Eden🐰

She starts with her usual. Fingers lingering too long as she passes you a bottle of beer, hands unnecessarily touching your waist as she passes behind you, and her favorite: leaning over your shoulder as Nami’s explaining the route through the next chain of islands, making sure her breath ghosts your cheek, and revelling in the shiver she gets from you in response.

It’s mundane. It’s routine. She’s done this a million times, with hundreds of other people in the month-long honeymoon phase between a stranger telling her she’s the most beautiful woman they’ve ever seen, and the inevitable crash and burn as they realize she’s not who they think she is, that she’s more than just a warm body. She’s almost counting down the days until you pull away.

But then, she forgets she’s on a crew. Forgets that you’re going to be with her for the long haul. Forgets, most importantly, that she can be seen.

Sanji is not blind, nor stupid. He knows that sickly sweet sugar high of being adored, even venerated, that you take and take and take, then quit while you’re ahead. He’s played the game, he knows the patterns, and he hates that he can see it happening right in front of his eyes. But that’s not what makes his stomach churn.

What makes his stomach churn is that he knows this is different. This is not some month long fling. It stopped being a month long fling ages ago, and yet Robin is still treating it that way.

She’s still performing, still waiting for you to crack, for you to say that you’re done with the act, that all you wanted was to sleep with her, because the self satisfaction of knowing she was right all along would confirm all those beliefs within her. That she’s more palatable in doses, because love was a concept so distant from her that she’s already deemed herself unworthy of it despite never knowing it.

She thinks she’s throwing you off. But you preen for the touches that she rarely gives, do errands on her behalf even when it nearly doubles your workload, and sit with her as she rambles on and on about her Poneglyph theories even when all she’s trying to do is get you to sleep or to leave. But you’re still there.

Sanji doesn’t know why it’s taking her so long to see it, and at a certain point he’s no longer able to contain himself, his eyes trained on the perfume gift set you’d just gotten her that same day.

“You’re being cruel.” he says, crossing his arms in the dim light of the kitchen just after sunset. The rest of the crew are outside, enjoying their dinner on the beach, oblivious to the conversation happening on the Sunny.

Robin taps her fingers against the dinner table, trying to keep her calm façade as her eyes try to burn holes into each of the perfume bottles. Her gaze flicks up to Sanji’s as she clears her throat, “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” Robin scoffs, pushing off of the table to stand up herself. “You are, and you know it.”

Sanji continues, gesturing towards the kitchen door. “She’s not just infatuated with you anymore and I don’t think you seem to understand that.”

“She’ll get over it, just wait and see.” Robin says, and even Sanji catches how much of a half hearted response it is.

He huffs, annoyed.

“Come on, we both know you don’t even believe what you’re saying.”

Before Robin can get another word in, he cuts in again, brow furrowing. “What the hell are you even waiting around for anyway? Until where are you willing to take this?”

Robin squints, and Sanji immediately knows he’s hit a nerve. She leans forward into his space. “They’re all the same.” Sanji almost rolls his eyes.

“Robin, you can’t be serious.” As soon as he sees her eyes flare, he knows he’s fucked it up.

“You want serious?” She says, and leans in even closer, making him back up against the wall, and he’s regretting this conversation already.

“Then fine.” She spits. “Watch what happens when she finally gets a taste of me.” At this, Robin turns around and immediately walks out. “She’ll toss me aside like a ragdoll, and then you’ll see that I’m right.”

Sanji doesn’t even bother following her, and just watches helplessly as the kitchen door swings wildly and slams shut on her way out, while Robin tried to fight the nausea rising at the back of her throat.

That night, you’re in the library, unwinding peacefully after dinner until she slams the door open. You grin at the welcome intrusion, sitting up properly from your relaxed slump to greet her.

“Hey, Robin,” You said excitedly. “I was just reading that book you recommended to me-” You can barely get the sentence out before she cuts you off, impatient.

“You can stop pretending now.” She huffs.

You blink.

“What?” You blurt, and for a second she looks hesitant, but suddenly her face contorts into a grimace.

