Chapter Text
As she grew older, Nico Robin never thought that her heart truly could love, even though she had the rumored "Red String of Fate". She had always thought that she would accept that she was supposed to love her soulmate, but she could never be able to truly love them. When her and her newfound crewmates got to an island called Water 7, everything had done a complete 360 in her heart. When Robin first saw the string progressively getting shorter, she felt her stomach drop. How was she going to reject her soulmate? How would they feel, or what would they do? At first, when Robin first realized that it was Franky that was her soulmate, she just thought of it as a 'temporary set back'. If he ever asked anything, she would just tell him that she had no interest in being with her soulmate. But, as the entire even at Enies Lobby happened, the feeling of not wanting a soulmate slowly left her. That feeling was replaced by a tight, glowing feeling, that made it feel like she was going to get crushed any time Franky even looked at her. Robin dismissed this feeling, only ever thinking of it as nothing. Until one night, when she saw Franky out on the deck of the Sunny at night.
She slowly opened the door leading out to the deck, her hair up in a ponytail with her glasses messily placed on her head. She was wearing a purple tank-top with black night-time shorts. When he heard the door open, Franky looked towards it and saw Robin.
"Woah! There's one suuupperrr lady! Whaddya doin', Robin?" He smiled, making her heart flutter even more. This feeling was unfamiliar to Robin, it was something she had only ever felt around Franky. His bright personality always made her happy almost immediately.
"Good evening, Franky. I could ask the same of you, what are you doing?" She walked towards the man, smiling ever so slightly. After many years of practice, she figured out how to mask her emotions almost perfectly.
"I just couldn't sleep, ya know?" He laughed, looking down towards the smaller woman, that was only really small to him. She chuckled, walking over to the railing of the ship and leaning on it, facing the sea.
"You've noticed, right? Our strings, they're connected." Robin looked towards him behind her, and raised her right hand slightly, where the glowing crimson string was tied to her pinky finger. Franky's face immediately grew red, as he had never thought that would be brought up between them. He stepped away once, before muttering a quiet 'yeah'.
"I thought it was unfair that I hadn't approached you right away about this... so I wanted to say this now. It may take me a while to be ready to be in a relationship. I always thought that I would live my life alone, but now I have friends. It's difficult for me to even accept that... so if you could give me a while, I promise I will eventually come around, Franky." Robin's smile was sad, it almost felt like she was rejecting him when he had never said anything in the first place. When she looked at Franky's face, she saw a shocked expression, which then morphed back into his signature smile.
"It's fine, Robin! To be completely honest, it's kinda difficult for me to except that my soulmate is so smart and pretty!! I'll wait for however long it takes, I promise!" He smiled brighter, giving Robin an encouraging thumbs up, which she couldn't help but chuckle at. Which was something she would never have been able to do just a year prior.
She didn't want to make him wait for her to catch up, however, she also didn't want to make herself get into a relationship so soon after finally getting real friends. Maybe someday, when her wounds have turned to scars, she will be able to truly love him.