News quickly spread throughout the small town that Captain Morgan had been defeated by the same young men that had helped capture Alvida and her band of misfits. The townspeople, eager to show their gratitude, had insisted on cooking a feast for Luffy and his brothers, and by extension, for Coby and Zoro, though the former tried to insist that he hadn't done anything praiseworthy.

The townspeople, for all their fear upon first seeing him, were quick to include Zoro among their group of saviours upon seeing how friendly Luffy and the others were towards him, and finding out his plans of joining the marines.

By the time the food was all eaten (most of it by the Monkey brothers), Zoro was slightly baffled to see that the three of them had already carved out a place for themselves in this little community, fitting in seamlessly, as if they had grown up here.

"If any of you four ever need anything, don't you hesitate to come back here, alright?" called the village chief as they were readying to leave. "Anyone in this village would take you in in a heartbeat."

"Shishishishi," laughed Luffy. "Even if we were to become pirates?" he asked, eyes twinkling mischievously.

"A marine, a pirate, heck, even a fire-breathing dragon, no one cares!" someone else answered. "So long as you're a damned good one!"

"Shishishishishi! I'll hold you to that!" called Luffy, seeming vastly amused.

Rolling his eyes, Zoro cuffed his new friend on the head and dragged him away to help them get ready for their impending journey.

In the end, they had declined Commander Mikoto's offer of an escort and decided to borrow one of their smaller boats (which was actually pretty big, compared to their old rowboat). The 153rd branch was a small one, and therefore could not afford to spare too many of their people, especially now that Captain Morgan was out of commission.

Luffy, in particular, didn't seem too upset about not having an escort.

"It's more fun with just you and my brothers!" he told Zoro, grinning widely. "Anyways, smaller ship means less supplies, and that means more islands to stop at and explore along the way!"

Zoro smiled in agreement of that logic. After all, one of the best parts of setting out to sea was all the different people one met along the way, and all the different kinds of alcohol one could drink.

"So where's our first stop?" asked Zoro.

Their apparent navigator, the blond guy named Sabo, was currently studying the map, and after a moment of consideration, he nodded to himself.

"We should have enough supplies to last us until we arrive at a place called Syrup village."

"The marines are coming! The marines are coming!"

Usopp looked up from the conversation he'd been having with Ninjin and Piiman when he heard Tamanegi's panicked yelling.

"Don't you mean the pirates?" asked Ninjin once Tamanegi had come to a panting stop in front of him.

Tamanegi shook his head violently, still gasping for breath.

"It had the marines' flag!" he said once he could speak up again. "W-what if they're here for you, captain?"

"O-oi, you're serious?" asked Ninjin, suddenly worried. "Don't joke about something like this! If the marines really are here, then captain Usopp and us are in trouble!"

"I'm serious!" insisted Tamanegi, and Usopp felt his heart catch in his throat.

"We should go check it out," he said, trying to put up his usual brave front. "There's no way they have enough evidence to arrest the great captain Usopp, but we need to make sure they're not here to cause trouble!"

"Yes, captain!" they all cried, excited, and immediately ran off again in the direction Tamanegi had just come from.

Usopp followed right after them.

While he knew the marines couldn't possibly be here for himself and the kids (they were just playing a game after all, it's not like they were actually pirates), the same couldn't be said for his father.

What if the marines had found out this island was his home town, and had decided to punish the townspeople for it? He couldn't allow his father's recklessness to affect the peaceful villagers.

But upon arriving at the shore to find that the marines had already docked, Usopp was relieved to see that there was only four of them, and they all looked pretty young.

Surely if the marines had wanted to punish the village, they would have sent at least a captain, right? There didn't even seem to be a lieutenant among these four!

They were probably just stopping by to re-stock their supplies, Usopp thought as his racing heart calmed down.

His three young friends were pretty keyed up though, so when one of the marines on the beach noticed them, all three immediately fled, yelling something about not wanting to be arrested.

Ace looked back at Zoro, confused.

"Did you do anything to them?" he asked, and Zoro shrugged.

"Not that I know of."

"Maybe Zoro's face scared them off," laughed Luffy, and received another cuff to the head for his words.

"We don't see marines often in these parts."

"Yeah, I'll bet," answered Sabo, turning to smile at the newcomer. "This island is pretty isolated. And it's in East Blue. You probably don't get much people coming through, let alone anything that would need the marines' attention."

"That's right," answered the newcomer, crossing his arms and nodding sagely. "This is a peaceful village and we don't like trouble here. So forget anything you might have heard about it being the birthplace of any famous pirates or anything."

"This is the birthplace of a famous pirate?" asked Luffy, eyes widening in intrigue. "Who?"

The strange boy smirked. "Obviously it's my fa-!"

Slapping his hands over his mouth, he looked back at them with a horrified expression.

Sabo, Ace, and Zoro were all staring at him in mild surprise, while Luffy's expression was thoughtful.

"Your father?" asked Ace.

The stranger kept his hands covering his mouth, his expression unsure as if he didn't know how to answer. He looked like he wanted to deny it, but for some reason, he couldn't.

