Title: Stimulant Abuse
Fandom: One Piece
Characters: Principally Robin and Luffy, but the rest of the crew appears as well.
Words: 1612
Prompt: Luffy tries some of Robin's coffee.
Rating: G
Warnings: Nothing, really, unless the presences of Brook, Franky, and the Thousand Sunny will spoil anyone.
Author's Note: Apologies to all who truly enjoy black coffee-I think it tastes nasty without copious amounts of milk and/or creamer and sugar. XP
Robin prepared to sit down for an evening of reading, everything just so. She was alone in the aquarium bar, seated on the comfortable peripheral bench in the soft blue light of the giant fish tank mixed with the brighter artifical lighting, a combination she found less tiring to her eyes over extending reading periods. Sanji had sent down a cup of her favorite coffee in the lift with a small insulated pot that contained a bit more of the beverage besides, if she should want it. Best of all, she had a new book obtained the last time the crew had docked, and she was very much looking forward to losing herself in the yellowed pages.
The door suddenly slammed open, accompanied by a cheerful exclamation of, "Hey, Robin! Watcha doing?" Luffy ambled into the room and flopped down on the bench a short distance away.
"Reading," she informed him, though she suspected she may not get the opportunity to do much of that now that the captain was here. She hoped she didn't sound dismayed by his presence because she really did admire the would be Pirate King. If nothing else, he certainly always managed to be entertaining in his own right.
"Oh." He lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "Don't mind me."
Robin was certain he had the best intentions of not disturbing her-Luffy only ever had the best of intentions. However, she knew the young man was not known for being able to amuse himself in a quiet manner. Sure enough, he was soon scooting around on the bench surface, giggling at the squeaky sounds the leather made, making faces only a rubber person could and strange noises at the residents of the fish tank, and humming to himself while clapping his sandal-clad feet together. It was only a matter of time before he forgot all about leaving her alone to read and started a conversation, so Robin closed her book only a few pages in and raised her coffee to her lips.
"Say, Robin, can I ask you something?" There it was. She felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a slight smile.
"Certainly, Captain-san."
"Can I try some of your coffee?"
Robin was momentarily caught off guard. She had been expecting a question about some odd bit of trivia that had caught the captain's roaming fancy, maybe even an inquiry about her past before joining the crew, but she hadn't expected this!
"I'm not sure you'd like it." She preferred her coffee strong and black; there would be nothing to appease Luffy's sweet tooth or any of his favorite flavor, meat. It was also true that the exuberant boy had no need for the stimulant properties of caffeine. On the other hand, perhaps a taste would keep him away from the beverage in the future. Just a little couldn't cause too much harm, could it?
Decision made, she offered her cup. "You may have a sip-"
"Thanks!" Before she had even finished speaking, Luffy had stretched out his arm, snatched the cup away, and tossed back the whole thing in one shot.
For a few brief seconds, Robin thought he may not have tasted it at all, but then Luffy's cheery grin crumpled into an expression of disgust. He stuck out his tongue and spoke around it. "Eeew, Lobin! Zass iggy..."
"I suppose it is a bit of an acquired taste."
"I don't like it," Luffy declared, "but now I want something to get the taste out of my mouth!" He dashed from the room shouting, "Sanji! I want meat!"
Before the door swung shut again, Robin caught the cook's response. "No! Wait until morning!"
She finished the first chapter of her book and the rest of her coffee, then she decided to head off to bed for a few hours sleep before she was scheduled to take the second half of the night watch. There seemed to be a lot of noise coming from the men's quarters as she was heading up the stairs. Nami stomped out of their shared room and met her on the middle of the stairway. Robin followed her back down.
"What's all that racket?" the navigator demanded, hands on her hips. "Some of us would like to get some sleep around here!" When there was no immediate reply, she pounded on the door. "Answer me!"
Chopper appeared behind them; he'd come down from his watch post to see what all the commotion was about. He stayed back a few paces, frightened by Nami's often violent wrath.
