Uta had counted for nearly three days the hours that Kaneki had been gone. 76 hours in, and he was ready to have a fucking heart attack. He checked his watch again. 77 hours. Nope. He was done waiting.
He lifted the phone and dialed Itori's number. "Gather the rest of us. We're going to raise a little hell." He ordered.
"Sounds like fun, Uta. See you then." She answered.
Uta flipped the sign on his shop and was already removing his shirt as he went up the stairs to his apartment, throwing open the bedroom door to go to the closet and remove an outfit he wore scarcely anymore. The striped suit slung on easily, like always, and he pulled his mask on before climbing to the roof with his walking stick as he prepared for real hell like he hadn't been raising in far too long.
He reached the roof and found all of his Clowns already gathered, dressed in their best and waiting for the door to open. Uta didn't wait before leaping for the nearest rooftop and moving across the ward, going straight for the Aogiri hideout. While everyone else was looking for it, Uta knew exactly where to look to find his lover. He'd waited outside to meet him some nights, and Kaneki had reacted as if it were no big deal, didn't question what he was doing or how he found him. But he never said outright what was inside, though Uta could put two and two together. The new hideout was discrete, but large enough to handle the number of ghouls Aogiri still claimed.
Uta didn't say anything for a long while, not until Itori chirped the question on all of their minds. "What happened?" She called.
"Kaneki hasn't come home in a little over three days. He always calls or sends word if he's gone longer than one. There's one group that could want him enough to take him again, and he's mine." Uta said over his shoulder. "Any objections?"
When everyone was quiet again, following him up to the door of the building, he took that as a no and kicked the door in. There were ghouls mulling about in the room they stepped into, and he looked around for just a moment before whiffing the air for Kaneki's scent. He automatically caught the scent he was looking for and started moving calmly in that direction. The attack moved fluidly, all of the Aogiri surrounding them moving directly at them to defend their hideaway. Uta could look at each mask and know the face behind it, know the person who was behind it without a worry in the world. He could see each face and know that the person in the mask would kill Kaneki without a second thought, and that made him rage without a single change in expression. He would kill any one of them.
He did kill several of them. He wiped through them like butter, and any who got past him alive didn't make it past his Clowns, right behind him.
He was mowing through them when suddenly a black and white blur moved in front of him with his back to him, and blocked the next attack. The voice that shot forth with command was one he recognized with his eyes closed.
"Stop! Stop, they're here for me!" Kaneki barked.
The Black Rabbit moved forward, still in his battle gear, pulling his mask up off of his face. "Who are they?" He asked, hauling a female ghoul forward by her arms, her mouth gagged and eyes rolled back in unconsciousness.
Kaneki turned around, his kakugan glaring straight at Uta. "The Clowns. I told you I was fucking late, but you're an asshole, and now somebody is going to have to clean up this mess, and it is your ass. I'd get to it." He turned to glare at the man one time, then turned back to Uta and shoved past him.
Kaneki started out the door, not even listening to the Rabbit when he called out about watching his ass, and kept walking without removing his mask. Uta followed him, stripping his mask off his face.
"Where have you-" Uta started.
"We're not having this argument out in the open, and we are not having it in front of them. I'd suggest you dismiss your goons, because I will not be having it out, right here, in front of your posse, in my mask and fresh out of a three day mission that should have taken two hours. I will see you inside." Kaneki snapped.
Uta looked up, not sure how he had kept up with Kaneki moving that fast while trying to ask questions. Roma was still having trouble catching up though Kaneki had already slammed the door shut behind him. Uta blinked, his owlish eyes still trained on the spot where Kaneki had walked away. He turned to Itori, the one standing nearest, and nodded at her. She nodded, not asking what was going on, which was unusual for her. He expected a whiny plea to stay, but he got nothing and normally that would pique his interest and he would hold to talk to her for a moment, to talk to them all. But none of them said anything, and he couldn't tell whether that was from the stark relief he felt so clearly being plastered across his face, or because they'd gone out and decimated part of Aogiri's ranks and possibly changed their games. He let them go, and when they were gone, he started moving down the stairs into his apartment.
He barely even had the door open before he was dodging Kaneki's mask flying at his face. He picked it up from the stairs behind him and turned but was then dodging a shoe. He ducked it, and managed to grab Kaneki before he could act on how far his arm was cranked back with that second shoe in his hand. To his credit, he still threw it, and hit Uta in the head with it, but it just rolled off. "What are you doing?" Uta asked.
