Resentment Surfaces

Usopp groaned. He threw an arm over his eyes and hid his face in his pillow as the pounding in his head made itself known. Then, after taking several heavy breaths through his nose, he shifted, eyes shooting open when he realised he was lying on a bed.

He froze, something akin to a scared mouse. His eyes frantically scanned the dim wood panelled room. "This isn't the Sunny…" He muttered as he shakily pushed himself into a seated position.

Usopp pressed his head to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut as his head swam. He forced himself to take more deep breaths until he began to feel his body relax. "What the hell happened to me?" Slowly, he lifted his head slowly, blinking to try and get the room to stop spinning.

It took a few minutes, but finally he had been able to sit up straight without feeling like he was being stabbed continuously.

Gingerly, Usopp slipped off the bed and walked around the room to search for any evidence that would clue him in to where he was. He pressed a hand to the wood-panelled wall to help guide him in the dim room.

From the noise filtering through the door and porthole, plus the movement of the floor under his shaky feet, he surmised that he was on a ship. The mahogany interior lent itself more to a pirate or freelance ship of sorts. The Marines tended to like their white and blues. Everything they owned was bathed in it, so that crossed them out in his mind. It didn't mean he was safe, but it did mean the chances of him being sent to a military base were a bit less.

There wasn't much on the walls to give him clues to where he was, no bounties or family photos. There were several newspaper clippings, all of which mentioned the Straw Hats or Red Haired Pirates in some way, shape or form.

"So this ship has someone who follows our crew closely. It could be an enemy ship or an allied one."

"Hmm." Usopp moved over to the organised desk in the corner.

He glanced over the area before reaching over to grab some of the tongue depressors in the clear container at the corner of the desk by the q-tips. In a pinch, he could make a weapon out of them. A quick look around the room told him he didn't have his bag or weapons. Smart on their end, in theory, however, he was able to make a weapon out of pretty much anything, so taking away his slingshot and ammo won't keep him from defending himself if he had to. He shoved the depressors in his pocket and reached down to finger the red leather book labelled 'Doctor's Log'.

He flipped open the cover and read over the neat scrawl on the thick, yellowed paper. "23 September, 1521, Lucky came in with a knife through his hand today, thankfully, he hadn't pulled it out himself which saved us from a bloodbath all over the kitchen. At 33, you would think the man would know to be more careful in the kitchen." Usopp snorted and flipped to another page.

"15 October, 1521. Benn came in with a bad cough, he needs to stop smoking cigarettes as it exacerbates his symptoms, but he never quits no matter how many warnings I give him. His lungs are full of fluid. He likely has pneumonia. I'll have to get Captain to confiscate his cigarettes since the man refuses to listen… That is not a healthy lung. I should show this to Sanji." Usopp said with a scrunch of his nose as he eyed the reference x-ray of Benn's lungs on the page.

"24 December, 1521. Yasopp is dealing with a severe bout of depression. He hasn't slept in days, and he has been eating the bare minimum. I've given him a mild sedative and taken him off duty for the week. He has also been put back on 25mg of SSRI. I am afraid to go higher as they may trigger panic attacks and suicidal thoughts in him, something that has become more commonplace with Yasopp in recent years.

"Christmas is always a rough time for him. He misses Banchina and Usopp so very much. His depression worsens with every year that he hasn't heard from them. I wish he would go by Syrup Village to see them or at least send them a letter, but the man is convinced that they want nothing to do with them after they ceased all communication eleven years ago ..."

Usopp breathed heavily through his nose and shut the logbook, unable to read any more. "I guess that answers the question of where I am, then," he muttered to himself. He looks over to the right of the log book and catches sight of Luffy on the front page of the weekly newspaper.

A peek at the date tells him it has been at least three days since the crew had separated, which didn't bode well for him. Had he been out that long? Did that mean he had brain damage from whatever Kuma did to them?

He shook his head and studied the picture of his captain on the front page. He couldn't worry about that at the moment. It was something he could figure out later. He looked down at the newspaper and studied the picture on the front page. From what Usopp could see, Luffy was bandaged from head to toe but otherwise looked fine. His heart squeezed in worry for his friend and captain.

