Usopp slept without stop, for the entire day.

Not even ones, as the crew-mates came into the male quarters to have a look, did he batter as much as an eye-lash.

Merely he was all snuggled up in his own bed, looking incredible content and cosy.

Which made every-body smile happily.

"Aww, he looks so cute." Nami pointed out as Usopp laid all snuggled up on his side, still with that smile on his face.

"Makes me want to take a nap." Zoro muttered, then shrugged as he turned around walked out.. next moment you could hear the snores from Zoro sleeping up against the railing.

Not even in the evening as the rest of the crew went to sleep, did Usopp seem to notice at all.

As Luffy crawled up in his own Hammock-bed, that happened to be right above Usopp's, and hung his head down to grinning look at the sniper, did Usopp notice a thing. "Night!" Luffy told the sleeping Usopp, before he grinning rolled over and laid in his own bed, chuckling to himself. "Shishishishi."

First the next morning, as the straw-hats private alarm clock, also called Brook. Pulled forward his guitar and made his first chord, did some-thing happen.

First of it was Franky whom leaped up and pressed his massive hand against Brooks mouth. "Shut up soul-king!" the cyborg hissed. "There's a sick person in here whom needs to sleep as much as he can!"

But it was to late, as Usopp yawned deeply, stretching up both his arms as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

His hair was a mess, having worked itself partially out of the horsetail, his eyes were a bit blurry, like it was on a person whom had slept for so long, and there was a bit of left-over drool in the side of his mouth, Usopp now wiped away with the back of his hand.

Then he looked at Franky and Brook, blinking, then he looked around, then smirked as he looked at the two. "You put me to bed?" he asked.

"That was yesterday morning, you've slept that entire day away." Franky informed.

That made Usopp laugh. "I see." He told stretching out his arms, so several pops sounded. Then he exhaled as he sat with a big grin on his face. "That makes sense, I could have sworn I had just eaten, and now I feel starved again." He told, putting his hand on his stomach. Then he looked up, towards Luffys bed hammock and got a mischievous look on his face.

Easily Usopp climbed up in Luffys bed, bowed over, so his long nose was a mere inch away from Luffys face, and then yelled. "OI LUFFY!"

"WARGH!" Luffy screamed as his eyes opened wide, and he jumped up like a cat, falling out of the bed. "Where's the fire!?" he asked confused.

"HAHAHA!" Usopp laughed up from the bed hammock as he looked down. "I always said you slept to much! You lazy bum!" he stated throwing a pillow after Luffy, which hit Luffy right in the head, sending the captain down on his back, on the floor.

"Huh?" Luffy blinked as he looked up at where Usopp was looking down at him, and Luffys face split in a grin. "OOOOHHH USOPP!" he exclaimed.

"Bleh!" Usopp exclaimed, blowing a raspberry of his captain. "I bet you can't hit me!"

"WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" Luffy exclaimed reaching for the pillow, then stretched his arm to grab the ledge of his hammock bed, and soon they were both engaged in a pillow fight on the bed.

Brook looked at them. "You think Usopp is well enough for that?" he asked.

Franky shrugged. "They told me he is an incredible healer."

Soon they started to move between Hammocks, and then Chopper was roughly waked as he was pushed down and screamed. "Aaaarghhh." Before he saw what was going on and screamed. "NO NO USOPP! You need to relax!" only to get a pillow right in the face of his own.

Stunned Chopper stood back as the pillow fell, then he blinked and then exclaimed. "OH NOW YOU ARE GOING TO GET IT!" as he jumped up on one of the lower hammock beds, to join the two on the upper hammock bed.

Thing just was that Zoro had been sleeping in that lower hammock bed, and Chopper had accidently ended up using his stomach as a bouncing point, beating all the air out of Zoro's stomach. So now the swordsman was in a truly faul mood. "all-right, who do I need to kill?" he asked in a hiss.

"Shut up shitty swordsman." Sanji murmured from the hammock-bed over Zoro's. "It's to early for this shit." He muttered as he rolled around.

Then Luffy, Usopp and Chopper realised just who it was that had just spoken, and were still sleeping around!

And all of a sudden, Sanji was stuck with three unwanted guests in his hammock bed, yelling at him.

"SANJI SANJI!" Luffy exclaimed ."It's breakfast time! GIVE ME FOOD!" he exclaimed.

"Hmpf." The cook sneered as he turned around, burying his face into his pillow.

"Sanji, I'm staaaaaarving." Usopp complained. "I feel like I might die from hunger!" he stated plummeting down on his back, partially on top of Sanji.

