PAGE THREE: Taaaaaaaake THREE!!!
ONE PIECE FAN-FOR-ALL
Or, free-for-all-fic, or fic free-for-all, or fic-for-all, whatever phrasing floats your boat.
PAGE ONE | PAGE TWO | PAGE FOUR | INDEX
Or if you see too much you don't like, try the alternative ONEPIECEKINKMEME, organised by category!
PREMISE:Generally stolen from what the PW kink-meme has become, the idea here is that you ( Read more... )
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When the Thousand Sunny sailed within visual range of the city of Water 7 for the first time in nearly three years, everyone could almost physically feel the apprehension in the air. It was a matter of great internal debate for nearly every crew member, though it was not by any means voiced. During the week beforehand, tempers flared and ubruptly fizzled out before giving way to uncharacteristically isolated behavior. The next island wasn't mentioned, nobody walked by the empty would-have-been workshop, and everybody wondered how it was that Usopp's decision to leave could still cause so much pain.
When Nami brought up the fact that they would need to stop for supplies over dinner, it was in a subdued manner that belied her usual fiery insistence. A simple statement, spun into the air, and all gazes fell on the galley's closed cabinet doors, pondering the plate and mug that Sanji had always viciously refused to put to use, no matter how many dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Franky seemed torn between expressing his joy over being allowed to return to the place he'd grown up and apologizing for something that he knew they'd already forgiven them for. Luffy stared at the table, expression unreadable, and while the majority of the crew waited to hear what he had to say on the matter, Zoro's hand lashed out and swept the piece of furniture clean. He seemed to choke on words for a moment before he gave up and simply stormed out.
Sanji, for once, couldn't find it in him to yell at the other man, because he more or less knew what the gesture meant. He didn't want to set foot on those shitty streets again, either. He didn't want to remember losing one nakama and almost losing two.
But damn it, did the marimo have to act like he'd been the only one who thought that Usopp would come back? For a second, he considered breathing life back into that old resentment he had for his crewmate, the one that screamed at him about how if he'd just let them go to get the sniper in the first place then he would BE there with them and not just a painful memory. But the chef figured that Zoro brought it up enough on his own, in those moments when he thought nobody could see him clutching a fist to his chest like it would be enough to stop the pain. So just this once, he'd let it go.
Luffy's stare slowly shifted up to take in his nakama one at a time, more mature than he'd been last time they came to that place- becoming the Pirate King had certain advantages- and he wished he still had a hat to pull over his eyes. He could see that faint hope in Franky's face and Chopper looked like he was going to start crying and Sanji's hands were shaking as he swept up the broken dishes on the floor; and this was another decision he would have to make for everybody's best interests and not just because of how he felt personally. Zoro was going to be sad, and pissed, but there was really no helping it.
"We need supplies," he stated simply. And that was the end of that.
As Nami nodded and began jotting down a list of things to purchase, Sanji muttered something about needing to replace the stuff that the shitty swordsman had broken.
End part 1, etc.
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Even after so many other battles and friends that had come and gone and a million one night stands and just an entire lifetime of other happenings, he couldn't keep himself from trying to find out what had happened to Usopp. Knowing was better than imagining, because when he imagined what could have happened, it ended with death or prison or disability- and the possibilities really were endless, as far as his grim imaginitive abilities went. He was glad it only went that far.
Did he really have the right to cringe at the thought of Usopp finding some kind of romantic attachment, when he himself hadn't bothered holding back? A few dark nights and muttered half-statements didn't mean much of anything when somebody walked away from it.
So he asked around- and in some cases, he threatened. Turned out the people of Water 7 were surprisingly well-informed, which wasn't a big surprise when he learned that Usopp had never left the city.
And when Luffy found out that he'd been finding out, he immediately demanded that he go along.
It led them to a piece of shit bar tucked away in the folds of crumbling buildings and homeless drunks, looking for a curly-haired man who hired himself out as a marskman, an artist, an inventor and the occasional twenty minute encounter here and there (when times got particularly rough). The citizens were kind and respected him, but Usopp seemed to have the tendency to turn down any offers of help that they made him. And he hadn't wanted to inform his captain of exactly what people meant by 'encounter,' but hiding things like that from Luffy was physically impossible for him.
