In advance, I am sorry. This is the first One Piece fanfiction I've written, as well as the first fic I've fully written and published in some time.
I intended all of the sadness you are going to feel.
Yorki stares down at Brook, worry thick in his eyes. He gently touches the scar on the musician's forehead before turning back around to perch back in the chair he's occupied since Brook was admitted. There is little for him to do beyond sit and wait for Brook to wake.
It's a little while later when the door clicks open. Yorki instantly stands and moves back to Brook's side.
"How is he, doc?" he asks alongside one of the crewmembers.
"He's cracked or broken most of his ribs, several vertebrae are displaced, and the shoulder he hit the ground with is badly damaged," the doctor says. "We're lucky he didn't hit the water. I heard from the locals that it's incredibly deep right there. We might not have been able to find him."
Yorki makes a face. Though Brook had eaten the Devil Fruit years before meeting Yorki, sometimes he resented it. He knows Brook occasionally does.
He keeps watch over the musician as the crew wanders in and out of the infirmary, flicking his eyes at them in turn. They all have eyes for Brook.
It takes a while for Brook to wake. He laughs and says, "That certainly rattled my bones." Yorki grins, Brook's humor infectious.
The doctor is back in the room instantly, examining Brook with a practiced eye.
"These kids are good for you," Yorki says. He is beside Brook, out of the way of the reindeer giving the musician a glass of milk. "Real good." He is still smiling two glasses of milk later when Brook stands, towering over the lot of them. Yorki stays where he is, though he reaches over to ruffle a little patch of Brook's afro.
It barely shifts.
Brook glances around, looking for the person who seemingly touched his hair, quizzical for a moment before smiling sadly. It isn't the first time Brook has thought Yorki was there when he wasn't, nor would it be the last.
"Okay Brook, you're okay now!" Chopper says. He beams at Brook and shoos him from the infirmary.
Brook snaps up his violin before heading to the main deck. The crew is delighted to see him up and moving. "A song perhaps?" Brook asks. "To celebrate life? Even though I have none?" Brook laughs at his own joke.
Yorki smiles from somewhere behind Brook, unseen by the Strawhat crew.
Brook raises his violin and plays.