(This story builds off something small mentioned at the end of my other One Piece fic 'Bone Phantoms' but you don't need to have read that one to understand this.
The inspiration to write both of these stories came from reading 'He Can Play Anything' by MasterQwertster which I love and has so many brilliant pieces on Brook and some great headcanons I really agree with. All the headcanons for Dr. Kureha are entirely my own though)
Doctors were always in demand all over the world. Normally she would send one of the Isshi-100 to deal with it, especially somewhere in the second half of the Grand Line, but if it was an island the Straw Hat Pirates were soon to be passing by Dr. Kureha supposed she could make an exception and go herself just this one time. That and provided the voyage was all expenses paid, with safety escort, there and back of course.
Treating the king of the island's brat for a particularly bad case of glandular fever was a trivial matter; by the time she had arrived it was beginning to clear up on its own, not that any of the over-generous royal family needed to know that. And if she wanted to stay a few days to enjoy the island they were so proud to rule, how could they say no to the ego-boosting request?
Luckily Chopper didn't keep her waiting long. Once that ungracious blond had been threatened off with another round of spinal adjustment, that orange-haired girlie had snuck away thinking she had gone unnoticed and the captain had been reminded who this 'old woman' was that Chopper was so happy to see, she had finally gotten a chance to sit down with her apprentice on the deck of their very fancy ship.
"This is what pirates sail on these days?" she asked with wry amusement. "It looks more like a kiddies' playground."
"That's why it's so cool! We have competitions who can fly the furthest off the swing or slide! I even win sometimes when Luffy and Usopp push too hard!" Chopper enthused.
Dr. Kureha chuckled to herself. "You certainly picked the right crew for you, Chopper. Or I suppose I should say they picked you."
"Yeah! They're all so amazing; sometimes I don't know if I can keep up..." He sighed and soothingly enjoyed her petting his head just like old times. "...Ah! You wanted to meet Brook, didn't you? I told him that so he should be around here somewhere still; I'll introduce you-"
"I don't believe there will be any need for that, Chopper-san." Brook suddenly spoke from the side of them both, nearly startling Chopper off Dr. Kureha's lap. "I believe," He came to stand above them both in their chair on deck, looking down at her, "we have already met."
She looked up at Brook with a seriously sceptical frown at first. Then, "...You!"
"Yo-hoho~!" Brook tipped his hat to her, then bowed. He was just glad her surprise had been on the pleased side of neutral to see him again.
"Well, well..." Dr. Kureha laughed too. "Of all the musicians."
"What? What?!" Chopper swivelled between the two of them. "Doctorine, you know Brook?!"
"Yes, we met once long ago," she answered, casting a gaze over him now. "He's not changed much: He was a bag of bones back then, now he's just lost the bag."
"Yohoho~! How cruel~!"
"When?! How?! He was still alive back then?!" Chopper rattled off excitably.
"Yes, he was alive. It wasn't long after I first came to Drum Island so it must have been 50, nearly 60 years ago now. And if you stop asking so many questions I'd be able to tell you how," she told him, watching as Brook folded his legs to sit down on the grass deck with them.
"My previous crew took the same path through the first half of the Grand Line that Luffy-san did, at least at first," Brook began. "We came to Drum Island along the way as they did. Of course it ended up in a snowball fight before long; that I didn't mind but my captain saying the snow angel I had made resembled a snow scarecrow instead- Well!" He huffed at the indignity of it even now. "He had been teasing me for days and, come evening, I wasn't inclined to return to the cabin we shared in any hurry." Brook checked the implication of that sentence went over Chopper's head. Dr. Kureha's grin was knowing though. "So, I headed into the tavern in the town we were docked at."
"Well, that explains that," Dr. Kureha chuckled. "Although why you decided it was safe to join my table of all them..."
Dr. Kureha finally acknowledged the ridiculous stranger that had sat down at her small corner table after two minutes with an intensely belligerent glare. All he did was laugh before breaking back into his damned smile.
Brook regarded the woman he had chosen to sit with curiously behind his smile. His gaze drifted over the bottle of plum sake with her, and something much stronger, then back to her scowl.
"What do you want?" she started.
"You've already let me sit in this chair without sending me sailing over the bar behind me," He leant forward on one elbow, looking over his glasses; "would it be wise for the sake of my health to say I wanted any more than this?"
