tampered | Log, finished

Log, finished

When; February 3rd
Rating; PG-13 (...for the wolf likes to curse like the devil)
Characters; Nico Robin [

maten_rou]
Summary; While Opposite Day™ was amusing for at least one of them, the situation is still a bit tense because he's hurt in his pride.
Log;

That stupid fucking City and its stupid fucking curses. Yes, there were more bothersome and more dangerous curses than the one from yesterday. Still, what the City had made Jyabura do with and say to Lucci just took the freakin' cake. If he behaved like a faggot towards other people, well ok. Shit happens. But everything and anything that involved the cat simply drove him mad. Plus, while being cursed Jyabura had given him all his sake. Which was very likely spilled into the drain already. That fucking bastard of a cat.

So he distracted himself from important things with his anger towards Lucci. Hunting in the forests was no fun today, he didn't catch a single of the freaky animals. No wonder, since some days he wasn't in shape and that he lost badly against the Crocodile didn't lighten his mood up.

He wasn't to Xanadu for a while as too many freaks decided to leave their victims there, but today he just wanted to sit under a bench at the cherry tree and try to think of nothing. The sitting worked, but the relaxing part failed yet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Despite her fear of going outside at times like these, Robin had felt the need to take a simple walk through Xanadu, maybe to have some time to think, maybe to get away from her nakama once again. She didn't mind it, but since she also had Naoto's problems to worry about now, it was a lot harder to act cheery around everyone.

So she had found herself in Xanadu once again, hoping to be alone but she saw that being crushed when she approached a bench with an all too familiar figure. She wasn't in the mood for another fight, but ignoring him would only make things worse.

"Hello," she simply, calmly stated.

Well he didn't really expect a warmer welcome. But he liked her better the day before, though he was cursed and called her rude names.

"This City is quite small" he answered and moved over a bit, arms crossed to get warm. He had no idea what to say, but he hated this awkward silence. And the whole situation.

"You don't need to stay here now just because it's polite."

"That would be kind of shallow, don't you think?" she said neutrally, sitting down next to him with a smile. She folded her hands over each other and watched him expectantly, hoping for some kind of positive reaction towards her, which she didn't really anticipate.

"Have you recovered from yesterday's curse yet?"

A smirk was his only response, but he avoided looking at her desperately. And as much as he'd wanted to, laying an arm around here was out of question. She probably didn't want this.

"Oh, that..." he started annoyed. "Recovered from being like a faggot, well yeah. Sort of. I'm still pissed, but whatever. I can't do more than apologizing." For a moment he had to think of what Isane would say. She'd probably apologize for weeks. To everyone.

He sighed. "I'm sorry for all that. I'm glad you figured out the curse soon enough, though."

"Many people were affected, so I don't think that anyone minds," she chuckled, thinking about the rather weird personalities everyone had acquired. "But apologizing is always good."

Apologizing... should she? She hadn't done anything wrong in her opinion, but he probably saw it very differently. "Well, it was fun to see you get all worked up about little things."

"Yeah, many people will be grumpy, for reasons" he replied and fixed his look at some flower.

"Did I?" he asked her with lift eyebrows, but still looking away. There was way too much subtext in what she said and he did mention that little incident they had yesterday. Claiming it wouldn't bother him at all. Too bad it was opposite day.

"So that means I usually do not get worked up by important things? Doesn't sound like me at all." he grinned.

"You don't say," she teased, because it was rather obvious that people would be annoyed with the day before.

"Well, you do get worked up by... by a lot of things, really," she said carefully, hoping that her words wouldn't aggravate him or something in that way. He had been overly hot-headed the past few weeks and she didn't want to make that any worse. Actually, she was sure that she already had.

"Hmm", he huffed, but rather resigned than angry in any form. For a while he watched some random flowers, not sure what to reply.

"Yeah, it's the way I am. And too close to the cat and all. That City doesn't really boost my calm side. If I ever had any." He tried to avoid what Robin was implying. If she wanted to, he'd tell her the reason. But not out of himself.

