351 Second Favorite

"If I take those sea stone manacles off of you, are you going to run off and blab about Bege's plot against Big Mom?" Cherry asked, as she landed on the shore of Whole Cake Island, the Fire Tank Pirates' ship far behind them.

"Yes." Pekoms said.

"Well, don't do that?" Cherry suggested.

"He just tried to kill us! Why are you protecting him, Gao?!" Pekoms cried out in disbelief.

"We both know he doesn't stand a chance against Big Mom. What his poor decision making WILL do though, is provide a useful distraction for my crew to retrieve Sanji. The timing of this is unlikely to be a coincidence with the wedding coming up, by my reckoning." Cherry explained.

Pekoms was clearly conflicted over that. He was willing to help the Straw Hats reclaim their crewmate to repay his debt to them, but actively ignoring a threat to his former crew was pushing it a bit.

"You don't have any idea what their plan is though, do you? It'll be easier if we know what they're doing so we can work around them." Cherry asked.

"No, he wouldn't tell me because I refused to help him." Pekoms said.

"Should have just lied to his face, silly goose. You're a pirate, don't act all high and mighty like you're better than the rest of us." Cherry shrugged.

"I have my own honor to uphold. I'll not give it up over something so paltry as my life." Pekoms said.

"In any case, since I can't trust you not to go wagging your tongue to anyone who'll listen, I need to take some precautions." Cherry said.

"What precaut- MMFFMFMFMF?!" Pekoms' mouth was muzzled shut with solid steel such that he couldn't open it even a little bit.

Next Cherry wrapped his head up with cloth to cover his features and altered the coloring of his clothes so that he wouldn't be recognized. Cherry added little straps to his back, then hoisted him up onto her own back like a backpack.

"Just be glad you aren't upside down." Cherry assuaged him as he continued to squirm, testing the limits of her restraints to no avail.

Cherry walked inland towards a city that she saw from the air in the light of the sunset. Soon enough, she reached the outskirts of the city and found that the people living there were quite active for the time of day. The reason for this became apparent as she went further in.

"Hey, what's up with all the damage here? Did a giant go on a rampage or something?" Cherry asked a man in construction wear and smoking a pipe, possibly on break from repairing the damaged buildings.

"Hm? Are you new around here?" the worker asked, casting a wary glance towards Pekoms before returning his gaze to Cherry.

"I was invited to the wedding. It's my first tea party, I'm really~ excited!" Cherry laid it on thick with false enthusiasm.

"I see!" The worker relaxed somewhat. An enemy of Big Mom wouldn't just waltz into the city like she owned the place, would she? "No, there was no giant attack. Big Mom's hunger pangs kicked up a fuss when she got a craving for something we didn't have immediately on hand. This happens from time to time so we're used to it; but it's a real shame what happened to Moscato, though. Brave man."

Cherry furrowed her brows. "What happened to Moscato?"

"He stood up to Big Mom, slowed her down to buy some time. Got his own time taken from him as the price. Doctors say he's still alive, but who knows how much of his lifespan they managed to recover." The worker sighed sorrowfully and put away his pipe. "I have to get back to work. The city won't fix itself! Have fun at the wedding; I hear it'll be the best one yet!"

"I see, so that's what is going on with the taking furniture and what not." Cherry spoke to herself.

She had thought it was strange for ordinarily inanimate objects to have life forces of their own. She surmised that Big Mom's devil fruit allowed her to excise that life force and grant them to the objects, along with some of the spiritual energy of their souls to grant intelligence.

"MmMFfmf" Pekoms mumbled unintelligibly.

"You're right! I am a bit hungry, we should get some food!" Cherry agreed.

That wasn't what Pekoms tried to say, , but he couldn't exactly expect Cherry to understand in his current state. Little did he know that Cherry understood him perfectly and pretended not to because she thought it was funny.

"MfmMFMFmmf" Pekoms rolled his beady eyes.

"Really? I could go for some seafood. The west side of town you said?" Cherry started walking.

"MfmmfmF?!?!?!" Pekoms cursed at her.

"You want the catfish? Odd choice." Cherry hummed.

Pekoms decided not to bother with her anymore.

Swiftly enough, they arrived at a rather nice looking seafood restaurant of Pekoms' recommendation. Strolling inside, the restaurant was fortunately not very busy. Or perhaps unfortunately given the reason people were otherwise occupied.

"Name?" the host in a fish themed uniform asked without looking up.

"I'm meeting someone here. Oh, there she is!" Cherry said, blowing past him as he tried to stop her.

Upon seeing which table Cherry was bee-lining for, he very reasonably decided against chasing after her any further. The tall, lanky, witch-like form of Charlotte Brulee hunched over a menu in contemplation could be seen sitting there, and she was NOT a woman you wanted to annoy. The host pretended he didn't see anything and went back to his place at the front of the restaurant.

Brulee didn't go out in public very often if she could help it, but Katakuri had recommended it to her. It was just a shame that he was too busy to come with her. Perhaps another time.

*scrape*

The sound of a chair being roughly dragged back from the table she was sitting at drew her attention. She opened her mouth to berate whomever was foolish enough to act so rudely towards her, when she froze.

"Hey beautiful, long time no see~!" Cherry chuckled at the shocked look on her face. "You don't mind if we join you, do you? Great."

Cherry plopped Pekoms down in the seat and took another for herself between Pekoms and Brulee. Cherry snapped her fingers urgently, "Hey! Can I get a menu over here?! What dreadful service…"

"W-w-what are you doing here?!" Brulee managed to stutter out, caught between fear and anger. It was one thing when she had her older brother, Katakuri, by her side to protect her, but being so close to this woman without him was nerve wracking to say the least.

"To enjoy a nice dinner with my second favorite member of the Charlotte family of course~!" Cherry smiled sweetly. Brulee had far too much experience with 'sweet' smiles to trust it in the slightest.

"I don't want to have dinner with you." Brulee stated bluntly, getting her nerve back as she calmed down and realized she was in the heart of her family's territory. "Wait, second favorite?"

"Katakuri is number one in my heart, of course~! Wouldn't you agree with the sentiment?" Cherry asked.

"Of course he is!" Brulee answered naturally. "Wait, are you saying you fell in-"

"Here's your menu, madam." a waiter dropped off a menu for Cherry as well as some glasses of water, interrupting Brulee. He earned a nasty glare from that and let out a panicked "Eep!" before scurrying away.

"It seemed like the perfect chance, you know? I was invited to the wedding, so I figured I'd go ahead and propose to my favorite snaggle-toothed hunk."

"Pbbbt!!!" Brulee spat water all over poor Pekoms in shock at her words.