belonged to someone else now. She couldn't argue, but she couldn't help but feel confused and disappointed. Maybe she really had been right to turn him away?

She had thought that the idea of Zoro being genuinely gay had just been a spur of the moment idea to save her job; how could she have been so wrong? He had told her that he loved her, so he could not be gay, could he? A gay boy could not develop such a strong crush on his female teacher. He had felt something for her; she was sure at least that much was genuine. She nodded firmly to herself and placed the jar into her shopping basket.

Zoro wasn't gay – he was just one of the other different sexualities...Which one was he?

She pursed her lips as she silently lectured herself. It was none of her business what his sexuality was. It didn't affect him as a person or her personally. He was still the same boy as he was then. She didn't need to give him some sort of label. It didn't change who he was. It's just that she just happened to be the one that had encouraged him to explore the world of sexuality.

It took me months to get him really talking again.

His boyfriend was exaggerating to make her feel guilty. He was trying to make her feel unnecessary guilt to keep her away. If he really did know about everything, then they both knew that Zoro had known that she was engaged. In fact, he'd known the whole time that she'd had a boyfriend. He should have known that they weren't going anywhere. He had no reason to be upset with her; it wasn't her fault. She didn't have anything to feel guilty about concerning Zoro.

So why had it been so hard to walk away?

"Miss Ni-, em, Robin...?" A friendly female voice began, its faltering amusing her greatly.

"Nami, hello." She smiled back as she turned to look at the girl she had seen every weekday until two years ago. In fact, it was nice to be able to finally give someone a genuine smile after several months of forced ones. "You may indeed call me Robin. However, my full name is still Nico Robin."

"So you really didn't get married?" The girl frowned back, her complete change in appearance catching Robin by surprise.

Her orange hair was now brushing her lower back and hung in a sea of waves, rather than in its previous short, straight style. She had even gained an inch or two in height, but the rest of the height increase was an illusion created by a set of tall, strappy, orange wedges. Robin resisted the urge to comment on the girl's now bulging chest. It had been generous during her last year in high school, but now it almost seemed disproportionate in comparison to her tiny waist, not that Robin herself could say anything. Law hadn't even glanced at her chest. She held in her frown, deciding against letting the girl realise her mind was elsewhere.

"No, I took the advice of a dear friend and called it off." She replied, maintaining a warm smile.

"Oh, sorry," Nami began awkwardly, her gaze moving to Robin's shoulder from her eyes, "what happened?"

"A friend told me that my fiancé wasn't the one for me, but it took a year and a room full of colleagues to finally accept what they said." Robin smiled, watching Nami carefully as the girl's gaze dropped lower. "How are your friends?"

"Oh, Sanji and Zoro?" Nami smirked, shaking her head. "Sanji now works fulltime in his dad's restaurant and Zoro was working fulltime at the dojo, but he was actually going house hunting last I heard."

"House hunting?" Robin echoed, increasingly curious as a soft, almost sad smile appeared across Nami's lips.

"Yeah, he's moving away. He did say something to Luffy about being back for a while until him and his boyfriend can move into their new place. I think they're staying at Koshiro's?" Nami explained, finally bringing her eyes back up to Robin's. "His boyfriend has been pretty good for him, you know? I doubt Zoro was your favourite student in the world, but by the end of sixth year, he was actually almost a completely different person. He'd actually started studying and he'd stopped falling asleep in class. He used to be really quiet and reserved, but he'd really started coming out of his shell. I don't know what happened, but after his exams were over, he was worse than ever. He wasn't even arguing with Sanji."

Robin tensed, trying to hide her surprise as Nami's weakening smile suddenly changed to a frown, her brown eyes focused solely on Robin. She glanced down at the coffee jar in her basket, trying to gather her thoughts. She hadn't even had her morning coffee yet and now she'd bumped into Nami of all people. She was good for finding out information from, but if she realised there was something wrong? Robin would have a hard time stopping her from investigating, especially something that involved her friends. She brought her smile back up to meet the girl, trying to look a little puzzled.

"Why would it be surprising for him to not argue with Sanji? I thought the two of them were together?" She offered, hoping Nami would accept her choice of path for their conversation.

