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"What!" Pudding exclaimed. "How could you not tell me earlier?" She gawked at her friend.
"I didn't think it was important." Perona took another bite, licking her fork happily. "This is sooo good! Did you make it?"
Pudding looked away shyly. "Yeah, I'm trying a new recipe."
"Ohhh, is it from that guy of yours?" Her friend elbowed her playfully.
"Yeah, he gave me some pointers." She covered her face in embarrassment. It had taken her a while to accept her crush on the man. It didn't even help that he kept on being the nicest and sweetest to her even though she gave him no reason to be. In fact, she used to give him plenty to make him hate her. He never did.
"Wait!" Pudding snapped. "You distracted me! You said your brother's partner worked at the All Blue?!"
"Well, yeah. Why?"
"Um... you see, the guy... my guy works there."
"No way!" Perona jumped at that. "Now who's not telling me things! I could have introduced you to him way earlier, instead of having to do it all on your own." She giggled.
"Don't remind me, I'm cringing just thinking about it." She stopped her train of thought as she remembered. "Actually, can you do me a favor? I mean, can you kind of get one security guard fired? He keeps glaring at me like I'm gonna steal something. And he's so rude!"
Perona hummed. "I'm not sure who you're talking about, but if we go now, we can see if he's there. My brother's partner can cook for us free of charge."
They got to the restaurant and entered. The blue walls, big aquarium that looked like it enveloped every wall and the ship-like decor only added to the magic of the illusion that it was a real restaurant in the middle of the sea. Or maybe even under the sea. It never seemed to amaze Pudding how amazing it looked, even though she was a regular.
The person at the front desk recognized Perona and guided them to a table. When the waiter came over to take their order, Perona refused the menus and just told him: "Tell Sanji a friend and I want whatever he would prepare for us."
The server left with a nod but Pudding kept looking at her friend. "You know Sanji?"
Perona rolled her eyes. "Yeah, obviously."
Well, it only made sense that she would, if her brother-in-law was a cook, of course, they would know her cook.
She shrugged it off.
"Now," Perona said, getting her attention again. "Tell me who's bothering you."
Pudding looked around. After scanning the whole restaurant she frowned. "I can't believe the one time I want to see him, he's not here..."
Perona gave a half-shrug. "We can always come back another time." Before they could start another topic a man interrupted them.
The footsteps came from behind the brunette, so she didn't expect the voice to belong to the man she had come here to see.
"Perona, darling!" Sanji walked over, took the woman's hand, and gave it a light kiss.
A kiss?
A kiss!!!???
"I didn't know you would be coming! And you brought your lovely friend as well!" He turned to look at Pudding, his eye flashing in recognition. His surprise was short-lived. "Oh my! Pudding! Today is full of surprises."
Before the woman could stand up to give him a hug or any type of closer contact, he only shut her down by taking her hand and bowing a bit. Pudding could never get a hug or kiss as a greeting, but she never stopped trying thinking it was about familiarity, and yet there she was. Jealous of her friend for getting her knuckles kissed while she had to settle with a bow. Trying to say something, she just choked on her words, opting to shut up.
"I've started you off with some drinks and simple hors d'oeuvre." He said, putting things on the table that would no doubt cost a small fortune if they had to pay for it. "Then I'll be preparing some sea plateaus for you, hopefully you aren't allergic to anything?"
They said 'no', and with a little more small talk, the man was off.
Once out of eyeshot, Pudding glared at Perona. "You know Sanji?!"
"Uh... yeah. I literally told you."
"No, I mean, how are you so close?" She felt herself getting angry.
Perona laughed and it did nothing to calm Pudding down. "Maybe because I was at his wedding, I mean if it wasn't for me, he'd be getting married to the swamp monster." She took a sip from her cup. "Or like he calls him - seaweed. Though it's kind of sweet because marimos are a national treasure in Japan and he told me that was another reason to call him that."
The brunette's world seemed to start spinning.
"... wedding? Wait... he???"
"Why are you reacting like that? I sent you a bunch of photos. You didn't see them did you..." Perona huffed. "Oh, wait, my brother should be here for lunch, you can finally meet him!" She took out her phone. "I'll call him, he probably got lost."
Perona waited for her call to go through.
