Chapter Text
The afterlife was much different looking than Usopp had expected. Really, it should have been concerning just how much Usopp had thought about this. How many hours of his life had been spent thinking about his death. Being on the brink of death. And here he was, dead. He didn't know if he was relieved or not to wake up again. To wake up without friends by his side.
It was a garden. It felt warm spring morning, with dew on the grass and lively flowers blooming within the flowerbeds. He woke up in one of them, though no dirt stuck to him, and no flowers had been crushed. He hardly had time to marvel at this before a voice called out, soft as downy feathers, filled with care.
"Oh, a new face." The voice hummed, Usopp startling and spinning around to face it. A woman, her hair a lovely blonde and partially obscuring her face, eyes as blue as the bluest sea. Her hands folded neatly as she walked forward and cupped Usopp's scarred face in such a motherly way it dragged tears into the sharpshooter's eyes.
The lady just observed him, laughing softly. "Quite the nose you have young man...it reminds me of someone..." She cooed, moving to take his hand, leading him through the garden.
Only then had Usopp remembered he had a voice that works. "I-I...I'm uh.." he shook his head, smacking his lips of heir dryness. "I'm Usopp."
The name brought a lovely shimmer to those blue eyes. "Oh? What a lovely name. Mine is Sora." She hummed, pulling him along quicker.
Or well, she tried. The name had halted Usopp in place, staring at her wide eyed. "S..Sora?" He trailed, blinking softly. He knew that name, knew it was attached to beautiful golden locks and shining blue eyes.
And oh how those eyes grew sly. "Hm? Do you know me?" She asked, a sort of mischievous nature to that, as if she already knew.
Sanji was private. She wasn't one to talk so heavily of her past...she seemed to find excuses to avoid it on most occasions. But occasionally, on rare nights where the cook let herself be vulnerable to her crew, to the closest of her companions, she talked of her mother. Of her sweet voice and gentle songs. The tender way she held Sanji as a kid. The warmth she had.
Usopp couldn't mistake the woman before him. Not in a million years. "You're.. S..Sanji..." a gentle laugh cut him off.
"Yes, his mother." Usopp shivered a bit at that.
"Sanji actually mainly goes by her now...I don't know if you like...can see us down there or anything so I don't know if you knew or.."
A wave of embarrassment briefly passed Sora's face. "Oh, I see, I apologize, I can see glimpses of her life through dreams here, I just suppose I've never heard or seen her preferences." Sora explained, before continuing to walk, a maternal hand on Usopp's back.
"So...I'll be able to see the others? Even a little?" Usopp asked, Sora nodding softly. Usopp's heart fluttered in his chest, tears bubbling up again. He chewed on his lip, covering his mouth as he sniffled.
The weight had finally dropped on him. The full realization that he was dead. He couldn't see his friends anymore, his crew. He couldn't hug them anymore. Already he missed the way Luffy would drape over him at night, curling those rubbery arms around Usopp's frame, burying his face into his chest. Already he missed Franky's firm touch on his back when he got too panicky, the metal was always surprisingly warm. Already he missed the way Nami and Zoro would touch his shoulders as they passed him, always checking to make sure he was doing good even without words. He missed Chopper's warm, soft fur. He missed the way Robin would push errant curls of hair out of his face when he got too focused...the way Brook would immediately muss it again with a playful giggle. He missed the gentle way Sanji would pat his head when he wasn't doing well. He missed Jinbe's big hugs, as crushing as they felt half the time.
Before he had even realized it, he was sobbing into Sora's shoulder, the mother rocking him gently. She just hummed softly to him, holding him close and firmly and gently singing to him. It was an understandable sadness. An understandable pain.
Once he had calmed a little he pulled away, gripping Sora's shoulders and letting his head hang in a swirling storm of unbearable grief and shame for having broken down on her like that. The woman just quietly, knowingly wiped the tears from his puffy face, pulling his head up so his eyes met hers.
"It's okay...I know." Those simple words nearly broke Usopp again, and he was pulled into a close hug. "We should go inside." She suggested, motioning to the massive, yet cozy, home in front of them. Usopp had never seen this place...but it felt so familiar. White stone walls covered in ivy and moss, gorgeous windows of stained glass with intricate iron guards in front of them. A beautiful arch trellis was in front of the old wooden door, teeming with purple, pink, and white flowers, their soft petals littered the doorway as they approached.
Sora opened the door, allowing Usopp in first. The first thing he noted was that it smelled like home. His breath hitched, wiping his face as he treaded the worn old halls. Golden light streamed in through the windows in bathed the place in such a warm, ethreal glow.
"Let me show you the rooms, you can lay down for a bit if you need, I'm still working on dinner, and the others are out for now." Sora explained, leading Usopp into a different hall lined with a few bedrooms.
"Others?" Usopp asked, Sora nodding.
"I don't live alone, not in this big home." She replied slyly, opening one of the doors. It smelled even more like home here. It looked like home.
