A/N: First off, gonna take us back to 2005 for a hot sec with a reviewer shout-out: thanks to Uchiha Zoro for leaving a review! Next is just that I probably should have mentioned this before, but please pronounce Angela here as the same as Angela Merkel, not Angela as in Angela Lansbury. Also-also: this is the chapter where sex starts to happen. Thank you.

Three

It was the dead of night; muted stars speckled a sky brightened by light from the nearby towns and a damp chill hung in the air. Law and Robin laid on a blanket atop the grass, the remains of Oden Castle far enough away to be secluded, yet close enough to make it back if the need arose. They had yet to do much more than cuddle and kiss, but the night was young.

"How long do you think before we get a chance like this again?" Law asked. His head was nestled comfortably against Robin's shoulder, their position much more relaxed and spread out than anything they could have achieved in his quarters on the Polar Tang. She scratched at his scalp—hat long-discarded—and hummed.

"Possibly never," she said. "We are going to war, after all."

"…but if we do make it out alive… will you come with me?"

"As much as I care about you, Torao," she chuckled, "it's Luffy I want to make the King of the Pirates. Once that happens, maybe then we can talk."

"Then I'll also search for it," he decided. Law propped himself up on his elbows so he could gaze down at Robin. "We're both curious about the People of the D., about the forbidden history, and out of everyone I'm the closest you've got to an academic equal."

"You sell our crew's doctor short."

"Tony-ya's a talented doctor—you got me there—but his foundations in traditional academia are… lacking, to be precise." She raised an eyebrow and the embarrassment that ensued was intense. "He told me his background on the way to Dressrosa; a quack and a witch doctor might have worked for his specialization, but he never sat any broader subjects."

A playful smirk twisted the corner of her mouth. "And you did?"

"Not only that, but I was top of my class," he bragged. "All through my formal schooling, even. Those nuns were a rough group to please."

"I see." She reached up and gently flicked the end of his nose. "Just a pair of hopeless academics, coming home to one another at the end of the day?"

"Possibly." He looked away, first at the grass, then the blanket, then his hands. "I feel like I'm towards the end of my career as a pirate. If I survive it, I want to put these hands and this Devil Fruit to good use helping people. I want to grow older than my father did."

"How old was he?" She reached out and touched his hair again, stroking the soft strands tenderly.

"Forty-two, I think. That would have made my mother forty; what about yours?"

"I never knew my father, but my mother was about thirty-three if I remember correctly." She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips, not one of passion but of assurance. It lingered afterwards, their faces close enough to share breath. "Olvia."

"Angela," he whispered. "Lars." A deep breath. "Lami."

"Those are wonderful names," she replied hoarsely. "Maybe they can mean something else one day."

"Possibly."

It hurt to think about, so instead of continuing he reached down and caressed her leg, most of it still bare thanks to her shorts—their disguises were coming in the morning. She made a receptive noise, letting him know he was on a correct path for the night's activities; an acceptable change in subject matter.

"Out in the open like this?" she teased. "That's naughty, even for you."

"I don't have protection on me, but I have the next best thing," he claimed. He then slid his hand down the front of her shorts and found her core, where she was warm but dry, deciding to fix the latter.

"You don't want to detach part of your penis so that you ejaculate in the grass?" she wondered. He sank a finger into her and flexed, pulling a sigh from her lips.

"I want you to think of me every time you touch yourself while we're apart," he murmured in her ear. "Imagine they're my fingers, working you open bit by bit." He slid another finger in while rubbing her clit with his thumb. "Don't think about what we might never have, but what we know is decidedly real." A third finger, a little too quickly, and her back arched. "Promise me, Robin."

She promised; she promised to him and the trees and the stars to think of him, breath hitched as she resisted caving too quickly. He kissed her as she came, hungrily gulping down her gasps as though they would feed him for days on-end. The more he concentrated on her, the less he thought of his own ghosts, and that was all he needed of the night… well, not everything, but it was a start.

All systems looked stable as Chopper made his final adjustments to the devices that were monitoring Robin and Torao. Once he was done, they weren't going to need to be moved for a while, and only then in the interest of bedsore prevention. Bepo was in the room as well, watching closely as the younger doctor cared for his captain.

