A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing okay (or at least better than I am). So I RANDOMLY had this idea flow through my head a few days ago and I felt like writing it before it went away. As most of you know, this didn't actually happen; I just got this random idea so here it is. In short, instead of Robin meeting Saul as I child, I'm writing it as her meeting Zoro instead (Zoro is still a bounty hunter/ hasn't met Luffy or anything yet but has his same swords and abilities as right before the timeskip). And yes, I may be stretching the pirate hunter's reputation a bit, but I don't care because he's a badass. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but I guess I'm going to extend it through Robin's entire flashback (meaning it probably won't be very long and there may be character deaths).

And don't worry; I'm not replacing Saul or anything. I love Saul and he's awesome, I just had this idea and wanted to experiment.

I do not own One Piece, as if that wasn't obvious enough.

The sun shone brightly as it lit up the island of scholars known as Ohara. The waves gently swept up the sandy shore, casting a peaceful sound along the beaches as the many groups of seagulls circled overhead. The sand was warm, the water was clear, and a slight breeze gently blew through the air, creating what seemed to be an ideal day. It was there that a young girl decided to take a walk along the coastline, embracing the tranquil environment as she attempted to smother unwelcomed thoughts inside her head.

This young girl was named Nico Robin, better known simply as "the monster" from the other children her age on the island. It had been a day since she was denied the right to study with the rest of the archaeologists in the tree of knowledge, consequently crushing her dreams of studying and reuniting with her forgotten mother. It seemed as though she was completely alone on the island of many fellow children and scholars, but unbeknownst to her, she was not the only one on the shoreline at that moment.

Robin continued slowly shuffling her sandaled feet through the warm sand, looking down at the ground in front of her, replaying the previous day's events in her head over and over again. Just like any other day in her life, she had been denied; denied her dream, denied her right to happiness, and denied her chance to not be alone. She had ultimately gotten used to this feeling, but still couldn't shake the sadness from her heart. She understood she was just a child and studying the void century meant disobeying the world government, but she didn't care; she was tired of being deprived of her interests. Robin read and studied all she could get her hands on while giving up a normal child's lifestyle of having fun, all for the sake of becoming a fully fledged archaeologist like her mother.

Robin was brought out of her thoughts when she felt a soothingly cool feeling wash over her feet. Not surprised that it was simply the small ocean waves washing up the shore, she raised her head to look along the beach. She stopped in her tracks and blinked her wide eyes multiple times, letting them focus on her center of attention. The raven haired girl let a curious hum escape her tiny lips as she tilted her head slightly to the side, examining the object. Determined to prove her suspicions correct, Robin skipped over to the object in mind.

"What the…" she hesitantly stuttered, staring at the body on lying in the sand before her.

Her hypothesis was correct, but she was still slightly shocked to see a human body washed up on the shore. It was definitely a man, from what she could see, and the body was lying flat on its stomach covered in blood and dirt from head to toe. It wore a black bandanna over the top of its head, which was half shoved in the sand, and a tattered white shirt stained red and brown from blood and dirt respectively along with a green haramaki and black pants and boots.

Robin eyed the body curiously before turning her attention to three swords attached to its waist. She crouched down next to the man's body to get a closer look at the katana before they started to move along with their owner. Robin quickly panicked and back pedaled away from the rising man, losing her footing and falling flat on her behind.

Small beads of sweat made their way down the nervous girl's face as she watched the struggling person, whom she thought was dead, push himself off the ground with his bleeding arms, grunting furiously in the process. The swordsman slowly raised his body off the sand and, after a few minutes of breathy grunts and curses, flipped himself over onto his back and sighed, beginning to breathe heavily to catch his breath.

Robin continued watching the injured man in awe from her spot a few feet behind him up the shore. She tried staying as quite as possible, afraid of the consequences of being found so close to the suffering man. A few minutes passed as the marooned swordsman's erratic breathing calmed to an ordinary level and Robin began to collect herself as well. At this point she was unsure of what to do. She could walk away as quietly as possible and leave the troubled man as if she hadn't seen anything, or she could stay and risk an interaction with him. She pondered said choices in her head for several moments until she was too late to decide for herself.

"H-Hey…" a low, gruff voice croaked from the man.

Robin froze in her sitting position, contemplating how to respond to her situation.

"I know you're…there…so don't try…and hide…" he continued without moving an inch.

"W-What do y-you want?" Robin's innocent voice traveled through the silent atmosphere until it hit the man's ears. There was a short pause between the two beach inhabitants as the swordsman fidgeted in what was either surprise or discomfort. Relying on his ears to assess the person behind him, the man seemed to come to a conclusion and was surprised to hear such a high pitched voice.

