Birthday Angel
Word Count: 685
Pairing: Usopp x Kaya, Nakama shipping
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Usopp is awesome.
Dedicated to Christy-san and Digi-san and Saiyako-san and Dichana-san and everyone else who are awesome cubed to the power of pi.

"Happy birthday, Usopp-san!"

The day had been the same as every other day- wake up, scare the villagers, enjoy breakfast, rile the villagers some more, run, call on Kaya. His mouth was left rather open without any witty retort to give back to Kaya, who was standing at her window with her hands behind her back.

"Kaya-san! You…knew?" Nobody knew his when his birthday was, and it had slipped his mind that it was today.

"Of course, Usopp! You were telling me about it all week!" She smiled a little and giggled despite how much it must have hurt her fragile body. "About how on every one of your birthdays before, all the Gods would come down from the skies to give you a present…remember?"

He talked without thinking. "Of…course, Kaya-san! Why, it was only last year that the Gods decided that they weren't giving enough gifts for the mighty Usopp-sama, so you know what they did?"

"What did they do?" She was laughing for real now, the most beautiful sound in the world.

"They said to me," He changed his voice now, so it was comically low- "'Captain Usopp-sama, instead of giving you gifts this year we're sending down an angel to keep you company for the entire year.' And I accepted, because only Captain Usopp-sama knows that angels make better gifts than Gods since Gods have long hair and it always gets in everything they make."

She was still laughing as she brought her hands out and revealed the present inside them.

There was a tiny wooden figurine in her hands, clumsily and yet expertly carved from what seemed to used to be a part of the leg of her vanity, which was now hidden under a pile of blankets. It was of a small, thin girl in a short nightgown next to a taller man with curly black hair and a long cape, about the size of his two fists. She must have worked on it for ages- Klahadore didn't even let her use regular knives. All she had that was vaguely sharp were a pair of fingernail scissors which was exactly –

The reason –

Why her nails had grown so long lately.

No wonder that creepy butler had been slightly more that agitated lately.

He took it, weighing it in his palm. The faces were a bit rough and the edges carried splinters, but it was the most wonderful present in the world, and at least part of the story he told her was true.

"Thanks, Kaya-san!"

Now he had both a gift and an angel.

"Happy birthday, Usopp!"

The day had been the same as every other day- wake up, stretch, tickle Chopper in his sleep, head over to the galley when Sanji started yelling that breakfast was ready. He all ready had half of a story forming in the back of his head just in case Luffy was doing more than inhaling his share of the meal and was willing to listen to tales of his greatness.

This was different.

Instead of a crew sitting around the table starting on their breakfasts, it was instead six people crowded around all of his favourite foods. There was even a chocolate cake in the middle- adorned with lacy icing spelling out 'Happy Birthday Usopp-sama!" complete with a bite all ready taken out of it (and the resulting head-with-straw-hat-shaped hole in the wall).

"You guys! You…knew?" Nobody knew when his birthday was, and it had slipped his mind that it was today.

"Of course, Usopp! You were telling us about it all week!" Chopper grinned from his spot beside the table and jumped onto Usopp's shoulders, pulling at his hair. "Happy birthday!"

His nakama joined in, Zoro giving him birthday beats, Luffy leaving a bruise on his arm, Nami annulling his debt, Sanji explaining how he managed to find all of Usopp's favourite recipes and Robin decorating the table with flowers he had no idea where she got.

And amidst the babbling conversation over cake for breakfast, he realized that now he may not have gifts or angels- but he had nakama, and that was even better.