AU in which Usopp is a storyteller who keeps telling fairytales to kids in the village, and one of his most famous stories is about a lost prince who escaped from home because of how badly his family was treating him. It has drama and death and love and everything. The prince just wanted to be a simple cook, but his past still haunted him even after escaping his fate. And so Usopp keeps drawing him over and over again, both in his sketchbook and also making sculptures of him. It's not that he's, like, obsessed. But it is his favorite fairytale.
And then he meets Sanji.
It's weird, yes. He looks oddly similar to his Sanji (the one of the fairytale) but it doesn't have to do anything with it. It- It doesn't have to be the same guy. Maybe it's just a coincidence and his drawings weren't as original as he thought they were. Besides, Sanji isn't a lost prince.
But he is exactly how Usopp had imagined him. A sweet, caring cook with a strong personality who fights only using his legs to avoid hurting his hands. A cook who feeds whoever's hungry and is fond of rats and small, wild animals without anything to eat. Blond, blue eyes and so, so many scars that he refuses to talk about. A soft spot for women, because of course there has to be romance. A gentleman. Somebody who could save Usopp if needed but would trust him with anything too. He isn't- Usopp is not in love with his Sanji. But maybe this one- Maybe this one is someone he can fall in love with because it's not his creation, right?
And then WCI happens. It would technically make everything make sense, but it doesn't. It just makes Usopp even more confused. Because he's sure it sounds exactly the same as his story. So he keeps wondering if Sanji is real or if he truly was a product of his imagination. Or maybe- Maybe he can see the future. Usopp isn't sure about it and doesn't even have time to think because he's more worried about Sanji's well-being after WCI and Wano than how Sanji was made.
Sanji says it's a destiny thing, maybe, when he sees Usopp's sketchbook for the first time. It's scary too, he also mentions when seeing the little annotations about Sanji's backstory (the one of Usopp's story) being exactly like his past. Usopp is kind of panicking, but for some reason, Sanji isn't.
"Maybe you can see the future, ever thought about that?" Sanji laughs while running his hands through a very accurate portrait of him, that's quite obviously years older than their friendship.
Usopp pouts. "Don't laugh at me! It's scary!"
But Sanji just shrugs and takes a drag of his cigarette, so calmly in comparison it makes Usopp feel like he's taking this too well. "Is it, though?" The sniper hadn't seen Sanji smile so peacefully. Not ever since they got separated. It makes him feel all warm, and he has the need to draw him. "Wouldn't it be nice?"
Usopp tilts his head to the side, frowning and fighting the urge to take the sketchbook off Sanji's hands. "What do you mean?"
"Have you ever..." Sanji stares down at the ashes falling on the deck, brushing his thumb over the corner of one of the pages. His words are carefully chosen, but he doesn't hesitate when pronouncing them. "Have you ever thought about fate?"
The sniper can just chuckle and roll his eyes at that. "You're just trying to make it romantic."
"Maybe I am." And Usopp's heart stops at the sound of Sanji's dreamy voice as if he is asking for Usopp to grant him a wish. "Maybe you made me." He moves his free hand to link his fingers between Usopp's, right on top of the grass tickling their skin. Usopp lets him, even if he feels his heart is right in his throat. "Maybe you saw me before even knowing me." Sanji speaks softer now. Quieter. Even if there's nobody around to see them right now. As if it was just their secret. Usopp closes his hand around Sanji's and lets their shoulders bump against each other, taking in a painful breath. Sanji is too close. "Or maybe it was all by chance. Coincidences happen." Sanji shrugs and goes back to staring at the sketchbook one more time. He rests the cigarette between his lips so he can turn to another page, one where a little boy who looks too much like him dreams of sea creatures, oceans, and freedom. Sanji smiles in a nostalgic, achingly way that can only be described as appreciation. "But I like to think you saved me, somehow. You gave me- Him. Freedom. A family."
Usopp feels a pang in his chest at his words. "That wasn't me, though."
The cook rests his back on the wall behind them, turning his head around to look at Usopp with the brightest, softest of grins. "But wouldn't it be nice to think your heart knew me before meeting me? I think it's..." He sighs, resting his head on Usopp's shoulder. The sniper can only squeeze his hand back and lean his head on top of his. "Maybe my heart knew you too, back then. Somehow. I've always liked shitty, cliché fairytales like this, you know?"
