A/N This is my first fanfiction so no flames please! Just kidding, but helpful criticism is much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Tokyo Ghoul or Seraph of the End/ Owari no Seraph, and I never will.

Quietly opening the front door to his tiny but cosy apartment, Yuichiro Amane jumped about a foot in the air as the familiar piercing sound of his house alarm engulfed him in unexpected noise. As he hastily typed out his pin to shut the damned thing up, he wondered where his roommate was. Mikaela worked in a different department to him, but he knew that today was the blonde's day off. Oh yeah! The nineteen-year-old grinned suddenly and blew his dark hair out of his eyes.

Mika had been quite stressed lately and his favourite way of relieving himself from it was either getting drunk or getting laid. Yu didn't mind, if his best friend was happy and still sane, it was fine. Still, Yu had to admit he was still a bit too overprotective and could be very hostile and suspicious towards anyone that Mika brought home, which meant that his roommate rarely invited anyone over.

Maybe he was a little bit jealous.

After figuring out that his BFF was getting totally wasted without him, Yu stretched and yawned, rubbing his tired eyes with his knuckles. The teen kicked off his shoes and dumped his bags lazily on the floor, right where Mika would fall over them, before remembering to slam the door shut. Not before an icy draft had crept in and frozen him half to death though. Shivering, the green-eyed male bent down to pick up several papers that had been blown to the floor by the small gust of wind.

This must be information on the case Mika's working on at the moment. Yu rifled through the papers disinterestedly. He didn't care about this side of the job, the boring paperwork and shitty documents, he cared about exterminating every last ghoul from existence. After what they had done to him… Yu shook his head bitterly – that had been years ago and it felt like it had been months since he had spared the 'incident' a moment's thought. That made sense, since he had vowed to erase the awful memories from his mind, though sometimes it was just so difficult. Yu shook his head again, messy black locks ruffling in the accidental breeze he had just caused.

I'm going off topic again. Yu winced internally, refocusing on the crisp, white paper in front of him. While the person he knew best worked as a detective in the CCG, he was a member who worked mainly in the field. He rarely worked in the office, and Yu definitely liked it that way. Soft velvety carpet snug between his toes, casually he strolled down the cramped hallway before entering his tiny bedroom. His favourite room in the whole house still looked exactly like it had for the past year and a half – dirty washing and scrunched up pieces of paper littered the floor like confetti, the four walls crudely graffitied with messy scribbles and doodles that Yu proudly claimed were 'works of art'.

Mika described them as 'bullshit'.

Flinging himself onto his bed, the teen gazed up thoughtfully at the P! ATD poster taped to the ceiling above his head. It was a habit of his – to gaze up into Brendon Urie's warm, brown eyes and to contemplate life. This, however, had led Mika to believing that his roommate had a massive crush on the main singer of an emo band. Grimacing at the horrendous thought, Yu rolled over on to his side so that he ended up staring out of the window at the brightly-lit city streets below. It was a humid summer's night in late May, but there was a surprisingly fierce thunderstorm going on outside and bright flashes of lightning lit up the dark clouds above every ten seconds which made it impossible for Yu to think like he usually did. Crack! A sudden bolt of lightning raced across the sky like a whip-lash, and the young male jumped slightly, surprised, but soon resumed his favourite pastime. Yu loved thinking – it sounded silly but his own mind was a tranquil escape from the real world – safe from the dangers and the shadows of his past. He could distract himself from his guilt, how he was haunted every day by his past deeds.

Yu continued to gaze out of the window, his eyes a little glazed as he wasn't really concentrating. There were still several people running around outside, clearly caught unawares by the sudden storm and had forgotten to bring an umbrella. Several were crouching underneath shop fronts, waiting hopefully for the rain to stop, whilst others bravely trudged through the city streets, sheltering under wide, colourful umbrellas. The young ghoul investigator had always wondered why there were such things as 'colourful umbrellas'. They are just tools, useful for only one thing, so why bother? Life was too short to have rainbow umbrellas. Unless you are going to Pride and don't want to get covered in glitter, but EVERYONE LOVES GLITTER. Yu spotted an unlucky couple walking along, holding bemittened hands and bending over slightly as a shelter from the wind. Yu smiled to himself. The couple, completely unaware of his scrutinising, meaningful glare, continued along morosely, wishing they were at home in bed watching Pulp Fiction or something whilst drinking hot chocolate. Okay, maybe not Pulp Fiction. Snorting, Yu shook his head in disbelief. He was laughing at the fact that they were completely decked out in warm winter clothes like neon woolly scarves and those stupid beanie-hats with giant fluffy pom-poms on.

Yu paused. He had always secretly wanted a rainbow one, but there was no way in HELL that he was ever gonna let Mika know that. Unless the person he was very much in love with found out his secret desires (he kept all of them in a locked green diary – he had a key for it that he always wore around his neck even when he went to sleep), he would never own a fabulous hideous beanie that he could wear to Tokyo Pride.

