A/N: Oi! My first update of the new year. How very exciting! Well, I bet you've all been eager to see what Usopp's idea is going to be, so I'll keep you no longer. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. I wish I did, but, then again, Eiichiro Oda wouldn't be my God if that was true, now would he?

Rating: T

-xoxoxoxoxoxoxox-

The Boys Will Play

-xoxoxoxoxoxoxox-

He was a thinker. Yeah, good ol' Usopp always had a plan when the situation seemed dire or, in a lesser effect, boring. Whether it was entertaining people in a solo act with his own charm or engaging everyone in whatever activity or game he cooked up, Usopp always had a plan. Or three.

Yes, three. When Usopp had announced this fact, sticking his finger straight up into the air and laughing triumphantly, the Strawhat men were a little skeptical.

"Aw, why does Usopp get to have three ideas? I haven't even had one yet!" Luffy cried, pouting at the lack of fairness as he wiggled back and forth in a chair.

"Stop shaking like that," Sanji replied, more concerned with how Luffy was causing that chair to come closer and closer to giving out from underneath him, "or you'll fall. Besides, no one agreed to let Usopp have three ideas."

"But they're great ideas," Usopp was quick to defend himself, spinning around on one heal and facing Sanji, "And I don't see you coming up with any, mister."

"That's because I'm trying to think of something fun to do," Sanji rebutted, flicking some ashes from his cigarette in Usopp's direct, "Besides, whatever I think of is sure to be more fun than yours."

And just as Usopp was about to pounce on Sanji and make him eat not only his words but his cigarette, Zoro stepped in front of him and sighed, "We don't even know what his idea is yet, Sanji."

"He's got a point," Franky added, coming to Usopp's aid as well, "For all we know, those might just be the best three ideas we're ever going to hear."

"See?" Usopp smirked, delighted, "Best ideas ever, Sanji."

"All right, all right," Sanji added, taking another drag, "Let's hear 'em, Usopp."

"But I still don't see why he gets three turns," Luffy slumped, having wiggled right off the chair and onto the floor.

"Yeah!" Chopper screamed suddenly, agreeing with Luffy, "That's two more than I got!"

"Calm down, everyone," Brooke joined, trying not to let everything get too out of hand, "Why don't we just keep panty raiding and forget about all the ideas?"

The skeleton's question was answered quite soundly when he was smashed into the side of the ship, the crew letting him know that they had no intent of going panty raiding ever again.

"Calm down, Luffy," Zoro began, cracking his knuckles that had, a few seconds ago, been used to dash the crew's musician's hopes and dreams, "We'll give you three turns too."

"Are you serious, Marimo?!" Sanji raged in a whisper, his voice being barely heard by Zoro over Luffy's ecstatic cries of joy, "If we give him three turns, we might ... well, I mean ... ok, so we could seriously end up dead."

"Oi," Zoro whispered back, pushing Luffy, who was currently trying to hug him in thanks, away, "We'll let him think that for now. But, more than likely, he'll forget Usopp even had three ideas in a few minutes."

"Hm, Zoro," Sanji straightened up, voice returning to normal pitch, "That's slightly evil of you. Tricking the poor guy like that."

"Yeah, whatever," Zoro concluded, giving Luffy one last hard push before the rubber man reclaimed his body with an even tighter hug.

"C'mon, Longnose!" Franky barked, giving Usopp a thumbs up, "Let's get started on those ideas!"

"Ah, right!" Usopp agreed, forgetting about untangling Luffy from Zoro's body, "Now, what I think we should do first is –"

"Luffy! Get off of me!"

"Thank you, Zoro!! Thank you, thank you!!"

"Would you two shut the hell up?"

"Guys! Shut up and listen to me!"

"I can't get him off, he's too rubbery!"

"Oi ..."

-xox-

The first idea Usopp graced the crew with was the ever so popular game of "Telephone." Of course, the only other person besides Usopp who had played it was Franky. So, with determination and resolve, the two took it upon themselves to explain the ever-not-so-complicated game to the rest of the crew.

However, after ten minutes of, "Wait, what?" and "Ok, so I have to say exactly what he said to him?" and "I don't get it. Explain it again," Franky and Usopp's resolve had all but dissolved into thin air as their patience ran incredibly thinner and thinner.

"Now, listen," Franky demanded, standing up out of the circle that the crew had formed into and crossing his arms menacingly, "I really don't want to explain this again, so let's get it right."

The remaining crew, excluding Usopp who was currently massaging his temples in frustration, looked at Franky expectantly, some beginning to grasp the concept of the game while others were not so fortunate.

