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[wordycoward]

‘What Is Seen’

I didn’t think I was going to get this posted for a while because of editing time and work during the holidays, but I fell down some stairs and got to take three days off of work. It’s not worth it, I promise. Don’t fall down stairs, kids, it’s bad for your health.

This is also on AO3, if you'd rather read there instead.

‘What Is Seen’

Pairing: Roronoa Zoro/Usopp Characters: Zoro, Usopp, Luffy, Nami, Sanji Summary: Zoro wakes to one staring at him. He's certain that's because Usopp's avoiding him for events that played out over the last two days. He goes to confront the sniper, only to give them some much needed time alone to talk. Word Count: 2446 Chapters: 1/1 Rating: Teen for language. There’s also some “Usopp gets special bullet mix in his eyes” eye trauma, in case that’s not your thing.

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Zoro woke. He felt alone. His eyes opened.

Gone. The whole Going Merry crew was gone.

Shit.

Zoro’s eyes snapped to the ship’s head. His mind swore it would be vacant. Instead, Luffy was seated on top, straight-backed, crossed-legged, and faced towards the sea. Zoro’s captain was calm, composed, certain. Same as Luffy always was.

Tension exhaled through Zoro’s nose and closed his eyes. He sat up and stretched, arms above his head. He inhaled with a grunt. Fresh air and spices battled in his senses. He released them both with the last tendrils of his tension, no victor decided, but the signs of the ship’s cook lingered.

With those signs came the sound of paper handled by hand. It didn’t come from the kitchen, but from the small garden built above it. Zoro opened his eyes and glanced up. Nami was seated in her lounge chair, one leg over the other, her eyes on the newspaper in her hands. The small smile on her face told Zoro the crew was safe. Still, he frowned. Sure, Luffy, Sanji, and Nami were accounted for but that wasn’t the whole crew.

Usopp was missing.

There were a few placed other than the ship deck the sniper could be. His tools were missing, so a quick bathroom break was out. The lack of muffled chatter meant Sanji was working in the kitchen alone. Luffy’s presence on the ship’s head meant Usopp didn’t plan a grand kitchen break-in. The door to the water drawing system was closed, which meant Usopp wasn’t drawing water for a shower. All of that meant that Usopp had to be in the men’s quarters. Zoro’s eyes flicked to the door of the quarters. It was closed. His eyes narrowed.

Of everyone on that ship, Usopp should’ve been outside. It was a nice day out. The sniper should be on his crafting platform, hands busied with a new project. If not that, he should be seated on the rail, arms out, grin wide with an exaggerated tale spewing from his mouth. Or, if nothing else, he should be staring. He’d developed that habit too.

In the first week of boarding the Going Merry, they all found their spots on the ship. Zoro was no exception. After training the first day, he walked down the steps, sat against the railing with his back to the ocean, tucked his hands behind his head, and dozed. He returned to that same spot and slept there undisturbed until lunch three days in a row. The fourth day, though, he woke up before lunch with the feeling of being watched. He’d opened one eye and followed that feeling back to Usopp. The sniper was near the mast on his crafting platform, eyes frozen, body still. Zoro thought Usopp spaced off for a moment. Then Usopp realized he was getting stared at. Usopp’s body jerked. A squeak emerged from his flapping mouth. His eyes snapped down and stared at the project in his hands as if the makeshift bullet could get him out of the situation. It did, only because Zoro closed his eyes again. Usopp’s gaze didn’t return.

That day.

It wasn’t uncommon for Zoro to wake up to Usopp’s stare. Happened a few times a week, in fact. Then they fought Arlong’s pirates and it became more common. Went from a few times a week to almost every day. The days where there was no stare, Zoro heart Usopp’s voice or laughter tangled in the wind like an accessory to nature’s beauty. Those days he wanted to open his eyes and stare. Sometimes he did. Most of the time, though, he kept his eyes close and let the blend of nature and Usopp lull him a true feeling of safety. Usopp was loud. Usopp was happy. Usopp was safe. Everything was fine.

Two days before Usopp’s absence from the deck, Zoro broke the routine. He woke to Usopp’s stare, as he did many times before. Zoro opened one eye and stared back. Usopp answered with his usual jerk and screech before the sniper’s eyes darted down at focused on his project again. It was another bullet of some kind. It didn’t look like the normal lead balls he dealt with. Zoro could tell from Usopp’s shaking fingers that something moved inside that sphere. Water? Could be. Doubtful, unless he was trying to make a shot that would only work against Devil Fruit users, but nothing that size would ever help. Zoro kept staring, not to freak the sniper out, but to see what on earth the boy was making. Then Usopp froze. Zoro blinked. Brown eyes creaked up to meet Zoro’s green ones. Silence. Usopp shrieked. The sound catapulted Usopp back and nearly launched him off the ship. The bullet was smashed as Usopp’s hands clenched. Zoro laughed. Usopp yelled over his after and Luffy’s loud questions about what happened. He heard Nami mutter about the noise. When Zoro regained his composure, Usopp had his back to him. Instead of telling Luffy the truth, Usopp quickly strung together some story about sea monsters and how he’d used his new “hot oil shot” to blast the demon away. Zoro closed his eyes and didn’t say a word.

