Chapter Text
“Mom come on!”
Small hands grab hold of a larger one as a boy with long curls pulls at his mother’s arm excitedly. There's a bandana keeping those long curls out of his face but it is barely managing to do its job and most of his hair has gotten loose, like a dark curtain he has to blow it away every few seconds to see. There is a large smile on his face despite the impatiens he shows.
“Alright, alright, no need to pull on me Usopp.”
Banchina’s voice holds barely contained laughter at her son’s eagerness. She follows him around the back of their small house. Her own hair is done up in a bun and a pair of protective glasses have been pulled up to her hairline. Though it is in a similar state of disarray, the glasses are doing most of the holding back. Her jumpsuit is full of old and new stains, holes, and patches, it is well-loved and well-used.
“You are just too slow, and I worked really hard on this!” His excitement is infectious, and his mother's laughter finally breaks free filling the air.
“Well your project isn’t going to grow legs and walk away now is it?” Her words do little to slow the boy down as he walks backward to pout at her.
“No, but still.” It comes out as the whine it is, and Usopp almost trips over the bumps in the road as his eyes continue to stray from the path ahead. A hand shoots out to steady him but he finds his own balance before it can reach him, and Bachina has to pull back with a snort. She eyes Usopp for a bit, the boy is bouncing more than walking.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with the materials that went missing from my workshop, would it?” It’s purely rhetorical, as they both know the answer already. Usopp glances back at her with a little remorse and a new flush to his cheeks.
“Maybe…” The word is dragged out, and Bachina can only roll her eyes. her voice holds a more stern lilt as she speaks.
“Usopp.” She isn’t angry, not really. It's more fond of exasperation at her son's own eager inventiveness. The boy huffs though she can’t see, she knows how he puffs out his cheeks almost like a squirrel when he pouts.
“I know, I know. I’m not supposed to touch anything if you aren’t there. But I didn’t touch any of the dangerous things I swear.” She knows, nothing enters, leaves, or even moves in her workshop without her notice. She isn’t about to let Usopp play with anything dangerous, no matter how eager or inventive he might be.
“Just be careful alright.” The stern tilt to her voice doesn’t stay long, and she speeds up to bring Usopp into a hug, only to tickle his sides.
“Oh how can I be mad, my boy is just like me after all. A clever little inventor. I can’t tell if that lust for danger has come from me or your dad.” Usopp frees himself from his mother's grip though still giggling as he speaks.
“I don’t really like danger, I like adventure and good stories. Oh! Have I told you this new story I made up? It has tigers and giant birds.”
“No I don’t think so, you’ll have to tell me over dinner later, yeah?” Usopp nods eagerly at her, and goes to say something else. Probably to start the story, but before he can, his mother’s violent coughing makes him stop.
She had been doing it a lot lately and it only seemed to get worse. She had been to see Kaya’s parents about it, but it hadn’t helped. Now she stands half bent over coughing into her hands as her shoulders shake. It sounds awful, like a rasping in her throat as she does so. It feels like an eternity before it subsides again, and when it does she looks fainter, more tired and her breathing comes out heavy. She hadn’t looked too well that morning but it got better as the day progressed. Or rather it had, now he didn’t know anymore.
When Usopp tries to go towards her to help, she puts her hand up. Sending him a smile that doesn’t reach her ears. Her eyes are droopy and her voice is strained when she speaks.
“I’m fine Usopp. Let’s see that invention.” Her movements are slower but Usopp pushes down his worry, plastering a smile on his face instead. If his mom says she is fine then she is.
*
Coming up to his little works spot, the first thing Usopp notes is the stranger standing over his things. The next is how that stranger is holding the smoke bombs he just made, and was about to show his mom. What he doesn’t notice, is how his mother had stopped. Frozen in place as she lays eyes on the man in front of her. Her mouth is slightly open and disbelief is pouring out of her.
Without thinking Usopp yells out to the man, but his courage falters when he actually gains the man’s attention. On reflex, Usopp takes a step back toward his mom. With mounting horror, he realizes that there's a gun strapped to the man's hip. Glancing back at his mother, she doesn’t seem afraid though. Surprised yes, but not afraid. It gives him some confidence. Along with the fact, that the man doesn’t seem hostile. He had looked surprised when he first turned and they made eye contact, but it had morphed into this relaxed and almost soft smile. The kind of smile that made the corner of your eyes crinkle, the kind that didn’t show teeth but felt affectionate.
“Those… those are mine. I-I worked really hard on them!”
“You made these?”
