Kaya expects his warm embrace. She dives deeper into her covers, nestling her nose into the pillow. A cold night breeze grazes her forehead, like someone is tucking her to sleep.

"Usopp, you'll return, right?' she mumbles. Just his face prompts a shy smile to her lips, and she sighs deeply into the air. The sweet smell of peach tea causes her stomach to rumble. Somewhere… someone is brewing her favorite tea. Her favorite tea and her favorite man. What more can she ask for?

. . .Except, the tea had a certain aroma that only he can brew.

Kaya's eyes shoot open. Her bed is gone. Her sheets are nowhere to be found. She's standing, clutching her dress. In an instant, her room is gone.

A vast field of white stretches before her. The only sound is that of an unnerving silence, and there is a heavy, cold air pressing against her raw nerves. The area was a drastic transformation from the cozy haven of her bedroom.

"Merry?" she whispers. Her feet shuffles forward without her mind telling them so. "Usopp?" That familiar peach smell grows stronger with each step. Her stomach tightens, growing uncomfortably hot as her unpleasant memories threaten to resurface. There are no marble columns, no windows reflecting filtered sunlight. Just her footsteps in an seemingly endless limbo.

"E-Excuse me." There is a shape. Tall. Thin. Kaya squints, her hand automatically rises to her chest. "Merry?"

But there are no protruding horns from its head. "Usopp?" No distinguishable long nose from its profile. Nothing familiar except the stench of steeped peach tea. And the sheen of its round rimmed glasses.

Kaya shrieks.

The shadow leaps into focus. His cold grey eyes glare at her from the sheen in his signature glasses, albeit broken in the lens.

She had prayed he was gone.

"Ah. Miss Kaya. Did you have a nightmare?" The malice in his eyes vanish as recognition dawns. He has a pleasant smile, and a soothing voice. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Kaya opens her mouth, but no words come out.

Her would-be murderer still has that look of concern that she knew all too well. He adjusts his glasses with the palm of his hand. Her heart skips a beat. Faint memories nag in the back of her mind. Memories of happier times. The smell of peach tea clings to her memory of him.

"Young lady, please go to bed. You don't want to have wrinkles at your age," he sighs.

"This is a dream, isn't it?" She finally finds her voice. "Klahadore's gone… You're not Klahadore anymore. You tried to kill me."

Something shifts in his eyes. The concern is gone. "Whatever do you mean?"

"You're not real. This is a dream. Usopp defeated you!"

He is silent. Kaya staggers back. Her skin prickles at the aura of murder emanating from that man. Her butler was gone… now it's the wanted pirate whose poster hangs in her study.

"So it's not a dream?" Kuro's compassion is nonexistent. His tone is clipped, impatient, like the time he towered over her bed with claws aimed at her throat. "The deed's been done. And you're still alive."

"Why are you here?" she whispers.

"This is my dream," he states sharply. "And you're supposed to be dead."

"No it's my dream!" She surprises herself for talking back. "And you're… not supposed… to be here…" Her voice trails to a squeak. "I'm warning you, if you're going to try anything funny…"

"You think too low of me," Kuro says with a thin smile. "If I did kill you, and this is a dream," he spreads his hands out in a surrendering gesture, "then nothing is going to change, won't it? Miss Kaya."

Kaya's nerves jump at that name. "Why are you here?"

"I can ask you the same question." The Black Cat Captain rubs his temples with the palm of his hand. He looks disheveled, shirt wrinkled and his usually slicked black hair falling in thin strands over his forehead. There is a faint stench of alcohol on his clothes, along with the aroma of peach lingering in the air. "I was certain I was in my ship. And then, this big expense of white is before me. Along with you." That last word is clipped.

He doesn't look like a murderer. Instead, he just looks really, really tired. Kaya approaches him carefully. This still doesn't feel like a dream. "Klahadore-"

"I'm not Klahadore. I'm Kuro."

"Whatever you are. Have you been drinking?"

Kuro gives her a strange look. "You always want to know another's business, don't you? This has nothing to do with you." He turns his head. "I don't intend to kill you, so why don't you mind your business and leave before I change my mind?"

Klahadore never drank. At least, not in front of her. Something must have happened, and despite his warning, Kaya found the man before her not to be the infamous Kuro of 100 Plans, but her butler who needed a shoulder to lean on. She reaches out. "Klahadore."

Kuro flinches at her touch. "That's not my name," he snarls, but he didn't turn away her hand.

"If this is a dream, why can I touch you? Why do you feel so real?" Kuro didn't answer. Kaya surprises herself by looking directly into his eyes. Those flinty, grey eyes glance back at her before darting away. "How did your glasses get broken, Klahadore?"