"I'm going to take good care of Torao," Chopper assured. He frowned when Bepo didn't respond. "Are you alright?"

"I still think I should have gone in there," the Mink replied, "or Penguin, or Shachi. We've known him the longest."

"Don't worry," Chopper said cheerily. "Robin was a master spy before she joined our crew. She's actually the best qualified out of all of us, even if it was one of you who got caught."

"…but you and Jean Bart said that these things make people hallucinate things they want. Are you sure they'll be able to tell what's the dream and what isn't?"

"Of course they will," Chopper smiled. "I have my full trust in Robin! If she made a promise to Luffy, then she has to come back!"

"Okay…" Bepo didn't fully believe it, but what choice did he have? He placed his paw on his captain's shoulder and sighed, hoping that everything was going to work out as they wanted.

Robin inhaled sharply as she was flung into the dreamscape, it trying to convince her that she was catching herself from nodding off at a desk. She carefully looked around the room and took in her surroundings—it was very clearly an academic's office, one that commanded some air of authority based on the simple fact there was the space to move around. There were many books, framed accolades, and photos lining the walls, so much so that it felt like something she wanted to stop and examine in order to see what sort of a dream the parasite placed her in. A flick of her wrist and a hand sprouted up from a stack of books—at least that was still the same.

To her surprise, many of the photos along the walls and on bookshelves were of her and her mother, or with Professor Clover, or both. They grew older with her in this scenario, it seemed. Ohara sat with a younger version of her in a photograph all on its own, clearly taken from the deck of a ship based on the angle. The accolades and certificates were from a variety of sources across the Cardinal Blues and the Grand Line, showing a trail of her journeys. Worn tomes sat upon their shelves riddled with bookmarks and inserted pages, demonstrating clear use. Three very specific frames sat upon the cluttered desk, next to a brass nameplate emblazoned with her name written in both the common script and Poneglyphs: Dr. Nico Robin – Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology. She studied each one individually, finding the subjects intriguing.

One photo had her with her mother and Professor Clover on a beach, celebrating some occasion. It looked warm and pleasant. Was she a teenager there…? She must have been…

Another had her with the Straw Hats, the entire group smiling for the camera-snail, none of them with a care in the world. No hint as to why they were drawn together in this existence… simply that they were…

…yet the third… she picked it up and marveled at it, not entirely certain she liked what she saw: it was her and Trafalgar Law, and they were kissing in a public park, implying a more visible sort of relationship than they were accustomed to leading.

Robin thought about it for a time before setting the frame back down on the desk. Whatever this parasite was doing, it was definitely either incredibly skilled or had help somehow. It took some of her deepest desires involving an alternate life—a successful archaeology career and the adults who cared about her getting to watch her grow to adulthood—and seemingly made them into a reality. She felt sick to her stomach at the level of manipulation that was involved; the possibility she wanted to explore with Torao was in the middle of being explored—they were actively and openly dating in this scarily complex hallucination. Was that specific detail something that she had brought into the mix, or was that something that had already been there due to Law's own desires?

Well… there was only one way to find out.

Robin grabbed what looked like her personal bag and coat and left the office, acting as though there was nothing amiss as she walked through the university building. She didn't recognize any of the people who waved to her and referred to her as "Professor Nico" or "Doctor Nico", which was something she somewhat suspected. It seemed like a large university, however, with plenty of funding being passed along towards the humanities and social sciences. The thought of such a place even possibly existing broke her heart, let alone the idea of her working there. It was as though the halls of Ohara were recreated in thick and sturdy stone, more resistant to fire and attacks from those who wished to destroy true knowledge.

Once she stepped outside Robin knew precisely where the university was: Flevance. Everything around her was whites and pastels, the Amber Lead having not been completely excised from the community but existing in a sort of stasis. She walked over to a tree and touched its off-white bark, curious about what was going on. The white and pale colors had been caused by Amber Lead if she remembered correctly, and not only was she there, making a life amongst the poisoned plants and buildings, but the people as well. Was this a version of Flevance that had found a cure? Did Amber Lead not have the same effects on the Human body as it did in the real world? Whatever the answer was, it was a cruel alternate reality for Torao to live through.

