Chapter Text
The dream is sweet, comforting, in bright watercolors – the woman in it perhaps a little out of his league, decidedly more beautiful than the girls he goes to school with, but goddammit hasn’t he been horny lately, a stranger in his own body, and her skin feels so soft beneath his fingertips…
“Wake up, dumbass”.
The sheets are stuck unpleasantly to his chest and the pillow under his head is damp, he can feel the small trickles of sweat as they glide on the sides of his face and down the back of his ears. However, what forces Zoro to pry his eyes open is his sister's voice, a high-pitched, nagging sound through which even an expert sleeper as himself can’t enjoy his slumber.
“You’re going to be late on your first day”.
He looks up, taking in the ruffled pink pigtails and oversized pajama she’s sporting. Witch is lucky she won’t be getting started with university for another month. “Get out of my way, Perona”.
“Just get ready and let Kumashi drop you at school”, she sighs, wiggling her eyebrows at the clock hanging on the wall behind his head. “You don’t have time to get lost today”.
Then she is out in a contemptuous giggle, and Zoro immediately dashes out of his bed. He checks the clock. Seven a.m. He spends in the shower no more than twenty minutes, shampooing his green hair with energy, as if to stop the goddess' image from disturbing him during the day, then prepares his backpack and walks out of the house at an acceptable ten to eight.
He greets Kumashi with a curt nod, stepping inside the black, anonymous car. If the traffic isn’t too overwhelming in the city today, it shouldn’t take them longer than fifteen minutes to get to the school, but Perona’s driver is an authentic snail, and he regrets not taking his motorcycle more and more with every stop at which he lets anybody and their grandmothers surpass him. Luckily for him, New Marineford puts many facilities at the students’ disposal, including a small café right by the entrance, where they can stop by and eat breakfast before class.
Eventually the two reach the school, where he plans to buy himself some coffee and wait for the others.
At the beginning of each year, he and his friends meet at Makino’s, it’s been a tradition for four years straight at this point. Zoro is utterly surprised when he realizes he’s been the first to arrive, occupying the spot at the end of the waiting line and checking his telephone for messages as he waits.
He then goes on to check his e-mails and see if the official date for the kendo championship tryouts is out. He has one chance and one chance only to snatch his father’s record as the youngest swordsman to win the title, but sadly the committee is still taking its sweet time deciding on a time and place. Tsk.
A hand taps gently on his right shoulder. “Excuse me?”
Zoro turns around, and his eyes converge on a thin, slightly uplifted nose, above which round, blue eyes look at him in concern shadowed by thick, raven lashes. She wears the same blazer he does, with the same crest. “Yes?”, he deadpans.
“It’s your turn”, the girl replies, gesturing for the check out. As he turns around once more, he notices the lady behind it does not look pleased. “Sorry, Makino”, he smiles, sheepishly.
“Black with no sugar, right?”, the woman grins back, reverting to her usual cheerful demeanor.
“Thank you”. He looks back at the stranger. “So, you’re a senior, too, uh?”
So smooth, Zoro, so smooth. He is lucky his friends aren’t here (yet), or he would never hear the end of it. Such a pathetic display, and the inability to have a proper conversation with a girl, is Sanji’s prerogative.
“That I am”, she replies, a hint of humor in her voice he can’t quite understand, eyes lingering on the symbol on his chest. “I’ve heard great things about New Marineford, I hope it will live up to its reputation”.
Not knowing what to say, Zoro grabs the fuming take-away cup Makino has placed on the counter for him and gives the woman his card. His bill is paid one quick swipe later, and he says goodbye to the woman before he returns his attention to his schoolmate. Only the children of the wealthiest families in the country can afford the prime education the school offers, hence the small number of people who make up the student body. Everybody knows each other and it is one of the main reasons he and his group try to steer away from gossip, but he is pretty sure he’s never seen the raven-haired girl in magazines before, not that he pays them much attention, anyway. Who is she? His curiosity is going to be satisfied, though. Sooner or later, one of Nami’s birds will whisper anything there is to know about the new girl in her ear, and she, like the good friend she (sometimes) is, will share the interesting bits with the rest of the crew.