"You need to ignore him if he bothers you that much," she said, leaning back a little and staring at her feet. "Simply denying his existence is a lot easier than getting on his nerves. I'm sure that'd make you feel a lot better."

If only she could deny that man's existence. It would make her stay in the City so much more pleasant and her whole life a lot easier, but alas, she simply couldn't. She was still too scared for that.

"It would make me feel better if that bastard was six feet under, nothing else" he replied sharply. And not even that was possible in this City, as it was full of walking dead. "And ignoring some bastard who attacked you..." he continued with surpressed anger. At least the cat got what he deserved. Showing him the first time in his life what agony was, well that was good enough. For a beginning.

"Would that... make you happy?" he asked her unbelieving after a while, and surpringly calm. His anger was directed towards Lucci, not her. "If people just ignored your enemies instead of... paying them back? You would be fine with that? Wouldn't you feel... worthless?"

"I understand," she said, and she did. She probably would've felt the same if it was the other way around, but right now, she wanted everyone to be safe. Safe, and very far away from a man called Rob Lucci.

She was silent for a moment, frowning at her feet before opening her mouth. "Indeed, that would make me happy, at least in this case. I know how it feels to bring my beloved ones in danger and I do not wish for it to happen again. Not now, when..." She didn't finish her sentence.

He'd never seen a person that felt almost constantly guilty before. And the irony was that in fact Robin wasn't guilty, for nothing.

"What? When what?" he asked her, turning his head towards Robin. "What's wrong?" he added and fought to not feel too shocked. He didn't like her tone, it worried him.

Robin sharply inhaled and looked away, refusing to look at him. She hated looking people straight in the face when she was baring her soul, something she hadn't done since screaming for her life that day, and that had been her first time too.

"When I finally found someone who doesn't make me feel like I'm useless. When I found someone who can be honest to me, who can scream at me without making me feel that I messed up again. Because I know that everything will be alright in the end."

Tense he held his breath, preparing for hell knew what was coming now. But he didn't expect that. Anything like that, not after what happened.

Sheepy he first looked away, confused, than looked at her again, not a bit less confused. He knew exactly what she felt like, but still he didn't know what to say. So a rather stupid "Uuum..." was everything he was able to reply, with an idiotic blush on his face.

Alright, words didn't work. Maybe actions would. He moved over to her and carefully laid an arm around her waist, one hand put on hers. "I'm sorry" he said after a good while, not able to come up with anything better to say.

She sighed softly and leaned against him; the feeling felt entirely too foreign after all the things that had happened. Yet, it meant that things were alright again, at least for a little while now, until she would do something stupid again that would make it all rewind. She hoped that someday, they'd get out of that vicious circle, that they didn't need to be apart just because of her snide comments and gloomy moods.

"You're the last person who is supposed to feel sorry," she whispered, her stomach starting to tie itself into that tight knot of guilt again.

He knew too well where this would lead. Ok, so he wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. But he had a sense for logics and his bad temper overshadowed the fact that he was actually very rational. If he only wanted to.

"Oh I'm not, and you know that" he smirked and leaned his head against hers. "It always takes two, you know." Well, he wouldn't deny that her snappy comments weren't really helpful, but like he always acted his age. "It's just that I felt... well, weak. I don't like being weak. It's all I can do and if you think I'm weak then I'm pretty much worthless" he confessed. He'd never tell anyone else that he actually felt weak. He was used to be weaker than Rob, but not entirely weak.

"I don't think you're weak," she said gently, trying to comfort him, to make him feel at least a bit better. "And I'm sorry if I ever made it seem that I do."

She closed her eyes and smiled before snapping them open again, as the sudden feeling of dread came over her, just like that. It was silly, no one would attack her here, but she suddenly realized that she was outside. In a garden. She frowned and pushed the feeling away, she didn't want to worry herself like that just when things were going well. Finally going well.

