A Deal After Dinner

Cherry was like a ravenous, starving beast in the way that she devoured the feast on the table. She even took a page out of Luffy's book and snatched things from Tesoro's plate.

If this annoyed him, he didn't let it show on his face, maintaining an easy going smile the entire time and kept the food coming when she showed no signs of slowing even as the original food was becoming scarce.

"Phew~! That's good stuff… Not as good as Sanji's cooking though; even without the aftertaste of cigarette smoke." Cherry patted her tummy to illustrate her satisfaction.

"Perhaps we can talk business now, then." Tesoro spoke slowly, swirling a glass of champagne with gold leaf flakes in it.

"Ohoho? Are you getting to the point now~?" Cherry asked. She held up a hand to stop him from speaking and said, "One moment."

Cherry grabbed an empty champagne glass and made an exaggerated snorting sound like she was about to spit a ball of phlegm. "Pthu!"

What she spat into the glass was most certainly not phlegm, though. It was a goopy mass of black and purple that Tesoro couldn't identify, though it did still disgust him.

"You're welcome." Cherry said, dumbfounding him.

"What?" Tesoro couldn't help but ask. Many questions were raised by that single word and he couldn't pick which to ask first.

"Never had someone try to poison you before? I figure you weren't trying to off me since you almost ate some of it yourself a couple of times. Real nasty stuff, that. Good thing I've got my fusion fruit powers to unfuse it from myself. Again, you're welcome~" Cherry smiled joyfully.

Tesoro digested those words before his face went pale, followed soon after by his face going RED with veins bulging from his forehead. Cherry thought that his teeth might shatter from how tight he was clenching them, with no small amount of amusement.

"Huuuu…" The rage seemed to slip away alongside the breath he let out after a few moments. No doubt he was still pissed as hell, but acting on that rage would be a tactical error that might give an opening to his enemies. A valuable skill to have for a leader of the underworld.

"Back to business~!" Cherry declared. "I know what you want, you can't fool me~!"

Tesoro remembered his current goal and shelved the poison issue for the moment. "You do, do you?"

"Mhm~! There's only one thing a man of your means could want from little ol' me~" Cherry nodded sagely. "So? Who is it~?"

Tesoro didn't have any idea what she meant by that exactly, so he decided to probe for information. "Before I tell you, I need a demonstration; to prove you can really do it. I don't trust rumors at their face value."

"My my my~! It's not so easy, you know~? It's not cheap either~" Cherry singsonged, leaning on her hands with her elbows on the table. "If you tell me who broke the contract and told you about me, though, then I'll give you a discount~"

Tesoro cursed inwardly. She hadn't let anything slip with that. Whatever she was referring to clearly wasn't public knowledge,a dn could definitely earn him even more money! He needed to know!

"My sources are confidential, and those of us who rule the underworld don't give anything away for free. Well, except that bastard Morgans…" Tesoro said.

Cherry's crescent moon eyes opened wide and went cold whilst her lazy grin remained, creating an eerie contrast that sent a shiver down Tesoro's spine. "Morgans? Was it him then? I knew I shouldn't have brought that loose-lipped flying rat's mother back…"

Tesoro silently celebrated on getting something, picking apart her words. 'Brought his mother back? Was his mother locked up or held hostage or something?'

Tesoro's wandering mind came across a nearly forgotten factoid he'd learned about the newspaper mogul in passing a number of years prior at a party.

"That Morgans has gotten even more obsessed with his rag of a paper since his mother died…" Giberson had told him.

Tesoro locked eyes with Cherry whose own stare still bored into his skull, searching for confirmation.

"How… How long can they have been gone… for you to bring them back?" Tesoro stuttered.

Cherry lost her smile and her eyes lost some of the madness in them as she looked up, as if she was calculating something. The madness returned to her eyes as she almost literally smiled ear to ear. "Depends on how much you're willing to pay~!"

…

Zoro was bored. Initially, having been frozen in this modern art statue made of gold reminded him of the day he met Luffy; which was nice in its own way, but that nostalgia gave way to boredom again pretty quickly.

He wasn't afraid, of course. He was certain he'd be out of this predicament soon enough even if they didn't have allies or a monster like Cherry to help, let alone WITH those people.

That Gild Tesoro guy came by to taunt him once, which reminded him of that twirp son of the marine commander with the axe for a hand. The arrogant dumbass thought his confidence was just bravado.

The door to the room opened and two people walked in. Neither of which individually surprised him, but coming in together certainly did.

"There's my poor baby boy~!" Cherry skipped over to him, took his head in her hands, and planted a kiss on his forehead before ruffling his hair.

"Cut it out!" Zoro complained loudly. "Did you make a deal with that punk or something for my release?"

Tesoro chuckled. "No. You're 'friend' here came to say goodbye. As I know very well, everyone has a price. You're still on the hook unless your crew comes up with the 300 million you owe me."

Cherry pinched his cheeks. "Sorry Zoro, but you know me~! Being a pirate doesn't pay as well as I'd hoped, and Tesoro-sama offered me more than I ever dreamed of earning~!"

Zoro growled. "You traitorous whore!"

*slap*

"Shut your mouth, filth! Just because I slept with you once, doesn't put you on my level!" Cherry shot back.

Zoro tried to spit in her face, only to get a mean uppercut to the jaw. His head lolled about, threatening to fall unconscious from the well placed blow.

"Hmph! After everything I've done for you freaks! You ought to be grateful I ever set foot on your stupid ship!" Cherry stormed off. Tesoro followed after her laughing maniacally at the cold attitude she took with her former crewmate.

The door closed softly despite being slammed shut, a testament to its high quality.

Zoro's half closed eyes stopped rolling around and darted around the room, making sure he was truly alone again. His tongue fiddled with the razor blade that was now in his mouth. It wasn't much, but the wiggle room he had in his gold restraints combined with even such a tiny blade should be more than enough.

'Could have done a little more, though, couldn't you?' Zoro thought bitterly. Then again, he knew Cherry wasn't the type to hold their hands in desperate circumstances, something he was ultimately grateful for given his dream of reaching the height of swordsmanship.