Things were blurry and Kaiya opened her eyes to find herself lying on a bed. She stared at the white ceiling for a while and tried to fill the blanks in her hazy memory. The last thing she remembered was hunger and pain. There was an unexplainable taste of blood in her mouth and she wasn't feeling hungry anymore. After a moment, she recognized a familiar smell that was all over the room. It smelled just like him; a nostalgic smell of fresh coffee and lavender. Unlike Yamori's house that reeked of blood and dead body, his house had a welcoming odour that made her feel safe. She heard footsteps approaching and her lips curled into a smile. "Why hello there, Raven".

Yomo entered the room with a cup of coffee in his hand. His right arm and neck were bandaged and he was stumbling. Kaiya, awake, turned her head towards him. She was covered with a large white blanket. Surprised by Yomo's injuries, she checked under the blanket and found herself covered in bandages as well. That's when it hit her and she remembered everything. Still numb from the fight, she couldn't feel any pain of her wounds. The white haired ghoul sat by her side on a wooden chair and sighed. Kaiya frowned and turned her head back up to stare at the ceiling. "I'm...". She wanted to apologize but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. He knew exactly what she wanted to say and interrupted, "I know."

She clenched her fists under the blanket and breathed in the smell of coffee made by him. She fixed her eyes on the cup he was holding for a moment until he noticed her, staring.
"Uh... do you want some?" He offered her his cup in a hesitant way. She, forcefully pulled herself and pressed her back against the cold wall behind the bed. After taking a sip from his cup, she remembered how good he was at making coffee.

There was an awkward silence in the room and they both didn't know what to say. Kaiya was the one who broke the silence with a simple question. "Why?"
Yomo looked at her with blank eyes as she continued. "After all this. Why did you save me, Renji?" Nobody could answer such question, not even Yomo himself. However, he owed her an explanation. "Do you remember what you told me before the doves took you away?" She remembered every moment of that night but pretended that she didn't and shook her head. Yomo continued, "I want you to live. Those were your exact words and I feel the same way. Kaiya, I want you to live. For yourself-". He suddenly stopped and gazed into her eyes. "No. For me."

Kaiya stared at Yomo in shock without knowing what to say. Her hands started trembling and as she thought of every moment she tried to hurt him, she pulled her knees closer to her chest. She looked down as her hair hid her face and she bit her lower lip while trying to hold back her tears. Yomo pulled his chair closer to her bed and gently lifted up her chin to make her look at him. With his other hand, he pushed aside the strands of long red hair that shadowed her face. His gestures helped her calm down and assured her that he wasn't holding any grudge despite everything. Kaiya kept holding the cup of coffee with both her hands. She gathered her thoughts and looked outside the window with a sad smile on her face. "Life is funny isn't it? Perhaps in a different life, under different circumstances, if only we were human maybe things would be very different. Instead of sharing this coffee, we would perhaps be sharing something far more deep and meaningful."

She handed back the cup of coffee after taking another sip from it. Yomo took back the coffee from her hands and smiled at her with kindness in his eyes. "Who knows...", he said and leaned back on his chair.
After a failed attempt for meeting her family's killer and spending time in prison under torture, isolation and starvation, Yomo's presence felt like a dream to her and she didn't want to break the moment with more questions. Instead of an awkward silence, there was now a soothing one.

Yomo put aside the half-empty cup on the floor then noticed that his shirt was now unbuttoned and the bandage around his chest was visible. Kaiya noticed the bandage while Yomo buttoned back his shirt. She lifted her arm and suddenly her whole body ached but she ignored the pain. She put her hand on Yomo's chest and felt the thick bandage underneath his white shirt. She could feel his increasing heartbeats, yet his face looked so calm. The words finally came out of her mouth. "I'm sorry".
Yomo put both his hands on hers and looked at her. "For what?"
"For everything".