One Piece: Grand Endeavours

Chapter Ten: New Crew Member

Usopp
We all head back to the ship were the sailboat we made is next to it. Nova, Luffy, Danni, Ben and their Dad are waiting there, Nova nibbling from a large chocolate. I haven't known him long but typical. He definitely seems to have a sweet tooth.
"Hi guys, guess what!?" Luffy exclaims with his trademark grin.
"You asked Danni to be in the crew?" Robin guesses and I hope that's it – not that I like her, she's just really nice! Clearly.
"Yup!" Luffy replies. YES! I mean, uh, that's nice...Jumping up and down with joy is tempting, especially given that Danni is really great to be around. I don't though for the simple reason that everyone already thinks I am acting weird so acting like a hyper teenager would probably just clarify that in a heartbeat.
"Finally! Another girl!" Nami says enthusiastically, giving her a hug. She can act enthusiastic without people think she's being weird but it is more Nami than me.

"You're really going, sis?" Ben asks. Danni nods.
"So you'll have to help Dad and the island so the ship is yours," she says with a grin, expression enthusiastic. Ben seems equally enthused.
"This is so awesome Danni!" he exclaims, grin stretching wide enough to rival Luffy's which is really saying something. "So I can see you at sea in a few years!"
"Yup," Danni agrees, ruffling his hair. "Make sure you look after yourself Ben, okay?"
"Okay!" he agrees, giving her a hug. Seeing moments like this makes me almost want a sibling. I say almost because any sibling I would have would also have to go through the same hardship of losing my Mum as I did. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone...except maybe Kuro but thankfully we haven't seen him since my home island.
"And Ben?" she adds. "Don't head to sea until you're old enough, okay?" Ben sighs with a sulky expression, crossing his arms.
"Fine," he agrees with the level of stroppiness only a child can pull off causing several of the crew to chuckle.

"Want some help with your bag, Danni?" I offer.
"No it's fine," she says, giving me a smile. "I didn't over pack." Ugh. I wanted an excuse to help her. Because, you know, welcoming a new crew member. Nothing else! Besides, she'll never notice me that much: Sanji is around and he 'loves' practically any girl and showers her with attention. It may annoy them, even though Nami uses it to her advantage, but it is a complete distraction. Although at least it causes amusing bickering between Zoro and him so there is that: then again the main thing the duo do is bicker so that is not much of a surprise.

We all head to the ship, Danni stood at the back so she can wave goodbye to her family.
"Bye guys!" she calls, waving.
"Bye Danni," her Dad calls. "Be careful Danni."
"I will!" she replies, grinning even wider than before.

Before long her family are out of eyeshot and her island is sinking into simply a silhouette, shimmering like a mirage in the distance. Then it is gone from sight. Danni stays sat in the same place, eyes locked on where we saw it disappear.
"Are you okay?" I ask, sitting by her. She looks away from the direction of her island, smiles, and nods.
"Just thinking," she says with a smile. "It is a lot to take in all of a sudden. It's all good but it's a lot, you know?"
"Yeah, I get it," I reply. "I was really excited when I joined the crew but it is also difficult to leave everything behind. Especially as I was really worried about Kaya after what happened...Thankfully I saw her briefly during our two year training and she was fine." We sit in silence for a bit, watching the sun dip behind the clouds as evening begins.

"Guys! Dinner is ready!" Sanji calls. I stand up and offer Danni a hand, helping her up from the ground. She takes it and we head into the kitchen where the lush smell of food awaits.
"Barbeque chicken fajitas," Sanji announces as he serves it, Luffy immediately grabbing the biggest one and scoffing it down. Some things will never change.
"Luffy, at least chew," I suggest, rolling my eyes. "You don't want to choke." Luffy huffs and marginally slows down. Danni giggles- well that's cute af.. Uh....shut up brain..
"Usopp are you okay?" Nova asks. "You've gone really red."
"I'm fine," I say. "Just hot." Nova thankfully buys it, despite it being a relatively mild day, likely as he is a robot and temperature therefore has less of an impact. And, thankfully, the rest of the crew are busy eating so they don't notice the gaps in my lie especially Luffy who is on fajita six. Seriously, he could eat a whole island worth of food and have room for more.

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The knock on my workshop door makes me jump.
"Come in," I call, covering up what I'm working on in case it's Danni. Nova comes in with his usual optimistic grin.
"Danni asked me to ask you that Sanji asked her if you wanted pudding," he says. It takes me a second to take in that mouthful of a sentence but it finally dawns on me what he is saying.
"Nah, I'm good," I say, looking at varying chain ideas. "Hey can you give me a second opinion on something?"
"Sure!" Nova says with a grin. I show him the necklace with stardust in it for Danni: so far it is only the charm part.
"What colour chain do you think? I'm stuck between black, gold and silver," I ask him.
"I think silver," Nova replies. "It is a dulled version of the starlight so it wouldn't take away from it and wouldn't be too big of a contrast."
"That makes sense," I agree. He does do fashion so it makes sense he has a good answer about colour combinations.

"Is the necklace for Danni?" he asks me. I feel a blush rushing up to my cheeks and figure that there is no way I could deny it.
"Yeah," I say. "Think she'll like it?"
"Definitely!" Nova enthuses with his usual optimistic grin. "It is a super nice thing to do!"
"Just don't mention it okay?" I ask: he looks confused. "I'm going to wait 'til we know each other a bit more."
"Okay," Nova agrees. Well he's easy to get along with so that's nice and is easy to be happy around. "Ima go get dessert." Wow, Nova paused having dessert to see if I wanted any: miracles do happen. Okay that's mean of me but he can't hear my thoughts so eh.

After linking chains into a long one and threading it through the link of the charm I make sure to put it where the crew-mostly Danni- won't accidently find it and head downstairs. Nova is drinking coffee and I really hope caffeine doesn't affect him because he is definitely hyper enough. Danni has a white hot chocolate and smiles at me as I come over.
"Hi," I say. "Settling in okay?"
"Yeah," she says with a wide grin. "And I am so excited to have adventures!"
"Hopefully we don't have any too dangerous ones for a while," I comment. "I like to have some nicer islands: then again Luffy seems to be a magnet for danger."
"Hey danger is fun!" Luffy protests with a grin: Danni giggles. Yup, she's adorable. I – uh. I need to stop thinking that...
"Plus we haven't got ourselves killed," Robin comments, nearly reassuring me. "Yet."
"Why did you need to add the 'yet', Robin?" I complain, now thinking of the varying ways we will die in the future.
"Because it's true," she retorts. "Everyone dies eventually."

Oh well great!

"Don't worry Usopp, no one is going to let you get killed," Danni says with another adorable giggle. "Besides everyone knows you're all great fighters: it would take a lot to kill you."
"And if anyone did kill a member of the crew they'd regret it," Luffy adds, cracking his knuckles. Well that's a nice thought but that doesn't change the idea that we could get killed. Thank you so much Robin for getting that in my head...

Oh well, today overall has been a good day so I can't complain. Danni is now in the crew so I get to be around her more. Not for any reason except she's a great friend...obviously. Heh... Jeesh it is lucky that none of the crew are a telepath or I would so be busted- my thoughts are not being very helpful especially when it comes to Danni. I mean it makes sense though: she is amazing, clearly smart, kind...Oh jeez I'm at it again. I quickly pour myself a hot chocolate, stirring it for longer than I need to so I have time to let the blush I can feel in my face die down so no one will notice. Then I sit next to Danni like nothing has happened.