Chapter Three

Fatherhood is More than Yasopp Perhaps Bargained For

"Mama?"

"Mama?"

"Ugh," Yasopp winced when Usopp tried to climb over him and accidentally kneed him in the stomach. "Usopp," he gasped, gently pushing the boy off him. "What's wrong?"

"Daddy, I can't find Mama," Usopp whined. He pulled off the blanket and looked over the edge of the bed to see if she was somehow on the floor.

With a sigh, Yasopp pulled the boy into his lap. He was afraid of this. Banchina had left early in the morning to return to Syrup, worried about what the WG agents might have done to her lab. She had said goodbye, of course, but Usopp had been so out of it that he barely muttered a goodbye before falling back to sleep.

"Mama left this morning." Yasopp reminded him quietly.

Usopp's bottom lip quivered, "But I want Mama!"

"I know, Sweetheart. Is there something I can do?"

"Get Mama," Usopp cried, raising his fists and hitting Yasopp on the thigh.

"We don't hit, Usopp," Yasopp said, his tone neutral.

"I don't care! I want my mom!" Usopp jumped up from the bed and out the door.

Yasopp cursed under his breath and closed his eyes to try to starve off the already-forming headache. He winced, the floor cold against his bare feet, as he moved to follow Usopp from the room. Outside, he noticed that Usopp was nowhere to be seen and groaned, pattering towards the kitchen. He turned the corner and paused when he met Lucky's eye. The man stood between Usopp and the rest of the deck, forcing him to pause in front of the Kitchen and bathrooms.

"LET ME GO, I WANT TO SEE MY MOM!" Usopp growled, throwing himself into Lucky two, three, four times and bouncing off. After the fifth time, he fell on his butt and glowered at the man.

"How is that working for you?" Yasopp asked blandly. He was leaning against the kitchen door, arms crossed over his chest.

Usopp turned to glare at his father. "I want to go!"

"I understand you are frustrated, but that is not an option right now. Why don't we go have a break in the Library?"

"I'm not frustrated!" Usopp snapped. "I am pissed off. I want to go home!"

"You can go to the Library or back to the room," Yasopp said firmly.

"I don't—"

"Library or room?"

"Library," Usopp spit out after several moments of silence. He jumped to his feet and turned on his heel, storming towards the room next to the galley. Throwing open the door, he strode over to the oversized plush chair under the port window and sat down, crossing his arms over his chest.

Yasopp sighed and dragged himself through the room to the large desk on the left. He riffled through the top drawer until his fingers curled around a small hourglass. Plopping down in the seat across from Usopp, he placed the hourglass in clear view on the coffee table between them. "I am setting a five-minute timer. I need some quiet time just to breathe. I will not be talking until then."

With that, he flipped it over and closed his eyes. Slowly, he breathed deeply through his nose and held it for ten seconds before releasing it. At around the minute mark, Usopp began to copy him. Slowly, his body relaxed into the chair, his arms falling into his lap.

The sand soon fell, and Usopp's voice broke through the silence. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Yasopp rolled his shoulders and opened his eyes. "I know you are upset because Mama left in the middle of the night. That wasn't fair to you."

Usopp nodded and chewed on his lip. "Why doesn't she love me?" He asked after several long minutes of silence.

Yasopp shook his head, eyebrows knitting in confusion. "Why ever would you think that she doesn't love you?"

Usopp pulled his knees to his chest and shrugged. "She's always leaving me at boarding schools, and when I am home, she's always angry at me…. Now she left in the middle of the night." Usopp sniffled.

Yasopp leaned forward and reached out to rub Usopp's leg. "Hey, I happen to know that your mother loves you very much. She has a lot on her plate and, unfortunately, sometimes makes decisions that might seem confusing. That is not your fault, Usopp."

Usopp looked up at him, eyes filled with tears. "But she's never around when I need her. She's always away. I-I can't even get her on the den den a lot of the time."

Yasopp nodded in understanding. "I know it's tough, bud, and I wish I could change that, but I can't. What I can do is be here for you when you need someone to talk to. And if you ever feel alone, remember that me and the crew are here for you, and we love you."

A hint of a smile crossed Usopp's lips. "Really?"

Yasopp nodded, returning Usopp's smile with one of his own. "Absolutely. We are a family, and families support and care for each other. So, don't ever doubt how much you mean to me. To us."

Usopp wiped away the tears that escaped his eyes. "Thank you, Daddy."

"Anytime," Yasopp stood and offered his hand for Usopp to take. "Why don't we go to breakfast, and then we can talk about how we can make you feel more at home?"

