Won't You Come Home?
An Usopp-centered ficlet by karaleyn

Pairings: None
Spoilers: None really, though there are vague references that could place this sometime after Loguetown (or Roguetown, whichever you prefer).

A/N: Usopp is one of my favorite characters, but then, they all are. I adore him, really. He's such a dork, he's quite often a coward, and yet he has a strength and courage within him that he just doesn't always seem to realize is there. I love his aspiration to be a Great Warrior of the Sea, and his admiration of his father, and his varying skills. I love how he lies so often, and yet, as is said during the focus on him at his village ((the rest of this sentence is a minor spoiler if you haven't seen through Usopp's entrance)), something about how his aspirations, his dreams, are hidden within his lies. I love pretty much everything about Usopp, and would glomp the hell out of that boy if he ever appeared in front of me. But since that's highly doubtful, i'll settle with sulkily writing fanfics of him wherein i try to give him a bit of depth even while i'm falling asleep myself at the keyboard. yay me?

Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine, and thank God! I don't think i'd be half as brilliant as Oda ...though i do wish he made things more permanent sometimes. Characters could get the bloody hell beaten out of them and they never seem to have any lasting effects, other than a few examples throughout. But this comment is actually based primarily off the anime... from what i've seen of the manga, it's better at that.

(( Part 1 of 2 ))

It was strange how things happened sometimes, Usopp reflected as he crouched lower to his current creation. He had been playing with his chemistry set all morning so far, aside from the time when Nami sweetly requested (ie, demanded) that he fix the bathroom's door. It apparently wasn't locking, which became a problem when Sanji almost "accidentally" walked in on Nami while she was getting ready for a bath. That had taken less time than Nami had expected but more than Usopp wanted. He had creations to deal with! Things to do! New bombs to create and weapons to invent! It was a busy day ahead of him and he was hoping to start early. Though he had protested to Nami that he'd like a little help now and then, and why didn't she ask someone else to do her dirty work if she wasn't willing to even do it herself, he was secretly pleased. Though officially he was the Straw Hat Pirate crew's sharpshooter, he liked that he had other jobs too. Carpenter, Ship Repairman, Inventor Extraordinaire, Pachinko Expert, Fearless Crewman! And, not to be forgotten, Captain Usopp! Spinner of tales so tall they eclipsed themselves (though he would never admit it wasn't the 'truth') and doer of the impossible!

Usopp readjusted the magnification on his goggles as he chuckled to himself, leaning in closer to his miniature chemistry set. He needed to be sure this had the right reaction or it'd be another explosion right in his face. He wasn't exactly fond of that sort of end to an experiment, to say the least.

"Usopp!" a cheerful voice said quite suddenly by his ear, and Usopp just managed to catch the tube he was filling before it crashed to the deck and destroyed the last four hours of hard work. Looking over, Usopp narrowed his eyes behind his super spiffy goggles (best 'purchase' of all time!) and regarded the intruder.

"Luffy!" Usopp cried, exasperated, "you almost made me drop this!"

Luffy laughed and, dropping to the ground beside his friend, said cheerfully, "Sorry!" in his casual speech. With his legs bent at the knees, his feet clapping absentmindedly, and his arms holding him up in back, Luffy definitely did not look like the impressive pirate worth so many beli. He also didn't look sorry in the least. In reality, he looked more like an average teenager, rather bored but curious, staring at a friend working on homework. Usopp was far more intimidating than Luffy! He was worth just as much, too, given that his head was on the poster for Luffy. Straightening his back in pride, Captain Usopp decided to take a moment out of his busy schedule to regard his crewman.

"What is it?" he asked with magnificent bravery and valor.

Luffy shrugged, feet clapping to a steady rhythm. "Bored. Sanji kicked me out of the kitchen. Whatcha makin'?"

Usopp snorted, amused. Only Luffy would explain his presence by boredom, in conjunction with being kicked out of the kitchen, and so quickly change the subject without realizing it. With most people, the proclamation of 'bored' as a reason to visit him would be insulting, but with this crew and especially Luffy, it was not so much an insult as a way of life. Usopp liked to think that his works of art were so interesting that no one could possibly pay attention to them for long before their brain overloaded. It took only the most stout of mind, body and heart, the strongest of wills and most cunning of determination to understand Usopp and his Inventions! He was a man beyond his years, ahead of his times, and completely indispensable! He was Captain Usopp the Great and he would never forget it so long as he lived! (Except, of course, when he was too scared to remember to do anything but shake. But he would not be contemplating that right now, because Usopp was never scared. He was a Fearless and Great Warrior of the Sea, a second-generation pirate with more stories to tell than the late Gold Roger himself!)

Usopp looked down at his hand and realized he was still holding the tube of purple-ish chemicals, and though barely any time had passed since Luffy's abrupt question, he still hadn't answered it. Well, there was only one way to remedy that! With the prospect of explaining another brilliant invention of his to someone, Usopp perked up and began with increasing enthusiasm to answer.

"It's my newest, great invention! With this, I could take over an islan—no, one of the Seas! And," he added as a confidential aside, "in fact, I already have." Pleased to see Luffy's reaction of widening eyes, he continued stoutly, "Three times, in fact! Thrice have the waves of the Seas been ruled by Captain Usopp, and thrice have I prevailed!"

