Kaneki noticed a little more than Uta really thought he did, but most of the time, he just let it go. It was generally small things that made sense to Kaneki in an odd sort of way, like the way Uta collected butterflies and kept them on the balcony outside. They were quiet, and easy to handle, and beautiful, which was something Uta had a proclivity to enjoy. Even with the Clowns, which was something Kaneki noticed even though Uta didn't notice he did, he put together things he found as beautiful and easy to deal with. The human auction that had once again nearly killed Kaneki, beautiful in a way he could enjoy, quiet for his life, and it was easy enough for him to handle anyway. Getting Jason out of the way was a little less easy to handle, but he had done it.

So when Uta out of the blue came back to the apartment above his shop and announced to Kaneki that he was going to get a fish, Kaneki noticed he was a little more than high strung.

"What?" Kaneki responded, closing his book.

"A fish. It's getting too cold and the butterflies are going to start dying. But fish stay inside, so they won't die in the cold." He suggested.

Kaneki raised a brow. "Don't you...hate is a strong word for you and aquatic things, but don't you dislike fish?" He asked.

Uta's eyebrow twitched, but he didn't say anything for a moment, eyes still owlish in their intensity. "I'm bored. What can I say?" He justified.

Uta justifying himself was mostly strange in and of itself. He didn't normally justify himself to Kaneki, much less run anything past him like this. He usually just did it. Another thing that Kaneki noticed. Uta did things first. The man was almost a religious believer in the phrase 'better to ask forgiveness than permission.' It was just his thing, unless he was doing something with the Clowns. Then it was 'fuck it, let's just see what happens.'

"Okay? Why suddenly do you want a fish? You've had those butterflies for a while I would assume, considering this is the first year I've lived here." Kaneki asked.

"I need something to take care of." He grumbled, looking at Kaneki.

Okay. So that stung a little, though Kaneki wasn't sure it was aimed at him. He flipped his book open and leaned back on the couch. "It's your apartment. If you want a fish go get a fish. It's all you."

Uta grinned and stood, walking to the door without a second glance behind him.

Uta was walking into the twentieth ward, because he knew there was no idiot alive who would think the fourth was a good place for a pet shop or a rescue or anything, when the box caught his attention. For starters, the box moved. Uta wasn't a big box expert, but he was fairly certain boxes didn't move. It was a small box, but still. He glanced around. It was a good time of day, but it wasn't a residential neighborhood, and there were more homeless peddling their small wares than anything else. Uta knew what he looked like, and he knew he was likely to scare normal people, especially with his sunglasses on, but he didn't want to walk into any type of ambush. He just didn't feel like it. He did a once around to make sure there weren't any inspectors or other ghouls around, and then walked up to the moving box.

Standard cardboard box.

Except the whole movement thing.

He crouched beside it and reached out a tattooed finger to flip the box over when he saw the writing on the top in what was obviously a drunkards scrawl, which read 'take the damn thing if you want it, sure as shit I dont.' The box shook wildly when he reached out, and he pulled his hand back for a second before reaching inside with two fingers. He'd rather lose a finger than a few days of healing. Inside, something cold that blasted warm air over his finger touched it, and he jerked his hand back when another cold, wet thing touched the tip of his finger. He flipped the box over, and stared at the adorable monster beneath it.

He had found his Fish.

When Kaneki heard footsteps on the stairs, he sat up from the couch, realizing he'd fallen asleep there, his book open on the floor. He rubbed his eyes and was lifting his book when the door came open. Uta walked in with his jacket zipped up, looking at Kaneki expectantly.

"Did you get my message?" He asked.

Kaneki blinked the sleep out of his eyes and rubbed them into focus. "What message?" He asked.

Uta smiled as he went into the bedroom. "Check your phone." He suggested, and went into the bathroom attached to the bedroom.

Kaneki watched the tattooed ghoul in confusion, waiting till he left the room and started running the bathtub before he grabbed his phone from the table beside him. He had three new text messages from Uta that he had missed because he was asleep, and he glanced up at the bathroom where...was that laughter...okayyy. He flipped into his messages and started reading.

'Hey, run warm h2o in tub. Comin back now.'

Warm water in the tub for a fish? Okay then. He skipped to the next one.

'Meet Fish.'

Kaneki looked at the next message, which was a picture of the creature Uta called Fish, and he could hardly believe what he looked at. He put the phone down and jogged to the bathroom to see Uta had shed his shirt, and was lathering soap into the fur of the Great Pyrenees puppy in the tub. The fur was matted and it was small, but Uta had a smile from ear to ear, which Kaneki hadn't ever seen before. He stared at it, shocked.

"That is not a fish." Kaneki stated.

Uta looked over his shoulder at Kaneki. "No, this is Fish. Fish is his name." He explained.

Kaneki blinked, looking from 'Fish' back to Uta and back to Fish again. "You named it Fish?" He asked.

"Well, I hadn't intended to, but I figured it'd be less shocking if you thought I had originally intended to name whatever creature I brought home Fish. So I thought about it, and I found him in a puddle under a box, and Fish just sort of stuck. And he responds to it already anyway." Uta responded, shrugging and holding the dripping wet, soaking, happy puppy up and out to Kaneki.

Kaneki just looked at Fish. He was cute. His cream colored fur and big brown eyes stared straight into you, and his tail wagged like he was fresh from a pet store, not a puddle under a box. His tongue stuck out to the side of his mouth, and he almost seemed to smile at you. Kaneki looked back at Uta, who was smiling again.

"Fish is adorable, and he's not going anywhere." Kaneki assured Uta.

He was a huge sucker for that smile.

A/N: Please review. I know I've already said this, but seriously. Even if you're a guest, or just reading because you're bored. Any typos or anything at all. Even cute comments, like codename00guest who said something about Kaneki facepalming, which I would edit into the story if I could find a single place to do so. THANK YOU FOR REVIEWS!

Also, for some reason, the document will not allow me for any reason to separate the POV with a line break, so I'm trying to figure that out. We'll see. Thanks you all.