"But-"
"Let me have this." A please goes unsaid. "Even if you didn't save me back then, you did now. So who cares if I want to say you've always been with me?"
Usopp grits his teeth and holds back a frustrated noise. He's aware his hands are shaking, remembering everything he has drawn and everything Sanji has gone through. "I wish I met you sooner. Maybe that way you wouldn't have-"
"You can't change what's already happened, love." Sanji presses a small kiss on his shoulder, which somehow melts every bone in Usopp's body. "But you can keep drawing our future, right?"
The sniper thinks of bright blues and soft yellows and a lot- No. A ton of drawings of Sanji's grins, because he refuses to portray his sadness in one of his drawings ever again. He dreams of a blank canvas filled with Sanji's eyes, hopes, and dreams.
"Right." He kisses his head back. "I can do that."
Usopp knows his hearts are linked together. Whether it's fate. Coincidence. His drawings. Because if thinking so saves Sanji once again, he won't hesitate to capture his happiness in different shades of blue for as long as it takes.
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Went through the RAM playlist and picked out all my favorite lines
I still don’t know who you are / I only know that I’m still lonely / That morbid sort where even company can’t cure me / And the more you reassure, the less I trust - Against the Kitchen Floor
All the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put me back together again - All the King’s Horses
Make me pay for fucking up the rest of your life - AND I’M GONE
Take my identity / All the best parts of me / And mould them into what you want! - Another Tuesday Night
And it’s my problem if I have no friends and feel I want to die - Are You Satisfied?
A prison’s not always a dark place / With grey closed in walls and big loud chains / They can hide in the skin of a home - As Above So Below
Someday I will go back outside and see her, okay - Baby Hotline
Reborn / Reform / Twist my legs to one / And mind to none : Don’t leave me be / I’m a bathtub mermaid / I cannot swim but only sing - Bathtub Mermaid
I feel like / I never knew you / And I never wanna know you again - Better Off Gone
In this case, just won’t you go and please let it be / Because I still won’t be able to say sorry - Breaking Things Into Pieces
Tell me when to drink, tell me when to eat, tell me when to smile, tell me when to breathe / Tell me when I overreact / No, tell me again, please / I love being told what to do, but only when I'm told by you / At least, that's what I used to think, but nowadays, I'm on the brink - Cannibal
Take this pill, you'll feel much better / When you wake up numb and your brain's been severed - Careful What You Wish For
Take a good look this is me / This is what I’ve come to be - The Chattering Lack of Common Sense
They say they wanna help, but they always fucking leave - CODE MISTAKE
When did I become a man / Trapped inside a ghost? / If you could only see me now / I know I'd disappoint somehow - The Comfort of a Laugh Track
You'll be fine you honeycomb / Who could ever hurt you? Who could be so cold? - Community Gardens
I’ve become what you like / I am what you wanted, right? - Copycat
Stay asleep / And blame / Everyone for giving up - Cross
Oh, circumcise my love for you / It's far too vapid and aimless - Cupid
Under my skin, you're unwrapping / All that I am, I swear / I wanted to keep, I wanted to stay / Deep in your head forever / I wanna show you something / Melting through my brain / Every time you're around / You're assaulting me - D D D N N N A A A
Carved right into my head / Quick lobotomy / Then left me for dead - Dangerous
I don't think I know myself, without your help - A Dangerous Thing
Buried in the basement, cold cement / Dead comes talking, can’t put them to rest - The Dead Come Talking
So I’m taking your narrative, and I’m making it mine - The Dismemberment Song
I’m gonna be in love forever cause I’m gonna die tonight : Transformation complete, transformation complete / You are now, as you once were: beautiful - DOGMATICA
Well, who should I be then, if I'll never be the same? - Dr. Sunshine Is Dead
I’m black, then I’m white / No! Something isn’t right! / My enemy’s invisible, I don’t know how to fight - Echo
And so long to the person you begged me to be / He's down, he's dead / Now take a good long look at what you've done to me - Farewell Wanderlust
You hurt me / You hurt me / But it's all okay / Because I love you anyway : I have no clue what you’re saying / I’m gonna lose my mind! - Folie a Deux
I was shown my place, but I didn’t care for it - Gambler
I get to be dumb, you get to exercise control - GIRL HELL 1999
I’m not her / And I’ll never be / I’m just debris - Going Insane
You told me something along like / The lines of “It’s all my fault that you are the way you are” / That is right, it is all your fault / But I hope you just remember that it's not all there is to it - Heavenly You
A vivisection of me / Done by God for all to see - Honey I’m Home
Am I a toy to you, my love? / Just a thing to play and / Then throw away - A Human’s Touch
My love must be a kind of blind love / I can't see anyone but you - I Only Have Eyes For You
Me and the TV are enemies / Sickening static surrounds my mind - I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
I've got you under my skin / I've got you deep in the heart of me / So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me - I've Got You Under My Skin
You say that I’m better / Why don’t I feel better? - Karma
Do I know who I pretend to be / Of whom am I a copy? - Language of the Lost
I only turned out to be just one more girl you slew - Let the Record Show
There’s an old voice in my head that’s holding me back / Well, tell her that I miss our little talks - Little Talks
You’re just a clown, just a pet / Whispering love yet again - Loveit?
