POSSESSION
Kaneki growled, crushing it into a ball of leather in his fist. It was fucking torn up, and he was super pissed at that. He glared at Tsukiyama, whose head he was seriously considering slamming into the fucking wall. He'd told the fucker to get out, but he wouldn't let go, and now the whole thing was torn down the front, zipper busted in half and all, a hole in the eyepatch where the purple-haired ghoul had jammed his finger through it. Currently he was still coughing up a lung in the alley outside of Uta's shop where Kaneki had put his fist through him.
"You're lucky the sturdiest building around here is the one we're standing next to, or I'd put you through the wall just to make sure it hurt." He kicked him for good measure, punting him down the alley in his white and -newly dyed- red shirt and purple pants before turning to his lover's building and wondering how the hell he was going to explain this.
Tsukiyama had gotten his teeth into Kaneki this time, and Uta was going to go fucking postal.
On the outside, Uta was reasonable and calm, quiet and measured, especially when others were around. Only Yomo, Itori, Kaneki, and the rest of the Clowns saw who he really was, though Uta didn't know that Itori had spilled the beans on that little secret as far as Kaneki knew. He shrugged it off. He needed to focus on how to explain Tsukiyama's latest attack. And the destroyed mask.
Oh, he was so fucked.
He sighed, pushing the door open, and stepped inside the lower floor, where all the mannequins and the measuring stand was. It was quiet, but that was to be expected. He was probably in the back room where he designed them, and he supposed it would be a better idea to get it over with quickly. Uta had never been violent with him, but he'd always been possessive, and he didn't ever like anyone getting close to Kaneki when he wasn't around. He especially hated Tsukiyama always coming around and demanding a taste of him. He had even made the declaration of intent to murder him if he showed up again with the intent of trying to take what belonged to him.
He shuddered, remembering the long day or three that had followed of Uta making sure Kaneki 'knew who he belonged to'. At that exact moment, he felt Uta's hands on his waist, and he knew they were Uta's hands, because he always dug his nails into Kaneki's skin when he first touched him. It was almost absentminded, but Kaneki imagined it was his constant reminder that Uta would not mind at all slaughtering entire droves of people who laid their hands on him. Oh he knew he belonged to. Which was why owning up to the reason the blood was on his neck and shoulder was going to be a bitch.
"You had me worried for a minute. I was about to come out looking for you." He suggested.
Kaneki took a breath. "You probably should have. Met a bit of trouble in the alley outside." He replied.
Uta's arms came around Kaneki's shoulders, palms pressing over his heart. "Your heart is beating a mile a minute. I wasn't sure anyone scared you anymore." He murmured in the white-haired ghoul's ear. "What happened?"
Kaneki lifted his mask and let it unravel from his palm to dangle in one piece of torn fabric. He heard a growl rumble from low in Uta's chest, and he knew he was way more than fucked. "I didn't do it on purpose. He grabbed me by the hair and ripped it off instead. I beat the absolute shit out of him." Kaneki explained.
Uta went perfectly still behind Kaneki, and that was the final seal. "Who did? Who put their hands on you Kaneki?" He whirled Kaneki around to see the bite mark, and then his kakugan locked onto Kaneki's eyes. "Who did that?"
Kaneki turned his eyes down. There were few people he backed down from. Uta was probably the only one, now that he thought it through. At this point, dodging would just make it worse. "Tsukiyama was outside waiting for me. He ambushed me as I was coming back in from handling another inspector that had gotten too close, and I got him blocked, but the alley was too tight and I didn't want to damage your building." He explained.
Uta snatched Kaneki's mask from his fingers and surveyed the damage before nodding. His eyes came back up to Kaneki, and his arms crossed over his chest. Oh shit. That was never a good sign.
To be clear, Kaneki wasn't afraid Uta would hurt him. He knew Uta would never hurt Kaneki on purpose. He would rather lay waste to the fourth ward again than put Kaneki through any more pain than he'd already been through. But Kaneki found it terrifying when Uta turned all that energy on him, and he knew there was no way to fight Uta when he was like this. He was terrified of being unable to fight. Uta knew it, and he used it to ensure Kaneki submitted when he wanted it.
