"I'm sure she'll be back soon, sir,"

Merii said nervously as he flicked through his charge's schedule,

"She just completed a photo-shoot at Horlock's Street for the first issue of 'Primus', I'm sure she'll be back soon..."

"I'm quite all right with waiting,"

Krow said politely as he poked at his palm pilot, raising his eyes up to flit against the manager's face,

"Kaya is certainly growing an independant streak in her lately..."

Kaya's manager chuckled lightly, to Krow's unpleasant surprise, and he gave an enthusiastic response of,

"Yes, I agree. Miss Kaya is truly earning some more self-respect these days."

Krow narrowed his eyes behind his hands as he lifted the edge of his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. If only it wouldn't ruin the plan, and if only he'd had his Cat Claws with him... that annoying excuse of a manager would be sprawling on the floor, dead as a nail and in pieces... Not the sore job he had done before, leaving just his breath to make him suffer and realise his foolish misunderstandings as he slowly died, but a fairly quick (though painful) death...

He could feel and hear the crunch of glasses beneath his foot as the glass splintered and cracked apart, perfectly metaphoring his plan to Kaya... An innocent, well-intentioned thing that would be ruthlessly torn apart without a shred of mercy. He felt the rushing joy and excitement as he realised he didn't have to bow to the pathetic idiot of a girl anymore. He didn't have to care for the weak fledgling. He could finally, after all these years, kick her aside like he had been tempted to so many times...

The feeling of each blade sinking into flesh and ripping in apart had never felt so good... It was as though he was finally killing, finally silencing this yielding, pathetic part of himself, watching as a possible hitch to the plan being easily detained felt wonderful... and he could not help smiling widely, even as the blood thickly flecked the impeccably white walls, when he heard her name die like she was going to on the poor servant's lips...

"Oh, I think I see her coming!"

Merii said, looking out the window at the hint of blonde hair approaching the mansion. Krow stood up slowly, the blemished walls of blood never leaving his cold eyes as he said softly,

"I'll go out to greet her."

"Of course, sir,"

Merii said, smiling. Krow felt his fingers itch, and refrained from exercising a good swipe with just a twiddling of his third finger and thumb to ensure a good portion of of the heart got torn out--

Shaking his head sharply as to clear it from the images so he wouldn't have to face Kaya with a strained smile, Krow carefully shut the gate and waited for Kaya to turn around the corner of the street.

As she came round, he saw her hiccuping aside a rather cheerful looking young man with a long nose... wait a minute... that was Kaya's 'Usopp-san', wasn't it? With a jolt, Krow remembered the heavy blow across the jaw he'd received, and the satisfactory kick he'd gotten into his stomach. Of course! Now he remembered who the fool was!

This was the person who had completely and utterly destroyed and ruined his plans and stolen Kaya from him even before he'd known Krow's true identity. To make Kaya laugh had never been his strong point even before then, and a fire flared inside him as he realised what was happening now... Kaya was being taken away again, being led away from the steps he had been teaching her to walk.

Krow wondered briefly how many of those morons from back in his previous life actually resided nearby him. Usopp's resemblance to his old self was startling, and Krow wouldn't be surprised if Kaya had already seen him for who he had been once before.

Usopp glanced up, perhaps sensing a bit of Krow's intense glare, and saw the manager of Feline Incorporates. Looking startled, he gave Kaya a quick squeeze on the shoulder before rushing off the opposite direction, back the way he'd come. Kaya walked quickly back to the mansion gate, tried to get in but was blocked by Krow.

"Isn't that the fan-boy?"

Krow asked stiffly, unable to keep the distate out of his voice. Kaya glanced up at Krow, her eyes widening. He rarely showed dislike so strongly, especially towards someone he did not know very much.

"Klahadol, I told you-- that's Usopp-san. Remember? He saw you one morning..."

Remember? My God, does this girl even know what the hell she's bringing on with that word?

"Yes, I believe I do,"

He said coolly, his eyes still training at the corner the long-nose had disappeared around,

"I suppose he knows you from your fame? What made you want to get to know someone so different and so much lower than you, Kaya? Haven't I taught you anything in these past few years?"

Kaya's violet eyes looked sincerely hurt as they flickered past Krow's stern expression.

"I don't know what you mean,"

She started in a voice that was trembling slightly out of suppressed anger and surprise, when she was cut off abruptly by Krow gripped her arms tightly and giving her a sharp shake.

"Listen to me, Kaya. I know you seem to feel that you're young, and well, you deserve to have a free rein or whatnot, but your-- your parents, they... They would be highly disappointed in me if they knew I'd let you gone astray. Met the wrong people, or people unsuitable to your standard..."

Her eyes softened at the mention of her parents, and she shrugged his grasp off as she explained to him,

"You've got it all wrong, Klahadol. My parents would have been delighted to meet him."

