Wow this month sure has been productive! Here's another chapter out there for my loyal followers, fans, favoriters, and everyone else who makes writing rewarding! Love you guys!

Disclaimer: Again, don't own the anime, just like writing about it, thanks.

Chapter 13

The Girl of Secrets and Nightmares! Worry Amongst Friends!

Ari is suddenly shaken awake. She flings open her eyes to find Marguerite's concerned face.

"I've been looking for you all day! You didn't come home last night, so I was getting worried." Marguerite folds her into a tight embrace.

Ari takes a moment to compose herself after her reminiscent nightmare before pulling away and explaining. "Oh, sorry," Ari says, rubbing her head. "I stayed the night at the palace last night."

"The palace?"

"Yeah the Straw Hats invited me to stay there with them."

"But you hate pirates…" Marguerite says. "Though I can say that I'm not surprised that the Empress would allow it since it was probably a request from Luffy."

Ari feels something warm staining her cheeks and uses her hand to wipe it away. Tears?

"Anyway, Ari, I'm worried about you," Marguerite expresses. "I have been for a while."

Ari just looks at her blankly.

"You used to sleepwalk or start crying in your sleep all the time. This happened almost every night when you first came here. And just now… even though your nightmares have been held at bay for quite a while… it happened again." Her eyes begin to tear up. "I'm your friend… can you not tell me what troubles you so much?" Marguerite looks at Ari.

Ari stands and her eyes drift distantly to a past that the whole world knows only half of. She alone knows the rest. She alone knows for a fact that she survived. No one, not even Marguerite, can know who I am. "It is not your place to know." The last remnants of the evening sun brush Ari's shoulders before disappearing completely as she trudges into the forest. Marguerite stays kneeling on the cliff's edge and is at a loss as to how to help her friend.

After staring ahead blankly for a good hour, Marguerite pushes herself to her feet and through the forest to her and Ari's cottage. She's probably home by now. Maybe I just need to give her some time. She'll tell me when she's ready. Girly squeals become louder and louder as Marguerite inches out of the forest before quieting down again. She breaks through and into the clearing where her cottage is, only to find a hoard of girls searching the perimeter.

"Not here," one girl calls to the rest.

"Or here," another says.

"Men are really good at hide and seek," one adds more notes to the list of observations already taken down.

Looks like the girls are out searching for one of the men again. She sighs and steps inside her cottage, shutting the door behind her. She looks all around the house for Ari, but finds no trace of her. She sighs again and slides down to the kitchen floor, putting her head in her hands. What am I going to do? She looks up and takes in all of the colorful plants decorating around the length of the walls on the floor. All of them are carefully placed in large ceramic pots painted in brilliant colors. Huh? She eyes one particular plant, a moss. Has it… grown legs? It looks soft… huh. She tiptoes over to the suspicious plant and runs a hand along its green surface.

"WOULD YOU QUIT PETTING ME?! I'M NOT A DOG!" All of a sudden Zoro pops out from behind the potted plant.

"Ah! What are you doing here?!" Marguerite pulls out her bow and readies an arrow and aims it at him.

"It's not what it looks like. Those girls were chasing me and this was the only place to hide!"

"You men sure are funny creatures." She tucks her bow away. "And here I thought that everyone wanted companionship." Is that it, Ari? You just don't want companionship?

Zoro peeks behind the curtains and out the window to see if it's safe to come out of 'hiding'. Can't they just quit already?! How long are they gonna keep searching anyway? Zoro frowns.

"So do all men dislike women?" Marguerite asks.

"No," he says.

"But you do?"

"Just don't like being stuck with them."

"I see." I wonder… Ari's nightmares came back ever since those pirates got here… "So are you as true to your word as your captain?"

"Huh?"

"I mean have you changed Ari's mind about pirates?"

"My only goal was making sure she doesn't diss my captain," he says. "I could care less what she thinks of the lot of them."

"Well, hopefully she doesn't view Luffy that way anymore."

"Yeah."

An awkward silence fills the room before Marguerite speaks up again, "So I've heard from Ari that you've been to the cliff's edge."

She… told her about me…? "Uh, yeah. What about it?"

"It's a very special place to her for some reason. Maybe it's just the pomegranates." She laughs lightly. "But I think that there's another reason she goes there so much. In all this time I've known her, she's never once told me about it. She can be so secretive sometimes." Marguerite shakes her head at this.

"She doesn't need to say anything about it if she doesn't feel like it." Huh, so she has something that she's kept secret like me… Kuina…

"I guess not," she says, "but it still worries me sometimes." Marguerite eyes him with curiosity. I wonder… do both him and Ari have parts of their lives kept secret?

