a/n - Sorry for the delay! I'm pretty bad with writing action, so this took me a lot longer than normal ;-;
Sanji had been feeling pretty confident about his odds, sure, but never in a million years could he have predicted what Robin had just done. The shock of it all had him frozen stiff, and before he could fully comprehend what was happening, she pulled away, just slightly, their noses touching. He opened his eyes to see hers, locked on to his.
But suddenly, something sprang to life within him. He grinned, one hand reaching up behind her head while the other snaked around her waist, with a swiftness and ease like they'd done this a million times, pulling her into a kiss, pressing his lips to hers with an urgency he didn't even know he had until that moment, the moment he finally tasted her.
Eventually, reluctantly, he had to come up for air. "Robin-chan," he spoke in between kisses, not wanting to leave her lips a moment longer than he had to. "You had me worried for a sec…" he couldn't resist smirking against her lips in self-satisfaction. "You almost said it."
When Robin got no reaction from Sanji, just his frozen shock, she was mortified. Perhaps this had all been some elaborate hallucination and she actually had made a colossal mistake. She was seconds away from storming out of that room, out of that farmhouse, when he pulled her in, and all of her doubts and apprehensions melted away.
She felt his smirk and, despite how utterly intoxicated she was by the feeling of his lips on her own, grew compelled to quell the ego that she was all too familiar with. "I seriously doubt you would have kept up your end of the bargain had I done so," she said softly, holding a finger to his lips once she'd parted from them.
Sanji was somehow able to hide the monumental disappointment he had once her lips left his. "Aw, c'mon," he took her hand and kissed the palm, still grinning. "You saying I'm not a man of my word, Robin-chwan?"
She lightly caressed his cheek with the tips of her fingers, slyly smiling. "I'm saying that your… impulse… may be stronger than your word."
"Oi oi, now you're saying I'm impulsive?" Despite how he was aching on the inside, finding their brief separation almost unbearable, he was still grinning as he pulled her into another kiss; sound, deep and thorough. "Me… impulsive… psh…" he mumbled against her skin incredulously as his lips traveled past her chin, settling on her neck. "Honestly, don't have a clue what you mean," as he said this, the hand at her waist traveled down, defying his words, fingers lightly tracing her thigh as they moved back up, slipping under the hem of her dress, settling at her hip.
Robin let out a soft breath, one hand in his hair, the other at his waist, as a flush rose in her face. "I wonder where I might have gotten that idea from…" Her grip tightened as she felt his teeth graze her neck in a soft bite. "What a mystery this is, Sanji-san."
Her train of thought was disturbed, however, by some very loud noises outside the window.
"Do you hear that?" she said quickly.
"Mm?" his lips were just below her collarbone, now.
"It sounds like yelling. I think it's Luke."
"Probably just yelling at a fox or something…" he mumbled, lips still pressed against her.
"I think we'd better take a look."
"Gimmie ten minutes."
"Sanji-san…"
"Five?"
"I'd really like to check on Luke."
"Robin-chwan," he half-whined into her chest, pouting, holding her close as he could feel her starting to peel herself away.
"It would mean a lot to me if we could just make sure he's all right, Sanji-san," she said, lifting his head in her hands before smoothing out the shoulders of his jacket. She met his eyes with a warm smile.
He sighed happily, despite his obvious disappointment with this turn of events. "I can't say no to you, Robin-chwan~" he said, stealing a kiss from the corner of her lips. "Let's check on ol' Luke, then, shall we?"
The pair hurriedly left the farmhouse, following the sounds of commotion. At the back of the house was a terrified Luke, trembling as he aimed a shotgun at someone in the middle of his field of cabbage.
"I-I'm not afraid to use this! I've dealt with bandits before! So just g-get outta here unless you want a lead sandwich!" he cried out.
The figure was clearly nonplussed, casually turning from left to right, surveying his surroundings and barely noticing Luke was even yelling at him.
Robin turned the corner just then to see all of this, and narrowed her eyes to get a better look at the intruder. Is that…?
"Oi, Robin!" yelled Zoro from the field. "That you? You know this guy? Tell him to put that gun away before I kill him. He's been out here ten minutes pointing that goddamn thing at me and I've warned him twice now."
