"What do you AN you don't have any reservations available for today?! Do you have any idea who I am?!" a den den mushi with a pompous and very punchable face shouted in the face of a large upper bodied man with a goatee.
"My sincere apologies, dear custor!" the man by the na of Patty replied, wearing a servile smile on his face. "We have dinner reservations available tomorrow at our best table and we'll have our best wine waiting for you, if that would appease your sensibilities?" "Fine, but I had better get a discount!" *clack* the angry custor on the other side hung up.
Patty's eye twitched. That bastard wanted a discount when he was getting the best service from the world's most professional chef?
Well, that was an easy enough problem to solve. He just had to give the valued custor the Baratie's 'special' nu with adjusted (increased) pricing, then give a small discount from there. The key to custor satisfaction was blissful ignorance!
Patty went back to his work and completely missed the ghostly white fla trickling out of the den den mushi and disappearing into the walls.
Cherry's form took shape on the small built-in dock of the Baratie, spooking a well-dressed and handso man with a beautiful woman on each arm to the point of squealing. "G-g-g- g-g-ghost?!?!?!"
The pretty boy fell backwards onto his butt and scrambled along the dock to his yacht with tears and snot spilling down his face. The two won who were with him were so dumbfounded by the pretty boy's overreaction that they forgot to have a reaction for themselves.
Cherry ignored the fool and walked into the restaurant.
"Hmm, this is a pretty nice place. I had a completely different image of it in my head, considering that it's run by a forr pirate," Cherry muttered as she took in the place properly.
"We don't really advertise that fact. It's sothing of an open secret," an older goldfish fishman in a fancy restaurant host's uniform smiled politely at her from behind a lectern with a reservation book on it. By the looks of him, Cherry would guess he was half human, probably. "May I ask if you have a reservation?"
"No reservation. That isn't a problem, is it?" Cherry asked. She reckoned she could try the food since she was here; see what kind of place Sanji grew up in with her own eyes.
"No problem at all, but it does an we will have to sit you at a regular table," the host said.
"Sure. I don't want to sit near a bunch of stuffy pricks anyways," Cherry frowned as she spotted the personification of those words from across the room.
"Very good," the host said, leading Cherry to a small table relatively close to the kitchen door.
"I'll give you so ti to-" the host said as he laid a nu on the table. Cherry interrupted him, "No need. Bring one of everything."
"Yes," the host said without missing a beat. "Would you like your al all at once or served in courses?"
"In courses is fine," Cherry said, waving the man away.
The host scurried into the kitchen, probably to inform the chefs about the atypical order rather than blindside them with a regular order ticket. He ca back out shortly, bow lightly towards Cherry, before returning to his duties. Not that he had all that much to do. The restaurant was busy, but custors tended to co in batches aboard ships for a floating establishnt like this.
Cherry was mildly surprised that she hadn't been recognised yet. Then again, she supposed that not everyone scoured the bounty posters that ca with every issue of the World Economy News.
The first course ca quickly. Plenty of dishes like soups, salads, and appetizers were just waiting to be served really, so that made sense. It was the sycophant she saw talking to a custor on the den den mushi as she slipped through.
"My dear scallywag, I do hope you have the money to pay for the food you've ordered... Hm?" Patty's face shifted from his impression of a professional smile into what was almost a scowl. "Aren't you one of Sanji's little friends?"
"I sure am! Do I get a friend's discount or sothing?" Cherry asked with a sweet smile.
"Sanji doesn't work here anymore, so no discount. Can you pay or not?" Patty sat down the salad and bowl of soup in his hands, then crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her.
Cherry placed a small gold bar on the table. Patty snatched it up, bit it to check if it was real, slid it into his apron pocket, and returned to his wide toothy smile in record ti. Cherry wasn't sure that even Nami could whisk away money that quickly.
"Sanji's pals are always welco at the Baratie! Er..." Patty scratched the back of his head as his eyes road as if in search of sothing in his brain. "What was your na again?"
"Harpin D. Cherry," Cherry found it pretty amusing to watch this man's roller coaster of expressions.
"Yeah, that rings a bell. Have at it, then," Patty disappeared back into the kitchen without another word.
Cherry spent the next hour or so tearing through dishes like it was a competition, and sohow managing to maintain her table manners at the sa ti. Patty was given quite the workout, rushing back and forth to bring new als and return with emptied dishes. He cursed their nu for having far too many options.
The final dessert, a delectable banana pudding, wasn't brought out by Patty, but rather by the head chef; Zeff himself.
"You have quite the appetite for a woman your size," Zeff comnted casually.
He hadn't really believed she could finish all the food. He thought that she planned to sample them all whilst leaving most of it uneaten, sothing he knew that Sanji wouldn't be agreeable to, even if she was pretty. He was surprised to find that every plate brought back to the kitchen to be cleaned was devoid of even the tiniest morsel.
"You learn how to pack it away when you get to eat Sanji's cooking everyday. You learn how to do it quickly when you have Luffy trying to sneak it away from you," Cherry said.
She consud the banana pudding with such haste, you might think it was the first thing she had eaten in a month rather than the tail end of an eighty course al. Zeff watched as a mysterious power gathered the last remnants of the pudding into her spoon before she popped it into her smiling mouth with a hum of pleasure. He felt a bit silly for imagining that she licked the plates clean, before.
"Is that so?" Zeff smiled. "Why are you all the way in East Blue, though? It's a long way to co from the second half of the Grand Line."
"It isn't that long a way for . I just ca to make sure there weren't any Big Mom pirates skulking about after a recent tussle we had with them," Cherry said, patting her stomach with
a sigh.
Zeff looked around quickly, making sure nobody else heard that. "You lot are already poking around the lairs of those old monsters?"
"Hehehe, sure that's one way to put it~" Cherry chuckled, knowing what was likely to be in the newspaper in a few days.
Zeff wasn't sure if he wanted to know.
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