Finally, the door opened a crack to reveal a frazzled Usopp. "It's Luffy," he explained with a frustrated sigh. "He's been bouncing off the walls-literally!" He opened the door fully, allowing them to see that the captain truly was ricocheting off every available surface, laughing merrily all the while. Franky and Zoro were busy trying to corral Luffy into a corner, or at least grab ahold of him, without any success. Brook was sitting dejectedly with Sanji.
"I don't understand it!" Brook lamented, staring at the violin in his hands. "My lullaby attack has never failed me before..."
"We didn't have a sugary dessert this evening," Sanji mused aloud. "I didn't notice any food missing before I locked up the galley, either. Where could he have found something that would have this effect?"
Robin sprouted a dozen extra arms from the ceiling and snagged Luffy on his next pass, pinning him down. He wriggled in her grasp, practically vibrating with pent up energy. She also slapped a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet for a few moments.
"It was me," she confessed. "I let him have some of my coffee." They all gaped at her.
"Oh, Robin," Nami said with a slow shake of her head. Robin was taken aback by her tone. It was one she'd heard the other woman use on many occasions, but it had never been directed at her. It was the tone she used to reprimand the boys whenever they did something particularly stupid with good intentions that came back to haunt them.
Zoro cocked a thumb at the rubber boy on the ceiling and asked incredulously, "You let that guy have coffee?"
"I only meant to let him try a sip." She hated how defensive she thought she sounded. She was much more used to being on the other side of conversations like these. She didn't make stupid mistakes!
"Oh, Robin," Nami repeated.
There was a long awkward moment where they all gawked at her some more before they turned their attention to Luffy.
"It's got to wear off eventually, right?" Usopp asked rhetorically.
"Someone's going to have to watch him until then to make sure he doesn't do anything too crazy," Sanji pointed out.
"And to make sure he doesn't hurt himself when he finally crashes," Zoro agreed. No one decided to point out that they were actually getting along-there was a bigger concern at the moment.
"I'll do it." Everyone stared at her again. "I was responsible, so I'll take care of the consequences."
"Robin is so lovely and selfless!" Sanji crooned.
"She's just cleaning up her own mess, not making some kind of noble sacrifice," Zoro grumbled, glaring at the swooning cook.
"Don't you dare talk bad about her!" The moment of cooperation had passed.
"Bros, we just got it calmed down in here!" Franky reprimanded them but was ignored.
Before she could get caught up in the scuffle clearly about to break out, Robin dragged the captain out the door via a trail of arms.
"Are you sure about this, Robin?" Nami asked. "You don't have to."
"It will be fine," she assured her friend. "Doctor, do you mind if we switch watches? I'm sure the situation will have resolved itself by then."
"Okay," Chopper agreed, then he scurried off to help break up the fight before anything, furniture or limbs, got broken.
Robin somehow managed to impress upon Luffy the need for relative quiet, and he managed to keep his laughter somewhat suppressed. She kept him busy for a short time searching the deck for hidden eyes and hands. He swung on the swing for a while, seeing how far he could jump from it and actually managing to get it to swing all the way around the branch once. They even spent a few relatively calm moments identifying constellations. However, everything seemed to eventually revert back to the young man running circuits around the open deck space at remarkable speeds.
Robin was beginning to worry that his metabolism must have been so changed by his unusual Devil Fruit that he might be affected far longer than a normal person when he suddenly stopped mid-stride and fell over onto the lawn deck, snoring softly. She ferried him off to bed, finally.
The next morning at breakfast, everything appeared to be back to normal. Robin contentedly sipped her coffee and read more of her book among the usual background noise of a Straw Hat Pirate meal.
"Coffee tastes really bad," Luffy anounced, off-hand, "but last night was really fun. Could I try some more, Robin?"
The room fell dead slient.
"No," Robin answered calmly, not once looking up from her reading.
"Fine..." Luffy only pouted for a moment before he noticed an unclaimed piece of bacon and all else was forgotten. The others sighed in relief.