'I smell Rize,' Nico said quietly and Yamori looked away from the vending machine. Nico casually pointed a finger behind himself, at the boy sitting on the stairs.

'`S he him?' Yamori growled out.

'No, but he might lead us to him.'

'Good enough for me,' the bigger ghoul said in a normal tone of voice, cracking his right index finger with the thumb.

Hide stood up, realising it was too late for him to go.

'Now where do you think you're going?' Yamori cackled and before Hide could react, he was hanging by the ankles in the ghoul's hands.

'Let's have some fun!'

You're lying in bed, a soft blanket of warmth covering you. You haven't felt so relaxed probably your whole life. You look down sleepily and are greeted with a smile. Your warmth mutters something and moves closer to brush lips against yours. You caress Hide's golden hair and sink into the bed. He says something sweet and love resonates throughout your body.

You pull him closer, try to reciprocate the feeling but your peace is cut short by a loud crash and Hide evaporates.

You jerk awake.

Ever since his accident with Rize, Kaneki started having these strange dreams. They weren't too often but in them he felt... Happy. Normal. Human.

In some he was in Anteiku, working and occasionally talking to customers. In others he was hanging out with Touka, Rize, Nishiki, Hinami, even Tsukiyama. There were also the ones with Hide... He'd only ever loved him as a friend, but in these dreams they seemed to be together. The dreams with Hide made him happiest.

This dream wasn't an exception, but once Kaneki registered he was still in Yamori's "hobby room" all leftover warmth drained from his body.

About a week after he'd gotten Kaneki, Yamori was starting to get bored. Sure, cutting off his fingers and toes was still fun, but the damn boy just wasn't budging. Even the centipede in his ear didn't do the trick. It seemed like it was time for one of his trump cards.

So Yamori did most of the usual, locking the door to his hobby room, administering the Rc cell inhibitor to Kaneki. He was hiding something behind his back, but put it away before Kaneki could see what it was. Did it matter really? Chances were, it was only going to bring him pain.

This time, once the inhibitor kicked in, he didn't go straight to physically torturing Kaneki.

'I have a surprise for you today,' Yamori said with a sick grin and took out whatever he'd brought in with himself. 'Familiar?' he asked, waving some kind of black cloth. As soon as Kaneki's eyes could focus on it he realised it wasn't fully black, its top was just dark brown. And the smell...

'H-Hide?' Kaneki barely rasped. The thing Yamori was holding smelt of Hide, and it smelt of blood. It smelt of Hide's blood.

'So that's the little worm's name, eh?' Yamori asked, walking closer to Kaneki to show off whatever he was holding better. Kaneki realised it was Hide's torn jacket.

'He didn't last long enough to ask. Too bad this is all that's left of him.' he gave the jacket a shake.

'N-no,' Kaneki breathed out, then repeated louder, 'No, no!' He writhed in the chair. How he didn't want to give that bastard a reaction but he couldn't believe Hide... No, Hide wasn't...

'Let me tell you how he died, Kaneki! First I tore out his fingers one by one, then ripped his hands off... But I'm missing the best part! I didn't do all that just for fun, I had a good feeling he'd help. And he did! The moment his first finger went, he sang you out like a songbird.' Kaneki's eyes were clenched tight and he was still chanting 'no' over and over, louder and louder. Yamori leant down, yanking Kaneki's head up by the hair and continued talking, voice booming into Kaneki's ears.

'Yeah, he told me everything, how to find you, how you look, name, everything. Pleaded for his pathetic little life as he lost his limbs.' Yamori was screaming at that point. 'And you wanna know how he tasted? Maybe you already know, but let me tell you: he was disgusting, like the rat he was.'

There was no doubt Hide was dead, Yamori couldn't have his jacket so bloody and leave him alive. But Hide would never... He'd never sell Kaneki out like that. Would he?

Kaneki wanted to believe he wouldn't.

But what Kaneki wanted most was to to jump out from his seat and tear the ghoul before him to shreds, rip him up, stomp on him, chew his disgusting meat, then spit it out-

But he could only cry, tears surging down his face as he tried to break from the chains, but he was too weak, the inhibitors in his blood were too strong, he was too exhausted. He was too weak, and it had cost him dearly.

So all he could do was cry, and listen to Yamori describing what he did to his dearest person as he marred his name.

When Yamori finally left, Nico walked into the room. He looked down at the sobbing Kaneki, frowned, then hesitated.

'You know, Kaneki-kun,' he said at last, tapping his chin with a finger. 'Your friend didn't actually say anything. He kept silent about you the whole time. Sorry-...' Nico paused, wanting to say something else, but decided against it, and left Kaneki alone to his despair.

I've had this idea for quite a while but couldn't quite write it properly till now.

The inspiration was that scene in the anime where Yamori and Nico are introduced and pass by Hide. I'm not sure why Hide'd smell like Kaneki.

Also, this is like a sister fic to Centipede. You don't have to read that one to understand it, but I'd suggest you do if you want a bit comfort for all this hurt here.