"What's that on his arm?" He muttered to himself, squinting to make sense of the smudged ink. The 3D was crossed out, which Usopp knew meant three days. Under that, however, was a new number and letter. He squinted closer to the picture, trying to pick out what it said. "Two… y… two y… two… years?" He murmured to himself. He nodded in understanding after a moment. It made the most sense. Luffy wanted them all to meet up in Sabaody again in two years.

Voices close to the room notified Usopp of an impending visit. Not wanting to be caught red-handed, he quickly made his way onto the bed, his eyes squeezing shut at the sudden movement. He made it safely to the bed just as the door to the Sick Bay opened, bathing the room in bright light.

Usopp sucked in a breath against the bright assault and slowly opened his eyes. At the door stood a man with tied-back blonde hair and a scar on the forehead above his left eye.

A smile crossed the man's face as his eyes landed on Usopp. "You're awake!"

Usopp merely blinked at the man and cocked his head to the side, waiting to see what else he would say. He could talk big and play the fool, as his normal go-to, but he was alone in a place he didn't know.

His father might be on the crew that owned the ship, and the captain might be a mentor to Luffy, but that didn't mean he was safe. He had to be smart. He didn't have his crew to get him out of trouble.

"Gave us quite a scare when you fell onto the ship. You've been out for a week."

Usopp's eyebrows knitted together. A week? That was much longer than he thought.

Hongo frowned as he watched Usopp's expression change as he received the new information and reached over Usopp to grab his medical light. "Can I check you over?"

Usopp hunched in on himself and glared at the man, pushing his back against the wall. No way in hell was this guy touching him.

Hongo sighed, "Oi, Yasopp, get in here, please?"

Usopp froze, eyes widening in shock. He held his hands out in front of him to stop the doctor from calling his father into the Sick Bay. "No, no, don't call him. You can look me ov—" Usopp clamped his mouth shut as Yasopp walked into the Sick Bay.

Usopp eyed the man in front of him, worry clouding his vision and his body relaxing in his shock. The man in front of him looked terrible. Worse than what the Doctor's logbook had suggested. His clothes hung off his thin body, and his blonde hair was a tangled mess around his head.

Yasopp gave Usopp a soft calm smile. "Hello, Kiddo. Are you giving Hongo a hard time? You had quite the fall onto the ship. He just wants to make sure you are okay."

Usopp pulled his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them as he stared at the man whose appearance he can only remember from pictures. "Maybe you should have him look at you first. You look way worse than I do."

Yasopp sat on the edge of the bed, "Hongo is taking good care of me, just like he will you if you let him."

"My stuff?" From their conversation, Usopp couldn't tell whether the men knew who he was. He assumed they would at least know he was on Luffy's crew. That much was obvious as soon as anyone opened his bag and took a peek at his sketchbook.

Usopp ran his fingernails across the bare skin of his arms, causing angry red lines to appear. He hoped they hadn't touched his ammo. He wouldn't be able to make more for a while; some of it could hurt someone if they didn't know how to handle it— which no one here would.

Strong hands grabbed his own and pulled them away from his arms, "Hey now, none of that." The man chastised lightly. "You're safe here, I promise."

"My stuff?" Usopp said again more forcefully, pulling his hands out of the man's grip.

"It's in Shanks' rooms. No one has touched anything. I promise."

Usopp gave the men a dubious look.

"No one has taken anything from your bag. We have looked in it." Hongo admitted, putting his medical light in his back pocket. "Just to make sure there was nothing dangerous inside."

Usopp snorted, "You didn't touch my ammo, did you? I make that stuff by hand, it isn't easy."

"Is that what those different coloured balls were?"

"Mmhm," Usopp said, wincing and placing his head on his knees as a particularly rowdy group of people walked past the door.

Hongo pushed Usopp's head up and glanced into his eyes. "Let me see if you have a concussion, at least."

Usopp nodded and crossed his legs in front of him, holding his ankles as the man sat on the bed and leaned over to look into Usopp's eyes, shining the bright medical light in them. "Just stay still. It'll only be a second. I know it hurts." He said soothingly, when Usopp whimpered. True to his word, he quickly studied Usopp's eyes and pulled away.

