Chapter Text
As she reclined on the deck under the warm sun, Nami found her eyes gravitating towards Robin, who was reading in a chair across from her, one long leg crossed elegantly over the other. It was hard not to look at her, really, with the way her hair fell across her shoulders and the way she pursed her lips, just slightly, as she read, and the way her fingertips caressed the pages’ edges, and…
Nami blinked hard, scrunching her eyebrows downwards. Robin was distracting, to say the least. Her gaze flicked up to the umbrella above Robin, shielding her from the afternoon sunshine.
"You know," she said, the silence between them beginning to feel stifling, "you’re rather pale, aren’t you?"
Robin looked up from her book, her eyebrows quirked in something like surprise. "Oh?"
"W-well, I didn’t mean it like a bad thing," Nami backpedaled. "Just something I noticed, and considering you’re from Alabasta– well, not from Alabasta–" (as she considered the topic, she realized she didn’t actually know where Robin was from) "–but that’s where you were, for a while, and considering it’s a desert, I thought it was a little odd that–"
"You thought I would have picked up a tan from my time in the sun?" Robin finished for her. She had a habit of doing that; predicting what you were going to say, and saying it first. Nami found it a touch unsettling.
"Yeah, that."
"I’m not too fond of the sunshine. My eyes are sensitive to bright lights, so I stayed indoors whenever possible."
"Oh, that makes sense, you’re always under a hat or an umbrella when you’re out on the deck. And I guess you always wore that cowboy hat too."
"Yes, so I’ve stayed quite pale. I’m not sure I could tan even if I tried, anyway, I’m prone to sunburns."
"I am too. It’s genetic with redheads, I think, I always have to be careful with sunscreen."
Robin hummed noncommittally and turned her eyes back down to her book. She was always that way– she was happy to engage in conversation when she was prompted, but rarely did she speak first, and as soon as the words were done being exchanged, she’d turn right back to whatever book she had in her hands. She seemed to have an endless supply.
Her quietness was just on the edge of strange, sometimes. She hadn’t been sailing with them for long– though it was long enough that Nami had accepted her as a member and begun to trust her, tentatively– but the more Nami spoke with her, the less she realized she knew about the other girl. She knew nothing of her strengths, her skills– did she have a Devil Fruit? Even that, Nami didn’t know– and conversation was difficult to strike up without much prior knowledge to work with.
"Well, anyway," Nami said, if only to fill the silence. "I have a few pairs of sunglasses, you’re free to borrow any of them if the sun is ever too bright for you."
A smile touched Robin’s lips as she glanced back up, though Nami couldn’t pin down if it was a smile of gratitude or cursory politeness. "Thank you, Miss Navigator. I have sunglasses of my own, but I appreciate the offer."
"Right, I should’ve figured you did. You’re welcome, though," Nami said. "And you could call me by my name every once in a while," she added under her breath, but Robin didn’t acknowledge it.
*
It wasn’t long after that exchange that Robin started acting strangely. Not that she hadn’t always been strange, but… she seemed even weirder. It was off-putting. She had always been quiet and mildly avoidant, but a few weeks after she had joined them, after long days of sailing with no island in sight, Nami noticed her acting on edge, almost twitchy. She seemed to jump at loud noises, and her normally calm and peaceful expression had just a touch of abnormality, a slight frown ever-present on her face. Whether that was fear, annoyance, or something else entirely… Nami couldn’t tell. Robin was always hard to read, but Nami knew enough to tell that something was off.
One evening, Robin turned down dinner, claiming seasickness as her excuse. Her face seemed paler than usual, her expression a little more haggard. It could be the seasickness, sure… if Robin had ever been seasick before. No matter how rough the waves are, she had never appeared to be affected.
Nami found it all… not suspicious, exactly, but more like concerning. She was fond of Robin, after all, despite what a short time they’d known each other. They were crewmates– friends, even, if she could hope to call it that.
So, as they sat together in their shared room, Robin’s nose tucked in a book as it so often was and Nami’s hands occupied with filling their ship logs, the silence between them was nearly oppressive, and she couldn’t keep her worry quiet anymore.
Nami stopped trying to stare at Robin surreptitiously, instead raising her head to look at her directly. As she looked, she could tell Robin was barely even trying to read, her eyes unfocused and unmoving. She saw her throat bob as she swallowed hard, and a moment later, she reached for the glass of water on a table beside her. When she did, her eyes raised and met Nami’s, and her fingertips froze just before they reached the glass.
