merry christmas you filthy animals. so my parents scrounged up some money and got me some AMAZING Bose soundproof headphones. guess who's gonna lock herself in her room and never return? (this bitch) Reviews, favorites and follows are how I sustain my family everyday. Have a heart this christmas! (Also sorry for the shorter chapter this time...)


Denied, accepted, tweaked. Different deals were made all the time.

This chapter may include a touch of OOC characters, fluff, stupidity, styrofoam cups, way too much dialogue, and wow is that actually a hint of hidekane? What the fuck?


"I would accept you deal but... I can't trust that you'd keep it." Hide laughed weakly and leaned his head back on his pillow looking up at the white ceiling of the hospital room. "Did you know that there are more than 2,378 dots on the ceiling?" He turned his head towards Kaneki. "I got bored waiting for you to wake up and entertain me."

"I'd slap you if you weren't so hurt." Kaneki deadpanned, lifting his head to rest upon the crook of his arm. He had dark circles under his eyes, and while his voice had been lukewarm, Hide could tell he was glad that he was already up and making jokes. Hide had woken up only a day ago, and had been asleep for five days after his initial injury, but Kaneki had only left his side the re-apply his makeup so he wouldn't look as dead as he felt. He had barely slept. He had no chance to leave and eat. He had not brushed his hair. He had not even changed his shirt. He was not okay.

He eternally had a coffee cup clenched in his hands and was more than a little bit pissed that Miyako had poured out his, while shitty, instant coffee. Therefore he was only holding a crushed styrofoam cup so he wouldn't reach out a grab Hide's hand to make sure he was still okay.

"I second that." Miyako says, leaning against the door frame of the hospital room. She looked taller, more confident. A quick promotion could do that to anyone though , Kaneki thought as he admired his matching Rank 2 Badge. Even if Hide was still healing, they still performed beautifully on their assignment, better than what people expected. They completely desolated the Blades gang, a main part of Aogiri. So the higher ups didn't care much for ceremony, and the kids plus Haise and Miyako were promoted, at least in name. Rank 2 Haise Sasaki, he thought to himself. Wouldn't Tokua get a kick out of that.

When Kaneki was still recovering and still too unstable to do much of anything but try to sleep at the apartment Hide had confirmed that Touka had somehow survived the Anteiku Raid. Kaneki, soon after realizing that news, had a fucking mental break down. But after he was sane enough to debate the dangers of going to visit her, " You could be fucking killed you idiot, and where would that leave us hmm?" , they had finally agreed for Hide to at least figure out where she was. Through thorough research, more like hoping for lots of luck and searching up the top coffee shops nearby , Hide had found that she and Yomo had opened up a new coffee shop called :re. Hide knew that it was English, but he didn't quite remember what the letters meant.

And while Kaneki had forbid him to, Hide left and went undercover to check up on her. Kaneki still doesn't know most of the details of that visit disappointingly.

Miyako started to speak once again, bring back Kaneki and Hide from their thoughts."I hope you know Rank 1, That this idiot," She nodded towards Kaneki, "Has not left this room on his own since you were injured, more than a week ago." She then smirked. "Even Urie was starting to worry."

"Hah! That's a good one Miyako. Urie, giving a shit about anyone but his dear promotion-senpai? What a joke!" Hide quipped. Haise laughed at the crude wording. Urie really wasn't a bad kid, and everyone knew it. That's why they were, while not okay with bringing someone so... Urie , onto the mission, they at least understood where Miyako was coming from.

Then Miyako sobered, a sad smile on her face. "I'm glad you're awake regardless." Her voice was filled with a sad kind of happiness that came from watching her friends beat themselves up with a smile to make her happy. It wasn't like she didn't realise, but Hide and Haise were some of the best people she'd ever met, and they both had some serious issues.

Haise jumped in after her. "Me too you idiot. I know it wasn't your fault, but can we please avoid getting into life threatening situations for now?" Hide gave him a weird look.

