A/N:

This is incredibly late and incredibly angsty. I really have nothing else to say except... enjoy this somewhat Usopp-focused chapter exactly none of you asked for. I think this also counts as Merry's backstory? Yes? Have fun.
(P.S. I'm shocked and half-disappointed nobody has called me out for these chapter titles yet. Step aside, Fall Out Boy.)

Gas stations have become something familiar and halfway comforting. Zoro feels like that's where he always ends up when he zones back in from hours of driving.

If nothing else, they provide the opportunity to stretch and shake the deadness out of his limbs after sitting for far too long.

He'd finally noticed the list of 'locations' stuck on the van wall and couldn't resist. Apparently neither could the others, because below his handwriting is someone else's.

'Location: IDK, New York?'

'Zoro, We're Literally in SoCal, It's Not Possible to Be Further From New York in the Country.'

He leaves it be for now.

They make a quick pit-stop, accompanied by screams of terror from Usopp as the gas tank monitor bings at them a quarter of the way to the pet store. Susan needs more supplies, though they don't do much more than bask in their heat lamp for hours and hours. Lizards are kind of boring pets, Zoro finds, but he loves the lazy little blob of scales nonetheless.

Usopp had vetoed bringing Mariana because—

"The sheep heads are cursed enough, so get in line!"

Fair enough, he guesses. Luffy promised to bring her a lollipop. Zoro's not sure how much good that's going to do when it's larger than her entire body.

The three of them are the only ones delegated to the task for, essentially, the same reason as before.

("I am not going to be responsible for the chaos our group will cause if we all come with you, especially if it's the pet store." Nami had narrowed her eyes in the general direction of the backseat. "Ace might try to buy three chinchillas again."

"I would not!"

Her deadpan stare said more than words ever could.

"Buy... three." He wilted, hunching in on himself as he mumbled, "Just one."

"That's one more than we need."

"That's a lie. Who mandated the chinchilla limit, anyway? Did we even vote on that issue? I don't remember voting on it because I definitely would have voted more chinchilla."

"I will eat your favorite lighter right in front of you and not feel even a little bit bad about it."

Sanji squinted at her. "Is that supposed to be more threatening to you or him?"

"Her," Ace said, "because my favorite lighter is shaped like a fire extinguisher and I can't see that going down easy."

"Not the pig?" Luffy pouted. "Where it comes from the nostrils?"

"Hmm. Not as ironic.")

A series of pokes to his side makes him jump where he leans against Merry. Luffy giggles at his reaction, hitching a thumb toward the store. "Does Zoro want a snack?"

He wrinkles his nose at his tone. "What am I, your fucking pet?"

"Would you be?" Luffy cocks his head, not missing a beat.

"What? Why the hell would I want to?" Zoro volleys back, quickly losing track of what they're talking about or how they got here.

Luffy shrugs. "Then I'd get to keep you! And you'd get to keep me," he says, like that isn't somehow the weirdest yet most... adorably possessive line of thinking he's ever heard.

"Uh. Right."

It doesn't even piss him off in the "what the fuck" way statements like that usually do. He's just— warm. Basking under the attention of that smile.

Zoro swallows the lump in the back of his throat. He wishes he could hit the mute button on the voice in his head that begins chanting 'kiss him, kiss him, kiss him!' No one's gotten him to feel this much in a while. And this positive? Never. It's kind of freaking him out. He shouldn't want to kiss Luffy. He's fairly certain that's not how friendships work.

Because, really, what the fuck is he doing crushing on someone he's known for a week? Fucking fine, he admits it. Luffy's cute or hot or whatever, but Zoro's going to keep those thoughts locked down tight. He doesn't want to consider what will happen if he walks into his house and says something like: 'Hey! So I have a boyfriend — yeah, I'm gay or some shit that you don't care about — and he rides around in a sheep-van named Merry with the seven other outcasts of my high school, but it's okay because I'm an outcast, too!'

Zoro repeatedly bangs his head against Merry's door.

Boyfriend? Boyfriend? Now he's really getting ahead of himself. Nobody in their right mind would date him. They only want to—

"Zoro, what are you doing?"

"Trying to knock myself out."

"Why?"

You and your stupid face and your way of being nice to me when I don't deserve it. "No special reason."

Zoro may not survive this trip.

He had the right idea for the wrong reasons. The only pet store in town is stupidly far from their hotel and—

"Galileo! Galileo. Galileo!"

His ears are dying. They're dying and he's going to tear them off before the disease spreads to the rest of him. He inhale-exhales slowly, trying to quell the urge to scream. Even more slowly, he inches up to the passenger seat and looms along the back of it until Luffy finally turns around.