Tears pricked in his eyed again as he shakily moved in, slumping into the bed. It was comfortable...and so familiar. Sora smiled softly, wishing him a good sleep before closing the door. Usopp sniffled, kicking his boots off and tucking himself under the soft comforter. He felt so small again, in his old room. Tears slid quietly down his cheeks as he fell asleep.
He dreamt of teary eyed friends and celebrations of his life. Of a crying captain in a strawhat curled into his old hammock. A bawling cyborg on his side of a shared workshop. A lonely little doctor missing his older brother. A musician playing a familiar parting song in the arms of a helmsman. A navigator and a swordsman drinking in silence. A cook leaned over a railing on her 5th smoke of the half hour. An archeologist sitting nearby, writing soft words about a lost friend.
Usopp woke with a groan, sitting up with a heavy head and even heavier heart. But he smelled food. For the briefest of seconds he thought it was Sanji's cooking. The next he was missing the woman. He sighed, pushing his boots on and slipping back out of the room, listening to the soft humming and chatter that filled the air.
There where voices too, a few. And one had made his heart sieze in his chest. Had made his lip wobble and brought him back to that small feeling. Usopp broke into a shaky, fast walk into the living area (a room name he found ironic in this situation), tears pouring down his face as he was met with what he hoped to see.
"M-Mom?" He choked out, looking to the woman sitting closest to him, dark hair framing her face, soft and kind. The nose, of course, would have tipped anyone else in the room off, but Usopp would have recognized her anyways. He never forgot her face. He swore he never would.
She looked to him started, before her eyes softened. Joy and sadness flooded her, the woman standing to hold him, holding his face and just. Staring at him. He was taller than her now. His hands curled around hers, the mother and son just stuck silently crying and looking each other over before collapsing into a tight hug.
"Oh...oh Usopp..." Banchina sobbed, squeezing him tightly. "Oh sweet boy...you've grown so much!! But...you're so young.." her voice was wavering between joy, pride, and heartbreak, tracing the scars that lined his skin.
"Yeah...but my friends needed me." He said, getting hugged close and peppered with praise about his braveness. He sniffled, hugging his mother tightly before being led to settle on the couch beside her.
She poured him a cup of tea. "Here sweetheart..." he thanked her, taking the cup and taking a few slow sips, looking around the room.
The small group had been looking at them with soft smiles, bittersweet but mostly sweet. Usopp observed the group, looking to each one to see if he could recognize them. Sora was Sanji's mom, and Banchina was his own, so everyone in this room must be related to his friends right?
The crazy haired old man was easy enough, a vibrant tattoo of a jolly roger aflutter with cherry blossoms on his bare arm was more than enough proof that was Hiriluk, Chopper's father. The small girl sitting solo in a big recliner was the second one Usopp recognized, though it pains his heart how little she was. No doubt it was Kuina, Zoro's old friend and rival. The pink haired woman adjacent to Hiriluk had to have been Bellémere, the fiery way she spoke and the mildly aggressive fashion in which she showed affection just screamed Nami to Usopp.
The final man in the room kept Usopp confused. He couldn't place the blonde man, sprawled out on his side across the whole couch, a white cowboy hat dipped down over his eyes. He looked the most like a pirate out of all them! He spoke with such joy and confidence, tattoos inked under his eye and lip. The cowboy hat could mean he was related to Robin...but she never said anything about a pirate relative that looked quite like him.
Usopp's gaze had grown long as he watched the man, drinking and hollering happily. He hardly noticed when Banchina gently shook him, greeted with her warm, loving smile when he finally roused from those deep thoughts.
"Thinking?" She asked, Usopp nodding and leaning close.
"Whossat?" He asked softly, motioning to the other, who'd now sat up, playfully brightly arguing with the crazy old man.
"Yorki, he's quite the curious one! Been here longer than us all. Came into our afterlives and wouldn't leave like some scraggly alley cat taking us as his own family." She noticed Usopp's demeanor change then, his shoulders and jaw slack and eyes widening.
" That's Yorki??" He stammered, watching at how Bellémere joined the heated debate, filled with plenty of loving jests.
"You know him?"
"Brook...he mentioned him. He would wake up sometimes in the night, crying for him." Usopp explained, his mother looking to Yorki with a surprised yet finally realized chuckle.
"I see. So fate brought us old Yorki for a reason." She wistfully stated it, both of them lost in thought until they where jolted by the old captain who had wormed his way between them, arms draped over each soul.
"What's this about a Brook? Big tall guy? Lotsa hair?" He asked, Usopp nodding, drawing a hearty, deep chested laugh from Yorki. "I knew he'd make it." There was a confidence full of truth there. Not a single wavering doubt that stained those words.
"Now is the skeleton thing cause my dreams forgot how he looked or..?" Yorki followed up, with a light sniff. Usopp shook his head.
"No sir, that's just how he looks now." That was followed with another laugh.
"Poor old sap. 'N you say he cries for me? Poor poor old sap." Even with sadness, Yorki's merriment stayed in his undertone. Ussopp could place it now, a deep, lulling hum to match the lilted one Brook spoke so easy with.
"So we must all know someone you know." Usopp looked up, placing the voice to Kuina, who had been listening the whole time. (Hiriluk, Bellémere, and Yorki's old people banter bored her.)
