AWE

A/N – Hello everyone reading this messed up… thing and thank you for checking in!

Before we begin, I must confess to you all that I am 'brand new' to this fandom, I've only watched season 1 and 2 of the anime so far, so if I'm missing something, get it wrong canonwise or someone is somewhat out of character, mea culpa, it's all a black sea of ignorance at work and I apologize for it beforehand.

I am also writing this fic to get stuff out of my system, so we'll just see how things go and to what extremes of fucked-up drama we will push it, okay? For now it's only one chap, there may be another or there may be all three in the end, depending on the conclusion I will decide to go for.

Warnings: substance use, disturbing stuff


Crumbled mortar, splinters and other debris crunched under his tightly laced combat boots as he sauntered casually on the damaged rooftop, an unlit cigarette dangling in the corner of his mouth, teasing his piercing. He wouldn't normally smoke, cigarettes were just another item on the long list of 'flavors' which humans indulged in but which to him were utterly inaccessible, but sometimes it was just fun to pretend, watching the lazy twirls of grayish smoke dissipate into the air.

Just more spoils of war.

Whenever incidents like this occurred, they were a great way to stock up on food, Uta had concluded a while ago. Fresh bodies, most still warm, and plenty to pick from, for that matter. Not that he was a picky eater anyway, he ate out of necessity like most ghouls and since hunting would normally take up from his creative working hours – the one thing he truly enjoyed – Uta didn't mind settling for only one food 'brand' - namely CCG - for most of the time.

Not that it was without risks, this scavenging. Humans usually had zero intentions of leaving their dead behind to be used as food and nourish the very monsters they were trying to exterminate, so he had to move fast and stealthily if he wanted to snatch three-four bodies that would allow him to remain cooped up in his workshop for a couple of weeks easily.

Tonight the raven-haired ghoul had already picked up three soldiers, young but sturdy and without what he deemed 'considerable damage', he'd carried them back to his place but was still feeling adventurous.

And bored. Wanting more.

Because inherently the aftermath of a battle was different than a random, one-off hunt in some garbage-infested back alley, the pungent, pervasive mixture of scents - blood, death, heated metal and smoke – would quicken his pulse with a rush of adrenaline and growing hunger, pushing him to be reckless, just on the edge of being crazy.

And then he saw it – a tiny, pale arm sticking out from under a collapsed iron contraption of sorts. Brusquely intrigued, Uta squatted next to the peculiar appendage to study it better, observing the rolled-up uniform sleeve and the striking, sinuous line of red stitches wound around the thin limb, around the hand, all the way up to the tip of a dainty middle finger. A scowl creeping onto his face, the ghoul lifted and tossed away the pieces of metal obstructing his view, revealing the actual body the arm was attached to. It was very skinny and petite, childlike almost and looking out of place in the severe military outfit, tousled white hair contrasting sharply with the dark blue fabric.

Uta carefully rolled the body face up, the enthralling smell of the strange person wafting towards his nose in a powerful wave. Almost shyly, he brushed away the strands of hair matted with sweat and some blood from the boy's face – the inconspicuous Adam's apple an indication to that, if nothing else – discovering yet more of those puzzling red stitches below one closed eye and in one corner of the doll-like mouth of that almost ash-grey face, with deep dark circles marking the eye sockets.

The boy was still alive.

Usually an inconvenience, because Uta wasn't per say comfortable with killing humans, he only did it to eat and when lacking other options, picking corpses was just like food shopping and he had no taste for the struggling, screaming, begging or witnessing agony, all that pain-in-the-ass-ness which came with living prey.

But now he would make an exception and he knew it even before his hand had plunged inside his pocket and had extracted the small syringe filled with purplish liquid. This boy was a rare treat of both beauty and flavor, something he intended to study and enjoy at length and as a consequence could absolutely not leave behind.

A small moan escaped the pale lips of his prey as the needle went in and his thumb pressed, forcing the drug in, a powerful formula which would keep the boy fast asleep for at least twelve hours. If he were to live that long.


Back in his pristine-clean 'kitchen', Uta made swift work of storing the three bodies previously collected in the two large combo refrigerators, before carefully laying the sleeping agent onto the metal table which usually served as a worktop. Before anything else, he needed to assess the condition of his prey – whether it would live and could be thus 'kept fresh' for a longer period or whether it needed to be… processed much sooner. The raven sighed softly, hoping for the former, because he really would have liked to take his time with this one.

An ID card dropped on the floor as the ghoul's impatient fingers unclasped and removed the thick vest with the CCG logo – which was dirty and torn in places – and Uta paused brusquely, gaze instantly drawn to the small piece of plastic now lying onto the shiny black tiles. Picking it up almost nervously, his eyes skimmed quickly over the info listed in the lined column – name, age, rank, etc. – before dismissing it in favor of the black-and-white photo occupying the upper corner on the left. In the photo, the boy's eyes were open, staring straight into his very soul, large and haunting and of a color which clearly wasn't black but seemed to absorb all the light, like two pools of something infinitely hollow.

The ghoul exhaled slowly, releasing the breath he'd been unknowingly holding. How lovely… and what color were those eyes? He could check right away, but decided to wait for that one for when his prey woke up, if ever. Uta would make himself wait.

"Well then, Juuzou," he murmured, trying the stranger's name on his tongue for the first time. "Let's see you."

Eventually, things turned out better than he'd hoped. After carefully discarding all layers of clothing, his expert fingertips pressed, prodded and diligently examined, but aside from a few bruises, scrapes and cuts here and there, there was no significant damage. The petite agent must have been simply knocked out by the collapsing irons, getting a couple of concussions in the process, but otherwise he appeared to be okay.

After that, Uta could only stare.

Juuzou's body was nothing short of a beautifully sinister work of art. Small, slender, delicate, perfectly pale and soft-skinned like a porcelain doll, but one fallen prey to a twisted maker. Stitched. Scarred. Incomplete. But breathtaking nevertheless. The stitches were by far the most striking thing – raised and bright red against the skin, looking almost like a fresh, bleeding wound which was never to heal, which just couldn't heal, and Uta would not even start considering how many hours of work and pain had gone into all the tiny exes and lines, how much manic determination in those seemingly random patterns. And for what? What exactly were they supposed to express, or contain, or simply keep from falling apart?

A person's scent wasn't just bodily, the raven-haired ghoul pondered, reaching below the edge of the table and pulling out the leather-bound cuffs attached to it by a set of sturdy chains (they weren't really necessary for now, but just in case). It stemmed from their entire being, it was the ultimate expression of who they were. Juuzou smelled so youthful and innocent, so vulnerable, and twisted and violent, so….

…mouthwatering.

Yes, he would make the perfect feast, Uta concluded, covering the slumbering form with a clean, soft sheet from neck to toe and turning off the lights.

Sleep well, little dove

End of chapter

Wow, this was really short, I surpassed myself pffft... Anyway, how do you guys think Juuzou would react to this situation? Some help would be much appreciated ;)