"I don't have a full name."
"An orphan?"
"That, and I hate the name my foster parents gave me. They ignored the name tag I had, and the name tag said 'Usopp'. So I'm sticking to that."
"Oh..."
"How did you find me then?"
Usopp asked in surprise.
"Well... this."
Kaya pulled out a folded newspaper cutting from her purse and smoothed it out with her slender fingers before setting it onto the tabletop. Usopp took it, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Huh? 'The GLU Dinner Dance Gets an Extra Blast?'"
His eyes quickly scan-read, and he swallowed. Neither Zoro or Nami had mentioned the incident of any hooligans busting their dinner-dance to him throughout the whole day.
"I thought that maybe you attended this university, since it's so close to the studio of 'Amber Signs'... but I guess I was wrong,"
She said, looking embarrassed.
"Oh, don't worry... I don't attend university at all."
"You... don't?"
"Nope. But I have friends there... which reminds me..."
He spent nearly half and hour trying to recall the conversation he, Nami and Zoro had had earlier that day. Kaya listened intently, her eyes widening as he mentioned recognising people and visions. When he stated his theory, Kaya finally spoke.
"An alternative reality? That's so strange,"
Kaya said, her tone curious. The long-nosed engineer across her slurped his milkshake as he nodded.
"I know. But you never know... that could be the case--"
Usopp let out a yelp as his elbow slid suddenly across the table-top, his chin knocking over his milkshake. The glass tipped, and the contents spilled all over Usopp as he clunked onto the table. His face got splashed and covered with a thick and creamy coating of chocolate milkshake.
The sight of Usopp removing his glasses to reveal a face dripping with milkshake save for a band around his eyes made Kaya blink several times. Then her fingers flew to her mouth and she quickly removed her gaze.
"You act like you're trying not to laugh,"
Usopp commented in a huffy tone, secretly hoping his third attempt to make her laugh had finally worked. Kaya shook her head vigorously, still refusing to look at him.
"No, no, it's not that,"
She said in a muffled tone through her hands. Usopp didn't say anything, leaving a long silence, until some milkshake dripped off his long nose and splotched onto the tabletop loudly. Her eyes automatically flickered to Usopp's face, who was still in the process of wiping. He had somehow managed to bunch all the milkshake not off his face but to his left cheek.
Kaya's cheeks turned pink as she shook, biting her lip and obviously containing her amusement. Usopp grinned, licking a bit of milkshake off his lower lip, and gave the final push with a single syllable:
"Gross."
She burst into peals of laughter. When she saw the surprise Usopp feigned, she tried to stop, but found it impossible to remove the image chocolate milkshake all over Usopp's face. The noisy splotch on the tabletop and his joking tone as he pronounced it 'gross' brought her to near hysteria.
As Kaya giggled uncontrollably, Usopp found himself relaxing as he wiped off the rest of the chocolate milkshake with a napkin.
When they had come into the coffee shop to talk, Usopp had found himself curious as to why Kaya wasn't smiling in front of him. He was reminded of his dreams - she had been unwell, and he had come over to cheer her up. Usopp could not really remember how he had made her learn to laugh again. But seeing the girl only give false smiles made his insides twist, so he had found himself wanting to make her smile.
Usopp had always known himself as a sort of a goofy idiot, so he simply let his clumsiness take full control of him. When he'd started to explain his dreams and the other people linked to the 'conspiracy', they had been walking towards the coffee shop. Usopp took full liberty to trip over himself and fall in an extremely embarrassing way into a drain. Kaya's first reaction had been surprise, then confusion. As though she had forgotten what she should do. Forgotten how to laugh.
When he drew a real smile out of her when he slammed into a lamp-post, Usopp was filled with the determination to make her smile more and more.
The engineer let out a small sigh of relief as Kaya, for the first time since he had met her, genuinely laughed, her cheeks coloured with a pleasant blush only laughter could bring. Nothing like that plastic smile she had used while acting.
"I''m sorry,"
She finally said, her voice still caught with the height of laughter. Usopp grinned.
"I'm just glad you remember how to laugh."
He said. Kaya looked slightly startled.
Deep inside her, great contentment spread from her heart to the rest of her. The feeling reminded her of something like hot chocolate on a cold day.
She felt... happy. She felt really good - especially because... she hadn't felt like this in ages.
Nothing felt missing in her.