"What the hell was that, Uta? What the hell?" He yanked himself out of Uta's hands. "I told you I would make my way back. I told you I would always make my way back to you. What the hell were you thinking running into Aogiri like that? You could have been killed! Everyone in there had weight behind them, and your boys very nearly missed a few of them with the seconds I was in there. The guy coming at you was a much heavier weight when I stepped in the way. And I don't know how you got Nico behind you, but you can ask him when you see him again. If I ever let you out of my sight again to go meet him, that is. Really, what the hell were you thinking? What the hell were you thinking, Uta, answer me!" He picked up one of his sketchbooks off the table and threw it at his head and Uta dodged it again.
"I was trying to find you, Kaneki. I need to see you and make sure you were alive. What do you want me to say here? You were gone for just over three days. Was I supposed to assume you were alive? If this was what it took to remind you to get a hold of me then I'll do it again every time you go missing." He growled.
"Oh is that what this is? If you wanted my attention, you certainly have it now, O King No Face. And what about the days I come home to find you gone? That striped suit you fill out so well gone from the closet and no trace of where you went or when you'll be back? Shall I follow suit and get Ayato and Noro to come with me and raid whatever joint I find your scent leading back to next time I come to an empty house that has obviously been empty for however long it has been gone by the orders at the door?" Kaneki snapped, kakugan still glaring a hole into Uta's head.
"I always come back to make sure you've left some sort of correspondence if I wasn't there to get it. I always do." Uta barked.
"Oh, yeah, that's right, maybe a week later after you got some sort of letter. I sit here, like a good pet plaything, right here on this bed, worried out of my mind, panicked and going even more insane than Yamori made me with his playthings in his room, wondering when you'll be back, if you'll be back, if someone has finally become the bigger, badder man, if I've been abandoned again. I don't ever get that kind of correspondence. I make sure you get it because you always lose your fucking temper if a chess piece moves off the board when it isn't supposed to, and I'm never allowed to let mine show but goddammit Uta, you can't just fucking go off the reservation like this and raid Aogiri looking for me with only four men behind you. You at least had Yomo in the last raid, and Tsukiyama, as fucking insane as that one is. You had Yoshimura to deflect bullets. I don't know your insane posse. I can't trust any of them to save your ass when I know one of them was staring at it and if you hit him hard enough he'll let you do whatever you want to him!"
Uta was more than angry as Kaneki's speech rolled on, but Kaneki matched his fury word for word, ounce for ounce, squaring his shoulders for a fight he couldn't win as they made their way closer to each other with every rage filled word. He would have still been angry if he hadn't been as close as he was and could have not seen what fueled Kaneki's rage burning in his eyes and forming tears to sate that burn. Kaneki wasn't just furious, rage filled and ready to explode with it. He was absolutely terrified, terrified for Uta. He had been worried about Uta. It was plain in his eyes every second they stared at each other in silence while he let Uta see this much before he threw his arms around Uta and buried his head in Uta's chest.
"You asshole." He choked out. "I was coming home. Where did you think I would go? If I was at Aogiri, I would have found you. I would have sent word. Ayato wouldn't let me leave the stakeout spot we were set to long enough to use a phone and call you. How could you let me find you that way? Noro was two steps away from tearing you in half without a second thought. You could have died. You could have gotten hurt." He choked on his words, and Uta felt his fingers curl tightly into the back of Uta's suit.
Uta took a deep breath, leaning in to hug him, and released his own relieved breath. "You didn't come back. It had been 77 hours since you'd been gone, and the longest I've gone without news was about 8. I was panicking." He promised.
Kaneki sighed, tightening his arms around Uta. "Will we ever stop panicking about each other?" He asked quietly.
Uta shook his head. "Not likely. I know I won't. I have a heart attack every time you leave the room, much less the building. When I can't jog two steps to reach you, I worry." Uta admitted quietly.
Kaneki groaned, then pulled away to look up at him. "I'm still mad at you for going insane on Aogiri." He growled, sounding less than upset.
Uta found himself smiling, reaching up and trailing his fingers along Kaneki's cheek. "I'll get over it." He teased.
Kaneki pouted. "Ass." He growled.
Uta chuckled. "Beautiful." Uta answered.
"Jerk." Kaneki was running out of things to call him with the gentle touch on his face.
"Witty." Uta told him.
There were days they could get on each other's nerves and shut them down just like that, and it seemed this was one of those days.