Chapter Text
Days came like this came far and few between, it seemed, for the Strawhat Crew. As if they were waiting in anticipation for the next big turmoil, the next villain to threaten their livelihoods, trying to cut them down to size, attempting to exert their dominance and power over a group that had survived too much to fall to anyone. So the wind blowing this cool breeze, the seas calm and quiet save for the pod of whales swimming beside them, the flap of wings from the flock of seagulls flying with them, came as a welcome reprieve from the next hill they were sure to climb.
It was easy to fall into the rhythm of their routines. Nami jutting her chin towards the sky, checking the course of each gust, calling out directions to Usopp when a steer was needed, cutting into the middle of the grand tale he was telling Chopper, of Giants he bested and befriended, who was equally engrossed in his storytelling and the consistency of the plant he was grinding to turn into a salve for any number of injuries the crew would no doubt sustain in due time. Brook was tuning his violin for the concert he would play when dusk approached tonight, tomorrow, and every night he would stay with the crew for as long as they remained, thanking Sanji as he brought out the midday tea along with the assortment of desserts, obliging when Brook asked him to sit, then them calling out to Franky, who was tinkering with a part of the ship that he didn’t see a reason to upgrade, but Franky does what he does, and even if something wasn’t broke, he was still going to fix it.
Zoro watched above from the Crow’s Nest, waking when Usopp’s storytelling became particularly boisterous and Chopper’s fawning reached an extraordinarily high decibel.
There was a different kind of peaceful he attributed to the Crow’s Nest, above the day-to-day ruckus that went on below. He could follow any conversation he wanted to easily, watch the horizon for any oncoming enemies, and cling to the stars when night fell and fall asleep to the steady sway of the ship. He considered himself the watchdog, the protector of his friends, and as the right hand of the captain, refused to be anything less than alert when it came to the safety of his crew. Only knowing that another crewmember was awake and keeping watch overnight, and only during the events that would bring about sheer, overwhelming exhaustion would he admit to falling into a deeper sleep than he’d anticipated, and still, the most comfortable place he would find himself was in the Crow’s Nest, ready to be called at a moment’s notice.
He watched as his captain tried sneaking the dessert from the table, with Usopp tagging along as distraction, and then Sanji’s leg raining down on each of their heads when Luffy stole ten too many sweets.
“Oi, Luffy! You can’t eat them all, Robin-chwan hasn’t even had one yet.”
The raven-haired crewmate was nowhere to be seen, but that was normal for her, Zoro thought to himself, likely holed away in the library reading one of the new books she bought from the last town they had stopped at. Materials were nowhere near running low now, though ingredients were always dicey what with their voraciously large appetites, but it had been a very long while since they’d gone days without eating. They weren’t hurting for berries either, with Nami’s savings stash coming in handy, and Zoro’s debt to her subsequently skyrocketing because of her “proximity tax” which he called bullshit on, and she pretended not to hear.
Robin had immediately headed to the bookstore in town, and Zoro, after a few hours of wandering the streets looking for anything interesting to do, managed to find himself in front of the same store after catching Robin’s profile in the window. He walked in and heard her talking up the storeowner into giving her a discount, offering her wily, trademark smile, and the owner folded immediately. He blushed and stammered, said “No, thank you,” and happily rang up her purchase. She turned to Zoro in the process and kindly asked him if he’d be willing to carry her books to the ship for her. He had looked at the tomes when he walked in, and though strong as he was, knew that the weight of all her books would be monumental. He almost balked at the request, but then she tilted her head and smiled at him the way she did to the storeowner, and really, it wasn’t like he would ever say no to helping a friend anyway.
“Zoro, you’re up!” Nami yelled from her place on the ship. “Get down here if you want anything to eat, and grab Robin while you’re at it! Luffy, get your hands off my food!” He heard a loud thump as he jumped from his perch onto the landing and found his captain on the floor, albeit chewing profusely.
“No promises there’ll be anything out here for you,” Sanji mentioned to Zoro as he started walking towards the library, “but of course there’s some left for Robin-chwan.”
“In the kitchen?” Luffy said, already on his way.
“Stay the hell away from there!” Another commotion as Zoro left his crewmates to their own devices.
Maybe not the quietest day, at least in volume, but in their terms, a quiet day was one where they were able to enjoy each other’s company, without the weight of the world on their shoulders. As much as Zoro appreciated the fights and the opportunities to get stronger, and as it frustrating as it was that no matter how much he trained, it never seemed to be enough, he couldn’t tire from his crew’s antics and their ability to make any situation light-hearted.