So when the pierced eyebrow came up over his eye, and the hip popped out, Kaneki felt a tremble slide through him, and he didn't detain it from showing physically. Uta stepped toward him and cupped the side of Kaneki's face gently. It didn't stop Kaneki from flinching. Uta gave a soft smirk. "Go sit down, and I'm going to measure you again. Once that's done, I want that shirt and those pants off, right here in the fucking shop. If that phone rings, you leave it right where it is until I come see who it is that's calling you." Uta demanded.
Kaneki shuddered. "Are you angry?" He asked.
Uta's eye twitched, and he nodded. "I'm furious." He responded without so much as a change in tone.
That hurt more than if Uta had sent him through walls. He'd almost prefer going backwards from a thousand right now. He nodded and did as he was told, sitting on the stool with a defeated slump to his back, laying his phone on the cart beside Uta's measuring tape when he did. Uta maneuvered his tape around Kaneki's head as easily as he did the first time, and then Uta put it down with almost an audible snap, before snatching his sketchbook and stepping into the room where all of his supplies were, leaving the door open.
Kaneki sat for a moment before lifting his shirt over his head as he'd been ordered. He folded the shirt up and proceeded to take his pants off too, like Uta had demanded. As he folded those, the phone rang, and he had to wonder how Uta knew what would happen before it happened. But then the man in question was back, and Kaneki found himself curling up on the stool with his knees to his chest, arms around his knees nervously. Uta lifted the phone and looked at the number, not saved into Kaneki's phone, and he answered it.
"Who is this?" He asked.
Kaneki pressed his chin to his knees, tilting his head down. He didn't do anything on purpose. He hadn't meant to let Tsukiyama that close, but his foot had slipped. He didn't think it warranted this level of humiliation, but he would do whatever to get Uta to look at him again.
Then Uta held the phone out to Kaneki, and Kaneki lifted his phone to his ear, not even attempting to look up at the tattooed ghoul above him. "Yes?" He asked.
"I want you to know that when I call you my dear, sweet Kaneki, I do mean sweet. Your taste is delectable, mon cher, and I am so glad to have tasted it from the source." The grating, gloating voice said through the line.
"Are you always this much of an asshole?" He grumbled.
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I've only followed to my hearts desire our little game to the nearest conclusion you will allow me." Tsukiyama gloated.
"Allow you my ass, you ambushed me." Kaneki snapped, though his voice sounded a little less enthusiastic in his hatred at the moment. He couldn't find the rage under the absolute shame of having let someone take Uta's property.
Uta nudged Kaneki, and he immediately turned his head a bit to glance over at him. Uta hadn't turned to face Kaneki, the exact opposite actually, but his ear was obviously tuned to the conversation with absolute focus. "Tell him to come to the shop in exactly thirty minutes. Make him believe you're seducing him if you must. But get him here." He demanded.
Kaneki nodded, showing he understood, and Uta patted the top of his head. Kaneki put his chin to his knees again.
Tsukiyama sighed on the other end of the phone. "Those were simply some love taps. You must be getting soft if you think that was an ambush. You feel that safe now in the fourth ward, do you?" He suggested. "That protective mask artist always protecting you."
"Show your face again and I'll show you exactly how safe I am in this ward. Uta or no Uta." He forced the second half to sound like less of a challenge and more of an invitation, even though he felt almost physically ill to do so in front of Uta.
Tsukiyama chuckled. "I'll be there." He purred.
"You have half an hour to fix that hole in your stomach, so I'd get to it." He snapped, then hung the phone back up and put it back on the cart.
Uta's fingers curled into Kaneki's hair, and his head tilted back when Uta pulled his hair back a little. His breath was warm against Kaneki's skin, and Kaneki closed his eyes tight, anticipating a tongue lashing for the hint of seducing at the end of the sentence. But instead, he got Uta's teeth digging into his shoulder where Tsukiyama had bitten him before. Kaneki gasped in shock, but he didn't dare pull away. He felt Uta's palm slide down his chest, and then his fingers slipped into the stretch cotton of his boxers.
