Before They Were Pirates
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay! Brook gave me trouble and then I had no internet to speak of for a week. Now I will be going on vacation starting tomorrow and will have no internet then for another week. Therefore I am posting this chapter with only minimal proofreading. Please let me know if you catch any errors! Thanks! Now, Brook's backstory is a bit lighter in mood than some of the others because I set it before my story Song of Flesh. Still, I think it turned out okay and I hope you enjoy it. Please review and let me know what you think.
Ah and according to Oda, Brook would be Austrian so there is a bit of German in this. Thanks to Yume111 for correcting my Austrian. I have changed Brook's childhood nickname to better reflect his nationality. Opa means grandpa and Shatzerl (pronounced shutsal) means little treasure. I will be correcting it in my other two Brook fics shortly. Also editing to fix a glaring typo that was pointed out to me by a most kind reviewer. On with the fic!
Chapter Nine - Brook: Before the Fog
Brook sat in the crow's nest, looking out over the foggy sea as he hummed softly to himself. The ship below was too silent for his taste but he wouldn't complain about taking his turn at watch. He was certainly old enough to pull his own weight.
"Although, I don't weigh much; since I am all bones! Yohoho!" He chuckled at his little joke, filling the silence with his own voice to ease his discomfort.
It wasn't just the silence or the fog either. He felt as if he had forgotten something and he couldn't remember what it was for the life of him; not that he was alive to begin with. It wasn't the first time his memory had slipped, not by a long margin. He had once lost an entire decade while drifting in the Florian Triangle. That was precisely why the small lapses frightened him so much.
As much as he generally tried not to think about it; Brook knew he had gone a bit mad in his isolation. He'd been eccentric when he was alive but fifty years, with only his own voice and the ghosts of his past for company, had pushed him over the edge and it had not been easy to climb back up.
Some days his grip on reality was tenuous still. There were mornings when he got confused which ship he was on. Days when he would think of something he needed to tell someone; only to suddenly remember that the person he was thinking of was long dead, before his current travelling companions had even been born. It was easier to push such distressing thoughts away during the day, with his nakama laughing and running around with their usual energy, but he still sometimes wondered if any of it was real.
This second chance still felt like a dream and on his worst days he questioned if it was just that. Perhaps he had finally let go of reality all together and he'd never left the fog at all. The two years they had spent apart had done nothing for his mental health. Real or not, being separated from his new nakama had been just as painful as losing the Rumbar Pirates and the loneliness had gnawed at him even as nameless fans screamed for his music.
He picked up his violin and began to play quietly, needing the comfort the familiar activity provided but trying not to disturb his sleeping nakama. The tune was something from another lifetime and he let himself be distracted from the gnawing loneliness; losing himself in the memories that it invoked.
"Opa! Opa! Look!" The gangly four year old shouted happily as he ran up to his grandfather.
"What is it, Shatzerl?" The elderly man smiled down at his only grandchild fondly.
"Frederic-san says he'll start teaching me the violin now!" He held up the black case his music tutor had given him with pride.
"Ah, that's wonderful...but I thought he was teaching you to sing and play piano?" That was what he was paying the man for. He had shown the dark haired child the basics himself but at just three years old, Brook had displayed a natural talent that rapidly outstripped his own rudimentary skill with instruments, so a proper teacher had been found for him.
"He is, but he says I can try other instruments too, so long as I keep practicing the piano." The tall child grinned widely. He had begged for weeks to try something other than the piano. He loved the beautiful sounds he could make with the polished ivory keys, but he didn't like having to sit still while he played. Even more than that, he hated the feeling of incompleteness that came over him when he had to close the wooden lid and go home.
With a little practice he'd have music he could take with him wherever he went.
His Opa reached down and ruffled his unruly curls affectionately. "I see. You are going to be quite the musician someday. Is that right Shatzerl?"
Brook nodded eagerly. "I'm going to make the most wonderful music in the world."
Five year old Brook peered through the curtains excitedly. He'd been practicing for almost two whole years, which seemed like a very long time to the lanky energetic child. Now he was finally going to perform for the first time.