He wondered sometimes about Robin though, who stayed on the outskirts during the more rambunctious times, preferring to observe than immerse herself in whatever was going on. He wasn’t much better, he guessed, knowing Luffy’s affinity for accidentally jumping into the water after overextending his rubber arms, not quite calculating his strength in these less dire moments, and ready with everyone else to dive into the ocean to save him. Robin, unlike the others, always had her head on her shoulders, never one to let her guard down, and though kind and ready to lend a hand, or twenty, to whoever needed it, couldn’t seem to let loose the way the others could. But despite the breakthrough they had at Enies Lobby, and every life and death moment that came after, he would look at her sometimes and wonder how to get inside her head.
It didn’t matter though, and truly, he didn’t need to know—he wasn’t entitled to any of her secrets, or the past she suffered through. He knew that she would lay down her life for any of the Strawhats if it came down to it, and that was enough for him. At least, that should have been enough.
But their journey across the sea was long and arduous, and gives one far too much time to think, and so he thought of her more often than not. Unwillingly sometimes, like when she would stay cooped up in the library for the day, and really, there was very little reason for Zoro to go in there, so he’d wait for her to come out as he trained, shrugging off every hour that passed by when she didn’t grace him with her presence, only coming out for meal breaks or because Nami forced her to, telling her she was lacking in her dose of sunlight for the day. Unwittingly sometimes too, when she would come into his field of vision and his eyes would draw to her, some sort of magnetic pull tilting his head incrementally, so he could watch the way her hair shifted in the wind, her eyes creasing as she chuckled at Chopper, the way her throat bobbed as she sipped on the lemonade Sanji had hastily prepared.
More likely it was because she was still somewhat of a mystery to him, and though he knew better than to try to crack her surface, she was still a compelling person to behold. He wasn’t just a “hotheaded” swordsman either—he could appreciate the natural beauty of things, does so often when he’s on the Crow’s Nest, watching the waves roll and the sun begin its descent. Nami was also a very pretty woman, this he knew objectively, even if Sanji didn’t make mention of it every hour of every day, and Chopper was nice to look at as well, and incredibly warm and comfortable when used as a pillow. Even if his eyes lingered a little more on Robin than the others, it really wasn’t anything other than a way to pass the time.
He knocked on the door of the library as he entered, surveying the room before finding Robin. She wasn’t in her usual upright position, instead opting to lie down on the couch, her head propped up on one of Nami’s decorative pillows, with one leg crossed over the other, and her book lying vertical and open on her stomach. The hem of her shirt was hitched higher on her hip, displaying a sliver of smooth skin she was keen on showing off. She must not have thought anyone would come in, to be caught in this comfortable state, but she didn’t look surprised when Zoro poked his head in, flicking her eyes toward him whilst turning another page.
“Food’s ready if you want some,” Zoro relayed to her. “Grab it before Luffy does.”
“Ah, I’m sure Sanji stashed some away for me. Thank you for letting me know.”
Zoro nodded, and never one to overstay his welcome, began to withdraw from the room.
“Actually, Zoro, if you could hold on…”
He paused in the threshold, waiting for her to finish.
Robin unfolded her legs as she sat upright, leaning forward to place her book on the table, the hem of her shirt now obscuring the inch of skin her previous position had revealed. She waved her hand at him, beckoning him to come closer. He did as she asked, closing the door behind him as he entered.
It wasn’t a new experience being alone with her. Though they were on a large ship, and there were numerous ways to be alone, especially with a crew of this size, the majority of them liked each other’s company, and were always circulating through iterations of their various friendships. While they mostly valued their privacy, they valued their companions more, and so being alone was a less-than-normal occurrence. Instances when Zoro and Robin were alone together were marked by a companionable silence on Robin’s part, and an itch, at least for Zoro, to fill it. He liked to look at her, but he liked to hear her more. She was smart, articulate, and her velvety smooth voice threw his stomach into a frenzy in a way that equally excited and frustrated him.
She stood up to go to the bookshelf, gliding a slender finger over the spines as she perused. He tracked the delicate movement, until she pulled a book out of its place and started rifling through its pages.
“Here it is.” She closed the book and extended it towards him. “I wanted to read it first before I gave it to you, to make sure it was a heartfelt recommendation. It’s about a bushido’s seafaring adventures, not unlike our own. The bookstore owner was recommending it to the person in front of me. I thought you might enjoy this.”
