For some very odd reason, the one thing Sanji liked best about Usopp was the way he looked out towards the sea. Sanji discovered this one day, when he was on his way to the kitchen and saw the long nosed sniper gazing whistfully out at the endless expanse of sea and sky. The blonde paused for a moment, a little taken aback at the expression on the younger man's face, before shaking his head clear and heading into the kitchen.
A few days later, the same thing happened again, and it just became routine. The cook found it damn near impossible not to watch the sharpshooter, and it made him irritable in a way he couldn't describe. He felt almost creepy, just gazing at him from afar like that, he wasn't some sort of spy for God's sake. It was only until some time later, when he was cleaning dishes, that it wasn't Usopp in general that drew his attention. Rather, it was the way Usopp looked that he found so fascinating.
Usopp looked at the sea the way Luffy looked at the sky, or the way Robin eyed thick, heavy bound books stocked full on shelves. He gazed into its depths as though it held the worlds innermost secrets, studied it like a specimen on display, enraptured by its mere existence to take notice of anything else. Comets could trail across the sky in fiery, star dusted glory and Usopp would be too distracted by the rippling, reflective waves to even care. He was buried under the knowledge that when his fingertips grazed the cold, wet substance, he had just touched one small part of an entire lifetime. Sanji knew the sea well, suffered through it and fought until they became nothing more than equals, he knew what the life of a pirate held before he even became one. He knows how majestic it can be, how deadly and cruel it acts toward those weak of heart and naïve.
It scares him a little, honestly. Because Usopp, just like Luffy, saw the sea as adventure, a timeless sheet of blue to forever explore and conquer. Usopp would always have his head in the clouds, always too timid to make any brash declarations to the sea, until Sogeking would come along and make brave promises to it and vow to never break them, and perhaps he never would. But Sanji knows a lot more than he tells, and he'll be damned if he lets that shitty long nose succumb to the water's powerful force, forced upon his knees with his head bowed until the blade comes falling and ends his life right there and then. He won't let him fall victim to the selfish desires of a watery land-mine because Usopp was just so dear to him.
Sanji thinks all this and nearly smokes his entire pack in one hour, and then he'll catch Usopp with that dreamy look on his face and it kills him inside, but it revives him too. Because one day he'll have to accept the fact that Usopp will conquer his own ocean and travel the Grand Line with his name written down in history books, but that look. That look, goddammit! Zeff would wear that same expression back at the Baratie, once one gets a taste of the ocean, it remains with them forever.
This is the part where Sanji mentally runs his hands through his hair, because how could he ever envision his peculiar, cowardly yet ultimately brave friend facing the sea alone? Wouldn't he be with him, wouldn't they all be with him? Sometimes he wishes they never went out to sea so he could avoid all of these worries that cover him in blankets much too thick for his liking. But then, if they hadn't, he wouldn't have gotten to see Usopp's wanderlusted eyes search the ocean's heavens and-
"Sanji?" The chef jumps (he inwardly gripes about that, not too manly Sanji, not manly at all), and turns around to see none other than the curly haired boy looking at him with worry drawn across his face.
"What?" He covers up the bleeding in his heart, that look is still there.
"You were spacing out for a bit, is something wrong?"
Sanji tsks, and rolls his eyes. "Shithead, I'm fine," he growls just a bit, let's the words roll off his tongue. "Help me in the kitchen, will you? The ladies are relaxing and everyone else is too stupid to get the job done properly."
Usopp eagerly accepts with a look of pride and while he goes sauntering from the deck and into said room, Sanji takes one look out towards the ocean, sucks in a lungful of smoke, and follows Usopp, the kitchen door swinging shut behind him.
AN: I think I have a problem! I've been writing WAY too much lately, I need to cool it down, but these plot bunnies just won't leave! This is the last story, I promise XD.
Side note: I've got to get the hang of writing about Sanji, he's such a deep and thoughtful character, but it was fun nonetheless!