Chapter 1: Sanguine

Leaves fell on an autumn scene, painting the garden amber. Kanae had been watching Shuu for a while now; the pale man had seated himself in the dining hall of the mansion and had been staring out of the closed windows for an hour now. She stood beneath the tall wooden beams that lined the hall, drumming her fingers against the wall mindlessly. Anxiety was building in the shorter figure as she couldn't fathom why one would want to spend their day looking across the familiar garden. Why wasn't Mairo cleaning up the mess the trees were making? Whole pathways throughout the garden were buried in the paper-like furls.

She was getting impatient - Kanae had to know what he was thinking. She made her way towards the mop of pastel blue hair and took a seat beside him, wondering if there was anything to be gained from chancing her eye level. Maybe she simply couldn't see what he was looking at from the distance of the doorframe looking in on the room.

Alas, nothing. They whole scene looked identical.

She felt his eyes turn on her and couldn't help revealing a flash of pink across flushed cheeks. This was just embarrassing; he didn't need to see that, that wasn't the point of positioning herself next to him. No great declaration of love, just curiosity. She turned away and intensely stared out the window, hoping he wouldn't comment on it.

The pair sat in silence for a short while, neither remarking on the other's presence. Kanae felt the words uncontrollably leave her mouth as her patience finally wore thin, "Master Shuu, why is it that you've been staring out this window all morning?"

The gourmet paused for a moment, as if composing his reply before he eventually gave away an answer. "Kanae, do you see that rose over there?"

The smaller girl leaned towards the window, noting a blooming rose poking out from the leaves; it was rather small and stood alone, isolated from the rose garden which resided further from the mansion. Its delicate purple petals looked fresh against the dry foliage. She nodded in confirmation of the sighting.

"Well….." another pause, "Kanae, don't you see….. It's drowning; it's up to its neck and drowning in red."

"Shuu…" Worry grew across the girl's face as she tried to understand the meaning of these words. Was he simply referring to the growing pile of maple leaves around the rose or did it mean something deeper, something more significant.

"Oh, and Kanae," he turned towards her, interrupting her thoughts; "I've asked Mairo and Matsumae not to clear the leaves up until they start to rot. I like the way they look on the lawn."

"Master Shuu, if you don't mind me saying, I can barely see the paving. What if you were to lose your footing for losing sight of a steady surface?"

"I doubt it will come to that." He turned back to the window as if to motion the end of the conversation. Kanae rose and walked to the doorframe, looking back over her shoulder and questioning what it all meant. Maybe Shuu had finally lost himself to depression, or maybe he was just trying to pick up a new hobby. The latter seemed unlikely. The only thing her master seemed to care about anymore was one Kaneki Ken and an encounter with botany wasn't going to change that. Kaneki seemed to be Shuu's entire world, nothing else would satisfy him, nothing else was enough. For a ghoul that was rumoured to want a taste of anything new, he certainly wasn't letting go of this image of the perfect meal.

A one-eyed ghoul. It was laughable that the man who could have anything would fall for this creature acting as a ghoul, a fake, an undesirable. Revolting. He would fall for this, yet never even cast an eye on those who held him closest. She couldn't deny being wrought with jealousy as her counterpart saw no one else except this unpredictable hybrid, but Kanae took this emotion down to the neglect she had felt as a child, feeling as though nobody truly saw her.

Why did she call him master? What did she owe him? Nothing. She owed everything to his father for taking her in, not to that pig. So what was this whole 'master' thing about… could it be that she secretly craved his attention? No. That couldn't be it…. Could it?

Dusk fell and Matsumae wheeled a large dish to the service lift. The heavy silverware platter contained what was most likely a workaholic or a lone bachelor – someone forgettable with no real ties. An easy kill. Of course Shuu wouldn't have any of it, this carcass would be wasted on him, and he probably wouldn't even try to eat it. Yet Matsumae routinely went hunting for him.

Kanae saw her dedication to him on a daily basis and wondered what had happened for such a stoic woman to give so much of her time to this wilting man. Once again, Kanae's face flushed pink as she felt another twang of jealousy – Shuu depended on this woman but would never allow himself to rely on Kanae. She buried this thought. Matsumae was good to any friend of the Tsukiyamas, and that included her.

Kanae hadn't spoken to Shuu since the conversation about the leaves and was in no mind to go and talk to him now, especially while he was confronted with food. Instead, the mauve-haired girl went back to the dining hall. The tall ceiling beams loomed over her as shadows filled the room. Amongst the darkness outside, she could still vaguely see the outline of that rose with only the petals protruding from the cluttered ground. She sighed and turned her gaze back to the service lift which was only just visible through that grand doorway. Matsumae had reappeared with the dish and trundled it towards Kanae.

"Maybe you would appreciate this more than the young master."

The room was devoid of sound. Kanae asked Matsumae to sit across the large rectangular table from her and the dish was placed between them. They sat in the dark as the shorter girl tried to find the words she wanted. Matsumae flashed cutlery, knowing to wait for the girl to compose herself. Mairo and Mirumo were nowhere to be seen and so Kanae remained, alone in the dark, aside from the silver-wielding servant.

The shoulders of the bound figure slumped, "Matsumae…." The faintest voice left her lips, "Why does Shuu like the maple leaves?"

"I wasn't aware he did." A quizzical look crossed the older woman's face, but she thought it best not to push the girl. Kanae seemed to have retreated into an introverted state, limbs curled inward as if to assume the foetal position while awkwardly balanced on a tall Mackintosh inspired chair. "You ought to eat something or you'll waste away. You're already starving yourself to keep a masculine figure."

Matsumae was more observant than she'd thought, or maybe the disguised gender of the girl was so obvious to everyone else but no one felt it polite to point out. Either way, Matsumae didn't normally speak like this; she was always direct and to the point. She must have sensed a disturbance within the Tsukiyama Manor.

Dark hair fell across dark eyes as the more feminine of the two lent over to cut into the body. Blood ran around the rim of the dish, coating the reflective surface in red. 'Red' thought Kanae 'It's drowning in red'.

She shook her head violently, trying to get those words out of her mind, and turned back to the plate of cuttings Matsumae had promptly prepared. She'd never seen the servant eat before, so it was a first for her when they both sat quietly together chewing the tough flesh, hidden in the depths of the shadowed hall.

They finished the body between the two of them and the older woman took the dish to the kitchen after wishing Kanae a pleasant night's sleep. This encounter with the servant was unusually lengthy, so with her departure, Kanae was left wondering if Matsumae knew more than she was letting on…