A light rapping on the door to your study interrupts your latest log entry. There's quite a bit left to note down- Whole Cake island was nothing if not a saga unto itself, and that ordeal's two islands past.
"Yeah?" You call out nonetheless.
"Ah, pardon the intrusion," Brook's smooth voice precedes muted daylight streaming in through the doorway. "I hope I am not interrupting."
The stuttering uncertainty in the skeleton's tone determines your answer more than the truth. You set aside your pen so you don't accidentally smudge- Nami chews you out often enough for how expensive paper is (yours isn't half as much as what she uses for maps, though you have wisely stopped pointing that out.)
"Nope," you say, leaning back in your desk chair. "What can I help you with?"
Brook stands in the doorway, his thin frame almost tall enough he needs to crouch. Not quite, of course, Franky was quick to make adjustments to accommodate Brook's height. The musician hums, too casually to be idle, and though he has no eyes (skull joke! Oh god, he's got you doing it now) you can tell he's glancing about the room.
"I was wondering," he says, tapping a finger on his cane. "If you might- that is, if your offer still stands?"
You blink, wondering what's he's referring to. He interprets that as hesitation, shuffles his feet backward like he's overstepped some boundary.
"It's all right," he says quickly, a little too hasty in his retreat. "I don't want anything you cannot give, of course."
Your brain goes click.
"OH!" You exclaim, because there's only one request Brook could make that would leave him looking so uncomfortable. "That's what you meant- no, no, yeah, sure!"
You jump out of your chair to catch him, heedless of the upturned furniture.
"Let me get the others out on the lawn," you say, easily fitting sideways between the door frame and his bony body. You pause, looking back at him and mulling over the idea. You bend over outside your study and pull your boots off. "I think the grass would be the best, don't you? Or maybe at the stern, the breeze will be back there."
"Um…" he stutters.
"Of course, you can obviously do what you want," you say, deaf to his voice in your excitement. "I should ask Nami what the weather's liable to be like. D'you"
"I was thinking," he says, clearly enunciating as to be heard. "That we might do this privately?"
You blink at him again. You frown just a little.
"Why?"
"I'm not exactly proud," he explains. "Making this request at all. Even with your consent, it's a somewhat gross violation."
You snort, not derisive of him, but out of bemusement at how his formal, gentlemanly personality conflicts with such a basic desire. All of your nakama, regardless of how they were prior to joining the crew, are practiced in the ways of communicating through physical contact, after all. Luffy's a touchy-feely, cuddle-hug-slap on your back kind of captain, Robin being the only exception for any kind of claps on her person. None of you deny that you missed it during your two years apart, so for Brook to feel ashamed of requesting a proper experience, well.
"That's dumb," you say bluntly, and you tug on his sleeve. "I told you I was fine with it whenever you asked. And if we don't tell Chopper, he'll freak out when he finds us, then the whole ship will know anyway."
"I… suppose." Brook concedes, stepping in line behind you at your behest. You bump into Zoro on your way to the galley, only throwing an invitation to him over your shoulder. Your noisy entrance might have led Nami to mistake you for Luffy, except the captain is already inside, whining at Sanji's heels for something to snack on. Chopper's trying and failing to encourage the rubber man to take his meals in the infirmary, being that his latest brawl had involved extensive pummeling on both sides.
"Where's Jinbe?" You ask, raising your voice over Luffy's pleas, Sanji's mild rebukes and Nami going over the route with Franky. "We need Jinbe out on deck."
Luffy, being the man-child he is, picks up on your excitement and, after a moment's deliberation, decides whatever you have to say has the potential to be more interesting than food. (Quite an honor.)
"Why?" Nami asks, glancing quizzically at Brook, your grasp on the musician's arm, and your splitting grin. "What's going on?"
"Luffy," you say instead of answering her, because you think maybe Brook will explain things on his own if the room clears out a bit. "Can you find Jinbe? We're gonna do something cool."
"What? What are we doing?" Luffy asks, bouncing with energy he had just claimed he lacked for want of meat.
"Find Jinbe and we'll tell you outside!"
He whoops, stretching an arm for the balustrade outside to launch himself.
"So," Sanji drawls immediately after he exits. "What is happening, exactly?"
"I'm SU~PER curious!" Franky exclaims, cocking his hips in a pose.
You urge Brook forward.
You can't vouch for the incident's veracity for obvious reasons, but as Brook gradually relates the unconventional means he used to save your life on Whole Cake island (you were unconscious, and one of Big Mom's children made to take advantage of that,) Chopper has stars in his eyes and Sanji and Nami exchange a smile with you. Franky grins wildly and gives you a thumbs up with his big hand and another with his smaller one.
"I told him he could possess me anytime he wanted," you sum up once he's finished. "He just asked."
