Yo.

Heads up of trans-Usopp within, if you don't like these types of stories then please don't read.

Usopp's been a liar well before his mother passed away. Every lie he's ever told have become a truth since before Luffy as well.

The lies start when he's five and everything in his closet is uncomfortable. They're restricting, which means he can't climb trees or else his mother gets upset and it makes his mother even more upset when he comes home covered in dirt. They're icky clothes, covered in weird patterns and pastel colours and he hates them. So he buys his first pair of overalls, he starts to lie and his mother becomes sicker.

By the time his mother passes away, gone is the lie that ruined him and comes a truth that burdens him.

But the story doesn't end with her death, no, that is but the beginning of his twisted story.

Banchina's reaction.

He loves his mother, of course he does. She was his one and only for the first seven years of his life, but that didn't make him feel anymore comfortable in the clothes she preferred he wore. Tight clothes, patterns and bright colours. Long and formal, everything that made Usopp feel less like Usopp and more like Umiko. As much as he loves his mother, he's not Umiko and no matter the amount of dresses, or cooking classes and obidience lessons she forced upon him, he'd never be Umiko.

That doesn't mean she doesn't fight tooth and nail with her daughter, not her son.

"Umi-chan, please wear this dress to Max's house."

"No! I refuse! He's a stinky-weirdo and that's a yucky dress!"

"..."

Cue the puppy dog eyes.

"..."

Now the quivering lip and the intense stare down.

"...Umiko-chan!"

She holds the dress in a tight grip and stomps her foot childishly, while her daughter looks away, stubborn as stubborn can be.

"No, my name is Usopp! Great warrior of the sea!"

Sighing, Banchina negotiates with her daughter, because no matter what her Umiko said Umiko would always be her daughter. They agree to changes her into girly shorts and a singlet, the only outfit "that's cool enough for the great Captain Usopp".

It's a trying duty, raising a child, Bachina contemplates, all the while wondering why her daughter wasn't like all the other little girls.

By the time she becomes a permanent resident of her bed, Bachina's say in Umiko's clothes and activities are nonexistent. It hurts her head, because she gave birth to a girl and she's not sure why Umiko insist otherwise and why the name she chose is suddenly despised by her aforementioned child. Banchina doesn't understand and the weaker she becomes the angrier she is. The only upside, is the cute lie that Umiko shouts everyday. But that lie is overshadowed by her sudden helplessness, because she wants the cute baby girl she held in her shaky arms, not this boy that her Umiko is trying to turn into.

One day, one helpless and anger-ridden day, Bachina snaps. Because she's sick of just complying with her selfish child's wishes. (Honestly, she's scared witless of dying too, but she fruitlessly convinces herself that's not the reason for her cruel words.)

"Do you hate me Umiko?" She says it with so much disappointment.

Wide dark eyes look up at her and she can feel the shock radiating off her daughter. (She can't feel the disbelief, the worry or the sadness weigh-down on the child's heart though.)

"Eh, no! I love you, why..? Why would you...?"

Looking at her daughter with cold eyes, she murmurs, barely loud enough for Umiko to hear.

"Then why do you always make me sad?"

"...What?"

Banchina's tone is more bitter.

"Why do you insist on hurting me? I want my daughter! Why do you always make things harder!? Do you know how embarrassed I feel because of you!?"

For what feels like hours, she rants angrily and Umiko doesn't cry.(The great Captain Usopp doesn't cry because of words. The brave warrior of the sea is strong and strong people don't cry). When her throat is hoarse, she looks down at her daughter and doesn't feel remorse, only sadness. A desolate type of sadness that roots itself into her heart and doesn't let go.

(The great Captain Usopp doesn't cry because of words. The brave warrior of the sea is strong and strong people don't cry.The great Captain Usopp doesn't cry because of words. The brave warrior of the sea is strong and strong people don't cry. He repeats this to himself with teary-eyes, as he forces a red-flowery dress on. It's wrong, so very, very wrong- his stomach flips clenching in pain- as wrong as the horrifyingly girly braids that adorn his head.)

Looking down, Umiko's fist curl and blood drips down her hand.

"Mama? Will... Will me wearing dresses make you happy?"

A hopeful smile makes it's way onto Banchina's face.

"Very much," she replies softly.

Umiko, her daughter Umiko looks up with watering eyes and a cheerful grin. (A fake smile that makes his cheeks hurt) She replies with love (and fear, and sadness and loneliness staining his voice.)

"If it makes mama happy, then I promise I'll wear dresses and I won't play in the dirt and I'll make you really happy, I promise," Umiko bawls into her mothers shoulders.

The great Captain Usopp doesn't cry because of words. The brave warrior of the sea is strong and strong people don't cry- but Umiko does. Umiko cries the tears that a great captain cannot cry.

Usopp wears dresses. He wears dresses, tight, restricting and proper dresses. He braids his hair and everyday, runs into to greet his mother with a shout of "Pirates are coming!" No dirt stain Umiko's clothes and no twigs adorn her -his mother is very happy.

(But he's so sad. Young. Unhappy and unsure of why it all felt so wrong, when it made others feel so very happy)

Three months past, three months of sitting drinking tea. Reading books. Drawing. Of being delicate and pristine and so vile. So wrong. Three months of holding himself back and responding like Umiko, of biting his tongue when he wants to talk about pirates and wondering what was so wrong with being a he, if that's who he is?

His mama passes away. It makes him feel sad and more broken, because he remembers her last words to him weren't for him, they were for Umiko. It also makes him feel relieved, which confuses the seven-year-old, because if he felt so overwhelmingly sad and lonely, why did he feel the tiniest bit happy that he could go back to being a he? Why is he such an awful person?

It takes him years, years, before he can feel confident about being him. Before he can pull on his overalls without hearing disappointment being whispered in his mind. Years before he can walk around, with bandages covering his torso and not hear the word shameful repeated in his mind. But he gets there, eventually.

He tells Kaya stories, forms the Usopp pirates and eventually becomes a pirate. Maybe, maybe his mother won't approve, or agree but he starts to believe, that maybe she would've let him be him, despite her thoughts. He'd never know if that's indeed what she'd think, but he hopes she would've accepted him eventually.

Inspiration comes from the concept that Usopp was born biologically, a female, but over-time associated himself with the male gender. There are plot holes in that theory, which I will not only whole-heartedly ignore and simultaneously agree with, but will cover and cement with good ol' AU!Verse writing. And idek where I was going with this, but whatevs, this is all I really have for this idea rn.

Thanks for reading.