“Yeah, I did. What- What of it!?”
“That’s amazing kiddo-“ the stranger's gaze shifts briefly. “Your really something.” its soft almost whispered, it seems like more than something a stranger would say. Like there is something else hiding behind those words. Longing maybe? But Usopp can’t really make sense of why this Stranger would have feelings like that. Instead of trying to figure out htis mystery he just latches on to the compliment with an apprehensive glee.
“Yo-you think so?”
“Oh, I know so! 8 years old and already following in your mother's footsteps?” and then a lot softer almost too quiet to hear, “It really is amazing.” The man's gaze is back on the smoke bomb, thumb caressing it like one might do to something precious.
“Yasopp…?
“Wait mom- you mean?”
“You’ve gotten really big since I last saw you Usopp.”
“Dad!”
“Yeah, hey I know I haven’t-“
Usopp barely registers his words, he is too busy taking in the man before him. He feels like he is vibrating through his own skin. His mother's gentle touch is what sends him running off towards the man, no his father. Crashing into solid legs and hugging any part of the other his small arms can reach.
Yasopp staggers back a few steps, having not expected the sudden impact. His arms hover awkwardly in the air and his voice trails off, hesitant and uncertain he is frozen in place. Usopp notices very little of this. A lot of feelings a going through the small boy, most he can barely make heads and tails of, some are too complicated and some are so entwined he doesn’t know whether to scream or cry. Maybe he does a little bit of both.
Usopp has no tangible memories of his dad, being too young to remember anything when the man set out to sea. But he has stories and many of them, his mother always made sure that even if he didn’t know his dad he still knew his dad. A tough and brave man with dreams of traveling the world and gaining infamy through piracy. That his father's captain was a kind man who had given his father the opportunity to achieve his dreams at sea.
His father is a sniper, a sharpshooter, a fighter, and now he was right in front of Usopp praising his work. Though just as quick as those feelings of happiness surge through him they plummet right to the ground again.
His mother coughs once more and it is much more violent and unrelenting than before. Her skin is rapidly pailing as she sways on her feet. It is only his father's quick reflexes that save her from meeting the ground. With a yell of ‘Mom!’ Usopp rushes over. Her skin had gotten even more clammy since that morning and her breathing is coming out in fast shallow puffs. Her eyes are closed and he thinks she may have passed out completely.
Things become a bit of a blur as they rush Bachina back home and puts her in bed. With practiced ease, Usopp prepares herbal tea, a wet rag and some ice to help alleviate his mother's pain. Because she is in pain, with labored breath, flushed skin where she isn’t pale as a ghost, and a scrunched-up face even while unconscious giving away to her discomfort.
Yasopp can only watch his son with a detached sense of reality, how he goes through the motions of this like it was a normal occurrence for Banchina to pass out suddenly- Well that was the problem wasn’t it? This was apparently a normal occurrence or at least normal enough that Usopp did all this automatically.
When had things gotten bad?
Why hadn’t they contacted him?
Worse, had they tried to contact him but were unable to?
“Usopp.” His son's name falls heavily from his lips, yet Usopp doesn’t look up from where he is placing a rag on Banchinas forehead, he simply continues to work while speaking.
“Yeah?”
“How long has your mom been sick?” Usopp stops and Yasopp doesn’t like how the boy has to think about it. Like he can’t quite remember a time before she was sick, and if that isn’t just a punch to the gut. Shanks was right, he should have visited more often.
Her sickness, Usopp explains, while it had only gotten this bad recently, he is pretty sure she had been sick since before last winter. Back then it only seemed like a flue and she had mostly recovered after a few weeks of rest, but even then. Her cough had been persistent, getting worse as time progressed.
“That's not good at all.” Bachinas hand is sweaty, clammy as he holds it in his own warm one. Gently bringing it up to his lips and placing a kiss on her knuckles. It breaks him a little to see the strong beautiful woman he loves, his wife, the mother of their son. Reduced to this pale ghost whose breath is rasped out. The back of his eyes stings as all of the ‘what if’s’ run through his head.
“What do the village doctor say?” He knows Syrup has one, a man around his age.
“Kaya’s dad can’t do anything for mom.” The name Kaya does make him pause until he remembers why that name was so familiar. The Doctor and his wife, their daughter, it would have to be her. Usopp and her had been born the same year if he isn’t mistaken.
“Okay… Alright.” Yasopp feels a little lost but not hopeless, not yet at least. They had a doctor aboard the Red Force, and he is sure Ogashira wouldn’t mind a trip into town either. “Alright-” A little more sure of himself this time. Yasopp lets go of Bachina’s hand and kneels in front of Usopp, he tries for reassuring as he speaks.