Sabo, not wanting to make the boy feel any more awkward than he was feeling now, was about to dismiss the whole topic when there was a sudden shout of "AHA!" from Luffy.

Startled, the others all turned to look at the youngest member of their group, who was pointing at the stranger with an expression on his face as if he had discovered the secrets of the universe.

"YASOPP!" he declared, and the kid flinched away, eyes wide upon hearing his father's name.

"Yasopp?" asked Ace, turning back to the kid and tilting his head to the side, considering him. "You mean from the Red Hair pirates?"

"Yeah! This guy looks just like him!" answered Luffy, smiling from ear to ear. "I met him back when Shanks' crew was using Fuchsia village as their base! He was always talking about how I reminded him of his son! Shishishi! He was a really cool guy!"

Yasopp's son was staring at him now with wonder in his eyes.

"You knew my dad?"

It had been an hour since he'd first happened upon the marines and their ship, and now Usopp was sitting on the beach with the youngest of them, a cheerful kid named Luffy.

The other three had disappeared a while ago, probably off to get the supplies they'd come here for in the first place, leaving Usopp and Luffy alone to talk about their mutual acquaintance.

Luffy couldn't seem to stop singing praises about Yasopp and the rest of the Red Hair pirates, and Usopp drank it all in eagerly, unable to believe his father was such an amazing man.

But the longer Luffy talked about Yasopp with that same fond tone, the more Usopp felt something unpleasant growing in his gut.

It was a familiar feeling, something he had to actively work to ignore.

But he was used to it, and he liked to think he'd gotten good at not letting it show on his face, what with all his practise over the years.

But maybe he wasn't as good as he thought, or maybe Luffy was just unusually perceptive, because he suddenly stopped, mid-sentence, and gave Usopp a look.

It was hard to tell what kind of look it was. Understanding maybe? Disappointment? Sympathy? For all that Luffy's other expressions were like open books, this one was maddeningly cryptic.

"What?" asked Usopp, backing away a little.

"Do you hate your father, Usopp?" he asked quite suddenly, quite seriously, and Usopp's eyes widened, that unpleasant feeling in his gut rising like bile into his throat.

"What?" he asked, startled. "No! Of course not! I'm proud of him!"

"It's possible to be proud of someone and still hate them," answered Luffy, his voice quite.

Usopp turned his face away.

He was absolutely not going to have this conversation with a kid he'd only met an hour ago.

There was a tense silence for a few minutes, the easy atmosphere they'd had between them since their meeting dissolving like sugar in water.

And then…

"I hated my father at first."

Usopp jerked around to look at his new friend, surprised, and saw wide brown eyes staring right back at him, looking impossibly vulnerable.

"Wha-?" was Usopp's intelligent reply.

"I hated my father at first," repeated Luffy, turning to look out at the sea, his eyes suddenly distant. "I didn't even know he was still alive until I was seven. The only parental figures I'd ever known were jiji and Makino and Dadan. And of course my brothers, Sabo and Ace."

Usopp swallowed hard, suddenly noticing how dry his mouth had become.

"When I first met him, I refused to call him dad, even after he took us all in. He was a stranger to me. He didn't deserve that title."

Usopp cleared his throat, trying to find his voice.

"What changed?" he asked.

Luffy turned back, his lips twitching upwards into a smile, softer than his usual sunshiny one.

"He proved to me that he deserved to be called my father," Luffy answered with a shrug. "He knew he was in the wrong, and he took the initiative to fix it. He was the one that burned that bridge all those years ago, when he abandoned me, so I let him be the one that rebuilt it."

Usopp looked down, twisting his fingers in the fabric of his overalls.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat.

"I want to be proud of him," he said finally.

Luffy was silent.

"But I…I can't help but resent him. He left us…"

Luffy was silent.

"He left," repeated Usopp, "And then mom died and I was all alone. I needed him…"

His vision was starting to get blurry.

"I needed him, and he was off chasing treasure and I know it's more than that. I know he has a captain he respects, one he would follow to the ends of the Earth. And I want to be proud of him for being so loyal, for being brave enough to chase his dreams. But I needed him. And he wasn't there. I grew up without any parents, without any family, because he left me all alone."

Usopp couldn't help the sob that escaped him then.

"I want to understand. But I just can't…I'm so angry at him!"

"Well of course you are," replied Luffy, and Usopp looked up in shock. "You have every right to be. Maybe he has a reason for leaving you and your mom behind, and maybe it's a good one, but that's not what matters. You're his son, and that means you have every right to be angry at him for not being there for you."

Usopp sniffed and wiped his eyes.

"You just have to let yourself be angry sometimes," explained Luffy with a shrug. "And remember, you're not the one that has to work to fix things between you guys. He is."

SkyGem: That's it for this chapter! Did you guys like? I've always found it kind of strange that in the manga, Usopp was never shown to resent his father, even after he grew up an orphan. So I wanted to put in my two cents in this fic. Because yeah, it's possible to love someone and be proud of them, but to hate them at the same time. So yeah, enough of my rambling. Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought! And don't worry, I haven't forgotten Nami! I have plans for her! Did any of you pick up on the little clue in the last chapter about how I'll introduce her?