"What?" he asks, horrifically innocent for the amount of torture he's inflicting.

Zoro never thought he would say this, but— "If you play Bohemian Rhapsody one more goddamn time, I'm going to throw your phone out the fucking window."

Luffy frowns, clutching the device in a protective fist. "It's a good song!"

"Not after seven fucking replays," he hisses.

Luffy raises the phone to display both the screen and the sheer magnitude of fucks he gives, which is to say none at all. Never breaking eye contact, he presses the back arrow to play it again. "Weak."

"Is this the real life? Is this just—"

A shriek of frustration tears from Zoro's throat, drowning the music out entirely. Luffy screams in turn, flinging his phone to the floor as Zoro lunges for the gap between the front seats. He doesn't bother chasing the phone, instead ripping the aux cord from the console, dragging Luffy's phone along the end with a well-placed tug. His tormentor watches in abject horror as Zoro unplugs his phone and firmly sits on it.

"Zoro's mean!"

He scoffs. He is decidedly NOT-MEAN. He did not, after all, throw the phone out the window like he threatened. "You're fucking mean!"

Luffy sticks his tongue out at him, face twisted in a scowl. He fumbles his headphones out of his pocket and into his ears, turning around with a loud, disapproving harrumph.

"Those aren't connected to shit. I have your phone, dumbass!"

"I can't hear you over Freddie Mercury!"

"Give up," Usopp says, voice absolutely lifeless. "Never hand Luffy the aux cord. I never know what the song will be except that it won't be more than that. A song. One."

He shakes the offending cord in his face. "Aren't you in charge of it?"

"Constant vigilance is hard to maintain, Zoro."

"I still blame you since you're the driver. Control your co-idiot."

Luffy pouts, head snapping toward them. "Hey!"

Zoro ignores him. He can't possibly hear them over his imaginary soundtrack.

"My idiot?" Usopp lets loose a hideous cackle. "What gives me ownership? Driving Merry?"

Regardless of whether he actually means it, Zoro nods. "Abso-fucking-lutely."

And then, because he's clearly cracked under the stress of the last forty minutes, Usopp swerves toward the road's shoulder. "Fine! Fine, fine, fine—" He throws her into park, cursing his seatbelt as he unbuckles with sharp, jerky movements and plops down in the back seat. "I'm giving up custody to save my sanity. You drive!"

The keys, with their odd little flying-pig charm, land in Zoro's lap as though that isn't insanity in itself. Merry being entrusted to him is somewhere near rock-bottom on the list of possible things that he thought would happen. For so many reasons. The most glaring being that Usopp trusts no one with her and Zoro shouldn't even be a candidate.

But Usopp only stares at him, arms crossed.

Oh, jesus fuck, this is awkward.

The challenge makes him want to jump right in the driver's seat. He's not sure he wants to gamble his friends' lives to save face and not look pathetic. And yeah, plenty of people their age and older can't drive, but Usopp says it so pointedly it's like— Can't you even do this right? You should be able to do this.

Zoro wonders if four or five not-too-bad sessions of self-teaching in Alvida's truck at 3AM are sufficient. (The fact that she never found out and, therefore, never beat the shit out of him for it? The victory of his lifetime.)

He gets in the driver's seat. "Fine."

It's not going to be fine when you crash the damn van.

Zoro elects to ignore his inner-voice of reason.

As it turns out, Merry is a fucking behemoth of a vehicle. She may be a van, but she has the turning radius of a goddamn seven-forty-seven.

Zoro did not anticipate how difficult might be to drive something at least three times larger than Alvida's stupid truck. One small mercy is that she isn't stick-shift, because Zoro can hardly remember left and right without considering the rest of the bullshit that entails.

"GO RIGHT! NO THE OTHER RIGHT!" Usopp screeches, holding onto the seat beneath him for dear life. "NO THE OTHER OTHER RIGHT!"

The car behind them honks, long and angry. Zoro panics, jerking the wheel the opposite way, and—

An anticlimatic tearing noise shreds Zoro's already frayed nerves as he scrapes the side of the van on fuck knows what. He flies past before he can begin to identify it.

"Pull over!" Usopp grips his shoulder, fingers digging in harshly, and Zoro's stomach bottoms out.

He pulls over.

"Uh oh," Luffy mumbles, going after Usopp when he wrenches the door open and throws himself outside.

A muffled shriek from Usopp reaches him through the van walls.

