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Robin is 20, and she's starting to think that Saul had been wrong all those years ago, when he had said that one day, she would find her people. She had been clinging to his words like a lifeline, thinking that if she just survived long enough, maybe one day she would have a home to go back to.
But it's been twelve long years since the marines had blown her island off the map, and in that time, she's seen the true evil and ugliness that humanity has to offer. She tries so damn hard to keep seeing the good in people, but in the end, she's always met with bitter disappointment as whatever latest crew she's allied with turns their backs on her.
She's on the verge of finally giving up one day, when everything changes. She's not sure what had causes it - probably just the normal day-to-day weirdness that exists on the Grand Line. All she knows is that one second, she's exploring what she had thought was an uninhabited island after escaping from another disastrous alliance, and then the next second, she hears voices. Which startles her badly, given that she had made sure to circle the island to see if there were any ships docked here before landing.
There are only two voices, though she thinks she hears one or two extra footsteps, so there's probably more people who just aren't talking. All in all, it can't be more than four people, and she figures that if worse comes to worst, she can probably take them on.
The two people who are speaking currently seem to be having something of a good-natured argument.
"Come on, Nami! I said I was sorry!" wails one of them, his voice is loud and buoyant, boyish in a way that contrasts strangely with the rich deepness of it.
"I just needed a few hours of sleep," the woman he's speaking to hisses with acid in her voice. "I don't know how the hell you managed to get us so far off course in that time but-"
"It's fine!" he says. "We discovered a new island we've never been to, didn't we? You can add it to your world map!"
"Don't you try and make it out that you were doing me a favor, Luffy," Nami snaps back.
Their voices are getting closer, and Robin panics. It's too late for her to run, so she has no choice but to duck behind a couple of bushes and hope for the best.
Robin holds her breath as they pass not more than ten feet from her hiding spot, but she starts to relax a little bit as their voices start retreating. Her racing heart starts to slow down. From what she can tell, they seem like rather good people, and the camaraderie between them makes something in her chest ache fiercely. Despite the way Nami scolds Luffy, there's something like fond exasperation in her voice.
But then , a new voice speaks, and it makes all the aching feelings pulling at Robin's heart go flying through the window. There's a quiet laugh, a familiar voice saying indulgently that, "It's not like we're on a tight deadline, Nami. Cut our captain some slack, won't you?"
It's different, deeper and more mature, but Robin would recognize it anywhere. Because it's her voice, impossible as it may seem. She has no idea what on Earth is going on here, and she desperately wants to check it out, but she hasn't survived this long on the run by indulging her curiosity whenever it takes hold of her. So despite the blood pulsing in her veins, yelling at her to go, go, go towards that familiar voice, she holds completely, utterly still, hardly even daring to breathe.
"Don't you start," Nami hisses at the person with that awfully familiar voice. "I expected better from you. You should have been keeping a closer eye on him."
Not-Robin laughs lightly, and Robin feels something in her chest tighten. That laugh is a beautiful sound, all loose and relaxed and genuinely cheerful. It's a sound she never imagined she could make.
"You know as well as I do that no one can stop Luffy once he's got something in his mind, Nami," says Not-Robin.
"Did you even try?" asks Nami suspiciously.
Their voices have retreated far enough now that Robin is starting to feel her tense muscles relax. She wants to listen to them more, but the logical part of her mind knows that the faster they leave the more likely she'll be safe.
Just as she's taking her first full breath since she had heard them though, there's a loud, "Oh wait! I think I feel a strong Voice nearby!"
And before she even has a chance to process the possible danger, there's the sound of leaves rustling and a face peeking into her hiding place. The face is round and exuberant, framed with messy black tangles over which a well-loved straw hat is jammed. The man grins, quick and instinctive, when his eyes land on her, and he crows, "ROBIN!"
"Yes?" calls the sickeningly familiar voice of maybe-Robin from up ahead.
"No, not you, Robin! Another Robin!"
"What do you mean another Robin?" asks Nami, still in that annoyed-yet-fond voice.