He heard his name called and picked up his violin and bow with long fingered hands as the curtain rose in front of him. The stage lights were blinding and he blinked a few times before he could see anything past them. His stomach did somersaults as he raised the instrument to his shoulder and placed the bow to the strings.
His music tutor had assigned him a simple classical piece for the recital but the precocious boy had found the predictable cascade of notes to be utterly lacking something he couldn't identify. His tutor had made him practice the string of notes and rests until he could do it without looking at the sheet music at all. Brook could play the beginner piece perfectly but it didn't evoke the emotions that he felt when he played for his Opa in the evenings or improvised his own tunes as he practiced.
His tutor demanded perfection from his most gifted student. However, for the prodigy music wasn't about perfection. Music was about emotion, about moving people. The piece he was told to play couldn't even move him, much less anyone else; no matter how hard he tried to embrace it.
So, Brook had made a secret and slightly terrifying decision and now was the moment of truth. He could let the notes that had been drilled into his head emerge and his tutor would praise him for a flawless performance...
Or he could let the music flow from his soul.
He spotted his grandfather sitting in the front row; smiling with pride even before the first sound could emerge from the taut strings. Brook smiled back and closed his eyes in concentration.
The first note trembled like the cry of a lost child before it was followed by soothing tones like a lullaby. Gradually the slow gentle pace picked up and the notes shifted until it became something playful and full of the innocent joy of childhood. The notes chased each other up and down the scale as if trying to catch up in a game of tag; darting and changing directions rapidly before shifting again into something slower but no less content. It created the impression of the exhausted peace of a summer afternoon after a morning of fun. The music meandered at that pace for a time; the long walk home with friends and family. Finally, the child moved back into the sweet lullaby, letting it trail off at last with a softly played note that hung in the air for a long time as he finally lowered the bow to his side.
Brook held his breath as he waited for his teacher to come out and scold him. The silence seemed to drag on for an eternity as the audience was distressingly quiet in the wake of his composition. He was ready to turn away and slink back behind the curtain. They felt nothing. He had failed.
He bowed quickly, wanting to escape the crushing sense of disappointment welling up in him. The silence erupted just as he began to move, as if his motion had broken a spell he wasn't aware of casting. Dark eyes shot open in shock as he straightened, the lights once again blinding him momentarily as his mind struggled to register the sound washing over him. As his vision focused he saw the crowded auditorium was full of people on their feet and applauding wildly. Smiling, the boy sought out his Opa's face but the old man wasn't where he had last seen him.
Brook was stricken with a sinking feeling. What if Opa hadn't liked it? Sure, it was nice that all these strangers were clapping for his music but if the only person he cared for in the world had walked out...then it was empty noise.
He was so lost in his thoughts that the arms that wrapped around his shoulders came as a shock to the tall child. He startled and nearly dropped his violin before he realized the smiling face attached to those arms was as familiar to him as his own long features.
"Opa!" He felt the grin spread across his face at the sight of the wrinkled old man's smile and the tears in his eyes.
"That was beautiful, Shatzerl!" The older man crowed with obvious pride. "Did you write it yourself?"
Brook nodded, unable to speak for a moment as relief had stolen his breath.
"Ah, you are such a talented boy! Does it have a title?"
Brook smiled sheepishly and shook his head of black curls. "Not really, Opa."
The old man smiled fondly and ruffled the untameable hair as he tugged the child off the stage as the applause had finally died down. "I'm sure you'll think of one for it eventually." He laughed. "Now, I believe this calls for a celebration."
Brook let the last note, of the first piece of music he ever wrote, die away as he recalled the events of so many decades ago with perfect clarity. He could still remember the way his Opa smiled at him; a special smile that only he could evoke in the generally cheerful man. If he thought about it he could almost hear the elderly man's voice, telling him vivid stories of the mother and father who had died before he was old enough to know them at all.