"Very good. You will stay right beside me until I order you to do otherwise, and if I so much as hear a sound from you in his defense, I will lose my patience. I was certain I would never have to do this again, but I will to make sure he knows his place where you are concerned." Uta threatened. "Now stand up, and take these off as well."
Kaneki nodded and waited for him to step back before standing and stripping himself of his last defense and standing perfectly naked in front of Uta. Uta looked him over and took his arm where Tsukiyama had grazed him with his kagune before Kaneki had planted his foot straight into his kneecap. He let his tongue trail over the raised red wound that was still healing. Kaneki didn't say anything until Uta asked him, "What did this?"
"Tsukiyama." He explained.
Uta nodded, pressing a kiss into it as the scar faded, and then lifted Kaneki's face, looking at his eyes. "Look at me." He demanded.
Kaneki did as he was told again, and Uta kissed him carefully. "Are you okay? He didn't hurt you, did he?" He asked. "I should have asked that first."
Kaneki nodded, trying to regain his breath. He had to regain his composure if he was dealing with Tsukiyama again so soon while he was still being taught a lesson. But Uta was still holding his face. "Don't be so upset, Kaneki. I love you, and you don't need to worry." He promised, and then turned and began to walk into the room he'd come from.
Kaneki followed him and stood behind Uta while he was snipping leather from one end of a strap on a mask. Kaneki could see his mask face down a few inches to the left, but Uta didn't so much as look at it while he stitched a buckle to the other end of this mask and a metal loop to the back of it. He was quick, and had it stressed in the right places before holding it up to the light to check and see if it was all pulled together the way he wanted it. On the front, he began stitching a pattern into it, white thread making a stitched, scarecrow like mouth on the front. It was similar to Kaneki's with an eyepatch over one eye, but the leather strap that crossed his forehead was too thick and would likely cover the other eye as well. This mask seemed to have one purpose, and that was to make the person under it completely blind and unrecognizable.
Uta glanced over his shoulder as he attached another black strip of leather to the silver loop at the back of the neck, and Kaneki turned his eyes away again.
"What is it?" He asked.
Kaneki shook his head, keeping his hands crossed over his thighs. "I was just watching you work." He answered.
Uta sighed, turning around and sliding his hands to the small of Kaneki's back, just under his kakuhou, and pulled him close. "Let go." He ordered, and Kaneki did as he asked. "Why are you hiding from me? I don't like it when you won't meet my eyes."
Kaneki looked up at him. He was watching with the same expression he always held, that same empty face that always seemed so warm and safe after you got to know him, but something about the way he sat, the way he spoke, told Kaneki that he was still angry. He shook his head. "I'm not hiding. I'm right here." He answered, shrugging.
"You've never not put your hands on my shoulders when I hold you like this. Is that the story you're going to stick with?" Uta asked, giving him a lifted brow.
Kaneki lifted his hands to Uta's shoulders in response, putting his forehead against Uta's. "I'm not hiding from you." He answered.
Uta sighed, then stood, dislodging Kaneki's hands, and led him by the hand out into the shop again to have him sit on the desk behind the measuring cart where he usually sketched. He stepped behind Kaneki and then the cold leather was sliding over his face, and he tensed, but didn't struggle.
"What's wrong?" Uta asked as he buckled the neckpiece.
"I haven't been blinded in a long time." Kaneki tried to say it strongly, but his voice only allowed a hoarse whisper.
Uta's hands stilled at the back of his neck, and he leaned in to wrap his arms around Kaneki's waist again softly. "Do you trust me?" He asked.
Kaneki nodded. "You know I trust you, Uta." He explained.
Uta shook his head. "Do you trust me to protect you while I have this on you? Do you trust me to remove your sight?" He asked.
Kaneki nodded. "Yes. I trust you." He answered.
Uta kissed his shoulder and leaned back a little again, then pulled the rest of it over Kaneki's face. As the eyepiece came up, Kaneki heard the door come open, and immediately made to cover himself, but Uta draped a cloth over his thighs and hips, and then leaned down and whispered "stay quiet unless I speak to you."
Uta did not tell Kaneki that it was Tsukiyama that had walked in, and did not tell him why he had chosen to blind him and hide his face. He did not tell him that he planned to make Tsukiyama remember that Kaneki belonged to him by tearing that hole into Tsukiyama again. And he certainly did not tell him that he'd planned this display from the moment he'd smelled Tsukiyama on his body.
