Gifts from the Heart

Pairing: Frobin

Rating: K

This was written as a gift for the OP Secret Santa project on tumblr, and dedicated to my lovely secret santee, lizzozzil. I hope you like the story! Merry Christmas!

Nico Robin

Franky stared at the perfectly written handwriting on the small piece of paper that had been carefully folded by its sender. He could hardly believe it, out of the other twenty-six students he could have selected for his class's gift exchange, he just had to choose Robin.

It wasn't that Franky disliked Robin; it was quite the opposite, actually. Over the course of his grade school years, Franky had developed a rather large crush on Robin, however he had never been able to do anything about it.

There was just something about wholly special about Robin, although Franky couldn't pin-point exactly what that 'special something' was. Maybe it was the way she answered all of Mr. Brook's questions correctly and thoroughly; maybe it was the way she always aced the spelling tests at the beginning of the week and as a result, was allowed to give the final spelling test at the end of the week to the rest of the students. Maybe, it was the soft, sweet way in which she spoke, or the way she handled every playground dispute that came her way with elegance and grace.

Long story short, Franky couldn't choose just one thing he liked about Robin, not when he adored everything about her.

Franky's gaze slowly shifted from the unfolded note up to Robin, who was seated at the front of the class. A soft smile formed on his lips; Robin's presence always seemed to put him in the brightest of spirits.

"Now remember, class, our Christmas party is next Friday at 1 p.m. Remember to bring your presents for our gift exchange!"

Mr. Brook's cheery voice brought Franky back to reality. He blinked twice, and thanked his lucky stars that no one had caught him in his daydream. Franky soon realized that he had a much bigger problem than worrying about onlookers. He became sorely aware that he was responsible for getting Robin's gift; in his eleven year old mind, Franky felt that he was the one who would be held accountable for Robin's happiness at the Christmas party. Franky was absolutely certain that whatever he ended up getting Robin had to be perfect. Robin deserved nothing less than the best, and Franky was going to deliver!

Now if only he could figure out what the perfect present for Robin would be. Franky looked down at Robin's name and then back up her. His glance quickly alternated between her and the piece of paper a few times, as if a small glimpse at one of them would cause an impeccable gift idea to spontaneously appear to him.

Unfortunately, nothing came to him, and before long, Mr. Brook called the class's attention back to him.

"Alright everyone, I'm just as excited for the party as you are, but we still have work to do before our semester ends."

Franky groaned softly, shoving the note with Robin's name on it into his desk before glancing at the clock that was located above the chalkboard at the front of the room. Seeing that it was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon, Franky went ahead and pulled his math workbook and pencil from his desk too. Mr. Brook always taught the arithmetic lesson around this time of day; Franky figured he might as well be prepared for the directions the class would undoubtedly receive.

Just as Franky suspected, Mr. Brook soon asked the class to take out their math books and turn to page 234. Instead of reluctantly following Mr. Brook's request like he normally would, Franky was already flipping through his book to find the right page before Mr. Brook had even finished giving the rest his instructions to the class. Math was one of his favorite subjects to begin with, and right now the class's new topic on protractors and angle measurements was a very welcome distraction to Franky's mind.

Luckily, he had over a week to decide on a gift for Robin, and Franky was able to reason with himself that there was no use in fretting about present ideas right now.

At the very least, he could ignore his gift giving woes for the time being, especially when there was a brand new mathematics lesson to preoccupy himself with. Not surprisingly, Franky quickly became absorbed in the lecture and forgot all about the dreaded gift exchange.

"Ack!" Franky groaned in frustration for the umpteenth time that night as he tore yet another piece of paper from his notebook, crumpled it up into a compact ball, and threw it across the room into the trash receptacle.

He had lost track of how many pages he had wasted, writing list after list and doodle after doodle of plausible ideas for Robin's Christmas gift, but none of his ideas were ever good enough. Franky had yet to come up with a plan that was flawlessly brilliant, a gift so thoughtful, that it would be unparalleled with anyone else's Christmas gifts in the exchange.