“I'm sure it will". Zoro gives her a small smile and aims straight for the door. "I’ll see you around, then”.
He can see Luffy’s jet-black hair peeking out from behind the café’s window.
“Goodbye”.
“God, Zoro, finally”, she exhales as a familiar patch of green hair comes out of the shop’s door. Nami glances down at her smartphone once more, feigning impatience. “We’re going to be late”.
The rest of the group is there already, eager to be done with the five-minutes-walk that connects their current location to the building where their classes take place.
She knows the first day commends they get caught up on each other’s lives and share tales and anecdotes from their summer vacations, but she'll be damned if she lets Kaya’s boyfriend launch into one of his over-complicated and over-exaggerated stories before they are well on their way to class. Not that she doesn’t like Usopp, she just hates being late, and knows she’ll need perfect records if she wants to be picked as valedictorian. To say the competition is vicious would be an understatement. That shit looks great on college applications.
“We were lounging on the beach, y’a know? Then out of the blue this surf champion approaches me, saying they need one more competitor to reassign the title and demands someone with such a great body as myself fills in for the spot…” Nami looks at her blonde friend, whose amused giggle counterfeits her boyfriend’s narration, and shakes her head. “…Needless to say, you’re talking to the new champ-”
Everyone has stopped listening by this point, and it is Luffy’s turn to share. “Grandpa was away for most of the holidays, so it was just me, my brothers and Dadan”, he says. “Except from when she banned us from playing soccer in the sitting room, it was a great summer”. He crosses his arm behind his head, erupting in his distinctive, slightly childish laughter. “Shishishishi!”
“Besides from the cruise with Usopp two weeks ago, my parents took me on an extended vacation to Raftel at the beginning of the summer. What people say is true. It really is paradise on earth”, Kaya interjects.
“You should come to Alabasta next time”, chimes in the blue-haired girl walking on Nami’s right side, Vivi. Although her offer sounds more like a frustrated attempt to establish the superiority of the country her father rules, it is still met positively by her friend. “If you can stand the heat, that is. You can stay at the castle”.
“Is there any space left for me, Vivi-chwan?”
Sanji’s call for attention is not unexpected, but still quite a little bit annoying for the people who’ve been exposed to his doormat tendencies for any extended period of time.
Franky grabs him by the neck of his shirt and jerks him back, knowing the princess wouldn’t appreciate his distorted ideas of chivalry so early in the morning, and stops any potential retort with one stern look. The fact he is quite tall, over seven feet, decidedly helps when he needs to calm down his otherwise boisterous friend, or his green-haired, orientationally challenged counterpart for that matter.
Zoro tags at the back of the group with Chopper, the only sixteen years old in the crew. As a prodigy scholar, he’s been allowed to skip some years and graduate from high school earlier. Despite the age gap, he is still one of the top students in their class.
Eventually, they all reach the top of the small hill. Their classroom is located inside of a building of rectangular shape, a mixture of dark bricks and ethereal marble. A long row of stairs leads to the entrance, and immediately they are either greeted or frowned upon by many different people, all of them wearing the same uniform they sport. The bell, however, is not a merciful entity, and its first ring forces people to rush inside. Students and professors alike climb hastily up the stairs and disappear inside the entrance hall, where the group splits in two: Usopp and Franky greet the others before they blend into the crowd and disappear, while the others slowly but steadily start making their way towards their own classroom.
This year, they’re on the third floor. Nami patiently navigates them through the busy hallways, stopping from time to time to exchange pleasantries with her many acquaintances, but still managing to get the whole group to destination before the ring of the final bell. She sits down in her usual spot, with Vivi and Kaya on her side and the rest of the crew scattered in the neat lines of tables around them.
Chopper leans in from his seat in front her to whisper in her ear. “There’s a spare seat”, he observes.
“I wonder what that is about”, she replies, absent-mindedly, but she has no time for further inquiries as the professor finally arrives and slams the door behind his back.