"Hahaha, no! It did work surprisingly well, but no." Nami laughed, shaking her head slightly. "Apparently Zoro got into trouble with the Head for flirting with a female teacher, so he shouted – in front of Koshiro of all people – that he was gay and in love with Sanji. Sanji said that as 'flattered' as he was for being the first person to come to mind, he would never go out with a 'marimo like him'. He still went along with it since there was 'a beautiful lady at risk' of course. He never told us who she was though and neither did Zoro."

"Fufufufu, and now we find out Zoro really was gay." Robin replied in forced amusement.

"Oh, I guess...I hadn't really thought about it, but I don't know if he's ever been interested in a girl before. Obviously I'd heard about him getting into trouble for flirting with a teacher, but the idea seems so bizarre? He wasn't really one for talking about things like that, but we all knew he was turning girls away. The idea of him actually being interested in someone?" Nami mused, completely unaware that she was talking about the female teacher in question.

"Perhaps he just prefers older people." Robin offered, trying to keep her smile friendly but free of the amusement and curiosity she truly felt.

"Well, the first I heard of him definitely liking someone was when he brought Law to one of our parties." Nami frowned thoughtfully. "Law is his boyfriend's name by the way!" She suddenly blurted out, making Robin laugh, before she continued. "Law had come to a few parties before, but he'd either come with a couple of his friends or on his own. We all got a surprise when he walked in with his arm over Zoro's shoulder. You should have see Zoro's face! We'd honestly have just thought they were genuinely just friends, sharing some sort of joke, if it hadn't been for how embarrassed Zoro had been!" Nami giggled, a huge grin that had an almost evil look to it across her face. "His face actually managed to get brighter when Law kissed him!"

"Fufufufu, I bet he was very embarrassed, indeed! How did they actually meet?" Robin asked, hoping that it seemed more like she was just continuing a friendly conversation and not interrogating the poor girl.

"Zoro and Law? We all went to one of Zoro's competitions years ago. We hadn't actually really known him long, but Luffy was determined to get him to join us, so he asked Zoro repeatedly what he was doing 'this weekend'. Eventually Zoro cracked and yelled at him that he had a competition. That decided our group plans for that weekend." Nami sighed, her amusement changed in an instant. "Anyway, while we were there, Luffy tried to punch Usoppe on the shoulder and Usoppe dodged it – Luffy's punches really hurt – well, someone just happened to step into the space that Usoppe had just been standing in."

"Luffy just punched a complete stranger? I hope he apologised!" Robin began lecturing, her inner teacher managing to slip out.

"Well, the thing is, this someone just happened to be a six-foot-odd twenty-one year old guy with a katana." She replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "He was taking part in the Men's Over Eighteens it turns out, but, as you guessed, he wasn't particularly happy with Luffy. Anyway, Zoro just happened to find us at that point and told this guy, who was about a foot taller than him, to leave us alone. Koshiro appeared just in time to stop the fight. He got Luffy to apologise and we all just sort of started talking."

"If he was a foot taller than Zoro, how old were all of you?" Robin frowned, trying to hide her surprise.

"Well, Zoro and Sanji were sixteen, but the rest of us were still fifteen." Nami nodded, before her eyes suddenly widened. "Don't worry! I'm sure Law had no interest in Zoro back then! I think it was more of a gradual thing? We kept seeing him at Zoro's competitions, then just after fifth year, Koshiro had him over for a demonstration thing. The two of them really got talking at that, but after Zoro finished high school, Zoro almost completely cut himself off. Law was the one that apparently got him talking again? It was a few months after that that they started actually 'dating'. Their dating is apparently training and then having dinner and a couple of drinks. Law seems like a pretty nice guy, so I'm definitely happy for him...It's just been really...weird since he left to go house hunting."

"Whe-" Robin began, cutting off as a phone began ringing.

"I'll be there in a minute; I just bumped into someone, okay?" Nami soothed as she answered, not even looking to check who had been calling her. She hung up as a rush of worried sounding words began flooding out of her phone and turned back to Robin. "Sorry, Sanji thought something had happened to me. I'd better get back before he checks in again. He wasn't happy when I said I'd save him, but his dad was watching so he didn't have much of a choice." She mused as she dropped her phone back into her bag. "We're all meeting up at his dad's restaurant tonight, if you want to come?"

"I'm not su-"

"Nonsense! I'm sure everyone would love to see you to tell you everything they've been up to!" Nami exclaimed, shaking her head at Robin with a friendly smile. "We'll be there about ten."