"The game is very simple," Franky continued, arms still crossed as he peered around the circle, "Very simple. One person thinks of a phrase. Once they've got it in mind, he will whisper it to the person sitting to his left. Or right, it really isn't a big deal. Then, that person will repeat it to the person next to them. And so on and so forth until it gets to the very last person who will then say it out loud."

"But what if they're wrong? What if they say something the person didn't say?" Luffy asked, scratching his head in confusion, not getting how one was supposed to win this game.

"It doesn't matter if you're wrong, Luffy," Usopp added, his voice laced with annoyance, "Like I said before, it's better if you don't know exactly what the first person said."

"Why would that be better? Then you don't win," Zoro commented, trying to see the point of something so strange.

"It's not about winning and losing," Usopp continued, directing his attention towards Zoro, "The point is, there is no point."

"So, then ... nope, I don't get it," Luffy added once more, inflicting the wrath of Usopp.

Franky grabbed him just in time and responded to Luffy, Usopp frantically twisting around in his arms, "It's supposed to be funny because you get something that the person didn't say. So, at the end, when you find out how different it is from the original and everyone goes, 'Oh! I thought you said blah!' then everyone feels like a huge dork and the process starts all over again."

"So ... it's a game to see how well you can listen?" Chopper asked, eyes bright with hope that he finally got the hang of the game.

"Precisely!" Franky and Usopp blurted out at the same time, scaring the poor reindeer.

"Oh! I get it!" Luffy laughed clapping his feet together.

"Sounds interesting enough," Sanji chuckled with a large smirk, "I'm all for it."

"I guess we can give it a try," Zoro added, joining everyone in forming a circle on the floor.

"Ok, but say we can't understand what the person said," Brooke began, the thought bothering him, "Can we ask them to repeat it?"

"Nope, and that's the greatness of it," Usopp nodded, excited that everyone finally got it, "Now, who wants to go first?"

"Oh, ooh!! Me, me!!" Luffy jumped up excitedly, waving his arms in the air, "I've got a good one!"

"Go ahead, Luffy," Usopp said, sitting on the floor in anticipation.

Luffy clapped excitedly and leaned over to Chopper. Cupping one hand around the small reindeer's ear, the crew could hear the vibrations of Luffy's voice bouncing in the silence, but no one could pick up what he was saying.

Chopper nodded his head after Luffy related the information to him, and then whispered the same thing in Sanji's ear.

Sanji's sigh was long and filled with exasperation as he quickly whispered what Chopper had told him to Brooke. And the sighs and rollings of eyes continued to the last person, Franky, who said but one word: "Meat?"

"That's it!! Oh my God, that's it!!" Luffy jumped up, running around excitedly that his word had successfully gotten from him and all the way around the circle.

The rest of the crew looked on in dull amusement. "We never should have let him go first," Usopp sighed, feeling slightly tricked for falling pray to Luffy's idiocy.

"Oh well, at least we all get the point of the game," Zoro commented, leaning back to rest on his hands.

"But I thought we were supposed to give a phrase, not just one word," Chopper said with a cock of his head, looking confused.

"We're just going to make an exception for Luffy," Sanji breathed, giving Chopper a pat on the back.

"Oi, Luffy," Usopp interrupted Luffy's frantic running, "Get back in the circle so we can play more."

"Does that mean I win? Did I win?!" Luffy asked loudly, plopping down in his spot.

"Sure," Franky answered quickly, "Who's next?"

The next person to volunteer was Sanji. "I'll take a shot at this." The crew didn't notice Sanji's evil smirk as he leaned towards Brooke and whispered his message.

Brooke gave him a strange look before turning to Zoro and repeating what he had heard in his ear.

"There's no way in hell I'm saying that!" Zoro raged, turning bright red, "And you, Love Cook! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing. Now follow the rules and repeat what I said to Franky," Sanji replied calmly, smile set in place.

Zoro was so pissed off, he continued to stare at Sanji for a few more seconds before turning completely to Franky and grumbled the message in the cyborg man's ear.. Franky, for his part, just burst out laughing and continued the cycle.

When it finally made it back to Chopper, all eyes were on the little reindeer. Sanji's burning with desire to hear his message aloud, Zoro's narrowed in anger while his face only blushed redder, and the rest looking on expectantly, waiting to see what if Chopper was right.

"Zoro dances a Spanish dance?"

Everyone burst out laughing, aside from Luffy and Chopper. Whatever had happened, they had missed it.

"Oi, Luffy!" Usopp began, tears from laughing so hard running down his face, "How could you mess that up!"

"Huh? I messed it up?"

"Yeah! That's not what Sanji said," Franky joined in, clutching his sides.

"Really?" Chopper asked, turning to Sanji, "Then ... what did you say?"