Brook, despite only having a skull as a face, somehow blanches and pales.
"Oh, um," he stutters, like the word 'possess' will offend everyone.
"I'll go see what the weather's set to be like," Nami says, instilled with the same energy that's possessed you. "I can't guarantee a forecast either way, but last I checked we have a window of about half an hour. Maybe longer."
"I GOTTA GO TELL LUFFY AND USOPP!" Chopper cries out, streaking out the door onto the lawn. Not a minute later, Luffy's boyish voice reaches the kitchen with an outburst of incredulity.
"REALLY?!"
"Hey," Sanji says around a smoke, addressing Brook. "Tell me what you want to eat."
"Ah, that's not necessary."
"Hell it isn't," Sanji dismisses Brook's manners with a wave of his hand. "You haven't had a stomach for over five decades. I'm gonna make you whatever you want and you'll damn well eat it."
"OW!" Franky yells, lumbering toward the door. "I'll get you some of the best stuff from my Cola stash, Skull-bro! SUPER taste for your borrowed taste buds!"
Brook whips his neck back and forth, looking between the two of your nakama, one hand on his head.
"My goodness, my heart is palpitating! I'm not certain about all this attention."
You roll your eyes good-naturedly.
"You don't have a heart," you say, robbing him of his skull joke opportunity. "And you're a world-renowned rock star. Since when do you get stage fright?"
"Yohohoho!" He laughs, and you're glad he's finally at ease about the whole thing, comforted by everyone's support. "That's true, that's true!"
Outside, Robin watches you leap down while Brook takes the stairs with her knowing smile, and being that it's Robin you suspect she knew even before you shared the plan with everyone.
"Are you excited, Brook?" She asks. The skeletal musician hums ponderously, face turned toward the sun.
Luffy offers to take your place in the exchange, but Brook insists that it would be enormously inappropriate, bordering on mutinous, to act in the captain's body for any length of time. Usopp belatedly offers too, after he's asked you what it was like the first time.
("How the hell would I know? It's like being asleep, I guess.")
Brook politely declines since you offered first.
Everyone, the kids inclusive, know better than to suggest either of the ladies do it. Nami's already made it clear that, regardless of who's in control of your body, any request for panties will be met with the same swift rejection as always. Chopper's more fascinated by the idea of observing the phenomenon, Brook's afraid of accidentally breaking something in Franky's mechanical body, Jinbe's too massive for the change to be comfortable, and Sanji's cooking is essential to the experience.
You wonder for a moment if Zoro, being a fellow swordsman, would be the ideal choice, but,
"I wanna see if your sword fighting changes when you have muscle to back up your technique."
You doubt Brook's experience will compensate for your lack of coordination with a blade, but you keep that to yourself.
Finally, everything's ready. You take a seat next to Robin by the mast so you don't fall over during the transfer. Jinbe's on standby in case Brook wants to try swimming, though there's no way of knowing whether or not it will work just because he's in a different body. Franky has a bottle opener in one hand and the most carbonated bottle of Cola you've ever seen in the other, Luffy and Usopp are angling forward on crossed legs. Nami double checks the sky and confirms there are no imminent typhoons, and Chopper's watching wide-eyed from Zoro's lap. Sanji leans on the banister outside the galley, waiting till Brook is ready for any snack he names.
"I wonder if pooping would be weird in someone else's body?" Luffy wonders aloud.
You physically flinch at the layers of weirdness you could unpack from that question.
"UH." You respond intelligently.
Nami and Usopp do you the favor of bopping your captain for his lack of filter.
"Would you like me to take notes for you to peruse afterward?" Robin asks you thoughtfully.
"Ah," Brook utters, calling your attention to him. "Let me know when I may begin."
You think it over, looking at Brook, who patiently- so patiently- waits for you. You're certain that later, after you wake up or whatever, you'll be regaled by Luffy and Usopp about how you behaved, possibly some of your nakama will call you Brook by mistake and then panic when they see the unmoving skeleton before they remember. You might find out that Brook's dexterity on his old violin is affected by the sudden return to a flesh body, and you might miss out on a performance that's downright spiritual in it's beauty. And you'll note that all down in your log book, keep it for the crew as is your role, but…
"No thanks," you answer Robin. You don't need to publish this moment. "This is something that's just ours, you know?"
She smiles at that.
"Okay, Brook," you say, and you close your eyes. "Whenever you're ready."
There's a moment between closing your eyes and unconsciousness, a period of transit that you know Brook intentionally leaves in case you want to back out.
He's been a skeleton for over fifty years, only privy to the wind by the way it tugs his afro, experiencing hot and cold and pain as dictated by the phantom instincts of his body imprinted on his soul by a pirate's life.
He's endured that trial on the basis of a promise. He deserves the real thing.
You don't blink.