Robin stood barefoot on the deck, near the small garden she had lovingly cultivated. Her hands moved with gentle purpose as she watered the herbs and flowers. Her dark hair swayed softly with the wind, and she was singing, though her voice was quiet and low, barely louder than the breeze:
"My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold...
There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold..."
The song rolled off her tongue with a haunting sweetness, an old sea shanty she once read about and quietly kept close, never imagining she'd one day sing it while aboard a real pirate ship she called home.
Not far away, crouched beside the lion's head figure on the front of the Sunny, Franky was tightening a bolt with his wrench arm. He paused, blinking under his shades.
He looked up slowly and spotted her there in the garden, silhouetted by the sun,her dress fluttering, and that voice so calm.The corner of his mouth lifted.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to interrupt. He just smiled.
"His hair it hangs in ringlets, his eyes as black as coal…
My happiness attend him, wherever he may go."
Franky leaned against the rail for a second, his wrench hanging from his fingers. His chest felt weird, tight.
She turned slightly and caught his eyes. For a moment, her song paused. Her lips curved.
"You're staring, Franky," she said softly, her tone amused.
Franky cleared his throat and gave a sheepish shrug. “Didn’t know you could sing like that.”
Robin tipped her head. “I only sing when I forget someone is listening.”
“Well…” He tucked the wrench into his belt, walking toward her. “Maybe forget more often. You sounded... super good.”
She arched an eyebrow, a rare and gentle blush on her cheeks.
He stopped beside her and looked down at the small flowers she had just finished watering. “You ever sing that to someone before?”
Robin looked up at him, eyes unreadable, but warm. “Maybe I was singing it to someone now.”
Franky froze for half a second but Robin had already turned away, kneeling to tuck some stray soil back into a pot.
He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed quietly to himself, heart thudding harder than he'd expected. “Yeah? Well… lucky guy.”
Robin didn't look at him, but her smile deepened. “Maybe he is.”
And the Sunny continued drifting over calm seas, the echo of her song still lingering in the air like a secret only the wind understood.
