Birthday Gone Wrong
It was three weeks after the Straw Hats had gotten back together, and Usopp's birthday was the next day. The Straw Hats were preparing a surprise birthday party for Usopp because he seemed rather upset lately, and they wanted to cheer him up on his birthday. But, in order for the crew to make Usopp's birthday a surprise, they needed to make it seem like they didn't know that it was his birthday, and that it was just April fool's day.
"Hey Luffy, you know that today is my birthday, right?" Usopp asked his best friend as they were fishing off the side of the Thousand Sunny to put more fish in their aquarium. The crew had been back together for almost a month, and after the time spent apart, Usopp just wanted a nice birthday where he could hang out with people that actually care about him.
"Haha, very funny April fool's joke Usopp, can you tell another one?" Luffy asked grinning like an idiot. But Luffy knew about the big party that was planned to start in a few hours, precisely when the sun would be setting at six that night (6:00 p.m.) for Usopp's 19th birthday.
"I'm being serious Luffy, I'm turning 19 today." Usopp said, looking over at Luffy with a very serious look on his face, when suddenly he felt a tug on his fishing line, and returned his attention back to that. Luffy glanced over at Usopp with the same seriousness before he started to cheer in excitement, and almost falling off the railing.
After they pulled the fish up onto deck, they rushed over to the latched door that lead to the top of the aquarium and plopped the fish in, then ran down to the aquarium to see the new addition to the tank like back in the good old days. Slowly, Usopp's happiness began to dull again, and he sighed as he sat down on the couch next to the tank, and Luffy looked over at him with a concerned look on his face as he stopped cheering, catching Usopp slightly off guard. Luffy walked over to the couch and put his hand on Usopp's right shoulder, making his best friend look at him surprised.
"What's up, why are you so glum lately?" Luffy asked, for once, not being his usual happy-go-lucky self that everyone was used to. That again caught Usopp slightly off guard, but he then soon rested his chin back onto his left hand, shaking his head a little.
"I don't really know anymore, honestly. I really wish that I had an answer or a story for you this time Luffy." Usopp said, then turned around, and rested his right arm on the back of the couch to watch the fish for a little bit. Luffy joined his friends' action, and rested his left arm on the back of the couch to watch the fish as well. Both friends just sat in silence for a little bit before Usopp suddenly stood up and started to walk to the door, only to be stopped by Luffy calling out to him.
"Hey, where ya going Usopp?" Luffy called, getting up and jogging the few feet that were between the two teenage boys.
"I'm going to my workshop, I've got a few projects that I want to work on before today ends." Usopp replied to Luffy. "Would you mind coming and getting me when dinner is ready? I don't wanna miss another meal again." Usopp questioned, looking over at his best friend with his tired black eyes that had become very common since the crew got back together. Actually, since they got back together almost a month ago, it had seemed that it was extremely rare to see the formally happy Usopp to even show anything besides sadness or very tired expressions. It was a miracle if they saw even a sliver of happiness or joy anymore.
"Yeah, sure thing buddy!" Luffy exclaimed with a big grin on his face towards his friend. "And by the way, when are you going to get those intercoms done, I want to be able to scare people while they are asleep without having to leave my room." Luffy exclaimed, remembering that the two of them were talking about it a few days ago, and having Franky install them for better access to the crew in case of emergencies.
"I'm working on the proto types right now actually, and we should be able to try them out by tomorrow afternoon if I continue my work soon, actually." Usopp replied, with a very small smirk pulling on the corners of his lips, causing Luffy to cheer for joy, and practically push Usopp out of the aquarium at the news of that.
Usopp walked down towards his workshop, and stopped for a second when he heard Nami scream Vivi's name for a prank that she had just pulled on her. 'That's right, Vivi came back with Luffy because he went to pick her up from Alabasta on his way to the ship from the two years of training'. Usopp thought to himself as he continued to walk to his workshop. He rested his hand on the doorknob, looked around to make sure that there was nothing there to prank him, and listened as Franky was now shouting at Brook for trying to peep on Nico.
Once Usopp was inside his workshop, he closed the door, and walked over to his desk that he had for plans, opened the second to bottom drawer. He reached all the way to the back while shifting a few papers, and pulled out a noose that he had made the night before. He then moved over, bringing a chair with him to the middle of the room, stopping, and then standing on top of the chair, stretching to reach up, and tied one end of the rope to a metal hoop that he installed around the time they all got back together to see how strong one of his projects was.
After he had gotten everything set, he slipped his head through the hole in the noose, letting a few tears slide down his face, and then he kicked the chair out from underneath his feet, and fell a few inches before being stopped by the rope around his neck. As he was hanging, he started to remember all of the best moments on the ship with his namaka, and thinking of how he would miss all of them. He then started to remember all of the bad, like the time that he had gotten into the argument with Luffy and left the crew for a short time in Water Seven, and how he thought that they would actually leave him there.