Her glare remained fixed on him, fingers tightening noticeably around the glass in her hand.
It didn't go unnoticed by Brook. "Yoho, very well. I was hoping I could improve your mood somehow, although preferably without physical injury to myself."
Dr. Kureha considered his words, and concluded, "Get bent."
Brook grinned. "Over what?"
It was a miracle her fingers didn't shatter the glass this time. "Throwing you over the bar, you suggested?" A sadistic edge of smirk slid into her expression. "I'm damn tempted right now."
Brook leant back to check exactly how many sharp or breakable objects there were back there, and for what distance he could put between the two of them at the same table.
"Go on, scram," Dr. Kureha snapped, pouring herself another drink. "Anyone in here would be easier if you want to 'improve their mood', brat."
"Indeed, but you're more worthwhile than any of them," Brook took on a charming grin as he looked over his glasses again; "a cat may be easier to take care of but a tiger is far more beautiful-"
"Wait!" Chopper interrupted. "Were you... flirting with Doctorine, Brook?" he dared to ask, wiggling with a strange kind of awkwardness at the thought.
Brook hummed thoughtfully. "Yes and no, Chopper-kun; you'd understand when you're older."
"I'm old enough now! I'm 17! Tell me!"
"Shut up and listen to the rest of the story, you little whelp!" she punctuated with a soft knock to Chopper's head so they could continue.
Dr. Kureha stopped, nearly letting her glass overflow as she topped it up. Just in time, she slammed the bottle down on the wooden table instead. Now her face had taken on a practically carnivorous grin, cruel and violent. "When I throw you over that bar, I'm going to make sure you go through the wall into the bins out back-"
"Why were you in such a bad mood, Doctorine?" Chopper interrupted again. "You were often mean to people when I was with you too but you never said things like- Owww!"
"I'm mean to interrupting reindeers too," she warned.
Brook sat back casually to await his fate, bringing one long leg up to rest on the opposite knee. He watched her down half the glass, glare sideways at him, then frown at the remaining half a glass for a long while.
After a very long twenty minutes – In which he'd had time to clean the lenses of his glasses, check each button on his suit for loose threads and even discovered some mysterious dog biscuits that had found their way into one of his inside pockets – "What would make you leave me alone?"
Her tone was bitter now, almost injured. Brook softened, only leaning forward this time so he could speak more softly to her in the rowdy tavern. "Despite how you may have taken it, when I said improve your mood that is what I meant. I'll leave when I can leave you in a better mood than you are now. If you'd care to tell me what's troubling you that might help immensely."
She bit on her lip, but that was as far as she went to saying anything about it.
Sensing another long wait, "Excuse me!" Brook called to the bartender in his passing with a beckoning finger.
"Yes? Finally gonna order something?" he asked as he stopped by the table on the way back to the bar. He did cast a glance at Dr. Kureha, aware of the danger if he was insulting someone she wanted the company of, but the risk seemed small enough to be safe.
Brook grinned brightly. "Yes. A pot of tea, if you would." He was certain he heard a quiet snort of laughter from his table companion.
The bartender however, "...Tea?"
"Yes. You know, tea," Brook said again, not that that clarified things.
The bartender stared for a long while, waiting past the point a joke would have been announced and then some. He looked frozen in that quizzical, bewildered frown, but eventually walked on past Brook, "Right... Tea..." with one last look at the potential lunatic he now had to serve.
The wait for tea remained quiet, aside from some light humming from Brook. It was little bother to him, gladly looking around and entertaining himself with the conversations of the tables around them.
The bartender returned with a pot of tea- Well, a kettle of tea and a mug. "There you go. Anything else?" he asked, not sure if he was tempting fate inviting another strange request from this particular patron.
"No thank you. This will be quite all right." Brook set to his tea happily, pouring out his first cup and letting the bartender walk away in relief.
The tea already had milk added inside the metal kettle; its heat wasn't going to last long at this rate... Looking around for something to insulate it proved fruitless though. Oh well, he'd just have to drink it up quickly.
Brook paused after the first sip, mug still to his slightly curled lips. And they weren't curled in a smile.
He hadn't gotten an actual question from her but Dr. Kureha was looking at him curiously now, awaiting some sort of punchline to all this.
Brook set the mug back down, pushing it away to hold with just his fingertips. "...I think, although I am not certain, that he gave me hot beer with milk in it instead of tea."
