Summary: AU. Rain doesn't always carry about a tragedy. [Glimpses into some of Touka and Kaneki's rainy day memories]
Note: My first touken fic in a few years, and I'm every bit as nervous as I was when I posted back then! This one is a fluffy fic I actually originally began ~ 2 years ago for rainy days touken fluff week but didn't actually manage to finish. Also, this will probably be a multiple chapter fic but I haven't completely planned it out yet. I hope you enjoy! :)
It rains and it pours but that's the least of young Touka's worries.
It's hard to be concerned about the state of the weather when one is living a life on the run. Other than being troubled by the chill, rainy evenings cease to matter. As do frigid snowy afternoons and sweltering sunny days.
It's all meaningless when she and her brother are living aimlessly from one day to another, their only goal to survive.
How much time has passed since they've been chased out of the place they once called home?
A few days?
A couple of weeks?
A month or even longer?
She stares down at her dress, the one her father had worked so hard to patch up just days before he disappeared, dismayed to find it unrecognizable - all damp and tattered at the edges, not to mention covered with muddy splotches.
Normally she wouldn't have cared, as an active child she had ripped and dirtied it multiple times, but now the very last thing she wanted to do was attract unwanted attention. She would have to clean it up before they left this temporary shelter.
A sneeze from the corner of the room interrupts the flow of her thoughts and she frowns as she makes her way towards her brother, the last precious family member she has remaining.
"Onee-chan, I'm tired and my legs hurt," her younger sibling whines, head drooping low onto his chest as he slips in and out of sleep, and she tiptoes over to grab a table cloth (there are no blankets in the dingy abandoned residence they are currently lodging in) to keep him warm, sucking in a startled breath when he mumbles the words "I want to go home."
She tucks him in, burying her own turbulent feelings as she wraps her tiny arms around the sniffling boy and draws him into a tight hug. Then she waits until he falls asleep before she whispers, "Onee-chan does too".
It's not fair
The thought surfaces and lingers for a brief second or two before she wills it to disappear.
She would be as strong-minded as her mother whom she had loved so much.
She can't falter.
She refuses to.
They only have each other now and she'll do what she has to in order to protect him.
While he rests, she remains on the lookout, blowing on her hands and cupping her ears in an effort to retain some warmth. It's at times like these that she used to nestle herself into her father's side but now that he isn't with them, she wishes there was proper heating to take away the chill.
Stuck with nothing to do but plan for the next few weeks, her thoughts soon turn to obtaining food. They had eaten just the other day but with the terrible weather outside - the raindrops trickling down the foggy window juxtaposed with the flashes of lightning and booming thunder are hard to miss - Touka has a hunch that there won't be many people on the hunt for ghouls. As such, it doesn't take her long to decide to search for some scraps of food. It's a perfect opportunity and one that she doesn't intend to pass up.
Besides, she surmises, even if I don't find anything, at least I can say I tried.
With her mind made up, the minute Ayato awakens (in the early evening, and after the lightning has subsided), she dons an old raincoat (there's a tiny tear on one arm but it's not too noticeable) and pats him on the back.
"Ayato, stay here and I'll be back in a bit. I'm going to quickly look for some food," she explains without hesitation, opening up the door of their hideout and scanning the surroundings. She'll have to be fast, even if there will be less people outdoors on such a stormy evening, she doesn't really relish the idea of leaving him alone. "I don't think anything will happen but ... it's always best to be prepared. If you hear any strange voices, you can peer through the curtains and if it's an investigator then I want you to run as fast as you can to the meeting place we agreed upon. I'll be sure to catch up."
His grip on her arm tightens and she gently pushes him back down.
"Don't worry about me." She looks him square in the eyes, "We've been roaming a lot lately and although you tried to hide it from me, I noticed you've been coughing a lot and your feet are all scratched so I want you to rest up."
"But what if-"
What if you don't return?
She freezes, swallowing past the lump in her throat at his trembling tone and watery eyes, acknowledging his unspoken words.
"I'm not otou-san, Ayato." She reassures him the best that she can."I'll be back for sure"
He reluctantly acquiesces, desperately blinking back tears, and she leaves after entrusting him with a fluffy toy bunny that she managed to salvage from their previous residence.
Onee-chan won't take too long, and the bunny will protect you in my place, she silently promises, dashing through the back-alley, so please stay safe.
Several hours later (together with rotten luck hindering her attempts to procure food), she trudges back to their tiny hideout, checking their meeting spot on the way and quickly departing when she finds no sign of her little brother.
Along the path she passes by a lightning has vanished making her surroundings much harder to see but she jerks, her body tensing as it forms what she imagines to be a proper fighting stance when she hears a rustling noise.
Someone's nearby, she thinks, darting behind a tree and willing her heart to stop racing.
There, through the whistling wind and smattering of rain, she counts to three and summons her courage before peeking around the trunk.
Illuminated by the street lamp headlights, her eyes land on a boy similar to her in age (and height), sitting under an umbrella on top of a dome painted like a whale, and she slumps back against the tree in relief, thankful that it's not one of those scary people that have been hot on their trail.
Her fears abated, she tries to tip toe discretely away, but those plans are foiled when her foot descends a bit too heavily on a stray twig and there's a sharp "crack" as it snaps cleanly in two. She raises her head, eyes wide and panicked, to find the boy staring in her direction.
