The first thing Usopp did after giving Heracles a manly (tearful) hug goodbye was to rush towards the spot where they'd left the Sunny two years before.
When the smiling lion figurehead came into view, between impossibly tall striped trees, his heart felt like it was going to burst. After Merry, he never thought he'd be able to love a ship so much. But in this moment, Sunny came pretty close.
And then he saw a broad back covered in a loud Hawaiian shirt, shoulders too big and too robotic, hair shaved too short, but blue, bright blue and oh so familiar-
"Franky!" Usopp shouted, his voice still a little hoarse from crying with Heracles. He bounded up to the ship, grabbed the railing and hauled himself up onto the deck as Franky turned to face him.
Franky's grin was huge, bright white teeth and pointy sunglasses that glinted in the light filtering through the trees.
"Longnose-bro!" Franky shouted in reply. "Suuuper!"
Huge, cold, strong arms wrapped themselves around Usopp's waist, pulling him tightly against Franky's hard chest, pulling him up and off his feet, squeezing him until he could hardly breathe.
Usopp was smiling so hard it almost hurt as he buried his face in Franky's neck. Tears dribbled down Franky's chin and dropped onto Usopp's forehead.
"You got so big," Franky said when he finally, finally loosened his grip on Usopp. He set him back on his feet and held him by the shoulders, inspecting him over the top of his glasses.
"So did you," Usopp said. He stared up, up at Franky's monstrous, robotic form. "You're awesome."
Franky struck a pose and proceeded to loudly describe his many fantastic upgrades, and Usopp listened in fascinated rapture.
...
With every crewmate than trickled in, Usopp's heart felt like it was growing, growing from something he hadn't even realized was small and shrivelled and hurting, into something more whole and happy than it had ever been before.
When Franky sent Usopp to get fuel and he ran into Nami, he was more eager than he ever thought he'd be to shop with her. (Her haggling skill had gotten even more… forceful.)
And when Luffy showed up, when Luffy finally came and the crew was complete and perfect again, Usopp was pretty sure that his heart really had exploded, jumped right out of his chest and splattered everywhere.
It was a beautiful feeling, not scary at all.
...
That night, after endless hours of booze and singing and laughter and stories, the entire crew was sprawled out on the deck, in a content, sleepy silence.
Through half-lidded eyes, Usopp watched the lights of fluorescent fish slowly slipping past the bubble above. The sounds of snoring and murmuring and shifting around him were the most perfect sounds he'd ever heard, sounds that made him shiver and smile and wish for this moment to never, ever end.
...
Fishman Island flew by in a rush of mermaids and nosebleeds and villains and fights and parties. Usopp was pretty sure he'd been brave, pretty sure he'd done right and impressed his crew. He knew the others had impressed him. He only felt the slightest tinge of jealousy that he wasn't the only one who'd improved. That even though he was better and stronger, so was everyone else. That the gap hadn't really been narrowed at all.
Only the slightest tinge of jealousy.
Rediscovering his workshop was an almost surreal experience. Usopp ran his hands over all his old tools, his projects and plans left half-finished and lying around haphazardly. He picked one up and tried to resume working on it, tinkering and skimming plans.
After an hour of work he realized he'd completely forgotten what the purpose of this doodad was supposed to be.
He leaned against the wall of his shop for a while, legs folded under him, sketchbook open on his lap. There were unfinished drawings in here, too. Figures without heads or arms, ships without masts or sails or a flag, landscapes with no sky, trees with no branches.
Everything had been left unfinished when they were whisked away two years ago. It was easy to forget, when he was on an island that threatened to eat him and kill him in a thousand horrible ways, when his every waking moment, and nearly every sleeping one, too, was occupied only with the thought of staying alive. When his ship and his crew and his projects and his life were so far away.
Only now did he wonder if it was ever going to be possible for things to go back to the way they'd been before.
He could hear Franky working in his own workshop through the wall, and it made so many memories spring to mind. Some bad- with Franky, there were always some bad memories, no matter how hard he tried to forget, because Water 7 in general was something he didn't like to think about- but good memories, too. Really good memories. Memories of working together, of making crazy projects and taking care of the ship and having each other's back in a fight. Of just being close, really close, and kissing, once, twice, maybe more. Because sometimes Usopp wasn't sure how much of his relationship with Franky was real and how much of it had only happened in his head, on nights when Bowin Island was at its calmest and he could allow himself to let his guard down, just a bit.
Suddenly Usopp wanted nothing more than to get up, to leave his workshop that seemed too foreign, to slip into Franky's room and into his arms that were foreign, too, new and robotic and cool, but still one hundred percent Franky.
But he couldn't get his legs to move, couldn't unstick himself from the floor, and his face felt hot and his stomach was tight. He might have been bigger and stronger and braver now, but not brave enough. He couldn't go to Franky, couldn't assume that Franky wanted what he wanted. Because it was just a kiss, or two, years ago, and just because Usopp had spent two years thinking about it and fantasizing about it and obsessing over it didn't mean Franky had, too.
...
Usopp stared up at the ceiling of the boys' room, his covers bunched around his ankles. He felt warm, too warm, and antsy. The familiar sounds of snoring and sleepy murmuring that filled the room weren't enough to lull him to sleep. Franky lay sprawled out on the bunk below him, too-big arms and skinny legs hanging over the sides.
Usopp wanted to crawl down there to join him, to slip out of his bunk and into Franky's and feel the older pirate's arms around him, and smell him and feel him and be close. The idea- and the idea that he couldn't, wouldn't, do that- made Usopp's throat tight.
