Chapter Text
“I like your earrings.”
“Oh, you do? They were a gift from someone precious to me.”
“Is that so? Do tell me more.”
Robin smirked as she wriggled deeper into Hancock’s embrace.
They were nestled in the royal palanquin. Red silk curtains blocked out the sun, plush cushions took their shared weight. Their pallbearers moved at a slow, leisurely pace. Hancock had insisted that they slacken their stride so that she and her lover could have some privacy for a little bit longer.
Robin smiled as she traced a lazy finger across her empress’ bronzed triceps.
“Well, to give you an idea...” She snuck in closer, lips grazing Hancock’s ear, weighed down by the golden snake earring. “She’s tall … dark–haired … born to stand at the prow of a ship and cast her gaze on the churning sea below … eyes like burning coals ….”
A single brown finger touched pink lips.
“Her muscles are corded, her skin tanned.” Robin continued. “She wears the richest silks, though they do not hide her warrior’s body.”
Hancock breathed with aroused satisfaction; her hot breath was split by Robin’s lingering hand.
“I should like to meet her some time.” She purred, giving a toothy smile. Up close, Robin could see her fangs. The sharpened incisors weren’t a natural feature like Sandersonia’s. In her youth, Hancock had taken to filing them with a wedge of sea stone. Few would ever get near enough to see them and how they complicated the empress’ perfect features. None save Robin would ever be looked at by her with such love and lust.
“You know, I also met a woman recently.” Hancock drawled, returning to touch Robin’s earrings, to cradle her cheek. “She really took my breath away...”
“Oh, yes?” Robin replied, knowing how the game was supposed to go. She felt anticipation and trepidation in equal measure. It was one thing to heap praise on the pirate-empress, to shower her with affection. Every person in the world did that, they could not resist. It was another thing for the reverse to happen – for Hancock to speak lovingly of someone else. Robin was keenly aware that she was experiencing a privilege that some of the most powerful men in the world would kill for. Fire flooded through her chest. Ice chilled her blood.
“This woman is soft but sharp … like a quilt. Like a knife.” Hancock shifted away from the earrings to stroke Robin’s dark bangs. “Like a feathered pen.”
Oh, that was a good one. Hancock had been paying attention to her writing.
“Poised … subtle …" Hancock was dragging out the S in each word, her speech like a trawler net that caught every emotion in Robin’s head, seized every wriggling, fluttering thought planted in her heart by the empress’ touch and voice.
“Simply...” Her mouth right next to Robin’s waiting ear. “Precious...”
That was too much. Robin let out a sharp gasp. She inhaled and exhaled afterwards, like the air had been ripped clean out of her lungs.
Hancock obviously sensed that her lover was a touch overwhelmed. She pulled her into a cautious hug, stroking the nape of her neck.
“She has the prettiest eyes as well.” She eventually said, much gentler than before. “Brown, not black. They shine like varnished wood. They’re warm like the fur of a doe,”
Robin smiled again, looking up to meet Hancock with the eyes she had just praised. They shared another kiss. Chaste, not passionate like the one the crowd had seen. Feather-light and wistful.
“I really missed you.” Robin whispered.
“And I missed you.” Hancock said back. “I won’t be off island for a long while. You’ll have me all to yourself.”
Robin smiled and nodded. There likely wasn’t a person in the world who didn’t want to hear the pirate empress say such words to them, but only Robin knew of Hancock’s past. Knew the true enormity of that statement.
The palanquin came to a halt and was lowered to the floor. The silk curtains parted with a whisper as Salome poked her mighty head into their space. Robin was constantly amused at how such a powerful beast could appear so cute up close. Her curious black button eyes, her neatly overlapping scales and piebald jester colours. A forked tongue came out of her rounded snout to give Robin several little snake-kisses.
“She missed you so very much.” Hancock cooed, resting her cheek on Salome’s trunk-like body. “I had to give her so many toys to play with just to make her feel better. She broke them one after another.”
Robin smirked at that, as she cupped the snake’s head and nuzzled it. She took the meaning; Hancock had given captive marines over to Salome and let her pet constrict the life out of them. How those gulls must have squawked.
“Sister?” Sandersonia’s dry rasp floated down to them. “We’re at the palace steps.”
“Just a moment, Sonia.” Hancock said, somewhat curtly. She looked at Robin in an almost apologetic fashion.
“It’s a lot of steps up and all the island is watching.” She fiddled with one of her golden earrings. “It might be good if … that is, if you’re willing...”
It took a second to decipher, but Robin realised what she was implying. She clasped Hancock’s hands and gave an energetic nod, determined to show her full consent.
“I agree, let’s do it.”
Hancock was startled for a second before she slipped into her trademark composure. She roughly patted Salome, who slunk back out of the palanquin with mechanical grace. Then she reached forward and wrapped her arms around Robin, who offered no resistance. She let herself go limp, as weightless and harmless as a flower pressed between the pages of a book.
Soft but sharp? Well, one word came before the other. Robin knew which to emphasise and when to do so.
The exited the palanquin as one body; Hancock rising, standing tall. Robin in her arms, safe in a bridal carry. Sure-footed steps took them up the stairs, the host of warrior women crowing at their back.
When they reached the top, Hancock turned around to face her subjects. Robin looked sideways the joyful mass down below. She wondered if they could feel her gaze on them as keenly as she felt theirs on her.
“KUJA!” Hancock roared. The crowd quietened like admonished children.
“The seas have given up their riches.” She raised her arms a bit higher, drawing Robin closer to her breast. “Marine, pirate, slaver and smuggler, they have all fallen to our sovereign might!”
“NINE HEADS, ONE HEART!” The call came up in perfect unison.
“One heart...” Robin murmured to herself.
“The leaders of these groups writhe in their beds at night, for the venom of the Hydra is in their veins! They languish in the throes of fever while our glorious island burns with life.” Hancock’s voice reached a crescendo. “Yet, if there remains any doubt, let them feel this...”
The empress drew in a sharp breath of air. Robin felt her chest compress and her sinews bulge. She heard the power rise from the depths of Hancock’s being as a sharp hum in her ears. She closed her eyes.
The conqueror's Haki came forth as cannon-blast of pure power. It swept across the crowd, knocking some of the younger warriors on to the ground, raced down the island to challenge the waves that kissed the shore, crawled up the sides of the central mountain to come screaming out the gaping mouths of the nine snake heads. Frightened sea birds left the peak, carrying the message of Kuja power onwards to the grand line and the four seas.
The ringing died down and a burning silence settled on the town. Hancock gave one last look at her people, before turning on her heels and walking into the palace with her sisters at her side and Robin in her arms. Raucous applause followed at their backs, only dimmed when the doors closed shut.