"Concussion," Hongo confirmed, leaning past Usopp to put the light back on the wall.

As soon as he pulled away, Usopp squeezed his eyes shut, cursing at the pain that exploded behind them. He hid his head back in his knees and forced himself to take more deep breaths. "Do you have anything to help with the headache, please."

"Are you allergic to acetaminophen?"

"No, I can take it."

Hongo opened the vault by his desk and took out a couple of pills from a large white bottle, and brought them and a cup of water over to Usopp. "Take both of them, if nothing else it'll take the edge off the pain."

Usopp popped them in his mouth and quickly chased them with water, closing his eyes as the cool liquid ran down his throat. "Thank you."

"What is the treatment for concussions, Hongo?" Yasopp asked.

"Limited physical and mental activity for the next couple of days."

"WHAT? I can't do that. All I do is think— I spend my life reading, writing, creating and drawing!" Usopp complained, roughly running his hands through his curls and grabbing them roughly. "I'll be climbing out of my skin within the hour."

Yasopp reached over and rubbed his hands insistently against Usopp's until the boy let go of his hair. The man pressed Usopp's hands firmly to his thighs. "Take five deep breaths and I'll let your hands go…. IN, two, three four, OUT, two three four… IN, two, three four, OUT, two three four." He murmured the words several more times until he watched Usopp's shoulders relax. Slowly, he patted Usopp's hands before letting them go. "Good job."

Hongo observed Usopp's behaviour with a frown, "I would rather you rest your eyes as much as possible, but I don't see why you can't draw or walk around. As long as you stop and take breaks every 30 minutes or so."

Usopp scoffed and rolled his eyes. How boring. Now he knew how Zoro felt when Chopper forced him not to train after a serious injury. "Fine, can I have my bag, please? I want to see if I can get in contact with any of my crew."

"Luffy is with Rayleigh," Yasopp offered.

"Yes, I gathered as much from the newspaper article," Usopp indicated with his chin towards Hongo's desk. "Any intel on where the rest of my crew is?"

"Roronoa Zoro is with Mihawk."

Usopp's head shot over to the door where a tall man with red hair had appeared. He scowled, cursing himself for not noticing the man entering the room.

Usopp's head fell into his hands as he shook his head, "That tracks. Hope he doesn't almost kill Zoro again."

Shanks chuckled, "He'll be fine." He reached over and handed Usopp his bag and his den den mushi. "Your crew's navigator called—"

"Nami called!?" Usopp's eyes widened, dropping his bag onto the bed roughly. He winced, coughing as a cloud of smoke puffed up from the bag.

The four men coughed violently, waving the smoke away.

"Crap, that was my last smoke bomb."

"Why does it burn?" Yasopp complained, rubbing his eyes roughly with his wrists.

"It's a slightly milder form of the Marines' teargas."

"Lovely," Hongo jumped off the bed, and began to push Shanks out of the room. "*cough cough cough* Everyone out. We need to flush out *cough cough* our eyes and change our clothes."

Usopp jumped off the bed and immediately fell to the floor, his head swimming from the sudden movement. Coughing, Yasopp leaned down, helped pull Usopp up, and walked him out of the room. Shanks slammed the door shut behind them as Usopp sat down against the wall, eyelids closed against nausea, stinging eyes and a pounding headache that overcame him.

Shanks and Hongo had gone to the bathrooms to clean out their eyes as Yasopp stayed with Usopp, blinking rapidly and wiping the tears that ran down his face.

He knelt down beside Usopp and rubbed the tears away with his wrists as he studied the boy. "Can you walk? We have to rinse out your eyes *cough cough* and change your clothes."

Usopp nodded and allowed Yasopp to pull him up. He screwed his eyes shut and leaned against Yasopp's shoulder for a moment as he took several deep breaths before pulling away and nodding. "I'm *cough* I'm okay now."

"C'mon, this way *cough cough cough*."

Yasopp put a hand to the small of his back and guided him across the deck towards the communal bathrooms.