What should I do? she wonders, fidgeting on the spot and cursing her own carelessness.
If only she had been more mindful or taken another path then she wouldn't be in this situation. At the very least she is able to draw consolation from the fact that he too looks as startled as she feels.
He is the first to move, raising a hand to wave after a few instants of stationary silence, and that's when she backs away, slipping and sliding on the wet leaves as she swivels, readying herself for a sprint.
"Please wait!" he cries out, and she chances a quick glance behind her just in time to see him tumble off the dome with an audible "oof".
A moment passes, and then another and, while this is the perfect opportunity to make an escape (she doubts he'd be able to catch up to her with that clumsiness of his), her curiosity gets the better of her.
I shouldn't be doing this, she thinks as she approaches the fallen boy. It could be a trap.
Yet her feet continue to advance, plodding forward one step at a time.
Even though it had been a brief glimpse, his earlier posture had stuck with her. Maybe it's the way he had looked so lonely curled up by himself, his faraway gaze locked on the sky above, something she had been guilty of doing a lot more recently, but her gut instinct tells her he doesn't mean any harm.
A quick check and then I'll leave.
She's kneeling by his side before she realizes it.
"Are you okay?" she asks, scrutinizing the reddening scrapes forming on the center of his palm.
Everything about him touts that he's a human and based on what her father had told her, they don't heal as quickly as ghouls.
The boy nods, but she doesn't believe him - not when he winces while trying to get up from the ground, his thumb and forefinger coming to brush the underside of his chin. Annoyed, and temporarily throwing caution to the wind (if she got out of this alive, she would have to keep this meeting with a human a secret from Ayato), she grabs his arm, leading him to the tiny space inside the dome sheltered from the rain.
"Thank you," he murmurs once they sit down, and she frowns. Wasn't he in pain? " I'm sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to offer you this umbre-"
"Why?" she interrupts him, arms crossed and head tilted to the side.
Why was he helping someone he didn't know?
"I - I couldn't help but notice that your jacket has a rip," he stammers out, his index finger awkwardly pointing at the material covering her right arm. "It might not be too noticeable but it wouldn't be good if you caught a cold, would it?"
Was this what they called an idiot? Sure he was kind but he was definitely an idiot nonetheless. She was a stranger and, as of late, it was rare for others to offer her such generosity.
"You should worry about yourself more, instead of another kid like me," she grumbles under her breath and when she doesn't make any move to take the umbrella from him, his smile falters. "You should get yourself treated or that cut on your hand will get infected."
"It's alright, I live nearby and this jacket will be enough to protect me from the rain," he reassures her, and when she eyes him doubtfully after pointing out the heavy stream of rain droplets combining with the rapidly growing puddles, he adds, "I can run pretty fast too!"
Confident in her own racing abilities, Touka blinks as she tries, and fails, to hold back a laugh at his sudden proud enthusiastic declaration and upon hearing her giggles, he joins in with a laugh of his own too.
"Okay, fine, you win," she manages to get out after calming down, traces of her prior amusement still detectable in her voice. It had been a while since she had genuinely laughed. This would probably be the only time they would meet in their entire lives but she would have to thank him for making her laugh and for the umbrella.
Struck with an idea of what to give him in return, Touka reaches into the pocket of her jacket, fumbling a bit in her search but grinning triumphantly when she finds what she's looking for.
There you are!
She lifts her arm, a handkerchief in tow.
It's only once she's satisfied from the results of inspecting it to make sure it was in decent condition (unlike her clothing), and still clean from when she had washed it earlier that day, that she turns to him.
"It's not much," she mumbles, holding it out, "but give me your hand."
He glances over startled but quickly follows her instructions when she tells him to "hurry up already!"
It's her first time treating the wounds of someone outside her family but she works diligently, gripping his hand in her own. Unlike Ayato, he doesn't complain about the pain but she tries to be as gentle as possible when she wipes at the scratches, careful in her attempts to remove the grains of sand from his open cuts.
"It's only a temporary solution," she warns him as she finishes, pressing the sheet against his palm and enclosing his fingers around it. "Keep this and clean it properly when you get home!"
"Thank you," he whispers, looking touched at her actions, and she nods.
They rest for a while longer, until the unrelenting storm dwindles to a soft "pitter patter". Then, with a wave and a farewell, she leaves with his umbrella and he, with her handkerchief.
The rain stops partway through her journey back and she finds herself unexpectedly smiling at the thought that the boy would have been saved from being drenched (waterproof jacket or not). She dashes the last stretch home, relieved when Ayato rushes to meet her the moment she calls out "I'm back".
While she didn't manage to get any food, it was, by no means, an uneventful outing.
Her thumb brushes over the words inked onto the handle.
Kaneki Ken
She doubted she was reading his name correctly, she could only vaguely remember what her father had once taught her after all, but she guessed it didn't matter.
Both kind and funny, she was certain of one thing.
That boy sure was an odd one.
A short while later the ghoul investigators manage to suss out their whereabouts and they are forced to flee the ward.
Faced with a sudden unforgivable world filled with territory fights and struggles to survive, Touka soon wipes the memory of the boy and his small act of kindness from her mind.
Sometimes that first meeting is not always meant to be remembered.