When she closed her eyes he closed his as well, but he kept them closed and ran his thumb over her knuckles. Of course she didn't think that. But still...

It probably wasn't a good idea to keep on with this subject, but otherwise it would bother him forever. "Well if it comforts you, Kaku's no problem for me anymore. And the match with the damn cat was a draw and I could have killed him if we weren't interfered." He better left out that he could have been killed as well. Still, he just felt like an idiot that tried to justify himself for something idiotic that couldn't be changed.

"That's good," she said, still fully aware that Lucci was a lot stronger than Jyabura, but she didn't say anything as she was still afraid of hurting him with that. She knew that men could be overly prideful, but he was definitely a special case. Not that she minded, but it could be bothersome at times like these.

"So you really want to kill him, even though he's your colleague?"

That just made him feel even more stupid, as she cleary said that without meaning it, only to calm him down. But he knew she was stubborn and he couldn't change her opinion with anything, she simply wouldn't believe him, even if it was the truth.

"Colleague? That's the last thing I'd call that piece of trash" he said, getting more and more uncomfortable as there was way too much talking about the cat that was oh so very invincible.

"But he is, isn't he? Wouldn't you get in trouble if you killed him, then?" she asked, out of mere curiosity, since she had no idea what to expect of CP9 after all this. She was even in love with one of its members, so nothing about that small organization would surprise her now, not even if they didn't mind that their members were killing each other off.

"And if you would, you have to remember that there are people who care about that man, if you want to believe it or not."

"Technically" he answered and shifted a bit in his position. Rather hell would freeze over than he'd accept Lucci as his leader. "But if he gets defeated by one of his subordinates, he isn't worth his position anyways."

He slowly opened his eyes and gave her a knowing look. "I do believe because I saw it with my own eyes" he said after a while. "However, the question is how long those... people will still care." he added and started to play around with her hair.

"Yet I thought that Spandam was your leader," she mused, having picked up on the slight implication of Lucci being the leader behind the scenes. She still felt like puking at the mere mention of CP9's official chief; she hoped that he'd never be able to walk again after she had broken his back. That man had brought her so much humiliation and sadness -- it was the least he deserved. Suffering was always worse than dying.

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, to be quite frank, I told Naoto-san that she should give him another chance. It's obvious she loves him very much, so staying with him would make her happy, I think. And all I want for her is to be happy, regardless of the person who triggers that emotion."

"The 'director' is a fucking idiot" he said bluntly. Yes, he was the official leader, but no one really cared for that. It was bad luck and the guy was an annoying pest. Hopefully that moron would never show up here. For his own sake.

It didn't surprise him too much that Robin would give Naoto that kind of advice. He sighed. "Maybe, but I don't agree on the happy-part. He can't make her happy, ever, because he can't give her what she needs."

Robin let out a restrained giggle, smiling wryly at the fact that even CP9 itself found its leader a prick. "I've got to agree on that," she chuckled, not so fondly recalling how he had dragged her across the Bridge of Hesitation like she was a piece of meat instead of a human being. The cruel comments towards Ohara didn't really help either.

"Then what does she need, according to you?" she asked, curious about his opinion on this matter.

"Hmmm" he said and ran a hand through his hair. What kind of question was that now? "She is a good person. Yeah sure, she fights and all that and killed someone, but not out of fun." He paused a moment and had to think of the cryptical stuff Naoto told him during their fight. Or rather told herself.

"No idea if that bastard of a cat even has human feelings to begin with, I doubt that" he continued and remembered the curse that made Lucci babble like a schoolgirl, "but the way he expresses them can't make her happy. It just doesn't work." he finished and scratched the scar on his face.

"So a good person isn't allowed to love a horrible person, even if that horrible person loves that good person too?" she asked, wondering about that herself too. This whole situation confused her -- she wanted Naoto to be truly happy, on the other hand, she wanted her friend far away from Lucci. Robin was too afraid what that man could do when he lost his temper or when confronted with a huge blow of sadness.