Robin starts to pull away, thinking to try and use her devil fruit power to distract Luffy for long enough to make a break for it, but he beats her to it. Luffy's larger hand wraps around her own, his fingers calloused and his skin sun-warmed, and with a strength she wouldn't have expected from this gangly arms, he tugs her out of the safety of her hiding spot and all but drags her towards the two women he'd been walking with.
One of them is in her mid-twenties with long, flaming orange locks pulled up into a messy ponytail, and wide brown eyes staring at Robin in shock. She's absolutely lovely, and just the sight of her has the blood rising in Robin's cheeks. But then Robin's eyes go to the other woman next to her, and the blood turns to ice in her veins. The woman looks to be older than the redhead, with jet black hair cut short to frame her lovely face, and bright blue eyes. She tilts her head to the side, studying Robin with a knowing smile on her lips. She seems mildly taken aback, though that's more overpowered by a playful curiosity.
Robin stays stock still, staring at a version of herself that's everything she had ever wanted, and everything she had never dreamed she could be. All the while, Luffy dances around her with triumph in his voice. "We've got another Robin! And she's so young !"
He stops dancing around and comes face to face with Robin. "Ne, how old are you?"
Robin considers for a moment whether she should answer him. The wary, distrustful part of her mind is screaming at her to run away, but some part of her knows without question that she wouldn’t make it very far. Despite his childlike excitement and friendliness, there's something about Luffy that reminds her of a wild animal. Something dangerous.
And since she's been exposed anyways, she might as well figure out what the hell is going on with probably-Robin. "Twenty," she answers, short and quick, before looking at her older self. "How old are you?"
The other Robin tilts her head to the side, an amused smile on her face. "Thirty-five," she answers. "Though I'm sure that's not the question you really want to be asking."
Robin, perhaps, shouldn't be so surprised at how easily her older self sees right through her, especially considering that she would have already gone through this moment before, supposedly. Older-Robin taps a finger against her chin thoughtfully, as if considering her next words. "You know," she says, "I'll just keep it a secret. No point ruining the surprise."
And Robin wants to scream her frustration, that even after everything she's been through, everything they've both been through, even her older self is turning against her. The deep sting of betrayal must show on her face, because the other Robin's own expression softens, and she steps forward and reaches out a hand towards her younger self.
Robin flinches slightly, naturally distrusting of others, even when one of those others is supposedly herself. The older Robin doesn't show any outward signs of noticing the reaction. She continues reaching forward using her index finger to gently tilt Robin's face up so that their gazes meet.
The older Robin's gaze fills then with such a tenderness that Robin feels her breath catch in her throat, overcome by a sudden grief that still hasn't lost its edge, even all these years later. That memory of her mother surges to the forefront of her mind, every little detail vivid in her mind's eye.
"You look like her," she says to her older self, who doesn't have to clarify which 'her' she's talking about. She leans forward, pushing Robin's bangs to the side so that she can place a gentle, fleeting kiss on her forehead.
"Yes," she says finally. "We do."
Robin lets out a watery laugh at that, and before she can reply, Luffy comes dancing back and comes to a stop in front of them, forcing himself between the two women. "Hey, hey Robin," he says, turning to look at the older one. "Do you remember this day?"
Older-Robin tilts her head from side to side in a so-so gesture. "Not very well," she lies through her fucking teeth. She's good at it, she has to be from years and years of experience, but Robin recognizes her own tells, even fifteen years removed. "I don't think I was with you guys for very long."
Luffy's expression falls into disappointment at her answer. Before he can get too glum though, Nami walks up and knocks him lightly in the side of the head. "Well? Let's take her back to the ship so she can meet the others. We've gathered enough of the medicinal herbs Chopper needed to replenish his stocks. She can have lunch with us before she leaves, right Robin?"
Older-Robin grins in silent laughter at something only she is privy to, before linking an arm through Robin's. "I think there's enough time for that."
