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Evenings were usually for parties. Sometimes they were the high-energy, intense sort that had the crew carousing until the early hours of the morning, food and drink flowing and everyone singing and dancing to music Brook provided. Other times they were more low-key - the crew stargazing or swapping stories or sharing their dreams.
But other nights were quiet, the crew off singly or in pairs following their own pursuits or relaxing in their own ways.
Tonight, Nami and Robin had announced they were doing a girls’ spa evening and disappeared right after dinner. Zoro went off to train, as usual, and Brook and Jinbe joined him - Jinbe on first watch, Brook with a book to read. Chopper was working with Franky on a new device to grind up herbs more finely and Luffy was watching them.
To be fair, Usopp thought, it was probably more like he was rummaging around Franky’s workshop, asking him about various half-finished devices or asking him to make new ones. It was always fun when Luffy visited his own work area, but Usopp found it kind of exhausting as well.
But all these other plans meant there was some time for Sanji and Usopp - just the two of them.
The pair were laying side by side on their backs on a blanket near the back of the ship, staring up at the stars and enjoying the warm breeze from the summer island they’d moored near.
They’d mostly been talking about little things, reminiscing about some of their favorite people they’d met on their travels, and the parts of the adventures that didn’t give either of them heart attacks to re-live.
In the middle of it, a question occurred to him, and before he could think better of it, the words kind of slipped out.
“Sanji, do you think I’d make a good dad?”
The silence that followed the question felt a bit worrying. Usopp’s face grew hot.
“Um…” Usopp continued. “Nevermind. Forget it.”
“Is there something I should know?” Sanji asked, voice suggestive.
Usopp’s hand arced over and smacked him in the chest. “Jerk. I’m not even going to answer that. Let’s just forget it.”
Sanji made a humming noise in response, and Usopp hoped they could move on from it.
But then, he said, “I think you’d probably make a great dad.”
“I told you, just for-”
“Seriously.” Sanji’s hands closed around Usopp’s where it lay against his chest. “You have an even temper. You love to tell stories and make people feel at ease. But you’ll protect them when they need it. I think the only thing to worry about is you might be too nice.”
“Too nice? How can a parent be too nice?” Usopp asked suspiciously.
Sanji laughed. “Well… I think about it like this. I grew up around kitchens. They warned me not to burn myself. But the people who were looking out for me, they still let me burn myself.”
“Wh… let you? They just let a kid get burned? For real?”
“Not too serious,” Sanji assured him. “They weren’t going to let me set a whole pot of oil on fire or anything. But accidentally touching a hot pot? Letting the heat get too high and the melted fat in a pan starting to splatter on me? Yeah.”
“That’s mean.”
“Nah,” Sanji said. “Getting a little hurt taught me a lesson in a way words couldn’t.”
Usopp thought that over. He guessed he got it. But still.
“What brought this on?” Sanji asked.
Usopp moved his fingers a little, lacing them together with Sanji’s. “I guess I just never thought about what something like this-” he squeezed Sanji’s hand lightly. “Might mean. But just now, when we were talking about all the kids on Wano, and how brave and strong they were, and how much they learned from the adults around them, I realized that you know… maybe. Someday. Possibly, kids might be involved. And you know…”
He paused, trying to order his thoughts. Sanji let him be quiet in his thoughts for a little while, then squeezed his hands back. “Come on,” he said, blunt but not unkind. “Just tell me.”
“I don’t know what a dad’s supposed to be,” Usopp finally admitted. “So what if I’m supposed to be one someday and I just screw it up?”
Another quiet fell between them. Then, he heard Sanji sigh.
“Forget about good or bad, OK? If you ended up taking care of a kid somewhere down the line, what would you do for them?”
“Do for them?” Usopp mused.
“It’s not a quiz. Just say what comes to mind.”
“How old are we talking?”
“Let’s say they’re five. Old enough to communicate with. What do you do, as dad?”
Usopp considered and discarded a joke answer, then a boastful tale. What would he do?
“Show them how to climb a tree and make a slingshot,” he said.
“Even if they’re a girl?”
“Of course!”
“OK, OK, what else?”
He thought back. “Make sure they had enough food. Probably not a problem, but you know.”
“I can take care of that most of the time,” Sanji said. “Anything else?”
Usopp searched the stars for answers. “Make sure their clothes were clean each morning, and listen to their stories, like the first time they found a cool bug, or saw a storm coming on the horizon. Make sure they had friends, and that those friends weren’t too mean to them.”
“Got it,” Sanji said, Usopp heard a rustle, and turned his head to find Sanji had done the same and was looking at him, a small smile on his face. “So what part of that sounds like a bad dad?”
“I mean, stories and intentions are fine,” he said. “But-”
“Are you going to leave them behind?”
“No.”
“Hurt them? Humiliate them?”
“No! Why would I?”
Sanji sat up, pulling Usopp along after him. “Then it’s fine,” he said. “You’ll be fine. I promise. Trust me, I know what absolutely dog-shit fathers look like. And they don’t look anything like you.”
“If you say so.”
“Hey.”
A hand on Usopp’s cheek gently brought his face around until he was looking into Sanji’s eyes. Immediately he felt his doubts start to melt. How could he always do this to him?
Softly, Sanji kissed him. “You’ll be a great dad,” he said.
“Ah… okay, okay, I believe you.”
“The best.”
“I believe you, I believe-”
“A father so great, people will tell stories about him for ages!” And now that sly, teasing smile was back.
“Hey, this is my department.”
“Kids will tell their parents, ‘if you don’t behave, Usopp will come and take me away to live a life of utter bliss!’”
“What kid is going to use the phrase utter bliss?”
The two of them broke into laughter, and UIIsopp realized he couldn’t remember the shape of his worry anymore.