"You haven't answered my question. What does she need if he isn't good enough for her?"

"I have no idea if you can 'allow' something like that in the first place, but if one suffers unto the other, that's probably a bad idea. No matter if they are good or bad or whatever."

He had to think about that for a while, but couldn't come up with something useful. He had no big interest in discussing other people's relationships either. "I have no idea, ok? I just know that he's bad for her. That's enough reason to me."

"Maybe you're right, maybe you're not. Time will tell about his true feelings, I think," she said enigmatically, watching a few birds play with each other with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Despite my rather biased view, I do hope it'll work out in the end. Naoto-san deserves her happiness, even if Lucci does not. I think he can give her that even if he's a self-centered, cruel "bastard", as you like to put it. You should hear the way she talks about him, even now, when she's unbelievably angry with him."

"I don't want to" he said with low voice. He didn't even want to think about that. How that bastard was all his usual, disgusting self and people even cared about him. What in the world? Was that some kind of black magic? Because logics failed at this topic.

"Maybe she should see the real Lucci then, sometime. I'd wish to know if she could still love him after that. Rumours are one thing, but seeing things with your own eyes are another."

"You don't have to," Robin said calmly, staring at her lap and inwardly hoping that he would, at some point, despite his hatred. This whole thing didn't revolve about Lucci and his sick habits, but Naoto and her happiness. Maybe her future, even. A little voice inside Robin's head said that her friend would never, ever be happy with a man who didn't know how to love, but she had seen enough miracles in her life to at least hope for the opposite. Her own affection for Jyabura was most likely one of those miracles.

His last words sparked her curiosity, since it seemed that he was talking about something specific and she wanted to know what it was. "The real one... isn't this version of him horrible enough? Is is even possible to get worse than this?"

"Good", he said, hoping that this topic reached an end for today. But well, seemed like that freakin' cat was Robin's dearest thing to talk about. For reasons, obviously, but he didn't want to talk about such subjects that often.

"Well, she hasn't seen him killing people, right? We all tell her he's a piece of trash and a bad guy and all that. How can she believe it if she never saw him acting that way? I think it's messed up enough that she didn't slice him apart instantly after she heard what he did to you." He felt anger boiling up inside of him. To him it was the wrongest kind of loyalty.

"Maybe she'd struggle even if he caught him doing it." He paused for a long while. "It's always the wrong people who get mercy."

"If the tables were turned and you had attacked Naoto, I wouldn't have done anything. I'm sure I couldn't. And you know why? Because I love you. It's the same case with Naoto-san, here," she spoke quietly, still staring at her lap but now her hands were also moving -- sprouting arms on the ground randomly.

"You keep forgetting that."

He turned his head some more, resting against hers, nose in her hair and inhaling her scent with closed eyes.

"I can't comprehend. I feel nothing but hate for him since the first day I met him. I'd hate him with our without what he has done in the City. But it only made me hate him more. I just don't understand."

"Why do you hate him so much? I can see your reason, but hating him for such a long time already... Are you jealous? Is he that different from you when you both want to kill? Blood lust is always blood lust," she said rationally, growing an arm close to the playing birds, accidentally scaring them away.

Why? Because he was always faster, stronger, better. People would always look up to him, in fear or respect. People would only praise him, though all of CP9 had amazing abilites. Because he overshadowed them all. Because he attacked Robin. Because everyone, Kaku and even Robin would respect him out of fear. Because Lucci made Jyabura seem weak. No matter how strong he grew, he'd just stay weak forever, lost in Lucci's shadow. But no one would ever understand it or simply take it serious.

He inhaled sharply and sighed. "Because... he's a cat" he answered.

The corner of Robin's mouth twitched into a slight smirk momentarily, amused by the unexpected but actually obvious reaction. "Acceptable answer," she chuckled, growing hands on his head to fondle his hair for a bit. Everything seemed so much better when she was able to smile, no matter the cause. And even though this moment was so simple and so fragile, she knew she'd cherish it forever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Log, finished

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject