"We'll be taking our leave now, Miss Pudding. Or should I say Missus Pudding, hm? Congratulations on your wedding." The Cho-Cop bid his goodbyes.
Pudding thanked him, embarrassed, and thanked him for his diligence.
"Looks like they got rescued." Carrot said, standing a ways back from the mess Luffy and Chopper got themselves into.
"I wonder who that girl is? It was awfully nice of her to do that." Nami wondered aloud.
"Nice? If that bitch is nice then I've never kicked a man in the gonads." Cherry commented.
"What? Didn't you see the same thing we just did? How is she NOT nice?" Nami couldn't believe her.
"I may not be a perfect judge of character, but when I know somebody is off, then I KNOW it." Cherry insisted.
"Like you KNEW that Kanjuro couldn't be trusted? Last I checked, you gave up on your unfounded suspicions regarding HIM." Nami raised an eyebrow.
"I've accepted his presence, yes, but I don't trust him at all. Mark my words, that girl is rotten." Cherry stubbornly held her ground.
Nami rolled her eyes and let it go. It wasn't like Cherry was going to hurt the poor girl just because she was being paranoid.
"Would you care very much to come to my home? I can see you enjoyed my cafe quite a bit, and I'd like a second opinion on some other sweets I've been working on…" Pudding offered Luffy nervously, like she thought he might actually refuse free food.
"Let's go!" Luffy cheered, his body already working off the extra pounds with his inhuman metabolism.
"You don't mind if we come along as well, do you? Our captain is rude at the best of times, so he'll need the chaperoning." Cherry said as she approached, wearing a friendly smile.
"Of course! The more the merrier!" Pudding accepted without hesitation.
'Confidence or arrogance?' Cherry wondered silently. She didn't believe that this Pudding didn't know who they were, so Cherry concluded she either trusted in her own power to resist an attack, or thought that her cute and innocent act was too perfect to see through.
…
"Thanks a bunch for helping us! Your name was Pudding, right?" Luffy laughed, munching down on a chunk of table.
"Not at all! I should be thankful to you, actually…" Pudding fidgeted nervously.
"Huh? What for?" Luffy asked.
"You said that my sweets were too tasty to stop eating!!!" Pudding exclaimed with an embarrassed squeal.
Cherry glanced at Nami and mouthed, 'Nobody is THIS sweet.' Nami shook her head, clearly not ready to accept the obvious truth.
Pudding started to rant about the ingredients and techniques she put into the materials that made her cafe. "Having my hard work complemented like that, I just can't handle it!"
Brook swooned. Cherry suppressed a click of her tongue at how easily her companions were being wrapped around the woman's little finger.
Nami was at least pragmatic, though. "We really should be going, soon. We're in a hurry to get to where we're going, you see."
"Oh dear, so soon? At least let me make you some tea to wash down the sugar." Pudding spun around to do as she said at her kitchenette. "Where are my manners? I didn't ask for your names!"
"I'm Luffy, and I'm going to be king of the pir-" Luffy's standard self introduction was interrupted by Nami wrapping her hand over her mouth.
"Eh? Are you… Monkey D. Luffy?" Pudding asked, pausing her tea making to turn around and look at him properly, her eyes naturally wandering up to his straw hat that was wrapped partially in a scarf. "You're Sanji's companions?!"
"Huh? You know Sanji?" Nami asked.
"Of course I know him, I'm engaged to him!" Pudding looked terribly surprised.
'Too surprised…' Cherry thought.
"You're Big Mom's daughter?! The one that Sanji is supposed to marry?!" Nami was shocked. She spared a glance at Cherry, who looked INCREDIBLY smug.
"Yes, I'm Mama's 35th daughter, actually… But, you aren't affiliated with Mama… How did you get past the tarte checkpoint…?" Pudding started descending into a confused state.
"Excuse me." Cherry raised her hand and waved it a bit to get her attention. "I was invited to the wedding. Harpin D. Cherry."
"Huh? Oh, I think that I do remember your name from the list of guests, now that you mention it…" Pudding seemed to calm down slightly with that. "But, that invitation doesn't extend to the rest of you, else Mama would have invited your captain… Mama will probably kill you if she finds out you came here. She is very fierce and unforgiving…"
Cherry noted genuine fear there. It said a lot about the woman that one of her own children would be so afraid of her. She even felt a pang of guilt before pushing it back down. She chastised herself, 'Pudding is an enemy! Don't pity the enemy or she'll stick a knife in your back!'
Not that a knife in Cherry's back would mean anything. Her friends weren't so stab proof, though.
"Where's Sanji!" Luffy slammed his hands on the table in his overexcitement.
Pudding flinched ('Very convincing, but you can't fool me!' Cherry thought) and Nami slapped him upside the head. "Don't scare her, idiot!"
"I see. You must have come to take Sanji back with you, then. I should have known that he didn't consent to the marriage, that's just like Mama…" Pudding spoke wistfully. "Our marriage partners are all decided for us, arranged to strengthen the crew with new and powerful allies. Our only real choice is whether to submit to our fate, or risk everything to run away in the most dangerous sea in the world like my beloved elder sister, who went to find her own husband."
"Excuse me, you said you were Big Mom's 35th daughter? Does she really have 35 children?" Brook asked.
"Oh no," Pudding denied, Brook nodded. Thirty five children was a bit much after all. Pudding continued, "Mama has 39 daughters and 46 sons, for a total of 85 children."
*Psssh* Brook did a spit take.
"Have you met Sanji yet?" Chopper asked.
"Oh, yes…" Pudding fidgeted nervously, as she was wont to do since they'd met her. Pudding went on to list out a great many things that she admired about Sanji, from his cooking skills to his good looks to his polite demeanor.
"Are… Are you in love with him?" Nami seemed to be genuinely shocked at that.
"Huh?! L-l-love?! It's just Mama's decision, but maybe if we were to be married I could…" Pudding was spiraling.
Cherry suppressed the urge to scowl. How dare this little snake pretend to care about him?!
"We should tie her up." Pedro suggested out of nowhere.
"What the hell, Pedro?! We're not going to tie her up!" Nami rejected vehemently.
"She'll tell Big Mom that we're here. As she herself said, only Cherry was invited; and Big Mom doesn't do forgiveness and mercy." Pedro laid out. "She'll either report us because she's loyal, or because she's afraid."
Pudding looked sad at that, almost making puppy dog eyes at them and seeming like the most helpless, pitiful girl in the world.
"Sanji is a wonderful person…" Pudding said. "... but I can still let go of him. Whomever Mama arranges for me to be wed to next, I'm sure I can get along with them too."
"You know, Sanji actually said to me 'I would love to marry you, but I have to get back to my crew.' I can admit that it hurt more than I would have thought." Pudding said, tears brimming in her eyes.
The crew were astonished and touched that Sanji would choose them over such a cutie. Except Cherry, who didn't miss how Pudding steered the conversation away from tying her up. Classic manipulation.