Sakazuki is stricter than most of his colleagues, self-important and prone to anger; he’s known to verbally abuse his students when in a bad mood, so, practically, the whole fucking time, and over the last two years, having been appointed vice-principal, the dreaded physics professor has only gotten worse. At least, before the promotion, he had to pretend in front of his equals, but now he treats even them as if they’re an insignificant speckle of dirt stuck under his expensive, handmade shoes.
The first two hours of school drag on, slow and tedious, as Sakazuki – or Akainu, red dog, as his students call him – immediately starts teaching his class, going over the topics they’ll cover in the course of the year. He doesn’t ask them how they spent the summer, as any sensible teacher would do, nor does he mention what he has been up to in the past few months.
Probably coming up with new ideas to torture us, Nami muses.
Luckily for her, even bad things ought to come to an end, and eventually the man leaves the classroom, briefcase in tow, to be soon substituted by someone who is, on the contrary, one of the students’ favorite professors: it’s Brook, the music teacher, an old man with a bizarre hairstyle and the weirdest outfits.
For the beginning of the new school year he’s opted for a purple suit whose jacket has shiny, beaded lapels, with a black shirt underneath, but what really catches his pupils’ attention, for a change, is not his odd appearance, but rather the tall, raven-haired girl who’s standing right next to him. “This here is Nico Robin. She’ll be part of this class for the rest of the year”, he announces.
There’s a dry thud on Nami’s right. Vivi’s face is strangely flushed. “Oh. My. God”.
The music lecture goes much better than the physics' one, but Sanji is still incredibly tired by the time they enter the cafeteria for lunch, a little after noon. His body will need some time adjusting to the winter schedule, especially after an entire summer of cooking and serving dishes until two a.m. and going to bed much, much later.
What New Marineford offers which the Baratie lacks, however, is the lovely presence of his girl-friends, in particular Nami-swan, and it appears there’s a new addition this year to the school’s collection of beauties, too. He better hurry and show the poor, neglected lady her way around the campus, since everyone seems too busy making up theories on her identity to welcome her properly.
“It’s not common for transfer students to be accepted here”, Kaya notes when they sit down, their trays filled with food. Chopper has been an important exception to a very long tradition just one year ago. “But I’m sure the board wouldn’t accept her request if they thought she doesn’t fit in”. There is no malice in her voice, she is always ready to make new friends, but the cool demeanor of the new girl is chilling, just a little, and like every rich person worthy of that name, heiress to the biggest pharmaceutical empire of the East Blue, she is wary of people whose net-worth she ignores.
Just who is this Nico Robin, really?
Vinsmoke Sanji is wondering the same, albeit for different reasons. Germa is somehow a secluded country, so it’s possible her name is unknown there, but to afford the school’s yearly tuition she ought to be extremely rich. It’s kind of weird that no one here at New Marineford seems to have never heard about her. Except Vivi, it appears, but she’s been strangely tight-lipped about it, and he knows better than to press a lady for information. Luffy, however, ignores the rules of common chivalry - if anything, he stomps on them at any chance he gets.
“Where did you meet?” The dark-haired boy is too perceptive for his own good sometimes, in a way that embarrasses other people. The worst part is, he doesn’t even realize it. “You and the new girl, I mean”.
Sanji feels sorry for him, expecting Nami to blow up on him any second now and looking drop dead gorgeous whilst doing so, but the girl remains quiet, and eyes the Alabastan princess strangely, instead. Information is power and Nami-swan certainly is greedy – but he loves that about her.
“Uh?”, the moss-head comments, stupidly. The chef wonders why he even bothers trying to talk. It’s clear by now that he’s all muscle and no brains, although one could argue he has excellent grades, even higher than him in some subjects. It’s just that their rivalry is something he takes very seriously, because it pushes him to do and be better, plus antagonizing Zoro just feels too natural, and he has too much fun riling the stupid marimo up.
“She- She’s from Ohara, in the West Blue”, Vivi says after a while. “She used to be friends with… Crocodile”.
The whole table freezes upon hearing the guy’s name. Unfortunately, they all know how hard it is for their friend to speak of anything even remotely related to him. He’s a genuine monster.