Then again, she knew exactly what that was like, didn't she? How many times did she wish for something like this as a child with Ohara as the location in-question? She spent a long time wishing she could turn back time, as her foes in Onigashima predicted, and now… now she was at least at peace with the past. Had it been terrible? Uncomfortable? Devoid of true justice? Of course, but it still happened and nothing could change it. Did Flevance being the setting of the dream meant that Torao was still not accepting his past? In such an environment, how could she present the danger they were truly in, despite the calm nature of their surroundings?

"Oh, hey Robin!" She turned at the sound of her name, blinking curiously as a young woman jogged up to her. She seemed like she could have been a student at the university, but was she one of her students…? No, otherwise she would have been Professor or Doctor or Ms. or Miss. "Have you spoken to Law-nii yet today?"

"No, I haven't," Robin replied. The young woman looked largely unfamiliar, with exception of her amber eyes. She felt something tighten in her chest as she realized that those were the eyes she had gazed into many a time already; this was Law's younger sister. "Is there something I should know about, Lami?"

"No; I was just wondering if you were going to do anything after dinner tonight other than sit around and visit with our parents," the young woman pouted. "I was hoping we could go out and have some fun afterwards; conversations with my parents and brother always devolve into medical talk."

"I thought the point of having dinner with someone's family was to meet and get to know them."

"Well, yeah, but they're boring about it. They're always boring about it." Suddenly, the bell in the nearby clocktower started tolling ominously. "Shit, got to get to class—see you later!"

Robin bid Lami goodbye and watched as the young woman ran into the university. The entire situation seemed… odd, to say the least. There almost seemed to be a haze over most of the other citizens, as though their rendering had not been completed, yet Lami was clear as could be, along with a few seemingly-random folks she saw as she walked down the street. She wondered if this was simply the limit of the parasite's powers or if it was merely the result of Law's mind getting stretched too thin. What would Ohara look like, if she was the one who had been taken first? She shivered at the very thought.

Stepping inside of a bakery, Robin went through the bag that she took from the office, pretending to look for some money. Instead she found exactly what she was looking for: an ID that gave an address. '28C Rivierstraat.' She then excused herself from the shop and went in search of this Rivierstraat, hoping it wasn't too far. It wasn't, and once there she found a leafy street that had a canal in the middle. She had to hand it to him—Torao was able to come up with some romantic scenery.

A few minutes longer and Robin finally came to the numberplate for 28C. She took the set of keys from her bag and tried the one that looked closest to the lock—it worked. A couple flights of stairs and she was at another door, which she was able to unlock with another key in the set. She stepped into the flat to discover that it was a gorgeous open loft space, with tons of books and plants and various bric-a-brac that showed that this was truly a home. Everything flowed seamlessly from one area of the flat to the other, with sagging bookshelves serving as walls and plenty of light pouring in from the windows and skylights. The second-hand furniture was mismatched yet comfortable-looking and the kitchen seemed well-used. There was even a door to a small patio next to the kitchen, just enough room to have a table for two to eat dinner under the stars or breakfast watching the sun rise.

The flat seemed so well-suited to their needs that Robin had one question that she kept coming back to: had she invented this space or had he? Little things here and there suggested that he was at the very least a frequent visitor: comic books, commemorative coins, some clothes here and there… more photo frames sat around the space, of him, of her, of them. Yet when she looked at the details, they were very her. It was comfortable and academic… it was a space she could have imagined living in.

Robin picked a hooded sweatshirt up from the couch and sniffed it cautiously. It smelled like Torao, though with a hint of perfume that she knew meant she'd been the last to wear it. A thought flashed in her mind, of wearing the sweatshirt during a particularly bad cold snap as she and Torao shared the space, sometimes snuggled on the couch with their own books, with other times at the table for tea as their combined work was spread out between them. False memories began to fill her brain with study dates and nights out on the town; of romantic trips to the park as well as lurid sex in the small sanctuary the flat provided. She had to concentrate to keep the thoughts and fake memories from their attempt to overtake her consciousness—it was bad enough that Torao was under the parasite's influence, which meant that succumbing was not an option no matter how tempting. Hanging up her coat, she began to mentally catalog the false memories as they came to her, hoping that there would at least be something in them that would be of any use.