"Come here…" he curiously ordered. Robin continued to nervously stare at the top of the man's head from behind him, hesitantly sitting upright.

"I'm not….gonna hurt you… Just come here…" he said with a rather lighter tone to his dry voice.

Robin decided to listen to him, slowly standing up and tiptoeing over to the man lying down. She approached from the man's right side where his swords were and once she was standing over him, she hesitantly looked down, taking in his features. The front of his body didn't look any better than the back, with dried blood sticking to his head and his abdomen. Robin noticed his rough facial features, and if she wasn't nervous before, she was now. The bandanna that covered the top of his head cast a shadow over his eyes, making him even more intimidating to Robin, and she noticed three golden earrings dangling on his left ear along with…green sideburns? It must have been the lighting.

The man was staring up into the sky with squinted eyes, attempting to keep the sun from blinding him. He waited until the light footsteps in the sand became louder and louder, sensing the newcomer getting closer and was relieved they listened to him.

Hearing the footsteps stop next to him and seeing the sun blocked out by the unknown host, he was met with two large, innocent cyan eyes of a young girl. His eyebrows flew upward and his mouth formed into a surprised frown as the girl nervously stood over him, cautiously looking down at him. He wasn't expecting anyone old or large from the voice he had heard, but he was still surprised at the young face of the girl looking down at him. He quickly studied her from her head down to her feet, noticing her purple sandals, purple dress, black hair, blue eyes, and noting that she was quite short. He couldn't find an exact word to attach to her other than…cute, not that he would ever admit it to himself or anyone else, but he could tell she certainly wasn't a snot-nosed crybaby or anything.

"You're…just a girl…" he thought out loud, unsure of whether she heard him or not.

She slightly twitched afterwards, making him aware that she did hear him and she was obviously nervous, but he wouldn't blame the girl. He had sat idly by and observed many other people shake nervously in his presence.

"Relax…I'm not going to...hurt you. As you can see, I'm not…really in any position…to do anything…" he spoke through erratic breaths as he attempted to ignore the pain pulsing through his body and focus on the girl above him. To his slight pleasure, she seemed to calm down a bit and softened the expressions on her face.

"What do you want?" she asked, brushing a tuft of her hair behind her ear.

The swordsman then closed his eyes tightly and grit his teeth, letting a deep grunt escape his throat. Robin quickly dropped to her knees and put her arms out to try and help, noticing that he was in pain. He sighed deeply and opened his eyes again, only to see the girl nervously hovering over him. She timidly returned to her standing position and turned her gaze to a random shell on the ground. The swordsman's lips tugged upward into a small smirk upon noticing the girl's shy antics.

"Do you see my swords…next to you here?" asked the swordsman, capturing Robin's attention.

"Umm…yeah. These three right here?" she asked pointing down to the swords in question.

"Yeah. See if you can take one of them…out of my holster…" he said, motioning to his waist band with his hand.

"Uhh…okay…" Robin knelt down to her previous position and observed the three swords on the man's waist. "Is this white one okay?"

"Sure…doesn't matter," he stated patiently. Robin nervously grabbed the hilt of the white sword, having never held a sword before, and gently pulled it out of its scabbard. Sweat rolled down her face and she could feel herself become increasingly tense as she stared at her reflection in the extremely sharp sword.

"Whoa…hang on there…" the swordsman interrupted, "Keep the sword in the scabbard. I want you to pull…the whole thing off my waist band…including the cover…" he told her, trying to simplify the terms for her.

"O-Oh…I'm s-sorry…" she apologized and slid the sword back into its scabbard.

Understanding what he wanted, Robin grabbed the scabbard of the sword and slid it through his holder, noting the unexpected weight of the sword and letting out a few childish grunts. She finally pulled the entire thing through and lifted it up as she stood, slightly losing her balance and clutching the sword to her small body.

"There…you did it…" he sarcastically congratulated, smirking as he saw her smile a toothy grin, obviously not catching the sarcasm.

The swordsman stuck his arm out and opened his hand, motioning for the sword. With a good amount of effort, Robin lifted the sword and placed it in his hand then retreated back a few steps. She stood there and watched as he leaned upwards and stuck the sword with its scabbard into the sand, serving as a balance of weight to help him get up. Grunting and leaning onto the sword, he was finally able to rise into a sitting position, crossing his legs and lounging forwards. As his breath caught up to him he once again noticed a pair of azure eyes glued onto him.

"Uhh…thanks for the help." He said looking up at her. "You're…free to go play…or whatever…" he grumbled.

He then closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, but was then interrupted when he heard a light thump on the ground across from him. He raised his head and saw the girl sitting criss-cross a few feet away from him.

