𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧

───── IF ENIYA HADN'T WALKED THROUGH THE DOUBLE DOORS HERSELF, she would have never believed her eyes.

The inside of the Baratie was shockingly well decorated. Dark wood bannisters, red velvet everywhere she looked, and black and white marble floors with a swirly, golden B in the center of the dining area. She took everything in with raised brows, whistling low under the jazzy, upbeat tune of the live band.

"Now I feel underdressed," Nami muttered, pulling anxiously at the short sleeve of her crop top.

"Oh, shut up," Eniya said with no real venom, "You look great."

It was partially self-soothing. If Nami was underdressed, then so was Eniya, who wore nothing more than a borrowed red sundress and a cropped jacket to hide the bandages still wrapped around her arm.

"You dress like you're going to a funeral," Nami's glare had been scathing as she dumped the contents of her bag on the ground and began rummaging. How she managed to fit so much clothes into such a small space, Eniya didn't know. She couldn't help but be amazed, even as Nami continued, "Or a circus. Would it kill you to wear a color?"

"But I did come from a circus," Eniya pointed out, though she caught the clothing when it was thrown at her, "And the darker the material, the better they hid the bloodstains."

"Then don't make bloodstains!" Nami hissed. "If we're getting dinner when our coffers are coughing up dust bunnies, we're at least going to look as sensible and as not shady as possible."

The statement had seemed odd to her then, but now, observing the interior, she realized what Nami had been getting at.

They were going to end up dining and dashing.

Eniya didn't have enough to cover an inn stay, and Nami was incredibly stingy—she didn't want to deal with the interest rates that would come with her picking up the tab. Zoro was broke, and Luffy—the not-pirate-pirate that he was—didn't even have dust bunnies to his name, as Nami had so graciously put it. Usopp was the one with the most money out of all of them, having been the only one with an actual job, but she couldn't imagine Luffy would actually let him pick up the tab.

It was his first trip out with the rest of the crew, and their captain was nothing if not sentimental.

The host—a fish-man with light pink skin and spines—stopped them at the door. "Welcome to Baratie. How can I help you?"

"Hi!" Luffy grinned, "Where do we eat?"

The host's skin wrinkled, the ridges where eyebrows should have been raising. "Do you have a reservation, sir?"

Nami and Eniya shared a look as Luffy hesitated. He rocked back on his feet and tapped his chin. "Do we need one?"

The fish man's smile twitched. "We're very full today. But I could put you on the waiting list, it's only three weeks out."