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“Finally,” Helmeppo sighed, eagerly walking down the shiny streets of the new city they had arrived at. “A place with class.”
“Don’t be like that, Meppo,” Koby jabbed, lightly elbowing Helmeppo in the ribs. “That farm town we went through was great!”
“I did not need to know how cheese was made,” Helmeppo said darkly. “I’m never getting that out of my head.”
Garp laughed, overhearing their conversation, and slammed his hands on the two men’s shoulders. “The worst part is, if the goat’s pissin’ in the buckets, that’s probably the best cheese you’ll ever eat!”
Helmeppo shuddered, and even Koby’s cheery demeanor was not pleased by that word combination.
Garp left the two, most likely to talk to some important guy that were so classified Helmeppo and Koby would be shot on sight for even making eye contact with him.
“So, Koby, want to go find a cafe or something?” Helmeppo asked, desperate to change the topic to literally anything else.
Koby grinned and eagerly cleaned his glasses. “Sure! You’ll have to pick the place, though, I can’t beat your tastes.”
“You’ll learn,” Helmeppo mumbled. He turned away from Koby so the younger man wouldn’t see how flustered he was.
He focused on navigating the bustling city, examining the nearby menus for price but also quality. He wasn’t much of a cook, but he knew how to be a snob about food. Ingredients that were local to the area was key, none of that marine-marketed crap that advertised comfort foods.
He just needed to make sure he didn’t get strung by Garp for dumping a month’s marine’s pay on a single night. Again.
The last time him and Koby had explored the city, they found this fishing boat that sold sweet and spicy fish curry, and it had been divine. Koby had enthused about it for days, and Helmeppo couldn’t help but beam with pride in turn.
Koby’s approval was freely given, he was kind to everyone, even assholes like Helmeppo, but there was a special kind of attention that Koby could give when he was starry-eyed. It was warm and inviting and everything Helmeppo didn’t know he wanted.
How Koby somehow managed to be so sweet and not sound pathetic was a magic trick. It had to be his looks, the way his eyes sparkled in excitement when he was happy, the scar on his forehead that somehow framed his face like it had been on purpose--even those dorky purple glasses were insidiously adorable when he put them on his face to read.
Today, however, Helmeppo intended to outdo himself. He knew Koby’s tastes well by this point, and he had a special trick in plan. Koby wasn’t a fan of coffee, but Helmeppo knew coffee well, and if he could find a coffee Koby liked, then he’d really show his skill with this. Koby disliked coffee in its purest form, bitter and hot.
Which was… adorable, it was adorable. This guy who could kick the ass of almost any adult he came across and when he drank coffee he spat it out like a child it was so annoying and so cute and why was it cute ?
In this city, Helmeppo had noticed the designer coffee shops, essentially milkshakes with coffe flavoring. It was a cheat, but he knew it would blow Koby’s mind.
He settled on a cafe in a poorer part of the city, but just on the edge of a nearby road filled with fancy jewelry stores and other shopping districts.
“Lets try here,” Helmeppo said, pretending he had not spent the past few days pouring over all the reports from previous marines to see if there was any research he could glean for a good restaurant.
Koby bounced eagerly from foot to foot. “I’m so excited, you know this is the highlight of every trip we make? I can’t wait to try it out!”
Helmeppo grinned and found himself unable to stop. He hurried in to procure a table, one isolated from the noise. And maybe the spot would be a bit romantic? Helmeppo had good tastes. He knew a good aesthetic. Koby would appreciate that sort of thing.
And as it turned out, luck was on his side. The cafe had a small roof patio, and on this slow day, no one was sitting up there. It would just be him and Koby, enjoying the breeze and the coffee.
He furiously adjusted his sunglasses, took a deep breath, and returned to fetch Koby.
His heart sank when he saw him.
Koby was eagerly holding a wanted poster, giving his most passionate starry-eyed look of enthusiasm to it.
“Kobes?” Helmeppo asked weakly.
“Oh, sorry! I got distracted--check it out!” Koby whipped the wanted poster in front of him. “Luffy’s bounty got raised!”
“Wow. That’s a lot of crimes,” Helmeppo replied without enjoyment. “Got us a table.”
“He was in the newspaper too, did you notice that?” Koby gushed, ecstatically waving his hands. “He took down Doflamingo! That’s huge!”
“I guess.”
Koby launched into his usual happy babbles, of which Helmeppo forced a grin and tiredly escorted him to the private table he had managed to get.
It was everything he wanted. Koby practically glowing in the morning air, joy seeping in at every edge, all directed at Helmeppo, like it was a private show.
A waiter hurried over, all too eager to please.
“Wonderful to see you two! Is this the full party, or is there more?”
“Just us,” Koby said.
“There’s three of us,” Helmeppo answered at the same time.
Koby stared at Helmeppo, furrowing his brow at him silently.
“Two. Just the two, I mean. Obviously two,” Helmeppo corrected himself. “Three would be ridiculous. Of course there’s two of us.”
The waiter poured them some water and left them to their ordering, and Koby resumed the conversation, effortlessly speculating on what Luffy was doing right now.
Yup.
Just the two of them.