She grabs your face and kisses you, and for a second your heart flutters, but you frown as soon as you realize it’s nothing like anything you ever imagined a kiss with her to be. You're taken aback by how mean it feels. She pushes into your mouth cruelly, claiming without even caring to let you respond. You gasp into the kiss but she just keeps going, and you furrow your brows, letting go of the book to claw at her shoulders.

“Robin-” You say, breathless.

“Robin, what-” You finally manage to push her away, about to question her until you see tears forming in her eyes.

She huffs. “You can stop whatever this simpering bullshit is now, okay?” She says, distraught. “I don’t need to be impressed like a fucking bird if all you want is to have sex with me.”

Before you can even reply, she starts shucking her clothes off, almost disgusted with herself.

Your brows furrow again. “When did I ever-” You can’t even respond properly. It hurts.

You grab her arm. “Why would you think that I just wanted your body?”

“Come on,” She spits, thrashing against your grip. “Stop pretending. I know that look on your face, I’ve seen it all before. You aren’t the first, I was just wondering how long it would take for you to say it.” The bluntness of her words makes your gut twist.

You want to be mad.

But you force down the bitterness gathering at the back of your throat, and your hands grasp hers again to stop her actions. What would be the use of yelling now?

“Do you think I'd spend hours with you every night in this library because I wanted sex?” Your voice breaks halfway through the sentence. Robin opens her mouth, but you don’t even let her reply, your hands hastily tugging her clothes back on as tears form in your own eyes.

“Do you think I’d buy you four different perfumes to match each of the fucking seasons on the stupid Grand Line just because I wanted to get in your pants?” You wipe the tears from your eyes as they threaten to spill. Robin watches wordlessly as you fix her clothes back into place with shaking hands.

“Fuck,” You let out a dry laugh at the absurdity of it all, “Even Sanji only uses one all year round, the four I got you were expensive as hell- but I got them because each of them remind me of you.”

The sight of you on the verge of tears makes Robin’s knees go weak, and she crumples to the floor with her head in her hands. You slide down with her, rubbing soothing circles into her shoulders as she cries.

Seeing her like this makes your heart break. The words bubble up inside you, and you decide to take a deep breath and just let them spill over.

“I,” You gulp. “I take my night watch with you because I love when you tell me about the stars.”

Robin ducks her head even lower. You can see the tears streaming down her face, and your throat starts to constrict as you fight through your own tears, because you have to tell her this now. It was stupid of you to wait this long.

“I always partner up with you on shopping trips,” You say between sniffles, the soothing circles you’re drawing into her arms growing erratic as you try to contain yourself. “Even when I know it’s just to visit the library- because I love how focused you get on your research.” Robin shakes her head at this, brows furrowing, and your hand itches with the urge to lift her chin just to try to get her to look at you.

She doesn’t meet your gaze, and you consider calling her name again, but you decide not to force it, letting the tension ease out of her first.

You stay like that for a while, just breathing into the space between you, your breaths the only sound filling the room for what seems to be ages.

After an agonizing, impossibly long minute, you hear her heave a sigh. You decide to go for broke.

“Robin,” You say softly, “I do the things that I do because I want to.”

Her body locks up, and for a second you’re afraid she’ll lash out at you, but you see her lips tremble as she opens her mouth slowly to speak.

She seems to contemplate what she was about to say, and her mouth closes again.

She sighs.

“How can I be sure of that.” Robin says at last, defeated, and you smile down at her even when you know she can’t see it.

“I’ll show you, if you’ll let me.”

It’s only then that she angles her face up, and you hold your breath as she searches your gaze hesitantly, before giving the slightest nod, her eyes finally locking onto yours.

It’s still hard for Robin to believe you. She’s mulled over all the possibilities, and keeps setting herself up for failure every single time. In her mind, she gives you a week.

She doesn’t expect much. But then you start filling the empty spaces in her life as soon as you’re given permission to, in all the ways she doesn’t expect.