Now she finally laughed. "Well, what did you expect in a bar?"
The mug turned a little, gingerly, in his fingertips. "Is a good cup of tea that much to ask for?" Brook was genuinely put out now, not even asking the question to her but instead to the mercy of the heavens above.
Dr. Kureha groaned, sliding a hand down the side of her face closest to him and then settling her chin in it. "You're not leaving, are you?" she checked.
"Well, no. I asked for tea; I feel utterly betrayed."
He was staring at his once-touched mug now with quite the expression. She sighed and snapped her fingers, bringing his attention back to her. "All right. Just tell me why first? Why do you want to cheer up a total stranger so badly, you damn pest?"
"What? Oh, right." Brook was glad of something, anything, to take his attention away from his 'tea'. Now he was back to smiling again. "I'm a musician," he said with a small flourish. "My job is to cheer up, to invigorate or comfort as is needed. I suppose you could a musician a doctor for the soul." Brook paused, seeing something in that had had an unintended effect. It didn't seem a bad one, perhaps more towards having thrown her off her guard. He sat back a little more mutely, waiting politely to let her choose how to handle this situation.
"'Doctor'..." she said and sighed, putting her head fully in one hand. "Why'd you have to go and say that?"
"Ah. A medical problem?" Brook guessed.
Dr. Kureha shook her head. "I am a doctor." She swung the bottle of plum sake between two fingers, trying to decide whether to drink before or after. "...I lost a patient." She chose after, downing much of what was left.
"Oh. ...Ah," Brook stammered a little quietly, unsure what to say. "It must happen sometimes. You shouldn't feel bad; you can't save every one."
"This one was my wife."
"EHHHH?!" Chopper actually fell backwards off Dr. Kureha's lap. Brook caught the little reindeer before he did any damage to anything at least. "You were married, Doctorine?! When?! What happened-?! Oh wait, I know what..." He cringed. "I'm sorry- I didn't mean-"
"It's all right, Chopper." She pushed his hat down over his eyes, both forcefully and affectionately in lieu of petting his head. "It was a long time ago, long before you were even born. I don't need you worrying about me, kid."
Brook watched her drink from the bottle of plum sake still at her side while Chopper struggled to pull his hat back up off his face. He said nothing to her, just helped finish the story.
"...Oh." Brook swallowed quite visibly, gaze dropping to the table where his fingers fidgeted, forming familiar piano chords as a defence against the unease.
When he looked up at the sound of her taking another drink, Dr. Kureha had her chin leant in the other hand to look at him now. And she was grinning so very sadly. "Got it out of me in the end after all." She almost sounded as if she was congratulating him.
"I'm so sorry," Brook dropped his gaze again in penance. "So really, very sorry."
"Nah, I needed to tell someone I suppose." She exhaled thoughtfully. "Sometimes a stranger in a bar you'll never see again is best for these things."
"Yohoho~" Brook laughed now at that, watching Chopper climb back up into her lap. "Did I ruin that now?"
Dr. Kureha chuckled. "No, it's nice to see your face again after all these years. Well," she turned to him, "if you still had it on the front of your head."
"Ah! You stole one of my jokes!" Brook accused, favouring anger over depression this time. "How rude!"
"Eh, it's not a great loss," she joked with a rather mean grin.
This time Brook made a show of standing to walk away in a huff. She tugged him back down before he actually got anywhere, his point made.
"What happened after that? What next?" Chopper asked eagerly, still hanging on the story.
"We spent a while longer talking about it in the tavern. The walking doggy treat over there," She nodded to Brook who merely laughed this time, "got into an argument with the bartender about his 'tea' when we left. Then we parted ways."
"Ah..." Chopper sighed a little it was over. He seemed to be old enough to sense he shouldn't ask too much more yet his child-like fascination wasn't satisfied yet. "You never saw him again?"
"Not till today. I think I may have seen some garish poster for a 'Soul King' thing, was it? Is that you?" she asked the musician himself.
"Yes. It's a shame I couldn't include Drum Island on my world tour but I'm quite certain my guitar strings would have frozen together! Yoho!"
"I didn't get your name back then to recognise it," she commented.
"Ah, no. We agreed not to ask, didn't we?" Brook mused. "I'll confess I overheard some of the townsfolk talking about you before we left the island. That was how I recognised your name on Chopper's letters."