The gift exchange itself wasn't supposed to be a competition, but regardless, Franky wanted to give Robin a gift that would actually mean something to her. Of course, Franky wasn't foolish enough to think that he could win Robin's affections with a mere Christmas gift, but even so, he still clung to the belief that his gift for Robin had to be the epitome of perfection, and that anything less wouldn't suffice.

Naturally, that was easier said than done. Everything Franky thought of was either a bad idea or way out of his price range; even when he pondered about what he would buy if he could afford an expensive gift, Franky once again found himself at a loss for anything that felt right for Robin.

"What do you get the most perfect girl in the school for Christmas?" Franky wondered aloud as he got up to collect the several scrunched up balls of paper that had missed the trash bin. Each shot Franky made at the bin had at least gone in its general direction, but it was difficult to make every shot when the receptacle was already overflowing with rejected ideas.

Franky muttered quietly to himself as he hastily cleaned up his mess. He had only spent a few hours focusing on what to possibly get Robin, but Franky was already beyond frustrated.

Normally, a plethora of creative ideas would come to Franky whenever he wanted to work on one of his numerous building projects. Never before had Franky been at a loss when it came to deciding what to make and how to go about putting his plans into action, until now that is. It was like he had some sort of mental block that was adamantly preventing him from picturing the holy grail of gifts.

"What kind of wild scheme are you up to now, Bakanky?"

Although the tone of voice as jeering in nature, it held a certain note of fondness. Even so, it still made Franky almost jump out of his own skin. The shock was so effective that he accidentally dropped the trash that he had already picked up. Paper balls scattered everywhere, which only served to irritate Franky further.

"It's none of your business, baka-berg!" Franky retorted, immediately picking up one of the balled up pieces of paper. As soon as Iceburg was within Franky's shooting range, he whipped the ball at Iceburg's head without hesitation.

Iceburg only rolled his eyes at Franky's antics before catching the paper ball with ease.

"Dad said you've been up here all afternoon," Iceburg smirked. "He thought you were working on homework, but it looks like you've been working on your shot. There's a basketball hoop outside for that, you know."

"Yeah, whatever," Franky sighed as he started to pick up his trash again. Usually, he would retaliate against Iceburg with more than simply throwing a paper ball at him, but right now, he just wasn't up for it.

"I don't have any homework tonight," Franky added as an afterthought. He didn't want Iceburg to think that he was skipping out on his school work.

"What're you doing up here then?" Iceburg asked.

After he had finished picking up his rejected ideas and disposing of them properly, Franky looked up at Iceburg. That was a fair question. After all, any other time Franky didn't have homework, he was downstairs in their dad's stop, working on his newest and greatest invention. It was totally unlike Franky to be upstairs in his room unless he absolutely had to be, and obviously Iceburg knew that.

Franky shrugged. "I don't really wanna talk about it."

Iceburg didn't try to pry the information out of Franky. Instead, he unrumpled the ball that Franky had thrown at him earlier.

"Hey don't look at that!" Franky yelled as he tried to grab the piece of paper out of Iceburg's hands. Unfortunately, Iceburg was several centimeters taller than Franky, and Iceburg easily kept his findings out of Franky's reach.

"Is this a list of some sort?" Iceburg's eyes narrowed, it was obvious that he was trying to decipher Franky's messy handwriting under the scratch out marks.

"That's none of your business, baka-berg!" Franky flailed his arms frantically, still trying to stop Iceburg from looking at his rejected ideas.

It was no use though, Iceburg exerted little effort in keeping Franky's shenanigans at bay. Eventually, Franky gave up and hoped for the best-that Iceburg wouldn't use his brother's intuition to figure out what that list was for.

"These look like gift ideas," Iceburg commented out of the blue.

Franky groaned in defeat. Iceburg always had a way of figuring him out; Franky should have known that this situation wouldn't be any different.

"It doesn't matter." Franky's gaze shifted to the floor. "They're all bad ideas anyway."

"Is this for your class's gift exchange?"

"Yeah," Franky answered automatically. He didn't see the point of trying to keep the secret.

"You got Robin for the exchange, didn't you?" There was a knowing smile on Iceburg's face, and although Iceburg clearly wasn't teasing him about it, Franky couldn't help but get a little defensive.