Uta was more than a little bit of a possessive bastard.
Tsukiyama hadn't seen Kaneki yet, but Uta didn't draw his attention that way. He waited until the ghoul turned his head far enough to see them both, then took the leash on the back of the mask and tugged Kaneki back against him. Kaneki slid back obediently until he was pressed against Uta's chest, and Uta let the leash dangle over his chest.
"Well, I've never seen such a tasty treat so well prepared." Tsukiyama crooned, bowing slightly to the mask maker. "Even I could not have done so well."
"No, I doubt it. But then again, from what I hear, you got a taste of him anyway." Uta laid his hand over the bite on Kaneki's shoulder, watching Tsukiyama look lovingly at it.
"Yes. I understand why you hold him so dearly. I have to say I savored his taste on my kagune as well." He lifted it and let the kagune wrap around his arm in a clear version of a taunt and threat.
"So you admit you marked him twice?" Uta asked, tilting his head as if the question was just a casual thing, though each time he spoke of it enraged him more. "If you're going to bare that thing, lock my door."
Tsukiyama shrugged in acknowledgement, turning and throwing the deadbolt. When he turned back, he was grinning. "I've never heard anyone tell that you were territorial. This is quite the revelation." He teased, going to sit down in a chair.
"It'll be better if you stand. You won't be here long." Uta said.
Tsukiyama paused before retaining his standing position. "And why, pray tell, is that?" He asked.
Uta leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Kaneki. "The first thing Kaneki did when he came in was to tell me that you tore his mask. You tore his mask clean down the middle. It was his safety. That was no petty 'I was merely reaching for him and caught him by mistake'. You attempted to mark him in his soul as well, mark him with fear of the doves as well, and you even called his phone when he was inside to mark me with him. I can't help but feel like that was so weak it was almost pathetic. You make me laugh." He answered, laying one hand on the top of Kaneki's head and the other on his chest, causing Kaneki to reach up to him and grip the arm on his chest. "You cannot have a single of his snow white hairs, or a drop of the blood that runs through this heart. Every bit of him that you see before you belongs to me. There isn't a single piece of him that belongs to anyone but myself."
"Oh, but I have a bit of him, just here. Stuck between my teeth. And that is my teeth that are embedded as a scar into his shoulder." He taunted.
Uta laughed. He let it bubble up from the deepest core of the anger that he felt, sounding almost insane, and he leaned his chin onto Kaneki's soft hair. "Kaneki, who left that mark in your shoulder? Who bit you last?" He asked.
"You did, Uta." Kaneki answered, sounding a bit scared from beneath the mask.
Uta smirked at Tsukiyama. "You did not leave a single mark on what belongs to me. I made sure of that." He answered, squeezing Kaneki against his chest again.
Tsukiyama glared across the shop at him, hands forming into fists. Uta knew what he'd just admitted to. Tsukiyama had committed one of the worst things one ghoul could do to another, trying to claim it's mate with a bite, but Uta had given him the greatest disgrace by covering it with his own mouth. And he wasn't done rubbing it in.
"Tell him how I did it." Uta demanded.
This was an old ritual, one usual done in front of everyone they each knew, but Uta was satisfied with humiliating Tsukiyama this way for his own memory. He listened as Kaneki told it from his perspective. "After you called, he took hold of my hair and pulled my head back so he could get it, and he leaned-"
Tsukiyama reacted exactly as Uta had hoped, launching toward him with a howl of rage, and Kaneki was moving to block himself before he knew what was conspiring around him. But Uta was already in the air, jumping over him to slam Tsukiyama into the floor, his elbow into Tsukiyama's throat and his boot crushing his wrist into dust, knee buried in his solar plexus. Tsukiyama lay, limp and dazed from the pain, under Uta's relentless hold, and Uta heard Kaneki trying to find his way off the counter.
"Stay where you are Kaneki. Everything is fine." Uta promised.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Uta smiled, baring his teeth in Tsukiyama's face. "I am not hurt. Just stay there." He demanded, and heard him slid back to his position on the counter. "As for you, Gourmet, if I ever see your face around here again, or smell you on his clothes or hair, catch a single whiff of you on the breeze, I will kill you. Nothing you can do will stop me. You will never lay your hand on him again."
