I'm a coward, Usopp thinks, when Luffy's eyes are warm and bright and his hand is outstretched and everyone's waiting for his move.

"Come on!" Luffy insists, only grinning wider. "It'll be an adventure!"

Usopp takes his hand, because he'll always take his hand, and he's gotten stronger in the two years their family was broken, but he'll always be a coward.

The crew splits up here and there to explore, some down to the harbor, others following the signs to town; plans are made to meet back up for lunch in an hour, and the colorful forest looms a little ominously up around Usopp but he pushes his way through giant alocasia leaves and listens to his captain chatter.

He's not scared of the saber-toothed bear that crosses their path, or the yellow river eels that shimmer ominously in the deeper water as they hop from rock to rock to the opposite bank. He's not afraid when they upset a nest of hornets, or when Luffy trips and sends them sprawling down a hill through thistles and ferns and finally into a pit of darkness.

He shouts and he screams and maybe cries a time or two, but he's not scared as they feel and bump their way along the cave, and when he gasps, it's not in fear of the glowing crystals that bloom from the cave walls like blossoms, it's in wonder.

Luffy's laughing, the sound delighted as it bounces around and echoes back, and his hand is warm and firm when he reaches over to grab Usopp's and point ahead, already leading the way on.

Usopp's not scared, even though he moans and whimpers, and he thinks Luffy must know that, because Luffy's instincts about people are always alarmingly spot on, and Luffy wouldn't drag him along if he thought Usopp didn't want to go.

They both know there's nowhere else Usopp would choose to be.

I'm such a coward.

"Usopp, look, that must be the way out!" Luffy shouts in glee, pointing at the pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel, and they both cheer when they finally burst from the mouth of the cave into a swell of birdsong and sunlight and collapse in the leaves and litter of the forest floor.

"That was so fun," his captain says, dirty and ruffled and a little torn up, and absolutely at peace with the world. "Do you think the others are waiting?"

Usopp hums thoughtfully, in no hurry to move right away. The canopy overhead is filtering light down in swaying patches, and next to him Luffy stretches his arms out leisurely like he might take a nap.

They lay there for awhile, in uncharacteristic but not uncomfortable quiet, and eventually Luffy rolls over, shuffles until he can use Usopp's shoulder as a pillow, and falls asleep right there in the middle of the jungle, as easily as if it was his childhood home.

I'm a coward.

Usopp's gotten stronger while he was away. He isn't as strong as Sanji, he'll never be like Zoro, but his arms and chest are thick and hard with muscle, and people give him a second glance when they size him up the way they never did two years ago.

The boy next to him is small and thin, absolutely nothing like his four hundred million beri bounty would suggest, and he's toppled empires, defeated tyrants, rescued princesses, led an army to war.

The boy next to him is his captain, and he fits in Usopp's arm like a little brother.

It's then, for the first time all day, that fear hits Usopp in the stomach like a lead mallet.

Someday he's going to lose Luffy, and it won't matter how strong he is then.

And on days like this, after an adventure and a tumble and a breathtaking view, worn out and possibly lost and still catching his breath, Luffy drooling on his arm and their friends waiting for them somewhere nearby- on days like this, it scares him more than anything.

I'm a coward.