The Pirate King clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and didn't say anything about it in particular. He just quietly asked their informant for Usopp's location and set off with Zoro in tow.
For such a worthless place, it somehow managed to fit a hell of a lot of people. Luffy, through some force of miraculous interference, settled for merely craning his neck to look around rather than barreling through the room, shouting at the top of his lungs. Zoro was surprised by the amount of effort it was taking him not to tear through the bar with his swords to the throats of anyone that seemed likely to point them in the right direction (and god knew he needed directions, even in a place like this).
He noticed the tell-tale nose at the same time that Usopp seemed to notice his arrival, as the sniper was making his way out of skulking in some dark corner or another. It was illogical, really, the way that his breathing hitched a little, even when he heard Luffy's doing the same thing, and there was no way that time was actually stopping or anything stupid like that.
None of the three of them moved for a minute, because none of them knew exactly who was supposed to do what. A few random bodies jostled him while he was frozen, but Zoro didn't pay them any mind. It just...seeing him again, alive and somehow looking so much more mature even though it hadn't really been that long. Maybe it was because he wasn't wearing a bandana anymore, or that he'd traded his trademark overalls for straightforward shirts and pants, or the way he didn't take off in the other direction even though he probably wanted to. Zoro was probably fishing, there, but for some reason he couldn't for the life of him figure out what Usopp was thinking while he stared.
And he refused to admit that it hurt just a little bit.
-to be continued some other time, due to lack of both space and time-
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Usopp gave his former captain a scrutinizing stare, and Zoro received the same in turn. He straightened his shoulders, took a deep breath, and slowly walked in their direction. Zoro was dimly glad that he'd at least kept his old boots.
Damn, this was going to be awkward.
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...yeah.
(this is really good).
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--
A few minutes found the three of them seated around a beat-up table on shitty old chairs (and Zoro found himself starting to get used to the fact that this seemed to be a recurring theme), and nobody had said anything yet. Some woman trying to use lipstick to make up for the more obvious signs of advancing age served them drinks, and they were silent. Items of clothing were fiddled with, mugs were picked up and immediately set back down, and much staring was done regardless of the fact that the person being stared at always stared right back. And they were STILL silent.
Zoro didn't mind silence most of the time, but most of the time entailed on the Thousand Sunny with members of the crew- not someone who'd been out of his sight for three years in a city that had almost killed him, not far from the house of the gang that had driven him to leave his nakama. Needless to say, he was getting kind of pissed.
Perhaps the most irking part of it all was that his and Luffy's silence seemed to be stemming from a bout of extreme indecision. There were so many options to consider, as far as a course of action went: he could hug Usopp, right then and there, tell him he was glad he was alive and (at the very least) seemingly well. Or he could spend the next few hours screaming at him for not having the courage to come back. Maybe it would be best, he thought wildly, if he knocked the man out, tied him up, ran with him to the ship and had Luffy force the crew to set sail that INSTANT. It wasn't a matter of whether or not Usopp wanted to rejoin them- it was a matter of dragging him out of this little slice of hell.
Then again, he could also beat the shit out of him. And Luffy would help, likely as not. Zoro bit back a self-depricating snarl. Pussy-footing around wasn't SUITED to him, damn it. It wasn't suited to him or to his captain, but there they were, looking anywhere that wasn't their once-sniper because they didn't know what would happen once they did.
Usopp, who had spent the past silent minutes watching them with uncanny intensity, seemed to absorb the fact that he would have to man up and take the initiative for the second time that evening. The swordsman and the captain watched a little nervousness flicker across his face for a moment before it seemed to simply be taken in stride. It was unusual to see that kind of a laid-back approach, but by all means, he'd been the one to walk away and it was only fair that he should be the one to start making contact. So he swallowed, looked down at the table (at which Luffy seemed to relax just a little, because it was at least something like the Usopp that had stayed behind), and spoke.