Luffy's feet clapped a little faster as he leaned forward, entranced. "Really?" he exclaimed, "How? I don't remember hearing about Captain Usopp before I met you! Is that where your hundred million men went?"

"Well," Usopp answered with an air of superiority, "I couldn't keep the Sea under my control, now could I? That would hardly be fair to the native sea creatures already struggling to fund their explorations..." He let it trail off vaguely, as if everyone should know what he was talking about. Some people would nod knowingly at this point, attempting to seem up-to- date, and some others would say immediately that this was nothing but an exaggerated lie, but Luffy was not one of these people and instead he loudly and wide-eyed urged Usopp to continue.

"Well," Usopp said importantly, setting his hands carefully in his lap though he didn't set the chemicals down, "it all began when I met the singing fish, you see. I was four years old, already a Great Warrior of the Sea at that age though I had yet to be a ruler. I was standing on the coast when suddenly I heard a noise and looked down. A mermaid had dragged herself up the beach to my feet, sobbing! Naturally, I knelt down and asked her what was wrong. She answered, but could only sing, because that's what mermaids do, you know. If they tried talking like normal under all that water, the words would disappear. You have to match it to the waves and currents, you see. Synchronize the tone of your voice to the rising and falling of the tides..."

Luffy looked like a little child, eyes wide and envisioning a beautiful world of singing fish and dancing waters. "Really?" he breathed, saying louder, "Amazing!" He looked out to the sea briefly, as if looking for a mermaid to be singing right at that moment. In the lull, Zoro peeked his eyes open from his nap and regarded the two while Usopp went back to the story.

"Of course!" Usopp answered immediately, "It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? We talk louder when we're up high, on the Crow's Nest for example, for others to hear us, don't we? It's just like that, only by tone." He grinned at Luffy, who was clapping his feet madly.

"What then? What then? When did you rule the Sea? What Sea was it?" Luffy stopped, his eyes shining a little more. "Was it East Blue?" he asked, voice quiet like a child asking of fairydust and Happily Ever Afters.

Usopp laughed outright, shaking his head. He carefully set the tubes back in the holding case and pushed his goggles up so he could see better. "No," he chuckled, "not East Blue. Even better!" Halfway across the ship, Sanji appeared out of the kitchen door, looking around presumably for Nami. He started to walk, and though he was making no effort to hide the noise of his progress, Luffy was too engrossed in the story to notice that he could be eating at that moment.

"Better than East Blue?" Luffy asked immediately, thinking hard. "Was it... All Blue?"

Usopp shook his head gravely, noting that Sanji had stopped walking by when he heard the name of the paradise he had sworn to find. Usopp spared him a glance before turning back to Luffy and saying solemnly, "No, not All Blue either. That is the dream of someone else, not a past conquest of mine or home of the singing mermaids." Luffy nodded and Sanji got a strange, almost grateful, look on his face in the background before slowly continuing his walk. A few seconds later, it was as if nothing had happened as Sanji's voice could be heard calling out, 'Nami-saaaaan!' as he asked if she wanted anything to drink. Quickly, so as not to lose Luffy's attention, Usopp spoke loudly over Sanji's question to the ship's navigator.

"Not All Blue, but another Blue! Not of the directions North, South, East or West—instead, it was Under Blue the mermaid was from and what I controlled for a day."

"Under Blue?" Zoro said off to the side, snorting to himself with a smirk on his face.

Luffy, however, had a far less skeptical reaction. "Under Blue?!" he practically yelled, then threw his head back and laughed. He clapped his feet again and leaned forward. "What then? Where is it? Tell me, Usopp!"

"Well," Usopp said, back to his important tone, "contrary to the name, Under Blue is actually in the sky." He continued talking past Luffy's gasp and exclamation, 'the SKY?'. "Yes, I know, hard to understand, isn't it? But Under Blue is all of the seas down here—except All Blue because that is its own paradise—as reflected in raindrops in thunderclouds in the sky! All those reflections create a world as translucent as—as—" he groped blindly for the word, both with his mind as with his hands waving ineffectually at the air, "—a spiderweb!" he concluded triumphantly.

Zoro laughed shortly at the illogical story, closing his eyes once more though he didn't stop listening. Luffy was even more enthralled with the story, and what was lacking in logic in Usopp's story Luffy made up for in his imagination, filling in the blanks and enriching the world of Under Blue right before his eyes.

-- To Be Continued...

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A/N: Sorry, I really need to get to sleep—work early in the morning—and I feel like I'm getting extremely sidetracked with the story of Under Blue. But then again, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with this other than to focus on Usopp and start to get a feel for his character, so I guess it works.

There will be just one other part of this to finish it off, and then I should be continuing with this same type of thing for each other the characters as I try to figure them out little by little before I get into any actual storylines.

Feel VERY free to express anything you liked/disliked/whatever about this fic! Did I suck at capturing Usopp? Did I get his interactions wrong? I need to watch the series again, or at least revisit some episodes to see interactions, to see how things go again. I'm doing this largely by memory at this point in time, so I probably got it all wrong. Oh well...