Usopp wiped his eyes and coughed as he looked around the ship. "You have palm trees? *cough cough cough cough* —ugh, sorry. We have mikan trees on our ship." Usopp rubbed at his eyes with his wrist and groaned in annoyance as another coughing fit overcame him. He almost felt bad for all the times he used the substance on enemies now. Almost. "They're from Nami's village. Sanji uses them to make desserts and chicken recipes."

"Ah. That would be much *cough cough* smarter. Ours are just decoration." Yasopp shrugged and opened the door to their right, labelled 'Bathrooms' in brilliant gold lettering against red wood. "Wash your eyes out. I'll get you *cough cough cough cough* some clean clothes." Yasopp frantically wiped at his face and quickly made his way towards his rooms, leaving Usopp alone in front of the bathrooms.

"Thank you." Usopp waited until Yasopp turned the corner before pushing open the door to the bathroom and peeking inside. It took only a moment to find the sinks, and he quickly made a beeline for it, ignoring the sounds of the showers and the leering eyes of several of the Red Hair Pirates that were there watching as he struggled over to the sink through his blurry eyes and coughing fits.

He quickly washed his hands with soap and water before leaning over and allowing the water from the faucet to run into his eyes. "Ow, fuck!" Usopp growled, pulling away and holding his hand over his eye where he had hit it against the faucet during a particularly harsh cough. He closed the water and wiped as much of the water from his eyes and face as he could with his hands, just barely remembering not to grab the bottom of his shirt to dry off his face.

"Here you go."

Usopp turned to see a blurry hand and red towel floating by his face. "Ah, thank you." He pressed the soft cloth to his face, carefully patting it around his eyes.

"You're the kid that crash-landed on the ship. Shanks had said you were awake. How are you feeling?"

"I've been worse," Usopp said with a shrug of his shoulders, wincing as the jarring movement hurt his head.

He looped the towel around his shoulders and looked up at the man who was speaking to him. He was large, slightly taller than Franky and looked about as wide. He wore goggles so similar to Usopp's that he had to take a double take and make sure they weren't his.

The man frowned at him and held out a hand to steady Usopp when he began to sway as a bout of weakness seemed to seep into him after a coughing fit. "Should you be up and walking around? Has Hongo checked you over yet?"

"He was looking me over, but one of my smoke *cough cough cough* bombs went off in the Sick Bay by accident. Yasopp is getting me a change of clothes and told me to wash my eyes out with water *cough cough cough cough cough cough*. Ugh, come on."

"Ah, Lucky, I see you've met the kid."

Lucky cocked his head to the side as he observed the redness in and around Yasopp's eyes and the tears running down his face. Yasopp too, was having the same issue as Usopp, and was coughing harshly in close intervals.

"We were just getting acquainted. He said a smoke bomb went off." Lucky took the clothes from Yasopp and pushed him towards the sinks. "Wash your eyes out, too, don't let that sit in too long. Did you change your clothes?"

"*cough*Yes, yes, I changed. Can you help him change and then ensure he washes his hands again while I rinse my eyes?"

Usopp backed away from Lucky and raised his hands, "Just tell me where to go, and I can change myself."

Yasopp shook his head from his spot by the sinks. "You're too weak. At least let Lucky *cough cough* stay close by in case you fall *cough cough cough* again."

Lucky nodded towards the stalls, "C'mon, kid. You can change in the stalls. I'll stay outside the door if it helps. Unless you want to change out here?"

Usopp glanced around to see that the numbers in the bathroom had grown, "Stall is fine," He squeaked, hunching in on himself. Usopp cursed his stupidity of leaving his bag in the room in his haste to get out. Now he didn't have any weapons except a couple of tongue depressors on him, which is fine when it's one or two men, but the ten or so leering at him would prove a lot more difficult to deter with a couple of pieces of weak wood.

He followed Lucky to the stalls and quietly closed the door behind him, leaning on it heavily as he allowed his body to continue to cough out the tear gas. He might need a nebulizer treatment, he could hear himself wheezing as he breathed.

The men he met on the crew all seemed nice enough, but he had to be careful. At the very least, he had to play it cool until the next island and then figure out what he would do from there. There wasn't much he could do stuck on a ship with a pirate crew of fifty or so people he didn't know. His father being on the crew didn't mean much as he was also practically a stranger to him. He knew nothing of the man.

