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socallmelusopp · 5 years ago

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I’ll Like You For Always

Pairing(s): None so far.

Genre(s)/ Warnings: Family, Angst, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy. Character Death. Yaoi in later chapters. More to come.

Words: 1668

Summary: “Can I be Max this time?” The small child asked, clutching the rubber man close to his chest. His father smiled down at the book and continued on. “And Usopp, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”

Or the Usopp-centric Toy story AU we were all secretly waiting for.

(an): Inspired by a post from @filettillyoudrop, followed by a Godly idea from @usolu, which was then followed by a gushing art by @filettillyoudrop. And this is where I come in!! Hi! Also, see the end for a sneak peek of the next chapter to come.

Prologue

August 15, 2003

Mauritius, Southeast Africa

On the morning that Usopp’s mother was scheduled to die, a tall scrawny man with yellow hair waddled past his home. He always supposed that if all the gazillion people in the world wanted to hear about his small life, the first thing they’d want to know is where he was born. And what his lousy childhood was like, and how his parents were occupied before they had him, and all the boring things just to hear him talk. Talk. If they wanted to know the truth, he didn’t feel it.

“Usopp, you ready, bud?” But the child’s door is opened before he’s given free rein to answer. The man with the long yellow hair - daddy - stands in the doorway, his brown eyes staring down his son. Behind him, Usopp can see creatures cloaked in dark attire swanning what was once mama’s living room and not just the living room. Their skin varies, dark and light, pale and dead. They smell of human flesh and they stand at empowering heights, almost as tall as the m - daddy.

And despite this, the boy nods slowly. One, two, three times his chin rises and dips. He stands just as slow as well, his heart pounding with every inch he’s off the floor. There, with the swanning monsters. He has to go in there.

Daddy grabs hold of his hand and attempts to pull him out of the lonely room. It’s a tug that he wasn’t suspecting as he looks back at the four-year-old’s arm in mild disbelief. Arms aren’t supposed to fight back. He pulls again, gentle and cautiously. And yet, this one does. The boy can imagine how horrifying it must feel to his daddy. To be a big strong person and then to have it all knocked away by a skinny brown arm that had stitches from a ‘misguided’ rock jump. The arm keeps fighting back and Usopp thanks it graciously.

“Usopp. We’ll be late. Don’t you want to see mommy?”

The boy shakes his head. He can’t do it. He lied. He’s not ready at all. Those monsters will gobble him up. “I’m scared.”

“You’re scared of seeing mommy?” His daddy says nothing more after but continues to stare at him. He’s wearing a big question mark on his head, but the boy can’t find an answer.

“Don’t wanna go,” he tries again. “Scared. I-I-I want my mommy.”

A moment passes between them; father and son who have just met again under very bad circumstances; brown pouring into brown; the confused and afraid. And then the moment settles as Yasopp crouches down to his son’s height. He grabs the boy by the shoulders and Usopp cowers even more under the calloused grip. To him, daddy is a big strong man, clearly unafraid of these monsters. He wants to be like him...but...the boy’s lip trembles. He just can’t.

“Do you know that you are very strong?” He whispers it in kind, but he feels clumsy and awkward. He doesn’t know how to tell a four-year-old not to be afraid. He’s not good at being a father and he had hoped that throughout Usopp’s life, Banchina would be; so that he would never have to go through something like this. He’s just 21, holding the shoulders of an accident when they were stupid kids.

And despite this awkward and clumsy feeling, Usopp stares in confusion and wonder. No one’s ever said that to him. Mama did, but mama was a liar: she only said things to make him feel better. “I am?”

Yasopp blinks at him as if he wasn’t expecting the follow-up. He damn sure has an answer, though. This is easy, he thinks. “Of course you are. You helped mama all by yourself and made her happy. And even when she left, you stayed strong.”

Usopp looks down at the floor shyly, a blush dusting his cheeks like watercolor. “I did?” He whispers. And then he looks up in wonder, all those things coming back to him like a big wave. “I did!” Yasopp grimaces softly at the yell. Because fuck, he’s so loud and cute and determined. This little thing, this kid is half him. “Of course I did, I’m a good leader. I have to be strong.” Yup, half him.

“But Usopp…” at the call, the boy’s fist of determination lowers and he stares openly. “I need you to be even stronger. I need you to do something for me.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “Like..like a mission?” Yasopp nods. And then Usopp gasps and covers his mouth. Discreetly, the boy looks around, his suspicion aroused. “Are we spies?” He whispers. The imagination on this kid is tremendous, no doubt stemmed from Banchina, the young adventurous girl that would dream of everything.

Again, he nods. “I need you to infiltrate-“

“What does influ-tate mean?”

Yasopp smiles awkwardly. Right, four. “I need you to enter the living room and remain as invisible as possible. If no one notices you, they can’t bother you. Only then will we be able to get to mommy.”

