After Hours
A/N: Despite the misleading summary, this is the sweetest, sappiest thing I have written to date. And it ended up more as a reveal fic than anything else, sort of a prequel of things to come for these guys.
After the shop closes, when the lights dim, Anteiku is no longer meant for humans - but one particular bouncy blond doesn't seem to get that.
"Come oooon, Kaneki; it's not like the old man has to know," pleads his friend, and Kaneki sighs, scratches at the skin under his eye-patch, wonders how to say 'no' to the young man currently acting like a five-year old.
"I have to close up shop," Kaneki settles on, "and that means all customers have to leave." When Hide looks ready to protest, Kaneki holds up a hand and says, "Don't even try it. You just want to fool around."
Hide pouts and grabs Kaneki's hand in both of his. "Please? I promise to be good!"
Kaneki doesn't believe it for a second. He's gotten into plenty of trouble with Hide before. Never anything bad, of course, Hide's overprotective side ends up making that impossible; but Hide is the outgoing type and tends to drag Kaneki into whatever plan he manages to concoct. He really wants to say 'no' for once, but the curious side of him - the side that allows trouble to happen - says, "Okay, just this once."
With a laugh, Hide lets go and dances a little victory dance. It's embarrassing to watch and Kaneki covers his face, groaning. Hide only laughs more before marching into the kitchen and demanding, "Show me some latte art. That's a thing, right?"
"Uh …" Kaneki peeks out from between his fingers, glad the dance has stopped. "Yeah? But I haven't been taught how to make it and -" He stops himself from saying 'and ghouls rarely ask for milk in their coffee', because that is something that Hide doesn't need to know.
"And?" prompts Hide, tilting his head. "What's wrong? Ah, are you hungry? I haven't seen you eat anything all day …"
At the harmless words, Kaneki can't help but tense. Because that means that Hide is watching, that means Hide might know, and that can't happen. It can't. Hide is the one person he can't involve in this, refuses to, because Hide is the only person that reaches out for him when he buries himself under countless facades.
"Ken?" His first name is spoken softly, meant to capture his attention, but Kaneki feels uneasy meeting his friend's eyes. As if Hide will be able to see the secrets he keeps if he doesn't look away.
"I'm fine," Kaneki says, trying to smile and not exactly positive he managed it. "I'll eat when you leave." Perhaps that will encourage Hide to hurry and go, but when he finally looks up and catches his friend's eyes, Hide is giving him a weighty stare that speaks more than words possibly could.
Kaneki feels his throat go dry, and he realizes how hungry he really is if Hide's mere presence is tempting him to move, to sink his teeth into yielding flesh.
Then Hide shrugs and Kaneki relaxes a little. "We never go out anymore, you know?" Ah, but maybe there is more to this story than Kaneki first thought. "To eat, to study, to just hang out. Are you avoiding me?"
Sheepishly, Kaneki joins his friend in the kitchen and starts to make excuses. "Of course not. I've been busy with work, and babysitting Hinami-chan, and -"
"And you can't even make time for your best friend?" Hide quirks an eyebrow in that unimpressed way he has mastered. "This is the first time we've been alone in weeks. Don't you think that's unfair?"
Kaneki busies himself with cleaning so he doesn't have to answer, but Hide stands behind him and he is not the type to be forgotten easily. He rests his chin against Kaneki's shoulder in a spur of the moment, trapping him against the counter with both arms before blowing hot air in his friend's ear. "Really, really unfair," whines Hide. "Come on. Make me a cup of coffee with some pretty art!"
It wouldn't be too difficult to escape. He has gotten stronger training with Yomo, and Hide has never been one to press his luck if someone says 'stop', but –
It's nice, sort of nostalgic of days longs past, from a time when they would do nothing but rough-house and tease each other.
Instead, he turns in Hide's arms and leans back against the counter, huffing a laugh at the blond's surprised expression. "Were you not listening? I don't know how to make coffee like that."
"You can try," Hide stumbles out, starting to look unsure of his own actions now they are face-to-face. "Anything you make I'll -" For some reason, Hide pauses, a glowing red spreading across his cheeks. He clears his throat and hurries to say, "Just try, it can't be that hard."
"All right," Kaneki gives in. Fighting over something like this will just waste time. It'll be quicker to fail and kick Hide out of the shop once his curiosity is sated. "Go turn the sign to 'closed' at least, would you?"
Hide sing-songs, "Give me the key and I'll do you one better!"
Wincing, Kaneki flat out denies that particular request. "I'd rather not be locked in here with you."
"Afraid?" There is an edge to Hide's voice that says that he might be the one afraid in this situation, but Kaneki doesn't call him out on it. He prefers Hide to remain a strong, central figure in his life, even if that means putting him on a pedestal, somewhere far and out of reach.
"Scared of you? Yeah, right." Kaneki shakes his head. "I just don't want to get in trouble with the boss. We're breaking a few rules, if you hadn't noticed."
"You're no fun," Hide continues to pout, even as does as told and flips the sign.