"Yes?" she said quietly, her voice slightly hoarse. She looked nervous, almost, an emotion Nami had never seen on her face before. Her wide eyes resembled a startled deer’s, a far cry from her unruffled and effortlessly calm demeanor.
"Are you… alright, Robin?" Nami asked, her restless hands setting aside her pen.
Before she answered, Robin grabbed the cup of water and drank it all in only a few gulps. "I’m fine, thank you," she said, brushing a stray drop away from her lips with the back of her knuckle.
"Hm. Well, you just seemed a little off. Like you were uncomfortable or something."
The bottom of the glass hit the table a little too roughly, and Robin winced at the noise, her shoulders tensed. "I suppose I have been feeling a bit sick as of late. I’m sure it will pass."
"What kind of sick; a headache or something? I’m sure Chopper could help, he probably has–"
"No, no." Robin set her book on the table beside her. "It’ll resolve itself. How close is the, ah–" Robin faltered for a moment, frowning as though in pain. "The nearest island?"
Nami glanced back down at her ship logs, half-forgotten on the table. "Depends on wind speed and the like."
"How fast could we get there, potentially?"
"Two days at the fastest. We’re in a big stretch of empty ocean right now. It won’t be longer than four, unless we run into– Robin?"
Robin’s head was bowed, her hand pressed to her forehead. It took her a long moment to speak, but finally she cleared her throat quietly and lifted her eyes to give Nami a small smile, though her brow was slightly creased. "That’s alright, I was just curious."
"You look faint," Nami tried to say, but Robin brushed her words away with a wave of her hand. Nami noticed, as she lifted her arm, that her hands were trembling almost imperceptibly, small tremors racking their way from her shoulders down to her fingers.
"Pardon me, I think some fresh air would do me good," Robin said, a hint of breathlessness in her tone. She stood from her chair, but as she did, her knees buckled below her and she stumbled. Nami jerked to reach for her, instinctively, but the gap between their chairs was too large, and her outstretched hand only brushed Robin’s arm. She caught herself, thankfully, one hand snapping out to grasp the edge of the table beside her, and she leaned her weight onto it to stabilize herself.
The movement jostled the table, and her water glass tipped to the side. For a split second, Nami watched it teeter, but she didn’t react fast enough to catch it. She only had enough time to hope it wouldn’t do more than crack before it hit the ground.
The noise it made echoed in their silent room, and Nami flinched, frozen between reaching for Robin and reaching for the glass. "Fragile glass, I guess," she murmured, staring down at the mess on the floor. It had broken into pieces, shattered bits of glass littering the floor, sparkling in the soft light.
"S-sorry," Robin said, her voice wavering, and Nami’s attention snapped back up to her. She couldn’t step forward, with the glass between them, but she leaned towards her and hesitantly laid a hand on her arm.
"Are you okay? Maybe you need to eat something, I’m not sure what could be wrong…" Nami said, but Robin shrugged away from her touch and straightened up.
"Don’t worry about it. I just got slightly dizzy when I stood, it’s not a concern. I’ll clean this up, I apologize for the–"
Nami waved her away and bent down. "No, I’ll get it. Go get some fresh air." She gingerly picked up a large chunk of glass.
"Miss Navigator–"
"I said I’ll get it–" Nami said, lifting her eyes to Robin, but as she did, her attention shifted away from the movement of her hands. Her fingers slipped on the glass and it fell, its edge cutting across the vulnerable insides of her fingers. Nami winced and hissed through her teeth, sharp pain shooting through her hand, and instinctively cupped the other around the wound.
Robin dropped to one knee and reached for her. "Are you okay? I’ll get Chopper, that looks…"
"No, it’s not that bad," Nami protested, watching beads of blood drip from her shaking fingers and fall onto the shards of glass. "It stings, but…" She realized suddenly that Robin had gone quiet and still, and glanced back up to her.
She was frozen, her hands half-outstretched to Nami, hovering in the air between them like she wasn’t sure whether to touch her or not. Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth, eyes fixated on the red tracks tracing their way down Nami’s palm.
"Robin?"
Without lifting her eyes from Nami’s hand, Robin’s lips slowly parted. "I’m afraid I can’t… help with this," she said, her expression strangely tense. She swayed slightly and braced one hand on the table leg next to her, her arm unsteady.