Kaya looked at Usopp, who was grinning sheepishly as he started cleaning the rest of the table of the sticky mess.
Without even meaning to, her lips curled into a soft smile. Kaya gently leaned onto the table, a warmth stirring in her as she answered,
"Me too."
The following Sunday morning, a dormitory room in the GrandLine University was practically bursting in aggravation.
"I cannot believe you didn't bother telling me until today!!"
Sanji yelled, frantically trying to roll up his cuffs, eat a jam doughnut and wear shoes at the same time. Zoro poked his head out of the bathroom, a toothbrush dangling out of his mouth as his eyebrow quirked in irritation.
"Ish nuh my fhalt,"
He said through a mouthful of toothpaste as he combed his fingers through his hair,
"We wuh sho tiyer hafte--"
"Whatever. I don't understand a word you're saying. Have you seen my tie? The dark blue one?"
The green-head shook his head before ducking back into the bathroom. Water would be heard running full-blast two seconds later while Sanji dashed about, searching for his tie.
Zoro emerged with a T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans while Sanji hurriedly ran a comb through his hair, his eyes still furtively darting about.
"Zoro, you don't have an extra tie, do you? I can't seem to find any of mine,"
The model said in frustration. Zoro opened his backpack from four nights ago, still incomplete in his unpacking, pulled out a pink and yellow tie and offered it to Sanji. There was a long silence as the blonde stared in a mixture of horror and fascination at the piece of silk adorned in baby-pink and bright yellow checker patterns.
"That,"
Sanji finally managed to say,
"Is one hell of a tie."
"My mom gave it to me."
Zoro explained.
"I wouldn't wear that for a million dollars. Well, not in public anyway. No other tie?"
"No."
"How about the one I lent you?"
"I don't know where it is."
"Damn it, you bastard, that was one of my best ties!!"
Sanji shouted, grabbing the front of Zoro's shirt, but abruptly let go as he groaned,
"Does this mean I have to go without one?"
"It won't kill you,"
His roommate commented dryly, pulling on a navy-green flannel jacket,
"Just pull on a coat and let's get out of here. We've got fifteen minutes to get to the mall."
"And who's fault would that be?!"
Sanji snapped at the green-head who had woken him up five minutes ago, stating they had to meet Nami and Usopp in twenty minutes in a completely nonchalant voice.
"Yours for fussing over a tie. Damn it you stupid cook, a tie. Is it because you're a model, 'Sandy White'? Maybe it's all gone into your head."
Zoro just barely caught the blur of black in his peripheral. He found himself dodging a swift kick to his stomach, his eyebrows rising in surprise.
"What was that for?"
He asked, seeing how much he had agitated the cook. The blonde narowed his eyes before trudging past Zoro to switch off the bathroom light.
"That was going over the line. Don't call me that bloody name. Reminding me of my occupation pisses me off too."
"...I didn't know you had such serious issues with your own job."
Zoro commented.
"Put it this way. I'd rather you called me a @#$%ing cook than a @#$%ing good model,"
Sanji muttered, and with that brushed roughly past Zoro, opened the door and walked briskly towards the stairs, leaving Zoro to hastily lock the door and run after with annoyance written all over his face.
Nami choked on her orange juice when Sandy White, looking slightly embarrassed and smiling nervously, had suddenly popped up from behind Zoro and greeted her and Usopp quite cheerfully. Before Nami could even think of a reason to excuse herself, the engineer chose that moment to say in an awed voice that the blonde's face was familiar. Things had been on the roll from there, and now she was cursing herself for feeling so nervous.
'There's nothing to be nervous about..., you rejected him, but he doesn't seem to mind... you did dance with him, after, right?... So stop feeling damn guilty!!'
"Uhh... Nami?"
Usopp muttered, elbowing her side. Startled, she snapped,
"What is it?!"
He pointed to a certain model staring dreamily at Nami while offering a plate of baked potatoes.
"Care for some, Nami-san?"
Sandy said with the air of one addressing the queen. Smiling, Nami took a potato up with her fork as she said with a voice dripping with sugar,
"Why, thank you, Sanji-kun."
Setting it onto her plate as hearts popped around the blonde, Nami took up a forkful of the baked potato.
Then she dropped her fork with a loud clatter as realisation hit her. The stares from Zoro and Usopp hit her hard, too.