He didn't care that Iceburg was the only person who knew about his secret crush on Robin, he still didn't want to talk about it

"N-No!" Franky stuttered. He could feel himself heating up from the mere mention of Robin's name. It didn't matter how much he tried to deny Iceburg's statement, his awkward body language was enough to give him away.

"Uh huh." Rather than belaboring the subject, Iceburg simply shrugged before crumpling the piece of paper back up and stuffing it into the trash receptacle.

"Regardless of who it's for," Iceburg's tone held a note of reassurance, as if he had a solution to Franky's seemingly hopeless problem. "Dad just got a new shipment in for the shop's inventory. I'm sure he'd let you have some supplies to make something with."

"You think so?" Franky looked up at Iceburg with a cautiously optimistic look in his eyes.

"I know so," Iceburg answered confidently. "Dad needs help unloading the shipment, so you might as well come down and take a look while you help out."

Iceburg motioned for Franky to follow him before heading downstairs before heading down himself.

"It couldn't hurt," Franky nodded in agreement before following suit.

As it turned out, Iceburg was absolutely right. Whatever intangible force that had kept Franky from envisioning Robin's gift instantly dissolved the moment he laid eyes on his dad's new shipment. A crystal clear image of a fantastically brilliant gift idea rushed into Franky's mind.

After helping Tom and Iceburg restock the shop's inventory, Franky practically sprinted back to his room to work out the finer details of Robin's present. He worked on his plans well into the night, and he didn't stop until he passed out at his desk from total exhaustion.

At long last, the final day of the semester, and more importantly, the day of the class Christmas party was here. Although Franky had Robin's present finished and to go with plenty of time to spare, he was still incredibly nervous.

As he hauled the gift outside and loaded it into the back of his father's pick-up truck, a sudden bout of nervousness started to rack his already frazzled mind. After all, this idea had come to him out of the blue-just as he had thought all hope of getting Robin anything that could pass for satisfactory was lost-his mind had had an epiphany of sorts, and the creation that was the resulting monstrosity of a gift that he was now lugging to school was born.

It wasn't that Franky wasn't happy with his work. On the contrary, Franky was certain that this was the best display of his craftsmanship yet. Tom-san had given his work the official 'thumbs-up' of approval, and even Iceburg had given him a few nonchalant, yet backhanded compliments.

Tom-san and Iceburg's approval were what helped Franky keep himself together during the ride to school. Honestly, he had half a mind to duck out play hooky in order to save himself the embarrassment of having to give Robin something she might hate. That was the coward's way out however, Franky may have considered himself to be many things, but a coward definitely wasn't one of them. Furthermore, if Franky didn't show up for school, Robin wouldn't get a gift at all, and that was wholly unacceptable to him.

The realization strengthened Franky's resolve; he was determined to bite the metaphorical bullet and give Robin her gift. Having something for Robin to unwrap was better than having nothing at all.

The entire day practically rushed by in a whirlwind of excitement. Although the class party technically wasn't supposed to start until one o'clock, Mr. Brook had a magical way of turning every lesson into a Christmas-themed game. Franky honestly couldn't say that the day had been all that productive in terms of learning, but he definitely had a lot of fun with Mr. Brook's merrymaking ways.

Franky had been so thoroughly distracted by all of the merriment, that it wasn't until Mr. Brook brought out the Christmas treats and fruit punch that the overpowering sense of anxiety came flooding back to the forefront of Franky's mind. His body moved on autopilot as he went through the snack line, and he barely registered when the classroom lights were turned off so that the students could enjoy the silly holiday movie that Mr. Brook had chosen for them to watch.

Rather than dwelling on his overactive nerves, Franky forced himself to completely zone out for the entire duration of the film. He became so lost in his own random thoughts, that he couldn't even recall the picture's premise. About halfway through the movie, a hungry student swiped Franky's untouched cookies and punch, but Franky didn't even notice that either.

Franky's mind snapped back to reality the moment exact moment that the lights were flipped back on. He blinked a few times, letting his eyes readjust to the fluorescent lighting. Mere moments later, Mr. Brook redirected the class's attention towards him.

"Alright class, we have about twenty minutes until the final bell rings. Go ahead and exchange your presents with each other!"