"I'm...glad you could make it back," he muttered slowly, as if weighing his words before they were spoken. His voice didn't sound too different, Zoro determined. Wasn't mysteriously, magically deep and foreboding. He just sounded tired- resigned. Luffy blinked rapidly next to him, expression bordering on unreadable as he carefully observed the happenings of the inside of his mug. The way his hand was shaking, it was like watching a turbulent sea (though of course this line of thought was completely useless).
There was another pause, more awkward than the first as Usopp's words gained no response. A slight frown marred the marksman's face. It might have been easier to just pretend he'd never seen them. He could have just turned away, ignored the invisible gaping hole in his chest and gone on with what he'd been doing. He could have run away from Luffy and Zoro and it wouldn't have been surprising to him. Running was what he'd always done, right?
Except it was really too late to do any running now. So he fidgeted and tried again, making a half-decent attempt to smile. "You guys have a really big following around here. I heard you found One Piece. I've...heard a lot of stories about it."
And for some reason, that statement was utterly infuriating. As quickly as the notion crossed Zoro's mind, Luffy beat him to the punch, mug shattering in his hand like fine china and spilling alcohol all over the table. Usopp looked taken aback, but that was fine- in fact, he liked seeing that expression.
The Pirate King forced his eyes upward. "You BASTARD."
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“Yes. You're a bastard!” Luffy insisted furiously, fighting the urge to overturn the table. “You don't- you don't have any right to listen to stories about us! You're not allowed to do it anymore!”
“You can't tell me what to do, Luffy.” It was a simple sentence, executed without venom; just a quiet statement of a fact that none of them could forget, meant to serve as a logical reminder.
But since when had the captain bowed to the whims of logic? “We WAITED for you! You- Sanji said you were gonna come back and we WAITED as long as we could and you never SHOWED UP! All you did was stay here and hide from us!”
And he didn't really care that he was making a scene and neither did the other two men at the table. No one in their right mind would try to throw out Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro, after all.
The sniper flinched a little bit at the accusation but found it within him to respond nonetheless. “It was my choice! So maybe I wanted to go back, at first, but I changed my mind! I'm allowed to change my mind!”
“That's no excuse,” Zoro inserted firmly. “It just makes you a coward.”
There was that word again. The one that followed him everywhere no matter how hard he worked. “I've always been a coward,” he said, meeting once-familiar eyes. “You can't make me feel guilty for being afraid.”
A hint of sadness crept into the captain's demeanor. “You're not supposed to be afraid of US. We...” He took a moment to consider what words to use. “Did you really not want to come back? Was...was I that bad at being captain?” Usopp looked down, gritting his teeth.
“I wanted to stay,” the other said, voice hoarse. “I wanted to stay here.” He was insisting, it was a lie and all three of them knew it.
Zoro could see hints of it, in his face- guilt, anger, grief, terror, regret. “Usopp. All you had to do was apologize and we would've- I would have-” His throat silenced the rest of the statement.
“I know. Because you're all morons and you wouldn't have known better than to do it.” He closed his eyes briefly before gaining some kind of new resolve. “It's better like this. It's better that I didn't go.”
“What happened to your dreams?” Luffy asked, sounding just shy of being bitter. “What happened to becoming a brave warrior of the sea?”
Annoyance flickered across Usopp's features. “I'm not dead yet. As long as I'm still alive, I have time.”
“You should've been the one telling those stories. You should've been there with us when we found it.”
“I'm sorry.”
“...we never found another marksman, you know.” There was something uncharacteristically subtle in those words, but he didn't quite have the will to meet Luffy's eyes and confirm it. He settled for words.
“How long...are you staying?”
“Until we decide to leave.”
The marksman snorted a bit before retrieving his grave manner.
“You should have dinner with the crew sometime. I think you'll like Brook. He's dead.”
His breath hitched. The captain and his first mate stood and walked past him towards the door. Zoro had just about made it out, too, when Usopp's voice found him.
“I really am sorry.”
“I know.”
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“...I missed everyone.”
“I know.”
“I've gotten stronger.”
A sharp grin stretched across Zoro's face. He left the bar without another word.
End, yay.
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Srsly. I ♥ you sososososososo much :DDD
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I'm so glad you liked it!
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