So instead, he curled in on himself, rolled over onto his stomach and looked down, down at Franky's chest slowly rising and falling with deep, sleeping breaths.
...
Usopp stared at the door of Franky's workshop. His palms were sweatier than they should have been- he was only going to ask if Franky, maybe, wanted to help him with a project, because since when did not kissing somebody mean not being with them at all?
But his hands were wet and his stomach was tense when he knocked on the Adam wood door. (And since when did he knock? He was sure, two years ago, when everything was easy and normal, he'd always just barged right in.)
For a long moment, Franky didn't open the door. Usopp could hear movement inside- maybe Franky wanted him to go away? Didn't want to be disturbed? He could respect that-
He was already walking away- too quickly, too relieved- when the door to Franky's workshop was thrown open.
"Longnose-bro!" Franky said. His grin was so blinding and familiar that it made Usopp relax and tense up at the same time. "You don't have to knock! Come on in!"
Usopp grinned in return, and followed him, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants.
...
They worked, closely, together, for hours, talking and laughing and shoving and touching. And Usopp was pretty sure he was okay with this, that even though Franky hadn't made a single move to be closer to him, to do anything that wasn't strictly platonic and friendly and just Franky, that that was okay. Just being near the older pirate- because that's what Franky was, after all, so much older, and he was a pirate, loud and brash, who could maybe kiss any crewmate when he was drunk and happy and partying, and it didn't mean much of anything, to him, especially two years later- just being close to Franky was enough.
Usopp figured he'd exaggerated, probably, when he'd thought of (obsessed over) Franky during those two years- he probably wasn't in love, not really. He was just young.
And brash.
And stupid.
Not in love.
Probably.
...
Once he'd decided he didn't love Franky, not any more than the rest of his nakama, his hands didn't sweat so much when he went to open the door of Franky's workshop- he didn't knock, didn't need to- but his stomach still felt tight.
He stopped, in the doorway, when he saw Franky pacing up and down the length of his workshop, yanking at his ridiculous (cool) beetle hair. Franky froze, too, when he noticed Usopp. And though his eyes were hidden by pointy shades that he really didn't have to wear inside, Usopp could still see the expression on his face. Strange- embarrassed, nervous, even, if Usopp hadn't known any better.
"Longnose-bro… Usopp!" Franky greeted, and moved towards the table where they'd left their half-finished project the day before.
They worked in silence, for a while, and it was nothing like the day before, and Usopp wasn't okay with this at all. He wondered if it was something he'd done, if maybe he'd come onto Franky yesterday without realizing it, without really meaning it, probably-
They both reached for the same tool, at the same moment, distracted by their own thoughts. Usopp tried to jerk his hand away, as if he'd been burned by Franky's red metal glove. But the cyborg held on, kept his huge fingers gripped around Usopp's calloused ones.
Usopp made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat, that was suddenly too tight, and he was too warm, and he was stupid, too, because he realized now that he was looking too far into Franky's actions-
"Hey. Longnose-bro. I haven't been very super this week." Usopp looked up into Franky's eyes, uncovered by sunglasses now. "I've been leading you on, and you're too good a kid for me to do that to."
Franky sounded too old, and wise, and tired, and not super at all, and Usopp wanted to tell him to stop, because Franky wasn't supposed to sound like this.
"I did some pretty un-super things two years ago, and I don't want you to think you have to keep it up."
Usopp was pretty sure he knew what Franky was trying to say- it made his stomach tighter, because Franky could be rejecting him now. But it also made him warmer and more excited and hopeful, maybe, because it meant Franky had thought about it, too, that it wasn't nothing to him, at the very least-
"Are you talking about this?" Usopp asked, and Heracles must really have done a good job with him, because he didn't hesitate at all when he leaned up, up, and kissed Franky, hard, and awkward, but not shy or chaste at all. He tasted Franky's teeth, his tongue, the metallic tang of a not-quite-human mouth, the ever-present sweetness of cola… Flavours and sensations that were all Franky, and everything he'd imagined over the past years-
Franky pulled away, pushed him away. Usopp's stomach dropped to his toes.
"Yeah. Like that," Franky said, and he still sounded too old and tired. "You don't have to do that."
Usopp's throat was so tight, so constricted, he wasn't sure he'd be able to form the words as he asked, "You don't want to?"
"I don't want you to. I'm too old and not super enough for you. What right did I have to do anything with you after what my Family did to you in Water 7? After what I did to you?"
Usopp leaned forwards, wrapped his arms around Franky's waist and buried his face against Franky's chest.
"I love you," he said, and even though he'd decided it wasn't true, he was sure then that it was.
Franky froze, and Usopp thought he'd done the wrong thing again- but then Franky was crying loudly and familiarly and hugging Usopp so tightly- too tightly- and it was nothing short of perfect. He realized that he hadn't exaggerated at all over these past two years- he'd underestimated. Everything about Franky was confusing and sometimes wrong- hard, cold arms that hurt when they hugged; crying when there should have been smiling; bad, bad memories mixed in with the good- but Usopp was a pirate, and wrong was the least of his worries.
"Super," Franky cried into Usopp's messy hair. He was still too quiet, but he sounded like Franky again. "I love you, too."
Everything wasn't the same as it had been before Kuma whisked them away- it would never really be the same, Usopp was pretty sure of that now- but different wasn't bad. Not when different meant confident enough to kiss, and love, and throw away the wrongness of something that seemed so right.