"You look so pale, Robin, are you sure you don’t have a fever?" Nami lifted her uninjured hand, intending to lay it on Robin’s forehead, but she recoiled and stared at Nami’s hand, almost as if afraid of it. Nami frowned and followed her gaze, finding smears of blood across her fingers, from when she instinctively grabbed her cut hand.
"Sorry!" she said, withdrawing her arm. "I didn’t realize I had blood on that hand, too." She wondered to herself if Robin was afraid of blood, and that’s why she reacted so strangely. It didn’t seem to be like her, though, with how serene and unruffled she always acted, and how violent she could be.
Even as she thought that, though, Nami couldn’t help but find something to be off about Robin’s expression. Her eyes hadn’t left the blood on Nami’s hands, not even to look her in the eye, but there didn’t seem to be fear in them, or even disgust.
Instead… it seemed to be something closer to awe, or desire. She saw Robin’s fingers tighten around the table leg and she pushed herself backwards off of it, as if forcing herself to lean away. Her tongue darted out to run across her bottom lip, and as she did, Nami caught a glint of white. Her teeth seemed brighter, almost sharper, her canines elongated and sharp in a way she’d never noticed before, and again Nami couldn’t interpret the look in her eyes to be anything but ravenous.
It was a stupid cliché, she insisted to herself, even as the thought crossed her mind, almost as merely a joke. She nearly laughed about the absurdity of the idea. But the realization must have shown on her face, because Robin’s gaze snapped up, finally meeting hers, and the desire (or was it hunger?) in her eyes gave way to something more fearful.
Against her will, everything started clicking into place. "Robin," she whispered hesitantly, her throat feeling suddenly dry. Despite her reservations, it all made too much sense. Her captain was made of rubber, after all, she could find no real reason why– she had trouble even vocalizing the word to herself– why vampires couldn’t exist. There was something undeniably predatory in Robin’s gaze, something that always seemed to be lurking just under the surface of her peaceful smile, a danger that Nami could only now put her finger on; put a name to. Her strength, her complexion, her grace and almost world-weary wisdom, her calculating stare too sharp to be ordinary. Still, she tried to insist to herself that it was laughable, and if Robin hadn’t reacted, she would have dismissed it entirely, but the complete change in her expression once she saw the shift in Nami’s was undeniable.
"Nami," Robin said, and Nami felt a shiver run up her spine at the sound of her name falling from the other’s mouth for the first time. It was as though all walls between them had fallen away.
She knew. Robin could tell that she did. There was nothing left to hide, now, and once she heard her name on Robin’s lips, Nami knew she was right. The truth unfolded in front of her, Robin’s layers of deception shedding in front of her eyes. She realized her mouth was hanging half-open, countless questions swirling in a loop in her mind, none of them able to escape.
Her most pressing question was answered before she even had to ask it.
"A Devil Fruit," Robin said softly. There she went again, responding to thoughts before Nami could even vocalize them.
"So there’s– there’s only one? Only you?"
"I don’t know. There’s merfolk and minks, after all, I wouldn’t rule out a race of–" Robin hesitated on the word for a split second, like it caught in her throat. "–Vampires. But there’s only one Devil Fruit of its kind. I’ve never met another."
"What does it… do? You have to drink blood to survive, is that it?" Nami inhaled sharply as the pieces in her mind started to fit together. They hadn’t stopped on an island for any longer stretch of time than a brief docking in weeks. Robin couldn’t feed from anyone on the crew without being found out, and if blood was essentially her food, she must have been starving for days. Her strange behavior, her unsteadiness, her sickness and difficulty focusing– it was a miracle she hadn’t snapped and attacked anyone.
"Partially." Robin seemed to relax, the tension in her brow smoothing out. She seemed like there was a weight taken off her shoulders; it must have been impossibly stressful to hide something like that, and a relief to have it out in the open, despite the consequences. "The fruit enhanced me. Strength, reflexes, immortality when it comes to old age, though I’m not immune to injuries. Every sense is heightened, and my physical abilities are multiplied. The cost, though, is that enough time without blood, and I crumble. Imagine being unable to eat for weeks, and the toll that would take on you. The weakness, the fainting– the effect on me is similar, but many times worse. It feels like I’m dying, though I don’t know if it would actually be possible to starve to death. I don’t know the limits of the immortality."
"I guess you can’t exactly test it," Nami said, and exhaled sharply in something like a laugh, though the tension constricting her chest strangled the noise as it came out.
The corners of Robin’s lips twitched up in a half-smile. "Yes, I can’t. And I don’t have any precedent to work off– only folktales and fantasy stories, few of which reflect my reality."