"And yet I cannot recall what Sanji-san made for breakfast yesterday." The old skeleton laughed at himself bitterly. "If he made breakfast..." He mumbled as his empty gaze was drawn back to the fog outside the window, doubts and voices pulling at him once again now that he'd let the music stop for a moment.
"BROOK!" A loud voice startled him nearly out of his skin, which was okay since he had no skin anyway, and he pushed open the window and peered down at the deck curiously.
"Luffy-san?" He called down to the boy he could not quite see through the swirls of fog on the deck.
"Come down!" The captain ordered happily.
Brook hesitated for only a moment in his confusion before he leapt lightly from the crow's nest and ran down the rigging before jumping easily to the grassy deck.
"Luffy-san, what...?" The skeleton trailed off as he finally noticed what the fog had hidden from him when he was above.
A picnic had been laid out on the grass and all of his nakama were gathered around it with smiles of various degrees of intensity. Luffy's was blinding as always; a grin only a rubber face could accomplish. Meanwhile Robin's smile was reserved and Zoro's was only a smirk.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Luffy crowed with a giggle. The sentiment was echoed by several others.
If Brook had any eyelids left he would have blinked stupidly in shock but since he had none he had to settle for merely dropping his jaw and staring blankly at his crew and the large cake Sanji was holding.
"My...is it my birthday?" The nine foot tall skeleton finally managed to stammer out his response weakly.
Robin nodded. "Mm-hm, at least if the date you gave in your final Soul King interview was correct."
Brook honestly didn't remember any interview but he wasn't about to mention that lapse. It didn't matter anyway; not when his nakama were with him. If they said it was his birthday, he wasn't about to argue the fact.
"Ah, thank you, everyone!" He said sincerely; all his grim thoughts pushed aside by the thoughtfulness of these people.
He couldn't worry too much about being insane, not on a crew full of dreamers and lunatics. These incredibly strong, incredibly young people; who had taken a dead man into their midst and taught him how to live again. Eight people who would throw a birthday party outdoors in the middle of a foggy night.
"I didn't have ninety-one candles." The blonde cook said gruffly as he set the delicious looking cake down on the already loaded picnic blanket.
Brook chuckled, the shock wearing off. "Ah, it's quite fine Sanji-san. So many candles would likely have burned my eyebrows off anyway...except I have no eyebrows! Yohohoho!"
The chef rolled his visible eye but grinned and stuck his lighter in the middle of the cake to substitute for the missing candles when it came time for the lanky musician to make a wish.
Brook looked around as the party got underway around him, food flying into the mouth of their bottomless captain and the noise of the celebration washing over his senses like a soothing balm.
He stood with a flourish. "Everyone! Thank you so much!" He bowed theatrically and his violin was in his bony hands when he rose again to his imposing height. "Now, I shall play a song for you all in order to express my gratitude. Yohoho." In his heart he smiled and he knew he nakama could tell despite the rigidity of his facial features. "I call it, Rhapsody of Life."
He began to play with that first plaintive cry of the strings before the lullaby soothed away all his childhood fears and allowed him to bask in the joy that only someone who has truly been loved unconditionally can know. He was vaguely aware of the party atmosphere growing still around him as his nakama settled in to listen. When he reached the original ending of the piece, he could not help but continue; playing music he had never shared with anyone alive. Over the years the familiar music had grown and evolved; new passages added for every milestone in his life.
There was the stuffy refrain that reminded him of his years at boarding school, the adventurous dance of his mercenary years and the stately, yet faintly mocking waltz of court politics. Then came the brief struggle of his exile and dishonor before the long and joyous memory of the first pirate crew to take him in. A single line from Bink's Sake was played bittersweet for the death of Captain Yorki and his reluctant acceptance of his new role as captain. Another joyful interlude, all too brief; before the almost painful discord of battle and the slow march of a funeral dirge that gradually shifted into something melancholy and lonely. It dragged on, faltering at times so that the listener might think the piece was ended before picking up again. The endless notes were blurred like the fog that still swirled around them but there were bright bits that would surface in the gloomy array of sounds before the loneliness would shove them back down once more. Endless maddening gloom turned to fear and despair with the loss of his shadow, but that despair fueled a new edge of desperation that cut through the sorrow and soon overpowered even the madness that had grown more prevalent over the long and somber section of the piece.