Zoro sits alone, heart pounding in the ensuing silence as he white-knuckles the steering wheel. His blood turns icy, a cold flush sweeping through him and rendering him immobile even though he knows he should go fucking apologize. It won't matter. Usopp probably wants to kill him. Awesome. He'd known he would fuck up badly somewhere, but this is worse than he imagined.

He pries his fingers from the wheel, sweat-slick palms leaving a smear on the leather, and great, that's just what this situation needs— his grimy hands ruining the wheel's sleeve! He stares blankly at them as they shake in midair, hoping like hell that he's not about to vomit on top of everything else. With a shudder, he pops open the door and practically falls out of the driver's seat, swaying unsteadily as his fingertips pause on the rim of the open door.

Just in case.

Because he'd rather fling himself directly into oncoming traffic than fuck up quite that much. If he lets go entirely, it might happen anyway.

Not like it matters. He loses that tiny point of contact with Merry when the door slams shut and he instinctively dips forward to avoid his fingers getting crushed. The sound rattles his bones, a thunderclap to the system, but Zoro doesn't look. He can't, because he knows Usopp's silhouette well enough to recognize it in his periphery. Zoro can't tell if the stream of cars rumbling by is that loud, that fast, or if he's just shaking that bad.

A hand lands on his shoulder, grip squeezing, and Zoro goes stock-still. He lets himself be manhandled around to face Usopp, limbs loose yet somehow rigid, trying not to get defensive. Trying not to jump the gun and shove him into Merry before bolting. One, he doesn't know where the fuck they are. Two, Usopp is clearly terrified of him whenever Zoro hasn't just scratched up his favorite thing in the world, and he'd rather not make that worse.

So, yes, he's trying. Everything's sinking underwater anyway. He's pretty sure someone's speaking to him, but his eyes are squeezed shut and he can't hear much past the dull roar as he braces for a hit.

It gets louder, the hand on his shoulder tighter, two voices tripping over each other in anger until the hold on him abruptly gets knocked loose. Zoro dares to open his eyes, the red of Luffy's shirt almost too bright in the sun against Merry's monochrome paint job. He's standing too close. Tension knots Luffy's turned back, fists clenched at his sides, but it's no less jarring than if they were nose-to-nose because what the fuck is he doing?

"I know you love Merry! I do too, but calm down! It's not that bad!"

Zoro stares at the back of his head, transfixed by the sharp line his jaw makes as he grits his teeth. As he defends Zoro for reasons he can't even begin to fathom right now. Nobody ever defended him for things as small as dropping a glass of water. Him fucking up something this important isn't even in the same league, and yet—

"Seriously? I can't pay to fix that, Luffy!" Usopp jabs a finger at the van and guilt hits Zoro like a knife to the chest.

"Dadan can help! So can Franky. You work there, Usopp!"

He manages to scowl harder, and Zoro hadn't even thought him capable of such a mean expression. "That's not the same thing. We don't do that! And that doesn't mean I don't have to pay! It's not—" His mouth clamps shut, muffling the frustrated screech that sounds from the back of his throat. "You're so fucking dumb sometimes, Luffy."

The pit in Zoro's chest gapes wider when Luffy's shoulders bunch closer, fists opening and closing as he huffs. "I know, but—"

"No, you don't listen. That means keep out of it, for once in your goddamn life!"

Luffy's head bows and Zoro opens his mouth before he can think better of it, snapping, "Don't fucking talk to him like that. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Me?" Usopp focuses on him over Luffy's shoulder, incredulous. "What's wrong with you?"

And if that isn't the million-dollar question, Zoro will eat his own foot. "You've gotta be a helluva lot more specific than that."

Usopp takes a step forward, the fire in his eyes making Zoro back up in turn, matching him step for step. "Why did you even try to drive her when you clearly can't?"

It's not true but he says it anyway, to convince them as futilely as he could ever convince himself. Because he doesn't want to admit he barely knew what he was doing. That he really is that incompetent. That desperate for— for their approval or some shit. "You're acting insane. It's just a fucking van, Usopp!"

The rage burns brighter than ever, disappointed frown lifting in a snarl, and Zoro takes a bigger step back. He knows that look. Knows even Luffy between them won't stop Usopp from trying to beat the shit out of him. He keeps shuffling away, soles dragging on the gritty road despite realizing he has to suck it up and get it over with at some point. Just not yet. The reprieve from this shit was nice while it lasted.

Usopp's eyes dip downward and widen just before he lunges toward him, hand outstretched. "Fuck, Zoro!"