Zoro looked up at her with a raised brow. It’s not that he didn’t appreciate the act of kindness, it just wasn’t typical for her to offer it to him. He could think of numerous instances where she had bought gifts for the others—a citrus-scented perfume for Nami, an overlooked exotic spice for Sanji to experiment with, or the endless candy for Chopper. She was on good terms with everyone, but with him, he felt there was always a distance he couldn’t bridge. It may have stemmed from his initial cold reception to her entering the group, but from their experiences, he had hoped, privately, (and perhaps during some nights, rather desperately) that at the very least, they could talk the way she did with them. Even Brook, the latest member of the group, had wormed his way into her good graces, regaling her with his ridiculous tales, but for reasons unbeknownst to him, he was always struggling to say something worthwhile to her. There were only so many times he could comment on the weather before the topic got tired, the tips of his ears growing an ominous shade of red, and Robin looking at him with eyes he couldn’t quite figure out.
Aside from even that, it wasn’t like Zoro’s main pastime was to read. Lifting weights, drinking sake, napping on every corner of the ship—those were his main hobbies. Not that he couldn’t stand to change it up once in a while, but maybe it really went to show how little time they spent together, that for the first gift Robin ever gave him, while good-intentioned, wasn’t at all right for the targeted audience.
Her outstretched hand retreated inward a bit as Robin let out a tiny chuckle. “Far be it from me to impose any of my tastes on you, or force you to do anything you don’t want to, but I’d love to hear your thoughts if you end up reading it. I won’t feel offended if you sneak it back in here though.”
Zoro scoffed, almost snatching the book from her hand. He was never one to back down from a challenge.
“I’ll let you know how it goes. At least it’ll break up the days before we get to the next island.”
“And there’s something to be said about sharpening your mind as well as your body.”
“Can’t argue with that,” he said, turning the novel to skim the back. “Maybe our captain could take a page out of your book.”
They looked at each other for a second before Robin cracked a smile, another laugh trickling out. Zoro shared a crooked grin with her, once again feeling his stomach flip-flop and the blood rush to his ears.
“Never say never, but it would be a very surprising day if he ever did decide to read,” Robin said.
“Less surprising with me then?” Zoro ventured. He wasn’t sure what the hell had gotten into him. Just thank her for the book before you embarrass yourself, he thought.
“Hmm, well, you appreciate your solitude. Who’s to say that you wouldn’t enjoy a book within in too? Though that would mean picking one less fight with Sanji every day.” She tilted her head as she looked at him. Zoro realized he was holding his breath then, but couldn’t quite let it out. “I guess I want to help you fill your time. Or, perhaps I just wanted to share…” She paused, seeming to mull over her words before she gave a small, sharp shake of her head, recovering quickly. Almost imperceptible, if he wasn’t standing two feet away from her. “I just think there’s hope for you yet, Swordsman.” Another one of her smiles, and he could feel the faint blush on his cheeks.
“Ah, yeah, well.” He scratched the back of his head. “Can’t help that I’m allergic to the cook. But, I’ll give this a read. Let you know what I think.”
“Looking forward to your assessment.”
He nodded once before he left, leaving the door open on his way out of the library, once again turning the book over in his hands, feeling the hefty weight of it and tracing the intricate ridges on the spine of the leather-bound novel. Volume I of V, he read. Though he didn’t want to admit it, there was a large chance that even if he didn’t like the book, he would read the rest of the series, if only to keep whatever thread of conversation he now had with Robin alive. And though he didn’t want to admit it, he was kind of excited to get started.
“It’s true, I’m telling you!” Usopp exclaimed.
“Usopp, we’re okay with you being a liar because you’re a good sniper—“
“Oi—“
“But it’s dangerous for you to walk around with a slingshot when you can’t even see what’s in front of you,” Sanji said.
“Do you need to get your eyes checked? Into the office right now. Doctor’s orders!” followed Chopper.
“I know what I saw! I climbed up the sail to fix it and at first I didn’t look at him because he’s usually napping up there, but then I realized he wasn’t snoring, so I thought the sunstroke finally got to him, but then I saw there was something on his lap, and I’m telling you, he was reading! A book. An actual book.”
“The sea takes all of us one day, but I didn’t think it’d take his mind this soon.” Sanji shook his head as he peeled another onion.
“Let’s go up there right now and you’ll see I’m telling the truth!” Usopp exited the room, the door slamming into the wall.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look…” Chopper bounced after Usopp.
Sanji continued to peel onions, the kitchen finally quiet save for the oil sizzling on the pan. He removed the shells easily, lining the naked ones neatly next to each other before chopping them with brutal accuracy. He paused, looking down at the massacre, a single tear dropping from his eye.
“I don’t think he even knows how to read…” he muttered to himself.
Outside the kitchen, Usopp held a finger up to his lips, pressing his back to the wall as he covertly began to tiptoe to the sails. Chopper followed suit, alternating between hopping to Usopp and rolling behind him. They made it five feet before an elastic hand appeared, pulling forward their captain.