“She doesn’t look evil”, Luffy objects, eyes roaming in the distance, across the other side of the cafeteria. “There she is. She seems… lonely”.
So that’s what this is about, Sanji thinks. His pathological belief that anyone needs friends. Not that he’s entirely wrong. His friends have been fundamental for Sanji to develop into a semi-functional human being despite Judge’s terrible parenting. He’s sure the new girl could do with some support as well. She does look lonely, standing by herself as she tries to balance her tray and searching for somewhere to seat. People pretend they don’t see her, and she doesn’t seem keen on sitting next to complete strangers.
“I think Eustass has his eyes on her already”, Nami practically growls, glaring daggers at her first (and probably last) boyfriend. They’ve been broken up for over a year, but he still makes her blood boil. In a bad way, of course. “I don’t like it”.
“Your ex’s a pig, everyone knows that”, chimes in Usopp, joining them at the table and pecking Kaya on the lips. Franky arrives moments later. “He was talking about her this morning, but it seems not even he has access to the information Franky and I, on the contrary, have gotten our hands on”.
“Her mother was a famous archaeologist, and our new schoolmate Nico Robin is the sole heiress of one of the largest estates in the West Blue. It’s like someone made a conscious effort to hide her from public records, but it seems she spent the last two years in Alabasta, where she attended the Institute”.
“Your information is correct”, Vivi nods, sharply. “She’s the only reason I managed to escape last year”.
She is referring to the night Crocodile, whom over the years developed a weird obsession for her, tried to kidnap her, possibly to ask King Cobra for a ransom, and drag the kingdom into bankruptcy. He’s the son of a noble who's in turn the leader of a small political opposition, and later that fateful night the princess called Nami in the middle of the night, sobbing and detailing her escape from the slippery man. His family has too many connections to go to jail, but last they’ve heard they moved out of the country, publicly disgraced.
“Should we ask her to join us?”, asks Chopper.
He’s been the transfer student last year, the one who didn't know where to sit for lunch, so he feels for her, but at the same time he doesn’t want to upset his friend.
“I think it’s a great idea, Chopper”, the princess replies. “I suspect she’d rather have a quiet year”.
“Then maybe we should let her be, instead”, Nami retorts. “It’s never quiet around here”. But Sanji, Vivi and Chopper do not hear her, because they are already out of their seats, making their way towards the raven-haired girl. Luffy would have gone, too, but the meat in his plate requires his full attention.
“…Would you like to sit with us?”
Robin blinks one, two times, startled by the stranger’s request. There’s three people standing in front of her now. Vivi, whom she knows, a short boy with a sweet smile who looks much younger than the other seniors and seated next to her in class, and a guy with blond hair she remembers from some magazine. Like every other member of the student body, it’s safe to assume he’s rich and famous in some capacity. Her blue eyes focus on the only face she perceives as familiar, and she nibs at her lower lip.
While she’d rather share a table with the Alabastan princess than unfamiliar strangers, her group of friends seems like a handful, quite lively, and she’s not sure someone as... quiet as her would fit in.
She glances nervously at their table, where a dark-haired boy grins widely at her before gesturing for her to join in. Monkey D. Luffy, the President’s son. What an interesting character.
“I’d love to”, she accepts, grudgingly. Robin is not prepared for the hand that swiftly snatches her own, on top of which soft lips place a suave kiss.
“Allow me introduce myself, milady”, Sanji bows down, deeply. She cringes. “I am Sanji, Vinsmoke Sanji”.
Vinsmoke, uh? Germa 66, then. She shivers. Not much is known of it to the outside world, but all of it is kind of... bad. As in repeated violations of human rights bad.
“I’m Chopper”, the other boy offers her his hand. She shakes it. “It’s very nice to meet you”.
“Come with us”, Vivi adds. She turns around and strolls towards the table, followed by her friends, so Robin finds herself closing the line. She can feel the eyes of the entire cafeteria on her back.
