Matters of the Heart
"Hey, Brook, can I talk with you for a bit?"
"Certainly, Usopp-san," Brook replied, gesturing to the bench behind him.
The old skeleton patiently waited for the nervous sniper to broach whatever subject had the boy seeking his company, keeping an eye on the Log Pose and waves as he was currently acting as the helmsman (the job tended to be passed around, though it was mainly himself or Franky since they had the experience).
"I─ There's a girl I think I like ─you know, like like─ back on my home island…" Usopp trailed off, his gathered courage fading.
Brook chuckled warmly. "Matters of the heart, Usopp-san? I'm glad you feel so comfortable as to ask myself, seeing as I no longer have a heart, yohohoho!"
"That's a lie and you know it," Usopp returned with a relieved grin. He hadn't expected Brook to turn him away, the old man loved to be there for them, but still, it was just that kind of touchy subject.
Brook just laughed at being called out by the crew's designated liar. "So a girl, hmm? I'm sure she's a fine young lady, Usopp-san. You're an upstanding young man yourself, if one holds no problems with a bit of piracy. Though I have known some ladies to be attracted to pirates for sense of wild danger─"
"No, no! Nothing like that! I'm not looking for advice on how to win her heart or anything!" Usopp quickly got out. He did not need images of their perverted grandfatherly musician successfully wooing a girl. Especially when he would imagine these girls falling for a skeleton even if that hadn't been the case (he'd only known Brook as a skeleton, so it was hard to imagine him in the flesh). "I… I guess I was trying to figure out how I really feel, how to act on that, and what comes after, maybe…"
Brook hummed in thought. "How very considerate of you, to think of the future like that. Young men are too often caught up in the passion of love to consider its consequences, though I suppose not being able to see each other anytime soon does give one pause for thought." Brook turned his head to look at Usopp behind him. "I'm not entirely sure I would be the best to advise you in this situation, generally being over fifty years out of date and all."
"Well, I don't think Sanji or Zoro'd have any good advice," Usopp said with a shrug. "Zoro doesn't really notice women and Sanji goes for any girl. Chopper and Luffy are both younger than me and just as oblivious to romance as Zoro. There's no way I could ask Nami or Robin. I mean, guys don't ask girls for this sort of advice, you know?"
Brook chuckled. "And that is a shame for them. 'No one understands women better than another woman,' as I was once told in my youth. And why not Franky-san? I don't think it would be mistaken to believe our shipwright has had some romance in his life before and he's certainly more contemporary than myself."
"I did consider asking him, but well…" Usopp nervously tangled and untangled his fingers. "He's always really confident in himself and I'm… not. And, don't take this the wrong way, Brook, but you seem like you might have been more like me when you were younger, not so… confident and self-assured." Usopp paused, waiting for Brook's reaction.
Brook gave a wistful chuckle. "You wouldn't be entirely wrong, Usopp-san. I was confident in music, but little else at first. It took time and experience to realize I was more capable than I thought myself to be. You've come quiet a ways in that regard yourself since we first met, Usopp-san."
Usopp smiled as the honest praise warmed his heart. "Yeah, so there was that and Kaya, the girl I like, is the heiress to the biggest mansion on my island. I remember back when you did that formal introduction for joining the crew, you mentioned serving your home kingdom's military, so I thought you might know some stuff about high society and dating there. Um, do you?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Brook replied, working to call up such old memories about social customs he'd never really cared for. He hadn't been a blueblood himself and so such social rules had hardly applied to him. "Firstly, it's not 'dating,' but 'courting.' And yes, there is a difference," Brook said with a pointed stare before Usopp could interrupt. "Courting requires the approval of girl's father and there is a certain formalness to it, along with rules for when certain actions or gifts are acceptable, and there is usually an end goal of marriage in a courtship. Unless a scandal or some other loss of ranking occurs, it is considered terrible manners to cut off a courtship, so it is not something to enter into lightly, as dating sometimes is."
"Oh," Usopp replied, looking pale and shaken by the thoughts of so many rules to dating someone. "Ah, but Kaya's parents died…"
"Then it would be at her guardian's discretion that she would be courted," Brook told him, and seeing the sniper's discomfort, continued, "Though rest assured, Usopp-san, the strictness to such codes varies by the social ranking of the heiress in question and how much the family decides to hold to these rules."
"Right. Okay. I'll just… get a book on it or something at the next port," Usopp said, nodding to himself. It would be doable, and he could always ask Brook for help with the book, maybe Robin if he brushed it off as a fancy to improve his storytelling or something (though he had to admit, deep down, that Robin would see right through that, if she wasn't already listening to this conversation). "And there was one other thing I kind of wanted to ask about, though I'm not as sure you can help on this one. I mean, we've all kind of heard about each other's childhoods here, mostly because they were relevant in some way to some enemies attacking us or something, except yours, so I don't know if you know about this kind of─"
"Usopp-san, you are rambling," Brook cut in, gently rebuking the boy. "I have nothing to hide of my past and will gladly try to use my own experiences to sort out your worries."
"Okay," Usopp quietly answered. "See, I'm worried that if I do m-marry Kaya, or some other girl, I would end up hurting her. I mean, Luffy's going to be the Pirate King and the World Government has been really terrible to anyone associated to the first one, like that whole mess with… Ace, and we've already declared war on them back at Eines Lobby…"
"But that is not your biggest concern," Brook said with keen insight. "By the time Luffy-san is King, we will be more than strong enough to hold an island like a Yonkou, so any family of the crew's that needed protection would be safe in such a place. There may not even be a World Government left standing considering all the unrest and upheaval going on in the world, or at least not one the same as it is now. So what is your real concern?"
"That I might leave her one day to return to sea, like my dad left me and my mom," Usopp quietly confessed.
Brook was silent and Usopp couldn't take it.
"It's not that I hate my dad for that or anything. I was, am proud of him! He's the sniper for a Yonkou! A brave warrior of the sea! But…" Usopp choked on the words as his eyes watered.
"But he wasn't there, and that hurt," Brook softly finished, getting a teary nod from Usopp. "My father was a soldier. He wanted and pushed me to be a soldier as well, even when I told him I wanted to be a musician. He was not a bad man, but he was strict and demanding. Good was not good enough. He wanted me to be great, like he never could be. I wanted him to be proud of me, so I applied myself to be a soldier like my father, to be the soldier he wanted me to be, yet at the same time I resented him. I resented that he could not be proud of me being me, of being a skilled musician. My father was there for me, yet at the same time, he wasn't."
"Were… were you ever afraid of being like him?" Usopp asked. "Sometimes… I'm afraid I'll be like my dad and leave my wife to die and my child to grow up alone."
Brook sighed, taking a hand off the wheel to pet Usopp's head. "I once was. I was afraid that I might one day scorn the talent of a child that was mine just to try and live the life I wanted for myself through them. However, one day I realized that the fear itself would keep me from doing so because I wouldn't want them to experience that same harshness in their childhood that I did. It may now be beyond my ability to have a child of my own, but I like to think that I can still use that lesson in helping this crew."
Usopp sniffed and wiped at his eyes. "Thanks. You would have made an awesome dad, Brook, though you're more like a grandpa here," he said with smile.
Brook gave a scoff of mock outrage. "Behave yourself, young man, or I'll send you to your room without dinner for disrespecting your elders."
There was a beat silence before they both split into peals of laughter, Usopp's worries now forgotten.
Author's Note
So I guess this is kind of a belated Valentine's Day type chapter? I mean, love is a theme here, but then Brook and Usopp ran away with it to other topics. So yeah, Brook and Usopp bonding that is really bitter-sweet.