Now was the moment of truth; now was the moment where Franky's hard work and efforts would either pay off, or blow up in his face. Despite all reason and logic that supported the side that said Robin would adore his gift, Franky's mind was still clouded with doubt. He had gotten this far though, and he wasn't about to chicken out.

After taking a few deep, calming breaths, Franky rose from his seat to go find Robin. As luck would have it, he didn't have to search for very long. Robin was already walking towards him with a fairly large, neatly rectangle-shaped gift in hand.

When Franky's eyes met Robin's own cerulean blue ones, a soft smile spread across Robin's features. The small action alone almost caused Franky to swoon; Robin was just so pretty.

"Hello Franky." Robin nodded slightly, greeting Franky as she stopped in front of him.

"Oh," Franky paused for a moment, nearly forgetting how to respond properly. Finally he got ahold of himself and returned Robin's graceful smile with a sheepish grin of his own.

"Hey Robin. How's it going?"

Robin chuckled softly. "It's going well." She lifted the present in her hand, presenting them to Franky. "I pulled your name for the gift exchange."

Franky had always appreciated how straight-forward Robin was, yet it took a few moments to process what she had just said. A gift? For him? When Franky finally put two and two together, he completely and utterly lost the small bit of composure he had left. He simply couldn't help it. Before he could stop himself, Franky broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.

Unfortunately, Robin did not understand why Franky had suddenly started to giggle like mad. She gave him an odd look, but despite that, Franky still had a difficult time calming down.

"I'm sorry," Franky said when he was finally able to settle down. "It's just that I pulled your name for the gift exchange too."

"I see." Robin chuckled softly. "That is rather humorous."

"Yeah." After he realized that he had overreacted to the coincidence, Franky felt slightly humiliated. He could practically feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment.

Fortunately, with Robin being the absolute angel that she was, she didn't call attention to Franky's fluke, which he was supremely grateful for. Instead, she brought Franky's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Would you like to open your present first?" Robin asked as she handed Franky his gift, not waiting for his response.

"Sure, that would be super," Franky replied automatically.

He took a minute to admire the gorgeous way in which Robin had wrapped his present. The wrapping paper was so neatly folded, and there wasn't a crinkle or uneven cut to be seen. The packaging was perfect, just like Robin was.

Franky almost didn't want to ruin Robin's work, but the expectant look in her eyes told him that tearing his gifts open was exactly what she wanted to see. So without wasting another second, Franky eagerly tore into his gift.

"Robin," Franky uttered Robin's name in a soft, yet truly surprised tone. "It's perfect!"

In his hands, Franky held a thick, hardcover book that was easily one-thousand pages long. A book that he immediately recognized was on advanced robotics.

A bright smile spread across his face; Frankly took a moment to flip through the book, and he was utterly amazed by vast amount of text and intricate details that the literature contained. Within seconds, his mind was reeling with ideas of how to get inventive with the concepts that had already been established in the extensive text book. Additionally, he already had an extensive list of odds and ends materials back at the shop that he could use for all of these designs.

"I skimmed through the pages when I first saw the book, and I immediately thought of you."

Robin's gentle voice and kind words brought Franky back to the here and now almost instantly. Realizing that he had completely zoned out for a moment, Franky looked back up and met Robin's soft gaze. Just as he was about to thank Robin for her super generous gift, she spoke up again.

"I look forward to seeing the incredible inventions you come up with," Robin said in a kind and truly sincere voice.

Franky could hardly believe his ears; Robin had succeeded in making him momentarily speechless. As if he wasn't flustered enough already, Robin just had to send him over the edge with a tornado of grateful feelings. If he had been any more emotional, he would have let go of the bit of modesty he still had and hugged her. Luckily, Franky remembered that he still had a gift for Robin.

"Your gift is in the back of the room," Franky pointed to the large present in question that he had pulled in on a cart earlier.

Robin giggled softly. "I really hope you didn't go to too much trouble for this," she said as she started to walk to the back of the room.

"Oh not at all, I was happy to do it," Franky replied truthfully as he followed Robin over to the gift.