Sanji, upon seeing this, slapped his forehead so hard he was sure he'd left a mark. "You have GOT to be shitting me," he half-yelled, half-hissed into the sky. This had officially become both the best and worst day of his life.
Robin immediately ran over to Luke, placing a hand on the barrel of his gun. "Please don't shoot! He's a friend." She could not for the life of her imagine how Zoro managed to find his way to such a remote farm, all on his own, and in such record time. It was almost impressive.
"Oh! I'm sorry. I've just had to deal with bandits and vandals and the like before, I got spooked…" said Luke, lowering the shotgun, slightly embarrassed.
"H-hey, try not to step on the produce, please!" he implored as Zoro made his way up to the house through the field.
As the four of them made their way inside, Zoro didn't even acknowledge Sanji was there. Just as well for Sanji, because he was sure to explode at the swordsman if he had.
"Welcome!" said Luke once they were all inside. "Sorry again about earlier," he bowed apologetically. "But, I promise, any friend of Sanji and Robin's is a friend of mine!"
"This place is a dump," said Zoro casually.
"GAH." Still bowing, Luke erupted into tears.
"Now look what you've done! Would it kill you to keep your shitty mouth shut? You think he's blind or something? You forget that the only person lacking depth perception in this goddamn place is YOU?" Sanji was angrier with Zoro than he'd ever been in all his time as a Mugiwara, and, in all honesty, it had very little to do with Luke.
"What's eating him?" Zoro inquired of Robin as he made his way to the kitchen.
Robin had a pretty good idea of what it could be… but she could only offer a half shrug and smile in response.
"DON'T IGNORE ME." Sanji angrily stomped after him while Robin and Luke hurriedly followed after the two.
Zoro glanced at Robin's face, then Sanji's, then Robin's once more. "Where's the sake?"
"Sorry, no sake here!" said Luke. "I've got water if you're thirsty."
"You're lying to me." Zoro was methodically checking every cupboard.
Luke, puzzled as to why someone would lie about having sake, scratched his head. "No, sorry, th—"
"Robin's had some. Look at her face."
Suddenly, Robin was very aware of three sets of eyes intently trained onto her face. She caught her reflection in a mirror on the wall, and her eyes widened in shock. The flush in her face hadn't subsided at all. Her lips were crimson, and slightly more pronounced. In all of the hustle and bustle, she hadn't been able to fix her hair, and it was very, very disheveled.
Mortified, she immediately turned away, hastily trying to do something about the state of her hair. "N-no, Luke is correct. There's no sake here. This is… I had a hot shower earlier… spent a little too long in there, I suppose." It was a terrible excuse, but it would have to do.
Zoro made a low, contemplative grunting noise as he pondered this explanation. Sake was, after all, a serious matter and merited serious thought. "Fine," he said finally, allowing Robin to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Did Nami-san send you to look for us?" asked Robin, desperate to change the subject.
"Nope. I was in town with them, then… next thing I know I'm surrounded by cabbage in who-fucking-knows-where with some guy pointing a gun in my face."
"I'm surprised you can find your own ass to wipe, marimo," Sanji scoffed.
"And I'm surprised you can function with your dick in your hand all the time, Ero-cook."
"I'll kill you."
"I'd gut you like a fish before you even moved a hair on your shitty head."
Luke was standing just behind Robin as he helplessly watched the pair, still very wary of Zoro, and concerned that these two might destroy what was left of his home. "A-are you sure he's a friend, Robin?" he whispered to her.
"It's… well… complicated," she replied, smiling to hide her embarrassment. "But Zoro is a friend of mine, I can promise you that." With that, she sighed, still smiling as she bloomed an arm from each of their backs and ruthlessly yanked on their ears. "Are you two gentlemen ready to discuss a plan of action to get off this island or would you prefer to carry on bickering?"
It didn't take long for both of them to come to a mutual understanding and calmly sit at the kitchen table.
"Perfect!" she said cheerily. "When did you last see the others, Zoro-san?"
He scratched his head. "Eh… dunno. We separated pretty early on."
"Have any marines seen you?"
"There's marines?"
Robin covered her mouth with her hand to hide her soft laughter. Zoro getting separated and lost this quickly had to have been a record for him. "That's good news. They won't have any reason to come out this way, then. That should give us some time."
"Why are we hiding? Let's just go kick their asses and leave."
