Captain's Parrot (Oc x One Piece) Book 2

Set Things Striaght.//Chapter 70

Dragging her feathered pen across the paper was to find peace and distraction in her small moment of silence away from the crew. Faythe scribbled small doodles of each of her crew members. But as soon as she reached Usopp, she paused.

"This is getting us nowhere." She sighed tiredly, placing the pen down in the middle of the journal.

"You're right."

Slamming her book shut on reflex, the redhead snapped her head in the direction of the hatch that opened up in her room. Standing there was Usopp himself with his arms crossed, "Usopp..."

"I think we should talk." He started.

Faythe turned away with a grimace, "I don't have anything to say to you."

"—No. we need to. More like I need to at the very least..." Usopp finally dragged himself forward. And now stood only inches away from her, their shoes barely touching, "And I'm not sure where to start. Maybe it was when I lost the money... Maybe it was before that, when I tried convincing you to run back on that flying ship up in Skypiea, but I just know that what I did... It was wrong of me."

Faythe closed her eyes tightly, "Yeah it was... You chose your pride and blindly followed it. Ignoring everything and everyone else around you. You did that so much that you forgot just how much everyone cared about you. How much I cared about you." She gently tucked her journal away. "And I'm still terrified of the thought of being tossed to the side again after all the efforts I did to support you."

Usopp frowned and continued to listen.

"I know you don't wanna remember but when I found you on that sidewalk, I had been searching for you for at least an hour way before they told the news to Luffy and Nami about Merry. I was scared... But then I was angry. Angry at those that put you in that state. And.. I wanted to kill them." Faythe looked down at her hands, "After you left to go get the money back, I should've known from there that was a raised flag to begin with... It wasn't that you wanted to prove to the crew that you couldn't take care of the money... It was that you didn't trust me to take care of it. And that hurt not gonna lie." She chuckled weakly, "Instead of trusting me as a friend... You chose your pride as a pirate."

Usopp now felt stupid... He thought that if he lost the gold, the crew would've blamed him for not being able to afford the cost of repairs. He was blindly chasing his goal of fixing Merry that he didn't realize that he was thinning an already small piece of doubt within the redhead.

"Even after the argument, your little heat of the moment truly did confirm just how little you trusted me... Just how little you thought of my support for you... All because you believed that you were doing everything alone." Faythe chuckled weakly, "I was a fool... I even continued to believe that there was still hope after hijacking the train together...! I was so naive!" She looked up at Usopp with a humorless smile, "And you decided to bring up how I had an obligation to the crew and not you. I don't get why you think that not being on a crew automatically entails that you shouldn't care how your friends feel and are in danger—!?" Her feathers sprouted and raised dangerously as she thought back on the events, "But then you have the utter audacity to show your face back at Enies Lobby... I thought I could ignore everything and just continue on fighting, ignoring this feeling that suffocates and squeezes my heart and lungs...!" Her hands clutched the front of her shirt desperately.

Watching the girl in front of him crumble in front of him like this was almost unbelievable. He had only caught a glimpse of this downward spiral back on the train when she was delirious from blood loss. Her mind clawing for anything relatively safe warding for her. And apparently she considered him of all people as a safe space. Him. Of all people. Not because he was strong or could carry her to safety with his arms. It was his presence alone that brought comfort for her. And now?