“Why so glum?”
Chopper had been sitting there, staring off into the distance when he was shaken out of his thoughts by the Usopp’s question.. “Oh...it’s nothing.”
“If it were nothing you wouldn’t be frowning like that.” Usopp took a seat beside his friend, the autumn breeze pulling at his dark curls. “So tell...”
The reindeer sighed, it was no use lying to a liar. “It’s just...it’s mating season.”
“Ohhh, lonely cause there aren’t any female deer around huh?”
Chopper bite his lip “No doe would ever wanna mate with me anyway so it doesn’t matter.”
Usopp raises an eyebrow “What would make you say a crazy thing like that?”
“This,” Chopper tapped his blue nose “When I was little the other deer told be no doe would ever want me...it’s not exactly a desirable characteristic.”
The long nosed pirate frowned deeply. What a mean thing to say, especially about someone’s nose. “Well they were wrong, I think it’s a very nice characteristic.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you were a doe,” Chopper pointed out, still rather depressed.
“I would too,” Usopp crossed his arms matter-of-factly “If I were a doe I’d think you were the handsomest male ever and I’d wanna have lots of little blue nosed fawns with you.”
A blush creep over the deer’s face, the edges of his mouth coming up in a surprised smile “R-really?”
“Really.” So the idea of being a doe was silly, Usopp didn’t care as long as Chopper was smiling. “I guess it doesn’t mean quite the same coming from a me...but it’s true I swear.”
Chopper wrapped his arms around his friend in a fierce hug. “It means a lot more coming from you.”
This time it was Usopp’s turn to blush.