Zoro flinches back as Luffy also whirls around, not expecting that much movement or aggression right off the bat. He nearly jumps out of his skin as a horn blares right behind him. A dizzying whoosh of air knocks him off balance, and one harsh yank to the middle of his shirt later he's crashing toward the ground, knees scraping. A leg slots between them, pressing at Zoro's inner thigh firmly enough that he recoils and tries to stand, pitch backward even if it means falling into traffic again. The hand still twisted into his shirt stops him. A gasp punches out of Luffy as he lands flat on his back underneath him.

Within moments, Luffy curls upward and leans his head toward Zoro's chest, mumbling, "It's fine, it's fine, it's fine—" over and over again.

"Jesus christ, what the fuck, oh my god, you almost died—"

Distantly, he realizes there are at least four too many hands grappling at his arms and clothing, voices barking, "Are you okay?" like it's all they know how to say. He's too disoriented by the ringing in his ears to do anything but freeze, heart hiccuping in panic.

He doesn't know how long he crouches there before he sits back a bit, calves burning from the awkward position. Luffy's shoulder trembles beneath his hand as he glances toward where Usopp paces, babbling a mile a minute. Sighing shakily, he winds an arm around Luffy's waist and hoists him to his feet. He lets him go, practically prying Luffy's fingers from his shirt.

Fucking stop it. You're fine, brush it off, he tells himself, hears it more in Alvida's voice than his own. That's exactly the point. He's being stupid and he's done stalling. Nothing even happened, you drama queen.

"I'm fine," he insists at Luffy's frown, his shaking head. Zoro turns away, gesturing Usopp forward. "Alright. Let's get this over with."

Usopp squints in confusion, though he maintains that anger-roughened tone. "What?"

He tilts his head and knocks on his cheekbone. "Free shot and we're even. Maybe." If Usopp decides he deserves more than that, he won't protest. His stomach twists as he shrugs, eyes roaming the horizon even though he wants nothing more than to duck his head and run. "I'll pay for repairs or whatever, too, but we can work that shit out after this."

He thinks he might have saved enough. He's never been more grateful that Koshiro helped him set up a bank account with barely a question as to why he refused to go to his legal guardian about it. Meanwhile, Alvida thinks he's only a volunteer at the dojo. Fuck knows she'd have spent every last cent he earned if she knew. Further compensation for his existence.

Usopp's still staring at him uncomprehendingly, and he doesn't dare check what kind of face Luffy's making right now.

Zoro rolls his eyes. "Do you even know how to throw a punch?" He walks over at the risk of being wrong and getting a nasty surprise. Usopp was pretty fast with that lunge earlier, after all. "Here," he says, taking Usopp's wrist in one hand and forcing it into a fist with the other. "It's easy. Just make sure you keep your thumb out and center your weight." He kicks lightly at Usopp's foot, nudging it into place the same way he adjusts kids' stances at work. "Dominant foot back. Twist your hips into it but shoot straight."

He steps out of his space but not quite out of punching range, crossing his arms as he waits.

Usopp stares at him like he's just told him to breakdance in the middle of the street. His head whips toward Luffy. "Did that just happen? Luffy, please, I can't tell if he's joking."

Zoro also turns to Luffy. "Can you show him? I don't know how much simpler I can explain it and I want to move the fuck on."

Luffy scowls, viciously yanking Merry's back door open. "Get in, Zoro."

He sighs, wondering what the hell he's done to earn Luffy's ire now. "He still hasn't—"

"Get. In." He stomps into the van without another word.

Zoro glances toward Usopp and receives a mild glare before slinking after Luffy. He quietly hands back his phone and the aux cord, slumping into the seat as that goddamned fucking song begins again.

He holds back a scoff, though it's mostly directed inward.

Stupid.

He should have just accepted the torture the first time around. This is what he gets for being—

Weak. Fucking weak. Can't even deal with something so insignificant? Are you shitting me?

Even Luffy had said it.

Zoro grits his teeth harder, because hearing Luffy's voice layered over Alvida's is a special kind of hurt. It makes him wish that Usopp hadn't shouted. That Luffy's reflexes were slower. That he'd already stepped far enough none of it wouldn't have mattered anymore.

Their very awkward shopping trip flies by, thankfully no overly-touchy employees in sight, and before long Merry's back to terrorizing the public.

About six more replays of Queen later, during which Zoro hasn't so much as breathed let alone complained, Usopp slaps a hand on the wheel with a curse and mutes the radio.

The silence stretches until, like an asshole, because done stalling lesson learned, Zoro mutters, "Is it time to share our feelings?"

Usopp gives him a dry look.

"Sorry, go ahead."