Suddenly, Robin heard the lock to the door downstairs get jostled—someone else was coming! She tested her Devil Fruit ability and found that her normal range was preserved within the dreamscape, so she very quickly conjured a pair of eyes on the wall outside so that she could see who it was.

Law.

Robin's chest began to feel tight. Up until now, she had a firm grip on the conceit of the situation she found herself in. The goal was to navigate the dreamscape and save Torao, but what sort of grasp did it have on him? How well would she be able to communicate with him their situation? She had wanted a bit of time exploring the false Flevance first for context clues before approaching him and now it was too late as he was walking up the stairs.

Law opened the door and stepped into the flat, flinching in genuinely delighted surprise when he saw Robin. His face lit up at the sight of her and it made her heart ache and stomach flip. There was something about him standing there that almost felt right even though she knew the horrid truth behind the dreamscape. He held up a bouquet of flowers—large and fragrant white lilies with hare's ear filling it out—and smiled awkwardly.

"I didn't think you'd be in yet," he admitted. There was something… off… about the way he was holding himself as they met each other in the entry to the flat. His demeanor and body language… they were very different from the variations of the guarded man she was falling in love with, and she needed to figure out why. Was it because they were alone or something else? "These were supposed to be waiting for you."

"That is very sweet, thank you." Robin took the bouquet and leaned into a kiss before bringing the flowers into the kitchen. She had to play the established girlfriend until the opportunity to convince Torao otherwise presented itself. If not done at the right time, the job was going to be leagues more difficult than it already was and that was something neither of them could afford. "I saw Lami after I got out of work."

"She's been hanging around the Humanities departments again?"

"She must be if she ran into me outside my building." She found a ceramic vase under the sink and filled it with water, working on snipping the ends of the stems in the meantime. Once a dash of both bleach and an open bottle of cola from the refrigerator had been poured into the vase, she transplanted the simple bouquet to its new home before using her Devil Fruit to sprout a spare hand to pluck off the pollen-filled anthers. "Let me guess: mention nothing about it?"

"I know our parents want us to be happy, but I know they still think that Lami's just not found the right area of medicine yet that interests her," he said. He took off his jacket and deposited it on the couch, completely ignoring the coat rack. "It's hard to see the writing on the wall when you've been planning her entire life, especially for Moer."

"They mean well. She means well."

"Yeah, though maybe they'll be distracted enough tonight from meeting you that Lami and I can drop a couple more solid hints." Law watched as Robin placed the vase on the dining room table amongst the varied medical and archaeological journals. He wrapped his arms around her waist as he hugged her from behind, leaning down slightly to kiss her neck. The feeling of his lips on her skin sent a shiver through her entire body—how was this still just a dream? "We have some time before we have to leave."

"…and what do you suppose we should do with that time?" she wondered playfully. The more she could get out of him the better; she needed to figure out how to tell him about the parasite's lies without driving him away. Turning around in his grasp, she found herself staring directly into his amber eyes and felt as though she was melting.

"I have some ideas." His grin spoke volumes—she knew what he was hinting at. "What good is being a hopeless pair of academics if we don't take advantage of our schedules now and then?"

"I'm the academic; you're a surgeon."

"True, though, you know what I mean." He bent his head down and kissed her, his hands instead finding their way down to her rear. Robin held the kiss as she unbuttoned his shirt, chuckling as she slid her thigh between his legs and felt he was already hardening. Law quickly opened a Room and transported them to the bed, allowing the two of them to collapse on the soft, plush mattress in a handsy heap.

It felt amazing as Robin let Law touch her, practiced fingers moving just how she liked it, ghosting along her skin and making quick work of her blouse and skirt. She watched him as he paused to shuck off his shirt and alarm bells began to ring in her head—this wasn't right. His chest and arms were untouched by ink, as were his hands, now that she really saw them. Gold still glinted in his earlobes, but the rest of him was so bare that it was wrong.