As they got closer to the gift, Franky realized the poor quality of his own wrap job. The gift's shape made it pretty awkward to wrap properly, but Franky thought that he could have managed to do a better job if he had put a little more effort into his work. At the very least, he could have managed his use of tape a bit better (or could have chosen to use something other than duct tape). As it stood now, the gift was practically gleaming from the shiny adhesive.

"Eh, sorry about the wrapping," Franky apologized as he rubbed the back of his head. "I kinda went a bit overboard with the tape."

"That's quite alright," Robin said before she started to pull on the tape and unravel her gift. "The tape simply adds to the mystery."

Franky didn't respond as he watched Robin pull away excessive amounts of tape; the tape pulled the gift wrap away right along with it. Robin was relentless in her quest to untangle the mess of wrapping and duct tape, and Franky was impressed to say that she had her gift completely uncovered in less than one minute.

Standing at two meters tall, was a bookshelf made of mahogany hardwood. The wood had been carefully painted a vibrant lavender color, and finished to the point where the mahogany was perfectly smooth to the touch. The case was almost gleaming with how well it had been polished. The most fascinating aspects, however, were the casablanca and anemone flowers that had been carved into the sides of the woodwork. The casablanca flowers had been painted an amethyst color, and the anemones were light blue. The detail put into the carvings was elaborate and sophisticated; the flowers looked as if they had been fashioned by an expert crafter, rather than an eleven year-old boy.

Robin didn't say anything for the longest time. She just stared at the bookshelf with an unreadable expression on her face. She took a step forward, and her fingers traced the floral designs on the wood.

Franky had absolutely no idea what Robin was thinking. At first glance, it looked like Robin was enjoying her gift, but Franky was never one to assume anything. He stood in silence, waiting for what felt like an eternity for some kind of response from Robin, but she still didn't say anything. Finally, Franky couldn't take it anymore.

"So what do you think, Ro-"

"It's beautiful," Robin said softly before turning back to Franky. She wore the biggest, brightest smile that Franky had ever seen, and to him, her smile was absolutely stunning.

"I'm glad," Franky finally managed to say.

"You made this yourself, didn't you?" Robin asked.

"Sure did!" Franky couldn't help but beam at the question.

"This is incredibly amazing. Thank you so much, Franky." Robin's voice was warm and compassionate. "Thanks to you, I finally have a place to put the collection of books that has been cluttering my desk for the past several months."

Franky could easily tell that Robin was being truly genuine, and the spell of nervousness that had plagued him for the past week rapidly evaporated. It was like a colossal weight had been lifted from his chest, and the void was promptly filled with a profound sense of joy.

"No problem." He lifted up his new book. "And thank you for this. I can't wait to start experimenting with some super animatronics!"

"You are most welcome. I'm glad that you're as excited as I thought you would be." Again Robin's gaze shifted back to the bookshelf. "How did you know that casablancas and anemones were my favorite?"

"It was just a super good hunch, I guess." Franky chuckled.

Just then, the school bell rang, signaling that school, and better yet, the semester, was finally over. Elated students rushed out of the classroom, and soon Robin, Franky, and Mr. Brook were the only three people left in the room.

"We should probably get going. My mom's going worry if I linger about for too long," Robin said, taking a hold of the cart. "Maybe I could stop by your dad's shop sometime and drop this off to you?"

"You could, or," Franky paused, momentarily thinking about whether or not he should proceed with his idea. At long last, he decided to do it, the fact Robin adored her gift gave him all the confidence he needed. "I could walk you home." Franky grinned timidly at his boldness. "I'll even push the cart along."

"That's really sweet of you, Franky," Robin said as she let go of the cart's handle, "and I'd really like that."

"Super!" Franky exclaimed happily, grabbing the cart and following Robin out of the classroom.

After saying goodbye to Mr. Brook, Franky and Robin, left the school and headed towards Robin's house. Along the way, Franky marveled over how well the day went, and he felt a bit foolish about worrying so much over the entire ordeal. His nonsensical feelings didn't last for long, however. He was much too happy to be spending time with Robin; his only wish that he had thought of doing something like this sooner.

At the time, Franky had decided that this was best Christmas he would ever have. Little did he know, he would share many more Christmas seasons with Robin in the years to come.