"You can’t turn into a bat?"
Robin chuckled. "No, nothing like that."
Nami fell silent for a moment, her head reeling with all the information she was taking in. "How long has it been? Since you…"
"Ate? It’s been a couple weeks. Since only a few days after I joined you all."
Another question lingered on Nami’s lips– something about her method of eating, about the survival rate of whoever ended up on the receiving end of her teeth– but part of her cowered from asking it, wary of the answer.
"For the first few days, it’s not difficult. I can last a while before the effects kick in, and the timing of our stops on close-by islands should have been enough to tide me over, but I couldn’t– I didn’t get the opportunity to find anything. Anyone."
Nami remembered what their recent stops had looked like– Sanji trailing after her and Robin, Chopper always clinging to Robin’s legs or shoulders, Luffy running around at full energy and always dragging one or another of them away to do something; it must have been impossible for her to slip away and find a victim, especially among the bustling crowds of the cities they visited.
"What about real food? Does it work as a substitute?"
Robin shook her head. "No. I get nothing out of it but a pleasant taste, it gives my body no sustenance. I can’t absorb any of its nutrients, so eating is pointless. I do enjoy the cook’s meals, though, I’ve never tasted anything better. Any solid food, that is." As she spoke, Nami caught Robin’s eyes drifting downward and catching on her hand, her injury nearly forgotten among all the turmoil of this revelation. It reminded her of its presence though, sharply, and the stinging pain made her wince. Blood still dripped from it, slowly winding down her fingertips. She saw Robin’s nostrils flare, and her throat bob as she swallowed hard.
Something dawned on Nami, an idea that seemed to be her only option. "Animal blood doesn’t work, does it?"
When Robin spoke, her voice sounded distant, distracted. "No. It passes through me just as food does."
"I thought so." Nami flexed her aching fingers. "I can’t get us to the nearest island any faster. I–"
Robin’s eyes widened, catching Nami’s intentions before she could finish saying them. "No, I can’t–"
"You have to. What other option do you have?"
"I’ll just wait. I’m sure I’ll be okay for the next few days–"
"I don’t think you will, and I’m not interested in testing if you really can die from starvation or not. I can tell how hungry you are. I can’t imagine how you’ve lasted this long, but–"
"I can’t," Robin snapped, her voice trembling. Nami almost flinched at the sound; she’d never heard Robin raise her voice before. "I’ll lose control. It’s– it’s happened before."
The look in her eyes answered Nami’s unspoken question of her victim’s survival.
"When I’m starving like this, when it’s been a long time– I can’t slow down. I can’t stop. It’s not worth the risk."
"You won’t hurt me," Nami said, though as the words left her mouth she couldn’t be certain of how true they really were. Robin was dangerous, she realized, far more so than she had ever known. How much of her could be trusted? How much of her did Nami really know?
Robin tried to protest, but a wave of dizziness hit her and she closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in pain.
"I know what starvation feels like," Nami said, leaning towards her. "I know it all too well. There was someone– someone who would give up their food so I could eat. She’d risk herself, just so I wouldn’t go hungry." At that, Robin looked up at her. "Let me be that for you. I don’t care if it hurts me."
Robin’s eyes darted down to her hand, and Nami could see her resilience starting to waver. She extended her arm towards her, her blood-coated fingers inviting, and that was all it took. Robin inhaled through her nose deeply and her lips parted, and in a moment so quick Nami could barely register it, her hand snapped out and wrapped around Nami’s wrist. Her grip was so tight it was painful– she’d said that starvation made her weaker, hadn’t she? If this was her weakness, Nami feared her true strength– and dipped her head to Nami’s palm.
For a brief moment, just a fraction of a second, she hesitated. Her hand trembled. Nami was halfway to reassuring her again, but before she could, Robin’s last shred of restraint fell away.
Her tongue came first, across the length of Nami’s palm. It tickled, but it was warm, licking up the partially congealed strands of blood there before moving to her fingers. It stung as it brushed across the cuts, enough for Nami to flinch back, but Robin’s grip on her wrist was too firm to escape, not even for a brief respite as Robin’s lips latched onto the wounds. She sucked and the skin gave way, the blood flowing fresh, and with it came fresh stabs of pain through each lacerated finger.
Robin licked up every drop she was able to pull from the cuts, her tongue nudging into the parted folds of skin, but the bleeding was already slowing. It wasn’t enough, not for the thirst she had. Roughly, she pulled Nami’s arm towards her, and Nami stumbled forward, her knee hitting the ground hard.
