Being captain was a tough job! You had to give inspiring speeches to inspire your crew to be inspired, you had to fight well, you had to have a hat, you had to divide the jobs on the ship equally - you had to have a crew. Boy, was he pooped for the day - he had just completed all of these daunting tasks. He still didn't have a hat, though, but he was in the process of making one (pinky promise!). And he might have made a - okay, some - miscalculations about his crew, since they were mostly… imaginary. He knew they weren't real, of course, but what was an 8 year-old boy supposed to do when he was lonely and just wanted someone to play be pirates with?
Destiny waited for no one, after all! So he would have to make do with Scurry Fluffy, Daunting Tigger, and Lady Lisa for now. At least, for the time being, it was some sort of practice before he became the real thing and met up with his dad. He was really excited about meeting him one day! He had heard all sorts of stories from his mother about his dad who was the sniper of the crew, mostly good ones.
Speaking of mum, wasn't it around tea time now? His stomach grumbled at the thought of this, begging to be fed, and how could he deny such a request? His mother's cooking was the best he'd ever tasted, and he just loved the cookie she was famous for.
He hurriedly made his way back home, having an imaginary race with his imaginary crew, and happily thinking about the treats that awaited him. His imagination was so powerfully overwhelming that he could smell the freshly baked chocolate-filled dough from the oven; he had to stop for a bit to catch his breath, and that was definitely because of the smell of cookies. Yup. As he approached his front door, he started to prepare his infamous greeting whenever he got back from his adventures.
"Pirates are coming! Dad is gonna be home soon! Mum!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Mum, I'm back!"
He opened the creaking door to an empty and dark living room. The photo of him and his mother smiling widely quietly sat in the center of a drawer stand, greeting him as he took his shoes off and knelt on his knees, and excitedly began recounting his tales at sea today.
"Hey, Mum! Did you hear me yell that Dad is coming back real soon? I saw the pirate crew's flag he's with at the shore of the island! It's the one with three scars across the left side of a skull and swords at the back, right? It sure looks cool! When I set out, I'm gonna have an even cooler flag, that's a promise! It's gonna be known all around the world, and whenever anybody sees us approaching their island, they're all gonna run away in fright and scream, 'Run away, for it's the Usopp Pirates!'. Hmm, maybe it won't be called that, since I want a name that will shake the nerves of everyone."
He paused for a while, thinking of what else he could add to his tale for today.
"Oh yeah, I also had quite an interesting day today with my crew. Tigger kept trying to get a kiss from Lady Lisa, and even though she kept smacking him away, he still wouldn't take the message; so Scurry - my first mate, remember? - had to break them apart before they broke the ship and crew apart, ha-ha."
His voice trailed and died off as he remained in his kneeling position.
His hands started to shake and he felt snot dripping onto his upper lips. This happened every day now, and he would promise himself he would not allow this to happen anymore, but his resolve would break every single time as he felt his internal walls break apart. Dark spots appeared on his garment, as he trembled and shook in that cold room. It now lacked the familiar warmth it once held, but the memories remained. He chewed on his gums, praying that he would not yell or cry out anymore. His mother wouldn't have wanted to see this.
"I… I just wished you were still here."
x
A/N: This is my first time publishing on this site, so please excuse any formatting error that may have occurred. Written as a prompt for vageege aka okama-kenpo on tumblr. All constructive crit and review are welcomed. Thank you for reading.