I do not own One Piece.
"You seem to be pretty happy anymore," Sanji pointed out as we prepared lunch for the crew.
"D…Do I?" I ask shocked, "I guess I am. I haven't been allowed to draw or shoot or doing anything other than work for quiet a few years." I reply, staring down, biting my lip. After Luffy's talk with me, and my resulting breakdown, things have started getting a little better. I have started trying to call everyone by just their name since that is what I was told to do. I mess up sometimes and end up calling someone master, but it doesn't happen too often and no one gets mad at me for it. I have always started feeling more comfortable with everyone. I join in with conversation, though sometimes I still feel nervous about saying anything so I mostly just listen but occasionally they will specifically ask for my opinion, I have also been working on my ammo and other inventions a lot, Franky even told me that I can use part of his workshop as my own.
"Good, it's about time that you started acting like a friend, not a slave," he replies, breaking me out of my thoughts. I look up to see him smiling at me, I smile back and we get back to preparing lunch. I still helped Sanji out a lot, I knew I didn't have to anymore, but I find Sanji's presences calming. He was the first person to talk with me a lot and treat me with so much kindness.
Setting the table, Sanji goes to the door and calls everyone in. The chaos at meals still surprises me slightly, but it is pretty enjoyable. After lunch, Luffy and Chopper invite me out to play a game of tag with them. I had been a little hesitant at first, not having played for a really long time and I didn't really want to do anything wrong and ruin their fun but they convinced me to play anyway and it has been a lot of fun. Nami gets mad at us for making a lot of noise sometimes, which is a little scary, but everyone tells me that she doesn't really mean it, though I still flinch or shy away. But everything is going much better, after I stopped being afraid of getting punished or spending all my time waiting for some type of order, I realized that everyone treats me just like they do everyone else. No one expects more from me than they do from any of the crew members. I find myself enjoying spending time with them, though Zoro doesn't talk much, and is a little scary, and Nami gets mad really easy.
We haven't gotten into many fights, but the few we have gotten into have been tough, a really scary. But I like to think that I helped out quiet a bit, I didn't do as much as most of the crew, but I am pretty sure that I took down my fair share of enemies. The first battle was scariest. We had been attacked by a couple of Marine ships. I had tried to help out, but I was really nervous. I wasn't used to all of the chaos, a Marine was able to sneak up behind me and knock my slingshot away, I turned to face him, only to end up surrounded. I was terrified, I was sure that I was going to die, but right as one of them raised their sword to attack, Zoro came to my rescue. He didn't say anything afterwards, just went back to attacking the other Marines on the ship. After that fight, I sought him out to thank him for rescuing me, it was the first time I had ever really said anything to Zoro, he honestly scares me a little. I stuttered as I apologized for being next to useless in the fight, and thanked him for rescuing me. But he had assured me that it was fine, that I would get used to fighting eventually.
"Hey, Usopp! Come on, let's play tag," Luffy yells, breaking me out of my thoughts. I look up to see him and Chopper smiling brightly at me. Smiling back, I run over to where they are standing. We begin a game of tag, filled with loud laughter and excited shrieks. I don't make as much noise as these two, but sometimes I just can't help but laugh out loud.
After a few vigorous games, we collapse on the deck out of breath. We end up playing a few card games with the rest of the crew, until it was time to prepare dinner. We pack all the food outside, where Franky had set up a table. After dinner, we all sit around talking for a while, when Luffy turns to face me. He stares at me for a few seconds before finally speaking. "Hey, Usopp. You're from East Blue right? Then how did you end up on Grand Line?"