"Look, I know—" Usopp huffs, physically shaking off the rest of his anger as he wiggles his limbs. "I know we all like to poke fun and laugh about how much Merry means to me but that's because she does. She's—" He snaps his mouth shut, swallowing against difficult words. They come out slowly, carefully. "She's the only important lie I've ever made half-true."

"Half-true?" Zoro glances at a strangely silent Luffy, but he's staring at Usopp with sad eyes.

"It was the last story I told my sister before she died."

At that, Zoro's chest tightens to the point of breathlessness. Blue splashes behind closed eyelids as he takes a deep breath. Which is stupid, because she may not have contacted him in close to a decade, but Kuina isn't fucking dead. Probably.

He hopes.

Well, now Zoro knows why Usopp hadn't punched him in the middle of the road. One punch would not have been enough and traffic whirring by wouldn't have been conducive to the full beating he's earned.

"Shit. I—" He runs a hand through his hair, hating how much he kind of wants to cry. "I'm sorry. I've been such an asshole about this. I knew how much she meant to you but— fuck. I'm just sorry."

Usopp exhales heavily. "It'll be okay. We'll figure something out." He playfully shoves at the boy next to him, drawing a giggle out that makes everything else feel a little lighter. "Luffy was kind of right anyway. It's not that bad."

"Kaya would be mad you yelled at me," Luffy says.

He shakes his head, amused but baffled. "Why do you always talk like you knew her?"

Luffy shrugs, looking out the window with a grin. "You've told me about her enough times." He gasps, shoving Usopp far more harshly than he'd been shoved earlier. "Zoro doesn't know! Tell him!"

"You just want to hear me tell it again, don't you?"

"So?"

Zoro cringes a bit. "You really don't have to if you don't want to."

He gets waved off. "It's okay." Usopp sighs, fond before he's even begun to spin his tale. "I like having new audiences. And this one is nothing but true."

Usopp's favorite story is about a girl.

The daughter of his father's second wife, who wanted neither of his children. At least not more than he wanted his own freedom. Usopp resented him for it, but that had been more for Kaya's sake than his own. He hadn't expected the man to stick around after his ten-year-old daughter fell victim to the same disease that killed his first wife. The second one didn't want children despite having Kaya.

Things became crystal clear when they'd had the police knock on their door, tearing their house apart in search of DVD's their father had apparently pirated and sold en-masse. So, yeah, he'd had his reasons to tuck tail and run lined up in a neat little row, although the latter was the only excuse Usopp would give Kaya. He couldn't let her blame herself, going so far as to tell her he was adopted. He couldn't risk her piecing it together if he began talking about his own mother, though it would be quite a leap in logic.

And Usopp still can't understand what made their father abandon a girl on her deathbed. Or maybe he understands perfectly. Taking care of Kaya, watching her slowly wither away, was no cakewalk. But she was fucking worth it. She was worth more than Usopp's own pain. Her life would be short and he'd be damned if he made it any less bright by running away. She deserved more than that just for being the antithesis of everything Usopp is. Pale and fragile, yet strong enough to battle against her so-called fate. Her bravery versus his cowardice.

Tons of other shit surrounded her existence, but Kaya was always the center of his. He worked every odd job he could at fourteen years old, dodging the system of suits who would try to separate them. He held her hair back as she spat blood, wiped her tears and made her laugh and carried her when her legs gave out.

Kaya was his to protect, to love— but not to keep.

Was.

Most of his stories are told in past-tense. That's not the problem, not what makes his mind tick in all the wrong ways. He only hates the word was when it's attached to the name Kaya. He wishes she hadn't left a gaping hole in his present and colored his past with sunshine laughter, or lent him ears that drank up every lie as the indisputable truth.

He sometimes wonders if he only imagined that part. But he has to believe that she believed because then they'd both have been liars. That reality is too painful for him to consider. Lying can't be the only thing he'd taught her when she was the reason he'd learned how to in the first place.

"I want to go outside today! I don't even feel that bad."

Her swaying figure as she rose from her bed said differently. And the frustrated huff she gave said she already knew that.

"Outside is boring!" Usopp rebutted, thinking fast as he steered her away from the door. "Did I ever tell you about the time I tamed a giant rainbow sheep?"

Kaya's lips twitched into a slow smile as she sat down, cocking her head to the side in interest. "I don't think so..."

Usopp grinned so big it hurt. "Its name was Merry."

The day Kaya leaves the world is the same day Usopp resolves to rebuild his own.

He gathers up each false tale, scrapes them into shape, and uses them as building blocks. If it could win over someone as wonderful as Kaya, he has to hope it might happen again.

But people only look at him like he's crazy.