The life Law must have lived in this fantasy never had the need for the tattoos, she surmised, and therefore the hallucination found no reason to keep them. No pirate crest, no viruses, no DEATH across his knuckles to remind him of what was always nipping at his heels, and least of all, no heart across his chest in memory of the one who saved him. He literally carried his benefactor's memory on his shoulders and now… nothing. While she did not need the tattoos to be there to find him attractive, their absence was more than conspicuous in the soft light filtering in through moving clouds and the trees outside the building.

That was what changed, she realized: how he held himself in the lack of carrying that invisible weight. It was not a lack of confidence or change in personality, but a shift in the things he carried with him. He was lighter now—freer—and the legacies he carried were different. The man undoing his belt buckle between her legs was not the last of a nation, nor had he ever tasted true revenge, but was the normal person he had always yearned to be… the one who found his Devil Fruit by chance and not through desperation.

"Are you alright, Robin…?" he asked, pausing in concern. He leaned down, resting his weight on his elbows so that he could look her in the eyes. "You're not yourself…"

Trafalgar D. Water Law was not a man with a nation of ghosts haunting him, no more than Nico Robin was the only Oharan scholar left after her world was erased in flame and ash.

"Nervous about tonight, is all," she lied, putting on a practiced smile. Oh, how many men had she tricked with it before? Dozens, and yet none of them hurt nearly half as much.

"You don't have to worry," he murmured. "My parents are going to love you… Lami already loves you… I just wish your mom could have been in town so she could come along as well." He pushed himself up to be on his hands and knees, drinking in the sight of the wonderful woman splayed beneath him. "We've survived meeting each other's friends—I think we can survive tonight."

At that, he leaned back down and kissed her, infused with a sort of desire unlike anything he had done in real life. She shoved his now-loose pants from his hips to his knees and he pounced on her soon as he kicked them off, both now just in their underwear. There was no hesitation in his desire, no holding back due to a lifetime of pain, no worry as to the aching yearning that would fill the void when the alliance was finally dissolved. He was offering his entire self to her as he kissed and nipped and caressed and took care of the final barriers between their skin. He was hard and dripping as he fumbled around between the bed and the nook walls it was set into, not wanting to take his lips from her skin as he searched.

Finally Law pulled away from Robin and held up his prize with a grin: a battered condom box. He pulled one out and laid on his back as he lazily tossed the box towards their feet and unwrapped the condom. Once it had been rolled on, he gently pawed at Robin, silently begging for her to ride him. She complied, straddling his hips and guiding him in, the satisfying burn of his girth opening her up while not fully-prepped distracting from the absurdity of the situation. Closing her eyes, she kept pushing him further and further in until their bodies were flush against each other and he was completely enveloped. His hips bucked desperately against hers, though she held him in place as she adjusted to the feel of him, almost ready to burst.

Slowly, Robin set the pace, rocking gently to ease moans out of them both. She opened her eyes to look around, making sure there was nothing she was missing. There was no danger, nothing out of place; it was just a normal flat in a normal building in a normal—if romantic—neighborhood. Law's imagination had given them the perfect hideaway…

…except, as she threw her head back at a thrust that was aimed rather well, Robin saw something she should not have amongst the varied plants lining the wall: a flower. It was pure-white and had many petals, the cactus branch it was hanging off being something she recognized as something that did not bloom for longer than a single night. The fact it was conspicuously in bloom in the afternoon was proof there was something very not-right and she kept her eyes on it as they rolled their hips together in what felt like well-practiced lovemaking. Desperate gulps for air and filthy moans were the only things that passed between their lips, filling the flat with lewd sounds that would have made either of their crews blush.

Entire body slick with sweat, Law sat up and wrapped in arms tightly around Robin's torso as he trembled, his pleasure building low in his gut. She held him gently, keeping his face buried between her breasts as she conjured arms from his back to help hold him up against the mattress. Her own orgasm was creeping upon her, not yet there as he nearly shouted into her chest as his body went rigid. He waited until the aftershocks had passed before reaching between them and finding her clit, rubbing small circles until she lost control of her Devil Fruit as she teetered over the edge, washing over her with more force than she was going to admit. They collapsed on the bed, Law smiling hazily up at Robin as though she was the only person in the world that mattered.

"Welcome home."

Maybe she should have taken Bepo's offer after all.