Smiling briefly at the man who had taken care of her for all these years, Kaya turned and started back towards her house. She stopped abruptly when Krow's cold voice cut into her warm thoughts,

"What, because he's funny?"

She whipped around, her eyes rounded with shock at the strangely un-Krow-like choice of words and the sharp and icy edge in his voice. A small muffled yelp sounded from her as she was roughly pushed against as Krow made his way briskly past her to the door.

He realised she looked paler now, and that secretly pleased him for a moment as he thought of her sickly, weak form that was easy to bend to will... until he realised she had been rosy moments ago from being with Usopp. She'd been blushing the entire time. Anger shot white-hot through him as he realised she was going to go to him if he wasn't careful.

You can't do that, can you, Kaya?

He thought, glaring at her as she hastily ran up the stairs,

You're not allowed to do that. I won't permit you to run from me like this. You belong to me, Kaya, remember?

A strange smile twisted Krow's lips as he watched her retreating back up to her room, oblivious to the brainless chatter behind from a thoroughly excited manager.





Zoro rolled his eyes as he shoved a whole rack of potato chips into Kale's waiting arms as he said,

"Are you sure God doesn't mind you using the RLB card like that?"

"Well, they're being used for provisions, so of course He wouldn't mind,"

Kale said airily as he threw all the crisps onto the counter and started piling instant noodles aside it. Zoro shook his head, and pulled out a stack of batteries.

"Think He'd mind if we bought batteries?"

"Doubt it. Chuck it here..."

Ten minutes later, Kale eagerly pressed forward his RLB card as the Eighty-Twelve cashier named the price, and within minutes the two were out of the convenience store clutching eight bags full of 'provisions', which included excessive amounts of doughtnuts, frozen pizza, orange juice and batteries.

"Zoroooo,"

Kale started to wheedle after twenty seconds of steady walking,

"You're so much bigger than this little body I'm in, why don't you hold it all? Go on, you're strong enough, I know it--"

His attempt to shove all the luggage onto Zoro was less than successful when the green-head scowled and picked up his pace, leaving the young boy behind by several metres almost immediately as he retorted,

"Get off it, hold your share."

"You're mean. You're a big, fat, cabbage-headed meanie that--"

"Stop whining."

"Meanie. Meanie. Meanie."

Seeing that his accusations were not making the swordsman relent at all, Kale entered into a continuous and quickening chant of:

"Meanie meanie meanie meaniemeaniemeanie meenymeenymeeny minymi--"

Finally irked, Zoro whipped his head back as he walked on to glower at the small boy who shut his trap as soon as he saw the annoyance in the green-head's eyes, and let a small 'eep' as he growled,

"I'm still not holding your bag, all right? Now shut the hell up and quit--"

He never got to complete his sentence and tell Kale what to quit because just at that precise moment, he bashed his head quite harshly into someone else's. His world blacked out for a split second, and blinking stars out of his eyes he realised he had crashed into someone while walking without looking. He opened his mouth to apologise, but his eyes widened as he found himself staring straight into chocolate-brown eyes behind thick lenses.

Looking unfocused, she started to mumble an apology as she bent over to pick up her bag at the same time as Zoro did. Their heads hit again with a bang, and this time it really did shake Zoro out of focus himself for several moments. He heard Kale start to snicker, and was about to snap at him when he was surprised to hear a gruff voice growl,

"What's the hold-up, Tashigi?"

A broad man appeared behind her while she was still trying to regain proper conciousness, and his face split into a irritated scowl.

"Watch where you're going,"

He snapped, and for a moment Zoro thought the silver-haired man had been talking to him. However, he realised the man's eyes were trained on Tashigi, and grasping her wrist he began to drag the girl away from the cafe as he threw over his shoulder at Zoro,

"Sorry about that."

Something like a dead-weight seemed to drop into Zoro's stomach as he watched Tashigi, still looking dazed, be dragged away by the strangely familiar-looking man. He didn't know why; he really, honestly did not know why, but something about seeing her just now made him feel distinctly bad. Make that horrible. Horribly bad.

Realising he was standing there with his mouth open while staring after the girl, Zoro mentally shook himself and turned around saying,

"C'mon Kale, let's go..."

Then he realised Kale had a hood well pulled over his head, his head bent in a way lights flashed off his glasses in an effective way of hiding his eyes. Zoro blinked, wondering what was up, when someone skated straight past him, throwing back a 'sorry, dude!' as he zoomed away, shortly followed by another person on a skateboard. He watched the two skaters disappear into the lights ahead, and glanced down at Kale who now lowered his hood.

"Is that... someone from our previous life?"

Zoro asked as the two continued to walk, Kale looking noticeably subdued,

"I mean, we thought... we saw one of those guys before, see, and we thought he was Luffy."