"It's just a dream," he mutters, as if he's reassuring himself. "When I wake up, you'll be gone. And this will all be forgotten." Silence. "I might have gotten a bit much to drink last night," he admits.

"You never drank."

"There comes a time and a place for everything. I'm surprised you can get near me after what I've done to you," he says after an awkward silence of still air. "And to meet again in the same dream… I don't know if this is the wine or some other power at work."

Kaya bites her lips. "What were you dreaming about before you came here? " Her mind races back to their first encounter, when he spoke to her as if he was still her butler. As if none of that had happened. "Before I was here, I dreamt of Usopp. He came back to visit me. They say your dreams are an indication of what you desire, and…"

Kuro is silent. All the malice is gone from his eyes. Probably it was from the alcohol that clings to his clothes, but he was surprisingly tight-lipped. "That's none of your business, Miss Kaya," he says softly. "What I want is peace of mind. Nothing more, nothing less."

It is hard to tell whether he's lying or not. Kuro was notoriously famous for lying, but Klahadore…

"Then I'm going to talk to you before I wake up." She takes a seat beside him, feeling his shoulders tense, but not daring to look back. "I really miss you, Klahadore."

For the first time, he didn't correct her.

"Klahadore. I always wished that what happened wasn't real. That you're still here with Merry and me. I can't wrap my head around the fact that you've been lying to me for 3 years… but somehow, it didn't feel like a lie. You treated me like a daughter, and after my parents' death, you were there for me whenever I needed." The air feels heavy, but it's the crisp smell of fresh rain that hangs over them. And warm laundry. "Remember how you always brewed my favorite tea? I can still smell it, even in this dream."

"Peach." It isn't a question, but it isn't a statement either. His tone is very, very heavy.

"Yeah." Kaya laughs, her heart fluttering with a familiar sense of joy. "Merry is recovering. And life is back to normal. But I always expect you to be there, Klahadore. The hallways are empty, even with Usopp's pirates visiting. You always yelled at me, remember? When I stayed up late, or whenever I do something wrong. I miss that."

The more she talks, the heavier her eyelids seem to grow. The white expanse begins pulsing with bright, golden colors as the smell of warm laundry and bread grows stronger. "Do you think I can revisit that time?" That time when you were by my side? "Do you think we'll still be friends if this never happened?"

She feels strangely lightheaded. Kuro shifts beside her, his cold sleeve grazing her skin. The white light is searing into her eyes. He stands and heads toward that fissure of light.

"Klahadore! Klahadore!" she cries, reaching out for him. She can't feel her feet. His figure is engulfed in shadow as the glare brightens. Too far. He's getting farther away.

Then he turns. The aroma of peach threatens to assault her nostrils. Very vaguely she can make out his mouth-as if he is saying something.

"Klahadore! Please! Don't-"

"Miss Kaya."

"Klahaodre…"

"Miss Kaya!"

Kaya opens her eyes. Her head is beaded in cold respiration, and her heart feels like it might explode.

"Miss Kaya!" Merry's receding hairline pops into her recovering vision. His unibrow digs deep into his eyes.

"Merry," she whispers. She is in her bed. In her room. The sunlight is strong after a night of rain; the smell of fresh laundry wafts through the window. "Merry, thank goodness."

"Miss Kaya, please calm yourself! Here!" Merry hands her a napkin. "You were crying in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?"

"I… I…" She rubs her chest. "I don't remember." White. Blinding white. "But I feel kind of empty." Like I lost something. She stares down at her hands, her mind reeling from what it cannot remember. Just a lingering sadness that she cannot cure.

Merry purses his lips. "You've been having nightmares recently. But this is the first time you've cried." He straightens. "How about I make you some tea? You've always liked tea."

"Yes, please." Tea sounds like heaven right now.

"What would you like?"

"Peach." That word escapes her mouth before she can think. Merry smiles and ambles away, singing how difficult that was to make but he accepted that challenge. Kaya blinks. That word nags in her mind, mercilessly teasing her. But why? Is something missing?

Kaya buries her head in her hands. It was probably just another dream worth forgetting.

"What did you mean, Captain?"

"Of what?"

"Well, when you were sleeping, Buchi and I heard you talking to someone. And you were moving around too. We didn't come in, of course."

"I was talking to someone?"

"Nyeah. Something like 'I want that too,' and you were saying some weird name."

"... Really? I don't remember."

"Nyeah. Just something we noticed. Probably drank too much last night. Hey...Captain, you okay? You have that glassy look again. You sure you're sober?"

"I'm fine. It was an uneventful dream. Nothing to dwell upon."

"Kay. Hey, Captain. What are you drinking?"

"Peach tea. I can't remember, but I suddenly had the urge to brew it. Perhaps it'll keep me from having that dream again tonight."