Aris sat in the middle of the Going Merry 's deck, cross legged with her hands folded and resting in front of her. Rain poured down like a river, but it came without lightning or strong wind. A soft melody came from Aris' mouth, but could barely be heard over the sound of water pellets bouncing off the wood of the ship. A rain coat fell over her head, startling her and causing her to look up above. A very annoyed green haired man stood close behind her, arm still out stretched from dropping the coat. He was also equipped with a yellow rain jacket, which didn't suit him in the least.
"Hurry up and put this on so I can go back inside," he said, eyes fixed in a roll that told Aris that Nami had forced him to come out so she wouldn't have to herself. In a criticizing tone, he added, "What the hell are you even doing out here, anyway?" Aris remained seated, but turned her head to look at the sky. Rain fell on her face as she did so.
"The sky is crying," she said as if it were a normal thing for a girl her age to say, "I was singing to make it feel better." Zoro blinked down at her. Aris turned her head and looked up at him, bringing her eyebrows together slightly as she saw his astonished expression. "Well, you do have any other suggestions? How would you make the sky happier?"
"The sky isn't crying, Aris," He said in the least condescending tone he could muster. He realized she had only recently known the outside world, but he didn't know it was this bad. "it's just raining." Aris turned her head and assumed the position she had been in previously.
"Raining," she repeated, "is what happens when the sky is sad." Zoro slapped his face with a wet hand, sighing in frustration.
Someone else should really have come out here, he thought, severely aggravated. He knew she meant well, but Zoro didn't exactly have the worlds best patience. "The sky doesn't get sad, it's what happens when there's too much water up there."
"If it doesn't get sad how does the water come out?" She asked, looking up at the rain again. It splattered and ran down the sides of her face. Zoro groaned, shaking his head.
"Fine, whatever, it gets sad. Let's go inside now, okay?" He reached out to grab her arm, but she shook her head before he touched it.
"When I was sad, the sky never gave up on me." She said simply. Zoro froze in his tracks. He wasn't sure why, but those words triggered emotions within him. He remembered when he was tied to the pole at the Marine base, and the little girl who visited him nearly every day, though it was punishable by death. Without fail, he could always count on seeing the little pipsqueak peering over the wall, or even sneaking into the field to smuggle him rice balls. He sighed, then slouched down beside his drenched crew-mate. She looked at him, surprised at first, then turned her head back in front of her and smiled. "Are you going to sing with me?"
"I don't sing," he said shortly, resting an arm on his raised knee.
"Well, neither do I, so don't laugh." She heard no reply, but she knew that to be a silent agreement. Embarrassed, but desperately wanting the 'rain' to stop, she resumed her melody. She wasn't the best of singers, but her voice didn't break glass either. Zoro sat in silence, watching the sea and as water fell down from above and returned to the ocean.
In one of the dry, larger rooms on the upper deck, Misery squinted out the window. "What are those morons doing?" Nami looked up at Misery from her cup of hot chocolate, the steam turning her nose red. "Now he's sitting out there, too." Nami rolled her eyes.
"They can both get sick, for all I care," she spat, taking another careful sip from the warm cup, "it's their fault for sitting out in the rain."
"Is it supposed to let up soon, Nami?" A dark man approached the window the fortune teller was spying out of, his protruding nose pressing against the glass. The orange haired girl checked the device strapped to her wrist, then shook her head.
"The pressure still hasn't dropped, so not until at least an hour. I wouldn't be surprised if it rained all day though." An exaggerated groan rolled out from the chair next to Nami.
"I hate it when it rains," the boy in the straw hat complained, his chin resting on the table and his mouth turned to a pout, "it's so boring staying inside for so long."
"You could always clean," mumbled a blond haired cook, inhaling a cigarette for the 18th time that evening.
Aris closed her eyes, the rain splashing against her eyelids. She had been sitting out here for 20 minutes, singing all the songs she knew (even repeated a few two or three times), and it hadn't made any difference at all. Defeat began to wash over her, she could barely feel the drops on her face anymore... Her eyes snapped open, gazing up at the sky. Gray clouds still plagued above, but the rain had stopped falling down on them. A wide smile spread across her face as rays of sunshine fought their way through and pierced the clouds, shining down in small, thin beams. She whipped her head to face Zoro. The swordsman was looking at the sky, the arm resting on his knee was twisted slightly, palm upturned and absorbing the growing light. A small, disbelieving smirk crawled on his face. Aris' smile grew to laughter, then she rose to her feet, her arms reaching out the the sky, laughing in triumph. "I knew singing would make it happy!"
"I guess it did," Zoro said, still sitting as the other pirates emerged from the upper deck, Luffy's voice in particular exclaiming in joy, "I guess it did."
This is lacking her background information, and I do apologize for that. Pretty much, just assume she has no idea what anything is for now. I'm working on writing her background, but I wanted to write some short stories to help me get the creative juices flowing.