Sanji rolled his eyes. "We aren't just talking about low-ranking cannon fodder, here. Smoker and Tashigi-chan are on the island."
Zoro, rather than be discouraged by this new information, was thrilled. "Yeah? Even better. I can take care of that impostor and her little boyfriend on my own, no sweat." He grinned as his folded his arms behind his head.
"Don't be stupid. We aren't in the position to be locked in a battle with Smoker and all his cronies. We'll be sitting ducks if they call for reinforcements while we're fighting; it wouldn't take long for an admiral or three to show up. They've probably already alerted the higher-ups to our location."
Zoro scoffed. "I say we just kill them now so we don't have to deal with 'em anymore."
"Did you listen to anything I just said, idiot marimo?"
Unlike Zoro, Luke had been carefully listening to all of this, trying to make himself seem busy by tidying up the kitchen in the background. He grew quite concerned with all the talk of marines (specifically of… killing them), and timidly spoke up. "Sorry to interrupt, uh, are you all in some kinda trouble? With marines? Are… are you guys… um… p-pirates?"
All three Mugiwaras turned to look at Luke, Robin and Sanji both wondering how they might gently break this news to their new friend, and Zoro idly wondering if he might have to kill this man after all.
Before any of them could proceed, however, a low rumbling began to shake the very foundations of the farmhouse.
"What the shit… you get earthquakes on this island?" Zoro said, bracing himself as the shaking grew more intense with every passing moment.
"I've been here my whole damn life and I've never seen a single one!"
In conjunction with the rumbling, Robin could hear… voices in the distance. A chorus of voices.
Sanji caught her eye. "You hear that, too?"
Robin nodded, and the three of them quickly ran outside, Luke following close behind. They all immediately turned towards the forest and could see the trees tremor in conjunction with all the commotion, until finally, Luffy burst through the forest's edge, holding a deeply annoyed Nami and a terrified Usopp in one of his elongated arms, the rest of the Mugiwaras following close behind, with Smoker, Tashigi, and hundreds of marines in hot pursuit.
For the second time that day, Zoro grinned. "Oi! Luffy! Over here!" he yelled out.
Luffy narrowed his eyes a bit to focus on where this was coming from, eyes widening in happy surprise as he recognized his nakama. "Zoro! Robin! Sanji! Look, Smoker's here~!" he yelled back, grinning from ear to ear. "Nami's making us run instead of fight! It's SHIT!"
Nami, beyond relieved to have all the crew in one place, called out to them, still being carried as Luffy ran. "We're really close to the ship! Just follow us and we'll make it, no problem! And if you try to stay and fight, Zoro, I'll kill you!"
The rest of the Mugiwaras rushed past them in something of a parade. You almost wouldn't know they were running for their lives.
"We picked up just enough cola for a Coup de Burst! Ow~!"
"Goodness, I sure am out of breath from all this running! Ah, wait, I forgot, I don't have lungs! Yohohohoho~!"
"I hope you didn't forget to buy chocolate and cotton candy, Sanji!"
"See you at the Sunny, Robin." And Zoro was off, too.
Sanji looked at Robin, smiling despite the chaos, despite Smoker's pursuit, despite whatever the hell Zoro thought he was doing saying goodbye to Robin as if he wasn't even there, and he held out a hand for her to take. "I hope you don't mind if I carry you, Robin-chwan."
She smiled as well, taking his hand without a second thought. She didn't take offense to this offer, his ability was certainly much faster and safer than her own in this particular circumstance. "Of course not."
With that, he scooped her up in a single, swift motion, one arm holding her legs while the other was at her back, and with a nimble jump and a few kicks, he began their ascent into the sky. "Oi! Don't forget what I said about overcooking those mushrooms!" Sanji called down to Luke.
Robin laughed, supposing this was his prickly way of saying goodbye. "Thank you for all your help!"
"Robin! Sanji-sensei! Earlier I… I…" Luke called out from below as they rose. He had been watching everything, completely slack-jawed from all the excitement and unable to speak until now. "What I was gonna say earlier is… is…"
Luke swallowed.
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE PIRATES!" He said this loud enough that Smoker, Tashigi, and all of their men probably heard it. "You were nothin' but nice to me and I'll never forget you guys! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!
Robin waved down to Luke, still smiling as she slowly relaxed her head, coming to rest against Sanji's shoulder as the wind whipped at her hair.