He spills nonsense to a fidgety boy in red who has a neighboring locker. Luffy, he learns, who smiles and smiles and smiles.

Even getting shoved into that locker isn't enough to dislodge it.

"Out of the way, retard!"

Usopp flinches at the venom in the word, but Luffy only blinks and rights himself against the lockers with a snort. He turns toward Usopp again, tilting his head in a wordless gesture to continue. The smile remains. It's like he knows the secret to simple happiness and Usopp is just— fascinated. Nobody else seems to want to approach the kid to figure it out.

He opens his mouth to say I'm sorry they call you that— to ask what are you taking and can I have some? What comes out is, "You ever tamed a sheep?"

Luffy's eyes light up. "No, but I know where we can get one."

And damn if that doesn't inspire immediate fear and admiration. Usopp stares at the doors behind him. "Ditch?"

He throws his fist in the air, knocking off his red-ribboned straw hat in the process. "Adventure!"

"This is the start of a beautiful friendship."

The scrapyard they wind up at is decidedly less beautiful.

It takes Luffy a full fifteen minutes to coax Usopp through the hole in the fence. One that he nearly darts out of again when Luffy immediately starts whistling and shouting at the sky.

"SURUME!"

A growl rumbles toward them from somewhere in the rubble, and the biggest dog he's ever seen in his life steps out from behind a wrecked car. It bares sharp teeth, snarling like the very sight of them offends it.

Beside him, Luffy laughs. He opens his arms. "Surume! Come!"

With two sharp barks, the golden-haired beast breaks into a run, tongue flinging slobber everywhere. Usopp screams bloody murder, so loud he probably breaks the sound barrier. He shields his face with his arms and oh god but he's too young to die, this was such a bad idea, holy crap, why does this shit always happen to him—

But the dog tackles Luffy instead, drawing a yelp out of him, and Usopp starts writing the obituary before his back even hits the dirt. Luffy, locker 208, never made it past thirteen, died shrieking as he was mauled by a monster with six rows of teeth and glowing eyes—

It takes him a long moment to realize the screaming is actually shrill laughter, caused by Surume trying to smother Luffy with affectionate licks and not because his face is being ripped off. The dog whines and yips excitably, like Usopp has seen them do when reunited with their owner. His wiry tail wags back and forth so violently he smacks himself with it.

"Okay, okay," Luffy says, pushing at the apparently friendly beast. "Missed you too, but that's enough! Where's Dadan?"

Surume backs off with a whine, then barks.

Luffy cocks his head. "Workshop?"

The dog barks again, twice.

"She hates it when I go in there!" he groans as if Surume is actually communicating with him, and Usopp's mouth gapes wider the longer it goes on. "Is she working on that one car again? I don't think she's ever going to get it running, but she threw a wrench at me the last time I tried to tell her that. It's really not gonna work if she breaks all her tools, so maybe..."

Tuning out, Usopp stares ahead into the scrapyard. And that's when he sees her, calls her by name in his head before he's ever stepped within ten feet.

This is what it must feel like to meet god.

"Is that the sheep you meant?" he interrupts whatever stream of babble Luffy's in the middle o, pointing.

Luffy tracks the line of his finger and lights up, springing to his feet. "Yeah! We'll have to go check with the owners first to really see it. Well, only Dadan. Magra and Dogra don't count."

Surume leads the way, winding through junk piles and scrap parts until they come upon a large building with a garage door. It's closed, but Luffy simply bashes his fist against it way longer than is socially acceptable.

Usopp starts to understand that that's just— Luffy, in general. It must be commonplace enough for Surume to not even bark at the racket.

A garbled yell from inside finally shuts him up.

"You little asshole!" The door slowly starts to raise. "Stop scaring the shit out of me! Did you lose the fucking key again?"

Luffy pauses, then shakes his head. "No, just forgot!"

"Sounds about right."

The door fully raises to reveal a stout, grease-stained woman scowling at them. The expression only lasts as long as it takes for Luffy to sweeten it by traipsing over to tackle her in the fastest, shortest hug Usopp's ever witnessed.

He waves an arm at her like Usopp wouldn't have noticed her otherwise.

"This is Dadan! My mom!"

Usopp takes in the veritable cape of curly red hair on the woman, her skin freckled and pale wherever it's not flushed. He looks at Luffy with his noodle-like limbs, jet-black hair, and flawless tan skin.

He blinks hard and decides he's heard weirder. Walking forward, he holds his hand out for her to shake. "Usopp, nice to meet you."

"See that, Luffy?" she says, firmly clasping their hands and giving them a shake. "Those are called manners!"

"Neither of us has those, only Ace does." He wrinkles his nose. "Kind of."