"Me to! me to!" Chopper exclaimed, plummeting down beside Usopp.

Annoyed Sanji looked up from his pillow. "Fine." He then hissed. "But only if you hurry up, AND GET THE GOD DAMN OFF ME!" he roared.

And immediately the three did, yelling a big. "YAAAY!" as they jumped down on the floor.

"Wow." Usopp then blinked as he swayed a little, holding a hand towards his fore-head.

Immediately Chopper turned to his monster point and supported the snipers back. "Dizzy spell?" he asked.

"Uhu." Usopp nodded. "Is that normal?" he asked.

"You're recovering, I'm surprised you could do this much honestly." Chopper told. "But you are going to be just fine." He smiled, and Usopp gave the reindeer a thumbs up.

Franky laughed loudly. "It's good to see you in such a high spirit!" he told giving Usopp a dash on the shoulder.. which send the sniper right on his head down on the floor. "Argh! Sorry!" Franky exclaimed.

"Shishi." Luffy grinned, taking Usopp's arm, pulling him back up on his legs.

"It's fine Franky." Usopp told blinking, clearly just a little dizzy before he shook his head. "Hey! We can go out and see the sun-rise while Sanji makes break-fast!" he exclaimed. "COME ON!" he proclaimed heading for the door, and opened it wide, to be meet by the wave of fresh sea air, right at him.

Usopp took in a deep breath as he filled his lungs, then smiled brightly as he looked at where the sun that had all-ready risen a little over the surface, and Usopp jumped up. "YAHOO!" and came down again, just in time for his Captain to support him so he wouldn't fall all the way down.

"Shishishi!" Luffy grinned. "You don't need to hurry, there'll be plenty more sun-rises." He pointed out.

"Yeah." Usopp smiled at Luffy. "Yeah there will."

"And maybe now you beat death, you wont be such a coward." Zoro pointed out.

"What are you kidding me!?" Usopp asked. "If being a goner taught me any-thing, it is that life is to precious to throw away! Count me out of the next battle!" he exclaimed. "No way I'll be in the front line again!" he ranted as he stood up and walked forward. "Shesh, leave that to the big guys, I rather stay right here where I am." He told wrapping his arms around himself. "Dying is to scary, to scary!"

Blinking Chopper looked after the ranting sniper. "But.." he tried.

"Don't worry Chopper, he doesn't really mean it." Zoro stated in a slight roll of his eyes.

"Shishi." Luffy grinned. "He'll be right there fighting as always baka." He stated, seeing how Usopp was raising his arms ranting on.

"I mean who just throws away their lives so casually any-way! That's just stupid. STUPID!"


"Thanks for helping me harvesting these." Usopp smiled appreciative at Nami. "Any longer and they would have been spoiled." He observed, dragging up a basket, full of seeds from his garden to the table in his work-shop.

Nami as well placed a baskter next to his before she turned to Usopp. "Well, it was a service, so that'll be 2.000 berrie please." She asked.

"HEY THAT'S UNFAIR!" Usopp exclaimed. "I thought you were just helping me out!"

"It's not my job to take care of your garden." Nami pointed out.

"It's not my fault I lost weeks because of an illness!" Usopp exclaimed. "I'm so far behind on so many projects." He almost cried.

"Hey, don't over exert yourself." Nami demanded. "You've only been out of bed for two days." She reminded the sniper.

"Then don't pressure me about money!" Usopp exclaimed. "You know how unfair that is!? Did I ask any money for building your clima-tact or upgrading it?" he asked. "For carrying your bags around day in and day out, for swabbing the floor in your quarters!? I thought we were just supposed to help each other out!" he exclaimed.

Then Nami bowed over and kissed Usopp on the cheek, at ones making Usopp shut up as he starred wide-eyed at her.

And Nami blew a raspberry at Usopp. "Can't you take a joke?" she asked.

And Usopp rolled his eyes. "With you, one never knows." He muttered. "I know you, I know you are evil incarnate."

"That's a bit harsh isn't it?" Nami asked.

Usopp didn't answer, merely glared at Nami.

Then Nami chuckled innocently. "Remember to take breaks!" she asked waving over her shoulder. "You are not fully recovered yet!" she reminded him as she exited the work-shop.

Shaking his head Usopp looked after Nami, before he sat down on his work-shop bench and carefully started to take out the seeds, so he could sort the good from the bad.

A very calm excersise, just what Usopp needed... Luffy was fun and all, but Usopp did notice how tired his body felt at the moment.

He had gotten into a good rhythm of things as it slightly knocked on the door.