'Oh great, now I'm gonna have a persistent kid following me around…' he thought to himself.

"Now what?" he asked rather sternly, but she didn't flinch, instead she lowered her gaze to the ground and spoke softly.

"I don't have anyone to play with…"

He raised an eyebrow curiously. If anyone else was on the beach, they'd be bawling their eyes out; however, he wasn't affected by the girl.

"What do you mean you don't have anyone to play with?" he asked, as if it was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard.

"I don't have any friends…" she said lightly, hugging her knees to her chest and looking back at the swordsman. He just furrowed his eyebrows at the confession and looked at the small girl before turned his gaze towards the ocean.

"Don't have any friends, eh?" It wasn't exactly the most comforting remark, but the raven haired girl didn't seem to care.

"Everyone thinks I'm a monster…"

'Everyone thinks she's a monster? What the hell kind of place is this?'

"Why the hell do people think you're a monster?" asked the dumbfounded swordsman, not bothering to censor his language.

Robin then waved her hand through the air as pink flowered petals blew through the air and countless arms began to sprout from a nearby tree. The swordsman looked at the tree with a surprised expression, knowing that it certainly wasn't what he expected.

"I'm guessing you ate a devil fruit?" he inquired, trying not to hurt the already depressed girl. She just nodded to his question and continued to stare at the ground.

"Is that the reason they call you a monster?" he asked and received another nod.

"Is it because you have an advantage over them, or is it because they're too afraid to face reality?" he continued his questions while looking up into the sky. His new question seemed to catch Robin's attention as her eyes turned towards him.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently, not understanding his point.

"Well it's obvious you're the only one who can do that right?" the girl nodded as a reply, "So that makes you special compared to everyone else, and if I were you I'd be proud of that," he said reassuringly.

"S-Special?" she asked with a slight blush on her face. The swordsman looked at her with a confused look before smiling.

"Yeah, besides…you're not the only one who can multiply their body parts…" he grinned.

"Y-You've eaten a devil fruit too!?" she curiously asked, almost excitedly.

The swordsman laughed. "Haha…not quite. I can only do it under certain circumstances," explained the injured man.

"Certain circumstances? Like what?"

"Like when I'm about to kill someone…" he said, flashing his teeth in a twisted grin. Sure enough, Robin let out a shriek loud enough to make the swordsman regret ever saying anything.

"Relax, relax! I'm joking!" he lied as the girl gained her composure again.

The two stayed silent for a few minutes and allowed the slow breeze to brush past them. The swordsman took this time to examine the sky, realizing that the sun had begun to set. Knowing he had better things to do than sit here and entertain a random girl, he slowly began to stand up. Being able to stand relatively easily, he looked back down at the girl who had a worried look on her face.

"Do pirates often come through this island?" The random question caught the girl off guard, but she recovered and stood up on her feet, only reaching up to his waist in height.

"Pirates? No, I don't think so…" she responded. Strangely deciding to trust the young girl's knowledge of the island, the swordsman secured his swords to his belt and slowly turned to the side.

"Well that's a shame. I suppose I better get going now. Thanks for the help, squirt," the swordsman said before walking off along the shoreline opposite to the way Robin came. Robin hung her head again and looked back to the leaving swordsman, sorting through conflicting thoughts in her head, before running after him.

"Where are you going?" the young girl asked looking up at him after running to his side.

"Huh? You still here?" he responded, sounding less than pleased. Robin reverted her eyes from the swordsman and to the ground knowing that she'd once again end up being alone.

The tall man looked down at the sulking girl and sighed against his better judgment. He was the world's future greatest swordsman! As ruthless as it was, he didn't have time to deal with this girl. That being said, his actions disregarded his thoughts completely.

"Hey kid…what's your name?" he asked, watching as the girl's eyes shot up from the ground to meet his.

"M-My name?"

"Yeah, your name… You've got one, right?" At this point, he didn't really know if anything else could surprise him about this girl.

"Of course I do," she smiled, "It's Robin. Nico Robin," she said happily.

"Nico Robin…" he repeated to himself and turned his gaze forward. "That's a good name."

"What's your name?!" she asked with a curious glow to her features.

"Uhh…my name?" he stuttered, not exactly wanting to deal with the fuss that would ensue after relaying his name. For the second time that day, he went against his original thoughts, admitting to himself that he couldn't lie to the girl.

"I'm Roronoa Zoro…" he said, preparing for the shock to settle into the girl.

"Roronoa Zoro? That's a strange name," Robin commented to Zoro's surprise.

"Strange? Uhh…yeah…it is kinda strange…" he said, inwardly sighing since she didn't know him.