"My dear Haise," Hide stressed his 'name', giving him a look like 'we'll talk about this later' that made him cringe, "You joined the CCG. What the fuck did you think you signed up for? Boy scouts?" Hide laughed. Kaneki's face flushed and Miyako laughed at his discomfort and embarrassment. Hide just admired the sweet blush that dusted Kaneki's cheeks and how cute it made him look. Hide started. Did he just think that? He looked back at Kaneki. Oh yeah I did.

"All jokes aside, we have some news." Miyako lost her playful tone and Kaneki immediately new what she was talking about. Hide leaned forward in interest, at least as much as one could in a hospital bed. A lot had gone down while Hide was recovering, and there was much he needed to catch up on.

Kaneki leaned forward to make sure he wasn't to be heard by those who shouldn't know. "Little Miss Saiko, you know, the sweet girl that I brought on the mission, has freakishly good hearing. And she overheard that you would be getting your own squad."

Hide darted his head back in forth between Miyako's sober face and Kaneki's intense both seemed to have already considered all the options and debated them thoroughly, and were stumped. They were waiting for his two cents on the matter, but the problem was he couldn't come up with something to say either.

He then summarized the situation quite beautifully. "The fuck?"

Hide was still as a statue. He should be relieved yet his short term selfish relief was nothing compared to the waves of terror he was experiencing. Due to his near-fatal injuries he was given weeks to recover, and he assumed he should be glad for that. Had he been given this news only a week ago, he most likely would have fainted like a fairy tale princess. Or like that one time Kaneki realized that he hadn't studied for that science test in third grade.

"You are incompatible in the health aspect, but in every other division you do pretty good. So do your two friend from the academy, and they decided it would be best if they had non-quinx for our instructors." It wasn't even one of the higher ups who had told him the news. They hadn't called him in, discussed it with him. He wasn't important enough to have a say in the madness. They instead sent an underling to give him the rundown. It was fucking Marude, sent to be a messenger.

"Can you explain, just one more time, what the Quinx are?" Hide had a headache, so he pinched the bridge of his nose to try and alleviate the pain, and thought to himself on how silly it was that this time it wasn't just because of how annoying Marude's grating and boisterous voice was. While Marude usually listened to him and trusted him, he even had some good ideas sometimes, Marude could be quite out there sometimes.

"Jeez and I always talk about how smart you are Nagachika!" Marude laughed obnoxiously. Yeah, Hide already knew the CCG were insane, but this was so past the line. The organization that enforced killing ghouls are now making them. " The Quinx are humans with built-in quinque in their bodies, contained in frames. Sort of like our briefcases!" Marude tried to draw an analogy, but it fell short. He coughed. "Anyways… They're still human and only contain one kakugan and can summon kagune, but they still eat normally."

Hide sighed again. "I won't have to take the surgery?" He tried to confirm.

"No." Marude replied. " Even if you were, in my opinion, they just realized how good you are. If you were and didn't want to, you could just give your conditions and the higher up would trip over themselves to assist you." That couldn't be true, Hide frowned to himself. The only time he would have ever actually been noticed , he thought back, would have been when he was in command with Marude during the Anteiku rai -.

Fuck , he thought to himself. That sure would have gotten him under surveillance.

Hide clapped his hands and put on a winning smile. "Ok Marude, can you do me a favor and run it up to the higher up that I accept?" Hide seemed way too happy for the situation.

Marude nodded. "Hah! I remember when you were the delivery boy. Oh how the tables have turned!" He turned around to leave, but then Hide called out to him.

"Wait! Add a few conditions." He smirked an evil smirk."My friends, you know Haise and Miyako?" Marude nodded suspiciously. "Yeah they won't go under the Quinx surgery either or I'm out." Hide stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and rocked back and forth on heels waiting for Marude to process what he just said.

"What?"

Hide then walked away, his dress shoes leaving echoing clacks upon the tiled floor.