Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.

Before he was The Viper, all he had was a fanged mask and a hoodie. Before she was Midnight she was a child. He hunts for vengeance. She hunts to survive.

Nathaniel ran as fast as he could. No matter what sounds he heard behind he refused to look back. He was bleeding out of multiple wounds but his rinkaku was working its hardest to fix them. The ghouls in red cloaks were chasing him profusely. His now blond streak fell before his face but he quickly swiped it out of the way. In a haze he turned to the three chasing him and all went fuzzy to him.


Ariana jumped between buildings. Her ukaku bat wing kagune assisted her greatly. She wasn't planning on taking this route but some doves showed up unexpectedly. She was weary of meeting someone in the 13th ward but she needed to pick up some food. She wished her mask wasn't in the shop so she had to wear a spare one she made from bandages.

After a while Ariana froze. She found herself much deeper in the 13th ward than she hoped. Looking around she couldn't figure out the quickest way back to home in the nearby 10th ward. She also made a mental note not to visit Roxanne at night.

At that moment she smelt blood, ghoul blood.

"Great, it's that tree organization thing again," she complained. Out of instinct she ran towards the out of place scent.

Nathaniel struck the last of the three attackers down. All three laid there motionlessly. The fight had taken a toll on him as well. The large gaping wounds wouldn't close fast enough causing heavy blood loss. Before he could make another move he started feeling faint.

The smell was very strong now. Ariana had to hold her nose to keep out some of the fishy scent. From her spot on the building she could see three ghoul corpses and one ghoul still standing. Leaning a bit closer she attempted to get a better a look. Soon she noticed the standing ghoul was covered in blood that may or may not have been his own. The scent from the bleeding ghoul confirmed her suspensions. Before she could say anything to him he collapsed on the ground.

"Was that an armored kagune?" she asked herself after he fell. Jumping from the building, using her wings help glide her down, she landed close to the boy but had step back to the now extremely bad smell. Ignoring it she ran to the boy, being immediately taken back by the blond streak. She pushed his bangs and gasped in horror.

"What could have happened to him?" she asked. Hearing voices behind her she immediately picked the boy up and bolted away. She picked up speed easily and took off.

It seemed like forever between the time Ariana picked up the bleeding ghoul, to safely reaching her home in the 10th ward. Wrapping up the wounds as best she could, she was able to give the boy the appearance of having passed out drunk. Making it safely to her apartment she laid the boy on her sofa and decided to try and relax.

Sometime later she heard a knock at her door. Opening it up she saw Roxanne standing on the other side.

"You didn't come to pick up your food and I got worried," she explained with concern before peering in closer, "who's the guy?"

"No idea," Ariana answered looking back to him, "I found him passed out on my way to your place a brought him here."

"Is he dead?" Roxanne asked bluntly.

"No I'm pretty sure he has a rinkaku and will pull through."

"Well if your guest gets hungry after a week I may have an extra hand with your name on it." Roxanne whispered the last part into Ariana's ear before walking away.

"And don't go fooling with him" she playfully taunted. "Eww" said Ariana."I wouldn't do that."

After walking inside and locking the door, Ariana placed the bag of food on the small living room table before departing into the bathroom to wash up. Getting into the shower she quickly washed the blood away. As she walked out she thought she heard the scrunching of a paper bag but thought nothing of it. When she was all changed she couldn't believe what was in front of her. The boy was standing on her balcony scarfing down the arm Roxanne had brought.

"What are you doing?" she panicked rushing towards him, "people will see you."

The boy swallowed and looked at her, ghoul eyes standing out on his face. "Do you have any more?"

"No," Ariana answered angrily, "that was all I had, and my food for the week."

"Well I need more." The boy was drooling like a wild animal.

"Geesh you'd have a field day with Roxanne." Ariana quickly left grabbing a sack and bandages on her way out.

"She didn't have a mask," Nathaniel realized after the girl walked out, "hopefully the doves aren't in the area. Come to think of it where am I?"

Walking inside Nathaniel explored the small apartment. He tried looking for clues on his location but couldn't find anything.

"She is very secretive," Nathaniel couldn't help but notice. "There's got to be food around here somewhere."

Immediately he went to her fridge but found only water inside. Opening the cabinets he found containers of coffee.

"Ok she wasn't joking about the lack of food, what should I do? I'm so hungry!" His stomach growled as he laid on the sofa. "She'll be back with more… I hope…" he mumbled to himself as he fell asleep.


Ariana wiped the blood from her face. This kill had been successful. She could eat the body up right here, but then she remembered she needed to bring some up for the boy. Cutting it up into pieces she placed them into the sack and flew back up to the apartment.

Quickly she reached her apartment's balcony. Once she opened the door the boy jolted awake at the smell of flesh.

"That smells so good," he said intoxicated by the smell. Quickly he bolted for it but Araina stopped him.

"No this is for both of us," she reprimanded him, "I'm not about to go begging to the neighbors for food because someone can't control his hunger."

"But my stomach is a little bigger. I want food."

"If you wait and let me prepare it for you like a good little boy than. you'll get some food." She teased. The boy leered up at her annoyed.

The boy reluctantly sat on the couch with his arms crossed. Ariana tooked her time but was able to make two dishes along with some coffee for them.

"That's not enough for me," the boy argued.

"I just saw you scarf my dinner down you don't get picky now" she argued back

"That was an hour ago!" He snapped desperately wanting food.

"So?" Ariana growled.

"I haven't been able to hunt for food for a long time, in fact I was Starved!" He yelled.

"You were starved?" Ariana asked out of suspicion and shock.

"Yes I was, and it was utterly horrible!" He yelled angrily.

"Was it by the CCG?" Ariana asked still a little suspicious.

"No it was by a ghoul. It's uncomfortable saying his name."

"That makes no sense, why would a ghoul starve another ghoul?"

"He didn't want to waste his food on me, It was utter hell…"

"You sure that you were tortured?"

"I'm very sure" he said pushing away his hair and showing the blond streak left through his hair.

"I thought you dyed it." She said pointing to the streak.

"No, this is from stress I think, I had it after… I'm not sure how long I was tortured for…"

Ariana remained silent. She had no idea what to say. If the boy was tortured by a ghoul no doubt talking about it brought back painful memories.

"Hey, I never asked you, what's your name?"

AN: Hi everyone my friend Ender came up with idea for a story, so we decided to write it together. We're going to try to avoid the main story as much as we can, so major characters might only be mentioned or cameo. Hope you liked the first chapter and see you in the next one.