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Date & Time: Aug 11th, afternoon
Location: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaall around
Characters: Lucy Heartfilia and Sanji
Summary: Lucy promised to show Sanji around in and outside the city.
Warnings: Yeah right :I

Another day, and still her friend was missing. But she was determined not to let it dampen her day. She had promised a newcomer a tour - or at least to look him to the market and outside of the city. Thus, after stepping out of her apartment, she went to meet Sanji outside the Initiative building in order to show him around. In fact, she even sent him a quick message to let him know she was there.

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Sanji was still getting settled in, figuring out where important people were and how much of his crew was around, but in between, he was more than excited to get out and have a cute girl show him the farmer's market and the other opportunities to score his own cooking supplies. Adventures in food-gathering were always up his alley, even more so when a lady was coming along with him.

He trotted down to the meeting spot on time, raising a hand and waving enthusiastically when he saw the same pretty face that had been on his device yesterday. "Miss Lucy! Hiiii~!"

Lucy glanced up at the call of her name, smiling and waving back. "Ah, hi Sanji!" Such a cheerful looking fellow too.

"Are you ready? I thought we could go to the Farmer's Market first. Is there anything you're interested in seeing first? Or any kind of ingredients?"

He sashayed up to her, as suave as could be, and tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. "As ready as I can be. I'm most interested to see what kind of variety there is, especially vegetables and herbs. Though, I need to find out what's rare and what's not, what's expensive and what to conserve." You could take the cook off the ship, but that didn't change Sanji's instincts. If he was going to maintain his duty of keeping Luffy fed, he expected quite a challenge in this world. "So, a general tour will do. It's all research."

Suave. Hooboy. Well that was all right, she was used to it from .. she shook her head a little, "Well, going to the Farmer's Market is really a matter of luck and chance half the time.. You almost never see the same thing in there twice. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to find fruit, or peppers and bags of rice and wild carrots. Fresh water might be a little harder to come by though."

She smiled in any case, beckoning with a hand, "It's not far from here, luckily. The market, I mean."

Sanji fell into step alongside her, mulling over the information. "Fresh water is that much of a problem? I know a few ways around that, but that depends on a lot of things." After all, what sea-faring cook didn't know how to distill drinking water from the ocean? "This is all pretty important, so I'll take care to pay close attention."

He said it flirtatiously, but he honestly meant it. Already, his mind was racing ahead to all the possibilities, the worst-case scenarios and what he could do to keep people from starving or becoming malnourished. If he did nothing else to cooperate with the situation, he could manage that.

"Well, it's not as accessible as it would be back home. Well - actually I don't know what your world is like, really. I never had a chance to ask Luffy; I met him when he first arrived, and after that I was injured so.." WELL anyway.

"Turn right here," she added for direction, "The Farmers Market is just ahead, do you see it?" She point-pointed ahead of her, blushing slightly at the flirting tone. She'd have to be on her guard around this one! "You can usually find just enough food to get by, sometimes more if you look carefully. I found these really strangely shaped peppers that were pretty hot. I brought some here to the market once, but I haven't seen any here since. I might have to go out to find some soon."

Sanji's attention was arrested by the sight of the market ahead. Just what he was hoping for. "Ah! Great, that's not too far at all. Do you mind if we take a stroll through it to browse? I'd like to get a feel for it, even if I'm not buying today."

He stayed beside Lucy, though, not rushing ahead no matter how eager he was to see what his options might be. "So, then, does that mean if you go out foraging and find wild plants, they'll take those to sell - not just farmed produce? Interesting." And another good reason to go exploring outside the city - not to mention a potential way for a chef to get a little extra pocket money.

"Not at all!" Lucy grinned, "You're really into these ingredients and things, huh? Do you like cooking that much?" Absently her hand drifted to the keypouch at her side, reassuring herself it was still there. Save one key, anyway.

She appreciated that he didn't just tear off ahead of her though, but she could tell he was antsy to get to the goods. "Well, some things are too rare to be found. Strawberries especially, you almost never see those.. and the things you find sometimes aren't the best qualify," she pauses to pick up a sad looking carrot that looked like it was on its final days, for example, "But you kind of have to make do with what's here. The natives used to appreciate when people brought food and wild herbs to the market for trade or sale, but - they kind of resent our being here, lately. They'll still take what we can find, but I don't think they pay as much as they should."

"Like it?" Sanji grinned even more widely. "My dear, I'm the ship's cook. I've been cooking most of my life, you could say it's my very life's calling." It occurred to him, then, that Luffy might not have explained things completely if she spoke to him - naturally. "Oh, well, it's not the only thing I do aboard our ship, but it's my main job."

His eyes followed her indications, as he took in everything she explained to him. Those poor carrots. "Making do is what I'm used to. It's up to me to stretch supplies to make them work, to make sure no one goes hungry. Even the saddest little carrot can bring flavor and nutrients to a meal, in the hands of a first-class chef." He caught the stall owner eyeballing him, as if to prove what Lucy was saying about resentment, and matched it with a droll look of his own before moving on. "But if that's the case, maybe it's better to gather for ourselves, and keep some stores so that if things get tight in the off-seasons, we still have enough."

Lucy smiled, watching Sanji as he talked about cooking. It's true, Luffy didn't explain things. They didn't have much of a chance to talk long about his crew, alas, but Lucy hoped to rectify that. He reminded her of Natsu! "I didn't realize that it meant so much to you. It must be your dream to be able to cook for your crew like that- " Although there was no ship here.

Poor little carrots indeed. "There are a lot of people in your crew, right?" At least judging from the picture Luffy showed her. "It must be difficult stretching supplies over so many." She grinned again, absently thought, marveling. "I think a lot of people could appreciate that way of thinking, instead of wasting food that could still be used somehow." She paused at the look the stall owner was giving Sanji, and then the look Sanji gave him in return, before she reached up to gently tug on his elbow to move him along. Nevermind the stuck up stall man, Sanji~!

"They're not all like that, but they blame us transports for the things that happened, LIke with the United Earth bombed the city." She frowned slightly at that, leading the way through the market, but taking slow steps so the chef could take in all he needed to see before moving on again. "You're right, it is a better idea to preserve food here when it's hard to find food elsewhere. Or, if the people here decide to try to refuse to sell food to select people here."

She's silent a moment, musing. "You know, if you'd like to have somewhere to keep cooking, I know of a place that could use a first class chef."

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