miniinkloves-blog

[camels-pen]

harbor on the sea

There was a woman by the water. A fishing pole was stuck into the sand next to her, line bobbing gently with the waves.

Before he'd realized, he'd already moved to sit beside her, just inches from the ebbing tide.

She smiled at him, her face entirely featureless. Yet he could imagine. Tired eyes, a kind smile.

And a lovely, long nose.

She was a harbor. A place to come home to. The only place he knew, a lifetime ago. And now, well.

If she was a harbor, then he was the sea. All of the seas. Everywhere and all encompassing. Beautiful at the surface but full of hidden depths.

A home to many people, not just Usopp.

The woman turned to the sunset ahead of them. She was admiring the light, the warmth.

He was warm too. First impressions were terrifying, but they were far past that now. Usopp had seen his acts of kindness as they were, despite the way he sounded like a jackass sometimes.

His kindness was what started all this in the first place.

But the light can blind you. The seas can be cruel too. The woman was saying as such, despite her lips not moving.

They could. They had. But it's about learning to sail on the sea- with the sea- not fighting against it. There would be ups and downs. Setbacks and mistakes. But the point of an adventure was the journey, wasn't it?

(And the sea would not erode. Not like her. He would make sure of it.)

When did he get so wise? The woman seemed to echo his absent thought.

He picked up a thing or two over the years. He'd also been reading a lot more romance novels of late.

The woman chuckled, a breathy, silent thing. She leaned over to pull Usopp into a hug, and it was like he was a little kid all over again. She pressed her face to his hair and a glowing feeling of rightness filled his being from head to toe.

He missed this. Missed her.

A spot of something warm on his cheek. It wasn't from the woman.

He couldn't stay.

Usopp shifted, staring into her eyeless eyes. He needed to ask her something if he never saw her again...

She smiled. As if he already knew the answer.

But he didn't. He didn't know. He needed to hear it from her, he could never just presume-

She tapped his nose. Overthinking again. She patted her lap, inviting him.

He didn't want to leave her.

She would always be with him. The woman placed a hand to his heart.

Usopp's lip wobbled. He took a breath and nodded. He lowered himself down.

By the time his head rested on her lap, Usopp was out like a light.

-

Usopp woke up. Sat straight up in his bunk. Sanji, right in front of him and lips still slightly puckered, quickly moved out of the way. “Geez, where's the fire?”

With an odd taste in the back of his throat and imprint of his pillow on his cheek, Usopp said, "I think my mom gave us her blessing to get married."

Sanji furrowed his brow. "Isn't your mom dead?"

"Yeah."

"Huh."

A moment of silence passed.

"You think we should wait for my mom to say something too, or do you just wanna go for it?"

Usopp groaned, covering his heated face. “If you're just gonna tease me, give it a few hours.”

“Actually, I was just going to tease you, but…”

There was a shuffling of cloth and a a creaking of wood. Usopp peeked between his fingers before dropping his hands entirely, mouth agape. “No way,” he whispered. “No way no way no way.”

Down on one knee. Hand aloft. An open ring box.

A silver ring.

“I think this is as good a time as any, don't you?”

As Usopp tackled Sanji to the floor in a heap of sobs and snot, he could almost see his mother's approving face. Hear her declare that this one- this one's a keeper.