Unsettled
Robin had learnt to trust her instincts to tell her when something was up and they were currently insisting that, although things hadn't gone wrong yet, there was a good chance it would happen in the immanent future. It was a faint sense of tension tickling the back of her neck, a culmination of dozens of tiny cues that added up to not quite right. And it was something to do with Fox. Actually, Robin suspected it had more to do with Lisska, daughter of Dracule Mihawk, than Fox the Straw-Hat pirate. Had she perhaps received some news that she would ordinarily have responded to, but couldn't due to being on the crew? Was there something someone on the crew had done that she didn't agree with? Was she just nervous about being close to home? Or was it just the constant close quarters getting to her? Fox was a far more solitary person than anyone else on the Thousand Sunny; she preferred to let things happen around her than actually participate and frequently retreated to her cabin or workshop when the crew got rowdy in the evenings. If Fox –Lisska– was anything like her father she likely felt smothered and stifled by being on a ship as small as the Sunny with people as loud and extrovert as the Straw-Hats.
She seemed to manage her nature well though: Fox could generally be found watching Zoro lift weights, sitting somewhere out of the way on deck with some sewing project or going through series after series of graceful martial arts stances in the aquarium bar. Fox had mentioned to Franky that the massive wrap-around fish tank reminded her of home, and she was generally there if she wasn't with Zoro or on deck. When Fox was training in the aquarium bar the rest of the crew tended to either avoid it or watch quietly; it was both incredibly graceful and highly intimidating to see the white-haired woman slowly flow through form after form without pause for hours on end. Not even the pitch and roll of the ship in bad weather could disrupt her practice sessions; she only stopped for meals or if all hands were called on deck to change the sails.
Robin had watched Fox practice as the Sunny was tossed by serpent currents, her grace unhindered by the irregular bounce and roll of the ship around her; it led the archaeologist to wonder why the younger woman was practicing so hard. Was she worried about her reception when she met her mother on Sabaody? Or was there something else?
Robin suspected it was something else, but had no proof. Fox talked most to Zoro, who despite being friendly with the archaeologist would never share his lover's secrets so lightly. Pinning down the woman herself for a heart-to-heart was practically impossible and the only other person Fox chatted to was Sanji, who held all females sacred and would not share secrets one such goddess had asked him to keep to himself.
The archaeologist put together what she knew: Fox had started behaving slightly off when Beastie the sea iguana came on board, back when she'd been left to watch over the ship on Thriller Bark. The oddness had increased after she and Zoro woke and only gotten worse the more time passed. Some of it was just the incredible creepiness that was Fox and Zoro's newfound reciprocal awareness, but not all. If it hadn't been blatantly obvious that assassin and swordsman were head over heels in love with each-other Robin would have thought Fox was pining after someone.
When the Red Line finally came into view ahead of them, Zoro wrapped an arm around Fox' waist and leant his head against her shoulder, enjoying the way he could feel her blood under her skin and the warmth suffusing her muscles after her six hour workout in the bar on the deck level. He knew the Red Line was a place that roused incredibly conflicting feelings in his lover's heart: far below them on the sea bed was Fishman Island, the place she still called home, but above them was Mariejois, where Fox had been beaten, broken and shattered then forged anew in blood and death and vengeance. Then there were her concerns regarding Ace; Zoro had seen the newspaper article one of Fox' contacts had sent her regarding Fire-Fist's arrest and had wanted to show it to the captain at once, but Fox had talked him out of it. She'd pointed out that Luffy had known Ace was in some kind of trouble but decided against helping him without even trying to find out more: a poor decision all round. She'd reassured the swordsman that there were plenty of people who'd be helping Ace –Fox included– even if Luffy didn't find out what was going on until the last minute.
"There are a lot of very scary people who would move mountains for the Hothead," she told him, "Even if he never asked them to. I'm doing all I can making sure everybody who would want to help knows and getting people in touch with each-other, but so long as he's in Impel Down it really isn't practical to mount a rescue." She paused. "Not that we couldn't, of course, but doing so would limit the number of people who could join in."
Reassured that Luffy's brother didn't actually need the Straw-Hats to rush to his rescue just yet, Zoro had left his captain to his ignorance. It didn't feel right, but he agreed with Fox that making mistakes was part of learning. As soon as Nami got her hands on a newspaper she would find out about Ace' impending execution, so it wasn't like they would be delaying for very long.
Luffy knew Fox wasn't happy about his decision not to try and rescue Ace, probably because Ace was Fox' nakama as well and she didn't like the idea of him being in danger without someone sensible to bail him out. He had considered telling her she could borrow the Vivre Card and go after Ace by herself, but seeing how she and Zoro were now having entire conversations almost without moving a muscle and occasionally behaving like one person split between two bodies the rubberman had decided against it. If Fox went Zoro would be unbalanced by her absence and Fox would be off-balance as well, which was not a good way to be when you were trying to rescue someone. If Ace was really in trouble they would have heard about it by now.
In which numerous poor decisions are made and people fail to communicate.