Sighing Usopp looked up, it was probably another one of his nakamas checking up on his, they had become rather protective since his illness, at last Usopp decided to just get it over with as he called. "Yeah, come in."

The door opened slowly, and in poked.. the head of a tall lean skeleton. "Urhm.." Brook hesitated. "I'm not disturbing am I?" he asked.

Lifting an eye-brow Usopp looked at Brook, then he shrugged. "No, any-thing I can do for you?" he asked.

Brook shook his head as he stepped inside, but then the skeleton hesitated, before he finally opened his mouth again. "Well…" he hesitated. "I was wondering whether you would be able to tell me.."

Usopp looked at Brook with wondering eyes.

"I guess I wasn't even supposed to see it, but erh.." Brook hesitated. "When you were ill, I wanted to check on you, I took a look into the sickbay.. but you weren't alone. There was this.. thing with you." He hesitated.

At that Usopp blinked at Brook.

"It didn't look hostile or any-thing, it looked rather friendly, so I didn't do any-thing." Brook told. "I hope that's okay, it was.. looked kind of like a human child, but not really. It.."

"Looked like it was made out of light, wearing a heavy coat with a hood, maybe she even had a mallet with her." Usopp suggested.

Stunned Brook looked at Usopp. "Hai." He told. "You know what it was?" he asked.

"You met our guardian spirit." Usopp told in a broad smile. "Merry, you remember I told you about the original Merry right?" he asked.

"Yes." Brook recollected. "As we sailed in Mini-Merry." He nodded.

"Well, Merry's spirit moved into the sunny without a problem when Sunny was build." Usopp told. "She's looking after us now, she's our Nakama." He told, then smiled brightly at Brook. "I'm so glad you got to meet her! You were the only one whom didn't get to hear her voice before!"

"Well, technically I met her the same day I met all of you." Brook told. "I will admit I was drawn to the ship as I first saw it, she just felt.. so special. Alive some-how." He stated. "You must be a very special person Usopp san, to have both seen, heard and been touched by a ships-spirit."

Then, Usopp slightly touched his lips with his hands, as he looked forward.

"Usopp-san?" Brook asked.

"I.. I died, didn't I?" Usopp asked. "I was dead…"

"Well." Brook swallowed.

"It's true isn't it Brook?" Usopp asked looking seriously at the skeleton.

Then Brook exhaled. "Hai." He admitted. "Your heart stopped, you were clinically dead." He told. "That's why some of your ribs are sore, Chopper performed CPR for a good while."

Slowly, Usopp reached forward a hand, and felt the sore spot on his chest, then hissed lightly.

"We thought you were gone for good." Brook admitted solemnly. "But then suddenly, you took a deep breath and you were back." He told. "Not even Chopper can explain why."

At that Usopp exhaled ones again, letting out a smile amused smile. "So that was it.." he breathed.

"What?" Brook asked.

"Merry!" Usopp exclaimed looking at Brook. "I saw her! She was right there talking to me! She stopped me from going any further, and then she.." he swallowed.

"What?" Brook asked.

"Erhh.." Usopp blushed deeply. "She breathed life into me.." he whispered, touching his lips again. Then he looked up at Brook. "That's possible right?" he asked. "You can make your soul exit your body, souls can exit bodies and talk to spirits right?" he asked. "It wasn't just a fever dream was it!? That was her, saving me!" he stated.

"Usopp-san I don't know." Brook told honestly. "I don't know much more about the nature of death than any-one else, and I don't' have any connection to spirits." He told. "But.. I know for sure that I saw her. I saw a spirit that really loved you, trying to take care of you." He told. "So if that is what you believe, I think it's a rather safe bet to say that is what happened."

"It was not only her though." Usopp sighed, leaning his head in his hand, looking at his seeds. "You all saved me." He told. "You anchored me here, if it wasn't for every single one of you, I would have been a goner." He told, then glanced up at Brook, sending the skeleton a smile. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Brook told in a slight shrug. "You would have done the same for any-one of us."

And Usopp smiled at Brook. "Yeah." He admitted, then grinned, and so did Brook, chukling softly.

"Yohohoho."

And a small child-like laughter sounded as well from the corner.

Brook jumped up. "What was that!?" he asked. "IS THIS SHIP HAUNTED!? EEEHHHH I hate ghosts!"

And Usopp let out a roaring laughter, wiping away a tear from his eyes. "Merry! Don't tease Brook like that!" he laughed, then send out an air kiss. "Thank you my dearest lady! For every-thing! You are truly the most magnificent ship in the entire world Merry." He stated laying a hand on the wall beside him, then clapped it lightly. "Thank you." He whispered again.

Fin