She’d forgotten– Robin, too, in her blind hunger– the pieces of shattered glass still lying between them. Nami’s shin landed in the middle, and she held back a whimper of pain as she felt the shards slice into her, white-hot lines of pain carving into her leg. Robin made no move to stop, nor slow down; she showed no signs that she even noticed. Her fingers shifted around Nami’s wrist and her lips pressed to where they had been. Nami, distracted by the warm blood she could feel oozing from her leg, couldn’t brace herself for the bite she’d know would come.
Teeth sunk into her wrist, perfectly centered into the blue-green vein below her skin. It was deep; Nami felt the jolt of agony deep in her stomach before it registered in her arm. She clenched her jaw, but couldn’t help the cry that ripped from her throat. Robin didn’t even pause, withdrawing her teeth from her skin and replacing them with her mouth, catching the rapidly flowing blood. It dripped down her chin as she drank, one stray bead winding its way down her neck, bright red against her pale skin. Nami squirmed in her grasp, tears beginning to wet her eyelashes, but Robin wouldn't budge. She didn't seem to even notice Nami's struggles. Robin's hair, fallen in a dark curtain around her face, parted, and Nami caught a glimpse of her eyes.
She didn't even look like the same person anymore. Her pupils were blown wide in pleasure, her gaze unfocused and her eyes full of something predatory, something almost primal that made Nami freeze in terror. It was Robin, only Robin, she knew nothing in her should be afraid, and yet– cast in the dim evening light, her lips painted in red, all restraint gone from her eyes and replaced with only the instinct to drink, to take…
She looked like a demon.
Nami had been warned. Yet still, she'd insisted, she had pushed Robin's resistance until she had no strength left to turn away, and there were consequences to be reaped.
She clenched her uninjured hand into a fist. A wave of dizziness hit her and she swayed, pressing her hand to the floor to keep her upright. Her vision started to unfocus, growing blurry as her blood flowed so fast that it dripped from her arm and coated the shards of glass in glittering rubies.
Robin had said she lost control when she was starving. Would she have enough wherewithal to stop, even once Nami fell unconscious, even when her heart couldn’t push any fresh blood through her veins? She didn’t know how much she’d lost– the growing puddle on the floor was concerning enough, and she couldn’t tell how much Robin was swallowing, each suck on her skin drawing mouthfuls of blood. Nami slumped forward, her head bowed, every beat of her racing heart sending pain shooting like lightning through her arm and shin. A dull ache throbbed in her head and her ears rang.
Every part of her was trembling, and her fingers were growing numb. Nami lifted her head, barely able to make out Robin’s figure, crouched like a feral animal over her wrist, red streaks painting her chin and neck, staining the collar of her shirt. She was far gone, so lost in desperately slaking her own thirst that she was blind to Nami’s fading consciousness.
Between heaving gasps and soft sobs, Nami managed to open her mouth and choke out a word– "Robin." It was lost beneath the sound of her own rushing blood in her ears, but she felt Robin’s fingers twitch against her wrist, and she knew she was heard.
All at once, Nami’s clouded vision went dark and she collapsed forward, her arm underneath her giving way. She was held up only partially by Robin’s hand on her arm, but she still connected with the floor hard, the shards of glass immediately cutting into the soft flesh of her forearm when it hit. Her face was barely held above the ground, stopped by Robin’s grip that was firm enough to keep most of her upper body up.
"…ami," said a voice. "Nami." A hand grabbed her shoulder, the fingernails digging into her skin. "Nami!"
Nami’s eyes snapped open and she reflexively recoiled, still reeling. Her vision swam back into focus and Robin’s face stared back at her, wide-eyed in horror.
"Nami," she gasped, followed by a strangled sob. "I– I’m so–"
"Robin," Nami murmured, her tongue feeling dry and clumsy in her mouth. "Are you… you okay now?"
Robin shook her head. A tear slid down her cheek and joined the mess of gore staining her lips and chin, the entire area of her face below her nose completely drenched in red. It looked almost cartoonish, like paint, and in Nami’s slowed awareness it took her a moment to realize it was her blood. "I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, any of it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop and I was right. Oh, look at you, you’re bleeding everywhere–"
Nami’s limbs felt distant and rubbery, their sensation numbed. She looked down and found her left forearm, the one that had hit the ground, covered in thin lacerations that were oozing blood down to her elbow.
"Your leg, too– Nami, I’m so sorry. I have to–" Robin was frantic, her hands hovering in the air between them like she was afraid to touch her. Nami tried to shift backwards to get away from the glass, but the movement sent stinging pain through her shin, destroying the tingling numbness that had spread through her body. With the dam broken, she could feel every cut on her body tenfold. She doubled over and clutched her arms to her chest, her breathing shallow and quick.
"It’s okay," Nami said shakily. "I’m okay."
"I’ll get Chopper."
"Not looking like that, you won’t."
Robin touched her fingers to her lips. "Oh. I’ll– I’ll clean up, and…"
Nami blinked hard to clear her head. She caught sight of a jacket of hers draped over the arm of a chair and grabbed it in her uninjured hand, though the movement made her forearm ache. With it, she pushed the pile of glass aside so it was no longer between her and Robin, and she folded it over to brush across the floor twice to catch any tiny pieces. It wasn’t a perfect cleanup, but it consolidated the glass so it would be easier to pick up. Streaks of her blood were left across the hardwood, and fresh drops fell from her arms, but she couldn't worry about those now. Not when she looked up and caught Robin staring at them, motionless.
"You had to stop," Nami said, casting aside the jacket, "before you were done. Didn't you?"
"I didn't think I'd be able to stop at all. But– but I've had enough. It's okay."
With the glass cleared from between them, nothing but a small expanse of hardwood separating them, Nami felt suddenly that Robin was too close; she could reach out and lay a hand on her knee, or close the gap between them by only leaning forward.
"I can numb it," Robin said, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, though the movement only served to smear the blood more. "I couldn’t before, because it takes a lot of concentration, but I can secrete a substance with my mouth to numb any wound."
"Okay. Numb this," Nami said, holding out her wrist, "and you can drink more. As much as you need."
"I don’t need any–"
"Robin," Nami said firmly. "You’re still pale. Your hands are trembling. I know you need more."
"I’ve had enough to survive, I can bear the hunger until we–"
Nami thrust her still-bleeding wrist into Robin’s face. "Just take it. Keep going, even if I pass out. I won’t die, I’m tougher than that."
Robin, with visible effort, turned her face away. "I know you are."
"Then take it. Take everything you need."
Nami’s stubbornness knew no bounds. Robin didn’t have to be a member of the crew for long to know that. And with her blood filling Robin’s nose, falling to the floor in wasted drops, shining ruby-red against her pale, freckled skin–
"Okay. I’ll numb it first, I’ll numb everything. You won’t feel it, and I promise I won’t let you get hurt."
Nami’s eyes lit up at her victory. Strangely, Robin saw no trace of fear, none of the disgust and terror that usually curled dark and foul on her victim’s faces. Gingerly, she took Nami’s wrist in her hands and felt the numbing substance flooding her mouth like strange-tasting saliva. With a glance up at her, Robin gently laved her tongue over the puncture wounds left by her own teeth, and then up her palm to cover the cuts on the insides of her fingers. Only a small amount was enough to numb it properly, but she still carefully watched Nami’s expression for signs of relief, pushing aside her rising hunger to concentrate on monitoring her.
It only took a few seconds for Nami’s crinkled brow to smooth over, and she gave Robin a baffled smile. "That’s… weird."
"It worked?"
Nami flexed her fingers. "Yeah. The rest of me still hurts, but that doesn’t feel like it’s even there anymore. Go ahead and keep drinking."
"No. I’m going to numb the rest of you before I do." Seeing Nami open her mouth to protest, Robin immediately grabbed Nami’s other arm and laid her mouth to it, soothing the lacerations from the glass with slow, careful strokes of her tongue. Nami winced at the initial sting of the wounds being touched, but soon the ache in her arm was gone completely. She marveled at it, staring at her bloodied arm that her brain told her, considering her wounds, should hurt, yet–
"That’s so weird."
Robin lifted her head from Nami’s skin and smiled. "I know. I’ve used it on myself a few times, to take care of minor battle injuries and the like. It’s a bizarre sensation. I know it feels slimy though, I apologize."
"I don’t mind. Better than hurting."
Once Robin had covered each wound on Nami’s arm in a thin layer of the numbing substance, she gestured to Nami’s bleeding shin, still tucked underneath her. "Lean backwards so I can get your leg as well." Nami obliged, shifting to prop herself up with her elbows behind her and her legs extended in front. Her uninjured leg folded towards her with her heel planted to the floor, and Robin took hold of her other leg at the ankle. She lifted it until Nami’s foot was level with her shoulder, and bent to lick across the wounds at her shin, which were deep enough to make Nami let out a whimper at the sting.
Nami realized suddenly how suggestive their position was– her, prone on the floor with her legs spread; Robin above her, one gentle hand cupping her calf, licking her in strokes so slow it was like she was making out with Nami’s leg–
Embarrassment flooded her, heating her face, and she lifted one hand to cover her face.
"Is something wrong?" Robin asked. Nami felt her warm breath on her skin as she spoke, her head barely lifted. "Is it not working?"
"N-no, it’s working. Go ahead." Between the crack in her fingers, Nami saw Robin frown, but she continued her careful licking. She savored the blood, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment as she tasted it, though she kept control over her instincts.
With the pain that had been flaring through her leg slowly disappearing as Robin covered each wound, Nami became increasingly aware of the warmth and softness of Robin's tongue. She watched her drag her tongue across a deep cut, her lips just barely brushing against Nami's skin on either side, and when her tongue lifted she caught a glimpse of the streak of bright red blood left on it before it retreated back between her teeth. The wound tingled for a moment, and then the pain was gone, leaving behind only the lingering sensation of Robin's mouth.
Nami's hand fell away from her face as she watched Robin, awed. Her head tilted and her lips brushed another cut, one of the last few that still stung, and she laved her tongue across it almost reverently. She was so absorbed in the movements that she didn't notice Nami watching her.
One by one, the bright spots of pain faded to nothing, and Robin lifted her head a final time. "Should be done now."
The loss of Robin's mouth on her skin almost ached. "Actually– a couple of them still hurt."
"Do they?" Robin looked back down to them. "Maybe I wasn't as thorough as I should have been. Which ones can you still feel?"
Nami pointed to one of them– with no pain signifiers whatsoever, she couldn't tell which of them were the worst, but this was still dripping blood so it seemed to be a safe bet. "That one hurts."
"Hm." Robin licked it twice, her tongue so wet that the liquid dripped down Nami's skin and merged with the blood into a single pink drop. "Is that better?"
Nami stared for a second too long at the fresh blood glistening on Robin's lips. "Y-yeah," she said, a beat delayed. "Better." She shifted her hips against the floor, a hot pulsing feeling building between her legs that was growing increasingly uncomfortable with every moment, and she had to fight to keep from grinding down on the floor in search of relief.
"Are there others?"
Without thinking, Nami reached down and slid her hand around the back of Robin's head, guiding her forward to another bleeding cut. Robin looked mildly surprised, but she didn't resist.
Nami jerked her arm away. "Ah– sorry, I could've just pointed, it's–"
Robin caught Nami's wrist and brought her hand back, pressing it to her hair. "No. Go ahead."
Nami's mouth hung half-open and she exhaled shakily, her fingers sliding into Robin's hair, dark and soft. She gently brought Robin's mouth to her skin and Robin licked over the cut, one and then twice, and a third time to ensure it worked. As she did, a drop of blood trailed down Nami's leg, leaving a red track up her thigh and disappearing into her shorts. Robin lifted Nami's leg higher and her tongue chased it down the length of Nami's thigh, her head dipping lower between her legs.
Robin's canine, sharp and stained red, scraped against Nami's inner thigh and she let out a breathy whimper at the feeling, her hips bucking upwards involuntarily. Upon realizing what she'd done, her hand jerked away from Robin's head and flew to her mouth, covering it in horror.
Surprised, Robin looked up at her. She seemed concerned for a moment, but realization visibly dawned on her face, and her hand tightened on Nami's leg.
Nami's face burned hot, and she screwed her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to look at her. She was halfway to stuttering out an apology until she felt Robin move, and her leg was lowered until it rested on the floor. A hand brushed against her waist and her eyes snapped open to find Robin face to face with her, her bloodied teeth bared in a smile.
Nami turned her head to the side and swallowed hard, hoping to find some kind of excuse or explanation for her reaction– anything instead of the humiliating truth.
"Nami," Robin said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper. She brought a hand to Nami's face and cupped her cheek, forcing her head to turn back to her. Robin's eyes searched her expression, piercing, and Nami withered under her stare.
"You can– my leg is–" Nami murmured, trying to change the subject or distract from her earlier slipup.