With a heavy sigh, he pushed his cyan-coloured button down off his shoulders and allowed it to puddle on the floor. He was about to undo his shorts when there was a knock and the stall door opened slightly, Yasopp's head popping through. "Sorry, Kid. I forgot to give you a shirt. It might be a bit big on you, I'm afraid. We don't really have anything your size."

Usopp smiled thankfully and took the shirt from him, wobbling slightly on his feet as another coughing fit hit him. "I appreciate it. I'm sorry I hurt you."

Yasopp slipped in and closed the stall door behind him, lightly taking Usopp's arm. "Let me help you. Hongo said you might get dizzy from the concussion and the teargas seems to have messed with your lungs a bit so your breathing is probably off."

Usopp nodded and allowed Yasopp to help him out of his shorts. Carefully, Yasopp helped him into his clean shorts and allowed Usopp to lean against him as he did them up. Yasopp was about to help him with the clean T-shirt when a small birthmark on the small of Usopp's back caught his eye. "Hmm, what's this?"

He leaned down and observed the mark, lightly running his fingers over it. "I've the same one, the only other person who I know that has one like this is my son, Usopp."

Usopp stilled, "Huh, i-imagine that."

Yasopp stood and helped Usopp pull his shirt over his head, smoothing it over his sides. Yasopp looked down sadly at the boy in front of him. "It's you, isn't it, Son?"

Usopp bit his tongue and looked to the floor, nodding his head. "Yeah, it's me."

Yasopp sighed and pulled Usopp into his arms, hiding his face in his hair. "I've missed you so much."

Usopp swallowed thickly and pressed his face into his father's shoulder as tears started to well in his eyes. He shakily lifted his hands and fisted them in his father's shirt cloth. They stood there for a minute before pulling away, both subtly rubbing the tears from their eyes.

"Come on. I'll take you to my room to rest while the Sick Bay clears out. I share with Benn and Lucky, but Benn has next watch, and Lucky is leaving to start lunch, so it'll be quiet." Yasopp bent down to grab Usopp's discarded clothes and led him out of the bathroom, ignoring the stares of his crew as they walked out.

They walked down the corridor in silence, both still coughing but a lot less so than before, and turned right to a lone stairwell that led down. "The rooms are downstairs. I hope that's okay. You aren't still scared of the dark, are you?"

Usopp raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes before following his father down the stairs. "I haven't been scared of the dark since I was five."

"Of course," Yasopp nodded his head. "So, how did you end up on Luffy's crew?"

"How does anyone end up on Luffy's crew?" Usopp said with a shrug. "Good timing, mostly. Luffy, Nami and Zoro had come to Syrup to look for a ship— why they went to Syrup of all places, I still don't understand, but that's why they ended up there."

"While interesting, that doesn't explain why you ended up with them."

"It's a bit complicated," Usopp admitted, shoving his hands into his pockets. "And a bit of a long story."

Yasopp shrugged his shoulders, "We haven't talked in years, I think I can make the time."

"So, it all started about two years ago. It was a few months before Kaya's parents passed away. Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates had showed up to the village, and they took him in as a servant."

"Why would John and Abigail take in a captain of a pirate crew?"

Usopp shook his head, "They had no idea. No one did. He pretended that he had escaped a pirate crew and claimed he needed somewhere to stay." Usopp laughed, "He hated me, though. Tried everything he could to get me kicked out of the mansion."

"That's right, Kaya's parents watched you while your mother was away on missions."

Usopp's gaze darkened, "Right, that's why." He took a deep breath, "Anyway, after they died, he kicked me out of the mansion, so I stayed in our old house by myself for a while." He smiled softly, "I still visited Kaya every single day, but he would always chase me off." Usopp rubbed his arm roughly, running his fingernails across the delicate skin, "I think it was because I was close to figuring him out. I knew something was off about him, but I hadn't figured it out yet."

He stopped behind Yasopp as the man shoved open the door to their left and turned on several gas lights. Usopp slipped inside and allowed the door to close behind him. "Anyway, Luffy and the others showed up. Just in time, it would seem as if Kuro was planning on killing Kaya that evening. They helped me protect her and the village and run Kuro off." Usopp left out the part where Merry shot him in the arm.