As if mention of his name was enough, Chopper now started giggling and sprang from Dr. Kureha's lap, heading for the other side of the ship. "I can't wait to tell everyone about this! I'm going to go find them!"
"Don't hurry back!" She yelled after him, grumbling to herself about how the rest of them had treated her the last time they met.
Once Chopper had leapt over the side of the ship, leaving the two on deck quite certainly out of earshot of anyone, "...You lied to him," Brook said to her.
"I didn't lie; you did leave after that," she grinned. "I just left 'in the morning' out."
Brook sighed, and then laughed. "I suppose it's probably for the best. I'm not sure Chopper-kun would understand."
"Based on when I nearly let slip to him about Hiruluk and me, I can tell you it is." Dr. Kureha smiled fondly at the memory. "Luckily I was able to convince the kid it was his own perverted mind that had interpreted me wrong."
"Ah, even your kindness is cruel!" Brook dramatised.
He watched her take another drink, smiling but still drinking that plum sake nonetheless.
"So," His tone dropped back down to serious, "how have you been? I never expected I'd see you alive again, not after all this time at least."
"I've done well for myself, lived a long time." Dr. Kureha watched the nearly empty liquid swill around as she swung the bottle between two fingers. "But that's the secret to living a long life; having somewhere else you'd rather be..." she said distantly.
"Yes..." Brook pulled his knees up to his chest to hug, not unlike so many years all alone with no one else to give him physical contact. "I... Chopper told you, about the Florian Triangle?" he asked weakly.
"Enough," she acknowledged. "You held onto more of your sanity than most would."
"Yohoho~! Most of it!" Then, the high-pitched dramatics fell away again, leaving a weariness Brook rarely liked to show. "I had a lot of time there... A lot of time to think through everything that had happened in my life, everyone. I thought about you at least a few times, what you were doing now, if you were still..." He stilled, jaw resting against his knees. Then Brook smiled. "That you were looking after young Chopper-san, teaching him medicine and giving him a home, warms my heart- Ah, but I don't have a heart~!" And he laughed.
"Don't have a heart, huh...?" She smiled along but didn't laugh.
After calming back down eventually, "I hope you won't mind my being glad you have stayed in this realm this long now it's afforded us the chance to meet again," Brook said graciously.
She hummed, affecting an aloof air. "I suppose I can let you be glad about that."
"I can see that grin you're hiding."
"Shut up, brat." She might have let it out a little of it on the side he couldn't see. Casting a glance at him, then away, "You were just what I needed that day. Thanks."
Like a true gentleman, he didn't comment on her difficulty admitting it. "I helped you, you taught Chopper, and now he regularly helps me; it all came full-circle without either of us realising it."
"True. I suppose it did."
She somewhat saluted him with her bottle and took another drink. Brook watched without comment again, noting it was nearly empty now. "...If I may ask one more thing," he began.
"Mm?"
"If this isn't too indelicate, am I similar to Dr. Hiruluk? Chopper-kun tells me all sorts of stories with such excitement, and I can't help but wonder..." Brook trailed off, letting his jaw click shut.
"Mmm..." Mad fools masquerading as some sort of gentleman, far more grand ideas and words than sense or skill and stupidly, stupidly bound up in honour to the point of their own deaths. "Annoyingly so," Dr. Kureha judged, then scowled sternly. "Don't get thinking I have a type for inept rascals like you."
"Perish the thought," Brook said a little too wryly.
"And don't call that fool a 'doctor' either." Her scowl was serious that time. "Not after... 'Do no harm' indeed..." she muttered, sighed and drunk from her sake again. "I suppose that's why the little monster's taken such a liking to you."
"Don't call Chopper-san that."
She smiled it was just a joke she was allowed to get away with. "Continue keeping an eye on him for me; that stupid son of mine out on a sea like this... He's just like the two of you."
Brook saluted her properly, even standing up. "It would be my honour!" Dr. Kureha waved a hand he could knock off the damn dramatics already. "Ah, but I almost forgot!" Bowing at the waist down to her seated height, "If you wouldn't mind, may I see your panties?"
Dr. Kureha laughed. "Your pick-up lines have lost their flesh just like the rest of you."
"Ahh..." Brook sighed in defeat. "Well, no matter. I saw them last time after all."