“Guys, this is Robin”, the blue-haired princess announces when they get there. Her cheeks are suddenly hot. “Robin, this is Nami,” she gestures for the girl with orange hair, “Kaya”, the blonde one, “Usopp”, a long-nosed boy that smiles somewhat warmly at her, “Franky”, a very tall, large dude with a blue creast on top of his head, “Luffy”, the famous politician’s son, “And this is Zoro”, the green-haired boy from the café.
He doesn’t mention they’ve met each other earlier today, so neither does she, shaking his hand in the same way she shakes anybody else’s, listening carefully and registering their names as they repeat them. Robin settles on the right side of the table, sandwiched between Vivi and the chatty blonde girl, thinking this is as good as a first day of school probably gets. She knows it’s only a matter of time before rumors start spreading about her, following her from the desert, but she’s determined to enjoy such peace for as long as it lasts.
Her past cannot be changed, or erased – her future, however, is not written in stone. Funny how she has needed to hit her absolute lowest to realize it.
“You’re lucky you’ve missed first period”, Nami says, eager to bring her into the loop. She’s always happy when there’s a new girl around, the more the merrier, although Sanji can be quite a handful if she is pretty, which, unfortunately, happens to be the case this time. “Sakazuki doesn’t know the difference between education and torture”.
“Brook-san seems quite nice, on the other hand”, she replies. “It’s been years since I’ve played anything, though”.
“Don’t worry, Robin”, Luffy grins. “Brook has never forced us to play”.
“Yeah. Every performance is on a voluntary basis”, Franky confirms. “The course’s here only because some wealthy patron donated enough money to run a music department. As long as you study the theorical part and pass the exams, you should be all settled with him”.
“That’s a relief”, she smiles, although it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “What about the other professors? Are they nice? Prepared? Strict?”
“If you study hard, you won’t have problems with Kizaru, although he’s a bit old-fashioned. He teaches literature, but he’s also the referent for the school’s paper, in case you would like to join”, Usopp chimes in. “Same goes for Kureha, the biology professor, but Caesar, he teaches chemistry, is very moody. Aokiji’s a bastard, and his class has the highest failing rates in the whole school, but that man’s a genius, so you will probably end up looking forward to his classes, unless you're desperately bad at math or something... Other than that, I wouldn’t angry Smoker over at HR-”
“Aokiji? The famous mathematician?”, Robin inquires, feigning surprise. She’s curious to see what his students think of the man her mother used to date. “He teaches here?”
“That’s correct”, Franky confirms. “They would have made him vice-principal instead of Akainu, if it weren’t for all the commitments he already has outside of the school”.
“That’s a shame”, Sanji interjects. “But surely we don’t want to bore an innocent lady out of her mind by talking-”
“Shut up, dart-brow”, Zoro tilts his head up in challenge, cocking one brow at him. “She asked”.
Robin can feel the tension rising, and would like to diffuse it, but she doesn’t know them well enough to know which buttons to push, so she opts for staring at the two as if they are disputing a tennis match, instead. “Come again, moss-head?”
“Knock it off. Both of you”, Nami glares at the pair. Zoro scoffs, while Sanji turns around and brings a hand to his heart, dramatically. “I apologize, Nami-swan!”
Peace is restored, and Robin shifts her attention to something else. It seems there’s some fun to be had at New Marineford.
When the first day of school finally ends and his friends bolt out of the classroom, eager to get home and out of their uniforms, Luffy doesn’t mind it, because he knows they’ll meet up later.
He secures his laptop inside his backpack, then makes sure he’s not forgetting his wallet at school again, or else he’ll have to ask Nami to lend him some money, and he knows how that would end up: with a big, fat bump on his head the moment he dares uttering a word against her criminal interest rates.
The dark-haired boy strolls down the hallways at a leisurely pace, he’s not in a rush to get somewhere and, per his own philosophy, great adventures only happen to those brave enough to wait for them. He's very popular among his peers, however, so around the school a multitude of people wave at him, stop him for a quick chat or to invite him to upcoming parties, and it takes him a whole twenty minutes to be out of the building, and on his way down the hill. Luffy doesn’t mind walking alone; as a matter of fact, he appreciates it.
