Title: Guardian of Sleep
Theme: #24 Guard, Set 3
Claim: Brook
Words: 516
Rating: K
Warnings: None
AN: This is the small continuation. I guess it's a point often made about Franky but hardly ever with Brook, I guess because he doesn't come across as very mature and gets on best with the youngest and silliest in the crew.
Do review, it's good for my ego!
Brook let his index-finger-bone rest on the key until the very last of the note had gone silent. He could still here it in his head though. When even that memory started to fade he let the key go and turned to look at Nami.
The young woman had gone to sleep, her head resting in her arms on the lounge table. Brook got up from his piano stool as silently as possible and wandered over to the sofa. He looked down at her peaceful face. The musician was glad he had been able to give her that peace. From the other end of the sofa he gathered a light blanket and carefully laid it across the Navigators shoulders.
He hesitated for a second, not sure whether he should go back to the cabins, but in the end decided to sit down across from her. He watched her sleep and noticed how much younger she looked, and how small.
Brook was well aware of his age at all times. In general very old people looked quite skeletal but he managed to top even that. Well he was in his eighties, after all, so his looks were almost fitting. He kept on observing the girl, because, as strong as they were and how maturely they handled every horrible thing the world flung at them, they were really still children in his eyes. Even Franky and Robin were youngsters compared to him. They had most of their lives still ahead of them. He had been double their age when he was captain of the Rumba Pirates.
And still, even though he was that much older than them he cared deeply for them as he knew they did for him.
Brook didn't have children, at least none he knew of and therefore he never had grandchildren either, but he suspected the love and utter pride he felt for these kids must be what it was like to be a grandfather. To be part of a family.
Nami sighed contentedly in her sleep pulling Brook away from his thoughts. A smile tugged at the sides of his lips, that weren't their anymore, but he could still feel after all those years.
He wasn't even sure he'd prefer a 'real' family over than this one.
The first rays of sun to come in through the porthole saw Nami still resting on the table and Brook sitting patiently opposite her, having guarded the girl's sleep all night.