Usopp sat at the desk in the corner of the room, crossing his legs. "Merry gave them a ship that he built, and they invited me to come with them. I didn't have any ties left in Syrup, so I went." Usopp said with a shrug, eyes catching on the wall to his left.

He could barely see the wooden panels beneath all of the pictures of himself and his mother plastered around it.

Yasopp rubbed the back of his neck, "Ah, yes. I put every single picture I got from your mother of you and her up there." Usopp studied a picture to the left closest to the bed. It appeared to be the newest of the pictures— him on his 7th birthday opening the presents Yasopp had sent him. He still had the wooden horse in his locker back on the Sunny. It was taken a couple of months before Banchina died.

"I still have that horse," Usopp said, pointing to the picture. "I had to repaint it after I lost it in the sand when I was twelve."

"You kept it all of this time?"

"Of course, you gave it to me. As I got older, I gave some of the other things to Kaya and some of the village kids, but I kept the horse because it was my favourite."

"I love you so much." Yasopp let out a shaky breath and engulfed Usopp in a tight hug, "You mean the world to me."

Usopp lay limply in his father's arms, "But then why didn't you ever come home?"

He had asked it so quietly he didn't think that Yasopp had heard him. Yasopp squeezed him tighter. "I didn't think you or your mother wanted anything to do with me anymore. The letters and all communication had just stopped. I had tried calling on the den den several times, and the line was disconnected. I thought your mother changed her number."

Usopp shook his head, "Mom died. That's why you stopped hearing from us."

"What?" Yasopp pulled back to study Usopp's face, "Banchina died?" Usopp winced at the devastated crack in Yasopp's voice.

Usopp bit his lip and nodded, "When I was seven, she got really sick. Uncle Buggy said—"

"Buggy knew?" Yasopp growled, pushing away from Usopp and violently pacing the room. He ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at the roots and growling. "Why the hell didn't that dumbass clown tell me?"

I'm not sure, but he stayed at the house with me for a while before he had to go back to his crew. He said that he thinks she died from chemical poisoning— heavy metal specifically." He remembered when Buggy made the connection. He had called Dragon to the village and forced him and his group to take everything from Banchina's lab at the house and box it away before completely scrubbing down the place from floor to ceiling. Usopp hadn't known wood could actually sparkle before that day.

Yasopp cursed under his breath, and Usopp swore he heard 'I told her not to play around with that shit'. "What happened after he left?"

"I stayed alone in the house for a while. Buggy made a small garden for us to live off of and taught me how to grow various fruits and vegetables, so I used that garden for the Spring and Summer. He would call every week and visit every six months, but Kaya's family took me in that winter— it didn't last long though because Uncle Vista started causing problems for them."

"Vista did what?" Yasopp growled, "Why didn't they try and contact me? I would have put that ass in his place."

"I don't know if you remember, but about eleven years ago, I accidentally blew up the science lab at the school. It really was an accident, despite what the newspapers said."

Yasopp pointed to a yellowed newspaper clipping towards the bottom left of the wall. Ah, not a crowning achievement, he almost wished Yasopp had left that out of his little collection. "Uncle Vista came to Syrup and started talking about the possibility that I could be his son and not yours. He got into a huge argument with Uncle John and Aunt Abigail about how they should hand me over to him to raise in the village, and that he was prepared to leave the Whitebeard Pirates to do so."

Usopp tactfully left out the part where Vista had ranted to Usopp, almost daily, about how Yasopp would never do such a thing for him and that he should stop being proud and hero worshipping someone who abandoned him.

"There was a custody battle between Vista and them, it was pretty bad for a while, and because of some law in the Marine books, I couldn't stay with either of them, so I wound up at the house again by myself. I think it was for about three years. He made some claim that if I could blow up a chemistry lab on their watch, they obviously weren't responsible enough to keep me— or something like that. He kept dragging it out for so long that eventually the judge had told him enough was enough. I am not sure why, at that point, no one contacted you, but from the Marines's point of view, it likely had something to do with not wanting to freely give a kid over to a pirate crew.

