Dreams and Nightmares
Sometimes Chopper would wake in his hammock in the middle of the night, hat dragged down over his eyes in his sleep. He would stand up, shaking his head to remove the memories of the dream he had had, and would go up to get some fresh air on top of the ship. Even as he stood on the lawn of the Thousand Sunny, he still felt on edge; whenever he closed his eyes he could see a mark of an explosion, and the dying speech of a doctor tinged with the deranged laughter of a hungry king.
Usopp, who slept lightly, was often up to comfort his friend, and they'd sit on top of the deck, Usopp explaining how he dragged the moon into place or some other story, gesturing with a lowered voice to avoid waking the rest of the crew. Maybe if he tells Chopper enough stories, the dream of hypnotism and cat's claws would disappear.
They'd be joined by whoever was on watch that night. Mainly it was Robin, wrapped up warm against the cold, sitting serenely by her book and camping heater, warming coffee to keep her awake throughout the night. The two would join her in the crow's nest, and Usopp would continue on with his story, although now with interceptions from Robin providing certain more morbid details, to Chopper's horror. Occasionally, she'd wince as she saw details that reminded her of the nightmare that drove her to the lookout, like a cloud shaped like a giant or a wave that appeared to be frozen in the sea.
As was his habit when Robin was up, Sanji would rise and offer her refreshment during the night. This was eagerly taken up by Usopp and Chopper, leaning out and gesturing that they wanted some too. Sanji would scowl, and make responses that clearly said no, but still prepared three plates in the kitchen, one slightly larger than the other two of course. He ignored that the chopping of the meat sounded like the movements of an old man saving a foolish boys life, and that the night air shifted as if there was an invisible man nearby.
By now, even the four of them being as careful as possible would wake another crew member from a fitful sleep. Zoro picked himself out of the hatch, and would join the group, to Sanji's disgust. He'd toss back a mug or two of ale, then position himself on the grass and try to return to sleep. Maybe this time there'd be no falling friends, not black swords and no hawk cries.
Brook was generally the next up, hopping onto the deck and making jokes about his lack of eyes to keep shut to sleep. With his arrival, the conversation got much louder, the oldest member of the crew proving himself to be one of the most immature members also. He'd goad the others on to laughter, even Robin cracking under his onslaught of slapstick and self deprecation. When they laughed loudly, it nearly drove away the silence of years of fog, and the dying music of a dying crew. At least in the darkness, he did not have to see the shadows and remember when his left him.
When the skeleton started a tune, Nami, who had been desperately ignoring her crewmates in favour of sleep, would fling the door open to her and Robin's room and shout at them to be quiet. But she would also come down the stairs onto the grass and sit next to Robin, moaning about how it wasn't the time for music and dancing, accepting a glass of some new exotic cocktail expertly mixed by Sanji. She drank it down, and tried to forget the gunshot to a former marine's throat, or the harsh laughter of a blue man with a saw shaped nose.
Franky was one of the last up, and would come up rubbing his eyes with sleep. When he asked what they were all doing, they'd say dancing, or singing, or complaining, or chucking him a bottle of cola (a gift from the cook the cyborg happily accepted. When asked what he was doing , he'd shrug and just say that he couldn't sleep, before doing an overblown `SUPPPPPPPEEEEEEERRRRR` just to prove it. It didn't work, and he'd fall back into thinking about a train taking away its namesake, and the pain of rebuilding a body out of scrap metal.
And then Luffy, finally awake, would bounce (literally) up onto the deck, demanding food and asking everyone why they were there. A chorus of excuses arise, and Luffy would just grin and say `I had a bad dream`. When asked what it was about, he'd say `A big red fist, and burning paper. What did you dream about, Chopper?` turning to the youngest member of the crew with a massive grin. The rest of the crew would laugh, and admit their nightmares to each other, taking comfort in the fact that they all had the same reason for being there. And so the strawhat crew would dance and sing until dawn, together.
When dawn broke, each of the strawhats around the world woke with a shock. They would stare at their surroundings, until memory returned and they sank back to whatever they were using as a bed, staring at the ceiling or the sky, depending on location. They all remembered the dream, all remembered how good it was, until the end. The end was a mass of terror and screaming, and the image of a great paw pad, with metallic, caring eyes behind it, and the disappearance of each other.
The strawhats awoke from their shared dream, and began to make their way back to each other. Back to their home.
AN: Annoyingly, the inspiration for this did not come in a dream, which would have been awesome. Anyhoo....
Although this was great fun to write, I am planning to branch out into other kinds of stories, preferably ones that actually use dialogue in the text, rather than what I used both here and in the Musings series, which is basically a omnipotent narrator monologging (which apparently isn't a word. It should be, unless I've just misspelled it). But anyway, hope you enjoy it.