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One Piece

Frobin librarian/avid reader au

For the writing prompt I got on tumblr.

He was back again.

Robin looked up curiously from her book as the man entered the library she worked in for the third time that week. Her eyes didn't leave him as he moved over to the classical section. The man seemed to pick a different area each visit.

Of course, the library had plenty of regulars. The thing that drew Robin's attention about this one, though, was that he didn't seem that comfortable in it. Robin prided herself on being an excellent judge of character, and from his mannerisms would have guessed that he was normally louder than his bright open shirt.

He'd first come up about two months ago. The man had been muttering under his breath as he moved to the non-fiction section and checked the list that described the Dewey Decimal System. He'd then proceeded to pick up a book on mechanics and went to Robin to get it checked out.

As a matter of fact, Robin actually had noticed the way his eyes had widened when she took the book from him, but had pretended not to in order to avoid embarrassing him.

Ever since then, the man who had signed up for a card with the name 'Franky' had kept making frequent visits to the library. He always left with a book and started to flush when he handed it in to Robin for her to check out.

Enough was enough. Robin quietly slipped her bookmark into the pages and got to her feet, moving out from around the desk to where Franky was browsing. "Do you know what you're looking for?"

"Huh? Yeah, I-" Franky stopped abruptly as he realised who he was talking to, and a dull red started to creep up his cheeks. "Uh, yeah, I do, I was… uh… well actually…"

Robin's lips tugged up in a slight smile. Franky seemed to lose his confidence. "I… yeah. No. No, I don't know what I'm looking for."

"Well, if I may make a recommendation;" Robin reached around Franky and pulled a book neatly from the shelf of Classics, "I find that Oliver Twist has always been one of my favourites."

"Oh. Right. Thank you," Franky mumbled as he accepted the book.

"So, if I may repeat myself, are you certain that you had no idea what you were looking for when you walked in?" Robin asked politely.

"Uh, no. Definitely had no idea, that's right!" Franky shook his head.

Robin's lip tugged in a slight smile. "Oh? That's too bad. I was considering asking you out for coffee."

"I – what?" Franky choked.

Robin smiled wider. "What do you say?"

"I – uh, well… yeah. Super."

"Excellent." Robin took the book lightly from Franky and walked over to where the library catalogue was. "Is Saturday at ten am good for you? I was thinking the small little café on Syrup Street, the one next to the doctors."

"I… oh, yeah. That… that sounds super," Franky stumbled over his words. He looked no less stunned, but a smile was beginning to break out over his face.

"I'm glad to hear that," Robin said, finishing typing in the library number she knew by heart and scanned the book. "The book should be returned by the fourth."