Frobin Week Day Two
Theme: I'm here
Word count: 863
Notes: This feels as though it should be part of something bigger, but I dunno it just came for me. I hope I got them both in-character enough…I think I did, given the situation. The situation itself is fairly ambiguous, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination for what happened here. Even so, let me know if it sucks.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d run this fast. Maybe she never had. She’d done a lot of running over the years. But this time was different. This time was very different. In the past, she’d been running for herself. Running for the sake of her own life, which was so often sought after. This time she was running, but for a far different reason. A reason that pushed at her calf muscles with much more intensity than any chase could. And still, Robin pushed herself to run faster. This wasn’t like the other times. This time she was running for someone.
It must have looked bad. She couldn’t begin to imagine what Franky would be feeling right now. She could feel the tears pricking at her eyes, but they only made her run faster again. This couldn’t be happening. Their stop at this island was meant to be a relaxing break from their crazy misadventures. But it was not to be. Not long after arriving, the crew had become swept up in the island’s troubles as they so often did. So much had happened in their short time there, Robin could barely make sense of it. All she knew was that she needed to find Franky, and sooner than later.
She was out of the town now, racing over the frost-covered ground of the forest. Fighting for the sake of others was something she never could have considered a few years ago, and right now that’s what she’s doing. Fighting the dire possibilities. Fighting time. Fighting the illusion.
A lone shack sat at the end of the forest path. That had to be it.
Robin almost tore down the door as she burst into the room. Her hands were shaking, and she could feel her entire body trembling, not just from exertion or the cold. Her gaze immediately landed on a large form hunkered down in the middle of the room.
He was there. She wasn’t too late. That was a start.
Nonetheless, her breath hitched as she stepped further into the room and he looked up. He stared at her—or rather through her—with a look Robin had never seen him use before. And how she hoped she’d never see it again. It was so blank, so lifeless…as though he were on the verge of giving up. It wasn’t Franky.
“Are you an illusion?” he asked.
Robin felt her heart breaking, but knew she needed to stay strong. “No,” she responded firmly yet gently, “But what you saw earlier was.”
Franky looked past her, the same empty expression present on his face. As though he was looking on at nothing but a fragment of his own imagination. Nothing but an illusion.
His lack of response was too much for Robin. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. Seeing as he was sitting, it was quite an easy feat. “Does this feel like an illusion?” she whispered, ignoring the fact her tears were now spilling out and soaking through the cyborg’s shirt.
Franky was still in there somewhere, She knew it. And she knew she could break through to that spot, and set him free of this grief-stricken stupor.
“It’s okay,” she assured him, “We’re all okay.”
A few moments passed and Robin felt nothing but the heaving of her own shoulders as she tried to hold together the broken pieces of the man before her, the man she’d always known to be so strong, so cheerful. Franky had been strong for her so many times in the past. It was now her turn to be strong for him. She’d nearly lost track of the time that had passed, when a large hand encircled her waist. “R-robin?” Franky’s voice sounded. “You’re alive?”
Robin felt the warmth of relief flood over her immediately, and looked up, not letting him out of her embrace. Yes. This was the Franky she knew. Although his eyes reflected a strange confusion. “Yes,” she nodded.
Although freed from the illusion, Franky undoubtedly still had the terrible memories of what he thought he’d seen only a short time earlier. Robin could feel his large body trembling in her grip, and leant in once again, holding onto him tight as she explained.
“That whole thing was staged,” she said, “None of us were there. It was fake. He’s an illusionist. He set it up to get to you…because…because…” she took a moment to recompose herself, “Because he knew that if he made one of us think the others were killed, we’d be vulnerable.”
“So you didn’t…no one’s…”
“We’re all okay…” she repeated, holding him all the tighter, “Nami and Usopp are at the port. They’ve reclaimed the Sunny. Chopper and Brook are in the town, and they’ve helped quench that fire. Luffy is at the Bell Tower, ‘kicking that bastard’s ass’ while Zoro and Sanji hold of his minions…”
Franky’s other hand looped around her body as he hung on in a pained relief. “I’m not crying at all…” he sobbed.
Robin felt a small, elated smile as she blinked back her own tears. Her cyborg was back. It would all be okay. “…And I’m here.”