Robin's hand trailed slowly down from her cheek to her jaw, and then lower to caress the side of her neck. Nami shivered, the touch setting her skin on edge, electrifying every nerve ending. She shifted her legs, trying to close them to seek some kind of relief, but with Robin between her thighs it stopped her from doing so and the heat only built further. She rocked her hips against the floor and the movement pulled the fabric of her shorts, and though the friction was barely there it was enough to make a moan rise in her throat that she struggled to keep down.
So lightly she hardly felt it, Robin's thumb brushed across the center of her throat and down to the hollow between the tendons, just above her collarbone. Her fingertips rested on the left side of Nami's neck, cool against her burning skin.
Nami knew what she was thinking. She gestured impatiently to her neck, urging her to feed. Robin looked up at her through her eyelashes, her eyes half-lidded and full of hunger. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, flashing a glimpse of her red-stained canines. Nami swallowed hard, feeling her throat bob against Robin's palm as she did.
"Go ahead," she said softly, and that was all the confirmation Robin needed. Her hand shifted to cup the back of Nami's head and pull her forwards, and her mouth collided with her skin. A groan escaped Nami's throat at the feeling, but Robin was too absorbed in her own hunger to notice– or if she did, she didn't pause to acknowledge it. She laid her tongue down first, and as soon as Nami felt the faint tingle of the numbness setting in, Robin's teeth sunk into her skin.
Nami felt nothing, not a hint of pain, all she could feel was the softness of Robin's lips wrapped around the wound, and the heat of her own blood flowing out. Robin's teeth pulled out of her, and she sucked on the wound hard, her nails digging into the back of Nami's head where she held her.
Her restraint earlier as she'd licked Nami's wounds and maintained control over her instincts was incredible, but it had taken its toll, and her hunger had built to a point that it was impossible to contain any longer. She'd picked that exact point of Nami's neck for a reason; it was just above her jugular vein, and with perfect precision, Robin had pierced it. Her tongue lapped at the flowing blood and the sensation was like fire against Nami's skin, sending shivers of pleasure down her spine. Her hand fisted tight in her own shirt, her breathing growing shallow and quick as she tried to keep her reactions under control.
Robin pulled away for a moment to catch her breath, her exhales hot against Nami's neck, and she felt the blood rushing from her neck soak her shirt. It was flowing fast, and Nami was already feeling the effects of the loss, a wave of dizziness hitting her. Her head lolled to the side, but Robin held her up with rigid strength, her arm not even budging as Nami went limp. Robin let out a noise almost like a growl and latched her mouth back to the wound.
The lightheadedness only sharpened Nami's arousal, seeming to make every sensation heightened. She writhed, trying instinctively to pull away from Robin– her proximity was making it worse, the feeling of her lips making Nami go numb even where she hadn't been touched by her tongue– but Robin's free arm darted out and wrapped around her waist. Her iron grip kept Nami completely still, unable to jerk away no matter how much she twisted and wriggled, and soon the movements had sapped her strength. Her fingers went numb and cold, and her vision fuzzed at the edges.
She blinked hard and tightened her hand on her shirt to anchor herself, her chest heaving with breaths that grew harder to take with every second. She whimpered softly, her other hand finding Robin's head and pressing her closer. The dizziness wasn't hard to endure– the idea of passing out wasn't ideal, but she had faith in Robin to stop short before she was in danger– but the arousal building between her legs was painful, and with Robin's knees resting between her thighs she couldn't press them together to seek friction, or find relief anywhere. Her hips bucked upwards, hitting nothing but air, and the rubbing of her shorts as she moved wasn't enough to even take the edge off. A strained whimper left her mouth again. Her thoughts were becoming scrambled and disoriented as she lost increasing amounts of blood, and mindless desperation took over, drawing soft whines from her throat.
The sound of ringing in her ears grew louder, drowning out the sounds of her own gasps, the numbness pervading her fingers spreading up her arms and down to her toes; pins and needles pricking every inch of her skin. Dimly, she was aware of her fingers tangling in Robin's hair and her hips hitting something solid and warm, but it all felt distant. Even the pleasure that shot through her clit as she found friction on something and desperately rubbed against it, her hips bucking wildly, felt faraway and as fuzzy as her vision was.
A desperate plea rose in her throat, a whine of "please" that stuck on her tongue, which felt too dry and clumsy in her mouth to form the words. It came out as a choked moan and her eyes fell shut, and she was half-aware of her hand falling away from Robin's head, until she wasn't aware of anything at all, and she went limp in Robin's arms.