Nami comes up on her other side, taking Robin's other arm with a wide grin as she remarks about how cute and young she is. Robin restrains the urge to tell her that she's already a grownup, not a child. She knows the childish retort wouldn't help prove her point at all. So she puts up with the cooing from the two older women as they march her decisively in the same direction they had been heading when they had seen her. Luffy prances triumphantly ahead of them the whole way, occasionally straying in the wrong direction before either Nami or older-Robin call out a course correction and he obediently returns to the right path.
He's chattering something about how much Robin is just going to love his crew, and how they have the best ship in the world, and on and on and on. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to his rambling, and Robin has to eventually give up on making any sense of what he's saying. Which is just as well, because before very long at all, they arrive back at the coast, and Robin gasps at the bright, friendly-looking ship that appears before her. It's proudly flying a jolly roger with the same straw hat perched on Luffy's head, though truth be told it looks more like a party ship than the vessel of vicious pirates.
Luffy perks up as they get close. "MEAT!" he yells in delight. "Is it lunch time already? Hell yeah!" And with that exuberant exclamation, he promptly ignores the rope ladder dangling down the side of the ship in favour of stretching his arms out inhumanly long, and rocketing himself up onto the deck. At this point, Robin has been on the Grand Line long enough that such a casual display of devil fruit powers doesn't really phase her, though the display does get a chuckle from her older self as their little group follows the captain by more conventional means.
By the time they arrive at the deck, Luffy is nowhere to be seen. Though a door at one end of the ( grassy? ) deck is thrown wide open, and Luffy's excited voice is explaining to the people inside about what had happened on the island, and that they're going to be having another Robin joining them for lunch.
Robin follows the other two women towards the galley door, despite the nervous butterflies fluttering in her stomach. There's a part of her that's painfully curious about the people sitting in that room, the people that will one day be her family. She tries not to fidget as she steps into the doorway, into view of the people within who all turn to stare curiously at her.
And even after spending her entire life on the Grand Line, Robin doesn't think she's ever seen a more colorful or diverse group. There's a fishman sitting at the far end of the table, grinning widely at her despite his naturally grumpy face. There's a moving skeleton and a little reindeer sitting on the table and a massive man with strangely shaped blue hair, and Robin is maybe starting to get overwhelmed. They're all so colorful and different, and yet, somehow, they fit together like a matched set.
Her older self pats her lightly on the shoulder, before going to take a seat next to the massive blue-haired man, joining seamlessly into the portrait of this happy little family, with Nami following shortly after and taking her seat next to the green-haired swordsman.
Robin looks around herself at all the colorful individuals gathered around this little table on this colorful, friendly little ship. Before she has a chance to feel self-conscious, the blond man scoots over a little, nudging his friends to make room, and gestures to Robin to take a seat next to him. Robin allows herself a grin, amazed at how quickly and easily they fold her into their happy little family. She tries to smother the giddy smile behind her hand as she looks over again towards her older self, only to notice the older Robin watching her with a sad smile on that lovely face.
Robin watches her, confused, and opens her mouth to ask a question. But then, between one step and the next, her stomach lurches as the ground disappears from under her, and she has just enough time to take in a deep breath before she's plunged into the icy sea water below. She panics for a second as she feels the energy begin to drain out of her body, but before she can sink too far, one of her flailing hands smacks against something hard. She quickly latches onto it, and hauls herself up and out of the water into what she is surprised to realize is the little fishing boat she had escaped on.
Robin watches her younger self disappear with a sad smile on her face, knowing just how much longer she had to wait, and feeling a pang of sadness for the lonely young girl she had been, once upon a time. Her younger self still has eight long years to go before she finds her way to the home she so desperately craves, and though she had thought of herself as cruel at the time for not telling her when she would meet her beloved captain, she knows now that it had been an act of kindness on her own part.
In those long years of loneliness and betrayal, there had been many days when the only thing keeping her going was the hope that maybe, just maybe, tomorrow was the day she was waiting for. Had she known that her salvation was eight long years in coming, she's not sure if she would have made it to this shining future, with this warm little dining table surrounded by her very favourite people in the whole world. She smiles softly to herself, and finally says goodbye to the lonely girl she had carried with her for all these years.