He removed his knee so Tsukiyama could take in a breath. Then he tore his stomach out with his teeth. When he was finished, he dragged Tsukiyama to the door by his throat, and dropped him on the front step. He glared out at him.
"Now stay away from my lover, get away from my shop, and get out of my ward." He shut the door behind him, and threw the deadbolt again, locking it tight.
Kaneki was still sitting on the counter, his hands curled into fists in his lap, and the red cloth over his lap that he usually used to cover the mannequins was a little curled up in his lap like scrunched bedsheets. His whole body shook, and Uta made sure to walk to him a little louder than he usually did so that he knew he approached. He flinched when the steps stopped in front of him.
"Uta?" He asked, his voice with the same quiver in it.
Uta reached around his head and unclipped the buckles, letting the mask fall off of his face and into his lap. Kaneki opened his eyes and his kakugan was activated, blood red tears in that eye, and having his sight back seemed to only make the shakes worse.
"It's alright." Uta promised, leaning forward to press a kiss to his throat. "I told you I would protect you."
"I knew you would." He replied, still shaking.
"Then why are you shaking?" Uta asked.
Kaneki lifted a hand and watched it shake for a minute before he put it back in his lap. "I didn't know I was shaking." He told Uta.
"That isn't an answer. That's a separate statement altogether. I'm going to ask again what I asked you before, since I can now ask you again and get a real answer out of you. Why are you hiding from me?" Uta demanded, pulling Kaneki flush against him by his waist again, forcing him to spread his legs around Uta's hips.
Kaneki hooked his ankles automatically, leaning his head against Uta. "Are you mad at me?" He asked.
Uta blinked. "Why would I be mad at you? Did you let him bite you?" He asked.
Kaneki shook his head frantically. "I would never let him do that." He promised. "I would never let anyone do that but you."
Uta wrapped his arms around him and held him tight. "Is that what the way you've been acting is about? You thought I was mad at you?" He asked.
"You said you were furious, and you would hardly even look at me. You made me strip down and just follow you like a dog. What else was I supposed to think?" He cried.
"Were you hiding from me because you thought I was trying to humiliate you?" Uta asked in utter shock.
Uta wasn't sure Kaneki was crying until he felt the tears on his chest, and then he was sobbing against Uta. "I feel like an ass." Kaneki sobbed.
Uta chuckled a little, holding him tight. Sometimes it was the days that he forgot Kaneki wasn't the soft boy he had been before, but there were days that were the exact opposite. Sometimes he forgot that there were still emotions in there, no matter how ruthlessly suppressed they were, and he forgot that the torture he'd suffered had made some of them much worse than they had been. He cried often, and Uta tried hard to never be the reason he'd cried. At first he'd kept a board in his desk like those they kept in factories, 'DAYS SINCE LAST TEAR:'. He had forgotten about it two months in, because Kaneki didn't cry in front of Uta, but he caught him sometimes, and had learned the signs.
Apparently his blatant jealousy had made him blind to the signs of Kaneki shutting down. He sighed, laying his cheek on the top of his head. "It's okay. Calm down, Kaneki. I wouldn't humiliate you because of something someone else did to you. I should have explained my demands, but I couldn't think past how angry I was." He explained.
Kaneki's fingers curled in his shirt. "I thought you were angry with me." He answered.
"I was never angry with you. I was furious with him for daring to put his hands on you, much less taking a chunk out of you. I could smell him on your clothes, so they came off. I didn't want him bothering you, so I asked you to leave your phone out. When I stepped out of the room, I couldn't help but think that if he showed up before I was back in the room I would lose it, so when I came back in, I asked you to follow me. When I demanded you stay quiet unless I spoke to you, I only did so because I didn't want to give him any reason to focus on you unless I thought it was safe. I blinded you and covered your face because I thought the distress was because of him. I didn't know you were upset because of me, or I would never have done it." He explained. "I never meant to humiliate you. Never. And besides that, I needed to see your body. To know you were all in one piece." He felt Kaneki calm as he spoke, and he decided to try to redirect the crash energy. "I love your body, and I prefer it stay in one piece for me."