A cool breeze in the air, beautiful and vibrant colors all around him – there’s no way he would notice any of this if distracted by Nami’s pleasant chattering, or too busy fooling around with Usopp. His friend Zoro is not very talkative, but put him in the same room as Sanji, or Sanji in the same room as any girl, and silence is no longer an option. He never thought he would be the type of guy who gets sentimental about his senior year, and the idea of not coming back next year, but here he is, nearly tearing up when at the end of his descent he turns around and glances up at the building.
It towers over the hill and the rest of the campus with its lavish façade of dark bricks, stretching high towards the sky with its five stories. It’s been the stage of so many of his memories, some good and other bad, but all precious, nonetheless. Luffy shakes his head of jet-black hair and continues down the path, hands in his pockets, humming a happy tune. Sadness rarely lingers with him.
There’s too much, he feels, that he should be happy about.
People keep staring and waving at him, delaying his return home even longer, but almost nobody is still hanging about by the time he reaches the parking lot, where the chauffeur already awaits him. As the son of President Dragon and Monkey D. Garp’s grandson, he is not allowed to go to school like most of his schoolmates do, that is, with their own motorcycles and sports car. What a bummer.
However, it seems Zoro has been subjected to the same fate this year by his father, Dracule Mihawk, the famous investor, although in his case it’s not a matter of security, but rather a quick fix to his friend’s inability not to get lost every morning on his way to school. Knowing he’s not alone cheers him up a little.
Hachi is waiting for him outside the limo, whose door is already open, but Luffy stops in his tracks when he spots a familiar head of raven hair on the other side of the parking lot.
The new girl (Robin?) is seemingly waiting for someone to pick her up, and they’re clearly being late.
“Oi, new girl!”, he shouts, waving wildly at her with a big grin. “Do you need a ride?”
Her giggle is muted, but he still relishes in the sound. Luffy loves making people laugh.
“I’m fine, but thank you very much”, she says. “My ride home got stuck in the traffic, but he should be here soon”.
As a matter of fact, a dark, convertible car pulls up in the parking lot no longer than ten minutes later, but he still decides, much to Hachi’s dismay, who has other errands to run, to keep her company. Even though he’s said nothing, he’s heard what Nami said at lunch. He won’t give the likes of Eustass Kid such an easy opportunity to bother her.
“This was very nice of you”, she thanks him again before joining the man behind the steering wheel. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Luffy”.
The engine rumbles, but his voice is louder. “Actually”, he shouts, “Why don’t you join me and the others tonight? We’re going out for dinner-”
Robin’s ride seems about to say something, but one look from the girl stops any objection.
“Dinner you said?”, she asks. “I’d love to”.
“Here, type down your number”, Luffy smiles back, handing her his smartphone. “I’ll text you the details”.
The convertible car disappears around the corner a minute later, so he finally returns his attention to the frustrated driver, who has opened the limo’s door once more.
Hachi looks up expectantly at him. “Can we go now, Mr?”
Kaya is very surprised when her screensaver flashes to life, signaling the arrival of a new message when she is expecting none, and lounging in her bathtub with a nice book.
What’s not surprising, however, is the name in bold, telling her which of her friends requires her attention. There’s only a finite number of people who could be texting her right now, either Usopp or the girls, and her e-mails have a different ringtone. Since she knows for a fact that her boyfriend is currently preoccupied with an online tournament of his favorite game, that leaves only Nami and Vivi. Most of her male friends rarely bother with texts, anyway, unless they need help preparing for their exams.
17:34 - @catburglar
Look at the group chat.
Kaya is intrigued, and almost regrets silencing her chat with the whole crew. Things there can escalate very quickly, though, and make one’s phone buzz for hours with this or that meme, so eventually she’s made the right choice, although there’s the downside of people sometimes having to tell her when something juicy happens.