Kale gave a wry smile.

"Weird of you to think that. By any rate, I don't think you really need to know. But you did see him once or twice, I assure you..."

Zoro decided not to question the matter as they continued down, Kale considerably cheering up as Zoro bought him a corndog. Then Kale, who had been studying the receipt from Eighty-Twelve, let out an anguished cry.

"Noooo! God has cut my funds!"

He brandished the receipt to Zoro, who amusedly studied the money supposedly left in the RLB card - zero.





"Maaaan, that scared me!"

Usopp muttered as he tightened his 'kerchief round the back of his head,

"Scary glare... scary...."

A small smile quirked his lips involuntarily as he remembered his lunch with Kaya. She looked a lot more tired than usual, though she seemed to be covering it up with exuberance he had never remembered her having, and though he knew she had been pretending to be a lot better than she was actually feeling he felt glad she seemed to be looking better... She obviously had something weighing on her mind currently, and Usopp wasn't prepared to question her until she was ready to talk about it.

The phone ring abruptly brought his train of thought to a halt and startled him for the second time that day.

"It's Sanji."

Usopp blinked. The cook sounded thoroughly put out about something.

"What's up?"

The engineer asked, and was cut halfway through the 'up' as Sanji burst out,

"I don't understand it!!'

"Er, understand what?"

"Well-- see, er-- uh... I mean, Usopp, is Nami-san always so... uh..."

Imagining Nami's sword-like tongue had gotten Sanji's case, Usopp offered,

"Articulate?"

"Not exactly how I'd put it."

Usopp blinked, before saying rather sarcastically,

"Inarticulate?"

"Closer."

What? Now he was interested.

"What happened?"

"Er... I'm not sure. That's the problem... I--"

There was a hesitant pause before Sanji said uncertainly,

"Even back on the Going Merry, I always wondered how she kept all her pain in so easily, and how she ever got through a lot of matters in her life without spilling it out to anyone."

"Well, she grew up like that."

"Like what?"

"Remember? Her sister told us about it."

Sanji gave a very surprised sound before admitting,

"I forgot about that. No wonder I constantly wondered about her... I mean, at times it's admirable, but at others... I just don't get it."

"That's because you're a lot more expressive than she is,"

Usopp reminded him, and Sanji groaned.

"I don't understand it. She didn't hate me so much before... and just yesterday we shared cookies together, and she acted perfectly civilly towards me. Today she went nuts or something... I mean I want to understand her, but she won't let me,"

His voice seemed to end on a desperate whine, and Usopp was forcefully reminded of a time back in their previous life.

"Nami-san didn't finish her apple-pie dessert! No! Did I not make it scrumptious enough for her delicate tongue to taste? I don't understand myself! How could I have let that happen?"

"I think she was just full..."

"Wrong, long-nose! I failed to make a satisfactory dessert for her! This is the worst thing that has happened to me since I got on this ship..."

Usopp chuckled lowly to himself as he heard Nami tell him discreetly,

"I had seconds of his seafood curry. Come on. What does he want me to do, bloat up like a balloon?"

"You need to give her time, Sanji,"

Usopp said firmly,

"She's not used companionship, and it'll be a while before she will be. My best advice to you is to give her some space."

"Space?"

Sanij echoed, sounding dumbfounded.

"Yeah, like some space for her to understand herself."

Usopp explained in a more gentler tone,

"She's taken care of herself before, and until she truly needs it, I think you should leave her alone for a while."

There was a pause before Sanji asked in an almost timid voice,

"But I made muffins."

"Leave them in front of her door if she doesn't want to talk to you,"

Usopp said, thinking of a very similar time he had left a batch of chocolate chip cookies out for her to eat and she had called him the next day.

"You don't need to be there for her to know you're there for her. Sometimes, it's true to say that you never know what you're missing until it's gone. Or whatever."

"Right."

There was a pause before Sanji said very quickly,

"See you."

Usopp flipped the phone shut, sighing as he tucked the phone back into his bag. He hoped Nami would open up to the chef soon; he was pretty sure if she didn't soon she'd drive both the model and herself crazy.






A/N: I'm never going to get anything done, by this rate. T-T Arigatou for your kind, kind, KIND words. T-T* Trust me, though, I did get a lot of opinions off my sister and nukie... and I have a lot of electronic notes to help me keep in check with all the characters. I know Smoker is sort of OOC, and if you think about it, all the characters are in their own respect for a lot of obvious reasons. *bows* Thank you, thank you. About Zoro and his college funds - he has parents, whereas Sanji doesn't. I guess I could write up life stories one day, if I really wanted to. :P Thanks for bearing with me uptil now.... I know I make a lot of slips, and I'm just really thankful you guys forgive me for them. *huggles reviewers with a grateful sniffle*