Kaneki took a deep breath, and Uta was glad to see the shakes had stopped. He lifted his head from Kaneki's to let him look up at him for the first time since he'd ordered it last, and Kaneki smiled at him a bit.
"Has anyone ever told you you're a little bit possessive?" He asked, plastering himself against Uta.
Uta smiled, settling his forehead to Kaneki's. "Now that you mention it, there is this attractive ghoul that seems to be particularly fond of reminding me." He answered.
Kaneki ruffled a bit at that. "Who is that?" He asked, sounding a bit miffed.
"You."
"Oh." Kaneki pursed his lips for a moment, then pressed them to Uta's. "Well, I guess that's okay then."
Uta chuckled. "You're cute when you're jealous."
"You get a little Dom." Kaneki answered.
Uta gripped his hips and dragged him forward, pulling Kaneki against him tighter, leaning forward before he lifted the white-haired ghoul off of the counter. Kaneki immediately wrapped his arms around Uta's throat to keep himself from falling, which Uta used to claim Kaneki's lips again. He was already on the stairs when Kaneki broke back to breathe.
"You like it though." Uta whispered.
Kaneki curled his fingers in Uta's hair and dragged him back into the kiss. Uta made it up the stairs without trouble, pushing the door open to let him into the apartment, and managed to push the door open with Kaneki trying to pull his jacket off of his shoulders. They made it to the bed before he tossed Kaneki to the bed and removed his jacket. Kaneki leaned up and ripped Uta's shirt at the shoulders, pulling him back to him.
Uta grinned. "Impatient?" He asked.
Kaneki frantically pulled his pants down, trying to push them down and reaching in to take hold of Uta's erection. Uta groaned. Kaneki nodded. "More than a little bit." He breathed.
Uta thrust into his hand, reaching for Kaneki's own cock while Uta claimed his mouth. The kisses were rough and demanding, needing to know that the other was there, and they were both okay with each other. When Uta couldn't stand the careful strokes of Kaneki's hand, he flipped Kaneki to his stomach beneath him, trailing his hand down his back and over his kakuhou to rub his middle finger over that entrance to Kaneki's paradise.
"Do you want me, Kaneki?" He asked.
Kaneki moaned, nodding. "Yes, God, yes." He answered.
Uta smiled, leaning close to his ear. "Thank you, Kaneki." He told him.
He rubbed that spot and slid the finger into him up to the first knuckle, waiting to see if Kaneki was ready or not. When Kaneki moaned, he slid a little deeper in, and Kaneki went back on it to impale him there as best he could. "Jesus, Uta, don't worry about the foreplay. I need you, right now." He demanded.
Uta grinned, taking it slow anyway. He took another finger and spread him a little more, trying to make sure he didn't hurt him more than he already had. When he had three fingers in, and Kaneki was begging for more, he finally gave in. He pressed the head of his cock against Kaneki, and Kaneki groaned, nodding.
"Are you sure?" Uta asked.
Kaneki nodded, turning to look at Uta. "Yes. Do it." He answered.
Uta slipped forward and pressed inside of Kaneki, claiming him again and making sure Kaneki knew for himself that Uta loved him, all of him, and that he belonged to Uta just as much as Uta belonged to him.
Kaneki groaned, reaching for Uta's hand where it was on his hip, and Uta leaned forward, covering Kaneki's back and taking his hand with one hand while he used the other to take the erection he had gained through all that. He wasn't sure either of them would last long, but after a few minutes, it was okay, because they were both exploding together, and Kaneki was screaming Uta's name.
They collapsed together against the sheets, and Kaneki rolled to lay facing Uta, still heaving for air. Uta understood the feeling. After they both had their breath back, Kaneki looked up at Uta.
"So how long will fixing my mask take?" He asked.
Uta scoffed. "It's already done. The tear was clean enough that I just had to put another seam there down the front." He answered.
Kaneki shook his head. "You're crazy."
Uta shrugged. "He won't be tearing it off again any time soon." He suggested.
Kaneki smiled, laughing a little. "No, that I highly doubt."
