onepieceyaoi100 | Let's Go to the Hop... ??

Title: A Memorable Affair
Topic: free
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG-14
Pairing: Mihawk/Sanjirella (with invisible background Sanji -> Zoro)
Disclaimer: Characters and setting? Not mine. Probably just as well. Really!
Summary: Drinks and dancing -- recipe for..?

Excuse: She said, "this is on the house". She also said something about coming back with porn, but I haven't gotten quite that far yet. (Win a prize for identifying where the cut-text comes from!)

Notes: This one follows "Madame Godmother", "Hello, Prince Charming", and "Bonsoir, Mademoiselle", and comes before "...Or Lack Thereof" and "The Masked Ball".

~~~

There isn't much in the way of food on the refreshment tables; some fruit (cheap melon and local grapes), a variety of plain crackers (with an extremely salty paste made of sardines and olives in small side dishes) and a few mostly-depleted trays of pickled vegetables. As Sanji watches, a server discreetly amalgamates the remnants of two pickle trays and replaces the empty one with more crackers.

The punch, however, is being properly replenished, and handed out in reasonably-sized cups. Mihawk takes one and presses it into Sanji's free hand, and drains another himself with rather alarming speed.

Sanji remembers to sip his drink delicately, but it's a challenge. He discovers that he really is as thirsty as he implied once he gets a taste. There's some sort of spicing in it, cloves and vanilla and... Oh. Appetite and thirst stimulants, yes, but aphrodisiacs as well. There's extra proofing added to the alcohol content, too, he'd bet. Someone in charge of the menu wants to be sure this is a memorable party, and not necessarily for proper reasons.

Then Sanji remembers the reputation for debauchery the masquerade's patron has, and ceases to wonder that they're giving the stuff away so freely. He sets the glass aside still half full; this game is best played mostly sober.

When Mihawk asks, "Perhaps Mademoiselle would care to dance?" it's probably fortunate that he is too inexperienced, or drunk, to notice when Mademoiselle offers him the wrong hands at first. Sanji curses himself silently before covering the faux pas with a giggle and tugging the swordsman out into the press of people.

"Relax, Monsieur. I won't tell a soul you don't know how to waltz. And for tonight, the dance lesson is on me."

"Mademoiselle is too kind."

"Hmm. Keep your hand there, please."