"You're a little menace, kid." She ruffles his hair, making him squawk and slap at her hands. "What brings you here today? Garp giving you or Ace a hard time again? I can—"

"No! Fine! We're fine," Luffy cuts her off, shaking his head and glancing sideways at Usopp. "I made a friend!"

"A friend." Dadan blinks, eyes widening slightly in shock as they skim over Usopp again. Alarmingly, tears gather in them. "You're friends with my boy?"

Usopp stares back at her, feeling very deer-in-headlights. "W-well, I barely know him, but— yes?"

"See?" Luffy exclaims. "It's true!"

For lack of anything better to do as he's stared at, Usopp nods enthusiastically.

Before he can accidentally make things worse by opening his mouth, she shuffles around the bench and lifts him off his feet, arms squeezing so hard his spine cracks.

"Don't break him!" Luffy takes a swipe at her shoulder. "He wants to see the sheep, Dadan."

Usopp's knees almost buckle when she abruptly drops him, rasping a quiet, "Ow..."

She scoffs. "That hunk of junk? Why?"

"We're gonna tame it!" Luffy grins big and bumps a shoulder into his, aggressive like he doesn't quite know how to do it gently.

It punches an oof out of Usopp, makes him lose his footing for the second time in the last minute.

Luffy only stares at him. "Right?"

"Kid," Dadan says, "I'm not sure what you're hoping for, but it barely runs. It's a monster. I don't know what the engineer was thinking when they made that thing."

Today has already been so goddamn weird that Usopp decides it can't hurt to indulge in the crazy. "Can we at least check it out?"

Dadan sighs heavily. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Up close, Merry is a hulking, gross, dirty, angel.

Under the grime collected through her stagnant scrapyard existence, the potential is limitless. He can see echoes of how bold and beautiful she once was, with strokes of black winding across dirt-darkened white. A busted up side mirror and crater along the metalwork above the back tire does nothing to diminish it.

He runs reverent fingers through dust, tracing a faded black swirl on the door.

She was the fluffiest sheep on the planet! There was no shortage of people who tried to take her wool—

Kaya would love her. Even run-down like this, but Merry— the one he brought to life with stories— his Merry is a list of slowly growing boxes unchecked at this moment.

But they could be, and Usopp's always been a dreamer. Already sees himself zipping down the road, burning tarmac and eating up miles. Adventure. Luffy's arm hanging out the window, laughter swept away by wind.

His breath catches in his throat as he looks back over his shoulder toward Luffy, who's bouncing on the balls of his feet like a windup toy. A barely contained grin sets the corners of his mouth twitching, dark eyes lit up in uncertain glee.

Usopp's own excitement must be obvious, since Dadan throws her head back and cackles.

"Look," she says, "it's yours if you'll work here for as much as I want to pay you under the table. Help fix up some of this junk, entertain Surume... stuff like that, on weekends and the afternoon depending on homework. I'll teach you all sorts of shit if you're willing."

Usopp swears his heart stops. "What?"

So many odd jobs that he hates and she just— offers him up his something he'd love on a silver platter. Like it's that easy. Just because he's Luffy's friend, which he can only assume is heartbreakingly rare considering her reaction. A sad anger flushes through him, emboldened by the way Luffy had simply brushed off being shoved into his locker. No big deal. Happens all the time.

He must be making an unpleasant face because Dadan sighs. "Look, if you don't want to—"

"NO!" Usopp shouts, then cringes at himself. "I mean, yes, sir, I would love to. Sir. Ma'am. My good lady."

To his relief, she laughs. "Come back Friday."

"Thank—"

That's as far as he gets before Luffy tackles him into the side of the van, shrill giggles mixing with Surume's barking at the loud bang of their combined weight hitting Merry. "Sheep tamer!"

"You little gremlin!" Dadan shouts. "Don't dent it up even more!"

Luffy laughs harder and rolls them both off the van, a squawking Usopp trapped in his hold. He lets go just enough to instead sling an arm over his shoulder.

Usopp finds he doesn't much mind the leech that's latched onto him. Luffy's clingy, sure, but friend-shaped. Maybe best-friend-shaped.

He's never had that before.

He smiles back, bumps a hip against Luffy's bony side. When he bumps back, Luffy manages to knock him out of his hold and to the ground.

Usopp sighs, brushing dirt off his pant leg as he stands. "We're gonna have to work on that."

Dadan erupts in wheezing laughter and doesn't stop for at least a solid minute.

