He motioned towards the flour whilst will sporting an apologetic smile. While doing his own baking, he should have known better than to go in unprepared. Measuring out what he needed to use beforehand would have meant avoiding pestering the sweet-looking woman, but… deep down he didn’t regret it that much. Any excuse to talk to a cute girl was a good excuse.
“I only need a little flour, if that’s alright with you. I didn’t mean to disturb you, but my head is all over the place.” He chuckled softly. “Would it be alright if I borrowed the bag for a moment? I’ll bring it right back.”
“Go ahead and take what ya need~! It’s perfectly okay!”
She softly chirped in response, dusting off her hands on her light pink apron, her side braids swinging just a bit as she gently scooted the flour over to Sanji’s side of the counter. She seemed to have little to no issues moving it, showing her strength somewhat.
“There you go. I’m past the dry ingredients for this recipe, so it’s all good.”
Rebecca gave him a warm smile before turning back to the bowl, mumbling in French about how sweet he was for asking first as she expertly mixed the cookie dough without much issue.
“Ah, shit… Where did the flour go?” The poor cook was having one of those days. His mind and ingredients were scattered, having him a grumbling, frustrated mess on his side of the kitchen. Fingers in his hair, he turned to spot the only other person occupying the space. He had seen her around before and failed to introduce himself, but it was only because he always found her with her headset down — he never wanted to disturb her peace, so he never bothered to approach her.
Unfortunately, needed to poke at her now if he was going to ask to borrow the flour.
“Excuse me, mademoiselle.” He tapped at her shoulder and tried to hide his exhaustion behind a smile.
Rebecca twitched at the poke, a well-practiced motion bringing her headset up over her ears before she looked at the other blond. The French put a rather delighted sparkle in her eyes.
“Sup?”
She looked a little less exhausted, if only because she was halfway done with some cookie dough. Her brain realized that he probably needed something right when she put down her spoon though.
“Ah, did you need something?”
Rebecca was busy chopping up ingredients for stir fry and another dish for dinner, her headset hung around her neck as she worked and indicating she didn’t want to be distracted.
{ 💀 } “Hm. Normally people call me Lieutenant. But then again, I guess this isn’t the war I’m used to. Anything works for what you want to call me. I am a respected member of the military, yes, but I am also only 11.” Tanya said. She didn’t really like bringing up her age (mostly because it served as a reminder as to how long it’s been since she’s been in her old body), but she saw it as necessary information for the girl to know.
“Teaching an 11-year-old how to curse. What a marvelous bullet point for your list of things you’ve done in your life that you’ll probably live to regret.”
“Hmm… Ms Degurechaff then.”
“And honestly, I’ve done worse things I’ve regretted.”
Like slamming her formerly long hair into a hot oven when she was 10, or opening the door for a delivery last autumn. Those were things she regretted. Teaching a kid foreign swears? That was hilarious to her.
“I mean, the looks on adults’ faces when you swear ‘em out is probably hilarious. Doubly so if you use a more brutal one.”
{ 💀 } “Hmm. An interesting offer.” Learning other languages was a useful skill… But learning how to swear in other languages would mostly just be really fun. “Alright, I’ll accept. I will teach you everything you need to know about how to curse your enemies in German, and in exchange, you teach me some colorful vocabulary in the French language.” Tanya said with an almost wicked smirk. She then stuck her hand out, offering it for the other girl to shake.
“For prosperity’s sake, I will introduce myself. My name is Tanya von Degurechaff.”
“It’s a deal. My name’s Rebecca Bardot.”
Rebecca gently but firmly shook Tanya’s hand, her own calloused with years of bakery work.
“Is there anything you’d prefer me to call ya, or is Ms Degurechaff fine?”
{ 💀 } “Wha… What are you reading?” Tanya said, looking at the book in the girl’s hand. Why did she have a book on foreign swear words? Was that all she was interested in learning as far as it came to languages? “Tch. Why bother with books? If you want to learn how to swear in German, it’s not hard. I’ve been speaking German since I was born.” Well, born for the second time anyway.
“You’re pronouncing them all wrong, too. Are you even trying to get them right?”
Rebecca jumped in her skin, initially responding in French before switching back to English.
“O-Oh, um, my father was teaching me swears and gave me a book as a gift-”
“I’m trying my best, but it’s hard when your native language is both French and Japanese.”
She did have a noticeable accent to her speech after all. It seemed to mess with her pronunciation somewhat. Wait… Was that perhaps an offer to teach…
“German swears and insults for French swears and insults?”
{ 💀 } “Hm?” Tanya looked down at her uniform, noticing that one of her medals had indeed gotten dirty. Probably happened when she stumbled her way into this blasted place. “Oh.” She took the handkerchief without another word, wiping not only the medal that was dirty, but all of her medals until they shone brightly. Once she was content, she handed the cloth back to the girl, saying nothing else as she sipped more of her coffee. Not even a word of thanks this time.
She took the cloth back and slipped it back in her pocket, going back to quietly sipping at her coffee and reading a book she had taken out of her back pocket. It seemed to be a book of Russian, German, and various foreign swears, with “Insults for every occasion” on the cover.
Rebecca occasionally mumbled one or two under her breath while she studied the book, probably getting the pronunciation wrong once or twice in between sips. Eh, she was still learning.
{ 💀 } “Uh… You are dismissed. I realize that I am the second lieutenant, and being near me is an honor, but I would like some time alone.” Tanya said, using some military speak through force of habit. She had dismissed so many people that way back where she came from, it was just natural at this point. “Thank you for the coffee, but I don’t need anything else.” She even went so far as to clap her hands twice as if that would get the girl to go away.
…Of course, once that didn’t work, Tanya sipped her coffee slightly, staring at the girl with… perhaps a bit more anger in her eyes than was necessary.
“So, since you’re clearly not leaving, can I help you?”
Rebecca then looked up, a little embarrassed she barely heard a word the girl said before pulling her headset up over her ears. Now she could hear. Oops.
“Oh, I usually read while having coffee. I can leave if you’d like me to?”
There were other tables she could sit at- Huh? Rebecca blinked and then squinted at one of the girl’s medals. Then she pulled out a cloth handkerchief and offered it to her.
“Here. One of your medals has some schmutz on it.”
} Tanya had no idea how she ended up in here. Was this some sort of sick karma because she had criticized the art? If so, whoever made it really needed to learn a lesson in humility if criticism made them take such drastic measures. She had taken some time to look around, mostly for something else to wear so she didn’t have to wear her uniform from the war 24/7. However, the only clothes she found were ones that looked like something a child’s doll would wear, and she had no intention of ever putting something like that on. So, there she was, sitting there with an empty mug of coffee, mulling over the circumstances that led her here. She only barely registered the other girl speaking to her, but once she did, she looked over for a brief moment before staring back off into space.
“…Yes.” Was all she said in response to the girl’s question, holding out her mug towards the other as she continued to remain deep in thought.
“Aye.”
Rebecca gently took the mug, refilling it carefully before handing it back with care.
“There you go.”
The young baker took the coffee pot back over to the counter, filling up her own mug and sitting across from her fellow blonde. She quietly sipped at her caffeine in peace, figuring if the little girl wanted to talk, she wouldn’t push it.
Rebecca held up the half-full coffee pot, an offer to pour the girl a new cup. The smell of the caffeinated drink was unmistakable, but the French girl had noticed the other’s mug was empty.
Back in the Game 