Chapter Text
Luffy lay splayed across a thin mattress on the galley floor. His body ached still from being frozen. The last forty-eight hours played over and over in his head. Anxiety began to rise at the thought of losing his crew in the Davey Back, and it grew with a vengeance at Kuzan’s appearance and the thought of Robin dying. They had spent the past day on the floor defrosting.
Luffy was always one to talk, wanting to fill any silence there was with some type of joy. In all this time, while it was just the two of them resting, he was speechless. He was paralyzed by his worries about Robin. He would be worried about any of his crew, of course, trying to reassure himself that she was no different. His heart always seemed to beat faster when she was near.
His archeologist whimpered in her sleep. All he wanted to do was make the pain go away for her. He wanted to pull her in closely and hold her. The way that DanDan did in secret when he slept after Sabo died. He wondered if she cried like this in her sleep every night, until now she only slept on their crow’s nest. She always waved it off with a joke, but what sense of danger did she feel to not sleep with everyone else behind a closed door? During stormy nights in the last few months, he began to choose watch for the evening. Robin would be awake, reading or writing in her journals. While waiting in the galley, Luffy asked her to read to him. If he ended up dozing off on her, he would wake up to her still reading and softly stroking his hair. He felt this great urgency to protect his crew, picking up on those little things to make them feel safe. Of course, he'd do all of this for any of the crew, but he especially enjoyed spending those nights with just the two of them.
He felt the sheet begin to get tighter. Luffy lifted himself up to figure out what was going on. Robin was curled up in a tight ball.He was surprised to see her 2 meter tall body so small. She was crying, "Saul, you’re so cold. It’s so cold. Please don’t leave me. "
The captain caved, his heart hurting to see her pain. He pressed his back to the wall, and cradled her. He began to hum the tune of Bink's Sake. She still seemed so far away. He began to sing, faintly louder than a whisper, hoping that this would be the lighthouse to bring her back to shore. "Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Bink's Brew..." By the second verse, she began to stir. Luffy brought her even closer to his chest, continuing the tune. Robin's eyes opened wide, like a baby deer's-full of fear and confusion. Luffy averted his gaze from her to the ceiling.
"It's okay; I'm okay; you're okay." Ashamed, she covered her face in the gauze thin sheet.
Luffy shifted his eyes back down to her. "You don't need to tell me what's wrong, what happened before or anything. I can only guess what Kuzan meant yesterday. You just need to know that I'll do—we'll do anything to help you. We're your crew, Robin. "
He felt her tears fall onto his knee. Robin rolled her head to face him, but the stream of tears became steadier. She tried to choke some words out.
The captain gently pushed her tears away with his fingers. "We should probably get some more rest. Thawing takes a lot of work." He picked her up and placed her gently back onto the mattress, tucking the sheet around her. Luffy laid down facing the other wall, leaving a foot between them.
"Luffy," Robin whispered.
"What's up?"
"Can you sleep closer to me… It's cold. "
"Sure," he said, with relief. He wanted to do more for her; he wanted to be closer to her.
He put his pillow next to hers and wrapped his arms around her. Luffy studied every part of her face: the way her bangs fell, her long eyelashes, and soft lips. His last thoughts before dozing off were wondering how their lips would feel together.