There are ninety-nine unread messages in the Straw-Hats chat-room, and patiently she catches up with the latest news, although the first twenty are enough for her to get the gist of things. It seems Luffy has invited the new girl, Nico Robin, to their gathering later today. The announcement has been accepted positively on the average, especially by the boys – even Zoro has bothered replying, and Sanji is already off the tracks. Kaya notices one of her friends is way less enthusiast than she’s trying to appear, and quickly she opens the only other group-chat she’s part of after writing that she doesn’t have a problem with the girl joining them. There she checks up on the princess, and she confirms her suspicion.
While not having something against the girl herself, Vivi’s not sure how she’ll handle the instant connection to Crocodile that she triggers. At the same time, she’s adamant she will overcome the obstacle, and that she doesn’t want the others to exclude her just because she may or may not remind her of bad memories.
Kaya is very impressed by her friend's maturity, and Nami is very quick in changing topics and ask them if they want to get ready at her place. Her sister’s on vacation, again, so they would have the villa entirely to themselves. The last time she has agreed to something like this they were drunk on bubbles way before an acceptable hour, but with all the travelling she’s done in the summer the blonde has really missed her friends, so she begrudgingly accepts the other girl’s invitation. She sets aside her book, making an internal promise she’ll come back to it soon.
It’s time she gets out of the bathtub and ready to go to Nami’s.
Vivi appreciates her friends’ subtle attempts at comfort, but the more the time she’ll meet with the other approaches, the less stressed she feels about spending time with Robin outside of school.
She feels so silly, really, for even thinking the sight of the girl could mess with her hard-to-regain confidence, but truth is her time with Crocodile has been the most traumatizing experience of her life, the first occasion in which she has felt truly and utterly helpless. She just needs to think of her escape and the freedom she’s felt while running out of the dungeon and associate that with Robin, rather than the things that happened before.
“What do you guys think?” Nami’s voice forces her to turn around and forget her troubles. The orange-haired girl holds up two dresses, hoping for advice. One is green, and beautiful, the other something so skimpy Vivi, with her title, would never be allowed to wear. A certain modicum of decorum is expected of a princess.
“The green one”, she suggests. Kaya hums in agreement, and Nami throws the tiny piece of satin fabric back into her closet.
When the three of them are all dressed, hair and makeup done, the hostess of their small, impromptu gathering produces a bottle of champagne out of nowhere, so that celebrations for the beginning of their senior year can properly be started. A quick toast and they’re rushing outside, bottle in tow, where Luffy is picking them up with his chauffeur so that anyone can drink and be safely brought home later in the night. The car is less extravagant than the limousine which each morning accompanies him to school, so hopefully they won’t draw too much attention.
“Good evening, Hachi”, they chorus, greeting the man holding the door open for them.
“Good evening, Ms. Nami, Ms. Kaya, Princess Vivi”.
Vivi cringes a little at the deference in his tone. What she loves the most about New Marineford is that this is the closest she’ll ever get to a normal life, with normal friends and normal problems.
Here, she can forget the responsibilities she has left in Alubarna.
Once inside, they settle on the comfortable, spacious seats and offer Luffy a glass of the champagne they’ve brought along. The car glides smoothly on the road, the traffic seems low. It’s only thirty past six, but it’ll take them at least half an hour before they pick everyone up and get to the restaurant. Zoro lives nearby, so they stop at his house first. Ten minutes later and they’re in front of the apartment Usopp, Franky and Sanji share together. The blond is the last to enter the car, smelling as if he’s taken a bath in his eau de toilette. They continue south, heading for Chopper’s house, and when their usual group of nine is complete, and ready to party, they finally set out for the remaining address.
Like the majority of the students who aren’t originally from the island, whose surface is almost entirely occupied by the capital, Grand Line City, the new girl is renting an apartment not far from the city-center. Being the closest to bars, restaurants and nightclubs, she’s consequentially the last person they pick up for the night.
Robin lives on a side street nested on a popular shopping road, on the second story of what looks like an old, but recently renovated building. There’s a quaint bookshop on the first floor, but on the right side of the shop's door an elegant row of iron stairs leads to the entrance of a loft. From the outside it seems like a nice place, in its quirky, laid back taste.
Vivi feels surprisingly relaxed when her curtain of raven hair peeks inside the limousine.
Everything will be fine.