Finally, joy broke through once more and the despair and sorrow and madness were forced to fade away under the onslaught of an unstoppable force that drew the listener in and captivated them with the strength and energy it conveyed. This new tune brought strength and excitement and madness of its own but there was also laughter and peace and love worked into the notes that could still be felt even as the lanky musician finally let the last notes fade out with a lingering sense of hope for more to come.
Brook was knocked back by a furry projectile that turned out to Chopper; the little reindeer crying but smiling as he clung to the tall man's ribcage in determined affection. A huge metal hand patted him on the shoulder as Franky loudly complained about something in his eyes before he scooped the skeleton and the tiny reindeer up in a massive hug that should have been far more uncomfortable than it was, considering one of the participants was all bones and another was more than half metal.
"Shishishi!" Luffy chuckled to see his nakama so happy. "Birthday hugs!" He announced with a note of command in his happy-go-lucky tone.
Usopp shrugged and joined the hug in progress, knowing that fighting Luffy's will was often painful and not worth the trouble. Sanji balked until Nami rolled her eyes and grabbed him by his elbow to pull him into the pile of Strawhats that was growing steadily around the stunned musician. Then, the cook was too blinded by the hearts in his eyes to worry about the fact that he wasn't just hugging his beloved Nami-swan. Robin chuckled and walked calmly into the embrace as Franky moved a steel arm in order to allow her a space.
Zoro narrowed his eye and huffed, crossing his arms stubbornly and holding his ground as Usopp called out for him to come on. His eye twitched when Nami threatened to raise his debt but he still held back from being sucked into the laughing, crying, snuggling pile of pirates. That stubbornness was overruled seconds later, when Luffy grinned at his first mate meaningfully and uttered two dreaded words.
"Captain's orders!" The rubber man laughed and dragged the scowling, but no longer resisting, Swordsman forcefully into the jumbled group hug; before wrapping his rubber arms impossibly around all eight of them as if he'd never let them go.
Brook felt tears welling up in eyes he no longer possessed as he was surrounded by his precious nakama and his captain. His earlier worries and doubts were nearly forgotten. There was no way his mind had conjured up this crew, he could barely fathom how such a perfect group of misfits had come to exist in the first place.
Although, the answer to that was actually quite easy; it even had a name: Luffy.
"Ah, my heart is so full of happiness it could burst!" He announced tearfully. "Except of course I have no heart! Yohohoho! Skull Joke!"
The sun was beginning to rise; burning away the fog as they separated their tangle of limbs with some difficulty.
They sailed on through the New World. It didn't matter that Brook sometimes lost track of where he was, because that happened to Zoro often enough that the skeleton's lapses were barely noticed. It didn't matter that he forgot it was impolite to request to see the panties of every woman he met, because Sanji was generally trying to accomplish the same goal without being so straightforward about it so in a way at least Nami and Robin seemed relieved that their oldest nakama could be dissuaded from pestering them with a simple "no" or at worst a blow to his afro-covered head. Oh and even if he sometimes held conversations with people who weren't really there it hardly raised eyebrows among the crew. Usopp was often enough found talking to himself that no one paid any mind to either of them. Even the rare occasions when it bothered him that he was only bones, when he questioned his humanity; Franky or Chopper were always around to help him remember that human wasn't about what you were made of, but rather who you were in the depths of your soul.
Brook decided that none of it bothered him too much in the end. He might be going senile or he might be slightly cracked (his skull certainly was that) but at least he had the excuse that he was old and sort of dead.
His nakama were all a little insane and made no excuses for it; and that was precisely why he loved them so much.
The End!
Author's Notes: It's done! Woo! I will be adding bonus chapters based off of these (EDIT: First one should be up today). I have a couple written already, but the base set of stories is done so I am marking it complete. Thank you all for reading and I look forward to seeing what you think of this final chapter. Please review!
