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When it came to sleeping, Luffy and Zoro were pretty much equals. Wherever and whenever, if the mood arose, either one could nod off in less than two seconds. However, that didn’t mean they were immune to unpleasant dreams, or that sleep never eluded them. They were just too dense for most things to phase them. The past was the past. The future, the future. So long as they lived without regrets, their consciences were clear.
That being said, tragedy is still tragedy, and having a beloved brother die in one’s arms will ruin quite a few nights’ rest, especially in the immediate aftermath of said event.
On the first night back with his crew, Luffy was plagued with images of Ace bleeding out, sometimes morphing into Sabo, always too far gone for the youngest of the brothers to do anything about it.
After a few hours of restless sleep, Luffy crawled out of bed and stumbled out onto the main deck of the Thousand Sunny. He inhaled to the cool salty-sea air as the wind ruffled his hair.
“Hello, Luffy,” Robin greeted from her chair where she was reading a book with the help of a flashlight held by an extra arm. “I didn’t expect you to be up at this hour.”
“Hey, Robin,” Luffy greeted with a tired smile as he shuffled over to her. “I, um,” he paused for a moment. “I can’t sleep. Keep thinking about Ace.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. But they both knew it was. That kind of pain doesn’t just go away in two years.
Robin hummed thoughtfully. “Would you like me to read to you?” She asked, raising her book slightly. Luffy’s lips curled down in a frown.
“What’s it about?”
“It’s just one of Chopper’s old medical notebooks.”
“That sounds boring.”
Robin hummed again and she smiled at her captain with a twinkle in her eye. “Boring enough to fall asleep to?” She asked. Luffy blinked once, then laughed.
“I guess we can try it,” he agreed with a grin.
Robin repositioned herself so that Luffy could use her thighs as a pillow. With a fond smile, she ran her fingers through her captain’s hair and began reading aloud.
She read about small injuries Zoro incurred while training, what their resident doctor had prescribed, two paragraphs of ranting when the swordsman didn’t listen, and some dejected writings after Zoro made a full recovery. Next was a full page about Ussop’s nose, which made Luffy chuckle a bit and mumble something about their sniper that the archeologist couldn’t quite make out, but his tone was lighter than before and that alone was enough to make her smile.
Nami got a paper cut. Luffy burned his hand trying to sneak some food from a pot on Sanji’s stove. Franky put a nail through his thumb, but he didn’t notice until dinner. Or, rather, he didn’t notice until Robin pointed it out.
At this point, Luffy was sound asleep, drool seeping into Robin’s pant leg as he snored loudly. Robin smiled to herself and closed the book, happy that she was able to help her captain in some small way.
After that incident, whenever their captain heard that someone among his crew was having a hard time sleeping, he’d drag them over to the archeologist and make them lie down while she read to them from whatever she was reading. And if he happened to catch her when she wasn’t reading, Luffy would run to the Sunny’s library and grab a random one off the bookshelves.
The following morning would find Luffy’s limbs wrapped protectively around his victim, both of them sound asleep with a blanket placed carefully over them. And with time, each crewmate would learn to seek out the storyteller on their own, or offer to read for another so Robin could sleep.
Some might think it childish, but the Straw Hat Pirates grew to love their bedtime stories.