Burying his face in his pillow, Yu wondered how it had come to this. How on earth he had fallen in love with his best friend, Yu had no idea. But he had decided to confess to him on the eleventh anniversary of the day they had met – the 12th of May 2019 – which happened to be tomorrow. Classy, I know. Yu thought to himself miserably. He had been too much of a coward (though he would never admit it out loud) to tell him on the 10th anniversary of the day that they had met, but he was almost certain that he could do it this time.

Almost.

Anyway, if Mika rejected him or didn't return his feelings then he could just pretend it was a prank or a really late April's Fools, like reaaaally late. Yu checked his phone quickly, the familiar heart warming photo that Yu had taken on Mika's eighteenth birthday greeting him as his lockscreen. He had taken it when he had just crossed the line between intoxication and on the very edge of staying sober. He had just kissed Mika on the cheek and had half an arm around the shoulder of the afore-mentioned person, who was bright red with embarrassment. Yu had treasured the photo ever since and still got butterflies in his stomach from looking at it. The feeling…

The time had just turned ten thirty and Yu decided that soon he had better flick off the lights and try and get some sleep before his incredibly early start tomorrow morning, 4.40am exactly. He had a stupid meeting that he was determined to miss at least half of but he still had to leave incredibly early even if he wanted to be late. Who the fuck even has meetings that early anyway? Bloody hell…

Yawning again, Yu got up with some difficulty, longing to hide under his duvet from his responsibilities but it was not to be. He had one last thing he had to do before he flopped into bed, which seriously pissed him off. He was currently soaked in blood (thankfully most of it wasn't his own) and slightly caked in mud from head to toe, and he had to go wash it off in the shower. Usually, Yu was very fussy about his hygiene and appearance but he had a small problem with his apartment's running hot water. In his shower, it was only warm for about thirty seconds, until suddenly it would turn freezing cold and it would feel like a thousand tiny daggers were stabbing his back and he had to run dramatically outside and let out a very high pitched scream. Most of the time Yu would just grit his teeth and deal with it but today he felt like shit. Something just felt off to him.

Still, if he didn't clean up from his last fight with a ghoul, then it would just be uncomfortable, he would stink and it would be gross – even if he was used to this. It was his job after all. As he purposefully strode out of his room, the teen promptly tripped over the bags that he had PURPOSEFULLY left out to annoy Mika.

"FUCK!" Yu swore loudly, hopping around on one foot like a deranged fairy. His eyes began to well up with salty tears of pain, threatening to spill over. Until they did. "Wha… what the hell?" Yu gently touched his cheek, tracing the little waterfall a tear had carved down his face. This is insane! He didn't understand what was happening – all he done was stub his stupid toe and now he was crying like a little baby? It didn't make any sense. Hiccupping, Yu searched his mind for a rational reason for what just happened. It was so random, and completely out of the blue that he could not find a logical explanation for the strange event that had just taken place. Yu sniffed loudly, wiping his runny nose on his sleeve. A little gross (though not as gross as being covered in both blood and mud – goddamn ghouls and RAIN) but Mika had taken the tissues hostage in his room and Yu was too terrified to attempt to retrieve them after what had happened last time.

Mika…

A cold and empty feeling grew in the pit of his stomach, until it felt like there was a herd of vicious butterflies rampaging through his stomach. Yu didn't care if butterflies didn't rampage or that he had no clue what the collective pronoun for butterflies was, it wasn't important enough. All he knew was that he was scared out of his wits – but that it wasn't for his sake. Oh no, for a certain blue-eyed male. He didn't know why, but he was almost certain that he was about to lose Mika to some unseen super-natural force, and it terrified him. The feeling down there – no not down there – intensified at this sudden realisation, and he was certain that it was a gut feeling. The steady pattering of rain against the tiled rooftops outside continued along with everything else in the world, as if nothing was the matter. But it was.

Traipsing along the narrow corridor, Yu shook his head vigorously as if to clear his head of rubbish. It couldn't be possible, could it? But deep down, Yu knew that he was right. He turned left into the small bathroom, before collapsing on the toilet seat with his head in his hands. Gradually, his heartbeat slowed down and his breathing resumed to normal from the harsh, unsteady rasps of only a short while ago. Twiddling his thumbs, he caught sight of the faded scars on his wrists and turned his hand to peer at them. Yu gently touched the pale lines blemishing his perfect skin, remembering the weight and feel of the knife as he tore his skin apart, the crimson blood streaming down his arm. They were a painful memento of his childhood, but whenever he caught sight of them, they only revived sharp emotions of guilt and regret and a bitter taste on his tongue. Yu sighed, rising from the toilet seat and making his way over to the tiny shower to clean himself up. He passed a miniature window set into the window on his way.

A sudden flare of light from a random flash of lightning illuminated the sharp angles of his handsome face, lighting up his sparkling, emerald eyes for a split second. The dazzling, emerald eyes of a cold-blooded murderer.