onepieceyaoi100 | I'm competing! :D

Title: The Smell of Time
Rating: Totally G.
Word Count: 189
Pairing: Usopp/Luffy
Topic: History
Notes: Ahhh, this is the closest thing I've ever written to actual slashfic thus far! :x But since I wasn't that interested in slash until I got into OP and its fanfiction, and because this is my absolute favorite pairing(with SanUso runner-up), AND because today is Luffy's birthday... well, the obligation really adds up, dunnit? :D;

Luffy was always pressing forward, aiming for goals lying somewhere out there in the future. The smell he carried with him reflected his never-ending pursuit the same way it reflected the ocean he advanced upon, with its ever present saline odor. It was a combined scent of things current and things yet to be.

While very much a part of him, the straw hat he wore was different. While tinged with the smell of the sea, the sun-warmed fibers still firmly held an aroma that had existed since before the boy's dream had taken it out to sea, and had been there even before the dream itself had been born.

This was what Usopp smelled in Luffy's wind-touseled hair as he held the sleeping boy close, beloved hat slightly askew. As much as the artist appreciated the smell of the sea, he was grateful for the smell of straw, too, for it was these two odors combined that had brought his captain to him, to mingle with his own timely essences.

Closing his eyes, he breathed deep a bouquet of past, present, and future.