You're immediately by her side at breakfast, lunch and dinner, thighs close enough to touch under the table. As you’re side by side, it’s almost like you have a sixth sense for her. You refill her glass just as she thinks about getting the pitcher. You place a second serving of food on her plate exactly as she’s about to ask Usopp to pass the dish her way.

The next week, as you and Nami are getting ready in your quarters to head out onto a new island, Robin enters the room, clearly looking for something. But before she can even open her mouth to ask either of you anything, you hand a hefty book to her mid-sentence, not even glancing in her direction as Nami replies to whatever you’d just said. Robin stands awkwardly in the middle of the room before swiftly turning on her heel and heading out, the door closing before Nami’s snicker could exit the privacy of your quarters.

A few days after that, as you touch down on another port town, her eyes gleam as she spots a robust coffee machine that looks way too expensive to be taken out to sea, and the next night she catches Franky grumbling about having to babyproof (aka Luffyproof) a glass Royal Belgian Siphon Coffee Maker to be safe on the waves. Sanji, on the other hand, is ecstatic.

The months keep passing, and you don’t change at all. You don’t push, you don’t pry, and instead of growing colder, you seem to only get warmer, so much so that sometimes Robin doesn’t know what to do with herself.

Until one day, in the sweltering heat of the sun, both of you are out on the deck reading on the grass, taking advantage of the natural light.

Hours pass, and at some point Robin doesn’t even register the fact that she’s fallen asleep, but when she wakes up, she notices that she’s lying on something soft. Something hums above her, and fingers card slowly through her hair.

Her breath hitches as she realizes you’d moved her head into your lap, your body protecting her face from the bright glare of the sun as you leaned forward to look closer at your book.

Something hot prickles behind her eyes, and she curses to herself as she realizes she’s about to cry.

You haven’t even realized that she’s awake yet, too focused as you whisper the lines of the book to yourself, your finger moving across each of the words on the page, running your hands through her hair mindlessly.

The softness of your touch undoes her, and after a few seconds you start to hear sniffles coming from underneath you, making you jerk your chin down to check on her.

You panic seeing the tears in her eyes, but before you can even do anything, she reaches a trembling hand out to cradle the back of your neck, and your eyes widen when she brings you down abruptly for a kiss.

The angle is a little awkward, but you don’t even care.

Your hands lift off of the book and you completely lose the page you were just at, but nothing else matters. The soft press of her lips against yours makes you forget about everything else.

You smile into the kiss, laughing against her tear-stained cheeks, and for a second Robin is afraid you’ll probe, seek more, try to deepen it, but it never comes. Something inside of her relaxes. How foolish of her to doubt you, when you’d spent so long proving her wrong.

After a few seconds, she lets go of your neck, and you let out a surprised huff when you see that she’s blushing.

You can’t suppress the smile on your face, and she tries to turn away, embarrassed.

You purse your lips. “Can you do that again?” You ask, timid.

Robin flicks her gaze up shyly, and the newness of it all is overwhelming, her mouth opening and closing without saying a word, unsure.

It's the first time you’ve ever seen her so speechless.

You chuckle into the silence, already straightening up to get back to your reading, happy with what you can get.

“That's okay, thank you Robin,” You start to say, but right as you’re about to return your gaze to the book, a hand shoots out again to press you down into another kiss, a short peck this time, before releasing you just as quickly.

A pause.

You blink.

Robin blinks back up at you, looking worried about your reaction, and the genuine frown on her face makes you stifle a laugh, making her swat your thigh lightly.

“What!” She huffs, pretending to be annoyed, and you know it.

You come down from your giggling, and move a hand down to her face to sweep her hair behind her ear.

“Nothing. You’re sweet.” You say, and you’re close enough that you feel her breath hitch.

You swallow dryly. If there was ever a moment to do it, this would probably be the time.

You take a deep breath in and Robin isn’t sure what you’re about to do for a second, until she sees the sincerity in your gaze, and her eyes widen.

She breathes a sharp inhale as she watches you make the shape of the words before she hears it, and even though she knows what you’re going to say, it doesn’t stop the tears from spilling over as soon as you do.

“I love you.”