"That Zoro's got a fine ass," Sanji replied, chuckling madly.

And when everyone realized what Sanji had meant to be said, the laughter increased in volume. All except Zoro, whose eyes were closed in embarrassment as his skin turned an incredibly deep shade of red. But not one to be outdone, Zoro slammed his fist on the ground and demanded, "Let it be my turn next."

"Oh, bring it on, Zoro," Sanji smirked, egging the swordsman on, "You're such a big baby."

Not backing down, Zoro turned to Usopp and whispered, in a very harsh tone, his message. Usopp began laughing again and, turning to Zoro, asked, "No way! Does he really?"

Zoro merely gave him a cold smile while ushering that he pass the message on. Usopp chuckled a bit more before turning to Franky to keep the message going. And when Franky asked the same thing Usopp had out loud, Sanji started to fume. "What is he telling you?!"

"Wait your turn, Sanji," Zoro turned to him, flush fading slowly from his face. He didn't care if what he said was true or not, but he was sure making everyone believe that it was. Smiling deviously at the man, Sanji could do nothing but return Zoro with a glare as he speculated as to what the swordsman could've said.

Finally, when Chopper leaned over to whisper in his ear, Sanji was desperate to hear whatever he had to say. So much, in fact, that he grabbed the poor little doctor and pressed his mouth to his own ear.

"Speak!" he demanded, crazed. Chopper did what he was told as quickly as he could and related to Sanji the message that Zoro had started.

"What does that even mean?!" Sanji yelled, throwing Chopper backwards in frustration, "I don't get it!!"

"You'll just have to wait until the end, Sanji," Usopp giggled, glad that he wasn't seated particularly close to Sanji lest he should be thrown backwards as well.

Sanji hastily whispered the phrase to Brooke, not really caring what he said and only wanting to hear if what had been passed to him had been what the marimo had truly said.

Clearing his throat and whispering a quick "Skull Joke!" after doing so, Brooke lifted his head and spoke out: "Hiss strafen Zoro ish deths mergin!"

"Aw, Sanji!" Luffy cried, his face falling, "That's not what Zoro said at all."

"I know that, Luffy," Sanji hissed, putting out his cigarette hastily on the floor, "He said something like, 'Sanji lactates to a fine feeling' or some bullshit like that."

"What I said," Zoro gave a feral smile, voice rising above the uproarious laughter, "is 'Sanji masturbates to the sound of water boiling'."

"What? What?! What kind of thing is that to say?! And I most certainly do not!!" Sanji was currently turning the bright shade of red that Zoro had taken not all that long ago. Stomping over to him, Sanji grabbed the swordsman's shirt and lifted him off of the ground. Snarling, he waited for Zoro to give him an explanation before he kicked him into the ocean.

"Oh, you're such a big baby, Sanji," Zoro repeated , almost whispering exactly what Sanji had said to him, "Besides, your reaction was way better than whatever crap I would have come up with."

But like so many times tonight, a fight was broken up. Sanji, held back by Chopper, screaming obscenities at Zoro, while Franky rested his hand on Zoro's shoulder, ready to grab him should he choose to provoke Sanji more.

The tension almost got to be too thick when Luffy, putting a hand on Sanji's head and Zoro's head, smashed the two men together, skulls slamming together loudly as the young captain declared, "New idea!"

"Ah, way to go, Captain," Usopp said in a thrilled voice, thankful that those two didn't get into yet another fight.

-xox-

Usopp promised that his next idea would be better. And insisting that what they had just done was a warm up for the big show about to unfold, the crew gathered around Usopp once more to hear about his next great idea. Sanji and Zoro were kept a good distance apart from each other.

"Now, since we had the chance to warm up with each other," Usopp began, looking from nakama to nakama, "we're going to be getting into the big leagues."

"What are you talking about, Usopp? Big leagues?" Sanji asked quickly, still fuming about not being allowed to kick Zoro's teeth out.

"I'm getting to that," Usopp responded, not put off by Sanji's attitude.

The rest of the crew, just like Usopp, were not deterred by their two fuming crew mates. Why let them ruin their fun?

"Go on, Longnose," Franky ushered, hoping that this idea would require them to maybe get off the ship for awhile.

"Prank calling," Usopp stated simply. And, again, received a plethora of strange looks from his crew. But Usopp was feeling pretty confident in his ideas tonight, so a few awkward stares wasn't going to phase him.

"Prank calling? What's that?" Zoro asked, looking slightly confused.

"Me and Ace used to do that all the time!" Luffy sparkled, remembering the days when him and his brother would huddle under the covers in Ace's bed and giggle madly when they asked someone if their refrigerator was running so they better go catch it.