"Uh-- I-- uhm-- I d-donno whaj-just happened,"
She stammered as the two continued to look at her and Sanji in surprise and felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment. She was never flustered! But what had just happened? She'd called him 'Sanji-kun' - again. And she'd taken his attitude as perfectly normal.
"I-I'm sorry,"
Sanji mumbled, hiding his face behind the steam of his soup,
"It's j-just that...uh... I mean... you look... very familiar today..."
There was a small pause as the boys looked at Nami intently for a few seconds. She regained her composure quickly with a swallow of potato.
"You're right,"
Zoro suddenly said, his voice obviously surprised,
"She looks more familiar."
She blinked.
"I do?"
"Well, I'm too used to Nami to really notice,"
Usopp said as he shovelled spaghetti into his mouth,
"But she does seem a bit more... recognisable today."
"It's her hair,"
Zoro said firmly,
"It's how it's all tied back."
Nami's fingers automatically reached to the back of her head, where she had curled her tangerine locks into a tight bun.
"I don't usually tie it back like this,"
She said confusedly,
"But it looks familiar to you?"
"Yeah... it's her hair,"
Usopp agreed. There was a short silence before Sanji said, hesitantly,
"You know, I was just thinking about it, but it seems we all have some sort of characteristic that's a little... 'off'. Nami-san's hair looks like it should be a bit... different, Usopp looks kind of weird with his glasses, and Zoro looks like he's too relaxed."
"But he's sleeping half the time,"
Nami said,
"He's always relaxed."
Zoro refrained from asking Nami how she had known about his sleeping tendencies. Usopp nodded as he drank his soda.
"Actually, I think Sanji's right. Zoro's posture seems a little more slack from what I remember."
"So you mean I was all buff and muscly in my alternative reality?"
Zoro mused, imagining himself lifting weights. Somehow, the image appeared to be quite familiar. Scary.
"Perhaps."
Sanji said vaguely,
"But you know... Zoro and Nami have both mentioned something weird about my... eyebrow?"
He immediately felt stupid for saying it, but he couldn't help it. He could remember quite clearly what each person had said about his eyebrow.
Sanji-kun, what happened to your eyebrow?
But for some really crazy reason, I seem to recall you having a curl at the end of your eyebrows. Did you shave it off or something?
Usopp was surprised to see Zoro and Nami looking at him expectantly. They were waiting for him to see they had seen. The engineer studied Sanji's face for a moment. It didn't take long for him to find what appeared to be missing.
"Uhm... I think I know what they're talking about,"
He said, addressing Sanji but looking at Zoro and Nami with a sweatdrop,
"But I'm going to sound so crazy."
"Hey, this meeting itself is pretty crazy,"
Zoro said with a roll of his eyes,
"Just say what you think."
"The end of his eyebrows... look like they lack a spiral. A curl. Whatever... something like that."
Usopp sighed, feeling ridiculous, but was startled as Nami gasped. Sanji looked pale as Zoro said, with a grin,
"I guess this means pretty-boy is missing curls in his eyebrows."
"That's spooky,"
Sanji said, clearly stunned,
"Are you sure you three didn't conspire against me or something?"
Usopp shook his head vigorously.
"No way. I swear, this whole thing is creeping all of us out."
The model chewed his sandwich, looking thoughtful.
"So it's just us four?"
He asked. At this, the other three shook their heads.
"There're more. Kaya, for example."
Usopp said. Nami nodded as Zoro poked Sanji's side with the end of his spoon,
"Oi, don't you remember Vivi? Last night's brainstorm?"
"Oh yeah!"
Sanji's eyes widened as he remembered, and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his breast-pocket. After returning Zoro's favour with his fork, the blonde pushed aside plates and glasses crowding the table into a neat pile and spread the slightly crumpled sheet of paper covered in a messy scrawl of black and blue ink.
"What's that?"
Nami asked curiously as she and Usopp leaned closer to inspect it. Zoro answered,
"Just a couple of things we think you guys might find familiar."
A/N:: You've beared with me for ages. *weeps* Thank you. You know, I'm sorry if these are tediously long and boring, but I will *promise* you that Luffy appears before chapter 30. Whoopee. Promising, eh? *feels idiotic* Well, I guess I'll sign off now... gomen ne for the delay, by the way... I was having severe writer's block. None of the characters seemed to want to say anything. ;; Thanks again for your lovely reviews. ^^*