Log #3498 or something

[history_pirate]

Who: Robin and Calgara, with some use of Nami by permission. [Thanks, Michelle!]
What: A very long overdue civil conversation.
When: The middle of the freakin' night. After they'd been fighting long enough.
Where: The Thousand Sunny.



Night had fallen over the Thousand Sunny hours before, but Robin found she could not sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about him, and the things they had- or hadn't- said. She felt increasingly frustrated, and thus attempted to turn her mind to other things.

Her desk was a brilliant mess, open books stacked on top of each other and piles of notes she'd taken over the course of a week. The papers were scrunched, some were smeared. Robin read a few lines from one of the topmost books, scribbled something on her most current page, but with a sigh realized she'd made a mistake in the transcription again. She hurriedly tried to scrub the ink, and ended up making a gray hole through the paper.

"Damn," she cursed. Paper wasn't cheap on the Grand Line, and it was difficult to find. She crinkled it up into a ball, added it to the growing pile in her wastebasket.

Nami stirred at the noise, rubbing her eyes and turning over to face her roommate. "Robin-nee?" she said, her voice low and drawn out like a yawn.

Robin grimaced. Add another strike to the list, she thought. "Yes, Nami-chan, what is it?"

"You need to go to sleep," Nami muttered, almost returning to it herself. "You'll work better in the morning."

Robin knew she was right, that obstinately staring at this book and her smudged, poorly written notes would only end in future frustration. "Very well," she said. "I'll take these up to the library and be right back. Don't wait up," she smiled.

Nami stretched her arms over her head, then curled up underneath her blanket once more. "I won't," she said, allowing herself to nod off once again.

Robin smiled tenderly at her young nakama. Nami was definitely a very patient roommate, and Robin appreciated that fact more than the navigator would ever know. She turned down the lantern so that it would be less aggravating, picked up the tomes she needed to put away, and quietly slipped out the door.

Outside, the moon had risen almost to it's peak. Waves rocked the ship steadily, but the night was peaceful. Robin looked around the main deck, hoping to locate Calgara in order to not disturb him, but saw no one. Well, it was none of her business where he might be. She hurried across, and up to the library. To her surprise, lantern light spilled out into the night when she opened the door. She blinked, blinded for a moment as she came in, wondering who would be up at this hour, reading.

Speak of the devil, she thought. Calgara was seated at a small reading table with a lamp and what she could only assume was Norland's log book. She regarded him for a moment, her expression flat, then continued into the maze of bookshelves, opening her secret door in the ceiling and disappearing into the darkness without saying a word.

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Frustrated with the present, Calgara had opted for an escape to a past that he'd long left behind. He'd watched to make sure that Robin had not entered the library before he stepped in and found a place to sit. Norland's logbook was held gingerly in his hand, but he laid it out carefully after he'd lit a lamp.

The past few hours had been uneventful and silent, and he had forced himself to focus on the neatly scrawled words on the pages, trying to forget the entire past week. His brow was furrowed; he was so intent upon the book that he did not hear the sounds of footsteps coming toward the door.

"Hm?"

Calgara looked up as the door opened with a vaguely inquisitive expression, but it faded quickly as Robin entered the room. He gave her a careful expression, but did not hide he fact that his eyes trailed her before he ascended her ladder into her secret library.

Once she had vanished, Calgara watched the opening for a moment before he growled quietly to himself in frustration and looked back down at Norland's words. He wanted to pound his fist on the table, but knew better than to cause more problems.

Norland had just began to talk about the need for seeking out and felling all trees infected with Tree Fever on Jaya in his log. There were brief mentions here and there of the work being done in the forests, but most of the log was attributed to the experiences he had among the villagers; Calgara himself made regular appearances in his entries.

But suddenly, the jovial tone of Norland's rhetoric changed drastically to confusion. He asked many questions, most imposing of all of them the question as to why Calgara had turned so suddenly hostile. Norland could not fathom what he had done to incur his friend's wrath, and had even asked him about it to only receive a spear grazing his cheek.

Calgara gritted his teeth as he read this. In retrospect, his ire had been his undoing. Never again did he see his best friend after that, their last words shouted over an expanse of sea. It had turned into the one thing above all others that he regretted.

The warrior read over the words several times, his brow knitted.

Pride. He only had his own damned pride to blame.

Slamming the book shut, he stood, feelings of shame rising within him. He strode over to stand beneath the opening, and raised his eyes to regard the darkness.

"...Robin?"