He nodded. "You're Kuina right? Zoro's old buddy?" She sat up a little straighter at this name.
"Hardly friends, honestly I felt like he despised me half the time!" She half joked, giggling softly. "But we trained together a lot. What's he like now? Is he as strong as he said he'd be?"
"Almost, he's got a few more things he said he needs to do before that." Usopp confirmed, the girl smiling softly. "And...I'm sure he thinks of you as a friend even if he never said it. I've seen how he gets thinking about you. He misses you." Usopp explained, the girl about to burst into tears when another spoke.
"And my little monster? How are his dreams going?" That gruff older voice chimed in, Usopp gazing to the now somehow more buzzed looking Hiriluk.
"Best damn doctor I've ever had that's for sure." Usopp stated, unable to count how many times Chopper had mended his bones and broke body. "He still hangs you flag high."
Hiriluk wasn't ashamed to let the tears flow, raising his glass high for Chopper. "That's my boy..." he exclaimed.
"Is Nami still that little handful I raised her to be?" Bellémere asked with a sly confidence that sent a familiar shiver down Usopp's spine.
"Oh yeah, she's...scary at times honestly. But she's fiercely loyal to everyone." Usopp said. "She still makes so many maps. Still does fake ones too, loves tricking Luffy with 'em...got me a few times too." He said, almost ashamed and rubbing his back.
A voice approached from the kitchen, Sora wiping her hands dry on a rag. "How's my little Sanji? Is she living well?"
Usopp looked to her, watching as she took the spot Banchina had free on her other side, her fingers intertwined with the blonde's as soon as she settled. He nodded.
"Haven't met a better cook than her ever. She's a little...love crazy though. Not much shame in that department." Usopp explained, the mother laughing softly.
"I've seen in dreams how she fawns over that ginger girl and green haired boy, love crazy hardly seems to be a full explanation of it." Sora sighed, Usopp laughing and nodding.
Yorki peeled himself up from the couch, climbing over the back of the couch instead of around, much to Sora's dislike. He wandered towards the kitchen, Sora hissing at him. "It's not done yet Yorki!" That was met with a soft wave of his hand, Hiriluk laughing hard.
"You know he don't listen to us when he smells food, better go save it!!" He egged, Sora groaning and separating herself from Usopp's mother to go drag Yorki back.
Like Luffy and Sanji. Usopp frowned softly. Oh how he missed his friends. Banchina rubbed his shoulder softly. "It's okay to miss them...they miss you as well I'm sure." Usopp nodded.
"Yeah...just that...I hardly expected it to happen so soon. Sure I thought about it but...with a crew as crazy as that it was hard not too!" He laughed softly, listening to the other's chuckle and Sora berate Yorki as she pulled him back by the ear, the two pausing to listen to Usopp.
"I just...never got to truly say goodbye." He lamented, a sad air filling the room.
"Oh, my poor baby..." Banchina cooed, hugging him close and softly petting his hair, pulling the ponytail out to gently untangle it in an effort to even slightly soothe the pain Usopp was flooded with.
"The first days are...always tough." Hiriluk said, sobered immediately by the tone the group took. "Regrets bubble and fester high and mighty...it's as much of a mourning and grief for this side as the other." He explained, Yorki nodding in agreement. "There's hardly one good cure for that pain, beyond pressing forward, even in the afterlife. It's a quieter journey here, but a fulfilling one all the same. Of course, allow yourself the pleasure of grief. Don't think yourself responsible for keeping it all locked away young man." He pointed a finger to Usopp, who just nodded, weeping softly into his mother's arms.
Another hand planted itself in Usopp's hair, his deep brown eyes peering up to Yorki, who just flashed him a soft, loving grin. "Let it out, but don't forget your smile ya hear?" Yorki instructed, which was all it took to let a small grin pull the corners of Usopp's mouth. He ruffles Usopp's hair, plopping onto the free couch he'd claimed as his own. "There ya go! That's a good smile. Keep it, never forget it."
And Usopp wouldn't.
♤♡♤
"Here, let me help." Usopp said softly, joining Sora in the kitchen to help her wash dishes.
"Oh, you're so kind, thank you Usopp." He jus shrugged softly, humming peacefully as the two knocked out the dishes and out away what was left of the food.
Bellémere had left for her own home not long after dinner, leaving Hiriluk and Yorki to their drinking game. It ended as it always did, the two old men passed out sitting up across a table from one another. Banchina had joined Sora and Usopp, giving her son a firm hug and kiss on his cheek, then wrapping her arms sweetly around Sora from behind.
Usopp looked over with a soft smile, before leaving to let the two have their moment, settling back on the couch. His head leaned back and eyes closed. His hand brushed over his chest, gripping the soft skin that previously had been torn asunder by that harsh light. The light he saved his friends from...but couldn't spare himself of. He swallowed bitterly, before feeling soft hands on his shoulders, gentle hums soothing that bitterness from his brain.
And once more he fell asleep, leaned into his mother. He dreamt of a man grieving a son he could never meet.