Saving Me, Saving You | Sanji

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Now

Kodie wasn't kidding when he said the real fun started after dinner. Once Reyna said her goodbyes to Sanji, rather reluctantly she might add, the woman made her way back to where her evening began. Only this time, there were many more people mingling around the bar, tables, and plush couches scattered around the fish head. Reyna reclaimed her barstool, a sight Kodie was excited to see and he quickly poured her a glass of Umeshu.

"How was your meal?" he asked, once there was a break between serving customers. "As good as you imagined it would be?"

"Better," Reyna grinned. "Makes me glad to have gone through with purchasing my ticket on the Mercy. The meal alone sealed the deal, and I haven't even gotten to North Blue yet."

"I'm glad we've lived up to our reputation," Kodie said. "Any run-ins with Baratie's biggest flirt?"

"If you're talking about Sanji, then yes. We may have had a conversation or two," Reyna felt the beginnings of a blush dust her cheeks. But it could very well have been all the alcohol in her system. She did consume a lot over the last couple of hours.

"Zeff must have kicked him out again," Kodie tutted. "I've always told Sanji he has plenty of potential and he shouldn't waste it in this place."

"Oh, really?" Reyna turned her head to the side. "Does Sanji get kicked out of the kitchen often?"

"Not as often as you'd think, but every now and then Sanji's head gets too big and Zeff ends up kicking him off the line," Kodie explained.

"Hmm," Reyna thought, slowly sipping the Umeshu. "He must be a decent cook then."

"That's putting it lightly."

"Let me get your second-best bottle of rum," the red-headed woman from the restaurant asked Kodie, slipping in between Reyna and another male customer.

"Anything else?" Kodie asked, putting a bottle of liquor in front of the woman.

"Yeah," she looked over her shoulder, glancing at the couch she'd just come from. "If I wanted to secure passage to the Conomi Islands, who would I talk to?"

"Oh, that would be me," an older gentleman in a vibrant, tropical button-up announced, joining them at the bar. "It'll cost you. Six thousand."

"I have Berry," the woman insisted.

"Need room for your friends?"

"No, just me."

Reyna's eyes widened at the brusque response as they stayed focused on Kodie as the conversation unfolded beside her. The bartender looked just as surprised. But then again, who didn't love a good bit of bar gossip?

"I'm at Slip 22," the man told Red. "Be ready to sail at dawn."

The man left without another word, leaving the red-haired woman alone once again. Her fingers played with the neck of the bottle, suggesting an internal battle inside her head.

"Trouble with your crew?" Reyna mentally kicked herself for not sticking to her own business.

"We aren't a crew," Red's response was short and laced with malice.

"Could have fooled me," Reyna slid her glass back to Kodie for a refill. What number was this? Seven or eight? Oh well. "Weren't there four of you? What happened to the one in the straw hat?"

"Keeping tabs on us?" Red eyed Reyna before answering. "He got stuck with dish duty."

"He works here, too?" Reyna asked.