"It's stupid to worry about it."

"No, it's not," Marguerite asserts. "It's not just about the cliff's edge. She used to have terrible nightmares, and they came back recently. Something happened to her and she won't even tell me what it is. Do you have any idea how this makes me feel as her friend?"

"Well, it's not like you can change it."

"I just… want to help her."

Zoro nods and looks out the window again, deeming it safe, and opens the door to leave.

"Just… let me know if you find her, ok? I don't know where she is right now."

"Yeah, yeah." He takes his leave.

It's considerably late in the evening by the time that Zoro left Marguerite and Ari's cottage. He begins thinking more deeply on what Marguerite said about Ari. If your friends are worried about you… does that make it right, or wrong, for you to keep whatever it is from them? He walks from the cottage to town and pauses for a moment, partially because he's lost in his new train of thought, and also just trying to figure out which way the palace is.

"Hey girls! There's the one we were looking for earlier!" a huge girl proclaims and points a finger toward Zoro. The fleet of girl warriors come after him and Zoro remains frozen in place, terrified of what's to come. He finally snaps awake and runs like hell in the opposite direction of the girls.

"Damn, why are they so fast?!"

"We won't let you get away this time!"

Guess I'll have to let my swords handle this one. He turns a sharp corner and right when he's about to draw his swords, a hand grabs onto his collar and drags him into a dark alley. "What the hell-"

"Shh," a woman says and cups a hand over his mouth, "they'll find you." Zoro feels something squishy against his back and his face flushes. A stampede of footsteps races around the corner, and a crowd of girls run past the alleyway where Zoro is hiding.

"Hey, where'd he go?"

"Gosh darn it! We lost him again!"

"Oh well, better luck next time, girls."

"Men are really fast… interesting… interesting."

Bursts of conversation and disappointed sighs erupt down the street away from the alley. The girly voices become softer and more distant as they move farther away.

Zoro and the woman wait there with his back against her chest in the alleyway for a few more moments. Her heartbeat pulses against his back steadily and he breathes in the fresh scent of her hands.

An orchard… wait… this chick again?!

"It should be safe now," Ari says and lets him out of her embrace. She peers around the corner to make sure that the crowd of girls have left.

"Could have handled that myself, ya know."

Ari looks back at him and chuckles. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"By the way, I've decided to stay another night at the palace with you and your crew," she says. "I was just on my way there when I heard all the commotion."

He nods. "Guess we should get going then." He turns out of the alleyway and looks back to find Ari not following him. She gives him a confused look and goes the other direction. Zoro stumbles over his words and ultimately opts to walk alongside her, with Ari leading the way in silence.

The sun has just been laid down to rest, and most of the female warriors have left the streets and are safely tucked away in their homes. Zoro sneaks a glance over at Ari, and at the same time, Ari peeks over at him. Just as their eyes meet, they swiftly force their glances elsewhere, each pretending that nothing happened.

Just a second ago, I was completely calm, but now… my heart's beating so fast it's scary. Ari thinks to herself.

They stroll down the streets in a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Before long, they arrive at the palace gates and Zoro recalls what Marguerite disclosed to him earlier: "Something happened to her and she won't even tell me what it is. Do you have any idea how this makes me feel as her friend?"

Zoro breaks the silence, "Your friend was worried."

"You mean Marguerite?"

He nods.

"She'll be fine. She knows I can take care of myself," Ari says and turns to face him. "And what do you think you're doing getting involved in my business anyway?" Ari puts a hand on her hip.

"No, what do you think you're doing?" he replies. "She cares about you. I understand where you're coming from, but doesn't she deserve to know why you're hurting?"

"She…" Ari stutters and realizes what Marguerite must have told him and is now completely enraged, "told you about them, didn't she?! My nightmares?"

"Yeah, so what if she did?"

"She shouldn't have done that, it wasn't her place!" Ari tromps away from him, about to go through the palace gates when he reaches a hand to her arm, holding her there.

"We all have things that we keep secret. Hell, so do I," he explains, "but when others start hurting because of it… that's when it becomes need-to-know." Ari shakes him off of her.

"Yeah well, some things," she says, "aren't for anyone to know." She enters the palace, and shuts the door abruptly behind her. Zoro stays at a standstill outside and wonders which line of thinking is correct. Unable to come up with an answer, he goes inside, and not finding Ari anywhere in sight, retires to his room upstairs to get some sleep.

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