Chapter Text
Nico Robin watched quietly as a familiar scene unfolded before her.
The usual apathetic expression on her face, did not betray the fear she felt in her heart.
How could she not feel it? One would think she’d be used to it by now but it wasn’t that easy.
The flicker of recognition on the man’s face faded, replaced by a look of outrage.
“You! You’re Nico Robin, aren’t you?! The 80 million bounty devil child?!” He reached out to grab her but she moved away.
It was actually 79 million but who had the time to stop and explain that?
It was about time to make a hasty escape but just as she was about to make a run for it, a crowd of onlookers- who had been minding their own business just minutes ago- now encircled her.
She had become used to situations like these. She made a round of hands appear on the people surrounding her and restrained them. However, she had apparently missed one man who recklessly jumped on her. The surprise ruined her concentration, causing her to free her grips on the other people. They began causing a riot.
The man looked at her with pure hatred in his eyes, although he had never even met her before. He probably even had no idea as to why he hated her so. She was a criminal with a bounty of 79 million who was declared to be a threat to the peace of the world. What other reason could he need? It was the same for the others as well. And how could she blame them? She probably would have reacted the same way had she been in their place. It isn’t as though they knew any better...
But even so, it wasn’t fair!
The hopelessness of her situation, not the riot in the bar -she could have escaped it blindfolded at that point- but her situation, her life in general suddenly sunk in. She lost the motivation to try to escape or even defend herself as the man who had restrained her, raised an arm to assault her. She watched, her eyes listless, as the hand came down upon her.
In an instant, it was caught by another hand just moments before it could make contact with her. For the first time in a very long time, emotions manifested on her pretty face. She looked with surprise at the boy who saved her.
Light blue hair, goggles on his head, unbuttoned shirt with khaki shorts. Not the sort of person you could take seriously at first sight. But he saved her. It wasn’t the sort of sentiment she was used to.
She refused to delude herself, though. He had probably misunderstood the situation. Once he found out that she was the Nico Robin, he himself would attack her!
The boy frowned. “Hitting a girl like that is so not SUPER!” He pushed the man away easily.
“No! You don’t understand! This girl is-“
“I don’t give a shit who she is, nii-chan. This is totally uncool.” His face darkened leaving the other man stuttering and unable to form a proper argument.
“And YOU!” He turned to her. “Don’t be so nonchalant when somebody’s attacking you! Come on!” He grabbed her by the hand and walked out of the joint.
He pulled her a good few blocks down the road before finally letting go. “You should be fine he-“, he paused, “Oi! You’re that Nico Robin!”
It was just as she had thought. Now that he figured out who she was, it was a matter of time before he tried to turn her over to the authorities.
She looked down at her feet to avoid his gaze. She had enough of peoples’ hateful glares for one day.
“Oi! I’m talking to you!” He put his hand on her chin and raised her face up to his. Their eyes met.
However, for once, Robin did not see that intense glare of loathing that she was so used to.
The boy looked troubled to be sure, but something was different.
“I am. So what?” She finally said before dropping her eyes to the ground again. “A-are you going to turn me over to the marines now?” She asked, unable to stop her voice from quivering a bit.
“BAA-KA!” The boy raised an eyebrow. “Why would I turn you over to those guys after I went through the trouble of saving you?”
Robin raised her head and gave the blue-haired boy a puzzled look. This was an unexpected turn of events.
“But now that I know you’re Nico Robin, I can’t exactly let you go either,” he continued.
Robin silently stared at him as he (quite comically) went through several stages of confusion while wrestling with his inner thoughts. He kept on mumbling something about a ‘Tom-san’ and a ‘Baka-burg’ while furiously scratching the back of his head and pacing about.
“Where do you live?” He finally asked her.
“I don’t have a home,” she said flatly.
“Yosh! I decided! Tom-san will know what to do with you!” He seemed to have come to a conclusion. “You! Nico Robin,” He pointed at her. “You come with me!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean 'why'? What’s the problem? You don’t even have a home, do you? Just come with me damn it!” He seemed aggravated.
The prospect of having to convince her might not have come up in his internal monologue, she presumed. He was quite an amusing person.
“I don’t want to,” she said blankly.
“HAAAHH??!!” He exclaimed, “YOU DON’T WANT TO?!”
He sure was a loud one. Robin did not lift her head to meet his eyes. Why should she have to go with him? Indeed, he had saved her but that didn’t exactly mean he was a good person. She had been betrayed by too many people too many times to grant him the luxury of acquiring her trust that easily. Besides, he hadn’t even known she was THE Nico Robin when he had saved her.
“You don’t have anywhere to go, do you? Might as well come with me,” he persisted.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked, her face still displaying no emotion.
“Hmmm? You don’t have to worry about that. We aren’t gonna do anything weird with you. We aren’t perverts or anything.”
Robin gave the boy an assiduous once-over. “You sure look like one.”
The boy’s lips twitched in annoyance. “Oi oi,” he grumbled.
Nico Robin internally weighed her options. There weren’t many, actually. Just two, in fact.
Either she could go with him to whatever fate awaited her or she could spend another few days looking for a place to work at until the greed of 79 million beli took over and she was once again betrayed.
The latter was getting boring and repetitive.
“Fine. I’ll go with you,” she said finally.
“SUPER!” The boy grinned.