Author's Notes: This was originally written for the prompt "trust" on a chaos thread and has now been polished up a little. Suggestions for improvement and other feedback are very welcome. As the summary indicates, the first part is set right before Alabasta and the second towards the end of Skypiea.

Disclaimer: The characters and situations of One Piece are owned by their creator Eiichiro Oda and are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fic is not to be used for profit in any way and should not be reposted elsewhere without the writer's approval.

A Solid Place To Stand

-a One Piece fanfic

by Elin B

-x-x-x-x-

What did you need in order to become a pirate? What was it that made people leave their homes behind and set sail for adventure?

Of course you needed courage, Usopp thought, looking down from the crow's nest at what he could see of their little ship and the sea in the darkness. If you didn't have that you'd never get past that crippling fear of the unknown tying you down. And you needed a big dream in the first place, one you couldn't fulfil at home – and a strong desire to seek out the dream. But wasn't there something else?

He got that kind of questions in his head sometimes, especially times like these when he took the watch in the small hours. He'd start thinking big but fumbling thoughts about the world and sea and the endless horizon, but also of his crewmates and himself, what had made them all come together like this.

Tonight was warm, almost balmy, with no need for a blanket. He figured they were probably close to Alabasta by now. Good thing, too, because they were running out of food.

Merry was creaking gently underneath him, wood and rope and furled canvas all letting out different small sounds, comforting in their familiarity by now.

You needed trust, thought Usopp. A captain and crewmates you could trust beside you; a ship you could trust to take you over the waves. Like Merry. The sea was so big and deep and cold, so wondrous and scary and amazing; and you couldn't trust it, not ever. Here on the Grand Line, you couldn't trust compasses or the weather, either. But Nami trusted the log pose and they all trusted her. So that worked out.

It had been easy for him, he figured – he'd had no shackling obligations or troubling memories holding him back, and after fighting together that first time it was clear that Luffy and Zoro and Nami were very trustworthy. Trusting yourself was much harder, but once he knew he didn't always fall short under pressure, that he'd managed to at least help save Kaya and the village, he could let hope stand in for confidence.

Nami must have had it much harder, with so much more holding her back. She'd needed to understand Luffy's full trust in her, before she could really join them. Although at first she'd tried to throw that trust away... Well, maybe what you thought you wanted wasn't always what you needed.

That sounded good enough, he thought, nodding wisely and feeling quite deep and philosophical. Then he leaned his chin on his palm, elbow on railing, and yawned mightily. He rubbed his heavy eyelids and wondered idly how much time might be left on his shift and also when he'd be able to find rotten eggs next. Sanji had refused to let him keep any from Chopper's island and Usopp couldn't really fault him – he had to agree that food took precedence over ammunition.

You needed to trust the world, too, he thought suddenly. Trust the ground to be there when you walked on it. Trust grass to grow and clouds to float and rain to fall... trust the sun, and the winds, and everything, to be what they were. In that way, even the sea, come to think of it – it would never keep you safe, but it would still be itself, immense and marvellous. You needed to trust Adventure...

Those thoughts were getting a little too big for him now, this late at night: he felt them slipping, sliding away from his grasp as he yawned again and his stomach growled faintly. He probably shouldn't think on it so much. Just follow your heart, right? And try to summon your guts and use your head when you had to. Ignore the little voice deep inside that mumbled that maybe he wasn't much to bank on, hadn't truly earned all that trust...

Better push that down. There was no use in thinking like that, and Luffy was just made of trust, anyway, as if it was a component of rubber. No help for it.

Down below, a door slid open and footsteps sounded across the deck. He peered down. It was a bit hard to see, but it looked like Vivi was getting up here to relieve him. The sky seemed just a bit lighter than before. It was even warmer than it had been yesterday.

And they were heading towards a confrontation with a Shichibukai and his whole criminal organisation. He shuddered, feeling cold with fear. He had to hope there wouldn't be much fighting and Vivi would be able to convince her people of the truth she'd find out. Because if that didn't happen, he really really didn't know how they'd be able to survive, let alone win.

He took a deep breath and tried to summon strength in his scared and sleep-addled head, in his heavy limbs, so he'd be able to greet Vivi with a smile and climb down without any problem. It will be all right, he told himself. Luffy's strong enough, it will work out fine.

And he had duties to take care of, after all! For instance, now that Chopper was here, they'd finally acquired a crewmate who kept believing everything Usopp told him, taking unearned trust to the extreme – well, clearly this meant Usopp now needed to make his lies as interesting, cool and entertaining as possible. It was, after all, the very least he could do.