"Sounds good," Usopp replied warmly, his hand gripping Yasopp's tightly. Together, they left the room and made their way to breakfast.

~o0o~

Yasopp sat down across from Usopp, offering him a weary smile. "So, did you finish?" He had been arguing back and forth with Usopp for over forty-five minutes to get him to fill out the simple prediction worksheet.

"Just finishing the picture." Usopp leaned his cheek on a fist as he coloured in the red apple he had drawn on his page. He turned the page over and handed it to Yasopp, kicking his feet as he waited.

Yasopp read over the worksheet, a frown forming on his lips. "Usopp, this isn't appropriate."

"What do you mean!?" Usopp exclaimed, kneeling on his chair so he could lean over the table. "It said make a prediction, and I did!"

"'Apples suck' is not a prediction," Yasopp said dryly. "And the justification can't be 'fuck apples'! You know that's inappropriate."

"But apples do suck, and that book will prove it!" Usopp snapped. "For one, they are engineered to taste bad. Who does that? Why would you sacrifice flavour for looks and strength? That's just stupid."

"Be that as it may, you have to do this over. I can't send this in." Yasopp waved the worksheet in the air.

"No! I already did it. I am not doing it again."

"If you did it correctly the first time, you wouldn't have to do it again, would you?"

"I did it correctly. Just because you don't like my response doesn't mean it's wrong!" Usopp threw himself back in his chair and crossed his arms, glaring at his father.

Yasopp took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "I need to take a five-minute break." He said through gritted teeth before getting up from the table and walking over to the bar to get a pint of grog from Makino.

"Want me to try, Yasopp?" Shanks offered, having watched the exchange from the bar.

With a sigh, Yasopp waved his hand towards Usopp. "Be my guest."

Shanks slid into the chair beside Usopp and picked up the worksheet, snickering at the responses on the page. "Look at that picture! I think it's better than anything I could draw!" Shanks gushed. "The colouring is amazing, and look at that shading." Shanks winked at Usopp, "The worm is a nice touch." Shanks turned to show Luffy, who slid into the seat across from Usopp. "Don't you think so, Luffy?"

Luffy frowned, sliding a finger into his nose as he looked at the picture. "Yeah, it looks really cool!"

Usopp eyed Shanks wearily, "Thank you." he said properly.

"I think we should make these responses worthy of such a picture," Shanks stated, going for the kill.

Usopp frowned, tilting his head. "What do you mean?"

"You have such a beautiful picture. Don't you want the rest of the worksheet to match?"

"Mmm, I guess so." Usopp rolled his shoulders before grabbing his pencil from the table and twisting it between his fingers. "I just didn't know what to write, and I really do hate apples since they genetically engineered them to suck."

"Why did they do that?" Shanks asked, leaning forward and placing the worksheet back on the table, giving Usopp his full attention.

Usopp pressed the neck of his shirt into his mouth, chewing on the fabric. "So, a long time ago, apples tasted great, right?"

Shanks smiled, "I think I remember that, yes."

"Well, they were yummy for a really long time, so they used to be grown a lot by farmers because they were really, really popular. Although it was more for how pretty it was than taste, I don't understand why. It's food. Why would you care if it's pretty?" Usopp huffed out a snort of derision. "It became really popular to use in pies, but then farmers and scientists started doing selective breeding…"

"What is selective breeding?"

"Oh, it's like they choose 'parents' with traits they want the babies to have. So, for apples, they looked for 'parents' with brighter red colours or less yellow stripes on the skin. Everyone liked them because they were 'prettier'. But that was a horrible idea because most of the genes for flavour were in the same… erm, chrome? Creamo?... ugh, I can't remember the word. But the genes for flavour were the same as the yellow stripes on the apple. This means that when they chose redder apples, they got rid of the flavour of the apples. So now we have icky, waxy, thick-skinned apples that no one wants. That's why apples suck."

Shanks turned to Benn and Lucky, who were listening nearby and mouthed 'wow' to them before turning back. "That was amazing, Usopp. Could we write some of this information down on the worksheet?"

Usopp grimaced. "But writing is hard! My brain moves too fast for my hand, and then I forget what I was writing."

"Give me a second," Shanks pulled away from the table, returning a minute later with some paper. "Why don't you tell me what you want to write, and I'll write it down for you, then you can copy it onto the worksheet."

Usopp nodded, "That seems fair."

"Okay, so 'Make a Prediction' about the book Apples."

"I predict that the book Apples will not talk about how horrible apples have become through selective breeding. I think that this book will have apple propaganda."

