A/N: Wow...This was soo not what I was trying to write. At all. I mean, it seriously has nothing to do with the original plot. *shrugs* I like this anyway. In fact, this one-shot has prompted a mulit-chapter story to plant itself in my brain. I'll probably try and get that typed up...Eventually...This is actually a sort of prolog to that story.
On another note, there aren't any spoilers or indications about the actual spot in the Manga that this takes place in. That's mainly because I'm ignoring the actual events during and after the time-skip and using my own. If you guys want to know what this is actually talking about before the mulit-chaptered story gets posted, let me know and I'll send the answer to you in a PM.
Usopp liked his watch.
It wasn't anything fancy, like Nami's gold watch or Robin's carved silver one, but it was what he'd had the money for.
It was a bronze pocket watch. That was it. There were no carvings and designs. Nothing fancy on the inside and no rare mineral on the outside. He hadn't gotten it as a gift either, which both Nami and Robin's had been.
But he still liked it.
The clip on the outside, the one that popped it open and closed, got stuck a lot now. Something had struck it in one of his fights; he thought that a marine might have been the one he was fighting but he couldn't be sure.
Sand was still stuck in all of the crevises, the gears slowed down by them so the time was always a little off, from his adventure in Alabasta.
The chain, one he never used since the watch was kept in his bag, had rusted from always being in the water or covered in snow or other unsavory liqueds.
Blood was permantly smeared on the inside of the clock face, a sign of too many battles that he'd warned the others would happen, and the number eight was completely blocked by the copper smear.
But it still worked.
The ticking was constant...
...there when a war was brought to an end because of the bravery of his captain
...there every time his crew grew
...there each time that blood spilled on him
...and unlike the rest of his life, it wasn't going to change anytime soon.
So, yes, Usopp liked his watch. It made him feel like there were some things, few and far between, that followed a set course.
That didn't change at the drop of a hat.
That wouldn't leave just because the course had changed or a new opportunity was offered.
And, unlike everything else around him, it would stop if he wasn't there to keep it going.
...Usopp liked his watch, it was one of the few things that he had left from his time as a Mugiwara.