The day before Usopp’s absence, Zoro broke the routine again. When he sat down to nap, Zoro leaned against the railing, tucked his hands behind his head, and closed one eye. The other stayed focused on the sniper. Usopp sat with his legs crossed on his work station. Rather than looking back, his eyes were cast down to the new bullet shell in his hands. His fingers were steady as they smoothed the shell to the spherical shape it needed to be. Concentration wrinkled his forehead and pressed his lip against the top-left corner of his mouth. Usopp was quiet at first as he rotated the metal and smoothed it, rotated, smoothed, rotated, smoothed. A one note hum of approval emerged from Usopp’s throat and danced with the warm air. The note ended. Usopp’s hands lifted. With them came the sniper’s gaze. A smile grew on Usopp’s face as he rotated the sphere in his fingers. Usopp’s eyes flicked to Zoro. They zipped back to the bullet, freed. Then, stillness. Silence. Usopp’s eyes barreled to Zoro’s again. They locked. Zoro blinked. A second passed. Another. Usopp screamed. Zoro saw the wail propel Usopp’s head back so fast it smashed against the railing. He coughed out another scream, lower in tone, and snapped his head forward. Head met open hands. The bullet clattered on the deck. Usopp’s hands crawled like spiders to the back of his head. Zoro opened his other eye and watched Usopp tremble. Then, Zoro caught his gaze again. It was a glare.

“What the hell, Zoro?!” Usopp asked, “Why… why are you… staring… at me?” The words trailed off. Zoro’s eyes widened and took in Usopp. Sweat glistened off his arms, his chest, his face. Red blossomed against Usopp’s cheeks. Lips turned down against that redness as if the color itself was repulsive. Zoro felt the urge to close the space between them, reach out his hands, and—

“… what?” Usopp asked. Zoro swallowed.

“… you—” Zoro whispered.

“Don’t wrestle without me!” Luffy’s joyous wail smashed into Zoro’s right side. Zoro’s eyes released Usopp’s as his whole body flew across the deck and slammed into the wall next to the storage room. Luffy laughed. The flush from Usopp’s face gathered in Zoro’s chest. Rage bubbled from it and launched Zoro to his feet.

“You bastard!” Zoro yelled. He charged his captain. Luffy laughed. Zoro chased that laughter with a blind rage so profound he didn’t know how to stop it at first. Sanji’s call of food did the trick. Zoro watched Luffy run into the kitchen with Usopp only steps behind. Fragments of the moment they nearly had were whisked away in the wind. Zoro tried to piece them together again in the galley, but the second their eyes met, Usopp yanked himself free and started to tell one of his famous Captain Usopp fables. Zoro stole glances of the performance. He caught a smile here, a gesture there, but mostly noticed Usopp’s clear attempts not to look at him. The tale stopped only when Usopp realized Luffy ate all of his food. Zoro excused himself from the galley before the ensuing fight was over. Zoro didn’t try to get the sniper distance, but he noticed Usopp was scarce the rest of the day. Zoro was sure Usopp avoided him.

Perhaps Usopp was avoiding him still. Zoro couldn’t let that be a norm.

Zoro walked to the men’s quarters and opened the door. It was only lit by the sun, which, high up in the sky as it was, cast minimal light into the space. Without beams of light, the room remained fairly dark and cool. Usopp was there, as Zoro expected, but the view was anything but normal. The sniper was in his hammock, left hand on his eyes, right hand on his stomach. His chest rose and fell with each breath. They weren’t deep. Usopp wasn’t asleep. There was also a white cloth under Usopp’s left hand that stayed stable over the sniper’s eyes. That fabric looked damp.

“Hey,” Zoro said. Usopp jumped and squealed. Nearly flung himself off the hammock in the process. Probably would have if Zoro hadn’t sliced through the space between them and caught the hammock with both hands. The hammock stilled. Usopp grasped the lacing with trembling fingers. The sudden stillness caused the rag to slip. Zoro saw the red, inflamed eyelid flicker open. Zoro was sure it snapped shut before any clear vision could be made.