"It's where you pick a random number and call it; then you play a little prank on them," Brooke nodded, his afro shaking back and forth.

"Hm, that doesn't seem like very much fun," Zoro commented, a skeptical look plastered on his face.

"That's what you said about the last idea," Usopp waved a hand in his direction as if to dismiss him.

"Yeah, and that wasn't fun."

"All right, calm down," Sanji related to Usopp and Zoro, "Marimo, just watch what everyone else is doing, and you'll get the hand of it."

With a shrug of his shoulders, symbolizing that he was just going to go with it, Zoro sat in a chair and folded his arms.

"So, who wants to go first?"

There was a bit of a struggle to see who would go first, strangely enough. Luffy easily pushed Chopper out of the way, but was currently struggling against Usopp, who wanted to go first insisting that it was his idea. Brooke snuck past the two and reached the Den-Den Mushi when he was suddenly pushed forward by Franky's giant hands and went tumbling head over heels past the calling device. Sanji and Zoro exchanged a look that screamed, "These guys are morons," and decided it'd be best if they just wait it out.

It was Franky who first reached the Den-Den Mushi, and when he gave a triumphant cry, the small brawl between Luffy and Usopp stopped as they sighed pitifully over the defeat and slumped to the floor, waiting for their turns.

Franky had a plan, it was evident. There was no hesitation, no deliberation over who he was going to call. And as soon as he picked up that receiver, he dialed a number and waited in glee for the person on the other end to answer the phone.

The ringing stopped and there was a deep, "Hello?" on the other end. Franky looked positively ecstatic.

"Yes, hello, is this Iceburg's Pizza?"

"Nma. Iceburg's Pizza? No, you must have the wrong number."

"Well, you're Iceburg, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I don't sell pizza, Franky."

"Oh, because – Hey wait! How did you know it was me?!"

"Because you've tried to play this trick on me once before."

"Oh ... did it work?"

"No, Bakanky, it didn't."

"Oh ... hm ... well, talk to you later then."

"Yes, I'll talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye."

Franky hung up the Den-Den Mushi and scratched his head, a look of pure confusion over what had just happened plastered clearly on his face. And when he took a chair, the look stayed as he pondered how his idea had gone so horribly awry.

"Um, ok then," Usopp said, breaking up the silence and, thus, everyone's concentration on Franky's state of bewilderment.

"Me next!" Luffy screamed, dashing over to the phone before anyone could stop him. Much like Franky, it seemed Luffy already had someone in mind. Dialing the number, he bobbed his head around waiting for an answer.

"Hey! ... Yeah, um, is your refrigerator running? Hahaha-huh? Mine ... uh, I don't know ... I think so ... ... yeah ... ... ... go on ... right ... well, I didn't know that! That's great! ... What? ... Really? ... ... no kidding ... ... ... Hahaha! Totally! ... You too! Bye."

"What the hell was that?" Zoro asked, confused at Luffy's whole conversation and not seeing the prank.

"I think," Sanji tried, an idea coming together in his mind, "That Luffy got reverse prank called."

"Reverse prank called?" Chopper asked, not seeing how something like that could happen, "How do you know?"

"Oi, Luffy," Sanji opted for answering Chopper's question by asking Luffy a few of his own, "Did the person on the other end ask you if your refrigerator was running also?"

"Yeah!" Luffy laughed, hands behind his head, "But Shanks told me to check on it later just to be careful. He said that he had one stop working once. Apparently, it was bad! They had no cold food!"

"I wonder about him sometimes," Zoro sighed, trying to get over the shock that Luffy had just called Shanks so casually. It seemed the crew shared Zoro's disbelief because everyone was looking at Luffy with their mouths agape.

Shaking his head out of his state of stupor, Usopp stood and proclaimed, "Let me show you how it's done!"

Luffy took a seat as Usopp walked over to the Den-Den Mushi and dialed a number. The Strawhat's waited in anticipation over what kind of prank Usopp was going to pull. Then, they heard a voice over the phone. "Hello?"

Usopp's voice was extremely deep and held a slight slur to it. Clearing his throat once for good measure, he continued, "I'd like to have some pizza delivered."

"Ok, so, what would you like, sir?"

"I want 500 jumbo pepperonis, 100 cheese, 50 taco pizzas, and 18 desert pizzas."

"Sir ... I don't think we can do that ..."

"Well, you better find a way, damn it! Do you even know who you're talking to?!"

"Um ... uh," the man on the other line was flustered, "N-no?"

"This is Edward Newgate! Or you can just call me Whitebeard. Whatever you want to call me, you have one hour to get my order to my ship."