"Merry was as good as mine within three weeks. My legendary people skills won Dadan over." Usopp sniffs proudly, now swinging into a parking spot at the hotel. "She even helped turn her into the sheep you see today! Well, minus the rainbow. I'm still saving up for that."

"Don't worry! Dadan said eighteen years old sounds good. A big year for big gifts!" Luffy says, then claps a hand over his mouth. "Oops."

Usopp side-eyes him for so long that Zoro worries they'll get stuck like that. "Did you just... spoil my eighteenth birthday present?"

Luffy shakes his head. "Uh, no!" he says, like a very bad liar.

It baffles Zoro that he can say the weirdest shit with a straight face, yet struggles to sell something so mundane. Crazy seems to come easier than anything in this circle. Zoro supposes he shouldn't count himself out there.

"She does know last year was, like," Usopp pauses, seeming to struggle to find the right words, "an un-toppable kind of thing, right?"

Zoro has no idea what they're talking about at this point, but Luffy only flicks Usopp's shoulder and throws the door open. "Maybe. Now she just gets to spoil you!"

Usopp stares at the empty passenger seat, blinking rapidly. "Oh, gross," he mumbles shakily, "I think I might cry."

"Oh, I'm—" Zoro fumbles for the door handle. "I'm allergic, so good luck with that. LUFFY, WAIT!"

"You're both terrible at this!" Usopp shouts after him.

"Thanks, I know!"

He's still wide awake that night when Luffy groans in frustration, rolls over, and locks his limbs around Zoro like he asked to be mauled by an octopus for the second night in a row.

"Uh." He clears his throat, and it's an odd sensation with Luffy's head buried in the side of his neck. "Do you not have enough room over there or something?"

Luffy sighs, making him shiver. "Just want to know Zoro's here."

Warmth scalds his cheeks, except the happy flutter in his chest is tainted by the dread he's been steeped in all day. Aren't you mad? He means to ask, but doesn't. Why aren't you screaming your fucking head off right now?

Somehow, the other shoe hasn't dropped on his head with all the weight of an anvil. Not yet. He's been waiting for it all afternoon. He knows it's coming, but not how much or when. Ever since Luffy said, "Get in," and sounded like he'd prefer to kick Zoro in the ribs.

The arms grow tighter, and the only thing Luffy says now is: "Zoro scared me today."

"But you—" He gulps, and the words only slot together in his head after they're out. "You shouldn't have said anything."

"Huh?" Luffy squirms, tries to push far enough away to see his face.

Zoro hides. He yanks him back in, circling his waist with both arms, and it turns out to be a stroke of genius when Luffy all but melts. "Usopp was pissed and I fucked up. He was right, but then you—"

He shielded him and it was so much worse to hear Luffy get cut down when Zoro was the one who deserved it. Still deserves it. But nobody's doing it. Usopp didn't say another word about it. Even Sanji only laughed and cracked some stupid joke and it made no goddamn sense and why the fuck is Luffy laughing at him now?

"I wanted to protect Zoro."

But— "You were mad at me too."

"No?" Luffy's forehead rolls against him as he shakes his head, sounding genuinely confused. "When did I say that?"

He tries to pinpoint it, but he doesn't sound any more certain than Luffy. "You didn't have to. You should've been on his side. Usopp—"

"Was being mean," Luffy interrupts sharply, "and he took it too far. You looked— scared. Like I was when you stepped over the line. The cars were so fast, and then Usopp yelled and I— I almost didn't make it." He shrugs, holding tighter, pressed hard enough that Zoro can feel him shaking at every point of contact.

He doesn't know what to do with that except add it to the list of ways he fucked up today. "Sorry, I wasn't... thinking about it."

Not really. Not consciously. He wasn't actually going to do it.

"It's okay," Luffy mumbles, like it's that simple. "Can we stay like this?"

Maybe it is that simple, with Luffy.

"Okay. Yeah."

He exhales slowly, relaxing into it. Sinking back into the memory of the last time someone held him this hard. So hard he couldn't tell if they'd been trying to break him more or hold him together. It hadn't been as pleasant back then, but maybe it was necessary. He'd needed more than he'd ever asked for from his only friend in the world.

He might need it from Luffy in the same way, right now, because—

It was the last story I told my sister before she died.

Usopp's words swim through his head for the millionth time, dragging skeletons into the light not even he wants to see. The crux of all this bullshit.

My sister, Kaya. My sister, K—

His brain scrambles the letters, replaces the vowels, hiccups over the thought of her as usual. Zoro sighs, fingers scrunching in Luffy's shirt as tightly as he dares, letting himself feel it think it hate it for a moment because—

My sister, Kuina.

In every way that really counts, Kuina is gone.