“Zoro, you bastard!” Usopp yelled. The sniper’s left hand reached to his eyes and put it back in place. “Scaring me like that.”

“You get attacked?”

Usopp sighed. Zoro felt Usopp’s right thumb skim the air next to his wrist as the hand moved back to his stomach. “Luffy ran into me while I was making another hot oil shot. Seriously, he should be more careful when people are working.”

“Why are you in here and not on the deck?”

“The light hurt my eyes, even through this fabric. Nami said I’d be better in here. Even had Sanji carry me even though I could have walked in here on my own.”

“Sanji…”

Zoro saw Usopp carried bridal style through the door by a whispering Sanji. Then Sanji set Usopp in the hammock. The whispered continued until the lips closed in to Usopp’s. They grew closer. Closer. Red heat surged through Zoro and cleared the image away. In its place, Zoro saw the real Usopp grimace.

“Yeah, nearly threw me across the room, the bastard,” Usopp growled. Zoro blinked, then smiled. His rage was smothered by the eye narrowing affection that twisted through him.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“There’s no way to wake you up one you’re asleep.”

Lie. If Usopp had stared at him—

Right, his eyes.

Zoro’s eyes focused on that damp fabric. “So you can’t see, huh?”

“For now,” Usopp said with a growing grin. Usopp’s right hand lifted and pointed a thumb at the sniper’s own chest. “But once I’m healed, this hot oil shot will give me supervision so I, Captain Usopp, can accurately hit a target from any distance, even thousands of kilometers away!”

“Oh?” Zoro teased. “Impressive.”

Usopp chuckled and waved his right hand as if batting the word away. “It’s only natural for a brave warrior like myself to gain such powers. It was destined, after all.”

“But until you’re healed and this power comes, you can’t see, right?”

Usopp froze. “N-no, but wh-why are you asking? Wh-what are you going to do?! Zo—”

Zoro closed his eyes and leaned forward. His lips landed on Usopp’s forehead. Silence. Stillness. Heat rose against his lips. Zoro pulled back. His eyes opened. Usopp’s mouth was open, shut, open, shut, open. Sounds tumbled out, then words.

“Z-Zoro, what…?”

“You really thought I wouldn’t notice how you felt after I was stared at for so long?”

Usopp shot up. The damp rag fell. Wide, red eyes met Zoro’s. That panicked gaze stood out against the sniper’s steadily paling skin. Words tried to form, but the only thing Usopp managed was small fragments of words. That was, until Usopp’s eyes slammed shut, his head slumped forward, and a strangled scream left his throat. Zoro picked up the rag and placed it over Usopp’s eyes. Then, he guided Usopp to lie down again.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be resting,” Zoro whispered.

“Y-y-y-yes, but you… y-you…”

Zoro felt Usopp tremble. Nearly shook his whole arm. Usopp’s fingers reached for the cloth. The tips brushed against Zoro’s hand. Usopp flinched. Fingertips danced along the cloth edge.

“Y-you weren’t… supposed… to… do that…”

Zoro watched Usopp quiver in silence. Then he sighed. “Don’t move.”

Zoro grabbed the pillar closest to Usopp’s head and lifted his body up. Then, he eased his body onto the hammock. Usopp didn’t move, but his voice protected enough. The sniper stammered about falling, about the hammock not holding their combined weight, about the inevitable breakage, about the fall, about their impending injuries or death. Zoro ignored all of it as he slipped beside Usopp. Once the netting was stable, Zoro reached both arms over and picked Usopp up. Usopp’s scream was loud and lasted until Zoro put him down again. By that point, Zoro moved himself to the center of the hammock and settled. He placed Usopp on his chest, back touching his chest. Black curls of hair tickled Zoro’s chin. Zoro’s left hand moved to Usopp’s eyes and held the damp cloth in place. His right found Usopp’s, laced their fingers, and carried them to Usopp’s stomach. As Usopp trembled, Zoro kissed the top of his head. Silence. Usopp’s right hand tightened against Zoro’s own.

“A… are you sure about this?” Usopp asked. “I-I mean, I know there’s times I egg you own when you d-don’t want to play with me and Luffy and I-I cling to you when I g-g-get scared and you get annoyed about my stories a-and—”

“I’m sure.”

Zoro felt the tremors stop. He buried his nose into Usopp’s hair and closed his eyes. Usopp’s breaths lifted his right hand up and down. First they were fast, unsteady, borderline panicked. Then, the breaths slowed. When they were almost to a normal pace, Zoro felt Usopp’s left fingers slide across the back of Zoro’s left hand.

“Then… then I am too,” Usopp said.

Zoro smiled against Usopp’s hair and kissed him on the top of the head once more.