“Go into the living room?” Usopp asks, his nerves coming back tenfold. It’s the wave again, but this time he’s stranded in water with no boat or paddle. He looks behind his father again, out the door. The monsters ...they've been replaced. Their horns and sharp teeth went away and in their place stand humans. Humans of all colors; dark and light, chocolate and bright. They’re as tall as daddy, but that’s okay. Because adults are supposed to be tall. He stares back. “Okay.” He nods and says it again. This time stronger. “Okay.”

Yasopp goes to stand and is about to walk out of the room when he’s tugged. When he looks back, the boy has his hand raised. “You have to hold my hand though.”

Yasopp nods and firmly grabs hold of the small limb and together, hand in hand, they enter the swanning nest of monsters.

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Yasopp can’t stop watching the way his son’s legs swing beneath his seat, light in the air despite the heavy atmosphere of sadness around them. The child is nervous, no doubt, confused about what’s real and what isn’t.

On their way to the funeral home, he had talked to his son about what it would mean when they put his mommy in the ‘dark scary hole in the ground.’ In the four years that she had him, Banchina never told the kid about death or loss, despite being a doctor. Even when she became terminally ill herself, she never explained to Usopp what never seeing someone again meant.

And in the week it had taken him to travel to southern Africa, none of the caretakers had explained to him either. In that week, he supposed his son had been lost; confused and betrayed. Why wasn’t mommy coming to see him? Why did he have to stay with the hospital’s home of orphaned children? Orphans were children without parents and Usopp could swear he wasn’t an orphan.

And then someone did come to get him, but it wasn’t his mother. It was a man that looked just like him. It was his other parent. One he hadn’t seen since he was three days old. Confused, betrayed, lost.

“What’dya mean we won’t see mommy ever again?” the boy laughed sheepishly. “She’s on a trip right. She does that sometimes. Sometimes, she has to cure an old person in a whole nother city. But she always comes back.”

Yasopp grimaces. He supposes it was karma that he would have to teach the boy about something so grim. It’s a way to get back at him for leaving her and thinking that she could handle a young boy all by herself.

“Dead? Why does everybody say that?”

And then he told him exactly what dead meant.

The child’s eyes grow watery and no matter how hard he rubs them, the tears keep coming. The wave keeps coming. “But she’s joking, right? Mommy does that a lot. She’s a liar...like me. She’ll stop, right? Right?”

“We meet here today to honor and pay tribute to the life of Banchina Kenway, and to express our love and admiration for her. It is only natural that we should be sad today because, in a practical sense, Dr. Banchina is no longer a part of our lives.” Usopp whimpers beside him. Soon, he’ll have to stand and kiss his mother’s head and then watch her get lowered and covered in dirt. And Yasopp knows that’s what he’s dreading; not the ceremony, but the goodbye. “However, today is also a day for memories. Today will be remembered for many reasons, but mainly, I hope, it will be remembered by you all; as a very special day, a special day in which you shared some time with others; in order to pay your last respects; and to say both mentally and physically a sad and fond farewell to a lovely woman…. A woman whom we were all so very privileged to have known. Born in Wales….”

When the time does come, Yasopp doesn’t think his son has it in him. When the boy stands, there’s snot beneath his nose and tears all over his face. His knees are shaking and his teeth are shattering. With a heavy frown, the man grabs the boy’s hand and leads him forward. Usopp doesn’t tug, pull, or protest. Despite being scared shitless, the boy has courage.

They stop by the casket and Yasopp bites at his lip. Banchina looks just like she did years ago when she’d come to Mauritius. Young and pretty and angelic. She was….gone. His stupor is broken when Usopp stands on the tip of his toes and kisses his mother’s cheek, wetting her dead face. He sniffs loudly and cowers back. “B-bye, mommy. I love you. A lot. A lot a lot.”

Yasopp wonders if it’s possible a human can shrink from existence entirely.

AN: So this is totally the AU I said I was going to write. And it’s definitely going to feature a few of our Strawhats as toys for Usopp (especially cowboy Luffy). However, all stories need a plot and I decided I should focus on Usopp as he grows, not only with the toys but what he’s going to face from here on. The kid just lost his mother and now he has to live with a father he barely knows. I hope you guys are excited as I am. I’m going to try my best to post weekly as I am currently working on other fics right now. I just love this AU

Next Chapter: The Sheriff and The Forgotten Samurai

Sneak Peek: At the harsh sound, Usopp lifts his shirt and stares at his brown tummy, and Yasopp notes that his son has an outie belly button that looks like an earplug. The boy looks up sheepishly, his cheeks dusty and flushed. “My tummy growls sometimes. It’s like a cloud... getting mad.” The men stare at the four-year-old in silence. And then Shanks bursts into a fit of laughter. To Usopp, it’s angrier than the cloud in his stomach can ever be, loud and gushing with wind and lightning. The boy blushes and decides that Shanks is cool.

#toystory #one piece usopp #monkey d. luffy #yasopp #straw hat crew #shanks crew #usolu #or sanuso #kidfic #banchina #one piece #usopp centric #i'll like you for always #socallmelusopp #long post #long reads #im so sorry #im not

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