Disclaimer: I still don't own One piece.
AN: A little boy makes a wish. Another sad one. Enjoy?
A young boy was running through the village, flitting from one place to the next. Thinking about it, the inhabitants of that village couldn't recall a moment where said boy had not been running like a whirlwind around the houses, through the fields and passing by everyone else. It was as though he'd been born with a surplus of energy, with a surplus of desire to not be late for – to not miss something important that was about to happen soon. When he streaked past them, the preferred answer was for people to simply shake their heads at his antics and go about their day as usual.
Especially because no one could take seriously his ramblings about invaders and pirates coming ashore to raid their little island in the middle of the most peaceful of all the four Blues anymore.
It was a testament to how used they were to his shenanigans and how lenient they were in view of his mother's declining health that no one bat an eye at them these days. Let the boy run wild shouting lies to the sky – if it helped him cope with the inevitable, that was a tolerable solution.
That day, however, he wasn't the only one playing pranks on unsuspecting victims or shouting lies to the heavens. Seeing as it was the first of April, the young boy was in good company, really.
For that young boy, however, that day may as well have brought the sky falling onto his head. It was the first of April, after all, and, thus, his seventh birthday, as well.
Other little boys had a cake and presents and candles to blow out and make a wish on.
Usopp had none of those things. Well, that wasn't quite the truth, for he had a wish to make.
Arriving at the seaside where the sand met the bushes and trees and a wide way led down to the waves – his favourite side of the island –, he stopped, heavily breathing in and out. Running across the island like that had been a bit taxing on his young body, but he gathered himself quickly.
A continuous visitor to the rich mansion on that little hill a bit farther off, he'd not only entertained the young heiress himself, no. He'd learned quite a bit, too. From Kaya, he'd heard that you couldn't only make a wish on candles that you blew out once a year – you could also wish on a flower.
Usopp had disregarded the exact way on how to perform said wish-making – particularly as Kaya hadn't been able to provide specifics and hadn't known where to look for them –, his mind had been utterly stuck on the idea that a flower might be able to grant him his. Oh, he agreed that it couldn't be just about any flower that might do that, it had to be a pretty one with lots of petals.
Thus, he'd gone and looked for the perfect flower. Naturally, it had to be plucked on his birthday, for what other day was special enough to facilitate the wish-granting process? In his young mind's eye, it was perfectly logical and he'd made sure to pick the most beautiful of the lot to offer to the wish-granting deities that were out there.
He didn't believe in one single god, no (how could he, when his dad hadn't come back and left them just like that? What god would do nothing in the face of such abandonment?), but he did believe in something that helped on journeys and granted wishes (he still prayed for his dad being safe and well wherever in the world he may be together with his mother every evening of every day – his feelings aside, he didn't need to be angry at him all the time when his mum would rather he come back in one piece than not at all) (Usopp resented the fact that he had an inkling his dad wouldn't).
So, holding up the flower – the mighty wish-granting one – Usopp shouted out as loudly as his lungs allowed him, "I wish for mum to get well soon!" and closed his eyes tightly before he threw the flower away into the waves, to be carried off where wish-granting flowers performed their miracles.
AN: Another day, another chapter written on the day it ought to be published. I can't help myself, it seems. I hope you don't mind the mistakes in this one too much, dear readers!