When he returns, Kaneki is already heating the water and measuring out the coffee grounds. Hide has had many chances to see an unguarded Kaneki, but moments like this are his favorite: where Kaneki doesn't realize he is still there, having become lost in a book or excited about something to the point of forgetting everything else.
He can watch the minute changes in expression without Kaneki putting up a front or closing himself off when he thinks someone has gotten too close. Right now, Kaneki has let his bangs fall into his face and they have grown long enough to hide behind. He can barely make out a furrowed brow as Kaneki concentrates on the coffee, no doubt aiming for perfection, and the eye-patch is bothersome too. But there are still parts of Kaneki that haven't changed, like that sly little curl of his lip as something goes right and the way the light catches his eye in such a way that it gleams.
"Stop staring," Kaneki mumbles, his smile dimming as he realizes he has been observed the entire time.
"Don't wanna," replies Hide, and sticks out his tongue defiantly. "How's it going anyway? Is my masterpiece ready yet?"
Kaneki snorts, and points out, "Shouldn't you know the answer to that?"
"Well, my eyes were on you, not the coffee." Cheesy as it is, it gets the desired reaction as Kaneki bites his lip and chuckles, muttering something along the lines of, "Dork."
Absently, Kaneki starts scratching at his back. It's something Hide could overlook if this was the old Kaneki, but this new Kaneki requires careful study and consideration. He wants to know every oddity that makes up his friend. It's a persistent sort of scratching too, as if he can't quite reach the spot that irritates him.
"Want me to get that?" questions Hide. He holds up his hand and makes a vague squeezing motion that can be interpreted in many other ways. Kaneki's sudden blush proves he knows exactly what that means. "Your back, I mean. Want me to get that?"
"N-No," Kaneki stammers, focusing back on the coffee with slightly shaky hands. "It'll go away."
Hide hums and steps up behind his friend again. This time he places his hand against the vest Kaneki wears as part of the uniform and trails his fingers downward. The fabric is thin and pleasantly cool over his fingertips, allows him to feel each notch of Kaneki's spine as he goes. He stops over the spot that was bothering his friend and feels a bump. Perhaps the undershirt bunching up, but still something where he had expected to find nothing.
"Mind if I …?" He doesn't finish, already untucking Kaneki's shirt and slipping his hand underneath. His friend protests in hushed, angry whispers; afraid of attracting too much attention since the manager or anyone else could still be around - further in the shop, but still very much nearby.
When his hand brushes against the strange bump underneath the shirt, he finds it is neither a sore nor a bunch in cloth, but something alive. It jerks at his touch and retreats, leaving behind bare skin and no trace of its existence. Even more intrigued, Hide pushes up Kaneki's shirt to get a good look at his back - too pale, really needs more sun - but nothing is there.
"Huh," he says, at a lost as to how to explain what just happened. He traces the spot with his fingers, over and over again. Kaneki shivers at the touch, his muscles coiling as tight as a spring, as if ready to fight or flee at a moment's notice.
Hide sighs and lets the shirt drop, stepping back to give Kaneki his space. "Never mind, it's just your usual scrawny back and that's boring."
"What were you expecting?" Kaneki manages through clenched teeth. His grip on the counter is strong enough to crack the edges, but Hide is fascinated rather than taken aback. Is this it? If he pushes now, will Kaneki finally give him the answers he seeks?
"I think you know what I was expecting," Hide returns gently, voice low and serious for a change, "and I want to hear you say it."
Kaneki turns, knocks over the milk he has set aside, and the look on his face is wild, terrified and angry - the real Kaneki that he buries beneath, afraid of others seeing. Slowly, drip by drip, the milk hits the floor and creates meaningless art.
"No!" It's not quite a shout, but neither is it a whisper. Kaneki says it with such force, in a way that Hide can't ignore, but that doesn't stop the blond from pushing onwards - because he made a promise. A long forgotten promise to remain by Kaneki's side, regardless of what happens.
"Yeah, well, then I'll say it." He pins Kaneki to the counter once more, puts his lips to his friend's ear and whispers, "You're half-ghoul now. Aren't you?"
"No," trembles Kaneki. "No, no, no." Thin red tendrils of something - kagune, is it? he thinks that's the word - snake from under Kaneki's clothes and latch on to Hide's wrist.
It doesn't hurt, but it feels like a warning to back off; a subconscious reaction, perhaps, and Hide spins his wrist to pull them a little closer. They're like fresh scabs, rough and bloody, a deep scent of iron piercing the air. But they don't actually bleed, the blood coils like Kaneki's muscles, strong and flexible and a part of his friend whether that friend likes it or not.
Rubbing a finger against one of them, he notices Kaneki breathe out sharply, as if he has touched somewhere intimate. Hide is surprised by his own reaction, because he wants to touch more - to leave Kaneki gasping. Except Kaneki realizes what he has done and recoils, his kagune retracting back into the spot inside his back that harbors the stuff like a sleeper cell.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Kaneki babbles and Hide shushes him by trapping him in a hug, holding him tight.