"You know what, I think I will." Robin smiled back, laying a hand on Nami's shoulder.

Nami grinned and turned away towards the packed tills. She waved back over her shoulder and quickly found herself at the front of a queue. Robin wasn't going to ask why four guys had just stepped aside to let Nami in front of them. She looked back down at her own basket, the large jar of coffee staring back at her. She lifted her gaze back to the shelf filled with various coffees and found exactly what she was looking for. She picked up a bag of ground roasted coffee beans, ignoring the large jar of instant coffee that she had originally planned to buy. One large jar of instant and one bag of particularly nice coffee beans; why should she not treat herself?

She continued along the aisle, a pleased smile across her lips. She had survived both an encounter with Zoro's boyfriend and one of his closest friends. His boyfriend was a little cold towards her, but Nami had been as friendly as always. Robin was almost looking forward to finding out how the wild group of friends had been and perhaps she could even convince herself that she had done the right thing two years ago. She glanced back over her shoulder just in time to see Nami disappear out the shop doors.

Robin slipped in behind the end of the aisle and smiled to herself. Everything would be fine. She would realise that she had done the right thing turning the boy away two years ago. She wouldn't feel the need to avoid him anymore. She would be able to converse with him as if nothing had ever happened between them. She would get to meet his new boyfriend properly. Then again, this boyfriend wasn't new...and he knew everything. Zoro was in a serious relationship with a man who hated her. Tonight really wasn't a good idea.

Robin walked into the next aisle and tried to focus on her grocery shopping, trying to ignore the potential impending doom.


Hope you enjoyed this! ^_^


Guys, I honestly want to cry...Some of you may know, I've been really ill lately. Sadly, this means it's really difficult to focus and I end up worse if I stare at a screen for too long, just because my body is that drained from being ill. Why am I explaining this when I haven't before now? I was typing up the last review response and I must have hit a wrong button. It deleted everything that I'd added to this document since opening 'edit', which means I now need to rewrite the responses I've just spent over an hour making coherent. I'm really sorry if they don't make sense now, but I'm trying get this to you on time ;-;

crushvox, awww, are your Monday's usually bad? I actually look forward to Mondays! Only because I get to hear from wonderful fellow Zorobin shippers! XD Hahaha, you're welcome, but I had to be prodded out of the downward spiral of 'why is everything I write for this just utter angst?' XD I loved both options, but Law worked better for this and make it seem like Zoro has a type; lean, taller, older dark haired with a dark scene of humour! XD If I'd used Perona, it would have seemed more like he was trying to avoid her and found himself a girl that was the complete opposite of her ^_^ I will try! ^_^ Hope you enjoyed this!

megaME-chwan~, *evil laugh* yes. I'm ecstatic that you're already enjoying this! XD Awww, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to put you into withdrawal! I'm still actually on my 'week off', so I'm only on here to update, but hopefully things will be finally starting to pick up by Monday! :) Hope you liked this chapter too! XD

Robin Roronoa-swan~, hahaha, glad you liked it! XD Hehe, no, no! XD I played with Zoro and Sanji's relationship in 'His Sixth Year Crush', so I'm playing with Robin and Nami's this time! ^_^ Yeah, I know not everyone likes yaoi, so I kept it to a minimum! It's also supposed to focus more on Robin and Zoro's relationship than Zoro and Law's! The closest it get's to yaoi is Law's behaviour at times to 'prove his point', so you really don't need to worry ^_^ *-* *wishes to wrap you up in a giant bear hug* I must have at least done something right for the first chapter! Yay! *\o/* Hope you enjoyed this second one! XD

'Guest', *grinning like the Cheshire Cat* I love everything in your review, it honestly has me grinning like an idiot! XD I agree with you on all points and I'm ecstatic that you liked Zoro's confession so much! XD This wait was a little smaller than usual (it's normally about one week), but I'm very happy to be able to oblige you! XD Sadly Robin and Zoro haven't bumped into each other yet, but they can hardly avoid each other 'tonight', can they?! XD Hope you enjoyed this! XD

'Guest', I know, but that must have been pretty confusing for her too when she was his teacher! ^_^ I'm really glad you liked it though and I hope that they make up too! XD Hope this one appealed to you too! XD


So, the next chapter is called 'Truly Moving' 3;P See you on Monday~! ^_^