Title: Sitting With the Dead
Rating: G/K
Media: Fic
Characters: Usopp
Word Count: 198
Prompt: Wake
Usopp stayed there all night because that was what you did when someone died.
He'd learned that lesson well when he was still young, on the worst night of his life. He remembered that the house had smelled so strongly of flowers and incense and food and all the many people. He had wandered among them, tugging on their clothes to get their attention.
"My mom isn't dead, she's only sleeping! She's under an ancient curse, and one day my dad - you've heard about him right, he's a great warrior, a pirate! - one day my dad will come back! And he'll wake her and we'll go on great adventures together!"
Because what was the purpose of a wake if not to wake the dead?
He'd repeated the lie to himself so many times that night.
Mom is coming back. Mom is coming back.
And now, he repeated a similar lie.
Merry is coming back. Merry is coming back.
The sun rose. Merry did not.
Usopp rose as well. Once the wake was over, it was over. He wiped the last of his tears and whispered his last goodbye.
Then he began the long trek back to Water 7.