He wants to say you have nothing to be sorry for, but Kaneki won't hear it, never has, so he rests their foreheads together and tells him, "I'm not going anywhere."
"But you will, you'll leave me and I -" It comes out as a sob but there are no tears. Kaneki hardly cries for himself anymore.
"Nope, sorry. You're stuck with me." He smiles and Kaneki is forced to see it, to see how much he is loved, and it starts to sink in that this is the truth. Hide can tell the exact moment Kaneki realizes what he is saying, how his mouth forms a little 'oh', and then Kaneki tentatively reaches up to take off the eye-patch.
A red, gleaming eye set against an expanse of black stares back at him and Hide feels his own eyes widen. He has never seen a ghoul up close, and it's probably inappropriate that his stomach does a funny flip-flip, but Kaneki is trusting him with this and that means everything to him.
"Wow," is the only thing he can think to say. He touches the corner of Kaneki's eye, traces under it, and it's really no different from the other eye. It's simply an inverse of color and it is beautiful. "Show me more." Not a demand but a plead. He wants this chance more than anything. "Show me your -"
The kagune makes a second appearance, timidly and less sure of itself now that Kaneki has control. It doesn't reach for him either, but waves like a hand to say hello.
Hide muffles a laugh. "Is that the best you can do?"
Turning his head aside, cheeks puffed out in a display of childish anger, Kaneki says, "What would you have me do? It's isn't exactly a toy or something to play with …"
"Hmm," Hide taps one of the kagune, contemplating what how best to answer that, and then smiles. "Take off your clothes."
"What!" Kaneki is a bright red at the suggestion and huddles in on himself, kagune wrapping around him like extra arms. "No, that is not happening. Get that idea out of your head."
Hide sighs dramatically and steps back, twirling a finger in the air as he says, "Then turn around and take off your vest at least. I've wanted to see one of these up close for the longest time!"
Kaneki makes a face at being treated like some kind of exotic creature, but the excitement Hide conveys must get through to him. He grudgingly turns around, exposing his back. In slow, hesitant motions, he unbuttons his vest before placing it somewhere out of reach of the spilled milk.
"Don't do anything weird," warns Kaneki, lifting his shirt to reveal where the kagune is coming from.
It's like watching ivy twine together, crawl upwards to escape the confines of where it has been planted. There are three on each side, stretching outward like newborn fawns, and it boggles his mind to know they are as strong as steel - stronger, probably. If Kaneki wishes it, they could pierce anything that threatened him; but in return, they could also be a barrier that Hide does not wish to imagine standing between them.
So he reaches out, strokes one experimentally, and relishes in the way Kaneki shivers, draws in quick, nervous breathes. His friend doesn't warn him off again, which is promising, and Hide presses forward, mapping out each notch in the spider-like appendage. He follows the kagune to where it connects to Kaneki's flesh, as if it was always meant to be there.
The feather-light touches seem to unravel Kaneki, who lets go of his shirt in favor of holding on to the counter, saying, "O-Okay, that's enough."
It could mean anything, the way Kaneki is reacting, but he would like to believe this is affecting Kaneki because it is him, that Hide is the one who can draw out all those minute reactions. The kagune is just one more place to touch, one more way to show Kaneki how much he is cherished. It reflects in how attentive Hide is to each piece that makes up the kagune as he traces back over each one.
And if he pulls his hand away, the kagune follows, instinctively reaching for him where Kaneki would not, too scared of being hurt. Kaneki has always yearned for affection, just never known how to ask.
"I'm not hurting you, am I?"
"N-No," Kaneki continues to stammer, "b-but …" He isn't sure if his friend is going to keep going or leave it there, except Kaneki surprises him and says in a reproachful manner, "it tickles."
Hide wants to laugh, because he had wanted to believe this was going somewhere completely different, but he gives up and retracts his hands, putting them up in surrender. "Fine, fine. Another time then, when we're completely alone …"
"Hide," scolds Kaneki, "I thought this was a one time thing."
"Oh, I'm sure we can make some latte art at your place, Ken."
In retaliation, Kaneki hides his face, groaning once more. "Why do I get the impression you're not talking about coffee anymore?"
"You know me so well," crooned Hide, circling his arms around his friend's waist and lifting him up. Kaneki gives an 'eek' at the sudden elevation, but from his vantage point, Hide can see a small smile start to form. "I'll even help you clean up!"
"Then put me down." Kaneki tries to sound chiding, but it comes out far too amused.
"Oh? I was planning to clean you up first …"
"What?" Kaneki starts to say, but Hide has lowered him back to the floor, turned his head enough so their mouths can meet, and silences him with a kiss. He can see the exact moment Kaneki realizes what is going on, watches as his eyes close in acceptance, and deepens the kiss into something more passionate when Kaneki doesn't push him away.
When they part for air, Kaneki says, "You're doing a horrible job at cleaning up your mess, Hide." And if that isn't an invitation, Hide is going to make it one.
Meanwhile, further in the shop, Touka remains confused as to why the manager won't let her go help Kaneki. Eventually she gives up and goes to call Yoriko. Perhaps it is something human related.