Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Rating: K+
Characters: Usopp, all Strawhats mentioned
Word Count: 291
Prompt: Hunger
Special A/N: This little drabble actually acts as a prologue to one of my other one shots, Compulsive; but, it can also be read alone. Careful though, it's a little crazy down there.
The Craze
Usopp felt it overcome him the moment he stepped through the door; the walls of willpower he had constructed over the past two years didn't even stand a chance. As if made of twigs, they crumbled the minute he got whiff of the succulent scent of – of all things! - smoked pike. It was only Franky's enthusiastic grip on his shoulders as he chattered on about some new invention of theirs – had they been making something? – that kept him from pouncing on the table before even Luffy.
And then the craze overtook him.
It was like heat under his skin and dizziness in his brain. His vision tunneled to only see plate after plate before him, taunting him and his ears could only echo the most awful and wonderful suggestions on how to get each piece of china into his grasp:
Tell Chopper you're sick and need it.
Give Nami your savings.
Hide Brook's guitar, then request a song.
Kick Zoro and say Sanji did it.
Drain the aquarium into the library.
Destroy Sunny's rudder.
Burnthat straw ha-
"Usopp? You alright?"
As if he had been plunged into the sea, Usopp came back to sanity with a chilled start as the world righted itself abruptly. He found himself seated at the table. Cautiously, he turned to Sanji, the cook trying to play his concern with indifference, and lied with a big, bright smile.
"Yeah, just fine."
And under the shelter of the table, no one could see how his shaking fingers – his shaking fingers – curled against the stomach sending signals of starvation through him as if it had not had nourishment in weeks, when in truth it had been but four hours ago.
This is why one should never eat the food in Bowin's Forest of Gluttony.