"So Vista pissed off a judge enough that he gave John and Abigail official custody of you?"

"Essentially, and that allowed me to live with them from the age of ten to fifteen when they both died, and then I was on my own again until Luffy came when I was seventeen."

Yasopp nodded his head and took a deep breath, "This is… a lot to comprehend."

"Are you okay?" Usopp worried his lip as he watched his father's face shift from angry to helpless to desperate to devastated and back again.

Yasopp stood abruptly and wiped off his hands, "Take a nap, Love. I'll be back to check up on you later. I just need to… I'll be back later, I promise."

Usopp watched as Yasopp hurried out of the room, slamming the heavy door shut behind him. Taking a shuddering breath, Usopp made his way over to the bed by the pictures and dropped heavily onto it, throwing an arm over his tired eyes. A nap did seem good. It'd let him get away from it all for a while…

o0o

"Usopp, are you awake?" Yasopp asked quietly as he slipped through the door, two bowls of soup in his hands. He gently placed his load on the desk and looked down at Usopp, who was sleeping soundly on the bed.

Dragging over his chair, Yasopp sat beside Usopp and stroked his fingers across his cheek and through the thick curls of his hair. "Not one day has gone by that I haven't thought of you. You're always on my mind. I am so proud of the man you have become, Usopp." Yasopp leaned down and pressed his lips to his forehead.

Usopp shifted, his eyes fluttering as he woke from his nap. "Dad?" He rasped, "Are you okay?"

Yasopp pulled away to allow Usopp to sit up, "I got you some lunch. Lucky said to make sure you eat all of it to get your strength up."

Usopp sat up against the wall and reached out to take the soup from Yasopp. Yasopp moved to sit beside him on the bed. "So, I've been talking to Shanks and the others."

"Mmm?"

"How would you feel about staying here?"

Usopp paused his spoon at his chin and looked up at his father in confusion, "But I am on Luffy's crew?"

"How would you feel about staying here to train until it's time to meet up with your crew again?" Yasopp carefully reworded.

Usopp bit his lip and shoved another spoonful of soup in his mouth. "I hardly know you."

Yasopp smiled sadly, "I know, but now you can get to know me." He hit his shoulder gently with Usopp's, "We can build the relationship we were supposed to have."

"I…" Usopp reached over to put his soup bowl on the desk and roughly ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know if I can." He admitted after a moment of deliberation.

Yasopp's hopeful look shattered, "Why not?"

Usopp worried his lip, "Can I be honest with you? Completely honest?"

"You can tell me anything, Usopp."

"I was always taught to be so proud of you, and I am but… I can't help but be resentful of you." Usopp admitted.

Yasopp sucked in a breath, "Oh, of course. I-I understand."

"I'm just not sure this resentment is a good place to start the foundation of a father-son relationship, especially since I need to focus on training to get stronger for my crew." Usopp rambled, his fingers scratching up his arms. "I mean, we can write to each other and talk on the den den, but I don't know if it's a good idea for me to stay here."

Yasopp reached over and pulled Usopp's hands away from his arms to keep himself from scratching his arms. He gently held his son's wrists in his hands. "Do you hate me so much that you would see it as a burden to do both?"

"I love you," Usopp huffed out in annoyance, "but I am allowed to be proud of you AND resentful. The two aren't mutually exclusive, even if I love you. Mom died when I was seven, Dad. Seven. I was practically on my own for ten years, and when I wasn't I was thrown from place to place, before Luffy came along. I'm angry and have a lot of feelings to figure out. I'm not going to apologise for that."

Usopp paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

"I… I just really need to think about this before I accept." Usopp closed his eyes, pressing his hands to his eyes to stem his tears. "I have to put my crew first. You did."

Yasopp dropped his hands, pressing them to his thighs. "Usopp, I—"

Usopp pushed himself off the bed and rushed towards the door, stopping momentarily to look back at his father. "Let me think about it, okay? I have to put my crew first, I need to do what is best for myself and them. If staying here will do that, I will work through this with you, I promise, but you have to let me go if it's not. Just trust me on this." He allowed the door to close behind him, leaving his father in the dim bedroom. He had a lot to think about. He only hoped that he could make the right decision.