The party was a blast. That was the only word I know that could describe it. It was loud, colorful, and totally awesome. There were all-you-can eat contests (though the only person who ever won them was Lucy, because of her rubber powers. Also because of those rubber powers, she was banned from future all-you-can-eat contests on Conomi Island. The cooks simply couldn't keep up with her bottomless pit of a stomach.), all-you-can-drink contests, pretty much every contest you could think of. There were the average carnival games, like the ring toss, bobbing for apples, fish cup, and more.
Zoro, that moron, wasn't able to participate until about the end of the second day. He'd gotten too injured due to his fight with both Mihawk and Hatchi, and the village doctor wouldn't allow him to do anything. The doctor had been shocked when he'd seen me perfectly healthy, except for a pins-and-needles feeling that lingered in the hand previously shattered by Arlong.
Lucy peered into the doctor's office, where the doctor was busy restitching Zoro and tending to Johnny and Yosaku, who were happily sleeping off their injuries in the beds adjacent to the Marimo. Sanji, Usopp and I were sitting on a bench just outside of the office and Lucy was hanging in the window.
"Not a bad idea," she mused, "having a doctor. But we also need a musician."
"WHY WOULD WE NEED A MUSICIAN?" Zoro's angry voice roared.
"Pirates like to sing and dance a lot! Don't ya know?"
"AND WHY IS THAT MORE IMPORTANT!?"
"Say, where's Nami?" The doctor's voice drifted through the window, but I couldn't quite hear him, and then Lucy said, "Eh? What place?"
𖦹𖦹𖦹
Three nights later, the party was still going strong. In fact, it might've been going even stronger. The fact that the villagers had stuffed themselves with food and had danced all day long for three days didn't stop them from staying up all night and doing it again. I was beginning to think these guys had enough stamina to outlast Lucy; I couldn't find the girl anywhere. Geez, was it strange thinking of Luffy as a girl...
And also, somehow... right?
As I turned over the town for her, I rounded a corner into a side alley and saw Zoro and Sanji talking to each other... without beating each other up! That was a first. During our week-long stay at the Baratie, all they'd done any time they'd seen one another, was bicker.
"Why the hell is this stupid party still going on, anyway?" Zoro was grumbling. "Hasn't it been three days now? Oh, hey, look. It's the shitty-psychic."
"Yo, Yuril-chan." Sanji greeted, politely. "It's a good thing these guys are partying, Zoro. When you feel happy, you should be able to enjoy yourself. It's the natural order of life."
"Hey, guys, have you seen—" I began.
Suddenly Lucy's voice shouted in my ear, making me jump about a mile. She was spitting chunks of chewed up meat in my face, making me scowl in disgust and back away. "Oi, Yuril!" she grunted through a mouthful of meat. More of the meat rinds were in her hands. "You have to try this meat! It's over there at that table!" I stared in shock. Lucy was offering to share meat? That had to be a first... "Oi, Sanji! You were eating some weird kinda melon earlier. What was it?"
I was so surprised by her sudden appearance that for a moment I wasn't able to react.
Zoro sweatdropped. "What about all that meat in your hands? Isn't that enough?"
"Oh, that," Sanji said thoughtfully. "It's called the Namu-Hamu Melon, because it has Namu-Hamu on top."
"NAMU-HAMU MELON!? That sounds tasty! Where'd ya get it?"
The cook took his cigarette out of his mouth for a second. "Beats me. It's a potluck party for the whole island, so someone must have brought them..."
Just as fast as she'd appeared, our captain ran off. I finally shook myself out of my stupor and tore after her, dodging and weaving through random islanders that accidentally got in my way. When I had finally fought through the crowd and caught up to her, she was inhaling a bowlful of Jell-O. She'd already sucked down the meat rinds and had moved on to something surprisingly American. It had never even crossed my mind that they might have Jell-O here, but that wasn't what I wanted to see Lucy about.
"Hey, Luce," I panted.
"Eh?" she blinked and tilted her head a degree to look at me, a dribble of gelatin hanging out of her mouth. "Oh, hi again, Yuril! What's up?"
I shifted nervously. Somewhere off in the distance came Usopp's voice, announcing that he, the invincible Captain Usopp, had defeated the terrifying mermen and that they should sing songs praising him. Then he struck up a horrifyingly terrible and off-key song about him destroying Arlong's crew.
"Um, well, wanna dance with me?" I offered shyly. There was no way she would. I mean, come on, this was Lucy we're talking about here!
She sucked down the last of her Jell-O. "Dance?" Lucy blinked. Then she gave a small smile and... were her cheeks a bit pink? Nah, that couldn't be. "Sure... alright! YOSHA!"
I blushed. Too bad for me that Zoro was watching the whole thing out of the corner of his eye, having come to our table for more booze. I didn't know it at the time, but I would discover it over the next few days because of him making fun of me for it.
As we started up a slow dance that was totally off-beat to the 58th 'Praise of Captain Usopp,' with villagers making annoying "Awwwwwww" sounds at us, and Usopp laughing his head off, I could've sworn that Lucy's cheeks got rosier and rosier. But that couldn't have anything to do with me. On a totally unrelated note, I discovered my captain was as bad at dancing as Usopp was at singing. She kept stepping on my feet and making me wince, but to be fair, I had trodden on hers a lot, too. Not that it hurt her. She, after all, was rubber.
Lucy was strangely non-talkative for those four minutes. Then, the moment the dance ended and we broke apart (though her hands hesitated before releasing me just enough to make it a bit awkward) she ran off, shouting, "NAMU-HAMU MELON!"
I sweatdropped and sighed, a little depressed. Lucy really did have a one-track mind.