“-Usopp I’m going to go fetch some people, it might take a while. can you stay with her?” Usopp nods, and Yasopp can see a question on the tip of the boy’s tongue but just gives his shoulders a squeeze before rushing out of the door. Towards where he knows the Red Force is docked.
*
There's an exhausted and defeated sigh as the stethoscope is placed back around their doctor's neck. His face is set with something grim, eyes dark, and brows drawn together. His mouth is tugged into a frown when he speaks, with all the certainty of someone who has been doing this for decades. “It's definitely Blue fever.”
“Which is definitely treatable yes?” Yasopp sounds desperate even to his own ears. Shanks puts an arm on his shoulder, but his Captain's touch does little to soothe the worry churning inside of him like a stormy ocean.
Gauze grunts speaking while old but nimble fingers start going through his medical bag. Medicine bottles and metal equipment make clinking sounds as they are shifted around. Dr. Wafer or Gauze had been with the crew for a few years now, and the older gentleman was exceptional at what he did.
“Blue fever is tricky, and even with correct treatment, which I don’t have the means for not here and not on our ship, it would still be 50/50 whether she made it through… maybe even less with how much it has progressed and how close we are to winter.” There's a pause and then Gauze looks up at Yasopp with grim certainty.
“The only thing I can guarantee is that it’s going to get worse, and at a frightening rate.”
“So then we go find the things for her treatment, right Ogashira? I mean a little detour is nothing-” His voice is rising he knows but he feels a kind of panic that no battle or brush with death has ever instilled into him. Yasopp isn’t good with this kind of thing, he doesn’t know how to act or how to calm down when the woman he loves is slowly dying before him.
“I don’t think it is going to be that easy Yasopp. Gauze?” Shanks speaks up for the first time since entering the small house and greeting Usopp. Unlike the sharpshooter Shanks is remaining calm. Though the rigidness of his back and the sorrow in his eyes could tell anyone that he isn’t unaffected by the circumstances or the despair of his crew member.
The clinking stops and Gauze pulls out a few vials and a syringe placing them on the table before glancing at Yasopp. “Captains’ right, it ain't that straightforward. I would need someone who had dealt with this disease before, along with a myriad of more than rare medicins. None of which is available in the Eastblue.”
“So what we just give up?!” Yasopp throws his hand into the air, knocking into the table and gaining a glare from Gauze, but he doesn’t really care what the old man thinks of him at the moment. Once more Shanks’ hand finds a place on Yasopp's shoulder.
“No one is saying to give up Yasopp.”
“Great!” With a slight mania Yasopp continues to speak as he watches Gauze fill up the needle, giving it a few taps then placing it by Bachinas arm, ”Then let's get going, we don’t-”
“Yasopp stop, you need to slow down, we need to know what we are even searching for, but we’ll figure something out. I promise you that, as your friend and as your Captain.” the liquid leaves the syringe and enters Banchinas arm, not long after her breathing evens out. Her face smoothes over, it relaxes. No longer set in that painful grimace. It soothes something that at the very least her pain is lessening.
“Right now he needs you.” At that, Yasopp glances out into the kitchen where Benn is entertaining Usopp. His boy, eight years old more grown up than he should be. Having to take care of his sick mother because he had to go be a deadbeat dad that just up and left his family. Right now it doesn’t matter that Banchina had threatened to tie him to the mast of Shanks’ ship, back then, if he didn’t follow his dream. If he didn’t leave.
No, right now he can just see his little boy and his beautiful wife, both in pain, yet dealing with it because he wasn’t here. Wasn’t there to help.
“You should stay.” Shanks’ voice brings him back to reality and he almost panics all over again.
“I can’t let you do this without me-” But he doesn’t get very far into it when his Captain manages to soothe over those worries. When Shanks emphasize the job he still has to do here.
“We aren’t doing this without you, but you need to stay Yasopp. We don’t know how long it is going to take. We might not make it in time, and if we don’t. Then you need to be here with them, and not with us.” Still, it feels wrong to not be out there looking for a cure.
“But-” “No, this is Captain’s order if it has to be. Your staying put.” It is commanding in a way Shanks so rarely is, Yasopp doesn’t doubt for a moment that he really will pull rank on him like that. Then a lot quieter and with all the compassion of someone that speaks not as friend nor captain, but as one family member to another, “Take care of your family Yasopp.”