"Y-yes, we-we-we-we'll try!"

"You better," Usopp finished, an evil snarl on his lips, "Or you die." And then he hung up the Den-Den Mushi.

"Now that's how you do it," Usopp laughed, hands on his hips and nodding approvingly to himself.

The crew was dumbfounded. First, they were silent, merely staring at Usopp. But when they finally spoke, they did so together.

"What the hell?!"

"What's wrong guys?" Usopp asked, not enjoying that they didn't appreciate his genius.

"Oh my God, that poor guy is scarred for life!"

"Whitebeard will kill him if he finds out!"

"Kill him, he'll kill us!!"

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!"

"Ah! No! Why, Usopp?!"

"There's no way they can do that in an hour! Your declarations were too improbable!"

Usopp sighed deeply as he watched his crew flip out about his little prank. He rationalized to himself that, yes, maybe he did take it a might too far, but it was all in fun. Besides, Whitebeard had such a huge crew that, whenever he did order pizza, it was probably close to his numbers.

"Oi, let's just go to the last idea," Usopp's voice was quiet in comparison to his nakama's screaming.

-xox-

They found themselves standing on a hill a little ways outside of the town.

"All right, so what are we doing here again?" Sanji asked, finding it odd that he was lined up side by side with his crew mates on a hill in the night.

"This was one of my favorite things to do when I was younger," Usopp answered, stretching his legs a bit, "Trust me, this'll be fun."

"You said that about the last idea," Zoro interrupted, a scowl pointed in Usopp's direction.

"Ah, it was fun. It's merely that you guys aren't."

"Usopp!" Luffy whined, not liking Usopp's attitude, "Don't be a jerk! That last thing you did was scary!"

"Ok, so it was a little scary, I'll admit."

"Ready whenever you are," Brooke commented to Usopp, waiting for his directive and hoping it had something to do with raiding houses for panties.

"Right. Now, here's what we're going to do," Usopp's voice carried easily through the night, reaching everyone's ears, "When I give the signal, we are going to run, as fast as you can, down to the Sunny screaming, 'The pirates are coming!'"

"Is it fun?" Chopper asked, now rightfully scared of any idea Usopp cooked up, "We're not going to get hurt, right?"

"Aw, I never got hurt. Trust me, it's fun," Usopp replied, giving Chopper a comforting smile, "And everybody had to do it."

When Usopp gave this condition, everyone looked at Zoro, expectantly. Grunting, Zoro rubbed the back of his head and said, "Yeah, yeah. I'll do it too."

"Great! Now everyone into position," Usopp began, getting into a running stance. Everyone else followed his lead.

"Ready ... steady ... GO!"

The men of the Strawhat's took off immediately, their feet pounding roughly on the ground as they made their was into town. And all at once, they began to shout that the pirates were coming. Hooting and hollering, they gained the attention of all who were in the street and many who were in their homes and businesses. It seemed like the people of the town weren't sure what to think, so their perplexed looks followed the men all the way down to the docks and out of sight.

And when everyone reached the Thousand Sunny, huge smiles beaming on their faces, Usopp knew it was right to end with that idea.

"That was actually entertaining," Zoro chuckled, having enjoyed himself at least once tonight.

"That was so much fun!" Luffy cheered, grabbing Chopper and swinging him around. The little reindeer laughed with him.

"See? I told you!" Usopp nodded, catching his breath.

"Whoo! Haven't done something like that in a while!" Franky related to Sanji, who nodded in agreement.

"It was wonderful to feel the skin on my face! ... Skull JOKE!" And had everyone not been in such a good mood, they might've smacked him for it.

-xox-

"Did you hear something?" Nami asked, looking towards the window, "Like someone shouting something?"

Robin looked up from the book she was reading, "No, I don't think so."

"Hmm, must've been my imagination."

-xox-

"Me next, me next!!" Luffy shouted, wanting to have the privilege of deciding their next idea.

"Oh, fine," Sanji smiled, now contently happy and ready for anything, "Luffy, you can go next."

"All right!" Luffy gave a wide smile, pumping his fist in the air, "This is gonna be fun!"

And with Usopp's three ideas finished to completion, the Strawhat's were ready to move on to more excitement; and so, they all gathered around Luffy, waiting for whatever idea their captain was going to pull out from his straw hat.

-xoxoxoxoxoxoxox-

End of Chapter Four

-xoxoxoxoxoxoxox-

A/N: Oi, my ideas are so simple. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure why I gave Usopp three ideas, but three ideas he had. And I don't think that every ship has a Den-Den Mushi just laying around, but it really wouldn't have worked any other way. Thanks for reading! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed it!!