Shanks bit his lip as he wrote down what Usopp said, word for word. He was careful to write neatly and not in his usual illegible scrawl. "Now we need a justification."

"I don't know," Usopp sighed. "They probably wrote the book so they could keep telling people that it will keep doctors away, even though that's a lie. People will do anything to avoid doctors, so they will buy a lot of apples and give the farmers a lot of money."

"Hey!" Hongo exclaimed, playfully frowning in his direction.

Usopp shrugged, "Sorry, I don't make the rules."

Shanks put down the pencil and slid over the paper. "Copy that onto your worksheet and then give it to your dad."

"Thank you!" Usopp nodded and shifted in his chair, taking his pencil in hand and carefully erasing his previous answers. As he started to copy down what Shanks had written for him, his tongue stuck out as he concentrated.

Shanks left him to it, patting Luffy on the shoulder before returning to the bar.

"Thank you, Shanks," Yasopp said sincerely. He shook his head. "Everything else I can do with him, but writing… I just get so impatient."

He waved him off, "It was nothing. You have a smart kid there. I can do his writing with him if you want."

Yasopp gave a small, strained smile. "Hongo offered to do his Chemistry with him, too. I really appreciate you guys."

"It's what being part of a crew is about. We help each other."

"Hmm," Yasopp lifted the pint in his hand to his lips and took a deep drink from it.

"Daddy?"

He put the cup down and knelt at Usopp's level. "Yes?"

Usopp held out his worksheet. "I finished."

Yasopp nodded and looked it over. It was much better than what was originally on the page. "This is very good, Usopp." he reached up to put the worksheet on the stool beside him before pulling him into a tight hug. "I am sorry that I got frustrated."

Usopp snuggled his face into Yasopp's shoulder, gripping tightly to his shirt. "It's okay, Daddy. You did good taking a break. It's bad to keep going when you are too upset."

Yasopp leaned back and pressed a kiss to Usopp's forehead. "Thank you, sweetheart."

"I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Usopp."

~o0o~

"No," came the bored voice from over the den den.

"Buggy, it's Yasopp."

"Doubly no."

"Can you not be an asshole for one minute? I have a request for you regarding Usopp." Yasopp snapped, flexing his fingers to stop himself from throwing the den den across the room. He was sitting in Shanks' office, stretched out in the office chair, legs thrown over the armrests.

"Well, why didn't you say so? I would do anything for my nephew."

"He's not your nephew." God, he couldn't stand Buggy. "Listen, do you have his slingshot?"

"The one Ban banned him from having. Why do you want that?"

"Because he's with me, and I want to train him with it some. It's either that or a gun, and I think we can both agree that the slingshot is a much safer option."

Buggy hummed his assent. "She's not going to like that."

"No, but with two parents on the World Government's radar and the closest thing to a guardian being yet another pirate captain, we can't leave him defenseless. I know she's worried after the assassination attempt. Trust me, I am too, but if anything, that just proves he needs it." Yasopp fell silent. "Speaking of the assassination attempt…"

"Nothing yet," Buggy sighed. "Every lead we have had turned up dead." Pages were being flipped on the other end of the line. "Most of our kind wouldn't go after a child. Dragon has said that his father swears up and down that it has nothing to do with the World Government. If anything, they would try to kill you and Banchina to get their hands on him."

"You don't think it was—"

"Vista?" Buggy scoffed. "I know you have some rivalry with him, but he would never hurt a kid. Kidnap them, maybe, but never hurt them."

Yasopp shook his head, "Yeah, you're right." Yasopp pulled at the roots of his hair and sighed. "Back to the slingshot, would you be able to send it…" he stopped, eyebrows knitting as he caught sight of something in his periphery. He rolled his eyes when he realised it was Shanks gesturing for him to ask Buggy to meet up with them. "Or perhaps meet us at Foosha Village?" He finished, waving Shanks off.

"It'll be about a fortnight, but I can stop by briefly. It's been a while since I've seen Usopp."

"What about me!?" Shanks cried over Yasopp's shoulder, causing the man to scowl. "It's been forever since you've seen meeee."

"Are you drunk already, Idiot?" Buggy asked.

"It's five O'clock somewhere," Shanks quipped.

Buggy sighed heavily. "As nice as this was, I have a show to run. I'll see you in about a fortnight."

"Thank you, Buggy," Yasopp said before hanging up the den den. He turned to Shanks and poked his cheek. "What did you do to him last time that he hasn't been by to visit?"

"Nothing!" Shanks protested. "I was just myself."

"Oh, that's it then," Yasopp said dryly.

"What is that supposed to mean!?"