As Usopp's mind started to go back, and he started to hear something almost like static in his ears, he hear could barely hear a knock coming from the direction of the door. He could faintly hear the sound of the door opening, and a voice screaming in, what he assumed was distress, for Chopper to hurry down there. Then, that's where Usopp blacked out, he remembered feeling like he was being lifted a little more, and some more shouting, but he couldn't be sure about that.
After a few more hours, Usopp started to groan a little as he tried to open his eyes to the abnormally bright light around him. He could he what sounded like a child's voice talking to whoever was in the room with them, and people either sighing, or saying something else under their breaths to themselves. Usopp had then moved his hand to his face and began rubbing his eyes to try and get them used to the light around them for when he opened his eyes. Usopp then pushed himself up with his left arm, and gripped his head with his right from a sudden headache that he had gotten.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" The kiddish voice asked Usopp, who had finally registered that it was Chopper who was talking to him. Usopp finally opened his eyes to see Zoro standing by the door, Nami sitting on the foot of his bed, Luffy sitting on the chair right next to the bed, and Chopper standing in front of him with a curious look on his face.
"I'm feeling fine, but why am I here, the last thing that I remember was everything going black, and not being able to hear anything anymore." Usopp commented, genuinely curious about what was going on right then.
"Yeah, you-" Chopper started to speak, but was almost immediately cut off by their captain speaking to almost everyone in the room.
"Everyone out, I need to speak to Usopp alone." Luffy said, looking unusually serious about what he had just said. "Plus, you three still have stuff to do on deck, best get that done soon you guys, don't want it to be incomplete." Luffy spoke out again, never once smiling while he spoke, which was very uncommon for him.
"Alright, will do captain, let's go you guys." Zoro stated, and then held the rooms' door open for Chopper and Nami, and then closing it behind himself and left. Usopp looked with genuine curiosity, but then returned to looking back in front of himself and rubbed his now bruised and sore neck from the noose.
"Why didn't you tell anyone that you were becoming depressed, Usopp. We would have been more than willing to help you out in any way we could have." Luffy said, hanging his head back down to try and hide the fact that he was starting to cry again.
"It isn't that I was becoming depressed, Luffy." Usopp started, but was startled by Luffy's sudden yelling at him that made him look over at the black haired teen.
"Then what was it, huh?" Luffy yelled and slammed his hand into the wall right next to himself, and looked up to meet Usopp's gaze with angered and tear filled eyes. "What was it that lead you to nearly kill yourself Usopp, explain that to me, won't you?" Luffy yelled again as more tears streamed down his face as he looked at his best friend in Chopper's hospital room. Usopp looked at him with shocked and surprised eyes trying to word what he's about to say without scaring Luffy at all.
"It's because I'm in love with you, and you are a lot happier being with Vivi than with me, and I hate the fact that I'm in love with my best friend and I hate the fact that I'm bisexual." Usopp explained, suddenly getting angry with himself again as he explained himself to a now startled Luffy. Usopp almost immediately regretted what he had said when he saw the expression on Luffy's face.
"R-really?" Luffy's voice broke Usopp's thoughts, making the curly haired teen look over to his friend startled. "That's awesome! I was only using Vivi as a cover up because I thought that you were still in love with your friend Kaya from your hometown!" Luffy explained, completely taking Usopp off guard at his sudden confession. Usopp, still trying to wrap his mind about what Luffy had just said, was startled once again when he felt a pair of thin, warm lips on his thick, plump ones, eyes growing as wide as a bump that someone would get on their head when they were hit by Nami.
"B-but what about Vivi, what would she think about this?" Usopp questioned when the kiss ended between the two.
"Vivi knows that she was going to be a cover up once we got back here to you guys, which was the whole plan so that nobody else found out that I was bisexual too. Plus, I only really wanna be the king of the pirates, not the king of pirates AND the king of Alabasta, that would be to much work and too much fame for me." Luffy explained with that same, goofy grin taking its place back on his face where it rightfully belonged.
"Wait, this isn't some sort of sick April fool's joke that you're playing on me, right?" Usopp asked, looking at his best friend very seriously.
"I would never pull a prank that horrible on anybody, and speaking of April fool's, the crew has a surprise for you, are you able to go and check it out?" Luffy asked, now being the one to look curiously at his best friend.
"Y-yeah, I think I'm up to moving around, just help me get up and go, alright? And it better not be anything that will worsen my headache." Usopp scolded as Luffy helped him up and laughed a little at Usopp's response.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but first-" Luffy then stretched his head outside of the open door for a few minutes, then brought it back. "-alight, it's alright for us to go on deck now, let's go!" Luffy cheered as he started to help Usopp out.