Some moments last forever, but some flare out with love, love, love - Love Love Love
And now, even though you're mad, and these memories won't stay / That's okay / Cause now I get to meet you for the first time every single day - Marbles
Die once every three minutes - Marijuana’s a Working Woman
Doctor, I can’t tell if I’m not me - The Mind Electric
You want a taste of my brain / Okay, it’s yours anyway - Misery Meat
You were never my god - My Creator
The girl is like an architect / And I am just the new invention - New Invention
Please spare me indignity / And won't you please give me some decency? / And won't you please call it if our time is through? / Cause I know that we fall apart when nothing's new - Nothing’s New
I know exactly what’s best for you / I’ve don’t exactly what’s best for you - Novocaine
You're not a coward 'cause you cower / You're brave because they broke you / Yet broken still you breathe : Cause I'm not trapped, oh with you, you see / You're the one who's trapped with me / Cause you are in the earth of me / You are in the earth of me / My head's not yours, it's mine / And I'll take my fucking time / 'Cause I know, I know, I know - The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace
Novocaine, lobotomize me, teach me how to think - P3T
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils - Pet
What’s a pound of flesh between / Friends like me and you - Pound of Flesh
Folded puppets in a chest / Satin, static, lost in manic - Puppeteer
Close your mouth / And your eyes / And your heart / Your new eternity lies with us - Return to the Motherland
I get high to leave all these problems on the ground / Then to my surprise, they're right there when I come back down - Riptide
Look at me, look me in the eyes / Forget yourself, surrender your mind / Right now, you're mine / All mine / Give in, you're mine / All mine - Rule #34
Must be lonely loving someone / Try’na find their way out of a maze - Should’ve Been Me
There's something quite enjoyable when someone is destroyable - Sink or Swim
You hung me on your wall / Stabbed me with your push pins / In public, showed me off - The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
Now it sounds so good to me and it used to sound so good to me! / It doesn't sound so good to me, it never sounded good to me! - There’s Something Happening
This, this, this is not love / I don’t know what it is / But I know this / This is not love - This Is Not Love
You’d say that things have improved, right? - Those Who Carried On
I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life - tolerate it
I know / You belong to somebody new / But tonight you belong to me - Tonight You Belong to Me
So she dressed me up as the man she loved / Then threw me in a box when she had had enough / Now the light of day I no longer see / She stuck her voodoo pins where my eyes used to be / Accidentally tragic / Victim of her black magic / Had a boy once who loved me / Now he's so afraid of me - Toy Boy
The things I see are a dread I must withstand / On my own - Uncanny
I don’t think there’s anyone under your skin - Under My Skin
I wanted someone tall and firm to reassure that I'm doing this right / But it's starting to hurt when you hold me tight - Unreliable
When I'm too far gone / Dead in the eyes of my friends / Will you take me out of here - Watercolor
Stranger things than death can happen / To lab rat girls and pretty white rabbits - …well, better than the alternative
And when you scream, "I'm not alright" / And throw my picture at the wall / You were supposed to be my light / And keep me safe against them all / "How could you leave me here?" you'll scream / And louder, I'll scream back to you from that unknown / And say, "I know you're strong enough, I know you're strong enough / I know you're strong enough to do this on your own” - Welly Boots
Transformation / You've changed within / Some selfish mutation / A stranger I once called a friend - What Have You Become?
My head is spinning, I am beaten in the end - White Happy
Just take me as I am / A memory so vivid / And savor all the parts you can / Cause no one mourns the wicked - Wicked
You don't have to say you love me / Just be close at hand / You don't have to stay forever / I will understand - You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
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