(A/N- This story is going to be a series one-shots of Ariel discovering human things/experiences with some fluff mixed in. Now, I have quite a few ideas, but I want to have a nice amount of stories written for this, so if anyone has any ideas that would fit into this series don't be afraid to leave a review or send me a PM about it.)
Colors from Within
The rain fell softly on the palace in silver droplets bouncing off of any and every object. It was a steady rain, but it fell softly nonetheless like it was only a bothersome storm, which it was to a certain little mermaid.
She and Eric had planned to go out horseback riding. They had planned this yesterday, but forgot to take the weather into consideration, so today, instead of riding her favorite horse, Traveller―who had the tendency to act more like a wild horse than a tamed palace horse, but was always surprisingly calm for Ariel―they were stuck inside the palace on this dreary day.
Ariel sighed for the upteenth time. "I'm bored." They had nothing else to do, so they had retired to a nearby sitting room to watch the rain fall. There were other options, or course, but none of them seemed any fun compared to getting to ride her horse outside in the fresh air, or brushing his soft and white mane, or feeding him sugar cubes to thank him for the ride.
"I thought you liked rainstorms?" Eric asked, referring to the first rainstorm Ariel experienced on land. She seemed dazzled by it at first, but he could tell that this wasn't an activity for his adventurous mermaid at the moment.
"Yeah, but I'm not in the mood right now. Can we do something fun?" the princess asked.
"Like what?"
"Oh, I don't know," Ariel said, realizing that she had to come up with an idea. Then, asking like a child who was asking for something they very well knew they couldn't have, she asked, "Can we ride our horses in the rain?"
"I don't think that such a good idea. It's muddy out and someone can slip and get dirty or hurt," Eric replied. He remembered the time when he was younger and tried to ride his horse outside in the rain, but only succeeded in ending up muddy and getting scolded by Carlotta.
Plus, he knew that if he took Ariel out and she got muddy, it would all be strictly his fault, not Ariel's. No matter how hard he tried to defend himself, Carlotta would chose him to scold over Ariel since he "knew better than her," as she once told him the time they ended up coming inside soaked after their walk on the beach right before dinner.
He also did not enjoy the image of Ariel getting injured either. That would be worse than getting a scolding from Carlotta.
"Oh," Ariel sighed.
That's when an idea hit Eric. He couldn't let his little mermaid get muddy, but getting wet never hurt anyone, as long as it wasn't right before dinner, and they had plenty of time before dinner.
"How about we go out and do something on the balcony," the boy suggested.
"Out in the rain?" Ariel was confused now. Wasn't it wet outside? What was her fiancé thinking now?
"Yep," he said, getting up and grabbing her hand to lead her towards the balcony doors.
"Where are we going?" the princess asked.
"Just outside," the boy replied.
He opened the doors and stepped out into the rain, letting the rain soak him as he spun around showing Ariel that it was alright.
Ariel stayed inside however, unsure of what to do. Human don't normally like to get wet, so what in all of the seven seas was Eric doing? Anyway, it felt a little too cool for her out there in the early spring air.
"C'mon," he called for her, holding out his hand.
"But-" she started before Eric cut her off.
"What's this? A mermaid afraid to get wet?" he teased.
"What? No!" the mermaid exclaimed, finally taking her prince's hand and walking outside.
The second she stepped out, she gasped as the rain quickly began to soak her. It was slightly on the cold side, but she still loved it. She had been caught outside in the rain before, but as soon as the rain started to fall, she rushed inside, never staying outside long enough to get too wet.
She spun around and giggled. The feeling of being wet began to feel natural again for the mermaid. It was a feeling she sometimes missed during her time as a human.
Ariel giggled some more then smiled at Eric with her biggest smile since she first discovered the day's rainstorm.
"I know," he said, already knowing what she was thinking.
"Oh, Eric, we have to do this more, like everytime it rains and…" her sentence drew off as she shivered, the cold finally sinking into her bones,
"Come here," he said as he pulled her closer to him, but to her surprise he didn't pull her into his arms.
Instead he placed one hand on her waist and used the other one to take her hand and slowly began rocking back and forth to began a dance.
Ariel smiled and placed her free hand on the top of his shoulder, still not saying a word. So this wasn't horse riding, but it was still enjoyable and fun since they were in the rain.
They were dancing in the rain! How fun!
They continued their slow dance and Eric spun her around a few times making her laugh. Eventually, as the rain slowed down till it was just spitting a few rain drops here and there, Ariel slowed liked the rain, too, simply resting her head on Eric's chest, confiding in his warmth as they simply swayed back and forth.
She shifted her eyes from the floor up to the sky expecting to just see gray skies, but instead she saw a curved line of beautiful colors.
Wait… colors?
Ariel let go of Eric and rushed over to the edge of the balcony, rested her hands on the railing and looked up.
"What's that?" she asked pointing to it. It couldn't be, could it? She never saw one in real life before.
"It's a rainbow!" She exclaimed and turned around towards Eric who had just made his way to the railing with her. "Eric, that's a rainbow, right?"
He laughed. How did she already know about rainbows? He couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that she already knew what it was. He loved seeing her discover brand new things. At least he could still watch her excitement over seeing one for the first time.
"Uh-huh. That's a rainbow, love," the prince answered, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her close.
"It's so pretty. I always wanted to see a real one that's in the sky," the mermaid said.
"Do you know what causes them," Eric asked, curiously wondering how much she knew.
"Yeah. Sometimes when it's still raining out and the sun comes out just a little," Ariel twirled around to point at the sun that was peeking out through the clouds, "the sunlight hits the rain drops and shines through them separating the light into different colors and displays it into the sky creating a rainbow," she finished and looked back up at Eric, feeling really proud of herself.
Eric was stunned. Amazed actually, but very, very proud. He didn't expect her to know that. After all, she had never even seen one. She probably explained it better than he could.
"How did you know that?" the boy asked, finally coming out of his dazed state.
"We learned about it," Ariel said like it was obvious. What, did humans not learn about the weather that they see most often?
"So, you learn about rainbows, which occur in the sky, under the sea?" he asked.
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's basically part of the weather, right? We learned about the weather phenomenons like storms, tsunamis, rain, rainbows, stuff like that. Some affect us, too, especially storms. They make the sea really rough sometimes," the mermaid explained.
Eric nodded. Sometimes he was so consumed by watching Ariel discover new stuff and teaching her about them that he would forget that she knew lots of things already. She was already really smart and knew some things that he didn't even know.
"Sometimes if the light hits the water just right near the surface, a rainbow is created," she added. "Well, it's not really a rainbow. It's just a few different colors appearing in the water, but I liked to pretend that it was a rainbow."
"Well," Eric began, "at least you finally got what you wanted."
Ariel turned around and cupped his face in her hand. "Yes, I did get what I wanted―you."
He simply smiled and leaned towards her for a kiss.