Chapter Text
The party was a blur till the time Chopper decided to leave. War… no, Zoro, left Usopp's mind in a flurry of nonsense. What could Wa-, Zoro, mean that my desire has curbed? Usopp thought as he watched Chopper get to bed later that night.
At least Usopp now had a more logical explanation for why Chopper was immune to everything Usopp shoved into him. Zoro has been around him for awhile, Usopp thought. And if I understood correctly from the conversation, it's been at least three years. Usopp knew there was no way Chopper would be able to contract anything from him now. The knowledge left Usopp feeling bereft of his new favorite toy. But, he realized, I can still infect those at the hospital and watch him flounder with those. Even as Usopp thought it he knew he wasn't going to get the same sort of satisfaction with having Chopper cure things quickly. The only thing Usopp realized he enjoyed anymore was watching how quickly and efficiently Chopper dealt with his patients. Yet even that didn't really give anything to Usopp except the feeling that he was missing something. Maybe Zoro has a point, Usopp thought the next day as Chopper made his rounds at the hospital. Maybe my desire has faltered, but I still don't see life like Zoro does now.
Usopp found himself watching Chopper during most of his visits with patients instead of watching the way he handled the illness itself. He saw Chopper listen carefully to each of the people he talked to, he took notes, and did research. Usopp watched as Chopper poured everything he knew into each consultation and each diagnosis.
He watched as three weeks later Chopper had to tell someone that he couldn't help them. And he later watched Chopper break down in his office crying that he was useless.
Usopp understood. He watched the tears slide down Chopper's freckled cheeks, something he never noticed all this time, as his dark brown eyes, something else Usopp didn't bother to look at, turned red and puffy. He listened to the first words he had consciously wanted to hear from Chopper tumble from the man's lips in a jumble of incoherent babble.
“Why… need more… research… get better than this… have to help everyone.”
Usopp knew that the young man Chopper had just talked to had no cure available for him from this hospital or any other. Ebola wasn't something that humans had found a cure to yet. Sure they had ways to help people recover from the worse of it, but that didn't mean they were cured. Usopp knew that no one had found a way to fully heal those with it but he also knew the way to do it. He continued to listen to Chopper's tears fall onto his desk and Usopp began to make a flea that could heal the young man Chopper was crying over.
In the past weeks of just watching Chopper, Usopp had come to see what Zoro was talking about. About how life was precious. If it wasn't for Chopper fighting him all this time Usopp would have never seen it on his own. Chopper fought for those who couldn't save themselves, so Usopp decided to help Chopper help those he couldn't save on his own.
With flea in hand Usopp made his way to the young man's room. He came in with a fever, muscle and joint pains, and a headache that hadn't gone away in days. Now the young man had abdominal pains. He is moving quickly, Usopp thought as he placed the flea on the man's arm and watched it bit down. Usopp knew it was going to take time and hoped, a new feeling for him, that Chopper would see what he made to combat it.
A week later and Chopper was ecstatic at his patient's recovery, that his body managed to cure itself all on its own. Usopp listened to Chopper's happy babble as he talked to his patient and then again as he was in his office going over all the paperwork and tests to see how it happened.
Usopp decided then, watching Chopper's excited expression, that he could do more than just infect people with their deaths. He could heal them too.
It took time, but Usopp changed himself into something better. Something Zoro could be proud of the next time they met. His blanket now only held a handful of fleas, all containing the ‘we-can-cure-anything-we-want’ disease. His bow string no longer crossed his chest but now hung at his side broken and useless. The long coat of the plague doctor was gone replaced by what Usopp had heard people call overalls, and his crown had dulled its shine. That was something Usopp should have noticed had happened, and was sure Zoro had, when his feeling had begun to shift long ago.
He was now someone he felt Chopper would be proud to know, if Usopp ever decided to show himself. A thought for another time.