"It's a good name though… Rowonara-" They both blinked at each other, realizing that she just butchered his name. Zoro looked at her like she was drunk, but she just started giggling.

"Whoops… I guess I messed that up…" she said between giggles. Zoro couldn't help but smirk; normally he would have gotten pissed at someone for destroying his name like that, but he continually found himself overlooking his usual gruff personality all day.

"Roronoa…" she finally corrected herself. She looked back up at Zoro and started giggling again, "That is a weird name..." she laughed.

"Yeah, yeah… it's a weird name. To save you the humiliation, you can just call me Zoro."

"Okay, Zoro," she smiled up at him as they continued to walk. "So where are you going?"

Zoro frowned and looked down at the little girl. She sure was nosy…

"Well, I don't have any money so I'm not gonna bother going to town, and you said that there aren't many pirates here, so I don't have much to do. Once my wounds heal I guess I'll make a raft or something a set off to another island," he explained, much to the disappointment of his young follower.

"You-You're leaving?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Of course I'm leaving… Don't tell me you're upset, you don't even know who I am, and it's better that it stays that way," he looked out to sea as Robin watched him closely. "Besides, shouldn't a young girl like you be spending time with her parents?"

At this, Robin stopped walking entirely and looked down, allowing her hair to shade her face.

"I don't have any parents…" she spoke, her voice barely audible to the swordsman's trained ears.

"I don't have any family. I don't have any friends. The closest things I have are the other archaeologists, but they won't let me study with them." Zoro turned around to face her and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to continue.

"I have a mom, but I haven't seen her in years. She's been busy with all her archaeological research, but when she comes back, I'm going to ask her to take me along on her next trip. That's why I've been studying so hard, I got my archaeology doctorate just like her." Zoro raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"You have a doctorate? A little shrimp like you? You've gotta be like…what…ten years old!"

"I'm eight actually…" she interrupted.

"Eight…even better. How the hell can you get a doctorate?"

"I've spent most of my life studying so that I can be just like my mother…" she mumbled.

"You're a persistent little thing aren't ya?" Zoro wasn't even trying to comfort her, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Hey, Zoro…" she said looking up at him which grabbed his attention.

"Hmm? What?"

"Did you know that our world has a period of about a hundred years that nobody knows about?" Robin hopefully waited for his response, looking a little less depressed than she was a moment ago.

Zoro looked at her and sighed, "Look Robin, sorry but I don't really know anything about history or archaeology…" he admitted, scratching the back of his bandanna covered head. This caused Robin to sink back into her depressed state, slightly annoying Zoro, but he knew better than to chastise her for it.

"I may not know much about history…" he began, shifting his gaze away from her and to the ocean once again, "But I do know what's it's like to not have parents…"

Hearing this, Robin's eyes widened and she looked up at the swordsman curiously. The orange sky from the setting sun cast a shadow along his front as he continued looking out to the ocean.

"It may not seem like it, but I had a pretty crummy childhood myself. There were very few people I interacted with, and I only lived for one purpose, as I do today…" he spoke in his usual deep tone, but in a calm way.

"Robin…" said Zoro while he turned his head to look at her, "You got a dream?" he asked the wide-eyed girl. She slowly swallowed and blinked a few times.

"Y-Yes! I want to be just like my mother and find the true history!" she declared strongly as Zoro smirked.

"Well if you just keep to that and stay true to yourself, nothing else matters… You'd do well to remember that…" he turned back around and eyed his path ahead, noticing the darkening sky and the faint moon in the sky. "As for me, I'm right in the middle of mine, so I've got to keep working towards it…"

And with that, the swordsman continued walking down the shoreline into the moonlight, leaving the young archaeologist alone once again on the beach.

A/N: Well there ya go! Pretty weird right?

I thought it was a good idea at first but after writing this, I'm not so sure...but whatever; I have to finish it now that I started.

I don't even know why I'm saying this but just to clear things up I will: Just because this is a story about Zoro and Robin, does NOT mean it is in any way ROMANTIC. Robin is 8 (I think...) and Zoro is 19 (or whatever floats your boat), so just because one of them blushes or something, does NOT mean they're having a "moment" or anything ridiculous. Sorry fangirls, but this isn't a ZoRobin fic. And for anyone who accuses Zoro of being a pedophile in this story, well shame on you! Heww... Now that that's out of my system...

Thanks all you awesome readers! This story shouldn't take over a week or two...(even for me)

As always, a review would be greatly appreciated (especially since I have no idea whether this is a good idea or a total shipwreck).

If you have any questions feel free to leave them in a review or shoot me a PM... and no, my author's notes will not be this long for each chapter...

See ya'll later!