From across the room, Pudding saw that ugly and mean man enter the restaurant.
Ugh.
Now that Pudding had the guts to look at him for longer than half a second, she probably misjudged him, he didn't dress like a guard.
She watched him look around with his one open eye. What kind of man had a slash through his eye? What was he, a Disney villain? But then his eye landed on their table. If Pudding's heart had leaped into her throat; by the time he started walking towards them she felt like she could cough it out.
She quickly started tapping Perona's arm to grab her attention.
"Oh my God, he's here!" She whisper-shouted. "And he's walking this way! That's the guy I was talking about!"
Perona looked at the man and looked at her friend again.
"The one who hates me for no reason!" She finished before looking up and seeing the man two steps away from them and glaring at her again.
"This gorilla?" Perona pointed at him with disgust.
"Oi!" He frowned at the pink-haired woman.
Perona only laughed. When she was done, she looked at the man again, "You're such a bully, Zoro! I'm ashamed to be related to you!"
"I haven't done anything." He crossed his arms and furrowed his brows. If he added a "yet" at the end, it was only audible to Pudding and it freaked her out.
As if the day couldn't get any weirder, Sanji came back with their plates. "Mes amies, I'm back with-" he paused to look at the man. His smile faded. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, his entire demeanor changing.
In turn, Zoro relaxed in his seat and a smug smile crawled on his face. "What's wrong with wanting to see the love of my life?"
Sanji, surprisingly to Pudding and to no one else who was there, blushed and started spluttering. Before he could form a coherent sentence, the other man stood up and took the plates off his hands to set them on the table.
"Hey, I've told you not to disrupt the customers!" Sanji finally waved a finger at him but there was no bite behind his words.
Zoro didn't say anything, only brushing a strand of hair behind his ear, drawing attention to the dangling gold erring on the cook. The same as the other two the former had. Zoro used the same hand to cup the other's face and his free one settled on the cook's waist, pulling him closer.
"I've missed you." He said in a low tone.
Pudding was watching this with a slack jaw. Turning to see what she was sure would be a rejection from Sanji, she had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn't seeing anything wrong.
Sanji was leaning in, pressing their foreheads together, smiling at the brutish man like he was the only one in the room.
"We're in the middle of the restaurant, Marimo. People are watching." He whispered.
"Let them watch," Zoro said kissing Sanji's neck, opening his eye to look at Pudding with a self-satisfied glint.
That asshole was marking his territory.
"Alright, alright. Enough." Sanji pushed himself, still too giddy in Pudding's not-so-humble opinion. He turned to the girls again. Perona was watching them with a bored expression, as if this happened every day. And it probably did. "I'm so sorry about this brainless man here. I don't know why I haven't banned him from my restaurant yet."
"Hmmm." Zoro frowned from where he had settled himself behind the cook - arms wrapped around his middle, head laying over his shoulder. If he was a cat, he surely would have been purring.
"Ah, and how did you like that recipe I recommend? Did you try it?" Sanji asked the girl.
"Oh," She was caught a bit off guard. "Yeah, I did." She took out a small box out of her purse. "I brought some for you. Could you tell me what you think?"
"Certainly!" He took a bite and smiled. "Oh, it's great! Maybe you could put in some nutmeg." A hum. He turned to Zoro. "Pudding here is one of the most promising young ladies you'll meet! She's the owner of an amazing bakery down the street."
"Is she now?" Zoro said.
"Oh, don't be rude." Sanji rolled his eyes before looking at the woman again. "Well, I'll be leaving you ladies for a bit, just call the waiter when you're ready for your desserts."
"Okay, thank you, Sanji." Perona smiled.
"And you," he spun to look at Zoro, "come with me."
They watched the two men disappear into the kitchen.
Perona sighed. "You know, sometimes I think he's too good for the idiot brother of mine. I guess he's lucky they love each other so much." She shrugs. "It's nice having someone who appreciates fashion and cute things." She giggled.
"Yeah..." Pudding sighed, her eyes still on the door where they disappeared.
"So, tell me about your boy now! Do you think we can get Sanji to have him come and serve us the dessert?"
Pudding sighed. "No need. I'll get over him."
"What? Why!?"
"I just found out he's married."
Chaos ensued.