“Oiii, what are you guys doing!” Luffy asked as he landed, his arm snapping back into place.
“Luffy, keep it down! We’re engaging in espionage.” Chopper nodded along to Usopp, caught up in the throes of another mission.
“Ah, I hate vegetables. Sanji! Do you have any meat?” He yelled, turning on his heel to walk to the kitchen.
The remaining two pirates looked at each other briefly, Chopper mouthing “spinach” to Usopp, who nodded sagely back at him, beginning to return to the task at hand.
They crept over to the sails with no further interruptions. Once there, Usopp gave Chopper a boost, throwing him as far as he could up the mast before he started climbing too. A particularly strong wave rocked the ship, causing a large wave to wash over the crew. Usopp began to climb furiously, his grip on the mast loosening.
“Chopper!” He whispered loudly. “Chopper, I’m slipping!”
“Eh?” Chopper stretched as far as he could, hopping higher to view the Crow’s Nest. “He’s not even up here, Usopp…. Usopp?”
Chopper looked down, witnessing Usopp in all his misshapen glory. He laid on the landing with his arms splayed out to either side of him, groaning as Zoro’s foot grinded a little deeper into his chest.
“Chopper,” Zoro said, an ominous edge to his voice. “You wanna tell me what you’re doing up there?”
“Ahh, not unless it’s safe for me to come down…”
“Resist, Chopper!” Usopp squeaked out as Zoro sat down on him, the butts of his sword shoving against Usopp’s face.
“You’ll come down when you get tired. And when you do, I’ll be here. Waiting.”
Chopper looked out to the sea, wondering if there was a God out there that would protect him from Zoro’s wrath. His lip quivered, his eyes filling up with tears. He highly doubted it.
“Is he doing another one of his weird swordsman honing techniques? I don’t think I saw him come out for lunch either,” Nami said, biting off a piece of skewered pineapple. Franky had asked about Zoro’s whereabouts after the crew had gathered around the deck, all but one member ready to eat.
“Finders keepers!” Luffy garbled around a mouthful of meat.
“That doesn’t apply when I’m physically giving you the food, Luffy.” Sanji placed a plate of roasted vegetables on the table close to Luffy, who tactfully ignored it. “Anyways, it is kind of odd. It’s not like Mosshead to miss meals.”
“Oi, Zoro! Zolo! Zorororo!” Ro, ro, ro echoed back at him. “Hm, nothing.” Usopp scratched at the bruise on his chin, etched on by Zoro’s swords. He turned to Chopper and whispered conspiratorially. “Maybe he’s reading.”
“Ah, don’t pull me back into that!” Chopper had eventually slid down the mast, ready to meet his demise, but Zoro had just looked at him with a piercing glare, eyes dark and disappointed. Chopper folded onto the floor, bowing a thousand times over while apologizing profusely. He had been out of the woods, but he still felt guilty over trying to spy on one of his crewmates.
“I think I saw him heading into his quarters,” Brook said. “Perhaps Nami is right and Zoro is testing his temptations within the material world. Abstinence from sustenance to temper himself.”
Robin’s fingers drummed on the tabletop, her other hand holding up her head as she listened to the conversation thoughtfully. The swordsman had been notably more absent as of late, preferring to keep to himself these last few days than join in with the group during mealtime. She only noticed because she herself had been out on the deck a little more, preferring to read outside in the sun than stay cooped up in the stuffiness of the library. It would have been nice to see Zoro, because she knew that he liked to sunbathe all around the ship, but it seemed like they were consistently missing each other. Or, and this made her stomach faintly knot in a way she did not appreciate, he was avoiding her.
She was only half-listening to the storeowner when she approached the counter, but his enthusiastic recommendation had caught her attention, and even she became a little enthralled at the premise of the book. A fictional account of adventurers sailing across the world, a bushido at the forefront, and a happy-go-lucky cast of friends that tagged along one by one. Maybe that was the mistake. Too on the nose for his taste? Or maybe it was just the fact that it was a book that she gave him, and not meat or alcohol or a sharp jab at Sanji. Of course, she could enjoy the novel, but her crewmates were a little less likely to partake in the activity.
Maybe she pushed the book too hard on Zoro, though she did give him the option to slyly put it away if he wanted to, and she hadn’t seen it slotted back into its place yet. He did look a little cornered, now that she thought about it, like he wasn’t sure why they were sharing the same space but wanted to get out of there as soon as he could. It could also be that he never stepped foot within the library before and was taking stock of it for the first time. He could have been retreating into himself for any number of reasons, and wasn’t it just a little narcissistic to assume it was because of her?
Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little cheated at the fact that he hadn’t come up to her in the last couple of days to talk about, well, anything. She would take a stilted conversation about the weather at this point. Robin offered the book to Zoro in the hopes to begin a relationship—no, a friendship—that they were clearly lacking, but maybe that was the wrong approach to take.
It wasn’t that she thought Zoro didn’t like her, though, even that remained to be seen. But when she first boarded the ship after they left Alabasta, it took him the longest to accept her into the fold, and even post-Enies Lobby, which still sent a shiver down her spine if she thought about it for too long, he was only really doing what his captain had ordered. He would fight to the death for any one of them, just as she would, but that loyalty didn’t feel quite earned without some sort of foundation beneath them.
After years of escaping from those who only wished her harm, running away became second nature to her. But she had faced her fears with the Strawhat crew and knew that this too was something she couldn’t run away from.
“I’ll get him,” Robin announced, rising from the table.
“Robin-chwan, please don’t ruin your appetite over him! The food will get cold and—“
“Sanji, you’ll save some for me though, won’t you?” Robin smiled at Sanji. Sanji melted.
“Robin-chwan of course I will! I’ll save you all the food and I won’t let Luffy have seconds—“
“Oi—“
Robin left the table as Sanji and Luffy started fighting over food, the rest of the crew speaking amicably and eating peacefully.
That’s odd, she thought to herself. She could feel her heart beating a little harder than usual. She hasn’t been truly afraid in a very long time, and yet, a small trepidation appeared as she found herself outside of Zoro’s room. She’s never once found him terrifying, has only ever been in awe of the power he wields, his steadfast devotion to the team, and the certainty in which he followed through on things once he made a decision. Overthinking wasn’t a word in his dictionary. She could take a page out of his book.
It wasn’t fear, she realized. Her nerves were vibrating.
“Zoro?” Robin called.
She heard a muffled shit, a clink, and then minor shuffling before he appeared in front of her, faintly out of breath.
Robin was slightly taken aback. She had often seen Zoro shirtless. He lifted his massive weights on the deck all the time and it was in her nature to be curious. She was not ashamed to admit that, from time to time, her eyes roved over the muscles in his arms and back, the sinews meticulously tensing and releasing, the sweat glistening and rolling down his sun-kissed skin, and had only but to marginally strain her ears to listen to the faint huffs of exertion he let out. It was a lovely accompaniment to reading on the deck, but she had recently found herself taking in his form more often than she was taking in the words on the page, which forced her to move back into the library. She was a little more ashamed to admit that she was a kind of excited to get to see him exercising again, and had been thoroughly disappointed at his disappearance for the last few days.
Seeing him like this again and in such proximity, with the rise and fall of his (lovely) broad (naked) chest only a couple of feet from her sent a small jolt to her system. She found her nerves vibrating a bit more intensely.
“Hey,” he breathed out, his chest rising and deflating deeply. “Is something wrong?”
The gears in her brain started moving again. Slower than she would have liked; she just needed to stop flicking her eyes down at—was that a sheen of sweat on his abs?
“Food. I mean—no, nothing wrong. There’s food at the dinner table. We’re having dinner. Would you care to join us?” Robin cringed at herself internally. She was usually impenetrable, but somehow the muscular man that she’s known for quite some time now, who had never made her stutter before, was now enough to make her falter? That wouldn’t do.
“I’m fine for now. I’ll grab something later.” He began easing the door closed. “Thanks for checking though.”
Robin couldn’t help but feel…dismissed. That wouldn’t do either.
“Is everything alright? The crew noticed that you haven’t been around. I think you’re a larger presence that you realize.” She tacked a small smile on at the end of her sentence, hoping to soften the clear overstepping of his boundaries.
“Yeah, all good. Not hungry right now.” He looked shifty. Unable to hold eye contact. Uncomfortable. She had made him uncomfortable with her questions, with maybe even her presence, and the uneasy churn in her stomach began to revolve at maximum speed.
“Alright then,” she said. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Robin felt a steady accumulation of blood creep up to her cheeks as she turned to leave. It could be fine that they remained as they were—an unbridgeable distance gaping between them, and she couldn’t fault him for clearly marking where his interests lay. The fact that it certainly was not in creating a friendship with her smarted a bit, but it was a wound she would no doubt recover from.
She walked back to the table, shrugging when the crew directed their questioning eyebrows toward her. There wasn’t much to say other than he wanted to be alone and, she thought to herself rather childishly, Zoro doesn’t want to be my friend. Robin took a sip of the wine that Sanji offered her, smiling when he gave her a compliment, and settled in with them, ignoring the wrenching of her gut.